Metal Gear Spark: Dite Survival (Guide) (R.T.)

Even the hottest lava eventually cools, becoming a mountain, and that mountain becomes the land. Scalding steam comes back down as rain, forming rivers, draining into the sea. It’s then that nature’s order sets in. Now, I’m merely a part of that cycle. Just like Zero… and Big Boss.

That lava – that vengeance – is already set as stone. Too late to change things now.

The choice is not mine to make.

-Skull Face, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015)

Equestria. The magical kingdom that ponies near and far called home. Ponies knew how to celebrate the magic of their home, and this day seemed like it would be no exception. The first Friendship Festival was being held in the kingdom’s capital, Canterlot, and the excitement was building to a fever pitch as ponies arrived from as near as Manehattan to as far as Saddle Arabia to take part. Despite the final touches that needed to be done, everyone was looking forward to the festival. Everyone was ready for this incredible celebration.

All except for one pony. Inside Canterlot Castle, Princess Twilight Sparkle sat on the floor in the hallway outside the throne room where her fellow princesses, Celestia, Luna, and Cadance, had gathered as they waited for the festival to begin. Atop her head sat her crown and in front of her were her olive drab green pack and a canteen in a pouch that was the same color, both of which she’d brought from home. She reached her hoof into the pack and pulled out a pill organizer containing her daily medications. She took a single tablet out of one of the compartments and threw it into her mouth, reaching for the canteen afterwards and using her magic to unscrew the lid to get a drink of water to wash the tablet down with.

The lavender alicorn had had her hooves full with preparing this festival and she had one more idea she wanted to bounce off of her fellow princesses and see if they would approve of it, particularly since it involved them, but that wasn’t the only reason she wasn’t going in to speak with them yet. She was also waiting for her assistant and best friend Spike to arrive with the scrolls containing everything she’d put together to explain her idea. She was going to need a good presentation if she was going to have any chance of convincing them that this would be good for the Friendship Festival.

As she set her canteen down and put her medication away, she couldn’t help but realize it felt like she was going to be doing a presentation in school. A small sigh escaped her lips as she sat back on her haunches. “Back when everything was so much simpler. Before I really had friends. Before I was a princess. Before… I had a glimpse of what certain friends and co-workers no other pony will ever get to meet would call Hell,” she murmured.

Twilight turned her head to look up at the stained-glass window that was made in her honor, showing her in all her glory just like Celestia, Cadance, and Luna. She continued to stare up at it; an outside observer would probably see this as a display of self-absorbed behavior, but they would’ve been absolutely wrong. Twilight was envious of the mare in the window. She looked so poised, so peaceful, so loving, so… complete.

She looked back down at her pack and canteen. They were physical mementos of what she referred to as her ‘time abroad’ whenever she was questioned about her time away from Equestria by somepony she didn’t feel comfortable sharing all the details with, but they weren’t the only things she had to remind her she’d seen the fires of Hell. She raised her hoof to her right cheek. It didn’t look any different from her left cheek, but she knew that was due to her friend Rarity’s expert makeup work, work that her unicorn friend had been happy to do for her over the last two years. She was able to cover up the burn on her cheek, as well as the burn on her chest, quite well, but she could still feel it, the rough, uneven patch of skin stretching along the side of her cheek.

She lowered her hoof and looked up at the window again. “This festival is meant to be one of the biggest celebrations ever in Equestria. It’s meant to be the culmination of everything you and your friends have done, all the lessons you learned. Even if…” She faced forward, “I’m damaged. I don’t know if I got stronger from that experience, but it has changed me. I’ve tried to continue on the path I think I would’ve been on if it hadn’t happened, but it hasn’t been easy. Today, more than ever, I wish I still was that mare. I’ve been trying so hard…” Her gaze lowered to the floor after a few seconds, “Have I been trying too hard…?”

She heard one of the doors behind her open followed by the sound of Spike’s voice, “I’m here, Twilight! I brought all your charts and graphs.” Twilight raised her head and looked back at the baby dragon approaching her over her shoulder. “I got held up a little on the way over here. There are a lot of ponies out there already.”

Twilight’s eyes flicked towards the window for a moment. The idea of so many ponies being out there should’ve made her anxiety shoot up, but it didn’t. That was a good sign that her medication was starting to take effect, which would no doubt help her presentation go smoother. She stood up and turned to face him. “Did you stop anywhere along the way, Spike?” she asked.

Spike stopped a short distance away and raised an eyebrow as he asked, “What do you take me for? Of course not; I didn’t want to get these dirty.” He then looked her up and down, “You seem pretty calm right now. Did you get your medicine in?”

Twilight replied, “Uh, like a minute ago. The fact that I’m about to ask the Princesses of Equestria for a huge favor isn’t really making me feel nervous. Is that a good thing?”

Spike smiled, “Hey, don’t worry. It’ll be fine; after all, you’re a princess too. You’ve got this.”

Twilight sighed and uttered, “If you say so…” She and Spike walked forward, using her magic to carry her pack and canteen and set them near the throne room doors before she used her magic to push them open.

Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadance were standing in the middle of the room when Twilight and Spike walked in. Twilight could feel a lurching in her stomach and perspiration beginning to gather on her brow as she approached them, but she did her best to keep moving and push the feelings down. “Good morning, Princesses. Thank you for agreeing to meet with me,” she said, stopping and doing a slight bow before them.

“Of course, Twilight. We always enjoy seeing you, and I’ve no doubt that you’ve come with a wonderful idea for the Friendship Festival,” Celestia replied, giving her a warm smile.

Cadance spoke next, “It really is impressive what you’ve managed to achieve, Twilight. Ponies have been arriving from all over all morning. I really wish Shining had been able to come.” Twilight could feel her heartbeat beginning to pound harder in her chest. She wondered if the princesses were able to hear it.

Luna added, “I’d like to think it’s to see us, but… Songbird Serenade might be the bigger attraction. We’re very fortunate to have her performing here today.”

Twilight swallowed and said, “Yes, she really is the main star here.”

Celestia replied, “Don’t be so modest, Twilight. None of this would’ve been possible without you. Now, what did you want to see us about?”

Twilight bit her lip and her gaze dropped towards the floor. She thought her medication would help with this part, but it wasn’t giving her the effect she was hoping for. She was losing her nerve and she wasn’t feeling like the old Twilight in this crucial moment. All she could think about was getting away from here.

Spike couldn’t see her face due to standing behind her and so he didn’t see the turmoil brewing, so his first thought was that she had lost her place in her rehearsed script and was pausing. Seeing the looks of concern starting to come across the other Princesses’ faces, he spoke up, “Oh, she, uh, she had this great idea to make Songbird Serenade’s performance even better! She really put a lot of thought into it. Even drew up all these…”

He was cut off when Twilight suddenly backed up and pressed her right wing against him. “N-No. That’s not… It wasn’t anything really important. I just wanted to see how you were all doing before heading down to the festival,” she sputtered.

Cadance asked, “Well, what are those scrolls in Spike’s arms for, then?”

Twilight glanced back in Spike’s direction for a moment and then returned her gaze to the floor, quickly saying, “They’re nothing. This is all stuff that needs to be shredded. …Spike, we need to go.” Before anyone could say anything else, her horn lit up and she and Spike disappeared into thin air.

The two reappeared in the middle of the festival grounds. Spike was a bit disoriented after the sudden teleport and Twilight took the opportunity to grab all the scrolls in his arms and disintegrate them with her magic. He stared up as the last of them turned black and faded away and then turned to Twilight and asked, “Twilight, why’d you do that? You worked so hard on those and put so much thought into that idea.”

Twilight slumped and sat down, looking down at the ground as she said, “It was a dumb idea… They wouldn’t have gone along with it anyway…”

Spike frowned and walked over next to her to pat her on the side of her flank. “Twilight, I think they would’ve liked to hear it anyway. I’m sure they would’ve liked to see the old Twilight again. They like to see that side of you, and that’s the one who came up with and organized this whole festival.”

Twilight continued to stare at the ground. After a minute, Spike turned to look at the sound of hooves approaching and saw their friends trotting over. They called Twilight and Spike’s names and Twilight raised her head to look at them. While Spike left Twilight’s side to sidle up to Rarity, Applejack looked at Twilight and asked, “What’s goin’ on, Sugarcube? What happened with the other Princesses?” Twilight tilted her head back down towards the ground at her words.

Rainbow flew over and observed the alicorn for a moment before guessing, “You lost your nerve?”

Twilight nodded, “Yes, I did.”

Fluttershy murmured, “Oh, Twilight, I’m so sorry…”

Rarity spoke, “Darling, you have to keep it together. I know your memories inexplicably come up and can rattle you, but you have to push past them for now. You are a princess, this festival is your brilliant idea, and you ARE up to the task!”

Twilight raised her head and asked, “Am I, really?”

Pinkie rushed over in front of her and grabbed her cheeks with her hooves, making the alicorn look directly at the pink pony. “Of course you are, Twilight! This festival will be the biggest celebration in the history of Equestria! It’s the culmination of everything that’s happened since Princess Celestia sent you to Ponyville! And there’s no way you can fail! You know why?” Twilight shook her head, so she said, “Because you have US!”

That had been the last time over the last few days that things had seemed like they were going up for the ponies, particularly for Twilight. The near completion of the preparations for the Friendship Festival and the arrival of Songbird Serenade were interrupted by the invasion of the Storm King and his forces. It was unlikely that the invasion was what Twilight imagined the raid on Mother Base two years ago had been like, but the end result was essentially the same. Celestia, Luna, and Cadance had been petrified and captured, the city of Canterlot was taken over, and Twilight and her friends had narrowly managed to escape via the river.

As they were getting their bearings, Twilight had remembered that, before she was completely petrified, Celestia had told Luna to head south beyond the Badlands to seek out a queen for help. She made a quick teleport back to Ponyville to grab her Sneaking Suit and some supplies and they headed south into the Badlands. They made it all the way to Klugetown and were sort of helped by the rogue known as Capper, but their escape from the settlement and then from Captain Celaeno and her crew’s airship when they accidentally drew the attention of the Storm King’s forces had been close calls. Still, they had managed to arrive at their intended destination, Mount Aris, and discovered the hiding place of Queen Novo, the Queen of the Hippogriffs, and her people in an underwater cave below their former home. There, they discovered that they possessed a magical pearl that enabled them to change their form to adapt to their new environment, and though they had no intention of helping the Equestrians, they did share the transformative magic with them and offer them refuge.

Which led to the current situation. While Pinkie and her other friends tried to convince Queen Novo to reconsider, Twilight was sneaking behind their backs to try to claim the magic power in order to give everyone back in Canterlot a power boost in order to rise up. She was currently outside the underwater palace, waiting for all the hippogriffs to leave. Once she was sure the palace was unguarded, she swam inside, still not used to her new lower fish-like body.

The magic pearl sat in the center of the room with what looked like jellyfish tentacles extending down from the ceiling around it. Twilight came to a stop a short distance away and stared. “It must be some sort of security system. If I touch a tentacle, it’ll probably set off an alarm,” she thought. She steeled herself, “I can do this. I’ve snuck into heavily guarded places before. I can easily get past some tentacles. And once I have this magic, I’ll take it back to Canterlot and use it to change everypony. Queen Novo will understand; there’ll be no need for her and the hippogriffs to risk themselves. I’ll be able to make an army of my own. An army made of… prisoners… and innocents… without asking them…”

She found herself hesitating as she thought about what she was going to do. Sure, perhaps her heart was in the right place, but she began to wonder if she really was doing the right thing. She would be betraying the small amount of trust Queen Novo was showing them, and then there was the issue of her friends doing something completely different, so she essentially lied to her friends. She also had no idea whether this hastily thought-out idea would actually work. But more than anything, she began to see she was acting in a way that Big Boss probably would. He didn’t trust government institutions, his actions leading up to the last time she saw him suggested he was beginning to focus more on things that would help him, and the only constant for him was… war…

Twilight turned and looked at one of the columns in the palace. She could just about see her reflection in it when she drifted closer. The water had washed away the makeup on her cheek, revealing her scar once again. She continued to stare as she reflected on herself. Although she still held some respect for Big Boss, her trust in him had waned as his military power grew. He became colder and more distant, sending his troops off to more dangerous assignments and showing less care for their well-being. She had wondered before if, if it hadn’t been for Miller vetoing the idea, he would make sure Chico wasn’t the only child soldier in his army, and magic like this would certainly affect fillies and colts as well. She had no illusions; she knew a lot of things Big Boss did were, while generally necessary, not justifiable on a legal or a moral scale. And here she was, very nearly perpetuating that mindset without even realizing it; even her actions between setting out into the Badlands and arriving at Mount Aris in some way went against who she was and what she believed in.

She slowly turned to look back at the magic pearl. A determined look appeared on her face after a minute and she steeled herself again. “I know what I have to do,” she murmured.

Spike and the other ponies, meanwhile, were coming to the end of their song and Queen Novo was feeling rather good-spirited by this point and after expressing her jubilation, she stated, “Well, I guess there is ONE small thing we can do…” Before she could say anymore, an alarm suddenly rang out, which was identified by one of the seaponies as the pearl alarm. That sent Queen Novo, her daughter Princess Skystar, and the rest of the seaponies swimming back to the palace with the ponies following close behind.

Spike was also following them, but he was still adjusting to his pufferfish body and so he fell behind. Because of this, however, after everyone else entered the palace, he noticed Twilight shoot out from below the palace, swimming away from it. “Twilight?” he called as he turned to watch her swim away, but she didn’t seem to hear him. He turned to look back towards the palace for a moment before swimming after her.

Inside the palace, Queen Novo stared at a fish that one of the tentacles was wrapped around. “This is what set off the alarm?” she asked.

“I-It would appear so, my Queen,” one of the seaponies said. She swam forward and pulled the fish free; as she did, she noticed something curious about it. “Your Majesty! There appears to be something written here,” she said.

Queen Novo looked at her expectantly, “Well, what does it say?” The seapony held the fish up and struggled slightly to keep it between her hooves as she started to read.

Twilight took a breath of fresh air as she broke the surface of the water. She had managed to find an exit out of the underwater cave that took her to the surface, coming up between the mainland and Mount Aris. She was still a seapony, but she could feel the magic from the pearl getting weaker. She swam over to the shore and as she pulled herself out of the water, the magic ran out and her fish tail returned to her normal hind legs with a bright flash. Even her Sneaking Suit returned to normal without being torn or ripped.

She stared in awe at what had happened for a moment before she blinked and remembered what she was doing. “This isn’t a better idea… It’s not even a good idea… But at least the hippogriffs will be safe… I choose peace,” she murmured.

Spike made it to the surface and looked around frantically. He’d lost track of Twilight in the tunnel and he had no idea what she was thinking. “Twilight?! Twilight!” he called as he looked around. He soon saw her flying up from the shore, just flying straight into the sky. “Twilight, what are you doing?” he murmured.

Once she was sufficiently high enough, Twilight stopped and hovered while she channeled her magic into her horn. She unleashed it after several seconds in a flash so bright that Spike had to avert his eyes. She then used her magic to amplify her voice and called, “TEMPEST SHADOW! I’M HERE!”

Just about all the color drained from Spike’s face as he realized what was happening: Twilight was turning herself over to the Storm King. “No! NO! TWILIGHT! TWILIGHT!!!” He screamed as loud as he could, but she couldn’t hear him. As he kept trying to get her attention, the airship that had been pursuing them earlier appeared and Twilight flew straight towards it.

‘Queen Novo,

Your offer to join your kingdom is very much appreciated, but I fear I will put you all in danger. I'm the one the Storm King is after, and the recent actions of Commander Tempest have convinced me that he will not rest until he has me.

Just as you have a duty to your kingdom, I have a duty to Equestria as well as its allies.

I'm doing this so that you may remain hidden. I hope we meet again.

-Cordially,

Princess Twilight Sparkle’

The seapony looked up at Queen Novo as she finished reading the letter. “That is all it says, my Queen,” she said.

Queen Novo turned to Twilight’s friends, who were looking around, and demanded, “What is she saying? What is going on here?”

Applejack was the first to speak up, “Uh, Ah’m afraid Ah don’t know, Your Majesty. Twilight never mentioned anything about somethin’ like this ta any o’ us.”

While looking outside the palace, Rainbow asked, “Where is she?! I thought she was with us! Same with Spike!”

Rarity gasped, “Spike is missing too?!” Several tense moments passed before they suddenly heard something outside the palace. The other ponies looked outside as well and saw Spike swimming towards them, looking winded and distraught. “Spikey!” Rarity said before swimming towards him, her friends and Princess Skystar following her. Queen Novo and several seaponies followed as well after a moment.

Rarity was the first to reach Spike and she cupped his cheeks between her hooves. “Spike! What happened? Where’s Twilight?” she asked.

Spike was hyperventilating heavily and so it took him a few moments to calm down enough to speak coherently. “They got her!” he choked out.

“What?! You mean they’re here?!” Rainbow asked.

“You led them here?!” Queen Novo angrily demanded.

“NO!” Spike screamed, causing everyone present to flinch. It took him a moment to calm down before he continued, “She… She went to the surface and surrendered to Tempest Shadow!” Everyone gasped at that.

Twilight sat in the cage she was locked in, her legs pulled close to her body. Her Sneaking Suit was designed with top-notch heat and moisture insulation, and she was grateful for that. The hold she was in felt pretty chilly. Her gaze was directed at the floor of the cage, memories of her last time being held in a cage coming to the forefront of her mind. Even if this was what she decided to do, that didn’t mean she enjoyed her decision.

She heard the sound of hooves a minute later and she raised her head to glance towards the stairs. It was that unicorn with the broken horn that served the Storm King, Tempest Shadow. She approached the cage and said, “You certainly ran longer than I thought you would’ve, Princess, especially with all the ‘baggage’ you were carrying. Why the change of heart?”

Twilight halfheartedly answered, “I finally admitted to myself that I couldn’t run forever. There was nowhere I could go where you wouldn’t find me.”

Tempest let out a huff and began to walk around the cage as she said, “And now you’re all alone. No friends, no way out… Are you happy with your decision, Princess of Friendship?”

Twilight turned her head to follow her as she walked. “Can you answer one question for me?” Tempest let out a grunt in reply, so she asked, “Why do you serve the Storm King? Your physical abilities are incredible, you’re one of the toughest ponies I’ve ever seen, and you’ve clearly gotten by without your horn for-” She was cut off when, as she came around the front again, Tempest turned and slammed heavily against the cage, prompting Twilight to back away.

“Stop talking! Do you think your lies will have any effect on me?!” she growled. Before Twilight could respond, she asked, “You really want an answer to your plight, some sort of reason why we’re here? Then let me tell you why you and I are not alike!”

The sunlight temporarily blinded Twilight as her cage finished rising out of the hold. As her vision cleared, she could see Canterlot off in the distance. They were almost to their destination.

She looked to her left at Tempest and said, “I’m so sorry… that there was no one there for you… that no one understood…”

Tempest simply stared straight ahead as she replied, “I came to understand. I saw the truth about friendship. I learned to deal with it on my own. I’m more than you’ll ever be. You could never understand.”

Twilight quietly said, “I do understand.” She faced forward, “I know what it’s like to suffer alone.” Tempest continued to stare towards Canterlot, unmoved by the alicorn’s words. If she was being honest, part of her was curious as to what she meant, but she refused to let that side of her get in the way, not now when she was so close. Even if she had to continue serving the Storm King, it would be worth it as long as she achieved her goal.