The Conversion Bureau: Instincts

15th October 2016

‘Ever since we made contact with the human race, both our species have prospered greatly. Although there are some groups of both our races who dislike each other, we have created a harmonic society of humans and ponies. Things are looking up. I must admit I was surprised at the technology the humans had just as they were probably surprised at our magic. Human technology and magic are compatible, perhaps we can combine the two for even better inventions and creations. I've seen their slums, someone needs to take action…’

-Excerpt from Princess Celestia’s diary.

“We are in the Lincoln area, we’re not giving our exact location in case they are listening in. We’re getting hemmed in and we’re running out of options. Is anyone out there? Over,”

We sent out our daily radio call and as usual, no reply came.

“What a surprise,” David grumbled, “still no reply.” He wrote something down in his notebook. He did that a lot, he would write poetry and thoughts about life and a few half assed drawings.

“We’ll get one, eventually,” Freya replied, ever the optimist, “but we're on our own for now and we need more supplies. One of us needs to go into town,”

“Two,” I said, “two here and two getting supplies. We should do everything in pairs.”

“Seems a hell of a risk to loose two of us. Surely it's better if there is one ponified and three humans then two humans and two ponified,” Jack said, “we all know what a whizz I am at maths,”

“The biggest risk is to take no risks. Or crazy risks,” Harry said, “we should send two.”

So it was agreed. At noon Freya and I would sneak into the nearest town and scavenge. We each took an automatic rifle to take with us. I spent the rest of the morning on sentry. We always had a lookout, it was just to dangerous not to have one.

It was finally time to go, we had a collection of bicycles for these journeys. They were silent but speedy, making them very useful. Freya and I chose one, waved goodbye and left.

The cycle into Grantham was long and dull. We played categories to pass the time.

“Okay, give me five green vegetables before that signpost,” was one Freya gave me,

“Easy; peas, beans, sprouts, lettuce and broccoli.” I said. Suddenly, we heard a low rumbling sound overhead. In peacetime that sound would be so normal it wouldn't have been hard to miss, but now there is only a few million humans left at best, it's a very uncommon sound: the sound of a jet engine. I looked up to see a military jet rush past being chased by a squad of pegasi, one leaving a rainbow trail another leaving a lightning trail behind them. The plane banked hard to the left and got a few shots in, killing two of the ponies, but the lightning one and the rainbow one were not hit. The jet rushed back the way it came.

“Two against one, I hope he makes it,” I said,

“He or she,” Freya muttered and we continued our journey in silence, on edge, looking for ponies.

We left our bikes on the town outskirts and lifted our guns, sticking to the shadows and eyes peeled. We didn't encounter any ponies on the slow walk to the ASDA supermarket. We entered and started grabbing all the non perishable foods there was. We only stopped when we heard a slight cough from behind us. I span around and lifted my rifle, fear and adrenaline rushing through my veins.

“Don't point that bloody thing at me,” Mr Rodd, a fellow farmer said,

“Mr Rodd!” I sighed in relief, “I thought you could be a pony!”

“Understandable. Why are you here? Celestia’s going to be focussed on finding humans in this town next!” Mr Rodd hissed at us,

“Mr Rodd, do you know if there are any others like us?” Freya asked,

“Oh yeah. I've seen some people try to do some things. Tried to be heroes. One group even targeted the London bureau; they all paid the price,” Mr Rodd said,

“Will you come with us, back to our camp?” I asked hopefully,

“What? No, no way. I got a family to look after and defend. I've taken a hell of a risk being out this long and I gotta go back.” With that Mr Rodd scarpered out of the building and ran across the street into the old dentistry.

“We should be going too,” I said just as I heard a gruff male voice say, “you're not going anywhere, humans,”

Freya screamed and I was deafened as her rifle went off and blood splattered across the floor. A blue unicorn with brown hair lay dead on the ground near Freya. The vial of potion it had in its magical grip had fallen to the floor and had started mixing with the pony’s blood.

“Run!” I yelled to Freya but didn't get the chance as a Pegasus barrelled round the corner and I managed to step aside just in time before it knocked me into the puddle of potion. The Pegasus snarled at me and charged me again, I brought up my rifle and it kicked up against me as it spat out round after round into the Pegasus. The guns were so loud! There was no way all the ponies in Grantham didn't hear them but it appeared that is was only the two ponies that found us as the journey back was fortunately pony free. The most important things we’d got was the batteries, bottled water and the chocolate in our opinions.

David and Harry were shocked when they heard our story of meeting Mr Rodd and fighting those two ponies. That night we held another meeting. I wasn't in a good mood though, I, plain old Thomas, had just killed another living, intelligent, being. Harry could sense my regrets,

“It's not your fault,” he told me, “it's theirs, it's all theirs. You were defending your humanity.”

“I'm putting myself above them,” I said, “that's what it comes down to in the end isn't it? How many lives is it okay for me to end to protect my own?” I asked Harry. Harry sighed, “I don't know, Thomas, none of us do. We can just act and protect ourselves. Speaking of, David has an idea on how we could attack a Bureau.”

MichaelTheBoss