Splinter Cell: Target Lost

by DarkPony4444

Rating: teen
Tags: Crossover, Human
Length: 57694

Chasing down the biggest crime lords has never been harder.

When a mission goes horribly awry, the newest Fourth Echelon Operative, Harper, gets sent to Equestria.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-04-27 21:36:02 UTC

Negotiations

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.

The Issue of Trust

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.

Human Rights

Harper wiped the sweat from his brow.  The work was hard, but it was all worth it in the end.  He and these two ponies finally finished the building (which he learned was called "Sugarcube Corner") just in time to see the sun rise in the hypothetical East.

Applejack inspected the work before saying, "That about does it.  C'mon, Big Mac, let's get going."

Harper saw as they began to walk away, taking the cart and the saddlebags with them.

"Wait!"  he called to them.  They stopped in their tracks and turned towards him.  Harper took a deep breath before saying, "I cannot thank you enough for your help, and I know that you ponies don't just do favors all too often.  I have to pay you back somehow!"

Applejack remembered hearing those words before. "Please don't tell me there's some 'human code' you have to follow where you have to help me."

Harper was confused as to why she would ask this, but replied with the truth. "There isn't, I just--"

"-- then it's just a favor, sugarcube.  Some of us ponies are decent enough to help without getting anything in return.  If it makes you feel better, I swear I will never ask you to pay me back for this.  And I always keep my word."

"Eeyup." Big Mac agreed.

Harper was stunned by this.  He thought all these little ponies would simply hate humans, but with this... he didn't know what to say.

"Well, uh, thank you.  For everything." he stammered.

The two gave a simple nod and walked out of view.

It wasn't even ten seconds later before he heard the sound of hooves coming his way.  The purple pony was back to scrutinize his-- no, their work.

"Well, well, well.  What do you know?  You're actually capable of more than just breaking things, human." she taunted. "I'm surprised you got all this work done in time."

"I told you I would.  I never go back on my word, Your Highness." Harper said with a salute.  He never thought his training in the army would start being applied here.  Basic training had taught him one fundamental rule: When in doubt, kiss ass.

Twilight raised her eyebrows. "And you somehow learned respect in one night as well.  Seems you're just full of surprises, aren't you?"

"Did somebody say 'surprises'?"

Twilight didn't say this.  Nor did Harper.  No, the voice that spoke was far too enthusiastic, far too high-pitched, and far too--

Suddenly, the paragraph was cut off by the sound of party horns.  The super party pony couldn't wait for something as silly as details.  She popped out from behind the doors of the rebuilt shop, wearing a party hat and setting off her party cannon, covering everybody in front of it with confetti and streamers.

"Pinkie Pie!" Twilight shouted. "What in the wide world of Equestria are you doing?"

The pink pony laughed. "I'm throwing a party, silly!  I thought you'd know that much at this point.  Besides, we have a new human-thingy-guy here, so you know I have to put together a party for him-her-it!

"It's 'him'!" Harper interjected quickly.

"Now is not the time for this, Pinkie," Twilight growled.

"Oh, you're such a downer, Twilight." Pinkie said, ignoring her wishes.  She used her hooves to force a smile onto Twilight's face. "Turn that frown upside down!  I know Gummi is ready to have some fun, right Gummi?"

The toothless, motionless alligator simply stared with his unblinking eyes.  Harper had already learned not to be disturbed by such things.  He'd seen stranger things in his lifetime.

Twilight sighed deeply at her energetic friend. "Pinkie, I already told you we're not doing that--"

"No you didn't." Pinkie said, her face losing her smile.  She pulled a piece of paper out of nowhere and showed it to Twilight. "You said we should vote.  I did a re-vote while you were off doing your princess-y stuff, and guess what?  Everybody wants to have this party!  Isn't that great?  It'll be sooooooooo fun!"

Twilight saw she wasn't going to win this one. "Fine, have your little party for him, but nothing more after that.  There's still more work he has to do."

"Yay!  Party!" she squealed in delight. "Here, I'll give you your invitation right now!"

"There's no need for that," Twilight said, holding up a hoof. "I'm not attending.  I don't trust that human, and neither should you.  Quite frankly, I find this whole party business to be a huge waste of time.  Besides, I have other things to attend to tonight.  I'll stop by after the party to check how things went."

Pinkie shrugged. "If you're really that busy, then you don't have to come.  I mean, it's not like Princess Celestia has time for parties either.  Or Cadence.  Or Luna!  None of the princesseseseses have any fun time at all!  I mean, they have celebrations all the time, but that's all formal and stuff, so there's no fun for them!  Isn't that weird, Twilight?"

She realized that her lengthy talking had driven her attention away from reality, and that Twilight had now gone. "Oh well!  I guess she just doesn't have time for your party, Harper!"

"I guess not." he replied.  Then the fact of what happened hit him in the face. "Wait, we've never been introduced.  How do you know my name?  You didn't even know my gender a minute ago."

Pinkie put a hoof to her chin. "Huh.  Dunno."

They sat there in complete silence for a few seconds.

"Well, I gotta go pass out invitations!  Cya, Harps!"

She bounded away happily, humming a happy made-up tune as she went.

"A party, huh?  Sounds nice."

Harper flipped around to see Butter Brittle standing not a yard behind him.  He didn't even hear her approach.  His suspicion was only matched only by his curiosity.

"I guess.  I'm also guessing that's not why you're here."

She nodded. "That's right.  It's time for your friend to come out of the Magic-Lock Chamber.  Hopefully you and I can talk some sense into him.  That is, if he's not really tired or something..."

"What do you mean by that?" Harper asked.

"Well, given you told us about your whole telepathy thing, we assumed he had magic too.  What that chamber does is gradually take most, if not all, of that magic away."

"Oh, humans aren't magical.  Magic doesn't exist in our world.  It's a completely foreign concept!"  Harper laughed.

"Oh, of course not, I'm so foolish to think so," she replied with a chuckle.  Her face immediately turned to a huge, surprised frown. "Wait, YOU'RE NOT?!"

"We have other methods!  I can explain them!" Harper said in his defense.

"No, no, no!  I don't care if you didn't have magic for that!  Your friend could be in danger!  We have to hurry!"

She dashed away as quick as she could.  Harper chased after the pony quickly.  What was all this about?  Why was this suddenly a dangerous thing?

***

Kestrel was losing it.  He had been out of the light for so long that his night vision goggles stopped working, and now he was starting to depend on his hearing and feeling ability to navigate around the box.  However, it didn't matter where he sat or lay, as he was always uncomfortable.  The cold metal never warmed, leaving him sleep deprived.  There was no food, no water; his stomach growled and his throat felt impossibly dry.  This was his own personal hell, and for what reason?  Just because he was human, because he was different from all the rest, this is what he gets?  Or was he truly paying for the acts done against this alien race?

Before he could finish this thought, something blinded him, making his eyes burn and his skin tingle at the warmth.  The sun was lower in the sky, allowing the assumption that it must be the equivalent of morning right now.

He saw the silhouette of one of those ponies outside.  The same beast that probably trapped him in this hellhole.  However, he had no choice should he choose to keep what little was left of his sanity.  Kestrel, disobeying every urge within him, walked towards the light.

As he got closer, the outside world grew more colorful and vibrant.  Everything seemed right.  He was no longer hungry, no longer thirsty.  He felt like a million bucks!

"Oh my Celestia, he's alive."

Then, Kestrel fell face-first onto the ground and passed out.

Butter Brittle simply stared at the human as he fell over outside the Chamber.  Harper moved in to check his pulse. "He's not dead yet.  Is he in any danger once he's left that thing?"

"He shouldn't be in any danger.  Unless he's sick or something, which I really doubt.  That container is completely germ-free.  He just needs some rest, and he'll be up on his feet before your party begins.  Heck, maybe he'll be able to attend, if he's up to it."

"What happened to him in there, anyway?" Harper asked.

"I believe that instead of reducing any magic he may have had, it started sapping away any energy he had, including the energy in his system that was keeping him alive.  It was the closest thing to magic that he possessed.  It's no wonder we don't put Earth ponies in this thing..."

"I see..." he replied slowly.  He was inspecting Kestrel's gear.  Any electronics Kestrel had on him had run out of power.  They probably kept him alive long enough for him to get out.  On the one hand, it would make all communications between this operative  and Fourth Echelon shot, but on the other, it saved his life.

"I also believe that the position he is in is not the most comfortable one," Butter assumed.

"It's not," Harper told her. "Hopefully you have someplace we can keep him until he regains his strength?  Like maybe a hospital or something?"

"I'll take care of that."

Twilight stood behind the human, tapping her front hoof in disapproval. "Ms. Brittle, I thought I told you to inform me before releasing that particular human."

"But, Princess--!"

"But nothing, Ms. Brittle.  Your work here is done.  Return to Canterlot and inform Celestia that peace has been made, and the problem is solved.  That is all you came here to do, right?"

Butter grit her teeth. "Yes, you're right.  I'll be on my way, as soon as I can leave, Your Highness."

"That's right, you will.  Guards!  Carry the limp one to the hospital.  As for you, Harper, you helped Butter in this endeavor.  You shall receive suitable punishment after your 'party'."

Harper was really starting to hate this stuck-up little... pony, to replace all words that he wanted to say there.

"Oh, and I found out that you were never given any nails to fix Sugarcube Corner, yet there are ones in the boards you used.  Also, you were never supplied any boards either, so that should've been a red flag from the beginning.  I'll find out how you deceived me into thinking you did it yourself soon.  You're lucky I'm still allowing this little get-together Pinkie planned after all this."

Oh, she really knew how to get under his skin.  He wasn't about to rat out Applejack, though.  No, this princess would find that out in due time anyway, wouldn't she?  Why was it he was always at a disadvantage when it comes to these conversations?

"Wait just one minute, Princess.  I have a question for you."  Harper said. "Am I allowed to deny any order from any pony living in Ponyville?"

"No, you can't." she replied. "Everypony in Ponyville has authority over you.  In fact, that is now of royal decree as of this very moment."

"Well, that changes things.  A pony, whose name will not be released for his or her safety, told me that he or she wanted to help me.  You have told me I couldn't have said no anyway, thus I'm simply doing what he or she had told me to do.  I had to accept his or her offer."  Harper anted to keep the identity gender-neutral, keeping the amount of limiting factor towards guessing the pony to a minimum.

Twilight rolled her eyes, saying, "Fine.  If that's really what happened, I'll let it go this one time.  You've still got a lot to learn, Harper.  You should take a page out of Byron's book for once and start acting properly.  Maybe then there will be hope for you."

"Yes, ma'am." he said.  He was hardly going to start acting like the enemy at this point.  That, and she was doing a very good job at pissing him off.  He was justabout ready to explode if she taunted him one more time.

"Please, Twilight, can't you ever be reasonable?"

What was with these ponies and shady introductions?  Harper turned, once again, to see something that certainly wasn't a pony.  No, it was the being of chaos himself.

"Oh.  What are you, now?"  Harper asked calmly.  To reiterate, he'd seen much stranger things in his lifetime.

"Well, that's a different reaction than the first."  Discord said.  "And what a boring one at that.  I do hope you have some sense of humor.  However, that will have to wait."

He swooped over to Twilight and rested his elbow on her head.  "I'm here to talk to you, Princess.  You seem to be giving these humans such a hard time.  Why not give them a break, hm?  It would only be fair after all their obedience."

"First of all, I've been searching for you, Discord.  I should've known you'd find me instead.  Second, you don't seem to understand the situation." Twilight began.

"Oh, I'm the one who doesn't understand!  Well then, Princess Twilight, why don't you explain to me why you treat these humans so poorly.  I'm so very curious."  Discord made a chair for himself to sit in, now using Twilight's head as a footrest.  Harper couldn't help but stifle a laugh.  This guy was showing up the princess, and by the looks of it, he really knew how to play his cards around her.

"Well, we don't know what they're capable of!  They could destroy everything and everypony!"

"Oh, please.  That's the least of your worries.  Should I remind you that over a hundred different things can destroy this town in a blink of an eye?  An angry buffalo stampede, a pack of Timberwolves, me, the Changelings, some Manticores, and possibly just a lot of fudge when you really think about it..."

"All right, I get it!  There's lots of dangerous things all around!  I'm talking about danger nearby!  These humans are allowed to be here, even though they may stir up trouble."

"Is that so?  Tell me, Twilight... you've been around these humans for a day or two.  What do you know about them?"

"I know they have the ability to destroy things easily." Twilight said, annoyed by the question.

"No, no.  That's just what they can do.  I'm asking about what you know about him as a being.  Do you know how he makes friends?  Do you know his way of life?  Did you even ask him why he's wearing such a ridiculous get-up?"

"Hey!" Harper interjected. "I'll have you know this is standard-issue stealth gear, and it is not ridiculous!  You can disrespect me all you like, but do not disrespect the suit!"

Discord ignored his comments, focusing only on the raw data. "See?  He does have reason.  I bet you didn't know what it was until now, did you, Princess?"

"No, I didn't..." Twilight admitted.

"Then I've learned more than you have simply by insulting his appearance.  I thought you were the Princess of Friendship, Twilight.  Friends get to know each other, and if one insult gets me that much information, I can only imagine the results from your conversations."

"There were no conversations..."

"Yes, we haven't talked much... but we are friends, right?" Harper asked.  If this weird being could be a nuisance to her, so could he, so long as this being was around.

"There are some things I don't make friends with, human.  You're one of them." Twilight explained.

"His name is Harper, so I heard, not 'human'." Discord retorted. "At least try to learn it, Princess."

"You know just as well as I do that he is a human.  Quit messing around!" Twilight shouted at him.

Discord simply laughed. "Oh, your angry little face is just so cute!  It's as if just being around him makes your emotions spike, just like with your other friends.  It's as if the bonding has already begun!"  He pulled the two together, one under each arm, with a devious smile appearing on his face.  He was enjoying every second of this.

Twilight sighed and reminded herself to ignore Discord. "All right then, Harper, since Discord won't get off my back about it, I guess I'll be your friend... but don't get hopeful or anything.  I'm not about to let you off the hook for work.  I'm leaving now.  Discord, you come with me.  There's something I need you to do."

The beast and the pony walked off.  Butter sighed and said, "Well, I had better get going.  I need to report back to to Princess Celestia on the true nature of all of this business.  I'll see what I can do to help you humans, Harper, but don't expect any favors."

Then she walked away.  Harper was alone.

Suddenly, his OPSAT started making noises.  Ringing noises.  He held the computer mounted on his left arm up to see what the news was.  An incoming call?  Who was this?  He tapped the screen and a face appeared on the screen, smiling a huge, evil smile.

"O'Malley." Harper growled.

"Harper." O'Malley copied, though in a much more controlled tone.

"If you have something you'd like to discuss, just come out here and let's talk face-to-face."

"I'm sure the both of us know how that ends, don't we?  You and your little assassin buddy come and take me out, no matter the consequences.  I'm afraid this is the only form of communication I'll be using from here on out."

Harper grit his teeth.  His enemy was in hiding, contacting him through his own specialized device, and he would have to sit through the taunts.  Great.

"Anyway, I decided that I want to keep you safe.  You should thank me."

"Thank you?  What are you talking abou-- AGH!"

Harper felt a huge rush of pain run through his right arm.

"What have you done?!" Harper shouted at him.  O'Malley laughed at his pain.

"I didn't realize you were that close to under-dose!  Haha!  Hurts, doesn't it?  You see, I haven't done anything.  You did this to yourself."

Realization hit Harper in the face. "That shot--"

"-- would keep you safe temporarily from the radiation before, yes." Byron finished. "However, you're starting to lose what you carrying in your system, and since the BACs only absorb the radiation, you'll die soon without another shot.  Your only choice is to keep taking more until you can get all of them out of your system, which won't happen.  Ever."

"God damn you--"

"Tut tut now, Harper.  I told you I'd keep you safe.  I have several more of those BAC shots with me right now.  All you have to do is be my servant for the rest of the time you're here in Ponyville and follow my orders.  Simple enough, wouldn't you say?"

Harper was a logical man, and he didn't want to be a servant any more than he had to be.  Having these ponies boss him around was enough already.  "How are you going to get those to me on time?  I'll bet you're close to do something like that... All I have to do is flush you out of your hiding hole."  Harper started searching around, holding his arm close to his body to reduce the pain he felt.

"Oh, you'll fall dead long before you even get a chance to reach me, Harper, I promise you that much.  However, if you agree to my terms, you might live.  So which will it be?  Life or death?"

Harper had to think about this.  It seemed like he only had those two choices.  If he followed Byron, maybe he'd be able to capture him-- no, those ponies would stop him before he could lay a finger on him.  If he refused, the radiation in his system would most certainly kill him.

"Clock is ticking, Harper." Byron said. "You had better make your decision soon."

"Death's better than a life of servitude." Harper spat.

"So be it.  Good bye, Harper.  Oh, and when you get to hell, tell your Fourth Echelon pal Hastings I said 'hi'." Byron said, closing the channel to the conversation.  Harper felt another sting of pain going through his torso and spine, enough to make him fall to the ground, writhing pain.  The radiation caused his insides to be the equivalent of burning up in flame.  For a moment, he thought he was going to die...  he closed his eyes, prepared to see the flashback of memories in his mind... but then he remembered something else entirely.

"I believe that instead of reducing any magic he may have had, it started sapping away any energy he had, including the energy in his system that was keeping him alive."

Harper's eyes snapped open.  He still had a chance!  That chamber could save him, and it couldn't be more than a yard away!

He started crawling to the chamber.  Life energy may or may not exist, he didn't care about that, but he knew that radiation was energy.  It would take that out of his system and he would live!  So long as he didn't get trapped in there, he would be just fine.

Cold steel had never felt better in his entire life.  He made his way into the chamber, and shortly afterwards he passed out.

Alliance and Allegiance.

King Sombra had never felt better.  After enough time, he'd finally restored his magical abilities to their complete power.  Not only that, but his dealings with the Changeling Queen went far better than he could've hoped.  Everything he worked towards was going to pay off just as soon as he put the final piece on the board.  That human, the one named "Byron", needed to know of his presence.  Then, everything would finally be set and ready.  The new world would be his, and from it, he could take what he wished... but he was getting ahead of himself.  The Changeling Queen had agreed to help in the first contact with the humans by sending a few of her children out to find the human and bring him to their lair.

Victory was so close, he could taste it...

***

Byron was pleased with himself.  His two adversaries in this world were taken care of, one incapacitated for the moment, and the other he could only assume was dead.  This was perfect!  Now all he had to do was use this window of time to his advantage... but how?  These ponies hadn't done anything to him, necessarily.  In fact, they seemed very helpful (emphasis on "seemed").  Yet, something in the back of his mind kept telling him one word.  Kill.  The blood, the violence, the screaming... he couldn't get away from it.  It was his nature to want such things.  But he needed a reason to oppose those ponies in Ponyville, otherwise he wouldn't feel justified in killing them.  As much as he loved to cut living things apart, he also wanted it to be for the right reasons.  His brother had taught him that, and he always knew what was best.

So when a shady group asked him to join in on some kind of revolution, he agreed.  Why not?  If some ponies wanted to take over, he was with them.  It was his place to cause mayhem and death.  If that wasn't it, he would at least want to rule this world, as pitiful as that sounded.  What use was a planet full of ponies who wouldn't listen to him?  Perhaps these new friends could help him where he was lacking, such as in magical ability, which he saw as a very versatile... science?  Presence?  He didn't know what to call it, but he knew it was useful.  He knew one of them was a powerful unicorn, and the other had an army.  It was just like his plan back on Earth.  He pondered whether it was a better idea to feign alliance with the ponies in Ponyville, just as he had.  After what he had learned, they would in no way help him accomplish his goals, and may in fact get in the way of his plans.  All he had to do was be courteous, kind, and obedient and try not to snap their necks.  Simple.  That way, he could get what he wanted... in time.

Byron was surprised by the amount of planning that went into the takeover.  It was all whittled down to last detail (the last detail being Byron's alliance, of course.)  He wondered how they had predicted such a phenomenon.  Now he wished he hadn't gone and killed Masters, as he could've helped with that.  Only a little bit, though.

The plan was simple: create an empire.  Now, that may not sound simple, but with Sombra's magic, it could be done in a day, if not shorter.  All they would have to do is create a large castle. A big, beautiful castle made of darkness and hate -- which is a little contradictory, when you think about it -- that would tower over the land and become the center of the takeover.  Byron would stay in Ponyville and act as their spy, gaining trust wherever he could.  The changelings would be the surrogate army, as they were not fighters, but they could look and act the part.  Then, Sombra will announce his presence, and... that part of the plan was to be discussed later.  In the meantime, the castle must be prepared, and summoning it will take a while.  Once it is up, though... everything ends, and they win.

Now one may ask: Why?  Why would Byron O'Malley, psycho serial killer, join up with evil ponies to take over a land he didn't want?  Well, one promise that was made to him would clear everything up.  He knew these ponies could get him home.  They showed him how they would do it.  He had complete confidence in their abilities, and as soon as this was all over, he would be revered in this world and return to his own, where (hopefully) he would be revered there, as well.

"Are you prepared, human?  The war is beginning, and you must be ready to play your part." Sombra had asked him.

Byron had a smile on his face, and with confidence responded, "Yes, I believe so."  He turned his head to Ponyville. "I can only hope they aren't."

***

Harper awoke hours later, feeling quite refreshed.  With the radiation out of his system, he felt like a million bucks!  However, he felt quite cold.  He picked himself up off the steel floor of the train car.  He stretched a bit before looking around.  Immediately, he wished he had observed his environment sooner.

An innumerable amount of guards stood with spears turned toward him.  Some of them were shaking in their boots.  Harper knew he couldn't be in Ponyville anymore.  They didn't have this kind of defense system.  Harper attempted to move, but they pushed in closer to block him.

"Stand back!" the guard captain shouted. "You're not going to attack Canterlot how you attacked Ponyville!"  Unbeknownst to Harper, Twilight's older brother was shouting at him.

"Attack Ponyville?  What are you talking about?" Harper asked.

"The evidence is right in front of us!  We can see it from here!  Your dark magic!"

He looked around in the distance and saw a black, crystalline castle that towered above the underwhelming Princess Twilight's castle.  He may have seen stranger things, but this was beyond him.  How could this happen?

"What on earth...?" Harper asked under his breath.

"HE'S CHANTING A DARK RITUAL!" a nearby guard shouted. "I HEARD HIM WHISPERING!"  All of the guards tensed up.

"Clam down, soldier, he can't hurt us.  So long as he stays in the container, we're safe." the captain reassured his troops.

Harper didn't understand it.  How long had he been out?  Hours?  Days?  It couldn't have been that long... right?  If it had been long enough for that to appear, how long had he been gone for?  More importantly, where were Kestrel and Byron?

He noticed a disturbance in the crowd of soldiers. "Excuse me!  Pardon me!  If you could just move a bit... HARPER!  IT'S ME!"

He couldn't confuse that voice with any other. "Ms. Brittle?  Is that you?"

He saw her climb out of the crowd to Shining Armor. "Call off the troops!  He's with me."

"I don't take orders from a low-level like you!  However, seeing how powerless he is in his current state, there's no need for violence.  GUARDS!  BACK TO YOUR POSTS!"

"SIR, YES, SIR!" the guards shouted dispersing in all directions.  Harper let out a sigh of relief.  Those ponies probably would've killed him had it not been for Butter coming along.

"Harper, get out of there before you turn into a loony like Kestrel!" Butter shouted to him.  Harper obeyed, exiting the box.

"Captain, what the hell were you thinking?  The humans are our allies, not our enemies!" Butter shouted at him.

"Is that why they attacked us when they arrived?  Is that why there's a giant tower that is going to kill us all?" Shining Armor asked angrily. "Those humans are violent traitors, and I will not see them in the capital any time soon!  I will defend this country if it's the last thing I do!"  He pushed past her rudely. "You do want you want with him, but I'm not letting him near anypony until I see concrete proof of his allegiance.  Good-bye, Ms. Brittle."

Harper watched the captain walk off. "Not too fond of me, is he?" he asked Butter.  She sighed. "He's just as thick as his sister.  Nopony around here is going to trust you, friend or foe.  It's not good if we're going to defeat King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis."

"Uh... okay, lots of questions running through my head right now..." Harper said.

Butter inhaled deeply before saying, "You were knocked cold for two days, King Sombra's an evil unicorn, Chrysalis is an evil changeling, changelings are shape-shifters, Twilight's still pissed at you, the Royal guard captain is her brother, he doesn't like you either, and generally the entire country of Equestria is going to be destroyed if we don't stop the invasion of the King and Queen.  That enough information?"

"Where's Byron and Kestrel?" Harper asked.

"Kestrel's in Ponyville, assessing the situation with Twilight.  Somehow he got on her good side, Celestia only knows how.  As for Byron, he's with them in the briefing.  Says he wants to help under the supervision of Discord."

That didn't sound right at all.  Harper knew Byron too well, and it wasn't like him to join up with Fourth Echelon units.

"How'd I get here?  This clearly isn't Ponyville." he noted.

"You were on a train car, so how do you think you got here?" Butter asked.  Now Harper felt he was asking dumb questions.

"Oh, yeah.  That.  Heh.  So, what's the quickest way back?"

"Through Celestia, actually.  You have to consult with here before you go anywhere, or else you'll be marked as an enemy to all Equestrians.  Kind of a hassle, if you ask me."

"Seems like it." Harper agreed. "Let's pay her a visit."

Butter was shocked.  "Harper, you can't just go in and see the Princess whenever you want!  She needs to know of your arrival, and it all has to be planned out!"

Harper related this description to '"following protocol".  He hated following protocol.

"Well, I guess she's just going to have to learn to be surprised, isn't she?  I'll just pop in, ask her about it, and be back in time for tea, as the saying goes."  Harper turned his sights to the castle. "I've done stealth missions before, and I know I can sneak past these guards."

"Harper, you can't just go off and do this!" Butter shouted at him. "You'll get in major trouble with the Princess!"

"Oh, really?" he asked, already setting up the colloquialism. "Watch me."

He started walking to the castle.  Butter stood behind, shaking her head, but by the time she raised it again, he had disappeared.  For a smart spy, he sure didn't think through what he said before he said it.

***

Harper reached the castle and allowed himself a moment or two to admire the architecture that these ponies could make.  The entire thing was built into the mountainside, and it seemed like it was unrealistically jutting out with tall spires and gold all over it.  Then, the moment passed, and he got back to work.  There were four guards at the gate.  He knew hurting them or drawing their attention would make his infiltration nearly impossible.  After all, he did have to stay on these ponies' good sides.  He looked around to see if there was a way to climb up over the gate.  A nearby hedge gave him a way in.  Climbing to the top of it, he could clearly see the courtyard full of statues off to his left and the direct path to the castle to his right.  To avoid detection, Harper went left, as it had many more points he could hide.  A few guards patrolled this part.  It was still broad daylight, so seeing a black-clad figure would probably attract their attention immediately.  Harper couldn't wait to get inside the castle, as then he could disable and lihgting they had inside to give himself a path through the darkness.

As he made his way through the lines of statues, he heard two of the nearby guards talking.

"Were you at the train station today?  I heard something big was going down there," the first one asked.

The other seemed appalled by this question. "That was only a few minutes ago.  What, you weren't there?"

"Nah, I was stuck with the newbies," the first replied.

The second one laughed. "Oh, yeah, that's right.  How's training going for them?"

"Well, they're still new to everything, so they're not quite guard material, but they're on duty inside the castle today so they get a little experience," the first one explained.

The second one scoffed. "'Experience'.  Honestly, there is hardly anything to stave off around here, so there's really nothing to learn.  Guarding's a pretty easy job for a big paycheck.  I don't know a single stallion that wouldn't want this job."  Suddenly, the second one changed to a serious tone. "Well, now there is something, I suppose.  That train station deal was the human waking up.  That's as scary as it gets.  He could be crawling around here and we wouldn't even notice."

"Hey!" a third one shouted, running over to the other two. "You two aren't paid to sit around and chit-chat!  Get back to work!"

"Yes, sir!" they shouted, slightly irked by the interruption.  Harper liked what he heard.  A bunch of rookie guards stationed around the castle was nothing he couldn't handle.  He smiled at the simplicity of the job he gave himself.

Finally crossing the courtyard, Harper ducked in through one of the windows.  It was all too convenient that it was left open.  Harper kept to what little shadows there were and snuck past the rookie guards.  Most of them were distracted, and the others were just plain inexperienced.  They kept turning in the wrong direction towards sounds that they heard, and their 'investigations' always came up empty-handed.  Or, hooved.  Harper didn't care anymore.  So long as there wasn't a human-to-pony dictionary, he felt fine calling the ends of their forelegs "hands".

It was all so easy.  After sneaking through the royal court and throne room, Harper knew something was up.  There was no way all of this was a coincidence.  Somebody -- or somepony -- had planned this.

"I see you you've enjoyed your little tour of the castle."

Harper jumped at the voice.  It was loud and confident, unlike most of the ponies he had heard talking.  Harper ignored the voice at first, hoping that it was just a ploy to get him to speak up and get caught.

"Harper, if you do not converse with me, how am I supposed to tell you you're allowed here?" the voice asked politely, before commanding, "Respond, Harper!"

Harper was shocked into responding.  "If that's you, Princess, I would very much like it if you showed yourself!"

"As would I, Harper.  Now, show yourself and I will meet with you face-to-face."

This entire scenario was just filled with uncertainty.  Harper knew the voice, he just didn't know if he could trust it.  He stepped out the shadows, hoping his intuition was wrong.

"Good.  now we may speak directly."

Harper saw not Celestia, but Luna step out from behind the shadows of a nearby corridor.

"You again?  Oh, shit, is this all a dream?" Harper asked.

"I assure you, this is no dream, Harper.  I have come bearing good news." the Princess replied.

"Good news?  The hell are you talking about?" Harper asked with great suspicion.

"You were never responsible for Hastings' death."

Harper had completely forgotten their discussion on the matter.  The one memory that had plagued his mind, and somehow he had forgotten all about it.  Oh, he was gonna beat himself up mentally if he forgot something that important ever again.

"All right, you had my attention, and now you have my curiosity.  How am I not the one responsible for Hastings' death?"

The pony smiled as the world around them warped to match the scene again.  Everything, down to the last little detail was refined and realistic.

"I thought you said I wasn't in a dream." Harper said, somewhat disappointed.

"You weren't before, but now you are." Luna explained simply. "Now, I watched your memory a lot since you first produced it.  Now, do you remember what you felt at that point?"

"Of course I do." Harper said, the words forming around him again.  Hate, Anger, Confusion, and so many more circled around him like magic runes. "No matter how any times I delude myself into thinking this never happened, I will never forget how tragic that day was.  That was the day I lost my mentor and my friend."

"And how did it happen?"  Luna asked, sinking into the background of the dream.

"I... I fucked up.  I let the target slip out and he... he..."  The words surrounding Harper blurred into a blood red color. "I let my own friend die."

"That is incorrect, Harper.  You didn't do it.  This 'target' you had did not kill him either."

"What?" Harper asked. "That's impossible!  He was the only one who could've shot him!"

"Then let me ask you, Harper, who is this?"

He felt himself shrink as the world zoomed into the goggles of Hastings.  Harper remembered looking him in the eye before he died, as to send a signal to him to get out of this mess.  Of course, that never happened.

"How does that explain anything?"

"Look closely.  What do you see in the glass?"

Harper peered at the googles lenses and saw the most surprising thing he had never known.  Having photographic memory was something he never thought would help him here.  In the reflection, he could clearly see the silhouette of a sniper perched on the rooftops.  It was one hell of a thing to notice, and Harper was now more intrigued than ever.

"What on earth?  How is this possible?  Who is this?  Why? " Harper asked.  His confusion and rage subsided into a curious hate.

"I understand your need to find answers to these questions, but I am sorry to say I do not know.  Whoever this is is the true reason Hastings died.  You didn't let him die... he was being hunted from the beginning.  It's not your fault.  Your partner must have had someone after him for a long time, and only now did they get the chance to end his life.  It was misfortune that ended his life, nothing more."

"I don't think so. I think there's a helluva lot more going on here.  I need to find this guy, and when I do..."

"Then what, human?  You will end his life as well?"

Harper hesitated.  "I don't know.  Probably, if that's what he deserves."

"You know, even if you kill him, that won't bring Hastings back."

Harper knew this all too well.  The war taught him that.  He let all his emotions flow away and be replaced by new ideas: Focus, Precision, Execution, Investgation... the list went on.

"He will pay, one way or another," Harper said. "I think we're done here."

The whole world went dark, and seconds later, Harper opened his real eyes.  He couldn't have been out for more than a few moments, as he was still standing, feeling only slightly off-balance.  He shook his head.  Somebody was after Hastings the entire time.  If he knew, why didn't his partner tell him about it?  Maybe Hastings didn't know?  Just thinking about it made him want to take this guy out with one clean shot when he found him, but only after he got the answers he was looking for.

Reality caught up with him and he remembered why he was here.  He had to find Celestia.  He slowly went through the hallway and spotted the Princess standing in a room full of blinding light.  Harper stepped out of the darkness and approached her.

"So this is where you've been," he said, eliciting a spooked gasp from the Princess.  She turned quickly to face him.  Harper raised his hands up. "Calm down, Princess, I am not here to hurt you.  I just want some answers."

"You're one of those humans," Celestia noted, "the ones I've heard so much about."

"I am.  Perhaps Princess Twilight informed you of my presence and her reluctance towards me and my comrade's behaviors.  I hope you have more trust than she does."

"I don't know what to think of you, Harper.  It's not everyday we see humans."  Celestia turned her head away from him.

"I've wondered how you knew what we were, Celestia.  Would you mind explaining?" Harper asked.

"You knew we were ponies, as you referred to us as such when you saw our kind.  How did you know that we were called that?" Celestia countered.

"Touché," he said. "I suppose its just a coincidence that we are familiar with each other's species."  A brief moment was silence followed, probably to signify the dead topic.  Then, Harper remembered what he came here for. "Look, I need to get to Ponyville and help stop Sombra and Chrysalis, but I need your permission before I go, so I heard."

Celestia laughed a bit. "Oh, poor Butter Brittle.  She must've told you this so you'd stay safe.  She doesn't want you to go to that dark castle, fearing that you won't return.  You, do not need my permission to go anywhere, human.  That is up to you.  But for your troubles, I can teleport you to your destination."

"How generous.  Wait, then what is with all the guards hating my guts if that's the case?" Harper asked.

"I do not think they mean to strike at you personally, Harper.  I will admit, those guards seem to be ruder and ruder every day.  I'll send out a request to change their training, hopefully giving them a new attitude," Celestia explained.

"So, teleportation...  That sounds efficient," Harper noted. "Wait, why wouldn't she want me to go there?"

Again, Celestia chuckled. "You'll see, Harper.  Now, off with you!"

Her horn glowed for a few moments and magical wisps transported Harper back to Ponyville.

Well, that was something, Harper thought to himself.  Celestia sure seemed nice for an all-powerful ruler.  There was little time for thinking, as he was immediately being shouted at.

"Harper!" he heard Kestrel shout. "Where the hell have you been?  It's been almost an two days!"

"Kestrel?" he asked, surprised.

"God dammit, I knew this would happen!  As soon as you got out my sight, you go and get yourself in a heap of trouble!"  He shook his head.  "Forget it, we need to move!  We're setting up an attack on that tower, and you're going to help.  C'mon!"

Kestrel began leading Harper to Twilight's castle. "Kestrel, you sound kind of dire.  What the hell's been going on around here?"

Suddenly, a giant magical bolt flew down from above, threatening to strike the town before it was intercepted by a magical shield.  While the shot was blocked, the shield seemed to waver and crack a bit.  From what Harper knew, that shot could've very well wiped out the entire town with that much power.

"That's what!" Kestrel shouted. "Keep moving, there isn't time for questions!"

They rushed into the castle, where the mane six were gathered.

"Harper!  Glad you could make it." Princess Twilight said all too enthusiastically.  Harper was confused by her tone and said nothing.

"All right, let's recap the events for Harper here, since he missed out on everything.  As we all know, the tower outside this town is planning on destroying it and everything else in around a square mile of this place with a giant magic cannon.  While it is deadly, it takes a long time to prepare and shoot each shot, allowing us time to defend and launch our counterstrike, which is what this mission is about.  Our mission is to infiltrate that tower, sneak past its defenses, and sabotage the cannon.  Are we clear?"

"What happens if we fail?" Harper asked.  Twilight recognized this question and knew the answer immediately.

"You won't" she reassured him.

Harper sighed. "All right, then how do we plan on doing this?  That tower has to be taller than anything I've seen.  Reaching the top would be a challenge."

"You should put a little more emphasis on 'would be' there, Harper.  Sombra is a big fan of long staircases, but Twilight here knows just the spell to get us up them."

"And the cannon?  How do we deal with that?" Harper asked

"Not sure, but we'll find out when we reach the top.  Its power source cannot be far from it."

"And what if the power source is Sombra or Chrysalis?" Harper asked. "Then what?"

"Then we stop them with our own power.  Twilight and her friends have a pretty powerful spell to stop all this indefinitely."

"Then what are we 'mere mortals' for?" Harper asked. "It seems like they have it under control."

"Two reasons, Harper.  First, we need to keep Byron in check during this mission.  Second, we owe these ponies for taking us in like they did.  It was very generous of them."

"Sappy, but okay." Harper replied. "Wait, Byron??"

Harper had missed seeing the dangerous psychopath in the corner of the room.  He had an evil smile on his face , and Harper could hear him snickering to himself.

"So you're telling me we're bringing that bastard with us?!" Harper shouted. "Kestrel, that's insane!"

"I know that you think that, but for now, you have to trust me when I say he'll be more helpful that not.  After all, he did get intel on the layout of the enemy base."

Harper didn't believe this.  Hastings would've known better than to trust that double-crossing, backstabbing son of a bitch, and he trusted Hastings.

"And you don't think he'll turn on us in the middle of the fight?" Harper asked.

"Of course not." Kestrel said.  Then, he leaned in and whispered. "I don't trust the recipe, and the first signs of the dish burning, I'll fetch the fire extinguisher."

"Sounds like a plan." Harper replied. He could translate the metaphor easily:  Should Byron show any signs of betrayal, he would be quickly neutralized, end of story.

"Last but not least, Discord will play the important role of guarding our guide here to make sure he doesn't get hit, leaving us without the information we need to complete the mission."

Harper didn't see the being of chaos either.  He wondered if the container tampered with his eyesight.  He feared the idea of having less-than-perfect eyesight.

"Very well," he said flatly.

"One more thing." Kestrel said.  He handed Harper his pistol and his knife. "You'll need these."

Harper was glad to see his weapons again, which he realized made him look like a terrible person.

Kestrel continued, "Since the latest cannon shot hit not long ago, we have our window of opportunity open for another ten minutes.  That's enough time to get into the tower before the next shot goes off, and hopefully enough time to shut down the cannon altogether.  Let's go."

As they left the castle, the tower's shadow fell over the town, leaving everyone  and everything in complete darkness.

The Tower, the Truth, and the Twist

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.

Magical Science and Scientific Magic

Harper understood that he could teleport into a world of ponies, become not only their hero, but their savior, and above all that, make friends with them, but never, never had he considered using magic.  How on Earth did he gain this power?  Where exactly did it come from?

He and the others sat in the top of the tower pondering this.  Luckily, Twilight was testing this out right now.  She was running facts and figures about Harper with one hoof and designs for the teleporter with the other, juggling responsibilities like Harper had never seen.

"So, you went into the Magic-Lock Chamber -- combine the particle matrix with the FTL drive -- and you came out different, I think -- carry the three, then the seven -- because you were in there just so long, and nobody came to get you -- and then move this over here for ease of access -- and so you started absorbing the magic in the Chamber -- don't want to put the recombiner relay next to that -- but I don't know why!"

Harper found it hard to focus on what she was talking about with this multitasking going on.  "Wait, what?"

Applejack spoke up then. "Basically, ya got magic from that chamber thing somehow.  Any idea why that mighta happened?"

He thought for a moment and said, "Well, there is the possibility that some of the bacterial anti-cures in my system my have adapted to absorb magic, so whatever magical capabilities I have are probably from those things sucking up power.  That's only a theory, though.  I have no idea whether its plausible or not..."

"Bacterial what now?" Applejack asked.

"Who cares how you got 'em?" Rainbow asked. "The fact is you do have 'em, so why not put those to work takin' down Sombra and the queen?"

"You really shouldn't say things like that, Dashie." Pinkie Pie said. "Somepony out there might want to have an explanation for stuff like this, or ponies are going to get really, really mad!"

"As if!" the cyan pegasus replied. "Explanations are for suckers!"  Unfortunately, it seemed the wall of the tower didn't agree with her as she flew right into it without looking.

"That's whatcha get when you say something like that!  It's like the entire universe doesn't want you to say that!" Pinkie Pie said. "I'm telling you, higher powers are at work when it comes down to that stuff!"

"Sure, Pinkie.  Higher powers." Rainbow said sarcastically. "Whatever.  The point is, Harper's got some kick-flank powers, and it is awesome!"

"In any case, you should start practicing magic a bit before you start bragging that you have it." Rarity said.

"Who said anything about bragging?" Harper asked. "I'm only just starting to understand how I can control it.  For example..." he put his hands on his temples and looked at a nearby vase. The vase rose a little bit, then fell back into place. "Unless I really focus, I can't control it with my mind that easily.  Instead..." He pointed at the vase and raised his arm, raising the vase with relative ease. "I need some kind of somatic gesture to control my powers."

"But that's nothing like -- no, the power source goes here -- Equestrian magic!" Twilight shouted in frustration.

"It might not be used the same for the both of us, but you have to remember: You have a horn on your head.  I don't.  That means you probably have more control with your mind than I ever would." Harper suggested.

"Maybe, but I doubt -- move this here and then maybe I can -- you would have that much power with just your hands!"

"The evidence seems to point the other way, Twilight." Harper said.

Suddenly, she froze in place while working. "Well, if you're so good at magic, then let's see you block this!"

She shot a small burst of magical energy at him, just like she had done before.  Harper wasn't going to let this get through if it was the last thing he did.  He raised his hand up to meet the shot, and his hand caught the bolt in midair.  He swung it around and pitched it back towards Twilight, who then blocked the shot herself.

"Could you two try not fighting for five minutes?!" a Rarity shouted at them. "Honestly, you're acting like children!"

"Rarity's right.  If we could just tone it down a bit with the magic, that would make some ponies feel much, much safer being in this room." Fluttershy agreed.

The two shouted in disagreement at the same time:

"Well, if the Princess here had any faith in my abilities--!"

"Well, if Harper had any control of his abilities--!

The two looked at each other angrily for a moment before returning to what they were doing.  Twilight finished drawing up the schematics for the teleporter, walking off with them to construct the thing.  Harper picked up a nearby crystal, sat down, and started sharpening his knife with it.  Today was going to be a long day.

"God damn it..." Harper said, swearing to a deity he didn't believe in, "I can only imagine the hell the people on Earth are going through right now..."

***

Charlie and the rest of his control group were working hard when the news came on that day.  Alien invaders had landed on Earth and they were taking the world by storm... with their cuteness...?

"That's right , folks," the newscaster said, "Prepare for some strange weather, because it is raining ponies!  These cute little beings came out of the sky the other day, and ever since, they've been warming up to people everywhere.  They seem to have no malicious intent, eating only vegetables and certain fruits and even conversing with the general public! That's right, people!  Talking ponies!"

"Truly a great day for humankind and its discoveries," the female newscaster added. "They're just so cute!"

"Yes, reports by the public say that they are also incredibly adorable, and some have already taken them into their homes and started caring for them.  Businesses have already started collecting the ponies to be sold at pet stores to the general public.  They hope to open their businesses in a few days' time.  And now, a personal interview with the first person on the scene.  Handing it off to you, Barbara."

"Thank you, John.  Now, Mr. Race..."  Charlie stopped listening there.  Apparently, the energy spike from the planet was a test of the teleportation system that supposed to take Harper home, and a mishap took out the satellite.  Or so the ponies say.  Charlie found it to be believable: if the satellite was taken out in the process of transportation, they must've been using it as a medium to get to Earth.  The problem was, nobody had sent in a report saying they found Harper, nor Byron.

And this is what made Sam keep his eye on the news all day, hoping that his lost man would come back with the criminal both intact and in cuffs.  Or a stranglehold.  Either one would do.  Preferably, he'd want the latter.

Charlie went to his office and knocked the door.  Fischer didn't even look to see who it was before waving him in.

"Sir, you've been here all day.  Aren't you going to do anything about the ponies that are landing on the planet?"

"Those ponies are none of my concern." Sam said. "And even if they were, it seems like it's under control."

"But, sir..." Charlie started.

"But nothing, Charlie.  Don't you have some files to decrypt or something?"

"Well, that's just it.  I don't.  Normally I would, but the Enhancers haven't made a single move since those ponies got here."

"The Enhancers are distracted. Let's keep it that way."

Charlie couldn't believe this. "Sir, you don't understand!  You are the distracted one!  You have to stop this whole waiting-on-Harper bullshit when you can go out on the field and get things done yourself!"

It looked like Sam almost considered getting out of his chair for that one.  Almost.  It could've been a trick of the light.  In any case, he didn't reply.

"Sir, if you want to sit on your ass all day waiting on somebody who, for all we know, is dead, then by all means, do so.  Really setting the bar for standards here at Fourth Echelon there.  The rest of us want to find out where these terrorists are, and we want them gone."

Sam still didn't move or speak.

"Sir, if you keep this up, I'll have to call Grim in the middle of her vacation and tell her to get over here and force you out of that chair.  Are you hearing me?!"

He turned the chair around to see that there was nothing but a puppet with an audio recording on its lap and a string attached to its arm.  Charlie stepped back in surprise, surprised that Sam had left the plane without a sound.  Talk about one sneaky spy, but where did he go?

If he was investigating those ponies, he could be anywhere: the initial drop site, the companies buying them off... or perhaps...

Charlie went back to his computer, tapped a few buttons, and found that Sam had left his tracking device with the puppet.  Charlie checked the cameras of the ship within the last eight hours, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.  He realized none of the suits were missing either.  If that was the case, what on earth was Sam planning, going out in casual clothes and investigating?  Was he missing something here?

***

Sam had forgotten what it was like to walk in regular clothes.  He was cooped up in Fourth Echelon for days now, and he hardly had any time to collect himself and recompose what was Sam Fischer.

A tiny blip came from the phone in his pocket.  He checked it to see that Charlie had searched up his whereabouts, and moreover, had starting searching for him because of his absence.  It wasn’t too much of a concern for him.  He deserved this fresh air, this fine day that lay before him.  However, this was far more than selfish relaxation.

After the news came out telling of ponies practically falling down to Earth in droves, he went out to see the situation.  There were a few reasons behind all this.  The most prominent of those reasons was his search for his missing operative.  It was every leader’s obligation to make absolutely sure that their followers are safe and secure in any format.  Sam understood the extreme precaution one must take to ensure this, yet the fate of Harper decided to slip through his fingers all the same.

Second, the ponies intrigued him in some way.  They seemed unreal, almost cartoonish in a way.  He felt something was off about them, but at the same time, he was mildly curious about them.  Why is it that so many of them arrived here all at the same time?  Is it true that they were all teleported here by accident?  Also, why are they allowing themselves to be sold?  This leads into his next reason.

The third reason was the investigation of the companies who swiped up the ponies.  Only a few of the major ones did, but the one that stuck out seemed to be Hasbro, the same company that paid off NASA for the satellite intelligence.  Why did they want these ponies so badly?  How were they the first on the scene when it came to this business?  Had they really seen it coming, or was it just a stroke of luck?

He wondered this as he heard his phone rumbling in his pocket.  He took it out and looked to see who was calling.  There was no number and no name.  He immediately picked it up.

“Who is this?” he asked in his gruff voice.

The voice on the other end of the line sounded like it was talking to someone else before addressing him.  “Is this on?  Is it working?  Okay, good, it is—Hello!  I don’t think we’ve met, but are you Sam Fischer?”

“How did you get this number?” Sam asked.

“Number?  Is that how this works?  Well, I’ve got a lot to learn, then.” The voice said genuinely.

Sam didn’t believe a second of it. “Don’t play games with me.”

Suddenly, he heard another voice speak up. “Give me that!  Ugh, friggin’… ponies…  Sam?  You there?  It’s Harper, code number 550768.”

Sam’s eyes widened. “Harper?  How are you contacting me?”

“Well, seems I’ve got a little portal here that is connecting me up to two different worlds and things, so… yeah.  I was testing to see if we got a good connection for a teleport.  Anyway, since we do, I’m coming back to Fourth Echelon ASAP.”

“’We’?” Sam asked, implying the question as to there being more.

“Ah, yes, these ponies—No, he doesn’t want to talk about his favorite cake, Pinkie—and I are coming to Earth.”

“About that…” Sam asked. “Perhaps you’d like to explain why its raining ponies here?”

“What?  Raining ponies?  Sam, what are you—Oh, no.  Sam, wherever you are, get moving.  Get out of sight.  Whatever you do, don’t let anybody too close to them!”

“A little late on that.” Sam said. “What else can I do?”

“Hold on, thinking… Charlie, is that you in the call?”

“Oh, shit—“ a quick blip from the phone sounded.  Well, Charlie had found him.  Again.  Not that it was that hard to find his voice in the call with the equipment back on the plane, but still, that was quick.

“Anyway, just try to keep as many people as you can away from the ponies.  Section them off from each other, and for Pete’s sake, don’t let those ponies tempt them into breaking the lines.”

“Harper, these ponies have been here for some time now today.  It might not be possible to round them up and herd them away from humans.”

“Fine, but do what you can.  I’ll be back soon.  Also, I've somehow got these-- DUCK!”

Sam heard the loud, shrill interruption just in time, and ducked down low.  Just then, a pony flew over him, narrowly missed him as he lowered his head.

“RUN!  GO!” Harper shouted.  Sam hung up the call and threw one foot in front of the other as he dashed away from whatever pursuer he had.  He took a quick glance behind him to see some kind of weird, bug-looking pony with insect wings flying after him.

"Just when I was beginning to think this day couldn't get weirder, I have to deal with these little shits." he growled to himself. "Well, beats hanging around the office all day, I suppose."  Ahead of him, he could see barrels and boxs of the metal variety, as well as an opportunity if he was smart about it.

He leaped forward over the first barrel he saw, then proceeded to kick it behind him.  One of the beasts that had flown lower than the others got smacked by it and was left in the dust.  Sam jumped up the boxes, and at the top of them, he spun around and took out his gun.  However, the beasts were fast, and the pistol was knocked out of his hands, falling to the ground behind the boxes.  Sam didn't let up.  He quickly switched over to his knife, dodging the next attack but the flying beast and riposted by clipping its wings, causing it to fall to the ground.  The next one rushed him and pushed him off the boxes, causing him to fall down next to where his gun was.  The same beast tried dive-bombing him, but Sam re-equipped his pistol and squeezed the trigger three times.  Two shots hit the thing's wings and the third hit it on its right side, diverting the attack and causing the beast to smack into the concrete next to Sam, leaving a green splatter where it landed.

Then, it was quiet.  Sam took his time assessing the situation and examining the body.  Three of these bug-winged, fanged ponies had ambushed him out of nowhere, and somehow they weren't nearly as strong as he imagined.  The one that had hit the concrete seemed to be either dead or passed out, but either way it wasn't going to fly again after what he did to it.  Sam called Harper.

"Sam!  Shit, are you all right?" Harper asked.

Sam realized he did hurt his back a bit after that fall, but he passed it off as nothing more than the aches of his age. "I'm fine.  What were those things?"

"Changelings.  Those things are shape-shifters that can look exactly like the ponies of the planet I was on." Harper replied. "It's a good thing Pinkie sensed them before they attacked you, otherwise you might've been completely blindsided when they attacked you."

"'Pinkie'?" Sam asked.

"One of the ponies sir.  They've got some... peculiar names." Harper replied.

"All right, small talk over.  Report to me on your situation and condition." Sam said.

"Yes, sir!" Harper said.  He told him about what happened back on Equis with the tower and Byron, as well as mentioning his brother, Wilhelm.

"I don't believe it.  Byron had a brother?" Sam asked. "That explains a lot."

"Yeah, it does." Harper replied.

Sam let the silence sit for a bit. "So... I take it these 'changelings' weren't brought here by some mistake with a teleporter?"

"No, why would you think that was the case?" Harper asked.

"Some, uh... 'recon' brought in that information after the ponies started dropping from the sky.  So, if that's not the case, how did they get here?"

"I don't really know, sir.  Last I saw, those things were brought to their knees and trembling, at least figuratively, if not literally."

"Great." Sam said.  He made a mental note to check that out before remembering one last thing on his list. "Look, I've got to check something out.  It might be vital to our situation here.  I'll call back after I'm done.  I know you don't like taking orders, but for Christ's sake, when you get to headquarters, stay there until I give you further orders.  Understood?"

"Yeah, yeah... I'll sit and stay like a good dog, Sam.  Though I have to know... what are you going to do?"

"Good question." Sam replied. "I'm going to infiltrate Hasbro."

"Okay, that sounds-- wait, what?!" Harper shouted.

"Talk to you later." Sam said.

"No, wait, Sam--!" Sam shut off his phone.  If Hasbro had something to do with the changelings, he wanted to know about it immediately.  Sam heard the familiar sound of the Fourth Echelon chopper descending over his head.  He saw it land next to him and Charlie jumped out.

"Sam, what were you thinking?  You could've been killed by those things!"

"Charlie, you and your hindsight can go somewhere else.  Let's just head back to base and meet up with Harper, alright?  We'll send some white coats to clean up this mess."

Charlie nodded hesitantly and waved him aboard.

***

Byron stared outside the bars of his prison.  Discord had locked them away in a place the ponies called "Tartarus".  He had tried escaping, but the bars were unbreakable, and his brother had no intention on leaving.

"Why is it that no matter what anybody does, tyrants always win?" Byron asked Wilhelm.

"Because tyrants are powerful." Wilhelm said. "And magic is powerful, too."

"I hate magic.  It is what keeps us caged up in this place." Byron said.

"Magic..." Wilhelm said. "Who needs magic?"

He rustled through his coat pockets and pulled out two tiny syringes.

"Byron, I was hoping that we wouldn't have to use these..." Wilhelm started.

"What are they?" Byron asked.

"These are the special anti-cures procured by Masters.  These are viral anti-cures."

"Viral?" Byron asked. "What's the difference between a viral anti-cure and a bacterial one, other than their structure?  I'm not seeing the difference here."

Wilhelm laughed. "Oh, you'll see soon, Byron.  Come, join me."

He extended his open hand, holding out Byron's salvation loosely.  Byron carefully lifted the needle.

"Well... cheers, brother." Wilhelm said, clinking his glass syringe against Byron's.  Then, he injected it just below his sternum, making sure not to nick the coronary artery.  Byron followed suit.

"Well, my brother..." Byron said, removing the needle after injecting its contents. "What now?"

"Now... we take revenge on Harper, Fourth Echelon, and all those sons of bitches that have wronged us!"

Wilhelm walked over to the bars, and, with no effort at all, he ripped the cage door off its magically locked hinges.

He laughed at his own power. "Now this is power, my friend!  No mere magic will stop us!" He heard the growling of the three-headed dog, Cerberus, at the bottom of the stairs outside of their prison.

"How about you and I test out these powers against a real foe?" Wilhelm asked.

"Gladly." Byron said with a smile.  They heard the beast bounding up the stairs, ready to pounce them.  It jumped into view, its maw wide open, ready to eat these small morsels.  It was ready to gnash his teeth on the first one, Wilhelm, when it was suddenly stopped.  Wilhelm laughed as he held the jaws of the beast's center head open.

"Byron!  Show this overgrown puppy what we can do!" Wilhelm shouted.  Byron ran up and pounded on the head on the left, beating it to a bloody pulp with only a few hits.  Cerberus roared in anger and pain, jumping back and away from the two.  Wilhelm rushed up and jumped higher than physically possible, flying down with a grand kick that cracked the skull of the right head.  Cerberus knew when he was beat.  He ran off from this prison cell, hoping that this distraction had not allowed any other prisoners to escape.

Byron prepared to chase after it, but Wilhelm held him back with his arm. "Let it run.  That beast is not our quarry.  We must keep our focus if we are to defeat Fourth Echelon."

Byron stood straight and nodded. "So, how do you propose we escape this place?"

Suddenly, a portal opened up.  On the other side stood Chrysalis, and next to her, Sombra.

"Well, it's about time." Wilhelm said. "I almost started thinking you'd leave us to die."  The two stepped through the portal and it closed behind them.

"Please, human, releasing you from your prison is a formality at this point.  My changelings are feeding off so much of these human's emotions that there was enough excess magic for me to bring you back and still take over this planet." Chrysalis explained.

"And they will continue to bring you power," Byron said, "for we have a plan, don't we, brother?"

"Yes, we do." Wilhelm replied with a smile. "We're gonna fight Fourth Echelon... operatives are gonna die left and right..."  Then, he broke out in loud, crazed laughter, letting his voice echo around him. "I can't wait!"

He laughed harder, madder, and louder, right until the author became bored trying to make this chapter go anywhere else, and cut it off here.

Going Fisher Fishing

Sam always thought the gear for Fourth Echelon, while effective, was a little over the top.  A suit that marks targets and automatically got headshots said targets was a little... unbalanced.  But then again, he was a spy, and moreover, a man.  He needed to have powerful equipment at his disposal if he wanted to make a difference.  Otherwise, he'd be at the mercy of his skill and luck, the latter of which Sam hated.  He could remember the times when he had no such gear.  When the president's life was at risk, when he was up against Third Echelon... those were all he had.  And that is what sustained him.

"Fischer, we're nearly there, Prepare to drop on my count." Kobin said. "And next time, have a goddamn pilot ready, will ya?"

"Copy that." Sam replied.  It felt strange to have his worst yet best enemy at the controls for this flight, but Sam had done without him for a long time, so it wasn't an earth-shattering change.  Sam pulled on the parachute and opened the door of the copter.  The city was abnormally dark, but Sam only saw that to be to his advantage.

"I'm going to set you down about a hundred yards out.  There's a small complex where we won't attract attention."

Sam nodded and slid his goggles down onto his face.  This was only the first part of the mission, but he was already looking everywhere for danger.  He didn't know whether Hasbro was aware of his infiltration or not, and he didn't know what kind of security they might have in either case.

"I'm good to go." Sam said.

"All right, we're here.  Have a fun field trip." Kobin said.  He landed the copter and Sam jumped out.

Charlie replied, "All right.  Move in quiet; We can't be sure what will happen once you enter.  And remember: No kills.  The guards that work there have it hard enough already, and they're innocent people."

"Understood." Sam said. "Moving in now."  If this were any other occasion, he wouldn't be taking orders from an subordinate, but this time he needed all the help he could get.

Sam approached the building and found that the front entrance was flooded with light, and that there were three guards ahead of him that would spot him immediately.

"Entry from the front is impossible.  Is there a side entrance, maybe something more discrete?" Sam asked.

"There should be a ventilation shaft on the right side of the building.  Just keep moving through that and you can make your way inside."

"Copy."

Sam made his way to the ventilation shaft and slowly got it open, making sure to create as little noise as possible.  Hee looked to see if anybody was watching before entering the vent.  He could hear the men he saw from before below him.

"Man, how on Earth did I get talked into this crap?  The night shift at some toy company?  Man, I must've been high or something."

"Shaddup, Barnes.  It's not like you have anywhere more important to be.  Besides, with the whole pony thing, Hasbro wants to protect its assets more than ever, meaning big bucks for us."

"More like cover its assets, if you know what I mean.  Honestly, they act as if some big ol' attack is gonna happen here."

"You know, I'm really wondering why they care so much.  I mean, aren't ponies just one thing they focus on here at Hasbro?  I never understood that."

"Well, I guess its just a fucking mystery then, isn't it, Barnes?"

Sam lost his focus while listening to the conversation and accidentally bumped the side of the vent.

"Whoa, did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what, Barnes?  Your crazy shit?  I think it'd be better if you just shut the hell up from time to time.  Whadda ya think about that, eh?"

"No, I'm serious!  I'm gonna go check it out."

"Yeah, don't worry, guys... Barnes will take care of it!"

"Yeah, go Barnes!  Go take care of the scary ghosts you're hearing!"

Sam almost chuckled at the stupidity, but then realized that if he did so, he'd also have to accept the fact that this generation was a bunch of idiots.  He liked to have a little faith that they would get somewhere.  Maybe these guys were just bored, and had started acting like idiots.  Easier for him to take them down.  Their accuracy will be way off, and by the sounds of it, they'll be far too distracted to know what hit them after it was too late to do anything about it.

"Sam, you should be right above a safe exit in the next yard or two.  You'll know it when you see it."

"Got it."

He slowly climbed down out of the vent, crouching low as he got to the floor.  He seemed to be in a large supply closet, with one door leading out.  Sam made his way over to this door, and took a peek at what was on the other side using a fiber optics lens.  He could see Barnes investigating the spot where Sam had his mishap.

"C'mon... Just show yourself, you rat.. or snake... or whatever you are!"  Barnes was waving his gun all over the place, as if aiming at every possible and potential target that could be in the vent.  Sam quickly opened the door and hit him with a tranquilizer.  Barnes' body hardly made a sound as it hit the floor, and Sam threw his unconscious body in with the mops in the nearby janitor's closet.

Slowly, he made his way to the door at he end of the hallway that he encountered Barnes in.  Again, he looked under the door to see the two other guards, both of which had hardly moved an inch since Barnes left them.  Slowly, he opened the door and heard their voices.

"... so then I tell him, 'Yeah?  If you're such a big-shot, why not fight me?'" One of them said, while the other laughed hysterically.

"So?  Did he do it?" the other said between wheezing laughter.

"Pfft.  Are you kidding?  Wimp like him can't fight a guy like me.  I can take on any--"

THUMP.

Sam was sick of hearing this guy talk.  Whacking him in the back of the head was doing a public service.  He watched him fall to the ground as his friend watched with a distant look in his eyes.  Sam rushed him and caught him by the throat.  He wasn't even sure what he was going to interrogate this guy about.

"Gggh... What the... hell... lemme... go...!"

"You make it sound like I'd just let you run off and squeal to your superiors.  Not gonna happen." Sam replied.

"I don't... know... anything!  I just... do what I'm... told!"

"Sure you do." Sam said.  He took the man over to the table, smashed his head against it, then picked him back up again.

"You pathetic son of a bitch!  You won't get... anything out of me!"

"So you know what is going on then?  What is Hasbro doing buying up shape-shifting ponies?"

"I told you... I don't know anything!"

"Thats a real shame right there..." Sam said.  He pulled the man over to the wall and smashed the guy against it, letting him fall to the floor and cough a bit before picking him back up into the single-handed chokehold.

"Look... all I know is that they prepared to contain them... before they dropped... and that they want... whatever those ponies are protected...  especially against scum... like you!"

"I think we're done here." Sam said.  He tightened his grip, closing off the man's air pipe and letting him pass out before dropping him on the ground.  So, the same company that was monitoring these ponies was also prepared for their arrival.  No big surprises there.  They could see it happening before anyone else could.  But why would they buy off these ponies, and how?  Did they know what was going on, or were they just swept up in it?

Sam shook his head.  Answers.  He needed answers.  And there was only one person he could think of to get it.

"Goldner... I don't know what you're doing or why you're doing it, but when I find you, I'll beat the answers out of you." Sam muttered to himself.

Sam walked over to the elevator.  Normally, he wouldn't trust the thing for a second, but at this point, he was looking for convenience, not stealth.  The security of this place was sub-par, and he was sure that getting to the CEO's office wouldn't be hard.  He pressed the button with the greatest number on it and the elevator began to ascend.  A little more than halfway up, he felt the elevator jolt a bit and stop.  The lights went off in the cramped space.

"Power outage?" Sam asked himself. "What horrible luck I have."  He walked to the doors of the elevator and pried them open.  He was lucky the thing stopped at a floor before shutting down, otherwise he might have a serious problem on his hands.  He stepped out of the thing, almost surprised at how easy it was.  Had this been a nightmare, the doors would've slammed closed, cutting him in half.  What a happy thought.  He flipped down his night vision goggles, if only to see what was in the shadows of the place, given all the windows.

"Sam, what happened?  Are you at the office yet?" Charlie asked.

"I'm fine, thank you so much for taking the time to ask." Sam replied sarcastically. "No, I'm not at the office.  Elevator broke.  I'm going to have to take the stairs."

"Up twenty flights?" Charlie asked.

"Yes, up twenty flights." Sam said. "Obviously I would go up to the top of this place to get to the office.  Some people actually exercise with this crap."

"I'd like to meet one of those people someday." Charlie replied. "Anyway, you have fun out there while I sit here in my comfy, cozy chair."

"Charlie, so help me, if you say one more word, I will burn that chair when I get back.  Got it?"

No reply.

"I'll take that as a yes, you smartass." Sam said. "I'll contact you in a bit."

Sam started climbing the stairs.  It was a long and hard trek, like the one one might make up Mount Everest, only with none of the dangers of climbing Mount Everest, and far more simple.  Actually, when put like that, it has absolutely nothing in common with that kind of journey.

Once he reached the top, Sam was wheezing. "Who puts their office... up fifty flights of goddamn stairs?"

"Relax, Sam. You only had to go up twenty of them." Charlie said.

"Yeah, well... say good-bye to that chair, Charlie.  From now on, you'll be on a treadmill."

"Sounds like you're the one in need of a treadmill." Charlie said with a laugh. "How's that work-out regimen going for you?"

"Oh, that chair is super gone when I get back, you just wait."

"Yeah, whatever.  Just don't hurt yourself old-timer.  Hate to see my boss go on a mission only to die of a heart attack."

"Yeah, good-bye, Charlie." Sam said, closing off communications.  Perfect silence.  Now he could see why Harper did it so often.

He hadn't forgotten to check for guards though, and when he did, he knew they were waiting for him.  The radar showed a dozen of them behind this door, all huddled around a desk.  Sam wished he could just kill them, for a frag could take care of the problem in no time at all, but that didn't stop him.  He readied a personal EMP and  smoke grenade.  If he timed each of these right, he could probably take all of the guards without sustaining any collateral damage.  Well, to himself, at least.

He slowly opened the door and tossed in the grenade.  He heard it clink twice and release the smoke, yet he could see through the radar that  the people didn't move.  Sam ignored this, using the EMP just in case and kicking open the door.  That's when Sam learned what horror was.

Not only had none of them moved... but now they stared intently at him with glowing white eyes.  That's all Sam could see in his self-created darkness.  One of them moved faster than he could react to, lifting him from the ground.

"Well, well, well... looks like the pup got out of his kennel."

Sam was at a loss for words, partially because his throat was being crushed, and partially because he didn't understand what was going on, but at least he knew that he could kill these ones now, if he got the chance.  This would explain why he met little to no resistance on his way up.  Why would a big business like this one be completely empty?  Perhaps he should've thought of this beforehand.  He couldn't see what happened to the CEO of Hasbro, but assumed it wasn't something without blood involved.

"Wilhelm has got some... 'plans' for you.  You're going to be quite the subject to work with." he said. "I can't wait to see what happens when we mix Equestrian magic with the BACs, then inject 'em into you.  Chances are, they'll kill you in the most horrific, slow, and painful death you can imagine; and if you live, it certainly won't be for very long."

Sam struggled in the impossibly strong grasp of the Enhancer.

"You can't... I won't... let you..." he growled.

"Hahaha!  Listen to you!  You make it sound like you have any power over us!  You know what? Keep that fighting spirit!  Keep that will to live!  It will serve you well once the tests have begun.  C'mon now, dog... let's take you to the pound."

***

"Sam?  Sam!  Respond!"  Charlie shouted.  Communications were down, and Sam'd vitals weren't showing up.  Charlie took off his headset and tossed it across the room.  Had Sam been there to see it, he would've told him not to be tossing around thousand-dollar equipment.  He could still see his suit's location, but he wasn't getting any of the other information from it.

Charlie picked up the headset again. "Sam, if you can hear me, respond, dammit!"

"He's not going to pick up."

Charlie jumped ten feet when he heard this voice. "Grim?!"

"Out of the way." she said, pushing him out of the seat and taking up the equipment. "Well, you didn't bust this thing, at least.  Seems someone disabled Sam's suit.  Must be intent on ruining both our lives."

"Both?  What do you mean?  And more importantly, what are you doing here?" Charlie asked.

"I kind of figured something was up after my vacation was interrupted by gunshots and men with glowing eyes." Grim replied sarcastically. "I'm not an idiot, Charlie; I know what's going on."

"Forgive me for not calling you in the middle of your relaxation time." Charlie said defensively.

"You know, between having the Enhancers get what they want out of you and keeping me content, you should've just interrupted my vacation.  It's called 'prioritizing'."

Charlie sighed. "Well, I kind of broke my time machine this morning, so I can't really fix that."

"Yeah, you really don't have a good history with keeping equipment intact." Grim agreed.

Charlie couldn't win here.  Not that he ever could anytime else.

"You know, a lot of stuff has gone on while you've been away." he said.

"The pony planet.  Magic.  I already know." Grim said.

"What?!  How?!" Charlie asked, quite surprised. "There's no way you could've known!"

"Given I am the person who, as a hobby, checks the incoming and outgoing communication in Fourth Echelon, there's really no way I couldn't have known.  You people talk far too much."

"So you're suggesting we become anti-social, then?"

"I'm suggesting you shut your trap once in a while.  Might do you some good." Grim said. "I know from experience that just one wrong word can get you into more trouble than you need.  What ever happened to codewords?"

Charlie hesitated, before smirking and asking,  "Well, that's not a priority, is it?"

"Now you're thinking." Grim said. "Got his position."

"What?  How?"  Charlie said, leaning over the computer.

"Sam's suit has a back-up transmitter that I use to keep tabs on him." Grim said. "He always goes out and does the most idiotic things when everyone else is distracted."

"I know what you mean." Charlie said in agreement.

"Anyway, he hasn't been dragged too far.  Looks like they took him out of California and into Nevada, somewhere in the mountains, possibly some hoax of a ski resort.  I hear those are all the rage these days in the criminal world."

"Well, is he alive?" Charlie asked.

"Who can say?  All I know is that we'll find him there, and they definitely aren't going so far out of the way to hide a man who's death would go unnoticed to all in a mountain." Grim said. "Send a group out; they should be able to track him down in a hour or two."

"Yeah, I'll get right on that." Charlie said. "And, uh, thanks for coming back and fixing all this up."

"No problem.  It's still goin' on your record, kid." Grim said.

"Well, damn.  At least I tried." Charlie punched the air in mock frustration.  This nearly made Grim smile as the naive boy left to gather up the recon patrol.

However, just moments later, Harper burst into the room.  Grim jumped out of her seat and instinctively reached her holster and pulled a gun at the unexpected intrusion.  When she realized who she was aiming at, she lowered the gun.

"So you're him, huh?" she asked.

"Depends on who 'he' means, but I think the answer is yes." He held out his hand. "Operative Harper."

"You are him." Grim said, shaking his hand. "Name's Grim, pony boy."

"Pony boy?" Harper asked.

"Yeah, you were stuck on their planet, right?" Grim asked. "Or was I wrong about that?"

"No, you were right about that, but... 'pony boy'?"  He didn't like that name.  Every syllable that rolled off his tongue tasted of salt when he said it.

"Not into the whole nicknames thing, huh?" Grim asked. "Nice to know... pony boy."

Harper grimaced, knowing this torment would not end soon.

"Anyway, Charlie's putting together a recon team to fish out Sam from that whole enhancer business. I'm assuming you would be willing to join in?"

"Of course!  In fact, I already know a great recon team." Harper said.

"Tell that to Charlie, not me." Grim told him. "I'm just hear to manage what you say."

"Yes.  Of course.  Ma'am." he responded, leaving to go find Charlie.  It wasn't hard to do, given he was where he always was, right in front of his computer.

"No, not that one... no, not enough experience..." Harper heard him mumble as he approached.

"Charlie!" he greeted.

"Harper... not enough cooperation..." Charlie said out of reflex.  He immediately realized what he said after he said it and stood up to face the operative.

"B-but the best we've got!  Yeah..." Charlie said, his attempted cover-up failing the more the awkward silence set in.

"I'm going to find Sam.  I've got a group ready for you.  In fact, I'm pretty sure they're still in the drop bay." Harper noted.

"Sure, you can go, but as for this team, there's no way you could've gathered them so quic-- It's the ponies, isn't it?"

"Yup." Harper said.

"You're kidding!  They have no tactical experience whatsoever!" Charlie argued.

"That's not necessarily true..." Harper said. "Two of them can fly, another two have magic, and the last two..."  He tried to think of what they were good at.  "Well, they can sure as hell run.  Or gallop.  Or whatever it is ponies do."

"Harper, they're ponies." Charlie said. "Po-nies.  Let that sink in for a second.  You really think they're capable of anything like this?"

"That's funny because when I was on their planet, you seemed to think they were doing a better job than most recruits.  In fact, why don't you go see see for yourself?" Harper asked. "They're still in the launch bay.  We'll see who's right on this one."

"What are they doing in there, again?" Charlie asked.

"Let's find out." Harper said.

***

"Hm... Humans found a way to make aerodynamic structures made of metal without rotating blades." Twilight noted. "And better yet, we haven't crashed yet.  I like this."

"Twilight, why in the hay do ya need to investigate everythin' about humans?" Applejack asked.

"Yes, darling, I'm wondering that, too." Rarity asked. "I mean, it's fairly obvious by now that these humans aren't too different from us."

"Yes, except for the fact that they're bipedal, still warring with each other, and having no control of magic, humans are the same as us." Twilight said. "Face it: We don't have anything in common with them!  That's why I need to find out how they turned out so... different!"

"Wow.  Even outside our own world, you're still an egghead, Twilight.  Who would've known?" Rainbow asked sarcastically.

Twilight frowned at this. "I just want to know why... hairless apes somehow got so far without magic!"

"Well, it's obvious, silly!" Pinkie laughed. "Humans are just so much funner!"

Twilights ear twitched at that. "'Funner'?"

"Yeah!  Way funner!" Pinkie repeated.

"Oh, great." Rainbow said, face hooving. "Here we go..."

Twilight spun around to face the pink pony. "Funner is not a word, Pinkie."

"Of course it is, silly!  Funner, funner, funner!" she giggled.

"No, it is not!  If you're going to compare them to us, it's more fun, not that excuse for a grammatically correct word!"

"Funner." Pinkie said, losing her smile.

"More fun." Twilight corrected.

"Funner!" Pinkie shouted, getting defensive.

"More. Fun." Twilight replied, stomping her front hoof down in front of her.

"FUNNER!" Pinkie cried, leaning forward to stare at her friend angrily.

"MORE FUN!" Twilight shouted through gritting teeth, literally butting heads with her.

"Eh-hem."  They heard, quite clearly.  Harper was standing in the doorway to the hanger bay, and another, smaller human stood next to him.

"This is the team you're gonna take?" Charlie whispered to Harper as they walked. "This group of pretty, little ponies?"

"Yeah, that's right." Harper replied, also whispering. "Is there a problem?"

"Um, yeah!" Charlie said through clenched teeth. "They look like they may be the one, true disorganized group to ever travel be on this planet!  Literally!"

"Who's this guy?" Rainbow asked Harper. "He looks like a creep."

"W-What?!  I'm not a creep!" Charlie defended.

"He may look the part, but he's actually an associate of mine." Harper said. "Flutteshy, I'm assuming you want nothing to do with the mission, right?"

Fluttershy, who hadn't spoken up since they got to the planet, stayed silent.

"I thought maybe you'd like to stay here while we go on the mission.  You know, since you're not the strongest type and all.  I think you'd be a lot safer staying--"

"No."

The entire group flinched in shock and awe of that one word.

"F-Fluttershy!" Rarity scolded. "What are you saying?"

"Harper... how many people have you killed?" Fluttershy asked.

"I've lost count of the threats I've had to neutralize." he replied. "I'd say at least a few dozen, probably more."

"And how many of them didn't ever see it coming?  How many of them never knew they wouldn't return to their families?" she went on.

"Damn near all of them." Harper replied honestly. "But you have to understand: these people were bad men, trying to destroy this country we live in."

"And you don't even care that you did that to them?" Fluttershy asked.

"Surely you must know what it's like to have to get rid of some problem.  You all have done it before, from what I heard."

"We solved those problems, Harper.  We defeated them with magic, but never killed anypony.  You, on the other hand... I'm not even sure you've tried talking it out!"

"Fluttershy, you can't just talk it out with some people.  Sometimes, they'll just... keep on doing evil things, and sometimes you just need those things to stop.  You ponies may have found a away around killing others, but as for us humans... We just haven't gotten to that point yet."

"But haven't you tried finding it?" Fluttershy asked. "You can't possibly say that this entire world you live on goes by those ideas!"

Harper shook his head. "I'm sorry, but from what I know, it's always been that way.  The history books always tell of some war or battle between anywhere from tribes to countries.  Humans don't have magic.  They can't just banish people away to the moon, or in some big, magic prison cell.  We had no choice but to eliminate the opposition."

"But you have magic now!" Fluttershy objected. "You don't have to kill anyone anymore."

"Maybe not, but two things get in the way of that.  First, I am only one man.  I can't stop people killing people everywhere, and nobody else has these kinds of abilities.  Second,  there lies the question of whether they really deserve my mercy.  If bad people continue doing terrible things to others and killing, then the only way to make it stop is to end their life.  It is the greater good that we all strive for... or, at least, most of us."

"But do they really deserve to die?  Even the ones you could be sparing?"

Nothing followed this statement, and anybody that could've spoken up chose not to.

"Well, that was overly philosophical." Charlie said after a few seconds, awkwardly breaking the silence. "I'm going to go ponder my life now as I just came up with an idea for a sick new modification to put into the gear."

"Harper, I know you can't save them all, but at least show mercy on the ones that can change.  If you can do that, I don't need to stay here, and from the looks of things, you could use my help.  The girls and I can use the Elements of Harmony to set things right again.  That way, in the end, nobody has to die.  So what will it be, Harper?  Should I stay, or should I go?"

Harper pondered this for a moment, and the group waited upon his answer.  Perhaps now that he had these powers, he really could use it to stop the endless hatred of mankind, or at least, the parts he knew.   revenge, murder, and seclusion were all he knew up until now, and maybe these new powers could get his mind straight.  He sighed, pulled out his pistol, and let its clip drop to the floor.

"You're right.  I've been doing this too long."  Harper said. "If I have this opportunity, this gift to save lives... I suppose I should use it, shouldn't I?"

"That's the spirit!" Applejack cheered. "You give those bad guys a good whoopin'!  We'll teach 'em a lesson they ain't gonna forget!"

"Well, I do like when there's a lesson to be learned." Twilight agreed. "I suppose it's the right choice."

The rest of the group had dissonant murmurs of agreement, with Pinkie's being a little louder and more ecstatic than the rest.

"All right!  What are we waiting for?" Harper announced. "Let's get going!"

Harper heard the groan of Charlie in his earpiece. "Jeez, you guys really are the most disorganized group ever.  Still the plane's all ready in the drop bay; Just remind Kobin not to be a complete asshole and you're good to go."

"Got it, Charlie.  Will do." Harper replied.

And so, Harper led the ponies onto the helicopter and with one final thumbs-up to Charlie, they left to go save the leader of fourth Echelon.

There's Options (FINALE)

"You know, you never really told us what Sam did at Fourth Echelon, Harper." Twilight noted as the helicopter slowly descended upon the Enhancer base.

"Sam's a tactical genius... in most cases, I should say." Harper told them. "He's got this idea that the smallest events can be tied together to uncover the true underlying threat.  He calls it 'chaos theory'."

"I wonder what would happen if he met Discord..." Pinkie thought aloud.

Harper let out a short chuckle. "He'd probably chat it up with him and finally feel accomplished.  Or something along those lines."

"Hey, pretty pink princess, we're at the ball now.  Pick up your dress and get moving." Kobin said. "Also, please tell Charlie to stop having me fly everyone everywhere.  They have more pilots, and I have my own life to live."

"Sorry that people don't recognize you have a life, Kobin.  I'll spread the word." Harper joked. "Also, I'm pretty sure the only princess on this copter is Twilight here."

"Just get off my copter, pony boy."

Harper sighed, partially because it was not Kobin's copter, and partly because everyone was intent on calling him these dumb names.  He saw that some of the ponies had their gear shift during the flight.  Charlie had given them old pieces of equipment, headsets with mics and a big, old optical HUD glass.

"It's not much, but it'll do.  They're tough bits of kit, so they shouldn't break on you.  Just make sure not to lose them," he had told them.

"Rainbow, Flutters, you think you two could scout ahead?  See how many tangos we got in there.  Also, watch out for traps.  I'm sure the Enhancers have been awaiting our arrival, and have prepared a ton of them."

"Sure.  I'll breeze through there and get some good recon in, then be back in a flash." Rainbow said, flying ahead.

"Um... maybe we should go slow and steady to avoid the traps." Fluttershy suggested.  Nobody heard her.

"Twilight, Rarity, do you think you two can disarm the traps you find?  I mean, all you'd have to do is teleport them out here."

"Sounds simple enough." Twilight said.  Rarity gave a prudent nod in agreement. "I believe I could try that... if Trixie can do it, so can I, right?"

"Good," Harper said. "Applejack, you're with me.  Pinkie..."

The pink pony blinked at him twice. "Yeah?"

"Do whatever it is you do.  I'm betting you could create some good distractions, so try that, but if that's too dangerous, stay out of sight.  Got it?"

"Okie-dokie lokie!" Pinkie said in the highest vocal range possible.

"All right." Harper said. "Charlie, you read us?  We're Oscar Mike."

"Loud and clear, Harper." Charlie replied. "Try not to die."

"Will do." Harper replied.

The group moved in, with Rainbow flying far ahead, and Fluttershy following quickly after her in fear of being left behind.

The cave entrance slowly transformed into metal walls as they traversed down it.

"Harper, I'm seeing three guys up ahead." Harper heard through TACCOM. "I'm also seeing a couple potential traps off to our right."

"All right.  We'll take care of the guards, you just keep me posted.

"Wait!" Rainbow whispered. "Another guy just walked in!  I think it's Byron!"

"Already?" Harper asked. What was he doing so close to the entrance to this place?

"Yeah, that's got to be him!  He's giving those other guys some kind of device..."

"What's it look like?" Harper asked, peering around a corner he had just gotten to and seeing the scene. "Never mind, they're in my sights."

"I'll go farther ahead, then." Rainbow replied.

"If we could just slow down for a second..." Fluttershy said.  Rainbow didn't hear her.

"Look, if that dumbass Harper comes down that hallway, use these." Byron handed them some strange looking guns. "These guns have got special bullets to contaminate the BACs in his system.  One shot is all you need, and he's a goner in minutes."

"Wait a minute," the Enhancer objected. "What if Harper gets his hands on these?  Wouldn't it kill us, too?  Wouldn't kill you?"

Byron thought for  second, "Well, yes, but these are the only things that will kill him.  If you want to keep your life so badly, just don't get killed!"

Then, Byron walked off.

"Damn it!" Harper said, ducking back behind the corner. "I can't get spotted once, or I'm dead!"

"Tough gig, buddy." Charlie said. "Man, to think, if you would've never taken that shot..."

"We would be in a worse situation then, Charlie." Harper finished.

"Right." Charlie said. "Well, if you do get spotted, you'd better hope those guys can't aim."

"I doubt they'll miss." Harper said, losing hope.

"Well, it's not like you need to shoot them, Harper." Twilight said. "All you need to do is use magic."

This was true, and Harper knew it. "Well, any suggestions?"

"Well, if we can get you over to those wires over there" --Twilight pointed to them as they both peeked past the corner. "then we could use those wires to shock them.  I'll show you how."

"Sounds like a plan." Harper said.  He crouched down and began the slow walk to the wires.  He stepped into the light for a second and could feel the eyes of the Enhancers nearly spotting him before he faded back into the darkness of another shadow.  After that, a light blocked his way to the wires.

"Here, I'll distract them, then you can go." Rarity said.  She levitated a nearby pipe and tossed it across the room, where it made a loud clang as it hit the ground.  The Enhancers turned their backs long enough for Twilight and Harper to sneak past.

"Damn it!  We know you're here, rat!" one of them shouted.

Harper kept quiet has he reached the wires.

"Here, watch this."  Twilight said.  She focused her magic and drew out some of the electricity running through the current. Then, she tossed it at one of the nearby guards and watched as he jolted a bit and fell to the ground.

"So basically a high-powered taser, then." Harper said. "Huh.  I think I get it."

He saw the other guard returning to  the room and quickly replicated the spell Twilight cast.  He wrapped his hands around the wire and drew out a ball of electricity.  He threw it like a baseball at the guard and it hit him square in the chest, making him shutter in shock and fall to the ground.

"That's that." Twilight said.

Harper became instantly curious as to what these guns were that Byron handed out.  He took one up and found it to be no different from any ordinary gun.  Unloading the clip, he found inside some strange green-colored bullets.

"So this is what what will kill me in one shot, no matter what." Harper murmured. "To think death can be wrapped in such a small container..."

"Harper, are we goin' or not?" Applejack asked, breaking his concentration.

"Yeah.  Sure." Harper said.  He quickly pocketed the bullet and kept moving.

"You know, if you didn't want to kill them, then you should've just brought a regular taser, Harper." Charlie said.

"I have a feeling that BACs can just absorb that insignificant amount of electricity." Harper replied. "Honestly, we can't really know, can we?"

"Noooooot necessarily." Charlie replied. "I did get a sample of it to the lab boys.  They called them something like 'bacterial converters'.  Basically just sucks up energy like radiation and, now that I think about it, electricity and converts it into some unknown thing.  They're still working on what that thing is.  Anyway, you're probably right on that."

"Wait, you got a sample of it to them? When did that happen?" Harper asked.

"When I somehow snuck a needle into your skin and withdrew some of it from your blood, obviously." Charlie said sarcastically.

Harper sighed.  This was not his concern right now.

"Jeez, this escalated quickly." Rainbow said. "I'm seeing six guys in the next room, Harper.  They're on stairs leading up a floor."

"All right, this where teamwork matters, folks." Harper said. "We'll split up and throw their attention around a bit."

Harper flipped down his goggles and saw two at each end of the stairwell and two patrolling the middle.

Harper came with a plan immediately.  "All right, I say we--"

Before he could finish, there was the sounds of kicking, braying, and clanking metal.  It all happened so quickly, Harper didn't know exactly what just went down.

"What the--?!" Harper shouted.  He noticed each of the ponies standing next to a fallen guard.  Rainbow seemed to have kicked the two at the top down the stairs, while the Pinkie had magically produced a cannon out of thin air that knocked the two guards at the bottom up the stairs.  The two in the middle seem to have had their head knocked together, possibly through Twilight and Rarity.

"Harper?  What's going on?"  Charlie said, worried.

"Nothing... it's just the efficiency I'm noticing in this group." Harper said.  He never had such a large task force to work with, and looking at it all, it was quite surprising to him. "We're heading up a floor.  Hopefully, there will be more to discover ahead."

"All right.  Keep me posted." Charlie said.

Harper nodded to the ponies, and they nodded back.  They reformed their groups and moved up the stairs out of the rock walls of the caverns into what seemed more like a facility, with white washed walls and bright blue bulbs illuminating the area.

"No darkness.  Shame." Harper said quietly to himself.

Harper as about to take a step forward, when a voice hissed, "Wait!"

Rarity stepped forward, and took out some perfume.

"Is now really the time to freshen up?" Harper asked.

"While I do enjoy some good perfume, that is not the case here, darling." Rarity said.  She sprayed the fine-smelling contents of the bottle into the air in front of them, revealing many red lines of light crossing every which way.

"Electrical tripwires... Nice catch." Harper remarked.

"I do have an eye for detail." Rarity said, bobbing her hair for effect.

"So, how do we get through?" Rainbow asked.

"I'm betting they hooked this up so if the power went out, the alarms in this place would go off." Harper assessed. "EMP's out of the question, and they can't be removed.  I suppose we'll just have to try to avoid them.  There's got to be some way through these... there always is."

"WHEEEEE!" Pinkie shouted.  She rolled and ducked and somersaulted around the beams without setting off a single one of them.  Then, she hit the button on the other side and shut them off.

Harper froze up.  He thought for sure that with that kind of recklessness, she'd set off the alarms in no time.  Instead, here they were, walking through with no problems at all.

"Pinkie, how on earth did you do that?" Harper asked her.

Pinkie simply laughed and started jumping down the hall.  Harper sighed, knowing an answer would be the last thing he'd be getting out of her.

***

Sam couldn't recall how he got into this room, being bound to this metal table, probably because the Enhancers were a rough bunch, knocking him out before bringing him to this place.  He had been sitting here for a minute or two, waiting.  He struggled against his restraints the entire time, hoping for escape.

"Hello?  Is this on?  Oh good, it is." said the echoing, projected voice of Wilhelm.

Sam said nothing.  This was obviously an interrogation, something to make him spill some kind of beans he didn't know he had.

"Mr. Fisher.  Let's see here... your case file says you've been in your business for a decade.  Personally, I'd say it's probably longer than that.  Over a dozen completed missions and successful assassinations to your name.  Leader of Fourth Echelon, took down the Engineers, stopped the Blacklist, and 'secured the presence of security for the nation'..." Wilhelm took a second to laugh at this. "What a joke!"

Sam knew this was only the tip of the iceberg.  If this is all they had on him, they had nothing.

"One child: Sarah Fisher.  Not recorded where she lives, but I'm guessing I could find that out--"

"What do you want, Wilhelm?  Government secrets?  Launch codes?  What's your prerogative?" Sam asked.

"Oh, so you do talk." Wilhelm said in a condescending tone. "Isn't that nice?  Well, I thought I'd read off the major points in your life to you before forget all of them.  At least, that's the assumption Masters had when he thought of stuff like this.  You know, things including gratuitous amounts of pain?  Anyway, it doesn't matter.  I suppose if you're up, we'll just get started on the procedure."

Sam heard the whirring of machinery and was blinded by the bright lights the snapped on around him.  Some metal behemoth descended upon him and he felt a million needles inject some unknown contents into him.  Then, it was over.

"Well, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Wilhelm asked. "Let me get you a lollipop for being such a good boy."

"What the hell did you do?!" Sam shouted.

"Oh, nothing.  Just took a little bit of this and a little bit of that and said, 'Hey, let's put this in someone and find out what happens.'"

Sam let out a blood-curdling shout as he felt something protrude from his shoulder.  Looking over, he could see a dark crystal had broken his skin.

"Sombra, you do have quite the touch of detail, don't you?" Wilhelm asked. "First one right where he can see it!  Haha!  Ohhhhh-ho-ho... So, Sammy boy, let's say you and I have a little chat, hm?  Or do you what more spiky appendages?"

Sam practically roared at him. "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!"

"Even with all those strategies against interrogation, I knew you'd give in to this kind." Wilhelm said. "Remember that job a few years back?  The only one in your case file that's missing, because you covered it up?"

"I have no idea what you're TALKING ABOUT!" Sam said, trying to make an excuse as another crystal broke out of his leg.

"Oh, I think you do." Wilhelm said. "And you're going to finish that job... or you will die slowly and painfully.  I'll check back with you in a minute or two.  Just a reminder: those crystals will keep.. 'appearing' while I'm gone.  Here, I'll even put up a timer until they kill you.  Good-bye, Sam."

Sam was silent, breathing heavily through the pain before the silence was interrupted by another shard erupting through his left arm.  Through all this pain, he endured.

***

Harper and the group kept moving down the hallway.  Suddenly, the loudspeakers squeaked around them and they jumped into a circle, facing all directions.

"Hello, this is a message from your wise leader," they heard Byron say. "As you all know, Fourth Echelon has launched an attack on our base.  Operative Harper, if you're hearing this, turn back now.  I'd hate to be in the crossfire between you and your true worst enemy.  So what do you say you end your little siege and go home, letting this true criminal pay for his crimes against you?  Think it over.  Take your time."

"Listen to this guy." Harper said. "Trying to pin this all on some other sucker.  He knows what's coming to him."

"Thousands of years of jail time?" Fluttershy asked hesitantly.  Harper didn't respond.

"I must say, this kind of building design is unusual," Twilight remarked, looking at the metal walls surrounding them. "I'm surprised we haven't come up with it."

"You live in a castle made of crystal." Harper said flatly. "What makes this place so special?"

"Not sure.  I guess it's the simplicity of it." Twilight said with a shrug.

"Trust me, darling, this walls are far too dull and boring for a princess." Rarity said.

"I dunno.  It looks pretty sturdy to me." Applejack commented. "All metal walls... I can't believe there's so much of it in this place.  I ain't seen so much metal in my life."

"That's probably because you farm apples for a living," Harper noted.

Pinkie examined the walls for a little more than a second. "Meh. I've seen shinier."

"Why are we talking about this again?" Rainbow asked.

"Yeah, why are you guys talking about that?" Charlie asked over TACCOM.

"It's because we haven't been interrupted yet, until you spoke up." Harper said. "Speaking of which, that is strange we haven't been interrupted until now.  Charlie, you're not picking up any signals, are you?"

"I'm picking up multiple readings down the hall.  There must be at least a few dozen guys there.  no way you can take them on all at once.  They seem to be just... waiting."

Harper thought for a moment. "I have an idea.  It's crazy, but it just might work."

Charlie sighed. "I hate that cliché!  Even though I have no idea where that reference is from, I hate it so much!"

Harper shook his head. "Let's at least try to stay focused here, Charlie.  Now, listen up!  This will only work once..."

***

Byron hated waiting, and Harper wasn't giving him any answers as to his offer.

"All right, that's it!  I offer him one act of kindness and he ignores it!" Byron roared.  He stormed up to the nearest Enhancer underling.

"You there!" he shouted. "Get word around that the operative is coming here.  I want at least half a hundred of you rounded up and guarding our front door!  If Harper comes through, you catch him, you hear?  I want to kill him myself!"  he pounded on the wall and spooked his underling, who then quickly nodded and ran off.

"Pesky varmint." Byron cursed. "Thinks he's going to get his friend back?  Ha!  I'll tear out his throat out with my own two hands before he gets a chance of even seeing him!"

"Byron."

The stern voice of his older brother made Byron flip around and face him.

"What!?" he shouted. "Can't you see I'm busy monologuing, brother?"

"Calm down." Wilhelm replied, holding up a hand and walking off to his right. "I just got some good news."

"Harper accepted the offer?" Byron asked hopefully.

"No," Wilhelm said, "and he never would.  You sounded too desperate."

"It will happen!" Byron shouted. "Harper will fall!  Third Echelon ruined my life, and now, I'll ruin his!  Revenge will be the sweetest and coldest of dishes, like a frozen dessert in the winter!"

"Yes, yes, it will be," Wilhelm assured, "but right now we have other concerns.  You know my negotiations with Sam?"

"Yes!  Did he accept our offer?"

"I'm getting the feeling he didn't have a choice," Wilhelm said with a smile, "but beyond that, Sam has agreed to our terms.  His task will start immediately."

"OH!  This works perfectly!" Byron shuddered with anticipation. "If Sammy boy goes and finishes his work, maybe I can finally see Third Echelon's remnants finally be snuffed out!"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." Wilhelm said, putting a hand on his brother's shoulder. "We have yet to see the outcome of his work."

He noticed the gathering Enhancers. "I take it you've made plans, then?"

"With slight deviations as of right now, but yes, I have." Byron replied. "As soon as Harper opens that door, he's as good as ours.  We could kill him right there, and it'll be over!"

"No!" Wilhelm shouted. "No, you will let Sam carry out his mission.  We want to create as much emotional distress in them as possible.  We do need something to feed the Changeling Queen now that's she's gotten bored with consuming love."

Byron hesitated. "Fine.  But I get to kill whoever lives."

"Good.  I'll get the area set up for him; In the meantime, you will prepare a place for the ponies."

"I know the prefect place," Byron said, laughing with lunacy in his voice. "I'll get Sombra in on it immediately.  He'll know how to take them down."

"Wondrous.  Let us do this, brother!  We will bring the oppressors down!  We will have our wishes granted!" Wilhelm held out a crooked arm to his sibling.

"Yes, we shall!" Byron said, gripping his brother's hand and shaking it.  Then, they went their separate ways to prepare their places.  This would be the end of all things, and they would finally succeed.  Not only that, but to do so, they would hardly have to lift a finger.

***

Harper and the group hid at every corner they approached.  Each time they peeked past the corner, there was no one to be found.

"I thought there you said there were a ton of Enhancers.  Where are they all now?" Twilight asked loudly, in case anyone was hearing.

"Maybe they all ran after Harper kicked their leaders' sorry butts back in Equestria." Rainbow suggested with a fake smile, also loud.

"Sam's signal is still here, so they wouldn't just leave him in this facility and run." Harper explained slowly and loudly, as if explaining something to the mentally challenged. "We just saw Byron a few minutes ago!  There's no way he would just up and leave, nor would he have the time!"

Harper saw a door ahead of them and pressed the button to open it.

"As for the rest of the Enhancers, they may as well be right behind this--"

Harper noticed the look of shock on the ponies faces and turned to see his hypothesis become true.

"-- door."

The Enhancers pointed their guns, all forty or fifty of them (there wasn't time to count), at Harper and the ponies.

"Harper!  Harps!  Harpy!" Byron tried out different names as he pushed through the crowd. "Good to see you finally made it! Why not have a seat while you're here?  No?"

Byron turned to his group and ordered, "Put the ponies in that special room on Floor C."  Twelve of the guards rushed by and scooped them up, leading them away.

"Harper!  Do something!" Fluttershy called out, almost sounding actually worried.

"Where are you taking them, Byron?!" Harper shouted in a faked angry tone.  Byron didn't notice it.

"Somewhere where I don't have to worry about them." Byron replied simply. "As for you, I have plans.  Big plans!  You and your buddy Hastings are going to be reunited in the afterlife!" Byron laughed loudly, turning around and holding his hands up high.  Suddenly, he dropped them and turned his head back to Harper. "But you don't believe in such things, do you?  An awful shame, really.  But no matter!  Whatever end you may be greeted with is out of my hands.  Gentlemen, please escort Harper to Sam, just as he wanted.  Take him away, I said!  NOW!"

Harper was restrained, with two Enhancers holding him and four others aiming their weapons at him.  He didn't know what to do.  He'd gotten careless, and this was the result.  He hoped that his plan would work despite the circumstances.  the idea was to get caught, and be imprisoned in the same area, then take the Enhancers down form the inside out.  now it seemed like he had just given away the upper hand due to poor planning.

He was tossed in a room and heard the metal door shut behind him.  The chair was was seated in released him, and for a brief moment afterwards, Harper thought he could see that it was made of human flesh until it disappeared before him.

"Oh goody!  Now the real fun can start!"  Byron said through the intercom.  Harper looked around and saw many boxes standing around him and towering over him.

"What is this place?" Harper asked. "More importantly, how did you know--"

"-- that you would go through that door?  A Thermopylae plan, my friend.  You had no other point of entry, so I prepared troops right in front of that door."

"Not what I was going to ask, but okay.  You know, I'm pretty sure that the Spartans in the narrow space of Thermopylae planned out their position quite well." Harper replied.  "And we were the ones in the narrow hallway."

"You're no Spartan, Harper, I assure you of that." Byron told him. "We'll see if your 'tactic' works as you meant it to.  Now, Sam, I do hope our agreement holds through the battle?" Pause. "Oh, Good.  Let's finish what you started then."

"What's going on?  I don't understand..." Harper asked.

"Seriously?  You haven't figured it out yet?" Byron asked. "Oh, the drama!  Perhaps Sam will tell you before shooting you in the head, Harpy!  I have other things to attend to, so let me know when one of you dies, okay?  Buh-bye!"

"Sam, what is wrong with you?" Harper asked over TACCOM. "This is insane!  Why would you, of all people, want to kill me?"

"I really don't, Harper, but if I don't at least fight you, I'm going to die." Sam replied. "Listen, these guys injected me with this stuff that could kill me whenever they decide to trigger its effects.  If I don't give in, they'll kill me anyway.  So either you and I duke it out, or I die and you fail this retrieval mission.  Got it, soldier?"

"That still doesn't answer my question." Harper said. "You'd die knowing it would never be recorded, and it doesn't seem like you really care about preserving your life.  So why do you really want to kill me, Sam?"

Sam kept silent as Harper advanced.  A shot rang out and narrowly missed Harper.  Harper heard the click of a reloading gun echo through the room.

Sam sighed. "It has to be done."

***

The ponies were dropped off in some big white room with only one defining detail: a speaker on the center of the ceiling.

"What is this place?" Rainbow asked.

"Ah, little ponies!" Wilhelm announced. "Good to see you made it in time.  The King and I thought you wouldn't make it!"

"Truly," Sombra added simply.

"I hope you like the room I got you.  I've heard that all who'v entered it never once left a complaint!  That might be because anyone who stayed in it is dead, but no matter!  Please, enjoy your stay!"

Twilight immediately smiled and disappeared in a flash.  In another flash, she reappeared in the room.

"A teleportation block, just like before," Twilight explained. "We're stuck."

Suddenly, the floor began to open up slowly.  As in, incredibly slowly.  Underneath the floor were crystal spikes.

"Oh, how traditional!  Impaled by foul invention!" Wilhelm said in glee.

"Ha!  No problem!" Rainbow said. "Three of us can fly, and I'm pretty sure we can keep the others off the ground."

"Is that so?" Sombra asked.  The crystal spikes began to grow, their sharp points rising slowly.

"In due time, those spikes will close off all the space in this room." Wilhelm explained. "Fortunately for you, that won't happen for another, oh, ten or fifteen minutes.  I'd suggest you prepare your good-byes now, before it's too late."

The intercom clicked off, and all that was left was the sound of sharpened crystal stalagmites getting taller.

***

Harper rolled from cover to cover, dodging shots as he went. "Sam!  Why the hell do you want to kill me?  Also, why are you the only one with a gun?!"

"I already told you, Harper!" Sam said as he reloaded one more. "You have to die!  It's the only way to stop this!  As for the gun, it is only a means to an end, Harper!"

"You're sure it's not just a weapon?" Harper asked, quickly moving closer to Sam. "And what do you mean 'stop this'?"

"Harper, your only orders are to lay down and die!" Sam shouted, clicking his next clip into place. "There will be no briefing!"  Sam shot once more as he saw Harper peek out from behind cover and missed by a millimeter.

"I see you're not marking me for death!  You must care a little bit!" Harper shouted.

"Marks don't work on people like you, Harper!  You're too unpredictable!  The fact that you kept closing off communications during missions doesn't help me predict what to do to kill you, either!"

Sam shot two bullets into Harper's cover out of anger. "What do you mean 'people like me'?" Harper asked.

"That's classified information, soldier!  Just like the kind that got you into Third Echelon!"  Sam shouted back.

Harper peeked out from his cover and felt as a bullet ripped through his face mask, nearly breaking his skin.

"I thought we were friends, Sam!" Harper shouted.

"I wish we were, Harper.  Then I wouldn't have to do this."

Harper saw as Sam chucked a grenade out and as it landed by his feet.  It exploded, sending Harper flying across the room, hitting a wall and falling down.  Harper groaned weakly, feeling his magic flow as he repaired his wounds.  He got back into his crouching position and kept moving.

"You're not gonna kill me like that, Fisher!" Harper called out.

"Who said that was supposed to kill you?"

The voice was uncomfortably close, and Harper turned quickly and tried to hit Sam, who was only a foot away form him, but Sam blocked him and grabbed his arm, breaking it.  Harper struck with his non-dominate hand and hit once, staggering Sam.  It was a ruse, however, as Sam punched Harper in the face, knocking him to the ground.  Sam aimed his gun at Harper's head.

"I didn't think it would ever have to come to this, but now I know that you know too much.  You've seen too much.  You do too much.  It's time to put you down." Sam said.

"But... why...?" Harper asked, breathing heavily.  He magically started repairing his arm right before Sam stepped down on his neck.

"I'm sorry it had to end this way," Sam said. "But even I know what you did that got you into Third Echelon.  And I know what it did to you."

Harper's eyebrows lowered, and he sent out a magic pulse that threw Sam off of him.

"I don't know what you heard, or where you heard it, but whatever you heard is a lie!  I didn't try to get into Third Echelon!  I didn't try to do anything!" Harper roared.

Sam picked himself up and dusted off his gear. "I know you didn't, but getting into Third Echelon isn't why I want you dead.  It's because of what you know, what you and Hastings found."

"What, on our mission in Afghanistan?  What we found was a bunch of garbled nonsense!" Harper defended. "Pages upon pages of complete bullshit!  I read the whole thing, and there was nothing special about it!  What we found were merely notes from an insane person!"

Sam laughed. "You really do have no idea what you found?  I'm going to truly feel bad about killing you, then."

Sam took out his karambit and rushed Harper.  Harper quickly took out his own knife and blocked it.  The two held their places, Sam trying to break through Harper's defenses, and Harper trying to stop Sam's powerful attack.  Their blades had met and they were held at a standstill.

"What you found were hypnotizing documents.  They seemed like one big, garbled message, but really, you were reading how to be an unpredictable killer.  You may not have known it, but you are the most deadly thing this planet has... and the only thing it take is the keyword to activate you."

"Oh yeah? And how do you know?" Harper asked.

Sam sighed, and Harper felt him back off and away from him.  They both lowered their knives to show they were done fighting.

"You used to believe in a god, you know.  Your mother took to a church every Sunday, just like a good little Christian.  I read it in your file."

"I've never believed in god!  Why are you saying that now?" Harper asked.

"That's the problem, Harper!" Sam shouted. "You grew up believing in a god!  You even wore a cross around your neck when you joined the army!  I could show you the pictures if I had them!  But after that mission with Hastings, when you were forced into the ranks of Third Echelon, you suddenly stopped believing.  From my records, everything went according to plan during that mission, so it wasn't trauma that changed you.  It wasn't some random act.  You read those documents, and you were brainwashed."

"What do you mean?  And what's the trigger word?" Harper asked.

Sam ignored his questions and continued. "Third Echelon found out about your 'ability', and they offered you death or a job working for them.  They planned to use you, then when they were done with your abilities, they would dispose of you.  It seemed you were kept in check, though.  That is, until that one day, when Hastings died on a mission.  You went into a rage that endangered your very life and put the entire mission at risk."

"I was upset that my friend had just died!" Harper exclaimed.

"I understand that you think you had some empowering anger.  I've felt that rush myself." Sam explained, calming Harper a bit. "But the fact is, your heart rate skyrocketed when that happened.  I've got the data straight out of Third Echelon's database, and your rate was beyond what a normal human could handle, nearly three times as fast.  You should've died from exhaustion right then and there, but somehow, your body subconsciously knew how to make it work, and you did this without even having to think about it." Sam shook his head. "That may have been rage, but it's obvious that you had been triggered."

"By what?  Nobody said a trigger word!" Harper argued.

"And that's the fascinating part about you, Harper." Sam replied. "Your trigger word is something you can set off, just by thinking about it, and with the brainwashing of those documents, this always happened when you felt you had no other choice.  This wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for one small detail."

"And what is that?  Is it the same reason you want to kill me?" Harper asked.

"Harper...let me remind you that you could take on a whole fucking army and win.  There's no undoing how your brain has been changed because of what you read.  Now, with your magical capabilities, you'd be unstoppable." Sam explained. "The reason that this was a problem was, after Hastings died, you started to investigate what happened to him.  Do you see where this is going?"

"No!  And I don't see how that has anything to do with this!" Harper admitted.

"Sam, I don't see enough killing!" Byron sang into the intercom. "Shoot him!  Shoot him before he kills you!  Stop leading him on to your doom!  For god's sake, I step away for five minutes, and you go and do this!"

"Harper..." Sam sighed.  "The truth is, on that day, the one who killed Hastings... was me."

Harper froze up.  He didn't know what to think.  Suddenly, he remembered his thoughts before, one of precision and finding the one responsible, making him pay.  Now, he couldn't think of what to do.  There were no available options.  Suddenly, he knew what his trigger word was.

His one belief, the one he told himself he believed in every single time he was endangered.  Harper didn't believe in a god.

"I believe in revenge." Harper said, almost downtrodden.  He felt as he rose into the air, magical bolts covering his entire being. Holding his head in his hands, Harper asked, "Why?  Why did you do it?"

"Harper, Hastings was brainwashed, just like you were!  I knew that you two would be sent after me once Third Echelon was out for my blood.  At the time, I thought it was the only way to survive, just as I thought killing you would solve things this time around."

Harper rose higher and higher until he was a the direct center of the room.

Byron shouted, "Dammit, Fisher!  You were supposed to kill him, not activate him!  Do you know what you've done?! You've just ensured the deaths of every person in this facility!"

At that point, Harper flew down at Sam and kicked him into a wall.  He punched him in the gut multiple times before tossing him across the room.  Sam fell on his back on the other side of the room, and Harper met up with his body in seconds.  Harper began choking Sam.

"YOU CAN'T KILL ME!  NO ONE CAN KILL ME!" he shouted into his face.

Sam was struggling to breathe. "I know I can't kill you, Harper!  I also know that I won't live.  Either you kill me, or Byron does!  It doesn't matter either way.  You would be triggered in either case, so I am laying down my life to keep the rest of Fourth Echelon safe.  I may have killed Hastings, Harper, but that doesn't mean I felt good about it.  I thought there was no choice, that it was the only way... but now, after fighting the Engineers, I know..."

Sam coughed and wheezed and Harper crushed his throat. "You have more choices than you think....  There's always... options..."

Harper knew his choices, and he could see them clearly.  Precision was unnecessary.  Stealth, unneeded.  He had all his tools at his disposal, and now there was only one thing left to choose.  Kill Sam, or spare Sam.

Harper felt his internal battle raging as he looked down upon the killer of his best friend.  "SAM FISHER!" he announced, his voice becoming split into a god's raging voice. "You killed Hastings... You lied to me... You kept the truth a secret... You will pay for everything you've done to me!"

Sam closed his eyes and prepared for death.  Surprisingly, though, he was stood up on his feet, and he could feel the pain of Harper's previous attacks being magically nullified.

"But not today." Harper finished, letting Sam go.  For a second, it seemed like it was peaceful, that there were no more problems in the world.  Then, a crystal burst out of Sam's chest.

"You think you can defy me?!" Byron roared angrily. "Idiot!  I make the rules here!  If neither one of you will kill the other, I'll just end you both myself!"

"Sam!" Harper shouted just before another crystal shot out of his leader's skin, this time at his stomach.

"No, get back!" Sam shouted, enduring this pain as multiple crystals ripped through him. "Stay away from me!  God only knows what these things could do to you!  GAAH!" He screamed in pain as more crystals appeared. "If I die... it doesn't matter!  Just stop the Enhancers... while you still have a chance!"

"Sam, NO!" Harper shouted as he watched Sam's body fall to the ground, writhing in pain.

"That's it, Harpy!  I'm done sitting around waiting!" Byron shouted. "I've wasted enough time trusting others to kill you!  Time for you to die!"

Harper heard TACCOM crackle. "HARPER!  What's going on?!" Charlie shouted on the other end of the line.

"I need a copter, NOW!" Harper said. "Sam's in trouble!  He's turning into a big ball of crystal!"

Harper teleported Sam out of the facility, somehow learning this in a millisecond under all the stress he had going right now.

"I-I'll see what I can do!" Charlie said hurriedly.

Harper saw Byron jump through the observation window and land in the center of the room.  Harper immediately ran at him, brandishing his knife.  As soon as he got close enough to hit him, though, he received a punch moving a the speed of sound and was sent tumbling back.

Byron laughed. "Harpy, Harpy, Harpy... don't you know what I am?  I'm an Enhancer!  I am no normal human!  If you challenge me, you're spelling your doom!"

Byron moved faster than Harper could perceive, hitting him straight up into the air before jumping up and smashing Harper back down into the ground.  He let out unrelenting laughter.

"Don't you see, Harper?  All the magic in Equestria can't help you now!"

Suddenly, a blur moved past Byron, and Harper stood behind him, standing tall.  Harper twirled his knife around as Byron felt blood run down his cheek.

"I don't need magic to kill you." Harper said. "You move as slow as a snail.  You want to fight, now that you've got your VACs?  Go ahead."  Harper turned to face him. "I'll cut every last one of those things out of you!"

Byron frowned deeply, gritting his teeth before putting on a crazed smile. "I may be slow... but I'd like to see you dodge this!"  Byron quickly pulled out his gun and fired it.  Time slowed as Harper turned and saw the bullet fly by his face.

"It doesn't matter if I miss now; One good hit and you're dead, Harpy!" Byron shouted, taking cover.

"You're using that special ammo you created to infect me, yet you can't aim the gun to shoot me with it? Pathetic." Harper asked, a slight laugh following his question as he climbed the boxes.

"You brought a knife to a gunfight!  You're the pathetic one!"  Byron shouted, getting up and searching the room for his target.

"A knife is all I need!" Harper shouted, dropping from above.  He narrowly missed Byron, who jumped off to the side and kicked Harper in the face when he landed.  Harper rolled over onto his back, reeling in pain before jumping up onto his feet and wiping the stream of blood from his mouth.

"DIE!" Byron shouted, lifting his gun at him.  Harper reacted to this quickly, ducking behind the cover of metal crate before hearing several  shots.  Then, nothing.  Harper was confused.  If Byron had reloaded, he certainly couldn't tell, but maybe he had only shot off enough to fool him.

"I know what you're thinking: Did I shoot five shots or six?"  Byron asked. "Classic stand-off."

"Five.  You're not reloading." Harper said confidently.

"You sure about that?" Byron asked.  He gave no hints as to which was the right answer.

Harper knew he'd have a happy trigger finger if there were bullets left, and if there weren't any, he couldn't take him down from this range anyway.  He tried his luck with the boxes again, scaling them, knowing Byron would miss even if he had one more bullet in the chamber.

Harper quickly scuttled up the side of the boxes before seeing Byron slip in the last bullet to his clip.  Harper had only heard deadly silence, as he saw Byron quickly run over to the side where he was climbing.  The first shot missed, hitting somewhere near his leg, as did a second and third impatient shots.

"C'mon!  Get down here and face me like a man!" Byron shouted to him.  Harper noticed how close Byron was to the side of the boxes and jumped off, hoping to catch him off his guard.

However, Byron aimed up at him and fired off three quick shots, knowing this was Harper's only choice.  Time slowed as Harper dodged to the left of the first, the right of the next, and realized bullets were pretty damn fast.

The last shot hit him in the shoulder, and Byron saw the bullet sink into Harper's skin.  Harper landed on the ground with a loud thud.

"I did it!" Byron shouted victoriously. "You're dead!  I've killed you!  Haha!"

Harper couldn't hear him clearly.  His vision was blurred, and a tone played in his ears, deafening him.  He struggled to stay up, but managed to find the one bullet he stashed in his pocket.

He lunged at Byron in one last, desperate attempt to finish his job, trying to force that pill of a bullet down Byron's throat, but Byron fought back, holding Harper's arms away from him.  He managed to bring out the last of his power in that moment, forcing Byron to swallow the metallic death.  Byron stood shocked for a few seconds before stepping back and shooting Harper in the chest multiple times, not knowing where he was aiming.  Harper felt the BACs in his system go mad, and after a few seconds of unrelenting pain, he fell down and lay still on the floor, with Byron doing the same.

***

The room of spikes was much fuller now.  The crystals were nearly to the point of stabbing the ponies, but they kept to the ceiling.  Rainbow held up Appejack, Fluttershy held up Rarity, and Twilight held up Pinkie.

"Guys," Rainbow said, "If we don't make it out of this alive, I just want you to know--"

"We're not going to die!" Twilight said. "I'm sure Harper will come get us, just like in the plan!  Sombra may have trapped us in here with his magic, but that's no reason to give up hope!"

Applejack sighed. "Face it, sugar cube: He ain't comin', and you can't teleport outta here, just like last time.  "

"Yes he will, just give him time!" Twilight argued. "He can't be gone!  He's going to get here, and everything will be all right!"

They kept to the ceiling for a bit longer before Pinkie sighed. "I'm hungry.  Did anyone bring snacks?" she asked.

"Is now really the time?" Twilight asked her.

"Well, if I'm gonna die, I at least want a full belly." Pinkie said.  She noticed how close the spikes were getting to her face. "I wonder what these taste like..."

"I wouldn't risk it, Pinkie." Rainbow suggested. "That thing would probably cut you up if you tried to eat it."

"Logic, shomic.  I'm eating it if it's the last thing I do!" Pinkie announced,  She took a bit of the crystal, chewed it for a few seconds, then her eyes widened.

"Mmmmmmm!" she hummed, taking another bite of the dark gem. "Tastes like Maud's rock candy!"

"Wait, really?!" Rainbow asked. "Lemme try it!"

She nipped  bit off of one of the nearby spikes and chewed on it for a second. "Hm.  Not bad!  I'm starting to think we could just eat our way out of this."

"Rainbow, Pinkie, you're geniuses!" Twilight announced.

"We are?" they asked in unison.

"Of course!  We can just eat our way out of this!  C'mon, girls!" Twilight half-ordered.

They started chewing their way through the crystal formations.  Pinkie ate a lot faster and a lot more comically than the rest.

"See?  I always told you that eating gratuitous amounts of sweets is the correct course of action when you're stressed!" Rarity said. "Now what do you have to say about my seven empty tubs of ice cream, hm?"

"I'm pretty sure those two things ain't the same thing."  Applejack replied, using the tip of a spike as a toothpick.  They had finished off the spikes, and now all they were left with was an empty room.

"But now what do we do?" Twilight asked.

"Does it matter?  We're safe!"  Rainbow laughed. "I'm just glad we're alive!"

"We're out of danger for now, sure," Twilight agreed. "but what is Sombra gets more of those spikes going in this place?  We can't just keep eating them forever.  We need a way out of this place."

Suddenly, the lights went out, and were replaced by red, flashing ones.

"WARNING: Energy spike detected on Sub-Level A.  Releasing door locks." said an automated voice. "Please make your way calmly to the nearest exit."

The doors of the cell opened up and the girls stood there in confusion for a second.

"Well, what are we waitin' for?" Applejack asked. "Let's get outta here!"

She and the others ran out the door into the hallways, where the alarms continued.

"WARNING: Energy levels exceeding nominal values.  Please exit the facility immediately." the automated voice told them.  Twilight noticed the red exit signs leading the way out.

"Well, at the very least these guys are the safer kind of criminally insane people." Twilight muttered. "C'mon!"

The six rushed towards the exit signs before the ceiling collapsed in front of them.

"WARNING: Facility structures breached.  Please hurry to the nearest exit."

"What does it think we're doing?"  Rainbow asked. "C'mon!  The exit can't be far!"

The automated voice went on a loop repeating "WARNING, WARNING, WARNING" throughout the halls of the place.  The six kept moving, walls falling down around them, revealing large rooms and cavern walls.  Eventually, they reached a complex where the Enhancers were working, frantically trying to shut down the whatever was creating the spike.

"What's happening?!" one shouted to another at a terminal.

"Byron rigged this whole place to blow!  It's gonna be a fucking catastrophe if we can't override the self-destruct set this place!" the one at the terminal shouted.

"Run!  Just run!" many Enhancers shouted, sprinting out of the place.

"C'mon, c'mon!" On of them at the terminal shouted. "Work with me, dammit!"

The terminal he was working at exploded, sending the Enhancer flying across the room and into a wall, where he suffered dozens of bone fractures and passed out, soon to die.  The rest panicked.

"It's no use!  Get out of here!  It's all over!" one of the survivors shouted.  Most of them escaped, but one stayed behind.

"Sir, we have to move!  Your brother's system can't be shut down!" an Enhancer said, trying to pull the last one away from the computer.

"You can run from your fate, soldier, but I'm staying, no matter the cost!" Wilhelm roared at him. "Make sure as many people as possible get out of here, you here me?  I should be the only man left behind!"

"But, sir--!"

"Go!" Wilhelm shouted.  The Enhancer waited a bit longer, and Wilhelm reasserted his order. "GO!"

The Enhancer quickly ran off, leaving his leader to his own end.  the walls crumbled and the ceiling threatened to give way on the leader.

"We have to get out of here!" Rarity screamed.

"Not without Harper!" Twilight ordered.

"Twi, this is INSANE!  Forget Harper!  There's no time to go back and get him!  We don't even know if he's alive!" Rainbow argued

Twilight hesitated on this. "We might not know if he's alive, but that shouldn't stop us from finding him!  He's our friend, and we're going to get him back!"

Charlie's voice suddenly ringed in their ears. "Guys, it's turning into a nightmare down there!  What the hell are you doing?"

"We're staying!" Twilight shouted. "We have to get Harper!"

"Look, little pony, I don't know if you noticed, but saving him would be impossible," Charlie explained, extremely worried. "That place will collapse on itself any minute now!  Even if you find Harper, it doesn't matter, because you'll all be dead!"

The ceiling cracked, giving a final warning to those below it.

"I'm not going to let it end this way!" Wilhelm shouted. "Byron, you may have been an idiot and died, but that doesn't mean you had to take everything with you!"  He tapped frantically away at the keyboard.  The automated voice continued its mantra.  He noticed the ponies.

"What are you doing here?!" he shouted at them.

Twilight began, "Well, the cell doors opened and--"

"Nonononono, what are you doing in the facility still?!  Can't you see this place is going to crush anyone still in it?!" Wilhelm shouted. "You need to get out before you're flattened to multi-colored pancakes!"

"What?  I thought you wanted us dead!  You had Sombra trap us and nearly kill us!"  Rainbow shouted.

"Well, you look fine to me!" he shouted. "There's no time for this, just get out of here while you have the chance!"

"We're not leaving without Harper!" Twilight announced the billionth time.

Wilhelm sighed as he typed faster and faster. "Sector Three!  He's in the storage area there!  If you want to find him, that's the place!  Just hurry and--!"

Suddenly, the wall cracked again and the fell.  All of them winced at the nothing that met them.  They opened their eyes and saw nearly four dozen Changelings holding up the ceiling.  Chrysalis stepped out from one of the adjacent doorways.

"Hold it there!" the Queen told her subjects. "I don't want anypony to die here!"

She suddenly turned to the six. "I may hate you, but that's no reason for you to perish.  As much as I don't want to say this... you need to go save your friend."

Twilight nodded and said, "Thank yo--"

"DOES IT LOOK LIKE THE TIME FOR POLITE MANNERISMS?  GO!" the Queen shouted, and the six rushed off into Sector 3, with a bunch of Changelings following them.

They reached the storage room to find it in a mess, with huge boxes toppling over and blocking their way.  They could see Harper through the cracks of the boxes, lying on the ground.  Twilight strained with her magic to move the heavy boxes aside, as the other five rushed over to his limp body, also noticing the other on beside his.

"Harper, get up!"  Rainbow shouted, nudging him with a lot more force than he'd be comfortable with.  Pinkie rushed up and started shaking Harper uncontrollably.  "WAKE UUUUUUUUUUUUP!" she shouted.  Harper didn't move.

"What's wrong with him?" Twilight asked.  She flipped the body over and their faces went immediately into a state of shock, worry, then slowly into understanding sadness.

"No... no!" Fluttershy shouted. "He can't be!  He couldn't be!  Harper?"

Her voice was unheard by the body.

"HARPER!" she sobbed, laying her head on his chest and crying.  Her friends crowded around her and put a hoof on her shoulder, trying to comfort her.  Applejack took off her hat and covered her heart with it.

The facility was impatient, and reminded them of their predicament.  It shook and broke, and the Changelings struggled to keep the place in one piece.  Fluttershy fooled herself into hearing a faint heartbeat, clinging onto life.

"We'll take them both out of here.  It's only right." Twilight said.  The Changelings had already picked up Byron's body before hearing some message the the six couldn't hear.  They quickly flew off with it in their holed hooves.

"But he killed Harper!" Applejack shouted angrily.

"And Harper killed him.  So what?  You think we'll all be fighting about it in the afterlife, so we should start taking sides now?" Twilight asked. "There's no point anymore.  If you won't help me, I'll do it myself!"

Twilight weakly tried to pick up Harper with her magic, but she couldn't lift him.  She sighed and tried getting his body onto her back.  It was a fruitless effort.  The rest gave in, lifting Harper's body onto their backs, carrying him collectively.

They made their way out, just barely avoiding the collapsing halls.  They passed by Wilhelm, who strained back tears in his eyes as he typed, still trying to shut down the self-destruct in the final seconds he had.  Sombra stood nearby, creating crystals to try and rebuild the breaking structure, but the gem supports didn't help.

Upon their exiting, they found nothing but the cold snow at the top of the mountain.  The cold wind whispered in their ears, telling them of how they failed.  Dozens of Changelings flew out of the caverns, each of them looking no worse for wear.  Their Queen flew out as well,  with Sombra following behind.

"Charlie, we need to get out of here! Like, NOW!" Rainbow shouted.

"The retrieval team should be there in a few seconds, just hold on!" Charlie shouted.

"This is Echo Three, coming in for pickup." the pilot said. "Watch your heads, peop-- er, ponies."

The ponies could see the helicopter descending to them.  Suddenly, the mountaintop let out a groan and an explosion near the top of it sent a chunk of rock flying, nearly hitting the helicopter.

"Holy shit!  LZ is too hot!  I can't get in for a landing!" the pilot shouted, working to regain control of his helicopter.  Another explosion followed, then another, and the entire mountainside decided to become a one big explosion.  Of course, the ponies were tossed off, as well as the body of Harper.  Twilight and Rainbow managed to catch themselves in mid-fall and regained flight capabilities.  They took off, picking up Rarity and Applejack, who then caught Pinkie and Fluttershy, who had forgotten she was a pegasus again.

They managed to maneuver into a snowbank near the bottom of the mountain.  The ponies each popped their heads out of the snow, one at a time.

"Did we all make it?" Applejack asked.

Twilight looked around and did a headcount. "All are accounted for."

She sighed in relief before realizing they were not all accounted for.

"Where's Harper?!" she asked, frantically searching the snow for him.

Nopony said anything.

"Oh, don't tell me we dropped him!" Twilight said.

"Well, it was big explosion..." Rarity noted.

"Hey!  You guys still alive?  C'mon, talk to me!" Charlie asked, incredibly worried.

"We're all fine, Charlie.  We just lost Harper in the explosion." Twilight told him, surprised at how easy it was to say that.

"Not a problem.  I'll track him down for you.  Seems he's a little bit farther down the mountain.  A little bit of a walk from your position, but it's not too much of a problem.  Sending you the coordinates."

Twilight saw a little blip on the eyepiece.  She and the others followed the direction down the mountain.  Harper had landed somewhere at the base of the mountain, in the snows below.

Twilight noticed that despite that fact they were moving, they weren't getting any closer to Harper's location.

"Um, Charlie?  Is it just me, or is Harper's location... moving?" Twilight asked.

"Nope.  He's looking completely stationary on this end." Charlie replied. "Why, what's the deal?"

"Nothing!" she replied quickly. "It was nothing."

"Harper's dead, all right?  He won't be moving anytime soon.  The equipment's old, that's all.  Probably just malfunctioning a little.  you're on the right course, just keep going."

Twilight and co continued without argument.  They would find out soon enough what fate Harper had come to meet.

When they got to the point where Harper was supposed to be, they saw nothing but the trees and snow and dirt, all collectively filling their vision.  Harper was nowhere to be found.

"Charlie, are you sure this is the place?" Twilight asked.

"If the tech says yes, than I do too." Charlie replied.

Twilight sighed and kept moving around the area.  Snow, loosened by the explosions, turned into a quasi-blizzard around them, shrouding their vision.  They pressed on, eventually drawing upon a figure in the storm.

They found him, walking slowly forward, trying to escape the snow.

"Harper!" Twilight shouted, excited to see him.  When she got closer, though, she saw just how broken and battered he was.  His state was more desperate and weak than she had ever seen him in.

"Harper, say something!"

He stopped in his tracks and turned to face her.  She gasped when she saw his face, which had been bruised and broken, with one of his eyes seemingly missing.  He looked like a walking corpse.

"Celestia have mercy..." Twilight said, both disgusted and surprised to see Harper like this.

"Did... did we... win?" Harper asked, choking on nearly every word.  A bit of blood appeared around his mouth when he spoke.

"That doesn't matter!  You need help!" Twilight exclaimed. "Look at you!  You look even more dead than before!"

"Death... is not something... I usually concern myself with..." Harper said, turning his head to the sky.  He fell backwards into the snow.

"Harper!" she shouted, rushing over to him.  The others gathered around, watching anxious of what his condition was.  the snow calmed down a bit, increasing the visibility surrounding the area.

Harper coughed a few times and wheezed before looking up at the sky from his place on the ground.

"But I am going to die here, aren't I?  I'm lucky I could even think to counteract that microbial poison Byron had...  and now, it looks like that doesn't even matter," he said, finding humor in his own words.

"Harper, don't you go dying on me!"  Rainbow said. "An awesome guy doesn't deserve to die!  Stay with us!"

Harper nodded to her, then turned his eyes to the yellow pegasus. "Fluttershy... I broke my promise... I... apologize..."

Fluttershy couldn't think of anything to say, so instead she let the water in her eyes develop into tears.

"I'm so sorry...  I never even got a chance to really know you all...  and now, it's too late..."  Harper said, with a weak voice. "I think... it's time..."

"Guys, the chopper's there!  Get Harper on, NOW!" Charlie announced.  They could hear the whirring blades of the machine descending, removing the now from the area, and landing next to the ponies.

"You hear that, Harper?  The chopper's here!  You're going to be okay!"

Harper said nothing, his eyes fixed on the sky, but nodded a little to show he was still alive.  A loss of blood and energy, however, knocked him cold.

***

Harper quickly opened his eyes and shot up.  He breathed heavily, his every exhale echoing in the empty space he found himself in.  His body was in one piece, still functional.

"Greetings, Harper.  Welcome back."

He turned all around, looking for the what was clearly Luna, as this was her voice he heard.  After turning every direction, he noticed her appear in front of him.

"Where am I?  Is this... is this a dream?" he asked, standing up.

"In a way."  Luna replied.

"So it is or it isn't?" Harper asked.  Luna didn't reply.  He looked around in a full circle to see nothing of his surroundings.

"You won't find anything here.  This is an empty place, devoid of memories." Luna told him.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Luna looked him in the eye. "Your mind has forgotten all the times you lived, hence the name 'brainwashing'.  However, your forged memories you know are false have been rejected from your mind.  In the end, there is nothing left."

"But I remember them, don't I?  The ponies... Byron... Wilhelm..."  Pictures of those he mentioned appeared around him. "And Hastings, too."

"You do retain memories of facts on who others were, but tell me, Harper... who are you?"

Harper opened his mouth to speak, but found he knew nothing about himself.  His name was the only clear thing in his mind.

"I... I am Harper..." he said. "I avenged Hastings... saved Sam Fisher..."

"Those are the facts." Luna told him. "But I'll ask you once more... who are you?"

Harper was confused. "What do you mean?  This is who I am!"

"No, Harper.  It is not." Luna told him. "You are  nothing but the product of your experiences... but how can you be a man if you can't remember what your experiences were?"

"I still don't understand.  I know who I am!" Harper argued.

"Really?  Tell me, then... what is your first name, Operative Harper?"

"My first name is... it's..." Harper struggled with the question of self-identity.  He should know this!  it was common knowledge!

"What were the names of your mother and father?"

"Their names are... hrrrgggg..." Harper didn't know this either.  What was going on here?

"What made you join the army in the first place?  When did you meet Hastings?"

"I... I don't know!"  Harper shouted. "I don't know, I don't know, I DON'T KNOW!"

Harper saw anxiety, anger, sorrow, confusion, and all of the anguished feeling spin around him. "I... I... can't remember..."

"Harper, one does not just forget the name of those who brought them into this world.  So then tell me, Harper... How can you be a man, yet only have lived half a life?!" Luna demanded.

Harper's eyes dilated at the question.  He didn't know how to answer.

"GGGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

He fell to the ground after letting out his anger.  Suddenly, he controlled his mental breathing and sat down.

"Luna... who am I?" he asked.

"Harper... don't you see the answer?  I found it to be easy in your case." Luna said.

"I want to know the answer, Luna.  Who am I?" Harper asked, with much desperation in his voice.

"It doesn't matter who you are, Harper..." Luna told him. "Only who you are going to be.  You have retrieved your mind from the hypnotism of those documents, and now, you can be whoever you want to be.  So the real question is... who will you be?"

Harper lifted his head up and looked above him, to the open skies, the last memory he knew he had.

"I will be loyal.  I con't leave any man behind, nor let him suffer as I have.  I will be honest, both to myself and to others.  I will be kind, treating all people with the respect they deserve.  I will be generous, giving what I can to those who need it more than I.  I will laugh, and I will enjoy life to the fullest.  Basically, what I'm trying to say is..."

He closed his eyes in peace. "I'll try to be a good friend, and as soon as I am one, I will never stop being a good friend for as long as I live."

Luna smiled. "Then you will have to learn to be this person.  Luckily, I think the ones who have seen you for who you are can help you with that."  She began walking off.

"What's that supposed to mean?  And where are you going?"

Luna sighed and shook her head, a small smile appearing on her face. "Sorry to say, Harper, but... this will probably hurt.  A lot."

***

"CLEAR!"

The medic shocked Harper awake, reviving him.  Harper coughed and wheezed and shot up, only to feel the pain of his everything tell him that was a terrible idea.  He fell back down on something soft and fluffy.  It was then that he realized he couldn't see out of his left eye.

"Well, that was quite the reaction." the medic said.

"Well, at least that idiot's awake." Charlie said.  He stepped to the side of the bed. "Welcome back to the land of the living, Harps."

"Thanks." Harper wheezed.

"Took quite the tumble, didn't you?" the medic said. "Nearly broke every bone in your body, and half-blinded yourself in the process.  You'll be lucky if you'll be able to stand after all of this."

"Uuuuuugh..." Harper replied.

"Well, I'll take that as a 'Thank you for the help, Charlie.  Really saved my ass back there.'" Charlie said, changing his voice to be lower, imitating Harper.

"Sure... let's go with that." Harper said.  He saw he was nearly in a full-body cast, with only one of his arms and one of his legs available for movement. "How the hell am I still alive?"

"Also, great bedside manner, doc," Charlie commented. "How about you leave this to me?"

"Suit yourself," the medic replied, leaving out the doorway.

"Well, I'll just tell you what they told me: It's a miracle you're still alive, Harper." Charlie told him. "Everyone is saying that, even Sam."

"So I take it he's alive, too?" Harper asked.

"Yup.  Thankfully, those crystals were nothing more than overblown glass shards, or he would've had a real problem.  Honestly, the stuff in his system was more aesthetically scary than actually deadly."

"Huh." Harper grunted.

"So, yeah, he's doing okay.  Got cut marks everywhere, but he'll heal with maybe a scar or seven scattered around on his body." Charlie told him, taking a seat on a nearby stool. "How you holding up?"

"Other than the body that would be hurting like all hell without painkillers and nearly dying, I think I'm doing pretty good," Harper summed up.

"Good, because I can't get that bunny who's biting into your arm to stop," Charlie told him.

Harper looked over in shock to see a small, white bunny sinking its teeth into his bandages.  Luckily, it couldn't get through them.

"Yeah, that yellow pony, Fluttershy, tells me he's doing that because you ended up making her cry.  Seems to be doing it of its own volition."

"Great..." Harper replied. "How are the ponies, anyway?"

"They're holding up well." Charlie replied. "They're sending over diplomats from their world to make a peace treaty."

"Hm.  Politics." Harper commented no further than that.

"The whole thing with Hasbro isn't going so well, though.  The changelings they gathered escaped as soon as the Enhancers attacked, and we're still trying to root out the last of them from the homes of unsuspecting horse fanatics." Charlie told him. "As for the Enhancers themselves... I don't think they're going to try to stage an uprising or anything, but we're still keeping an eye out for trouble."

"So everything's... normal?" Harper asked.

"That's hardly the case for most people, but relative to you, I'd say yes," Charlie told him.

"So it's over, then..." Harper stated, without a doubt.

"Yep.  It's over."

They sat quietly for a few moments before the door was slammed open.  Charlie flew off of the stool.  Harper could see, even through the multiple bandages exactly who was there.

"ChaaaaaarLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!"  Sam shouted.  He walked over to him and picked him up by the collar.

"Oh, hi Sam!  Didn't think you'd be up and about so soon, much less enraged because of something I totally didn't do!" Charlie said nervously.

'I don't know what kind of mind you have, but for god's sake..." he turned to show him the new addition to the stealth suit. " A PONY TAIL IS NOT A REGULATION-FRIENDLY MODIFICATION!"

"Seriously?  That's the 'sick mod' you were thinking of earlier?" Harper asked.

"I thought it'd go over well with some operatives, but it seems we have some haters..." Charlie said as Sam pinned him against the wall.

"Charlie, I swear to god, if you don't get this damned thing off of this suit in FIVE MINUTES, I will start breaking some regulations myself.  do I make myself perfectly clear?" Sam asked through his teeth.

"Understoodsirwon'thappenagainsirsorrysir." Charlie said all too quickly.  Then Sam put him back down on the stool.

"Good," Sam told him. "As for you, Harper... get well soon, alright?  The last thing I need is one less operative hunting Changelings."

He didn't wait for Harper's response, exiting the room as quickly as he could.

"Yeah... Sam isn't too keen on having you back, Harper.  He's still a little uncomfortable, thinking you might still be that hard-wired killer in disguise."

"That's understandable," Harper said nodding his head.

Charlie slapped his knees and stood up. "Well, anyway, I gotta get back to work if I don't want trouble, so... yeah.  Good talk."  Then, he left the room.

Harper rested his head.  It was all over.  Everyone was safe.  Life was going to be good.  He wasn't sure how people would respond to all of ponykind, but he was sure it'd all work out in the end.  Now was the time for resting, not thinking.  And so, he did just that.

However, the world didn't wait on one man's rest.  No, it had to keep moving, just as it always had.  Nobles met political figures.  Princesses met leaders from around the world.  Pony-kind met mankind.  Continuing ever forward, the two species were met with an uncertain, yet bright, future.

Escape

The guard stood idle near the doorway.  Loaded clip in one pocket, an in the other a pack of cigarettes.  Both of these weren't going to save him from his imminent doom.

Ceiling pipe.  One quick drop and and snap of the neck.  Too easy.

"Harper, you're getting close to the target.  We don't know what he's planning to do with the nuclear plant, but whatever it is, it's happening soon," the TACCOM echoed in his earpiece.

"How do you know?" Harper asked, moving through the next doorway.

"Radiation sensors are going off the hook.  I don't know how they're surviving in this kind of environment, but your target is in the spot with the most radiation: a lethal spot."

That didn't sound right.  O'Malley was supposed to be up in the control tower, watching over his plans.  What the hell was he doing on the ground, and how is he there?

"Do you have a visual on the target?"

"The scout team couldn't get a clear sight on the target, but we know he isn't in the control tower."

"Find him," Harper growled. "He's not getting away."

"Alright... whatever you plan on doing, be careful with it."

"I'm always careful," he replied, calmly knocking out the guard next to the set of steel double doors.  He opened these slowly, staring into a foggy room.

"Harper, we're losing your signal.  Do not proceed."

"Negative, Control," Harper replied, "Too risky."

"Harper, fall back and wait for the scout team to rendezvous on your position.  Now is no time to be a hero!"

"Too late," Harper replied, shutting off his TACCOM, politely cutting off the control's next orders.  He was not about to let O'Malley go.  The man had been wanted for dozens of crimes.  Serial killing was one of them, but only when he decided to make the kill.  His entire group, called the Enhancers, would usually end up doing his dirty work.  He also lead in illegal experimentation, taking hostages, and even relaying government secrets to whomever he chose, including the general public.

This bastard was going down.

Harper quickly made his way through the corridors, his multi-vision goggles being fogged up.  He switched to thermal vision, hoping it'd be more helpful.  He could see his targets now, but not how to get to them.  I knew he was close, though, since he could hear O'Malley's voice resounding through the nearest rooms.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the time has finally come!  It's time for us to launch one of our biggest plans in existence!  You've all heard it before, but I tell you: this one mission will immortalize you in history and put you on the level of gods.  We cannot be stopped.  We shall not be stopped!  The radiation levels are nearly high enough, and soon, my friends, we will be transported to a greater plane of existence.  When we return, this world will crumble beneath our power!"

A "greater plane of existence"?  What the hell is O'Malley planning here? Harper wondered.

"Mr. Masters will be helping in the experimentation today.  Let's all give him a big round of applause!"

Wait, Masters is here, too?  What the fuck is going on here? Harper's thoughts racked his brain.  Masters was one of the scientists that was working on illegal nuclear experiments, and he had been jailed two weeks back.  Looks like even the feds couldn't keep him contained.  Harper heard clapping resounding from a room to his left.  He followed the sound to its source: three guards.  Hand-to-hand wouldn't be necessary.  He marked his three targets and let his suit do the rest.

Three silenced shots hit each of them in the head.  He quickly searched through one of their bags and found a syringe full of blue liquid labeled: "Radiation Shot #3" He quickly drained its contents into his bloodstream.  Hell if it killed him; Sam survived a biohazard, so he could, too.  The only difference would be that he would take down the target instead of let him run.

"If you would, Mr. Masters?"

"It would be my pleasure.  Open up the core!  The machine is ready!"

Harper heard mechanized parts moving.  He followed the sound to a clearer room, where both O'Malley and Masters stood.  Just ahead, two large doors opened and an eerie green glow came from them.

"Machine on in five..."

Harper snuck as quickly as he could behind O'Malley.

"Four..."

The kill was all set up, but he was here for what O'Malley knew, not for his life.  Okay, maybe his life, but not before he got what he could out of him.  He was right behind him now...

"Three..."

Harper got up behind him and caught him in a chokehold.

"Stop the countdown, O'Malley, or I'll kill you here and now!"

"Tell Fourth Echelon to fuck off!"

O'Malley drove a knife into Harper thigh, forcing him to let go.

"Two!  One! Now!!!" he shouted.  A switch was pulled and a giant portal opened in front of them.  Harper quickly brought his OPSAT device up and snapped a picture, his other hand pulling the knife out of his leg.  Then, he and everything nearby was sucked into the hole.

***

It was a perfectly casual day in Ponyville.  Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing strange... heck, nothing seemed out of place.

That is, except for the new crater created a mile or so out of town.  And the giant castle that had sprung up in the middle of town.  And Discord nearby with a sad look on his face.

Never mind, it was not a casual day.  It would hard for it to be called that after the fight with Tirek.  The magic in the Box stopped him, and all was well... some terraforming with some simple magic would set things straight again.

Harper didn't know any of this.  He didn't know where he was, how he got here... only what he intended on doing.

Find O'Malley.

His legs ached as he got up, and the vibrant colors of this new land made his eyes sting.  He was used to dark environments.  His goggles had somehow stayed on his head, but they were damaged.  The thermal vision was all messed up, and the night vision didn't work at all.

Harper heard a rustle nearby and reached for his holster, only to notice he had lost his silenced pistol.  Damn.  That was the MK-23 his father had passed onto him when he retired from Third Echelon.  He reached for his knife instead, pulling out the seven inch serrated blade.

The bush rustled again, and a bunny hopped out.  Harper lowered the knife.  This little guy couldn't hurt a fly.

He replaced his knife in its sheath and looked around.  He saw he was in a forest of some kind, right in the middle of a clearing.  He couldn't see over the trees, and he heard nothing.  No leads. No nothing.

He had lost the target.

He turned on his TACCOM. "Control, what happened?"  The connection buzzed with static.  "Control, can you hear me?  This is Operative Harper reporting in!"

No response.  He put the TACCOM system on stand-by.  That way, he wouldn't have to listen to static, but he would still be able to reach them if any human voice got through to it.

He moved silently into the woods, hoping to hear Masters and O'Malley, but to no avail.  They must've up and left hours ago.  They did, however, leave a trail for him to follow.  He followed it as if he was tracking down a deer.  A very armed and dangerous deer.  Although what he found hooved and small, it was not any buck he ever saw.

An earth pony stood nearby, mortified by the human in front of her.  Harper knew this pony looked a helluva lot different than any regular being, but he treated it like any other stray animal in his path.  He flashed the light on his goggles and it scared off the pony.  No need to hurt it.  It was just a poor, scared animal, probably just out looking for some plants to munch on.  No big deal.

He kept on crouch-walking until he saw a house.  While looking incredibly primitive to any house he knew, it did have the same feel as a regular home.  He went up to the door and found it was unlocked.  He opened it quietly and looked inside.

Nobody home.  He walked into the living room, through the kitchen, up the stairs, going everywhere in the house, searching.  O'Malley didn't hide here.  He returned to the doorway to see yet another pony.  He noticed that a basket was held up by some mysterious force, keeping it in the air.  Something didn't add up here.

Quickly, he tried to find someplace to hide, but it was no use.  Everything in this house was so small.  No wonder the ceiling seemed that much closer to his head.

The pony spotted the suited man and her jaw dropped open.  Her pupils dilated.  The basket dropped to the ground.

"OH MY CELESTIA! Are you a human???"

Harper didn't know what to say.  He froze up after having heard an animal talk.  That's when he noticed the horn upon this pony's head.

"You stay right here!  I need to go get somepony!  I told her humans existed!"

The little unicorn rushed off.  Harper couldn't believe his eyes or ears.  He must be one some kind of drug... or maybe the radiation screwed with his head.  He didn't know.  Maybe this was all a dream.  He took his knife out and cut his finger.  He felt slight bit of pain, but the world around him sure wasn't fading away.

So was this real, or was there something up?  Harper didn't have time to think about it.  The pony told him to stay, and without orders or a lead, this strange little being might be his only source of information.  On the other hand, this little pony might want to dissect him and experiment on, as she had never seen a human being before, and she might be crazy.  Never underestimate your enemies.

He chose to believe the latter of the two and rushed out the door, back into the forest.

***

"And it had this weird suit, and it was tall, and it was scary--!"

"Calm down, Bon Bon!" Twilight shouted at the cream colored pony. "Start from the beginning."

"Okay, okay... so I was going to the woods to see if I could find some herbs to calm down Lyra because she was acting up-- I could really use some of those right now -- and then it appeared!  It's green eyes glowed at me, and it was so scary!  I ran for my life!  I don't know where it could be now, but--"

"BON BON!  THERE IS A HUMAN IN OUR HOUSE!"

The shouts of Lyra could be heard by everypony, causing much panic.

"A human?  Is it dangerous?!"

"It's going to eat us!"

"Somebody should do something!"

"See?  It's already coming after us! Entering our homes!" Bon Bon exclaimed.  Twilight wasn't convinced.

"I'll have to see it to believe it.  You said it had green eyes, so it could just be a Timber-wolf that has gotten out of the forest and is causing problems."  She turned to the crowd. "Stay calm, everypony!  I am going to go find this human, and I am going to deal with it!"

"What if he comes here when you're gone?" a pony asked, and many others seconded his question.

Twilight thought for a second, then pulled Spike over to her. "If the human comes to the town, Spike will defend you!  He has already saved an entire empire, twice!"

“Uh… uh, yeah!  I’ll keep you fair citizens safe!” Spike vouched for himself.

The crowd murmured for a second and was silent.

"Bon Bon, Lyra, you're coming with me," Twilight said,  "You two are the only ones who know what you saw, and I need you to identify the human when we see it, okay?"

"Okay, princess!" Bon Bon said.

"If he's not too dangerous, can I keep him?" Lyra asked.  The two looked at her disapprovingly.  "What?  It'd be nice to have a pet around the house!"

"Let's just find it first," Twilight told her. "Then, the Council of Harmony and I will decide what to do with it."

"Okay!" Lyra said, a huge smile on her face for one reason or another.  The three took off to the woods.

More than Enough

Log #1, Date 5/30/2014

When the law is on your tail, what do you do?  You have two options: One, stay and fight it out, or two, run and hide.  Either way, you end up a dead man.  Why?  Let's just say those of us in Fourth Echelon don't like losing priority targets.  A target lost leaves any operative a dead man walking.  If you don't get the job done right, it's game over.  I would never take that risk, and I follow my targets as they run.

I'm a trained government agent capable of taking down even the biggest of crime lords.  I'm the one man you don't want to see standing in the corner of your head office of your secret and most definitely illegal business.  I never make a mistake, never falter, and above all, I never give up.  Yet somehow, the worst has happened.  The target isn't lost, not yet.  He's just on the run.  All I did was follow him...

So why the hell am I surrounded by colorful ponies right now?!

Harper saved the notes of his log onto his OPSAT device on his arm.  While it may or may not be just his ramblings, he didn't care.  He needed to remember what happened and when.

He heard more rustling and pulled out the knife yet again.  Another small creature skittered out.  He sighed and put the knife back.  What was the point?  He was here to find a runner.  O'Malley wasn't coming to him, much less springing a trap on him.  At least, not yet.   As for Masters, well... he was unpredictable.

He turned on the TACCOM again, but the static told him nothing.  He moved forward, getting deeper into the woods.  He tried his night vision, but it still wasn't working.  The goggles clearly needed more than time to be repaired.  He kept moving, thankful that the darkness was around to hide him from these ponies.

"I'm sure he was just around here..."

He jumped behind a bush as three ponies walked towards him.  Two of them had lights.

"Are you sure, Lyra? "

"He must've gone this way!  You can see his hoofprints!"

"If you can even call them that..."

"You know what I mean!  He should be just around this corner! If we find him, then I can finally see what hands look like!  Haha!"

"Calm down, Lyra.”

"I just wanna know everything about the human!  How he works, what he can do... how he ticks..."

Harper did not like the sound of that.  He checked his arsenal, seeing that even though his gun was gone, he still had two frags and three flash-bang grenades.  It was a wonder these didn't go off when he fell.

He took one of the flashbangs, pulled the pin and threw it at the ponies' hooves.

"What the--"

The three were deafened by the explosion and blinded by the light, but only temporarily.  Harper ran as fast as he could, but then realized he had been ignoring the pain in his leg where he had been stabbed.  Kevlar was strong, but the force of that knife probably bruised him pretty badly and possibly made a small fracture in his femur.  O'Malley was strong enough for that, or at least had enough resources for it.  This and the darkness were too much, and he tripped on a root and tumbled down.  He reached out blindly to grab something to break his fall, and he did... not a moment too soon, as he caught the one branch the hung over the side of a canyon.  He brought his other hand up to get a better hold on the branch, but the applied pressure made it snap, leaving him holding on with the remaining end of the branch.

"Shit shit shit shit...."  Harper repeated.  There was no way out of this one.

He saw as the branch bent, hardly sustaining the new weight it had gained.  He looked to the rock face for a hand-hold, but couldn't see one.  It was over.

He felt the branch snap and he fell.  The ground got closer and closer...

***

"Harper is gone, sir," the communications officer told Sam Fischer, leader of the operation to take out the Enhancers.

The Enhancers worked just like the Engineers, but yet so incredibly different at the same time.  Their leader: Byron O'Malley, a crazed psycho murderer gone calculated killer and sabotage agent.  His partner in crime, Peter Masters, was a renowned scientist capable of countering any disease with what he liked to call a Biological Anti-Cure: a disease that would counter-mutate as the disease it fought mutated.  He started his experiments in radiation testing, finding out a BAC for radiation poisoning by creating a virus with a natural immunity and "infecting" hosts with it in hopes of giving cancer patients more radiation treatment and eventually find an anti-cure for cancer itself.  There was a third scientist, named Robert Carson, who had been studying some unknown properties of matter and the transportation of matter, hoping to make the world's first teleporter.  He was captured by the Enhancers, doing work for them at gunpoint.  When the Enhancers found no more use for him, O'Malley personally smashed in his ribcage with nothing more than his bare hands and a roll of quarters. Barbaric, even for him.

With a combination of these three, the Enhancers planned to make soldiers that were immune to all forms of bio-weapons and teleport them to the central United States to take over.  They claimed that is was for the unspoken crimes committed by America, which were covered up by the Geneva Accords.

Fischer was so close.  He had compromised the mission last time, and was not supposed to be on the ground for this one.  That's why he sent in the best he had to track down the Enhancer's leader and kill him.  It must have been a setup.

But he was not going to stand for this.

"Vital signs?"

"Offline sir.  TACCOM isn't working either."

TACCOM stood for a "tactical communications" device in each of Fourth Echelon's suits that relayed info through a closed radio stream.  Nobody else could hear their conversations when using the TACCOM.

"What is the last OPSAT data he had?"

The OPSAT device was a digital storage and scanning system linked up to the main computers of Fourth Echelon.  It immediately transferred data to and from the battlefield whenever needed.

"One picture, sir.  It's blurry, but it's the best we've got."

"Lemme see it."

The picture showed a huge portal with multiple objects flying towards it.

"It was taken only seconds before his disappearance."

Sam just stared.  "What do you make of it?"

"I think that Mr. Carson's experiment finally worked.  Harper just got caught in the middle of it."

"Same here.  O'Malley escaped through there, and we have to get him back here.  The data on this thing should include the exit to this teleportation device, so we'll start there.  Where is Carson's lab?"

"Not far at all, sir, only a few miles off from our current position.  Calculating path of travel now."

Sam nodded and felt the plane move on.  This whole senario was so strange.  Teleportation, loss of both the target and the operative...

"Make sure this mission doesn't leave the eyes and ears of Fourth Echelon," Sam ordered. "Tell the president the problem is taken care of... for the moment."

"Yes sir."

"And get the TACCOM back online, dammit!  I don't want to be guessing as to what's going on with Harper any more than I have to."

"Of course.  We've reached the lab, sir.  Chopper's ready to go."

Sam said nothing as he left the room, leaving the rest of the team to their work.

***

Something quickly snatched Harper out of the air, knocking the wind out of him.  He felt as he was flying through the air.

"Ugh!  How much do you weigh???" he heard a voice ask.  He looked up to see a cyan pegasus was carrying him.  Not his imagination.  Not something he could perceive, either.

Suddenly, his TACCOM roared in his ear. "Harper!  Harper, are you there?"

He couldn't say anything.  He didn't have the mental capacity at the moment.

"Harper, respond!"

No, no now was not talking time... sleeping time...

"Harper!  Quit playing games with me and TURN ON YOUR GODDAMN TACCOM FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!"

He fell unconscious.  Only a few minutes of being in this world and already he couldn't take it.  It was all too much.  The only thing he needed was a little rest...

Yeah... just a little rest...

***

"Harper is not responding," the communications officer reported, very aggravated.

"Try again!" Charlie shouted.  "He's not dead!  Get vital signs up!  OPSAT status, too!"

"Calm down, tech boy," the officer replied, regaining his own compsure. "There, we've got him up."

"And?"

"Alive, but he has lost some blood.  Stab wound in his leg.  The radiation didn't seem to effect him... due to the experimental drug in his system.  It's illegal, but that's the least of his worries right now.  He really was focused on O'Malley, wasn't he?"

"You said it.  Where is he?"

"Good question.  Picking up coordinates..."

The officer's face scrunched up in confusion.  "Something's wrong with the tracking here..."

"What makes you say that?"

"He's getting picked up all right, it's just... not in the neighborhood.  We're only connecting up to his TACCOM system and vitals through a satellite... in the Andromeda system.  I didn't even know we had a satellite out that far into space."

"It was lauched by NASA about five years ago," Charlie explained, and the officer gave him a strange look.  "What?  I've hacked a lot more secrets than just governmental ones!"

The officer shook his head and continued.  "Still, it doesn't make sense... how in god's name did he get all the way out there?"

Charlie looked at the data.  What he said was right, but even then, it seemed like something was missing.

"Maybe the teleporter had a malfunction?"

"Yeah, that and maybe it was activated before it was ready," the communications officer said.  "Listen to this."

"-- Machine on in five... four... three..."

There was the small pause.  "Stop the countdown, O'Malley, or I'll kill you here and now!  -- You can tell Fourth Echelon to fuck off!"

One of the voices shouted in pain. O'Malley kept on. "Two! One! Now!"

Then it turned to static.

"That countdown was off.  Whether it was too late or too early we can't know, but that's what caused the problem."

"And?"

"That means one thing.  The only way he got teleported so far was by that machine, which had to malfunction.  The only way for him to get back..."

"Is if he had the device and it malfunctioned again," Charlie said, wide-eyed. "He's not coming back, is he?"

"We can't let Fischer know.  He'd go into one of those killing frenzies like after he heard his daughter was dead."

Charlie shuddered at the thought. "Yeah, that'd probably be for the best."

"Charlie!" a voice shouted from his laptop.  He rushed over and put in the earpiece.

"What is it, Sam?"

"Found the schematics for the teleporter."

"Already?"

"Nobody was home."

"Huh."

"I'm sending them to you now.  They look like encrypted files, and I know that's more your domain."

"That it is.  Workin' on it now, Fischer."

"Charlie?"

"Yeah?"

"Make sure you get Harper home, okay?  Promise me you will.  I'm not losing another agent."

Charlie was silent for a second.

"I promise," he said, knowing that when the time for the truth came around, he would be the first one beaten to a pulp because of this little conversation.

***

"What in Celestia's name is that thing???"

Applejack asked this in surprise, and the others of the Council of Harmony just stared.  They had restrained the human in a chair, hoping it wasn't strong enough to break the ropes they had tied him down with.

"It's called a human," Twilight explained, "and we need to figure out what to do with it.  The last time we encountered it when it was awake, it ran."

"It's just a poor, scared little animal..." Fluttershy cooed.

"That thing's, like, twice your size, Fluttershy." Rainbow said, raising an eyebrow skeptically.

"Still, it's obviously not from here.  Foreign lands can be scary, darling, I should know from my visit in Prance," Rarity said.

"You guys are missing the point!" Pinkie shouted. "This guy just needs to feel welcome here!  We should throw a party for it!"

Twilight looked towards her.  "I'm not sure about that one, Pinkie.  I mean, it had some form of self-defense that blinded and deafened me and two others, if only temporarily.  If it does that at a crowded party..."

"Oh.  Yeah, I guess I see the point," Pinkie said, all too seriously for her usual self. "Maybe just an introduction will do? A fun introduction?"

"Yeah!  I'll introduce him!" Spike announced. "I mean, we kinda look the same... maybe it'll be a little more friendly to things it can relate to."

"That... actually makes a lot of sense now that you say it," Twilight said, her hoof on her chin.

"But what if it knows what a dragon is?  Maybe it'll think you're dangerous!"  Rainbow intervened.

"That's also a possibility," Twilight agreed.

"So then what should we do?" Spike asked.  None of them answered. "If you don't have any better ideas, I think it's the best shot at something we've got here."

"Alright," Twilight said.  They all heard a loud groan.

"Quick, he's waking up!  Everpony out!  Good luck, Spike!"

The six ponies ran out the door.

"Yeah, thanks..." he said briefly.  He turned to see the human roll his head up.

***

Harper's head hurt like all hell.  The bright colors were enough to cause a slight headache, but this shiny place was giving him just the worst kind of migrane.

"Hey, buddy!  You okay?"

He cringed at the sound, his head pounding. This must be a human and not some pony.  It's about time his head was clearing up.

"Yeah, fine..."

He tried to get up from the chair he found himself in, but found he could not move.  He was tied down with taut rope which was not about to give out.

"Shit."

"Don't worry about all that!  It's only a precaution!"

"You captured me... a kid..."

His vision cleared up.

"A dragon kid."

Seconds passed.  Then, his brain registered the thought.

"A DRAGON KID?!  WHAT THE HELL?!"

A flailed around in the chair, knocking it backwards.  He hit his head again, but this time there was no mercy of darkness.

"Heyheyhey!  Calm down!  I'm not here to hurt you," Spike said, pushing the chair back up to an upright position.

"Where's that goddamned pony?!  I want to speak with her!"

"Just a minute."

He watched in wonder how the dragon obeyed his order.  A captor that met his demands?  What the hell???

A purple pony walked into the room.  She had wings and a horn.

Great, what the hell is *this thing now?  Some kinda unicorn-pegasus?*

"You wanted to talk to me?" she asked politely.

"Yeah," Harper said in a tone that could kill, "I wanted to talk.  But I'm done talking.  I demand to know what is going on here!  Why the hell are you ponies here?  Why are you restraining me? Explain!"

He shouted so loud the whole room shook with his fury.  He noticed and slumped back into the chair, breathing heavily.

"That's why you're restrained," Twilight said, composure still intact, "And we live here, so it's only natural that we're here.  The real question is: what are you doing here, human?"

"Let's get a few things straight," Harper said angrily, "One, my name is Harper.  That is the only name you get to call me.  Two, I never intended on being here.  One second I was on a mission, the next I'm in a forest with talking horses.  Three, this chair is about half the size of regular chairs and god damn if I don't get out of it soon, I'm gonna be aching in more ways than one."

Twilight sighed.  "Promise not to hurt anypony?"

"I promise," Harper said in an serious tone.

The chair and rope disappeared from under him,and he fell to the ground.  He picked himself up and dusted himself off.

"How did you get here, hu-- I mean, Harper?"

"Some kinda portal.  Can't really explain how it worked since I didn't create it."

"Well, who did?"

His eyebrows lowered. "A dead man."

Twilight looked confuzed for a second.  "Wait, how?  Dead things can't-- Wait, that was a figure of speech, wasn't it?"

"It was.  Another human and his friend came here just as I did."

"Oh, good!  They're frie--"

"They like to kill things."

Twilight froze after hearing this.  A look of shock covered her face.

"W-WHAT?!"

The chair reappeared.  She shoved the human back into it and the rope restraints went back on.

"Hey!  What's the big idea?!  I said they like to kill things, not me!" He had had enough, no, more than enough of these ponies now.

"Then tell me, Harper..." She used her magic to pull his knife from his sheath. "What is this used for?"

Harper said nothing.  There was no point in arguing this.  She knew he was a killer.

"I take back everything I've said.  You humans are monsters!  I'm going to find these two other humans!  Everypony could be in great danger!"

She rushed out of the room.  Harper was all alone.  His knife lay on the ground, far out of reach.  Sitting here was going to get boring.

Suddenly, his TACCOM screeched in his ear.

"Harper!  Harper, I thought I heard something coming from your com!  Are you there?"

"Charlie?" he asked, surprised.

"Oh my god, you're still alive!  I don't believe it!"

"Charlie, what happened?  Where am I?"

"Look, it's a long story, one I can't get into right now.  Just stay calm for now.  I'm working on a way to get you home."

"I'm kind of stuck right now."

"What?"

"There are other beings here, and they captured me."

"Aliens?"

"Almost.  They speak English."

"How?  Our language was built up after generations and generations--"

"Yeah, yeah, spare me the lecture.  The point is they understand us.  They even know what humans are.  They might be dangerous.  If they get to Earth, who knows what would happen?"

"All right, I see your point."

"Hold on, I got another transmission coming in... oh my god..."

"What is it Charlie?"

"Harper, guess what?"

"What?"

Charlie laughed hysterically for a seoncd and then said, "Help is on the way!  Holy shit, this is awesome--"

The TACCOM cut out as a tactical EMP was set off.  The room was mostly naturally lighted, so it hardly made a difference, but then Harper realized something.

Only those in Fourth Echelon would have something like that.  So then... who just did that?

He saw two figures, both in black suits.  One had a red pair of goggles, the other had green.

No way.

***

"Charlie, what's our status on that teleporter?"

Charlie peered over the notes on his computer.  "I'm not entirely sure about the specifics, but I could give you the general idea of how it works."

"And what about getting Harper back?"

"These things take time, Sam," Charlie replied.

"Well, any ideas right now?"

"Unless there's a teleporter where he went, I don't have any ideas." Charlie replied. "I'm sure there's a way, though.  If we could just reverse-engineer the matter transportation to retrieve matter instead of send it, we could get him back."

"How long would it take?"

"A year and a half, tops."

"You've got five minutes," Fischer joked.

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard that one before," Charlie replied sarcastically. "Just be patient.  Don't you have some mission Grim is working up for you?"

"With the Blacklist done and O'Malley gone, we don't have much else."

"You sure?  What about the rest of the Enhancers?"

"They were taken care of.  Most of them have been jailed, and some of them were killed or will be executed."

"How many?" Charlie asked, typing away.

"Doesn't matter.  Besides, I don't know the numbers."

"Alright..."

There was an awkward silence, with only the clacking of the keyboard making noise.

"I'm gonna work on getting the teleporter functional for Harper's return."

"You do that."

Sam left the room, and Charlie sighed.  Sam didn't ask about where Harper went.  Charlie hoped it would stay that way.  Working with Sam was like hunting with a lion: once it felt the need for more than it was getting, it would go after you.  That, and if you pissed him off, he would kill you or ruin your life.  Or both.

He pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind and typed away, piecing together the code to retrieve Harper.  While it would take a long time, he didn't care.  He had more than enough time.  More than enough time for anything...

Legends

Harper watched as the two made their way across the room, searching for targets.

"Kestrel, get him out of there," the one with green goggle said.  The one with the red goggles cut Harper out of his restraints.

"Oh my god..." Harper laughed. "You're Archer and Kestrel, right?  The legendary duo from Third Echelon?"

"That's right," Kestrel said. "C'mon now, on your feet."

He helped Harper up out of the chair and passed him a gun.

"Found this in the forest."

"Thanks," he replied.  He checked the slide and the clip.  This was most definitely the one he had lost, and it felt great to have it back.  He reached down and picked his knife, replacing it in its sheath.

"Thought you two were dead."

"You too, huh?" Archer asked. "A lot of agents thought that.  They tried to turn Kestrel and I against each other after we dealt with some serious work in Russia, but it didn't work.  Instead, we ran, cross-hacking our devices so that we couldn't be tracked.  It worked well.  Did some small work after that: some hits, some retrievals, a bit of sabotage.  We were going to try to get back in business after Fischer took down Third Echelon, but then the Blacklist happened.  We tried to help, but without any information, we couldn't.  After that was all over, O'Malley shows up with his banner and horns.  An easy target to find.  We went after him, hoping that if we took out O'Malley, we'd be accepted into Fourth Echelon."

As he explained this, they snuck out of the building, hiding in what little shadows they could find.  Harper was thankful for the lowered light, and he even fault his migraine fade down to nothing more than a slight pain in his pain.

"So you guys are stuck int he same dilemma as I am?" Harper asked.

"Just about," Kestrel replied simply. "Don't get too comfortable now that we're here, though.  Masters tried to spring a trap on us in the forest."

"Almost got blown straight to hell if it wasn't for Kestrel," Archer said. "A tripwire frag.  Masters be damned..."

"Anyway, you seem to have the same goal as us.  We should stick together," Kestrel suggested.

"Of course," Harper replied.

"Glad to hear that we're still considered legends back in Fourth," Archer said.

"You're also considered dead there," Harper replied

"You know, Lazarus was considered dead, too," Archer countered.

"When did you find religion?" Kestrel asked him, surprised.

"I didn't.  I just know the famous ones."

"Figures," Harper said.

Kestrel laughed and started to say, "Yeah, you wouldn't know--"

"No," Harper said, pointing his finger forward. "Figures. Up ahead."

They saw the shadows of ponies walk by as they hid behind a corner.

"Find the human!  He could not have gone far!"

The ponies ran by their hiding spot.

"They don't know you two are here?"

"Legends, remember?" Archer said.  He peered around the corner. "Five ponies that way... four the other."

"We still have some flash-bangs." Kestrel offered. "It might buy us enough time to get through to the forest."

"No, we don't need something to stun them, just something to distract them," Archer said, thinking for a moment. "Gimme a frag."

Kestrel passed him one, and he lobbed it high into the air.  Many ponies noticed the red light flashing on it and watched as it went down a chimney nearby.  A small explosion and a shriek could be heard from inside the house.  The ponies stood in shock for a moment, then rushed into the house to help who might be hurt.  It was in this time that the three humans escaped.

"Was that really necessary?" Harper asked.

"It got their attention, didn't it?" Kestrel asked him. "That's all the matters.  Let's keep moving."

They ducked into the forest, letting the shade of the trees mask them.

***

"This is all your fault, Masters."

"My fault?  Your the one who couldn't even count right!"

The two argued as they set raps around their camp.  They both did not like the outcome of what had happened.

"You said that teleporter would take us straight to Tehran so that we could pick up the four hundred soldiers we had, and now.... I've lost all faith in you, Masters."

"I'm telling you, had the operative not intervened, we would be safe in Tehran, rounding up our troops for a mass invasion."

Yes, the plan was perfect.  Gather as many military simpletons into one spot where they were "hiding" so that a manslaughter could take place, but noooooo!  That damned spy had to ruin it all!  He had no business in their affairs!

O'Malley cursed his luck as he set down the proximity mine.  Any idiot unlucky enough to go this far into the woods would get blown straight to hell as soon as they touched it.

"At least we agree on that much.  That little bastard is going to die!" he shouted.

"But how, sir?  We hardly have any firepower..."

O'Malley's eye twitched. "No, Masters.  You have hardly any firepower."

"What do you mean?"

Masters placed his tripwire frag ever so carefully as the mad eyes of O'Malley covered him.

"Sir?" he asked.  Then he felt the cold steel puncture his spine and run down through his heart.

"You're a failure, Masters.  You've let me down when I needed you most.  So now... "

He leaned in close and whispered in his ear, "I don't need you anymore."

The knife was removed and Masters fell to the ground, writhing in pain for a moment.  But then there was no pain...

For how can a dead man feel pain?

***

"What?!  How did he escape?!"

Twilight was infuriated.  The human she had just captured had also just escaped?  These humans were so annoying to deal with...

"We're not sure, but he did have some explosives with him.  He even tried to kill Mrs. Cake with one!  She's still suffering from the shock of the explosion."  The guard stood saluting, his face never changing expression.

Twilight grit her teeth. "And you didn't even try to go after him?!"

"We had to keep the townsfolk safe!" The guard shouted in his defense.

Twilight looked at him with deep conviction, but then sighed into a reluctant calm state. "It's all right.  You slipped up just once, and I won't blame you for it.  However, if you see the human again, contact me immediately."

"Yes ma'am!  As soon as we find it, we'll inform you immediately, ma'am!" the guard shouted.

"You're free to go," Twilight said, but the guard only dropped his salute.

"Ma'am, if I may?" he asked.

Twilight nodded in approval for his next words.

"If we find the human and we cannot contact you, then what?"

"Then you shall capture him yourselves, and by Celestia's name I wish you luck in doing so."

"Very well.  That's all I had to ask."

The guard left, and the room fell silent.  Twilight didn't know what to do other than order these guards around to find the human.  Even when she did order them around, something inside her was screaming at her to stop, telling her that she did not have the authority.  It was still so unusual.  She decided to go home, until she realized the castle was her home.  She hadn't gotten used to that either.

However, none of this mattered to the prying eyes watching her.  Those eyes belonged to O'Malley.

So even these ponies are after Harper... if I could just make some kind of alliance with them, then I would have numbers on my side... but how? he wondered.  He thought for a second, but got sick of thinking.  It just made his head hurt.  Then a mad thought came to mind...

He liked this mad thought.  A crazed smile stretched across his face.  He prepared his "convincing story" and waited until the time was right.

***

Fischer paced around on the jet.  Back and forth and back forth...

Eventually, the perpetual motion drew curiosity from the rest of the crew.

"Something wrong?" Briggs asked at last.

"I read over Carson had to say about his teleporter.  There's no way to reverse the flow to retrieve Harper."

There was a a second of silence.  Briggs lowered his head and looked at the ground.

"I'm sorry, Fischer."

"For what?" he asked.

"For your, no, our loss."

Nobody said anything for a few seconds.

"Thanks."

The one word echoed in everybody's ears.  Fischer never thanked anybody for anything.  This would be the first time in a long time.

"Charlie, gimme an update on that teleporter."

"Yes, sir," he said, turning to his computer screen. "We've determined a few things about it.  One, it runs off of nuclear power, tons of it.  If it was ever to be used again, then it would have to be relocated to another power plant.  Two, the timing of the teleportation is vital to the destination.  If the timing was ever off, the target location would be... very far off, to say the least."

"And Harper?  Do we know anything about his location?"

Charlie hesitated for a second. "No, sir.  Nothing.  He's stil considered MIA at this point, as you ordered."

"I want everybody working on finding him.  You heard me!  If you find anything, and I mean anything about where Harper went, I want to know immediately!  And if you don't know where he is, at least report on where he isn't.  We'll find him through the process of elimination."

Fischer left the room, shouting behind him. "I want all chopper crew ready in ten!  Got some business down on the ground!"

"For what, sir?" one of them called.  There was no response.  The pilot and copilot rushed to get the chopper prepped.

Charlie exhaled deeply as the rest of the tech guys got back to work, the sound of clacking keyboards loud enough to drown out any noise.  He spoke into his earpiece.

"Harper?  You still there?"

"Fine timing, Charlie," he said sarcastically.

"I had some business to take care of."

"'Cause you're just always busy, aren't you?"

Charlie sighed. "Did you connect up with Archer and Kestrel?"

"Right here," he heard Archer reply.

"Good.  Look, I'm doing what I can from here to get you guys back home, alright?  For the time being, you may just want to find a place to spend the night.  Darkness is gonna be upon you in only a few minutes, and as soon as the sun rises, you'll be in some big trouble."

"What do you mean?" Harper asked.

"Thermal signatures show signs of life other then you... a lot more than we ever could've imagined.  These guys aren't nocturnal, so they'll most likely be asleep then, but that sun is only half the age of ours.  It's gonna be glowing a lot brighter.  You may have noticed how things seema lot brighter over there.  Sending you a visual interpretation."

"So that's why I keep gettin' headaches." Harper said, examining the info.

"What, you want me to teleport some Advil to you?  Your just gonna need some rest.  Your eyes will adjust."

"Oh, hey!  Before I forget, could you send the goggle schematics to my OPSAT?  The things got busted when I teleported here."

"Yeah, but do you know how to fix 'em?"

"I was a technician for a bit..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa... you're tellin' me you were a techie before this gig, Harper?"

"Just about.  I was in training to be a field operative for years.  The only reason I never got out on the actual field was because I kept digging up personal secrets of my colleagues."  He took a moment to laugh. "Poor Irene... she never really did get over that affair with my old boss."

"Right, right..." Charlie said. "Ever heard of 'too much information'?"

"Ever heard of 'not enough information'?  I'd like those files sometime today."

"Too late, it's nighttime.  Guess I let you down.  Here ya go," Charlie tapped a button on his computer and sent the files. "I would suggest working on it in the morning.  Fixing things at night with no night vision might get a little tricky."

"Alright.  Thanks for the help, Charlie.  Talk to you in the morning."

The connection cut for a second.  Suddenly, Kestrel's voice spoke up.

"I'll pass on the Advil, but could you send some rations over here?  I'm starving!" he joked.

"Oh, shut up," Charlie replied, shutting off the TACCOM connection.

***

"All right, up ahead looks like a good spot to camp out for the night," Archer said.

The spot ahead was an empty place.  A castle, to be exact.

"Are you sure?" Kestrel asked. "It looks like that place would crumble and fall on our heads in our sleep."

"You underestimate the place.  It could probably still have occupants if there wasn't a huge hole in the roof," Harper noted.

"What, you were an architect before this as well?" Archer asked. "Never mind that. This is the only suitable and safe place for us to stay.  Unless you want to stay with those ponies back there?"

They shook their heads, but followed Archer into the castle.  They gathered what they could to find comfort, and they went to sleep.

Dreams

Harper had the strangest dream...

"Hastings, you still there?  Hastings?" Harper asked, feeling alone again.

"Harper, you don't have to check the TACCOM every five minutes, ya know."

"Sorry," Harper apologized. "Just making sure nothing has happened to you."

"Stop worrying and focus.  You're the one in danger if your nerves are constantly on high alert."

Harper nodded but then realized how stupid that was.

"I understand," he said calmly .

"Good.  Target in 30 meters.  Five guards.  Four patrolling, one in the tower."

"I'll go left.  There's a vent I can use to take 'em by surprise." Harper said.

"I'll go right.  There's a gap in the patrol there."

Harper checked the signs again and saw what he meant. "Right, right."

They split to each side.  While he was in the vent, Harper heard the two guards on the right fall dead one after another.

"Marking system, good to go.  You ready?"

Harper flipped down his googles and used the 3D radar system to spot the remaining targets.  He marked the three remaining guards.  The two on the ground were out of his range, but well within Hastings' range.  "Guards marked.  Take 'em out."

Three silenced shots popped the three in the head.

"Move in on target.  10 meters."

They walked to the door and Hastings kicked it open.  The man behind the desk, who was inside the room, jumped up.

"What the--"

He had no time to speak.  Hastings grabbed his throat, grasping onto his trachea.  Any sudden movement would force a lack of oxygen and a cause for the target to black out.

"Tell us what you know about the bioware you've been giving to your soldiers.  Leave anything out, and I will not hesitate to beat it out of you."

"You're not getting anything out of me... you pathetic... bastard..."

That was not the answer he was looking for.  Hastings pulled the target over to his desk and smashed his head against it.  Blood spattered on the desk, but the man was still conscious.  Hastings put him back in the chokehold.

"You were saying?"

"The bioware was developed by a company called the Kellner Corporation.  We've been working with them for years.  That's all I know!"

"Not convinced.  Harper, would you please close the door?"

"On it."

Harper shut the door, only to have the target get kicked at it, staining the three-inch glass with blood and spit.  Hastings picked him up again.

"All right, all right!  The Kellner Corporation has ties to the mafia... they just sent a shipment of new tech to them yesterday... they plan to attack the US embassy to get to Senator Ryan..."

"That's all I needed to know," Hasting replied simply.

"I told you everything... everything!  Please, let me go!  You won't hear from me ever again!  It'll be like I never existed!"

Hastings looked to Harper, waiting for his call on the situation, but before Harper could say anything, the captive smacked down the arm that held had him in the chokehold and reversed the situation, trapping Hastings in a hold of his own.  He pulled out a concealed gun and pointed it at Hasting's head.

"You make one move and he dies!" the target shouted.  Harper didn't know what to do.  His worst nightmare was coming true right before his very eyes...

He reached for his gun, and then...

And then...

A single teardrop fell from his eye.

"I see."

The dream paused as Harper turned to the origin of the voice.  It was a dark blue pony, with wings and a horn.

"Oh, great, they're in my dreams, too..." he said sarcastically.

"I am only here to help with the pain, human," the pony said.

"Who are you?" Harper asked.

"I am Luna, the protector of the night and the destroyer of nightmares."

Destroyer of Nightmares? he thought.

"Yes, that's right."

"And reader of minds?" he asked, annoyed.

"When I am in your mind, anything you think I can hear."

"Great," Harper replied, adding this to the long list of things he hated to have happen. Number 249: Dreaming about talking ponies who read minds.  Right between "taking care of the cactus plants at mom's" and "not getting obvious references".

"What do you want with me?" Harper asked, annoyed that he hadn't woken up from the lucid dream.

"I want nothing more than to help you, human.  I know you have caused some ponies problems, but we are working them out.  I come bearing signs of peace."

"Surely you must be joking."

"I assure you, human, I couldn't be more serious unless I used the Canterlot royal speech."

"I don't care.  This is just some dream.  Your're not real!  None of this is real!"

"Really?  Then I will show you when you wake up how that cannot be so, as I will be sitting by your beside, watching you awake."

"Creepy.  Anyway, if this is all so real, why are you helping me?"

"Because that is what friends do, Harper."

"How'd you know my-- Wait, you're looking into my memory now?"

"Wasn't I doing just that before now?"

"Yeah, and you should stop invading my mind!  What kind of 'friend' does that???"

"All I am here to do is help."

"As if I needed your help."

"You cannot bottle up false feelings!  You know what happened there wasn't your fault!"

A gunshot range out in, and Harper watched his comrade fall.  Watched as he held him in his hands, writhing.  Watched as life slipped away from him.

"I'm curious as to what you did next, human." Luna said.

"If you're just some figment of my imagination, I guess it doesn't matter anyway." Harper said.

Rage filled his eyes.  The marker system flickered on his HUD.  His mental status was making the system, which was connected up to his brain, go haywire.  He walked up, knocked the gun away from the man, and finally put an end to his life.

But it wasn't enough.  It was never enough to sate his anger.

"Harper!  Harper!  What's going on down there?  We just lost you for a second!  Where's Hastings?"

"He's dead."

"Oh my god...  Harper, your vitals ain't lookin' good from here.  High blood pressure and heartbeat over 200 bpm... You need to calm down.  Take a breather.  Hastings is dead, but that does not mean you have to be like this."

Harper knew that wasn't happening. "Where is the bioware?"

"In the nearest storage garage.  What are you planning?"

Harper opened the garage and ripped the top off of one of the crates inside.

"I'm retrieving one of these for you to take a look at.  As for the rest..."

"Harper, no!  Don't destroy all of them!  Even if you save just one, what if it's broken?  Harper!  Don't do it!"

But the C4 was already in place.  Harper walked ten paces away and hid behind a wall fragment.  He took out the detonator.

"Boom."

He clicked the button and the garage exploded, pieces of metal and wire flying everywhere.

"Dammit, Harper!  You had better hope that bioware is in working condition!"

"And you had better stop telling me what to do!  You techies will figure out what his stuff is, no matter how broken it may be.  Also, I might be a little late on retrieval.  I need to go get Hastings."

"You're crazy.  If you get spotted, then this whole mission wil go straight to he--"

"It already has gone to hell!  Just bring a chopper in and I'll get Hastings to a place for a proper burial."

The communications officer sighed. "Chopper in ten."

"Make it five," he growled back.

He spotted the guards as they kicked open the doors to the storage area.  Harper didn't care about them anymore, didn't care about what lives they had.

He put those pitiful lives to an end.  He had targeted all of them, marking each and shooting them in the head.  More rushed in, but Harper's marking system didn't need to reset.  He simply kept marking and shooting, killing dozens.  Finally, the TACCOM went online and open.

"All right, Harper!  The copter's just outside!  Get going!"

"Got it."

He went over to Hastings' dead body and picked it up.  He slung it over his shoulder and carried him out.

"I made it out alive.  Hastings did not.  The one person who was always one step ahead, always that much better than I was, always outsmarting the enemy in every situation... dies by the hand of a god damned target!"

Luna was silent.  Harper was breathing heavily, even though it was just his dream.

"It's my fault!  It's all my fault!  He died because I was too weak!  I didn't save him!"

"It's not your fault," Luna said, pressing through his memories to find proof.

"It is all my fault!  I didn't do anything!"

"That's not true--"

"Then all I did was avenge his death, nothing more!  He could be alive right now!  Had he not died, none of this would've happened!  He would've killed O'Malley!  He would've ended it right then and there!"

Images surrounded him as he spoke.  Images of Hastings, images of the dead, and images of hate, revenge, disgust, and last but not least, sorrow.

"I can see how close you two were.  You were friends since you joined this 'Third Echelon'.  While what you did was unforgivable, you hardly had a choice, did you?"

"I was sent to Third after a falling out in Afganistan.  Hastings and I had gained much intel on the subject we were tracking there... far too much.  The government didn't like it.  They pulled us out of the place and put us in jail.  We spent the night in cold cells, which was neither the first time nor the last we would be there.  The next day, we were given a choice: join Third Echelon or die.  We chose the former, joining the recruits in training a week later than we should've.  We had to keep gaining ranks, as we had to do better, we had to be greater.  Eventually, nobody could touch us anymore, and we deleted all files on our jailing for the information we received.  From then on out, there was nothing to stop us.  However, we had ingrained ourselves in Third so much that we began to lose control of the targets we sought, and we no longer had a choice on whether the mission, 'should you choose to accept it', was a go."

"I understand this, but what is the place, Afganistan?" Luna asked.

"I don't want to talk about it.  I saw too many horrible things there," Harper replied. Nothing but darkness surrounded him.  He refused to think about it, even if it didn't matter.

"I see."

"No, no you don't.  Tell me, have you ever seen an all-out war?"

"No, I suppose not as you would see one, human."

"Then you have no idea what I had to go through.  I've told you enough already. Now, how the hell do I get out of this dream?"

He thought for a moment.  The only way anybody woke up from a dream is if something very fatal were to happen to them in the dream.  That's how he always saw it.

"I would suggest against that, human."

"How did-- wait, I already know.  Why shouldn't I?"

"If you die here, you will die in real life as well.  I am in control of your dream state right now, and I decide when it ends."

"Unless you're not real.  How would one go about testing that, though?"

"Human, you are thinking down the wrong lines.  I want to show you how what you think you have done is not what you have done.  You have misconceptions on the matter."

"How?"

"I don't know you well enough to find proof, but I know you are wrong."

"Yeah?  Well, when you actually find some evidence, you let me know.  As for now, you will let me out of this lucid dream."

"As you wish, human.  I shall inform you at a moment's notice.  That way, you won't have to wait for your answer."

The dream world faded and Harper woke up.  He looked around quickly.  No creepy dark-blue ponies anywhere in sight.  It really was just a dream, nothing more.  He sighed in relief.  However, he did not see the shimmering tail of stars as it disappeared through the exit nearby.

***

O'Malley poked a stick at his makeshift fire.  It was almost time.  Dawn would be upon this place in only a few hours.  Or, it seemed like that at least, as the sun had refused to rise despite how the sky was lit at the moment.  He knew that morning was the only time his plan would work.  If it was any other time of the day, he might need to save some extra explosives.  Not that it mattered.  He wasn't going to go in with weapons, anyway.

He tossed a frag in his hand, up and down.  In his other hand was a ripe apple he had picked.  He took a huge bite out of it and his tongue told him the apple was far too sweet for his tastes.  He tossed it aside, munching on what he had and swallowing it with a disgusted look on his face.  Finally, the sun appeared in the East, rising quite quickly.  He caught the frag and gripped it tightly.  The time was at hand.

He stamped out the fire, letting the embers settle as he walked forward into Ponyille.  The grenade was just to catch their attention.  What would really be the kicker was the bomb strapped around his chest.  He clicked a button on it and a  counter ticked down from five minutes.  He pulled the pin on the grenade and threw it into the air.

It exploded with a loud noise, and he heard the shrieks of the ponies.  He ran to the middle of town, feigning a look of fear on his face.

"SOMEONE HELP!  HELP ME!" he cried.  Ponies rushed out of houses everywhere to see what was the matter.

"A human?  What the heck?"

"What is that?  Some kind of device on its body?"

"Why does it need help?"

O'Malley snatched up the nearest pony.  "Please! Please, you have to help me!  There's a bomb strapped to me, and I cannot get it off!"

The pony nodded, but also sweat profusely due to how scared it was.

"Somebody get the Princess!  She'll know what to do!"

Twilight ran onto the scene. "What's going on here?!"

"He's got a bomb strapped to him!"

The timer ticked down.  3:56... 3:55...

"Please, you have to help me!  Those other humans captured me and put this bomb on me, and I can't stop it!"

"Well, can we just cut it off?" the purple pony asked, raising a pair of scissors up.

"NO!" O'Malley shouted. "No, you can't!  If you try to cut it off, the bomb will explode immediately!"

3:01... 3:00...

"Well then what do we do?"

"You have to defuse it!  You have to find a way to shut it off without it exploding!  Please, my life is at stake here!"

"All right, all right!  I'll... I'll see what I can do!"

"Please hurry..."

Twilight looked at the bomb closely.  The timer ticked down to 2:34, 2:33...

"I need more time to figure this out!  I've never even seen something like this!"

"Can't you try?  Please?"

"What does it run on?"

O'Malley almost was baffled by these ponies, and the look of fear turned to disbelief for a second.  He snapped out of it after a second or two.

1:55... 1:54...

"Electricity!"

"Well, that doesn't help... um... Wait!  I have an idea! So long as that bomb isn't a part of you, then-- yeah, this will work!"

Her horn glowed for a second and O'Malley disappeared, the bomb jacket falling to the ground.  He reappeared about five feet away.

"Quick!  You have to get rid of it before it explodes!"  he shouted.  Twilight teleported the jacket far away.  There was a short burst of an  explosion from somewhere far off in the woods.

"Thank god that's over," he lied through his teeth.  He could've defused that bomb quicker than she had gotten rid of it.

"Are you sure you're all right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I-I'm feeling better now that that thing is gone."

"What happened to you?"

"It's like I said.  Those other humans attacked me!  They strapped me in that thing and left me to die!"

"Wait... you mean there are more?!" Twilight shouted, eyes wide. "First it was just one, now there seems like so many..."

"Wait, you've seen one of the others?  What did that one look like?"

"Well, he had this dark black suit and some goggles and a really big knife..."

"That's the one!" he shouted. "That's the one who put that thing on me!  He laughed as he did it, too!"

"Holy Luna... and he said there were others that were out for blood, but now I see he meant the rest of his group."

"He must've!  I-I-I wouldn't hurt a soul!" O'Malley lied again.

"How terrible that he would do this to innocents!" Twilight exclaimed. "We have to find him and stop him!  If this happens to one of us--"

"Look, don't worry.  As soon as they put that thing on me, I heard one say they were going to go hunting for food, particularly rabbits.  I, myself, would never turn to such options!  I'm a vegetarian!  Anyway, they shouldn't bother you for a while here.  You should keep this place safe by putting up a wall or something!"

"I can put up a magical barrier around the town.  It'll cost me a lot of my magic, though..."

Magic? O'Malley thought. What nonsense is this?  There's no such thing as magic!  Then again, she did teleport objects with her mind... Perhaps these ponies have mastered mind over matter.  Sounds magical enough to me, I suppose.

On the outside, he simply nodded and said, "Yes, that would work."

"All right, here we go..."

Her horn glowed as she held a giant barrier spell over the city.  It shimmered as if it would disappear, but did not.

"There.  I'll have to renew it every few hours or so, but that will last us for now."

"Good," he said, getting to his feet.

"I didn't catch your, name sir.  You are a 'sir', right?"

"Yes, I would be male.  My name is Byron.  Byron O'Malley."

"By-Run Oh Mally? What a strange name.  Can I just call you By-Run?" Twilight asked.

"Of course you can.  That's usually all I'm called, anyway.  And your name is...?"

"Twilight.  Twilight Sparkle."

The conversation went on, as O'Malley planned his next move in his head.  Should he attack?  Maybe he should just hide out?  Perhaps he should just find a way back to Earth.  He went with the last one.  Getting back to business would probably be good.

Yet, he felt like he wanted more.  This world a had a lot to offer: power, safety, ponies... he especially liked the pony part.  He always ran with them in his dreams, trampling everybody unlucky enough to 1) be in the dream and 2) be in the way.  And that was when he was just having a decent dream!  Oh, the things that they would kill together in the good dreams...

No, no, no!  Stop thinking that!  If they can read minds, then that is the last thing you want to think about!  Just stay calm for now!  We'll save... THAT for later.

He nodded to himself, and Twilight noticed.

"So you agree that the photosynthesis cycle of a plant could be indirectly affected by the amount of ponies in the direct vicinity?" Twilight asked.

"Of course, " he replied absentmindedly. "You wouldn't happen to know any good restaurants around here, would you?  I'm starving... haven't had anything to eat in two days!"

"Of course I know some good places.  Here, follow me!"

And so the pieces fell into place.  Byron O'Malley, friend of the ponies, and the sad Fourth Echelon operatives, now public enemy number one.  Nothing could stop a madman and his ambitions...

***

"Charlie, how are things going?  Made any progress on that teleporter?"

The voice of Sam Fischer called out to him, louder and clearer than on any COM channel.

"Not yet... still working out how the whole thing works," Charlie called back calmly.

"Well, you had better figure it out.  The president isn't gonna be happy if she hears that one of the most wanted criminals is still 'missing'.  We need to find him, quick as we can."

"Yeah, I know."

"Then do your job!  And for god's sake, stop looking into top secret info!  It's not for you!"

"Yeah, yeah..." Charlie said, opening up the files of yet another alien species covered up by the U.S. government.  He got bored of it quickly, as he did with many things, and started looking through the Operative files again.  He did a little bit of digging in Harper's file.

Suddenly, he was far more interesting in reading what was in front of him.

Communications Officer: Brigand Hope

Comm Detail Records #7748

Dec 23, 2013

Agent Harper has gone off the comm array again.  He keeps shutting it off, despite what the chief officer has threatened him with if he 'catches him doing it again', telling Harper that he'll 'give ya what's coming to ya'.  None of those in communications care much anymore; it's his only way to vent his anger and pay his respects now and again.  He used to keep the comm array online at all times, always making sure he stayed in contact with those he needed to... that is, until after the Landings Operation where operative George Hastings was killed.  Hastings had always told him that the TACCOM was useless, and that he should know what to do based on pure instinct.  However, since they were partners, Hastings always kept his TACCOM on in case of an emergency when they split up.  Now that Harper doesn't have a partner, he hardly ever uses the TACCOM unless he wants more info on what he's seeing.  I don't blame him.  There's hardly anything we need to tell him that he doesn't notice, so I guess Hastings was right after all.

It's been a long time since then, but even so, he shuts himself off now and again, just so that he can feel like it's just him and Hastings all over again...

I recommend sending this over to the chief medical officer for prescriptions to help keep this man sane.  He's one of the best, and losing him now would be--

"Boo."

Charlie jumped a foot in the air when he heard Briggs' voice.

"Briggs!  I didn't see you there!  I was just--"

"Sam ain't gonna be happy if he finds you diggin' up old bones, Charlie.  Maybe you should get back to the doghouse and start working your tail off to get Harper back."

"Y-Yes, sir.  On it, sir."

Charlie closed out the files and started looking over the schematics of the teleporter.  He still couldn't make sense of them, but by god, he'd have to if he wanted Sam not to kill him.

And so the computer specialist as left to his screen and keyboard, tapping away...

Search

Byron O'Malley was at peace with the world.  He had all he needed: food, water, shelter; he had all he wanted: ponies, luxuries, time...

He contemplated these things as he munched down the salad he had been served.  Something in that list was missing, but he couldn't recall what.

"I take it you enjoy our finest dish?" the server asked.  Byron hadn't even paid attention to what he was eating, but now he noticed he had finished the meal.

"It was wonderful, ma'am," he replied.

"Shall I get the check for you?"

"Of course..."

What had he forgotten?  There was clearly something missing from that list...

The server returned. "Here you are.  That comes out to 45 bits."

Bits?  What were those?  He took a second to respond.  Money.  He had forgotten money.

"I, uh--"

"I'll cover it."

Twilight had cut in just in time.  She handed over a bag of coins (he could tell by the sound it made when it moved) and the server bowed, returning to the front desk to handle the reservations for tonight.

"You sure do like to eat, By-Run."

"I just can't get enough," he replied, hunger sated by the numerous vegetables he had consumed.

"Now that you've obtained sustenance, why don't you repay me with some information?"

"Seems fair," Byron replied.

"Okay... let's start with where you humans came from," she started, taking a seat across from him.

"Far away from here, I presume.  I actually don't know where I am now, and I'm sure the names for places you have are far different from those I know."

"That's probably true... can you at least tell me what your home is like?"

"It's a vast world, filled with all different kinds of people.  Tall, short, big, small, fat, thin, smart, dumb, good, evil... it's a diverse place.  Many back at home feel the need to obtain three things in life.  One, stable living conditions.  Two, wealth and power. Three, knowledge and understanding.  Everybody is unique, but that's what makes them the same."

"Sounds like your home and my home are the same in quality, human," Twilight remarked.

"We've a history that defies the tests of time, reaching back thousands of years.  We've built empires, and we've watched them fall.  We've created works of legends, only now they are worn down and misused.  We have big cities and small towns, each different from the next.  There are many kinds of climates, and different seasons to match each.  We have a sun and a moon, and we constantly wonder if there is any other intelligent life out beyond the stars.  Now we know."

"Our worlds seem very similar, human."

"Is that so?  Then I will give an example for why it is not the same.  We have wars going, even to this day, and arguments from years back that have never been settled.  We fight each other to be better than one another, to prove our worth.  Yet, we see violence as a terrible thing, even when it happens every day, caused by us.  We are the bane of our own existence."

"That would be different.  We've had wars before, but never to the extent that they still go on today.  We've resolved our differences with other nations and empires."

"I thought so," Byron said, getting up from his seat. "Walk with me."

They began a slow-paced stroll down the streets of town.

"Where I come from, we have governments, people who are elected into positions to maintain control and balance in each nation.  That is, if they are not complete tyrants, like in the place I come from."

"We have a something like that," Twilight added. "Princess Celestia keeps this world in balance."

Byron laughed for a moment, and many stopped to give him a strange look.  "A princess, you say?  You have no queen, no king?"

"The only queens and kings that have existed were evil.  We do not take on their titles," Twilight explained.

"I see," Byron replied, nodding his head.

"We also have a mayor of the town.  The capital building is right over there."

Byron noticed the dome-topped building form afar.  So this was the capital?  What a small building it was!

"A mayor and a princess?  I'm afraid we have nothing like that back where I come from.  In fact, I don't even know how that would work," Byron explained, scratching his head at the thought.

"Well, I'm not sure where to start with that one, since I didn't do a whole lot of study into politics.  Honestly, I should be doing that."

"No time like the present," Byron replied simply.

"Of course!  That is, if we still had the library..."

Byron raised an eyebrow. "'If we still had the library'? What happened?  Did the other humans destroy it when they escaped?"

"No, nothing like that.  It was something else entirely!  But hold on a second... how did you know that there was an escape planned by the other humans?"

"Simple.  They kept talking about how they had 'a close call back there' and 'quite the distraction planned' when they put that wretched explosive on me.  I could only assume that they were talking about an escape, and so I did.  It's only a coincidence that my arrow hit its mark, so to speak."

Twilight was skeptical.  This human didn't sound like he was telling the whole truth, but yet his story seemed fairly in-line with the humans' actions.  She decided to believe his story... for the moment, at least.

"All right then.  You know, it's like there's something that bothering me about you... but I can't put my hoof on what it is."

The human said nothing to this.  He simply stopped to admire the statue of a pony, apparently a mare that helped in the founding of Ponyville.  He looked over the statue, inch by inch.

"By-Run, what are you doing?" Twilight asked, confused by his behavior.  It was a childlike curiosity that she saw as he inspected the statue.

"I'm looking for something," he said.  His eyes searched all angles of the statue.

"What are you looking for, exactly?"

"Signs of aging.  How long has this statue been around?"

"About fifty years..." Twilight responded.

"Funny, it looks as if it was made yesterday..." Byron replied. "There's no signs of erosion from wind or water, no signs of animal excretions on it... heck, this thing looks new, if you ask me."

"Why does that matter?" Twilight asked.  Byron leaned in and peered at it a few seconds, but then leaned back and shook his head.

"It doesn't matter," he said.  This was a lie, but it was very much different from his other ones.  Something about that statue was bothering him, but he didn't know what.  Was it the appearance?  The smell?  He couldn't put his finger on it.

Then it snapped in him.  He knew exactly what was wrong with the statue, and it scared the hell out of him.

"Wait a minute... is that statue breathing?!"

***

"Holy mother of god..."

The three Fourth Echelon agents stared at the marvel before them.  A giant dome had been placed over the entire town, acting as a barrier.  It simply wouldn't let anything foreign pass through it.  The three had been trying to get through it as soon as it appeared, using many tactics and ideas, but nothing seemed to work.

"What is this thing even made of?" Kestrel asked, trying to break the wall with his own two fists.  He had gotten angry, and that anger had pushed him to doing the irrational.

"Dunno," a voice said into each of their ears at once.

Harper sighed. "How long have you been sitting there listening to us, Charlie?"

The computer expert simply laughed. "I've been listening the whole time!  Hell, I got in so early, I learned that you snore, Harper!"

"Yeah, yeah, you creep," Harper said, shaking his head. "How 'bout you start with your explanation as to what this wall is, since you're so damn smart, hm?"

"Calm down, I was only joking.  That thing you've been smashing multiple other things against would be called a neutral field."

"A neutral field?" Archer asked.

"Yeah.  Basically, what it does it stop all kinetic energy from existing between two spaces and immediately turns it into potential energy.  That way, nothing can move through it."

"So you can't break it, then?" Harper asked.

"Yeah, sort of... you can break it,but it would take a little bit for effort and materials than you guys have at the moment."

"Great," Harper replied, "So we're locked out."

"For the moment, yes.  However, you could try to break it even without the required materials."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, technically speaking, if you found a way to to force kinetic energy onto the barrier from... let's say hundreds of different angles at once, you could get through it.  The barrier would be overloaded by the amount of energy it would have to take in, thus giving way and breaking.  I doubt you could do it, though, given the amount of people and resources.  Think of it like shooting concentrated fire at one target while surrounding it, above and below, for two days straight.  It's not possible.  Why do you want to get in, anyway?"

"Well, Harper here said he heard an explosion near the town.  Thought O'Malley was up to something.  When we got to the place he was talkin' about, it was already sealed off.  If O'Malley's in there, then we can't go home.  Speakin' of which, have you even taken a look at the design for the teleporter?"

"Well, uh... yeah, but I can't make sense of them... unless O'Malley had some kinda data, this will take a while."

Archer thought for a moment. "Didn't he have an accomplice?  Some kind of crime buddy?"

"Yeah, he did, didn't he?" asked Kestrel in agreement.

"Let's see... does a certain 'Mr. Masters' ring a bell?" Charlie asked.

"That's the guy who was with O'Malley when we got teleported here!  Maybe he has something on the teleporter!" Harper proclaimed.

"But what about the barrier?" asked Charlie. "I mean, you still need to get through that."

"Even if we could get through now, then what?  We'll have to hold onto O'Malley for days before we found our way back to Earth, and I don't want any escape plans being hatched before then," Kestrel explained.

"All right, you make a fair point.  Masters, Masters... I guess he forgot to cover up his signal, because he's reading loud and clear.  Deceased... not far from you."

"Which way?"

"I'll set a marker for you.  You can see the map I made for you on your OPSAT.  Good luck on finding him, you guys."

Once again, the TACCOM went silent.  The three stepped off into the woods.

***

"Sister, please!  This is the one opportunity that we get to finally learn something about intelligent life beyond the cosmos!  We're not the only ones in this universe!"

"No!  The humans must not be here!  If we even try to connect with them, I assure you they will begin to take over this peaceful land!"

The two immortals argued and bickered like this for hours, fighting since they had learned about the human's arrival.

"The ones I met mean no harm!"

"Well, that's hardly what I read about them in the letter sent from Ponyville.  They attacked the place!  They have an insatiable  bloodlust; they want to hunt and kill ponies!  I will not allow such beasts in my lands!"

"You've got it all wrong!  These humans are trying to stop violence!  It is only the contradictory way they go about it that separates us from them!  Besides, you let plenty of feral beasts linger in these lands, ones far more dangerous than the humans!"

The two paused in their heated battle and then yelled out their final arguments at the same time.

"Sister, you know not of what you speak of!  These destructive beings could bring about the very end of ponykind!"

"Sister, these beings are nothing but lost and scared!  Give them a chance to prove themselves!

They stared at each other angrily, never facing away from each other.

The guard nearby shivered in his armor to see the two most powerful beings in Equestria argue like this.

"Um, Your Highnesses?"

"WHAT?!" They yelled at him.  He backed off and hid in his armor the best he could.

"The advisors you asked for are waiting for you in the council room," he managed to say, quailing in fear of what the two would do.

The two dropped their angered looks. "Good.  We will need them, as we cannot seem to agree on the matter at hand.  Perhaps their words will give one of us a change of heart," Celestia thought aloud.

"I hope you mean yourself when you say that, sister, as I am not changing my mind so easily," Luna replied haughtily.

The two walked off to join the discussion.

The advisers were waiting both patiently and silently went the two princesses entered the room and took their seats at their respective thrones.

"As you all know by now, we have humans about, and they are causing trouble.  You obviously have your own ideas on how to deal with them or get rid of them.  I'll take your suggestions now, starting with you."

She Nodded to the Health Adviser, and she began to explain her take on things.

"Well, most of what we know about humans is quite clouded and unclear, but one thing is for certain: they are destroying the minds of these ponies, filling them with fear!  Should these mental attacks on ponies continue, we may not be able to control what happens to other ponies, and they could get hurt, or even killed!  We must keep ponies and humans separated at all costs!"

The next one, the Defense Adviser, nodded in agreement. "I agree with the Health Adviser with her terms, but the way she wants to go about it is clearly not enough. Because these humans are so dangerous, we should fortify our towns and cities to defend against them!  We cannot simply stand by while these beings terrorize the populace!  I say we station guard patrols around every major city and every rural town, just for good measure!"

The final adviser, the Adviser for Foreign Affairs, spoke up, "If I may, I believe what the other two have to say on the matter is completely wrong.  These humans just need to be reasoned with, and we should give them a chance to explain themselves.  We're working off of assumptions and rumors here.  We need concrete evidence that the humans are truly as dangerous as we've heard.  Now, if they are dangerous, you will decide their fate, Your Highness, as you naturally would.  However, if they are trying to be peaceful, I say we take a different approach to all of this.  What they've done may seem malicious in intent, but perhaps we're just looking at things the wrong way. We have to search for what is truly going on here, not just believe what we want to believe."

The other two advisers just stared.  What they heard was a foreign concept, with no pun intended.

The Defense Adviser was the first to speak.  "Are you out of your mind?!  They attacked Ponyville! Attacked it, I say!"

The AFA shook her head. "I assure you, that was no attack!  They simply felt threatened, and so like any normal living being they retaliated.  It's not out of the ordinary!"

"But the mental status of ponies that have met humans is deteriorating!  They could go insane through fear!" the Health Adviser argued.

"Then ponies should learn not to fear them!  They need the truth!  Give the humans a chance to explain themselves!"

The three clamored all at the same time.

"No!  We need to fight them!"

"No!  We need to avoid them!"

"No!  We need to understand them!"

"Eh-hem."

At the sound of the Princess clearing her throat, the three immediately fell silent.

"Note that I judge each of you with great respect for your opinions, but I have to agree that understanding these humans should be the logical first step to any foreign encounter.  Once we know their motives, then we can make an informed decision based off what we know, not just what we heard.  Any objections can be stated now."

The advisers said nothing, fearing that if they defied their princess, it would not end well.

"No objections, I see.  Preparations for negotiations with the humans shall commence  immediately.  Sharp Tack!"

The nearby guard saluted. "Yes, ma'am!"

"Please escort the Adviser for Foreign Affairs to the train station.  Make sure she has what she needs before you two leave."

"Of course, Your Highness!"

"What?!  You're sending me?!" the adviser asked with much surprise in her voice.

"You have suggested the solution, and therefore you are the only one who knows exactly what should be done.  I see no reason why you should not be the one to negotiate with the humans."

The adviser's jaw dropped straight to the ground, and she found herself at a loss for words.  The Princesses began to walk back to the throne room, but left with one closing remark:

"Be sure to pack warm!  The Everfree forest is known to be quite cold at most times of the day!"

The two oversized doors closed, and the two other advisers left as well.  Butter Brittle, otherwise known as the Adviser for Foreign Affairs stood paralyzed in fear.  Now she knew what the Health Adviser was talking about.  She just signed herself up to go into one of the most dangerous forests in Equestria to talk to humans.  A lose-lose situation for her.

"Ma'am!"

The sound of the guard's voice made her jump out of her stupor. "Yes?"

"We're going to leave for Ponyville by train in one hour.  Bring only the bare necessities with you, and nothing that will weigh you down.  As soon as we step foot out of the defensive perimeter, I shall escort you to the last known location of the humans."

"Yes.  Of course." she replied, only half-listening to what Sharp had just said.  She didn't move an inch.

"That means you should go and pack.  Now, preferably."

Humans in the forest... there was more than one way this situation could go sour, and she didn't like to think of all the different ways how.  Absent-mindedly, Butter went off to go pack her things for the trip.  As much as she didn't want to do this, everypony had to know the truth behind the appearance of the humans.

Destroy

"Is that staue breathing?!"

The stone figure suddenly warped and changed into something indescribable.  A horror beyond horrors.

"W-WHAT IS THAT THING?!" Byron shouted, falling backwards onto the ground.

"Discord!" Twilight scolded. "How could you scare By-run like that?"

The being of choas simply laughed at the reaction he got from the human.  Once he had calmed down, he turned to Twilight.

"Oh, please, I was just having a little fun.  I'm sure your friend here understands, doesn't he?"

Byron stared.  There were no words for this moment.  None he could place into an intelligible sentence, anyway.

"What... How did.... Why..."

Discord laughed.  "He didn't even see it coming!  Hahaha!  Though I have to say, seeing through my disguise was quite the feat."

"Twilight... explain..." Byron managed to form these two words with much effort involved.

"By-Run, Discord.  Discord, By-Run."  Twilight quickly introduced them. "Discord is nothing but a trouble-maker in town.  He's a little strange... and not just with just the way he looks."

"Well excuse me, Princess." Discord backed off.  He snapped his loin-paw fingers and gave himself a cushioned chair , a monocle, a top hat, a robe, and a fake pipe that he blew bubbles out of. It gave him the look of a rich man reclining after a, quote unqoute, "hard day's work".  "In light of the current situation, I would hardly call myself the strange one here.  I mean, By-Run here doesn't exactly have the same kind of... aura as you ponies do."

Byron did not like the taunting he heard just then.  He came to his senses and got off of the ground. "Well, I see you've had your fun, beast.  Twilight and I were just having a calm and collected conversation until you came along."

"Is that so?  I thought it sounded more like an interrogation of sorts.  Perhaps maybe an... accusation."

He drew out the last word with a devious smile on his face.  Byron dusted off his pants, but said nothing in reply to the sly draconequus.  He didn't seem to notice the situation Discord was trying to put him in.

"I was not!" Twilight shouted at him.  "I was just... learning about his culture!"

"Yes, yes," Discord replied, "by trading food for info.  You could starve him, as he has no money for anything around here, but instead you chose to keep him alive.  However, I doubt this has anything to do with the magic of friendship."

"Discord, is it?"

The choas being turned his head around like an owl's to face Byron. "Yes, that's right."

"I don't like the way you act, the way you look, or even the way you speak.  Twilight just told me you were a trouble maker.  However, that will not stop until these ponies and I are allies, at the every least.  I suggest you leave before I have to take some... how do I put it... 'unnecessary actions'.  We both don't want that, now do we, Discord?"

"Oh, you poor little human.  You think you could even stand a chance against me.  You think you know just what to do and how to do it at all times.  I see how it is.  You make me out to be the impure being here... but what about you?  I know what you've done, what you've seen.  It's all in your eyes, should one look close enough."

Byron got defensive. "What are you talking about?"

Discord got up close and whispered into Byron's ear with a dastardly tone.  "I'm talking about how you are the worst kind of being there is.  You are a killer, you are a liar, and you are a devil.  I've seen you since you got to this planet: you do nothing but stab those have helped you in the back after all they've done for you.  You're no better than the other humans, and from what I've seen, you are worse than they are.  You are ignorant, incompetent, and insane.  Mark my words, 'Byron', if that truly is your name... you will be caught.  You won't go on with your plans, even if I wasn't here to tell you that I know all this."

He slithered away, allowing the look of dread, shock, and fear collapse into one onto the human's face.

"But don't you worry!" Discrod said with much enthusiasm. "It's a secret I'll take to my very grave..." --he then leaned in close to Byron-- "...so long as you don't dig it for me."

Discord straightened himself out and walked away, waving and shouting, "Hopefully we'll have a chance to talk again soon, Byron!  I just heard  a couple of ponies just got to Ponyville, and I'd like to be the first to greet them!  Until then, ta-ta!"

Byron was angry, confused, and anxious at what he had heard.  This strange beast was to rat him out!  If he tried to do anything to it, his actions would surely get him caught.  He grit his teeth.

"C'mon, By-run.  Let's forget about Discord and get back on topic.  Why don't you tell me about the people you knew back at your home?"

Byron didn't turn to her.  He didn't move.  He just stood there, staring at Discord as he strutted away.

***

As the three operatives drew closer in to Masters’ position, they felt a cold breeze blow by their faces.

Harper shivered a bit in the cold.  “Something’s wrong with this place.  I don’t like it.”

“Shh,” Kestrel silenced him. “Be quiet.  I think I hear something up ahead.”

Harper heard the noise, too.  It sounded like the gnashing of teeth and a patter of paws on the ground, neither of which comforted him in the least.

“Animals?” he suggested.

“Negative,” Archer responded, keeping his voice to a whisper.  “Nothing’s showing up on thermal.  Whatever is making that noise isn’t living.”

“Or maybe it’s just really cold,” Kestrel theorized. “Perhaps it doesn’t need heat to live.”

Archer let out a small laugh. “The day I meet a freezing cold, yet living, animal… that’ll be a cold day in hell, my friend.”

All too suddenly, the sounds stopped.  The three stopped in their tracks, pistols raised.  They heard some snorts and then more silence followed.  Whatever was over by Masters was sniffing for something.  Archer gestured to the other two to surround the assumed position of the body.  Kestrel went left, Harper went right, and Archer stayed put.

Harper got a glimpse of the creature as he made his way right.  It looked like a bunch of logs, only they moved.  They were animated, alive.  What were these things?

Just before they could surround the being, it let out a long howl and ran towards Archer.  It lept onto him and started to claw away at the bulletproof vest he wore.  Archer quickly pulled out a knife and stabbed the beast, but it was useless.

“You get off my friend, dammit!”

Kestrel rushed up and kicked the wolf-like wooden being off of Archer.  It lunged to bite him, but Archer got up in time to shoot it in the head.  The beast’s head flew off of the rest of its body due to the propulsion of the shot, and the rest it fell to pieces on the ground.  They stood there, taking deep breaths for a few seconds.

“I doubt that thing’s alone,” Archer rushed to say.  He turned behind him and saw three more converging on their position.

Three shots rang out and flew towards the timberwolves, some being more accurate than others.  The first connected with the leader’s head, knocking it off.  The second hit the back on in the hind leg, causing it to trip and fall, breaking it to pieces.  The last… missed altogether.

The remaining wolf lashed out, biting down onto Archer’s arm.  Blood gushed from the wound, and Archer yelled in pain.  He then smacked the beast’s jaw off and watched it fall to pieces.

Harper ran up to them. “Shit, that one got you!  Damn it!  This area isn’t safe!  Let’s just grab Masters’ body and go!”

However, when they rushed to Masters’ location, they found the body in bloody pieces on the ground.

Harper panicked.  "Fuck!  Now what?!"

Archer assessed the situation quickly.  "See if he's got anything on him!  We'll cover you!"

Harper dug through the mushy pile of Masters.  He heard the sounds of more beasts behind him, the shots of Archer and Kestrel, and the thump of logs falling to the ground.

"Hurry up!  We can't fight them off forever!"

Harper searched through the bloodied lab coat and found what might have been the device used to record the data for the teleporter.  He snatched it up and shouted, "Okay, I've got it!  Let's get out of here!"

Just when Harper turned back, he saw Archer get tackled by one of the beasts.  The animal began to gnaw on his leg while Archer shouted in pain, trying to get it off.  Kestrel kicked the attacker off of his partner and helped him up as they ran away from the pack of murderous logs.

It didn't take long for Harper to realize Archer was slowing them down.

"C'mon, c'mon!  Run! Run or they'll do to you what they did to Masters!"

"I can't!" Archer yelled to Harper. "Just leave me, and you two get out of here!"

"What?!  No!  You're coming with us, and we're all getting out of this alive!" Kestrel shouted at him. "Harper, come back here and help me carry him!"

Harper turned around and ran back the two others.  Each grabbing an arm, he and Kestrel lifted Archer from the ground.  They ran as fast as they could away from the beasts, but they just would not let up on the chase.

"We can't keep this up forever!" Harper informed the others. "We need a plan to get out of this situation, stat!"

"Look over there!"

Kestrel pointed to a hole in the shield, with a pony waving them over.

"Come on, there isn't much time!  You have to hurry before those beasts catch you!"

Harper questioned them, even in this dire situation.  "Who are--"

"There's no time to explain!  Just get over here!  Now!"

Harper gave it his all, using every last ounce of strength he had to rush to their opening in the barrier, their salvation.  Kestrel did the same, giving all three the last burst of speed to just make it...

... to just outside the barrier.

In an instant, they were stopped.  Something held them back.  Harper saw the look of fear on the pony's face in front of him.  He turned his head to see what had brought them to this unintended stop.  What he saw made him want to scream.

Archer's lower half was inside the mouth of one of the log beasts, the fangs of which had bitten into his waist.  His one visible eye was dilated.  He slowly turned his head to Harper.

"Let... go..." Archer whispered with his last breath. "Get... away..."

And just like that, Archer was tugged away from the two.  Harper and Kestrel fell to the other side of the barrier, which was then sealed.

"NOOOO!" Kestrel screamed, pounding on the barrier. "ARCHER!"

He watched as the feral beasts dragged the corpse away into the woods.

"NO! NO!  NO, GOD DAMN IT, NO!"

He pounded on the unbreakable barrier as hard as he could.  After a few seconds, his punches got slower and lost power until they were mere knocks on the magic wall.

Kestrel shrieked at the wall, "NO! No! No... nononononono... Archer... no..."

Harper didn't know what to do.  He simply stared   Stared as Kestrel wept.

"Sir... I'm so sorry..." the pony apologized.

Kestrel hesitated.  When he spoke, his voice was laden with poison.

"You did this...  you damned ponies drove us off...  through your distrust... and your hatred..."

Kestrel turned his head to the equines.

"I'll make you PAY FOR HIS LIFE!" he screamed, mad with anger.  He rushed towards the ponies.

Harper jumped in his way. "Kestrel, no!  This is not their fault!"

"I'LL KILL YOU!  I'LL KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU UNTIL THERE'S NOTHING LEFT TO KILL!  YOU DID THIS!  YOU KILLED ARCHER!!!"

Kestrel struggled against Harper's grasp, trying to push by him and kill his prey.  Harper's restraint was too much.  He couldn't get there.  That's when he realized he didn't need to.

"ARCHER WILL BE AVENGED!" Kestrel shouted.

Harper saw what he was planning to do.  He was too late to stop it now.

"Kestrel, no--!"

A gunshot rang out and echoed across the town, and then everything fell silent.