Matt Deckland was sitting at his worn in couch as the news played on his television. He sat there... unmoving, nearly catatonic it seemed. As he stared down at his half-bowl of cereal and watched it slowly turn to mush he remained unmoving. This was the last of the EDIBLE food in his house and the meager amount left in the box could barely qualify for a meal.
As he sat there unmoving his mind raced a mile a minute. Questions of doubt, what was he doing? What was he THINKING quitting his job. Sure it wasn't the best job, a low-rate desk job answering phones for most of the day... and SURE his boss had exploded on him for the millionth time that week... but still... should he have broken down like that? He admitted, yelling at that stuck up woman and telling her what for felt good but now what... What if he couldn't go through with it... then what?
Finally he moved. Collapsing his head into his cupped palms he let out a deep sigh and groaned to himself. Speaking quietly to himself he muttered. "What am I doing?...."
He looked down at what was now a colorful mess of soggy and fallen apart cereal that had once held a stale crunch to it but now had made a permanent pact with the last of his milk. Sighing to himself he scooped up the bowl, never having taken a bite and carried it over to the kitchen. Dropping the blue plastic bowl down into the sink, a bit of milk shot back up into the air before landing scattered in the metal basin, the spoon tipped over the side of the bowl and clinked on the bottom of the sink where it lay to rest.
Matt turned the water on and watched the water run down into the bowl filling it after a few seconds and watched as the watered-down milk soon overflowed over the sides of the bowl. He let the water just run for a while… most likely no more than a minute but time seemed to move at a snail’s pace for him right now. Eventually he grabbed the side of the bowl and tipped it upwards, sending the contents of the bowl spilling into the sink and down the drain. The spoon nearly met the same fate as the soggy cereal but caught itself, lying neatly over the hole. Grabbing the sponge from the other half of the sink and the half-empty container of dish soap, Matt began to clean out the bowl and followed suit by cleaning the spoon. When he had finished he laid the utensil and bowl on the drying rack, unsure if he would ever see them again, or return later to put them away in their rightful homes in the cabinet and utensil drawer respectively.
As he proceeded along his normal daily routine he shuffled into the bedroom. “Modest” was nearly a compliment for his fairly uneventful sleeping quarters. A queen sized bed lay against the far wall, the sheet unmade and in a mess from the restless night prior. He proceeded to pull the sheets up to the top and straightened them with a quick smoothing of his hand over the top of the bed. Next were the pillows, just two of them, both discarded earlier in the night to the floor. Placing them back on the bed in their rightful place, the task was complete.
Finally Matt made his way to the bathroom that lay to the left of his bed. Not much to do in here, he had already taken advantage of the stand-up shower earlier when he had awoken. A quick brushing of his teeth and he was finished in there. He proceeded over to his tiny closet back in the bedroom and took the gray wind-breaker off the hangar in there. Placing it on over his grey, long-sleeved shirt, he zipped it up and stood there staring blankly into his closet.
He took this time to reflect on the articles of clothing he possessed. A light gray ski-jacket, still much too early to wear that; a black hoodie with the logo of that one skate-apparel company sewn into the right side over the chest; a white sweatshirt with the name of that sporting goods store labeled on the chest; and another wind breaker, brown and with his last name and the number 18 labeled on the back, his “number” in the company baseball team. After a long time of reflection on each of the articles of clothing, Matt closed the door to his closet slowly and headed for the front of his apartment.
On his way to the front door, maybe only 15 steps from the door of his bedroom, he looked over through his living room out at the balcony. The balcony… it had once seemed so useless when he first bought the apartment, but nowadays, he spent most of his free time on it, just staring out at the park across the street for hours on end. Stopping his trip to the front door, Matt changed direction and headed over to the sliding glass door of his balcony.
Stepping out onto the cement flooring, he took one more step and reached his old friend, the comfortable wicker chair with the little cushion on the seat. He allowed himself the time to appreciate it as he had so many times before. Easing down into the chair, Matt stared out at the park before him and listened to the sounds that greeted him. The sounds of geese in the sky squawked as they migrated south for the coming winter months, cars drove by underneath him thee stories below, the sound of the brisk Fall wind breezed by him and chilled his ears and nose slightly. Closing his eyes, Matt allowed his other senses freedom as a he sighed slightly and continued thinking at an incredible speed. However, just for now, as he basked in the cool Fall air, and listened to the sounds around him, his thoughts slowed, just a little.
A good two hours later, the sun stood over head signaling the approximate noon. Matt was jostled back to reality by the sounds of a car horn on the streets below, three quick beeps and then nothing more. Most likely somebody stopped at a green light unaware, he was not quick enough to check, nor did he care to even get up to do so. However, with a deep sigh, Matt hoisted himself up from his chair slowly and turned around to face it. A look in his eyes gave the sense of someone saying goodbye to a dear companion. After a moment of saying his possible farewells, Matt opened the glass doors to his apartment again and headed inside.
A survey around his apartment provided no answers to the hundreds of questions he had. Just the sights of a dusty game console that had not been touched in ages, his black laptop that lay on his coffee table, closed and password protected (as always), a bowl and a spoon dry and waiting to be put in their proper place, a Flat Screen TV that was now playing some public broadcasting things… all this, but no answers.
Sighing to himself for the thousandth time today, Matt turned off the TV and headed for the front door and withdrew his keys from the little bowl on the kitchen counter to the left of it. Stepping out onto the 3rd floor, Matt pulled the door closed behind him and locked his apartment up from the world. It was a brief walk down the stairs and into the resident parking lot before he found himself seated in his black 4-door sedan. A quick turn of the ignition, a few changing of gears, and a little applied gas later, Matt was off on the roads.
He opted to not listen to the radio today, it only distracted him and with all that was going on in his head currently, he didn’t need another distraction. As he pulled up to stop behind two cars at a red light, Matt glanced over into the empty passenger seat. A pamphlet lay there in bright colors, a severe contrast to his otherwise very monotone life. The words “Conversion Bureau” were spelled across the top in bright gold lettering and the picture of a colorful blue and cartoonish-looking unicorn with a big smile on her face stared back at the holder. Inside the pamphlet lay all the contributing factors to why Matt now was driving, why he found himself without a job, and why his head was filled with unanswered questions.
A short succession of three car horn beeps, not unlike the ones that had alerted him earlier on the balcony snapped him from his thoughts. He realized he now stood stopped at a green light. An embarrassing moment later, Matt applied the gas and continued on his way.
It wasn’t necessarily a quick drive; the building he sought existed about three hours away from his home. All this time alone with no sounds but his car’s tires on the road only provided him with more time to question what he was doing. He contemplated no less than a dozen times just turning around and heading back home, begging for his job back, and hoping all would go well. But he did not do that, Matt stayed on his path, determined to at least see the trip to its fulfillment before turning back.
What seemed like an eternity later however, Matt had arrived outside the imposing building. He recalled a while back how people from all over the world had flocked to it the day it had been erected almost as if by magic. He had not attended, it seemed like nothing more than a hoax and a waste of time. But here it still stood, scattered cars were parked in it parking lot but for the most part, it was far from full.
Stepping out of his car, Matt swallowed a large amount of saliva, locked his car, and headed for the building. Stepping through its imposing doors, he took note of his surroundings, the beautiful red carpet under his feet as beautiful and brightly colored as everything else. He thought to himself if anyone had tried taking the carpet in the original rush as a token of “I was there” in the first days but due to its size it was a silly thought he quickly pushed out of his head.
Matt looked around the large welcome room to find not a soul there. A shred of disappointment, perhaps even relief greeted him at this. ~Maybe… Maybe I should just go before anyone spots me… This was a silly idea… I haven’t anything but my wallet and my clothes with me… nothing to eat… What… What am I even doing here?~ Matt thought, to that last question he had no good answer. He stood there in the middle of the large room for a good minute before letting his own fear of the unknown get the better of him. He turned around and began to head for the door to leave and flee back to his old life.
“Hey there!” a voice from behind Matt spoke up.
Matt stopped dead in his tracks at the voice and prayed it wasn’t for him. In a matter of seconds however, a bright red blur skidded to a halt in front of him. It was a pegasus, red as a fresh dipped candy apple, and with a energetic vibe like it had just consumed a dozen of them.
“You must be here for a conversion am I right? DUH! Of course I’m right, what else would a human like you, lookin’ as confused and lost like you do be doin’ in the Bureau if you weren’t lookin’ to ‘get your pony on’ so to speak right? RIGHT!” the pony spoke so fast and so upbeat that Matt was barely able to keep up. “I’m SOOOOOO sorry about nopony being up here or anything. I was just on my lunch break. Cotton candy and cupcakes! The lunchroom has so many other good foods but I save those ‘healthy’ foods for the real meals. This was more just a snack really, and besides, what’s the point in all those delicious sweet sweets just layin’ around if nopony is gonna eat them? No point that’s what I say! So before they get all eaten up by somepony else I make sure I get my healthy fill of sugar! But where’s my manners? The name is Firebolt! Pleased to meet ‘cha. So what do they call you? Gloomy? OH Wait no no! Something like… Raincloud? I’m never too good with human names, you lot have the weirdest ways of thinkin’ up names you know that? But I guess that’s to be expected from different worlds.”
“I uh… What?” Matt said in a daze, his head felt like it was spinning trying to process the sugar-hyped pegasus as he spoke a mile a minute.
“Your name. You do have a name right? You don’t not have one do you? Everypony’s gotta have a name, and every HUMAN too by what I hear. That’s what the sign-up forms say anyway. Big space at the top that says “NAME” and every one of you humans that have come in so far have filled it out. Unless like…” Firebolt gasped at some internal revelation “Are you like some super special un-named human? Do those even exist?!”
“Wait… Huh? No, no no.. My… My name is Matt… Matt Deckland.” Matt said trying to answer the pegasus before he went off on an even crazier tangent.
“I knew it! I told you, you had to have a name and you do! Well, pleased to meet you Matt Matt Deckland!” Firebolt said grabbing Matt’s right hand with both of his hooves and shaking it up and down as his wings carried him up to Matt’s eyelevel.
“Uh… It’s just ‘Matt Deckland’… Not ‘Matt Matt Deckland’.” Matt said correcting the pony quietly.
“Oh! Well then, that makes even more sense… Well as far as human names go… I think anyway.” Firebolt said scratching his head as he released Matt’s hand. “ANYWAY! I’ll go get you the papers. The boss would be awfully mad if she found out I didn’t present you with all those stuffy forms to get out of the way first thing. BERIGHTBACK!” With that, Firebolt sped off in the air, quick as a flash through some double doors to the right of Matt and out of sight.
~… That was… interesting.~ Matt thought to himself still in shock of the events that had just unfolded. ~Maybe… I should just go before he gets ba-~ “GAH!” Matt’s internal thoughts were interrupted by his own fright.
“HEREYAGO!” Firebolt said with that cheery tone of his. His hooves pinched a small form of papers no more than a few pages thick, extended out for Matt to take.
~Not even going to bother asking how he just appeared like that…~ Matt said taking the forms from Firebolt. “Thanks…” he said looking through the forms. “Uh… I don’t have a pen… I think I have one in my car though…” Matt said trying to think up an excuse to leave this red bolt of energy.
“No need! Got one right over by the desk! Convenient since it’s a flat surface to fill the forms out on anyway!” Firebolt said zooming over to the counter across the room and diving into the chair, causing him and the chair to spin around several times before the pegasus stopped the rotating by placing his hooves firmly on the desk, causing the contents to jump slightly.
~Of course there is…~ Matt thought as he walked over to the desk.
“Look at me! I’m a stuffy manager.” Firebolt said frowning his face and pouting his lips as he pressed his front hooves together and sat up in the chair. He put on an exaggerated ‘stuffy’ accent to deliver the impersonation flawlessly. “Welcome to the Conversion Bureau, sir or madam. Please fill out the forms provided and we can proceed…. Uhh.. forthwith…” It wasn’t but a few seconds before a smile cracked on Firebolt’s face and he began laughing. “Usually we got some super serious human up here. Her name is Jaimie, I think. But she called in sick and the next shift didn’t start until…. Well actually right now!” Firebolt said looking up at a clock behind Matt. “So I guess that means I can walk you through all this stuff and put the next person to work!” he added with a big grin.
“Lucky me…” Matt said quietly to himself as he took a pen from the little metal cylinder on the counter and clicked it.
“Well don’t sound so excited about it.” Firebolt said sarcastically. “What’s the matter? You act like this isn’t something that’s like totally super awesome! Today marks the first day of the rest of forever after all! A welcoming into ponydom!”
“Right… I just… To be honest… I’m not even sure why I came here.” Matt said looking down.
“Not sure? Didn’t you come to be ponified? I mean SURE it doesn’t happen right away. There’s the initiation period where we get you acclimated to it all and make sure you’re ready but STILL! Being a pony is great! I assume that’s why you came here right? After all, it’s not like we do much else BUT ponifications here. Unless you got lost or somethin’, or mistook this for another place. But we’re kinda out of the way… and fairly big…. And then there’s that big light up glass sign outside that says ‘The Conversion Bureau’ out front. So I figure you came to the place you were lookin’ for.” Firebolt said, his words almost seeming to be him thinking out loud more than talking to Matt at this point.
“I uh… yah… I mean. I guess I’m just not sure if the whole ‘pony’ thing is for me. I mean… It seemed like a good idea and all at the time… a great way to start a new life and all… and I don’t REALLY have anything (or anybody) that would keep me around…” Matt said trying, and failing to make a convincing argument.
“Then it sounds like you might just be a PRIME CANDIDATE for ponification! I can tell yah, I certainly do enjoy it. Then again, I’ve never really known anything different… Hmmm… I guess that makes me bias to the whole thing. But either way! We got magic and friendship and… and… and just tons of super fun stuff! If you’re thinkin’ that your life is borin’ right now, well you wouldn’t be sayin’ that in Equestria, THAT’S for sure! Why, I can’t wait to go back myself. Your planet is good and all but I’m lookin’ forward to gettin’ back to flyin’ in the open skies of Equestria WITHOUT havin’ to go through all your fancy ‘flyin’ permits’.” Firebolt said sticking his tongue out in distaste.
~I don’t think he’s even listening…~ Matt thought to himself.
“Tell yah what? Just sign all these silly forms. I’ll get’cha all registered and you can check out the place for a few days. We’ve got a mandatory one-week acclimation period that all you humans have to go through. No skippin’ past that I’m afraid. After the week, you’re welcome to take more time here if you want or you can go through with the process from there if you think you’re ready. Seein’ as you’re here, and after what you just told me, it doesn’t sound like you got much waitin’ on you comin’ back any time soon after all, might as well see what it’s all about at least, right?” Firebolt pointed out.
Matt looked slowly down at the paperwork and thought long and hard about all the energetic red pegasus had just said. It was true… he had no job to go back to, no immediate family (23 years old and both parents gone… Mother at birth, father 5 years ago to an incurable illness…) that would miss him. What did he really have to lose by giving them a week of his time? At least he would have a roof over his head and food in his stomach (hopefully more than cotton candy and cupcakes). Yet another question to add to all the others. However, for the first time in a while he had an answer to this question. What did he have to lose? Absolutely nothing. With that, Matt began to slowly fill out the paperwork, starting with that first line.
NAME: Matt Deckland
