The Conversion Bureau: Captured
We were all standing in the living room of one of the safe house. The 18 of us stood in a loose ring with Rosie Hearts standing in the middle. She was a red and pink colored pony who lead most of the PER forces in our city. She had gone through conversion years ago and been one of the first people to join the Ponification for Earth’s Rebirth. Right now she was giving a high energy speech about our success tonight. She was raising her hoofs in the air and making a lot of statements about the great things we were doing. I wasn’t paying much attention. I was too busy looking past her at the closet in the corner of the room. Behind the door was a young man who lay on the floor bound and gagged. He was a captured Human Liberation Front grunt from tonight’s battle. As I stared towards the door, I began to remember the events of the evening.
The afternoon had been pretty uneventful. I had been lounging about the hideout all day not really doing much of anything. I was studying a map of the neighborhoods in which we had control when Rosie Hearts teleported in next to me. Following her appearance several more unicorns teleported in. She informed us about a operation we were to be a part of tonight. They had information that three Human Liberation Front members were planning to follow a Conversion Bureau receptionist later tonight and beat her up or worse. Rosie Hearts happened to know their intended target quite well and assembled 18 of us to intercept her would be attackers.
Two hours later and it was time to move out. I was a pegasus and, along with three others, watched our targets from above as they slowly waited for the Conversion Bureau worker. When her shift was over she led her pursuers down an empty street and that is where we sprung our trap. It wasn't a very eventful altercation. Surprisingly, only one of the humans carried a firearm and it was only a small handgun. He fired a few rounds into the air at us before retreating after seeing our greatly superior numbers. After a brief scuffle with a few earth ponies, one of his compadres managed to break away and follow after him. I was confident we would have been able to take them down with no injury to ourselves, but Rosie Hearts ordered us to let them go for some reason.
I looked towards the opposite end of the street and saw that one of the humans was running down it. He had been cut off from retreating with the others by a line of Earth Ponies. I swooped down to the street and landed in front of him. He swung his bat wildly to keep me back and while he was distracted, an earth pony kicked him hard into a metal trashcan.
Rosie Hearts used her magic to bind the now unconscious human’s limbs and teleported him to our safe house. She had him secured in the closet when the rest of us arrived.
Our captured HLF grunt hadn’t been mentioned once in Rosie’s speech, but he was the only thing on my mind. I converted about three years ago, but had only been with the PER for the last few months. During that time I’d roughed up some stubborn non-converting humans, but until today I’d never been in fight with the HLF. Knowing that one of their fighters was immobilized only a few feet from me was so fascinating. I was interested in maybe sitting in on an interrogation and just observing him.
Rosie had finished talking and most of the ponies began to clear out and head back to their own safe houses. I walked around trying to look interested in something else when Rosie Hearts approached me.
“Can you believe everyone else forgot about our guest?” She asked me in disbelief. She stood next to me and stared at the closet door. “An HLF member in our grasp and everyone just goes home. They’re going to miss the fun.”
“Yeah its ridiculous” I said shaking my head.
“But you’ve been staring over there for the past half hour.” Rosie chuckled and nudged me. “You must be very interested.”
“I'm just curious to see what will happen to him.” I shrugged.
Rosie thought for a moment before putting a hoof on my back and guiding me forward towards the door. “Well let me show you then.”
As we both approached the door, I swiped a syringe of the conversion fluid from a counter top. Rosie Hearts winked at me and I nodded back “We’re doing him a favor.” I said to myself. She used her magic to open the door and inside was the human.
He was really a kid, couldn’t have been more than maybe 20 years old. His face was full of fear and he was breathing very rapidly. When he saw us he moved away and put his back up against the closet’s wall, not an easy task with his hands being tied behind him. Rosie Hearts ripped the gag out of his mouth and he moaned and grimaced in pain before staring up at us. Surprisingly, he spoke first.
“Please! My names Howie, I’m only nineteen, I’m a good kid!” He blurted out, just reeking of absolute desperation. He looked back and forth between each of us as he spoke. He was definitely about to cry. “You guys I swear….I swear I’m not like this! I don’t do this!”
“You were following a green pony tonight when she left the Bureau. Why?” Rosie Hearts asked, completely ignoring the begging kid.
“Look Guys please! I just follow John and do what he tells me! He was the guy with the gun! All he gave me was a bat guys! A baseball bat for a fucking million pony ambush...” He said crying and putting his head down.
“You were planning to kill her, weren’t you?” Rosie asked and crouched down to get in his face. “But it went all wrong didn’t it?” She said in a baby voice and made a sad pouty face.
“Please! I don’t know what John was gonna do with her. He just wanted me along for extra help, but it was all him, I swear! Please I’ll tell you whatever you want to know about John. He’s high up he knows lots of stuff about the HLF!”
Rosie Hearts rolled her eyes and pushed away from him. “All you humans I run into…” She laughed and shook her head. “Every time you mess up, you try to push the blame and the responsibility to the next man. You never look inside and realize that it’s not this person’s fault or that person’s fault, it’s simply a fault of your species. And personally I can’t blame you for that. You’re flawed and we simply and to help you rise above that.” With that she tapped me and I revealed the syringe of conversion liquid.
He saw this and the tears just started flowing. “Please! Please don’t do this! I swear I’m a good kid. I never do anything like this, you guys I swear! ” Despite his protests I began to move forward.
“Wait...Not so fast.” Rosie said putting a hoof on my back. She engulfed a wooden broom with her magic and began levitating it. I raised an eyebrow, confused at what she was doing.
“You’re an HLF grunt. Your part of a group of people that excuses and seemingly celebrates the death of this world at the hands of humans, a group of people that believes that ponies have no place in this world, A group that tries to intimidate or even kill those seeking a better life through the Conversion Bureaus.” With her magic she snapped the broomstick in half and began rotating the two ends. “And group of people who have hated my kind without just cause since we’ve arrived.”
It was now that I noticed one of the ends of the snapped broomstick was looking curiously pointed. Rosie Hearts sighed and looked the human who was as confused as I was now.
“Now why exactly would I want someone in that group tainting my species?” She asked.
However she let him ponder the question for only a moment before using her magic to jam the pointed end of the broomstick at an upward angle through the human’s mouth. It broke through the top of his head and brains and blood and whatever else splattered on the wall behind him. The young man’s eyes rolled and rested at two different, unusual spots and his body slumped way down on the wall.
“SHIT!” I jumped back, completely astonished at what had just happened. My mouth hung fully open, but I couldn’t help but stare at the horrible scene that was now in front of me. Rosie didn't give it a second thought and turned around to leave
“This is a war. If we don't remain firm, then we allow them to walk all over us.” Rosie Hearts whispered in my ear before walking calmly away.
I honestly couldn’t believe what I had just witnessed. I had heard stories of about things Rosie Hearts had done, but I never expected this. I thought we were supposed to be helping these humans.
However the longer I stood in the doorway, the more I came to accept that she was completely right. We did have to stay strong. We had a responsibility to save our planet and unfortunately the human went against that. Once I realized that, I too turned and walked away.
My phone started to ring. “Damn it.” I sighed as I read the screen and answered.
“Howie, I'm outside, open up. Its serious.”
Great. I left my bedroom and let John into my parents home. He quickly found a seat on the couch and ushered me over.
“Howie, I've got something big this time.” He beamed.
I sighed. John and I had both joined the HLF at the same time, but he had taken it much more serious than I had. He tried to rise fast, but the problem was that no one really trusted us to take on bigger missions. Together John and I had smashed up pony owned property, beat up some fresh converts and intimidated potential ones. It was stuff that I considered valuable, but John didn't see it that way. He always wanted bigger and better missions. His quest to find one didn't always go well.
“What you got this time?” I inquired. I always tried to support his ideas, despite the fact that they didn't always work out.
John pulled a handgun from his jacket and placed it on my table. “This is some real shit we have to do tonight. Thats why I'm packing this. I'm serious man this is gonna put us up there.”
“What do you got.” I asked, realizing that he wasn't playing around.
“At the Conversion Bureau on 12th there is a pony who has been fucking humans over big time. And tonight we’re gonna take her out.” He said patting the gun. “Somehow this pony lifts vials and vials of that conversion concoction and has just been handing them out to the PER. That’s how they’ve been getting all the shit for their weapons. That bitch has got to go and I think its time we step up.”
I sat and thought for a moment. I’d never even thought about killing a pony, even the ones I used to beat up. If we went ahead with this we’d be entering a whole new league. And I must admit, the thought of it excited me. This pony obviously had to go and maybe we would finally gain the trust of some of the other HLF members. However the plan was not without its issues.
“Dude, 12th street is like PER central right now…”
“It’s not like we’re going alone man.” John interrupted. “ I got Aaron coming with us!”
I shook my head. “I don’t know man. I think we should get some other people in on this. Just based on the state of the neighborhood.”
John came over and tried to up my confidence. “Look man, If we do this we’ll have earned the respect of the HLF. But more than that, there is a pony out their that is directly affecting our species. We’re not just doing this for ourselves or the HLF, but for the protecting the Human Race. We have a duty to protect our species.”
I thought for moment and damn it, he was right. “Yeah man, you’re right. We got this.” I took his outstretched hand and was fully onboard with him.
“Don’t worry I’ll have you home before your mommy starts to worry.” He joked. In response I pushed him out the door followed him to his car. We headed to his house to meet up with Aaron, our third man on this job, and discuss the game plan for the tonight.
