The Conversion Bureau: The Human Liberation Front.

In spite of my anger, I found myself smiling. Somepony who I hated, somepony who I couldn’t trust, was on my side. It was sort of liberating. Still, I was lost for words.

“Did Twilight force you into this?” I muttered.

“I, I, don’t want to point hooves but-, I told her it just wasn’t right, but then Twilight went into lecture mode and I didn’t want to interrupt” uttered Fluttershy. “I just… I feel horrible. Like I’m betraying them for the right thing by just thinking it. Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie… Rainbow. Oh, Celestia, how would Rainbow feel?”

“Don’t overthink it Flutter.” said Big Mac in a caring tone.

“I just want to do something!” cried out Fluttershy before adding a quiet “Sorry”. “I just can’t because I’m on the face of the posters, the war, and doing anything would be… traitorous…”

Silence filled the picnic site as we decided against eating, not that it was an issue for me. After all, after Fluttershy’s announcement, I lost my appetite. It was just so unfair. Humans did nothing wrong, but we can’t do anything to help them… or can we? “Fluttershy, you want to do something for the humans but are too scared to right?” Fluttershy nodded quickly allowing me to continue. “So, what if they didn’t know?”

“Wha-?” uttered Big Mac and Fluttershy at a new level of lost for words.

“Instead of doing a protest or trying to persuade your friends, why don’t we be quiet about it for a start, build up followers, see how many ponies want this war to end?” Fluttershy and Big Mac exchanged glances at this, so I decided to back-peddle a bit. “I know this sounds hard, but what if us three join forces to help the humans on info, like Fluttershy, your IN the mane 6, and Big Mac, you’re in the Apple Clan, we could ship out info to the humans and no-one would know it was us!”

“That’s sounds an awful lot of betraying trust, Lyra,” Fluttershy whispered sinking back into her mane.

“Didn’t they betray OUR trust when they became genocide enthusiasts?” Fluttershy at this completed disappeared into her mane at genocide, but Big Mac looked thoughtful.

“Ah agree with Lyra on this. The mane 6 ain’t doing what they are meant to be doing. They supposed to be keepin’ the peace, not tryna’ start wars,” stated Big Mac.

“But how would we be getting info to humans, what if we get caught doing so? I don’t want to go missing.” Fluttershy said voicing her concerns. The three of us once again fell into a peaceful silence as we contemplated our thoughts.

“What about the Changelings?” I said suddenly. When Equestria was transported to earth, some other parts of the country were dragged with it, most notably, the Badlands. Once ponies started a war with the humans, Changelings went immediately to the side of humans, but since the Changeling Hive’s location is a mystery, Celestia can’t do much to stop info being leaked to humans. “If we find the hive, we could team up with the Changelings and ship out info to them,” I completed.

“Sounds doable,” started Big Mac, “But we still dunno know where it is.”

“We don’t need to,” Fluttershy replied. “Changeling spies are everywhere; we just have to look in the right places.”

“Fluttershy, that is the smartest thing I have every heard you say,” I said smiling.

“I’ll take that as a compliment for ya own sake” Big Mac asserted with a piercing glare. “But where are the ‘right places’?”

“I would imagine the Everfree Forest,” commented Fluttershy staring past the sinister tree line like it was daring her to enter. “Lots of Changelings have been found there.”

“Well, I’m not going in there for my life, how about someplace else?” I quickly stated averting my gaze from the trees.

“Ponyville?” questioned Big Mac. “Fluttershy n’ the Mane 6 do live there; I would be surprised to not have any Changelin’ spies lurkin’ ‘round.”

“Huh, I guess we would need a Changeling detection spell,” I muttered. “And I guess I’m going to have to do it since I’m the only unicorn in this Fanatic Trifecta of ours.”

“Fanatic Trifecta, I like that…” Big Mac commented. “But where are we gonna be workin’? I can’t really lend out a shed to ya’ll without the risk of ma sisters findin’ out.”

“I have an old seed bunker in my backyard,” claimed Fluttershy. “I think it was built a long time ago, and I’ve never really used it. It’s actually pretty big with 3 underground storerooms and 2 main halls.”

“I guess that’ll have to do Flutters,” I spoke. “Can you show us?” I quickly added. Wordlessly, Fluttershy nodded and quickly picked up the still unopened picnic basket as well walked back to Fluttershy’s house. I should mention, Fluttershy lives out in the middle of no-where near the Everfree Forest, so you’d think its scary, not really. With the whole place being an animal sanctuary, it wasn’t that bad.

After crossing a small stream, Fluttershy walked off the path to her front door trailing Big Mac and me onward. A few minutes later of trekking deeper into Fluttershy’s seemingly never-ending backyard of bird feeders and fences with animals running around; we soon reached a peaceful, but eerie cellar door that was built into the ground surrounded by moss, leaves, and branches hiding it from the world. With a quiet groan, the doors opened into a nicely lit cellar. Ignoring the feeling like I might die here, I walked in with my newly found friends.

Directly down the stairs was nothing but concrete, expect for some… blast-proof doors the left hoof side.

“Fluttershy, why does this ‘seed storage’ need blast-proof doors?” I said without my shock going unnoticed.

“Oh, I um, this was here because it’s actually not a seed storage, but a seed bank if the world was to end, so it needed some defenses” spoke Fluttershy. Guessing that was the end of that. I took the honors and pushed open the steel and dusty doors to reveal another steel double door. Walking through the airlock of sorts, Fluttershy pulled open the second set of double doors to reveal nothing but a black void.

“Oh, the lights.” Fluttershy said haphazardly walking over to an out of sight wall where she flipped a switch.

BUZZ. Suddenly all the lights came on to present a huge atrium that was made purely out of concrete. Every 5 hooves on the wall was a large florescent light filling up the room powered by magic. On the very far wall of the rectangular room was another steel double-door that was embedded in the wall, and nearly out of sight was another steel double door on the very right long-side wall that led elsewhere. It was peaceful, but creepy.

“So, what do you think?” Fluttershy questioned.

“I’m thinkin’ at lotta things righta now Flutters.” Big Mac uttered looking around at the vast concrete room. “Wait, where are the seeds at?”

“Oh.” Fluttershy said. “Its just so far out from my cottage that I just left this place alone, besides, it is a little scary.”

“Ya don’t say.”

Meanwhile my brain was working overtime. This was perfect, this wasn’t just a place for talking… this was a place for meetings. This wasn’t just a HQ; this is where we could spread the word. So many options judging how those two other doors led out, we could have a printing press down here, offices, meeting rooms, and a lot of members; not to mention how far out we were.

“So whadda think Lyra?” I heard Big Mac say.

“I’m thinking lots of this Big Mac. Lots of things. We could hold meetings down here.”

“What?” Big Mac said.

“You heard me. We could have members down here as well as Changeling helpers. This place… is our Magnum Opus.”

“I guess so,” Fluttershy said. “But should we? What if we get found out?”

“We won’t Fluttershy, I’ll make sure of that. Do any of you know Human Sympathizers?” I suddenly add.

“I think I know some in Appleloosa,” said Big Mac.

“I know lots from my hate mail,” mentioned Fluttershy.

“Well, I have some jobs for you two. Fluttershy, tell Big Mac everyone you know to be a Human Sympathizer, because Big Mac, I need you to be a recruiting member at the moment,” I cried out. “Fluttershy, I need your help on making this place workable as a meeting place for members!” I continued not letting them speak. “As for me, I’m going to find us a willing changeling.”

“What?” Said Big Mac. “What if I get caught?”

“You won’t Big Mac. We need to do this.”

“Lyra, I can get some chairs and a podium, but are you sure we should do this?”

“Yes, Fluttershy, we need to for the right of Humanity!”

“So, is this a ‘done deal’? Are we gonna be betraying our kin for this?”

“We have to,” I stated. “It’s the right thing to do.”

“I guess so,” whispered Fluttershy.