Shadows of Hope
Chapter 14: 14. Science Gives You Headaches
Previous Chapter Next ChapterChapter 14: Science Gives you Headaches
A couple of weeks had past, and almost everyone had returned home. They had stayed in a hotel while Scarecrow was hospitalized, but the doctors said that he was, "Extremely lucky, and would be able to make a full recovery soon."
What they didn't know was Luna was somehow able to conduct a healing spell that increased the healing rate of the injuries, but after that her magic seemed to fade away, the group guessing it must be a side effect of having a different body. After some talking, it was decided that Luna would Stay with Twilight and Specter.
"It's nice of you doing this for me." Luna complimented as she looked around the house.
"It's the least I can do until we're called back into service." Specter said.
"About that, what are we suppose to do about Luna when we are? We'd have to explain it." Twilight said, looking over to Luna, who was trying to work the T.V. Specter walked over for a minute and showed her how to use it, walking back to Twilight afterwards.
"I see what you mean. but hopefully we'll have enough time to figure out wh-" Specter was interrupted by a knock on the door.
"I've got it." Twilight said. She went to the door and opened, her eyes meeting two men in black suits.
"Can I help you two?" Twilight asked.
"Ms. Sparkle," One said, pulling out a badge which had the C.I.A.'s seal, "C.I.A. We need to talk to Specter.
"How do you know who I am?" She asked, letting them in. The other looked at her.
"With all do respect ma'am, we know everything. We may not know all about where you come from, but when you come here, you're under our radar." he said. Twilight stopped, questioning this.
"Do these government officials always spy on their people?" she thought. She pushed it aside, as she had to with many other questions about this place. She joined Luna, but kept an eye on the three men. They were talking, Specter getting a concerned look.
"Well, we could give her the basic training." Specter said.
"We can't risk it. Their lives have been in danger in every battle, and the last one with the tower collapse was too close they will be safe, we have a place set for them in Michigan. The owner said he could watch them, but they have to swear to secrecy to not reveal any details. This man had military relations, we can trust him." One of the Agents said.
"I have talked to him in person, He is a good man." the other said.
"Well, who is he?" Specter asked.
"His name is Will." was all he could get out of the Agent. The three continued discussing, and Twilight looked back to the T.V.
"I have a feeling a lot is going to change soon…" She thought.
It had been 2 weeks since they left their countries, and the girls. Scarecrow had a medical evaluation, and he was cleared for duty. Price looked at a small paper he had about the place they were going to.
"Where the bloody hell is Yakutsk anyway?" Price asked, tossing the paper aside.
"It's the capital of the Sakha Republic of Russia." Ghost responded, checking his ACR 6.8.
"Well, the sooner we get this done the sooner we can get back to the girls." Jester said, loading his MK46.
"Too right mate" Ghost replied.
"Just keep your eyes open." Soap said, looking out the window. "this choppers dropping us off outside the designated area, we're using the night as cover." he said.
"Sounds like my kind of fight," Scarecrow stated, checking the variable zoom on his MSR before putting a silencer on it. "Silent takedown." He put the sling he made for the gun on, putting the sniper rifle over his shoulder.
"Right. Keep in radio contact at all times, channel 6. Ghost, you safe hack it so they don't detect us?" Specter asked.
"Piece of cake make." Ghost replied.
"For the love of God, don't say cake, That's all Pinkie made for me before she left." Jester groaned, causing the others to chuckle.
"Okay ladies, we're landing. Have fun." the pilot said, hovering over the ground. They let out ropes and slid down, the co pilot puling them back up before the chopper took off, leaving the squad alone in the dark, cold, misty night.
"Right, let's get moving. Our other squad mates can't come in until we scout the area and get confirmation on our target." Soap said. They walked for a while, sticking to the shadows.
"So who is this Bespalov guy anyway?" Jester asked, keeping his tight grip on the cold steel of the MK46.
"He was a muppet for Makarov, supposedly he was able to give Rojas the deal about the weapons trade for the Moscow Massacre. We couldn't find any dirt to prove it, but he then was an intelligence officer for scientific experiments. If we can capture him, we can maybe get some info about the other elements. We have some of the elements now, but we don't know where the others are, and if we don't, that doesn't mean they don't either." Price explained.
"Yeah, so we're suppose to tag and bag, not meet and exterminate." Specter added. They came to a fork in the road they were taking, but a local sign was there with directions. Scarecrow stepped up to try and translate it.
"It says both roads lead into Yakutsk , this one to the left goes through some hills that gives you a good view of the city. Sounds like I've found myself a sniper spot." he said.
"Right. Jester, go with Scarecrow to cover him if things get hot." Specter ordered.
"You got it boss man." Jester said. He and Scarecrow fist bumped and started going down the left road, the others going right.
"Just like old times, eh mate?" Soap asked.
"Heh, don't remind me." Price snickered.
Jester and Scarecrow were walking along, keeping their eyes open for any movement, but eventually just strolled along.
"So I heard this place was a major supplier of diamonds." Jester commented, looking around.
"Yeah, like we're gonna get paid for this." Scarecrow scoffed, looking around. It was quiet, a couple of birds chirping here and there. They went to a top of a hill where they could see some buildings of the town.
"Alright, let Price know we're in position while I set up." Scarecrow said, lying down to hide himself in the tall grass, making himself "disappear".
"Showtime." Jester muttered, pressing a button on his headset. "Hunter 4-2, this is Echo 3-1, we are in position for sniper support, over." Jester said. All he got back was static. He repeated his words, the static being the only answer. "They're not responding," he told Scarecrow.
"What do you mean, was our communications broken?" Scarecrow asked.
"No, it's ju-" Jester was not able to finish before disappearing. This, of course, caught Scarecrow off guard.
"What in the name of-" Scarecrow disappeared before finishing.
"Are we seriously doing this again?" Jester complained. Before long, Scarecrow appeared next to him.
"Okay, just for the record, WHAT THE HELL MADE US GO THROUGH THIS SHIT AGAIN?!" Jester yelled.
"Well, your yelling certainly isn't helping." Scarecrow replied.
"Yeah, but I don't think that is going to either!" Jester exclaimed, pointing at a blue box that was rapidly heading towards them. They wouldn't have had time to move, but out of no where they felt a pair of hands grab them, pulling them out of harms way.
"Hey, thanks for the help s-whoa." Jester stopped mid sentence, Scarecrow could not even speak at all. They were looking into the eyes of a cross breed of a human and a pony, her skin completely white, still bearing horns and wings, and while she had the hands of a human, she still had hooves where feet were.
"I see you two do not see my kind often." the women said, her flowing hair covering one of her eyes.
"You can say that Ma'am…" Scarecrow replied.
"I am Princess Celestia, Ruler of Equestria. I believe you two may have heard of me, Jester and Scarecrow." Celestia said, introducing herself.
"Oh, nice to- wait, how do you know who we are?" Jester asked.
"When you last teleported during your mission in Japan, I picked up the energy trace, and I saw you two. You two have a very rare achievement." Celestia said with a chuckle. Jester muttered something, but Scarecrow's eyes locked on the two figures behind her.
"Who are they.." Scarecrow said, locking eyes with another human-pony anthro, this one pink with horns and wings.
"Oh, This is Princess Cadence of the Crystal Empire," Celestia said, Cadence smiled and gave a slight bow.
"It is and honor to meet you two warriors." She said. Scarecrow gave a traditional Japanese style bow in return, which seemed awkward to him considering they were freely floating in this time space continuum tunnel, or portal, or whatever they were in. Sci-fi shows always hurt his head as a child.
"And I'm Spike," the other one said. He actually looked like a regular human, except for his green spiky hair.
"Cosplay much?" Jester muttered to Scarecrow. Scarecrow elbowed him in the shoulder as a result.
"So how are we teleporting again?" Scarecrow asked Celestia.
"This I am unsure of… did you find another lost temple?" Celestia asked.
"No, we were just setting up a sniping position on a hill, nothing special, and- hey, all our weapons our gone!" Jester explained. Scarecrow checked his supplies, and sure enough, they were gone. His tactical knife and pistol had disappeared, but he still had his short hand medical supplies, ammunition, everything else.
"That is strange," Scarecrow said.
"Maybe it's because that author guy is getting payback for Japan." Jester said.
"Will you shut up about that?! We were lucky we weren't killed last time!" Scarecrow exclaimed. Cadence chuckled while Celestia had a bit of a confused look.
Before they could say anything else, Celestia looked to a portal that was coming up surprisingly fast. Before any other words could be exchanged, Celestia, Cadence, and Spike disappeared into thin air.
"Well, NOW what?" Jester smugly asked, crossing his arms and looking at Scarecrow.
"Why look at me, I'm not an expert time traveler." Scarecrow replied, thinking about what to do.
"Well, I guess we just have to wait, we'll end up somewhere." Jester said, getting into a sitting pose.
"Guess your right, but hopefully so-" Before Scarecrow could finish, he disappeared into thin air.
"Scarecrow? SCARECROW?!" Jester shockingly asked, comically looking around, before disappearing himself.
"Scarecrow, Jester, pick up you bloody bastards." Price said into his radio, only getting static as a response. "Your boys aren't very talkative Specter."
"Have our communications been jammed?" Specter asked.
"Negative. If the Reds were jamming us, I'd know. But our radios haven't been working for the past 10 minutes, it's strange.
"I can't get a damn fix on them, it's like they've vanished." Soap said, looking an a small laptop.
"We have to continue on with the mission, with or without them." Price said.
"With all due respect sir, those are my men, I don't want to move on not knowing what's happened to them." Specter said.
"Captain, We have a mission. We all have known those two long enough, they can fight off just about anything." Price said.
"I know. That's why it worries me that they're not responding." Specter replied.
"Look, the sooner we get this done, the sooner we can look for Scarecrow and Jester. Alright mate?" Price said. "We don't have a choice, we have to move out before Bespalov does." he informed. He turned back around, putting a hand on Specter's shoulder. "Don't worry mate, we're going to find them." he reassuringly said.
After some contemplating, Specter nodded.
"Yes Sir…" Specter said, checking his weapon and following the others. "God be with them…" he quietly said.
The first thing Scarecrow saw when he came out of teleportation was a floor, and he met it. The only problem was, it was with his face. He face planted, the rest of his body joining the ground soon after. He heard another loud thud shortly after that, and saw Jester had done the same thing.
Jester got up and helped Scarecrow, and they surveyed their surroundings, and they were surprised to say the least. They were in a room, surrounded by the girls they had left, as well as some people they didn't recognize. Scarecrow noted the one man in particular was looking straight back at him. This didn't make him feel uneasy, what made him feel uneasy was the fact that Applejack was looking also, along with a little girl and a bigger guy, whom he presumed were human versions of her big brother and little sister.
"Are we in an alternate universe?" Jester quietly said to Scarecrow.
"I don't know, we may be, the girls don't recognize us…" Scarecrow replied.
"Goddamn science shows.." Jester quietly exclaimed. They both shut up immediately when Celestia looked at them.
"This is Scarecrow," Celestia said, pointing to him, he gave a silent nod in return. "And Jester." she said, pointing to Jester, who waved for some reason.
"Hey.." Scarecrow said, his eyes shifting nervously to the Apple family.
"Sup?" Jester said, his eyes glancing the same way to Pinkie. They all said their "hellos" or some just waved or gave a nod, not recognizing them.
"These two are having an interesting situation with teleportation," Cadence said, "According to Jester, it will be a matter of hours or minutes before some 'all-mighty overlord of the storyline' takes them back to their dimension."
"Don't judge Bushwacka! He has control of us here t-" Jester started yelling, before Scarecrow covered his mouth. The look Scarecrow gave him got the message through.
"Excuse us," Scarecrow said, pulling Jester out of the room. The stepped out, going into the living room area.
"You know, we shouldn't be in here, it's not our house." Scarecrow said.
"Like we had a choice?" Jester responded.
"Right…" Scarecrow responded.
"So where are we, and why did the girls not recognize us? Even if we are wearing our masks, they still know our voices!" Jester exclaimed.
"Let's take it one step at a time. Let's find out where we are first." Scarecrow said. He found a laptop, and figured he could use it to find their location. When he turned the screen on, he saw the main menu for a computer game.
"Team fortress 3..." Scarecrow read, getting a smile. "I told you!" He exclaimed, Jester groaning.
"This doesn't count, we said when it would come out, not teleport to when it already came out." Jester replied. Both men chuckled as Scarecrow exited out of the game and pulled open the web browser.
"Google Chrome 5.0?" Scarecrow asked himself. "Wait, Future, right." he said, face palming in his own embarrassment. In the address bar, he typed in "Local Weather" and hit enter. In a fraction of a second, he saw that he was on the local weather website for Michigan.
"Okay, so we're in the U.S., but when? If the girls are here, do you think it's actually our own time?" Jester asked.
"No, not possible, they would have recognized us…" Scarecrow replied. He then had a thought, then typed in something else.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Jester asked. Scarecrow then slapped his right knee in anger, and got up. Jester saw what he looked at and face palmed. He was looking at the score for the World Cup final, the U.S. lost 2-3 to Germany. Jester then looked at the score, and something caught his eye. One of the Goal scorers for the U.S. had a name Jester immediately recognized.
#14 Nick Walker - GOAL, 67'
Jester rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things, but the name was still there. He looked at Scarecrow, then back to the name.
"Nah, it's just a coincidence." Jester said, closing out the browser. He and Scarecrow then slowly walked back up to the room the others were in.
"So, even if we are in a different time, how come they don't know us? Were they mind swiped or something?" Jester asked.
"I don't know.." Scarecrow replied.
"I hate time travel.." Jester scoffed, shaking his head. Scarecrow looked at him.
"People assume time is a strict progression of cause to effect but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wobbly wobbly, timey wimey….. Stuff." Scarecrow said. Jester's jaw dropped a little.
"Where the fuck did that come from?" he asked.
"It's the words a of a very smart man, and it definitely makes more since then why we teleported here in the first place." Scarecrow replied. They walked back in, the others, and the guy Scarecrow figured out was called "Will" looking at them. Not saying a word, they went back to where they had first landed.
As they did, Scarecrow could've sworn that A.J. had given him a look, one a girl would do if she thought you were cute. He didn't know why, but it just didn't feel right here.
"Ah, yes. Well the rest is simple. Discord will return with us, no matter where he is in the world. Apple family, your grandmother is in good hands, being taken care of by some royal guards, whom are also doing some of the farm work," Celestia explained. The Apple family all sighed in relief.
Obviously Scarecrow and Jester had missed some kind of important discussion involving this universe…place…time…whatever the fuck Jester and Scarecrow thought it was.
"Twilight, your brother says hello, and wishes you luck." Twilight smiled at this.
"Other than this, Ponyville is in good shape. I've cast a spell on the town so that the public doesn't get too grumpy from the lack of Pinkie."
Speaking of Pinkie, she started to shudder wildly. Twilight spoke, "Oh no, what now?"
"Will can explain," Pinkie said when she stopped shuddering.
"Explain what?" Will asked, confused.
"Not you, Will. Author Will," Pinkie said. Everyone pulled a blank.
"Has anyone seen my characters?" Something said.
"Oh, Jester and Scarecrow. Right over here. Go ahead, take 'em. Thanks for the que on that one, Pinkie," another said. With that, Jester and Scarecrow disappeared, leaving everyone with a huge 'What the fuck just happened' face.
Scarecrow and Jester landed again before they could even tell what happened, and they were back in their sniping spot, just as they had left it.
"What the fuck just happened?" Jester asked. Scarecrow shrugged.
"Cameo maybe?" he muttered.
"Goddamn it, quit with the fourth wall jokes." Jester said, holding his head.
"Right, let's just get to work." Scarecrow said, trying his radio again.
"Scarecrow? Jester? Where the hell were you two?" Soap's voice exclaimed over the radio. He could tell by the quiet pitch they were still in stealth mode, the enemy hadn't seen them.
"We… had some interference with the radio, we were trying to fix it. We're in position, I'm ready to take the shots when you give the order." Scarecrow said. Jester was setting up a rangefinder, he was going to be Scarecrow's spotter.
"Right, well, glad you to are back." Soap responded over the radio.
"Sir, you have no idea how right you are about that." Jester said, looking through the scope of the rangefinder, getting the statistics of a Spetsnaz squad.
A/N: hey guys, this may be the latest chapter for a while, my school is starting back, so I won't be able to update as often with the homework and all I'll probably have. But don't stray away, I'll try to update when I can! Stay tuned for more!