The Conversion Bureau: Waking From a Nightmare

Chapter 2: Underground

-Ten Years Ago-

The small community was quiet that day. The sky was overcast with rain clouds, and parked cars lined the street of identical houses.

"Daddy, please don't go."

The man smiled sadly, turning back to the house and kneeling down to the little blonde girl staring up at him with tears in her eyes. They had come for him after his wife had gone. He couldn't risk his daughter being attacked by... them. He knelt down to his daughter and ruffled her hair with a smile, "Your grandparents are gonna take you away for a while, Sweety. Daddy has to go somewhere now." Behind him stood two ponies, at the head was a tall white stallion, a pegasus to be exact. The pegasus' cutie mark was a simple compass.

The pony with him was a unicorn of light lavender color, a scientist above all else, but this...

This wasn't science.

It was genocide.

It wasn't right.

The pegasus turned and gave her a sharp look, as if he already knew what was going through her mind, "You're gonna need to get a lot tougher Sparkle. This has to be done."

Twilight could only frown.

Inside, she was at war with herself. As the Princess' student she wanted nothing more than to help Celestia create the peace she sought between humans and ponies, however, her morals and her logical thinking could not allow her to turn a blind eye to the thing that was happening before her eyes at that very moment. Her urge was a simple one, she wanted to help. She wanted nothing more than a world where humans and ponies could coexist.

That meant experiments.

That meant studying.

That meant valuable time that the humans didn't have. The barrier was coming, after all. The humans needed to be converted, or they would die.

But... was that really true?

The Pegasus' glare intensified, "Sparkle, you payin' attention?"

The human turned towards them and took a deep and shaking breath, "I... I'm... I'm ready."

The front yard of the house was quiet as the little girl returned inside to her grandparents.

Twilight gritted her teeth.

Was it true?

Couldn't there have been another way?

If the humans were at war constantly, wouldn't that mean they were stronger than Celestia was giving them credit for? The fact that they could carry on...

"Sparkle?"

The fact that this man could step forward and face his fate, knowing he wouldn't return as himself...

That took insurmountable amounts of courage and will.

After two years of unquestionable service to Celestia, that one man stepping forward, leaving his daughter behind so he could be converted, was what made her crack under the pressure.

"Sparkle? Pay attention! We need to..."

Twilight gritted her teeth, "Shut up."

The stallion raised an eyebrow, "What did you just say to me?"

"I said SHUT UP!"

The stallion stepped back, a look of shock overtaking his features.

The human looked a bit taken aback as well.

Neither of them, however, were as shocked as Twilight Sparkle herself. In her mind a small part of her was still loyal to Celestia, that part scrambled forward in a panic.

'What am I doing? Celestia is the Princess, my mentor, if I turn on her...'

Twilight cast it aside.

The stallion stepped towards Twilight and scuffed the ground with his hoof, leaning down into a charging position, "Something wrong? I thought you were Celestia's pet. This is the only way they can be saved."

Twilight's anger flared, "No it's NOT! Have you even CONSIDERED other options! What if they don't want this?! Why are we wasting our time, devoting manpower and research into something as stupid as conversion, when we could be studying how the barrier effects their world?! Or even better, why can't we find a way to separate Equestria and Earth again?! Why does it have to be like this?! It's a joke!"

The stallion's nostrils flared, "Two years? Two years and you crack under the pressure you spineless little mare! Choose your next words carefully."

Twilight's eyes narrowed, "I've already chosen them." Twilight stepped forward, her horn glowing, "Fuck... off."

The stallion barely managed to get his feet off the ground to go for a charge before he was flung into a nearby car by a purple aura.

He was down for the count.

Twilight's mind was racing a mile a minute.

She had to get the family out, and then she had to find her friends...
Fast.

-Present Day-

Wherever we were it was huge, I could tell that much. As Twilight led me out of the small white room we were greeted by a wide and long hallway, concrete floors and walls. Dim lights connected by thick yellow wire trailed down the hallway, ensuring its occupants could see. I saw humans, some of them in lab coats, some of them in military uniform with guns slung over their shoulders and helmets on their heads. I also saw ponies, unicorns, pegasi, and earth.

All of them had one thing in common, they seemed like they were all in a hurry.

Twilight looked up at me and smiled softly, "Welcome to the Seattle Division. You should meet my friends."

I honestly didn't know what to say.

So long working at that damn Conversion bureau, grinding day by day knowing my death was coming for me.

Twilight's smile brought it all to the forefront.

I started to cry.

My parents deaths, years on my own in an orphanage about to fall to the chaos, losing my job to a pony, getting hired at the conversion bureau, the pitiable looks all the ponies would give me walking down the street.

I just... cried.

I felt something soft rub against my side, and when I gathered myself enough to look down, Twilight was nuzzling her head into me, "I had the same reaction," she said softly, "C'mon, let's get going."

She lead me through the maze of concrete hallways. I couldn't help but get the impression that we were underground.

I had no idea how Twilight knew where she was going.

The silence between us wasn't awkward, it was... comfortable. I felt like I could trust her, and by extension trust the people and ponies in this underground complex. As we passed them they would nod in greeting, saying "Excuse me" if they had to squeeze past us.

It wasn't that hard to see how haggard and worn down they were.

"How often do you have to fight?" I asked as Twilight picked up the pace a bit.

"We mostly just guard our holdouts," she said, "We have ponies and humans who don't look suspicious do supply runs, and whenever we need something for... tactical reasons we go out with a small strike team, hard and fast. Half the time the Royal Guard doesn't even see us coming. We keep it thin because our numbers are growing every day, and we don't want to lose people, just in case something happens."

"Does it bother you?"

She sighed and nodded sadly, "Of course it does. Good people have died on both sides, but I made my decision a long time ago, just like Celestia did."

"Hmm?"

"You shouldn't worry about that, I'm just glad you're here, we can start planning now."

As if to emphasize what she just said, we emerged from the wide concrete hall into what appeared to be a cylindrical room. Computers and servers lined the walls, hooked up in some crazy network scheme with countless people working on them.

I was never good with computers.

In the center of the room was a large table, and around that table were three other ponies.

Twilight's face broke out into a smile when she saw them, "Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash!"

Two of them looked rather normal, but the cyan one with the rainbow mane, obviously Rainbow Dash, wore what looked like ACUs made for a pony, complete with a smaller sized helmet obviously fit for her head.

On her back was an M4, butt stock collapsed.

'How the hell would she even use that?'

No, better to not ask questions, I would just get weird looks.

"Heya Twi!" shouted Rainbow Dash, a huge grin on her face. She put on a strong front, but I could see the bags under her eyes. Her wings flared out a bit when she saw Twilight, she was obviously happy to see her friend.

Twilight frowned, "Where are Pinkie and Rarity?"

Rainbow Dash sighed, "Pinkie is still asleep, I decided not to wake her up after what happened on our trip up here from Colorado. She's beat, and she needs to rest. As for Rarity, it was her turn for chow run, she took a couple of humans with her."

"What about Matt?" asked Twilight.

"Recon, should be back any minute now. Who's the big guy?"

Twilight smiled and nudged me forward with her head, "This is Kyle Grey, he's the one we got from the bureau."

Rainbow Dash grinned, "Well it's about time. We've already scoped out the security on the outside, but we need layouts, rooms, weak points, the works."

I shrugged, "How am I supposed to help? I've never even been back behind the conversion rooms."

Dash laughed, "Are you kidding? That's as far as we need to go. Besides, even if we needed more, what you give us would still help a bunch! Welcome to the party Kyle! Well... the ACTUAL party won't happen until Pinkie gets her keister outta bed."

I raised an eyebrow, "Party?"

The orange pony stepped forward, "Sure as the sun rises in the mornin' that girls gonna throw a welcoming party for ya." I noticed her cutie mark, she must have been Applejack, "Don't try to get out of it, ya hear? It'll only be a waste o' time."

"Riiight." I turned to the remaining pony, a yellow pegasus, who ran behind Rainbow Dash when I locked gazes with her.

Fluttershy, obviously.

"Alright!" shouted Rainbow Dash, startling Fluttershy a bit, "The big guy here must be starving. Let's get some meat on his bones."

Fluttershy let out a cute little noise when Dash mentioned meat.

The cyan pegasus giggled and nudged her yellow friend a bit, "Fluttershy here doesn't like the chow hall. You want me to bring you back anything?"

"Um... a... a small salad will be fine, I'm not that hungry."

"Salad it is." Rainbow Dash left the table and walked towards me, "Come on big guy," she said, standing on her rear hooves and shoving me out the door with all the grace of drunk high school quarterback.

Things were getting weird.