The Beginning and the End
Sweat was pouring off Major Mitchell's back as he moved down the hallway and up the stairs of the Conversion Center, the moment he reached the top of the stairs he was greeted by a hail of paralyzing darts fired from at least four purity squad members who had heard the noise of his gunfire downstairs and taken up firing positions.
The darts were coated with a liquid that could effectively paralyze almost any humanoid life form in minutes, if not seconds. Fortunately not a single dart even penetrated the heavy suit of body armor he was wearing that covered everything, except his elbows and knees with thick fibers stronger than that of standard Kevlar, though much heavier and less portable. The sight of all of the darts simply bouncing off or falling harmlessly to the ground and the helmeted armored being in front of them with an enormous M60 machine gun froze all of the Purity ponies in place, unable to fathom what was happening, not knowing how he had gotten inside the Bureau.
That fact simply made it all the easier for the Major to mow them all down with a sustained burst of fire from the M60, almost cutting one pony in half with the fire from the weapon. The smoking casings littered the floor and the Major slowly advanced, cutting down the last two ponies in the process. In hindsight, he was glad that none of them had been unicorns, all of them being Earth ponies had made his gruesome job easier.
When the noise quieted, he only heard a small pitiful whimpering sound from inside a lab room a few meters away. The soldier stepped over the mangled bodies of the purity team, one of them still twitching. He kicked the door to the room open, swept the area with his machine gun, and spotted a teal mare, clearly a scientist, cowering in a corner with another male colt with a bullet wound through his hoof. A stray bullet from the M60 had clearly hit him and the wound was spouting blood all over the floor. The Major swept the rest of the room for any hostile purity members, and saw none. He relaxed, lowered his weapon, and approached the pair of ponies. The mare tried to pull the bleeding colt away from him but he quickly closed the gap and knelt down next to them.
"Get away from us you monster!" She screamed, trying to kick him.
Mitchell avoided the blows easily and pushed her away, but gently. He pointed to the injured scientist whose breathing was labored with pain and spoke.
"He has taken a bullet in the hoof, but it hasn't gone through and if you don't let me help him he could get infected and die." He said this with no hint of emotion.
The scientist pony seemed to waver for a moment then backed off, allowing him to pull a first aid kit from his side. He broke it open, injected the colt with a shot of painkiller, fished the bullet out, and had a bandage over the wound in minutes. After the bandage was secure he gave the now unconscious colt a quick shot of morphine and spoke again.
"Don't move him and keep pressure on the wound he will be fine." He rose and walked towards the door with the intention of leaving when he heard the mare speak again.
" Why are you doing this? We were only trying to help you all by freeing you from war and hate." Tears were streaming from her eyes as she spoke.
For a few seconds the Major did not answer but when he did his response was quick and simple.
"I am a soldier, and I know which species I am loyal to and I will protect them all with my life. Does this make me a monster?" The pony offered no response, her head lowered almost to the ground, in a protective position over the colt. The soldier left without saying another word to them.
Mitchell continued up the stairs until he reached his destination on the eighth floor and did not encounter any more resistance until he turned the hallway that led to his goal. When he saw the Royal guard in the hallway with a shocked expression on his face, he hesitated for a moment seeing the colt's horn which identified him as a unicorn and a magic user, he started to bring his weapon to bear but it was too late. A field of blue appeared around the weapon and before he could fight back, it was yanked from his grasp. Before it completely left him, he was able to flick on the safety though, and since the weapon was on a strap around his back it didn't go far.
When the unicorn turned the barrel of the machine gun around and pointed it at Mitchell, he was surprised when nothing happened when he pulled the trigger with his magic and he was stunned for a moment. It was all the opportunity that the Major needed as he closed the gap between them with a few quick strides and tackled the muscular colt to the ground. The guard struggled and nearly pulled free but with Mitch kept a firm grip with one hand and kept his other hand on the pony's eyes so he couldn't see anything to focus his magic on. Mitchell pulled a sedative needle out of his first aid kit and gave the pony an injection in the neck. The pony continued struggling but slowed and eventually stopped. The soldier shifted the guard's body to the side and stood up again, proceeding down the hall more cautiously.
He knew that royal guard patrols usually operated in pairs and that the pony had been slightly surprised to see him which had given him enough time to flick the safety on. Such facts likely meant that the guard had been sent away from his post for a reason, not because he had heard the Major's gunfire. The alarm had not been sounded because the Major had disabled it earlier, and he had also cut the phone line, so the sight of the guard had simply been an unhappy occurrence and there was likely to be at least one more.
Mitch took a leaned against the wall and took a look around the next corner and saw two more guards standing at attention outside of the office doorway that he needed to gain entry to. Clearly they had not heard the nearby scuffle and were relaxed, almost bored. That made them easy targets as Mitch pulled a suppressed Beretta M9 pistol from his side and a few seconds later both guards were on the floor with 9mm bullet holes in their heads and necks. He knew he had to move quickly now because no doubt if anyone was inside, they had heard the bodies hitting the floor or god forbid a bullet had gone through the wall.
He discarded the pistol into a nearby trash can and pulled a third weapon, a small sawn-off double barrel shotgun, out of a shoulder holster. In a quick move he advanced to the door and put his ear to the wall to listen for any noise coming from inside. The puddle of blood from the two deceased guards had spread and was coated the soles of his boots.
When he heard nothing on the other side he quickly got into a ready position a few feet from the door and tensed up, readying himself to breach the door. A second later he threw a strong, solid kick at the wooden door that broke it open and very nearly broke it off its hinges. Before the last guard inside could react the shotgun went off blowing his leg out from under him and he fell with a cry of pain. Clearly he had not heard anything outside and had been looking at various files and maps on a large desk that dominated the room.
The guard was a pegasus pony and if he hadn't been in extreme pain would have been able to fly out the window. As it was the Major pinned him to the ground and didn't give him the chance, pushing the point of the shotgun into his ear.
"I will ask you only once," He said. "Where is Twilight Sparkle!"
The terrified guard tried to squirm out from under him but the soldier didn't loosen his iron grip.
"Last chance!" He said pushing the shotgun harder into the guard's ear.
The guard said nothing, just grunted at the pain in his leg.
"Alright then." The Major gave him another shot of the sedative he had given the previous guard and made sure to bandage him so he wouldn't bleed out.
Then after his job was done he turned his attention to the files on the desk, he started skimming through them, tossing any useless ones to the side. He recovered two papers of interest though, one was that the main centers for conversion had been moved out of this building and into an underground part of the facility which explained why this area was empty. The second file showed that the main executive of the center, who had been in this office minutes ago, had been moved to the underground production area to supervise the operation down below five minutes ago. So that explained the absence of numerous guards, these last few had been assigned to remove these important files and since no humans were expected to be able to infiltrate the compound the staff had gotten sloppy.
It also told him the exact location of Twilight Sparkle's new office, he could picture her right now, he knew she was awkward about the idea of constantly being guarded, and wouldn't have guards in her room. While she was a powerful unicorn, she was not a fighter and could be handled if necessary. He checked his weapons, stuffed the files into a pocket in his armor, and left the room heading for his new destination. It was time to have a not so friendly reunion with an old friend.
Twilight Sparkle was, just as Major Mitch had predicted, reading a book in her office. She had been hard at work all day talking with the guards, helping them move important files from the old building, and sending frequent updates to Princess Celestia. Now, for the time being, she had propped up a book in her comfortable office, and cast a spell to keep the loud noises from outside from disturbing her. She had just gotten to a part of the book where a large plot twist that would change the course and perspective of the story, was about to be revealed.
When she heard the click of a door, she looked towards the front door annoyed before remembering she had locked it earlier. But where had the click come from? She knew she hadn't imagined it and the only other place to enter the office was-
"Why hello old friend." Came a gruff, deep voice from behind her that she knew all to well.
She turned around, and an expression of shock and realization came over her face when she saw Major Mitchell there, in a suit of riot control armor, a few paces away, with a huge machine gun tucked under his arm and a small shotgun lowered at his side.
The soldier seemed like a statue, staring at her through his clear visor, unblinking and with no sign of making a move. Then he suddenly closed the gap between them with a few quick strides until he towered over her. Twilight involuntarily took a few steps back out of fright and finally regained enough of her wit to speak.
"Mitch? But.. your not... your supposed to be..." She sputtered.
"A pony?" The Major asked, eyeing her with a menacing stare. "Then it was you who was behind the ponyfication attempt. No other pony knew the location of my home." He said, now bringing the shotgun up slightly into a ready position.
"But how?" Twilight Sparkle asked, quivering slightly.
"How what?" Asked the soldier.
"How did you get in?" She squeaked.
She thought she detected an air of frustration as he gave his answer. "The emergency exit from this office that I suggested you build in case there was the threat of the facility being overrun, that I still have access to."
"What about the squa..."
"That purification squad you sent to my home was inexperienced and cocky. They're down to maybe a third of a squad now as a result."
"But..."
"And I wouldn't be having this conversation with you if I hadn't been in time to save my wife."
Wait she's..."
"Temporarily incapacitated. But I won't be too late for my son."
Twilight's eyes widened and the soldier removed his helmet, showing the face of a man in wide-eyed fury, no sign of pity or compassion showed in those eyes.
He leaned closer until his face was inches from hers and hissed "Where is my son?"
Twilight felt like she had to move, but her legs wouldn't respond and she could hardly breath, she was so overcome by fear.
"If you ever considered me anything more than a puppet to keep the facility protected from the HLF give me an answer. I have little time and a son to lose." Mitch said through his gritted teeth.
Twilight could hardly see through the tears that blurred her eyes, but said "He's at the new experimental conversion lab holding chambers," She sniffled. "I thought we should convert you together so..."
"So we could start our new life together? Don't talk to me anymore I'm done listening to this." The soldier said.
He cracked the shotgun's barrels open and let it fall to the ground, shells and all.
Mitch replaced his helmet and began to walk away towards the front door. Suddenly he felt something pulling his armored leg and turned to see Twilight there, an expression of utter hopelessness on her face.
"Mitch I just wanted to help you, to give you a new chance at life. It's so amazing and peaceful, nothing I say can describe how wonderful it is. I told the purity team to take you peacefully because I hoped you would understand when you were a pony too."She pleaded. "I hoped to give you a gift as a frien-"
"Don't call me that anymore." The soldier growled. "You broke my trust, kidnapped my son, and knew about this Purity offensive on the U.S. but you didn't tell me. You played me for a fool and broke our trust and you really fooled me into thinking I could trust you too didn't you?"
Twilight said nothing, her ears drooped, and her head hung low, she laid on the floor as the tears flowed down her cheeks.
Mitch did feel a bit bad for her, but not much. He walked over to the door that led to the main conversion area and spoke one last time. "In light of the fact that we were friends, I won't shoot you even after this. But if you try to stand in my way I won't hesitate again."
He raised the machine gun, kicked the front door open, and opened fire.
Guards, scientists, and staff ponies alike were gunned down as he advanced, nothing more than a wall of bullets. Crates of potions were hit and purple fluid started to gush out onto the floor. The few guards that regained their wits and tried to stop him were killed instantly and scientists and regular staff screamed and ran for the exits.
The soldier advanced towards his goal, nothing more than a killing machine, as the ghosts of the past continued to swirl around him.
