Metal Gear Twilight : Magical Espionage Action

Chapters

ACT 1: Mission Breifing
Act 2: Infiltration
ACT 3: Rescue

ACT 1: Mission Breifing

I awoke with a start as the emerald flame died away from Spike’s mouth. After a minute of shuffling around on the floor, he found the letter from Princess Celestia. As he opened the scroll, I stared in anticipation, wondering what might be so important that the princess would send a letter this early in the morning.

Spike looked over the letter then looked anxiously up to me. He read:

"My Dear Student,

A very urgent matter has arisen that requires your presence in Canterlot immediately. I'm afraid I cannot discuss it in this letter; it must wait until we are able to have a private meeting. I will be awaiting your arrival.

Yours Truly,

Princess Celestia"

I looked around the library which was usually a mess. With books strewn everywhere, today was no different, and, as I listened, I was already writing another letter to send in response.

Just as soon as Spike finished reading the first letter, he had another shoved into his face. I quickly said, "Don't bother proofreading. Go ahead and send it."

Spike breathed his fire over the letter and it immediately caught ablaze, disappearing into a green haze, heading out the open window. After he was finished sending it off, he looked at me saying, "What ya’ think that was about?"

"I don't know Spike," I replied, “but whatever it was, it seemed to have the princess awfully worried.”

I walked down the stairs into the main part of the library. I had to find some of my research for one of my new spells, a long range teleportation spell, but then I realized that I had lost it in the piles of papers sitting atop the desk.

“Hey Spike do you remember where I put the notes I took on long range teleportation?” I asked as I shuffled the piles of paper around on my desk.

Spike waited for a moment before saying, “Oh yeah, it’s under those papers on the mass healing spell that you were working on last Monday.”

He was right, of course. He was usually pretty good a remembering where I put things in the disorganized mess that I usually turned this place into. If he wasn’t there to keep track of everything for me, I would never get much work done. I would spend all of my time searching for lost notes.

I found the notes under the folder of healing spells that I had been researching. This was going to require a lot of energy and concentration. At one point in the notes I had made sure to point out that it would not get me into places with heavy magical barriers such as the Canterlot Castle.

I browsed through the notes until I finally spotted the part about where I needed to focus my magic. I memorized where each point was, how I needed to focus my magic, and the condensation rate of the air that I would need to perform such a long range teleportation spell.

After a few minutes, having finished memorizing my notes I asked, “Hey Spike, you don’t mind that I won’t be having breakfast this morning do you? I have to go prepare for a visit to the princess.”

“Can’t you just get ready after breakfast?” he replied. He stepped out of the kitchen and stood at the bottom of the steps.

I stared down at him saying, “No Spike. If this is as urgent as the princess made it out to be, I will need to be in Canterlot as soon as possible.” I turned around to finish packing my saddlebags with a couple of books that I had been reading at the time. The sun was peeking into the window beside my bed and it illuminated my face and my frazzled mane.

“Ah…no. I can’t see the princess looking like this,” I said to myself as I pulled the brush off of the nightstand and ran it through my mane.

When I was finished, I put on my saddlebags and started walking down the stairs. As I reached the bottom, Spike came out of the kitchen with a plate of toast. He offered me some, but I shook my head at him.

“I think you can take a break while I’m gone. I don’t know how long I’ll be away, but I’m sure you can take care of yourself here until then,” I said as I walked towards the door.

Spike gulped down a piece of toast, and replied, “Ok I will, but can I go and hang out anywhere?”

I shook my head again saying, “I don’t think that’s a good idea considering Fluttershy and Applejack are still missing.”

“Oh,” he said as he lowered his head.

I turned back to the door and opened it, while saying, “Just stay safe here, please?”

I proceeded out the door and prepared for the long range teleport. My horn started to glow furiously as I concentrated even more to force the spell to start bending reality around me. There was a bubble of pink energy starting to form around me. It was repelling the air, and was making a mark on the ground wherever it touched. My ears also started popping as the air around me was reaching the critical compression. My body started to glow as the space around me began to bend ever so slightly. Then suddenly, in a burst of energy, the light flashed and I disappeared into nothingness…

[Loading...]

Everypony around was surprised as I materialized in the middle of the Canterlot Castle courtyard. I got a few strange looks, but as more people realized who I was, they waved it off as a somewhat normal occurrence and carried on with their mundane banter.

I groaned as I approached the Princess’ throne room. An unknown tension hung in the air as the guards carefully monitored my every move while I approached the door to the throne room. This made me even more anxious to find out why the Princess’ letter had been so urgent.

The two burly stallions, clad in the traditional golden Canterlot Guard armor that were blocking access to the throne room, immediately recognized me and shuffled to the sides of the doorway. I was not used to being in Canterlot Castle with the guards, and had forgotten how they usually conducted themselves. Even so, I took these actions as an effect of the tension from the unknown situation, and it was really getting to my nerves.

As I passed through the doorway, I noticed that the Princess herself was just leaving her chamber to take her place at the throne. Celestia noticed me before she reached her throne and stopped where she stood to wait for me to approach.

When I finally stood before the magnificent ruler, I noticed the fatigued look that blanketed her. Celestia then said, “Come with me, my student.”

I realized then that the Princess was leading me into her private chamber. I solemnly followed the Princess, and shut the door firmly behind us, proceeding to ask,” What's wrong Princess? You seemed very urgent in the letter that I received earlier.”

“I'm afraid two of your friends are in very grave danger, and you are the only one that possesses the skills necessary to resolve this situation,” she replied.

My eyes widened, “Is this related to Fluttershy and Applejack’s disappearance last night?”

“Yes,” replied Celestia with a sigh, “We recently got a letter from our most elite of the Canterlot Guard that has taken up arms with a force of maligned zebras. The letter included a list of demands and hostages. Fluttershy and Applejack were on the list of hostages.”

She handed me the list of demands, and I started to read over the items. They apparently wanted some kind of asteroid parts that were used in the construction of Nightmare Moon’s armor and the scrolls for our balefire megaspell research, or they would launch balefire bombs into the three main population centers of Equestria: Canterlot, Fillydelphia, and Manehattan.

“How long did they give us to meet the demands?” I asked as I turn the list back over to her.

“They gave us about a day and a half,” She replied. She walked over to the other side of the room. She then hit a pressure plate on the wall, opening up a door next to it.

She led me down the staircase which was concealed behind the newly opened hole in the wall, and we descended into utter darkness.

[Loading...]

As I reached the bottom of the staircase, the princess and I lit our horns with illumination spells. The princess pointed her horn to one of the torches on the wall and magically lit all of them at once. I winced at the sudden flash of light that nearly blinded me. That was of course considering that I had spent almost two minutes in the almost darkness of my illumination spell.

I looked around me as the room came into focus. I unbuckled the straps to my saddlebags and floated them over to the wall next to the staircase. I turned back around, and noticed that there were a few tables against the back wall with what looked like a black suit of some sort on top. Next to the suit was a square device with two black pieces lying next to it and a small chrome box with some sort of locking mechanism.

The princess noticed that I was staring curiously at the little device and explained, “That’s your codec. It’s what we’ll use to keep in contact as you carry out your task. Basically, the codec works by stimulating the inner bones of your ear. It will allow you to keep up a direct communication line with me any time that you might need me.”

“What’s with the suit?” I asked as I turned back towards it.

“It is a stealth suit very similar to the one you used to sneak into the library for that time travel scroll,” She said with a sly grin. She then turned to me and continued, “The difference is that this suit is a lot better suited to a harsher environment and can keep your body temperature warmer even in the subzero temperatures…”

“Why was the suit designed for subzero temperatures?” I interjected.

“There is a megaspell storage facility in the Everfree Forest. It is underneath the old castle where we used to live before the time of Nightmare Moon,” She replied as she turned towards me, “I honestly don’t know what sort of traps that they could have set for you there.”

“Oh,” I said as I sat down on the cushion beside the table.

She then continued, “You see, the problem is that I cannot just send some of my guards there because these were my most well-trained guards. The regular guard wouldn’t stand a chance against them.”

“What exactly makes you think that I could even try handling them?” I asked, realizing that she wasn’t kidding about the threat of those opposing us. I turned back towards the table as she pressed a button on it and an image flickered up onto the wall behind it. It was an map of the old castle.

She looked at me like I had said something wrong, saying, “The fact that you bear the element of magic and that two of your friends are being held captive by these people. Those should be reason enough, my student.”

A red dot appeared on the map of the castle. “The red dot is the insertion point,” She paused for a moment as the dot shifted positions, “This is the entry point into the facility. It’s one of the easier to access air vents that supplies the facility with fresh air.”

She turned away from me, and then used her magic to press a button on the console that sat beside the table. After she pressed the button, the little chrome box lying next to the stealth suit unlocked and opened with a soft whooshing sound. Inside the little case was a small black pistol with a pink gem built into its frame.

The Princess looked back at me after picking the gun up out of the case. She held it out to me saying, “This is a magic energy pistol. It has been infused with a tranquilizer spell, and I would like for you to keep it set to that until you can actually determine their hostile motives. I want you to capture one of their operatives once you infiltrate the facility and see what you can find out.”

“So basically you want me to be gentle until it can be proven that lethal force is necessary?”

“That is precisely the point, but the final decision to modify the spell matrix within the gun rests on you. I have had the gun modified to also support a direct magical connection so that you could amplify the gun’s power with your own magical abilities,” she replied as she pressed the second button on the console.

The room darkened as a circle of glyphs appeared on the floor. The circle’s greenish glow intensified as an aura appeared around the outer ring of the glyphs. After the aura formed over the outside ring, the glyphs became animated and intertwined themselves towards the central ring which was about the right size to fit the princess. After the animated glyphs had taken their place in between the two circles, it had formed something reminiscent of an alchemical transmutation circle.

The Princess then looked away from the circle and nodded at me. Then she said, “This is the insertion method that we decided to use. This teleportation ring will teleport you directly into my old bedchamber at the old castle, but unfortunately it will be a one-way trip for you. The spell was rigged as an emergency only transport for me to escape in, and it only works one way.”

“Are you sure?” I asked whilst still studying the teleportation circle. It was very similar to what I had been studying for my long range teleportation spell, but instead of mine using the glyph circle I had to completely generate a new pathway for my teleportation. This had a single permanent layout that would have to be recharged from both ends before it would function again.

“Of course, the importance of this mission takes priority over my need to escape,” She replied, “but there isn’t any more time to waste. You need to hurry up and get ready. Once you are ready, simply move to the inner circle and kneel down. I will talk to you via the Codec once you are inside."

With that, she proceeded to exit the room, and trotted back up the stairs. I walked back over to the table with the stealth suit and set the pistol back down beside it. I picked up the two black pieces that lay beside it and tried to figure out what exactly they did. Wow I felt stupid! After five minutes of fooling around with them I found that they came together with the two Velcro straps on the sides to create a mask with a visor.

The suit seemed simple enough as I picked it up. It had a zipper in the front and straps that buckle in various places. I unzipped the suit and slid into it. It was a very snug fitting suit, but I still hadn’t finished with all of the straps hanging around me.

I walked back over to the desk to retrieve the sheet of paper on the desk that had the straps’ instructions. I had to sit down and loop together and tighten the various straps and buckle them underneath each one of my legs. After this was finished I felt that my range of movement was limited, but not severely enough to worry or discomfort me.

I holstered the pistol on my right flank and gave the suit a thorough look over and discovered that it had pockets for various things and a strap for larger weapons across my back. It also included a serrated combat knife along the side of my left hoof.

Since I was done making sure everything was in its proper place I walked over to the circle’s center. Then I crouched down and felt the ground shudder as the spell activated with a burst. The once green glyphs had started alternating between the entire spectrum of light, and I felt as it I was being stretched in several different directions at once. Once the spell’s effect had reached its peak the world fell away into a rainbow-colored frothy swirl and everything dissolved into black.

(Credit: Kojima for their awesome game series, Hard Boiled Banana and DitzyDoo for editing and providing inspiration for it.)

Act 2: Infiltration

Chapter 2: Infiltration

I felt the floor return underneath my feet as the spell finished its purpose. The world quickly fell back into place around me, and I stepped out of the portal into what looked like an old bedroom. This must be what had been Celestia’s old bedchamber.

I looked around at all of the room’s contents, and took note of all of the signs of age that everything showed. The bed that was in the corner next to the window had fallen in and all of the sheets had long turned to dust, leaving the broken frame of the bed with what was left of the old mattress.
There was also an old armoire in the corner. I walked over to it, curious as to what was inside. There was less dust on it than anything else in the room. It looked like it had been opened recently enough for something to have been placed inside.

I opened it up to find that there was a visor attachment and a piece of cloth. I levitated it to my face and unraveled it.

It was a bandana with an infinity symbol inscribed in white. I wrapped it around my forehead and ears. The ends of it were threadbare, but it fit comfortably.

The visor attachment slid over a little connector built into the bandana above my right eye. Once I had it in place, a green square appeared in the top-right corner of my vision. It wasn’t very obtrusive, but it is going to take some getting used to. The little square then filled with a semi-detailed map of the room, and what appeared to lie beyond.

Then my codec started buzzing for the first time. I fumbled around with the little screen on my wrist, but then realized that all I had to do was press the green button below the screen. The screen flickered to life, and then the image of the Princess came on the screen.

“I’m glad to see that you made it there safely, and that you found the rest of your equipment,” She said. She shifted around until she was closer to the screen.

“About that, what exactly is all of this?” I asked.

“Well to start, that visor contains the radar equipment that will give you all of the map data that you should need about your surroundings. It will also provide information about where your enemies are. It’s all a part of the security system that was built into the place,” She replied. She waited a few seconds then continued, “You were going to need something to attach the radar equipment to so I thought you wouldn’t mind using the bandana. I don’t really suppose that you’ll need the mask.”

I took everything off of my head in one motion. It all slid over the top of my head smoothly. I then tied the bandana back on, and reattached the visor. Its screen flickered back to life as it had the first time.

“Well, that’s more comfortable. Where do I go from here?” I asked.

“There should be a ventilation shaft that drops into the facility below. The reason that you will need to use that as an entrance is that the terrorists have locked down all outside access to the facility,” She said as the map in my visor scrolled forward, showing the path.

As soon as the map returned to its original position, a voice suddenly squeaked into my ear, “Oh hiya Twilight! I thought I would pop in and explain why I’m here.”

It was Pinkie Pie. Of all of the ponies the Princess could have picked she was the last one I would have figured that she would have turned to.

“Um ok...” I replied.

“I’m here to save the game…” She started.

“Game? What game?” I interrupted.

“Oh...Nothing,” she replied, and then continued, “I’m also your information and moral support.”

Well at least the Princess did pick the right pony for those jobs. I sighed while looking back to the screen on my wrist. The little pink pony was grinning from ear-to-ear. “Well Pinkie I’m sure that I’ll, uh, be in touch?”

“Oh yes Twilight, I forgot to explain that we had that radar system earlier,” the Princess said as she came back into view, “That radar is linked to the facility’s maneframe. That’s what monitors all of the facility’s systems. It will provide a simple mapping interface and vital sign information. That’s the green bar at the top. Though, if you are seen or put the system on alert for any reason it will deny you access to it. So watch out.”

“So I shouldn’t let the enemy see me if I like having a sense of direction?” I asked rhetorically.

“If you need anything else just give us a call. Both of our codec frequencies are registered,” She said before switching off from her end. The codec screen faded back to black, and beeped quietly in my ear as the call finished.

I walked up to where the door would have been. The door must’ve rotted away a while ago from age because only the lower half was still attached to the hinges. I pushed what was left of the door out of the way and walked into the spacious hallway that was outside of the Princess’ room.

The walls were covered in evenly spaced tattered banners. This would probably have been the perfect place for an ambush had there been anypony who had expected me, but it was all quiet. The only sounds to be heard were my hooves softly padding against the worn carpet that lined the middle of the stone floor. The end of the hall branched out into a “T”, with the left leading to what seemed to be the eating area, or maybe a banquet hall. The right path lead to, according to the radar, a staircase that went down to the underground portion of the castle.

I took the first flight of stairs without needing my illumination spell, but as I left the landing of the first flight, all of the light suddenly disappeared. Darn. I was hoping to be able to maintain a stealthy entrance.

There are three rules to being stealthy:

Number one: Keep to the dark as to best let nopony notice you.

Number two: Keep a light step. Don’t run around or stand up and act like a spastic idiot. Keep a nice slow pace that will reduce the sounds that you make while you walk.

Number three: The final and most important rule is to keep yourself as streamlined as possible. Don’t pick up unnecessary things that will weigh you down, and make you easier to see.

I read that in a book one time. (surprise surprise, right?).

But there are things more important than stealth sometimes. Such as safety. I just hope now that there is nopony down here waiting on me. That would make my entrance much easier and less dangerous of course.

I reached the final landing that opened into the basement. The room was very tall and filled with pillars. It was also illuminated with yellow lamps that were hanging from the sides of the pillars.

In the center of the room, there was a guard, but either he was lying under the desk or was behind the pillar next to the desk so I couldn’t see him. That’s convenient for me though. It also means that he didn’t see me enter the room.

I cut off my illumination spell and walked over to the nearest set of pillars. I crept behind them and then rolled over to the next one as stealthily as possible. I got to the pillar that ran in parallel to where the guard was located on my radar, and peeked around the corner.

He was snoring... Loudly. I figured that they would have guards that were more serious about their posts. I crept over to him, and looked over the equipment that he had.

He had some sort of suit that was made out of a scaly material on the outside, and a hood that had been taken off. There was no mistaking it. He was definitely a zebra. He also had a machine gun...wait. Didn’t those use actual bullets? They don’t even mass produce these. I wonder where they got it, and I wonder whether the rest of their personnel carry them.

That got my mind to wondering, but I snapped out of it as soon as the guard started to come around. He awoke with a start, but was very still once I shoved the pistol in his face. I quickly added, “Drop everything you have and get down.”

He shook everything free of their harnesses and into the floor. Still pointing the gun at him I said, “Get over there and lie with your muzzle on the ground.”

He shuffled over to where I had gestured to beside the pillar, and made sure to get on the ground as instructed. I walked over to join him, and asked, “What are you doing here?”

“Well I should be asking you the same thing.” He replied in a deep voice.

I stared at him hard, “Yes, well I’m not the one with the gun pointed at his head now am I?”

He gulped, “No. I don’t suppose you are, but that doesn’t mean much to me.”

He jumped up, and started to swing around with his hind hooves, but I was quicker since I already had my pistol drawn. I jumped back, and squeezed the trigger three times. He thumped back to the ground sound asleep.

I walked over to the equipment pile, and found the radio that they used. I hooked it into the codec. This should be useful for listening out for alerts, and checking up on the enemy’s status.

I pushed the button on the codec and selected the Princess’ frequency. The codec beeped a few times then she appeared on the screen.

“Hello Twilight,” She said.

“Hello, I just wanted to let you know that I made it to the ventilation shaft,” I replied.

“Oh, Ok well was there any difficulty getting there?” She asked.

“They need to pick a more attentive guard, or put a pair of guards out so that the one they have doesn’t end up waking up to a gun in their face,” I laughed as I joked around.

“Ah,” She chuckled, “Ok well were you able to determine their intentions from him?”

“Well considering I had to put him down so quickly after he tried to take me out. I think that they are pretty serious about their weapons, and he seemed to know some pretty serious hoof-to-hoof combat moves,” I explained.

“So, do you think that you should change over the gun to its lethal mode?” She asked.

I looked down at the gun on my flank, and the memories from the previous combat experience flooded back. The usefulness of the gun as it is might provide good interrogation material, but it does leave the danger of the victims waking up. That would draw attention. Killing them requires a louder and brighter beam.

“I can switch the gun dynamically depending on the situation without breaking it right?” I asked.

“I’m sure that it wouldn’t cause and issue. It was built to be able to switch so it should be able to take the changes.” She replied.

“Ok well then I’ll be on my way. If anything else comes up I’ll let you know immediately.” I said, and then turned the codec back off.

I walked over to the ventilation shaft, and pulled the cover off. I slid inside and started to crawl on my belly down into the narrow opening. I looked straight ahead and noticed that there wasn’t any other path, but to go straight.

[Loading...]

After about five minutes of crawling through the shaft there was an opening with a grate over it. I pulled the grate off, and then peeked my head out over the edge to check for anypony around my only exit. As I looked around I noticed that the opening had a ladder that led down to a catwalk which happened to be empty.

I dropped down from the hole and clattered to the floor of the catwalk. The guards that were patrolling the ground floor looked over in my direction, but I had already hidden away behind a pillar. A lone guard came up to check on what had happened, but he didn’t notice me pressed up against the pillar.

As he walked away I got back down to a crouching position. I waited as he went back down the stairs, and then quietly darted towards the doors at the opposite end of this portion of the catwalk. The doors quietly slid open with a pneumatic hiss, and I went inside. The room was piled to the ceiling with boxes. I pulled one of the flattened cardboard boxes off of the floor. There was also a set of infrared goggles.

I also found some magical energy grenades. I clipped those to my side, and proceeded to the door. Then I noticed that my radar had a flashing red mark over what appeared to be the elevator. It was a different color than my marker and the enemy marker so that must mean that it is some sort of objective marker.

I walked out of the room, and checked the corners for guards. As soon as I cleared the catwalk again I proceeded out of the room, and then slowly walked down the stairs. The room was stacked with large containers which provided an easy cover for me as I proceeded towards the cargo elevator.

There was a sudden red light and alarms flashing as the elevator started up. Somepony was coming up from the main part of the facility. There was silence as the elevator clicked into place. The pony on the elevator walked over to one of the guards, and took him over to a yellow box on the wall. They opened the box, and I eavesdropped on their conversation.

“Generator No.2 is giving a hard fault down here so I thought I would come up and check out the breaker,” The pony said as he took out some electrical equipment.

“Well, so far the only problem that we’ve been having down here is that the AC won’t kick on right, but I just assumed that was because the air vent up there was pulling air from the outside.” The zebra replied.

“We’ve never had that problem because that vent is directly connected to the AC system around the facility,” The pony sifted through his toolbox.

I used the racket that he was making to get into the elevator, and start its descent into the facility below. The alarm started, and the elevator shook as it started its slow descent. I hid in the front corner of the elevator behind the metal shield that covered the control panel. I just hoped that the others in the room would simply dismiss it as somepony called back to the lower floors.

Since nopony had raised alarm, I assumed that they hadn’t had the notion that there might have been in an intruder. I let out a sigh of relief, and then realized that I probably should not just stand in the middle of the elevator as it arrived at the bottom level. There wasn’t an alarm on this side of the elevator, and I arrived in silence as the noise from a behemoth of steel passed by. I flattened myself against the wall as it passed.

The tank had a large turret on the front and was covered in angled plates, and had two turrets on top. It was heading for a ramp that lead to a blast door. It was being closely followed by some kind of transport vehicle.

I left the elevator as soon as they passed; there was a room next to the elevator. I went into the room and spotted a terminal. Numbers flashed across my visor. I typed the numbers into the terminal and surprisingly it logged on. I logged back off and looked at the door in the corner. I really wonder whether they had bothered to change the door codes. That would make my job here really easy.

I tried the same trick with the door in the corner, but it simply beeped twice and a message came on the number pad beside the door that said 'Access Denied'.

I flinched as I was startled by the door, but there were no alarms ringing so I returned to the terminal. I logged on, and looked through the directory for any memos that might lead me to where Applejack or Fluttershy were being held.

There were three notes on the terminal:

The first was about an apparent network outage that had brought the facility to a halt, but it was dated from three days ago so I assumed that it wasn’t related to the attack.

The second note was dated for last night so I opened it up and read:

‘Due to the outside access privileges on the door maneframe, we will be setting the doors to M.A.N. (Magical Area Network) cards only so that, if anypony breeches the facility and has been granted access privileges, they can be locked out of most of the facility’s more important parts. The only doors to be left unlocked will be the elevators and the common area doors. These are simply too much of a hassle to lock and unlock each time, and therefore will not be considered a security threat.’

That explains why the door didn’t respond to my password. I would need one of those M.A.N. card keys. I closed the second note and opened the third.

I looked at the final note and it read:

‘The two hostages, the engineer and the President, have been separated. The President of PeaceTech has been moved to the holding cells until further investigation on her passwords can be achieved. The engineer from Ironmare Inc. has been locked in her room until further notice, and will be continuing her work into the metal gear’s programming. Neither one is to be let out of their quarters for the duration of our occupation of this facility.’

So Applejack and Fluttershy were here! That second sentence was a problem to me, though. Poor Flutters was alone, locked in a cell. She was probably a nervous wreck. I just hoped that they weren’t doing anything worse to my friend.

With that information still in mind I switched the radar over to map mode. The objective marker was still over the elevator, but now another was blinking over the blast door that the tank had gone through. I switched the map over to the 3D plane and saw that the facility had other floors above this one, and that the objective marker led to the what appeared to be the holding cells two floors up from this one.

Since the cargo elevator that I used earlier only had and up and down switch I’m going to assume that it only goes between the cargo area and here. The other elevator in the room was on the other side of the room.

I switched off the terminal and walked to the doorway of the office. To get down to the ground floor, there was a set of stairs that led off of the platform. There was a camera at the bottom of the stairs, and two guards patrolling the open floor space. I watched the camera for a minute until I figured out the timing, rushed down the stairs and flattened myself against the wall in the camera’s blind spot. As soon as the camera went for another pass I ducked under the stairs, and then went into the cover of the darkness that the walkway above provided.

I reached the far side wall of the room when the walkway ended. I was stuck waiting for the guard to turn back around, and continue his path in the opposite direction. Once he turned back around I rolled over to the first container.

I followed the length of the container, and stuck my head out to check if the other guard...

“Who’s there!” He exclaimed very in a booming voice.

Well...crap he saw me. So much for stealth. I ran to the other side of the container and unfolded the cardboard box. I slid it over myself, and pushed it up against the containers side.

The guard walked over to where I had been and was joined by the other guard. The one who had originally spotted me said, “Well, I must be seeing things. Did you see anything over here?”

The other guard looked around and replied, “Nah, must’ve been your shadow or something.”

As the other guard returned to his position he said under his breath, “I swore that I saw something.”

With that incident over I slid the cardboard box off, and folded it up. I remembered to check my radar this time to check their range of vision. He was on the other side of the room when I finally made my move. I rolled to the second container and then waited for the guard to go back around. Once he did I crawled along the wall over to the elevator. I slid out the cardboard box once again and hid next to the elevator. I pressed the call button with my magic and waited.

Soon after there was a rumbling sound, and a ding as the elevator came down to this floor. The guards seemed to ignore the arrival of the elevator, and as they passed by me I slid into the elevator and closed the door.

ACT 3: Rescue

A/N: I uploaded this chapter without a round of editing so please don't be too harsh. I just figured I would go ahead and get it up here so that I would stop putting it off. BTW for all of those who might be new to reading this story or who don't read people's blog posts: I'm in the Navy now, and I'm training for nuclear engineering. Spare time isn't something I have a lot of right now, but this helps me to relax and take my mind off things. Please take it easy on my grammar at lease until I get an editor to take a peek at it, or I find the time to actually take it apart and proofread it myself. Any way thank you all for reading.

The elevator grinded to a halt at the top floor of the facility. It dinged as the doors smoothly hissed open. I peeked around the edge of the elevator, and saw that the hallway was clear of guards.

I walked out of the elevator and went up to the first door. It had an number one in white in the top corner. It looks like this is another one of those doors that needs one of those cards to open.

I checked my radar and, sure enough the red objective marker led to that room. Fluttershy was apparently in the first cell inside of the room. There were two other cells, but only one other was occupied. There had to be a way into the room.

I turned on my codec and selected the Princess’ frequency.

The codec beeped, and then went blank. After another second the screen flickered back to life with the Princess in view.

“Hello Twilight, did you need something?” She asked.

“Um...Yea how exactly am I supposed to get into the prison cell. It’s locked and the door codes don’t work.” I replied.

“Oh well that is a problem. Let me look at the schematics of that floor,” She paused for a moment and looked away from the screen, “Oh. Here it is. There should be an access panel for the cells ventilation system down the hallway and around the corner.”

“Ok thanks.” I said. Then I switched the codec off.

I walked past the door and proceeded down the hall. Then, just as the Princess said, there was a ladder leading into a vent that was bolted shut.

I climbed up the ladder, and put a magical field around the bolts. One by one I twisted them out until the vent cover came loose. I gently set it down next to the ladder. With that done I put my hooves into the vent and got a hold to pull myself inside the ventilation shaft.

[Loading...]

Once inside of the shaft I pulled myself along until I reached the branch which led to the holding cell. Just as I had seen earlier the cell at the end of the room was empty. I pulled myself up to the next cell and....wait is that my brother?

Shining Armor is the captain of the canterlot guard. Of course he would be here. What was I thinking. I would have to ask him about this later, because he had done something to jam the vent cover in place.

After that I pulled myself over to the next cell, and sure enough there was poor Fluttershy. She was just sitting there on the bed in the corner with most of her hair covering her face.

The vent cover slid off very easily, and I set inside the shaft. I slid into the room head first and waited for Fluttershy to acknowledge my presence in the room. She looked up in a very sudden movement of her head, and retreated back with a little squeal.

“Oh Twilight. It’s you,” She said as she hopped off the bed and flew up to help me out of the vent.

“Thanks,” I said when she set me on the bed.

“What happened Fluttershy?” I asked.

She got onto the bed and sat next to me before she started, “Well, I was here to make sure the invention of Applejack’s meet the standards that we needed to start using it in the defense system of Equestria. It performed fine in all of the simulated test runs, but we needed to get an actual test run in, but before we were able to activate the system and input the false megaspell launch data for the test they took over.”

“What is Applejack’s invention?” I asked.

“She called it ‘Metal Gear REX’ it’s a mobile megaspell launching platform. It was designed to be deployed in several defensible areas around Equestria. It has the capability of firing a megaspell halfway around the world without the need of a missile to carry it.” She explained.

“Wait, what do need a mobile platform for?” I asked.

“Well a mobile platform is a lot harder to isolate and target than a stationary target like a city. Some of our largest cities such as Manehattan, Hoofington, and Canterlot have had emergency megaspell launching stations with massive shield spell generators installed to try deflecting any direct hits to the major population centers,” She paused and looked towards my brother’s cell.

“I take it that my brother helped to develop those right?” I asked.

“Oh yes. We wanted to make sure that they were the best so we had your brother input his spell matrices into the shield generators,” She replied, “but anyway back on topic, these mobile platforms can be deployed outside of the city’s shield generator. This needs to happen because we can’t launch any of the city’s megaspells once the shields are up. They protect from the inside and out. This will make the task of launching a counter attack whilst also putting the cities into a full lockdown a lot easier with fewer casualties.”

Suddenly there was a thud and a rustling of fabric outside of the cell. I quickly motioned for Fluttershy to get back onto the bed as I flattened myself against the wall next to the door. It hissed open, and I immediately rolled around the corner with the gun drawn.

Then suddenly the gun was knocked from my grip by a pink shield that blossomed out of nowhere, and then I notice that the pony standing just outside the door was my brother.

He glared at me seeming surprised, but the glare faded away as he grabbed me in a hug whilst loudly saying, “Twilley what are you doing here?”

“I was sent by the princess to come help to resolve the situation here.” I squeakily replied. After I was released from the death grip hug I motioned for Fluttershy to come on out.

She came out slowly, but when she noticed my brother she livened up and quickly got beside me. It wasn’t a couple of seconds until we heard the clop of hooves against the metal floor of the hallway. As Shining Armor noticed the noise he said, “I guess there’s no time to explain, we’ve got company!”

We both ducked behind him as the door shattered from an explosion and bullets started ricocheting off of the walls. Shining Armor threw up a shield bubble around us and the rounds bounced harmlessly off of it.

I dove outside of the shield and whipped out the pistol and started a sideways sweep across the room using the pistol’s recoil to drive the shots home. I dove back into the door frame and used the wall for cover as another wave of soldiers poured into the room using grenades to force my brother against the wall. I changed the pistol’s spell matrix to the incendiary spell, and charged up the magic.

While the gun was still charging I dove in front of my brother, and tossed one of the grenades back out into the hall with my magic, and then opened fire on the remaining ponies in the room. My horn flared as I held down the trigger and the gun fired a continuous beam at the rest of the side of the room chewing through the reinforced wall.

The last charred body fell to the ground as my brother dropped his shield. I started to walk out of the room, but I heard him grunt so I turned around to see Fluttershy clinging to his hind leg.

“Come on Fluttershy,” I said calmly to the yellow pegasus, “We need you to calm down, and find a safe location for you to hide until we can safely get you out of here-”

“Wait a minute Twi,” my brother interrupted, “what and the hay was that?”

“That is one of this gun’s special abilities. Apparently It can focus my own magical energy into its matrix and act enhance the firepower of the weapon itself.” I replied.

“Well. Uh I have honestly nothing more to add after watching the whole light show you just put on. I can see that you can handle yourself. How about since I know this base better I take Fluttershy with me?” He asked.

“If you don’t mind, that would be nice. That would also give me extra time to search for Applejack.” I replied whilst turning on the codec.

I dialed the princess’ frequency and tapped send. The codec made its usual beeps before finally showing the princess on the screen.

“I’ve successfully rescued Fluttershy. My brother is going to handle her protection and extraction while I continue my search for Applejack.” I said.

She waited for a moment as she had been looking down when I had called. She looked up and said, “Oh hello Twilight, I’m glad that you managed to find your brother. He should be able to provide you with better assistance seeing as he is better acquainted with the layout and security functions of the base itself.”

“Ok. Well do we have any other clues as to where they might be holding Applejack?” I asked while also sending her the the files that I had obtained from the terminal. When the upload finished I switched the screen back to the princess.

“Judging by what I see here she would probably locked in the engineering block. They probably had her continuing work on finishing up the final calibrations on Metal Gear, but you know Applejack she’s not going to go down without a fight She is probably on the level just below the level that you came in on. Take the elevator down to storage level and find where they are keeping her.” She said before ending the call.

I turned back towards my brother and said, “When you get her to safety let me know.”

“Alright sis’. You be careful yourself.” He said.

He turned away from me and started towards the door while gesturing for Fluttershy to follow along. As they finally exited the door it whooshed shut behind them.

I looked turned around so that I could get a look at the terminal that the guard had been sitting at. It was still loaded with the screen with a roster of the cells’ previous captives. I backed out to the root menu and two alerts popped into view on the screen. These must be some new memos being sent around.

The first was that the elevator from the loading dock area to the lower levels was being temporarily disabled due to an electrical fault. Crap. I hope they fix that before I need to go to the lower levels of this place.

I closed the first memo and the second one took its place on the screen. This one looks a bit more interesting:

“Good afternoon everypony, zebra, griffin, and to anyone else here I have good news we have finally secured the last bits of the facility. Right in time for the cavalry to arrive as well. We now have the two launch codes in order to get the weapon to work. Unfortunately, I will have to cut any celebration short due to the fact that even though we may have secured the facility we cannot step down our guard yet it seems that our target is not the only one who knows about the events that transpired today. Keep on the lookout for trouble,

The one, the only

THE Great and Powerful Trixie”

Whoa hold on. Trixie is behind this thing? My mind raced back to the day she’d ran away. I really never saw her again since then, but I didn’t think anything of it. How did she lose it like this? Actually, better question how had she gotten an army together? This is all not making much sense at all.

I’ve got to find Applejack before it’s too late. I just hope this map of mine knows what it’s doing. I walked up to the door and waited expectantly. My visor showed ACCESS DENIED in big letters. I wonder if the battle earlier had damaged it. Wait, no Shining Armor and Fluttershy had no trouble getting through it. I walked over to the guard and saw that there was a card on his uniform. I took it off and swiped it through the key card slot, the door opened with a pneumatic hiss.

I walked into the hallway, and made my way towards the elevator. As I got closer I realized that the elevator was working. Something or someone was on their way up. I took advantage of the elevator's slow speed, and hid in a little room labeled as maintenance.

A cloaked figure got out of the elevator. It stopped once it cleared the door. It looked around and paused for a few seconds before taking one of it’s hooves and marking the ground. Wait. Why am I getting dizzy. Everything is suddenly so fuzzy.

*phomf*