The first commercial ship to use the warp engine, and it's used to backup all data available digitally and send it to mars in case something bad happens with the locals, for a few weeks everything was going fine, until the barrier started expanding. That's when a panic rose and the factories constructing the ships transferred over to civilian transports and started working overtime to help, factories spread across the entire globe were churning out one ship a week, and each week, the barrier expanded fifty miles in all directions. Civilians were packing into the ships as quickly as they could, but the equestrians were one step ahead, hitting major population centers with their transformative potions, every time someone was hit they were turned into one of those ponies. Soldiers across all states shot the equines as soon as they were spotted, and the finer shooters shot the potion vials that were being thrown, nothing the humans did to the barrier managed to do anything though, any weapons they had were vaporized as soon as they touched the barrier, and detonating nuclear weapons right beside it was out of the question, as enough force had to be applied, and that force might backfire and blow a chunk out of the planet instead. Unfortunately, the factories were becoming less and less efficient, either due to shortages of materials or sabotage, forcing production to be delayed longer and longer, sometimes a day at most, and the shield was gaining speed, only a few thousand have made it off planet compared to the billions that lived there. Then, Celestia threw a fastball and strategically threw up shields around the factories, then collapsed the bubbles, vaporizing them, and the civilians started picking up arms from gun stores and ponified soldiers. Celestia's exact words on this were "impressive, but futile" and the bubble redoubled it's efforts and quickly encompassed the planet, any sort of surface tech being erased from existence, and resistance swiftly crumbled. One of the last few to go, and one of the most strong-willed person, was Nicole Dixon; president of the Ships 'n Guns Co., she was able to resist the potions effects for a good fifteen minutes until she was absolutely soaking in the purple sludge, and when Cochrane heard about their final stand at DC, promised that until he died, he would fight to take back Earth...
(millions of lightyears away)
Sla'ansah was anxious, after discovering a lost probe, named 'Voyager I' that contained several different records, most of which contained music that spread across the galaxy like a wildfire, had set out with his fleet to find these 'humans' and, while the records containing their location were badly damaged, were intact enough for the AI; Haniibal, to decipher a rough location, there were still a few solar systems within that area of influence. Two of the four were duds, and the third had another probe in it that had a single, small storage unit in it, instead of several records, and the dusty side revealed the name to be 'Achilles', which contained even more music on it, ranging from traditional rock 'n roll, to electronic mixes made by various artists, the most prominent being made by Audiomachine, Immediate Music, and Two Steps from Hell, some songs were made by a group called 'machinima' that made quite a few rap songs on various games, his favorites of which being 'We are one' and 'The Reclaimer', something of an odd occurrence considering how close the future in the Mass Effect games are to real life. Sla'ansah turned his attention to the supposed human homeworld, but found it overrun by odd equine creatures, the few satellites in orbit gave little info, other than a name, 'Celestia', however, a base on it's moon proved to be far more valuable, inside were several audio logs ranging from years ago, to only a few months before they got there. The latest one went as so:
*static, followed by deep breathing*
"is this thing on? okay... my name, is Zurr Salenth, one of the last remaining humans, let me go back a few years, World War III just finished and a man named Zefram Cochrane created a revolutinary new engine; which he dubbed a warp engine, I don't know the exact mechanics of it but it allows someone to go at and surpass the speed of light
"few months after that... he sold the patent for it to a friend of his, who happens to be president of a massive multi-national corporation named Ships 'n Guns, called Nicole Dixon, about a year later, fate threw a sucker punch at us. An island the size of Arizona appeared in the Pacific, and we nearly killed one of their diplomats with a heavy machine gun, should've killed the bastard soon as we saw it
"their leader, Princess Celestia, erected a barrier between us and them, and stated that whoever wanted to join with the equestrians had to go through conversion bureaus to receive a ponification potion to be able to survive Equestria's environment
"few months later, the barrier expands and she's pushing everyone to receive the potion. Dixon saw right through it and switched production to only transport ships and civilian shuttles, we should've listened to her, right after she said that they were going to attack the connection failed up here
"right now I am watching the barrier finish it's job... *sobbing filtered through the speaker, then grew into a sad laugh* for all I know I am the last person alive. I was sleeping in this damnable chair when the dome protecting the settlement ruptured, killing everyone, good thing I brought this *gun click*, my dad's old 1911, hehe, and I thought this would be useless, well, I guess Celestia didn't get all the humans now, did she? doesn't matter anymore" *hysterical laughter quickly cut off by the crack of a gun*
A bit depressing, and considering the base was filled to the brim with information on the human race, and, considering slavery, xenocide and a whole list of other things is exactly opposite of what someone does to get on another's good side, it wasn't a surprise when he descended from the heavens to free them...
Chapter 1: Regaining my body
I calmly walked into what used to be my property, but since the conversion I never regarded it as such. Sure, I still had nightmares of doing awful things to the princesses, but I was more interested in what would be here, or, should be here. My past self left a gun and ammunition a meter beneath the ground in a metal container and I was sent here to find and destroy it. I did not watch where I was going as I reminisced and my hoof fell into a hole; I plucked it out and took a look down there, but any light that was streaming in did not reach the bottom of the hole, 'that's odd', I thought, I did not remember there being a sinkhole here, or, any holes within a few square kilometers, that's why I chose the spot. I picked my head up and was about to continue forward when the ground around me collapsed, sending me and a pair of other newfoals into the sinkhole, the three of us shrieking as we fell, and fell, and fell, until we were caught by something. I tried to pick out what caught us but the light was unable to illuminate what grabbed us, but the cold feeling of metal made it clear something did catch me, it just wasn't made by ponies, and the humans weren't able to develop a digger to go underground, or, the princess told us that they didn't, but she's very rarely wrong. I tried to call up but a piece of cloth covered my head, muffling my cries, and I felt the things pull me somewhere, but it got darker, and if anypony actually heard me, they did not listen to me asking them to turn the lights on. I did not know who wanted me or what they even were; I was the last human on the planet to be converted, and by Celestia, I hated what I did to my friends. The pulling suddenly stopped and went in another direction, where they pulled my limbs out in all directions, but not so much that it hurt, as if a machine was controlling these things and taking the utmost care not to hurt me, so humans were ruled out, but that left ponies and this land was brand new, so that rules them out, so what is wanting me to be here? or who? If I could answer those questions I would have, but feeling several things clamp around my limbs made me yelp and look around as the bag was pulled off, all around were dimly lit machines and cables running to and from the wall I was locked into. I tried to move my legs but the restraints on them held fast, and even if I did get out of them, it would be a long fall to the bottom, if there was any bottom. A pair of mechanical arms held my head forward and another set of clamps snaked around my head, just above and below my horn, then bonded together and I felt a series of sharp pricks along the length of my spine, and some sort of liquid fire flow through my blood. I let out a piercing shriek before my vision faded in and out, an anesthetic must have been in the cocktail of liquids that was currently ravaging my nerves, and fell into a deep coma...
Ms. Dixon AKA Plasma Burst
I woke up with a start, floating in a void of black, and heard the sound of sharpening knives, I let out a gulp as I recognized the start of this mental torture, but something was different. I couldn't put my hoof on it, but something definitely was different, darker, more sinister, much more angry, but, also a sick happiness was felt as the knives stopped their metal-on-metal scratching and a pair of boots stomped closer. I tried to find the source but the only indication it was near was how loud it was, and then felt a cold metal blade slide up my leg and stop at my neck, then withdraw and a cold breath landed on the back of my neck, making the hairs stand on end. Suddenly a harsh white light emitted above me, filling the void with light, and when whoever was behind me my heart leaped into my throat, standing there was a spitting image of what I was before, even the immaculate business suit and glasses were there, but the suit was sleeveless and on her arm was a contraption that held a solid white tube in it. She pulled it out and twisted one end, then used her nails to crush the other end and stuck it into my mouth, the heat generated was enough to make me try to spit it out, but whatever it was had glued my mouth shut, and the ropes that tied me up were pulled uncomfortably tight, then the sound started, the hissing sound of an upcoming boom. I closed my eyes and waited for it to come, but instead of having chunks of my brain splattered everywhere something searingly hot erupted from the rod like a jet and slid down my throat, I coughed and tried to bring it back up, but the damage was done...
Human Ms. Dixon
I watched as the pony tried puking out the molecular acid, but the fast-acting liquid already cauterized her windpipe and likely burned a hole into her stomach, while I did not enjoy leaving this thing to such a terrible fate, it was necessary in order to regain what was rightfully mine, and the acid was one of the least painful ways I could think of that would not have to make it quick. I saw as the soft skin on her underside was burned through, spewing her liquefied organs everywhere across the floor, what wasn't burned was her liver, and part of her heart, I looked away and let the body slowly disappear, then turned around and was greeted by what looked like a holographic figure of a stunning female...
Weeks later
I slowly came to, still trapped in this thing, but already the mechanical arms and restraints were being undone, allowing me to drop onto a platform that was raised up, and slowly trot up to one of my other buddies, where they were also freed from Bitchlestia's Tyranny, and released, we all had skin-tight suits colored matte black with holes for our tails. I looked at Sergeant Franko Delano, and he gave me a silent nod, Daina did the same thing and we looked around at our new base of operations. Somewhat empty and completely devoid of anything, but if we were to get back at Celestia, it will have to do; out of sight, only entrance in or out is a sinkhole, and the light filtering through is so dim nothing can be seen, and the entire area covered an equivalent of the Amazonian Rainforest, with a few tunnels even running towards Canterlot, this place was a blank slate that needed a makeover. First thing's first, there needs to be a pair of camouflaged doors over the sinkhole to look inconspicuous, then there needs to be some sort of farming areas, our new bodies process only plant matter so that's a bonus on space preservation, and finally living quarters. The areas are all spread out over the entire distance, and the whole thing was connected by an intricate series of transporter pads that would digitize your molecules, transport them to another pad, and re-make you at the other end. The lady also mentioned our bone structure and muscles were comparatively weak, and so graciously remade the bones using chemical alloys of Titanium, Nickel, Steel, something she called 'Tritanium', and Palladium that combined weight, strength, and brittleness for an alloy that was far stronger than diamond, but only a fraction as brittle. Our musculature was remade from the ground up, a pure upgrade to synthetic tissues using Silicon tubing, Copper wires, a lot of something she called Noxium to provide density, and electroactive polymers made using Kevlar as the basis for strength, and then with a small circuit breaker and transformer in our brains to turn bio-electric signals into electricity. Our skin was weaved with a layer of synthetic strands that are far more capable of resisting harm than normal, as a bonus it deadened our nerves, making us far more resistant to pain. Our teeth are made of the same alloy as our bones and our eyes were replaced with cameras the exact same shape and color as our eyes, but anybody that looked closely could see the edges of our 'irises' rotate or a slight change in the color of our pupils when the lens is switched to, for example, from color to Infrared, or vice verse. Our brains were implanted with numerous changes, aside from all the changes necessary for us to function, it implanted an assortment of hardware that did all kinds of things, from analyzing our targets, to quickening our reaction timing, to increasing the potency of my magic, to a small holographic projector, allowing us to pose as anyone we can remember, so long as they're the same or of similar size.
I took a look at how well my movements respond and, well, I'm impressed at how responsive they are, nothing seems to be slow, and it all responded faster and far more fluently than my old body, then I heard what the lady said when she finished 'the blood pumping through your veins is still just as necessary as before, you might be far harder to kill now, but you're still just as vulnerable to blood loss as anybody else', even though the blood was now more of use to keep the new portions maintained and keep it 'fed' it still supplied the most basic necessities to my vital organs. I strolled out and focused on the sinkhole, picturing the covering for it in my mind, and when I opened my eyes all that greeted me was blackness, and I instinctively switched lenses to Night-vision, casting everything in a black-and-white look, fortunately it highlighted my friends in the inky blackness and were able to find them easily enough. When I got to them a lot of lights flickered on around the facility, showing off how blank and drab it was, but soon small farms started showing up in seemingly random places on the walls, and three separate, but very large cubicles also flowed out of the wall. I gave Daina a dubious look as to why they were separate and she shrugged, I rolled my eyes and smirked, then walked forward, platforms morphing out to keep me on track towards my room. Daina and Franko both were pegasi and so flew over my head, but I pulled them back down to where they walked and they both shot me a glare, I just chuckled and they smirked. We continued to walk in silence until I realized that, unless we weren't going anywhere, the system of transporters would make getting around so much easier and less time consuming, and I mentally mapped out where each and every one would go, and willed the place to make it so. Three of the transporters appeared on our left and we each went into one, and I pressed a button in mine, and, by some stroke of luck, managed to go into my cubicle, of course, the whole thing was not only freezing, but devoid of any detail; just a blank empty space that required decoration. I set about to change that little drawback, first adding in a heating element to warm the place up, then added a bed, some flood-lights in the ceiling, a desk with a computer, journal and pen with ink well on it, and a few drawers along one side. The only way in or out is through the transporter pad, and the wall facing towards the underground canyon would be filled up by a wall, fortunately, the satellites orbiting earth have not been destroyed and are being remotely adjusted from down here, and for the finishing touches a star-spangled banner dominating the left wall, a scale set into the floor on the right, and a model-building set in the back. I went over to the scale and weighed myself, seeing it go to just about 525 kilos, 5 grams, or about 1157 and a half pounds; originally, I was only 50 kilos, or about 110 1/3 pounds, due to my metabolic rate.
