A Royal Insanity: Act I - A Metal Gear Christmas

by Fluttersnake31

Rating: teen
Tags: Alternate Universe, Human, Main 6, Nightmare Moon, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Romance, Adventure, Sex, Gore, Princess Celestia, Crossover
Length: 7208

Solid Snake is sent to Equestria through unusual forces at work and must find a way back.

Solid Snake has retired from missions and is having a nice Christmas, until a strange dream occurs and he appears in Equestria shortly after the dream. However, Metal Gear was stolen and was brought to this world. This machine threatens the little planet named Ninsoare and will eventually destroy Equestria as well. Will he be able to find out what is going on and shut down the machine before the universe is a frozen wasteland?

Rewrite description: Five years have passed since the events of Metal Gear Solid 4 and Solid Snake now lives a life of relaxation and retirement. However, ex-Colonel Roy Campbell has called Snake for a mission that may lead him to a strange land of colorful talking equines on the border of chaos. Can Snake bring harmony to Equestria or will he be stuck there forever?

Note 5/28/2013: Because this fic sucked badly (in my opinion), I shall rewrite it entirely. If you enjoyed this so far, do not fear as I will leave the original untouched and do the new things as separate chapters. My writing has improved since this fic, so it should be much better than it was. The two stories may differ in events as I rewrite it. Thx xP

1/12/2014: I finally have kicked off the rewrite of this with the new first chapter. I hope it's much easier to follow than the original :P

Better quality photo: http://fluttersnake31.deviantart.com/art/ARI-Part-1-cover-324568571

Published 2012-09-02 05:34:01 UTC
Last updated 2014-01-12 02:17:44 UTC

Act I -A Metal Gear Christmas, Ch1-A Dream of the Moon

Act 1 – A Metal Gear Christmas

Chapter 1-A Dream of the Moon

It was a cold, snowy day in December. David was walking about the streets enjoying his freedom. He used to be a top secret espionage agent, but after his brother, Liquid Ocelot, was defeated and the Patriots were ended, he could now live the rest of his days as a human being. Sure, there were a lot of difficulties in adjusting to civilization, but with help from his good friend, Dr. Hal Emmerich, he was doing well. It was almost Christmas and has been at least five years since anyone called him by his code name, ‘Solid Snake’ (or ‘Old Snake’, as his last mission called him). The world was improving from its control by the System very well, and quickly too. Snake was getting pretty old nowadays however. He knew that he would pass away within the next year or so, but he was happy to see how quick the world recuperated.

He was now on his way back home, a moderately sized house bought by Dr. Emmerich and Sunny, a girl who is under Dr. Emmerich’s custody.

“Hey everyone, I’m back.” David said as he entered the house.

“Oh, hey David, Sunny just went to bed now. She’s excited about whatever you got her for Christmas tomorrow. I’m actually curious as to what you got her…. Anyways, where’d you walk to today?” Hal replied.

“Hmph… You know me Hal… I don’t walk places, I just walk… And eventually, I return here… And I got her some cooking utensils. You know, so she can make eggs for everyone again.”

Hal chuckled a little. “Ha, I should’ve figured. She was so upset when we lost them during move-in. So, I’m going to go to bed soon, we have a big day tomorrow so I’d get to bed if I were you.”

David’s tone getting serious now, “Yeah… Hey Hal… What are you guys going to do when I’m gone?”

“Don’t tell me you were thinking about that again… I... I don’t want to deal with that until it happens, David. And I don’t want to worry Sunny about it either. So let’s stop talking about this and get some sleep.” Hal never liked talking to David when he was thinking about his passing away. It made Hal nearly cry the last time they talked, but somehow he managed to get David to stop by deciding they would take Sunny to some fast-food place.

“But… What if it comes back? We didn’t exactly get rid of Metal Gear… It’s out there somewhere… It’s only a matter of ti-“

“Stop it David! Our missions are done and nobody is going to get their hands on Metal Gear’s remains. Go to Bed!” Hal interrupted in a fierce whisper which was just quiet enough not to wake Sunny.

“Sorry Hal… You’re right… I’m going to bed now, see you in the morning…” With that, David turned to the stairs and went to his room. He laid down on his bed staring at the ceiling. There really is no way that Metal Gear could be found anyways. Most of them were with Outer Haven…. I need sleep… David then slowly drifted into a deeper sleep than normal.

“Otacon, I’m in the base.”

“Great job Snake, now remember, all you need to do is destroy the last Metal Gear from existence and then you can have Christmas with us.” Otacon replied.

Snake snuck past a pair of guards in the large open room and proceeded to enter the room housing the final Metal Gear in existence. He looked around the room. There were no guards in here at all. It’s so strange how there’s hardly anyone in this entire place. There were only two guards, and I don’t even remember how I got in the last room… Whatever, I have to finish my job. He walked up to the Metal Gear and placed C4 all around it and started to walk out of the room.

A loud booming voice came echoing throughout the room, “WE DEEM YOU WORTHY OF KEEPING. YOU WILL COME TO US AND DESTROY THIS MACHINE SUMMONED FROM YOUR WORLD.”

Snake turned around, falling to the ground as the volume of the words hit him. When he turned around everything was dark, the Metal Gear was gone, and the whole building was gone. He was outside and surrounded by dark clouds and a large silhouette was in front of him. There was a great big full moon behind the silhouette. The shape of the silhouette reminded him something of some show Sunny liked to watch, but he had no idea what it was.

“What are you talking about? And why me? My job is done.” Snake replied.

“THERE IS A MACHINE THAT OUR GREAT SISTER HAS SUMMONED INTO OUR WORLD AND YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN DESTROY IT.”

“What? I don’t have any sister and stop with the voice. What do you want?” Snake was now having crossed feelings of fear and confusion. Snake started to notice that the silhouette looked like a horse or pony of some kind with wings and a horn. I need to stop falling asleep on the couch. Sunny’s shows are now getting in my dreams…

“YOU ARE NOT ON THE COUCH, AND WE MUST LEAVE NOW! WE WILL SEE YOU WHEN YOU GET HERE!” The silhouette boomed out, knocking Snake against the wall behind him which returned along with the rest of the room. As the Metal Gear room returned, the silhouette disappeared. This was getting crazy to Snake now. He must be dreaming, because none of this is making sense. He then found his detonator and pressed it. It wasn’t working. He checked the C4 on and around the large machine. It looked just fine; maybe it just happened to not go off? He stepped back and pressed the button again. Nothing happened again. But then the Metal Gear came to life and aimed all of its weapons at Snake. Snake pulled out an AK-47 and started to fire. Only confetti came out of the gun in pretty Christmas colors. The Metal Gear was slowly walking towards him. He pulled out his handgun and fired. This time, it shot a round of wrapped up boxes at the machine that did nothing except irritate Snake. What in the hell? This doesn’t make any sense! He ran off to the side where he found a rocket launcher. He picked it up and fired at the machine. The machine stopped. There was a colorful explosion that made the room hard to see. When the blurriness cleared, Snake saw that out of his gun was a little flag reading ‘Merry Christmas’. The Metal Gear was still there.

“Fine, I give up…. I’m too old for fighting this anymore…” Snake declared as the machine opened fire into him.

“Snake? SNAKE??? SNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAKKEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?”

David woke up with a jolt. Out of all his crazy dreams, that one ranked ten in craziness, making all his other dreams a four or lower. Sunny was standing over him.

“Yay! You finally are awake! Come on, we can open presents!” Sunny said excitingly.

“Yeah, I’m getting there… How about I meet you down there?” David replied groggily.

“Okay!” Sunny ran downstairs and turned on the TV. David got up and changed into everyday clothes. As he went downstairs, he remembered something about his dream. Something from the TV show that Sunny was watching was in his dream. He arrived in the living room and stood behind the couch and watched along. Typically he didn’t watch anything on the TV, but the dream made him curious.

“I’m watching the first episode again, when it’s done we can open presents.” Sunny said when she noticed David was there.

“…What’s it about?” David said, intrigued by the show now.

“It’s about these ponies who go on adventures and stuff. In this episode, they learn about the magic of friendship and defeat Nightmare Moon, who turns into Princess Luna after the Elements of Harmony are found.”

David was even more intrigued now. Nightmare Moon sounded like it could’ve been what he saw in his dream. He watched more intently, not even noticing Hal walk into the room.

“Wow, David, didn’t know you were a brony too! I knew we’d convert you eventually.” Hal said as he saw David staring into the soul of every pony that came on screen. They all watched until the moment Nightmare Moon appears in the place of Princess Celestia. At that moment David froze stiff. Everything faded out and he fell to the ground. The combine images of the silhouette pony from his dream and Nightmare Moon from the TV were the only things running through his mind.

“David? David? Are you ok? David get up! Sunny call 911! David! DAAAAAVIIIIIIDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Hal screamed as the last thing David heard.

David got up and he was now in a hospital. His vision was slightly blurry, but he could hear just fine. There was a large commotion coming from outside the room. People panicking, running around, there was what seemed like a state of mass confusion and fear going on throughout the hospital. When David’s vision returned and took in everything around him. Things looked slightly different, as if reality was slightly altered. He got up with less pain than he thought he’d be in, actually no pain whatsoever. Why am I in the hospital? Hal could’ve taken care of me… All I did was faint… Must be from the years of smoking or something… Then in through the doors came several ponies in lab coats.

“I don’t know what it is, or who it is, but let me ask it some questions. It may be a cursed pony or something from somewhere outside of Equestria.” The first doctor-pony said to the other ones, who looked like they were just following him.

“Where am I and why am I in a TV show!?” David exclaimed.

“AHH! It talks!” The doctor pony was a little frightened but now more curious than before.

“As the captain of the royal guard let us in to take it to Celestia!!!!!” A voice outside yelled.

David now spoke again to the doctor, “Wait is that the military of this place trying to get me?”

The doctor replied, “Erm… Yes, and if I don’t hand you over, we’ll be sentenced for treason.”

David looked at the doctor and his party slowly trying to block the door and get close enough to grab him. Instinctively, he ran to the window and jumped through. He was now in the middle of a town. There was a fancy boutique at the end of the block to his right and a candy store on the other side of the street and the end of the block to his left. I bet I can find better places to hide near that boutique than a candy store. Everyone loves candy so there would be no time to get a good spot to hide. He started running towards the boutique. He felt younger, more agile. He ran past a window and noticed he didn’t look like an old man anymore on the reflection. Whatever happened, I don’t have that virus thing anymore, I look about twenty years younger! The guards at the hospital were far enough behind him now that he could find time to hide when he needed to but he’d have to be quick as they were fast.

When he arrived at the boutique, he saw an open window on an upper story. He climbed up the back of the house carefully and snuck into the window. There was nobody in the room. He found a closet and hid in there until everything calmed down. What on earth is going on? I watch one episode and I have crazy ridiculous dreams about that TV show? But it’s so…real… This is getting pretty weird for my tastes… After waiting in there a while, David eventually falls asleep. When he woke up he was laying on the floor in the middle of the room he hid in, a teenage looking pony standing over him looking at him.

“When I asked Princess Celestia for a stallion to pop up in my room, I didn’t ask for one from some other universe, but this will do.” The teenage filly says to herself out loud. She was white with a light purple mane. David tried to get up but realized his limbs were tied down.

“What do you ponies want with me? And why was Nightmare Moon in my dream?” David asked the filly.

“Heck if I know, but I know what I want with you!” The filly responded in a manner that David knew exactly what she was talking about. He wasn’t so sure he wanted that kind of stuff done to him by a pony, but he couldn’t move so he’d have to deal with it.

“Sweetie Belle!!!! I’m heading out now, so come give me a hug before I go!” A voice called from the floor below.

The white filly looked at David, “You stay here now, and be quiet or they’ll find you! I’ll be back.” Sweetie Belle left the room to head downstairs.

“Hey sis, where are you going anyways?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Princess Celestia has called upon me and my friends to do something very important for her regarding the return of Nightmare Moon.” The mare named Rarity replied.

“Nightmare Moon? That doesn’t make sense, I saw Luna just yesterday talking to Apple Bloom.”

Rarity was confused, “Yesterday? Now that doesn’t make sense as Nightmare Moon returned yesterday… Maybe I read it wrong? Anyways, you stay here and watch over the house.”

“Can Apple Bloom and Scootaloo come over tonight?”

Rarity rushed in a response, “Yes, now I have to go. Don’t mess up my stuff!”

They hugged and Rarity left. It was about an hour until her friends arrived. Ooh, I have plenty of time to play with my new toy! Sweetie Belle thought as she went back upstairs.

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom arrived right on time. Sweetie Belle let them in and brought them to her room, where David was now sitting in the corner of the room, arms and legs tied up.

Scootaloo was the first to notice, “Wow, that’s the thing that was in the news! Celestia’s guards are looking all over for him! He must be a spy or something!”

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes, “Doesn’t matter now, he’s my pet-thing, and nobody else is allowed to have him!”

“Aww that’s purdy cool Sweetie Belle! Does it do any tricks?” Apple Bloom asked.

“I can talk… And I’m quite good with a gun.” David replied.

“OMG OMG OMG! He can talk! Awesome! I gotta tell Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo said excitedly.

“No, you can’t Scootaloo! She’s at the meeting with the Princess! They’ll take him away if anyone finds out.” Sweetie Belle says harshly, defending her toy. “And especially since he says he had a dream about Nightmare Moon!”

“Oh yeah, that reminds me, I was a’talkin’ to Princess Luna yesterday and she said she needed to leave Equestria and that if Nightmare Moon appears, that it’s a fake, whatev’r that means.” Apple Bloom explained.

“I knew that what my sister said made no sense! I have to find out what they’re talking about.”

Scootaloo interjected, “Sweetie Belle, that place is so heavily guarded that none of us could get in without being caught. There’s no way we’ll ever know what’s going on.”

David spoke again, “Hey I can get in there without being seen. I’m trained in stealth missions like this and maybe we could work out a deal?”

“How do we know you won’t just escape from being my pet?” Sweetie Belle said, slightly irritated.

“Because if I get caught, I’ll probably end up dead. In exchange to not have me be tied up all the time, how about I’ll be your espionage guy, then, I can find out what I need to know while I’m getting your information, and you still have me around to keep you company.”

“Well, that sounds like a good deal, but don’t you want to go home?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“I’ve done what I need to do at home… And staying here, I don’t have to worry about dying early in life. At my home, I looked like I was a hundred years old. Here, I don’t have the rapid aging anymore.”

“Oh, well then perfect! I agree!” Sweetie Belle was now excited she was able to keep her pet forever now.

“Hey, since you are our spy, we gotta have a cool group name!” Scootaloo said.

Apple Bloom replied, “But we already got a name, the Cutie Mark Crusaders. We don’t need two.”

“Well, I think that’s actually a pretty good name. CMC’s for short.” David inputted.

“That’s a good idea mister… Um… What’s your name?” Sweetie Belle asked, slightly embarrassed about not knowing his name.

“Just call me….. Solid Snake.”

Act I, Ch 2- The Cutie Mark Crusader

Chapter 2 – The Cutie Mark Crusader

After Snake got done explaining his dream to the CMC’s, they all decided to meet up at Apple Bloom’s tree house, mainly to prove that Snake could sneak his way to the other side of town. After doing so, they got to business sketching out the mission. They gave Snake a somewhat poorly drawn map of Castle Celest, Princess Celestia’s castle in Canterlot. Snake convinces the CMC’s to get everypony some sort of codec/radios and puts everyone on different frequencies. One frequency at the tree house, one in Sweetie Belle’s room, and one sent with Scootaloo. Snake sends the fillies out to get supplies for Snake to build a gun and a knife. On one of Scootaloo’s trips to get supplies from a weapon facility on Cloudsdale, she finds an old tranquilizer gun fit for ponies to use. Snake heavily modified it for human hands and with a good luck was sent on his way.

Finally, I made it to Castle Celest. Now I have to find my way into the meeting room and find out what’s going on in there. Snake was sent in with a notepad, pencil, his knife, the tranquilizer gun, and his custom-made handgun. Using Sweetie Belle’s magic, the gun that Snake built never runs out of ammo as long as someone is singing, humming, or making music of any kind. Snake found an unguarded entrance and ended up in a back hallway that only was a few rooms down from the meeting room. He entered into a larger room that led to another hallway where from which he could access the meeting room. There were no ponies in this room so he figured he could take some time to find some kind of vents to crawl through.

It took him a good ten minutes, but he made his way into a vent that was on the ceiling. He made sure to make it look like there was nobody that got in the vents, but he figured if anyone noticed the stuff in the room moved around a bit, it wouldn’t be too big of a problem. Not even a filly could fit in these vents, and Snake was just a tiny bit scrunched for space as it is. However, he continued on until he was over the meeting room. There was a grate in the bottom of the vent that allowed him to clearly see the events of the meeting. He got there just in time.

“Alright, now it has been decided that I, Princess Celestia, need your help, the Mane Six, to defeat Nightmare Moon once again. We believe that the source of her power is coming from a planet far away in the middle of the universe. The planet is named Ninsoare and its only continent is shaped like a crescent moon. The beings there are all under the rule of the Tungl Queen, who has recently passed away. We believe it is one of Nightmare’s agents of darkness that killed the Tungl Queen and now Ninsoare’s subjects are being forced into worshipping this new Tungl Queen, which is Nightmare Moon’s agent. We found that this agent is transferring the power from the subject’s prayers to Nightmare Moon, making her stronger here every second. We must establish a base there and destroy the cold darkness that envelops this little planet and save ourselves from Nightmare Moon.”

Twilight Sparkle, a purple pony sitting in the front row, agreed. “Yes, Princess, as head of the Mane Six Forces of Friendship and Magic (M6FFM), we accept this responsibility to defend Ninsoare from evil and to protect the throne and daytime of Princess Celestia of Equestria.”

“Agreed!” The other five of the M6FFM exclaim.

Snake had wrote down all of the key points in Celestia’s little speech and waited until the room below him was empty before opening the grate and quietly jumping down. He then turned on his radio and called up Sweetie Belle, who was still at the tree house with the other fillies awaiting news. He relayed the information he learned to them.

“What in tarnation? That don’t make any sense, I told you guys that Luna just left for a while and this is a fake Nightmare Moon!” Apple Bloom exclaimed after hearing this news.

Scootaloo offered her thought, “Maybe it’s the other way around? A fake Nightmare here and the real one is on Ninsoare?”

“Could be, but we have to find a way to get to that planet. Without a way there, we can’t really find out what’s really going on.” Snake said.

“Well, I think we all should find out how my sister and the other ponies are getting there, so until then, find a way there Snake. If you find one, tell us about where, and how, and if we can make one ourselves. Good luck Snake.” Sweetie Belle said before ending the message.

Snake snuck out when the guards got up to follow the princess and the six ponies. He cautiously followed them to the basement where there was a room with large device that looked like a portal of sorts. He hid behind a failed prototype in the corner to not be seen when Celestia turned around.

“This is the portal I will send you in. By the time you get there, the scout I just sent should have built a pony-made island to the northwest of the main continent. Once you arrive, there will be a tower on that island that has a room in the top floor to contact me. Press the big button with my face on it and it should work,”

“YAAAAAAAY I LOOOOOOOVE PRESSING BUTTONS!!!!!!” A pink pony exclaimed super-loud.

The rainbow maned pony replied, “Calm down Pinkie, and if anyone’s gonna press it, it’s me cause I’m awesome!”

“Um… Rainbow Dash I… uh…. Wanted to press the button….” The shy yellow pony said.

Princess Celestia interrupted the playful arguing, “Girls, you all will have your chances at pressing it, trust me, now can you all do what I ask of you until I give you more instruction on facing the agent of Nightmare?”

“Yeah…” All the ponies replied.

Then Celestia turned on the portal and let the six ponies trot in and disappear. She turned it off and whispered a quiet ‘Good luck’ to herself and left the basement room. After she left, Snake got up from his hiding spot and studied the portal. He found plans to build it in a desk near the portal and put it in his pocket. He carefully made his way back to the tree house after leaving the castle and awaited the CMC’s.

Right on time of their now daily meetings, the CMC’s arrived at the tree house. Snake showed them the plans on constructing a working portal, and they got started copying them immediately.

“Hey Snake, I know that now, you have no missions, but how about you sneak back to the castle and try to set us up a base in Ninsoare? Or at least get good coordinates for one to be established.” Sweetie Belle offered.

“Hmmm… Sounds like a good idea, and by the time I’m back, the portal should be ready.” Snake agreed and gathered his things. As he was leaving, Sweetie Belle stopped him.

“Wait, I want one thing before you leave, remember you still are my pet.”

Snake really didn’t want to deal with that again when there were things that needed to be taken care of. “…… What is it?...... Nothing like before right?”

“Oh you silly, I just want a kiss!” Snake honestly couldn’t resist the cute look on her face, but was confused at the request knowing what happened to him earlier.

“Um… Alright…”

Snake arrived at the castle for the second time this day, and now it was getting dark. Princess Celestia was on a balcony on one of the towers keeping watch over Equestria. She should be pretty busy up there, so I won’t have to deal with accidentally running into her on my way. Snake thought as he snuck his way inside. He took a different path to the basement but there were hardly any guards anywhere even if he took the same way as before. When he got to the basement he realized he needed to make his way to the same hangar as the portal, which was three hangars down from the one he was in. He effortlessly made his way through, but then was distracted when he got to the third one.

Immensely sitting in front of him was the same Metal Gear as the one in his dream. Even in the same room. The only difference was that it was hooked up to a large computer and there was what looked like another portal in front of the main railgun. There was frost covering the entire thing but if it came alive, that wouldn’t stop it. He then remembered his mission and continued into the portal room. He approached carefully and found the map of Ninsoare sitting on the desk. He put away the original copy of the production plans and studied the map. In a short call to Sweetie Belle, he gave her coordinates of what appeared to be a run-down town that would be perfect for them to set up there. After finishing the call, he returned to the room with the frost-bitten Metal Gear. He was jotting down notes about it when a soft voice popped up behind him.

“That is Luna’s winter machine. She found it using my portal and turned it into a machine to spread darkness and frost. She’s automatically set it to fire once every day at Ninsoare. She plans to freeze the life from it. She’s the only one with the password to shut it down. That’s why I sent my most trusted task force to defeat her. I know she managed to split her two personalities Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon. She left Nightmare here as a distraction, while she prevents the people of Ninsoare to realize what’s happening. It’s only a matter of time until this device affects us here.”

Snake was startled, “Princess Celestia, how did you get here? I thought you were busy watching Equestria?”

“Oh, haha, that is just an illusion so that people like you don’t try to help my sister’s evil plans. Yes, I know you are an agent of Luna’s, and I’ve been looking for you. You must die, agent of darkness.” Princess Celestia’s tone was now very serious, and the look she gave Solid Snake could have made anypony fess up to anything bad they ever have done in their life, but had no effect on this soldier.

“I just want to know what is going on, I don’t want to leave Equestria!” Snake pleaded, he didn’t want to go back to being an old man. He also just realized that he is gaining feelings for Sweetie Belle. When they kissed before he left, Snake felt something he never felt before. He felt a sense of belonging, something that if lasted, he would never have to aimlessly walk around to soothe his soul. He didn’t want to lose what could possibly be a long lasting relationship.

Princess Celestia replied, “I’m sorry, but it’s what must be done to ensure Equestria’s safety.” Celestia rammed her shoulder into Snake sending him flying into the wall. Casually, she walked up to him and lifted him up on top of her and walked over to the portal.

“Nobody will find you here… And your dead body will freeze in the icy snow of my sister’s machine; serves her right for trying to send her spies here to take my throne from me.” Then dropping Snake down right before the portal in the portal room, she took her horn and stabbed him straight through the heart and kicked him into the portal. His body appearing right in front of the location he sent to Sweetie Belle.

Ch 1. Liquid Luna - Rewrite of Chapter 1, Part 1

Liquid Luna

An old, war-hardened man walked through the busy streets of a city he cared not to remember the name of. His grey mustache rustled with the constant blow of the wind. December wasn't his favorite season, but he was quite used to the cold. Living in Alaska when he was still young made him used to winter weather and below-zero temperatures. People bustled to and fro to various shops on desperate races to pick up last minute Christmas gifts. Cars were lined up at traffic lights and complimented the buzz of conversation with their impatient honking. "It's only a matter of time before this place just becomes another war zone. Liquid may be gone, but I know that things won't get better. War doesn't just stop for holidays." he thought grimly to himself, stopping for a cigarette.

A little girl's voice rang through his mind, "Snake, you know those aren't good for you! Next time I catch you, I'll take them away from you. Got it?" Sunny, a young lass he and Dr. Hal "Otacon" Emmerich had saved from the Big Shell incident, always would nag Snake about his smoking habits, saying it was very unhealthy.

Sighing to himself, he put the unlit cigarette back in his pack. It had been half an hour since he left for his walk, so now he figured it was time to head home. Zipping up his jacket a bit more, he started back the way he came. Soon enough, he arrived at the house Otacon had purchased a few years after the incident with Liquid Ocelot and Outer Haven. The house was nothing spectacular, but was quite cozy looking with Christmas lights strung out across a walkway and the building itself. He walked into the door, taking off his jacket. Hal was reading a book in the living room while Sunny sat next to him on the couch watching TV. Snake sat onto a chair slowly, feeling a little sore from exercising the previous day.

"Sunny, you're watching this again? You watched it yesterday. The same episode even. May I watch something?" Snake voiced, not too worried about her response, but he hadn't watched TV at his own leisure in a few days.

Sunny sighed, "All you ever want to watch is the news, Snake. You actually learn life lessons from this, and it's a christmas related episode. Hearths Warming Eve."

"I'll pass. I'm going to bed anyways." Snake stood up and went towards his room. Before he could get there though, Hal got up and stopped him.

"Campbell called. He wanted to check up on you. I figured I should tell you, since we rarely ever hear from him anyways. Did you already eat? We had some sandwiches while you were gone. There's stuff in the fridge if you'd like one."

Snake replied quickly, slightly confused as to why Campbell was calling him. "I'm not hungry. I'll see if my codec still works and call him on there. See you in the morning." Hal looked at him concernedly as Snake went straight to his room and shut the door. He opened up a locked cabinet in his closet that contained a few weapons and other various gear and grabbed his codec and powered it on. It beeped, notifying it was on and quickly Snake punched in the numbers to the ex-Colonel. It rang for a minute or so before he got a response as Campbell's face appeared on the screen.

"Snake, i'm glad you got our call. You must've figured it'd be important to have gotten back to us." Roy Campbell said seriously.

"Colonel, you know I'm retired and unfit for any more missions. What's this about?" Snake replied coldly.

"We just want you to check something out for us. It'd be a short trip, but you're the only one we know that can verify if what we have is real. I've arranged for you to be picked up in five minutes. Wait outside." Campbell commanded promptly.

"I'm not taking orders from you anymore!" Snake said angrily into the codec but the call was already disconnected. This is too strange, I'm not going to take any chances. he thought to himself as he opened his cabinet back up. He took his OctoCamo suit off of a hanger and put it on quickly, taking a silenced tranquilizer gun, a smoke grenade, and infrared goggles. Surprising Hal and Sunny, he walked straight for the back door.

"Snake, what are you doing? Is it even legal for you to have those still?" Hal exclaimed, motioning for Sunny to leave the room.

Snake grunted a reply, "Something's going on. Campbell's not himself and I think the Patriots are making a move. They're still out there, I know it."

"Are you sure? Where are you going? Do you need me to come with?" The worried doctor questioned.

Snake opened the door as a helicopter appeared in the air, beginning to land. "Stay here and I'll contact you when I meet with Campbell by codec." Hal nodded and stood in the doorway. The helicopter landed and Campbell could be seen as the door opened. After nodding to Hal, Snake quickly hopped inside. Once inside, he angrily questioned Roy. "How'd you get here so quick? What's this all about?"

"It's quite simple Snake, we knew where you were and waited for your call. It was quite predictable." he replied calmly. "We need you to destroy a certain object that's in the way of keeping the harmony of our population. You are our only hope."

Snake pondered for a moment. "What is it I have to destroy? I'm really not in the best physical state to be going on these kind of missions anymore." Looking closely at the ex-Colonel's face, he noticed something strange. The entirety of his eyes were blue. Snake stood up quickly. "What the hell, you're not the Colonel. Who are you?" He yelled, pulling out his gun.

The impostor's voice was now a cross between a feminine voice and that of Roy Campbell. "I'm an ally. Don't worry about your physical state, we can fix that. As for who I am, it is quite unimportant right now. Your goal is to destroy the sun princess's machine of destruction so that my world can have peace. Now if you could sit down, we'll make the process easier." A short armored guard with a syringe with some fluid in it came out of the cockpit of the helicopter.

Snake didn't move from his stance one bit, focusing on both people now. "Why should I trust you? What do you think this is? Some sci-fi or something? Are you with the Patriots?"

The impostor laughed. "We are true and loyal to our homeland, but not the group you speak of. Now, if you can't cooperate, We'll just have to do this the hard way. Snips, he's all yours." While the impostor walked away, the guard named Snips came closer to snake, smiling through his helmet that covered his face. Snake was frozen to the spot and couldn't move a muscle though. Completely bewildered, he was suffered to watch the syringe be injected into him. Snips backed away as Snake fell to the ground, released from the strange immobilizing grip.

"What the hell did you do to me?" Snake said tiredly as he felt his body losing feeling and his head becoming dizzy. He soon blacked out, the last thing he heard being the impostor's voice saying 'Face your fears, Snake'.

When Snake woke up, it was the middle of the night in the middle of an apple orchard. Wondering where he was he quickly leaned up against a tree and punched in Hal 'Otacon' Emmerich's number.

"Snake? I'm so glad you're alive! Where are you? The helicoper was all over the news, it crashed with no-one in it. The stranger thing is that it was not even fifty miles away. I can't locate you with my computer, and there's a lot of static on your end. I can't even see you on the screen." Otacon said quite relieved.

"I don't know Otacon. This might sound insane but I could be in some other world. It looks like an apple orchard though. The Colonel was an impostor, they froze me somehow and injected something into me. I'm going to figure out where I am after I find a safe place to rest for the night. I'll contact you in the morning." Snake closed out the call without allowing Otacon the chance to reply. Taking in his surroundings, he noticed it was also the middle of winter here. The orchard he stood in had about a foot of snow on the ground, so any tracks he made would be easily visible. With clear skies overhead, there'd be no possible way for snow to cover his tracks. One major puzzling thing about the situation however, is that there were no tracks of Snake being taken there, as if he just appeared there while unconscious. Not worrying about how he got here now, as finding shelter was more important, Snake quickly started wandering towards the faint glow of a village about a half mile away.

As Snake came closer to the village, he could hear multiple voices towards the center of the village, seeming to argue. Quietly, he hid behind a large bale of hay to listen.

The first voice had a somewhat of a southern accent, but luckily for Snake, she happened to speak English. "Look here, ya'll gotta postpone the parade tomorrow. The towns-ponies are goin' ta' be in more of a panic when they notice we're not at the parade. Especially since the new rumor about Nightmare Moon's return."

Another female replied quickly, cutting off what seemed like an older voice before she replied. "Applejack, we can't postpone a holiday parade. Everypony can use the morale boost. I'm quite positive nothing worse can happen. We'll go to visit Celestia as fast as we can to figure out what really is going on. She didn't say if it really is Nightmare Moon causing night for the past three days, so I think there's something else at work here. We should really get some sleep though. Standard sunrise time is in four hours, that's when we'll all meet at the train station."

Applejack sighed, "Ah' just hope that we can figure it out quickly. Everypony's been more nervous than a filly at a final exam. See ya' later then Twilight. Sorry for wakin' ya'll up, Mayor Mare." The three had begun to disperse.

"What's up with the horse puns? Kinda reminds me of that show Sunny was watching. Snake thought to himself as he sat there, waiting for the sound of the people talking to leave. One of them started going in the direction he came from. Quickly, Snake pressed a button on the neck of his OctoCamo to blend into the bale of hay and hid his exposed head inside the hay, scratching him a little. Something about his own body felt different however. His facial hair was gone and he felt as healthy as he was at Shadow Moses. "What did they inject me with? And why did they shave my face?" he thought awkwardly to himself as the figure came past the bale of hay.

Applejack would've kept walking, until she noticed strange prints on the ground that led from the bale of hay back towards her house. "What in tarnation? Somepony, or something, has been spyin' on our conversation!" Worriedly, she ran back towards her house, following the prints.

Once the orange pony was far away enough, Snake pulled his head out, gasping heavily. "Damn, that was close-"
As he looked up, he saw the silhouette of a pony running off in the distance. "What the hell? It's- that's- I must be hallucinating! These can't be those ponies from that show. I just need to find somewhere to sleep all these effects off." He thought aloud, hoping that what he saw wasn't real. Slowly, he stood up and looked around the town. Across the road was a building with a sign of a cupcake hanging in front of it. The lights were on inside, so he continued to look around. Most of the buildings looked occupied except a taller looking one down the road. Carefully, Snake hurried over to the building. A note was on the front door.

Sweetie Belle,
I'm staying at Fluttershy's tonight. If you and your friends can't stay at Applejack's, you can stay here. The window is unlocked upstairs. Make sure to shut it if you're home before me.

Rarity

"Maybe I really am in some strange pony world. Wait, what the hell am I thinking? I still haven't completely seen one, so I doubt that what I saw was what was talking. he thought to himself as he started to carefully climb up the house to the unlocked window, which was actually just barely open enough to indicate it was the right window. After nearly slipping once or twice, he managed to make it inside. The window opened to a short hallway with stairs leading down in the middle and two bedrooms opposite each other at the ends of the hallway. Quietly, he shut the window and went to the door on the left. To his disappointment, the door was locked, so he tried the other door. Luckily, this door was unlocked and opened into what looked like a teen's room, however it had a quite short ceiling. Ducking into the room, he shut the door and locked it. I'll try to make this nap short. I want to find whoever it was that is going to be at the train station tomorrow. I might be able to find answers then. Laying down onto the bed, he fell asleep in exhaustion.