Chapter Seventeen: It's Not Over Yet!
I looked around the corridor I was in once more… this was definitely Shadow Moses. I had spent all of that time in Equestria trying to get back here, and now that I was here, I felt more regretful than anything. Was it really just because I hadn’t had a chance to say goodbye to my friends? Or had I found myself enjoying a life devoid of killing?
I shook my head. Now wasn’t the time to be thinking these thoughts. I had to concentrate on the mission which I had been given so many weeks ago – I was the only thing standing in the way of Metal Gear REX launching a nuclear missile.
I headed up the corridor, and opened the door to the office where I had fought Psycho Mantis. As I had expected, he was still there, using his telekinesis to hover in the air – it seemed as though the time between Equestria and Earth really did run as slowly as I had assumed. Meryl was lying on the floor, still unconscious from the stun grenade I had used on her.
“Hello, Snake,” Mantis sneered as I entered. “Back so soon?”
“Back so… soon?” I repeated. Did this mean that I really had been transported to Equestria physically? That it hadn’t all been in my head?
“Ah, you’re confused. Good, good, that’s exactly how I want you,” Psycho Mantis said arrogantly. “Tell me, Snake- would you like me to send you back? To your world of brightly coloured ponies – to your friends? Where all that you have to worry about is –”
“Shut up, Mantis!” I interrupted. “What the hell would you know about any of that?”
“I know plenty,” he taunted, still floating above the ground. “Would you believe that my favourite pony is Fluttershy? She’s so -”
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Psycho Mantis was not going to stand there and mock the world which I had discovered – I fired several shots from my SOCOM pistol into his body. I could only assume that he couldn’t read my mind and avoid the shots due to the blind rage I was in at the time. Taken off by this, Mantis fell to the ground as blood began seeping from his chest.
I cautiously walked over to him, keeping my gun aimed at his body in case he tried something. Although he was still alive, he was weakening rapidly, and it looked as though he wouldn’t be able to use his powers – at least not effectively.
“… and in short, that’s how I defeated Psycho Mantis,” Snake finished. “Kinda ironic, isn’t it? If he hadn’t sent me to Equestria, I wouldn’t have acted so instinctively and stopped him.” Colonel Campbell was paying attention to something under the table, until Snake cleared his throat.
“Oh- uh, what was that, Snake? Something about… what was her name? Rainbow Dust?” Snake sighed irritably.
“Colonel, I finished telling you how I returned from Equestria several minutes ago. And I barely mentioned Rainbow Dash.” To help relieve some of his frustration, little as it may be, Snake started another cigarette – he had lost count of how many he had smoked during this debriefing by now.
“Oh, good! Does this mean you won’t be talking about those ponies anymore?” Campbell asked a little too enthusiastically.
“Talking about those ponies?” Snake repeated. “Well, just wait and listen to the rest of the story…”
As I moved closer to Psycho Mantis, he began speaking, to my surprise. “I... I wasn't able to read the future...” he coughed, a small bit of blood coming out of his mouth as he did so.
“A strong man doesn't need to read the future,” I pointed out to him. “He makes his own.”
“Perhaps so…” Mantis weakly replied. “But I will also read your future...” As he spoke, Meryl regained consciousness, and I helped her up from the floor. “To get to Metal Gear's underground maintenance base... you have to go through that hidden door… behind the bookcase.
“The overland route... it's blocked by frozen glaciers. Go past the communications towers. Then use the tower's walkway.” He spent a moment gasping slightly for breath, before continuing. “But beware, Snake…”
“Beware…?” I repeated. As I asked this, I wondered why he was giving Meryl and me help.
“The stairs of the communication tower… they’ll take a lot out of you. So many stairs…” I grimaced. That was what he was warning me about?
“I’m not stupid enough to go into something like the tower without at least throwing a chaff grenade first,” I answered. “I’d have to be an idiot not to look out for cameras like that.” I had been hoping that he would give us some more helpful advice, such as warning us of another FOXHOUND member planning to ambush us up ahead. “Why are you telling me this?” I added.
“I can read people's minds,” Mantis began. “In my lifetime I have read the pasts, presents, and futures of thousands upon thousands of men and women. And each mind that I peered into was stuffed with the same single object of obsession. That selfish and atavistic desire to pass on one's seed... it was enough to make me sick. Every living thing on this planet exists to mindlessly pass on their DNA. We're designed that way. And that's why there is war.
“But you... you are different... You like ponies. Humans weren't designed to bring each other happiness – ponies were.” I was surprised at how long Mantis was holding onto life for, considering how badly I had shot him up.
“Ponies? What’s he going on about, Snake?” Meryl asked me, naturally unable to comprehend what Mantis had done. I ignored her, caught up in what Mantis was saying.
“From the moment you were thrown into that world, I thought that you would be fated to bring those ponies pain and misery,” Mantis continued. “But you defied my expectations. You befriended those ponies… you didn’t kill everything which got in your way, as I had expected you would.”
“Mantis…” I started, worried about what he was implying. “Does this mean that my trip to Equestria was all in my head? That you controlled everything in there using your powers?” From his apparent intimate knowledge of what had happened, it would make sense…
He let out a hollow laugh. “That would seem to be the appropriate explanation, wouldn’t it?” Mantis asked weakly. “But then again… how do you know that I didn’t read your mind once you returned? That I didn’t use that knowledge to find out what you had done in Equestria?” He let out another hollow laugh before continuing. “Maybe I even saw what those ponies had done for you… and realised that I’m pathetic next to them. That they’ll always be better than me – so I let you kill me.” This took me by surprise – could it be true? Before I could ask Mantis for a proper answer, he continued.
“I thought that I’d seen true evil – you, Snake. I thought that you were just like the Boss… no, you’re better. You’ve let those ponies change you, and make you into a better person.” Mantis entered a coughing fit for a few moments before continuing. From the looks of things, he was holding onto life through will alone.
Weakly, Psycho Mantis pointed a finger to the bookshelf that he had mentioned earlier. “I’ll open the door for you.” The bookshelf slid to one side silently, revealing the hidden door behind it. “If you want to find your future, go through that door. This is the first time I've ever used my power to help someone. It's strange... it feels... kind of... nice.” His voice quietened as he spoke, and I was expecting him to finally die, before he spoke one final sentence:
“I wonder… would the ponies… be proud of me?”
Meryl and I were silent as Mantis breathed his final breath. His head rolled to one side with no force to keep it focused on the two of us. I broke the silence, saying “Let’s go, Meryl.” I started heading over to the door before noticing that Meryl wasn’t following. “What is it?”
“Snake… what was Mantis saying? About those ponies?”
I hesitated before answering. “…It’s a long story, Meryl. Let’s just say that Mantis… without meaning to, he made me a better person. He showed me that I don’t have to kill to save the world.” I examined my handgun, and gave a wry smile. “Heh, next time I go on a mission, I should try to get a gun that only tranquilises my enemies.”
“With that, we continued through the exit that Mantis had shown us,” Snake said to Colonel Campbell. Campbell was paying full attention now that Snake was explaining the rest of the Shadow Moses mission. “But when we reached the communications tower we were ambushed by Sniper Wolf, the next member of FOXHOUND.” Campbell nodded.
“I remember. You had to backtrack to find that sniper rifle to stop her,” he said. Snake grunted at this.
“I hate backtracking,” he grumbled as he stubbed out the cigarette he had lit earlier. “And I’m sure that you’ll remember what happened after I temporarily stopped Sniper Wolf?” Once more, Campbell nodded.
“Liquid Snake managed to capture you, which led to…”
“Torture,” Snake confirmed simply.
I was shackled to a revolving metallic slab. I had naturally been stripped of my weapons and equipment, in addition to the upper half of my sneaking suit.
In front of me, Revolver Ocelot was preparing some equipment. I had no idea what he had in mind for torture, but it looked as though it would be ugly. Sniper Wolf and my brother, Liquid, had already left after taunting me. “Finally, just the two of us,” Ocelot said, smirking. “How are you feeling?” In truth, I was worried – just what was Ocelot planning to do to me? What if I ended up giving in to the torture – what would the consequences be?
What would a brave pony like Rainbow Dash say? I thought, looking to her for inspiration. “Not bad. I caught a nice nap on this revolving bed of yours,” I said. “Too bad I was sleeping alone.”
“Glad to hear that,” Ocelot said, going along with what I was saying. “This is some bed alright. I’m about to show you some of its nicer features…”
“Not as good as the beds in Canterlot, I’ll bet,” I answered. “What’s it like, sleeping in the same castle as Princess Celestia?” Ocelot gave me an odd look.
“What the damn hell are you on about, Snake?” he asked.
“Tell me, Ocelot,” I asked him, dead serious, “did you get sent to Equestria by Twilight Sparkle’s spell?” He continued looking at me oddly, whilst massaging his chest slightly with his hand.
“Snake, I realise that you’re trying to confuse me and escape, and I applaud your imagination, but do you really think that asking me nonsensical questions will work?” Ocelot gave a short, sharp bark of laughter. “It really seems that the fear has gone to your head –you really think that I’d give a flying feather about what you’re on about?”
Revolver Ocelot turned back to the equipment he had. “We’re going to play a game, Snake. And we'll find out what kind of man we really are. When the pain becomes too great to bear just give up and your suffering will end. But if you do, the girl's life is mine.”
With that, Ocelot pressed a switch on the equipment. For maybe half a second it looked like nothing was going to happen, before I felt a strong jolt of electricity coursing through my body. Within a few moments, I had already started to shout out in pain…
“I don’t know how you managed to survive that torture,” Colonel Campbell said, shuddering slightly in pain. “Ocelot sending all of that electricity through your body… you’d need some sort of healing factor to survive it!”
I shook my head. “Healing factor?” I repeated. “No, all I needed to survive that was a good hand and quick reflexes.” Before Campbell could ask me what I meant by that, I got to the point I was trying to make. “Colonel… don’t you think it’s odd that Ocelot claimed not to have gone to Equestria?” Campbell rolled his eyes.
“Snake, you realise that I don’t care about this whole –”
“I’m just saying,” Snake interrupted, “because I find it odd that he was rubbing his chest when we were talking about it. That’s where I shot him when he arrived in Equestria.”
Campbell considered this for a moment. “So… you think he was lying to you?”
Snake shrugged. “Then again, maybe it was nothing. Or maybe I shot him there when we fought in Shadow Moses.” He shook his head. “I can’t know for sure – it’s not as if Ocelot works for the President, and we can just ask him. Anyway, from there…”
===================
Snake told Campbell about the rest of the Shadow Moses Incident – how he escaped the torture, killed Sniper Wolf and another member of FOXHOUND, Vulcan Raven, and was tricked by Liquid into activating Metal Gear REX.
“You were tricked by Liquid into activating Metal Gear REX?!” Colonel Campbell repeated. Snake rolled his eyes, not sure why Campbell was so confused when he had been in contact with Snake when it had happened.
“I was tricked by Liquid into activating Metal Gear REX,” he confirmed.
“Metal… Gear?” Campbell asked again.
“Metal Gear REX,” Snake confirmed, resisting the urge to punch Campbell.
Although it had been less than two minutes since Liquid had jumped into the cockpit of Metal Gear REX and tried to kill me with it, it felt as though the battle had gone on for hours. I had fired countless missiles at REX’s radome using my Stinger missile launcher, as Otacon had advised me to do, but it was still no good. Metal Gear REX truly was indestructible.
From the cockpit of Metal Gear REX, Liquid’s voice rang out. “Nice try, Snake. Die!” One of the legs of REX rose to crush me. Although I started moving out of the way, I knew that I was done for… or at least, I would have been, if it hadn’t been for what happened next.
From the corner of my eye, I saw a blur zoom past me, towards Metal Gear REX. Rainbow Dash? I wondered for a brief moment. I turned around to see that it wasn’t Rainbow Dash – but it was still a good friend of mine.
“Hurry! Get away!” Grey Fox said, wearing still wearing the suit and armour which gave him the name Cyborg Ninja. He was holding up REX’s leg by strength alone – his armour must have been stronger than I realised.
“Grey Fox!!” I said, still reeling from his sudden appearance. Although it had just been hours since he had last seen me, I hadn’t seen him since before I had been sent to Equestria… when we had been fighting.
“You look terrible, Snake,” Fox said, still straining to hold up REX’s leg. “You haven’t aged well.” As he spoke, I took advantage of his distraction and ran behind a nearby box, so that I could catch my breath. I didn’t get the chance to see what Grey Fox did next, but a moment later he joined me behind the box.
“Fox, why?!” I asked. The last time we had seen each other, he had been trying to force me to kill him – did he want another fight?
“I’m a prisoner of death,” he said cryptically. “Only you can free me…” He had made similar statements when we had fought earlier. I was going to answer him, when Liquid’s voice rang out from REX once more.
“There you are!” A moment later, a hail of bullets slammed into the box we were hiding behind. Fox stood up, ready for fighting as ever.
“We’re just about out of time,” he said. “Here’s a final present from Deepthroat. I’ll stop it from moving!” I looked from around the box to see what he was going to do.
Grey Fox ran straight to REX without any hesitation. Reacting to this, Liquid fired Metal Gear REX’s rail gun at him – in response, Fox leapt all around the place to try and dodge it. Unfortunately, Liquid reacted much faster this time – using a laser weapon of REX’s to cut off one of Fox’s arms. I winced, amazed at how Fox could keep this up.
Despite this new disability, Fox barely reacted. He did some more flips and acrobatics, and managed to get to a ledge, high in the large room we were in. Spinning around, he drew out his gun – he can destroy REX’s radome!, I thought excitedly.
CRUNCH! Or not. Liquid had managed to move Metal Gear REX quickly enough that the protruding cockpit of it crushed Fox against the wall, pinning him helplessly.
“How strong is that exoskeleton of yours?” Liquid asked, half-curiously, half-mockingly. It was hard to see from my vantage point, but it looked like he was trying to crush Fox, and get rid of him once and for all. “Snake, are you just going to sit by and watch him die?”
Despite having lost an arm, being pinned against the wall by REX, and being close to death, Fox somehow managed to raise his remaining arm and fire his gun. To my surprise, it was powerful enough to destroy REX’s radome – REX could now be destroyed once and for all.
“A cornered fox is more dangerous than a jackal!” Grey Fox said to Liquid. As he spoke, Liquid opened up the cockpit of Metal Gear REX, exposing himself - since the radome could no longer be counted on for visuals, Liquid was going to have to use his own two eyes.
“Impressive. You are indeed worthy of the codename ‘Fox’! But now you're finished!” Liquid said, sounding genuinely impressed.
“Wait a minute,” Colonel Campbell interrupted. “Liquid Snake was in the cockpit of Metal Gear REX, a good fifteen to thirty metres away from you. He wasn’t transmitting his voice through REX either. How could you hear him?”
“Hear him?” Solid Snake shrugged. “You know… I never really questioned it.”
“But that just doesn’t make sense!” Campbell exclaimed. “Are you just making up what he said, or is there some other explanation?”
“Look, Colonel,” Snake started irritably, “what with all of the Cyborg Ninjas, Russian cowboys, Alaskan shamans, and telekinesis practitioners in Shadow Moses, I decided not to question it.” He snorted. “What’s next? A special effects expert who’s really good at holding his breath? A fat man on roller skates drinking wine through a bendy straw? A bisexual vampire?”
Campbell shifted a folder on the desk slightly, so that he could read its label: Dead Cell. “Well Snake, you see…”
“The point is, Campbell, that how I heard Liquid doesn’t matter,” Snake said before Campbell could say what he was going to say. “Now, as I was saying…”
“Now! Fire the Stinger!” Grey Fox called out to me. I looked at the missile launcher in my hands… was he being serious? Firing a missile when he would surely be killed in the explosion?
“Can you really shoot? You’ll kill him too!” Liquid said, echoing my thoughts. Part of me was tempted to… not only would the explosion destroy REX’s cockpit, rending the great beast inoperable forever, but it would also probably kill Liquid, completing my mission once and for all.
“Now... in front of you... I can finally die,” Fox gasped, the damage having finally taken its toll on him. “After Zanzibar, I was taken from the battle neither truly alive nor truly dead... an undying shadow in the world of lights. But soon... soon… it will finally... end.”
As Fox spoke, I raised the Stinger missile launcher, and locked on a missile. I was ready to fire… when a voice from not too long ago came into my head.
“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! Who are you?!”
Despite the fact that she had literally only known me for a few seconds at that point, Pinkie Pie had been willing to accept me as her friend. As were all the rest of the ponies I met, despite that I was completely foreign to them, and a newcomer in town. Hell, I could even admit that I was pretty rude to them at first. Yet… in the end, they had accepted me as their friend, and I had eventually learned to accept them as mine.
I wouldn’t shoot the Stinger if any of my pony friends were in the situation which Fox now found himself in, no matter what the benefits would be. And I wasn’t going to kill Fox, no matter what he wanted.
Fox finished talking, and Liquid moved Metal Gear REX back slightly, causing Fox’s body to fall to the ground. I thought that that finished him off… but just to be sure, Liquid raised one of REX’s legs, and stomped it downwards on Fox. Nothing happened. Grey Fox was still alive, and his armour was still strong enough to withstand the full force of REX’s leg crushing it, despite how close he was to death.
“Die!” spat Liquid, thoroughly pissed off with Fox by now. I looked up to Liquid sitting in REX’s cockpit, and smirked slightly.
“You think you can destroy Grey Fox just like that?” I asked him confidently. “Well, you're wrong, because the Stinger missile launcher is right here! The spirit of Grey Fox got me through every challenge you threw at me!” From the cockpit, Liquid gasped slightly, and paused in his murder of Fox.
“You still haven’t defeated the sixth member of FOXHOUND! The spark didn't work!” Liquid spat. Despite his words, he looked unconvinced.
“But it did!” I said back, not sure exactly what he was going on about. I looked to Grey Fox, still bleeding profusely and dying beneath REX’s leg. “I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you… to see you… how much I cared about you!” I was trying to find the right words to inspire him to continue fighting.
I struggled to think of what next to say, before remembering that his foster sister, Naomi Hunter, had injected me with a virus as revenge for ‘killing’ him in Zanzibar Land. “FOXDIE ignited inside me when I realized that you... are my friend!” I said to him.
I turned back to Liquid now, and locked onto him with the Stinger missile launcher. “You see, Liquid Snake, when FOXDIE is ignited by the... the genes, that reside in the heart of us all, it creates a new element: the element of-”
CRUNCH! Ignoring me, Liquid had lifted the leg of Metal Gear REX, and crushed Grey Fox completely with it. “Foooooox!!” I cried out, looking at the bloody smear on REX’s leg.
“Foolish man,” Liquid sneered. “He prayed for death... and it found him. You see? You can't protect anyone!! Not even yourself!” Liquid turned REX slightly, so that it was facing me properly. “Die!!”
“And that’s how Grey Fox died,” Snake finished sadly. Colonel Campbell shook his head slowly.
“Such a pity,” Campbell said. “He started out as such a great soldier, and in the end he was turned into that monstrosity… at least he can rest in peace now.”
Snake nodded in agreement, and then continued to tell the final chapter of the Shadow Moses Incident – how he managed to stop both Metal Gear REX and Liquid Snake, and his escape from Shadow Moses with the help of both Otacon and Meryl.
“So… what are you going to do now?” Campbell asked Snake. The debriefing was officially finished.
“What am I going to do now, huh?” Snake repeated. He briefly went over the events of the mission once again – in particular, his fight with Psycho Mantis. “I’m not going to work for you or the government anymore, Campbell – and I mean it this time. I want to do good in the world. Something more… philanthropic… than before.”
Campbell gave a hollow laugh. “Really, Snake? You’re a soldier at heart. You always have been. And we both know that a soldier’s place is on the battlefield.”
“Not this soldier’s,” Snake said gruffly. “Anyway, I hear that they’re thinking about shutting down FOXHOUND sometime in the near future. After the way Liquid took control of it and turned them into a group of terrorists… do you blame them?”
“Ridiculous!” Campbell said. “FOXHOUND is going to last decades! Next thing I know, you’ll be saying that they should replace me with a computer program!”
Snake got up from the table and readjusted his bandanna, preparing to leave now that things were wrapping up. “Maybe they should, Colonel… You want my advice?” Campbell grimaced, then nodded.
“What is it?”
“Change FOXHOUND around a bit… maybe starting with the coding system,” Snake simply said.
“Why’s that?” Campbell asked, not understanding why Snake was suggesting this.
“Well… what if the highest rank wasn’t Fox, but Alicorn? The next could be Unicorn, followed by –”
“Oh, get out of here,” Campbell said angrily, getting frustrated with the whole pony business. Frowning, Snake nevertheless gave Campbell a civil nod before leaving the room.
===================
Several hours later, Snake called Otacon by codec. He was taking the advice which Twilight Sparkle had given him, and trying to maintain a friendship with Otacon.
“Hey Otacon. It’s Snake.”
“Hey Snake,” Otacon answered. “Did you end up learning anything from that debriefing, like you’d hoped?” Although Otacon couldn’t see it, Snake nodded.
“Yeah, just going over the mission again got me thinking… Otacon, take a letter.”
“W-what?!” Otacon asked.
“It’s something I want to get in the habit of,” Snake explained. “Even if they never get sent or read, I want to get in the habit of writing a letter to Princess Celestia, to remember my friends in Equestria.”
“But Snake- you never found out whether you really travelled to Equestria or not,” Otacon pointed out.
“That’s what I’m about to explain. So write the damn letter!” Snake said, before clearing his throat. “Dear Princess Celestia, today I learned that it doesn’t matter whether something is real, or fiction. What you think you see is only as real as your brain tells you it is.
“And with that in mind, I don’t care whether I really travelled to Equestria or not. I don’t care whether Psycho Mantis was just tricking my brain into thinking that I was in Equestria, or whether he really did send me there… because as a good friend of mine said, ‘Even if it’s not real, it doesn’t mean that our friendship isn’t.’
“From your faithful operative, Solid Snake. Did you get all of that, Otacon?”
“Sure did, Snake,” Otacon answered. “Is it okay if I write to Princess Celestia, and ask her whether love can bloom on a battlefield?”
“Why not?”
“Thanks, Snake,” said Otacon. “You know, this looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship between us two.”
“I should hope so, Otacon. After all… friendship is magic.”
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Awww... If you were to find a way to pull off a sequel, it would be so many levels of awesome.
Some of it was so cheesy, but this was an epic chapter.
Ocelot is lying!!! HE did went to Equestria!!!
That has to be the best part of this chapter. You're dead on Snake!
2012756
Yeah, I'll admit that I forced a bit of the humour in this chapter, but nevertheless I wanted to write a chapter where we get to see how the ponies influenced Snake.
And if you're looking for a sequel, you'll probably really like the epilogue when I get around to writing it. Or hate it. I have no idea whether I'm a good writer or not
...Houdini? I don't remember anyone like that being part of Dead Cell.
2013175
The character, Chinaman, was eventually scrapped (the area you fight Vamp in was originally supposed to be his arena), but I'm pretty sure it's canon that he was a member of Dead Cell before they were screwed over.
*sniff* That ending...it was so beautiful. All of my D'awws...ALL OF MY FEELS!
You know? That's what I think of the ponies, they're not real, but our friendship is. I mean it, they saved me from a great depression I had just months ago, and I'll be forever grateful to them
what element was snake talking about
3776283
The element of explosions