Splinter Cell: Target Lost

Quiet days in the workplace meant bad things for the people working there.  Charlie knew that the cold, judging eye of Sam Fischer passed over him at least a dozen times today, making sure he stayed on track.  He was deadly serious with the new events that had transpired over the last night.  It all happened so quickly, so prematurely... nobody saw it coming.  Then the message from the Enhancers came in. He listened to the audio recording again, trying to decipher its meaning.  He hit the play button and let the file do its work.

"Message received: 4:37 AM. Hello, Sam.  It's nice to see you're still playing boss around in the Echelon system.  I'd been afraid you lost your way, but here you are, in charge of the largest security organization in the world.  And what do you do with your time?  You spend it focused on that damned rat, Harper.  Don't think we don't know what you're up to; your agent will not capture our leader.  He will perish before he lays a finger on him, even in this other world.  Yes, we know of that as well.  I believe it's time to change your focus, Sammy.  Let's start with a nice game of chess, and please... try not to focus on your pawns while I take your queen.  I've made the first move already... now it's your turn."

Charlie let the static of silence play out as the message ended.  The message was clear enough.  The Enhancers knew about the situation on the alien planet, and now they were throwing a curveball at them while they were distracted, but the real question was what the curveball was.  They searched every database, every nook and cranny, every little detail in the system but found nothing.  It seemed like the Enhancers had done nothing at all, that it was all just a distraction.

There was another thing that plagued the minds of Fourth Echelon's operatives: the identity of the person who sent the message.  The Enhancers didn't use voice distortion in this audio file, and the yet the voice was analyzed over and over and no identity came up, and that's saying something when you have records for every voice of every person alive.  Some unregistered person had sent this message, and they didn't even know where to start looking for him.  It wasn't a call, so they couldn't trace it... it was sent from somewhere inside the system.  The cheeky bastards threw in the automated timestamp to make it sound like a casual call in.  However, it still terrified everyone that the message could be from one of their own coworkers, one of their own friends.

The final thing that didn't make sense was how they mentioned taking one's queen instead of the king, the obvious piece to go for in a game of chess to win.  Perhaps the Enhancers weren't going to win this, but maybe they thought they had made a huge blunder in the system.  With no problems to be found, it made it quite confusing why they would say that.  Naturally, one would assume that Grim would be the one they referred to, being second in charge, powerful, and above those deciding factors, being a woman.  She had contacted Fourth Echelon and told them to politely fuck off and let her have her vacation.  Fourth Echelon complied.

And so, it circled back on itself.  What was this thing they were missing?  Did it even matter what the Enhancers did?

Charlie felt his back grow cold from the frigid stare of Sam Fischer.

"Sir?  Is there something you want?" he asked, trying to keep his composure.

Sam said with a twinge of anger in his voice, "Charlie, I'm only going to tell you this only once.  We're going to ignore the Enhancers and check up on Harper, all right?  Try contacting him now."

"Yessir!" Charlie said.  He tried opening the connection to the satellite, only to find that it didn't exist.  He tried connecting back up to it.  No response.  He tried once, twice, three times.  Nothing.

"Well?  What's taking so long?" Fischer asked.

"I don't know. It's like the satellite can't respond... maybe it's just dead, sir."

"Dead how?" he asked.

"Let's see," Charlie responded.  He loaded up the last minutes of the satellite data in the database.  It seemed to have picked up large energy levels around a certain point not too far from Harper's locale on the planet.  The numbers were off the scale!  He linked the energy sources together, trying to build a 3D model of it.  When he did, it became all too apparent as to what happened.

"Sir?" Charlie said, voice wavering. "I'm pretty sure, and this is just from the data but... the satellite may have been slightly... relatively... permanently..."

"What?!" shouted Fischer.  Charlie shuddered at the sound of it.

"Well... the satellite is uh... in a tiny little bit of a destructed state..."

"You mean it was DESTROYED?!" This shout resounded throughout the room, and it drew everyone's eyes over to Fischer. "HOW?!"

"It looks like an energy spike from the planet took it out...  I'm sorry, sir." Charlie said, hoping he didn't sound too apologetic.  He did.

"Sorry?" Fischer let out a gasping laughter of disbelief.  "SORRY?  Well, if you're so sorry, the just fixes goddamn everything, doesn't it?!"

Charlie found himself at a loss for words.  Instead, he just turned back to his computer, verifying the data he found.  The satellite was gone.

"Sir, there's nothing to be done.  They've taken down the satellite, and even if it was just the security setup, that would have too many passcodes and cyphers to it... we'd never get it back online, even if every last person in Fourth Echelon worked on it.  The simple fact of the matter is the satellite is gone.  Now we have to rely on something else."

"Like what?" Fischer asked with a growl.

"How about you have some hope?  Jesus, do you have any faith in your operatives?"

"Careful what you say, Charlie, or you may find yourself in a bad position." Sam said.

"Are you threatening me, sir?" Charlie asked.

"What if I am threatening you, Charlie?  What are you going to do about it?"

The entire room was silent, almost more so then before, and before you could hear a pin drop.  Sam was outright threatening his own employees.

"Nothing, sir," Charlie lied. "I'm sorry for running my mouth, sir."

Fischer nodded and backed off a bit. "You're damn right, you are.  Now, get back to work.  That goes for all of you!  I want the source of that message, and I want it yesterday!"

Full of fear as to what would happen if they didn't work, all the techies rapidly started typing away at their computers to try and determine the source of the message.  Charlie wasn't so eager to get back to work.  Something was off here, and he knew there was much more to the story than he could see.  However, if he was going to get anywhere, he would need to find the source before any of his coworkers.  But how could he?  The voice didn't match any registered name on Earth…

It took him a few seconds to add two and two together.  Wait a minute… if not on Earth, then--!

His eyes widened at the realization.  Quickly, he looked up the last recorded data from the satellite.  Once he saw it, he knew what happened, and he had an idea of how the message was sent, and by who.  If only he could confirm his suspicion...

That would have to wait.  First, he needed to analyze the data received before and at the time of the energy spike.  It would take some time, but when everything was said and done, maybe some questions would be answered.  Only time could tell.

***

"Hey, Harper... how's it going?"

"Harper, you need anything?"

"Harper, what's it like on Gaia?"

Harper was overwhelmed by the unending line of questions coming from the curious ponies.  Before they were so quiet, but now it was hard to keep up with what they were saying.  Surprisingly, they actually let him talk, which was a first.  Throughout the entire time before, they had simply ignored him, avoided him, or both, and now they wanted to know every last detail about his life.  This all lead up to one question: Why?  If they hadn't cared before, why do they suddenly care know?  Did Kestrel have something to do with this?  Even worse, did Byron have something to do with this?  He really hoped it was not the latter.  For the time being, he had to keep providing answers to these ponies.

"So, what do humans eat, anyway?" Rainbow Dash asked. "'Cuz the entire time you guys have been here, I've only seen Byron chow down on salads.  Do you guys have something against hay?"

"Hay isn't exactly a digestible food for humans.  Besides, it doesn't fit our pallet.  There are plenty of things we do eat, but it'd take forever to name them.  Luckily, that's why we have the food pyramid."

"Food pyramid?  Sounds laaaaame."  Rainbow said, making sure to draw out the word 'lame'.

"The food pyramid is the basic food groups for humans, put into a triangular shape that defines how much of each group we should eat and in what portions."  His explanation was met with mixed results, Twilight being the only one who seemed to understand.  He sighed and simplified it for the rest. "It tells us what we should eat and how much of it to eat."

"Ooooooooooh," they all said in unison.

"But then what are the food groups?" asked Fluttershy. "Is it like a bunny's?  Or maybe a chicken's?"

Harper scratched the back of his head. "I don't know about those two, really.  I'm not a biologist... quite the opposite, really.  However, the food groups we have are simple.  To have a healthy diet, we need to have dairy, fruits, vegetables, grains and..."

He hesitated on the last one.  Was it really  good idea to tell these ponies humans needed to eat meat?  Maybe he could tone it down to something that wouldn't cause them to panic.

"And what?" asked Fluttershy.

"And... uh.. a source of protein.  You know, tree-nuts and beans and stuff."

"Seems fairly well balanced." Twilight remarked.

"And meat." Byron coughed.  Harper shot him a dark look and saw that evil little grin of his again.

"Meat?  Eeeeeeeeew..." Rainbow said, clearly grossed out.

"Well, since Byron just had to bring it up, yes, we do eat meat.  Not raw meat, though.  Normally, we'd cook it up, put some spices on it, sometimes eat in with some bread.  It doesn't taste half-bad." Harper explained.

Applejack put a hoof to her chin and then said, "Just outta curiosity--"

"-- morbid curiosity --" Rarity interrupted.

"-- what animals do you humans eat?"

"Well, I could name a few, if you'd like." Harper offered. "We eat cows, chickens, turkeys, deer, some varieties of fish..." --He noticed how dark the topic must've been to the ponies, so he threw in some humor-- " ...little ponies..."  He leaned in over Applejack and did a little gnash of his teeth, spooking her so much her hat fell right off her head. He laughed and continued, "Not really.  We don't eat equines.  Many people would frown upon such an act, in fact."

"But it has happened." Byorn noted. "It's not like humans haven't tried it."

Harper was getting sick of Byron's comments at this point.  "While this may be true, the only time humans have ever done that is when they were far from home in a strange land with nothing else to eat.  Besides, it sickens people to even think of it.  Haven't you seen that in movies?"

"Figures you'd watch those kinds of movies," Byron said, confident in giving Harper the hardest time he possibly could. "Oh, and by the way, we are far from home in a strange land, just to remind you."

"Cut the crap, O'Malley," Kestrel said. "Humans in this day and age would never eat horses.  We've had along history with them, training them to be ridden, helping us in wars, and not to mention making a little girl's dream come true of seeing one.  Don't make it sound like we'd actually willingly consume man's second best friend."

"Second best?" Applejack asked.

"Dog is man's best friend, as the saying goes." Harper explained. "Humans have worked with them and kept them as pets.  And, regrettably, I believe some may have eaten them as well."

"Dear Celestia!" Rarity exclaimed.  "Do humans eat every animal you come across?"

"Of course not!  That would be insane!" Harper exclaimed. "None one of that matters, anyway.  Omnivores like us can still live off of plants.  Besides, our diet won't matter much after we're back home."

The group drew close to the tall, dark tower, with Byron leading the way.  Discord kept a close eye on his every step.  Harper had learned about what Discord had done and how he was reformed, and it was amusing to see how he was keeping that psycho in his place.  Only slightly, though.  There was a definite trust issue that was lurking in the back of his mind.

His thought was broken when he noticed everybody hiding behind a single giant rock, with Byron waving him over.  Harper dashed over to hear what he had to say.

"We're nearing the entrance of the tower.  I can get us past the guards." Byron explained.  Harper raised an eyebrow and Kestrel shot him a look that said don't ask.

"Hey, you!  Yes, you!  What the hell do you think you're doing out here?" Harper heard Byron shout at the guards.

Harper was too curious not to know how this was supposed to work.  "What, does he think they'll just take orders from him like that?" he asked Kestrel.

"Byron's done a little bit of convincing to get into the higher ranks of the enemy.  He's our key past most of the security in this place." Kestrel said.

"And you think he isn't on their side?" Harper asked.

"I know he may not be the best at taking the good side, so that's why Discord is doing a little... 'convincing' to keep him on our side.  If he tries to defect to the other side, then he's going down, pronto."

"That's right!  Now get out of here!  I don't want to see you again for a while!" O'Malley shouted.

Kestrel did a quick check over the rock. "The path's clear. Let's move."

The group moved out, entering the tower.  It didn't take long for them to find a split in the path.  There were two staircases before them

"Harper, I want you, Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow to split right.  Everyone else, you're with me.  We'll meet you at the top of the tower."

"No way.  I'm not letting Byron out of my sight. " Harper said confidently.

Kestrel shook his head and replied, "Harper, there's no time to discuss this.  Just get going.  I'm not going to repeat myself.  Oh, and one last thing: Try not to get killed.  The last thing I need is another man KIA."

Harper nodded, but he grit his teeth mentally.  Something was off about all of this.  Byron was supposed to be the lead, getting into whatever trap these ponies had set up for them, but now it seemed he was just a guide with a lot more duties put on him.  This was not what he expected.  However, he didn't question the order.  Time was indeed short, and they would need to get to the top of this structure before it was too late.  He went up the right staircase and the others of his group followed close behind him.

Once he ascended the stairs, it hit him like a truck.  The adrenaline, the tactics, everything he had ever learned.  This was the mission area, and in it, he had to be smart, stealthy, fast, and above all, efficient.  He flicked down his goggles and did a quick sweep for hostiles.  Three came up.  One was patrolling, the other two were guarding the door to the next staircase.  The room itself was pitch black.  Piece of cake.

He held up his arm to signal for the group to halt and wait for his next command.  Then, he quietly snuck up behind the patrolling guard and quickly flung his arm around its neck.  With one quick movement, he kicked it down to the ground and shot it in the head.  The ponies must've known what happened, as he could hear one shudder at the sound.  He wasn't the only one who heard the noise.  He could hear the other two guards converging on his location.  He took out his pistol and managed to hit one, killing it.  The other saw his friend drop and lunged in at Harper blindly.  He smacked the pony with the butt of his pistol and knocked it to the ground.  Then he shot it once in head at point blank range.

He returned to the group and signaled them forward.  Harper could tell they already didn't approve of this, and that they were mortified by the fact Harper actually killed these ones.  They hadn't seen him do it before, but now what they feared what right before their eyes.

"Harper, did you really have to kill them?  They were only guards." Twilight whispered.

"I was given an order to get to the top of the tower as quickly as I could.  This is the only way.  I am obeying orders, nothing more, nothing less."

"It was completely uncool to do that.  We could've, I dunno, snuck past them?" Rainbow suggested.

"Do you want to stop Sombra and the changelings or not?" Harper asked.  None of them responded. "That's what I thought."

They ascended the next staircase.  This floor had multiple rooms to it with open doorways.  Harper's gear detected five guards.  He could also see green light pouring out of one of the nearby rooms to his left.

"Twilight, see what you can do about that light.  I'll go right.  Everyone else stay put and keep your head down." Harper ordered.  It felt good to be in charge for this bit.  Twilight would have to listen to him for once, not the other way around.

The room he entered had two guards conversing.  Harper spotted a strange vine-like formation running over the ceiling.  He climbed up and moved along the vine.  He heard bits and pieces of the conversation, then more as he moved closer.

"The Queen and Sombra did that?  How?"

"I don't know.  The others say its still there, though.  I don't see the point in it.  If they really wanted to destroy Ponyville, why not just do it now? They have what they need right there!"

"Shh!  The captain will kill you if he hears you talking that way!  All we have to do is keep this to ourselves.  Nopony ever has to know-- GURK!"

A shot from the side took the talking one out, and the other stood in shock for a few moments.  A fatal mistake on his part, as Harper took this time to shoot the guard in the face.  He wondered if he should've listened for a bit longer before ending their chat, but then remembered he was under a time constraint for this mission and pushed the thought to the back of his mind.  He had no time for espionage during a sabotage mission.

He returned to the main room to find the light was still glowing in the other room.  He decided to go see what was the deal.  He found Twilight stared open-mouthedly at around a dozen glowing chrysalises.  Or was it "chrysali"?  That didn't sound right in Harper's mind.  Moving past that trivial detail, he noticed each one contained a single pony, seemingly in a comatose state.

He put a hand on Twilight's shoulder and said, "All right, so we won't get that light off."

"We have to help them out of these things!" Twilight whisper/shouted.

"No," Harper said, leading her away from the things. "We have no way to ensure their safety once they're out, and if we don't complete our current mission, it won't matter anyway.  Anything and everything they would return to would be destroyed."

Twilight nodded and they moved to the final room of the floor.  In this room, three guards were seated at a table, discussing battle plans.  Harper wished he had something to get them out of the way all at once, like a grenade, but that was completely out of the question now.  He didn't have any explosives on him, which was probably a good thing, looking back on it.  He'd have to use something else.

"If we attack from the forest, we can get the element of surprise on our side.  The townsponies won't know what hit them when we come storming in from there." the captain explained.

"How do you know that?" asked one of the underling guards.

"Have you paid any attention to how they react when they see things from the forest?  They're scared and surprised!  It's as if none of them ever went in there to just check on it every once in a while!  And to think they have a pony who lives nearby the place and doesn't notice when things start creeping out of there!  They are completely oblivious as to what goes on in that place!"

Twilight grit her teeth, forcing whatever argument she would've made back into the recesses of her mind.  Harper knew that these guys were gonna to be quite the little bundle of shits.  Luckily, they'd be gone soon.  Harper remembered he still had his marks.  It was so easy to forget something like that.  It was almost an unconscious thought that allowed him to mark the three of them.  Three quick shots and they were down for the count.  Twilight winced at each shot and tried not to look at the crimson-covered ponies.

Harper felt no pity or sorrow for them.  If they wanted trouble, then they got what they deserved.  "Come on," he said. "Let's gather the others and move to the next floor."

Orderly and straightforward.  This mission couldn't be easier.  For some, that is...

***

Kestrel was starting to see how bringing along a being of chaos and a psychopath on a stealth mission was a bad idea.  Every single time, that son of a bitch Discord went straight into the enemies, giving away his position.  Kestrel was starting to lose patience with him.  Fluttershy wasn't helping, either.  For the only pony able to keep him in check, she sure was lenient with him.

However, by some stroke of luck, they had managed to reach the upper floors of the tower without any major bells and whistles going off.  Kestrel sighed as he counted the guards on this floor.  There was only one guard.  One.  He looked at Discord, knowing he was going to make this one kill the hardest in his entire career.

He slowly made his way to the open doorway to get a quick shot in when he saw the guard blink out of existence.

"What the fuck?!" he asked openly. "Discord, what did you do?"

"Oh, of course, go blaming me for every little thing that happens in this universe.  Have you ever considered your universe isn't perfect, hm?"

Kestrel shook his head at him.  At least this guard wasn't a problem anymore... or a thing anymore, but that was something else entirely.  He heard O'Malley laughing his wheezing laugh behind him.

"What the hell's so funny?" he asked.

"He just... just... disappeared!  He's just like, 'I must go, my people need me!' and then he just... Poof!  Gone!  Glitched out of existence!  Hahaha!"

Kestrel didn't know what to think of that.  Something like that was no joke to him.  Surprisingly, Pinkie Pie was laughing, too.  Perhaps there was something they knew that he didn't know.

"If we could tone it down a bit so that we don't get caught..." Kestrel began, finishing with only a stern look on his face.

Byron finally stopped and said, "Well, if that's what you want, killjoy, I'll stop.  But, if that happens again, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to contain myself."

Kestrel looked to Fluttershy, who was still in shock of seeing what she saw.  It was one of those moments that you wish you had an un-see button for.

"Very well.  Let's get moving.  There's... literally nothing left to do on this floor except move on."

Continuing up the stairs, they felt the air get colder.  A bright light from above blinded them for a moment.  When their vision cleared, they saw they were above the clouds.

"Well, this is some sight, isn't it?" Kestrel asked.

"Yup," O'Malley agreed.  For once.

"It needs more chaos..." Discord said.  He snapped his paw-fingers and turned a few of the clouds into pink clumps of floating cotton candy. "Eh, it'll have to do."

Fluttershy simply averted her eyes.  Despite being a pegasus, acrophobia was still one of her many fears.

"So, this is something.  I wonder why it exists.  An open space in the middle of a tower like this doesn't seem very structurally sound." Kestrel noted.

"And now you're an architect.  How about you stop thinking about the design and think about the mission, commie-boy?"

That opened up a whole different can of worms for Kestrel.  Nobody, nobody, insults him like that.

"Byron, if I hear one more word out of your mouth, I will not hesitate to put you down.  And unlike how it is with the rest of your cronies, I won't make it quick."

"Hm.  Seems I struck a nerve." Byron said, rubbing his nails on hit coat and pretending to check them out. "Very well, sickle-bearer.  I shall carry out your order."

Kestrel seriously considered shooting Byron for moment, but then remembered that wasn't his responsibility.  "Discord, please do your job before I'm forced to do it for you." Kestrel said.  This was not a suggestion.

"Now, now, Mr. O'Malley.  You know Kessy here is sensitive to... whatever insult it was you made."

"Kessy?" the operative said in disbelief.

"Yes, I thought of it myself.  Does that offend you too, O Sensitive One?"

"Is there a problem here?"

Harper appeared right on time with his group. "I said, is there a problem here?"

"Oh, no, we've got the entire situation under control." Discord said, putting on an innocent smile.  Harper sighed and walked over to Byron.  Subsequently, he stomped his boot down onto Byron's foot and then quickly removed it.

"FUUU-UUU-UUU-UUUUuuuuuking hell!  What was that for?!" Byron asked.

"Discord looked too innocent. If a being of chaos like him is lying, that's just to show it wasn't him who did anything.  Otherwise, he would've taken credit for his foul play.  Thus, I draw the conclusion that you were causing problems, as per usual."

"Okay, but was that really necessary?" Byron whined.

"Of course.  Anything that doesn't kill you and gets that smug look off your face is fair game for me.  You might limp a little now, but you'll be fine in the long run.  Also, try not to be so loud.  This is a stealth mission, after all."

"I hate you sooo muuuuch..." Byron complained once more.  He was met with Harper's boot to his other foot.  Byron felt that one, and to keep from getting them in more trouble, he didn't shout.

"Say one more word, and I swear, it won't be my boot to your foot you'll be getting.  Understood?"

Byron nodded weakly.

"All right, then. Let's move, ladies and gents!  Time's a-wasting," Harper said, rallying the group.  They moved together for the most part, with Byron limping in the back, trying to contain the pain he was feeling.  They went up the single set of stairs a the center of the open space.  Byron nearly toppled over, but managed to stop his fall by hugging the wall.  By the time they had reached the next floor, Byron was grinning again.  Ignoring the fact that he just got dinged up a bit, everything was going according to plan.

Upstairs were a ton of guards huddled into one room.  A commander stood above them on a platform, addressing them.

"Shit, there's a ton of them!" Harper whispered. "What do we do?"

"I've got an idea," Kestrel said. "Listen close, because I'll only say this once..."

"Soldiers!  Attention!  I have only one question to ask all of you.  One question..."

Harper signaled for the pegasi, Twilight, and Discord to move to a flanking position around the commander.  Kestrel signaled for the rest to start surrounding the guards.  A set of stairs allowed the humans access to the commander directly.

"The time for revolution is upon us!  We must break the chains of oppression and assault the tyrants with the fires of rebellion!  So answer me this one question: ARE YOU READY FOR REVOLUTION!?"

"SIR, YES, SIR!" the crowd shouted.  Harper noticed Fluttershy was getting all shaky.  He signaled to Kestrel to check out the situation.

The commander did a fake eye roll. "Perhaps you didn't hear me.  I said: ARE YOU READY FOR REVOLUTIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!?"

"RE-VOLT!  RE-VOLT!  RE-VOLT!" the crowd cheered.  The Earth ponies and unicorns were in place.  Fluttershy still wasn't ready yet.  Harper signaled again, and Kestrel responded with the "no-go" signal.

"Yes!  Yes!  Revolt!  Revolt!  Bring down the oppressors!" the commander shouted, urging the awaiting masses on.

Finally, Harper saw Kestrel give up his coaxing and signaled and "ok" to Harper, and he signaled to the entire group to start the attack.  Harper was ready to make his shot when he heard someone shoot before him.  Surprised, he saw Byron step out and toss the dead corpse of the commander into the crowd.  The body was left a gaping hole in the crowd to land, making a sickening crack as it it the floor.

"Now, now, little ones.  You know better then that to revolt against the King and Queen.  How about you lay down your weapons and give up before I have you all slaughtered by their magic, hm?  I think we'd all be better off if that was the case."

Harper just stared.  Was Byron being serious right now?  If this was a truly a rebellion against the leaders of another, unrelated rebellion... No, that didn't make any sense.  Byron was just creating a diversion.  Surprisingly, it was working very well.

"High Chancellor O'Malley!  We did not know you were present!" A captain shouted from the crowd.  Harper snickered a bit at the title "bestowed" upon him.

"All of you are a disgrace to the king and queen!  You don't deserve to be their underlings!  However, you will serve them, be it by will or force!  Back to your posts!  Since you've been away, you could've let in intruders!"

The last line struck a chord with the audience, and they started running back to their posts.  Once the crowd was cleared out, the path to the large set of doors they had been blocking before was now completely open.

"I gotta say, I just gained a little respect for you, Byron." Harper said. "Keep this up and I might not want to kill you, despite my orders.  That is, so long as you give Kestrel's gun back.  As in, right now."

"Eh, I did it for Fluttershy, not you," he said, making sure Discord heard this very clearly. "You and Fourth echelon can still go burn in hell or something." He turned to Kesrel and handed him his gun. "Oh, and, here's this back.  I've got a feeling you'll need it very, very soon."

From Twilight's eyes, what just happened was completely morally incorrect.  They just killed off the one defector to their side who could've convinced the entire enemy army to turn against Sombra and Chrysalis, and now that made the humans better friends than before.  She wondered if human lives and ideas were always this strange.

"The door's locked," Kestrel said, already down the stairs. "Arche-- I mean, Harper, come help me with this door."

"On my way." Harper replied.  Surprisingly, this door's locks were like way others back on earth, only crystalline.  It had two bars to open it, and they had to moved at the same time to open the door.  This definitely was making Harper question the security of this place.  Little to no guards on each floor, easy-to-open doors, no real traps that he encountered on his end...

It didn't take long to get through the poorly-designed lock.  The opening led to a huge staircase with a bright light at the top of it.  They were well on their way to stopping all of this and being renowned as heroes forever in this pony world.  Harper shook these thoughts from his mind.  The last thing he needed to be right now was overly confident.  He had to keep his eyes open for danger.

And just in time, too.  He saw he was at the head of the group and noticed the floor fall a bit under his feet and spikes shoot out in front of him, nearly skewering him.  Kestrel had noticed this ahead of time, and had avoided injury as well.

"So there are actual traps in this place.  How fun." Discord commented.  Fluttershy gave him an angry look and he added, "B-but crude, of course.  Those could've really hurt somepony." This addition was met with a smile from Fluttershy, but the rest of the ponies rolled their eyes at him.  At heart, he was still chaotic and slightly crazed, and ti showed.  Harper as thankful that nothing terrible happened to Kestrel, being surrounded by these psychos.

The rest of the airs were just as dangerous, with pressure plates that opened drops to bottomless pits, tripwires that set off arrow volleys, and the traditional uneven step.  That was the only one that actually caught anybody, as Harper tripped on it, muttered a curse, then got up and walked it off.

The light at the top was an opening to the outside, where the air was cold and harsh winds were blowing.  They were above the clouds now, and it gave everyone an uneasy feeling, as there was no protection from falling off of the structure.

"This is it.  The centerpiece of their whole operation." Byron said, pointing ahead of them to a large piece of machinery.

"What is that thing?" Harper asked.

"The magical mortar, as I like to call it, is... well, it's in the name!  This baby can amplify magical blasts up to a thousand times their strength!" Byron said, making a scene of things.

"Uh-huh.  so how do we shut it down?"

"Shut it down?" Byron asked, following his own question by mad laughter. "Who said anything about shutting it down? I don't know the first thing about how it works!"

"Well, lucky for you, you've got an expert in magical machinery on your side.  I mean, I did create that portal to another world all on my own." Twilight said. "Step aside, humans, and leave this pony to her work."

"Okay," Harper said, then immediately afterward yelled, "Wait, WHAT?! YOU CREATED A PORTAL AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?!"

"Calm down, Harper." Kestrel told him. "It's not one to our world.  We have yet to create that."

"But you're telling me it's possible?" Harper asked, almost excited.

Kestrel hesitated for a second. He turned to Twilight and asked, "You've got that, right?"

"Yup, I'll be able to shut this thing down... as soon as I figure out how it is powered."

Kestrel turned back to Harper. "So, we have some time on our hands.  Harper, I have to ask: Why do you care about going back?"

"What do you mean?" Harper asked. "It's Earth we're talking about.  You know, the home planet of our entire species?  I care about getting back to that!"

"But why, Harper?  Do you have a family?  Any friends?"

Harper was confused by the question, and had a hard time finding an answer.  He had no family, or at least, none that he could even talk to, and Sam and Charlie weren't exactly his friends.

"I suppose not." he said.

"Then why do you insist you must return?"

That sentence didn't sound a thing like what Kestrel would say.  The phrasing was all wrong.

"If I don't return, people are going to die, either directly or indirectly.  I protect people back on Earth.  You do, too!  Why are you asking this if you already know the ans--"

Harper added it all up in his head in seconds.  Quickly, he drew his gun at Kestrel, who drew his in return.

"What are you two doing?!" Rainbow shouted.

"Stay back!  This has nothing to do with you!" Harper shouted to the ponies.  He turned back to Kestrel. "Why did you do it?!"

"Clever, I see." Kestrel responded. "Nonetheless, I should've seen this coming."

"It all makes sense now... you're responsible!  You did this!"

"What are you talkin' about, you two?!" Applejack shouted. "You sound crazy!"

"Everyone, what you see here is a fake.  That's not Kestrel!"

"It seems I've been found out.  How terrifying." he responded, removing his headgear so Harper could see the his face.

"Well, who is he??" Rarity asked, surprised.

"You did it all, didn't you?  You saw an opportunity and you took it!  There was no Archer!  There was no Kestrel!  It was you!"

There was a brief moment of silence.

"If you think you know so much, let's make sure we have our facts straight, at the very least," the mysterious man said. "What do you assume I've done?"

"You went through the teleporter as well, didn't you?  You and Byron and Masters... one other guy from the recon patrol must've made it, too."

"Correct." the man said. "Continue."

"You had already stolen one of the Fourth Echelon suits for yourself before then, hadn't you?  You were wearing it, masquerading as one of the other recon troops."

The man nodded. "I did."

"That dead body in the woods... that wasn't Masters, that was the recon unit!  You took his suit... and gave it to the real Masters!  Then, you two put on a whole new disguise... and became 'Archer and Kestrel'!"

"Sharp as a tack, I see." he replied. "By the way, the man's last name was Harrison.  Make sure his wife knows he died honorably."

"Honorably, my ass!  You killed him in cold blood!  Then you met me, and you heard my plan.  When you did, you snuck out the night before... and planted Masters' device on the body!"

"Precisely."

"After we went to retrieve it, Masters got wounded, then the Timber-wolves got him.  That's why you were so angry after that!  He was the one who understood the plans!"

"Alas, 'twas a tragic loss."

"Tragic indeed, enough to make you kill the ponies you would be stuck with.  Given your condition, you knew the radiation in your system would eventually kill you, as it almost did to me... That is, until they put you in that magic-lock chamber.  Then you realized you could live on, and furthermore, return home.  So, you formed back up with Byron."

"And?"

"And then you planned all this.  This whole little excursion is just part of some greater plan, isn't it?"

"I won't be releasing the details on that anytime soon."

"That doesn't matter!  The thing is, you aren't dead, and neither is Byron!  You wouldn't allow him to be hurt because you... you..."

Harper noticed something happening over by Twilight with the mortar.

"Go ahead.  Say it.  Say my name for the glory of the new world to hear!" the man shouted hysterically.

"You are his brother, and your name... is Wilhelm O'Malley."

Suddenly, he heard beeping over by Twilight, and a robotic voice say, "Codeword: Wilhelm, detected.  Beginning loading process."

He saw Twilight get knocked to the ground by Byron.  He aimed over to take a few shots at him, but Wilhelm shot him first.

BLAM!

"One for the Enhancers..."

BLAM!

"... two for our plans..."

BLAM!

"... three for the teleporter..."

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

"... and the rest for my brother."

Harper somehow remained standing, weakly trying to raise his arm to shoot.  Wilhelm sighed, walked over, and kicked the gun out of his hands.

"Just give it up, Harper!  You know you got no chance!  Just accept your fate, before I make you accept it."

Harper fell to his knees.  It was over.  This was the end for him.  Soon, he'd be up in heaven, playing in the angelic choir with Hastings.  He wanted to close his eyes and die a peaceful death... for an operative, that is.

Then, he remembered he didn't believe in god.  He believed in vengeance.  He believed that some people weren't allowed to live for their crimes.

Harper felt the adrenaline in his system kick up to what must've been insane amounts.  He reached out his hand and grabbed Wilhelm by the throat, lifting him off the ground.

"You can't kill me... I have so much left to do..."

Harper's eyes began to glow in a blinding white light.

"YOU CANNOT KILL ME!"  he shouted furiously.

"Brother!" Wilhelm yelled between hacking and coughing. "Help me!"

"Wilhelm!" Byron shouted. "Get your hands off of him, you son of a--"

Harper raised his other hand and shot a magic pulse out of it, sending Byron flying backward, almost blowing him clear off the tower.

"NO MORE WAITING!  NO MORE DECEPTION!  THIS ALL ENDS RIGHT NOW!" Harper said, his voice overlapping itself, echoing in darker tone than he would've ever had.

Wilhelm had it all planned to a very finite detail, but this would be impossible to foresee.  When did Fourth Echelon get crazy superpowers with their operatives?

"Harper, don't do this!" Twilight pleaded. "It doesn't need to end like this!"

Harper took one look at her with confusion and anger in his glowing eyes.  She realized she had seen this before.  Someone with great magic, but unable to control it.  It reminded her of herself on the day she got her cutie mark.

"Please, Harper," she said in a calmer tone. "You know you don't want to kill anyone.  Stop this."

He stared for a while before closing his eyes and letting the power dissipate.  Wilhelm fell from his grasp onto the crystalline floor, wheezing and coughing.

Harper fell to the ground as well, extremely tired from using his new-found powers.  Twilight took a quick tactical triage of the situation and starting shouting orders left and right.

"Discord!  Help me shut down this cannon!  Rainbow, help Byron!  Fluttershy, check on Harper!"

"But Byron is the bad guy, Twi!" Rainbw complained.

"Just do it, Rainbow, before he falls!"

"Which is really soon!" Byron said followed by a bit of nervous laughter. "So, you know, if you want to hurry or something, that'd be cool with me..."

Rainbow rolled her eyes and helped up the traitor.  Discord examined the cannon closely.

"Hm... well, this thing can't just fire all the time.  Seems it needs a little spark to get it going.  Hence the whole 'loading process' thing, I guess."

"So it's not dangerous?" Twilight asked.

"Not in its current condition.  It's like a bear taking a nap right now." he replied.

"But then how was it firing before?" she asked.

"Well, somepony like Sombra or Chrysalis must've been powering it then.  Seems they're not here now, though..."

"Which begs the question of where they went..." Byron added, a devious smile still on his face.

"Yeah..." Applejack replied, a hoof on her chin.  Then she realized just who was talking.  "Wait a minute... Byron, where the hay are those two?!"

"I'm sorry, but your target is in another castle." Wilhelm said between wheezing laughs and coughs.  Harper managed to regain his strength long enough to punch him in the face for saying it.

"They did show me that they could get us to Earth, if you catch my drift."  Byron said.

For a moment, everyone was silent, thinking about what that meant.  Pinkie couldn't take it any longer.

"Oh, who knows!  Those big meany pantseses could be anywhere!"

"Yeah.  They could even be far, far away from Equestria by now..." Byron hinted.

"You're not saying that they--" Harper whispered.

"Oh, if only I weren't, Harpy," Byron said.

"Harper, what's he talking about?" Rainbow asked.

"No... That's not possible..." Harper said, wincing at the pain he felt. "Sombra and Chrysalis... are on Earth..."

"Hahahahaha!  Now the little man finally gets the big picture." Byron said, applauding him with a slow clap. "Took you a while to get that one, eh?  Oh, but it gets better, soooo much better.  Just wait and see our plans for the new world!  It's gonna be great!"

"You're insane, O'Malley.  You won't get away with this..." Harper said. "If you and your Enhancers make any attacks on the populace, I swear to--"

"C'mon, you're gonna swear to a spirit you don't even believe in now?" Byron asked. "Really?  You've fallen that low since Hastings died?"

"And what do you know about Hastings' death?" Harper asked, getting up on his knees.

"Harper... um... I wouldn't really recommend standing right now..." Fluttershy said in a little more than a whisper. "So, if you don't mind, you should sit back down and take it easy..."

"No." Harper said.  He stood up and clutched his side, if only to see O'Malley eye-to-eye. "What do you know, Byron?  Spit it out."

"Did I ever tell you the one about a rogue Third Echelon operative with a sniper rifle?  I haven't, have I?" Byron asked.

"Enough with your games!  Just tell me what happen-- UGH!"

Harper felt pain shoot through his chest when he raised his voice, causing hi to fall down before Byron.

"Perhaps another time, Harper.  As for now... I've got a world to claim."

"Oh, no you don't!" Discord said, swooping down to encircle Byron. "You're not going anywhere under my watch!  I knew you were trouble from the very beginning, and here you are, turning your back on us like all the others you've hurt!  So how about you get back in your cage, you cuckoo lunatic!"

Discord summoned a bird cage around Byron.

"And you, too!" he told Wilhelm. "You put these ponies through all of this trouble in the first place, so... in you go!"

Wilhelm got tossed into the cage as well.  Then the two and the cage disappeared with a snap of Discord's fingers.

"Whew!  Glad that's over with.  Should've done that hours ago!" Discord said, relieved.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa..." Rainbow said, waving her and head form side to side.  "You're telling me you could've done that waaaay earlier than just now?"

"And take away Harper's chance to be productive?  What kind of friend would I be if I did that?" Discord asked.

"Well, what kind of friend are you for letting him get hurt?" Applejack countered.

"Oh, please.  You all saw him use magic, yes?  He'll be fine.  If anything, he'll have a few bruises and a cracked bone or two, but in reality, there's nothing that can't be healed up in a few moments with a simple healing spell.  Right, Fluttershy?"

"Um... I think Discord is right, girls." Fluttershy said. "Sorry."

"What's the sorry for?" Rainbow asked. "If he just need s a little fixing up, Twilight can do that, no problem!"

"No."

The answer was stern and direct, making everyone freeze for a moment at what they heard.

"Twilight... you're not serious[/]i, are you, darling?" Rarity asked.

"I am serious.  If Harper can use magic like what he did just now, healing the grevious wounds from that weapon, I'm sure he can fix himself up."

Applejack was confused by this. "Twilight, can't ya just help--"

"No!  I want to see him do it himself.  If he can't use magic, then nothing has changed, but if he can..."

"Twilight, is now really the time for one of your experiments?  We all know what we saw just then!" Rainbow asked.  "Just help the guy out!  C'mon!"

"No, she's right." Harper said. "I just... need a little..."

His eyes flashed white for a second, mending the wounds completely.  He rolled over and got up on one knee.

"Oh.  My.  Celsetia." Rainbow said. "Did you really just...?  Just like that...?"

Harper put on a smile and stood up with perfect posture. "Well, that was invigorating!  Hoo-wah!  Is that what it feels like to use magic, cuz if so... Hot damn, that is amazing!"

Twilight immediately took out a pen and paper from seemly nowhere and started jotting down notes like crazy.  The rest cheered for Harper in joy.  Discord remained impressed that others felt the need to prove him right.

"Okay, okay..." Harper said, calming his little crowd. "That's great and all, but let's get back to the serious business.  Those two evil rulers are going to start an assault on my home planet.  We need to get there and stop them.  Twilight, any ideas on how to make a portal to Gaia?"

"Well, from what Byron told us, there should already be a way to teleport there.  All we need to do is find it,and we're well on our way to getting you back." Twilight said. "Let's find ourselves one teleporter!"

"STOP RIGHT THERE!"

The voice of a changeling captain, showing this as he dropped his disguise, rang out at them.

"YOU DARE KILL OUR KIND AND THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH IT?"

"Hey, hey, hey... buddy, I'm not sure if you noticed, but none of your guys are dead." Harper said. "You see, Princess Celestia doesn't like it when things die in her country.  So, all the bullets she gave me were nothing more than tranquilizers with a bit of red paint.  Pretty convincing too, it seems.  Your guys should wake up in a bit.  Also, you guys are shape-shifters? Huh."

"We are, in fact, shape-shifters, but that doesn't matter!  You still killed the captain!" it shouted.

"I didn't kill him.  A man by the name of 'High Chancellor Byron' killed him.  We got him locked up right now."

"So you served justice?  Well, excuse my actions!  I had no idea!"

"And, just to let you know, your queen and king kinda ditched you guys for some others on another planet, so... there's that, too."

"What?!" the Changeling said, appalled. "How dare she and the king do that!"

Harper put on a smile.  It was so easy to convince this beast, he almost didn't have to try. "You know, you could come with us and stop her from siding with them if you try... all you have to do is be our allies, and all is good.  See?  We can all win in the end if we just cooperate!"

The Changeling thought for a moment before saying, "Well, I'd have to discuss that with the others... but from what you've said, I think we've got a deal, human."

Harper could only imagine the possibilities of this whole plan.  Shape-shifting beings that could help them plus his magic... this was an operative's dream right here.  Everything was just so perfect... but he couldn't help feeling that there was something missing.

"And what do you know about Hastings' death?"

He remembered that Byron knew something about that.  He'd have to pick his brain about it later, though.  There were other pressing matters at hand.

"Twilight.  Those chrysalises we saw before..." Harper started.

Twilight jumped a bit in surprise, having forgotten about them. "Oh jeez!  We still have to help those ponies!  Girls, follow me!"

They rushed off, leaving Discord and Harper behind.

"You know, it seemed like you knew a lot about Byron in that little speech you gave before the cage." Harper remarked. "You wouldn't happen to know anything he knows?  Particularily, about Hastings' death?"

"Well, I won't say I don't.  I mean, I am the end-all be-all of chaos, so I know a little bit about what he and others have seen and done.  However, I don't think now is the time to share that."

"And when is that time?" Harper asked.

Discord gave him a serious look for a few seconds. "Well, I could go on and on about when the right time is with 'oh, you'll know' and 'oh, when the third blood moon of the season is rising' and all of that nonsense I enjoy so much, but to be truthful, you should ask someone else for that.  I'm not suited for the dark stuff."  He started flying away, telling him, "Oh, and just so you know, I'll see you off and everything when you leave, but I'm not following you to your home planet.  If I did, imagine all of the chaos I would be tempted to create there."

"Imagine all the chaos you'd be tempted to create here with a lack of supervision." Harper said.

"Touché, Harper.  I suppose if it makes you feel better, I'll spend some time with Princess Luna.  She can keep me the little angel I am." He made sure to draw a little halo into existence around his head with his claw as he said that last line. "Anyway, I'll talk to you later, Harper.  Ta-ta!"

Harper shook his head at the beast.  However, he had heard much, much crazier things than talking, flying, donkey-dragon- thingamabobs.

Yes, crazy things like people who said "nobody will die" and "everything is going to be okay".

He decided to do a short bit of monologuing while he had the time.  It helped him clear his conscious, and occasionally, set him on the right path.

"Hastings, if you can hear me right now, I just want you to know... your avenging is coming soon.  Just hang tight, bud.  Your friend Harper's got it all under control."

And with that, he left to plan the final attack to save mankind, help the ponies, and hopefully, find some answers.