Conversion Bureau

An MLP:FiM Fanfic by Midnight Shadow, based in the Conversion Bureau Alternate Universe, originally by Blaze

***

        The sun beat down mercilessly on their backs. Water-bearing ponies trotted back and forth, earth ponies all, with huge kegs on their backs laden with the precious liquid. The desert, by now, was seemingly endless. Burned and blackened trees, dead bushes, no grass. All around there was... almost nothing. Sand, dust, dirt. Dry, empty, barren.

        Funswirl upended the cup and drank the cool liquid. All too soon it was gone. “Please, can I have some more?”

        “Of course, I’ll just... oh, oh, sorry! It’s gone! I’ll see if I can get a refill.”

        Funswirl watched as the earth pony trotted off.This treck, it didn’t make sense. There had been rumblings through the grapevine of a pegasus, a traitor if such a thing were possible, who had stranded whole groups of newfoals like her in deserts like this, where they’d died, or been eaten, or even been turned to stone... the story got more fantastic with each retelling, but she was sure there was something in it. This... where in Equestria were they?

        She looked up as the pony trotted back past, towards the front of the long caravan. “E-excuse me, did you get any--”

        The pony dashed past, he shook his head but didn’t stop.

        This was odd.

        Suddenly, the caravan stopped. In actual fact, it had probably been stopping for a while. She realized that she was approaching a whole mass of ponies, milling about in the hot desert. Was this... was this a windfeather plot? A plot to strand them in the middle of nowhere? They’d been trecking for days, told that they would be entering a new land, one ripe for the picking... Funswirl began to feel worried. Very worried. This wasn’t right. This was...

        “What’s going on?” began the chants and calls.

        “Yeah! Tell us! Where are we? Why are we being refused water?”

        “I demand to see the princess! I won’t be abandoned to die in this desert! Just what do you think you’re doing?”

        The grumbling was getting fiesty. It was getting downright ugly. Funswirl scowled, this smelled wrong. She glared as a pony got up onto a small podium. It had been carried by two ponies all the way. It looked like he was about to speak.  Funswirl watched as the strawberry red stallion took a deep breath and began to shout.

        “Citizens of Equestria! Be calm! Calm yourselves!”

        “What’s going on! Tell us!”

        “We don’t want to die out here, what have we done to you?”

        “Calm! Please. Look to me, look at me. I am a simple earth pony, like many of you. Like most of you. I command no cadre of unicorns, no squadrons of pegasi. I, too, am here with you in this desert. Listen to my words, friends, compatriots. I do not deceive.”

        “I’ve heard that one before!”

        “Pull the other one, it’s got bells on!”

        The strawberry earth pony stomped his hoof three times, and the calls died out, “Let me tell you a story. Long, long ago, before there was Celestia, before there was Luna... before even there was the Equestria we know and love today, there was the One Realm. The Great Deeps. Into the Great Deeps came The Six. The Six were ponies, like you and me, yet unlike. They were massive, powerful, some say eternal. They separated the skies and the waters, and revealed the lands. These were the three First Realms.

         Two were unicorns. They created the sun and the moon from their tears, the stars from their breath. This gave us the day, and the night.

        Two were pegasi, and when they flapped their wings, the wind blew. The sweat from their bodies formed the clouds and the rain, which fell upon the empty plains, fed the rivers and drained into the sea.

        The earth was barren, though. By day, it was blistering hot. By night, it was freezing cold, and The Six were alone. This though, this was the before time. The time before time itself. The ground was fertile, but it slept.

The earth ponies, Terra and Firma, saw the land, and spread their love upon it. As they walked upon it, the grass grew, creating the Endless Fields. As the Pegasi, Aeolus and Boreas, flew, the rains fell from them, feeding the Perfect Waters. The wind blew from them, known as the Sweet Winds. The two unicorns, Helios and Selene, took to the skies above the sky in their eternal dance, leaving The Four to their dominion of the skies and the lands and seas.

For a time, it was good, but there is only so much that six ponies can do before becoming bored. They wandered their Realms for time and time again, rejoicing in their discoveries and creations, but eventually, though, The Six began to tire. Terra and Firma, The earth ponies, wept first. They had each other, but they were so very alone in their lands. As they cried, their tears struck the earth. No longer barren and dead, instead verdant and green, out sprung the earth ponies. From the earth itself, full of vitality, where they passed the grass changed. So many came, that great mountains burst forth. Where they ran, the gouged the ground into the hills and valleys you see before you. Trees grew, forming forests. New plants grew, fruits and vegetables, bushes, flowers. From these earth ponies, stewards of nature, all earth ponies are descended. Even you newfoals.

The pegasi, overjoyed to see their brother and sisters lands overflowing with new life, cried also. Their tears scattered across the great open expanses of the sky, and each drop became a pegasi like them. From these pegasi, stewards of the weather, all pegasi are descended. Even you newfoals.