Cause and Effect

by Duct Tape Master

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Princess Celestia, Dark, Alternate Universe, Human, Anthro, Main 6, Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Mystery, Queen Chrysalis, Other
Length: 14670

(TCB) the ponies and humans made contact, everything went well enough until we were utterly betrayed . And I was picked to find put why.

[I decided to try and write a Conversion Bureau fic where the humans and ponies have a relatively even playing field, and with some different ideas thrown in for good measure.

Don't expect the usual for this story, it isnt going to be very similar to anything else.

I stink at grammar so feel free to suggest edits.
Now to the actual description:

When the ponies first arrived on earth, it honestly went pretty well, and soon the world thrived, the ponies and humans made allies and new technology, art and music flooded both worlds, it was amazing. Then something changed, nobody seems to know what, the ponies suddenly turned around and insulted the human race and our accomplishments, and subsequently attacked several cities simultaneously, claiming them as equestrian territory and transforming its citizens into ponies. The ponies demanded that we stand down and let our fate happen, humans being humans, immediately turned around and fought back, the war has been going on for about 3 years now, humans aren't doing so hot, the ponies just keep turning our soldiers into ponies and turning them against us, soon militias formed, gun laws became near non-existent and the crime rates plummeted, I guess world domination is enough motivation to stop violent crimes. I joined the local militia as a pilot and headhunter, I'm not letting these backstabbing bastards take our planet.

NOTICE: Thank you for noticing this notice, your noticing has been noticed.

Published 2017-03-18 22:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2017-04-18 04:58:37 UTC

First Contact

2025, January 17, 9 years ago.

The news was flooded, on all channels worldwide, a massive thing appeared in the Atlantic, we had no idea what it was so we went to investigate it turned out to be a massive dome made of some unknown energy, conspiracy theorists went nuts and the world waited in anticipation, their arsenals at the ready, just in case some shit hit the fan.

Fast forward 2 days, a hole in the dome opens, and something emerges, completely unorthodox. Helicopters are sent in to check it out, it turns out to be some kind of alien being, bipedal, roughly humanoid, most peculiarly was it's equine features, horse like legs, a short snout, pointy horse like ears and large eyes, 5 fingers per hand, and a single spiral horn on it's head, it was riding a carridge pulled by 2 of it's species with wings rather than horns. It took some time to guide it in but it eventually came to rest on the flight deck of the newly deployed USS Enterprise. The creature identified itself and it's species, Fluffy Clouds, and Ponies respectively. She stated that her species came in peace from another dimension and that they meant no harm, at first we we're skeptical but eventually allowed a limited number of them passage, some odd 20 maximum.

Fast forward again another 3 days, we meet their leaders and their respective entourages of guards, interpreters, and diplomats. They identify themselves as Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Twilight, and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, who went by Cadence. Soon peace talks and delegations started up, the news still going nuts over the discovery. Eventually the newcomers were allowed to enter our world, the barrier dropped, revealing a very strange and small island, a few thousand square miles at most, it had several small structures on it, barely visible from the ocean. Within days tourists flood both worlds and reports go even crazier over the revelations.

Fast forward again 3 years, the first widely commercially magic technology hybrid devices are born from a company by the name of vallhalla electronics, soon more follow, many things are changing, but many remain the same, there is a brief renaissance, both worlds solve each other's problems and everything seems well.

Another 2 years pass and something changes, out of nowhere, Princess Twilight outright puts down our species and calls us violent and self destructive, and then goes on to say that we are unfit to live on this planet as we are, that we must be transformed into ponies and taught the ways of friendship and harmony. 2 months later, places called conversion bureaus open their doors and begin changing humans into ponies and brain washing them. Humans resist the constant nagging by the ponies and begin to speak their minds by vandalizing and robbing the facilities.

1.5 years later. Attacks are staged in several massive cities around the world, Washington DC, Moscow, Berlin, Paris, and several others are invaded, walls get erected and those unfortunate enough to be in cities or the surrounding areas are transformed into ponies via a weird bluish purple substance. War is declared and starts mere hours later, the barrier closed once more, and began to slowly expand transforming anything caught in it to their equestrian counterparts and either outright killing humans or transforming then as it slowly trudged on, stopping intermittently to deliver troops or a message, the first words Celestia said once the barrier closed were these, "STAND DOWN, YOUR FATE IS SEALED, DO NOT RESIST, YOU WILL BE SAVED BY THE BUREAUS OR MY MERCY, SHOULD YOU FIGHT,WE WILL NOT HESITATE TO KILL, THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING.

Another 3 years and we are in the present 2034, the barrier is visible from the east coast now and many countries have edited their laws concerning weapons so that their citizens can form militias against the invaders, gun trafficking is legal and people are paranoid 24/7 about the ponies appearing from nowhere to convert them, the bureaus still operate somehow, not in the open like they used to but in secret locations, anyone who calls them and requests their services is taken in their sleep& transformed, brain washed, and either shipped to equestria, or put back in their homes in hopes of convincing others. Of course there are traitors on both sides, ponies that disagreed with celestia fought alongside the humans, humans who agreed with her got converted or became something akin to religious extremists, praising celestia and forcibly converting people in back alleys and abandoned warehouses. I, Daron was a programmer and hobbyist gun collector/engineer/blacksmith, from Colorado, now I'm a loner off shoot of the Mile High Militia, I would take a contract, snipe the bastard, get paid, smoke some weed and repeat, I still would work with computers, more of a side job now. Damn these fuckers are persistent.

Author's Note

My own take on a TCB fic, decided to give it a twist, hope ya like so far.

Grim Reaper

I opened a manilla folder and stared at the contract I just got, a name, picture, place of living, description, and occupation/reason for me to kill them, and a reward for doing so. This one was a tan pegasus mare with forest green hair, butt mark that looks like a police badge and night stick, name: Swift Justice, hah, gonna do her a swift justice with some hot lead. Place of work, a CB based out of an abandoned warehouse in Denver. Her description was short sweet and to the point.

' Target is dangerous, infamous for suprise attacks on militia members in the general Denver area, as he is too dangerous to be left alive, avoid hand to hand combat unless necessary, a reward of $40,000 is promised for the killing of aforementioned target with evidence, money will be wired into previously specified account, burn this information after it is no longer necesary. '

Finally someone who doesn't write a multi paragraph paper on the target, and finally a higher paying job.
****
I went to my safe and retrieved some weapons, my trusty and ever reliable, VSS Vintores sniper rifle, it was it was shorter than the VEPR and easier to use within the confines of my truck, I also packed my tan supressed kriss vector in 9mm, 9mm glock and a supressor, winchester 1897 if anything got hairy, a dagger plus some other assorted knives, pipe bombs, and some duct tape. I tossed it all in a couple of generic pelican cases and brought it back upstairs to the garage. "Weapons: check! Uhh where did I leave my gloves, ah here we go.... Keys: uhh check, laptop: check, contract: got that, equipment vest and belt: got that too, camera; right here, ammo, lemme see....got that too, cool, time for some trash removal." I placed all of my stuff into my beat up old greenish 80's land cruiser that I'd bought specifically for this line of work. I shimmied myself between my rat rod and the truck and opened the squeaky old door on the truck, climbed in and put in the keys, turned over the engine opened the garage, and eased my way out, once I got onto the main highway towards Denver I turned on my radio and heard a pretty fitting song come on,

I listened as I followed the GPS towards my objective and looked out across the plains thinking of what this had come to, once friendly creatures suddenly becoming killers and kidnappers, much like me, a programmer become headhunter, I'd offered my marksman skills and my ability to fly a small aircraft to the local militia, it seemed like the right thing to do considering the circumstances, my boss was nice enough to offer me my job back if I lived to the end of this, assuming that the world was still ours by then, like everyone I was still wondering why. In around an hour and 20 minutes I was near the warehouse in question, I parked in an alley with the rear of the truck facing the building I descretely climbed into the back, which already had all of the seats folded down and some assorted supplies, a cooler with drinks, a cot to sleep on, more ammo, an ak 74u that I use as a truck gun, a gallon jug to piss in, and some snacks. I loaded my magazines and checked my rifle over, not that I needed to, ak type actions are damn near unsoppable. I loaded the mag and racked the bolt, I left the back window closed as to stay concealed and began the waiting game, occasionally looking out the tinted window to check, "hurry up bastards, I'd like to not sit here all day..." I muttered to myself as I looked around, hopefully I could just snipe her, although I can fight close quarters, I'd prefer to be fast and keep myself from harm if I can help it. I screwed the supressor I checked the standard issue scope as I waited, then I looked outside and saw her, she was walking along the side of the building with a weird pistol, no doubt pony in design, she also had a sword and some basic plate armor, I popped open the back window a crack and shouldered my rifle, I was far enough out to be inconspicuous but close enough for an easy shot, she walked up to another pony and began to talk, I couldn't hear anything but it was a good chance for me, a clear shot at her temple, the other guard would have to go as well, I scoped up and breathed deeply then 'PLUNK' the supressed sniper varied quietly as it sent a bullet into the mare's head. I saw blood splatter and quickly shot the other one in the chest and watched her drop as well, I waited a few minutes....nothing, I opened the back up and took the picture, making sure to include the splatter, I got in the driver seat and got closer, ran up to the bodies, took another picture, and collected their weapons and anything useful, conversion potions I could sell to the scientific community, the rest of the weapons I would keep for my slowly growing collection, I made sure to leave no fingerprints, and my cowboy boots had indistinguisible tread from any other boot of a similar kind, I ran back to the truck and tossed everything in, closed the back hatch and drove off to the main road and blended in with the traffic, that bitch's subordiates wouldn't be pleased....good. I headed towards one of the militia strongholds near black forest and hoped that I'd gotten enough proof to earn my money, another job well done. I adjusted my ballcap and continued driving, and occasionally shifting.

Author's Note

Another chapter!

Edit suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Stakes

I arrived at one of the HQ's at around 4 in the afternoon, it was pretty empty as most people were only here to receive assignments, or cash in completed ones, the main HQ in the mointains was where most of the activity usually happened, this was just a discrete location for the headhunters and undercover specialists to work from, from outside and inside it's just a general store, it even sells stuff like a normal store as normal to keep cover, the owner is actually a militia dispactcher, and gives out mission's, usually disguised as instruction booklets or blueprints for furniture, only occasionally delivering missions outside of the building. I walked in and placed my envelope of proof on the table and said in a pretty nonschalant voice," hey man, need to mail this," I made a quick check of the store, some ponies were here looking around, i subconsiously checked my holster and looked back at him,

"lemme see, another one to your grandma? Got it, it'll be sent within the week," Grandma M. Was a simple disguise I used to conceal my work, everyone had some kind of codename for a mission folder, more or less to prevent anyone from catching on, the store owner knew all 10 of us in this division, makes it easier to keep tabs on everyone, he then handed me an instruction booklet on how to build a cabinet, it was just that, inside was the actual next mission, a bookmark with a little serial number hidden in it, I would just have to mail the code to the dispatch for the next assignment and pay for the previous one, it was a pretty effective system to confirm everything at every stage to prevent fraud. I took the book and thanked him, as well as looked around the store, it sold everything from tools to guns, and if one had the right clearance it could be a good mine of armament, to sell my conversion potions I would just have to sneak them to a medical marijuana place near old Colorado city, they would buy them from me for quite the reasonable sum. Once I was satisfied by my inconspicuousness I left and jumped back in the aging Toyota and began my trek back home, I stopped for some coffee, and parked back in my garage at around 6, I had some pizza for dinner and browsed the internet for awhile and eventually went to bed.
*****
The morning after I checked my bank account and found the promised $40,000, it was still pretty early but yet I had a new mission on my doorstep, this one would take some time and effort, I was going to kill the director of a potion manufacturer, the main problem I had was getting over the border between earth and ground zero, where it was supposedly located, the mission itself wouldn't be that difficult but it would be hard to actually get there, the mission didn't have a specified date of completion so at least I wouldn't have to rush. I set down the mission paperwork in my filing cabinet and had some cereal for breakfast, I needed to buy some groceries, and a gun I ordered about a month ago was finally ready for pick up, so I couldn't just good off today.

The store was pretty devoid of humans, there were a couple of ponies but nothing out of the ordinary, I knew the ponies, they had joined the militia about a month after it was founded, I didn't know their names but they seemed to know me as the ran up to me with shocked expressions. One was a powder blue with a dark burgundy mane, and the other was a soft orange and yellow, one stallion and one made.

" Are you the Grim Reaper!?" the blue one blurted as quietly as he could

"Wait...What now?" his question caught me off guard and I subconsiously reached for my pistol.

"Dude, you're a legend in the militia, that's what everyone calls you...you didn't know?"

"Uhh, no.... I barely ever go to HQ I just take missions and fulfill them, I never knew that anyone seemed to know about me." I stepped back a pace as they were in my face a bit.

" everyone is amazed at how you work, most of the kill photos you took are on the wall at HQ, all of them with one shot, that's why everyone knows you," the orange mare made another extatic looking face.

"Oh, uhh....good to know....I guess?" I looked at the two with a thoroughly weirded out face

"can I get your autograph!" they both chirped in unison

" Uhh, I don't give out signatures" I stated slightly backing up

" then just do the thing you do to sign off on your work! Ya know with the bullet stamping thing" I usually signed off on my work using the exact shell casing I used to kill the target, cover it in ink and stamp.

" I'm afraid I'm bound by contract not to do that in public, I just want to get some eggs please..." I stepped back again and watched as one of them pressed in her ear,

"Subject is not cooperating plan use plan RD" at that I drew my gun and ran, I heard a loud crash as the roof near the two fell in and a team of Pegasus soldiers dropped in through the gaping hole. I fired 2 shots into their numbers and bolted for the emergency exit, I heard yelling and some magic weapons going off, I heard a dull thud as I crashed through the exit and ran toward my daily driver Subaru, I jumped in and punched it to the road, a wing of pegasi hot on my tail.

"Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shiiit" I muttered as I drove, I expected someone to try at my life but never with this much planning, a whole fucking platoon of soldiers, seriously, who can possibly expect that? I drove for a safe house nearby and occasionally made some detours to throw them off a bit, but they still relentlessly followed, why was another reason, they hadn't killed or transformed me yet and if they wanted to they could do so whenever, but they just followed, odd, I kept this up for about an hour and soon avoided them by hiding in the forest, I relaxed a bit before I felt a sharp prick in my arm, I looked to it just in time to see a mare decloak and inject me with some kind of clear fluid. " WHAT THE FUCK?" I yelled and punched at her, she grunted a bit as her face met my fist.

"You shall be perfect...." she disappeared and I waved my hands in the place she just was, nothing,

"oh fuck what the he'll did she just inject me with?" I found the needle on the floor, it was labeled, 'contains ketamine, for equine use only, CAUTION single dose only do not reuse this vial' "oh shit" I said to myself quietly as I felt the effects kick in. I'd just been injected with a horse tranquilizer
*****
My vision went blurry, I heard whispers and saw flashbacks of the ponies in the store, then it all fell apart and the massive dose of drugs caused me to black out, I felt the fabric of the passenger seat touch my face before everything shut down.

Author's Note

Dun Dun Duuuuuunn!!

Hangover

I awoke with a slap to the face, I breathed in a startled breath and looked around frantically, I was in a tiny room, 1 door, a plastic table, and a very pissed off mare staring me down...this was probably an interrogation...shit.

"Ya know why you're here?" the mare was yellow with flame orange hair, she wore a skin tight blue jumpsuit and a pair of aviator sunglasses.

"No why, and where is 'here'?: I gave her an innocent smile to confuse her and waited for her response.

"You... Are the filthy ape responsible for assasinating over 30 of my troops, what do you have to say for yourself?" she sounded like a drill seargent.

"What can I say? Its not like it'll matter, Im probably gonna wind up as a P.O.W or dead anyway"

"You're a smart one eh? Well. We can either do this the easy way or the hard way!...if ya tell me what I wanna know, ill let you live on as a pony, or if ya dont tell me, Ill send you off to the mines to work till you drop dead. Got it!?" she walked closer amd leaned down to stare me in the eye, albeit looking back was hard without feeling an imminent sense of doom.

"Ill tell ya what I know... Someone gives me a contract, I kill the target, I get paid and te cycle repeats.'

"Nice try, I aint gonna buy it, the whole truth....NOW!" she smacked me across the face and stared at me menacingly

"I don't know much else...im just a headhunter, I don't get told much about internal affairs,"

"I said out with it!" she smacked me again and kicked the chair I was strapped to over and placed her hoof on my abdomen, oh shit.

"I only know that the militia branch I work for is the most well protected in the world....nothing else, I dont know any secrets, troop movements, or anything, HURK!..." she pressed down hard and knocked the wind out of me.

"Shoulda known, this one's uninformed just like the last five, toss this one with the rest, get me another." she kicked me as a smaller mare walked in and unhooked me from the chair and led me out of the room. The mare escorting me was a good 6 inches taller than me and I was 5'10", she was small for a pony, but nowhere near small for a human. She looked at me with a weird longing expression, and seemed much less pushy than the yellow one, now that i think about it, the yellow one was probably Spitfire, id heard the name tossed around during meetings about who to avoid at all costs.

The mare escorting me suddenly turned down a random hallway and pulled me into a storage room, she locked the door and sat me down. "Don't worry, you'll be safe soon" she spoke with a calm soothing tone and sat next to me, I finally got a good look at her, a soft purple coat that faded to pink on her appendages, she was a pegasus and was wearing a loose fitting powder blue jumpsuit, she was busty and had a weird air about her that made me genuinely think I was safe with her, then again, looks can be decieving.

"Who are you?" I suddenly felt lips on my cheek and she got up and left, I heard the door lock and I was left to my own devices. I couldnt do much, the cuffs the pony military uses are magical and near impossible for a human to break out of. So I waited.
****
Some number of hours later I felt myself jostled awake, I saw the strange mare again, she stared back at me for a bit before speaking. "If you want to live do exactly as I say," she pulled me up and I answered.

"Its not like I have a choice" she led me through the building while quietly whispering the directions in my ear, the building was far emptier, almost completely deserted, soon I found myself outside, in something akin to a parking lot, instead of cars it had hovering vehicles and bikes, I knew this because of the lack of wheels and a briefing I had only a month after I joined the militia The weird mare shoved me into one that looked like a van and got in herself after I was securely tossed in the back. I felt the seird vehicle shudder and start moving, i loked out the back window as the vehicle rose away from the ground and flew off. I decided that it was probably a better time to get some much needed answers. "Who are you?"

" I guess I should tell you what this is all about I guess....I needed someone to help me, I hate this war, its gone on for too long, i wanted some help to end it...or at least figure out the cause...I had no idea how I was to do that until we caught you, you've got enough of an idea about stealth and finding targets to help."

"Uhh, ok? Id like to know that too, but why did you join the military? If you were trying to stop the war it wouldnt make sense to help fight it."

"I didn't know I wanted to do this until only a few months ago..." she paused then continued a few seconds later, " we're gonna be flying for awhile, if you could come here for a sec so I can unlock your cuffs, you'll need to put them back on once we get to the equestrian barrier, more of a precaution than anything else,"

"Ya know, if you unlock these I could just as easily hijack this thing"

"Im just going to trust you," I scooted to her and presented the cuffs, she pressed a small jewel into a divet on it and the cuffs unlocked.

"You still haven't told me who you are"

"Im Aurora, Aurora Australis, now may I ask your name? Grim reaper isn't much of a name"

"Daron....nice to meet you... I guess"
****
In a few hours I could see the barrier in the distance, from what I heard, most of the eastern seaboard was a warzone, and it certainly was, off to the side I could see the little red beams of light from tracer rounds and tank shells. Aurora spoke up as soon as we were a few miles from the barrier.

"Put these on and act unconcious, it'll make it easier to get you through" I nodded and did as she told, because although my trust in this mare was limited, it was much better than being converted or chucked into a mine to work my ass off. I did my best to look haphazardly thrown in as she neared the dome. Outside I heard talking and then the rear door was opened, I heard a hoof land near my head and some talking above me.

"Please explain the items in your vehicle miss..." i heard an unfammiliar voice say.

"The weaponry is war souvenirs, the human is going to be my servant" I heard Aurora Hopefully lie.

"Are you positive he won't wake up too soon" the border guard said before nudging me with a hoof.

"He was pumped full of drugs before I took him, he shouldn't wake up for another few days"

"Fine, go on through"

"Thank you officer, " the doors closed once more and the magic van thing took off again. I waited a few minuted before getting up and plopping my butt in the shotgun seat, and watched the many ships and pegasi flying along below and above.

"Welcome to 'Equestria', Or at least the territory in your world, it's real sad that this happened, I wish it could have turned out differently"

"Same..." The rest of the trip was spent in silence, I pulled the same trick as passing the force field, and Aurora motioned me to look with her.

"Welcome to Equestria.... Although I wish the circumstances were different..." I looked out across the horizon and saw some things that i never thought i would get the chance to, The Capital City of canterlot, which was somehow plastered to the side of a giant mountain, the flying cloud city of Cloudsdale floating around off near a little town by a giant forest, all of these were advertised in various Pre War brochures advertising vacations and summer homes. The van turned towards cloudsdale and what was a blury blob of vaguely building shaped clouds with a weid rainbow thing on one part became a bustling city filled with pegasi and other flying creatures, like griffons. In the brochure i thought this couldn't possibly exist....but here I was flying past it in a flying van...

A few minutes later the van parked in the garage of a small house on the outskirts of the city. Aurora shut down the van and relaxed a bit.

"Stay here, you wont be able to walk on clouds until I give you an enchanted gem" within a few minutes she came back with a softly glowing blue gemstone on a piece of leather cord and handed it to me.

"So with this little magic doodad i wont fall to my death?"

"That's right" I donned the gemstone and got out, and to my suprise, I could walk on clouds.

"Duuuude, thats cool." i smiled like a child as i walked around on the soft fluffy cloud flooring.

"The gemstone is temporary, you'll get a more permanent solution soon enough, your gear is in those duffle bags, Ill go tell my friends about their new roommate." she walked off, I collected my bags and walked to the door into the house, internally i was still smiling About the whole "walking on clouds" thing, it was just so damn cool.

Friends?

I stepped through the door between the garage and the house and was greeted with a cozy interior decorated with various banners and photos, I softly walked across the cloud floor and set my bags on the couch and waited, less than a minute later Aurora, and 2 mares and a griffon walked into the living room and introduced themselves.

"Daron, meet my herd,"

"Hello, I'm Cirrus, pleasure to meet you" she looked somewhat nerdy, she wore baggy sweats, black glasses, and a track jacket, her coat was a soft orangey-yellow, and her hair was dark shades of pink, red, and grey, making it look like a sunset.

"Im Gwendolyn, never met a human before..." Gwendolyn was a sooty grey and white, almost like ashes or a snowy owl, she was wearing a worn leather jacket and a set of torn up jeans.

"Im Copper....before you say anything about my name, my parents were in the mining industry." she was a bronze color in the coat department, her hair was appropriately copper colored

"Well its nice to meet all of you, im just pretty glad that im not being interrogated or attacked by you..." we all shook hands and i got a quick tour of the little house, I found it somewhat disturbing that I could see the ground by simply pulling a piece of cloud out of certain parts of the floor and looking down, being a pilot, I wasn't scared by that, the somewhat unnerving part was the fact that I didnt have a flying craft of any kind supporting me, only some clouds.

After the quick tour I was sat down at a "table" in the "basement", the table was a flattened lump of clouds, and the basement was just dug into the almost 50 foot thick layer of clouds composing the foundation of the whole city. Aurora moved some clouds away from a bulletin board as well as place a map on the table.

"Now I can actually discuss your purpose in this Daron, As you know I needed help un-earthing the mystery of the sudden betrayal of Equestria, we all know that it was sudden and was blamed on the humans, but we haven't seen any indication that it was actually their fault,"she then turned to her 'herd', "Daron here is a human I saved from Spitfire, he has agreed to help us by providing his expertise and advice. We'll come up with a game plan soon enough, but for now we need to get You," she pointed at me," settled and get your disguise set up."
****
In about 15 minutes i'd gotten settled into a spare room, the great thing about clouds is the fact that they can be reshaped, I molded them into a bed, table,a couple shelves, and a papasan-ish chair. I hollowed out the table and bed to allow me to stash my stuff there. Once I'd gotten everything put away, I heard a soft thundering from the door, yet another cool feature of clouds, they can be set up to make noise, great for doors to allow knocking, "Come in" I looked tonthe door and saw Aurora standing there with a small box.

"Daron, this is your 'disguise', before you comment on the size, let me tell you how it works....This disguise is magic in nature, it changes the physical structure of your body in a very similar way to the conversion syrum, although this won't change your brain in any way, nor is it permanent....unfortunately you don't really have a choice to not use it because of the issue of being in a place where humans arent very well welcomed." she opened the little box and showed me what was inside, a fingerless glove with a small device attached to the back of it, another small device in the shape of a small cylender with some small holes in it, and a large syringe filled with a somewhat questionable looking deep purple liquid, the conversion syrum was pink, but the similarity made me mentally recoil a bit. "The glove is the controller to switch between pony and human, the other device is going to be implanted in you to activate the transformation as well as to prevent failure or medical complications, and the syringe is obvious enough as the syrum."

"Uhh, what exactly will it do when i push the 'transform' button... I mean what will look like or how will i change?"

"He only thing thats certain is that you'll be a pegasus, and female, and before you freak out about that, it is necessary to bypass a weird law we have, In cloudsdale because of the limited space, we aren't allowed live with a stallion unless we're married to that stallion or during heat season, and even then we can only have one foal per 3 years to keep the population stable, so its just easier this way

"Oh...ok....I guess...im still mildly disturbed by it, but that helps a bit....and by the way, how does one implant that thing? Because im not entirely sure on your medical skill"

"Its magic, it should do it all on its own, and supposedly shouldn't hurt"

"One more question... Where did you get that?"

"I bought it from the black market and had it sterilized and certified by a friend in the medical industry who also simpathizes with the humans,"

"Well, whatever, as long as Im not dead or brainwashed after this."

"You won't be, probably just disoriented,"

"Alright I guess... Lets get this over with" Aurora gently placed the device on my abdomen just below my sternum and somehow activated it, I felt a slight jolt as it suddenly appeared in my chest cavity, I poked the area where I felt it and sure enough, i could feel the little cylinder. I put on the grayish glove next, on the back of it there were some small rectangles with some illegible lettering, there were also 2 small buttons, both were covered as to prevent accidental activation. Then the needle came next, ever since I was a kid i had feared big needles, as an adult I wasn't really too put off my them, but this needle was Really big, at least diameter wise, it was almost double the width of the largest needle I had ever been injected with, so I was understandably put off by this gargantuan needle, it was stabbed in, and the fluid injected, as soon as it was removed, a strip of gause was adhered to the hole and we waited. After 20 minutes the waiting came to a stop.

"Okay Daron, push the green button, the syrum should be distributed enough to work now"

"Here goes nothing" i pressed the button and felt pins and needles for a couple seconds while it did its dirty work, after the felling stopped I became aware of 2 new appendages, a set of legs with a radically different design,and a severe weirdness between my legs as well as a slew of other minor things. "Uhh, did it work?..... Do I still have all of my limbs?" my coat was a slightly. splotchy rusty orange color, and my hair was black,

"Yep, now try the red button to make sure the reverse works" I pressed the button again and after the pins and needles receded I felt normal again.

"Well I'm alive, tha'ts good, oh...one last little question....can I remove the glove while transformed?

"Yes, but why do you ask?"

"Stealth wise it sticks out like a sore thumb, i just want to make sure that I can stay concealed,"

"Ok, although you won't be able to use it unless you are wearing it."

"Good to know...." I removed the glove and put it in my pocket, after contemplating the implications of this once more i decided to get some much needed sleep. Before she left Aurora said something else about the device.

"Just another note... You don't have to wear the crystal anymore, the device will do that for you," I took off the bluish gem and was relieved when I didn't fall through to my imminent death. I stripped down to my boxers and flopped onto the lump of clouds that I dare call a bed, and fell asleep almost immediately.

Author's Note

As I said, completely different take on the TCB universe.

Breadcrumbs

"I don't mean to rain on your righteous parade but we still have no clue where to start, and you're already planning a large scale uprising," It had been about a day since i arrived in equestria, and I'd gotten information reporters would die to get their mitts on, media wise it was probably gold, but in terms of solving the mystery at hand it was essentially useless. Most of the information was on the subject of human treatment in equestria, the ones that 'weren't fit' to he converted were put in P.O.W. camps or sold into indentured servitude to ponies, this information being spouted had caused a pretty large discussion on what various places did to humans, and in turn sparked Gwendolyn to start scheming to bust out all of the war prisoners and go in guns blazing amd over throw the government.

"You're probably right, it just pisses me off to no end how a people we once called friends were so quickly turned into enemies, what's that mottow the Princess Purple and her little group uses? Oh right, Freindship is magic..... Where's the friendship now bitches!?" Gwen was getting pretty flustered about the subject again so we let her regain her cool before continuing.

"I think all of us can agree on that but we still need to figure out why it happened so we can effectively take who or whatever caused this out without a huge loss of life." I looked to everyone else as we all silently nodded.

"Why don't we just poke around canterlot for clues? 'seems like the easiest way to start." cirrus pointed out before returning to quiet contemplation. Cirrus turned out to be the little group's strategist as well as 'tech' specialist, ponies do have computers, although the method of operation is much different, aka magic based computing which i have yet to fully understand.

"Seems like the best plan we've had all day, lets try it, we still have a couple of hours till the visibility is too low to fly so we could do it tonight even... Does everyone agree with that?" Aurora spoke this time. She was the 'president' of our little group, considering it had been in existence for barely 6 months it still had no official name and only 5 members total. Everyone else agreed on the plan so we got to work making teams and gearing up

"Ill take copper and search the city for clues, Rusty and Gwen will search the network of underground establishments in the canterlot foundation, and Cirrus will provide any maginet assistence she can....sound good?" the room filled with a general noisenof agreement and we all geared up. "Rusty" was the nickname Copper had given me once she caught wind of the pony form I had gotten, I decided to run with it, since I hadn't come up with anything better. Copper was somewhat less talkative but she did have a knack for being very good at melee combat, at least by the information I had gotten from the rest of the group.

My arsenal was composed of homemade and black market guns, the rifles fired equestrian E-12 ammo, which is a 12 mm copper core bullet with a case similar in size to a 762/39, the "E" stood for enchantable. My gun was eerily similar to a shortened Czchech AK variant, copper got a homemade blowback pistol, Gwen got 2 12mm smg's which fired a the P-12 ammo which was a pistol calibur 12 mm cartridge, and aurora armed herself with a pocket revolver. Everyone packed up their gear into duffle bags and left for the nearest quiet place to leave from. I activated my disguise and realised that I had no clue how to fly.

"Uhh, not to be a downer but i dont know how to fly..."

"It doesn't take long to learn, converted pegasi, what everyone calls new foals, usually learn within a couple of hours of attempting part of it is instinct, the other is just figuring it out, you should do fine... If ya fall we'll grab ya before you become a splatter on the ground.

"Well I guess ill try..." I flexed my new wings a bit to make sure I knew how to control them then I flapped, within 10 minites I coild comfortably hover while holding my bag, not great but a start, and it was suprisingly less strain inducing to fly than I thought it would be. Once we got under way I eventually got the hang of flying at higher speeds and altitudes, I wasn't very fast but i could at least keep up.
****
After a 1 hour flight we 'landed' at canterlot, by landing I mean everyone else landing and me awkwardly hitting the ground and falling flat on my face. I also figured out that I was now extremely hungry and thirsty, So I got up and walked back to the group, which we still needed a name for. Soon we split up and Gwen and I headed for the underground portion of the city, and from what id learned on the flight here, it was apparently a cheaper place to live and work for Canterlot's middle and working classes, good for me because I didn't have much cash, only 20 bits, which was probably around 10 US dollars based on the exchange rate before the war.

The city was quite beautiful while it lasted, when we went underground there were only tunnels, we found a place to have sandwiches and sat down to discuss our next move. The food was cheap and tasty, even though as a human i never would have thought of flowers as tasty, I ended up getting 2 footlong ish sandwiches one was vegetarian the other had bacon and turkey, a large soda, and some chips, which I somehow ate which was a suprising revelation because as a human I could barely eat one footlong, much less 2, AND extras, my stomach was physically bloated and somehow I felt i could probably eat 2 more sandwiches no sweat. I had no idea how the meat would react but i didnt care as long as I could still eat bacon.t

"Hey Gwen?"

"Yeah?"

"How the hell can I eat so much?"

"Most pegasi can eat a lot because of a mildly stretchy throats and guts and a crop to store more food in, kinda like a bird. You could probably eat, 6 more sandwiches, if you put the extra 4 in your crop, like the flying youll figure it out,"

"Well thanks for the bio lesson, but we do need to get going"

"Agreed, lets try looking for the more obvious clues, like suspect propoganda, or asking around if anyone thinks the princesses have been acting weird,"

"Sounds good, lets also try asking around in the bars, because its more likely that someone will tell us something useful.

"Oh! By the way, if you want to know more ablut yourself, just borrow a pegasus biology book from the library.

"Got it, lets get started.
****
3 hours later we had'nt gotten much information, but we decided to regroup with the others to figure out what they got. My incompetence had gotten me some pretty weird looks but Gwen lied that I was just recently converted and was still figuring things out. I also figured out that pegasus metabolism was variable, when I was running or flying i would be hungry again within under an hour of eating, but when i was walking I could probably go for a week without any food or water before feeling the effects of dehydration or starvation. Id also figured out my crop and other pegasus physiological quirks, the main one being the lack of getting sore from exerting myself, I just got slightly tired and hungry.
*****
We regrouped back home and discussed our findings, which turned out to be pretty limited.

"So what do we have? Other than the realization that this is going to take a lot longer than we thought." Gwen made a dissapointed face as she said that.

" we grabbed some propoganda posters, and gleaned what we could from word of mouth, but unfortunately neither of those are really very useful." Aurora and copper laid out what they had on the table an then Cirrus piped up

" I found some online leads, nothing super concrete, but it's a start"

"Dig a little deeper, if you find anything promising we'll go from there, but for now I suggest we get some help." Aurora finished her sentence and drank some hot coffee, we had all been worn out by the constant walking and fruitless looking.

"Why dont we make a long term plan, because we aren't going to get anywhere quickly" aurora set down her coffee and pulled out a map.
*****
It was now pretty late in the evening almost 4 days later, we had been discussing long term strategies to solve this mystery, the humans and ponies had apparently come to a stalemate when the humans formed militias to take out the covert agencies in human territory, so we weren't in much of a rush to unearth the cause of this conflict, but as few lives wasted as possible would be preferable.

Our current plan was to put me in close proximity to Princess Twilight and her clique to gather information, the rest of the gang would stay in cloudsdale and continue their work. I would move to ponyville under the name Rusty Cogs and try to become friends with one of the 6 to gather information on behavior, their point of view pertaining to humans, and possibly formulate a plan to stop this madness. Money was obtained from Cirrus's bank account, because she was apparently pretty Rich, she also provided one of her older computer rigs form me to use for communication and research.

"Well... Seem's good enough, ill get my stuff packed, and get some plans put in place to move." I grabbed my coat and slung it over my shoulder, adjusted my shirt and ascended the stairs. I had remained in pony form almost exclusively, for fear of discovery, I was almost caught when Copper's parents showed up unexpectedly, I was in my room at the time but walked out and was almost seen by them, so id resolved to just remain in this form unless there was some pressing need to do so.

I heard some more discussing downstairs as I got my stuff together and packed it all into an old Griffin made pickup that used to be owned by Gwen, it was rusty but seemed to still work well enough to serve my purpose. I would leave tomorrow and hopefully find a house in ponyville by next week.
********
I was sad to have to leave these ponies and griffon, id barely known them but at least I could stay in contact through mail. Gwen looked the most sad.

"Well, Ill see ya later, ill write about what I find" I started the truck and felt it jitter a bit before pulling itself up. I saw Gwen come up to the side of the truck, she took one of her scaly talons and turned my face towards hers with it, then she kissed me....really passionately, how she could pull that off with a beak baffled me.

"Daron.... I think I love you, I know its a bit sudden but I do,"

"Uhhhhhh, wow.... I....I never knew....Ive had crush on you since I first met you...but I didn't think you felt the same..."

"It was similar with me, im not sure what it is but I just do, please don't get caught.... I want to see this through"

"I do too, Hopefully this can work.... Anyway, Ive got to go, see ya later!....Ill write" I had no idea Gwen liked me, but it was pretty welcome considering that I hadn't had a girlfriend since highschool, Today was a good day.

Fitting in.

Once I arrived in ponyville I was just about assaulted by the somewhat infamous Pinkie Pie, she was disturbing...and dangerous with a rolling pin, as learned by an unfortunate man I worked with by the name of Joseph, poor bastard was clubbed and dragged off before he could pull his gun. She immediately barraged me with herself when she jumped through the open window of the truck and sprawled out onto me and the rest of the front bench seat.

"Hiya! Im Pinkie! Who are you?! " She got comfortable on top of me as i attempted to answer the crazy pink thing that jad just assaulted me. She wore a pair of really short shorts which were pretty close to revealing everything, and a cut down T-shirt which didn't leave much to the imagination, on it were bright pink letters spelling out "LIFE OF THE PARTY!!"

"Uhhh, hi? Im Rusty.... Do you mind telling me why you're in my truck?

"I need to get to know you, silly... Are you moving here?"

"Uhhhh, yeah?"

"WOOOOOO!!!!...... I need to get a party ready!!!" she hugged me awkwardly and jumped back through the window. I recollected myself and continued driving until I got to the small house that Cirrus found, I was glad that during our extended planning session that Cirrus had done most of the complicated stuff and had found a relatively cheap flat only a few minutes from the giant eye sore of a castle... In the travel ads from before the war, the castle looked ugly, in person however, the feeling of distaste at the giant shiny thing in the middle of town was only multiplied by it's rediculous size. It was huge and hard to take seriously from any distance.

After a quick tour from the seller of the house, I bought it with the supplied money and moved in, and was amazed at what i got for the equivalent of 2000 US dollars, in ponyville houses were dirt cheap, probably because of the giant eye sore, or the social paradigm, or some other weird reason, which was rumored to be frequent disasters... but if I can buy a house for the cost of an old used car, that's always a win in my book, the house came with some basic stuff, mostly the crap the previous owner didn't bother to take or the stuff that was brought in to increase the sell value, aka; an old couch in the basement, a really heavy looking old safe, a few boxes of who knows what in the crawlspace beneath the stairs,an old bed frame which probably weighed as much as a battleship, an old fridge, a gas range-oven- thing, some kind of washing machine, and a dishwasher. Since the previous owners had provided me with most of the stuff i needed, all I needed was a TV, some chairs, and a good place to hide secret stuff.

The house lacked an attached garage, but it did have a large shed in the backyard, which would hopefully be large enough to put the truck in, I would have to wait till I got a mattress and some other furniture stuff to find out.
*****
It had been well over 5 hours since I moved in, I'd obtained a mattress for the immovable bedframe, along with some cheap chairs, a few equestrian burner phones, a coffee table, TV, a few bottles of something that looked like vodka, some cheap kitchen stuff, And some of what I can only assume was what college students would eat on this planet. I was exhausted and sore, but at least I would be able to begin the mission officially tomorrow.
*****
I had slept like a brick, and woke up at around 8-ish, I got up, and realised that I fell asleep in the clothes I wore yesterday, nothing new, considering that during some of my longer contracts back on earth I would basically live in my SUV. I stretched a bit and smoothed out my somewhat wrongly sized clothes as best I could, and had some cheap dollar store cereal for breakfast. My agenda for today would be simple....ish, I would kill a lot of birds with far fewer stones, aka. I would get some properly fitting clothes and possibly talk to Rarity, the seamstress, then I would go to Princess Twilight, or as the MHM refer to her, the Damsel of Damnation, and find some books on how to use the equestrian computer, and then Id do some plotting and scheming in the basement, pass out on the couch and hopefully wake up in the same place as I went to sleep.
****
"Impromotu agenda item 1...uhh... clothes" While I was running around yesterday, I had also obtained a map of ponyville from town hall, it wasnt the best of maps, but it served its purpose well enough to direct me to Rarity's boutique, because the only place I coud get clothes in this town was her, and it was convinient for me because I could get some information discretely.

I didn't bother with the truck and walked, it was pretty close so flying was not really worth the effort either, I walked up to the door and gave it a firm shove. The door swung in and rang a little bell above the frame, a few seconds later I heard some footsteps as the white mare known as Rarity walked up to greet me, she as one of the lowest ranked danger and reputation wise, Earth was glad enough to have one less pony out for blood or glory, in fact she was hardly ever seen on earth, pre or during the war. She wore a simple blouse and skirt, as well as some red framed glasses, she was a few inches taller than me and she semed to observe me with a scrutinising eye.

"Welcome to Carousel Boutique, I am Rarity, how may I assist you?"

"Hello, Im Rusty, I'm gonna need a few pairs of basic clothes, these don't fit all that well"

"Let me take a few measurements.... I don't think i've had the pleasure of meeting you before, While I work do tell me a little bit about yourself....Oh, I almost forgot, how many and what kind of clothes do you need, if you need prices, they are on this here" she handed me a piece of paper with the prices neatly written out.

~~>>0<<~~
Prices for basic clothing

Shirt. ~~B~~ 3 each
Jacket. ~~B~~ 4 each
Pants. ~~B~~ 4 each
Sleepwear/underwear ~~B~~ 2 each
Simple hat ~~B~~ 3

each

The prices went on into the more convoluted stuff but I decided to go simple and ask for a set of jeans, a hoodie, a t-shirt, a bandana, and a ballcap. I told rarity my request and she immediately got to work, the pace at which she did could give a factory machine a run for it's money, AND she could somehow keep up a concersation at the same time.

"So Darling, going back to what I said before, Please would you tell me about yourself darling?" I had to make up something that sounded plausible.... Saying that I just moved here from some random place wouldn't explain the clothes I were currently wearing, and I didn't know enough about this place either. So I decided to say that I was recently converted...that should explain enough.

"Not much to say really, I was converted about 2 weeks ago and I lived with a foster family for that time to get accustomed to life here, then I moved to this little town..." Not necessarily wrong but enough to sound plausible from her point of view.

"Interesting....Darling, do tell why you did you do it? It seems like most of your former kind simply resist and fight it, we haven't had many new arrivals lately..."

"Mostly out of nicessity, and to not be completely wiped clean... My neighborhood was very close to the barrier and I heard that the bureaus didn't completely wipe the memories of the ones they converted, so I left and hoped that It wouldn't get much worse." Again a lie but plausible enough, and the thing about they syrum is true, the bureau stuff only converts and partially brainwashes the recipient as to retain the original personality while convincing them subconciously that the humans are the enemy, the stuff their military uses is much more potent, it still does the obvious but it completely reprograms the victim's brain, it supresses or changes the memories and adjust's the personality to be complient and loyal to the ponies, and it works much faster. The only visible difference is the color, the bureaus use pink and the military uses blue.

"Well I personally think you made the right choice darling, that reminds me of another cli........" she started to ramble about other ponies or events, nothing was particularly helpful, so I just tuned it out and listen just enough to respond and sound like I'm actually listening to her gossip and random crap.

An hour later she finished my clothes and I paid her with some of the limited bits I was given to hold myself over until I got a job. The plan that the rest of the gang and i had come up with was for me to look inconspicuous and act normal while discretely gathering info and looking for anything out of the ordinary, such as weird habits or thd like, and communicating through the equestrian equivalent of the deep web to remain undetected.

"Thank's!" I left the boutiquenwith my new clothes and walked back home. I changed into the correctly sized clothes and put everything else in a cardboard box, as I didn't have a dresser. I went back out to get lunch an talk to Twilight and get a book on equestrian computers. The castle was farther away so I decided to fly. Flying without the aid of an aircraft Is a very strange experience, turning and maneuvering are pulled off in similar fashion to a plane but the quiet without an engine and the wind in the face makes the expirience almost unreal. I landed at Twilight's place and knocked, while I waited I wondered why she still used the lower levels as a library....I had come to the conclusion of extreme dedication to books when the door opened and revealed a large-ish lizard boy answering the door.

"Come on in, I'm afraid that Princess Twilight is a little buisy, if you needed to talk to her you'll have to wait" he seemed toleramt enough, although I did hear a somewhat stressed out note in his voice, as if something had recently caised him a great deal of emotional pain... I would investigate this later.

"Thanks... I'll just find the book I need to borrow" he nodded and quietly padded off up a staircase. If i needed to be stralthy here i was currently failing, with human legs and feet i could be extremely quiet on similar floors, but with the different leg geometry which was much better for speed than climbing or stealth, and a solid hoof, I was pretty noisy. At least the books were organized in an easy to understand manner and I found a book explaining the equestrian computer systems, a technical manual, and a book full of commands. I also found a book on magical electronics and how to construct them. I stacked up the books and waited at a small table in the middle of the room.
****
It had been about 30 minutes and I felt a tap on my shoulder, I looked up from the book I was reading and swung my head around to face the purple pony Princess patiently poking my shoulder.

"Sorry for the wait, I had buisiness to attend to, I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all, although I do have some things I would like to borrow"

"Let me just scan those and you can be on your way!" a purple beam hit the stack of books and waved over them several times before it ceased only a second later. "By the way, what do you need all of those books for? Ive only had a select few other ponies borrow so many books"

"I got a new computer and I need ot figure out how to use the thing, and how to maintenance It."

"Oohh, interesting, what model is it? I personally have a CEC mark 3 that I use for logging my research

"I thing it was an LEI model 47, but I got it used and it has been heavily modified, so i don't know the specs, It's being delivered today so i don't have any expirience either" Cirrus had given me one of her old rigs to use while undercover, it was a behemoth and delecate, so I decided against hauling it in the truck.

"Isn't that a server grade setup?"

"Yes but I think the modifications to it were to allow it to run the standard Home OS"

"I'd like to know your name, you seem like a mare I would want to get to know better"

"I'm Rusty, pleasure to meet you princess" Success, I got to know twilight a bit better

"Send me a message over the magi-net when you get your computer running, we can talk then"
****
The computer was huge, it was composed of 2 server cabinets, 3 giant screens, a ton of individual computing units to put in the cabinets, 2 keyboards, a weird helmet which I assumed was Virtual reality, And some kind of large and very complicated looking laser-ish thing which wasn't labeled with anything but MM CONVERT on the list. Everything was neatly boxed up in pieces with a parts list and hand written setup instructions taped to one of the crates. I began to carefully inch each one to the basement, and within 30 minutes and several pinched fingers and splinters, I had unpackaged the parts and laid them out near the old couch.

In 3 hours Id assembled and hooked up the computer itself and its normal-ish peripherals. I opened the cabinet doors and started flicking on the units within, each one revved up it's fans and by the time I turned all of them on it sounded like a muffled jet engine spooling up, not deafening but certainly loud, the large echoey cabinets didn't help with the noise either. I sat down in the chair I put in front of the behemoth and turned on the screens, Soon the screen flashed a picture of the manufacturer's logo. It depicted the words LUNAR ENGINEERING INCORPORATED, in large silvery letters, the fIrst letter of each word were much larger than the rest, and the whole backdrop was that of the night sky

Now I was going to move on to the large Tron-laser looking thing, I read the manual taped to it and almost immediately realised that it was in essence the opposite of the tron laser, rather than putting stuff in the computer, this thing was basically an extremely sophisticated 3d printer.... raw materials go in front of it and it reconfigures the molecules into the template... at least that's what the first few pages said.

I sent Twilight a message through the program which resembled an IRC chat room, the only minor difference being the ability to find and message anyone by name alone.

RC>I got the computer assembled<I sent the message off and waited...

TS>Excellent, Now I can get a hold of you. So how's the new computer?< she responded a couple minutes later...

RC>It's Great, albeit a bit noisy<

TS>That's good, What OS does it use?< I moved the page aside and pulled up the computer's spec card.

RC>LuLu P.7.7, it's pretty slick, what about your's?<

TS>Mine uses Solus OS version 3.5.7

RC>Cool. Anyway, changing the Subject, Id like to know some more about yourself, Ive heard rumors ane read news but im not sure if they're true.<
*****
I'd chatted with Twilight for about an hour before leaving the chatroom, I closed the window and opened the Changeling deep Magi-net browzer, Cirrus was nice enough to leave everything set up and to include instructions on how to use the browzer and it's features. After a bit of time fooling around with the program I sent an encrypted chat message to Cirrus's computer.

D.R.> Hey Cirrus, it's Rusty, I got the computer set up,<

C>cool, Just start digging around... anything helps, just be careful on any webservers operated out of canterlot<

D.R.> Alright... May as well check around the web for anyone else wanting revolution"

C> Good idea, im going to terminate the connection now, good luck<

A hopefully not normal day

The Magi-net is much like the internet, including the dark and dangerous world that lies below it's friendly enough exterior. I have been scowering the various levels of the net for about 4 weeks looking for anything remotely unusual, and up until now I've found very little relevent material, until I found some very suspect looking archived chat records buried in an abandoned database contained within a server unit somewhere in canterlot, I found over 30 separate and disturbing conversations between two anonymous ponies, all of them pertaining to weapons shipments, ideas for infiltration and invasion, or other suspect topics, one of them said something about some kind of creature called a changeling and a request for a means to turn normal creatures into them. I copied the portions of the chats that weren't corrupted and retreated from the database while covering my tracks, it was a huge lead but I still had no location of origin or any identification.
****
I had been in ponyville long enough to seem inconspicuous enough, about 4 weeks to be more specific, ive only transformed back to my human form once just for the sake of having feet, I also realised I jad a butt-picture thing,...what were thay called again?... Cutie marks? Yeah i think that's it, I noticed it after I swapped into pony clothes, it looked like a hackjob of a laptop with some unintelligible code onscreen, whatever the fuck it meant was a mystery. Gwen and I had been keeping in touch and Im confident that we are officially BF GF, although by the world's point of view we were a homosexual couple. Today's agenda would include testing the laser thing and meeting with Twilight to fix her computer.
******
First on my agenda was Twilight, mostly because it gave me a chance to plant a bug in her computer, so I could tell wether I could trust Twilight at all or if she was just another of the many enemies I had managed to accumulate.

I walked to her place with some screwdrivers, lockpicks, and the bug in my pocket, the bug was basically a microphone and a transmitter wired into a parasitic lead that I would plug into one of the internal ports. I gave the door a firm knock and was greeted with a muffled call to wait a second. I heard a deadbolt being unlocked and was greeted with twilight smiling at me like a crazy person.

"You said something about your computer not working?" I said immediately after she opened the door."

"I broke something and I've tried everything to fix it, buuut it didn't work so I used my Hphone to send you a message to come and take a look.... Phew" she spatmout the entire sentance in one breath and looked at me with somewhat pleading eyes.

"Lemme take a look..." she led me inside and down into her basement, it contained tons of equipment and scientific instruments. She then pointed to the chunky white brick sitting on her desk, the computer was a combined unit, having the cpu, screen, and keyboard all built into the same case, I approached the brick and looked it over, the case was thick metal plating and the screen was curved like that of a tube tv.

"Uhhh, how old is this thing?"

"Ive had it since I was 14, Celestia gave it to me for research, and I've updated it ever since.... It means a lot to me, so please don't break it,"

"Got it, Ill get started on this, you probably have other things planed so I don't expect you to stay"

"Okay, ill be working on some spells upstairs, come and get me if you need anything" I turned the computer around and whipped out my screwdriver, unscrewed the rear part of the case and looked inside, most of what I could see was dust. I found a vacuum in the corner and blasted out most of it, being rewarded with a clean computer, a giant dust cloud, and some stinging lungs. I checked everything over and found something i could relate to, something popped out, it looked like a ram stick, input it back in it's slot and clipped it in, then I took the bug and plugged into a pci-esque port between the power supply and the motherboard and resealed the case.

"Now I wish I had an easy button" I went upstairs and tried to find Twilight.

"I fixed it!" I yelled up and heard someone yell something down

"Okay, you can leave if you'd like" so I did just that, walked back home and plugged my end of the bug into the computer and left it to record.
****
The laser, was pretty complicated and slow to use, but it was doing something. I'd just plugged it in as the manual said, and also got to learn a bit about equestrian engineering, because ponies apparently could wire magic as well as electricity to homes to power various things.
After hokling up the rest of the 8 bazillion cables I got an onscreen prompt, I clicked into it and was rewarded with a window dizplaying the build area and the current blueprint, as well as meters labeled "power" and "available magic" both were currently full, i looked to the computer and saw it display a message reading '[PRINT TEST] [yes] [no]', I pushed Yes and moved away from the buisiness end and watched in awe as it did.... jack diddly squat for 2 whole minutes, then I heard fans speed up and finally saw it do something, it outlined a cube and began to fill it in, within a few seconds it finished printing it's equivalent of a test page.

"That was kinda cool..." I walked 2 steps and picked up the cube which was hovering in front of the machine, it was composed of many little sections, some of them were different materials and others were different colors or shapes, onscreen it displayed a message that read 'complete' and then promptly opened software for the device, I looked it over and closed it out. I decided to mess with it later and instead go out to find some heavy duty locks to keep my basement secure, and begin looking for work.
****
I came back an hour later with some pretty tough locks and mounting brackets, they were supposedly resistent to magic attacks, impacts, drilling, cutting, and picking, and they also protected the door with a force field, the cost me nothing but a small chunk of my sanity, but, it was worth it if nobody got downstairs, the locksmith was a perv and since I was the only one there at the time told me that I could have the locks for free If I 'showed him the goods', I didn't really care all that much about my dignity as a pony, but it was downright creepy to watch him look my bare chest over, as well as watching him reach down.... At that point he was nice enough to let me leave with the box of 4 locks, and as soon as I left the store he locked everything up with magic and closed the blinds, probably to go and Jack himself off. When I got home I installed the locks and went back out to get myself a pack of beer and comtinue asking around for jobs.
*****
I was hired by the local bar as their maitenance guy and part time bartender on night shifts. It seemed to be the only place willing to hire me, everyone else turned me down for one reason or other, and It probably had something to do with my butt mark, because everyone wanted to see a picture of it and a quick verbal schpiel about why I wanted a job there, rather than the traditional resumé and cover letter. I could assume the problem was the mark being misaligned with the job I was applying for, at the very least the bar didn't care as much, so long as I could make drinks and listen, the former I could do relatively well, the latter was the reason I was here in the first place. Another plus was the benefit of employee discounts on booze.
****
After I arrived home, I checked the bug recorder and found only the occasional echo or enquiring "hmmm", I exited the computer lair again and made myself some cheap ramen-ish food and proceded back to the basement to whittle away the hours messing with the magic printer.
****
The next day I had figured out that the printer was slow but quite precise, and could print with Immaculate detail...but only after i dickerd about with it for 4 hours to improve quality. I was glad I had the late shift because that meant I got to sleep till noon. Once I awoke I cleaned up, put on the very obligatory looking uniform, packed some food, did some normal websurfing until 4 in the afternoon. and headed out.

The truck fortunately had a ground mode, albeit the suspension was crap it worked and looked pretty cool while I was at it. I arrived at the local bar, which was named "ol waterin' hole pub", I walked in and put my small Adidas pack (i would usually keep ammo in it but for now it was a makeshift lunch bag and purse-ish thing), and set myself up in the back room and waited for a couple minutes for the rest of the night shift to file in so the shifts could change over. After 2 minutes a thick set stallion with a short beard showed up and sat down at the little table near the door to the back room, which also seemed to serve as the breakroom, The stallion was wearing a similar uniform to me, black shirt, black slacks, and a little apron-pocket-thing around his waist. Another 5 minutes and an earth pony mare of bright yellow hue rushed in the door just before she would be considered late for her shift, punched in, and promptly flopped into the other chair at the tiny little table.

"Heh, lime, we got us 'nother owl ta keep us company" the thick set stallion said in a mildly stereotypical texan accent.

"Oh....cool.....lemme see her" she panted between a few words but soon pulled herself together enough to get up and greet me."Hi, Im Lime as you probly heard, that's chuck, who are ya and why'd ya get a job here?"

"I go by Rusty, and I got a job here because I can mix human drinks, and fix stuff for cheap...and because no one else would hire me"

"Fancy...where'd ya learn to do that?"

"I lived and worked with them for most of my life up till now, I was converted about half a year ago" I hoped my little thrown together answer would be enough.

"How'd ya remember all of your recipes? I thought the conversion stuff mixed up your brain?"

"It does...although it isn't as potent at one would be led to believe....and I wrote the recipes down on a cheap notepad before I left"

"Huh...anyway... Our shift is starting, we should probly get out there" she turned to leave and I followed out into the bar, my job was to fix whatever someone broke, or to mix up one of the human made cocktails that I knew if someone ordered it.
****
The first day was pretty lack luster, nobody ordered the stuff I could mix, but I did get to tinker with a cooler when it decided to croak, it was fixed within 20 minutes, 19 of those minutes were figuring out what in the fuck was going on, the other one minute was actually solving the issue...which happened to be a chewed up power lead between the case and the....cooler thingy, although I did get some good opinions on bow humans were viewed in equestria, several ponies remained open minded about the issue, although most seemed to be pretty sold on the idea that we were supposedly evil unless we were turned into ponies or some other obviously government propogated idea. The rest I asked usually just spouted an outright quote from the Conversion bureau ads that Id seen around occasionally on earth. It reminded me of home, and how glad I was that I was living in a place where most people are either well armed, or smart enough to question the stuff being thrown at us by the ponies, the US government was having a hard time keeping some places out of pony control, places like california and some parts of the eastern seabord were rapidly swayed to helping or tolerationg ponies, and subsequently allowed the bureaus in those areas to gain quite the following, the government couldn't really help on the scale needed because of the more pressing matter of the impending doom bubble approaching, the police and coast guard couldn't cope with the numbers, so those places were occupied by ponies and were eventually closed off from the rest of the US, in Colorado, Texas, and several other states, militias forced the bureaus to back off almost immediately after the initial attacks, I had no clue as t the condition of the rest of the world, but I could hazard a guess that it was doing well enough to keep earth and Equus, at a firm stalemate.
Once I pulled up to my house and parked my truck in my front yard, I was really feeling like some food, and sleep, but unfortunately i found out that a certain pink prick had decided to cancel those plans, because, as soon as I opened the door, I got a cannon-ful (because that is apparently a valid measurement here) of confetti to my face and general front side

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" I really didnt have the patience for this shit.

"I told ya that I was throwing a party!" the pink mare said flippantly as she tried to drag me in.

"I thought, Breaking And entering Was FUCKING ILLEGAL!?"

"Its a party! Dont be such a sour puss.." she made a weird pout face before she forcibly dragged me inside and chucked me onto my dingy couch next to several other invaders of my property. Considering what her info file had said, I would just have to wait until she left, because I quote "She is either rediculously stubborn, extremely stupid, or some combonation thereof." to be fair the party was set up well, but it didn't help the fact that she had broken and entered, at least She hadn't broken into my computer lair...thank fuck. I found the stiffest drink I could on the table and began the process of plastering myself.
*****
I woke up on my couch with a completely knocked out pinkie awkwardly flopped across my abdomen and the top of the couch, I smacked her upside the head and woke her up.

"Owie....what'ja do that for?"

"You broke into my house, and now you have to clean up your fucking mess." I went to go get coffee as i heard a huge racket behind me...

"All done!" she beamed at me while I stared completely shitfaced the now clean house, just as it was before she entered.

"How in the fuck?!" Pinkie had somehow managed to basically make any evidence that she was ever here, just flat out disapear... The only remnants being a couple housewarming gifts stacked by the door to the basement and herself just standing there

"Seeya later aligator!" she left without a trace and left me sitting there trying to comprehend why she used such an outdated method of saying goodbye, and just about everything else about the Creepy pink pony that had just left.

"Note to self:if I ever have anything to do with her before I croak, It will be too soon..."

Author's Note

I was tired and couldn't be bothered to improve the chapter, or edit it that much, so i just posted it...I might fix it later, but no promises.

new hole to dig

It had taken me a whole day to recover from pinkie's shenanigans, but i was pulling through. The housewarming gifts if gotten from a few of the guests at the party consisted mostly of decor stuff like a painting of a forest or a mexican-style blanket that resembled some of the ones I decided to use as impromptu seat covers in years past. The only exeption to the decor or household stuff was a few assorted books on magic engineering (why these specific books is a mystery), and a taser-ish device that had ironically written on it "human deterrent", It rubbed me tha wrong way a bit to see the companies of this world producing specifically anti human devices, but it would be ironic and mildly amusing to zap the crap out of a pony with this thing. After i set upmthe new decor stuff and put the blanket over the worn out truck seat, I began my day officially. I had something to eat and began the process of searching for, and narrowing down leads, the creepy conversation nagged at my brain ever since I had read it, and after tracing it back to the server I found it stored in, and started up a search algorithm that would check all of the connections the original users could have used to access the server tower, the algorithm would take several hours to make it's search, and including the proxies and various security programs, it would take even longer, so I let the program run on most of the processors and left a couple open for other things and left it to work its magic.

While the kraken as i'd begun to call it did it's job, I decided to look into the books I'd recieved. Ths first of the three was explaining equestrian electronics and how to make runes, there were several runic languages and each seemed to have a different purpose. The second book had the basics of programming crystals and various other things pertaining to the programming or reprogramming of magic, and the final one was a book of projects and modification ideas. I already knew what to do with these...

I decided that I should probably stop by cloudsdale and drop in on our little resistance group before changing my search to canterlot and the higher up officials, from what Id gleaned, Twilight was only a pawn being used to some end higher up the ladder, mostly based on her almost immediate compliance to her teacher (gotten from electronic copies of letters) and her temperment towards newcomers,
*****
Edge of Cloudsdale housing district.

I landed the truck in front of the house and gave a solid knock on the door.

"Who Is It?" I heard aurora yell from across the flat.

"It's Rusty!"

"Come on in!" I turned the knob and walked into the somewhat familliar little house and entered the basement where I saw the 4 familliar faces I knew, accompanied by a couple strangers sitting around the basement table, one was a white pegasus with tiny wings that looked like he was on steroids, the other was a brown earth pony wearing a cloudwalking gem.

"Hello......who are these guys?" I waited for a couple secomds before I was introduced.

"Rusty, these are our newest resistance members, buff biceps, and Doctor T. Hooves,"

"Nice to meet you both.... I will get to know you a little better later, but first, I have some things to discuss.
****
For security reasons, we sent the newcomers upstairs before i began to discuss my findings.

"I am changing my search direction, the short of it is, that although I will still be keeping the 6 under close watch, I will be focusing on getting information from the higher up government officials, and possibly the other princesses.

"Thanks for the update.... Buuuuut...is there anything you have found out in ponyville? Aurora asked with a bit of a pointed look

"Twilight, although she lit the fuse to war, she is most likeley being manipulated by someone else, her letters are mostly just saying yes to orders, or notifying someone of the order's completion, and her personality seems like the type to lean towards friendship and the opportunity for scientific research, both would be comprimised by starting a war, so I can reasonably assume that she is a pawn, just a good hunch, but it seems sound."

"Seems logical... Although, how do you plan on getting at magically encoded or locked stuff without being able to use magic, the nobles are notorious for over the top security."

"Either I find a tool to use magic, make one, use runes, or figure out how to break the laws of biology, point is, Im not leaving yet and I will make sure to find a way to do so before I start making trips,"

"Ok, just don't get caught, we wouldn't want to loose our best marksmare" gwen gave me a wink and a little smile before I responded.

"Ill be back....hopefully with all of the parts I had when I left,"

"You better, or else were screwed.....no pressure," copper gave me a sarcastic look before she looked to cirrus and nodded.

"I think we've discussed everything at the moment, other than bad leads and dead ends, Ive found nothing on my searches of public websites, or the deep net sectors that Ive searched, so I think we can adjourn, oh... And Rusty, whooves and biceps are under your complete command in ponyville, we should have more members soon, we've started asking some other small militias from fillydelphia, and a few very pissed off zebras to join our cause, so Ill keep you up to date on that, as well as who to avoid, now.... If everyone agrees, lets get back out there." everyone got up and went off to continue their work, I went home and began packing up for a trip to canterlot.