YMMV / The Conversion Bureau

• Anvilicious: Many, many, many of these fics are extremely unsubtle about how Humans Are the Real Monsters, and some Anti-Conversion Bureau fics are just as unsubtle about how the ponies are like a holier than thou version of the Borg (but worse).
• Broken Base: This fanfic subgenre has basically broken the MLP fanbase into two camps, and they generally tend to loathe one another. Either one loves the fic's universe and wishes to partake in its Wish-Fulfillment, or they absolutely despise it and end up writing their own version that's either a deconstruction, parody, or curb-stomp War Fic (that's in favor of the humans, of course).
• Canon Defilement: A lot of the fanbase feel that the very concept of the fic goes against the morals and messages of the show itself.
• Condemned by History: This was one of the most popular subgenres of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfiction back in the early 2010s. By the mid 2010s, the genre rapidly fell out of favor as additional seasons showed the ponies and Equestria in a less saccharine light. Not helping things was how ‘’The Cutie Map’’ was commonly interpreted as a Take That! to the core concept of the genre. The numerous Flame Wars involving both the pro and anti factions as well as Creator Backlash also further dissuaded authors. Now, thanks to the stigma of Wish-Fulfillment, Canon Defilement, general misanthropy, and unfortunate messages, there are few, if any fans and authors of the “straight” TCB stories and they’re usually disdained. Anti-TCB authors and fans are ‘’somewhat’’ more common, but are it’s still miniscule compared to the heyday of the subgenre.
• Death of the Author: The author of the original story, Blaze, wrote his story as pretty basic wish-fulfillment and to expand on his own theory about why Equestria doesn't have humans, with some accidental Humans Are Bastards implications. The genre inspired by the story takes it as a tract about how Humans Are Bastards and therefore need to be assimilated by the ponies, Borg style.
• Fan Nickname: The TCB-version of Celestia is often called 'Xenocelestia', or other similar terms in order to differentiate her from her canon counterpart. Typically, the "Xeno" stands for xenocide, so it's not exactly a good thing. Other variations include X-lestia, Xelly, Xenolestia, and Xenocidelestia. Another popular name for TCB-Celestia is "The Solar Tyrant".
  • TCB-Royal Guards have been referred to as "Celestians".
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • This quote from Twilight in the original was intended to be a joke but it's a lot less funny with the numerous stories that have the barrier being intentionally expanded as a means to force ponification.
    Twilight Sparkle: Now, I'm almost positive all of you are here because you want to become a pony. This is a fact. You don't come here because you don't want to be a pony, unless someone forced you at gunpoint, but that's a different story.
  • This statement is also a lot less amusing once you read through stories that have the PER in them.
    Twilight Sparkle: Our plan is to ponify you, the sooner the better. Expect this to happen when you least expect it.
  • Depending on how one looks at it, this statement in the author's notes in the Google Docs version is either Harsher or Hilarious in Hindsight now that there are tons of TCB dark fics and war stories.
    Blaze (Author's Notes): I've seen a lot of backstories written about how Equestria is simply a post-apocalyptic Earth set in the distant future. I decided to expand on it in a much less...grimdark fashion.
• Misaimed Fandom: A fair amount of authors use Blaze's original 'verse and story to espouse their Humans Are the Real Monsters views.
• More Interesting as a Villain: The original and Chatoverse stories portrayed the ponies as benevolent and heroic, as per canon, but there was a lot of unintentionally disturbing messages in the stories (especially the latter). The Recursive Fanfiction that embraced those elements and portrayed the ponies more villainously proved far more popular as they allowed allowed for more action, drama and moral complexity as well as exploring the ramifications and reasons for the ponies acting so differently than canon. Meanwhile, even otherwise well received fics like Not Just Ponies that addressed and removed those aspects to keep the ponies heroic failed to get the same popularity or influence.
• My Real Daddy: After Blaze disowned the story completely, several of the other writers for the Recursive Fanfictions became considered the TCB genre's "real parents".
• Overshadowed by Controversy: The original fic by Blaze is better known for the anti-humanity stance codified by its spin-offs, particularly those by controversial creator Chatoyance, and the ensuing Flame Wars over it than the actual original work whose implications of such were unintentional and the author regretted, unlike said later ones.
• Ron the Death Eater: The Anti-TCB Recursive Fanfiction took the Fridge Horror about the setting and Celestia's portrayal, meant to be as benevolent as in canon, playing up the atrocities while turning her into a Nazi-expy tyrannical and hypocritical Knight Templar, rarely addressing why Celestia would act this way.
• Rooting for the Empire: Despite various misanthropic writers trying so desperately to paint up the Human Liberation Front as terrorists (and sometimes succeeding), the fact that the deck is so stacked against them and the blatant Moral Myopia of the ponies makes the HLF much easier to sympathize with.
• Strawman Has a Point: The primary antagonist group is supposed to be the Human Liberation Front, who believes the ponies are a threat to humanity and must be destroyed. They're treated as unambiguous, totally evil villains, but they're completely right about the first part.
  • Conversely in the more pro-human fics, the ponies can come off as surprisingly reasonable. Their basic argument is that humans are savage, violent war-mongers who shoot first and ask questions later... except that in the vast majority of the pro-human fics, that is exactly what the humans do.
• Tear Jerker: The spin-off fic Last Man Standing makes both the humans and ponies vastly more sympathetic than the original and treats the Purification as a necessary evil. It centers around a man who is about to get killed in said purification because he refuses to get ponified; he has to come to grips with the fact that his species is about to go extinct, and the ponies have to deal with the fact that there's absolutely nothing they can do to save him. He dies triumphantly though, having managed to preserve human history with the aid of Twilight Sparkle.

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