The Conversion Bureau: New Tactics Part II

by no sh*t sherlock

Chapter 3: -1

Chapter 3: -1
Twilight Sparkle

I sat down on my bed, unsure of what to do. Princess Celestia had shown me something so groundbreaking and incredible that it made me a little bit frightened for what the future held.

"Ugghh." I exclaimed. I decided that I should make the most of this time. I walked over to my bookshelf and removed a thick human history book from the shelf. With magic I flipped to middle of it and pulled out the pages Jacob had given me. I hadn't been able to read them since they were tossed to me. But that was going to change now.

"Here we go." I said out loud as I flipped to the first page.

Hello, my name is Jacob Sanders and I am currently awaiting my forced conversion in a holding cell at the new Atlanta Conversion Bureau. Once the paralysis wore off I had loads of time to myself to think. I had a wonderful time the last couple years of disrupting pegasus movements in New York. I decided that I should write down the last couple years of my life as I think ponies might like to read about me in the future.
The purple unicorn pony, who frequently walked-

"Twilight Sparkle?" The guards voice pulled me out of the world I was about to enter. I quickly hid the pages and turned towards the door at him.

"Princess Celestia has requested your presence in the CC."

I put Jacob's story back in the middle of the book. Darn it. And he had just started to mention me I said to myself. I placed the book back on the shelf on my way out.

The Control Center or CC in the Atlanta bureau was where 90% of all remaining pony operations on earth were monitored. It was on the main floor, which meant I didn't have to weave my way through the maze of hallways in the basement.

When the guards cleared me and I entered the room, I could tell that something big was about to happen. Ponies were running everywhere carrying documents, the ones who were sitting down were speaking into microphones and a map of the area with an X placed at one corner was on a large screen. I looked around and finally found Princess Celestia staring intently at one of the screens near her.

"You called for me, Your highness?" I asked, once I had pushed my way through the crowd.

"Ah yes. I wanted you to see our moment of triumph tonight.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Well first take a look at this." She pointed towards the screen. It was a rotating aerial view over a wide building that had about 12 levels.

"Ok, what about this building?"

"There are humans living inside of it, LOTS of them." She told me.

"How do you know this?" I asked, completely flustered.

"I have one or two ponies placed in...strategic positions near them." She said with pride.

"How in Equestria could you get ponies close to them?!" I asked.

"Twilight, have you forgotten? The serum I showed you yesterday, we had already begun pony trials...and it works."She said.

"Whoa." I said in awe.

"Yes and those in the field have already confirmed that the seven I asked for are in there as well. That's the main reason I'm going with this plan."

"But what about your cease fire? I thought you were going to stop." I said.

"I only called that to get the seven humans, but now that I know where they are, there is no need for it."

"But you lied..." I broke off.

"Think about it, Twilight. We could end this threat right now. Its the right call." She tried to argue.

"I will not be here to watch this." I said firmly and headed to the exit.

"Twilight. Twilight!" Celestia called after me, but she was too late.

I was already at the door and I turned for one last look inside. The last thing I saw before I left was the camera moving rapidly towards one of the upper floor windows. Those humans were sure in for a surprise.

***

Ice

I walked around to the front door and headed inside. My meet with Red Flash had gone well as usual and I knew we could make good use of this new information.

I reached in my pocket and took out the paper again. I unfolded it to lay eyes on Celestia's new weapon. It looked like a human gun, but if you looked hard enough, you could see the slight resemblance to the old dart guns they used. Red Flash had told me that they were highly upgraded and designed for something different than the old guns. He said that a pony technician told him that they were "special", but would not give him anymore details. Regardless, this picture with its dimensions would still be of great use.

Hearing a noise behind me I quickly stuffed it back in my pocket and headed up the stairs. The second floor was empty, just a couple drinks and weapons left on tables. Same with the third and fourth. Guns and knives looked like they had just been dropped.

When I got to the fifth, I finally caught someone.

"Hey!" I yelled to him as he was about to go up stairs.

"What is it?" He asked impatiently.

"Where the hell is everyone?" I asked.

"Rebecca called a meeting. Everyone says shes gonna brief us on the plan that she and that guy from yesterday cooked up." He explained.

"Alright, thanks." I told him.

"No problem. You can follow me if you don't know where it is, but I think we're late." He said, already going up.

"Alright cool." I said and followed him.

We ran up the stairs until we got to the ninth. On the last flight, I saw something that made me feel uneasy. As we were going up I saw two odd looking females, both very early in their 20s coming down. The one in front had purple-ish colored hair and a bright orange shirt on. She passed me with no problems.

The other one had red-ish hair with a large pink bow tied in the back. I felt like time started to slow down as we got closer. It was in slow motion when she passed me, I stared and her going down and she stared at me going up. There was definitely something very off about both of them, but I could quite put my finger on it. However, instead of saying something, I kept going and filled into the crowed 10th floor.

Rebecca and Hudd were on a raised platform, about five feet off the ground. Dozens of huge, battery cells were keeping lights and speakers on. I weaved my way through dozens of people to get a closer view. I noticed that not too many of them had any weapons and then realized that they must have left them back downstairs.

I had gotten pretty close to the platform when Rebecca stepped up to a microphone.

"Everyone Quiet down." She said and the room quickly went silent. "I will not drag on and on about the problems and hardships we face, but rather I will get straight to what our solution is." She said and everyone started to cheer.

"Hudd and I have decided that the most effective plan of attack against the ponies is to hit them directly. We're going go for the-" She couldn't finish.

All at once, the windows around the room were busted open and in came pegasi. Dozens of them flooded in and flew up towards the ceiling. The one that stood out the most was light blue with a rainbow colored mane and tail. It was the one Jacob had talked about on the way here. She removed what looked like a camera from the top of her head and threw it to the ground. All of us just stared at them in complete shock.

Once they were above us, they pulled the familiar dart guns out and opened fire. People everywhere started dropping from the paralysis and I dropped as one of them. I wasn't hit, but I figured they wouldn't aim for someone who was already down. Those still standing reached for their sides, only to remember that most of them had left their guns back down stairs. People who didn't leave them behind could only get a few random shots off before they too were hit and went down.

Realizing that they were unarmed, everyone panicked and started stampeding towards the stairs. But there were so many of them that they bottle necked on the cramped stairwell and became easy targets. I was stepped on many times as I tried to crawl to them, but when I saw how many of them were dropping in that direction, I stopped.

I turned around towards the platform to see Rebecca and Hudd dive off it. A huge barrage of darts hit where they had previously stood. Hudd flipped over mid dive with a shotgun and removed the head from one of the pegasi behind them. He landed and slid on his back and brought two more pegasi down.

"DO IT!" he yelled.

Rebecca pulled out a detonator, closed her eyes and squeezed it.

The detonator set off about a two dozen, small, deafening explosions in the floor. I covered my head and neck as storm of splinters and debris fell all around me. The explosions had cut out a U shape in the floor. The curve was in the middle and the two ends were on either side of the the wall that had the stairs. Dust clouded the pony's vision and they stopped firing. Even through all the screams, I could hear the sound of the floor creaking and crossbeams snapping below us. The floor closest to the curve of the U suddenly dropped a few feet below the surrounding area.

"Oh this is not good." I said out loud as I worked out what was about to happen.

I heard one last long groan and then a final sound of metal bending and snapping. Then seconds later the floor fell. The entire curved section slammed into the ninth floor and crushed most everything on it. The two ends stayed attached to the floor above and made a sort of gigantic ramp.

Everything that was on the section then started to slide down it. Rebecca, Hudd and I were all close to the curve so our slide was relatively short. Those higher up weren't so lucky. People who had been trying to go down the stairs had the farthest to go. They flipped and rolled into each other before hitting what was left of the ninth floor. Paralyzed people were helpless as others rolled and crashed into them.

The air from the fall had blown most of the dust away and the pegasi had picked up shooting again.

Rebecca picked herself up and shouted. "Come on! There's a cache this way!"

Hudd and I rose and followed her down a hallway. A couple other people who could stand, came with us. We went down a couple more paths and eventually came upon a locked room. Rebecca pulled out a key ring and started searching for the right one. Hudd, who was impatient, shot the hinges off with his shotgun and kicked his way inside.

He started passing down random weapons until a sufficient amount of us were armed. We very slowly made our way back to where the floor collapsed in. We had expected a fight, but there was nothing. The pegasi were gone and they had taken the paralyzed people with them. None of them were left. They had all been carried out by the pegasi, starting as soon as we left.

"They're gone."Rebecca said quietly. "We need to search for anyone they didn't take. If you find anyone tell them to go to the first floor immediately."

"Everyone nodded and went off in different directions. I climbed back up the floor section to look for anyone they could have possibly missed.

Two hours later, I had gone downstairs and was standing around waiting for anyone else to come down. The only person I found was Rain, hiding in a janitor's closet.

There were only about 30 or 40 of us down here. Things weren't looking good.

"Alright everyone stay still, I need a count." Rebecca stood on a couple chairs and started to tally us up.

I looked around and got a sinking feeling in my heart. I saw Hudd, Kid, Rain, Jacob and Lefty...but no Mint.

No way they got Mint. I assured myself. Mint's to good for that.

When Rebecca was finished, she frowned in confusion and whispered something to Hudd.

"Ok there 47 of us left in total. I suggest that you all gather as much supplies as you can, we can not stay here." She said sadly.

Hudd motioned for us to come to him and we all headed in his direction.

"Its Mint." He said sadly. "Hes gone, they got him." We all went silent, Mint had been one of the earliest people to join Hudd. He was a amazing and loyal friend beyond comparison. His strength and power was great, but was also backed by a powerful mind. I couldn't believe that they actually got him, now we were -1again.

"Are you happy." he asked me. My moment of grief was broken by Lefty's fuming.

"What are you talking about?" I asked back.

Lefty put his hands on my chest and pushed me down. "You know what Im talking about!" He said, raising his voice and attracting more attention. "I see you talking to a pegasus outside and then 20 minutes later we get attacked by them!"

The people around started to chatter and converse about what they had just heard.

"Whats this now?" Rebecca asked as she came over.

"I saw him talking with a pegasus and then they attack us." He told her.

"You did what?!" Rebecca asked coming towards me.

"That wasn't it!" I protested. "I was-" I had to stop myself. I rolled my neck in a circle and caught a glimpse of Hudd who was shaking his head. He didn't want me to blow my cover , but not doing so would make me look guilty.

I simply held my head down, there was nothing that I could say. The people around me started to yell insults and I heard weapons being pulled out.

Oh shit, they're going to kill me. I thought to myself. A few of them came towards me, but Rebecca stopped them. She raised her gun to my fore head and for a second I thought she was going to take me out right there. But then she tilted her head in the direction of the door. She motioned for Hudd, who looked extremely nervous, to follow us.

"I will not allow a betrayal." She said firmly

***

Mint

When I opened my eyes, I was hit with a blinding light. I slammed them shut and tried to bring a hand up to cover my face. I couldn't, however, because my wrists were chained close the the medical table I was laying on. I tried moving my legs, but they were also chained. Above me was a single, hanging bulb.

I remembered what had happened the previous night and I got angry. How could they have launched such devastating attack on us? How could they even know we were there. I asked and became more enraged with each thought. I started to thrash, with what little space I had, and yell loudly.

In response, a couple dim lights around the room lit up and allowed me to see just a little bit more. On my left was a door with no handle and a large, reflective pane on the wall. Probably a two way mirror.

I was about to start my thrashing again when the door opened. For a moment no one entered. I craned my neck to get a view of who was outside. Just as I was about to see, a pony stepped from the side into the room. She was quite tall and had a white body. Her mane was multicolored and flowed to the side.

"Princess Celestia." I spat i disgust I've had some encounters with the so called "Sun Goddess" before, but I had never been this close.

She slowly walked to the other side of the room and placed her hoof on a large light switch. "Hello Mint. Nice to see you again so soon." She calmly greeted. When she was done, she pressed the switch and the main lights of the room turned on.

The room was larger than I had thought. Next to me was another table with a deep tray on it. Test tubes, flasks, burners and other scientific equipment were stocked on shelves on the walls behind me and to my right. Far in front of me was a giant, black, bank vault style door.

"Yeah." I said back. "Nice."

She gave me a smile and walked over to the black door. She stamped in a code and after a few minutes the door opened. She grabbed something that I couldn't see and placed it in the tray. My anger boiled over as I watched her.

"Now then." She started cheerfully. "Where should -"

"FUCK YOU, CELESTIA!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. Her face became filled with shock and surprise at my outburst. "You don't hear that as much as you should, as much as you deserve."

"I was going to try to make some kind of peace with you." She sighed. "But I guess I'll just have to get straight into it."

"Peace?! The time to make peace was like three years ago, before YOU started all this mess!" I yelled at her. "And what the hell is that supposed to mean? What do you think you can do to me.?" My rage was beginning to subside, but my hatred for her wasn't

"I was thinking a conversion t-" She started.

I lowered my voice and started to chuckle. "You're shit, Celestia. Complete shit. I can only hope that one day I can sit back, relax and watch as you die." I smiled to finish it off.

"You know we don't always get what we want, Mint." She said. "Now as I was saying, I was thinking a conversion...as a start."

"Start?" I asked.

She smiled at me and finally shut the door with her magic. "Lets begin."

End Chapter 3

Comments

[digiboy]

So far...Awesome. I can't wait for the next chapter to come out. your stories are always great :D. Keep up the good work and message me if you need anything... besides money, I'm flat broke at the moment owning nothing more than the clothes I wear, but anything else :D.

[Codexwriter476]

Well, It was nice knowing you Mint.
*runs away*

[Out of Place]

Let me quess. Applebloom and Scootalo where the spies?

[Sb129]

Hmmmmmm, what up Twi?

[Guardian]

Annnnnnd... here we go.

[Rainbow Sparkle]

Hmmm...Twilight not wanting to watch...doesn't really make much sense to me, in this context. After all, she seems rather fine and okay with the idea of humans being converted, heck she even invented the paralysis darts. So why would she be upset with what Celestia did here? Also, I sense Applebloom and Scootaloo...though its interesting that they were humans. I have to wonder if AJ or RD knew about that, seems risky to be putting them in such a situation. (not to mention that I'd suspect they'd be very likely to break their cover)

Also, I'll be honest and say that the humans leaving their weapons behind was a major case of being handed the stupid ball. I don't care if they felt they were safe, when you've been fighting for survival for that long you should keep your weapons with you at all times, in case the unexpected ever happens.

[BlockBreaker911]

As a start? Oh my, things are not going to go well for Mint.

[Kitsuneisuki]

... I would like to believe they wouldn't kill a person, without letting him explain his situation. Also, Hudd, you're a jackass. You left one of your men hanging just to save your petty little plan. I sure hope that this story clears up in the next chapter... because everything is so very muddled... so very, very muddled.

[no sh*t sherlock]

1349640 Yeah I'd have to agree with you there, but I guess that's what happens when you write story without having a set idea of where you want to take it. :/

I think I may slow things down in the next few chapters just to have things explained better.

[Kitsuneisuki]

1353284 >.< Author reply!

*Squee*

Well, anyways, It'd be nice for everything to be out in the open and explained, rather than jumping the gun. So far, this story/sequel is very enjoyable! I can't wait to see what's gonna happen, especially since you left off with a cliffhanger...

[LegalTroll]

"I couldn't believe that they actually got him, now we were -1 again."

[ultrasolarflare]

oh dang

[Rocky Runner]

Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!! SURPRISE, CELESTIA!!! I HAVE A NIGHTMARE WEAPON!!! *shoots and kills Celestia* *frees Mint* Now, WE HEAD OUT FOR LUNA!!! I BROUGHT SPARTAN SUITS, BRO! (the Halo kind) LET'S KILL ALL THESE *unintelligible*

[Smoker]

A humanization serum, used to make spies. That's... Actually really clever. I'm surprised nobody else thought of that.