The Conversion Bureau: The Palladium Wings

The Conversion Bureau: The Palladium Wings

Chapter 4

Dragon Runes /Bloody Sword Dock

“You up for a game?” Grozny asked Shining Armor, setting up a chess board.

“Sure, what are we playing?”

“A classic  game with new rules, Equestrian Chess.” The Russian man started to put the pieces in their respective positions.

Shining noticed Princess Celestia and Luna in the game along with the Bearers of the Elements placed aside from the two princesses. On the other side, humans wearing the uniforms of high ranking officers were placed. The pawns, Royal Guards and Human Soldiers of different nationalities were set.  The unicorn stallion was curious. “The rules?”

“It works like a standard game of chess but with modifications: If you capture a piece from me, that piece will be ‘converted’ , allowing you to bring back one captured piece. If I capture one of your pieces, they will ‘defect’ to my side.” Grozny explained.  “The 6 here are special pieces, capturing them means they defected or I can sacrifice them to bring one of my pieces.  The goal is to ‘overthrow’ Celestia and Luna or defeat the Commanders.”

“I see.” Shining took a seat.

Grozny smiled. “I should warn you, I’m pretty good playing this.” He cracked his fingers.

The hours passed as the two were locked into their game.  Shining moved the Twilight Sparkle figure to a square.

Grozny moved his soldier. “Mistake, I now have Twilight Sparkle in my side, but rather than turning her against you, I’ll sacrifice her to bring back one of my soldiers.” His hand moved the piece away and grabbed a captured human soldier and into the board it went.

“Have you had the chance to talk to any benefactors?” Shining asked as he moved his next piece.

“I have.” Grozny replied. “The Americans, British, and Poles want to have you over, but the others are concerned about your presence.”

“Hmmm?” Shining raised an eyebrow.

“The rest of the human nations believe that if you are being sheltered in their lands, Celestia will start colonization of what’s left over or even send a retrieval team to get you.  We heard that Celestia purged the nobility back in Equestria, no doubt your wife is in that list.”

“So what do they propose?”

“They propose sending you two under the watch of a privateer.”

“Privateer? You mean the pirates!?”

Grozny laughed. “Privateers.”

“They’re pirates. They loot and plunder!”

“They do so yes,” Grozny explained. “But what sets them apart is that they have a Letter of Marque. The Letter authorizes any privately owned ship to engage in hostilities against Equestrian ships. They work for every government. We get 50% in the loot and they keep the rest.”

“But why privateers?” Shining wondered.

“Privateers are effective. See, if we went out full force against the Equestrians, it’d be the 12 Hour War again. Only this time, we wouldn’t last 20 minutes. Of course, wars cost money. We have to make weapons, refit the ships to our standards, recruit crews and soldiers. All those are the essentials to us. We don’t know about Contra or the nations in it.”

“I do know of the two Gryphon nations: The Kingdom of Skiri and the Scylas Federation and the Diamond Dog Confederation.” Shining said.

“So there are other countries in Counter-Earth.” Grozny said.

“Yes, and living under what you call a tyranny, not of their rules, but of Celestia.”

“Does she rule the other countries in any form? Puppet governments?”

“No, but she lent them the Star Swirl Units long ago before coming here, if any of their ships tries to rebel against Equestria, the Unit gets recalled.”

“And the ships plunge down to its doom, does it?”

Shining nodded.

“Hmmm perhaps an alliance with them would be… beneficial.” Grozny commented “We have a common enemy: Equestria. If we join forces, we can have a chance in getting an unconditional surrender from the Princesses. It is the perfect plan.”

The door opened. A bronze pegasus entered. “Grozny!”

The Russian man turned. “Ah Saber, how did  the deliveries go?”

“Bullshit.” The pegasus replied with a hostile tone. “I had a bad two weeks delivering here and there and I want my fucking break now.”

“Whoa buddy, language.” Shining meddled.

“Well well well, if it isn’t Princess Celestia’s toy.” Saber said. “Why did you defect? Oh wait you didn’t want to defect, you let your wife order you around.”

“HEY!” Shining got on the defensive. “I WILL NOT let you talk about Cadence like that.”

“What? Miss I-Spread-Love-Around?” Saber laughed. “Why do you defend her, when she is supposed to bust her plot and come here and defend herself, she don’t need the toy to defend her.”

Shining was fuming.

“Oh look, now you’re getting angry. Oooh scary, what are you gonna do? Write an Anger Report to Cadence? I can imagine it.”

“Saber cut it off.” Grozny ordered.

“Alright.” Saber groaned. “Before I leave,” He pulled out a message tube from his bag. “Your buddy at the Russian Air Fleet sends you his regards.”

Grozny took the tube.  Setting it on the table, he looked at Shining. “I want to see the maps.”

The maps were brought, one was unrolled into the table, showing the two worlds and the Corridor.

“I…I… Don’t believe it!” Grozny looked at the maps. “The writings…”

Cadence raised an eyebrow.

“Dragon Runes…” Grozny gasped.

“Dragon Runes?” Shining and Cadence asked.

“You may not believe it, but we humans invented roleplaying games in worlds similar to yours. The lore of said games said Dragonic is oldest tongues, or the true language from which all others descend.”

Shining and Cadence looked at each other and the man.

“Funny thing is…Equestrian does descend from the Old Dragonic Tongue.” Cadence said shaking in awe.

Grozny looked at the map. “I can see Equestria and the bordering nations, but what are these two landmasses west of Equestria, the ones divided by the South and West Equine Seas."

“The one on the West is the Eastern Ponysphere, the one south is the Northern Ponysphere.” Cadence explained. “The lands are barely inhabited, there’s nothing but ruins there.”

“How much do you know about these two places?” Grozny asked.

“All I know is that my Aunt told me not to go near them.” Cadence replied. “They’re off limits to anyone who doesn’t have a Crown Permit to enter.”

Grozny began to think.  “Then it won’t be a problem for us. We can use those two places as a dock or as a resupply center. Once the maps are distributed, we’ll send out privateers to attack Equestria.”

Bloody Sword Air Dock

Skies of the Pacific Ocean

Several airships docked in the massive flying installation, armored blinds covered the ships, to prevent any Equestrian Presence Ship from gathering information.  The crews disembarked and looked around, while others looked at the neighboring ships. Privateer jolly rogers were flying from their ships, causing crew members to taunt the ship next t them, claiming on who got more bounty.

The Ship’s Armorers were at the many gun shops, trying to buy, sell, or trade weapons for new ones. Some were getting a good deal, others haggled for the goods, others traded whatever they had for better weapons, while others were getting ripped off.

“100 Escudos for an AN-94!?” The Armorer for the Chimera, a 25 year old Mexican-American man exclaimed in anger.  “Last time I checked, they were a measly 50 Escudos!”

“Prices have gone up because of the scarcity of the rifle, and it’s not quite in high demand plus the fact the Treasure Hunters are having trouble retrieving the rifles.”

“So this is what you have left? 20 AN-94s?”

The clerk nodded.

The Mexican-American sighed. “Alright, got anything chambered in 6.8 SPC?”

The clerk brought an AK rifle. “This one recently came out of VDK Armor Workshop. Basically it’s your AK-74 inspired variant but comes with a 25 round magazine. Very popular with the American Privateers, heck, the Southern Vixen uses this baby on her raids.”

“Only 25 rounds for a 6.8 SPC Kalashnikov variant?”

“It packs a punch but the gun would malfunction if fed 30 rounds, it’d jam very often hence the choice.”

“What about any AR-15 style rifles?”

The clerk pulled out one. “Treasure Hunters came in a few days ago and dropped these off. Ruger SR-556. We just finished polishing them up and fixing them. Chambered in both 5.56x45mm and 6.8 SPC.”

“Can they fire in full auto?”

“Luckily, these are police and military models.”

“How much do you want for them?”

“50 Escudos per unit.”

“How many units do you have?”

“200.”

“I’ll take 100 units.” The Mexican-American tossed a bag full of gold coins. “Have them delivered to the Chimera.”

“Will do.”

At a shooting range, Nikolaos was firing his dual pistols at the Celestia-shaped targets.

“A Russian gun would never do ya’lls justice, unless it’s a AK-47.” A Southern accented feminine voice said.

The Greek turned to find a blonde woman wearing daisy dukes, a tank top along with tactical gear, military style boots and two holsters. Her left hand was holding  a heavily customized M1911 pistol.  “Annabelle the Southern Vixen, doesn’t it shame you that you bash my gun when you have two expensive guns that use expensive ammo? 20 Escudos per box while mine cost 2 per box.”

“All ya use is cheap ammo.” Annabelle countered. “Weak and doesn’t pack a punch.”

“Well excuse me Miss Confederate Vixen!” Nikolaos flipped the safety of his pistol. “This very same pistol is the one that shot Princess Celestia’s gut!”

“Ya’lls making up that storeh.”Annabelle growled.

“My ship went against Celestia’s flagship. After damaging it enough, we boarded it and attacked it. I went in to execute the Princess but one of her officers thought he’d be the big hero and fought me. Taking care of him, I got ready to shoot Celestia. I then saw her fly out of her post, she had me where she wanted, but my hand went for my pistol and shot her gut at point blank range.”

“Tall storehs made by a European, which is what ya’lls are good at.” Annabelle rolled her eyes. “Mah point being, cheap Russian gun and ammo does no one justice.”

“I beg to differ.” Captain Ivan of the Cossack Privateers entered. “A TT-33 is a good weapon if handled by the right user. My crews value the pistol over the Makarov or the other pistols.”

“Seems you are outnumbered Annabelle.” Nikolaos grinned.

“Well I counter your notion!” Captain Alvarez of the Chihuahua Privateers interjected.  “A .45 ACP packs a punch, good enough to stop a pony on its hooves.”

“It may stop them on their tracks, but a pistol with much recoil wouldn’t help me.” Nikolaos argued. “I need something lighter and cheaper.”

The four started to get into an argument on which caliber was good.

“The best caliber is 9x19mm.” Captain Zhou of the Imperial Dragon Privateers said as he twirled his QBZ-92. “I get more rounds per magazine, aftermarket magazines don’t count.”

“You’re wrong Chinese,” A Japanese privateer holstered his revolver. “.357 Magnum is the superior cartridge out of them all.”

The whole shooting range exploded into a debate into which bullet was superior to the others. The owner of the shooting range pulled out his revolver and fired a shot into the air. “I am going to ask all of you to leave. I will not tolerate debates on ammunition. Either shoot your guns to practice or you leave now. Your choice.”

Several of the privateer Captains left while others resumed shooting their firearms.

A/N:I know its a short chapter, but it was done on purpose to introduce a few more of the privateers, advance the story a bit, and of course, preparing for what's coming. For those wondering where the HLF is or when will they appear in the story, that will be expanded in a later chapter.See you in the next flight!

Edit: Due to discovering a legit map of Equestria, I have tweeked the locations of the Ponyspheres.