//------------------------------//
// 4. Life's End 
// Story: Pony Gear Solid 
// by Posh 
//------------------------------//


“Light is but a farewell gift from the darkness to those on their way to die.”






Applejack awoke to indistinct voices whispering around her. A terrible pain ran down her neck and to her back. She tested her legs, wiggling each one gently to ensure that she still had her physical faculties. Satisfied, she braced herself against the inevitable pain and tried to push off of the ground. She managed to rise a couple of inches before collapsing onto her stomach.

“Hey, she's up. Applejack? You okay?” The boyish voice came from beside her. She felt a clawed hand rest upon her face. 

“Careful, Spike,” a soften, calmer voice warned. Fluttershy, thought Applejack. “There's no way of knowing how serious her condition is.” Spike's hand was gone a moment later. 

Condition? Applejack thought blearily. How bad was I hit? She lifted her head and opened her eyes, blinking slowly. Fluttershy stood in front of her; Spike was out of her field of vision. The former eyed Applejack cautiously. 

“Hey, partner,” said Spike, imitating Applejack's accent. “I've got something for ya.” Applejack heard a quiet rustling, then felt the familiar feeling of her hat enveloping the crown of her head. “You lost it when you went all hero on Fluttershy.”

“Which I'm very grateful for!” Fluttershy added quickly. “Thank you, Applejack. You saved me.”

“Don't need no thanks,” Applejack said, her voice straining with effort as she attempted to stand once again. It shot up and down her back in waves, but she withstood it, rising to all fours with no slight effort. Years of applebucking had endowed her with an iron constitution which she prided herself on. No farmer worth her cider would let a little back pain keep her down when there was work to be done. “I'd be a pretty awful friend if I let that thing hurt anypony I cared about."

Almost as awful a friend as I am a sister.  The horrifying sight of her sister in the clutches of that faceless monster flashed in her mind's eye. 

Doubt and self-reproach gnawed at her as she silently chastised herself for failing to keep Apple Bloom safe for a third time. She kept the thought to herself, but her expressed sentiment brought out a guarded, but optimistic, smile from Fluttershy.

“Oh?” sniffed Rarity. “I suppose you're implying that Fluttershy is the only one of us about whom you care?” Ever graceful, she strode to her friends' side. Her expression relieved, despite her catty tone. 

Applejack was well aware that Rarity was teasing her, but she still winced at the memory of the Rarity taking a hit from the kidnapper. “How're y'all holdin' up?” she asked.

Rarity made a brief show of inspecting herself and shrugged. “It hurt, if that's what you're asking, but it was more damaging to my pride than anything else. I'm more upset that I didn't get to return the favor.”

“Yeah. You an' me both.” Applejack worked her shoulders and cracked her neck. The pain in her body hadn't faded in the slightest, but it bothered her less as she regained her strength. “Was I out long?”

Spike tapped a claw against his chin. “Thirty minutes maybe.  The others were on their hooves in about half that time,” he added casually. 

Applejack scowled at him. The competitor in her was not at all pleased at being beaten to recovery.

“Then again,” Spike mused, not really noticing Applejack's displeasure. “You were hit harder than anypony else. I guess it makes sense that you'd take longer to recover.”

“Some iron constitution I've got,” muttered Applejack. “Speakin' of hurt pride.” A particularly bothersome spike of pain shot through her head and she shut her eyes tightly, willing it away. “What about the others? Twi an' Rainbow an' Pinkie?”

Spike clicked his tongue, but made no further answer. Applejack wrenched her eyes open, fighting the agony stabbing into her skull. Sweet mother of corn whiskey, it's like every hangover I've ever had hittin' all at once. “You gonna tell me?”

“Oh, I was—” Spike cleared his throat. “Right, your eyes were closed. Uh. I did this thing. Heh.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder and smiled sheepishly, blushing. Applejack looked in the direction that he indicated.

Twilight Sparkle stood not far away, flanked by Rainbow Dash. The pegasus was massaging her rainbow-maned head with one eye shut tightly, still recovering from the savage blow that the kidnapper had laid on her. Nevertheless, she wore a tight-lipped smirk, a look she shared with Pinkie Pie. She sat in the dirt beside Rainbow Dash, a hoof pressed against her mouth as though she were fighting back giggles. Towering over the three of them, his back turned to Applejack, was a two-legged thing in a skin-tight blue/gray suit who stood with his arms folded, furtively discussing something with Twilight.

He was just similar enough to the thing that had stolen Apple Bloom for Applejack to grow overwhelmed with irrational anger. She barked a challenge at him, drawing everyone's attention. “You!” She staggered toward them, collapsed after one step, then dragged herself through the dirt toward him rapidly. “Yer one o'them monsters what nabbed my sister! You got some nerve stickin' around, you—”

“Applejack, calm down!” Fluttershy's legs clamped around her midsection. “Please, for your own sake, don't do something that you'll regret.”

“I'll regret not buckin' his face inna jam, that's what I'll regret!” snapped Applejack. “Now lemme at 'im!” She wriggled free of Fluttershy and resumed her enraged crawl For his part, the blue-suited thing regarded her with a raised eyebrow. Now that he was facing her, Applejack could see a stubbly beard on his face, and a blue/green bandanna tied around his forehead. She found him altogether quite ugly. It made her want to smash him more.

Rarity sighed. Applejack's body shimmered a faded blue, and she found herself floating just high enough in the air for her legs to not find purchase on the dirt. “What the hay? Rarity! Lemme down!”

“Applejack, it's alright,” said Twilight calmly as she edged toward her.  She kept her voice as soothing as possible, as though she were speaking to a foal. The condescension only made Applejack angrier. “This is our new friend. His name is Solid Snake—”

Pinkie suddenly burst into a fit of laughter. The thing in the suit grumbled something under his breath. 

“And he's here to help us,” said  Twilight. “He was trying to save Apple Bloom from that monster when we found them. Remember?” She grinned at him. “Help me out here,” she said through her clenched jaws.

Snake glanced at Twilight, then at Applejack. “So you must be that overbearing sister that Apple Bloom was telling me about.” His voice was deep and sounded like crunching gravel. 

Overbearing...?! “Why you dirty, low-down, no-good son of a diamond dog!” yelled Applejack.  “I'mma break outta this spell an' when I do—”

Twilight facehoofed as Applejack made several violent and profane promises. “I said to help. How is that helping?” she asked, exasperated. “How?!”

Snake shrugged. “I'm not exactly at a hundred percent right now. Under the circumstances, I think I'm doing pretty well.” He took a few steps toward where Applejack hovered, suspended in Rarity's magic field, and observed her like she were an animal in a zoo. Applejack seethed. “But if it'll make things easier for you, I suppose I can make an effort to play nice.” 

He came within striking distance of Applejack. She swung at him; he backed out of reach. “Of course, it has to be a two way street,” he said to Twilight. “I need assurance that this one isn't going to go postal.”

“Y'all might try talkin' to me, for starters,” said Applejack curtly. “Twilight ain't my lawyer.”

“Maybe she should be. You aren't making a good case for yourself.” Snake came back within reach of Applejack, and she fought back the urge to swing at him again. 

“The thing that took your sister brought her to a ruined castle deep in this forest," said Snake. "I don't know where that is, but I'm told that you do. If you want to walk right in there and confront Trenton alone, after what he did to you and your friends, then go right ahead.” 

Her friends exchanged uncertain looks with one another.

“Or you could show some sense and listen to what I'm trying to say,” Snake continued. “We have a common enemy and a common purpose. Get me to the castle, and I'll help you get Apple Bloom back. But you need to put your trust in me.” His eyes were grayish-blue and, somehow, ancient. “How about it?”

Applejack looked away from his face, to Twilight Sparkle behind him. She offered Applejack a nervous, encouraging smile and a slow nod. Please, the unicorn mouthed. 

“Well...” Applejack sucked in a breath and exhaled it slowly, relaxing her muscles. “If you did right by Apple Bloom, then... I s'pose you can't be all that bad.” She glanced over her shoulder at Rarity. “Y'all can let me down now, sugarcube. No more rough-housin' from me.” 

“Oh, thanks heavens,” breathed Rarity as her levitation field vanished. Applejack's heart fell at the sudden loss of buoyancy. She dropped, but Snake's hand lashed out and caught her by the hoof, and she dangled in his grip, the tip of her tail brushing against the grass. Applejack glared daggers at Rarity. 

“My levitation isn't as powerful as Twilight's,” said Rarity, plaintively digging a hoof into the dirt. “It takes more effort to hold up something as heavy as a grown pony.” 

“Yer lucky I ain't a sensitive gal, Rarity, or I'd think y'all were callin' me fat,” said a testy Applejack as Snake lowered her to the ground. She stood upon all fours, incredibly sore and deeply pained, but standing nonetheless. “I acted like a heel just now,” she said, straining through the pain to look up at Snake's face. “This just hasn't been a good day at all. Not that that's any excuse.” She offered him a hoof. “Applejack.”

Snake knelt, took her hoof and shook it gently, mindful of the pain she was in. “Solid Snake.”

Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash erupted into full-blown belly laughs. Rainbow Dash sank to the ground and plopped onto her bottom behind Pinkie, the two leaning back-to-back as they roared with joy. 

Snake flushed and clenched his jaw. “Because 'Pinkie Pie' sounds so much better,” he grumbled.

“Girls,” said Twilight flatly. “Seriously? Are you four?”

With a mighty effort, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash forcibly repressed their laughter into less raucous (but still mirthful) chuckles. “Okay,” gasped Pinkie, in between bursts, “okay, you're right. I'm done. We're done” She grinned, giggled one last time, coughed, and grinned again, looking at Rainbow Dash. “Done?”

“Done,” agreed Rainbow Dash, returning Pinkie's grin.

Snake folded his arms. “You're crocked, aren't you?” he asked.

“Uh-uh,” said Pinkie, shaking her head. “I'm Pinkie Pie, remember? Silly.”

Snake pressed a hand against his forehead, shut his eyes, and groaned.





I hastily brought Applejack to speed, silently wishing that Twilight had waited until the orange pony regained consciousness before grilling me for answers. Would have saved me some trouble; I could have played the exposition game with all of them at once. Still, for someone who'd recently suffered a savage blow to the spine, no doubt impairing several cognitive functions, Applejack picked up the gist of my story with relative ease. 

“You think that Trenton feller's usin' Apple Bloom as bait?” asked Applejack as she rubbed her sore neck. Fluttershy, the cowardly, butter-colored pegasus, kept shooting worried glances her way, but largely kept her distance. Figured I'd missed something; didn't care enough to ask what it was though.

“Could be. He told me that he'd been ordered not to hurt any ponies he encountered.” The word “ponies” felt thick and ridiculous in my mouth, and I hated myself a little bit more every time I found myself saying it. “But then he implied that she'd be in some sort of danger if I, or we, didn't come for her.” I drew my pack of cigarettes, selected one, and lifted it to my mouth. I hadn't had a smoke since waking up in Equestria, and it was starting to get to me. “Quite a contradiction.”

The cigarette left my mouth abruptly, dangling inches away from my face, wrapped in a translucent purple aura. I snatched at it; it danced away from my reach. Twilight Sparkle stepped in front of me and shook her head, dropping the cigarette to the grass. Shooting her the most antagonistic glare I could muster, I stooped, retrieved the cigarette, and returned it to the pack. I guess the universe figured that if Otacon couldn't be there to nanny me, then someone had to pick up the slack. 

“Do you think that it was an empty threat?” asked the white unicorn, Rarity. I have never been and will never be attracted to an animal, but even I had to admit, there was a glamour to Rarity that was impossible to avoid noticing. “That he only said it to get us over there?”

“If that's the case, then we'd be waltzing into a trap just by showing up,” added Rainbow Dash. She hovered in the air with her hind legs dangling down and her forelegs crossed. Poor thing had a fine lump on her head. I thought about the pain that Gray Fox' punches wracked me with, then at the way he'd lobbed off Ocelot's arm, and reasoned that if a lump was the worst she got from a Cyborg Ninja, then she ought to have considered herself lucky.

“Y'know somethin'?” said Applejack, looking at Rainbow Dash and Rarity. “I don't think I really care whether it's a trap or not. I ain't leavin' my flesh-an'-blood with that monster.” She looked at me with those big green eyes, her face stony and resolute. “If you can help my sister, then I'll take y'all where ya need t'go, no question. You gals with me?”

I knew from experience how crippling a hit from even the blunt end of an HF blade could be, yet she not only withstood one, she was raring to go another round. No wonder Applejack was able to shrug off that spinal injury. Hers was clearly made of iron.

Rainbow Dash swooped in to land beside Applejack. “You can count me in,” she said with a grin. “Trap or no, I want to see that Trenton chicken try and take me on in an even fight.”

Rarity sniffed. “Darling, do you really think that you have to ask? I can't face Sweetie Belle and tell her that Apple Bloom's still lost out here.” She smiled.

Pinkie Pie bounced forward, light and buoyant upon her hooves. “This Pie's never met a meanie she couldn't get a giggle out of! Except for that one. And that other one.” She looked intently at me. “Are these bad guys dragons? Or griffons?”

Fluttershy shuddered. She shuddered so often that I now find myself wondering if I should even bother pointing out specific instances where she shuddered, or if I should just leave it unspoken that shuddering terror was her default state. 

I stared, eyes narrowed, at Pinkie Pie, trying to decide whether I found the pony's non-sequitur-based method of communication charming or obnoxious. “I'll take that as a nope-a-roney!” She took her place beside Rarity and grinned at me. “And no more making fun of your name. Pinkie Pie swear! Cross my heart and hope to—”

She went on like that for a little while, illustrating the purpose and nature of a Pinkie Pie swear. I settled on obnoxious.

“Gotta admit,” said Twilight Sparkle, “I wasn't expecting to ever see that old ruin ever again. I guess history has a funny way of repeating—eek!” A look of surprise tinged with pain crossed her face. The pudgy baby dragon, the one who'd actually been less useful than a blunt and rusty knife in the fight against Trenton, had caught Twilight's tail. 

She whipped it out of his hand and glared at him. “Yes, Spike?” she asked impatiently.

“I just wanted to know, uh...” Spike dug his toe into the ground nervously and linked his hands behind his back, rocking back and forth on his feet. It was a very human gesture that looked woefully out of place on a foot-and-a-half-tall lizard. “If you were still cool with me coming with you.”

Twilight started, clearly taken aback. “You still want to—no! Of course not!” She recovered her wits and took on an authoritative pose. “Things have changed, Spike,” she said tersely. “I'm not comfortable putting you in harm's way like this, not after getting a taste of what we're up against.”

There was a familiarity in her voice that nagged at me...  

“Oh, it's way scary,” Spike agreed, nodding. “And I'm not in any rush to look that thing in its big blue eye again, believe me. But at the same time...” He held his tail in his hands and wrung it, a gesture that I interpreted as doleful and submissive. 

“At the same time, I'm more scared for you guys, knowing you have to go up against it. And for Apple Bloom, too, knowing she's stuck with it. So going with you, and seeing it again, somehow seems less scary than sitting at home, knowing that you're in danger.” Spike twisted up his face and shrugged. “Does that make any sense?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Not convinced, Spike,” she said flatly.

Spike sighed, dropping his tail to the dirt. “Okay. Let me put it another way... I don't know if I'd have been any help against Nightmare Moon, or against Discord. I'm no Rainbow Dash, that's for sure.”

“Aw, don't sweat it, Spike,” said Rainbow Dash, elbowing Applejack for some reason and smiling smugly. “Nopony's perfect.”

“But being with you, and trying to help, that'd be actually doing something, and that's a lot better than what I usually contribute. Which isn't a whole bunch.” His voice, which sounded on the verge of breaking when he started speaking, grew more confident and secure with every word. “I don't want to just curl up in a ball and be useless while my friends are out there, fighting the good fight. I want to help, Twilight.” Spike dropped his tail, folded his hands, and stared hard at Twilight, making the puppy doggiest eyes I'd ever seen. “Can't you give me that chance?”

Common sense demanded that she drop him in a hole and leave him there. I could see no practical function that a stumpy lizard could serve on a mission of tactical espionage. But something in Twilight seemed to think otherwise. I took note of the precise moment when she capitulated. It was easy to tell from the way the look on her face shifted from annoyed beyond all reason to frustrated. It was a subtle shift, to be sure. 

“You stay out of sight,” Twilight ordered. “Anything happens, you stay out of trouble and out of the fighting. Don't try to be a hero. Got that?”

Spike's face lit up and he nodded, climbing quickly onto the unicorn's back. She turned to the rest of her friends. “He gave me the eyes,” she explained. “What was I supposed to do?”

Her friends got a laugh out of that. I didn't join in; I was too busy thinking of how doomed this mission was to laugh. I thought back to the discussion that Twilight and I'd had, which ended abruptly when Applejack regained consciousness. Twilight wouldn't budge when I insisted on only taking one of them with me to the castle: “We're strongest as a group. Where one of us goes, we all go.” 

There was no denying her friends' commitment to one another, their courage in the face of the unknown. It was admirable, but it was also ignorant and borderline suicidal. Moreover, it was help that I simply did not need. Otacon was my friend and lifeline, true, but in the field, I was on my own, and that's always suited me fine. Babysitting one green rookie is always a trying experience, but at least Meryl's butt was easy on the eyes. And Jack definitely could hold his own in a firefight, which went a long way toward mitigating him. 

But I doubted that these seven had any redeeming features of their own, could pull their weight in the event that something went wrong. And having them along on what was supposed to be a solo sneaking mission was unnecessary baggage that further jeopardized my already unlikely chances of success. 

I wrote “seven” just now, even though one of them hadn't yet committed to joining our little endeavor. Fluttershy was still off to the side, laying with her legs tucked under her body, looking very alone and very confused. 

“What about you, Fluttershy?” Applejack asked softly. “You still with me?”

Fluttershy looked Applejack in the eye for just a second before looking away again. Slowly, she rose to her hooves, looking very insecure upon them. “I... suppose I still owe it to you...” she said meekly.

“Fluttershy...” Applejack paused for a moment, biting her lip and closing her eyes. She looked at Twilight Sparkle, who nodded encouragingly. I still didn't get it, and still didn't care enough to ask. 

Applejack looked back at Fluttershy, eyes teary. “Of all the ponies here, you owe me the absolute least, sugarcube. Jus' tell me if you're in or out. I won't hold it against you if ya don't come with.”

Fluttershy's jaw went slack. She made a number of babbling attempts at vocalization before she was able to collect and articulate herself. “Th-then of course I'm going with you!” She galloped toward Applejack, sliding on her rump the last couple of feet and coming to a rest just in front of her. “If you really need me, that is.”

“We really do,” Applejack assured her. And then, in an action that made my blood sugar rise by a factor of twelve, they embraced, both of them shedding tears that rolled and splattered upon one another.

“I'm sorry for before,” Fluttershy said into Applejack's mane, her voice adorably muffled. Make that a factor of thirteen. 

“An' I'm sorry about last night,” said Applejack, pulling back to look into Fluttershy's eyes. 

Oh my God. That was more sugar than I could stand. I turned away from the love-in and rubbed my forehead, groaning. It was a grand stroke of fortune that I hadn't had solid food in more than a day, and thus couldn't splatter the dirt with my breakfast, but that didn't diminish the feeling of nausea that wracked my stomach. 

“Uh, Snake?” asked Twilight Sparkle. “Are you okay?” 

I glanced over my shoulder to see the entire group staring at me with confusion, including the still-embracing Applejack and Fluttershy. “I'll manage."

This was the worst mission ever.





Our first order of business was to investigate Zecora's hut. I didn't need to lobby hard for that detour; Twilight and the others were adequately aghast at the idea of something happening to Zecora , and they accepted the suggestion readily. By the time Applejack awoke, it was set in stone that we were looking into Zecora first and foremost. Would have made life difficult if she'd objected. She did, albeit half-heartedly, but it didn't take much to bring her around. All I needed to do was point out that Zecora had saved her sister's life for her to fall in line with the others. So we took off, walking in silence for the first leg of the voyage.

About twenty minutes into our walk, Applejack abruptly broke her silence. “Can you tell me more about how Zecora helped y'all? You didn't say much 'bout it, jus' that she did.”

I actually had “said much 'bout it,” with Twilight, while Applejack was unconscious, and didn't care to repeat myself. Then again, her request wasn't unreasonable, so I complied. “After the manticore stung me, Zecora found us and brought us back to her place. Nursed me back to health overnight.”

“You were stung by a manticore?” Fluttershy gasped. “But its venom is the most potent known poison in Equestria! Nopony survives a manticore sting.”

Wasn't she listening when I talked about this before? With Twilight? Wait, she was looking after Applejack while she was unconscious, wasn't she? So I guess she wasn't listening at the time. Made sense. “I'm not a pony. Maybe my immune system's better than yours,” I suggested.

“I... see.” Fluttershy withdrew into herself after that exchange, staying silent for much of our stroll through the woods. I'd catch her sneaking glances at me from time to time as we walked, but every time I noticed, she looked away, finding something else to occupy her interest.

Ten more minutes of this cycle wore on my nerves, and on what had to be her fifteenth glance, I called her out. “What?”

“Um, what do you mean?” she said with a slight stammer.

“You keep staring at me,” I said in a low voice. The others took notice, their eyes on me as I confronted the pegasus. “What do you find so fascinating?”

“I just...” She looked at the ground, at her hooves as they tromped through the grass. Despite her wings, she seldom took to the air, a fact that intrigued me. Maybe she just wasn't that good at it. “I've never seen anything quite like you before.”

Was she coming on to me? 

“And I like to make a habit out of getting to know all the new creatures I meet,” Fluttershy continued.

Not convinced that she wasn't coming on to me.

“So, um, if you wouldn't mind... when this is all over...”

I battled the urge to dry heave.

“...could I maybe sit down and talk with you for a while?” she asked meekly. “I just have so many questions about you, and your life, and your kind, and... well, and about everything, really!”

Oh. Well. Okay then. “I'll think about it." 

Spike turned around from his perch on Twilight and smiled at me, leaning backward on a folded arm that was braced against Twilight's neck. “She wouldn't be Fluttershy if she didn't try to make friends with everything she met,” he said. Fluttershy blushed. I grunted something non-committal and looked away.

Twilight suddenly came to a halt and held her foreleg up. “Stop,” she hissed. I crouched and came up beside her, a hand on my holster. We'd arrived at Zecora's hut.

The door to the hollow treehouse appeared to be shut. The interior was dark; I couldn't see into it. No way to tell if there was something nasty waiting in there for us.

“Let's go quietly, everypony,” she whispered. “If there's anyone in there, we want to take them by surprise.”

I rose a little, hunching my back slightly to keep a low profile. “I'll take point,” I said quietly to her. “If there are soldiers in there, then you'll want me front and center.”

Twilight nodded. “Agreed. Spike? Remember what I said?” 

“Man,” sighed Spike as he dismounted. He found a spot next to a bush, plopped down and cradled his chin in his palms.

I crept forward, slowly drawing the M9. The soft, somewhat distant hoofbeats of the others followed me as I neared the door, settling into a CQC stance. It was incomplete without the knife, but with luck, I could spring on any hypothetical attackers before they noticed how unarmed I was. And having a gun certainly made me feel better. 

I reached the door and placed my free hand against it. It was left ajar, and yielded slightly. That didn't relieve me any. I glanced over my shoulder. The others were arrayed behind me in that V-formation. Their expressions were variations on either determination or worry. Fluttershy embodied the latter; Applejack the former. Twilight's face was somewhere in between. The unicorn gulped and nodded at me. I turned back to the door, sucked in a deep breath, and shoved.

The door flew inward, striking the wall with a thunderous crack and rebounding toward me. It struck me in the shoulder; I barely felt it. I pushed into the house, gun at the ready, and quickly scanned the room for any threats. Visibility was nearly nil. I didn't see anything immediately obvious besides a bulbous, indistinct shape that cluttered the center of the room. 

“Twilight,” I muttered. “Light?”

There was a hum behind me and a flash of pale purple light, and suddenly, a dozen candles around the room ignited. 

Zecora's hut was empty. No zebra. No soldiers. No bodies. No immediately obvious signs or traces of battle. The hut was identical to how I'd left it, and I mean that literally. Nothing was different. And that's precisely what was so disconcerting. The object in the room's center turned out to be the cauldron, still full of that nasty soup Zecora had fed Apple Bloom and I. I dipped a finger into it; a skin had formed over the top layer, but the liquid was still lukewarm. Apple Bloom's bowl lay, untouched, where she'd left it, and the bed was still rumpled and unmade, just as it was when I'd risen. 

The others filed into the hut behind me upon realizing that there was no danger. Twilight pensively examined the pots and jars on the shelves. Fluttershy avoided glancing at the walls, where Zecora's collection of tribal masks scowled at us from all sides. I saw Applejack looking downcast, with Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash trying to comfort her. Rarity trotted up to the cauldron and stopped beside me. She leaned her face over the edge and sniffed, then recoiled with a wrinkled nose. “I don't understand. What does it all mean?” she asked.

“Probably that Zecora could benefit from a cooking class,” I said. Twilight glared reproachfully at me from across the room, then resumed her examination of Zecora's pottery. Was she cataloging it? Checking to see if anything was missing?

“Snake,” sighed Rarity. “I realize you aren't from around here, but surely where you come from, sarcasm is never your first response to a lady's query.”

“Yeah?” I said, not looking at her. “I ever see a lady around here, I'll remember that.” 

I imagined Rarity scowling at me and allowed myself a tiny bit of self-satisfaction.

“Y'know,” said Rainbow Dash,  floating in the air beside Applejack. “I think I know what might've happened to Zecora. Trenton killed those guys that went with him, right? His teammates?” She talked with her hooves an awful lot, spreading, waving, and somehow clenching them as she spoke. How the hell did she clench hooves? “If he was fine with killing them when they were on his side, then why would he let Zecora live when she obviously wasn't? He probably offed her and ran away wearing her head like a hat.”

“Rainbow!” snapped Applejack. Fluttershy let out a pathetic whimper. “Not appropriate!”

“What?” said Rainbow Dash said, dropping to the ground and coming head-to-head with Applejack. “Look, I'm not saying that I hope that's what happened.”

“Oh, Applejack,” breathed Fluttershy, her eyes going impossibly wide. “You don't think that they would actually do that to poor Zecora, do you?”

“I don't know what to think, sugarcube,” said Applejack. “But I know we ain't gonna get anywhere by goin' all morbid-like. Rainbow's just talkin' out of her—”

“'Outta my' what, Applesack?!”

“I can't exactly tell you what y'all are talkin' out of if you innerupt me, you big blue lummox!”

I pressed my palm against my face, poking my fingertips beneath my bandanna to rub my forehead as Applejack and Rainbow Dash went at it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rarity performing a strikingly similar gesture, and I immediately dropped my hand back to my side. 

Damn, but those ponies could argue.

A sudden, sharp noise like a thunderclap interrupted the burgeoning debate and caused everyone in the room to jump a meter into the air. I whirled and leveled my gun at the source of the noise, which turned out to be Twilight Sparkle. She stared down the suppressor-equipped barrel, her eyes wide, and chuckled nervously. “Sorry to startle you, Snake, but they were yelling, and I didn't know how else to, uh.” She coughed. I lowered my weapon. “Anyway. She's alive.”

“You know that for certain?” Rarity asked. She sounded skeptical. “How?”

“Because,” said Twilight, indicating the shelf behind her with a sweeping gesture, “of what isn't here.”

We stared at that shelf in silence.

“Is this a riddle?” Pinkie Pie asked. She tilted her head and perked her ear like a confused puppy. “Is the answer 'melon?'”

“Oh,” sighed Fluttershy, so quietly that I nearly dismissed it as my imagination before she repeated herself louder. “Oh! I recognize some of those!” She took wing and fluttered toward the shelf, scrutinizing the jars and their contents. “This is phlegmlock; I use it to treat flu symptoms in my animals. Ooh, and fegelein—with the right ingredients, part of a cure for poison joke!” Fluttershy returned to the ground and folded her wings. “These are herbal remedies and potions!”

I holstered my weapon and crossed to the shelf, picking up a jar full of blueish gunk and examining it. “Zecora's some kind of witch doctor, huh?” I said, turning the jar over in my hands. It was labeled in some jagged script that I didn't recognize. “Can't argue with the results. Her anti-venom saved my life.” I turned to Twilight. “But I don't see your point.”

The jar was illuminated by a pale, purple aura and floated out of my hand. It hovered a few inches in front of Twilight's face. “First of all, Zecora is not a witch doctor. She's a shaman. Very different." The jar full of gunk floated back onto the shelf.  "And second, Zecora and I have talked pretty in depth about potions and remedies in the past. Between our conversations and my own research, I've gotten to know most of her supplies and what they do like the back of my hoof. The one you were holding is a zebra analgesic, colloquially referred to as 'Bottoms Up.' It's used to treat hemorrhoids.”

I heard Rainbow Dash snicker behind me.

“My point is that a number of very potent potions, of various uses, are missing from this shelf,” said Twilight, ignoring Rainbow Dash. “Primarily healing potions, but there are several missing which are multipurpose. One in particular has psychotropic properties.”

Zecora manufactured the Equestrian equivalent of LSD? That was a surprise. 

“That doesn't prove anything one way or the other,” I pointed out. “For all we know, the soldiers left to guard this hut took them without knowing what they were for.”

Twilight shook her head. “There's a definite pattern to the potions that were taken,” she said. “Any idiot could fill a sack with them and be on their merry way. They'd have no way to distinguish between Bottoms Up and a bone-knitting potion. Whoever took these knew exactly what they were getting, and chose specifically.”

“That still don't tell us much,” said Applejack. “Jus' that Zecora was gone 'fore anyone could come lookin' for her. Don't say why she went, or where.”

I respect Zecora for her pharmaceutical skill to this day (hell, with my body the way it is now, I'd kill for some of those potions Twilight mentioned), but I came away from that investigation with even less of an understanding of her than before. I started to wonder whether Zecora had some agenda of her own, and if she did, what exactly it entailed. She could have left Apple Bloom and I to die, but instead, she took us into her home, fed us, and nursed me back to health. Yet, at the same time, she did nothing to help Apple Bloom when she was waylaid by the manticore, and did nothing to back me up when I intervened. If I hadn't attacked the manticore when I did, would Zecora have done anything to save Apple Bloom? Or would she have left the filly to die?

Now that I'm thinking about it again, the fact that the soldiers only caught up to us after we'd left the hut strikes me as convenient. That she was absent from the house when we returned, and that many of her more potent concoctions were missing along with her, makes it that much more curious. Was she approached by Trenton and his soldiers? Did she sell us out in exchange for her own safety? Or was saving us, only to sic a cyborg ninja on us later, just part of the plan? 

Of course, that's all speculation; I had, and have, no proof that she betrayed me. The worst she did to me was save my life. So I didn't voice my suspicions, reminding myself that there was a job to do. Condemning my savior could wait until Apple Bloom was safe and sound and Metal Gear destroyed. So we emerged from Zecora's tree house with more questions than answers, one of which Rainbow Dash decided to voice.

“So let's say Zecora did skip town. What about the soldiers?” She looked searchingly at each of her friends, expecting an answer, then back at me as I ducked under the low-clearance door. “Didn't you say that Trenton left a couple guys behind to keep an eye on the place?”

The distinctive report of an AK-47 tore through the air. My hand flew back to my holster as the ponies froze in place. There came more gunshots; rapid fire, full auto, not in the immediate area, but worryingly close. 

“What's going on?” asked Spike as he waddled toward the rest of us. “Is that gunfire?”

Twilight turned to me. “Have we been spotted?”

I shook my head quickly. “If those shots were meant for us, we'd know it. But someone's in a firefight nearby.” I looked at Rainbow Dash. “You were saying?”

Rainbow Dash frowned and opened her mouth to reply, but another burst of gunfire cut her off. Twilight stepped away from the group, her shoulders squared and her head lowered. “That could be Zecora they're shooting at!”

Or it could be some redneck washout gone hunting, I thought. 

Twilight looked behind herself at us, her face grim and resolute. “C'mon, everypony! Hurry!”

“Right,” said Spike as he scrambled onto Twilight's back. He didn't look happy when she bucked him right back off. 

“Stay in Zecora's hut, Spike,” she snapped. “Wait there, where it's safe, and we'll come back for you.”

Spike looked genuinely hurt. “But Twilight, I can help! You said—”

“No buts, Spike! I told you to stay out of trouble!” She turned her back to him. “Let's go, everypony!”

Looking at those ponies, with their inoffensive color schemes and funny hats and tramp stamps, it was easy to forget that they were animals who were renowned for their swiftness. Caught off guard by their initial burst of speed, I briefly had to sprint to catch up with them. I spared Spike one final glance before we left Zecora's house behind.

He wasn't staying put.





Six ponies and a human raced headlong toward the sounds of battle. The automatic gunfire cut off suddenly, and for a moment, it seemed as though the fight had ended before they could make their presence known. A series of five booming reports, distinctly louder than what the AK was capable of producing, told them that the fight was yet undecided. Before a great amount of time had passed, they came upon a scene that quite defied their expectations. 

A human in Pegasus Wings livery stood in a clearing with a single tree in its center. There were several large rocks scattered here and there, and a large boulder rested against the trunk of the central tree. The human was surrounded by multiple attackers, nine in all. They were short, but their heads and shoulders were well above the tall, unshorn grass, and they stood upon four legs. Their bodies were brown, twisted, and gnarled. Their canine faces were dominated by a pair of bright yellow eyes, which they had narrowed to slits. The lights in their eyes glinted against the chrome finish of a long-barreled revolver, which the human was desperately fumbling to reload as his attackers tightened the circle around him. His AK-47 lay discarded on the ground not far from where he stood, beside the broken and splintered body of one of his attackers. There were several empty magazines littered around it. 

Snake and the others crouched in the underbrush outside of the clearing. “What the hell are those?” he asked.

“Those are timberwolves!” Fluttershy breathed, her face lighting up. “I've never had the opportunity to see them up close before.” 

“Timberwolves,” said Snake sourly. He rubbed his temple. “Of course they are.”

The human snapped the cylinder on his revolver shut, leveled it at one of the wolves and fired. The gun emitted a terrible crack that made the observers clench their teeth and cringe. One of the wolves' heads exploded into timber, and its decapitated body fell limply into the underbrush. 

“I don't see any sign of Zecora,” said Twilight, once she'd recovered from the shock. “Whatever's happening here, I don't think she has much to do with it.”

Rainbow Dash whirled, turning on Twilight. “So what are you saying? We should just walk away?”

“He's the enemy,” Snake pointed out. “On the battlefield, one doesn't typically go out of his way to save his enemy.”

“So what?” Rainbow Dash turned on Snake now, her wings bringing her up to eye level with him. She stuck her face into his; Snake firmly held his ground. “He's in trouble, and he needs help. We can't just leave him like this!”

A second gunshot brought their attention back to the battlefield. This time, the wolves were ready for the human's attack; the one in his line of fire nimbly dodged, and the gunshot harmlessly tore into the underbrush. The soldier cocked the revolver and sought a new target, but at that moment, a wolf leaped onto his back and clamped its jaws onto his shoulder. It pulled hard and tore away a large section of his combat vest, spitting it into the grass, and attacked the flesh he'd just exposed.

The soldier valiantly tried to throw him off, but another wolf attacked him from the side, knocking him onto his back. The rest of the pack swarmed him as he screamed.

“You see that?” said Snake. Rainbow Dash trembled with helpless rage. “That's the universe taking care of a problem for us. We should take this opportunity to—“

“Stop!” cried Fluttershy. She leaped out of her hiding place and into the clearing. The tall grass rose midway up her legs, obscuring her full height and making her seem much smaller than she was. The wolves' ears perked, and they withdrew from the soldier, turning upon Fluttershy and baring their fangs.

“I'm rubbin' off on you, 'Shy!” crowed Rainbow Dash. She shot to Fluttershy's side and unfolded a wing, throwing it protectively in front of the yellow pegasus. The others raced to Fluttershy's side as well, taking up positions alongside her. Snake reluctantly joined them, towering over the others from the rear of the group. 

“Hello,” said Fluttershy sweetly, a kind smile on her face. “My name is Fluttershy, and these are my friends. We were walking through this forest just now, and couldn't help overhearing the awful racket going on over here.”

“What the hell does she think she's doing?” Snake growled. 

Pinkie Pie turned to him and held a hoof to her lips. “Shh! This is her thing!”

“Now, I know that you need to eat meat to survive,” continued Fluttershy. “And it would be terribly rude of me to tell you not to do that, or to try and shame you into not eating meat. You can't help what you are. You're predators, and predators kill to survive. I understand that completely.”

The wolves formed a line, keeping the largest and bulkiest of them—the alpha—in their center. He was a giant, larger than the average wolf, closer in size to a manticore. The second largest stood beside and just behind him; giant though that one was, it was easily dwarfed by the alpha. Though the pack kept their postures tense and their teeth bared, they held their ground and listened as Fluttershy spoke.

“But look at that poor thing,” Fluttershy cooed. “There are so many of you, and only one of him. You can't all possibly eat well just feeding off of him, can you? There isn't that much to go around, between the eight of you.” She leaned forward, bowing her head slightly and batting her eyelashes at them. “Surely, you can find a much more substantial meal somewhere else, right?”

The wolves' expressions faltered. Frowns crossed their wooden muzzles. They looked to one another, then to the alpha, who ran a long, leafy green tongue over thorny wooden lips. Then he bared his fangs again, this time in a sinister grin, and took a step forward. He barked twice, the second bark tapering into a prolonged, throaty snarl, and the other wolves soon joined in. Their shoulders hunched, their splintery hackles rose, and they began to advance.

Fluttershy's face went ashen. Her five friends snorted and dug their hooves into the dirt. Twilight Sparkle lowered her head and bared her horn. Solid Snake joined their ranks, arms raised and fists balled. “Very convincing,” he said to Fluttershy.

The wolves bounded forward. The ponies galloped to meet them. Snake held his ground and braced himself as a wolf broke rank and sprinted toward him, barking madly. It leaped and sailed through the air, its maw wide open, rows of black, gnarled teeth gnashing. Snake caught it in the air and threw it to the ground, using its momentum in concert with his beastly physical strength to enhance the force of the impact. The wolf yelped in pain, but the dense grass cushioned it enough to prevent the landing from crippling it. It scrabbled back to its feet and wove away from a stomp, then coiled its legs and jumped at Snake again. Snake caught it under its forelegs, twisting his neck to keep out of reach of its snapping, slavering jaws. Flecks of thick, sap-like saliva splattered his face and the front of his suit. 

The wolf lunged with its face, again and again, and each time, Snake narrowly avoided having one of his cheeks or his nose torn away. He wrapped his right hand around the wolf's left foreleg, choked his grip upward toward the elbow, and began to twist. The wolf stopped moving and emitted a piercing whine. It struggled, vainly thrashing about to escape Snake's grip as its leg cracked, splintered, and finally broke off. The wolf howled. Snake beat his end of the broken leg against the wolf's intact foreleg, once, twice, a third time. The leg broke on the third strike, and the dismembered wolf fell into the grass, writhing and crying. Snake lifted his foot, preparing to deliver a killing blow. 

A sharp bark distracted him, and he whirled around in time to see another wolf leaping toward him, slavering jaws bared for the kill. Snake spun on his back foot and struck with a kick that connected with the wolf's muzzle. Its body twisted in midair from the impact of Snake's foot against its face, and it fell into the grass. Quickly, it rolled back to its feet and bared its fangs. Snake left his crippled target where it lay and turned his full focus onto the newcomer.

Rainbow Dash locked eyes with one of the wolves and chose to meet him head-on. They closed the distance between them 'til it was mere inches, and the wolf snapped its jaws, expecting to bite down on supple pony flesh. But they clamped shut on air as Rainbow Dash broke her charge, unfurled her wings, and zipped to the side at a ninety degree angle. The wolf's eyes followed the spectrum of her contrail as she began to circle him, a whirlwind of color. 

A hoof lashed out and smacked the wolf across the face. It retaliated with a fierce swing of its paw, but found no purchase, and received a kick in the back of the head for its trouble. Dazed and disoriented, the wolf didn't even notice when Rainbow Dash broke her pattern and shot straight into the air above the wolf. She peaked at the forest's canopy, flipped in midair, and hurtled at the wolf like a lightning bolt, keeping her body straight as an arrow. The wolf recovered just in time to look up at the triumphant blue pegasus hurtling toward it, and folded its ears against its skull sadly. Rainbow Dash barreled straight into the wolf's back, bending its body inward and breaking its wooden hide in several places. She springboarded off of it, flipped in midair, and landed on all fours with catlike precision. 

The wolf whimpered, writhing painfully in the grass, unable to fully move from the force of Rainbow Dash's attack. The pegasus shook an aching hoof, and held it to her mouth, sucking gently. “Oh, be quiet, you baby. You think you've got it bad? That hit gave me a splinter.”  

A savage bark behind her drew her attention. A second wolf bounded toward her, grinning a wolfy grin. Rainbow Dash tensed and unfurled her wings, ready to take to the air, but a length of rope shot from behind the wolf and wrapped around the its neck, jerking it to the ground. It landed with a thud and immediately began struggling, gnawing at the rope and shaking its head back and forth.

Applejack held her lasso tightly in her mouth, straining as hard as she could to keep the wolf under wraps. “Rai'ow,” she slurred through a mouthful of rope, “ake 'i' 'own.”

Rainbow Dash tilted her head. “Huh? Oh! You want me to—yeah! Right!” She shot forward, skidded to a halt in front of the bound wolf and reared onto her hind legs. She struck quickly and powerfully, brief jabs with her left hoof interspaced with powerful hooks with her right. Each strike elicited a yelp and a growl from the wolf, who frantically tugged and chewed at the rope to free itself. But each blow cracked its wooden face a little bit more, weakening it for the coup de grace. 

Finally, Rainbow Dash drew her right forehoof back and swung it 'round for dramatic effect. “Looks like your bark,” she growled, “is worse than your—“

The rope snapped. The wolf's eyes shifted to glare at Rainbow Dash. She froze. “Uh—”

The timberwolf took hold the end of rope that Applejack held, and swung her toward Rainbow Dash. Pony collided with pony with a painful crash, and they rolled through the grass as a tumbling, entangled mass of legs.

Applejack shook her head and glared at Rainbow Dash. “You had to showboat,” she snapped. “Y'all jus' couldn't resist, could ya?!”

“Hey,” said Rainbow Dash defensively, “how often do you get to use a classic line like that, huh?”

The timberwolf barked, and the feuding ponies froze. It charged toward Rainbow Dash and Applejack, and they threw their forelegs around one another, screaming. 

"Hi-yah!" 

A white and purple blur collided with the wolf, knocking it off course and stunning it momentarily. Rarity landed, balancing on one hind leg, her other raised and bent at the knee and her forelegs held in a "Y" shape. The wolf regained its equilibrium and snarled at the insolent unicorn.

"And to think," said Rarity, "they laughed when I took that Krav Marega class. Well, who's laughing now?"

The wolf, who now assumed a defensive posture, stood midway between Rarity and a boulder. It leaped at her, but Rarity swung her back hoof and caught the wolf beneath the chin. The wolf staggered backward toward the boulder, caught off guard by Rarity's attack. 

Rarity pressed her advantage; she turned her back upon the wolf, leaned onto her forelegs, and struck the wolf in the face with a powerful dual-legged kick. The kick spun the wolf's neck around, causing its head to collide against the boulder. Weakened by the sudden avalanche of cranial trauma, the wolf could only wobble uncertainly on its legs, blinking rapidly. Rarity maintained a tense stance, staring it down, until the wolf's eyes finally closed and it collapsed into the grass beneath the boulder.

Panting, Rarity looked at Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Applejack glanced at the boulder that Rarity had used against the wolf, then at Rarity, and broke into a smile.

“Don't say it,” Rarity warned. 

“Don't say what?” asked Applejack, her smile broadening.

“You know what I mean. I know you do." Rarity coughed. "The 'T' word?”

“T?” Rainbow Dash stroked her chin. “Timber? Like what a lumberjack says?” 

Rarity huffed and blew a lock of hair out of her face.

A cry from Snake drew their attention. The human had a wolf pinned against a tree with his left arm and was punching it in the face with his right, but another wolf had leaped onto his back and was now snapping its jaws at his neck. Rainbow and Applejack extricated themselves, and together with Rarity, charged to Snake's aid.

One of the wolves circled Fluttershy, licking its chops. Fluttershy quivered; her every plea for reason was either ignored or met with another hungry look from the wolf. She was losing faith that she'd be able to end this particular conflict nonviolently. 

The wolf lunged at her. Fluttershy squeaked and dove out of the way, and the wolf passed over her, landing in the grass. It whipped around to strike again. Fluttershy took to the air, beating her wings rapidly in a desperate bid to gain altitude, but the wolf's jaws snapped shut on her tail, and it tugged her back to the grass. She landed on her belly and rolled onto her back, scooting away from the wolf as it stalked toward her. Its tongue lolled out of its mouth; Fluttershy guessed it was either happy or hungry (or possibly both). She squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face in her hooves.

Pinkie Pie suddenly bounced forward, interposing herself between Fluttershy and the wolf. “Oh hi!” she chirped. “I don't think we've met quite yet; y'see, I don't come into the forest very often and when I do it's usually for business and not pleasure, so I never get to make many new friends or meet anypony new! Oh, but I guess you're not really a pony, you're a wolf, so I should say 'anywolf' or 'anywolves' maybe if I want to go plural...”

The wolf took a stutter-step backward. Its swagger, its hungry confidence, were gone, and it now backed away nervously as Pinkie Pie bounced closer and closer, chattering ceaselessly and drifting from one topic to the next. Frightened, it turned to run, only to find its path inexplicably blocked by the same pink pony it was fleeing from. 

"...not to mention the humidity makes my hair poof like you would not be-LIEVE!" sang Pinkie Pie, sticking her face into the wolf's and rolling her eyes for emphasis. The wolf shut its eyes and snapped at Pinkie, but it came up empty. It opened its eyes. The pony had vanished. Perplexed and fearful, the wolf turned left and right in search of her, finding nopony but Fluttershy. It growled at her. Fluttershy winced, coughed quietly, and pointed at the wolf's back. The wolf craned its head backward, as far up as it could, to see what Fluttershy indicated. 

“...and that's how I learned the difference between trigonometry and tracheotomies," said Pinkie Pie, perched atop the wolf's hindquarters. The wolf's jaw dropped. It hadn't even felt Pinkie's weight until it noticed her. Suddenly, its legs buckled beneath it, and it collapsed to the ground, pinned by the pony. 

"Hey, speaking of humidity, what's the weather like in here?" Pinkie Pie asked, once again shoving her face against the wolf's. "I guess because you don't have the pegasi regulating it it gets pretty hairy sometimes." She giggled, and the wolf moaned unhappily, physically pained by her pun. "Hairy? Like a dog? Geddit? Nah," she said, waving a hoof dismissively and obliviously smacking the wolf in the eye with it. "You wouldn't get it because you don't have hair; you're made out of wood. Do you ever get termites? Like some ponies get lice or worms? Ooh, can I check you for termites?!" Pinkie turned around and belly-flopped upon the wolf's back. It yelped in pain, the wind knocked out of it, and its wooden skin splintered from Pinkie's sudden drop. 

"I never got them," Pinkie continued. "Not termites, I mean, you silly filly!" She propped her head up on her elbows, which dug painfully into the wolf's skin. "Even when I was living on the rock farm – oh, did I mention I grew up on a rock farm? Now THAT is an interesting story!" Pinkie began absentmindedly kicking her hind legs up and down, whacking the wolf in the back of the head each time. The wolf struggled to free itself from Pinkie Pie, but found itself impossibly pinned beneath her. 

Pinkie, for her part, failed to notice the wolf's efforts, or the pain she was inflicting upon it with her playful, girlish kicks. She looked and acted as though she were laying on her bed flipping through a magazine, not fighting for her life against a woodland beast. The wolf's struggles grew weaker with each blow and each passing second, but Pinkie Pie kept right on telling her story.

"Well y'see, back when I was just an itty bitty little ittle twinkie Pinkie, I lived on a rock farm with my parents and my sisters, where there was no smiling or singing or laughing or even any cake. Can you believe it? Not even on birthdays!" 

The wolf moaned pitiably.

"I know!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. "It's like, DUH!" She punctuated her exclamation by slamming both legs, in unison, onto the wolf's head. It suddenly went very, very still. Pinkie Pie did not notice. "No, we had igneous rocks for our birthdays, and we'd carve them up and eat 'em with frosting – we did have frosting, but it was made out of shale and water—”

“Pinkie,” said Fluttershy softly, and a little sadly. She placed a hoof on the party pony's shoulder, then gestured at the silent wolf who lay still and prone beneath her. Its eyes were glassy and unfocused, and its tongue hung out of the side of its mouth. 

Pinkie removed herself from the wolf and stepped in front of it. She tentatively reached a hoof toward its face, tapped it on the nose, and withdrew quickly. The wolf remained still. “Did I? Huh. I guess I talked it to death. I didn't even know I could do that.” She looked at Fluttershy, frowning. “You don't get that bored with my stories, do you?”

Fluttershy said nothing. An overpowering wave of sorrow struck her in the shoulders, forcing her to drop to her haunches and sit in the grass. Her eyes looked into the faintly yellow, lifeless, darkened eyes of the timberwolf. 

"Fluttershy?" asked Pinkie Pie hesitantly. 

The pegasus continued to stare silently into the dead wolf's eyes.

Twilight Sparkle dug her hooves into the dirt, staring down a large wolf who bulged with what could only be described as wooden muscles. It barked harshly at her, sap dripping from its chops.

A purple aura emanated from Twilight's horn. Thick, choking, purple smoke materialized between her and the wolf. The wolf's keen sight couldn't penetrate the dense haze. It tried to sniff out the illusive purple unicorn, but all it could smell was an overpowering grape scent. 

There was a flash directly ahead of the wolf, and the silhouette of a pony appeared. Twilight’s horn shone brightly; a light expanded from it, tendrils of energy snaking in all directions like the rays of a miniature sun, before the light imploded inward, focused at the tip of her horn. A noise like a sonic boom ripped through the air and the wolf was gone, catapulted through the tree line and quite out of sight in less than a second.

Twilight Sparkle heaved a sigh and sagged her shoulders. “I wonder how high it'll go,” she mused to herself. “The stratosphere? At the least, according to my calculations.”

A low, rumbling growl behind her sent a shiver of panic down her spine. Her horn flashed as she tried to teleport away from the danger, but the wolf collided with her and broke her focus. Twilight lay on her stomach in the grass. She felt wooden paws pin her forelegs to the ground, and she had to grit her teeth to avoid crying out from the pain of the wolf's claws digging into her skin. Sap dripped onto her neck as the wolf lowered its muzzle to her neck.

“Hey!” shouted a boyish voice. “Get off of her, you big wooden jerk!” 

Twilight's eyes widened.

She felt a sudden addition to the weight pressing down on her, heard a sharp intake of breath and the familiar searing sound of fire breath, and then the wolf was off of her, yelping and shrieking in pain. Twilight pushed onto her hooves, and saw a scene that made her heart leap with pride and sink with fear simultaneously.

Spike was on the wolf's back. His arms were locked around its neck and his face was pressed against its nape. The top and back of the wolf's head blazed like a vivid green mane. Tongues of flame licked at Spike's head, but he ignored them, unfazed. He lifted his head and sucked in another breath, but the wolf shrugged its mighty shoulders enough to break the grip he had around its neck. Then it bucked, catapulting him off of its back and into the grass. Howling with agony, the wolf turned and sprinted into the woods, its cries of pain echoing in the clearing long after it had vanished.

Twilight fixed Spike with a glare and sucked her teeth. The dragon smiled sheepishly, crooked his arm, and rested his chin in it. "C'mon, admit it Twilight," he chuckled. "You needed—"

A loud, feral, canine roar drowned the remainder of Spike's bragging. The dragon and the pony turned to see the timberwolf alpha, giant and bearlike, rumbling toward them like a freight train. Immediately, Twilight leaped in front of Spike and bared her horn at the wolf. She threw up a magic barrier, but underestimated the wolf's strength and momentum. It barreled through the shield, breaking it without breaking stride, and batted Twilight aside with a massive paw. Twilight fell to the grass with a grunt. When she lifted her head, she was greeted with the sight of the timberwolf alpha clutching her assistant in its gargantuan jaws. It glared at her with furious yellow eyes, snarling at the unicorn.

Spike trembled. He stared into Twilight's eyes, silently willing her to do something. Twilight quickly ran through her options. Short of teleporting Spike out of its jaws, she could think of nothing. The wolf itself presented too great a variable for her to do that with any reasonable assurance of Spike's safety; in a best case scenario, Spike would rematerialize with wolf teeth embedded in his skin. In a worst case scenario, he'd rematerialize with the wolf's jaw phased through his head. 

Twilight swallowed. On her own, she felt quite useless. 

"Drop him," growled a low, gravelly voice.

Fortunately, Twilight Sparkle was not on her own.

Solid Snake, flanked by Applejack and Rarity with Rainbow Dash overhead, rushed to her side. The human gripped a chunk of timberwolf leg like a cudgel. Behind the wolf, Pinkie Pie bounced lightly on her hooftips. 

"Do what he says," said Twilight. She took a step forward. "Let the dragon down, and walk away from this." Her horn began to shimmer. "So help me, if you harm one scale on his head..."

The wolf barked through a mouthful of Spike and pounded its paw against the dirt. Twilight swallowed hard and tensed.

The sounds of the stand-off drifted through Fluttershy's ears. She heard them, but only distantly, as background noise. For the moment, the entire world was herself and the empty eyes of a lifeless timberwolf. 

Not far away, another wolf whimpered and mewled, and for some odd reason, Fluttershy heard that more clearly than Twilight's menacing threats to the alpha male. A timberwolf, its forelegs broken off at the elbows, writhed in the grass, struggling to raise itself onto limbs that no longer existed. Syrupy blood dripped from the wounds.

It was the same everywhere she looked. Crippled timberwolves, their bodies splintered, shattered and broken, lay scattered all around. The acrid smell of burnt wood wafted past her nostrils, mixed with the lingering odor of cordite. Headless timberwolves lay as silent reminders of a fight that she and her friends had been late to. And, propped against a tree in the center of the clearing, a human tried desperately to staunch the flow of blood from a mortal wound. 

A boulder hovered over the alpha wolf's body, outside of its line of sight. It was wrapped in a shimmering purple aura. Twilight Sparkle licked her parched lips.

And then, audible only to Fluttershy, came a loud, snapping sound.

"Stop it!" screamed Fluttershy. She took to the air, winging over the wolf and beneath the boulder and landing between the two groups of combatants. "Stop it! Stop, stop, stop it! Stop it right this second!" she cried.

“Move, dammit,” snapped Snake. “We're trying to clean up your mess.”

Fluttershy trembled, and she whirled upon Snake, her eyes wide and red. "I said STOP IT!" she roared. "Both of you, all of you, just stop! Stop and look around! Look what all this fighting's done!"

Her friends did as they were told, and as they looked about the clearing, they beheld what she did: the broken, beaten bodies (lifeless and otherwise) of a pack of timberwolves. 

"Stop complaining," said Snake. "You were the one who wanted to get involved, remember?"

Furious, Fluttershy stomped toward Snake. "I wanted to help that poor human!" she rasped. Her throat was dry, parched from her screaming. "I wanted to prevent more violence and killing! I didn't want this! All this did was add to the body count! More bodies, more blood, more death!"

Snake said nothing, and did not move; if he was at all put off by Fluttershy's behavior, he did not give it away. Fluttershy turned her back to her friends and advanced upon the alpha male. It held its ground, eying her as though she were little more than a curiosity. The pegasus beat her wings and took to the air again, coming face-to-face with the alpha. "Why couldn't you have just listened?!" she demanded. "This could have all been avoided if you and your pack just left! All this fighting and carnage and death, all for what?!" Tears stung her eyes, flowed freely, but she didn't let up one bit. "Your pack is dead! The ones who aren't are crippled! You're the only one left standing, and instead of realizing what you've led them all into, you're still trying to pick a fight!"

The alpha glanced at the dragon in its jaws. Its grip relaxed somewhat. 

"How dare you hold my friend hostage like that!" said Fluttershy, pointing at Spike. "How dare you use him as a tool in this ridiculous blood sport! This isn't hunting, this isn't living as a predator, it's meaningless—" Fluttershy's sentence ended abruptly. Her voice quivered. Fury was beginning to give way to sorrow. 

"Stop it now," she begged. "Let him down and take what's left of your pack and just go. Don't cause anymore violence today."

The timberwolf alpha turned away from Fluttershy. It gazed around the battlefield, littered with the remains and crippled bodies of his pack. It looked at the human, still alive and holding his shoulder and staring with interest at the drama in the clearing. Finally, it turned back to Fluttershy. Their eyes met, Fluttershy's swimming with tears, the wolf's shining a pale yellow. It looked past Fluttershy, at her friends, who were still arrayed for a fight, and it bowed its head. Its great jaws released their grip on Spike, and he tumbled to the grass. Immediately, Spike vanished in a flash of purple, and reappeared at Twilight Sparkle's side. She pushed him behind herself with a hoof and held him there, her body still tense and her horn still glowing.

Slowly, the great wolf turned its bulk away from the group. Pinkie Pie quickly scrambled out of its way as it strode toward the crippled remains of the wolf who Rainbow Dash had beaten into submission. It leaned down and pushed beneath it, taking it onto its back. The alpha strode next to the wolf that Rarity had beaten, and gathered it as well. It looked across the battlefield, at the remaining wolves, dead and crippled, and bowed its head again. Then, mournfully, it strode out of the clearing and into the dark of the Everfree Forest.

Fluttershy gradually returned to the ground and folded her wings. Her body still trembled, and her head and shoulders slumped forward. Heavy, heaving sobs wracked her body.

"Fluttershy...?" Pinkie Pie moved on tiphoof toward the pegasus and wrapped a foreleg around her shoulders. Wordlessly, Fluttershy turned into Pinkie Pie's hug. Pinkie wrapped her other leg around her and held the pegasus as she wept.

"It's wrong," she gasped between sobs. "It's killing, and it's stupid, and it's so... it's so..." 

"I know," said Pinkie. "I'm sorry." She held her tighter and brushed her mane.

The boulder returned to the ground, unnoticed by all, and the purple aura faded. “'Naught's had, all's spent,'” Snake said under his breath, dropping his makeshift cudgel and drawing a cigarette from his belt. “'Where our desire is got without content.'” He placed the cigarette in his mouth and reached for his lighter.

Another purple aura yanked it from his mouth, let it dangle in the air for a moment, then dropped it to the grass. Snake sagged his shoulders and sighed.





I stared at the crippled body of the timberwolf whose legs I'd broken, and thought of the dogs I'd raised in Alaska a lifetime ago. Sure, the similarities were few and far in between. I didn't even know that these things could technically qualify as wolves. Wolves aren't made of wood. But that plaintive noise it made reminded me of a time when I had to put down one of my dogs. My favorite, actually. A sweet and gentle male who'd rest his chin on my knee whenever I was sitting down and stare up at me with big blue eyes. He'd broken his leg in three places and wouldn't be able to race again, wouldn't even be able to walk without enduring a very unpleasant agony. So I took him out back, alone, with an old Winchester carbine, and I let him die with dignity. And right before I pulled the trigger, he looked me in the eye, and he made that noise, that quiet, resigned, pitiable whine. 

For a moment, I reached my hand toward the head of the timberwolf. I wanted to brush my fingers over its wooden skin. I wanted to feel it stir, see its head lift and its tongue loll happily out of its mouth. But it whined, loudly and shrilly, as my hand drew closer. I withdrew before I came into contact and clenched my fingers tightly, dangling my arm at my side. 

The wolf didn't even move anymore. It just lay there, crying, and staring into space.

“Hey Snake?” Applejack nudged my hand with her nose. “Everythin' alright?”

I wasn't that obvious, was I? “Fine. Just a little sore, I guess.” I looked down at the orange mare. She was bruised all over, and there was some very odd chafing around the corners of her mouth, but she stood tall and proud on all four legs, no worse for wear. “You're pretty good, y'know that?”

“Shucks, stranger, same to you!” she said with a laugh. “Happy t'have you on our side!”

“Yes,” agreed Rarity. She dusted herself off; it seemed pointless to me, because her effervescent white coat was still spotless, despite the tussle. “You know, you may be an uncouth ruffian, but you're handy in a tight spot.”

I smiled grimly and turned away from them. Fluttershy was at the side of the Pegasus Wings soldier, who rested his back against the tree in the clearing's center. She examined his wounds while Pinkie Pie stood a little ways away, looking detached. A whole chunk of his shoulder was missing, and blood coated the entire left side of his uniform. I doubted he would make it, but sparing him some comfort was a nice gesture from the pegasus nonetheless.

I began to walk toward the two of them, just as I heard Rainbow Dash burst into laughter. “Oh, I get it now!” she gasped between chuckles. “The 'T' word! That 'T' word!” Rarity groaned.

Didn't care. Kept walking. The tall grass tickled my calves and shins.

“What did I tell you, Spike?” demanded Twilight. She and her baby dragon were at the edge of the ring of trees, sitting alone together. “I gave you one very simple, very specific instruction. Remind me, Spike, what was it?”

“To stay put,” he said glumly.

“And what did you choose not to do?” Twilight continued, in that patronizing tone that parents always used for children who disappointed them somehow.

“But Twilight, that thing was about to eat you alive! If I hadn't shown up when I did—”

“Better me than you, Spike,” Twilight interrupted. I admit that I was eyeing them now, mildly interested in their spat. 

Twilight rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof while glaring at the dragon who sat beside her. “One of the others could have helped me out of that spot. By stepping in yourself, by disobeying me, you put yourself in harm's way unnecessarily. You could have been killed, and what good would that have done? For me, for you, or for anypony?”

Spike heaved a trembling sigh. “I just wanted to help you, Twilight. I'm sick of being useless.”

“You're not useless at all. You help me every day, Spike,” said Twilight. Her words were kind, but her voice was tense and authoritative. 

Spike was silent. They sat there together like that for a few moments before Twilight wrapped a leg around him and pulled him against her chest. Spike's eyes opened in surprise for a moment, but then he nuzzled his face against her and returned the hug. “I'm not ungrateful,” she said to him. “I just don't want to lose you because you're trying not to lose me.” She ran her hoof over his head. “Thank you for saving my life, Spike.”

Another family that was nearly torn apart. I thought about Applejack and her sister, and wondered what Twilight would do if she ever lost that dragon. What was he, her pet? Not quite the same thing, I guess, but she seemed to care deeply for him. I returned my focus to the soldier and Fluttershy; they were holding a conversation now. 

“Please don't talk like that,” Fluttershy said kindly. “With the proper treatment, you're sure to pull through!”

The soldier ran a gloved hand through her mane. She trembled slightly, and her eyes betrayed a hint of discomfort, but she didn't move. “That's great,” he said. His voice, though weak and faded, was colored by a strong Brooklyn accent. “Can you get me the proper treatment?”

Fluttershy looked away from him, blushing. “W-well...”

He laughed softly. “I didn't think so. But thanks anyway.” He looked past her, at me, and for a moment, his eyes widened just a bit. “Well now. You're not regular infantry.”

“No, I'm not. I'm...” I looked at Fluttershy, over my shoulder at Twilight and Spike, and over my other shoulder at Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Applejack. The group was heading toward us now, slowly, like a funeral procession. The crunching sound of hooves through grass alerted me to Pinkie Pie's presence. She was edging closer to us now. “I'm a...” I thought for a moment. Should I even bother with a cover story? Ah, the hell with it. “A veterinarian.”

He coughed a familiar gurgly laugh. “Is that right? What, are you interning here?”

“Something like that.” I knelt in front of him and reached my fingers under the bottom of his balaclava. He said nothing, so I tugged it off of his head, exposing the face of a middle-aged man with a well-grown (if unkempt) yellow beard and fading blonde hair. The hair on his chin was stained red, his face pale from blood loss. His eyes were similarly bloodshot, so much so that I couldn't tell what color his irises were. They just looked black.

“Thanks, doc,” he said, breaking into a bloodied smile. “It was getting hot under there.”

I nodded. “What's your name? Your rank?”

He tried to hold his hand to his forehead in a mock salute, but stopped before he got anywhere near, gasping and groaning in pain. Fluttershy darted to his side and held his arm, gently pulling it back to his side.

“Case,” he said in a voice that sounded markedly weaker. “Captain Ronald Quincy Case, of the Pegasus Wings army. Second only to Commander Cain himself.” He paused, and made a face. “Or I was.”

“'Second in command'?” I repeated. “What's the second ranking officer of a military unit doing on a scavenger hunt out here?”

Captain Case bit his bottom lip and smiled. “'Scavenger hunt.' Appropriate.” With Fluttershy's help, he raised himself to a more comfortable sitting position against the tree. “There were seven of us. Five troops, myself. And the freak.”

“Freak?” A blazing blue eye flashed in my mind. “You mean the ninja. Trenton.” 

Fluttershy shuddered.

Case blinked. “You've met, huh? Yeah. He's a real charmer. Took the five shittiest troops in the unit and dragged me along with him to keep an eye on them. Time was, I wouldn't have had to do what he said, but Commander Cain's been reevaluating the chain of command ever since bringing him on board.” He spat. Rarity made a quiet sound of disgust. 

“We were sent to hunt a big kitty. Did that. But there were signs, y'see, of human life out here in these woods.” He waggled his eyebrows at me. “So Trenton stuck us outside an abandoned house and went off in the woods to chase down whoever it was that was poking around in the forest.” Case closed his eyes and let out a pained breath. “They came not long after.”

“The wolves,” Spike supplied, and Case nodded. “How did they get you so far from your post?”

Case smiled sadly, his eyes still shut. “They got the drop on us. I didn't even see them 'til my partner started crying for help. By the time I noticed and went to help him, he was gone, dragged off into the woods. I pursued them. Then I got surrounded.”

I ran my tongue along the bottom row of my teeth as I processed this. “They killed your man to lure you into a trap. Interesting tactic.” 

"Never found his body," grumbled Case. "Stupid kid, but he didn't deserve what he got." The captain gestured at the bullet-riddled wolf who was surrounded by spent magazines. “As for me, I wish I could have made a better stand for myself, but there were too many, and they were too quick.” He laughed. “I guess it's my punishment though; I used to poach wolves with my dad when I was a teenager.”

The aghast look on Fluttershy's face and the way she recoiled told me that she didn't care one bit for that revelation. 

“You said you were the army's number two man,” I said. “Why was Trenton able to treat such a high-ranking officer like a common grunt?”

“Again, blame the chain of command,” said Case. “The Commander apparently thinks that he's more valuable than a man who's served at his side faithfully for fifteen years.” He finally opened his eyes and looked into mine. “Are you familiar with Zanzibar Land?”

Intimately. “The mercenary nation, right? The one that revolted in 1999?”

He made a finger-gun at me and pretended to shoot it. “Bingo, doc. Cain and I were both loyal members of the Zanzibar Land military. After the Christmas incident, with Big Boss dead and most of our army in tatters, Cain and I, and about fifty others, took what little we could scrape together and fled, less than a day ahead of the NATO mop-up squad. We stuck together after that, went our own way as a mercenary outfit. Eventually, that outfit evolved into the Pegasus Wings private military. Not the biggest, nor the best armed, but we were good soldiers, and we carved out a living for ourselves. Bought a freighter, refit it as a warship, and lived the good life on the high seas.”

I couldn't imagine how lost the ponies were, with all this talk about NATO and Zanzibar Land and Christmas. Well, shit, I thought, see how they like being confused by a lack of context. 

“So what changed?” I asked.

Case licked his dry lips. “That fucker Trenton happened. We were acting as private muscle to a Russian unit assigned to root out Chechen rebels when, out of nowhere, that one-eyed blue bastard showed up and started talking about some new job. One that'd pay dividends a million times over. I wanted to get rid of him, but Cain was hooked, and they spent days hammering out an arrangement while me and the rest of the unit swilled vodka by day and shot Chechens by night. Finally, we pulled out of Russia and went to some coordinates that Trenton provided.”

“That's when you found the island,” I said. I looked over my shoulder at Twilight and the others. “And that gateway.”

“Yeah,” said Case. “You catch on quick, for a guy who disimpacts doggy bowels for a living.” Rainbow Dash snickered; I ignored her. “Cain and Trenton and I, and a few others, we went through, and... that's when we met our client.” 

“'Client?'” I asked. “I thought Trenton was your client.”

“No, no,” said Case. “Trenton was just his representative, or a middleman. Somesuch. The client is some crazy pony fucker who calls himself Macbeth.”

“Macbeth?” asked Twilight, her voice suddenly fear-stricken. She pushed forward, shouldering past me to get into Case's face. “Macbeth of Stalliongrad? That Macbeth?!”

I glanced over my shoulder, at the rest of the assembled group. They all looked absolutely flabbergasted. Applejack looked expectantly at Spike, and Spike only shrugged in response.

“Well, he sure ain't the Thane of Glamis,” said Case, cracking a sardonic smile. He didn't budge an inch in the face of Twilight's sudden intrusion. “I take it he's a big name around here?”

Twilight pulled away from Case. “He's a revolutionary,” she said, still with that quasi fearful voice. “Years ago, he tried to start an insurgency against the Princess in the city of Stalliongrad. It got serious enough where Princess Celestia had to personally put it down.” She looked at her friends. “You girls have seriously never heard of this?”

They collectively shrugged. 

“I heard about some trouble in Stalliongrad about five or so years back,” said Rarity. “But I didn't know the specifics. Nopony did.”

“Then how come you do?” I asked, nodding at Twilight. 

“The guardsponies talk a lot,” she said with a nonchalant air. “I never saw anything about it in the news, but I overheard a number of conversations between those who'd accompanied Princess Celestia on the mission.” Her face molded into a sly expression. “You'd be surprised how easy it is to overhear sensitive information when you spend as much time around the palace as I used to.”

State secrets being discussed openly by the people involved in them? Woodward and Bernstein would have turned Equestria inside and out in days. 

“Did they say what this revolutionary was like?” I asked. Case's face turned thoughtful, and he looked at Twilight with intrigue.

“Well,” said Twilight, shifting her weight from one leg to another. “It's been a long time, and I didn't overhear many specifics about the rebellion. But I do remember one guard saying how brave Macbeth was. How he looked Princess Celestia right in the eye and delivered a stirring and powerful speech.”

“An idealistic revolutionary who likes to talk?” I asked. I tried to picture Solidus as a pony, with writhing, mechanical tentacles instead of wings and a wakizashi for a horn.

“He's a fucking chickenshit retard,” snapped Case. He'd modulated his voice thus far in his discussion, but here he suddenly grew irate. The change was startling, to say the least. He spat again, and this time Rarity shuddered a little. “A raving asshole lunatic. Totally divorced from reality. I said as much to Cain, told him that nothing good was going to come out of this job, no matter what Trenton promised him. I was told that this was the direction that the army was taking, that if I didn't like it, I could take my walking papers and go back to America.”

“Why didn't you?” asked Pinkie Pie softly. I was startled; it was the first I'd heard her speak since Fluttershy's little speech. 

Case fixed her with a stare. He opened his mouth to speak, closed it again, and frowned. “I want to say that I had no place else to go,” he said at length. “Technically speaking, I'm a war criminal; I'd be thrown in the stockades the second I set foot in my home country. I hear some Zanzibar Land personnel were allowed to return to their countries. I knew one guy, in particular, this Inuit guy, who got picked up for an Army special operations unit.” He stared intently at me, then continued speaking. “But the truth is, I owe Cain my life. All us ex-Zanzibar Landers do. He kept us together, made us into something when we had no other recourse.” He leaned his head back against the tree and laughed. “Sounds stupid, I know. Following orders blindly, even when you know they'll go nowhere good.”

“Darn right, that sounds stupid," muttered Rainbow Dash. 

"Rainbow," said Applejack in a low voice. Case raised an eyebrow at the pegasus. 

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "There's a difference between being loyal, and being stupid. Friends don't betray each others' trust, and if they do, then they don't deserve any loyalty. Staying loyal to someone who betrays you is stupid."

"I don't believe the dying man asked for your opinion, Rainbow Dash," I said.

Case shook his head. The motion was slow and laborious. He was running out of steam. “Thanks, doc, but she's right. I was an idiot for following Cain after he turned on me. Especially when it turned out that I was right all along.” His eyes shifted back to me. “As soon as we took the job, we started making all these cutbacks. Had a platoon of ten M1 Abrams. Cain hawked 'em and bought a bunch of flatbed trucks and surplus APCs instead. He sold all but six of our Chinooks, and all but one of our gunships! You know what our standard issue weapon used to be? Steyr AUGs, just like Zanzibar Land. Cain sold 'em all and bought those pieces of shit.” He pointed at the chewed and broken AK-47. "Second-rate hand-me-downs from some blood diamond pissing contest in Bowa-Seko. Can you even find Bowa-Seko on a map?! And don't get me started on the fucking Arms Material shit!"

His voice now grew louder, bolder, full of zeal. For a man who was on death's door, who I thought was losing steam, he spoke powerfully. “Everything from sidearms to anti-armor weapons got downgraded. We're marching around with guns that haven't been cutting-edge since the fucking Cold War.” Case harrumphed. “That broke the camel's back for the last of the Zanzibar Landers; I'm the only one left besides Cain who's been with the unit from the start. Cain filled their spots with wash-outs like the ones I came out here with. Bunch of fuckfaces, can't tell CQC from CQD.” His chest and shoulders heaved with every painfully drawn breath. This tirade was sapping the last of his life. “I should have complained. I should have talked him down. I should have shot that fucker Trenton in the back of the head and chopped him into chum, but I held my tongue and followed orders like a good officer.” He took a deep breath and released it slowly. “And then he brought Metal Gear into our ship.”

The ponies had a vague understanding of what Metal Gear was, but they couldn't appreciate what it represented, couldn't comprehend what horrors it was capable of unleashing. Equestria was a world that had never experienced nuclear Armageddon; may it never. But Case and I knew. 

"I have no doubt that Big Boss would have used the power of Metal Gear judiciously,” said Case. “But Cain isn't of sound mind or judgment anymore. Trenton's poisoned him. And Macbeth?” He spat a third time; Rarity let out a miffed “oh honestly.” I don't know what her problem was. He couldn't even muster any saliva on that last one.

“Anyone who listens to that prick can't have good judgment.” The fire in his eyes was fading, but all their remaining intensity was now honed on me. “He's not going to use Metal Gear as a deterrent. He's going to use it as an instrument of open war. He has a nuclear missile, and he's going to launch it. I don't know at what, and I don't know when, but I know that he will. My gut tells me he will.”

I leaned forward and gripped his intact shoulder. “Tell me where it is,” I said. “At the castle?”

Case tried to shake his head and failed. “No, no,” he said instead. “Primary staging area. He's moved most of the troops and equipment there. And don't ask me where it is; I haven't been in the know for a long time.” He exhaled sharply; I took it to be a laugh. “Trenton might know. Beat the shit out of him and he'll tell you. Even if he doesn't, it couldn't hurt to try.”

Maybe I would have laughed with him if my stomach wasn't so knotted.

“What're you packin' there?” he asked suddenly, indicating my holster with his eyes. “C'mon, show me.”

I drew my gun, a little surprised by the request. “Beretta,” Case breathed. “The John Woo special. Tranquilizer variant, if what we found on the big kitty is any indicator. Not good enough.” He held up his right hand. The revolver he'd used to kill the timberwolf was still clutched tightly in his fingers. “Smith and Wesson Model 500. The gun my dad used on those wolves we poached.” He offered it to me barrel-first. I ignored the faux pas and took it. It was heavy, but not unmanageable. 

“Thanks,” I muttered, examining the weapon. It had a chrome barrel, and a smooth, black lacquered grip. I opened the cylinder; three rounds were chambered. All in all, a nice gun, but not much more than a collector's item. The Model 500 was and is the most powerful handgun in the world, but the force of the recoil and its absurd weight makes it impractical and unwieldy. It was mildly impressive that Case was able to hit anything at all with it, but then, he'd also spent a full five rounds without any luck, if the earlier shots were anything to go by. A gun like that is really nothing more than a fancy, expensive paperweight, never mind the limited ammo.

Still, I didn't want to offend the dying man, so I took it without complaint. I looked at him again; he was holding three additional .500 rounds. In his hand, they looked like giant brass fingers. I took the bullets, nodded my thanks, and began sliding them into the two empty chambers. The spare I slid into a pouch on my belt, beside my portable ashtray.

“Why are you doing this?” asked Twilight Sparkle. “Why help us? You're betraying your friends by doing that, aren't you?”

Case breathed slowly, deeply now. He seemed more relaxed, at ease, having gotten all that he wanted off his chest. “Young lady, you never served under Big Boss, so I don't expect you to get much of what I'm about to say.” He rolled his reddened, dying eyes to look at me. No, not at me. Through me. “But you will. Oh, I know that you will.”

I froze, midway through loading the last round into the revolver, and locked eyes with him. “A soldier's just a tool, see, unless he's loyal to himself. Unless he's fighting for himself. Not for king and country. Not for an ideology. And certainly not 'for the mission.' A soldier must fight for himself.” The way he said it, stressing every individual word in the sentence, he made it sound like the most imperative, empirical, universal concept. It was certainly one that I was very familiar with.

“I followed Cain on a mission that I knew was wrong. I took my orders unquestioningly while he and his new inner circle ran our army into the ground. I sold myself for the sake of loyalty that my commander no longer valued. And worse, I knew full-well that I was making the wrong choices. I lost sight of what was important, and in doing so, I betrayed myself and my honor as a soldier.” His breaths grew shallower with every word he spoke. “If I'd died out here, without you finding me, I'd have died a tool. But you've given me a chance to fight for what I really believe in, even if I'm only helping in some tiny, insignificant way.” He smiled, shut his eyes, and inhaled one final, shaky breath. “You've given me a chance to make amends. And that... young lady... that is worth dying for.”

I saw a ripple of transparent black cloth appear in front of Case's body, and then his head dropped forward over his chest. He let out a final, gurgling breath, and was gone. He still wore his dying smile.

“What do we do now?” asked Fluttershy. Her eyes were red and her cheeks streaked with tears. She'd been crying again; I hadn't even heard her. I almost answered her question, but swallowed my response and glanced at Twilight. These were her friends. I was the outsider. Better to defer that responsibility to her. 

“No sign of Zecora,” sighed Applejack. “The feller we found instead died anyway. An' we're no closer to shuttin' down that Metal Gear business, or savin' Apple Bloom, than we were an hour ago. In hindsight, comin' this way seems like a wagon-sized waste o'time.” 

Twilight sucked in a breath through her nose. She about-faced and looked at her friends, one after another.  “We may have lost time coming out here. We may not have found who we were looking for. But in taking this detour, we may have saved a person's soul, and that alone means that this wasn't a waste of time.

“There's more than that, though. We're not flying blind anymore, because we now know more about what we're up against. More than that, we know who we're up against. Macbeth of Stalliongrad wants a second revolution? We'll bring it to his doorstep.

“We've beaten Nightmare Moon. We've taken down Discord. We stared down the Changelings and made them blink first. These new bad guys might be unfamiliar, they might be powerful, but they are not at their level. Behind their scary weapons and blue-on-blue color scheme is just a pony, like you or me.” Twilight winked at me. “Maybe not so much like you.”

Spike coughed loudly. 

“Or you,” Twilight sighed, and Spike smiled. “We've saved Equestria from bigger and badder. So I know, in my heart, that we can save it now. We'll rescue Apple Bloom, take down Metal Gear, and hoof-deliver Macbeth to Princess Celestia.”

I could tell that Twilight was talking a big game for the sake of her friends. An unfortunate reality that being a leader presents is that you can't ever let on just how frightened you are, or just how high the odds against you loom. And Twilight, to her credit, was playing her role superbly, even if I saw through it. The others smiled, their spirits brightened; even Applejack looked somewhat relieved by the way she was speaking. Between the way they'd fought off the timberwolves, and the way Twilight rallied them, I was starting to develop a grudging, but genuine, respect for their abilities.

“Now, c'mon,” said Twilight, stooping to allow Spike access to her back. “Let's double-time it, everypony.” She trotted briskly ahead; the others fell into step with her.

I didn't. I glanced at the gun in my hand, and thought again of that long-dead dog. "Wait," I said. They stopped, mid-trot, and looked back at me. 

"Snake?" asked Twilight. "Something wrong?"

I didn't answer her. Instead, I walked back to the wolf I'd crippled, coming to a stop just above where it lay. It was silent, but still alive, and we looked at each other for a long, long moment. 

Rustling in the grass told me that the others were coming toward me. I heard the gentle beating of wings and felt a brush of wind against me, and I glanced to my side. Fluttershy hovered next to me. She looked me in the eye, tears still running down her face, and gave me the most minute of nods. 

"You're not going to leave it there," said Twilight Sparkle softly. It wasn't a question. I looked at the revolver in my hand, then back at the wolf, back into its bright yellow eyes. My mind wandered, drifting to the memory of a nighttime blizzard on a secluded island, of a sobbing, broken man with a family of fluffy white dogs, and of a proud wolf lying defeated in the red-stained snow.

I raised the revolver and pressed it against the wolf's temple. "Everyone's here now," I whispered. "Rest easy."

Beside me, Fluttershy returned to the ground. She pressed her hooves against her ears and turned away from the crippled wolf.

My thumb cocked the hammer on the revolver. The wolf blinked its baleful yellow eyes. My heart cracked, just the smallest bit, as it whined one final time.

I squeezed the trigger, and the gun roared.