The Conversion Bureau - Lab Ratby Berry TenebreChapters001 - I got bit by a lost specie.002 - Meeting an old friend.003 - The Calm before the Storm004 - Breaking out005 - Off to the bureau006 - Meeting new friends007 - Date and classes008 - LoveBonus - Conflicting Emotion / Second Nightmare (by Ocean Breeze)009 - Attack on the bureau010 - EpilogueAlt.Ending - Nathaniel's turn (by Ocean Breeze)Bonus - Foals / Contact (by Ocean Breeze)Another alt. ending -Link- (by DaBunnanaKing)001 - I got bit by a lost specie.The Conversion Bureau: Lab Rat 2.0 Chapter 001-2: I got bit by a lost specie ____________________________________________________________ It was a great day on the East side of the North Amerizone, in the region that we used to call Montreal. I’ve been living here since some weird stuff happened to me. It all started with the lack of food. All the crops over the world had been eaten by a bacteria that was supposed to save them. The animals died from the pollution we, humans, caused. At least, the world government managed to turn human waste into comestible food, but, unluckily, they forgot to remove the crap flavor. Then, magically, some ‘saviors’ appeared out of nowhere. By this, I mean really out of nowhere. One day in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, a Navy ship found a bubble-like anomaly floating peacefully. However, when they went toward it, they started to become sick, their body were getting covered with black spot. The cause of death was massive cellular necrosis. It took few months before we finally found out what was this ‘bubble’. It was another dimension, populated by the weirdest thing ever : pastel colored ponies. The world government made a press conference, shown on every three-vee in the world, with the princesses of the dimension. They said that the bubble was a portal toward their dimension, but humans die if they approach it. Then, they said something that froze every human in the universe. They said that the bubble will grow until it covers the whole planet. The only way human would survive is by turning into a member of their nation, turn into ponies. The conversion movement started years ago. More and more human, every day, turned into ponies, by fear of the bubble or by following their families. The total human population had decreased tremendously because of all those transformation. From around 17 billion humans inhabitants to a mere 8 billion on this dying planet. Half of those ponies have gone to Equestria, their ponyland, and the other half is showing off their flank to the rest of us, saying thing like ‘ponies are awesome’ and ‘join the herd’. Seeing them happy on this apocalyptic-like world made more and more people want conversion. It’s like a walking advertisement. The ponies received hate by some people who thinks that they are demons. They name themselves the Human Liberation Front, or HLF. They’re trying to stop the movement by doing thing like peaceful riots to more gory thing like killing ponies. They are doing their best to stop the human from going to the bureaus, the place where the conversions occur, by making advertisement or by telling lies. Here’s one of their propaganda that was showed on a three-vee a long time ago, until the princesses themselves stopped it : “They look harmless. They are candy-colored and pretty. But like any poison, looks can be deceiving. More and more they invade our cities, our land, and our lives. Like rats, they breed and spread, covering our world. They claim to be our friends. Some claim to be us, 'magically transformed' into inhuman creatures. They can be convincing, knowing facts and details about our lives, our families, and our personal histories. Do not be fooled. These invaders are not us, and they are not transformed humans. They pretend to be those they replace, but make no mistake, no human being who enters a Conversion Bureau walks out alive again. What comes out is a sick and twisted parody of humanity, insulting both God and Man by its very existence. We of the Human Liberation Front seek to save humanity from annihilation, for that is what we collectively face. We know that if we work together we can stop the invasion. We can stop the expansion of Equestria into our world. We can send these inhuman pretenders and deceivers back to the horrific realm from which they came. We ask you to join us, to help take back our world, our culture, our very lives. We know how convincing they can be. We ask you to think. Why are they so adorable? Why are they so perfect? Why do they seem so kind? Why is Equestria so beautiful? It is all a trap. They prey on our weakness. Everything Equestria does is calculated to attack our natural desires, our innate sense of beauty, our very humanity itself. Not every demon comes in a guise of horror. The worst demons come appearing as angels. These creatures are not ponies. They are invaders. They are alien monsters who are replacing good, decent human beings with copies. If you enter a Conversion Bureau, you will be scanned and dissected. One of their kind will then have your memories transferred to it through alien technology, and that newly created invader will pretend to be you. While they convince others that they are you, converted, the real you will become the meat that these nightmare monsters secretly eat. They are not the vegetarians they claim to be. Their spaceships have been observing us for millennia, waiting for our civilization to reach its peak before the great harvest could begin. They were responsible for the destruction of the ancient super-civilizations of Atlantis and Lemuria. And they are the space monsters who attacked the astronauts of Apollo 13. Equestria is the great Harlot, and she is sending forth upon our precious world her unholy spawn. These monsters who some call 'ponies' are in fact the advance guard of the living Satan, who is an ancient alien from beyond our galaxy, trapped within the molten core of our planet eons ago, plaguing mankind until his day of escape. Do not be deceived by this false Rapture. Fight the evil Nazi hell monsters from beneath the hollow earth, who have risen up within their expanding bubble of false promises. This is the time when God needs us the most. We must band together to fight both the aliens and the race traitors among us. Stand tall. Stand firm. Put the demon aliens in their place. Do not accept them in your homes, your schools, your places of work. First we must segregate. Then we may eliminate. Join the Human Liberation Front. The HLF stands between the darkness of Equestria and the light of Humanity. This is our world, the center of the universe, and we are the chosen species of God. Join the Human Liberation Front. Or watch our world be cast into the darkness, our flesh devoured, and our world destroyed." This ad brought much hate by ponies and lovers alike, that the HLF was forced to stop making advertisement, but it was shown that they would do anything to stop the ponies. This is where my story begin. I don’t remember how and why I joined the HLF, but I did. I’m one of the highest graded members of the North Amerizone, maybe even the whole organisation. I even have a title given to me by other members and victims, until they die: Anthony, the torture master. This nickname seems gorey and it is. I received it when I managed to retrieve information from a stubborn pony when our crew lost all hope. Let’s just say that the information I managed to get helped us destroy one of the headquarters of the Ponification for Earth Rebirth, our arch-enemies. Back to the story. It was just a normal day in the city of Montreal. This city used to be the biggest in the province of Quebec, but the high level of pollution and smog ruined the fun. Year after year, people were dying from the pollution. Now, there is so much pollution that the youngers and the elders need to wear gas mask to take a walk. Naturally, the pony magic that started acting all over the planet was cleaning the city. Every second, the city was getting cleaner and our organisation was getting angry. Those ponies invaded us when our planet was at the end of its life. This is like a blow under the belt in a battle. We need them, even if we don’t want to say it. It’s almost a shame that they give us such a hard decision. Being friend would have been easier, but they didn’t let us this opportunity. Their ultimatum turn this decision into an obligation, and I don’t like it one bit. The only thing that I hate about humanity is the screwups that we did through history. For humans, it takes millions of person to do something great, but only one to screw it up. Every time somebody tries to help. Somebody else will do something to destroy it. An example, the bacteria that destroyed every crop on earth. The lead scientist was on the right way, but his assistant, because of his greedy appetite, wanted the bacteria to make the crops grow faster. At the end, it caused the opposite. After three days, there was no more apple trees, no more wheat and, by the domino effect, caused the animal to die from starvation. I remember, when I was young, I used to eat two apples a day. Now, because I know that there is no more crops alive, I’m scared of eating one a week. Who could guess what kind of chemical shit there is in. The food is made out of shit, transformed by machine and shit is toxic. Everybody knows that. And it’s this exact crappy food that ruined my greatest job. In my younger days, I knew that I had a talent in cooking. So, I used all my money to make a small restaurant. Who could have thought that it would be that popular. People all around the world were coming to eat at my restaurant. Even, one day, the famous action movie maker and special effect coordinator, Freddie Wong, came to eat. When he told me that my food was awesome, my popularity, which was already big, grew bigger! But, one day, all the crops died. Sure, I didn’t cared because most of my food didn’t contained any fruits or vegetable. Shortly after, the animals were falling by thousands. The world government, then, realised the gravity of the situation. They started building machines that turns human waste into so-called food. I remember the first time I tasted that synthetic stuff. It looked like grey goo, sprinkled with light grey powder with gray liquid in a bowl, which I guessed was soup. I took my fork and started to dig in. It tasted so much synthetic that I’m sure I lost at least a thousand taste buds just by taking one bite at it. As a renowned chef, I tried to make a recipe that would turns this hellish meal into something that would only came from heaven. The only thing I managed to so is fail, time after time. I finally lost my popularity because of all those fails. Because I lost my clients, I had to close my restaurant, for good. Now that I was no longer able to cook perfectly, I managed to find something in another department which I excel in : piano. There was a theater near the place I lived, so, I decided to ask if there was a place in any of their musical show for a pianist. To show them my talent, and get myself some credits toward them, I played few song that I knew. They immediately liked my performance and they talked about me to lots of musical show owner. With their help, I managed to get my place in some of the most popular musicals. I was the pianist behind Winter Wrap Up, Art of the dress and May the best pet win. I was so popular that people even came to see me after my performance to get an autograph. But, one day, I’ve lost my girlfriend to some jerk who used to bully me. I was very sad and I just came out of the theater. Because I wanted to hide from the fan wave, I got out by the back door. I ran as fast as I could toward my friends car door. When I entered his car, he saw how sad I was. He, then, gave me a cigarette. He told me that it helped him each time he was sad. When I was young, I promised myself that I would never take any kind of smoking thing, like cigarette and cigars. I did every kind of promise possible. One day, my friend showed me the ‘Pinkie promise’. I did it, without knowing what would happen if I broke it. I took the stick and his lighter and lit it. I took a deep breath of the smoke. At first, I was wondering how they did to get addicted to it, but, after few more breath, I started to feel better. We went to my house and I got out of the car. I waved at him going away. I took few steps toward my front door when I heard a shout in the distance. It sounded like ‘YOU BROKE A PINKIE PROMISE’. I didn’t care and I continued to walk while smoking. When I was in front of the door. a pink ball hit me right in the chest. I was trying to get off under it when it started hitting my shoulders and hurt me by its weight. I had never felt so much pain in my life. I fainted after few minutes of restless pain. When I woke up, I was in a hospital room. Somebody found me and brought me there. The guy told me that I got beat up by a pony, which is incredibly rare. The doctor told me that I had some broken ribs and a broken shoulder. I wasn’t at the end of my pain. The attack damaged the nerves in my right shoulder. If I try to move it, the reaction occur much later. Unless I managed to play piano with one hand, which is impossible, I would never play again. Even when I tried, wishing that I would have been blessed, I messed up. I left the theater leaving behind such amount of swears it would’ve made a sailor blush. I promised myself that I would take revenge on those ponies, even if it would cost my life. But, I didn’t wanted to go into the HLF because I hated violence, but life already had my life written. While I was walking toward my house, which was already far by going with a car, I got hit from behind right on my head and fainted, again. When I woke up, I was in a bed in the HLF training camp in the city we used to call Quebec. I never knew why I was there, or how did I got there, but I didn’t cared. After 5 month of easy training, they sent me in the HLF HQ located near my old home, in Montreal. It took long before I made a name for myself in the history book of the HLF, but I did it, and it feels good. ~~~~~~~~~~ “This is the story of how I got here, which no longer matter. Now that my friends are back, I can forget about the past and walk toward the future.” I said to the said friends. I was walked peacefully with two of the new comrades that just came out from training, which are also my long lost friends from high school. “That was a nice story, but I don’t want to walk during the whole day while listening to each other’s past, I want to do something cooler.” Said the first man, Kevin. He was an average joe with some bigger muscles. His patience is very small and, if you are in his range of fire while he’s angry, you have great chance of dying. He have green eyes hidden behind his dark brown hairs. Even if we are a lot different, we managed to stay friend. “I don’t have any idea what to do. It’s not like it’s an amusement park out there.” I turned to stare at the other guy, Nathaniel. He is a bit taller than the average, but far less muscled. He got the same eyes and hair color as Kevin. The only thing that is weird about him is his personality. He is a bit crazy, but is very random. He throws random comment in conversation and don’t care about other people’s confusion. His goal in life, make everybody smile. “Got an idea what we could do, Nat?” I asked him. He tapped his chin with his hand until he finally found an idea. He searched in his pocket and took out a PSP. It was the first generation that ever existed and there wasn’t even a scratch on it. “Watching me play Final Fantasy XXXIII?” He said while smiling in an exaggerated way. If he would be in a cartoon, his smile would be at least 5 meters large. “You say that all the time. Is there a place where you don’t have this machine on you?” I sarcastically asked him. We all laughed at Nathaniel’s common behavior. We were all happy that we were back together. Even if there was missing some of our other friends that used to be in our group, we were still happy. We continued talking about random things like the next video game convention that would be happening in San Francisco, and other stuff. We talked so loud that we didn’t hear the small ‘whoosh’ in the bushes behind us. There was a blowgun pointing toward me that was coming out of it. It fired, which send a dart in my neck. “Ouch, what happened?” I said while removing the thing that was stuck in my neck. “A mosquito!? How is it possible. The whole specie died when the pollution was over the top.” I checked the insect again. It looked exactly like a mosquito, but I was sure that they were all dead. “Well, I think I killed it. Rest in peace, unfriendly bloodsucker.” My friend checked in my hand and they both wondered how a mosquito survived. I threw the insect deep in the forest, hoping that I killed the last one on Earth. Suddenly, I burped. Not the common one, more like the one that you do after drinking 2L of soda. I placed my hand on my mouth, a bit ashamed of myself, but, when I saw both of my friend laughing their ass off, I started laughing with them. Then, I had a really weird taste in my mouth, the one of artificial cherries. “Yuck, it taste like artificial cherries. How is it possible? I no longer eat cherries,” I asked myself. They both chuckled at my question. “Yeah, yeah. Laugh as much as you want. Also, just to know, what time is it?” I asked Nat. He lifted his arm and checked one of his three watch. “It’s 11:34. I think it’s time to go eat,” he said. We all nodded and walked toward the HQ. When we entered the cafeteria, the cook told us that he manage to steal food from a conversion bureau. It means that today, we would eat real food and not artificial waste. With all the ingredients, he made some spinach flavored tortellini. Unluckily, because the bureau don’t have meat, this would be a vegetarian lunch. What happened next was awkwardly weird. When I took a bite of the tortellini, I made a sound that looked like a foodgasm. They all looked at me, laughing a lot. It was very weird, but it was just laughs so, I didn’t cared. After managing to eat without making more sound, and being the laughing stock of all the HQ, we went to a reunion with the headmaster of the HQ. With the help of his spies, he found out that the PER made a new weapon designed to ponify somebody without being spotted. Their goal is to ponify everybody until the world is populated only by ponies, which is the reason why they are our enemies. We walked from the cafeteria toward the reunion room #3. Because we arrived a bit early, we needed to wait a bit until everypony… wait, what the heck? Let me rephrase this. Okay, we waited a bit until EVERYBODY arrives. After a long wait trying to understand why I said ‘this’ word. The reunion started when all the captain arrived. The headmaster started talking: “Listen up girls, we got another problem on our shoulder,” he said with annoyance in his voice. “Those damned PER created a new weapon made with their crappy serum. From the information I got, the weapon is a dart filled with serum. The said dart look like a mosquito. They are sending blow gunners all around the country to turn important people into ponies.” Let’s rewind this a bit... A MOSQUITO DART. Uh oh... “If you are ‘bit’ by one of those insects, please tell us,” He continued. “With your help, we may find a cure and save your life. If you die while trying to hold your humanity, you will die as a hero and not as an alien. If you are transformed and you tried to stay human, we will continue to help you. If we manage to make a humanification serum, you will be the first one to be saved.” He said I looked around for Nathaniel’s never ending grin. He looked at me with a bit of sadness. He motioned a dart moving in my neck. I stood up, surprising everybody in the room. I walked toward the exit, in front of the eyes of my friend. I heard Nat inventing some excuse for my sudden exit. He came out of the room and patted my back. “Can you tell me why, Nat? Why am I always the one in this kind of situation?” I said while sobbing a bit. I didn’t wait for an answer. I ran toward my room and packed the stuff I had left. “I’m going to run away tonight. Don’t try to stop me. It was very nice to meet you again, even if it was short.” He placed his hand on my shoulder and sighed. “You’ve been my friend since high school. Even if I did my best to come here, I will never leave you. Remember, we are best friend forever.” He said. I was happy that he would follow me, even through hell. Tonight would be the most difficult day of my life. Against all odds, we would break out the the head quarters and we will walk proudly toward a conversion bureau. I just hoped that none of us would die in the process. To be continued… _________________________________ A/N : Hello guys, NetherPortal is here. I hope you liked this chapter. This is the first chapter of the rewritten version of my only good story. Thank to Krass McWriter, WastelandGunner, IanTeanBoy and all the others who helped me correcting this story. I'll continue writing this while writing the collab, which I still don't know why it's not uploaded. >.< Welp, ta ta for now~! ~NetherPortal... you know what, call me like my main OC, StrawberryFrosting ! ~StrawberryFrosting 002 - Meeting an old friend.The Conversion Bureau: Lab Rat Chapter 002: Meeting an old friend We finished talking about our plan when I left my room around 8 p.m. If I didn’t want to lure any suspicions, I need to get out and walk a bit like if everything was normal, I thought. I made my way to the gardens behind the HQ. This place was so relaxing, it was one of the biggest gardens in the entire city. It got its own protection to leave the fog on the other side. They don’t want their garden to die in seconds. Anyway, the garden are full of life. It got the entire color spectrum with all their flowers. During this night, however, the sky was clear. We could see the stars. I felt a little bit of nostalgia about it. When I was young, my father showed me some constellations. Ursa Minor, Ursa Major, Orion’s belt, all of those was visible in this black roof. Back to those beautiful flowers, the spectrum was omnipresent. Some were yellow and some were blue. It’s the only place I can think straight these days, with all the oxygen. I walked to a bench and sat down. I closed my eyes and let the clean gas going through my body. Then, I let my mind wander in my head. What will happen tomorrow? There are two possibilities: being killed by my friends or be in a bureau and learn my new style of life. I’m sure that I want the second option but there are few other people who want the other one for me. What can I do about it; I’m going to turn into the animal we’ve been killing for years. My train of thought stopped when a voice sounded behind me. “Anthony?” It was Captain Martin from when we raided on ex-Quebec conversion bureau. We are pals since that day. Because of his grade, we can’t really see each other. He’s busy working on other projects for the HLF. “Hey dude, long time no see. How’s your life since the raid.” Surprisingly enough, I want to tell him all my problems he could help me. I’ll do it but in a progressive way. “Got lots of problems but I did some nice things too. I did my usual torturing session, that’s for sure.” I started to say. “Did you know that the HLF put chips in our brains?” He looked at me with a look of surprise and relief. Why the hay I told him about it? Yes, I said hay. I’m too lazy to rage about it. He walked beside me and sat on the other side of the bench. “Yes, I know.” He answered. “You know what, I feel like we are under a camera. Got another place for us to talk?” I put my hand on my chin and I finally found a place. “Well, there’s my room, but I got an early sleeper in.” He stood up and asked me to show him the way. We stopped briefly at the cafeteria. In the concrete-walled room, the chefs were cleaning the plates and I asked if they had some vegetables. They answered that they had some carrots left, so I took two of them. We walked through the same old walkway; I would miss this place when I ran away. We made our way to room #2578. As I was about to turn the knob, the door hit me square in the face. Nathaniel came out and was looking at me, as I fell with his eternal smile. “Oopsy, my ba-“ He saw that Martin was following me. For some unknown reason, Nat and Mart can’t even smell each other without being angry. Only the presence of my old captain turned his shiny smile into an emotion; a little mix of anger, sadness and jealousy. “We… we’ll talk about whatever you want to talk later. See ya Anto.” Martin walked away, bumping shoulders with Nathaniel as he passed by. “Bye, asshole.” Martin said before walking away. “Pfft, so long, sucker. Man, I’m glad to run away from this hell if it means to run away from this dude. You know, sometime, you hang out with bad people. Watch out for guys like him. He will steal your wife if you’re not watching him. But, back to business.” Nathaniel said while I watched that calm smile coming back onto his face. At least, this problem didn’t last long. I entered the room and saw Zach sleeping on my bed in a position that looked quite uncomfortable. “Dude, check this out.” Nat said. He scratched a specific part under our friend’s belly and his legs and tail went crazy like a dog would normally do. “You sure you want to become like them?” Nat wondered while watching the pony peacefully sleeping. I sat beside him and answered his question:” I’ve got no choice. This is what happens when the serum is already in your veins. I wish I could have that choice like the other few millions, other people who got into a conversion bureau. But, life is life.” “Well, if we want to survive tonight, we need to go now,” he said. His voice laced with uncharacteristic stress. “Why?” I asked. “Because somebody found out about our secret. They will station more guards tonight to make sure they catch us. If we wait, we’re fucked.” “Wait, are you serious” I exclaimed, and Nat nodded. “Buck, let’s go.” I grabbed Zach and shook him until he woke up. Zach yawned, “Dude, got a problem?” He asked. “You, me, Nat, going now.” “Hey, ever heard of beauty sleep?” "Okay, fine - go back to sleep, then. You can stay here and die; Sorry for disturbing you." “Okay, okay, jeez.” Zach said whole rubbing his face with a hoof. “So, first, where do we go?” He asked. I explained the plan. “It’s simple: first, we go to the basement. There is the jails where they put the ponies they’re about to kill. While there, we release them and then we run up the stairs. We then leave by the secret emergency exit located on the west side, and we hightail it all the way to the bureau. If there is anything I missed, tell me.” I stared at them, waiting for an answer. Zach cleared his throat. “. . .well, you forgot one little thing,” I looked at him flatly, ‘what now’ written all over my face. “What will happen when you’ll enter a bureau with your HLF suit and your entire armory? You will be kicked out faster than you can say ‘buck’. I say, we find a hiding place and we wait for the total conversion.” He was right again - I hadn't allowed for the 'suit' variable in my plans. “Got somewhere in mind?” I asked the pony. He gestures ignorance and I started to think. Where? “Maybe one of the prisoners will help us.” Nat said. “Well, when they’ll see HLF member unlocking their cages, I don’t think they will stop and invite us to a tea party.” Zach said. “We’ll just figure something out, are you ready?” I asked. “Yeah!” My friends said in unison. __________________ A/N : This will be the last chapter before I rewrite the whole thing from bottom to cover. Ta ta~! ~StrawberryFrosting, giving you stories since... I dunno. 003 - The Calm before the StormThe Conversion Bureau: Lab Rat ________________________________________________________________ We finished talking about our plan when I left my room around 8 p.m. If I didn’t want to lure any suspicions, I need to get out and walk a bit like if everything was normal, I thought. I made my way to the gardens behind the HQ. This place was so relaxing; it was one of the biggest gardens in the entire city. It got its own protection to leave the fog on the other side. They don’t want their garden to die in seconds. Anyway, the garden is full of life. It got the entire color spectrum with all their flowers. During this night, however, the sky was clear. We could see the stars. I felt a little bit of nostalgia about it. When I was young, my father showed me some constellations. Ursa Minor, Ursa Major, Orion’s belt, all of those was visible in this black roof. Back to those beautiful flowers, the spectrum was omnipresent. Some were yellow and some were blue. It’s the only place I can think straight these days, with all the oxygen. I walked to a bench and sat down. I closed my eyes and let the clean gas going through my body. Then, I let my mind wander in my head. What will happen tomorrow? There are two possibilities: being killed by my friends or be in a bureau and learn my new style of life. I’m sure that I want the second option but there are few other people who want the other one for me. What can I do about it; I’m going to turn into the animal we’ve been killing for years. My train of thought stopped when a voice sounded behind me. “Anthony?” It was Captain Martin from when we raided on ex-Quebec conversion bureau. We are pals since that day. Because of his grade, we can’t really see each other. He’s busy working on other projects for the HLF. “Hey dude, long time no see. How’s your life since the raid.” Surprisingly enough, I want to tell him all my problems he could help me. I’ll do it but in a progressive way. “Got lots of problems but I did some nice things too. I did my usual torturing session, that’s for sure.” I started to say. “Did you know that the HLF put chips in our brains?” He looked at me with a look of surprise and relief. Why the hay I told him about it? Yes, I said hay. I’m too lazy to rage about it. He walked beside me and sat on the other side of the bench. “Yes, I know.” He answered. “You know what, I feel like we are under a camera. Got another place for us to talk?” I put my hand on my chin and I finally found a place. “Well, there’s my room, but I got an early sleeper in.” He stood up and asked me to show him the way. We stopped briefly at the cafeteria. In the concrete-walled room, the chefs were cleaning the plates and I asked if they had some vegetables. They answered that they had some carrots left, so I took two of them. We walked through the same old walkway; I would miss this place when I ran away. We made our way to room #2578. As I was about to turn the knob, the door hit me square in the face. Nathaniel came out and was looking at me, as I fell with his eternal smile. “Oopsy, my ba-“He saw that Martin was following me. For some unknown reason, Nat and Mart can’t even smell each other without being angry. Only the presence of my old captain turned his shiny smile into an emotion; a little mix of anger, sadness and jealousy. “We… we’ll talk about whatever you want to talk later. See ya Anto.” Martin walked away, bumping shoulders with Nathaniel as he passed by. “Bye, asshole.” Martin said before walking away. “Pfft, so long, sucker. Man, I’m glad to run away from this hell if it means to run away from this dude. You know, sometime, you hang out with bad people. Watch out for guys like him. He will steal your wife if you’re not watching him. But, back to business.” Nathaniel said while I watched that calm smile coming back onto his face. At least, this problem didn’t last long. I entered the room and saw Zach sleeping on my bed in a position that looked quite uncomfortable. “Dude, check this out.” Nat said. He scratched a specific part under our friend’s belly and his legs and tail went crazy like a dog would normally do. “You sure you want to become like them?” Nat wondered while watching the pony peacefully sleeping. I sat beside him and answered his question:” I’ve got no choice. This is what happens when the serum is already in your veins. I wish I could have that choice like the other few millions other people who got into a conversion bureau. But, life is life.” “Well, if we want to survive tonight, we need to go now,” he said. His voice laced with uncharacteristic stress. “Why?” I asked. “Because somebody found out about our secret. They will station more guards tonight to make sure they catch us. If we wait, we’re fucked.” “Wait, are you serious” I exclaimed, and Nat nodded. “Buck, let’s go.” I grabbed Zach and shook him until he woke up. Zach yawned, “Dude, got a problem?” He asked. “You, me, Nat, going now.” “Hey, ever heard of beauty sleep?” "Okay, fine - go back to sleep, then. You can stay here and die; Sorry for disturbing you." “Okay, okay, jeez.” Zach said whole rubbing his face with a hoof. “So, first, where do we go?” He asked. I explained the plan. “It’s simple: first, we go to the basement. There is the jails where they put the ponies they’re about to kill. While there, we release them and then we run up the stairs. We then leave by the secret emergency exit located on the west side, and we hightail it all the way to the bureau. If there is anything I missed, tell me.” I stared at them, waiting for an answer. Zach cleared his throat. “. . .well, you forgot one little thing,” I looked at him flatly, ‘what now’ written all over my face. “What will happen when you’ll enter a bureau with your HLF suit and your entire armory? You will be kicked out faster than you can say ‘buck’. I say, we find a hiding place and we wait for the total conversion.” He was right again - I hadn't allowed for the 'suit' variable in my plans. “Got somewhere in mind?” I asked the pony. He gestures ignorance and I started to think. Where? “Maybe one of the prisoners will help us.” Nat said. “Well, when they’ll see HLF member unlocking their cages, I don’t think they will stop and invite us to a tea party.” Zach said. “We’ll just figure something out, are you ready?” I asked. “Yeah!” My friends said in unison. 004 - Breaking outThe Conversion Bureau: Lab Rat It’s the time. It wasn’t my decision to go through all this. One day, you wake up. You live a normal life, but that night, you sleep in another body. I guess that’s life. It all started one day, my friend wanted to help me. He tried his best, regarding of what I really wanted, and he managed to change me into one of his kind. From what he was saying, I wasn’t normal. Heh, I guess that was right. Still, I don’t remember any mission that hard... as hard as getting out of the HLF HQ. ***** 2F I opened the door quietly. It’s been around 20 minutes that the curfew alarm rang through the entire building. It takes around that much time for everypony to fall asleep. I checked the hallway for any sight of any kind of guard patrolling the area. “I guess that this place isn’t where any attack will start,” I thought. I, with the help of my friend Nathaniel and Zachary, will do the impossible tonight. Escape the North Amerizone 238th HLF Headquarters. I came out of the room quietly. I gestured my friend to follow me through that first obstacle. We walked in the hallway in silence. The first problem was down the stairs. There were guards were guarding them. I checked Nat for his idea. He took an old penny and he threw it far in the hall. We hid in the dark, behind the staircase. The guards walked in front of us and went check what made this noise. We walked down the stairs. 1F This is the cafeteria floor. A big square with tables and chairs everywhere. On the opposite side of the room, there were stairs, but a fat guard is sleeping on the job beside them. If we wake him up, he will point us with his flashlight and we’re screwed. I tried to find a path through this minefield. I remembered my first year here. I was trying to find myself a hobby of some sort. I managed to help the cafeteria by serving the ‘meals’. There was an entrance beside us and the exit is on the other side. It’s the perfect plan. We made our way to the door leading to the dishwasher room of the cafeteria. It was locked and none of our keys work. I was about to punch it when Zach stopped me. He took a broken fork handle on the floor with his muzzle and he put the broken part in the keyhole. He moved a bit while trying to keep it quiet. He managed to open the door without any complication. We made our way through the kitchen and we unlocked the other door from the inside. While getting out, we realized something. The guard was sleeping in front of us. If we want to get past him, we need to get around table with a ton of chair. If we did this, it would be a mess. The silent question was floating in the air between us: Kill him or think of something? I was stuck on the question until some magic took me back to reality. Zach’s horn was shining and we were levitating over the guard. On the other side, I saw that Zach was about to collapse. Now, how can he get past the sleeping fatty. He quickly made his way under the table in front and he was beside us in no time. We walked down the stairs. Lobby I was crossing for a last time my fingers and I hoped there wasn’t any guard in the lobby. I was wrong. It was full of guards, more than my number of finger. They were watching every square meter like if they wanted to catch rogue bacteria. I checked Nat and Zach for any suggestion. Then, outside, I heard a loud cracking sound. I could see some PER members breaking some windows in the building beside us. It gave me an idea. I took my radio and opened it. I said “PER attack on the North-East of the building. Need help from the lobby team.” I waited a bit until, in front of me, a guard took his radio to hopefully say “Roger that.” In few seconds, the lobby was empty. We made our way to the staircase located on the opposite side. I wondered why they always put the stairs on opposite side. F-1 This is it, the first jail floor. I was checking out the cages. My first impression: GROSS. It smelled horrible, like a mix of old blood, shit and some other odors I couldn’t recognize. My first reaction was to block my nose. If it wasn’t for our mission, I would run away and clean my head of those atrocities. Some pegasus got their wings cut, unicorn got their horn removed. It should be so painful. I made my way to the first cage. When I put my hand on the lock, I heard a faint ‘pleasedontkillmepleasedontkillme’. I checked lower and saw a little colt crying in a ball position. “Don’t worry; I’m here to save you.” I said, but they didn’t listen. I checked what I had to break the lock and free those poor things. I saw that I forgot something important, my silencer. How will I be able to break it without making any sound? Suddenly, an idea popped in my head. An idea that would get the platinum star in the ‘most painful’ awards. “I don’t have my silencer, but I have an idea.” I took my gun and put it next to the metal lock. Then, I took my hand and put it on the other side of it. I was hoping that putting my hand there would block the vibration of the sound that will come out of my gun. Right before Nat had time to say anything, I pulled the trigger. The bullet went through the lock and my hand. Like I predict, the bullet made only a faint sound, but I didn’t predict what would happen with my hand. The ponies saw that the door unlocked. No one stopped to check if I was okay. “Just… wait at the exit. We’ll… escort you… to the… secret entrance.” At least, they heard that. They went behind Zachary, still scared of me. “To the… next floor then.” I reached the staircase leading further underground. F-2 I was hardly walking when I managed to reach the second jail. I think the damage I did to my hand is more dangerous that I thought. I was bleeding badly. I think I shot my artery. I don’t care, I thought, it will all get fixed up with the conversion. I placed my gun back in position on the jail’s lock and I fired a bit over my other wound. The door shut open and a wave of injured ponies made their way toward the stairs. Surprisingly, one of them stopped. “Human, are you okay? My name is Cloudhammer. Thank you for saving us.” “I think I’ll be okay. My friend and I need a place to stay. Got a place in mind?” “I got a house, but with those wounds, I should get you to a conversion bureau.” “NO!” I shouted. It startled him. “Sorry, but I’m going to get converted around 11 o’clock, so I don’t really care. Can we go to your house?” “Just show me the exit and I’ll lead you there.” I was holding my hand. I was bleeding like hell. I walked up the stairs and went to see Nat and Zach. Beside my friends, more than 20 ponies were checking me. I motioned them to follow me and we walked up the stairs. Back to the lobby. On the opposite side of the main entrance, I placed my eyes in front of a retina scanner. A hidden door opened out of the wall and we made our way through a dark hallway. At the end, I unlocked a metal door leading to the back alley of the building. “Listen ponies,” I said. I gave a map to a random pony in the group. “On this map, there is a way leading to the nearest hospital. Go there and be safe.” They all nodded and say things like ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye’. “Now follow me.” Cloud said. He walked left and we followed him. On the way, I fell on the ground. I lost too much blood to continue. “Aww man. I… I can’t continue.” I said while trying to stay awake. “We need to get there and fast.” Zachary levitated me on his back and we continue to make our way to Cloudhammer’s house. “I think I’m going to sleep a bit.” I said. Nat popped out of nowhere and he placed himself in front of us. “You can’t sleep Tony.” He said while placing his hand to stop us. “Why?” I asked. “It’s dangerous. You could go into a coma and maybe even die without us knowing it. We need to keep you awake.” He said. It makes sense. “Then, find me a subject for a conversation.” I said while trying to stay awake. Nat moved away and we continued to walk. Cloud wanted to know how I’ll transform. I told him the whole story, from this morning to the present moment. When we arrived, he put me on his couch and started to apply basic first-aid. “Now, we only need to way until 11 o’clock for me to transform.” I said, but Zachary turned around with a surprise look. “Umm Anthony, I transformed you today at eleven, it cannot be right.” He said. “What do you mean?” I asked. “The countdown is not 24 hours, it’s 18 hours.” I was really tired, but I managed to do the mathematics. It means that I’m going to transform at 5 o’clock. “What time is it?” I asked to nobody particular. “4:41, Anto.” Nat said while playing Dissidia Duoquadriecium (24). “Nice, less pain.” I said while smiling. While I was wondering what would happen next, a thought passed through my head. “What will happen about the sedatives? Do I need to sleep or something during the ponification?” I asked. Zach and Cloud’s eyes were staring at me with surprise. “There is no sedative in the serum recipe.” Zachary said. “I’m going to die. What I’m going to do?” I was starting to become stressed. I’m going to die for sure now. “I got an idea.” Cloud said. He walked down the hallway. After a minute, he came back with two bottles. One bottle of whiskey and one of vodka. He dropped both of them in front of me. “Drink them. You will feel nothing while being drunk.” He said. I took the whiskey and opened the bottle. I took a sip and I was about to throw up. “I hate hard alcohol. I’m not going to drink th-“ I didn’t had time to finish talking that my friends nodded to each other. Nat locked my arms, Zach locked my legs and Cloud took the bottle and made me drink both the bottles. After the last drip, they dropped their offensive state and let me free. I wasn’t able to see straight. “Why *hic*… why you did this to… to m-*hic*… to me.” “Hey Anthony.” Cloud said. I turned around to see what Cloud want. The last thing I saw was his legs bucking my face. **Zach** “Why you did this Cloud?” I asked. “He needs to be asleep to transform. In five minutes, it’s going to start. Now, help me bring him to my room and we’re going to make breakfast. It’s going to be his first meal as a pony.” He, with the help of Nat, brought his dead-looking body into the master bedroom. We then walked to the kitchen and hoped that everything will be fine. 005 - Off to the bureauThe Conversion Bureau: Lab Rat It was all white. I was asleep, but at the same time awake. Is this a dream? I asked myself. I checked around and I saw nothing. I checked myself, nothing again. Yay, I’m a floating soul, how wonderful, I thought sarcastically. Suddenly, I saw a light shining in front of me. My ‘body’ started moving by itself and went to that light. I was in a utopia. All around me, the pure whiteness turned in to faint form. There were ponies all around me. Then, I realized that I was in a conversion dream. All the newfoals are telling that they had a dream and that they meet both the princesses. I was feeling like I was running on all-four, but I have no body. After an unknown amount of time, I finally arrived to a giant castle. While the ponies were running beside, I entered. I was ‘floating’ slowly over the beautiful carpet. I was in awe in front of those white stone walls, until I saw them. The princesses, Celestia of the day and Luna of the night, were standing in front of me. If I had a body, I would bow, I feel impolite. “No need to bow, my new pony and friend,” said Celestia. I don’t know why, but I was happy of getting transformed. Since that time, I only accepted it, not liked it. “I wish we could talk more, but your life is waiting. Just by seeing you, I know you’ll do a great mare.” Luna said. I was half-listening because I was searching where that background music was coming from. It looked like the songs you hear in elevators. “I know, I’m a great man.” I said when a white light coming out of nowhere blinded me. ***** My eyes shot open. I had to cover them because of the crazy powerful light outside. Where am I was my first thought after this. I uncovered my eyes and checked around me. There was nothing that could explain why I’m here so, I did an old trick I was doing when I lose something important, trying to remember what happen. “Let’s do a brain list.” I said. “Wow, my voice is so… high pitch, Hehehe. Anyway, let’s begin.” -Bit by an insect. -Meet my old friend. -Running away. -Shot myself twice. -Went to a new friend’s house. -Getting forced to drink hard alcohol. “Normal day to me. So that means that I’m at Cloudhammer’s house.” I smelled the air. If I was human, I would drool at the odor, for an unknown reason, I don’t really like it: the smell of bacon. I tried to stand up and failed miserably. “They were right when they say that walking with this new center of gravity is complicated.” I said to myself. After a five minute of falling, I was finally able to walk to the door, but with lots of bruise. I made my way to the hall leading to the kitchen. I was going to scare the thing out of them. I walked slowly in the kitchen. Zach and Cloud were talking together while Nathaniel was cooking some bacon. I walked to Zach’s ear and I shouted: “WHY U NO take care of me?!?” He fell on his flank while I was laughing. “So guys, how do I look?” I asked them. Cloud checked me and his mouth fell. When Zachary dared check me, his mouth fell too, but his reaction afterward wasn’t the kind expected. “Buck, buck, BUCK! Don’t tell me I did this. I’m so sorry Tony, it’s… it’s not my fault.” He said while crying. “What are you talking about Z?” I asked him. “You see, including you, I had three other targets. I think I choose the wrong serum.” He said while he ran through the hall at high speed. “Can somebody explain clearly what happen? Did the serum destroy my face, cut my mane off?” I said worried. “Let’s just say that you’re… sexy.” Cloud said while checking me with some kind of emotion in his eyes. “This doesn’t explain anything.” I shouted. Nathaniel, after hearing the commotion in the dining room, came to see what I look like and when he saw me, he laughed like is I was a clown. “You turned into a filly. Should I call you Miss Duquette now?” Then, he went back at laughing. I turned into a filly, is he serious. This must be some kind of drunken dream. Zachary came back with a mirror and a little green box. He placed the mirror on the wall to let me check myself. I was a dark pink mare with big blue eyes and a pale blond mane with pink wicks. My tail was short and the color was the same as my mane. In front of the mirror, I said a faint “I’m a girl!” before fainting. **Z** “Dude,” Nat said while cleaning his eyes from laughing, “what you did to him… her… whatever.” “Well, I had four targets, including him and, to use less normal serum, they use the girl transformation serum for the girls.” I opened the green box and, after checking inside, I threw it on the wall behind me, “and the idiot who gave me this box put the wrong dart at the wrong person.” I sat on the ground with a bit of anger. I turned my friend into a female. It could count as a crime. “Let’s just wait until she wakes up and we’ll find a solution.” Cloud said. We all nodded and wait. **A** I slowly woke up on the floor. I was a bit confused, but, at least, my friends were beside me. When I remembered why I fainted, I started to scream, but Nathaniel put his finger in front of my nuzzle and said a faint “Shhh. Calm down”. After explaining the reason of this gender-swapping situation, we tried to find what we need to do now. “Maybe we could stick to our original plans and make our way to the bureau. I don’t know, maybe Anthony could learn a thing or two before going out. Maybe we could all go to Equestria.” Zach said. “I think I’m tired of this corrupted world. I’ll come with you.” Cloudhammer said. “I guess that I’m going to get ponified and follow you. I’ll do it only if Anthony is coming too.” Nat said. All the eyes were staring at me. “I don’t want to stay here. I’m going to have a new life, with you guys.” I said with a smile. We all stood up and made our way to the exit door. We walked for an hour until Nathaniel needed to stop. I wasn’t even tired. We stopped at a restaurant because I didn’t have time to eat back at the house. I wasn’t sure what to take on this menu. After hearing my friend’s suggestion, I took the hay fries. When I had the plate in front of me, I wasn’t so sure what to think. “Eat it, A. You’ll see that it’s amazing.” Zach said while eating his dandelion sandwich. “I don’t know, my brain is telling me to forget it and my stomach want to eat it. I guess I’ll follow my stomach suggestion then.” I bring my muzzle to a fries and ate it. If I would have been alone, I would have had foodgasms, but I’m polite and I just said: “It’s delicious, thanks guys.” I continued eating my fries when a blue stallion asked me if I would like to take a tea at his house. “I’m sorry, but I’m occupied for the whole day.” I answered. “How about tomorrow?” “Sorry, I still can’t.” “When are you free?” “I’m stuck for the whole week; I’m so sorry mister…?” “Ah, no problem miss, my name is Aquos. Hope to see you again, milady.” He said while walking away. I sighed a bit too loud and went back to eating. My friends were all chuckling a bit about this awkward situation and checked me eating. At the end, Cloud paid the bill and we walked to the bureau. 30 minutes later, we were there. The big building with the big ‘CB’ on top was in front of us. We entered and it looked like the waiting room in the old style hospitals. We walked to the mare behind the counter and she engaged the conversation. “Hi and welcome to the conversion bureau. I’m Nova and I’ll serve you today. Is your friend here wants to do the conversion week?” she said while pointing Nat. “Well, we got a special situation here…” Zach said before I continue what he wanted to say. “The PER attacked me and used their serum to ponify me.” Nova gasped so loud that it could be heard outside the building. “Dear Celestia, are you okay miss. I’m so sorry for what happen to you. They’re so evil that I can’t even think something good about them. That means that you want to get the classes too?” She asked. “Yes, we will take the classes and they will be our emotional support.” I said while having a huge smile. “Well, please fill this and follow me.” She gave us a little registration form and I quickly filled it. When Nathaniel finished it, we both gave it to the mare and we followed her. 006 - Meeting new friendsThe Conversion Bureau: Lab Rat We walked down the hall in the bureau. Nova showed us the building. First, we passed in front of the bedrooms. We were all wondering who will pair up with. “Well, we got some rules about this. First, we want to put ponies with ponies and human with human. Also, we place then with somepony with the same gender except if they are together. So, your two friends… what’s your name?” Nova asked while checking Zach. “Oh! My name is Zachary and this is Cloudhammer.” Zachary answered. “Okay, Zachary and Cloudhammer will have their own room while you, Nathaniel, will share a room with a male roommate.” Nova explained. I could see that the stallions were happy about that decision, but there is one pony left. “What about me?” I asked. “We will pair you with another mare. I could also find you one that can help you with your problem. Think of it as… how do you human call those… psychologist? Anyway, you will be able to talk to her and maybe become a true mare.” She said. Becoming a true mare wasn’t my plans. Sure, I became one, but… I don’t want to change. I like men… I mean mares. Arrg… I may take the opportunity. I’ll think about it. “Stallions, you got room #305; Nathaniel, room #317 and Anthony, room #300. Put your items in your room and follow me.” She said while walking toward the exit. I don’t remember going out of the HQ with any kind of bag. I was going to follow Nova when Nat stopped me. “Anthony, I got some of your personal items that you had in your room.” I turned around and checked what he was giving me. In his hand was my old MP3 player, my diary and a picture of my whole family during my parents wedding. I was about to cry when I heard: “Faster, I’ll go without you. Only one minute left.” “You should put them in your room.” Nat said quietly when I entered it. It was a basic room. Some light brown wall with two beds, two small tables and a light in the middle. I took the stuff Nat gave me and put them on the table on the right side of the room. I ran out of the room and joined the group that was waiting for me. Without any question, we walked toward the cafeteria. The cafeteria was a bit different than the one I had at the HQ. Same form, same disposition, but the only difference was the color scheme. The walls of the HQ were dull gray when those one were brown, even chestnut. I turned around to check all the ponies that were eating their breakfast. Some stallion dropped their food while checking me. I was the center of attention like if I was a threevee star. One of them, the most courageous, I think, walked toward me. “Hi miss, do you want to eat breakfast with me?” He asked. I was about to say no when I remembered Nova’s words: “…you will be able to talk to her and maybe become a true mare.” “…become a true mare.” Even if my soul was telling me to forget it. My brain, feeling weird because of the heat, was telling me to accept. Let’s follow both of those tips. “I already ate, but, maybe I’ll be able to lunch with you.” I said. He was about to break with joy, but he was holding it fiercely. I winked at him. He broke out with a BIG smile that I would say that it was almost impossible. “Thank you, thank you so much misses…?” “Just call me A.” I said. “Oh, cute AND mysterious, I like that.” He said while walking back happily to his seat. “You made a stallion happy today.” Nova said. She was smiling and so was I. “Yes… yes I did.” I was lost in a daydream. Me, that unknown stallion… together… ARG. Don’t thinks about that… now. Why do I think so much about stallion lately? “Nova? I’ve got a question.” Curse my old habit of asking before saying a question. “Yes, A?” She said back. “Is there a reason why I think so much about stallion and I feel like I’m in a sauna?” I asked, waiting for something like ‘you don’t know!” I forgot that I’m talking with one of the most peaceful mammal on earth. “The reason why is that, when mares are ponified, they become in heat.” She said like if I knew what it means. I said in her ear quietly:”What does that mean, to be in heat?” “Being in heat make you create pheromones that attract stallions. Let’s just say that you’re lucky that your friends didn’t jump on you. Also, it causes an augmentation of the body heat.” Well, it’s not so bad… except the part of ‘attract stallion’. “How can I get back to normal?” “It wears off automatically over time.” Nice. “But there is a way to end it faster.” She continued with an evil smile. I don’t like where this conversation is going. “How…?” I said curiously. “By… you know… you with a stallion.” There, now I’m bucked. “So, you mean that every stallion wants to... with me.” “Well… yeah.” Ouch, in few days, I will no longer be a man, that’s sure. We were about to continue the tour when I heard Nathaniel shouting: “Hey guys, come over here.” He motioned us to come in front of the threevee. It was on the news channel. They were showing the HLF HQ that we were in this morning… and Keven was attached to a pole! “K…Keven!” I said, scared of what would happen. “Listen guys, today, we will execute somebody who helped a traitor escape with all the prisoners. Cheer loud for Keven Richard!" Wow, they were really cheering loud. “To show the traitors how their old friend is going to be, we’ll kill him. Then, kill YOU.” More cheers. He pointed the barrel of the gun on Kev’s head. “Any last word, pony lover?” The gun holder said to my friend. “Yes, I got some. First of all, the HLF is just lies. They are controlling you; you got a chip in your brain. Run for your life.” I could see that the executer wasn’t satisfied by Keven’s death word. “Time’s up, fuckface. Time to you to say goodbye.” He pointed the barrel and he fired. It wasn’t because he fired that I was crying so much, it’s those last word right before he pulled the trigger: “Goodbye and good luck… Anthony”. In all my life, I never saw him cry, not even a single tear. This time, he was crying, even dead. I back off of the group and began to cry. Everypony were looking at me crying. Nathaniel went toward me and he said: “Don’t cry A, it’s not your fault. He tr-“ I stopped him right away. “NOT OUR FAULT! WE ESCAPED THAT BUCKING BUILDING AND HE HELPED US! THEN YOU SAY THAT IT’S NOT OUR FAULT!” I screamed it so loud that I bet it could be heard from the entrance because the staff went to check what’s going on. I ran to my room and jumped on the bed. I took my MP3 and tried to put the earphones on. When I saw that I wasn’t able to, I threw it at the back of the room and continued crying. After an hour, I heard voices at the door: “Will she be okay?” Asked the first voice. I think it’s the stallion from the lunchroom. “I think she’ll be alright.” Said the second voice. I stayed in my bed, leaving the voices alone until one of them opened the door. When I checked, I saw that she was a mare. She was peach colored and her mane was brown. Also, she was a unicorn. She walked beside me and whispered in my ear: “Shh… are you okay beauty?” “Y…yes, I’m okay. Who are you?” I asked her. She walked to the door, closed it and locked it. “I’m Shooting Star, Nova’s sister. I’m here to help you. I heard that you got some problems before coming here?” “Yes.” “I heard that you’re a male inside a mare?” “Yes.” “And that the man who got killed by the HLF was your friend?” “Y…yes.” “Don’t worry girl. I saw a stallion few minutes ago; he looked like he likes you. Who is he?” “I met him in the lunchroom when I first entered; I was going to eat with him at lunchtime.” “Oh, great choice. He looks like a nice stallion.” “Yes, but… I can’t love him.” “Why?” “I’m… I’m a man.” “Tss, no. You’re. Not. You’re 100% mare and in mare, there’s no stallion or man. Now, the first thing we’ll do is to take care of your attitude. Stop thinking like a man and more like a mare.” “I don’t think I can do it.” I said sadly. “Yes you can. Just repeat: I’m a mare.” I repeated it in an non understandable way. “What did I just hear?” “I can’t… I just can’t.” I said fiercely. She shook her head and went back at me. “Okay, I’ll show you that you’re no longer a man.” I mumbled a little ‘good luck with that’, but I don’t think she heard me. “Describe me.” She said. “What?” “I said, describe me.” *sigh*, let’s get this over with. “You’re a peach colored mare with a brown colored mane. You got purple eyes and your cutie mark is two hooves meeting together.” I said without real emotions. “Now, describe that stallion.” Where is she going will all this? “Okay, he is a handsome pegasus with beautiful aqua blue coat and a red and cyan mane.” Here you go. Then she said “You see”. I went through what I just said and even I couldn’t believe it. I said handsome and beautiful when talking about a stallion. “I’m a mare.” I said, no hope left. “What did I just hear again?” She was proud of herself; she managed to beat me in that game. “Okay, I’m a mare. Please, help meee.” I said. She looked at me with her purple eyes and said: “Okay.” “Let’s get this makeover on the road.” Did she just say makeover? 007 - Date and classesSorry for the song reference, if all that would happen in real life, I would sing this song to my plants everyday. _______________________ The Conversion Bureau: Lab Rat “Wait, did you just said makeover?” I asked Star. She had a huge smile on her little face. “Yes, if you want to become a true mare, you need to take care of yourself. Take care of your mane, find you the perfect dress, all the mares are doing that kind of thing.” I stared at her. “Okay for my made, but no dresses.” I said firmly. “Only a few?” “No.” “One?” “N…Okay.” There is no way of change her mind then. “Yay, we’re going to be best friends, I know it.” “Woo hoo.” I said in a monotone voice. “Just follow me.” She said. She unlocked the door and jumped out. In the hallway, I saw a clock attached on the wall. There was an hour and a half until lunchtime; we got enough time to do girl stuff. We walked in silence to a room, which looked like the director’s room. “Can you go there?” I asked Star. She checked at me while opening the door. “It’s my sister’s room; she’s letting me use her makeup. Just follow me and prepare to be amazed.” I walked in front of a mirror and saw my mane. It was a real mess. It looked like a bird nest on top of my head. “Dear Celestia, my mane is in such a mess.” I said out loud. She walked beside me and pushed me on a chair. She levitated a brush and started to brush my mane. After a wonderful moment of taking care of my mane, I looked like a diva out of a show. “So, you like it?” She asked. I turned the chair to face her. “No, I don’t like it.” Her smile faded right when I said this. “I LOVE IT!” This outburst startled her and another smile, even bigger, grew on her face. “I’m so glad you like it. Now dresses time.” She took a dress and I tried to put it on. After a lot of trouble, I managed to wear it. I had only one reaction: “No, this green doesn’t go with my mane and even less with my fur.” She giggled lightly and she helped me remove the dress. “I know, I wanted to show you, again, the power of the mare.” It’s true that I was never good with which color goes with what. Now, it feels like something natural. “Okay, you got your dress. Now, we’ll-“ I stopped her. “No, I’ll choose another dress. It’s okay.” I made my way to the wardrobe and check what kind of dresses was there. I could say that the whole color spectrum was there. I carefully chose a pure red dress with a fake rose on it. It was nice and, with the pink of my fur, it was perfect. “Nice choice, beauty.” Said Shooting Star when she helped me putting on those fine cloths. I was so beautiful, buck being a man; I like this one even more. Am I serious? I don’t even know. “Now, you got your mane ready, your robe too. You just need your makeup.” She started levitate a mascara stick and started putting all those stuffs on my face. I don’t even know some of those products, but I trust Star. She was a mare from the beginning, right? “I look amazing, thank you. Right on time, it’s 12:04. Wish me good luck.” I said to her. She walked beside me and said: “You don’t need luck; you’re born with those skills. Go get’em all… or only the blue one.” I walked out of the room, still looking the work Star made on me. It was amazing. I made my way to the cafeteria and looked around to see where the lucky stallion I met is. After being checked by all the stallions in the room, my date popped behind me. “Hi A! Oh, dear Celestia, you’re so gorgeous today. It’s nothing compared to few hour. What happened?” He asked. I started to smile a little. I turned to face him. “You remember the mare you talked at my room door? She is awesome when she starts to make you a makeover. Also, let’s take a seat, I’m starving.” I answered. He nodded and we walked to a free table. That’s when I saw that it was a high school style cafeteria, where you got a choice between few meals and you receive it. I walked to go in the line. After waiting for a few minutes, I arrived at the serving zone. “Hi miss, wow, I like your style. Anyway, today, we serve salad with hay and alfalfa. Want some?” I nodded and she gave me the plate by levitating it. In it, there was the salad, apple juice and an apple. Also, a little brownie for dessert. “Shanks.” I said while having the plate between my teeth. I walked back to the table when I saw that ‘he’ wasn’t there. I check in the line and saw that he was getting served. I placed the plate on the table and waited for him to come back. “Why don’t you eat?” He asked when he came back. He was holding the plate with his wings. Neat trick, I like it. “I was waiting for you. You didn’t tell me your name yet. What is it?” I asked. He placed his plated in front of mine and sat down. “You didn’t tell me yours, you only told me that your name is A. Give me your complete name and I’ll give mine.” He said. Why do I need to give my name? It doesn’t even make sense now that i’m a mare. “Okay, but my name look like a male name.” “I don’t care, what is it?” Wow, he really want to know. “Anthony Matias Duquette. I prefer my friends to call me ‘A’.” I was ashamed of my old name now. I need to find myself a pony name. “It’s a nice name. My name is North Wind.” We ate a bit before continuing the conversation. “So, what’s up with that guy who... died this morning?” After hearing this, a little tear started to form beside my eye. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to make you cry. Do you want to stop talking about him? “No, no... it’s okay. He was my friend when I used to... work with the HLF.” My revelation shocked him. “You used to work with the HLF!? Why are you a pony then?” He asked. I took a bite before answering. “My friend revealed to me the truth. Remember Keven’s speech?” “Who? Oh, the dead guy, yes, I remember. Something about chips or something... don’t tell me that-” “Yes, I was controlled, but my friend melted it with the serum.” “Your friend was a HLF member?” He asked. “No, he worked with the PER to transform me and run away. He’s even here right now. Well, he was supposed to be here. I wonder where he is.” I finished the plate. It tasted amazing. I took the apple and ate it in one bite. It makes me remember when I was young. I ate apples every day. “Amazing. So, are we going to eat together again tonight?” I asked him. He finished his tray. “Yes, I’ll have something even special if you want.” “Nice, I like special, special is my middle name.” “I thought Matias was your middle name.” We both laughed. We walked back to our rooms. I needed to get ready for the earth pony classes. I removed the still stainless dress Star gave me, I’ll need to give it back. I walked to Star’s room and gave her the dress, she was impressed that there was no stains. Also, I asked her for some makeup remover. She gladly gave it to me only if I would come back later to prepare me for tonight’s date. I gladly accepted the offer and went to the bathroom. I used the makeup remover to clean my face and did my business. Then, I walked back to my room, put the bottle on my table and made my way to the greenhouse. I was a little early so, I managed to have a talk with the teacher. “Hi.” I said. He turned and looked at me. He was a navy blue stallion (why is every stallion blue?) and his mane was fire truck red, with a lightish blue interior. He smiled and started talking with an accent. "Hey there, so whats a pretty mare like yourself doing out here... wait you must be here for the classes," He said while holding out his hoof, “Well, my name is Alejandro, but that name might change. So, what is a pretty looking mare... wait, I already said that.” He looked nice and funny, for a teacher, I mean. “Yes, I’m new here and I want to know what earth ponies can do. Is it true that they are useless?” He facehoofed hard before continuing the conversation. “ALL LIES. If there were no earth ponies, nothing would get done. They can grow plants right in front of you. If you think about it, its like my magic except more in tune with the earth." Well, it sure look interesting, said like this. “So... where are you from?” I asked him. "Well I left Australia after that whole PER incident I was in so I went to Equestria for a bit then came here to help out." He answered. Then, a group of earth ponies arrived and we started the class. “Today, we’ll learn the basic of crop growing.” He said to the group, “I’ll give you each three seeds and you will try to make them grow.” He, then, gave me and the other student the seeds. We all walked in different direction and started to work. For my part, I went to see Ale for an answer. “How do we make them grow?” I asked him. He turned around and smile. “This is the best part, you need to find what they like. Think of them as your friends. Friends don’t all like the same thing. Some of them like music and the others stories. Try to find what your friends like.” Well, this is going to be tough. I walked in a corner and checked the other students. They were all trying to find what their new friends’ likes. I planted the seeds in the ground and lied on the ground, in front of them. “Hi little flowers, my name is Anthony. I’m here to take care of you. What would you like to hear, a story or a song?” I asked then. It almost sounded ridiculous to talk to plants until I could swear I heard an answer. I heard a bit of music coming out of them. “Okay. I know a good song, but, with my new voice, I don’t know how it will sound like.” I took a deep breath and started to sing : I'm through with standin' in lines to clubs I'll never get in. It's like the bottom of the ninth and I'm never gonna win. This life hasn't turned out Quite the way I want it to be. There was some sprouts coming out of the earth. I somehow knew that they liked when I’m singing. I want a brand new house on an episode of Cribs. And a bathroom I can play baseball in, And a king size tub Big enough for ten plus me. The sprouts were beginning to grow leaves. I need a credit card that's got no limit, And a big black jet with a bedroom in it. Gonna join the mile high club, At thirty-seven thousand feet. The flowers appeared on top of the sprouts. One more verse and the flowers would be fully grown! I want a new tour bus full of old guitars. My own star on Hollywood Boulevard. Somewhere between Cher, And James Dean is fine for me. I could say that the flowers exploded in front of my face, but it would be a little bit exaggerated. Let’s just say that Alejandro was proud of me when he saw that I managed to make them grow before everypony else. “Wow, that’s impressive for most newfoals, most of them try to get over the talking to the plant, but I have never seen anypony grow a plant that quick. Share to the rest of the class your little secret you used.” He said. “S...secret? You mean like what I did differently?” I asked. “Yes!” He answered. Everypony were listening for my golden rule of crop growing. “I just asked them what they liked and they managed to answer me. It was weird, but fun.” The whole class was surprised and went back at their little garden. While the teacher was congratulating me for my success, lots of student used my trick and grew some beautiful flowers. It almost looked like the garden back at the HLF headquarters. “Well class, it’s time to say goodbye. I hope that, later on, you say that earth ponies are useful and not a bunch of sack of... never mind. Anyway, see ya later!” I could swear he was about to say something bad. At least, the human part was easily suppressed by his pony side. After the class, a pony with a brown mane came to see me. “Hey girl, I saw that you were good at growing food. Would you mind helping me in the kitchen?” She said. Getting a job at something that involves cooking filled me with joy. “Awesome, I would love to. What do you need help for?” I asked her. “Our pastry chef got hay fever and is staying at his house back in Equestria. Can you make dessert for tonight’s dinner?” “I can make it, but not serve it. I got a date tonight with a nice stallion.” I said. “Well, that’s no problem, dear. Just follow me and think about a recipe.” “Nice, this is going to be fun.” _____________________ Thanks to DaBunnanaKing for his OC. He's a good earth pony teacher (and sometime, a real idiot). 008 - LoveThe Conversion Bureau : Lab Rat I need to think of a recipe. I can’t remember any of them. I know that I have recipes written somewhere, but where? We made our way to the kitchen while talking more about each other. I learned that the mare’s name was Fruit Bowl and she took care of the kitchen since the conversion bureau opened. When we arrived, I finally remembered where I put all those recipes, in my diary! I told her to continue without me and ran to my room. I took the diary that was closed on my bed. I opened it and went to one of the earliest page, it was an entry from more than twenty years ago, right before I lost my book. I was lucky to find it back when I moved away from my parents. On it, one of my most secret family recipes was written clearly : The ‘tourte au chocolat’. I rushed back to the kitchen, trying to get back my breath. “Why did you leave in a hurry?” She asked. “I *pant* got *pant* recipe.” I managed to say between my panting. She looked at me with a smile and said : “That’s wonderful. Can you do it, I hope you will have all the ingredients.” Then, she walked back at making the dinner: pasta for humans and a garden salad for ponies. The kitchen was a basic one, completed with three ovens and a king size sink. Nine steel table islands allowing lot of places to cook. I took my diary and opened it on the wrong page. How can I turn the pages? I didn’t wanted to use my mouth because my page would rip or fill with saliva. “How can I turn that page?” I asked Fruit. She walked beside me and she put her hoof over the book. Mysteriously, it almost like she had fingers and she switched the page. “Earth ponies have a weird power. They got ‘fingers’ and can move item more easily than other ponies. Just move the old connection that used to be your finger and grab the object.” It’s that easy, I like earth ponies, they are nice. I did what she told me and I managed to find the right page for the recipe. I walked to a table and started searching for the ingredients. There was all the ingredients for the ‘cake’ part, but the only frosting left was a strawberry flavored one. “I guess that it will be strawberry flavored and not chocolate.” I said to myself out loud. The ‘tourte’ is a 12 layer cake with lots of frosting. Six of them are thin spongy cake layer, one centimeter high each and the other six are layers of frosting. So, the cake is made like this: cake, frosting, cake, frosting, cake, frosting and, finally, all covered by another layer of frosting. At the end, it becomes a brick of deliciousness. I finally managed to make one. It been a long time since I’ve cooked something. Fruit came checking what I did and she smiled at the view of the brick cake I made. “Oh my, it looks delicious. Can I have a piece?” she asked. I took a knife with my hoof (I still don’t know how it’s even possible) and cut one of the side. “I don’t know how it will taste. It’s been a long time since I’ve cooked up something. Also, the original recipe is for a chocolate one and not strawberry.” “Ah, don’t worry my dear,” she bit in. “Oh, dear Celestia...” she said in awe. “It’s bad? I knew it!” I said. I was sad I couldn’t pull out the secret Duquette recipe. “No, it’s the best cake I’ve ever ate in my entire life. The strawberry flavor mixed with the cake, it simply divine.” Well, that gave me back the smile I had times ten. Because there were a lot of people and ponies in the bureau, I decided to make two more bricks. “I’m going to get dress up for my date tonight, see ya.” I said to Fruit. She turned around and waved back. “Don’t worry, I know everypony will love it.” she said. I smiled and got out of the kitchen. I made my way to Shooting Star’s room and saw the door close. On it, a message was attached with some tape: Dear A, I hope you don’t mind, I have a surprise meeting with the rest of the bureau’s team. I took the principle makeup you need and delivered it to your room. I gave you also three dresses, you just need to take the one you need. Tata for now, Shooting Star. Weird, a surprise meeting, but Fruit Bowl is not invited. I thought she was part of the team. I’ll ask her later. I took the letter and went back to my room and saw something new, her table with the mirror was there with all the cosmetics. On my bed, the dresses were waiting for their new master. I closed the door behind me and started working. **North Wind** Wow, those classes are hard, I did my best and I’m not able to fly higher than few feet, it sucks. While I was thinking about my misery, I saw a shadow moving from the director’s room. I followed the shadow through the hallway leading to the lobby. I saw that the shadow was Nova. A’s friend. I followed her outside to see what she was doing. I hid myself behind the corner of the bureau and what I heard was scaring the buck out of me: “She is there, Mister HLF.” The mare said. “Good, you did well. Tomorrow morning, we will come and take him back.” The HLF member said. “Okay mister, just to tell you, Anthony turned into a filly for a unknown reason. Now that I did what you asked for, will you leave my sister alive.” She asked. “Yes, I’m done with you. See ya.” The mare ran past me and entered the building. I followed her again and she had gone into the filly’s bathroom. I went back to her room to see my sweet pie reading the note, taking it and walking to her room. “I need to tell her. but she will think that it’s a lie. We’ll just need to try.” I said to myself. I walked to her room and checked her a little bit to see her getting ready for our date. It can wait. **A** A bit of this, a bit of that and voila. I did it and I look awesome. Who could have thought that I like those kind of girl activity. I don’t know why, but I feel like somepony is watching me. It’s impossible, who would want to spy on me? Now, for the choice of dress, I looked at what Star gave me. There was the dress I was wearing during lunch, a plain indigo colored suit and a gold and shiny one. I wanted to be original and not too flashy so, I took the indigo one. As I was trying to fit in the suit, I saw a shadow in the hallway. I got out of the fabrics, closed and locked the door. Finally, maybe there was a spy. Heh, I’m irresistible. I returned to my battle with the dress. After a long and a bit painful moment, I managed to fit in perfectly. I checked in the mirror and saw what I became. Who could have guess that a man soldier working for the HLF would turn into a their enemy... as a mare. Not even a single author could have thought of this. I checked the clock on my wall and saw that there was at least an hour before dinner. I would like to listen to my MP3, but the earphones doesn’t fit those big ears. I walked toward the corner of the room to find it. I remembered that I threw it while I was crying the death of Keven. Those memories will stay in my head for the rest of my life. I checked the corner and saw that the MP3 wasn’t there. Don’t tell me somepony stole my music. If I catch the one who did this, he or she is screwed. I took a look around the room and saw a pair of wired headphones coming out of my old dress. I took them and saw that it was my MP3 with a new set of headphones. Those looked perfect on pony ears! I put them on and played a random song. I lay down on my bed and relaxed to the sound of my music. ***Dinner Time*** Knock, knock, knock. The sound of somepony knocking startle me. I stood up and saw that my dress wasn’t at any point deformed. I was still ready. I walked to the door and opened it. Behind, Shooting Star was looking at me with a big smile. “I knew you could do it. You look absolutely perfect.” She said, “And the dress, great choice my dear.” I smiled back when she tapped on the dress to remove small wave in the fabric. “It’s the moment dear, time to show those stallion the power of the mare.” She said. We walked together to the cafeteria. When I’m saying ‘every stallion are looking at me’, I mean more than just that. They were frozen in their position, eating or walking, and their eyes were all analyzing me. I was liking all this attention. I was wondering where North wants me to sit. I was about to choose a table when Star pushed me back into the hallway. “What’s wrong?” I asked her. She winked at me and answered my question. “Follow me for your surprise.” We walked to a room and I entered. In it, North Wind was sit in front a table with red tablecloth and lit only by candles. I motioned me to sit in front of him. Also, on the table, two plates were waiting with today’s dinner. My surprise was a romantic dinner. “I’ll leave you two be.” Star said while leaving the room. I sat on the floor in front of the table. “Hey, how are you doing?” he asked. I smiled and started to talk. “Oh, I’m fine. I finished first in my earth pony class and did tonight’s dessert.” “You mean this one?” He pointed the pink cake piece. I nodded. We both ate in silence until North Wind broke it when we both finished our plate. “Time for the dessert.” I was hoping he would like it. He took a bite and, after swallowing, he looked at me with his big blue eyes. “You hate it, I knew it.” I said while hanging my head low. “No, I don’t like it... I LOVE IT.” He loves it, really! I’m not too bad in cooking. I feel weird, but it’s alright. “Umm, A. Look at your flank.” Flank...? Oh, ass. I looked and what I saw filled me with pure joy. I got my cutie mark. It was a cake with white frosting and a strawberry on top. “You know what, North. Call me Strawberry Frosting.” He smiled and walked beside me to check it. To congratulate me, he left a little kiss on my cheek. I checked him in the eyes. Without knowing it, our lips were together, in a passionate kiss. After kissing, North started asked: “Berry, can I be your coltfriend?” My brain was on cruise control, I couldn't think about anything else than that kiss. "Yes, I would love you to." I said. We passed the time talking about anything until somepony came cleaning up the table. We spent the rest of the night kissing and cuddling until I fell asleep, under North Wind’s wing. Maybe being a mare isn’t so bad. Bonus - Conflicting Emotion / Second Nightmare (by Ocean Breeze)Conflicting Emotions Guest chapter by: Ocean Breeze After a long day, I fell asleep under North Wind’s wing. It was warm, and comforting. However, my dreams weren’t quite as wonderful. * * * * * * * * I was in my room with Zachary. “Hey Berry?” he asked. “Yeah?” I replied. “Did you ever think of... you know..” Zachary trailed off. “Ever think of what?” “Have you ever thought of-- Buck this!” Zachary leaned in and kissed me on the muzzle. I know it should have been wrong, yet.. it felt nice. “Mmphmm.” I returned the kiss. I loved it. “You’re a really pretty mare, you know that? Even if you used to be a guy..” Once again, he trailed off. “Meh, even if I used to be a guy, there’s no way to go back. Why not enjoy it?” I finished off by once again kissing him. The expression on his face made it seem that if he was a pegasus, he would have had a wingboner. A massive, and I mean massive, blush grew upon his face. That’s when the door opened up. What came through was a ponified Nathaniel and humanized Cloudhammer. “I thought I would invite some friends to the party.” Zachary gazed upon me with a wild look in his eyes. “What happened to Cloudhammer?!? Why is he a human?” I was completely befuddled. How was this even possible? “Cloudhammer? Who is Cloudhammer?” Zachary, Nathaniel, and Cloudhammer looked at me in confusion. “Cloudhammer! Him!” I pointed to who I thought was Cloudhammer. “I’m not Cloudhammer, I’m Dan! Who is this Cloudhammer anyways? Is it someone we should know about?” He raised his eyebrow with a trollface on. “Giggity.” Nathaniel whispered, not audible to anypony else. “Are we just going to stand here all day, or are we going to have our fun?” Zachary looked at the others, while smiling maniacally. I was terribly frightened. “Should I be scared..?” I was extremely scared that they were going take turns raping me somehow. Dan spoke up, “Don’t worry,” he smiled madly just like Zachary, “We just want to play a game with you.” He pulled something white from behind his back. “Is that what I think it is...?” I expected some sort of box containing hoofcuffs. Instead, the box said “TWISTER” on the logo. “By Celestia’s beard, I thought you were going to rape me...” “WHAT!?!? Where would you even get that idea?!?” Zachary screamed at me. “I.. uh... buck. I don’t know.. Just drop it the conversation.” I had been defeated because of my own thoughts. Somewhere out there, a certain author is laughing at Berry (which she is, in fact, NetherPortal girl personality) hysterically as he makes her become humiliated. “All right chums, let’s do this. LEEEEEERRROOOOOYYYY JJJJEEEENNNNKKKIIINNNSSS!!!” Zachary screamed at the top of his lungs. “Shut the buck up Zach,” I replied. “Oh come on! I was just having fun. HAVE FUN WITH ALL THE MEMES!” “Again, shut the buck up.” “Are we going to play Xbox, or what?” Dan asked. “How are we going to play Xbox? I don’t have fingers!” “Yes you do, silly!” I looked down. I had hands again, yet the rest of me was the same. “AHHH! WHAT IS HAPPENING!?!” “What are you talking about? Nothing’s happening.” Nathaniel was confused. “Anyways, what game do you guys want to play?” he asked. “How about Call of Duty 12?” Zach asked. “Wait.. what?? CoD 12 isn’t even out yet!” I said. “You’re right, how about Half-Life 6: Episode 7?” “I have a better idea! Let’s rip out Berry’s internal organs and feast upon them until the morning sun rises!” They all pulled out knives from nowhere. * * * * * * * * “AHHHHH!” I woke up in a cold sweat. “Berry! What happened?” North Wind asked me, which meant that I was back in reality. “I had the craziest dreams. Can I tell you about them?” He looked at me with look of a madpony. “Sure, but first, I WANT TO EAT YOUR ORGANS!” He appeared with a knife in his teeth. “AHHH!” I screamed out loud. * * * * * * * * “AHH!” I woke up once again. Like the last time, I was under North Wind’s wing. My screaming severely startled him, forcing him to wake up. “What’s the matter, honey?” He was genuinely concerned. At this point, I didn’t know if I should trust him because he could’ve been another ‘killer’. “I.. I had a double nightmare.” I was extremely scared. “Do you want to talk about it?” He was trying to make everything better because he actually cared about me versus my ‘dream love’ Zachary. “CONFOUND THESE CONFLICTING EMOTIONS! THEY DRIVE ME TO CHOOSE A STALLION!” I mentally shouted to myself. “I.. I’m going to stick with North Wind. He loves me, and as far as I know, Zachary has no feelings for me.” “Let’s.. Let’s just go back to sleep.” “I’m fine with that.” He kissed me on the muzzle, once again spreading his wing over my back. “Good night, my princess.” Like that, we slowly drifted back off to sleep. I prayed to Celestia that I wouldn’t have any more nightmares. Fortunately, my prayers were answered as I had no dreams. * * * * * * * 009 - Attack on the bureauThe conversion bureau : Lab Rat Final chapter before epilogue (D:) __________ I woke up, finally, from this long night. I had quite the dream. But, even with all those conflicted emotions, I’ll still choose North Wind over anypony. I checked beside me and saw that he was still deeply asleep. I managed to move my way out of his protective wing and saw that the weird sensation, lost in time, appeared in me, the ‘mare in heat’ sensation. “I... I will not do this with him.” I said while thinking about it, but, my heart wasn’t in the same way. “Okay, I’ll wake him up and ask him.” I thought out loud. “Ask for what?” I heard behind me. I jumped to the roof from surprise and turned around. Behind me, North Wind was stretching his wings. He kissed my cheek and he asked again the question. “Well... you see... I don’t feel good. I heard I was in heat. Do you know what is the... quickest way to ‘recover’.” At first, I could see that he was surprised, then, he nodded and he motioned me to sit on the bed, beside him. “Tonight, if you still want to, we could do it. Anyway, we should go take a shower and eat. You can go when you are ready. See you later.” He then quit the room. I shook my head to wake me up. I think that hot water will help me wake up. I walked into the girl’s bathroom and open the shower. I walked under and I immediately ran away. It was searing hot because I hadn’t reduced the temperature. I took the rubberized handle in my mouth (it tasted disgusting) and turned it down. I went back under the water and it was the perfect temperature. I took the shampoo and cleaned my mane. After cleaning my whole body, I stayed under the water. The heat from the water used to make me relax, and it’s still the case. I closed my eyes and my let mind drift. So, what am I going to do today? Eat, general classes, eat, specific classes, pass the night with North Wind and sleep. I hate routines. I stayed another five minutes before closing the water. I did my best to dry off with a towel I found beside the showers, but, without magic or wings, it’s quite complicated. At least, my hooves are now invisible hands. I really like that feeling of having five digits. Even invisible, they will never quit me. I walked outside the bathroom to see that North was waiting for me. “What happened?” He asked. I was wondering what he meant by that. “It took you long; did you have problems with the towels?” Oh, he means that. “No, I like hot water, it makes me think.” He nodded while saying “Make sense”,when he motioned me to come. “We should eat something. I’m hungry.” He said. “You have no idea.” I answered while following him. ***Nova*** What do we got here? Bill, bill, spams mail about longer horns and bigger wingspan. Look like nothing interesting. I thought while checking my Email inbox. Since the ponies arrived, new kinds of stupidity arrived too. Those spam lured thousand of unlucky ponies that got what they wanted, in exchange of monstrous amount of money. Even with their ‘upgrades’, they were unhappy, maybe even more than before. Suddenly, while I was reading one of the bills, I heard knocking at the door. I opened it and, at my surprise, it was the HLF messenger. He was a very small man with bleach blond hair and small eyes. “What do you want, pipsqueak?” I asked the annoyed messenger. “My master want to give you a message. Here it is,” he cleared his throat. “If you don’t give your ‘peace and protection’ payment, we will have no other choice to attack your building. Also, we are searching for ‘somepony’, as you call her, who is a traitor to our organization. If you refuse, you will help us catch her. She is a pony, recently transformed. If you don’t help us, you will help anyway, just without knowing. Leave your answer to the messenger, that means moi, and may our little alliance still exist.” “You want an answer? I’LL GIVE YOU AN ANSWER! Tell your chief, the one who is controlling you that this alliance is over and that he can buck himself. Also, I WILL NEVER HELP YOU! Did you understand?” I said angrily. He’s been attacking this building for months, leave me alone with your fake peace alliance. “Yes, I did understand. Now, because you choose the third choice, you must still help us, in another way.” He, then, claped two times with his hands and two brutes came out of nowhere and then all I saw was black. ***Strawberry Frosting*** We were eating some fruit salad made by my friend Fruit Bowl. It was delicious. There was apples, oranges, cherries, kiwis and a weird fruit called dragonfruit. It taste a bit sweet, but the little seeds makes it all crunchy. This mix was perfect in every way. We finished our meal in silence. When we gave back the bowls, Fruit asked me a interesting question: "Hey A..." she started before I stopped her. "My name is Strawberry Frosting now." I told her. "Okay, Strawberry, are you taking the chariot, tonight, to Equestria?" Wait, I never thought about this. “Well, I would like too, but my friend is not even converted yet. If he gets converted today, maybe I will.” Suddenly, some red light appeared, flashing in all the rooms in the bureau. A voice was ringing from the speakers: “Get to the cafeteria immediately for immediate lockdown. I repeat, get to the cafeteria immediately for immediate lockdown.” We were already to the cafeteria. I knew this room was protected, but it was starting to scare me. North Wind realized that I was scared when I made a little sound and started walking over to a wall to lean. “I don’t like this. This isn’t going to end well.” I said. North Wind walked beside me and gave me a hug. After, he sat down and put his wing around me. “Don’t worry sweetie, it’s not like they’re after you.” When he said this, his eyes opened. “Oh buck, ” he said. I checked his and waited for an explanation why he used this word. “I totally forgot to tell you something, Berry.” I said a faint ‘continue’ and he did. “I saw your friend, Shooting Star, talking outside the bureau yesterday. She was talking about a plan to capture you!” WHAT! Star, I thought you and I were friends. You are officially in my black list until any change. “B...but why?” I said. He motioned his ignorance and told me another question, the one I didn’t wanted to answer: “Also, he said that you’re... a male. D... don’t get me wrong, I know you look like a mare, but... are you a male?” I closed my eyes. Normally, I would say the complete truth, but now that I experienced the life of a mare, I got only one thing to say: “USED to be a male,” I said. “Since few days ago, I was trying to stay as male as possible, but, yesterday night... when I slept with you, I promised, I promised myself to forget my past and to aim toward the future. So yes, I used to be a male. If you got a problem with that, just leave me be like a human would do, but tell me something, if I was still a guy, would I act this way with you? I love you and will forever. After hearing this, do you still want to be my coltfriend?” He looked at me with small eyes. He closed them for few second, then, he opened them with a small smile. “You really think that I would act like this? We are no longer human, even if you’ve been killing ponies in the past, I wouldn’t break up with you. I stayed and found the mare I want to stay for the rest of my life.” We checked around and we saw that everypony who managed to get to the cefeteria was looking at us, listening to the romantic conversation. I was happy that he accepted me like that, but, I wasn’t at the end of my surprises. “Strawberry Frosting,” he walked right in front of me, ”would you like to marry me?” Everypony, I mean like all human and ponies alike were “D’awww”-ing or only waiting for an answer. What I did, I smiled as big as the building. “Yes, yes I would love to.” Then we kissed under the thunderous sound of hand-clapping and hoof-hitting. I was so happy right now, even the HLF riot couldn’t destroy this happy and peaceful moment. After the kiss, we needed to get back to reality. We heard somepony, more like a human, talking with a megaphone. “Give us Anthony and Nova will be safe.” I checked around the room and saw Star, mouth agape, trying to fight the tears. I sighed loudly, enough for the group in front of me to move. When I walked to my destiny, I heard a voice in the big group of residents: “What are you doing Frosting? It’s your happy day, you just got engaged, why are you going there?” “My human name was Anthony. I used to be a cruel person, working for them. Now, I regret everything. I also used to hate this name, now, I hate it more.” I continued walking. Behind me, popping from nowhere, Zach and Nat, followed by CloudHammer and North Wind, decided to walk with me. “What are you all doing?” I asked them while walking. “If you really want to do this, we’ll always be with you.” Nat said while adding more power to his eternal smile. Enough to give it to me. They will always be with me. Suddenly, I realised that we were at the front door. “Good luck Frosty.” Zach said. I gave him a little peck on his cheek and he turned red as a tomato. “See ya A. Hope to see you in the future.” Nat said. We bro-sishoof. “Goodbye, my friends.” They waved at me when I was walking toward my destiny. I was surprised they weren’t sad or anything. Maybe they are trying to hide their emotions. ***North Wind*** I was smiling while keeping a small fake smile. “Are we following her?” Zach asked. I shook my head. “Follow me, I know a secret exit on the east side of the building. We’ll take them by surprise.” We all ran toward the exit, hoping to stop the group at the right moment. ***Strawberry Frosting*** CLIP CLOP CLIP CLOP CLIP CLOP The sound coming from outside stopped. We could only hear the sound of my hooves on the pavement. CLIP CLOP CLIP CLOP CLIP CLOP I walked in front of my old captain. It had to be Martin leading the HLF troup. “Hey, look what we got here. Here's what happen to traitors, they turn into girls.” Martin said. The whole gang laughed at the sight of me. “Stop it, I got something to say. Keven is right, you are controlled.” I said. I started to hear whispers going from side to side. I think that being out of the HLF grounds reduce the power of their chips. “Don’t listen to her, she is a traitor. I’m going to fire her lies with my boomstick.” He was about to pull the trigger while aiming at me when, suddenly, one of the front soldier took the arms of the killer at the right moment. “Hey old fart, why can’t we hear what she got to say. We don’t have anything to do, or maybe she’s right and you don’t want us to learn the truth.” He said. He let Martin go. “YOU’RE OUT OF HERE YOU TRAITOR. SHOOT THEM ALL!” He took aim and fired at me. ***Nathaniel*** Aww man, I never ran like this before. It’s been a long time since I did some training. We ran around the building, toward the HLF. When we arrived, we heard: “YOU’RE OUT OF HERE YOU TRAITOR. SHOOT THEM ALL!”. I know what that meant. While the others were running toward the gunman, I ran toward another target, between the two. I jumped at the last second took all the bullets. ***Strawberry Frosting*** I closed my eyes for a fraction of a second. When I opened them, what I saw almost made me lose what little I had in my stomach. Nathaniel was lying on the ground, his body filled with shotgun pellets, Martin getting air bucked in the head by Zachary and Cloud running toward the injured human. I was about to follow him when I saw a doctor with a vial containing purple liquid. Then, I realised I had a bigger mission. I walked toward the surprised soldiers. I placed myself on a rock in front of them. “Listen carefully, HLF members. In few minutes, Nathaniel will be converted. You will see, in front of your eyes, that there is going to be a chip coming out of his head. Then, you will understand what we meant, Keven and I. You will choose your path and I hope you will change side. No need to become a pony, just stop killing. That’s all I have to say.” Then, I saw Martin waking up from the terrible hit he took. “DON’T LISTEN TO HER, LIES, LIES I TELL YOU!” One of the annoyed soldier took the captain’s lips and hold them. The soldier who was holding Martin’s arms raise his hand like in a classroom. I chuckled at the sight and said “Yes?” “I will join the bureau’s security force. I will no longer kill, unless necessary. And, to seal this, I will kill one last person as a HLF member.” He walked toward Martin and pointed his pistol on his head. “Sayonara papy.” BANG! No more Martin. I was saddened that my old captain died this way, but it was a relief that the guy who tried to kill me was dead now. While I was calming myself, I heard a faint “Check guys.” I walked toward Nat ‘under-transformation’ body and saw a small chip. I took it and hold it with my hoof. “Here is the chip.” I heard some cheering sound. “AND HERE IS MY HOOF!” I put it on the ground and crushed it under my giant thumbnail. This movement was the last thing I needed. They threw their guns on the ground. A big part of them entered the building. By seeing this, I said the last thing I had to say: “It’s the time, ex-HLF members. Choose. Your. SIDE.” 010 - EpilogueThe Conversion Bureau : Lab Rat Epilogue _____________________ The rest of the afternoon went fast. I met new friends and talked with old ones. Some were asking question about conversion and some were asking question like ‘how is it to be a pony’ and stuff. Let’s just say that the major part of the gang is getting converted. The others are leaving or going to be a guard. The thing I liked the most is seeing Nathaniel as a pony. He was a light brown pegasus with a white and red mane. He took his piece of ripped cloth he’s normally wearing on his wrist and put it like a headband. He was awesome, to say the least. “Now, I know why Zach was acting like a crazy stallion near you. Girl, you’re irresistible.” I giggled a bit and left a little peak on his cheek. His brown face turned pink, which made our group laugh. North Wind walked up to our group composed of me, Nat, Zach, and CloudHammer. “Hey, would you all like to travel to Equestria?” He asked. We all checked each other and nodded. I went back at my room and started to pack my stuff when North knocked at my door. “So sweet cake, did you liked this day?” He asked. I kissed him and said: “Except for the whole ‘firing at each other’ part, it was pretty nice.” I answered. We heard another knock and, at our door, were the sisters Nova and Shooting Star. “Thank you for saving me, Berry.” Nova said. Star was walking toward me when North blocked her. “I just want to know, why were you dealing with a HLF member yesterday?” He said. Her ears fell down as her mood went from happy to sad. “I’m sorry, I was trying to deal with this guy to leave us alone. He lied to me and took my sister anyway.” I looked at her with a small smile. “I know what you mean. I would do anything to help my brother.” “You got a little brother?” She asked. “Yes, his name is Loïc. He is the cutest kid you’ve ever seen. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him. I miss him so much.” I said. We hugged each other, when we heard on the bureau’s sound system: “To every Equestrian travelers, please go to the boarding deck immediately.” We all walked to the deck. All of my friends was there, waiting for us. After the final goodbyes, we boarded the chariot, flying towards a better place. The End... Or not! In the words of the wise WG, “I smell a sequel!” and in the words of the wise NetherPortal, “Shut up!” ____________________________ Final A/N : I know what you are thinking. "No, you just ended an adventure that could last for chapters." My answer to this is that I can't hold a story with more than 15 chapters. It's just too much for me. Anyway, I'll post a sequel, but later on, after my next story. If you want to know, I going to be a full time TCB writer. No more normal stories. Also, read this. It's a little something from my new story (It can change anytime): There is one thing that stopped the boringness of the maths class. The terrible sound of jets breaking the sound barrier. All the window in the room broke and the terrible smell of pollution entered. It wasn't the last of my worries. The jet let a purple smoke cloud, falling freely over the school yard. Because of the broken window, the cloud quickly entered. Want more? WAIT NetherPortal, over. Alt.Ending - Nathaniel's turn (by Ocean Breeze)The Conversion Bureau: Lab Rat Alternate Ending By: WastelandGunner As requested by NetherPortal This alternate ending isn't the official one. It's only to direct the readers to the mature one. An extended alternate ending is coming soon. NP: Hey, could you write me a alt ending? WG: Uhh.. Yeah, sure. What do you want to be be about. NP: *Lists off parameters* WG: *Devious grin* Will do. Will do. * * * * * * * The rest of the day went by pretty fast. I met some new friends and some old ones. But something rather peculiar happened. Nathaniel was shot and had to go in for emergency conversion or else he would bleed out and die. The bureau was out of the normal potion though. That was rather strange and almost never happens. They had a substitute. The bureau workers called it the “R63” potion. Instead of the normal purple hue and grape taste, it was red and had a cherry taste. When told of this, I immediately thought about the dart Zach had used on me. “It was red and when I burped, I tasted to cherries.. Oh my Celestia. That dart turned me into a mare! That must be the potion they gave to Nathaniel!” Sure enough, around 5PM or so, a stunning light brown mare with a red mane clumsily stumbled into the common room. “I feel violated. I’m a female now!” A high pitched voice cried out, “They took my jimmies and my voice!” Zach and I trotted over to Nathaniel. “Should we call her Natalie now?” I pondered that thought. “Nah, she’d just get mad.” Zachary trotted over to.. Natalie? “Hey filly! You lookin’ good! I haven’t seen you around here before!” He said with a grin. “Zach, it’s me, Nathaniel.” Zach did a double take. “Wah!?” “Those ponies ran out of the normal potion. This is the only one that they could give me. Now I’m a mare!” “A pretty one at that.” Zach smiled... like he meant it. “How could you even...” She trailed off. “EWWW! MENTAL IMAGES!” I wondered how she even managed to get from that to mental images. Every stallion within a 20 foot radius was acting weird. I trotted over to Nathaniel and whispered in her ear. “Did you notice how every stallion near us is acting strange?” “Yeah, it’s because those doctor ponies said that I am in heat. Oh the horror! Damn. I hate being a mare.” Zachary said in a hushed manner, “Maybe we could do something.. later? How about dinner?” Nathaniel.. I’m just going to call her Natalie for now on. Natalie blushed and frowned. I could see that she was annoyed by Zachary’s attempt to ask her out. Her hormones were getting to her as normally, she wouldn’t have blushed. In fact, she would’ve bucked him in the face (giggity) if she was a stallion. Natalie walked up to Zachary, she had conflicting emotions right now. She wanted to stay true to her man’s way, yet she was a mare now. There was and is nothing she can do now. She was wanting him so much! Then again, that’s probably her being in heat. I walked over to Zach. He was trying to contain himself as much as he could. He badly wanted her to be with him. “You do know that we have to leave for Equestria soon, right?” “Oh buck! I forgot about that!” He looked around frantically, as though he forgot to pack things, which he didn’t, since he has nothing to pack. “Uh.. Yeah, only a couple hours until we leave... What’s wrong?” He looked so distraught. Even though I already knew the answer, I felt that he should talk it out. “It’s Nathaniel. She.. she smells so.. good!” His eyes gazed off to her. Natalie’s new body entranced him. Surprisingly, I couldn’t smell it. Maybe it only has an effect on stallions. “Eyes off the flank, lover colt.” He snapped out of a flank-coma. Realizing he didn’t have much time left until departure, I watched him walk over to Natalie. I saw them leaving together when I went to my room. It was easy packing what I had. I had the two dresses Star gave me and my diary. My MP3 cannot follow me because advanced technology. I took my stuff, including the small device and went to the departing room. On my way, I stopped in front of Nat’s room. I heard screams of delight and a bit more. Are they... seriously. Who could have thought of that? I managed to get to the room. There was still around 30 minutes until the ride so, I listened to music. ** I removed the earphones when I saw the two lover ponies happily trotting inside. I stood up and said : “About time you showed up.” I tapping my hoof against the ground, “The boat is going to leave soon. What took you so long? I heard screams coming out of your room?” “I tripped over myself and hit my head against the bed.” Nat quickly said, in an attempt to cover over what he was doing with Zach. “Oh well... lets get going because that boat isn’t going to wait forever.” I said while walking toward the ship. A new life awaited all of us, only a short ride away. __________________________ Hehehe, I wasn't so bad. I had to end it for my fans. -NetherPortal ... -WastelangGunner Bonus - Foals / Contact (by Ocean Breeze)Lab Rat Guest Chapter: By: WastelandGunner NetherPortal is so going to kill me. And FireWind (Zach) too Guest Chapter: Contact “Damn! Why did it have to be cherries?!?” I violently screamed inside my mind as I remembered what had happened the past two days. Zachary showing up, hitting me with that cherry dart, escaping the HLF HQ, freeing the other ponies, converting, ending up a mare. “Why me?!? Why did it have to be me that the PER was targeting?!?” Then it hit me. “Oh yeah. I tortured ponies for a living. How did I forget that?” Zach, Cloudhammer, Nat, and I were going back to Cloud’s house after a long day. A long day that involved getting hit on by strangers. Everypony was very tired. Especially me. I, for one, woke up a mare, ate food for the first time as a pony, was hit on by stallions I didn’t even know, and worst of all... did I mention this yet... I’M A FREAKING MARE! One of my best friends did this to me too! We were even best buds in high school! “Confound these female hormones! They drive me to girliness!” You have to love old memes. “How much longer???” I decided that Zach’s punishment shall be my whining. “I’m tired! My hooves hurt! NAG NAG NAG!” I thought that I should put on my best shrill and girly voice to annoy the feces out of their rectums. “WILL YOU SHUT UP!?!?” Nat screamed at me. “Fine, jeez.” "That was a little harsh." I thought. It wasn’t very long before they all decided to tune me out. I don’t blame ‘em. I probably would have too. “IF I WAS A STALLION!” Nothing could describe how angry and scared I was. Soon enough, we arrived at Cloud’s humble abode. It wasn’t the best house in the world, but hey. At least it wasn’t falling apart, because that’d be terrifying knowing that the house you’re sleeping in could come crumbling down at any moment. It would have been a better night, if Zach hadn’t made a move on me. “You know.. You are a mare for now.. We could.. you know.. experiment.” I brain exploded as he said that. “WHAT THE BUCK ARE YOU SAYING!?!?” “Jeez, calm down. I was just saying that we could.. I don’t know.. You are pretty sexy.” I collapsed right there in the living room. “Woah! Are you okay Ms. Duquette?” “GET THE BUCK AWAY FROM ME!” I shouted in his face as he started to make a move on me. “And don't you dare call me Ms. Duquette!” His face came closer to mine. My heart was beating faster than a cheetah chasing after a ferrari with a trunk full of raw chicken. He leaned in closer. “Do you need help up?” I sighed. “Thank Celestia. I thought he was going to try to ki--” We met muzzle to muzzle. This was pretty weird considering he was my best friend, and the fact that he was a stallion, and I used to be a man. Maybe in society’s eye, if they didn’t know I used to be a man, it wouldn’t be as weird, BUT THIS WAS PRETTY BUCKING AWKWARD. It felt leathery, and flat. Pretty damn gross. Finally, he pulled away after what seemed like minutes, although, it was probably seconds. “DAFUQ IS WRONG WITH YOU!?!?” Zach’s eyes started to swell up with tears. “I’M SO SORRY!” He galloped out of the room, and broke down the front door. However, that didn’t stop him. The persistent stallion kept on galloping, somehow managing to sob at the same time. I didn’t know what to do. “Should I gallop after him? Should I tell the others?” At least my second question was answered. Cloudhammer, and Nathaniel came running/galloping into the room. “What happened in here?!?” The two simultaneously yelled. They both saw the door ripped from its hinges. “Anthony! What happened?!?!” Well, this was not going to go well if I didn’t tell them what happened, so I told them everything. Not that I wanted to, but how else was I going to explain the absence of Zach, and the broken door? “What do you mean he kissed you?” “Hmm.. How do I explain this? HE PLANTED HIS MUZZLE UPON MINE AND KISSED ME!!!” “Which direction did he run?” Nat asked me in a hurried tone. “Um.. I think he ran to the right when he busted the door.” They started to run out the now empty front door. “HEY!! WAIT FOR ME!” “NO! YOU STAY THERE! YOU HAVE ALREADY CAUSED ENOUGH TROUBLE!” I started to sob. I had caused all of this, and now Zach probably hated me. I’ll admit he wasn’t the worst looking stallion. In fact, he looked pretty handso-- “DAMN IT MIND! GET OUT OF THE GUTTER! YOU ARE A MALE! YOU DO NOT GO AFTER OTHER MALES!” That only caused me to cry harder. I hope that the others would find him. Soon enough, I cried myself to sleep. Only time would tell me what had happened that night. I just hoped that he would come home safely, and he wouldn't somehow get himself killed. I snapped out of my daydream. “Dafuq did I just dream?!?” Another alt. ending -Link- (by DaBunnanaKing)By DaBunnanaKing Warning : NSFW stuff between Zachary and Nathaniel. 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001 - I got bit by a lost specie.The Conversion Bureau: Lab Rat 2.0 Chapter 001-2: I got bit by a lost specie ____________________________________________________________ It was a great day on the East side of the North Amerizone, in the region that we used to call Montreal. I’ve been living here since some weird stuff happened to me. It all started with the lack of food. All the crops over the world had been eaten by a bacteria that was supposed to save them. The animals died from the pollution we, humans, caused. At least, the world government managed to turn human waste into comestible food, but, unluckily, they forgot to remove the crap flavor. Then, magically, some ‘saviors’ appeared out of nowhere. By this, I mean really out of nowhere. One day in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, a Navy ship found a bubble-like anomaly floating peacefully. However, when they went toward it, they started to become sick, their body were getting covered with black spot. The cause of death was massive cellular necrosis. It took few months before we finally found out what was this ‘bubble’. It was another dimension, populated by the weirdest thing ever : pastel colored ponies. The world government made a press conference, shown on every three-vee in the world, with the princesses of the dimension. They said that the bubble was a portal toward their dimension, but humans die if they approach it. Then, they said something that froze every human in the universe. They said that the bubble will grow until it covers the whole planet. The only way human would survive is by turning into a member of their nation, turn into ponies. The conversion movement started years ago. More and more human, every day, turned into ponies, by fear of the bubble or by following their families. The total human population had decreased tremendously because of all those transformation. From around 17 billion humans inhabitants to a mere 8 billion on this dying planet. Half of those ponies have gone to Equestria, their ponyland, and the other half is showing off their flank to the rest of us, saying thing like ‘ponies are awesome’ and ‘join the herd’. Seeing them happy on this apocalyptic-like world made more and more people want conversion. It’s like a walking advertisement. The ponies received hate by some people who thinks that they are demons. They name themselves the Human Liberation Front, or HLF. They’re trying to stop the movement by doing thing like peaceful riots to more gory thing like killing ponies. They are doing their best to stop the human from going to the bureaus, the place where the conversions occur, by making advertisement or by telling lies. Here’s one of their propaganda that was showed on a three-vee a long time ago, until the princesses themselves stopped it : “They look harmless. They are candy-colored and pretty. But like any poison, looks can be deceiving. More and more they invade our cities, our land, and our lives. Like rats, they breed and spread, covering our world. They claim to be our friends. Some claim to be us, 'magically transformed' into inhuman creatures. They can be convincing, knowing facts and details about our lives, our families, and our personal histories. Do not be fooled. These invaders are not us, and they are not transformed humans. They pretend to be those they replace, but make no mistake, no human being who enters a Conversion Bureau walks out alive again. What comes out is a sick and twisted parody of humanity, insulting both God and Man by its very existence. We of the Human Liberation Front seek to save humanity from annihilation, for that is what we collectively face. We know that if we work together we can stop the invasion. We can stop the expansion of Equestria into our world. We can send these inhuman pretenders and deceivers back to the horrific realm from which they came. We ask you to join us, to help take back our world, our culture, our very lives. We know how convincing they can be. We ask you to think. Why are they so adorable? Why are they so perfect? Why do they seem so kind? Why is Equestria so beautiful? It is all a trap. They prey on our weakness. Everything Equestria does is calculated to attack our natural desires, our innate sense of beauty, our very humanity itself. Not every demon comes in a guise of horror. The worst demons come appearing as angels. These creatures are not ponies. They are invaders. They are alien monsters who are replacing good, decent human beings with copies. If you enter a Conversion Bureau, you will be scanned and dissected. One of their kind will then have your memories transferred to it through alien technology, and that newly created invader will pretend to be you. While they convince others that they are you, converted, the real you will become the meat that these nightmare monsters secretly eat. They are not the vegetarians they claim to be. Their spaceships have been observing us for millennia, waiting for our civilization to reach its peak before the great harvest could begin. They were responsible for the destruction of the ancient super-civilizations of Atlantis and Lemuria. And they are the space monsters who attacked the astronauts of Apollo 13. Equestria is the great Harlot, and she is sending forth upon our precious world her unholy spawn. These monsters who some call 'ponies' are in fact the advance guard of the living Satan, who is an ancient alien from beyond our galaxy, trapped within the molten core of our planet eons ago, plaguing mankind until his day of escape. Do not be deceived by this false Rapture. Fight the evil Nazi hell monsters from beneath the hollow earth, who have risen up within their expanding bubble of false promises. This is the time when God needs us the most. We must band together to fight both the aliens and the race traitors among us. Stand tall. Stand firm. Put the demon aliens in their place. Do not accept them in your homes, your schools, your places of work. First we must segregate. Then we may eliminate. Join the Human Liberation Front. The HLF stands between the darkness of Equestria and the light of Humanity. This is our world, the center of the universe, and we are the chosen species of God. Join the Human Liberation Front. Or watch our world be cast into the darkness, our flesh devoured, and our world destroyed." This ad brought much hate by ponies and lovers alike, that the HLF was forced to stop making advertisement, but it was shown that they would do anything to stop the ponies. This is where my story begin. I don’t remember how and why I joined the HLF, but I did. I’m one of the highest graded members of the North Amerizone, maybe even the whole organisation. I even have a title given to me by other members and victims, until they die: Anthony, the torture master. This nickname seems gorey and it is. I received it when I managed to retrieve information from a stubborn pony when our crew lost all hope. Let’s just say that the information I managed to get helped us destroy one of the headquarters of the Ponification for Earth Rebirth, our arch-enemies. Back to the story. It was just a normal day in the city of Montreal. This city used to be the biggest in the province of Quebec, but the high level of pollution and smog ruined the fun. Year after year, people were dying from the pollution. Now, there is so much pollution that the youngers and the elders need to wear gas mask to take a walk. Naturally, the pony magic that started acting all over the planet was cleaning the city. Every second, the city was getting cleaner and our organisation was getting angry. Those ponies invaded us when our planet was at the end of its life. This is like a blow under the belt in a battle. We need them, even if we don’t want to say it. It’s almost a shame that they give us such a hard decision. Being friend would have been easier, but they didn’t let us this opportunity. Their ultimatum turn this decision into an obligation, and I don’t like it one bit. The only thing that I hate about humanity is the screwups that we did through history. For humans, it takes millions of person to do something great, but only one to screw it up. Every time somebody tries to help. Somebody else will do something to destroy it. An example, the bacteria that destroyed every crop on earth. The lead scientist was on the right way, but his assistant, because of his greedy appetite, wanted the bacteria to make the crops grow faster. At the end, it caused the opposite. After three days, there was no more apple trees, no more wheat and, by the domino effect, caused the animal to die from starvation. I remember, when I was young, I used to eat two apples a day. Now, because I know that there is no more crops alive, I’m scared of eating one a week. Who could guess what kind of chemical shit there is in. The food is made out of shit, transformed by machine and shit is toxic. Everybody knows that. And it’s this exact crappy food that ruined my greatest job. In my younger days, I knew that I had a talent in cooking. So, I used all my money to make a small restaurant. Who could have thought that it would be that popular. People all around the world were coming to eat at my restaurant. Even, one day, the famous action movie maker and special effect coordinator, Freddie Wong, came to eat. When he told me that my food was awesome, my popularity, which was already big, grew bigger! But, one day, all the crops died. Sure, I didn’t cared because most of my food didn’t contained any fruits or vegetable. Shortly after, the animals were falling by thousands. The world government, then, realised the gravity of the situation. They started building machines that turns human waste into so-called food. I remember the first time I tasted that synthetic stuff. It looked like grey goo, sprinkled with light grey powder with gray liquid in a bowl, which I guessed was soup. I took my fork and started to dig in. It tasted so much synthetic that I’m sure I lost at least a thousand taste buds just by taking one bite at it. As a renowned chef, I tried to make a recipe that would turns this hellish meal into something that would only came from heaven. The only thing I managed to so is fail, time after time. I finally lost my popularity because of all those fails. Because I lost my clients, I had to close my restaurant, for good. Now that I was no longer able to cook perfectly, I managed to find something in another department which I excel in : piano. There was a theater near the place I lived, so, I decided to ask if there was a place in any of their musical show for a pianist. To show them my talent, and get myself some credits toward them, I played few song that I knew. They immediately liked my performance and they talked about me to lots of musical show owner. With their help, I managed to get my place in some of the most popular musicals. I was the pianist behind Winter Wrap Up, Art of the dress and May the best pet win. I was so popular that people even came to see me after my performance to get an autograph. But, one day, I’ve lost my girlfriend to some jerk who used to bully me. I was very sad and I just came out of the theater. Because I wanted to hide from the fan wave, I got out by the back door. I ran as fast as I could toward my friends car door. When I entered his car, he saw how sad I was. He, then, gave me a cigarette. He told me that it helped him each time he was sad. When I was young, I promised myself that I would never take any kind of smoking thing, like cigarette and cigars. I did every kind of promise possible. One day, my friend showed me the ‘Pinkie promise’. I did it, without knowing what would happen if I broke it. I took the stick and his lighter and lit it. I took a deep breath of the smoke. At first, I was wondering how they did to get addicted to it, but, after few more breath, I started to feel better. We went to my house and I got out of the car. I waved at him going away. I took few steps toward my front door when I heard a shout in the distance. It sounded like ‘YOU BROKE A PINKIE PROMISE’. I didn’t care and I continued to walk while smoking. When I was in front of the door. a pink ball hit me right in the chest. I was trying to get off under it when it started hitting my shoulders and hurt me by its weight. I had never felt so much pain in my life. I fainted after few minutes of restless pain. When I woke up, I was in a hospital room. Somebody found me and brought me there. The guy told me that I got beat up by a pony, which is incredibly rare. The doctor told me that I had some broken ribs and a broken shoulder. I wasn’t at the end of my pain. The attack damaged the nerves in my right shoulder. If I try to move it, the reaction occur much later. Unless I managed to play piano with one hand, which is impossible, I would never play again. Even when I tried, wishing that I would have been blessed, I messed up. I left the theater leaving behind such amount of swears it would’ve made a sailor blush. I promised myself that I would take revenge on those ponies, even if it would cost my life. But, I didn’t wanted to go into the HLF because I hated violence, but life already had my life written. While I was walking toward my house, which was already far by going with a car, I got hit from behind right on my head and fainted, again. When I woke up, I was in a bed in the HLF training camp in the city we used to call Quebec. I never knew why I was there, or how did I got there, but I didn’t cared. After 5 month of easy training, they sent me in the HLF HQ located near my old home, in Montreal. It took long before I made a name for myself in the history book of the HLF, but I did it, and it feels good. ~~~~~~~~~~ “This is the story of how I got here, which no longer matter. Now that my friends are back, I can forget about the past and walk toward the future.” I said to the said friends. I was walked peacefully with two of the new comrades that just came out from training, which are also my long lost friends from high school. “That was a nice story, but I don’t want to walk during the whole day while listening to each other’s past, I want to do something cooler.” Said the first man, Kevin. He was an average joe with some bigger muscles. His patience is very small and, if you are in his range of fire while he’s angry, you have great chance of dying. He have green eyes hidden behind his dark brown hairs. Even if we are a lot different, we managed to stay friend. “I don’t have any idea what to do. It’s not like it’s an amusement park out there.” I turned to stare at the other guy, Nathaniel. He is a bit taller than the average, but far less muscled. He got the same eyes and hair color as Kevin. The only thing that is weird about him is his personality. He is a bit crazy, but is very random. He throws random comment in conversation and don’t care about other people’s confusion. His goal in life, make everybody smile. “Got an idea what we could do, Nat?” I asked him. He tapped his chin with his hand until he finally found an idea. He searched in his pocket and took out a PSP. It was the first generation that ever existed and there wasn’t even a scratch on it. “Watching me play Final Fantasy XXXIII?” He said while smiling in an exaggerated way. If he would be in a cartoon, his smile would be at least 5 meters large. “You say that all the time. Is there a place where you don’t have this machine on you?” I sarcastically asked him. We all laughed at Nathaniel’s common behavior. We were all happy that we were back together. Even if there was missing some of our other friends that used to be in our group, we were still happy. We continued talking about random things like the next video game convention that would be happening in San Francisco, and other stuff. We talked so loud that we didn’t hear the small ‘whoosh’ in the bushes behind us. There was a blowgun pointing toward me that was coming out of it. It fired, which send a dart in my neck. “Ouch, what happened?” I said while removing the thing that was stuck in my neck. “A mosquito!? How is it possible. The whole specie died when the pollution was over the top.” I checked the insect again. It looked exactly like a mosquito, but I was sure that they were all dead. “Well, I think I killed it. Rest in peace, unfriendly bloodsucker.” My friend checked in my hand and they both wondered how a mosquito survived. I threw the insect deep in the forest, hoping that I killed the last one on Earth. Suddenly, I burped. Not the common one, more like the one that you do after drinking 2L of soda. I placed my hand on my mouth, a bit ashamed of myself, but, when I saw both of my friend laughing their ass off, I started laughing with them. Then, I had a really weird taste in my mouth, the one of artificial cherries. “Yuck, it taste like artificial cherries. How is it possible? I no longer eat cherries,” I asked myself. They both chuckled at my question. “Yeah, yeah. Laugh as much as you want. Also, just to know, what time is it?” I asked Nat. He lifted his arm and checked one of his three watch. “It’s 11:34. I think it’s time to go eat,” he said. We all nodded and walked toward the HQ. When we entered the cafeteria, the cook told us that he manage to steal food from a conversion bureau. It means that today, we would eat real food and not artificial waste. With all the ingredients, he made some spinach flavored tortellini. Unluckily, because the bureau don’t have meat, this would be a vegetarian lunch. What happened next was awkwardly weird. When I took a bite of the tortellini, I made a sound that looked like a foodgasm. They all looked at me, laughing a lot. It was very weird, but it was just laughs so, I didn’t cared. After managing to eat without making more sound, and being the laughing stock of all the HQ, we went to a reunion with the headmaster of the HQ. With the help of his spies, he found out that the PER made a new weapon designed to ponify somebody without being spotted. Their goal is to ponify everybody until the world is populated only by ponies, which is the reason why they are our enemies. We walked from the cafeteria toward the reunion room #3. Because we arrived a bit early, we needed to wait a bit until everypony… wait, what the heck? Let me rephrase this. Okay, we waited a bit until EVERYBODY arrives. After a long wait trying to understand why I said ‘this’ word. The reunion started when all the captain arrived. The headmaster started talking: “Listen up girls, we got another problem on our shoulder,” he said with annoyance in his voice. “Those damned PER created a new weapon made with their crappy serum. From the information I got, the weapon is a dart filled with serum. The said dart look like a mosquito. They are sending blow gunners all around the country to turn important people into ponies.” Let’s rewind this a bit... A MOSQUITO DART. Uh oh... “If you are ‘bit’ by one of those insects, please tell us,” He continued. “With your help, we may find a cure and save your life. If you die while trying to hold your humanity, you will die as a hero and not as an alien. If you are transformed and you tried to stay human, we will continue to help you. If we manage to make a humanification serum, you will be the first one to be saved.” He said I looked around for Nathaniel’s never ending grin. He looked at me with a bit of sadness. He motioned a dart moving in my neck. I stood up, surprising everybody in the room. I walked toward the exit, in front of the eyes of my friend. I heard Nat inventing some excuse for my sudden exit. He came out of the room and patted my back. “Can you tell me why, Nat? Why am I always the one in this kind of situation?” I said while sobbing a bit. I didn’t wait for an answer. I ran toward my room and packed the stuff I had left. “I’m going to run away tonight. Don’t try to stop me. It was very nice to meet you again, even if it was short.” He placed his hand on my shoulder and sighed. “You’ve been my friend since high school. Even if I did my best to come here, I will never leave you. Remember, we are best friend forever.” He said. I was happy that he would follow me, even through hell. Tonight would be the most difficult day of my life. Against all odds, we would break out the the head quarters and we will walk proudly toward a conversion bureau. I just hoped that none of us would die in the process. To be continued… _________________________________ A/N : Hello guys, NetherPortal is here. I hope you liked this chapter. This is the first chapter of the rewritten version of my only good story. Thank to Krass McWriter, WastelandGunner, IanTeanBoy and all the others who helped me correcting this story. I'll continue writing this while writing the collab, which I still don't know why it's not uploaded. >.< Welp, ta ta for now~! ~NetherPortal... you know what, call me like my main OC, StrawberryFrosting ! ~StrawberryFrosting
002 - Meeting an old friend.The Conversion Bureau: Lab Rat Chapter 002: Meeting an old friend We finished talking about our plan when I left my room around 8 p.m. If I didn’t want to lure any suspicions, I need to get out and walk a bit like if everything was normal, I thought. I made my way to the gardens behind the HQ. This place was so relaxing, it was one of the biggest gardens in the entire city. It got its own protection to leave the fog on the other side. They don’t want their garden to die in seconds. Anyway, the garden are full of life. It got the entire color spectrum with all their flowers. During this night, however, the sky was clear. We could see the stars. I felt a little bit of nostalgia about it. When I was young, my father showed me some constellations. Ursa Minor, Ursa Major, Orion’s belt, all of those was visible in this black roof. Back to those beautiful flowers, the spectrum was omnipresent. Some were yellow and some were blue. It’s the only place I can think straight these days, with all the oxygen. I walked to a bench and sat down. I closed my eyes and let the clean gas going through my body. Then, I let my mind wander in my head. What will happen tomorrow? There are two possibilities: being killed by my friends or be in a bureau and learn my new style of life. I’m sure that I want the second option but there are few other people who want the other one for me. What can I do about it; I’m going to turn into the animal we’ve been killing for years. My train of thought stopped when a voice sounded behind me. “Anthony?” It was Captain Martin from when we raided on ex-Quebec conversion bureau. We are pals since that day. Because of his grade, we can’t really see each other. He’s busy working on other projects for the HLF. “Hey dude, long time no see. How’s your life since the raid.” Surprisingly enough, I want to tell him all my problems he could help me. I’ll do it but in a progressive way. “Got lots of problems but I did some nice things too. I did my usual torturing session, that’s for sure.” I started to say. “Did you know that the HLF put chips in our brains?” He looked at me with a look of surprise and relief. Why the hay I told him about it? Yes, I said hay. I’m too lazy to rage about it. He walked beside me and sat on the other side of the bench. “Yes, I know.” He answered. “You know what, I feel like we are under a camera. Got another place for us to talk?” I put my hand on my chin and I finally found a place. “Well, there’s my room, but I got an early sleeper in.” He stood up and asked me to show him the way. We stopped briefly at the cafeteria. In the concrete-walled room, the chefs were cleaning the plates and I asked if they had some vegetables. They answered that they had some carrots left, so I took two of them. We walked through the same old walkway; I would miss this place when I ran away. We made our way to room #2578. As I was about to turn the knob, the door hit me square in the face. Nathaniel came out and was looking at me, as I fell with his eternal smile. “Oopsy, my ba-“ He saw that Martin was following me. For some unknown reason, Nat and Mart can’t even smell each other without being angry. Only the presence of my old captain turned his shiny smile into an emotion; a little mix of anger, sadness and jealousy. “We… we’ll talk about whatever you want to talk later. See ya Anto.” Martin walked away, bumping shoulders with Nathaniel as he passed by. “Bye, asshole.” Martin said before walking away. “Pfft, so long, sucker. Man, I’m glad to run away from this hell if it means to run away from this dude. You know, sometime, you hang out with bad people. Watch out for guys like him. He will steal your wife if you’re not watching him. But, back to business.” Nathaniel said while I watched that calm smile coming back onto his face. At least, this problem didn’t last long. I entered the room and saw Zach sleeping on my bed in a position that looked quite uncomfortable. “Dude, check this out.” Nat said. He scratched a specific part under our friend’s belly and his legs and tail went crazy like a dog would normally do. “You sure you want to become like them?” Nat wondered while watching the pony peacefully sleeping. I sat beside him and answered his question:” I’ve got no choice. This is what happens when the serum is already in your veins. I wish I could have that choice like the other few millions, other people who got into a conversion bureau. But, life is life.” “Well, if we want to survive tonight, we need to go now,” he said. His voice laced with uncharacteristic stress. “Why?” I asked. “Because somebody found out about our secret. They will station more guards tonight to make sure they catch us. If we wait, we’re fucked.” “Wait, are you serious” I exclaimed, and Nat nodded. “Buck, let’s go.” I grabbed Zach and shook him until he woke up. Zach yawned, “Dude, got a problem?” He asked. “You, me, Nat, going now.” “Hey, ever heard of beauty sleep?” "Okay, fine - go back to sleep, then. You can stay here and die; Sorry for disturbing you." “Okay, okay, jeez.” Zach said whole rubbing his face with a hoof. “So, first, where do we go?” He asked. I explained the plan. “It’s simple: first, we go to the basement. There is the jails where they put the ponies they’re about to kill. While there, we release them and then we run up the stairs. We then leave by the secret emergency exit located on the west side, and we hightail it all the way to the bureau. If there is anything I missed, tell me.” I stared at them, waiting for an answer. Zach cleared his throat. “. . .well, you forgot one little thing,” I looked at him flatly, ‘what now’ written all over my face. “What will happen when you’ll enter a bureau with your HLF suit and your entire armory? You will be kicked out faster than you can say ‘buck’. I say, we find a hiding place and we wait for the total conversion.” He was right again - I hadn't allowed for the 'suit' variable in my plans. “Got somewhere in mind?” I asked the pony. He gestures ignorance and I started to think. Where? “Maybe one of the prisoners will help us.” Nat said. “Well, when they’ll see HLF member unlocking their cages, I don’t think they will stop and invite us to a tea party.” Zach said. “We’ll just figure something out, are you ready?” I asked. “Yeah!” My friends said in unison. __________________ A/N : This will be the last chapter before I rewrite the whole thing from bottom to cover. Ta ta~! ~StrawberryFrosting, giving you stories since... I dunno.
003 - The Calm before the StormThe Conversion Bureau: Lab Rat ________________________________________________________________ We finished talking about our plan when I left my room around 8 p.m. If I didn’t want to lure any suspicions, I need to get out and walk a bit like if everything was normal, I thought. I made my way to the gardens behind the HQ. This place was so relaxing; it was one of the biggest gardens in the entire city. It got its own protection to leave the fog on the other side. They don’t want their garden to die in seconds. Anyway, the garden is full of life. It got the entire color spectrum with all their flowers. During this night, however, the sky was clear. We could see the stars. I felt a little bit of nostalgia about it. When I was young, my father showed me some constellations. Ursa Minor, Ursa Major, Orion’s belt, all of those was visible in this black roof. Back to those beautiful flowers, the spectrum was omnipresent. Some were yellow and some were blue. It’s the only place I can think straight these days, with all the oxygen. I walked to a bench and sat down. I closed my eyes and let the clean gas going through my body. Then, I let my mind wander in my head. What will happen tomorrow? There are two possibilities: being killed by my friends or be in a bureau and learn my new style of life. I’m sure that I want the second option but there are few other people who want the other one for me. What can I do about it; I’m going to turn into the animal we’ve been killing for years. My train of thought stopped when a voice sounded behind me. “Anthony?” It was Captain Martin from when we raided on ex-Quebec conversion bureau. We are pals since that day. Because of his grade, we can’t really see each other. He’s busy working on other projects for the HLF. “Hey dude, long time no see. How’s your life since the raid.” Surprisingly enough, I want to tell him all my problems he could help me. I’ll do it but in a progressive way. “Got lots of problems but I did some nice things too. I did my usual torturing session, that’s for sure.” I started to say. “Did you know that the HLF put chips in our brains?” He looked at me with a look of surprise and relief. Why the hay I told him about it? Yes, I said hay. I’m too lazy to rage about it. He walked beside me and sat on the other side of the bench. “Yes, I know.” He answered. “You know what, I feel like we are under a camera. Got another place for us to talk?” I put my hand on my chin and I finally found a place. “Well, there’s my room, but I got an early sleeper in.” He stood up and asked me to show him the way. We stopped briefly at the cafeteria. In the concrete-walled room, the chefs were cleaning the plates and I asked if they had some vegetables. They answered that they had some carrots left, so I took two of them. We walked through the same old walkway; I would miss this place when I ran away. We made our way to room #2578. As I was about to turn the knob, the door hit me square in the face. Nathaniel came out and was looking at me, as I fell with his eternal smile. “Oopsy, my ba-“He saw that Martin was following me. For some unknown reason, Nat and Mart can’t even smell each other without being angry. Only the presence of my old captain turned his shiny smile into an emotion; a little mix of anger, sadness and jealousy. “We… we’ll talk about whatever you want to talk later. See ya Anto.” Martin walked away, bumping shoulders with Nathaniel as he passed by. “Bye, asshole.” Martin said before walking away. “Pfft, so long, sucker. Man, I’m glad to run away from this hell if it means to run away from this dude. You know, sometime, you hang out with bad people. Watch out for guys like him. He will steal your wife if you’re not watching him. But, back to business.” Nathaniel said while I watched that calm smile coming back onto his face. At least, this problem didn’t last long. I entered the room and saw Zach sleeping on my bed in a position that looked quite uncomfortable. “Dude, check this out.” Nat said. He scratched a specific part under our friend’s belly and his legs and tail went crazy like a dog would normally do. “You sure you want to become like them?” Nat wondered while watching the pony peacefully sleeping. I sat beside him and answered his question:” I’ve got no choice. This is what happens when the serum is already in your veins. I wish I could have that choice like the other few millions other people who got into a conversion bureau. But, life is life.” “Well, if we want to survive tonight, we need to go now,” he said. His voice laced with uncharacteristic stress. “Why?” I asked. “Because somebody found out about our secret. They will station more guards tonight to make sure they catch us. If we wait, we’re fucked.” “Wait, are you serious” I exclaimed, and Nat nodded. “Buck, let’s go.” I grabbed Zach and shook him until he woke up. Zach yawned, “Dude, got a problem?” He asked. “You, me, Nat, going now.” “Hey, ever heard of beauty sleep?” "Okay, fine - go back to sleep, then. You can stay here and die; Sorry for disturbing you." “Okay, okay, jeez.” Zach said whole rubbing his face with a hoof. “So, first, where do we go?” He asked. I explained the plan. “It’s simple: first, we go to the basement. There is the jails where they put the ponies they’re about to kill. While there, we release them and then we run up the stairs. We then leave by the secret emergency exit located on the west side, and we hightail it all the way to the bureau. If there is anything I missed, tell me.” I stared at them, waiting for an answer. Zach cleared his throat. “. . .well, you forgot one little thing,” I looked at him flatly, ‘what now’ written all over my face. “What will happen when you’ll enter a bureau with your HLF suit and your entire armory? You will be kicked out faster than you can say ‘buck’. I say, we find a hiding place and we wait for the total conversion.” He was right again - I hadn't allowed for the 'suit' variable in my plans. “Got somewhere in mind?” I asked the pony. He gestures ignorance and I started to think. Where? “Maybe one of the prisoners will help us.” Nat said. “Well, when they’ll see HLF member unlocking their cages, I don’t think they will stop and invite us to a tea party.” Zach said. “We’ll just figure something out, are you ready?” I asked. “Yeah!” My friends said in unison.
004 - Breaking outThe Conversion Bureau: Lab Rat It’s the time. It wasn’t my decision to go through all this. One day, you wake up. You live a normal life, but that night, you sleep in another body. I guess that’s life. It all started one day, my friend wanted to help me. He tried his best, regarding of what I really wanted, and he managed to change me into one of his kind. From what he was saying, I wasn’t normal. Heh, I guess that was right. Still, I don’t remember any mission that hard... as hard as getting out of the HLF HQ. ***** 2F I opened the door quietly. It’s been around 20 minutes that the curfew alarm rang through the entire building. It takes around that much time for everypony to fall asleep. I checked the hallway for any sight of any kind of guard patrolling the area. “I guess that this place isn’t where any attack will start,” I thought. I, with the help of my friend Nathaniel and Zachary, will do the impossible tonight. Escape the North Amerizone 238th HLF Headquarters. I came out of the room quietly. I gestured my friend to follow me through that first obstacle. We walked in the hallway in silence. The first problem was down the stairs. There were guards were guarding them. I checked Nat for his idea. He took an old penny and he threw it far in the hall. We hid in the dark, behind the staircase. The guards walked in front of us and went check what made this noise. We walked down the stairs. 1F This is the cafeteria floor. A big square with tables and chairs everywhere. On the opposite side of the room, there were stairs, but a fat guard is sleeping on the job beside them. If we wake him up, he will point us with his flashlight and we’re screwed. I tried to find a path through this minefield. I remembered my first year here. I was trying to find myself a hobby of some sort. I managed to help the cafeteria by serving the ‘meals’. There was an entrance beside us and the exit is on the other side. It’s the perfect plan. We made our way to the door leading to the dishwasher room of the cafeteria. It was locked and none of our keys work. I was about to punch it when Zach stopped me. He took a broken fork handle on the floor with his muzzle and he put the broken part in the keyhole. He moved a bit while trying to keep it quiet. He managed to open the door without any complication. We made our way through the kitchen and we unlocked the other door from the inside. While getting out, we realized something. The guard was sleeping in front of us. If we want to get past him, we need to get around table with a ton of chair. If we did this, it would be a mess. The silent question was floating in the air between us: Kill him or think of something? I was stuck on the question until some magic took me back to reality. Zach’s horn was shining and we were levitating over the guard. On the other side, I saw that Zach was about to collapse. Now, how can he get past the sleeping fatty. He quickly made his way under the table in front and he was beside us in no time. We walked down the stairs. Lobby I was crossing for a last time my fingers and I hoped there wasn’t any guard in the lobby. I was wrong. It was full of guards, more than my number of finger. They were watching every square meter like if they wanted to catch rogue bacteria. I checked Nat and Zach for any suggestion. Then, outside, I heard a loud cracking sound. I could see some PER members breaking some windows in the building beside us. It gave me an idea. I took my radio and opened it. I said “PER attack on the North-East of the building. Need help from the lobby team.” I waited a bit until, in front of me, a guard took his radio to hopefully say “Roger that.” In few seconds, the lobby was empty. We made our way to the staircase located on the opposite side. I wondered why they always put the stairs on opposite side. F-1 This is it, the first jail floor. I was checking out the cages. My first impression: GROSS. It smelled horrible, like a mix of old blood, shit and some other odors I couldn’t recognize. My first reaction was to block my nose. If it wasn’t for our mission, I would run away and clean my head of those atrocities. Some pegasus got their wings cut, unicorn got their horn removed. It should be so painful. I made my way to the first cage. When I put my hand on the lock, I heard a faint ‘pleasedontkillmepleasedontkillme’. I checked lower and saw a little colt crying in a ball position. “Don’t worry; I’m here to save you.” I said, but they didn’t listen. I checked what I had to break the lock and free those poor things. I saw that I forgot something important, my silencer. How will I be able to break it without making any sound? Suddenly, an idea popped in my head. An idea that would get the platinum star in the ‘most painful’ awards. “I don’t have my silencer, but I have an idea.” I took my gun and put it next to the metal lock. Then, I took my hand and put it on the other side of it. I was hoping that putting my hand there would block the vibration of the sound that will come out of my gun. Right before Nat had time to say anything, I pulled the trigger. The bullet went through the lock and my hand. Like I predict, the bullet made only a faint sound, but I didn’t predict what would happen with my hand. The ponies saw that the door unlocked. No one stopped to check if I was okay. “Just… wait at the exit. We’ll… escort you… to the… secret entrance.” At least, they heard that. They went behind Zachary, still scared of me. “To the… next floor then.” I reached the staircase leading further underground. F-2 I was hardly walking when I managed to reach the second jail. I think the damage I did to my hand is more dangerous that I thought. I was bleeding badly. I think I shot my artery. I don’t care, I thought, it will all get fixed up with the conversion. I placed my gun back in position on the jail’s lock and I fired a bit over my other wound. The door shut open and a wave of injured ponies made their way toward the stairs. Surprisingly, one of them stopped. “Human, are you okay? My name is Cloudhammer. Thank you for saving us.” “I think I’ll be okay. My friend and I need a place to stay. Got a place in mind?” “I got a house, but with those wounds, I should get you to a conversion bureau.” “NO!” I shouted. It startled him. “Sorry, but I’m going to get converted around 11 o’clock, so I don’t really care. Can we go to your house?” “Just show me the exit and I’ll lead you there.” I was holding my hand. I was bleeding like hell. I walked up the stairs and went to see Nat and Zach. Beside my friends, more than 20 ponies were checking me. I motioned them to follow me and we walked up the stairs. Back to the lobby. On the opposite side of the main entrance, I placed my eyes in front of a retina scanner. A hidden door opened out of the wall and we made our way through a dark hallway. At the end, I unlocked a metal door leading to the back alley of the building. “Listen ponies,” I said. I gave a map to a random pony in the group. “On this map, there is a way leading to the nearest hospital. Go there and be safe.” They all nodded and say things like ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye’. “Now follow me.” Cloud said. He walked left and we followed him. On the way, I fell on the ground. I lost too much blood to continue. “Aww man. I… I can’t continue.” I said while trying to stay awake. “We need to get there and fast.” Zachary levitated me on his back and we continue to make our way to Cloudhammer’s house. “I think I’m going to sleep a bit.” I said. Nat popped out of nowhere and he placed himself in front of us. “You can’t sleep Tony.” He said while placing his hand to stop us. “Why?” I asked. “It’s dangerous. You could go into a coma and maybe even die without us knowing it. We need to keep you awake.” He said. It makes sense. “Then, find me a subject for a conversation.” I said while trying to stay awake. Nat moved away and we continued to walk. Cloud wanted to know how I’ll transform. I told him the whole story, from this morning to the present moment. When we arrived, he put me on his couch and started to apply basic first-aid. “Now, we only need to way until 11 o’clock for me to transform.” I said, but Zachary turned around with a surprise look. “Umm Anthony, I transformed you today at eleven, it cannot be right.” He said. “What do you mean?” I asked. “The countdown is not 24 hours, it’s 18 hours.” I was really tired, but I managed to do the mathematics. It means that I’m going to transform at 5 o’clock. “What time is it?” I asked to nobody particular. “4:41, Anto.” Nat said while playing Dissidia Duoquadriecium (24). “Nice, less pain.” I said while smiling. While I was wondering what would happen next, a thought passed through my head. “What will happen about the sedatives? Do I need to sleep or something during the ponification?” I asked. Zach and Cloud’s eyes were staring at me with surprise. “There is no sedative in the serum recipe.” Zachary said. “I’m going to die. What I’m going to do?” I was starting to become stressed. I’m going to die for sure now. “I got an idea.” Cloud said. He walked down the hallway. After a minute, he came back with two bottles. One bottle of whiskey and one of vodka. He dropped both of them in front of me. “Drink them. You will feel nothing while being drunk.” He said. I took the whiskey and opened the bottle. I took a sip and I was about to throw up. “I hate hard alcohol. I’m not going to drink th-“ I didn’t had time to finish talking that my friends nodded to each other. Nat locked my arms, Zach locked my legs and Cloud took the bottle and made me drink both the bottles. After the last drip, they dropped their offensive state and let me free. I wasn’t able to see straight. “Why *hic*… why you did this to… to m-*hic*… to me.” “Hey Anthony.” Cloud said. I turned around to see what Cloud want. The last thing I saw was his legs bucking my face. **Zach** “Why you did this Cloud?” I asked. “He needs to be asleep to transform. In five minutes, it’s going to start. Now, help me bring him to my room and we’re going to make breakfast. It’s going to be his first meal as a pony.” He, with the help of Nat, brought his dead-looking body into the master bedroom. We then walked to the kitchen and hoped that everything will be fine.
005 - Off to the bureauThe Conversion Bureau: Lab Rat It was all white. I was asleep, but at the same time awake. Is this a dream? I asked myself. I checked around and I saw nothing. I checked myself, nothing again. Yay, I’m a floating soul, how wonderful, I thought sarcastically. Suddenly, I saw a light shining in front of me. My ‘body’ started moving by itself and went to that light. I was in a utopia. All around me, the pure whiteness turned in to faint form. There were ponies all around me. Then, I realized that I was in a conversion dream. All the newfoals are telling that they had a dream and that they meet both the princesses. I was feeling like I was running on all-four, but I have no body. After an unknown amount of time, I finally arrived to a giant castle. While the ponies were running beside, I entered. I was ‘floating’ slowly over the beautiful carpet. I was in awe in front of those white stone walls, until I saw them. The princesses, Celestia of the day and Luna of the night, were standing in front of me. If I had a body, I would bow, I feel impolite. “No need to bow, my new pony and friend,” said Celestia. I don’t know why, but I was happy of getting transformed. Since that time, I only accepted it, not liked it. “I wish we could talk more, but your life is waiting. Just by seeing you, I know you’ll do a great mare.” Luna said. I was half-listening because I was searching where that background music was coming from. It looked like the songs you hear in elevators. “I know, I’m a great man.” I said when a white light coming out of nowhere blinded me. ***** My eyes shot open. I had to cover them because of the crazy powerful light outside. Where am I was my first thought after this. I uncovered my eyes and checked around me. There was nothing that could explain why I’m here so, I did an old trick I was doing when I lose something important, trying to remember what happen. “Let’s do a brain list.” I said. “Wow, my voice is so… high pitch, Hehehe. Anyway, let’s begin.” -Bit by an insect. -Meet my old friend. -Running away. -Shot myself twice. -Went to a new friend’s house. -Getting forced to drink hard alcohol. “Normal day to me. So that means that I’m at Cloudhammer’s house.” I smelled the air. If I was human, I would drool at the odor, for an unknown reason, I don’t really like it: the smell of bacon. I tried to stand up and failed miserably. “They were right when they say that walking with this new center of gravity is complicated.” I said to myself. After a five minute of falling, I was finally able to walk to the door, but with lots of bruise. I made my way to the hall leading to the kitchen. I was going to scare the thing out of them. I walked slowly in the kitchen. Zach and Cloud were talking together while Nathaniel was cooking some bacon. I walked to Zach’s ear and I shouted: “WHY U NO take care of me?!?” He fell on his flank while I was laughing. “So guys, how do I look?” I asked them. Cloud checked me and his mouth fell. When Zachary dared check me, his mouth fell too, but his reaction afterward wasn’t the kind expected. “Buck, buck, BUCK! Don’t tell me I did this. I’m so sorry Tony, it’s… it’s not my fault.” He said while crying. “What are you talking about Z?” I asked him. “You see, including you, I had three other targets. I think I choose the wrong serum.” He said while he ran through the hall at high speed. “Can somebody explain clearly what happen? Did the serum destroy my face, cut my mane off?” I said worried. “Let’s just say that you’re… sexy.” Cloud said while checking me with some kind of emotion in his eyes. “This doesn’t explain anything.” I shouted. Nathaniel, after hearing the commotion in the dining room, came to see what I look like and when he saw me, he laughed like is I was a clown. “You turned into a filly. Should I call you Miss Duquette now?” Then, he went back at laughing. I turned into a filly, is he serious. This must be some kind of drunken dream. Zachary came back with a mirror and a little green box. He placed the mirror on the wall to let me check myself. I was a dark pink mare with big blue eyes and a pale blond mane with pink wicks. My tail was short and the color was the same as my mane. In front of the mirror, I said a faint “I’m a girl!” before fainting. **Z** “Dude,” Nat said while cleaning his eyes from laughing, “what you did to him… her… whatever.” “Well, I had four targets, including him and, to use less normal serum, they use the girl transformation serum for the girls.” I opened the green box and, after checking inside, I threw it on the wall behind me, “and the idiot who gave me this box put the wrong dart at the wrong person.” I sat on the ground with a bit of anger. I turned my friend into a female. It could count as a crime. “Let’s just wait until she wakes up and we’ll find a solution.” Cloud said. We all nodded and wait. **A** I slowly woke up on the floor. I was a bit confused, but, at least, my friends were beside me. When I remembered why I fainted, I started to scream, but Nathaniel put his finger in front of my nuzzle and said a faint “Shhh. Calm down”. After explaining the reason of this gender-swapping situation, we tried to find what we need to do now. “Maybe we could stick to our original plans and make our way to the bureau. I don’t know, maybe Anthony could learn a thing or two before going out. Maybe we could all go to Equestria.” Zach said. “I think I’m tired of this corrupted world. I’ll come with you.” Cloudhammer said. “I guess that I’m going to get ponified and follow you. I’ll do it only if Anthony is coming too.” Nat said. All the eyes were staring at me. “I don’t want to stay here. I’m going to have a new life, with you guys.” I said with a smile. We all stood up and made our way to the exit door. We walked for an hour until Nathaniel needed to stop. I wasn’t even tired. We stopped at a restaurant because I didn’t have time to eat back at the house. I wasn’t sure what to take on this menu. After hearing my friend’s suggestion, I took the hay fries. When I had the plate in front of me, I wasn’t so sure what to think. “Eat it, A. You’ll see that it’s amazing.” Zach said while eating his dandelion sandwich. “I don’t know, my brain is telling me to forget it and my stomach want to eat it. I guess I’ll follow my stomach suggestion then.” I bring my muzzle to a fries and ate it. If I would have been alone, I would have had foodgasms, but I’m polite and I just said: “It’s delicious, thanks guys.” I continued eating my fries when a blue stallion asked me if I would like to take a tea at his house. “I’m sorry, but I’m occupied for the whole day.” I answered. “How about tomorrow?” “Sorry, I still can’t.” “When are you free?” “I’m stuck for the whole week; I’m so sorry mister…?” “Ah, no problem miss, my name is Aquos. Hope to see you again, milady.” He said while walking away. I sighed a bit too loud and went back to eating. My friends were all chuckling a bit about this awkward situation and checked me eating. At the end, Cloud paid the bill and we walked to the bureau. 30 minutes later, we were there. The big building with the big ‘CB’ on top was in front of us. We entered and it looked like the waiting room in the old style hospitals. We walked to the mare behind the counter and she engaged the conversation. “Hi and welcome to the conversion bureau. I’m Nova and I’ll serve you today. Is your friend here wants to do the conversion week?” she said while pointing Nat. “Well, we got a special situation here…” Zach said before I continue what he wanted to say. “The PER attacked me and used their serum to ponify me.” Nova gasped so loud that it could be heard outside the building. “Dear Celestia, are you okay miss. I’m so sorry for what happen to you. They’re so evil that I can’t even think something good about them. That means that you want to get the classes too?” She asked. “Yes, we will take the classes and they will be our emotional support.” I said while having a huge smile. “Well, please fill this and follow me.” She gave us a little registration form and I quickly filled it. When Nathaniel finished it, we both gave it to the mare and we followed her.
006 - Meeting new friendsThe Conversion Bureau: Lab Rat We walked down the hall in the bureau. Nova showed us the building. First, we passed in front of the bedrooms. We were all wondering who will pair up with. “Well, we got some rules about this. First, we want to put ponies with ponies and human with human. Also, we place then with somepony with the same gender except if they are together. So, your two friends… what’s your name?” Nova asked while checking Zach. “Oh! My name is Zachary and this is Cloudhammer.” Zachary answered. “Okay, Zachary and Cloudhammer will have their own room while you, Nathaniel, will share a room with a male roommate.” Nova explained. I could see that the stallions were happy about that decision, but there is one pony left. “What about me?” I asked. “We will pair you with another mare. I could also find you one that can help you with your problem. Think of it as… how do you human call those… psychologist? Anyway, you will be able to talk to her and maybe become a true mare.” She said. Becoming a true mare wasn’t my plans. Sure, I became one, but… I don’t want to change. I like men… I mean mares. Arrg… I may take the opportunity. I’ll think about it. “Stallions, you got room #305; Nathaniel, room #317 and Anthony, room #300. Put your items in your room and follow me.” She said while walking toward the exit. I don’t remember going out of the HQ with any kind of bag. I was going to follow Nova when Nat stopped me. “Anthony, I got some of your personal items that you had in your room.” I turned around and checked what he was giving me. In his hand was my old MP3 player, my diary and a picture of my whole family during my parents wedding. I was about to cry when I heard: “Faster, I’ll go without you. Only one minute left.” “You should put them in your room.” Nat said quietly when I entered it. It was a basic room. Some light brown wall with two beds, two small tables and a light in the middle. I took the stuff Nat gave me and put them on the table on the right side of the room. I ran out of the room and joined the group that was waiting for me. Without any question, we walked toward the cafeteria. The cafeteria was a bit different than the one I had at the HQ. Same form, same disposition, but the only difference was the color scheme. The walls of the HQ were dull gray when those one were brown, even chestnut. I turned around to check all the ponies that were eating their breakfast. Some stallion dropped their food while checking me. I was the center of attention like if I was a threevee star. One of them, the most courageous, I think, walked toward me. “Hi miss, do you want to eat breakfast with me?” He asked. I was about to say no when I remembered Nova’s words: “…you will be able to talk to her and maybe become a true mare.” “…become a true mare.” Even if my soul was telling me to forget it. My brain, feeling weird because of the heat, was telling me to accept. Let’s follow both of those tips. “I already ate, but, maybe I’ll be able to lunch with you.” I said. He was about to break with joy, but he was holding it fiercely. I winked at him. He broke out with a BIG smile that I would say that it was almost impossible. “Thank you, thank you so much misses…?” “Just call me A.” I said. “Oh, cute AND mysterious, I like that.” He said while walking back happily to his seat. “You made a stallion happy today.” Nova said. She was smiling and so was I. “Yes… yes I did.” I was lost in a daydream. Me, that unknown stallion… together… ARG. Don’t thinks about that… now. Why do I think so much about stallion lately? “Nova? I’ve got a question.” Curse my old habit of asking before saying a question. “Yes, A?” She said back. “Is there a reason why I think so much about stallion and I feel like I’m in a sauna?” I asked, waiting for something like ‘you don’t know!” I forgot that I’m talking with one of the most peaceful mammal on earth. “The reason why is that, when mares are ponified, they become in heat.” She said like if I knew what it means. I said in her ear quietly:”What does that mean, to be in heat?” “Being in heat make you create pheromones that attract stallions. Let’s just say that you’re lucky that your friends didn’t jump on you. Also, it causes an augmentation of the body heat.” Well, it’s not so bad… except the part of ‘attract stallion’. “How can I get back to normal?” “It wears off automatically over time.” Nice. “But there is a way to end it faster.” She continued with an evil smile. I don’t like where this conversation is going. “How…?” I said curiously. “By… you know… you with a stallion.” There, now I’m bucked. “So, you mean that every stallion wants to... with me.” “Well… yeah.” Ouch, in few days, I will no longer be a man, that’s sure. We were about to continue the tour when I heard Nathaniel shouting: “Hey guys, come over here.” He motioned us to come in front of the threevee. It was on the news channel. They were showing the HLF HQ that we were in this morning… and Keven was attached to a pole! “K…Keven!” I said, scared of what would happen. “Listen guys, today, we will execute somebody who helped a traitor escape with all the prisoners. Cheer loud for Keven Richard!" Wow, they were really cheering loud. “To show the traitors how their old friend is going to be, we’ll kill him. Then, kill YOU.” More cheers. He pointed the barrel of the gun on Kev’s head. “Any last word, pony lover?” The gun holder said to my friend. “Yes, I got some. First of all, the HLF is just lies. They are controlling you; you got a chip in your brain. Run for your life.” I could see that the executer wasn’t satisfied by Keven’s death word. “Time’s up, fuckface. Time to you to say goodbye.” He pointed the barrel and he fired. It wasn’t because he fired that I was crying so much, it’s those last word right before he pulled the trigger: “Goodbye and good luck… Anthony”. In all my life, I never saw him cry, not even a single tear. This time, he was crying, even dead. I back off of the group and began to cry. Everypony were looking at me crying. Nathaniel went toward me and he said: “Don’t cry A, it’s not your fault. He tr-“ I stopped him right away. “NOT OUR FAULT! WE ESCAPED THAT BUCKING BUILDING AND HE HELPED US! THEN YOU SAY THAT IT’S NOT OUR FAULT!” I screamed it so loud that I bet it could be heard from the entrance because the staff went to check what’s going on. I ran to my room and jumped on the bed. I took my MP3 and tried to put the earphones on. When I saw that I wasn’t able to, I threw it at the back of the room and continued crying. After an hour, I heard voices at the door: “Will she be okay?” Asked the first voice. I think it’s the stallion from the lunchroom. “I think she’ll be alright.” Said the second voice. I stayed in my bed, leaving the voices alone until one of them opened the door. When I checked, I saw that she was a mare. She was peach colored and her mane was brown. Also, she was a unicorn. She walked beside me and whispered in my ear: “Shh… are you okay beauty?” “Y…yes, I’m okay. Who are you?” I asked her. She walked to the door, closed it and locked it. “I’m Shooting Star, Nova’s sister. I’m here to help you. I heard that you got some problems before coming here?” “Yes.” “I heard that you’re a male inside a mare?” “Yes.” “And that the man who got killed by the HLF was your friend?” “Y…yes.” “Don’t worry girl. I saw a stallion few minutes ago; he looked like he likes you. Who is he?” “I met him in the lunchroom when I first entered; I was going to eat with him at lunchtime.” “Oh, great choice. He looks like a nice stallion.” “Yes, but… I can’t love him.” “Why?” “I’m… I’m a man.” “Tss, no. You’re. Not. You’re 100% mare and in mare, there’s no stallion or man. Now, the first thing we’ll do is to take care of your attitude. Stop thinking like a man and more like a mare.” “I don’t think I can do it.” I said sadly. “Yes you can. Just repeat: I’m a mare.” I repeated it in an non understandable way. “What did I just hear?” “I can’t… I just can’t.” I said fiercely. She shook her head and went back at me. “Okay, I’ll show you that you’re no longer a man.” I mumbled a little ‘good luck with that’, but I don’t think she heard me. “Describe me.” She said. “What?” “I said, describe me.” *sigh*, let’s get this over with. “You’re a peach colored mare with a brown colored mane. You got purple eyes and your cutie mark is two hooves meeting together.” I said without real emotions. “Now, describe that stallion.” Where is she going will all this? “Okay, he is a handsome pegasus with beautiful aqua blue coat and a red and cyan mane.” Here you go. Then she said “You see”. I went through what I just said and even I couldn’t believe it. I said handsome and beautiful when talking about a stallion. “I’m a mare.” I said, no hope left. “What did I just hear again?” She was proud of herself; she managed to beat me in that game. “Okay, I’m a mare. Please, help meee.” I said. She looked at me with her purple eyes and said: “Okay.” “Let’s get this makeover on the road.” Did she just say makeover?
007 - Date and classesSorry for the song reference, if all that would happen in real life, I would sing this song to my plants everyday. _______________________ The Conversion Bureau: Lab Rat “Wait, did you just said makeover?” I asked Star. She had a huge smile on her little face. “Yes, if you want to become a true mare, you need to take care of yourself. Take care of your mane, find you the perfect dress, all the mares are doing that kind of thing.” I stared at her. “Okay for my made, but no dresses.” I said firmly. “Only a few?” “No.” “One?” “N…Okay.” There is no way of change her mind then. “Yay, we’re going to be best friends, I know it.” “Woo hoo.” I said in a monotone voice. “Just follow me.” She said. She unlocked the door and jumped out. In the hallway, I saw a clock attached on the wall. There was an hour and a half until lunchtime; we got enough time to do girl stuff. We walked in silence to a room, which looked like the director’s room. “Can you go there?” I asked Star. She checked at me while opening the door. “It’s my sister’s room; she’s letting me use her makeup. Just follow me and prepare to be amazed.” I walked in front of a mirror and saw my mane. It was a real mess. It looked like a bird nest on top of my head. “Dear Celestia, my mane is in such a mess.” I said out loud. She walked beside me and pushed me on a chair. She levitated a brush and started to brush my mane. After a wonderful moment of taking care of my mane, I looked like a diva out of a show. “So, you like it?” She asked. I turned the chair to face her. “No, I don’t like it.” Her smile faded right when I said this. “I LOVE IT!” This outburst startled her and another smile, even bigger, grew on her face. “I’m so glad you like it. Now dresses time.” She took a dress and I tried to put it on. After a lot of trouble, I managed to wear it. I had only one reaction: “No, this green doesn’t go with my mane and even less with my fur.” She giggled lightly and she helped me remove the dress. “I know, I wanted to show you, again, the power of the mare.” It’s true that I was never good with which color goes with what. Now, it feels like something natural. “Okay, you got your dress. Now, we’ll-“ I stopped her. “No, I’ll choose another dress. It’s okay.” I made my way to the wardrobe and check what kind of dresses was there. I could say that the whole color spectrum was there. I carefully chose a pure red dress with a fake rose on it. It was nice and, with the pink of my fur, it was perfect. “Nice choice, beauty.” Said Shooting Star when she helped me putting on those fine cloths. I was so beautiful, buck being a man; I like this one even more. Am I serious? I don’t even know. “Now, you got your mane ready, your robe too. You just need your makeup.” She started levitate a mascara stick and started putting all those stuffs on my face. I don’t even know some of those products, but I trust Star. She was a mare from the beginning, right? “I look amazing, thank you. Right on time, it’s 12:04. Wish me good luck.” I said to her. She walked beside me and said: “You don’t need luck; you’re born with those skills. Go get’em all… or only the blue one.” I walked out of the room, still looking the work Star made on me. It was amazing. I made my way to the cafeteria and looked around to see where the lucky stallion I met is. After being checked by all the stallions in the room, my date popped behind me. “Hi A! Oh, dear Celestia, you’re so gorgeous today. It’s nothing compared to few hour. What happened?” He asked. I started to smile a little. I turned to face him. “You remember the mare you talked at my room door? She is awesome when she starts to make you a makeover. Also, let’s take a seat, I’m starving.” I answered. He nodded and we walked to a free table. That’s when I saw that it was a high school style cafeteria, where you got a choice between few meals and you receive it. I walked to go in the line. After waiting for a few minutes, I arrived at the serving zone. “Hi miss, wow, I like your style. Anyway, today, we serve salad with hay and alfalfa. Want some?” I nodded and she gave me the plate by levitating it. In it, there was the salad, apple juice and an apple. Also, a little brownie for dessert. “Shanks.” I said while having the plate between my teeth. I walked back to the table when I saw that ‘he’ wasn’t there. I check in the line and saw that he was getting served. I placed the plate on the table and waited for him to come back. “Why don’t you eat?” He asked when he came back. He was holding the plate with his wings. Neat trick, I like it. “I was waiting for you. You didn’t tell me your name yet. What is it?” I asked. He placed his plated in front of mine and sat down. “You didn’t tell me yours, you only told me that your name is A. Give me your complete name and I’ll give mine.” He said. Why do I need to give my name? It doesn’t even make sense now that i’m a mare. “Okay, but my name look like a male name.” “I don’t care, what is it?” Wow, he really want to know. “Anthony Matias Duquette. I prefer my friends to call me ‘A’.” I was ashamed of my old name now. I need to find myself a pony name. “It’s a nice name. My name is North Wind.” We ate a bit before continuing the conversation. “So, what’s up with that guy who... died this morning?” After hearing this, a little tear started to form beside my eye. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to make you cry. Do you want to stop talking about him? “No, no... it’s okay. He was my friend when I used to... work with the HLF.” My revelation shocked him. “You used to work with the HLF!? Why are you a pony then?” He asked. I took a bite before answering. “My friend revealed to me the truth. Remember Keven’s speech?” “Who? Oh, the dead guy, yes, I remember. Something about chips or something... don’t tell me that-” “Yes, I was controlled, but my friend melted it with the serum.” “Your friend was a HLF member?” He asked. “No, he worked with the PER to transform me and run away. He’s even here right now. Well, he was supposed to be here. I wonder where he is.” I finished the plate. It tasted amazing. I took the apple and ate it in one bite. It makes me remember when I was young. I ate apples every day. “Amazing. So, are we going to eat together again tonight?” I asked him. He finished his tray. “Yes, I’ll have something even special if you want.” “Nice, I like special, special is my middle name.” “I thought Matias was your middle name.” We both laughed. We walked back to our rooms. I needed to get ready for the earth pony classes. I removed the still stainless dress Star gave me, I’ll need to give it back. I walked to Star’s room and gave her the dress, she was impressed that there was no stains. Also, I asked her for some makeup remover. She gladly gave it to me only if I would come back later to prepare me for tonight’s date. I gladly accepted the offer and went to the bathroom. I used the makeup remover to clean my face and did my business. Then, I walked back to my room, put the bottle on my table and made my way to the greenhouse. I was a little early so, I managed to have a talk with the teacher. “Hi.” I said. He turned and looked at me. He was a navy blue stallion (why is every stallion blue?) and his mane was fire truck red, with a lightish blue interior. He smiled and started talking with an accent. "Hey there, so whats a pretty mare like yourself doing out here... wait you must be here for the classes," He said while holding out his hoof, “Well, my name is Alejandro, but that name might change. So, what is a pretty looking mare... wait, I already said that.” He looked nice and funny, for a teacher, I mean. “Yes, I’m new here and I want to know what earth ponies can do. Is it true that they are useless?” He facehoofed hard before continuing the conversation. “ALL LIES. If there were no earth ponies, nothing would get done. They can grow plants right in front of you. If you think about it, its like my magic except more in tune with the earth." Well, it sure look interesting, said like this. “So... where are you from?” I asked him. "Well I left Australia after that whole PER incident I was in so I went to Equestria for a bit then came here to help out." He answered. Then, a group of earth ponies arrived and we started the class. “Today, we’ll learn the basic of crop growing.” He said to the group, “I’ll give you each three seeds and you will try to make them grow.” He, then, gave me and the other student the seeds. We all walked in different direction and started to work. For my part, I went to see Ale for an answer. “How do we make them grow?” I asked him. He turned around and smile. “This is the best part, you need to find what they like. Think of them as your friends. Friends don’t all like the same thing. Some of them like music and the others stories. Try to find what your friends like.” Well, this is going to be tough. I walked in a corner and checked the other students. They were all trying to find what their new friends’ likes. I planted the seeds in the ground and lied on the ground, in front of them. “Hi little flowers, my name is Anthony. I’m here to take care of you. What would you like to hear, a story or a song?” I asked then. It almost sounded ridiculous to talk to plants until I could swear I heard an answer. I heard a bit of music coming out of them. “Okay. I know a good song, but, with my new voice, I don’t know how it will sound like.” I took a deep breath and started to sing : I'm through with standin' in lines to clubs I'll never get in. It's like the bottom of the ninth and I'm never gonna win. This life hasn't turned out Quite the way I want it to be. There was some sprouts coming out of the earth. I somehow knew that they liked when I’m singing. I want a brand new house on an episode of Cribs. And a bathroom I can play baseball in, And a king size tub Big enough for ten plus me. The sprouts were beginning to grow leaves. I need a credit card that's got no limit, And a big black jet with a bedroom in it. Gonna join the mile high club, At thirty-seven thousand feet. The flowers appeared on top of the sprouts. One more verse and the flowers would be fully grown! I want a new tour bus full of old guitars. My own star on Hollywood Boulevard. Somewhere between Cher, And James Dean is fine for me. I could say that the flowers exploded in front of my face, but it would be a little bit exaggerated. Let’s just say that Alejandro was proud of me when he saw that I managed to make them grow before everypony else. “Wow, that’s impressive for most newfoals, most of them try to get over the talking to the plant, but I have never seen anypony grow a plant that quick. Share to the rest of the class your little secret you used.” He said. “S...secret? You mean like what I did differently?” I asked. “Yes!” He answered. Everypony were listening for my golden rule of crop growing. “I just asked them what they liked and they managed to answer me. It was weird, but fun.” The whole class was surprised and went back at their little garden. While the teacher was congratulating me for my success, lots of student used my trick and grew some beautiful flowers. It almost looked like the garden back at the HLF headquarters. “Well class, it’s time to say goodbye. I hope that, later on, you say that earth ponies are useful and not a bunch of sack of... never mind. Anyway, see ya later!” I could swear he was about to say something bad. At least, the human part was easily suppressed by his pony side. After the class, a pony with a brown mane came to see me. “Hey girl, I saw that you were good at growing food. Would you mind helping me in the kitchen?” She said. Getting a job at something that involves cooking filled me with joy. “Awesome, I would love to. What do you need help for?” I asked her. “Our pastry chef got hay fever and is staying at his house back in Equestria. Can you make dessert for tonight’s dinner?” “I can make it, but not serve it. I got a date tonight with a nice stallion.” I said. “Well, that’s no problem, dear. Just follow me and think about a recipe.” “Nice, this is going to be fun.” _____________________ Thanks to DaBunnanaKing for his OC. He's a good earth pony teacher (and sometime, a real idiot).
008 - LoveThe Conversion Bureau : Lab Rat I need to think of a recipe. I can’t remember any of them. I know that I have recipes written somewhere, but where? We made our way to the kitchen while talking more about each other. I learned that the mare’s name was Fruit Bowl and she took care of the kitchen since the conversion bureau opened. When we arrived, I finally remembered where I put all those recipes, in my diary! I told her to continue without me and ran to my room. I took the diary that was closed on my bed. I opened it and went to one of the earliest page, it was an entry from more than twenty years ago, right before I lost my book. I was lucky to find it back when I moved away from my parents. On it, one of my most secret family recipes was written clearly : The ‘tourte au chocolat’. I rushed back to the kitchen, trying to get back my breath. “Why did you leave in a hurry?” She asked. “I *pant* got *pant* recipe.” I managed to say between my panting. She looked at me with a smile and said : “That’s wonderful. Can you do it, I hope you will have all the ingredients.” Then, she walked back at making the dinner: pasta for humans and a garden salad for ponies. The kitchen was a basic one, completed with three ovens and a king size sink. Nine steel table islands allowing lot of places to cook. I took my diary and opened it on the wrong page. How can I turn the pages? I didn’t wanted to use my mouth because my page would rip or fill with saliva. “How can I turn that page?” I asked Fruit. She walked beside me and she put her hoof over the book. Mysteriously, it almost like she had fingers and she switched the page. “Earth ponies have a weird power. They got ‘fingers’ and can move item more easily than other ponies. Just move the old connection that used to be your finger and grab the object.” It’s that easy, I like earth ponies, they are nice. I did what she told me and I managed to find the right page for the recipe. I walked to a table and started searching for the ingredients. There was all the ingredients for the ‘cake’ part, but the only frosting left was a strawberry flavored one. “I guess that it will be strawberry flavored and not chocolate.” I said to myself out loud. The ‘tourte’ is a 12 layer cake with lots of frosting. Six of them are thin spongy cake layer, one centimeter high each and the other six are layers of frosting. So, the cake is made like this: cake, frosting, cake, frosting, cake, frosting and, finally, all covered by another layer of frosting. At the end, it becomes a brick of deliciousness. I finally managed to make one. It been a long time since I’ve cooked something. Fruit came checking what I did and she smiled at the view of the brick cake I made. “Oh my, it looks delicious. Can I have a piece?” she asked. I took a knife with my hoof (I still don’t know how it’s even possible) and cut one of the side. “I don’t know how it will taste. It’s been a long time since I’ve cooked up something. Also, the original recipe is for a chocolate one and not strawberry.” “Ah, don’t worry my dear,” she bit in. “Oh, dear Celestia...” she said in awe. “It’s bad? I knew it!” I said. I was sad I couldn’t pull out the secret Duquette recipe. “No, it’s the best cake I’ve ever ate in my entire life. The strawberry flavor mixed with the cake, it simply divine.” Well, that gave me back the smile I had times ten. Because there were a lot of people and ponies in the bureau, I decided to make two more bricks. “I’m going to get dress up for my date tonight, see ya.” I said to Fruit. She turned around and waved back. “Don’t worry, I know everypony will love it.” she said. I smiled and got out of the kitchen. I made my way to Shooting Star’s room and saw the door close. On it, a message was attached with some tape: Dear A, I hope you don’t mind, I have a surprise meeting with the rest of the bureau’s team. I took the principle makeup you need and delivered it to your room. I gave you also three dresses, you just need to take the one you need. Tata for now, Shooting Star. Weird, a surprise meeting, but Fruit Bowl is not invited. I thought she was part of the team. I’ll ask her later. I took the letter and went back to my room and saw something new, her table with the mirror was there with all the cosmetics. On my bed, the dresses were waiting for their new master. I closed the door behind me and started working. **North Wind** Wow, those classes are hard, I did my best and I’m not able to fly higher than few feet, it sucks. While I was thinking about my misery, I saw a shadow moving from the director’s room. I followed the shadow through the hallway leading to the lobby. I saw that the shadow was Nova. A’s friend. I followed her outside to see what she was doing. I hid myself behind the corner of the bureau and what I heard was scaring the buck out of me: “She is there, Mister HLF.” The mare said. “Good, you did well. Tomorrow morning, we will come and take him back.” The HLF member said. “Okay mister, just to tell you, Anthony turned into a filly for a unknown reason. Now that I did what you asked for, will you leave my sister alive.” She asked. “Yes, I’m done with you. See ya.” The mare ran past me and entered the building. I followed her again and she had gone into the filly’s bathroom. I went back to her room to see my sweet pie reading the note, taking it and walking to her room. “I need to tell her. but she will think that it’s a lie. We’ll just need to try.” I said to myself. I walked to her room and checked her a little bit to see her getting ready for our date. It can wait. **A** A bit of this, a bit of that and voila. I did it and I look awesome. Who could have thought that I like those kind of girl activity. I don’t know why, but I feel like somepony is watching me. It’s impossible, who would want to spy on me? Now, for the choice of dress, I looked at what Star gave me. There was the dress I was wearing during lunch, a plain indigo colored suit and a gold and shiny one. I wanted to be original and not too flashy so, I took the indigo one. As I was trying to fit in the suit, I saw a shadow in the hallway. I got out of the fabrics, closed and locked the door. Finally, maybe there was a spy. Heh, I’m irresistible. I returned to my battle with the dress. After a long and a bit painful moment, I managed to fit in perfectly. I checked in the mirror and saw what I became. Who could have guess that a man soldier working for the HLF would turn into a their enemy... as a mare. Not even a single author could have thought of this. I checked the clock on my wall and saw that there was at least an hour before dinner. I would like to listen to my MP3, but the earphones doesn’t fit those big ears. I walked toward the corner of the room to find it. I remembered that I threw it while I was crying the death of Keven. Those memories will stay in my head for the rest of my life. I checked the corner and saw that the MP3 wasn’t there. Don’t tell me somepony stole my music. If I catch the one who did this, he or she is screwed. I took a look around the room and saw a pair of wired headphones coming out of my old dress. I took them and saw that it was my MP3 with a new set of headphones. Those looked perfect on pony ears! I put them on and played a random song. I lay down on my bed and relaxed to the sound of my music. ***Dinner Time*** Knock, knock, knock. The sound of somepony knocking startle me. I stood up and saw that my dress wasn’t at any point deformed. I was still ready. I walked to the door and opened it. Behind, Shooting Star was looking at me with a big smile. “I knew you could do it. You look absolutely perfect.” She said, “And the dress, great choice my dear.” I smiled back when she tapped on the dress to remove small wave in the fabric. “It’s the moment dear, time to show those stallion the power of the mare.” She said. We walked together to the cafeteria. When I’m saying ‘every stallion are looking at me’, I mean more than just that. They were frozen in their position, eating or walking, and their eyes were all analyzing me. I was liking all this attention. I was wondering where North wants me to sit. I was about to choose a table when Star pushed me back into the hallway. “What’s wrong?” I asked her. She winked at me and answered my question. “Follow me for your surprise.” We walked to a room and I entered. In it, North Wind was sit in front a table with red tablecloth and lit only by candles. I motioned me to sit in front of him. Also, on the table, two plates were waiting with today’s dinner. My surprise was a romantic dinner. “I’ll leave you two be.” Star said while leaving the room. I sat on the floor in front of the table. “Hey, how are you doing?” he asked. I smiled and started to talk. “Oh, I’m fine. I finished first in my earth pony class and did tonight’s dessert.” “You mean this one?” He pointed the pink cake piece. I nodded. We both ate in silence until North Wind broke it when we both finished our plate. “Time for the dessert.” I was hoping he would like it. He took a bite and, after swallowing, he looked at me with his big blue eyes. “You hate it, I knew it.” I said while hanging my head low. “No, I don’t like it... I LOVE IT.” He loves it, really! I’m not too bad in cooking. I feel weird, but it’s alright. “Umm, A. Look at your flank.” Flank...? Oh, ass. I looked and what I saw filled me with pure joy. I got my cutie mark. It was a cake with white frosting and a strawberry on top. “You know what, North. Call me Strawberry Frosting.” He smiled and walked beside me to check it. To congratulate me, he left a little kiss on my cheek. I checked him in the eyes. Without knowing it, our lips were together, in a passionate kiss. After kissing, North started asked: “Berry, can I be your coltfriend?” My brain was on cruise control, I couldn't think about anything else than that kiss. "Yes, I would love you to." I said. We passed the time talking about anything until somepony came cleaning up the table. We spent the rest of the night kissing and cuddling until I fell asleep, under North Wind’s wing. Maybe being a mare isn’t so bad.
Bonus - Conflicting Emotion / Second Nightmare (by Ocean Breeze)Conflicting Emotions Guest chapter by: Ocean Breeze After a long day, I fell asleep under North Wind’s wing. It was warm, and comforting. However, my dreams weren’t quite as wonderful. * * * * * * * * I was in my room with Zachary. “Hey Berry?” he asked. “Yeah?” I replied. “Did you ever think of... you know..” Zachary trailed off. “Ever think of what?” “Have you ever thought of-- Buck this!” Zachary leaned in and kissed me on the muzzle. I know it should have been wrong, yet.. it felt nice. “Mmphmm.” I returned the kiss. I loved it. “You’re a really pretty mare, you know that? Even if you used to be a guy..” Once again, he trailed off. “Meh, even if I used to be a guy, there’s no way to go back. Why not enjoy it?” I finished off by once again kissing him. The expression on his face made it seem that if he was a pegasus, he would have had a wingboner. A massive, and I mean massive, blush grew upon his face. That’s when the door opened up. What came through was a ponified Nathaniel and humanized Cloudhammer. “I thought I would invite some friends to the party.” Zachary gazed upon me with a wild look in his eyes. “What happened to Cloudhammer?!? Why is he a human?” I was completely befuddled. How was this even possible? “Cloudhammer? Who is Cloudhammer?” Zachary, Nathaniel, and Cloudhammer looked at me in confusion. “Cloudhammer! Him!” I pointed to who I thought was Cloudhammer. “I’m not Cloudhammer, I’m Dan! Who is this Cloudhammer anyways? Is it someone we should know about?” He raised his eyebrow with a trollface on. “Giggity.” Nathaniel whispered, not audible to anypony else. “Are we just going to stand here all day, or are we going to have our fun?” Zachary looked at the others, while smiling maniacally. I was terribly frightened. “Should I be scared..?” I was extremely scared that they were going take turns raping me somehow. Dan spoke up, “Don’t worry,” he smiled madly just like Zachary, “We just want to play a game with you.” He pulled something white from behind his back. “Is that what I think it is...?” I expected some sort of box containing hoofcuffs. Instead, the box said “TWISTER” on the logo. “By Celestia’s beard, I thought you were going to rape me...” “WHAT!?!? Where would you even get that idea?!?” Zachary screamed at me. “I.. uh... buck. I don’t know.. Just drop it the conversation.” I had been defeated because of my own thoughts. Somewhere out there, a certain author is laughing at Berry (which she is, in fact, NetherPortal girl personality) hysterically as he makes her become humiliated. “All right chums, let’s do this. LEEEEEERRROOOOOYYYY JJJJEEEENNNNKKKIIINNNSSS!!!” Zachary screamed at the top of his lungs. “Shut the buck up Zach,” I replied. “Oh come on! I was just having fun. HAVE FUN WITH ALL THE MEMES!” “Again, shut the buck up.” “Are we going to play Xbox, or what?” Dan asked. “How are we going to play Xbox? I don’t have fingers!” “Yes you do, silly!” I looked down. I had hands again, yet the rest of me was the same. “AHHH! WHAT IS HAPPENING!?!” “What are you talking about? Nothing’s happening.” Nathaniel was confused. “Anyways, what game do you guys want to play?” he asked. “How about Call of Duty 12?” Zach asked. “Wait.. what?? CoD 12 isn’t even out yet!” I said. “You’re right, how about Half-Life 6: Episode 7?” “I have a better idea! Let’s rip out Berry’s internal organs and feast upon them until the morning sun rises!” They all pulled out knives from nowhere. * * * * * * * * “AHHHHH!” I woke up in a cold sweat. “Berry! What happened?” North Wind asked me, which meant that I was back in reality. “I had the craziest dreams. Can I tell you about them?” He looked at me with look of a madpony. “Sure, but first, I WANT TO EAT YOUR ORGANS!” He appeared with a knife in his teeth. “AHHH!” I screamed out loud. * * * * * * * * “AHH!” I woke up once again. Like the last time, I was under North Wind’s wing. My screaming severely startled him, forcing him to wake up. “What’s the matter, honey?” He was genuinely concerned. At this point, I didn’t know if I should trust him because he could’ve been another ‘killer’. “I.. I had a double nightmare.” I was extremely scared. “Do you want to talk about it?” He was trying to make everything better because he actually cared about me versus my ‘dream love’ Zachary. “CONFOUND THESE CONFLICTING EMOTIONS! THEY DRIVE ME TO CHOOSE A STALLION!” I mentally shouted to myself. “I.. I’m going to stick with North Wind. He loves me, and as far as I know, Zachary has no feelings for me.” “Let’s.. Let’s just go back to sleep.” “I’m fine with that.” He kissed me on the muzzle, once again spreading his wing over my back. “Good night, my princess.” Like that, we slowly drifted back off to sleep. I prayed to Celestia that I wouldn’t have any more nightmares. Fortunately, my prayers were answered as I had no dreams. * * * * * * *
009 - Attack on the bureauThe conversion bureau : Lab Rat Final chapter before epilogue (D:) __________ I woke up, finally, from this long night. I had quite the dream. But, even with all those conflicted emotions, I’ll still choose North Wind over anypony. I checked beside me and saw that he was still deeply asleep. I managed to move my way out of his protective wing and saw that the weird sensation, lost in time, appeared in me, the ‘mare in heat’ sensation. “I... I will not do this with him.” I said while thinking about it, but, my heart wasn’t in the same way. “Okay, I’ll wake him up and ask him.” I thought out loud. “Ask for what?” I heard behind me. I jumped to the roof from surprise and turned around. Behind me, North Wind was stretching his wings. He kissed my cheek and he asked again the question. “Well... you see... I don’t feel good. I heard I was in heat. Do you know what is the... quickest way to ‘recover’.” At first, I could see that he was surprised, then, he nodded and he motioned me to sit on the bed, beside him. “Tonight, if you still want to, we could do it. Anyway, we should go take a shower and eat. You can go when you are ready. See you later.” He then quit the room. I shook my head to wake me up. I think that hot water will help me wake up. I walked into the girl’s bathroom and open the shower. I walked under and I immediately ran away. It was searing hot because I hadn’t reduced the temperature. I took the rubberized handle in my mouth (it tasted disgusting) and turned it down. I went back under the water and it was the perfect temperature. I took the shampoo and cleaned my mane. After cleaning my whole body, I stayed under the water. The heat from the water used to make me relax, and it’s still the case. I closed my eyes and my let mind drift. So, what am I going to do today? Eat, general classes, eat, specific classes, pass the night with North Wind and sleep. I hate routines. I stayed another five minutes before closing the water. I did my best to dry off with a towel I found beside the showers, but, without magic or wings, it’s quite complicated. At least, my hooves are now invisible hands. I really like that feeling of having five digits. Even invisible, they will never quit me. I walked outside the bathroom to see that North was waiting for me. “What happened?” He asked. I was wondering what he meant by that. “It took you long; did you have problems with the towels?” Oh, he means that. “No, I like hot water, it makes me think.” He nodded while saying “Make sense”,when he motioned me to come. “We should eat something. I’m hungry.” He said. “You have no idea.” I answered while following him. ***Nova*** What do we got here? Bill, bill, spams mail about longer horns and bigger wingspan. Look like nothing interesting. I thought while checking my Email inbox. Since the ponies arrived, new kinds of stupidity arrived too. Those spam lured thousand of unlucky ponies that got what they wanted, in exchange of monstrous amount of money. Even with their ‘upgrades’, they were unhappy, maybe even more than before. Suddenly, while I was reading one of the bills, I heard knocking at the door. I opened it and, at my surprise, it was the HLF messenger. He was a very small man with bleach blond hair and small eyes. “What do you want, pipsqueak?” I asked the annoyed messenger. “My master want to give you a message. Here it is,” he cleared his throat. “If you don’t give your ‘peace and protection’ payment, we will have no other choice to attack your building. Also, we are searching for ‘somepony’, as you call her, who is a traitor to our organization. If you refuse, you will help us catch her. She is a pony, recently transformed. If you don’t help us, you will help anyway, just without knowing. Leave your answer to the messenger, that means moi, and may our little alliance still exist.” “You want an answer? I’LL GIVE YOU AN ANSWER! Tell your chief, the one who is controlling you that this alliance is over and that he can buck himself. Also, I WILL NEVER HELP YOU! Did you understand?” I said angrily. He’s been attacking this building for months, leave me alone with your fake peace alliance. “Yes, I did understand. Now, because you choose the third choice, you must still help us, in another way.” He, then, claped two times with his hands and two brutes came out of nowhere and then all I saw was black. ***Strawberry Frosting*** We were eating some fruit salad made by my friend Fruit Bowl. It was delicious. There was apples, oranges, cherries, kiwis and a weird fruit called dragonfruit. It taste a bit sweet, but the little seeds makes it all crunchy. This mix was perfect in every way. We finished our meal in silence. When we gave back the bowls, Fruit asked me a interesting question: "Hey A..." she started before I stopped her. "My name is Strawberry Frosting now." I told her. "Okay, Strawberry, are you taking the chariot, tonight, to Equestria?" Wait, I never thought about this. “Well, I would like too, but my friend is not even converted yet. If he gets converted today, maybe I will.” Suddenly, some red light appeared, flashing in all the rooms in the bureau. A voice was ringing from the speakers: “Get to the cafeteria immediately for immediate lockdown. I repeat, get to the cafeteria immediately for immediate lockdown.” We were already to the cafeteria. I knew this room was protected, but it was starting to scare me. North Wind realized that I was scared when I made a little sound and started walking over to a wall to lean. “I don’t like this. This isn’t going to end well.” I said. North Wind walked beside me and gave me a hug. After, he sat down and put his wing around me. “Don’t worry sweetie, it’s not like they’re after you.” When he said this, his eyes opened. “Oh buck, ” he said. I checked his and waited for an explanation why he used this word. “I totally forgot to tell you something, Berry.” I said a faint ‘continue’ and he did. “I saw your friend, Shooting Star, talking outside the bureau yesterday. She was talking about a plan to capture you!” WHAT! Star, I thought you and I were friends. You are officially in my black list until any change. “B...but why?” I said. He motioned his ignorance and told me another question, the one I didn’t wanted to answer: “Also, he said that you’re... a male. D... don’t get me wrong, I know you look like a mare, but... are you a male?” I closed my eyes. Normally, I would say the complete truth, but now that I experienced the life of a mare, I got only one thing to say: “USED to be a male,” I said. “Since few days ago, I was trying to stay as male as possible, but, yesterday night... when I slept with you, I promised, I promised myself to forget my past and to aim toward the future. So yes, I used to be a male. If you got a problem with that, just leave me be like a human would do, but tell me something, if I was still a guy, would I act this way with you? I love you and will forever. After hearing this, do you still want to be my coltfriend?” He looked at me with small eyes. He closed them for few second, then, he opened them with a small smile. “You really think that I would act like this? We are no longer human, even if you’ve been killing ponies in the past, I wouldn’t break up with you. I stayed and found the mare I want to stay for the rest of my life.” We checked around and we saw that everypony who managed to get to the cefeteria was looking at us, listening to the romantic conversation. I was happy that he accepted me like that, but, I wasn’t at the end of my surprises. “Strawberry Frosting,” he walked right in front of me, ”would you like to marry me?” Everypony, I mean like all human and ponies alike were “D’awww”-ing or only waiting for an answer. What I did, I smiled as big as the building. “Yes, yes I would love to.” Then we kissed under the thunderous sound of hand-clapping and hoof-hitting. I was so happy right now, even the HLF riot couldn’t destroy this happy and peaceful moment. After the kiss, we needed to get back to reality. We heard somepony, more like a human, talking with a megaphone. “Give us Anthony and Nova will be safe.” I checked around the room and saw Star, mouth agape, trying to fight the tears. I sighed loudly, enough for the group in front of me to move. When I walked to my destiny, I heard a voice in the big group of residents: “What are you doing Frosting? It’s your happy day, you just got engaged, why are you going there?” “My human name was Anthony. I used to be a cruel person, working for them. Now, I regret everything. I also used to hate this name, now, I hate it more.” I continued walking. Behind me, popping from nowhere, Zach and Nat, followed by CloudHammer and North Wind, decided to walk with me. “What are you all doing?” I asked them while walking. “If you really want to do this, we’ll always be with you.” Nat said while adding more power to his eternal smile. Enough to give it to me. They will always be with me. Suddenly, I realised that we were at the front door. “Good luck Frosty.” Zach said. I gave him a little peck on his cheek and he turned red as a tomato. “See ya A. Hope to see you in the future.” Nat said. We bro-sishoof. “Goodbye, my friends.” They waved at me when I was walking toward my destiny. I was surprised they weren’t sad or anything. Maybe they are trying to hide their emotions. ***North Wind*** I was smiling while keeping a small fake smile. “Are we following her?” Zach asked. I shook my head. “Follow me, I know a secret exit on the east side of the building. We’ll take them by surprise.” We all ran toward the exit, hoping to stop the group at the right moment. ***Strawberry Frosting*** CLIP CLOP CLIP CLOP CLIP CLOP The sound coming from outside stopped. We could only hear the sound of my hooves on the pavement. CLIP CLOP CLIP CLOP CLIP CLOP I walked in front of my old captain. It had to be Martin leading the HLF troup. “Hey, look what we got here. Here's what happen to traitors, they turn into girls.” Martin said. The whole gang laughed at the sight of me. “Stop it, I got something to say. Keven is right, you are controlled.” I said. I started to hear whispers going from side to side. I think that being out of the HLF grounds reduce the power of their chips. “Don’t listen to her, she is a traitor. I’m going to fire her lies with my boomstick.” He was about to pull the trigger while aiming at me when, suddenly, one of the front soldier took the arms of the killer at the right moment. “Hey old fart, why can’t we hear what she got to say. We don’t have anything to do, or maybe she’s right and you don’t want us to learn the truth.” He said. He let Martin go. “YOU’RE OUT OF HERE YOU TRAITOR. SHOOT THEM ALL!” He took aim and fired at me. ***Nathaniel*** Aww man, I never ran like this before. It’s been a long time since I did some training. We ran around the building, toward the HLF. When we arrived, we heard: “YOU’RE OUT OF HERE YOU TRAITOR. SHOOT THEM ALL!”. I know what that meant. While the others were running toward the gunman, I ran toward another target, between the two. I jumped at the last second took all the bullets. ***Strawberry Frosting*** I closed my eyes for a fraction of a second. When I opened them, what I saw almost made me lose what little I had in my stomach. Nathaniel was lying on the ground, his body filled with shotgun pellets, Martin getting air bucked in the head by Zachary and Cloud running toward the injured human. I was about to follow him when I saw a doctor with a vial containing purple liquid. Then, I realised I had a bigger mission. I walked toward the surprised soldiers. I placed myself on a rock in front of them. “Listen carefully, HLF members. In few minutes, Nathaniel will be converted. You will see, in front of your eyes, that there is going to be a chip coming out of his head. Then, you will understand what we meant, Keven and I. You will choose your path and I hope you will change side. No need to become a pony, just stop killing. That’s all I have to say.” Then, I saw Martin waking up from the terrible hit he took. “DON’T LISTEN TO HER, LIES, LIES I TELL YOU!” One of the annoyed soldier took the captain’s lips and hold them. The soldier who was holding Martin’s arms raise his hand like in a classroom. I chuckled at the sight and said “Yes?” “I will join the bureau’s security force. I will no longer kill, unless necessary. And, to seal this, I will kill one last person as a HLF member.” He walked toward Martin and pointed his pistol on his head. “Sayonara papy.” BANG! No more Martin. I was saddened that my old captain died this way, but it was a relief that the guy who tried to kill me was dead now. While I was calming myself, I heard a faint “Check guys.” I walked toward Nat ‘under-transformation’ body and saw a small chip. I took it and hold it with my hoof. “Here is the chip.” I heard some cheering sound. “AND HERE IS MY HOOF!” I put it on the ground and crushed it under my giant thumbnail. This movement was the last thing I needed. They threw their guns on the ground. A big part of them entered the building. By seeing this, I said the last thing I had to say: “It’s the time, ex-HLF members. Choose. Your. SIDE.”
010 - EpilogueThe Conversion Bureau : Lab Rat Epilogue _____________________ The rest of the afternoon went fast. I met new friends and talked with old ones. Some were asking question about conversion and some were asking question like ‘how is it to be a pony’ and stuff. Let’s just say that the major part of the gang is getting converted. The others are leaving or going to be a guard. The thing I liked the most is seeing Nathaniel as a pony. He was a light brown pegasus with a white and red mane. He took his piece of ripped cloth he’s normally wearing on his wrist and put it like a headband. He was awesome, to say the least. “Now, I know why Zach was acting like a crazy stallion near you. Girl, you’re irresistible.” I giggled a bit and left a little peak on his cheek. His brown face turned pink, which made our group laugh. North Wind walked up to our group composed of me, Nat, Zach, and CloudHammer. “Hey, would you all like to travel to Equestria?” He asked. We all checked each other and nodded. I went back at my room and started to pack my stuff when North knocked at my door. “So sweet cake, did you liked this day?” He asked. I kissed him and said: “Except for the whole ‘firing at each other’ part, it was pretty nice.” I answered. We heard another knock and, at our door, were the sisters Nova and Shooting Star. “Thank you for saving me, Berry.” Nova said. Star was walking toward me when North blocked her. “I just want to know, why were you dealing with a HLF member yesterday?” He said. Her ears fell down as her mood went from happy to sad. “I’m sorry, I was trying to deal with this guy to leave us alone. He lied to me and took my sister anyway.” I looked at her with a small smile. “I know what you mean. I would do anything to help my brother.” “You got a little brother?” She asked. “Yes, his name is Loïc. He is the cutest kid you’ve ever seen. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him. I miss him so much.” I said. We hugged each other, when we heard on the bureau’s sound system: “To every Equestrian travelers, please go to the boarding deck immediately.” We all walked to the deck. All of my friends was there, waiting for us. After the final goodbyes, we boarded the chariot, flying towards a better place. The End... Or not! In the words of the wise WG, “I smell a sequel!” and in the words of the wise NetherPortal, “Shut up!” ____________________________ Final A/N : I know what you are thinking. "No, you just ended an adventure that could last for chapters." My answer to this is that I can't hold a story with more than 15 chapters. It's just too much for me. Anyway, I'll post a sequel, but later on, after my next story. If you want to know, I going to be a full time TCB writer. No more normal stories. Also, read this. It's a little something from my new story (It can change anytime): There is one thing that stopped the boringness of the maths class. The terrible sound of jets breaking the sound barrier. All the window in the room broke and the terrible smell of pollution entered. It wasn't the last of my worries. The jet let a purple smoke cloud, falling freely over the school yard. Because of the broken window, the cloud quickly entered. Want more? WAIT NetherPortal, over.
Alt.Ending - Nathaniel's turn (by Ocean Breeze)The Conversion Bureau: Lab Rat Alternate Ending By: WastelandGunner As requested by NetherPortal This alternate ending isn't the official one. It's only to direct the readers to the mature one. An extended alternate ending is coming soon. NP: Hey, could you write me a alt ending? WG: Uhh.. Yeah, sure. What do you want to be be about. NP: *Lists off parameters* WG: *Devious grin* Will do. Will do. * * * * * * * The rest of the day went by pretty fast. I met some new friends and some old ones. But something rather peculiar happened. Nathaniel was shot and had to go in for emergency conversion or else he would bleed out and die. The bureau was out of the normal potion though. That was rather strange and almost never happens. They had a substitute. The bureau workers called it the “R63” potion. Instead of the normal purple hue and grape taste, it was red and had a cherry taste. When told of this, I immediately thought about the dart Zach had used on me. “It was red and when I burped, I tasted to cherries.. Oh my Celestia. That dart turned me into a mare! That must be the potion they gave to Nathaniel!” Sure enough, around 5PM or so, a stunning light brown mare with a red mane clumsily stumbled into the common room. “I feel violated. I’m a female now!” A high pitched voice cried out, “They took my jimmies and my voice!” Zach and I trotted over to Nathaniel. “Should we call her Natalie now?” I pondered that thought. “Nah, she’d just get mad.” Zachary trotted over to.. Natalie? “Hey filly! You lookin’ good! I haven’t seen you around here before!” He said with a grin. “Zach, it’s me, Nathaniel.” Zach did a double take. “Wah!?” “Those ponies ran out of the normal potion. This is the only one that they could give me. Now I’m a mare!” “A pretty one at that.” Zach smiled... like he meant it. “How could you even...” She trailed off. “EWWW! MENTAL IMAGES!” I wondered how she even managed to get from that to mental images. Every stallion within a 20 foot radius was acting weird. I trotted over to Nathaniel and whispered in her ear. “Did you notice how every stallion near us is acting strange?” “Yeah, it’s because those doctor ponies said that I am in heat. Oh the horror! Damn. I hate being a mare.” Zachary said in a hushed manner, “Maybe we could do something.. later? How about dinner?” Nathaniel.. I’m just going to call her Natalie for now on. Natalie blushed and frowned. I could see that she was annoyed by Zachary’s attempt to ask her out. Her hormones were getting to her as normally, she wouldn’t have blushed. In fact, she would’ve bucked him in the face (giggity) if she was a stallion. Natalie walked up to Zachary, she had conflicting emotions right now. She wanted to stay true to her man’s way, yet she was a mare now. There was and is nothing she can do now. She was wanting him so much! Then again, that’s probably her being in heat. I walked over to Zach. He was trying to contain himself as much as he could. He badly wanted her to be with him. “You do know that we have to leave for Equestria soon, right?” “Oh buck! I forgot about that!” He looked around frantically, as though he forgot to pack things, which he didn’t, since he has nothing to pack. “Uh.. Yeah, only a couple hours until we leave... What’s wrong?” He looked so distraught. Even though I already knew the answer, I felt that he should talk it out. “It’s Nathaniel. She.. she smells so.. good!” His eyes gazed off to her. Natalie’s new body entranced him. Surprisingly, I couldn’t smell it. Maybe it only has an effect on stallions. “Eyes off the flank, lover colt.” He snapped out of a flank-coma. Realizing he didn’t have much time left until departure, I watched him walk over to Natalie. I saw them leaving together when I went to my room. It was easy packing what I had. I had the two dresses Star gave me and my diary. My MP3 cannot follow me because advanced technology. I took my stuff, including the small device and went to the departing room. On my way, I stopped in front of Nat’s room. I heard screams of delight and a bit more. Are they... seriously. Who could have thought of that? I managed to get to the room. There was still around 30 minutes until the ride so, I listened to music. ** I removed the earphones when I saw the two lover ponies happily trotting inside. I stood up and said : “About time you showed up.” I tapping my hoof against the ground, “The boat is going to leave soon. What took you so long? I heard screams coming out of your room?” “I tripped over myself and hit my head against the bed.” Nat quickly said, in an attempt to cover over what he was doing with Zach. “Oh well... lets get going because that boat isn’t going to wait forever.” I said while walking toward the ship. A new life awaited all of us, only a short ride away. __________________________ Hehehe, I wasn't so bad. I had to end it for my fans. -NetherPortal ... -WastelangGunner
Bonus - Foals / Contact (by Ocean Breeze)Lab Rat Guest Chapter: By: WastelandGunner NetherPortal is so going to kill me. And FireWind (Zach) too Guest Chapter: Contact “Damn! Why did it have to be cherries?!?” I violently screamed inside my mind as I remembered what had happened the past two days. Zachary showing up, hitting me with that cherry dart, escaping the HLF HQ, freeing the other ponies, converting, ending up a mare. “Why me?!? Why did it have to be me that the PER was targeting?!?” Then it hit me. “Oh yeah. I tortured ponies for a living. How did I forget that?” Zach, Cloudhammer, Nat, and I were going back to Cloud’s house after a long day. A long day that involved getting hit on by strangers. Everypony was very tired. Especially me. I, for one, woke up a mare, ate food for the first time as a pony, was hit on by stallions I didn’t even know, and worst of all... did I mention this yet... I’M A FREAKING MARE! One of my best friends did this to me too! We were even best buds in high school! “Confound these female hormones! They drive me to girliness!” You have to love old memes. “How much longer???” I decided that Zach’s punishment shall be my whining. “I’m tired! My hooves hurt! NAG NAG NAG!” I thought that I should put on my best shrill and girly voice to annoy the feces out of their rectums. “WILL YOU SHUT UP!?!?” Nat screamed at me. “Fine, jeez.” "That was a little harsh." I thought. It wasn’t very long before they all decided to tune me out. I don’t blame ‘em. I probably would have too. “IF I WAS A STALLION!” Nothing could describe how angry and scared I was. Soon enough, we arrived at Cloud’s humble abode. It wasn’t the best house in the world, but hey. At least it wasn’t falling apart, because that’d be terrifying knowing that the house you’re sleeping in could come crumbling down at any moment. It would have been a better night, if Zach hadn’t made a move on me. “You know.. You are a mare for now.. We could.. you know.. experiment.” I brain exploded as he said that. “WHAT THE BUCK ARE YOU SAYING!?!?” “Jeez, calm down. I was just saying that we could.. I don’t know.. You are pretty sexy.” I collapsed right there in the living room. “Woah! Are you okay Ms. Duquette?” “GET THE BUCK AWAY FROM ME!” I shouted in his face as he started to make a move on me. “And don't you dare call me Ms. Duquette!” His face came closer to mine. My heart was beating faster than a cheetah chasing after a ferrari with a trunk full of raw chicken. He leaned in closer. “Do you need help up?” I sighed. “Thank Celestia. I thought he was going to try to ki--” We met muzzle to muzzle. This was pretty weird considering he was my best friend, and the fact that he was a stallion, and I used to be a man. Maybe in society’s eye, if they didn’t know I used to be a man, it wouldn’t be as weird, BUT THIS WAS PRETTY BUCKING AWKWARD. It felt leathery, and flat. Pretty damn gross. Finally, he pulled away after what seemed like minutes, although, it was probably seconds. “DAFUQ IS WRONG WITH YOU!?!?” Zach’s eyes started to swell up with tears. “I’M SO SORRY!” He galloped out of the room, and broke down the front door. However, that didn’t stop him. The persistent stallion kept on galloping, somehow managing to sob at the same time. I didn’t know what to do. “Should I gallop after him? Should I tell the others?” At least my second question was answered. Cloudhammer, and Nathaniel came running/galloping into the room. “What happened in here?!?” The two simultaneously yelled. They both saw the door ripped from its hinges. “Anthony! What happened?!?!” Well, this was not going to go well if I didn’t tell them what happened, so I told them everything. Not that I wanted to, but how else was I going to explain the absence of Zach, and the broken door? “What do you mean he kissed you?” “Hmm.. How do I explain this? HE PLANTED HIS MUZZLE UPON MINE AND KISSED ME!!!” “Which direction did he run?” Nat asked me in a hurried tone. “Um.. I think he ran to the right when he busted the door.” They started to run out the now empty front door. “HEY!! WAIT FOR ME!” “NO! YOU STAY THERE! YOU HAVE ALREADY CAUSED ENOUGH TROUBLE!” I started to sob. I had caused all of this, and now Zach probably hated me. I’ll admit he wasn’t the worst looking stallion. In fact, he looked pretty handso-- “DAMN IT MIND! GET OUT OF THE GUTTER! YOU ARE A MALE! YOU DO NOT GO AFTER OTHER MALES!” That only caused me to cry harder. I hope that the others would find him. Soon enough, I cried myself to sleep. Only time would tell me what had happened that night. I just hoped that he would come home safely, and he wouldn't somehow get himself killed. I snapped out of my daydream. “Dafuq did I just dream?!?”
Another alt. ending -Link- (by DaBunnanaKing)By DaBunnanaKing Warning : NSFW stuff between Zachary and Nathaniel. Press here for something
