Splinter Cell: Target Lost

As soon as he heard the sound, Byron immediately froze.  The gunshot could only mean one thing: the operatives chasing him had breached the defensive wall.  They would find him.  They would kill him.  It would all be over!

"Byron!  Did you hear that?"

The man snapped out of his thoughts and back into reality.  Twilight was standing next to him, looking quite worried.

"I sure did.  You don't think it was--"

"-- the other humans?"  Twilight finished his question. "It had to be!  I felt something messing with my magic shield!  They could've broken in!  C'mon, we've got to stop them!"

Twilight went galloping away, and Byron ran behind her as she lead the way.  They saw the scene in front of them and froze.

There were two humans and two ponies.  One of the humans held a smoking gun in his hand, while the other was doing his best in restraining him.  The two ponies, while unharmed, looked quite startled.  The bullet had missed them by a about a foot, hitting the ground at their hooves.

"God dammit, Kestrel!" Harper shouted.  He threw his fellow operative to the ground, then proceeded to step on Kestrel's wrist to remove the gun from his hand.  Harper removed the clip and tossed it aside.  "What were you thinking?!  They just saved us!"

"Get the fuck off of me!"

Kestrel tried raising himself up to a sitting position, but Harper's boot pinned him to the ground.

Kestrel struggled against him, but it was no use.  "Harper, I swear, if you don't let me go this instant--"

That's when Harper slammed the butt of his pistol against Kestrel's temple, quickly and effectively knocking him out.  Then, he turned around and faced the two ponies.

He cleared his throat before announcing, "If you would please excuse my friend's behavior, that would be most generous of you.  He just lost somebody very close to hi--"

That's when he spotted Byron O'Malley out of the corner of his eye.

"You!  You stop right where you are!  Do not move from that spot!"

Almost directly after Harper shouted this, Byron turned tail and fled the scene.

"Son of a bitch." Harper mumbled as he chased after the Enhancer leader.

However, his capture attempt failed spectacularly as Twilight blasted him with a pulse of magic from her horn.  He fell backwards onto the ground and, having had the wind blown out of him just seconds before, struggled to continue breathing.

"Stop right there!  I'm not letting you hurt him or any others!" she yelled out to him. "Now, how did you get inside the barrier?"

Harper groaned in pain as he spoke. "Aaaaagh... I thought you were letting us in... since you had that pony open the way..."

He weakly raised his arm and pointed at the nearby unicorn.  She smiled at Twilight, whom could not be more confused at the moment.

"You opened the barrier up for them?" Twilight asked her.

"Well, I was actually just opening it up for myself, but when I got here, I saw these poor souls being chased down by Timberwolves!  I decided to let them in, given their situation."

"Why?"

"Well, two reasons.  One, they were in trouble, and I have to help anypony, or any human in this case, who is in trouble.  It is my personal moral rule.  Two, I had to talk to them."

For every question Twilight asked, it seemed more questions than answers kept popping up.  She noticed the guard standing next to the unicorn, which she assumed was one of the guards from Canterlot, meaning this was royal business at hand here.  "Humans, I don't want you to move an inch.  Just stay where you are while I sort this out.

Kestrel stayed unconscious, while Harper let out a weak "okay".

Twilight trotted over to the unicorn. "Who are you?"

"I am Butter Brittle, Adviser for Foreign Affairs.  I work for Princess Celestia.  She sent me out here to negotiate a peace treaty between the humans and us ponies, as well as find out the true motive behind the humans' questionable actions."

Twilight was shocked.  Why hadn't the Princess just contacted her for negotiations with the humans?  She was perfectly capable of performing such a task, so why send this stuck-up Canterlot noble to do the job instead?  Did Princess Celestia not trust her anymore?

"Well, that's uh... rather brave of you," Twilight managed to piece together.

"Yes, she personally assigned me to do the task.  I must say, it was scary at first, but also a great opportunity!  Dealing with aliens!  Oh, how exciting! And I even got  my own personal guard to escort me here!"

Twilight saw the royal guard, but only now noticed his golden armor, meaning he was indeed one of the Princess's royal guards.  She felt a twinge of jealousy towards this newcomer.  Personally assigned?  Got her own guard?  Was it really necessary to go through this much trouble?

Her eye twitched at the thought of Celestia's distrust.  "Well, don't let me stop you!  You should get to work right away!  Now would be a good time to start!"

Twilight pushed Brittle over to where Harper lay on the ground.  Even now, the human had trouble breathing.

"O-Of course, Princess!  I shall start negotiating terms immediately!"

She took a deep breath and put on a brave face to mask her anxiousness. "Eh-hem.  Humans!  I am here to negotiate peace between our species!  We ask that you stop your vile ways and become a member of our society, following our rules and laws!  In exchange, we will provide you with one favor, so long as it is not cruel or unusual in any way, shape, or form!"

"Yeah, yeah..." Harper groaned. "We'll be a part of your society.  We'll go by your rules.  So long as it keeps us away from... whatever the hell you called those things."

"Wonderful!  And what would you like in return?"

"Look, I just wanna go home after all that's happened.  We all do."

"It's settled!  You shall join our community and be a law-abiding citizen until the day you are sent back home!"

Twilight couldn't believe how smoothly that went.  Every encounter with the humans always lead to something dangerous, disasterous, or simply unpleasant.

"Can you get up?" Brittle asked, holding out a hoof.  While the pony was too small to actually help in bringing him to his feet, it was a nice sentiment.

"Thanks," Harper said, getting up on his own, "but I'm afraid your help won't be necessary here."  He proceeded to dust the dirt off of his stealth suit.

"Oh!  I almost forgot!  Human, before you join the community, I must ask you a few questions."

So that's how it is, Harper thought. "Go ahead."

The adviser smiled and levitated a notebook and pen.  She was going to write down every word he said, just for the record.

"Human, how did you get here?"

"It was a mistake.  A machine that malfunctioned brought me here."

"I see.  How does this machine work exactly?"

"Dunno."  Harper shrugged.  It took him about half a second for him to realize that he did know, just not yet.  He searched the ground for the Masters' tablet.

Butter Brittle looked at him strangely as he searched. "Um... this next question is unofficial, but... what in the world are you doing?"

Harper said nothing.  He rolled Kestrel over and mumbled something like "got it".

"Retrieving a bit of information." Harper replied.  He put on a big smile.  This would get him home.  This was the answer to all his problems.

"Hey, Harps!  Is now a good time?"

Harper froze up at the sound of Charlie's voice. "Not now, Charlie, I'm busy."

"Well, I was just gonna let you know that... uh... well, maybe he should tell you himself."

Harper raised an eyebrow, although nobody could see him do this.

"Agent Harper, this is Sam Fischer.  Report."

"Sir?!" Harper asked, astounded.  After a brief moment of surprise, he gave himself a face-palm.  Of course Charlie couldn't keep it a secret.  He couldn't keep the most covered-up cover-up a secret!

"You heard me!  Report!"

Harper jolted to attention. "Y-yes, of course, sir!  I seem to be stuck on a distant planet, sir.  It's got intelligent life!  Talking ponies!  And these ponies who live here... they just agreed to help me get home!"

Sam hesitated on the other end of the line. "Harper, on any normal occasion, I would tell you you're crazy and thrown into some kind of padded room for the rest of your life, but for now I'll just have to believe what you're telling me here.  Now, for one thing, I have no idea how Charlie managed to keep this from me for so long or why.  I also don't know how you're still on an open frequency, still alive, and still showing up on the radar.  I hope to God there isn't anything else I don't know about.  Right, Harper?"

"Of course, sir."  Harper's voice wavered with uncertainty.  Was there something Sam should know that he should tell him?  He couldn't think of anything, and he didn't have time for this conversation.

"Good.  Now, what is the situation with O'Malley?"

"Sir, that's going to have to wait.  Right now, these ponies think I'm talking to myself."

He noticed the looks on their faces a while ago, but it was obvious they thought something was up with the human whose ears heard more voices than theirs.

"Fine, but as soon as you get the chance to talk openly, you take it.  Understood?"

"Understood."

"Um... human?  Is everything all right?" Butter Brittle asked.

"Yes, everything is fine.  I just got a... how do I put it so you'd understand..."  Harper thought for a moment and noticed the unicorn horn upon the adviser's head. "a telepathic message from our leader."

For a second, he doubted that these ponies would believe him, but by the looks on their faces, it seemed like a legitimate answer.

Harper noticed a small flaw in this story and added, "I had to say those things aloud because the connection was choppy.  You know how it is, right?"

"Yeah, telepathy really is a chore." Butter Brittle responded.  Harper was relieved his story was logical.

An awkward silence followed.  The four stood silently in their places, while the fifth was still incapable of moving at this point in time.  Harper noticed this and used it as his one and only topic changer.

"Kestrel still hasn't gotten the whole 'peace' idea down quite yet.  I suggest that he be put in a safe, secure spot where he can't hurt anyone.  I'll talk to him about all this later."

"That would probably be for the best." Butter agreed. "Guard!  Take the human on the ground over there and bring him to our 'Plan B' spot."

"Yes, ma'am!" the guard said with a quick salute.  He picked up Kestrel and threw him onto his back.  Then, he ran off.

"Plan B?" Harper asked.

"Hm?  Oh, yes!  Plan B is a 'special' train car brought along when we got here.  Had you retaliated instead of cooperating, we would have you subdued and put in there.  Oh, you don't want to know what comes after that."

Harper blinked a few times in amazement.  Had he been knocked out by Twilight's blast, they'd be stuck in that train car, and he could only imagine what would happen to him there.  If these little ponies didn't look so docile, he might have actually considered they'd have a back-up plan such as this.

Twilight had waited long enough to get a word in with this human, and there were more than a few unanswered questions she had about him.

"All right, human, so you're all good now.  Wonderful.  Now, how about you tell me why you strapped a bomb onto one of your fellow humans?"

"A bomb?  You must be kidding.  I was teleported to this place on accident.  Why in the world would I bring a bomb?"

This only made Twilight angrier.  "You and your friends had one on you that you used in the middle of town!  An there was that one in the forest, too!  Don't expect me to believe that those were your only ones!"

Harper kept a calm tone as he spoke, as to not provoke violence.  "That was only to be used as a distraction.  Nothing more, nothing less."

"A distraction???  You could've killed somepony!"

"It was either that or ensuring they would never hear or see again.  Which would you have chosen?"

"Neither!  It's insane to do that!  I've had fights where there were giant explosions, and the land was desolate after that!  Uninhabitable!  It'll take months of rigorous terraforming just to make the ground look like ground again!"

Twilight noticed how loud she was shouting at this human, and saw that some of the citizens had stopped to see what the matter was.  They had formed a circle around Harper and her.

"You're name's Harper, right?" Twilight asked, and not in a friendly way.

"Yeah."

"Well, Harper, I'll have you know one thing.  You may be an accepted member in our society, but that doesn't make you a free one.  You'll have to work to earn my respect and the respect of others.  Once you have both, you can live as freely as you want to.  I'll be keeping my eye on you, human."  Then, she turned to the crowd. "And the same goes for the rest of you!  I want you to report anything suspicious you see to me or the guards as soon as you see it!  These humans are not to be trusted!"

The crowd nodded, and they slowly returned to whatever it was they were doing previously.

"So, what's first?"

Out of all the responses Twilight expected, this was the one she was least prepared to hear.  She didn't think these humans would give in so easily.

"I'm glad to see we can put you to work so soon.  However, there is one thing I need for you to do before you start working."

"And that is?" Harper asked, an eyebrow raised.

"No weapons are allowed.  You won't be needing them anyway.  Set your weapons down on the ground. Slowly.  Any funny business and I won't hesitate to toss you out in the woods again."

Harper knew that this might be the case.  He removed the holster belt for his gun and explosives and set it on the ground.

"All your weapons." Twilight demanded.

Harper sighed and took the knife out of it sheathe and slowly placed it onto the ground.

"There.  If you really wan to, you can search me for more.  However, I swear this is all I have."

Twilight didn't know whether to trust the human or not.  She had no choice but to believe him, as he was at her mercy.  She teleported the objects away.

"You'll get those back after we've made plans for your departure to your home world.  Now that we have that out of the way, let's get down to business.  There are plenty of things that need to be done around here.  First of all things, the Cakes' store took a bit of a hard hit and is now in disrepair.  Care to wonder who caused that, Harper?"

Guilt filled Harper's mind.  This store must've been where Archer threw the grenade. "I think I already know who the culprit of that crime is."

"Your job will be to fix it."

Repair work was not something Harper knew how to do.  It certainly wasn't taught to him in basic training.

"How?"

"Simple.  Just replace the broken parts.  That shouldn't be too hard for you."

"Well, for that I'll need a hammer, some nails--" Harper began.

"Stop right there." Twilight interrupted. "I'm afraid you're not allowed to use any tools, Harper.  You're a dangerous human, so I'd like to keep and many blunt and sharp objects away from you as I can."

Harper was shocked. "But then how do I repair the shop?"

"How should I know?  You're the one who broke it with so little effort.  What, did you think the shop would fix itself?"

Harper didn't reply.  He turned his head away from Twilight.

"You have one day to finish the job.  More than enough time than you'll ever need.  The shop's in the center of town.  Now, get to work."

She left Harper to his thoughts and fate.  He sighed and turned on his TACCOM.

"Sir, please tell me that the teleporter is up and running so I can go home."

"There's a team working on it as we speak.  Why, was that what you wanted to hear?"

"Not really."

"Toughen up, soldier.  We'll get you home soon.  We left off at the situation with O'Malley."

"The target is nearby, but apprehending him is going to be a problem.  It seems the resident ponies trust him over me at the moment, and they won't let me get within ten feet of him.  Also, they just took every weapon I had."

"God damn it... Harper, I don't care if they stole your weapons or your dignity.  I'll have your head served on a silver platter if you don't get O'Malley back here for interrogation."

"Don't worry, sir.  All I have to do is do some chores around here to gain their trust.  Speaking of which, do you know how to fix a wooden wall that's been, let's say, caught in an explosion of sorts?"

Harper heard Charlie laugh on the other end of the line. "Didn't know you were getting into blue-collar work there, Harps!"

"Charlie, get back to work on the coding for the teleporter!  I did not give you permission to use this frequency!" Sam barked.

"Yes, sir." Charlie replied, dishearteningly.

Harper heard Sam sigh on the other end of the line and mutter something to himself. "Look, I'll send you something for it in a bit.  In the meantime, just put those hammer and nails to work in whatever way you think is right."

"They wouldn't let me use tools, sir."

"Then make the tools yourself!  You've got a brain!  Think outside the box and figure it out!  The world is not as restricted as you think it is!  Look, I have to get back to tracking down some stray Enhancers stirring up trouble here at home.  Report back to me in 1600 hours."

Harper waited a second before remembering he had Masters' device in his hand.

"Wait, sir--!"

Instantaneously, the frequency was closed and Harper stood silently where he was, just on the outskirts of town.  Then, silently, he went to track down what he needed for a hammer.  Today was going to be a long day.