Call Of Equis

It was night, near eleven o'clock, in the Crystal Empire. Cadance looked at Armor, already asleep, tuckered out from his work. Cadance smiled, and turned back to her desk. The census papers had come in, and next to her sat a few empty coffee cups. As her eyes started to close, she yawned, and picked up her pen. After the destruction of Tirek and being freed from Tartarus, she had been throwing herself into her work as ruler of the Empire. Armor was concerned about her, but often she would reassure him that she was fine.

"Princess?"

Cadance looked up, and a guard was standing in the doorway.

"What is it?" Armor said groggily, getting up.

"We're reading fluctuations in the Mirror Portal. Energy is rapidly surging through it at an abnormal rate. We thought you'd like to know." the guard replied.

"Alright. Cady, you get some rest. We can handle those census papers in the morning." Armor said, getting up.

"I'll deal with it. You get some rest. You've had a long day." Cadance said, getting up.

"Alright. You should probably get some rest when this is over." Armor said, falling back into the bed. "You really need it."

Cadance smiled at her husband, and followed the guard to the Spire. As they approached the mirror, she could see what the guard meant. Green bolts of lightning were coursing through the Mirror's surface. As they neared, Cadance got a sudden onslaught of a headache. As she clutched her head, she saw random images. A skull, perched on the hilt of a winged sword, emblazoned with a one-four-one. A Mask with a skull painted on it. As the images flashed through her mind, she grew even more confused. The, suddenly, the headache was gone. As she stood up shakily, she noticed Armor helping her up.

"What happened?" he said, panicked.

"I don't know. I got a huge headache, then I saw a bunch of images. Like a mask with a skull and some sort of logo. But before I could make anything out of it, it was gone."

"Okay. Let's get you to the hospital..."

"SIR! The portal is acting up! Something is coming out!" A Guard yelled, and as the guards readied themselves, the portal burst open in a flash of energy, and a strange, bipedal being tumbled out, along with two long, metal objects. Cadance saw it was wearing what looked like a suit, fur-lined coat, and dress pants, except the pants had at least four pockets. He was also wearing some sort of vest and gloves. It had a worn, but kind, face, with brown hair. She couldn't see the rest of his face, as it fell face down clutching its chest. Cadance gasped and raised her hoof to her mouth. Armor motioned towards it, and the guards lowered their spears. Until they heard a faint voice, coming from the creature, speaking fluent Equestrian.

"Fuck...you...Makarov..."

Cadance lowered her hoof, and she walked carefully towards the creature. She saw a glimpse of brown eyes, and a small scar, but before she could walk back, it touched her leg. Cadance turned back and saw it roll over onto its side. She immediately gasped. A small hole in his torso was bleeding profusely. It managed to gasp out, before passing out from blood loss.

"Get it to the hospital!" Cadance yelled, and the guards called for a medic. Armor rushed towards the creature and began to use healing magic on it, only to stop.

"What's wrong?" Cadance asked.

"It's not working." Armor replied.

"Not working?"

"The Healing magic. It's not affecting the wound. He's immune!" Armor replied.

"Immune? How can he be immune to healing magic! It makes no sense!" Cadance replied.

"I don't know. We should get him to the hospital."

After a few more minutes, in which Cadance had tried to seal the wound, with no avail, the doctors arrived, and after a quick teleportation, arrived at the hospital. Rushing the being to the emergency room, Cadance watched as they operated on the being, removing his clothing, revealing a well built body, with a few flecks of color on his chest, which Cadance assumed was the remains of a tattoo. After around thirty minutes, the doctors reported the wound was closed, and they were moving him to a private room. Cadance and Armor followed the gurney to a room on the third floor. As they set the being down using magic, a doctor pulled the two of them aside.

"Princess, Prince, I'm Doctor Tender." he said.

"Thanks Doc. What do we know?" Cadance asked.

"We managed to determine, thanks to his body structure, that it's a male."

"Okay. Anything on him we can use to identify his name or where he's from?"

"No. There's no tags on his clothing or anything like that. The two objects that came with him.." Tender pointed to them, as they were set on a table, "...there's no engravings or anything like that. The strange thing was what we pulled out of the wound."

Tender held up a bag. Inside was a small, conical object. It was dull gray, with flecks of brown, and it had grooves and marks running down the length of it.

"What is that?" Armor asked.

"We don't know. We think it's some sort of projectile, like an arrow or crossbow bolt, but we don't know what propels it. The black scorch marks were definitely generated by heat or by an explosion, so we have a starting point there. But the strange thing is his magic immunity. We took a blood sample, and found this."

Tender held up a photo of a white, disc-like object.

"These things are everywhere in his blood and they're the source of his immunity. We know that they're linked to his body's natural healing function in some way, but we don't know how they generate a magical immunity. As for the other things in his blood, standard red and white blood cells, used for carrying oxygen and fighting disease."

"Okay. Anything else?" Cadance replied.

"One last thing. We know it's intelligent, judging by the fact that he spoke fluent Equestrian when he came out. He also made reference to something or some other of his species named "Makarov." We don't know what that means, but it must be crucial to him."

"Thanks doctor. We'll check back on him tomorrow." Armor said, and as they walked out of the room, Cadance looked at her husband.

"What's wrong?"

"I think that he came here for a reason." Cadance replied.

"Why?"

"You know those images I saw when I got that headache? A few minutes after I see them, he comes out of the mirror portal. It only opens every thirty moons, and now that I think of it, today is the day it's supposed to open. Why...did he come here..."

"Princess!"

They turned and saw Doctor Tender running towards them.

"What's going on?"

"The being. He's awake."

====================================================================================================

Allen woke up to a stabbing pain in his side. As he looked around, even with his clouded vision, he noticed he was in some kind of hospital. An IV bag and needle rested in his arm, and he was clad in his cargo pants and hospital scrubs. His vision was still cloudy. As he sat up, ignoring the pain, he noticed the door opening. Allen promptly swore under his breath. Two unicorns, and some sort of Pegasus-Unicorn hybrid entered the room. The first unicorn, Allen guessed, was a doctor. The second unicorn was white, with a blue mane. He had a curious look on his face, and on his flank was a shield. The Pegasus-Unicorn hybrid had a pink coat, with a pink, yellow, and purple mane. A blue heart with gold designs rested on her flank. She had a worried look on her face as she sat down next to him. Then it spoke to him, in fluent English.

"Are you okay?" she said in a kind, but worried voice.

"Where the hell am I?" Allen replied.

"In Equestria, in the Crystal Empire." she replied.

"Shit. Well, I guess I'm no longer on Earth anymore." Allen said with a sigh.

"Earth? That's the world you're from?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"Why are you here?" the other unicorn, the white one, asked.

"I died." Allen said.

"But you're alive! How can you be dead then!" the pega-unicorn said, shocked.

"I guess I died on Earth, and then I got resurrected and I end up here." Allen said.

"Okay. I guess we should restart. I'm Princess Cadance. That's my husband, Shining Armor, and Doctor Tender."

"Nice to meet you all. PFC Joseph Allen, CIA."

"PFC? CIA?" Armor asked.

"PFC stands for Private, First Class. I was an Army Ranger, before I was inducted into my home nation, the United States of America's, intelligence department, the CIA. I was implanted in a Russian ultra-nationalist group."

"Russia? Ultra-nationalist?" Cadance asked, confused.

"Ultra-nationalism is where you love your country, and despise all others, often leading to...confrontations. Often, in my world, humans will do anything for their country. Even fight and die. As for Russia, it's another country on Earth, the largest to be exact. Russia and The United States aren't exactly on the best of terms. A recent attempted coup against the government led to a near-nuclear war, which was averted after a few close calls. I was implanted into a cell led by Vladimir Makarov, the leader of the Ultra-nationalist movement..."

"Makarov? You cursed him when you came out of the mirror portal!" Cadance said, surprised.

'Yes, I did. You have to know why. Makarov had planned to start a war between the United States and Russia, by faking a terrorist attack on a airport, where lots of people gather to travel. He was going to use American weapons and equipment to make it look like the United States had sanctioned the attack. I, under the identity of Alexei Borovin, was to gain his trust...by participating." Allen said with disgust.

"What's terrorism?" Armor asked.

"A terrorist uses fear to get what they want."

"Why?" Cadance asked.

"Our world...is...complicated. We're always at each others throats. Ever since our race began, we've been fighting to survive. That includes war. We have fought wars that were needed, like the Second World War, when the United States, plus a few other countries, including Russia, then known as the Soviet Union,  toppled an alliance of dictators, led by a genocidal maniac. Long story. But the thing is, I was supposed to help him trigger the war. And I did, in a way."

"Why?"

"Makarov planned to massacre the civilians at the airport. And kill anyone who stood in his way. I had to...help him. When I thought I was in the clear, after fighting our way past Russian police, Makarov shot me. Somehow, he knew I was an American spy. He left my body, an American's body, at the feet of hundreds of dead Russians. That alone probably gave Makarov the war he wanted. It was my fault. I should have killed him when I had the chance. I failed my mission. And because I failed, the war's probably still going on, because of me." Allen said with a small tear coming out of his eye.

"You..killed...innocent...people?" Cadance said, abhorred.

"I didn't want to, I had to, Princess. I learned, as a Ranger, never to disobey orders. I even obeyed the order Makarov gave me to not speak any of the Russian language, which would have given him away. I had to obey him, or I would be found out. I guess none of that matters now, I guess. Shining?"

"Yeah?"

"I can guess you command the Crystal Empire's military, correct?"

"Yeah. Why..."

"Say you were in a high-risk mission. Where you had to sacrifice one to save ten. Would you do it?"

"It depends..."

"Or sacrifice ten to save one hundred? Or possibly one hundred to save thousands? Hundred thousands? Millions? Your entire Nation?" Allen spoke.

"I still don't get where you are going, Allen!" Shining said, angered slightly.

"My point is, sometimes sacrifices must be made. And to save my nation from war, I had to pay the price. The ultimate price. But I failed, and most likely, the United States and Russia are now at war. And now I wish it was a price I hadn't paid. I tried to save what I held most. I failed. The only thing left for me now is to receive my punishment. I guess I'll leave it to you to decide. Kill me, send me away, do what you want. It doesn't matter to me now." Allen said with a sigh.

"That's not necessary, Private Allen."

All eyes turned to the White alicorn standing in the doorway. Allen bowed his head, and she nodded in response.

"Celestia? What are you doing here?" Armor said, surprised.

"I had my own set of...let's say...visitors." she said with a smile, and in walked two more humans. One was tall, around the same age as Allen, with a worn face, but a pleasant expression. The other was a bit shorter, with a well-built body. His face was covered by a mask, with a skull printed on it. They were both wearing similar grey, brown, and black clothing, and they carried objects similar to that of Allen's. As they sat down, they waved to Allen, who smiled back.

"What happened?" Cadance asked her aunt.

"Well, I guess I should let them explain what happened." she said with a smile.

"Thanks, Princess. the first one said. I'm Gary Sanderson. This is Simon Riley. You can call me Roach. Simon's Ghost. Welcome back to the land of the living, Allen."

"You guys are in the One-Four-One." Allen said, noticing the patches on their arms. "How did you guys die?"

"Shepard. The bloody bastard betrayed us."

"Shepard? As in General Shepard, the man who recruited me into the One-four-one?"

"Yeah. Well, I guess I should fill you in. After your death, the Russians invaded the US in revenge. We were dispatched to find Makarov and kill him or bring him to justice. We were dispatched to Brazil to find the guy that sold Makarov the guns used in the massacre, which led us to a Russian gulag, containing a person named Prisoner 627. Turns out it was Captain MacTavish's old commander,  John Price. After that, while the US was bleeding, we split up to cover more ground. Ghost and I raided one of Makarov's safehouses in the Georgian-Russian border. As we made our escape, Shepard met us. As we told him we had the DSM, he smiled, then he shot me dead. Ghost tried to kill him, but Shepard was faster. He then burned our bodies, and with that, the evidence that he betrayed us."

Allen had been growling throughout the whole story, but when Roach finished, he launched into a string of curses.

"Easy there, tiger." Ghost said with a smile. "We still have a job to do."

"Yeah." Allen replied. "Cadance?"

"Yes?" she replied.

"How often does that mirror portal that I came out of open, by the way?"

"Once every thirty moons, I believe." she replied.

"Damn. Well guys, I guess we're stuck here for the time being." Allen said,

"Yep. Hey, you guys got anything to eat? I'm bloody starved." Ghost said with a smile.

"We'll get you all some food. Just sit tight here." Armor said as the ponies walked out.

"Hey, Armor." Allen said.

"What?"

"You're a lucky stallion to get a girl like her." Allen said. "Don't let that go to waste."

"Thanks. I'll remember that." Shining said as they walked out.