//------------------------------// // New Start // Story: Metal Gear Spark: Peace Zero // by GreenS21 //------------------------------// Twilight was running. It was all she could do; the shadows were rushing her, merciless strikers looking to put an end to them and everything they had done. Even as she ran past the spreading fires, her pursuers remained hidden in darkness, raven black like the sky above was from the smoke. Escape was the only option at this point. She stole a glance back, seeing the shadows still chasing after her. “Move!” Twilight looked forward when she heard that, seeing her friends and fellow soldiers still ahead of her. They seemed further ahead than she remembered; had she fallen behind? Or were they always that far ahead? It didn’t matter; the important thing was getting out of this alive. They were getting farther away… Twilight pushed herself to run faster. She followed them out onto a bridge. They just had to get to the other side and… Twilight was almost at the middle of the bridge when an explosion erupted from underneath it. The force of the blast knocked Twilight onto her back with a cry, spraying her with embers and small flames, but when she sat up, she saw everyone on the other half of the bridge, still running to safety without her. A sizable gap separated her from trying to catch up with them. She swung herself forward onto her hooves and prepared to make a running jump… To no avail. Before she could even move, another explosion went off, this one on the end of the other half of the bridge, causing the whole thing to plummet with everyone still on it. Twilight gasped and ran over to the damaged end of the bridge, watching everyone fall out of sight into blackness. Reflective, wavy blackness… Her attention was redirected when she heard the sound of guns being readied behind her. She turned around to look, still seeing shadows despite the flames being behind them. One figured moved to the front of the group, no gun in its hands. Its exact appearance was as obscured as the others, but it terrified Twilight more than the mass of shadows behind it. She glanced behind her at the wall of darkness that stretched as far as she could see before returning her gaze to the shadows. They would no doubt shoot at her if she tried to escape, but she felt like it was a risk worth taking. She turned away from them and spread her wings, bending her forelegs inward. She began to flap her wings, but she quickly noticed nothing was happening. She quickly looked to her left and right and gasped in horror. Her wings, they were… They must’ve been hit by the flames from the explosion, but to burn away the feathers and even… What felt like a boot pressing against her flanks brought her out of her thoughts as she tumbled forward. She pressed herself up off the ground with her hooves and saw she was at the very end of the bridge again. She looked back and up, seeing the lone figure towering over her. It reached up and made a gesture with its hand like it was tipping a hat back before Twilight noticed shaking beneath her. She looked down and realized the supports that were holding the bridge together were damaged at the end, the piece she was on groaning as it began to buckle under her weight. She looked back up at the figure and managed to let out a gasp before it gave way completely, a scream escaping her mouth as she fell down into the glistening blackness below… ________________________________________ Twilight let out a gasp as she jolted up, her eyes wide as she panted. She looked around after a few seconds and saw that she was back in her guest room in Canterlot Castle, Spike still snoozing away softly in his small bed. Twilight’s breathing slowed to a normal pace as the last traces of sleep wore off and she returned to reality. Still, what happened in the dream was not easily forgotten and she shook off the blanket over her to look down at her wings. Sure enough, they were there, both feathers and skin covering them. She looked down at the sheets as her mind caught up with the events of last night. She remembered spending about half an hour in her old study before returning to the guest room, her mind deeply troubled by what she had listened to. Despite that, she managed to get back without waking Spike and fell asleep fairly easily, her hopes at being able to catch up on her sleep seemingly being answered. She looked out at the balcony and saw that it was still dark outside, though it didn’t seem as dark as when she left the tower. “Must be early,” she thought before laying down again, hoping to get a little more sleep in. After a little while, she let out a quiet groan, unable to fall back asleep despite the comfort of the bed. “I guess I’d better wake up,” she thought as she sat up, the slight fog that never managed to drag her back down into sleep clearing from her head. She reached over to her nightstand and grabbed her iDroid, clicking it on and looking at the clock. “The Sun will be up soon. I could do something before everypony else wakes up, I suppose,” she thought. After a minute of thinking about it, she decided a light morning workout would help her get back to a normal routine and wake up. As she slid her lower body out from under the covers, she raised an eyebrow as she looked down at herself. She’d taken her Sneaking Suit off when she’d come back last night and it was now sitting atop the dresser, the gloves next to it and the boots on the floor. Twilight looked at the articles of clothing for a moment before using her magic to grab them as she slid her hooves down onto the floor, quietly sneaking out of the room to avoid waking Spike. Twilight made her way out of the castle before slipping on her Sneaking Suit, sitting on the steps as she pulled her gloves and boots on. She then stood up and looked herself over to make sure not only that it was on comfortably, but also that it covered her up. “That’s good. Now if there are any Canterlot nobles up and about, they won’t look at me and wonder why I look like I’m wearing part of a mummy costume. At least I can pass this off as a jogging suit or something,” she thought after a moment. She then faced forward and closed her eyes, mentally mapping out her route through Canterlot. “A jog through the city should be light enough so as not to be overexerting myself. I’m definitely not going to try to do two-hundred stomach crunches. This is enough to start with,” she nodded to herself. She then opened her eyes and looked back at her saddlebag, using her magic to open one of the pouches and pull out a cassette tape. She brought it in front of her face and looked at it, seeing the words ‘Zone Runner Mix’ written as the tape’s name. She didn’t have any idea what it meant, but she couldn’t argue with ‘Runner’ part. “It does have good music for a work-out,” she thought as she connected her headphones to her cassette player and put them over her ears. She then slid the tape in and pressed ‘PLAY’ before she began jogging away from the castle. As she followed the winding streets, the pumping of her legs and the brisk morning air helped her shake off the lingering traces of sleep and put her mind at ease. The bad dream had left her shaken and she was all too happy to have her thoughts become less cluttered. Admittedly, not much had happened in the dream, but there were so many unknowns and uncertainties in what she did see and that was what unnerved her the most. It didn’t help that, since she had awakened, her dreams had been slowly becoming more vivid and troubling. She had managed to sleep through them the last two days, but this one had woken her up. The last time she remembered losing sleep due to her dreams was… She shook her head, not wanting to think about that failure. She looked around to make sure she was still following the route she had laid out beforehand. She then glanced up at her ears for a moment, trying to focus on the track that was currently coming from her headphones. “It’s a pretty interesting song we managed to get a hold of. Snake mentioned something about it bringing back memories of when he was still allied with America. I couldn’t really tell if he was saying that fondly or bitterly, but I’m sure it was the latter, all things considered. Regardless, he never seemed to like this song. I think he even took it off his own iDroid. Still, I really like it,” she nodded to herself, her errant thoughts helping to clear her head again. She continued on, the bottom of her hooves hardly making any sound at all as she ran. As she suspected, a few of Canterlot’s elite were up at such an early hour. Naturally, they were all indoors and either sitting by a window or beginning the arduous process of preparing their faces, manes, and tails for the day ahead of them. Twilight caught sight of them or signs that they were getting ready out of the corner of her eye. She didn’t know if any of them saw her, but she wasn’t concerned by that possibility. “Seeing me out like this can’t possibly top what any of them saw on my birthday here,” she smiled to herself. Partway through her run, she found what she was hoping to find while she was out and came to a stop to catch her breath. Unlike most of the other houses in Canterlot, it looked dilapidated and almost seemed like it was tucked away amongst the other houses around it, almost like it was being hidden or shut away. Twilight might’ve missed it if she hadn’t been looking for it, but she had planned for this when mapping out her route. Before she left the tower last night, she had racked her brain in order to remember her other classmates, Minuette, Lemon Hearts, and Twinkleshine, resolving to find out where they lived and mark them on the map of Canterlot she was putting into her iDroid if she couldn’t catch up and try to apologize to them right away. It had taken a bit of research, but she was sure she had managed to narrow down where each of them lived. Of course, it was much too early for any of them to be up so she wouldn’t be able to confirm until later in the day, but the house in front of her she was sure belonged to Moon Dancer. She remembered her old classmate more than the other girls she knew, perhaps because they ended up working close together back in school. That would explain why her name easily sprang to mind last night along with her light-yellow gray coat and magenta and violet mane, along with the fact that she always wore glasses and a better idea of where she lived. Twilight looked up at the house anxiously, wanting desperately to talk to her old friend but knowing it was too early for her to be up. She forced herself to calm down and pulled out her iDroid, clicking it on and zooming in on the partial map of Canterlot it had in it. She then set a marker on the part of the path she had set that corresponded to her location, the handheld saying as an [A] appeared on it, “Marker placed.” She was fairly confident of where she was, at least; she still needed to work out how to bring back the real-time monitoring and tracking, but she was certain she could figure it out. She then clicked the iDroid off and put it away before turning to run again. A few seconds afterwards, the front door of the house opened slightly; a familiar spectacled pony then poked her head out slightly and looked around, searching for the voice she heard. Seeing nopony around, she pulled her head back in and closed the door. A short while later, Twilight finished her cooldown through the castle gardens and came to a stop in front of the castle steps, leaning forward slightly as she caught her breath. She was a bit exhausted, but she did feel better and more awake after the workout. She looked towards the east and saw the Sun was higher in the sky than the last time she looked. She pulled out her iDroid to check the time, noticing a familiar rainbow trail up in the sky flying in patterns and no doubt doing tricks over the city when she looked up. “Everyone else should be up soon as well,” she remarked to herself as she put her handheld away. After she did, she blushed as she heard and felt her stomach growl. “I’m hungry… I should get something to tide me over until breakfast,” she said before she made her way up the steps. Twilight made her way to the castle’s kitchen, where she found some of the cooks preparing for the day ahead. She hesitated in the doorway at this before quickly pulling out and closing the door before she could be seen. She pulled her headphones off and shook her head, muttering, “What am I doing? I can’t just… I know better than that. I can wait.” She turned and started to walk away, looking back over her shoulder as she walked. A second passed with her looking back like this before she bumped into someone, both her and the other pony stepping back with a surprised grunt. After recovering from the surprise, Twilight looked to see who it was. “Ah! Princess Luna! I’m so sorry!” she exclaimed once she realized it was the Princess of the Night. Luna’s angry glare lessened as she looked down at her friend. “Twilight Sparkle? You’re up as well? …And you’re still wearing that… skin-tight suit of yours?” she asked. Now it was Twilight’s turn to look annoyed. “It’s… actually called a Sneaking Suit, Luna,” she said, keeping her irritation in check as she stomped her hooves to demonstrate the lack of noise the suit made. “I know it looks tight from the outside, but it actually fits pretty good after a while.” Luna nodded and then inquired, “Please tell me you do not sleep in it?” Twilight blushed slightly, “O-Only in emergencies! I took it off before I climbed into bed last night!” Luna couldn’t help but let out a chuckle at her friend getting flustered. Twilight’s cheeks returned to their normal shade as she asked, “So, um… where were you going, Luna?” The dark blue alicorn replied in a deadpan tone, “The kitchen. Somepony needs to start making coffee. Your story may be intriguing enough on its own to hold my attention, but I still feel I will require it.” She then blinked and asked, “What are you doing up so early, Twilight?” Twilight hesitated before saying, “I just woke up earlier and couldn’t fall back asleep, so I went for a light run. I was considering getting a snack from the kitchen to hold me until breakfast is ready, but I looked in there and…” She glanced down as she trailed off. Luna smiled, “Really? Then let us go together and let the cooks know what we would like them to do!” Twilight started to protest, but Luna extended her right wing and wrapped it around the smaller alicorn, turning her around and making her walk with her as she said, “Come, there is nothing to fear! We shall go together and make an activity of it!” Twilight decided not to argue with her and the two went to the kitchen, where Luna told the cooks to start brewing coffee while Twilight moved around the kitchen looking for baking trays. About an hour and a half later, everyone met up with Twilight and Luna in the dining hall and, after Twilight had to calm Spike down due to him worrying about her waking up before him and leaving and Discord making another dramatic entrance that was met with a generally better reaction from everypony, they all sat down at the table, the kitchen staff coming in afterwards to serve them breakfast. Interestingly, there was a tray of muffins already sitting on the table when they came in, the staff leaving it in the center while they served everyone. As they started eating, a couple ponies grabbed a muffin and brought it over to their plates, though they didn’t eat the baked goods yet. After a few minutes of eating and light chatter, Twilight took a bite of her muffin and nodded to herself, still feeling that she had managed to make them taste decent enough. Rainbow was the next to take a bite, saying through her full mouth, “Mm! These muffins are pretty good!” Rarity glared at the pegasus, “Rainbow Dash, PLEASE don’t talk with your mouth full! That is not something anypony wants to see!” Rainbow just rolled her eyes and waved a hoof at this. The fashionista’s glare lightened as she said, “I can’t argue with you, though. They’re… a bit lacking compared to the rest of this fine spread the cooks have made, but they’re not half-bad.” Luna spoke up, “Perhaps they are, Rarity, but there is a good reason why they’re so different.” Celestia looked over at her sister, “And what might that be, Luna?” The younger alicorn smiled, “Why, because the cooks didn’t make them at all! It was Twilight who made these muffins.” Spike and the ponies all turned to look at Twilight in surprise at this. “You made these, Twi’?” Applejack asked. Twilight blushed as she sheepishly replied, “Yeah… Like Rarity said, they’re okay at best.” Rarity exclaimed, “Th-That’s not what I said, Twilight! I just… I thought the cooks made them! I didn’t realize they were your contribution!” Rainbow added, “I didn’t know you knew how to cook, Twilight.” Twilight deadpanned, “I didn’t before all of this. Why do you think Spike knows how to cook?” Spike pointedly answered, “So you’d be able to eat at home without poisoning yourself or starting a fire because you weren’t paying attention.” Discord got a chuckle out of that while Twilight rolled her eyes and blushed some more. Fluttershy spoke, “Well, I think they’re good, Twilight.” Pinkie piped up, “Yeah, they’re definitely a lot better than baked bads! You’re not giving your skills enough credit!” Twilight replied, “I don’t think they deserve much of that, Pinkie. I’m pretty sure a cart dealer would not accept them.” Discord suddenly appeared behind her and brought his face down next to hers. “Do you think they’d be enough to buy you a pickle jar, Twilight?” he asked. Twilight gave him an odd look, “Why do you need credit to buy a pickle jar…?” Discord questioned, “Well, what would you let it buy, then?” Judging from the look on his face, he legitimately wanted to know. Fortunately, Shining spoke up, “Isn’t it a bit early in the day to be having a discussion about credit?” Discord looked over at him, “What, you’ve never had an early morning discussion about credit before, Shining Armor?” The stallion countered, “Since when have you had one?” Luna cleared her throat and spoke, “Would you both kindly cease this conversation? We are not getting dragged down into madness this early in the day.” She shot a meaningful look at Discord; the draconequus made a face, but took the hint and stood up, purposefully taking the long way back to his seat to garner a bit more attention from everyone. Once he was sitting down again, Celestia looked at Twilight and spoke, “So, Twilight… If I remember correctly, we stopped your tale at the point after Peace Walker had chosen to end the threat it posed to the world itself. I assume you returned with Snake and Miller to Mother Base afterwards and began new training with them?” Twilight replied, “Yes, Princess, but not only me. Paz and Dr. Strangelove went back with us as well.” Cadance asked, “Is that why they were in the photo with you as well?” Twilight nodded, “That’s right. Miller said Strangelove would’ve had trouble trying to return to her home country so soon after the incident, so, with her hatred for Snake gone, she decided to aid him with her AI expertise and help finish Huey’s new masterpiece.” Rarity asked, “His masterpiece? He built another Peace Walker? That’s what he was talking about with Snake on your first day at Mother Base?” Twilight replied, “Well, with Strangelove’s help, MSF did end up with an AI weapon, but ZEKE was intentionally designed to be different from Peace Walker, Rarity.” Spike asked, “‘ZEKE’?” Twilight nodded, “Right. That’s what they called it: Metal Gear ZEKE.” Rainbow raised an eyebrow, “Metal… Gear? I don’t get it.” Twilight replied, “To be honest, I don’t either, but from what I understand, Snake first heard about the idea for a nuclear-equipped, bipedal tank during Operation Snake Eater, when he met the man who came up with the idea. Apparently, he described it as a new kind of ‘metal gear’ and said he was going to send the design plans for it to his friend in America. I guess that’s where the name comes from.” Luna wondered, “If the idea existed that long ago, how come Snake was sent to destroy the… whatever the non-walking tank was called instead of a ‘Metal Gear’?” Twilight answered, “The man who came up with the idea apparently didn’t produce results. That’s why the Shagohod project was chosen instead. Now, about ten years later, Peace Walker and ZEKE both showed that tanks with legs could be viable weapons platforms.” Shining questioned, “So how was ZEKE’s AI different from Peace Walker’s, Twilight?” Twilight replied, “It was basically a slightly more advanced Reptile Pod. We could install circuit boards taken from other AI weapons on it to make it smarter, but Strangelove made sure not to give it the higher-level thinking power that the Mammal Pod gave Peace Walker. It would be able to act smarter in battle, but it wasn’t allowed to decide whether or not to launch its nuclear missile; it would have to be given that order externally.” Cadance asked, “So they did arm it with a nuclear weapon?” Twilight reassured her, “We later salvaged Peace Walker’s nuke from the bottom of the lake. We mainly did it so the materials inside wouldn’t contaminate the water and to make sure someone… less restrained didn’t get their hands on it. Miller was the one who approached Snake with the idea of loading it on ZEKE. He didn’t agree to it right away, I know that.” Fluttershy asked, “So why did Paz go to Mother Base, Twilight?” Twilight replied, “Well, she couldn’t go back to the school, Fluttershy. Any money she was getting to pay for her tuition was believed to have come from the KGB, and with Zadornov our prisoner, there was no chance she was going to see any more money. Snake and Miller guessed she wouldn’t have gotten much anyway.” Mrs. Sparkle asked, “So what did she do?” Twilight answered, “She was allowed to work in the Mess Hall. That’s the only place Snake would allow her to work; he didn’t want her to get caught up in the war business and she was only going to be there until she could find a better place to go.” Shining said, “So he didn’t intend to keep her there.” Twilight nodded, “Right. It was only temporary.” Mr. Sparkle spoke, “But he had no problem with you getting involved with war, Twilight. That seems like quite a change, considering it sounds like they originally treated you like that.” Twilight shrugged, “I was different, Dad. No matter how they looked at me, I was always going to be a special case to them. They just became less strict after seeing me work with Snake and him deciding to teach me the basics of CQC.” Cadance asked, “And that started when you got back to Mother Base?” Twilight replied, “No, not right away. The first thing Miller did after putting Zadornov in the Brig was ask me how I got captured and what happened to Wolf. I told him all I could and afterwards, he and I, along with a few troops, went to look for him. We found him where we had been attacked, undisturbed and, like I said, shot in the head.” She looked down sadly, “We couldn’t leave him like that, so… we took him back to base and gave him a burial at sea. Miller let me say a few words in his honor before we sent his casket into the water. Said it was the right thing to do and it would help him find peace, even though he wouldn’t have died if it weren’t for me…” Cadance started, “Now Twilight…” She was cut off when Twilight slammed a hoof down on the table. “He wouldn’t have! Zadornov was going to try to take me alive anyway, and he probably would’ve found a chance to attack me when I was away from Mother Base doing my experiments! He just happened to get an opportunity where there was no chance anyone else would be able to help me! Wolf died for nothing!” she yelled, tears starting to leak from her eyes. Everyone was struck speechless at her outburst. Twilight getting angry and raising her voice was nothing unheard of, but for her to cut off someone else so suddenly, and her sister-in-law at that… Twilight closed her eyes in grief, tears still running down the sides of her face. “We didn’t really know each other, but still… Snake said there’s always a chance you’ll die for nothing when you pick up a gun, told me not to let Wolf die completely. That’s how he convinced Miller to let me do more on Mother Base, that I was the only thing to prove that Wolf ever existed…” She continued to cry quietly while everyone looked at her in concern. Even Discord was unusually silent as the efforts of months of psychological counseling and attempting to not be haunted by what happened to the man who had been the catalyst for her changing into the mare she was now, to become better for the sake of others, fell apart in an instant, leaving her unable to speak.