Splinter Cell: Target Lost

It was dark.  It was cold.  These were the only two things Kestrel could think about when he awoke from his unconsciousness.  He found himself in this huge metal box, and he was in no way happy about the situation.  The side of his head tingled and stung with pain from where Harper hit him.

His first idea was to escape from this steel prison, but he realized there was no exit hatch or anything to this box to lead out (driving the question of how he got in here in the first place into his mind) and that the explosives to blow the wall apart were in the bag that Archer was carrying.  He both hated this fact and liked it at the same time.  On one hand, he couldn't get out of this prison, but on the other, Archer would be avenged when one of those log wolves decides to chew into a grenade.

His next idea was to call for help.  He tried using the TACCOM signals to connect up to Harper, but something was blocking the signal.  Nobody would help him now.

His third and last idea was to draw attention to the box he was in.  He pounded on the walls, hoping somebody would hear him and investigate, eventually getting him out of the confined space.  However, no matter how hard he hit the walls or made any noise, nobody seemed to answer him.  It was like he was a toddler in time-out, unable to do anything but sit in the corner and think about what he'd done.

So that's what he did.  He thought long and hard about his actions and how to redeem himself.  All he could do is wait for something to happen, for an explanation to be given.  He would get out of here, no matter how long it took for anybody to help him.  All he had to do was be patient.

***

Harper stood before the half-destroyed building.  He had no idea one grenade could do so much damage to a structure like this.  When they said to patch up the hole in the wall, they meant to say that he should patch up the whole wall!  There was no way he could finish this job in 24 hours!  The sun was setting in what he assumed was the west, and nighttime would be upon him in less than two hours!  That got him thinking: what if he didn't even have that much time?  This was a different planet... maybe it wasn't as big as Earth, thus giving him less time as it rotated on its axis.  He began to panic.  This wasn't even a field op and he was being driven insane by the thought of failing this task.

"Howdy there, partner."

Harper's thoughts immediately stopped when he heard this voice.  Maybe it was the southern accent that caught his ear, maybe just the sound of another voice other than his own, but he knew it was a pony.  He also knew he could not screw up any conversation with one, as he was in enough trouble already.

"Um... hello." Harper replied, turning to face the pony who just greeted him.  The first thing he noticed was her eyes, a bright green the very nearly contrasted the shade of he coat, which was orange.  Her blond mane was tied at the end, and the front of her mane swept across her face, seemingly pushed off to one side.

"Saw ya lookin' at that there building.  It's had some real wear and tear, but honestly, the thing was gonna be torn down and rebuilt in a couple of days.  You and your buddies just sorta sped up the process a bit."

This would've been nice to know before he got singled out for blowing the place up.  Silently, he breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn't done anything too terrible to this place.

"I didn't know that," he told the pony.

"I thought so. However, it looks like tearing it down is the easy part for you.  You even know how to put a house together, sugarcube?"

Sugarcube?  He decided to roll with his little nickname for the time being.

"Well, no... I don't have any of the resources I would need to rebuild the thing, much less the experience."

"Thought so." she said, then she shouted over her shoulder. "C'mon Big Mac!  You can see he's bein' reasonable about all this!  Get your sorry behind out here!"

"Nnnnope," Harper heard him respond.  He was obviously hiding nearby.  Harper flipped down his goggles and used the radar vision to see he was hiding behind the closet building.  He tapped his goggles a bit when he thought there was a glitch, making the pony look a lot bigger than he'd imagine.

"Friend of yours?" Harper asked.

"Yep, mah brother.  Foalish as he's bein' right now, he and I would gladly help you fix this thing up.  I know Twilight said that you had to do it, but trust me when I say she won't do a thing if she finds out about us." She turned her head over her should her again. "Big Mac, get out here right now!  There's no time for this horsing around!  You promised to help, remember?!"

Harper saw the quivering stallion walk slowly towards him with a sheepish look on his face.  He was as big and bulky as Harper saw him before.  He was obviously compensating for his lack of bravery.  He carried some tools in the saddlebags he had brought with him.  He was also towing behind a cart full of wood.  He said nothing, simply staring at the human in fear.

Harper gave him a little nod of of approval and said, "I'd really appreciate the help.  I think I can trust you two, mostly because you trust me.  So, where do we start?"

Applejack pointed as she explained to him the details of the project. "First, we'll build the support beams there and there. Then we'll branch off of those and build up the walls.  I figured since you were kinda big and tall you could carry the wood planks where we need 'em, and we'll do the rest."

"You sure there's nothing more I should do?" Harper asked.

Applejack just laughed. "Sugarcube, as strong as you look, it'd probably be best if you left the thinking to the smart ones.  All you have to do is get those planks up where we need 'em.  Just leave the rest to us.  Consider it a favor."

"Very well.  So be it," Harper replied with a shrug, admitting defeat in the nonexistent argument.  He picked up the first wood plank and they began their work.

***

Not too far away, Byron O'Malley sat at a small table downing a small drink which may or may not have had a small bit of alcohol in it and may or may not have come from the flask he brought with him everywhere he went.

It was over.  The spies had found him, and as soon as they found a way back to Earth, his criminal career would be over as soon as they tossed him in a cell.  He sighed and took another swig from the mug.  Never again would he have governments quivering before his power and might, never again will he hear the roaring cheer of his followers.  He was so down on his luck and depressed, he actually thought he heard one of his followers trying to get his attention.

"Byron?  Hellllooooo?"

Twilight tried to get the attention of the slightly intoxicated human.  He waved her off muttering to himself about how much of a failure he was.

"Byron, are you going to talk to me here?  What's going on with you?"

"I've failed my mission, Twilight.  Those two got into the city, and now they'll try to kill me just as soon as they get the chance." he explained, downing what was left of his drink.  He took out his flask and refilled it once more.

"What?  What mission?" Twilight asked, strangely interested in what his true goal was.  It was then O'Malley realized he still had an advantage over these Fourth Echelon agents.  All he needed to do was tell a little fib...

"Oh, that's right!  You don't know who they are, do you?  Those humans are the scum of the earth.  We like to call them terrorists back where I come from.  They do nothing but spread hatred and fear wherever they go.  They kill all those who oppose them, leaving nothing but destruction and ruin in their path."

"That sounds terrible!" Twilight exclaimed as Byron paused to drink.

Byron kept on with his lying.  "Ah, yes.  And I am the one who stops them!  They cannot and will not take over this fair land, so long as I am here!... If it wasn't for the fact that you still allow them here as equals and dare I say... allies."

"No!  No no no, it's nothing like that!  We'll keep them contained and locked away for however long it takes for them to get their act together, even if it means sending them to Tartarus." Twilight said, holding a hoof up in defense.

"There we go!" Byron cheered.

"However," Twilight continued, "it seems they're cleaning up their act already.  One is suitable for work around here, and the other may take a bit more convincing before he can truly join our society.  So long as they don't do anything destructive, evil, or generally bad, they shall be given a second chance."

"What?!  Why???" O'Malley shouted. "How can you even think for one second they won't go around causing problems?  Why do you keep cutting them so much slack?!"

"Tone it down a bit, Byron, your scaring ponies." Twilight said, seeing the nearby Cutie Mark Crusaders hide under their table. "The reason I am allowing this is because I've seen chaotic, terrible beings be reformed to be... well, good.  I mean, Discord was so completely out of control at one point, he turned Ponyville into the chaos capital of the world, but... Well, you saw him today!  He was reduced down to playing mere pranks, nothing more!"

This really got Byron steamed up.  The same guy who was keeping him in check was also in the princess's favor? And beyond that, he was the reason those Fourth Echelon idiots were still being trusted?!

"Oh, him." he said with a bit of a pout.  Childish as it was, he had been through almost his whole flask now, so it was to be expected at this point.

"Yes, him." Twilight replied. "I suggest you ignore his little jokes.  He's only trying to get a reaction out of you."

"I'm warning you now, Twilight Sparkle, those men are too far gone.  But, if you simply refuse to listen to reason, you can go ahead and keep them in town.  It'll only go to show how wrong you are on this." Bryon said.  Then, he finished off what was left in his cup and stood up to walk out the door. "Trust me, the proof will be literally painted onto the walls if you don't do something about them soon."

He disappeared out the door, leaving Twilight to think about what he had said.

***

Charlie was bored.  Even though Sam hadn't kicked his ass for keeping Harper's location a secret, he did take away his computer access.  He was stuck with the written and drawn diagram for the teleporter and a magnifying glass, and he was assigned to figure out why it needed nuclear power to work.  They'd already tried other methods of powering it, but none seemed to work.  He searched the page multiple times, but he couldn't find an answer to this question.

All the parts were labeled, spread out, drawn to a degree of perfection unknown to man, but still he couldn't make sense of the thing if he tried.

"God damn this job..." he muttered to himself.  He poured over it for answers, but none seemed to show up anywhere.  He got angry with the papers and swiped them off the table onto the floor like an upset child.  The papers fell to the floor, where they lay for about half a minute before Charlie picked them up again.  One of the papers had overlapped another in a way that it almost looked like one big sheet of paper.

Charlie examined this closer.  The lines on the drawings for both matched up perfectly.  He blinked twice in amazement before piecing together the rest.

There were five pages in total.  He started mixing and matching the pairs to see which connected up, and after placing the last paper in place, it all made sense.

The diagrams were not only expertly made to design the machine, but on their other side depicted the creation of something much bigger than that.  A device that could turn nuclear energy into something entirely new, something nobody could even imagine.

Charlie marveled at both his genius and the work on the pages.  Before, these seemed like jumbled notes, the scrawl of a madman, or something along those lines.  Now it was all so clear.  And to think that he would've never figured it out if he hadn't gotten off of his devices... that was something else he surprised himself with.

He wanted to rush and find Sam to explain his finding, but before he did that, something on the page caught his eye.  A bit of writing in the corner of the page.  It was much smaller than the other writing on the page.  He picked up the magnifying glass and read the words out loud.

"Friendship... needs... help...?"

These three words confused him.  It wasn't like any of the other writing, as it was short and did not explain anything that the device needed or worked off of.  In his confusion, he dropped his magnifying glass, which hit the floor with a loud clang.

Sam opened the door and shouted, "Charlie!  I told you not to toss things around!  And  don't care how bored you are to do that!"

"Sam!  Sorry, I just dropped this thing here... but you gotta see this!"

Sam walked over and saw what Charlie had discovered.  "Well done, Charlie.  I knew I could count on you."

Charlie heaved a sigh of relief.  Sam laughed and continued, "However, your not getting back onto any computer until you figure out how the thing works.  It shouldn't be too hard, since you have all the materials you need right in front of you.  In fact, I'll even grant you access to this device once we've salvaged it from the machine."

Sam proceed to walk to the door, but before leaving, he left Charlie with one last thought.

"Oh, and remember: our software hackers are trying to get into that account you keep using to view classified files.  I do believe that if they guess one too many times, your computer will be wiped due to its data protection.  From what I hear, its nearly impossible to get something like that working again.  That will happen in about another..." -- he raised up his wrist to check his watch -- "seven hours.  Anyway, you've got a lot to do, so I'll just leave you to work."

And at that, Charlie immediately scanned the papers to find the answer, before everything he held precious to him was gone.

***

The time had come.  He could feel it in his bones, in his flesh, in his soul.  The crowned unicorn of dark magic, Sombra, awoke from his slumber.  The ice and frost had kept him contained for some time, but it could never keep him at bay.  He knew that one day, a being needing his power would arrive.  Now he had sensed him, but from what he could tell, he needed to act quickly before his subject was corrupted.  His plans would need much revision.  He would need assistance.

The Crystal Empire, covered with light and happiness... he wanted the darkness and hatred to consume it once more. He would rule again.  It would all be his.  The rest of this pitiful world could burn for all he cared... unless he found a use for it.  He couldn't do it alone.  No, he'd need somebody else to help him... but who could he count on in his time of need?

Then it hit him, and with an evil smile his plan, devised in a matter of seconds, was complete.  She would help him.  Her loyal subjects would be of great use after they fed off of the trust built between this newcomer and the other ponies.  They would consume until they were sated, and when there was nothing left to take, they would help him as he and his queen, their leader, took over the world.  Then, he would reign supreme, and his queen would be satisfied seeing her children feed off of the fear of the ponies, never to starve again.

He and Chrysalis would be an unstoppable evil, an immeasurable power, a destructive force that could never be contained... but he was getting ahead of himself.  A pact must be formed, and it must be done quickly.  There was no time to wait.  The time for redemption would soon be at hand, and he would not miss it.  Not again.

Quickly, he cloaked himself and made for the wilderness.  If it was anything like a thousand years before, they still had not taken over Equestria and would be living off of another land.  It would not take much to convince her to join him.  All it would take is a few choice words and she'd be putty in his hooves.

He would have his vengeance.