History Fanfic / TheConversionBureauNotAlone

As of January 31, 2013, Starman Ghost decided to delete the story from Website/FimfictionDotNet, declaring that he refused to write in the Conversion Bureau setting anymore, to the shock of his readers, who did their level best to convince him otherwise. However, readers uploaded the story (with his permission) to other places, including the Spacebattles link above.

A second fan sequel has been posted to Website/FimfictionDotNet by another fimfiction author called Warwolf, with Starman's permission, as of February 11, 2013 called ''The Shadow of Ages'', and is also a crossover with another Conversion Bureau fanfic called ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/33423/the-conversion-bureau-the-warriors-way The Conversion Bureau: The Warrior's Way]]'', itself a sequel to Warwolf's story ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/21810/the-shogun-six The Shogun Six]]''. ''The Shadow of Ages'' can be found [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/83196/the-shadow-of-ages here]].

** One of the bloggers is named [[WebOriginal/NESGodzillaCreepypasta "StillTheBest1973"]].

** One of the bloggers is named [[Literature/NESGodzillaCreepypasta "StillTheBest1973"]].

* UncannyValley: InUniverse, it's revealed that [[spoiler:the newfoals give this off to the natural-born ponies, who find their StepfordSmiler personalities and ExtremeDoormat behaviors unsettling and creepy]].

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: As per the rules of DeconstructionFic, this trope is all over the place.
** The humans are not the least bit flattered by the ponies' HolierThanThou attitudes and the destruction of Cape Town leads to all of Earth declaring war for survival.
** The destruction of Cape Town itself leads to the displacement of millions of people, creating a severe refugee crisis, and even after the humans win, the barrier has wiped out the infrastructure, leaving behind nothing but a blank patch of land.
** It's revealed at the end that Celestia's approval ratings have slipped down among a sizable number of ponies due to [[spoiler:the combination of losing the war, missing their friends and family members they had to leave behind on Earth, and the off-putting behaviors of the newfoals]].
** Seeing another species being threatened with what amounted to genocide leads to the other races on Equus becoming scared for their own safety and their trust in the ponies is completely wiped out.

* ExtremeDoormat: The Newfoals. While they can feel annoyed, sad, or frightened, they are almost completely incapable of feeling anger and don't ever assert or stand up for themselves, or complain about ''anything'' for that matter.

*** When one pony suggests resorting to violence against humans who want to turn them over to the SAS, he's immediately berated by his colleague for "acting human." This [[{{Hypocrite}} hypocrisy]] is made even more egregious when compared to Newfoal Thunderhead, who says he cannot think mean things because of the potions, but natural-born ponies clearly can.

** Also, a chapter is called ''Film/TheLongestDay''.

* NotSoDifferent: Ponies and humans. [[spoiler: The gryphons also recognize the great similarities humans have with them.]]

* RealityEnsues: This fic takes the essential premise and elements of ''The Conversion Bureau'' and then shows how they would play out realistically. For one thing, the humans aren't exactly happy with the ponies' offensively misanthropic attitudes and not every pony is on board with the Princesses' actions (and for that matter, the other nations of Equus aren't happy about it either).

* RousingSpeech: What U.S. diplomat Ellen Rowe gives after the United Nations General Assembly [[spoiler:declares war on Equestria]]. Several readers also gave their own speeches in the comments section. The author of ''FanFic/FriendsOfASolarEmpire'' and ''Fanfic/AHero'' gave one mixed with a WorldOfCardboardSpeech.

* TropeCodifier: This wasn't the first story to deconstruct TCB, but it did popularize the Anti-TCB subgenre and established many of the tropes commonly seen in stories of its vein. Some of those tropes include world building elements to avert CreatorProvincialism, having Lyra Heartstrings be the head of a human sympathizing movement (as was seen in ''The Other Side of the Spectrum'' and the ''Negotiations'' series), and giving more insight to the other races' thoughts on the ponification.

''[[http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/re-upload-tcb-not-alone.248433/ The Conversion Bureau:]] [[https://fimfetch.net/story/26651/The-Conversion-Bureau%3A-Not-Alone Not Alone]]'' is a ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic. It is a sometimes heavy-handed and different take on ''Fanfic/TheConversionBureau''; while not strictly necessary, reading or at least having knowledge of TCB is '''strongly advised'''.

** First off, humanity is not flattered by their HolierThanThou judgmental attitudes and blatant assimilation plot, declaring war as a result. Also, the effects of the expanding Equestrian barrier are further examined (the loss of infrastructure and displacement of millions of people causes a major humanitarian crisis), and it's shown that some ponies (and non-ponies) sympathize with the humans.

* DeconstructionFic: This fic takes the main ''Fanfic/TheConversionBureau'' and shows just how it would realistically play out.
** First off, humanity reacts appropriately to the ponies' misanthropy (as in, they are not flattered by their HolierThanThou judgmental attitudes and blatant assimilation plot, declaring war as a result), the effects of the expanding Equestrian barrier are further examined (the loss of infrastructure and displacement of millions of people causes a major humanitarian crisis), and it's shown that some ponies (and non-ponies) sympathize with the humans.

** Pony superiority over humans in battle was also shot down, as Rainbow Dash finds out the hard way. She initially wanted to go out to the front lines, "bucking all the humans before they could hit her," but this ambition dies ''very'' quickly once she sees the evacuating Royal Guards, many of whom are wounded badly or permanently disfigured.

** [[spoiler:Bon Bon as well. She sold out the EFH, likely knowing full well the repercussions of what could happen to them, and she never suffers any kind of comeuppance (that we know of). The fact that Lyra was her best friend makes her snitching all the more deplorable.]]

* SequelHook: The story resolves the Earth-Pony war, but leaves many possible sub-plots only partially concluded, or not concluded at all, such as the Gryphon Queen's letter and the direction South Africa is moving. The author specifically stated "[[PassingTheTorch If there's a sequel, I won't be the one writing it.]]"
** However, before deleting the story and swearing to never write anything for the TCB universe again, Starman Ghost did mention the possibility of writing a bunch of side stories detailing a few things that happened during and after the war. Not really a sequel, but pretty close.
** Dalek IX wrote his own sequel, found [[http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/mlp-fim-the-conversion-bureau-conquer-the-stars.237773/ here]]. It now has [[Fanfic/TheConversionBureauConquerTheStars its own tropes page.]]
*** Warwolf has also made a fan sequel, ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/83196/the-shadow-of-ages The Shadow of Ages]]''. The two sequels are entirely unrelated, though both are set sometime after the end of the original. How long varies. Dalek IX's fic is at least a century or so after the original. Warwolf's hasn't actually been defined in terms of timeline beyond the fact that it's sometime after Equestria jumped back to its own world.

** One of the bloggers is named [[Literature/NESGodzillaCreepypasta "StillTheBest1973."]]
** The slogan of the Equestrians For Humans is [[Series/{{V1983}} "Friendship is universal."]]

* StylisticSuck: Some of the blog comments are poorly written.

*** Said word for word by Antonio in "The Longest Day".

[[caption-width-right:225: ...[[HangingSeparately and this is what happens when you succeed in ticking off the entire human race]].]]

* {{Physical God}}desses: Celestia and Luna.
** {{Jerkass God}}desses: Celestia has said that she stands by [[AssInAmbassador Twilight Sparkle's]] words. It's later shown that Luna completely agrees with Celestia.

* TropeCodifier: This wasn't the first story to deconstruct TCB, but it did popularize the Anti-TCB subgenre and established many of the tropes commonly seen in stories of its vein. Some of those tropes include world building elements to avert CreatorProvincialism, having Lyra Heartstrings be the head of a human sympathizing movement (as was seen in ''The Other Side of the Spectrum'' and the ''Negotiations'' series), .

** The barrier is even given some deconstruction- the author points out that, while magical barriers are strong, in the My Little Pony universe, they can be broken (specifically pointing to the Canterlot Invasion by the Changelings in season 2). Thus, sufficient firepower is capable of bringing it down.

* SequelHook: The story resolves the Earth-Pony war, but leaves many possible sub-plots only partially concluded, or not concluded at all; such as the Gryphon Queen's letter and the direction South Africa is moving. The author specifically states:
-->''"[[PassingTheTorch If there's a sequel, I won't be the one writing it.]]"''

* TropeCodifier: This wasn't the first story to deconstruct TCB, but it did popularize the Anti-TCB subgenre and established many of the tropes commonly seen in stories of its vein.

** Likewise, we have reasonable motivations on both sides of the conflict (humans are neither evil [[ForTheEvulz for the sake of evil]] or entirely saintly, nor are the ponies a race of {{Purity Sue}}s or genocidal monsters), as well as consequences that leave neither side much better off.

* ExtremeDoormat: The Newfoals. While they can feel annoyed, sad, or frightened, they are almost completely incapable of feeling anger and don't ever assert or stand up for themselves, or complain about anything really.

* FictionalDocument: Played straight with all articles, though averted with ''CNN'', ''Blogworld'' and ''Google''.

* HumansAreWarriors: Very much so. The Canterlot guard is utterly annihilated by human weapons, and [[spoiler:the gryphons identify themselves with humanity on this basis, and it's because of this that their queen declares Celestia a threat to their own survival.]]

* MoralMyopia: Bon-Bon brings up how they don't owe humans anything, saying that they're "weird". Zecora reminds her that the ponies once said the same of herself too.

* NotHimself: Played [[TearJerker painfully straight]] with Eddy, now Thunderhead.

* TearfulSmile: Seen in "Aftermath, Part I" when [[spoiler:Andrew apologizes to Thunderhead]].

* UnwittingPawn: Twilight, Shining, every pony that helped Celestia. Lampshaded when Shining tells Twilight that the war was inevitable, even though he doesn't know that it was Celestia who purposefully sent Equestria to Earth specifically to assimilate the human race.
* UrbanFantasy: Very much so. Like the original TCB, it explores what would happen when a HighFantasy world in a MedievalStasis [[CultureClash clashes]] with contemporary RealLife earth.
* WarIsHell: Touched on in "The Man From Cape Town", which features a non-soldier helping the soldiers for [[WordOfGod exactly this reason]]: he's from a city destroyed by the Barrier, and hates the ponies with all the passion you'd expect from something like that... but he's still very uncomfortable using weapons and at the end of the chapter, muses on how much more he likes firing at a nonliving barrier than he does the idea of firing at something that can not only shoot back but has a life of its own.

** First off, humanity reacts appropriately to the ponies' misanthropy (as in, they are not flattered by their blatant assimilation plot and declare war as a result), the effects of the expanding Equestrian barrier are further examined, and it's shown that some ponies (and non-ponies) sympathize with the humans.

* EtTuBrute: [[spoiler: Bon-Bon in "The Longest Day".]]

** It also goes both ways, and creates numerous problems for Evening Star, who has to hide from the humans even as she tries to aid them.

** Fluttershy does bring up the possibility that the ponies might have approached the humans the wrong way, heavily implying she herself is also doubting Celestia. In fact, [[spoiler:in ''Conquer the Stars'', she ends up cutting all ties with the others and goes into exile, citing her feeling that Equestria was in the wrong for trying to turn the humans]].
*** Towards the end, Twilight momentarily considers using the potion on [[spoiler:Shining Armor]], but immediately shoots it down, feeling uncomfortable with the thought of him becoming a different pony. She then suddenly realizes that this was how the humans likely felt, coming to an understanding. Unfortunately, come ''Conquer the Stars'', it's become an IgnoredEpiphany.

* CreepySouvenir: In "The Battle Of South Africa", one soldier named Pieter hacks off a dead unicorn's horn as a trophy. This is ''not'' to be seen as a good thing.

''[[http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/re-upload-tcb-not-alone.248433/ The Conversion Bureau: Not Alone]]'' is a ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic. It is a sometimes heavy-handed and different take on ''Fanfic/TheConversionBureau''; while not strictly necessary, reading or at least having knowledge of TCB is '''strongly advised'''.

* SouthAfricansWithSurfaceToAirMissiles: The author has definitely [[ShownTheirWork done his research]], going to great lengths to accurately describe the fighting prowess of the South African military's artillery and light armored cavalry, including detailing their names and weapon systems.