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The Conversion Bureau: Setting Things Right

by kildeez

Chapter 21: Chapter XXI: Stirrings

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In a tiny village outside New Delhi, the former matriarch of the Bhat family, now a Newfoal, suddenly darts out of bed. She spends the next five minutes ramming her head against the oaken table while frothing at the mouth. By the time family members are able to restrain her, she has caused irreversible brain damage to herself courtesy of the bit of skull knocked back into her brain.

On the infamous Route 66, the driver of a gas tanker finally loses a battle with sleep deprivation and closes his eyes for a solid twenty seconds. His truck slams into the guardrail and annihilates five lanes of traffic, triggering a chain reaction pile-up which ignites his cargo. By the time rescuers arrive, most bodies are charred beyond all possible recognition, and some never to be identified in what will become the worst multi-car accident to take place in the nation in the past twenty years.

In the specially-administered Equestrian zone, King Shining Armor is awoken from a restless sleep to the news that a British peacekeeper has gone insane, killing three of his comrades and twelve Equestrian citizens before blowing himself up with a hand grenade.

And deep in her cell far beneath the Russian wastes, the princess worked. The disgusting little insects above thought she was restrained, they thought she was totally under their control. Of course, they didn’t know about the ripples, the subtle changes in the magical ambience which allowed her some influence. It took so much time to build up, oh yes, but she had nothing but time down here. Down here, she had all the time she needed to gather some trickle of magic, to make herself at one with the sea of it which flowed through all of creation. Sure, she was but a buoy in a turbulent sea that encompassed reality itself, but if she used her meager influence just so, if she applied just the right pressure where it was needed, the ripples she made could be seen all over the world.

The princess flexed her wings as high as the chains allowed it to go, and a Newfoal at an asylum in the heart of Paris bit the finger off one of its caretakers, chewing gleefully and still smiling despite the blood squeezing out through its teeth.

The princess inhaled, and exhaled, puffing her cheeks out with her breath, and in an office building in Buenos Aires, a man with an Uzi in his briefcase and an undiagnosed case of paranoid schizophrenia whispering in his head decided that today would be the day he gave in to the voices.

The princess smiled and trembled, shaking the forefeathers in her wings just so, and managed one last ripple for the night. Not far away, in Moscow, the children awoke screaming in their beds, tortured by nightmares of burning alive, some developing a deeply-rooted arsonphobia which would last the rest of their lives. The princess sighed. All small stuff, piddling things. Not bad considering her meager powers, but still not her best. No, that had been just a few hours ago, when she’d used nearly all the power she’d built up in the last five years to send a single message to the Newfoals of Dusseldorf.

She smiled and sank to her haunches, breathing heavily. She imagined that other, that imposter, that silly little cunt who had dared raise a hoof in defiance of her wishes, sitting across from her. No, better yet, kneeling across from her, horn shattered, body covered in cuts and gashes, maybe even an eye poked out, all while sobbing and begging for mercy.

The princess smiled at that thought. “This will teach you to steal one from me, you bitch,” she muttered, then she curled up in a ball for her night’s rest, satisfied in her hard day’s work.

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2350 HOURS
A SMALL CAVE IN SOUTHERN ENGLAND
OUTSKIRTS OF LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
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“So it was true,” Twilight said breathlessly. “The human mind was just being suppressed, not destroyed.”

“Just as we theorized,” Celestia said, gauging her student’s responses from across the flickering embers of their campfire. “The soul cannot be destroyed, merely eclipsed. This was true for my sister during her time as Nightmare Moon: she too had a far more dominant mind consuming her thoughts while the pony I knew remained underneath. It’s a form of mind control on a mass scale, far more sophisticated than any mind control spell I’ve ever encountered before, but still, it can be understood, broken down, and reversed.”

Twilight nodded, her large eyes suddenly watering.

“Twilight,” Celestia said, reverting from teacher to mother as easily as flicking a switch. “What’s wrong?”

“All those articles, all those deaths,” she whimpered. “That monster used them as living shields, throwing them into suicide charges without another thought. And all this time, all this time they’ve been kept from their families, they could’ve been saved…”

Celestia circled the fire to embrace her former student. “The past is in the past,” she whispered, a wing splaying out over Twilight’s shoulders. “We can mourn the dead when things have been put to rights, and we will do so alongside the humans. Right now, though, they do not require aid in dealing with their grief. Right now, they need somepony to recover what can be saved.”

Twilight nodded, wiping at her nose with the back of her hoof like a little filly. “I know, but is it even worth it in the end? It took you so long and so much power just to save one, what’s that one compared to the multitudes that have been lost?”

Celestia’s wing tightened around Twilight. “Oh Twilight, how can you say that?”

“I know…every life is something special, and we have to cherish them all, but after everything that’s been lost…” she couldn’t even bring herself to finish her sentence, even as Celestia leaned in close to nuzzle the top of her head.

“Twilight, dear, that one is so much more,” she whispered.

“What?”

“Think about it: just that one we saved today is probably someone’s best friend, and possibly a father, and/or a grandfather, an uncle, a co-worker, a…”

“Okay, I see your point,” Twilight said, a tiny smile crossing her face.

Celestia nodded. “Everyone we save is so much more than a tally mark. Remember that, Twilight.”

“I will, Princess, I will,” Twilight said, embracing for a final hug before Celestia pulled away, trotting to the mouth of the cave. She gazed out over the human city, this “London.” It was so alien, so lit up, and so loud, yet the people here spoke in an accent that was unmistakably of Trottingham. At the same time, she couldn’t help but notice other little similarities during the short time she had journeyed through the city with Twilight: the daughters and sons pulling at parent’s hands, the obnoxious drivers dominating the roads (albeit in horseless chariots), and every now and again, young lovers meeting on street corners or chatting in cafes beside older couples sharing a quiet evening meal.

“Not so different,” she muttered. “Why? Why had she wanted to destroy them?”

“Perhaps she was evil?” Twilight Sparkle alerted Celestia to her existence, leaning down for a mouthful of the foul-tasting grass at their hooves, cringing as she tried to stomach their dinner. “Ugh, whatever seasoning they’re using on this grass is just awful.”

“Evil,” Celestia muttered breathlessly, her eyes still locked on the cityscape towering in the distance. “Could you elaborate, my dearest student?”

“Well, Luna had Nightmare Moon, right?” Twilight pointed out. “What if, in her universe, that version of you was overwhelmed with a similar evil? A dark presence similar to the Nightmare, like…Scorching Sun?”

Celestia let out a sort of half-chortle. “While I commend the creativity in naming, I doubt the theory. What little we know about the ‘other’ Equestria is that until it’s collision with Earth, it was much like our own land, though I did find alarmingly few references to any other princesses,” her gaze fell into the sputtering flame between them, her eyes looking ancient and wistful. She let out a long, belabored sigh, the fire’s light dancing over her ivory coat. “No, I’m afraid whatever created this monstrous other occurred more naturally, perhaps gradually and over time.”

Twilight paused in her labored chewing for a while to look up at her mentor with eyes the size of dinner plates. “But Princess, how could you naturally become like that…evil creature? That monster? How could that even be possible?”

“I have lived a very long time, Twilight, and one thing I have learned is that ponies can change, for better and for worse,” Celestia sighed, curling up in the grass. “The thousands of years I have lived would leave plenty of time for me to evolve into something else.”

“I-I don’t believe it,” Twilight said, rising to her hooves. “I can’t believe it’s even possible you might become that monster!”

Celestia would have gone on, would have reaffirmed that believe it or not, some things were simply there, and you could choose to accept them or live in ignorant denial, but now was not the time for a lesson. “Get some rest, Twilight. We have a lot of flying to do tomorrow.”

Twilight looked a bit startled at the insistence she go to sleep, as if she were a small filly again, but then being in the presence of Princess Celestia had a tendency to make any mare feel like a filly no matter what. “Okay Princess,” she said, curling up on the grass next to her.

Celestia smiled reassuringly. “I shall be right behind you in the world of dreams, I just have another few things to check on,” she said.

Twilight nodded, Celestia’s disarming smile going far towards making her relax into the grass, smoothing it out into a makeshift bed. She stretched out and curled her wings around herself, relaxing immediately. “Good night, Princess.”

“Good night, Twilight,” Celestia said, sharing a quick nuzzle and curling in beside her. She waited there for a few hours, only moving after she heard Twilight’s breathing even out into the slow pace that could only be sleep. She sighed, letting out all her frustration into the cool night’s air. Twilight, like the rest of her kingdom, didn’t know just how close the path of darkness always was. Perhaps, in another world, the changeling invasion had ended with the genocide of the entire changeling race, or perhaps Discord’s statue was shattered into a thousand pieces the moment he was immobilized, or…

Cry to some nonexistent thing just like I did every night after you killed my Twily!

She shuddered, and reached into her pack. She knew what she was looking for the moment her hoof ran over its surface. Reaching in, she pulled out a wadded bundle, which she gently unfolded into the magazine article she’d torn out of a magazine called “Time” while Twilight’s back was turned in their hunt through the library. “Interview with a Prince: How One Stallion went from Captain of the Guard to Rebel Leader to Rebuilder of a Devastated Nation.” She raised an eyebrow. Certainly not the most well-written title she’d ever seen for an article, but at least it had caught her eye. And it alerted her to the possible answers it might hold.

Celestia, of course, was no fool. She knew the answers this article might provide would most certainly not be all that pleasant. Especially if this “other” had committed the unspeakable. Did she really need to know this? The other version of her was locked away, would the answers this article provided really help her and Twilight?

Before she could make up her mind, something massive moved inside her skull, as if she were standing just inside the surf at a beach and had been caught by a rogue wave. Her head rose and fell with it, and she came out gasping for air, barely staying on her hooves.

Twilight darted up next to her, stumbling to her hooves with her head cocked weirdly. “Wh-what was that!?”

“I…I don’t know…magic on such a level…” Celestia could barely even speak, though she did manage to stuff the wad of glossy papers into her pack again. She was so overwhelmed by the onslaught of information that it was hard to channel what she had just experienced into any sort of thought process, much less start breaking it down. Something very fundamental had just shifted in the magical plane, and its effects were spreading. But to where? For what purpose?

She knew a moment later, after shifting her focus from her mind to her heart.

“Twilight, I’m sorry but rest will have to wait,” she stated, her eyes blazing with determination as she turned southward.

“P-princess?”

“We’re needed Twilight,” Celestia grimaced. “Something has just shifted in the magical plane. I can only guess what, but we have a direction and an obligation to fulfill.”

“O-of course, Princess,” Twilight fanned her wings, and the two lifted off into the evening sky, swooping towards the English Channel for parts unknown.

Author's Notes:

Next chapter should be up in a few minutes, and a couple more after that should be incoming pretty soon :)

Next Chapter: Chapter XXII: "A Couple More Harmless Diplomats" Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 7 Minutes
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