Defender

by Kaibble


Peace is our Profession

Jack slowly regained consciousness, greeting it with mixed feelings. On the one hand he now knew that he was still alive. And on the other, every fiber of his being was in incredible pain. He just laid there with his eyes closed, trying to block the pain from his mind. He didn’t have to open his eyes to know where he was though. Hospital, he could smell it, that unique hospital smell. Maybe the rescue team had come after all. Maybe everything he had experienced yesterday had all been some kind of crazed hallucination due to exposure. He laughed to himself. That had to be it. It seemed so silly now. Talking, flying cartoon animals, of course it was a hallucination. He heard movement to his right and decided to take a stab in the dark.

“Doc you would not believe the dream I had while I was out.” He said, eyes still closed.

“Oh really?” He heard a voice say.

“Yeah.” Jack continued. “I was falling through the sky from, like, skydiving height, and I got rescued by a flying, talking animal.” He let out a little laugh.

“Tell me,” the voice said, “was this animal anything like, say, a pony?”

“Yeah!” Jack responded smiling. “How did you…” His smile faded as a thought occurred to him. Ridiculous though it appeared, the events had seemed, and felt, real enough. He ventured to open one of his eyes.

There was another cartoon animal, perhaps a pony, standing there.

“Nice of you to join us Mr. Beckett. I assume Beckett is your name?” The pony said, nodding at the grimy and ripped multi-cam jacket that hung on a nearby coatrack.

“Yeah.” Jack answered, his face unchanging

“Well I am Doctor Whooves and I’ll be…” He paused as Jack slowly reached out and grabbed the doctor’s nose, giving it a little squeeze. “Caring for you.” He finished nasally.

“You’re real.” Jack said in disbelief.

The doctor sighed. “This is going to be a long day.”

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Jack sat in the hospital bed poring over the history books that the nurse had brought him at his request. He’d spent days reading them, trying to figure out just what kind of place he had ended up in. Equestria, Canterlot, Ponyville, it was all a bit above his head. A world occupied primarily by ponies. Not only that, but they came in regular, unicorn and pegasus, like he had seen on his rather eventful arrival. There was also apparently something called an Alicorn, a combination of the unicorn and pegasus. The world also appeared, for lack of a better word, cartoonish. This included himself, but he was trying not to think about it too much. It was giving him a bad enough head ache already and he didn’t need to further burden his already fragile mental state.

As Jack contemplated his predicament one of the nurses poked her head inside the room.

“Princess Celestia is on her way to meet with you so please be on your best behavior.” The nurse said, quickly shutting the door as soon as she finished.

Jack let out a heavy sigh, aching his bruised body somewhat. He got the feeling he wasn’t completely trusted around here. The ponies never came in less than two at a time and he often heard the deadbolt clink behind them when they left his room. He was isolated alone with no other patients and the staff spent as little time with him as possible despite his attempts to be cordial. It had taken some smooth talking just to get the books.

Jack heard the door open again. The being that walked through was among the more majestic things he had ever seen. He had seen pictures of Princess Celestia in the books but he had expected them to be exaggerations, like many history books of its kind tended to do. From what he could tell the books hardly did her justice. Perhaps it was because the books couldn’t illustrate the fact that her pastel, multi-colored mane seemed to flow steadily in a non-existent breeze. Or the twinkle of what seemed like eons of wisdom in her eyes. She was a good two to three feet taller than any of the other ponies Jack had seen, making her at least as tall as him, maybe taller. She stood before him with a regalness that made Jack the kind of nervous he felt when anyone above a Lieutenant-Colonel talked to him. He almost felt like he was going to get in trouble for not standing at attention and saluting.

“Jack Beckett.” She said simply. Her voice was soft but still had a certain edge of seriousness to it.

“Yes Ma’am?” Jack replied smiling meekly.

The Princess smiled softly at him. “You have nothing to fear from me young one, I am only here to talk.” The edge disappeared from her voice and it now carried an all-around sweetness that put Jack at ease.

“Of course Ma’am.” Jack replied, relaxing a little.

She smiled at his formality. “How are your injuries?”

“Painful.” Jack nodded. “Very painful. But just the same I am beyond lucky to even be alive. And I would like to thank the, uh, pony that saved my life. She was light blue with a rainbow colored mane and tail. She almost got herself killed in the process so…” He made a meaningless gesture with his hands.

“Yes, Rainbow Dash mentioned what happened. She also mentioned that you tried to sacrifice yourself when it appeared that her rescue attempt would result in both your deaths. A very selfless and noble act. One that shows you value the lives of others above your own. And yet,” the Princess suddenly became very somber. “You have stains on your heart. You’ve taken the lives of others like you without a second thought. You carry with you tools of death designed only to take lives. Tell me, can I let somepony like you walk free without fearing for my pony’s lives, or must I keep you confined until we’ve discovered a way to send you back to your home?”

Jack looked at the book in his hand. “I read up on your history. All I can think when I look through these books is how lucky your people are. Despite the obvious differences that exist between them they remain united. You’ve never had the need for a real war. My world isn’t so lucky. Some people, all they can see are the differences between us and to them that’s enough of a reason to lash out. And when they do they don’t care who gets killed. Someone has to stand in their way and that’s what I do. I fight when there’s a fight, I don’t go looking for one. But…” He sighed heavily. “I would understand if you decided to quarantine me. Your people come first after all.”

The Princess looked him over a few more moments before smiling again. “I thought you might feel that way. That is why, when you have fully recovered from your injuries, I will allow you to walk free. With an escort of course.”

“Really? Wow, um, thank you.” Jack was surprised at the level of trust she was displaying to him. He had no doubt that had the shoe been on the other foot she would have been captured, interrogated and likely experimented upon. Instead he was being cared for in a proper hospital and would be allowed to walk about and see the country. “I’m guessing my equipment is off limits?”

“Everything that came with you is being inspected. Items deemed safe will be returned to you, everything else will be locked up until you are returned.”

Jack looked down and thought for a moment. Some of the things in his kit were really dangerous. His rifle, the bullets, not to mention the damned grenades. She was trusting him so he might as well show a little trust back. Besides, he didn’t want anybody to get killed because they were fooling around with a grenade without knowing how dangerous it was.

“Princess Celestia,” he said, looking back up at her, “if you’ll allow me to review my kit I can identify which items need to be locked up. Some things in it like to explode if they get messed with the wrong way.”

The Princess gave Jack a knowing smile, almost as if she had been expecting him to offer. “Very well. The doctor tells me you will be healed enough to get out of bed tomorrow. I will have my student, your escort, come pick you up and take you where we are holding the items. Till then, get some rest. You look like you need it.” She walked out the door, leaving Jack to his thoughts. He fell back into his pillow. He was eager to get out of the hospital but she was right, he needed to get some sleep.

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“Reaper 2 Alpha, Control.” The radio crackled.

“Go for Reaper 2 Alpha.” The truck commander, Master Sergeant Johnson, answered.

“Copy, we have an active distress beacon approximately 5 clicks north of your position that Command wants you to check out. Grid coordinates are 16392848.”

“Roger that.” She said, punching the numbers into the GPS. “Do we have any air units conducting a flyover?”

“Negative, high winds in the area and proximity to the mountains are preventing any flyovers at this time. If conditions change we’ll send units your way.”

“Tango control, we’ll let you know what we find when we get there.”

“Copy that Reaper 2, happy hunting.” Control cleared the channel. Sergeant Johnson keyed her radio to the truck column.

“Everybody get that?”

“Bravo copies.”

“Charlie copies.”

“Handsome 1 copies.”

Sergeant Johnson smiled. “Would it kill you to be professional for once Delta?”

“It hasn’t yet, but why take that chance?”

“Roger that.” She accepted, still smiling. “Let’s roll out Reaper 2.” The four truck column changed course, heading for the nearest mountain road that would take them to their objective. The truck bounced around on the poorly maintained Afghan road, slowly making its way into the mountains.

“Sergeant Johnson.” The driver suddenly spoke up.

“What is it Badolato?”

“Well it’s just that these coordinates are almost 3 clicks out of our patrol range. Isn’t this more a job for the Army?” The young airman asked.

White gave Badolato’s helmet and quick smack from behind him. “They want it checked out before the end of the month Bado. You know how those Army guys are, they couldn’t find their own asses with both hands and a map.”

The sergeant smiled. “White’s right in a way Badolato. We’re the closest unit to the signal and distress beacons always take priority. We have a duty to investigate.”

Badolato’s face paled a little. “But what if it’s a trap?”

“I hope it is.” White spat out. “We’ll finally get the chance to kick some Taliban ass.”

Jack just sat quietly in the gunner’s seat, only barely aware of the conversation that was taking place below him. He was working a small, olive drab colored prayer cloth between his fingers. Their deployment had been uneventful to this point and they only had a month left. The worst injury they had suffered in Reaper 2 so far had been when White was bitten on the nose by a hedgehog he had been agitating. Jack was hoping that would be the worst of it. He just wanted to get back home in one piece and finally take a break. Hopefully some moron had just dropped his distress beacon during a foot patrol and one of the locals had accidently set it off. Hopefully.

But all of his hopes were dashed when he spotted figure rise from behind one of the piles of rocks holding a long tube.

“RPG!”

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Jack sat up quickly in his bed, only to have his head collide painfully with something hard, effectively pushing his dream induced revelation to the back of his mind. He rubbed his head and looked down and the purple pony that had apparently been standing over him moments before. She was sitting on the ground giving her own head a good rub.

“Ooooh, that smarts.” The pony suddenly notice that Jack was looking at her and quickly jumped to her feet. “Oh! Sorry about that. I wasn’t watching you sleep or anything, well I was but it wasn’t in a creepy stalker kind of way it’s just that I’ve never seen anything like you so I was just studying you, well studying may be the wrong way to put it, it’s just that I find you so fascinating that I couldn’t help but stare at you but I wasn’t trying to get in your face and be creepy or anything I was just curious.” She offered friendly, if not incredibly nervous, smile. Jack just stared back at her for a moment, only adding to the awkwardness of the situation.

“You must be the Princess’ student.” He finally managed.

The pony laughed nervously. “Yes that’s me. My name is Twilight Sparkle.”

Jack inwardly twitched. Was everyone in this place going to have ridiculous names? “Jack Beckett, but I’m sure you already knew that.”

Twilight nodded her head emphatically. “Yes, Princess Celestia filled me in on the details. She said you needed to be taken to the remains of your equipment and the wreck so you could tell us what was dangerous.”

“Right.” Jack huffed, getting out of the bed. “Well if you’ll just give me a minute to change, we can blow this popsicle stand.”

“Take as long as you need.” She said, still smiling at him. Jack just stared back at her.

“You have to leave room.”

“Oh! Sorry.”

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Jack was unused to traveling by teleportation. The event had left him feeling very ill and it took all the will power he had in him to not throw up all over his uniform. After he had finally recovered he returned to his original task. Laid out before him was his gear and the Humvee wreck which was in surprisingly good condition considering the fall it had taken. All of it was being guarded by some rather intense looking ponies in almost roman looking armor.

“This is everything they could find.” Twilight said, giving the items a quick wave over with her hoof.

Jack clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “Right, first things first.” He walked over to the handful of frag grenade and pick one up, holding it in front of him for emphasis. “These are only to be touched if necessary. And this,” he played with the small ring on the side of the grenade, “Is NEVER to be pulled out. EVER. They WILL kill you.”

Twilight looked at the gray sphere rather nervously. “If it’s so dangerous why do you carry it around?”

“For bad guys.” Jack said simply as he carefully set the grenades aside and picked up the M4.

“To hurt them?” Twilight asked nervously.

Jack paused in the middle of clearing the M4 out. “To kill them.” He corrected, sending the bolt forward and setting the rifle aside.

Twilight’s face was a mix of horror and sadness. “You mean you really,” she hesitated, almost afraid to say the word, “kill your own people?”

“Only when they make me.”

“But what could they have possible done to deserve death?”

“Other than try to kill me?” Jack questioned her seriously, looking straight at her. Twilight just looked at the ground, unsure of what to say. Jack suddenly felt bad for talking so sharply. “Look, I’m sorry ok? It’s just I’ve had kind of a rough time with all… this.” He waved his arms around, gesturing at everything and nothing at the same time. “I’m not trying to be mean or anything but the questions you’re asking are really hard to answer. You understand right?”

Twilight brightened up a bit at his apology. “Yeah I guess I do. And I apologize for asking such hard questions. Would it be ok if I asked just some general questions about your species?”

“Sure thing, shoot.” Jack said, inspecting a broken Harris radio and tossing it aside.

“Ok!” Twilight said happily producing a floating quill and paper, now looking decidedly more cheerful. “First off, what do humans eat?”

Jack paused for a second, thinking carefully about how he could best answer her question without scaring the bajeesus out of her but not lie to her at the same time. “You have bears here right?” Twilight nodded. “Well our diet is a lot like a bear’s diet. We’ll eat almost anything as long as it’s edible.” Twilight paled a little at the comparison. “But I’m perfectly capable of living off vegetables and fruits.” He added quickly.

Twilight relaxed a little. “Right, so an omnivorous diet. I don’t suppose you can eat hay and dandelions as well can you?” She said with a little laugh, still looking at her parchment. She got no response. “Mr. Beckett?” Twilight looked in his direction, seeing that he was holding up what looked like a large, very heavy vest with lots of pouches.

He looked at it incredulously. In the upper part of the vest, right around where his heart and lungs were located, were three large bullet holes. He stuck a finger into one of the holes, feeling the dent that the bullet’s impact had left in the ballistic plate under the fabric. He sat down, vest still in hand, as it suddenly hit home. Just how many times had he almost died that day? The fall, the crash, getting shot at, getting SHOT. By all accounts the ballistic plate should only be able to take one or two shots before it failed, and those shots had to be a good distance apart. And yet, this plate had stood up to three hits, all in almost the same place. He should be dead at least ten times over. But here he was, alive and more or less unhurt considering it all. He stood up and pulled the prayer cloth out of his pocket, looking to the sky, feeling the knitted fabric between his fingers thoughtfully. Maybe, just maybe, for some weird reason, he was supposed to be here. But why? What possible use could a place like this have for a man like him?

“Jack?” He suddenly realized that Twilight was standing right next to him, looking up with concern written on her face. “Are you okay?”

He stuffed the square piece of cloth back in his pocket. “Yeah, sorry, just got a lot on my mind right now. What was your last question again?”

Twilight just smiled warmly at him. “Why don’t we take a break. I’ll show you around town and you can meet some ponies.” She gave a knowing sigh. “Pinkie will probably want to throw you a party. Oh and Rainbow Dash has been clamoring to talk to you ever since you woke up. And I doubt Rarity will pass up the challenge to make clothes for something other than a pony.”

Jack looked a little confused. “Someone’s going to throw a party for me? Are you sure?”

“Yeah she does it for all the new arrivals in Ponyville. In fact she’ll probably throw you another party for being the first human in Equestria.” She said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. She gave him a mock look of worry. “You don’t have a birthday coming up do you?” She asked, smiling nervously.

Jack just smiled back at her. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe this world didn’t need him so much as he needed it.

“Wait, we’re not going to teleport there are we?”