Magic Gear Solid: Broken Balance

by Barrobroadcaster

The Break In

Twilight evaded what little patrols there were as she made her way deeper into the forest. Before long, she saw buildings ahead, her first signs of the mining complex. The buildings themselves were only a single story high, spread out in a grid of sorts with four on the outside and two running perpendicular to the four on either side. Behind the eight smaller rectangular buildings was a long one in the back.

It definitely looked like a prison complex and the buildings seemed to have been only recently constructed. Hastily as well; there were signs of shoddy craftsmanship everywhere. Only a single gaurd tower towards the back rose above a single story, even that, not higher than the trees. This entire complex appeared to have been made in a hurry. Twilight didn't see any patrols and moved in for a closer examination.

Twilight's communicator crackled to life. "What do you mutts think I have all day? I ain't going anywhere! Come and get me!!" a voice shouted over the comms that Twilight didn't recognize.

"Octavia? Did you just hear that?" Twilight asked.

"Hear what? Who is Octavia? Who is this?" the voice asked back.

Twilight's communicator read static. "Twil... ference..." Twilight heard Octavia say, just barely.

Vinyl and Octavia must be experiencing problems, Twilight thought. "This is Twilight Sparkle, who may I ask is speaking?"

"Hold on." the voice replied. Twilight heard some sort of cracking noise, like a whip ending in an echo through her communicator. "Name's Bullseye. Nice to hear another pony's voice." he said.

"Likewise. What's going on here? Where are the prisoners?" Twilight asked, walking through the complex, sticking to the shadows as she made her way to the back.

"I ripped one of the armored gauntlets off one of the gaurds and before you showed up and I've been picking them off near the cellblock ever since. If I can read this thing, I think it's almost out of ammo though. Before you showed up, I was thinking of going down in a sort of 'last stand' scenario, you know? Guns blazing and all that?" he said back.

"You would sacrifice yourself... to shoot as many as you could?" Twilight asked, astounded and a bit disgusted.

"Heh heh heh... us rangers are like that I guess. I made a shiv too. If I ran out of ammo, I could probably still take a few. I figured worst comes to worst, I'd take as many of them as I could with me when I went down."

Twilight looked around trying to figure out where the voice might be coming from. "Where are you? Let me help you out."

"I appreciate that. Didn't think I was going to last much longer anyway, not with my leg all shot up. I'm in uh... let's see..." he trailed off momentarily. "Cell block B near the vending machines and the water fountain. If you reach the payphones, you've gone too far. It's the long building in the back."

Twilight followed his directions and entered the large building to the rear of the complex. The inside was a a dark rusty-red color from floor to ceiling, the color even matched the bars of each cell. Twilight passed several cells before turning a corner at the end. Twilight stopped for a moment. The hallway ahead of her was filled with bodies, the bodies of dogs. Holes had been burned into them, mostly in the forheads of their helmets, some above the eye. Twilight followed the bloodless trail of death until she saw the vending machines next to another corner at the end of the corridor. A pair of brown legs stuck out from behind them. Twilight approached them.

"Four legs instead of two. Nice to hear that coming my way for a change. I could hear your hooves the moment you walked in the door." Bullseye said as she looked over to face him. He sat against the wall and grinned at Twilight. Blood was seeping from his back-right leg. He wore one of the gaurd's helmets and a gauntlet on his right hoof. It didn't look like he was able to control the armored glove fully but from what Twilight had seen, apparently enough to use the weapon attatched above the wrist.

"These helmets focus attention forward, blocks out distractions I guess. This limits their vision to an extent but they still have their sense of smell. Dogs probably smell us before they even hear us and this bleeding doesn't help." Bullseye said.

Twilight looked at his wounds. "You need medical attention. We should get you back to Ponyville."

"And miss out on all this fun?" he let out a slightly pained laugh. "I don't think so. You're gonna need all the help you can get ace. Which is why I saved you this." Bullseye held out a small black pendant. Twilight recognized it instantly.

"The Alicorn Amulet? Where did you get this?"

Bullseye grinned mischieviously. "I'm a baaaad pony. I was supposed to be working in the mine, hauling those crystals when I went on a little 'expedition' in the jungle one day. It didn't take long for them to find me but I found a hut in the middle of the woods, Zecora's hut, before they caught me. She wasn't there, hope she made it out. I found the amulet in her hut. She was using it as a doorstop." Bullseye gave it to Twilight.

"They thought I was going to get it to you or Luna. What I really kept it for was to pick the locks on my shackles. Took out a gaurd on the way out of my cell and I've been here ever since."

Twilight held the amulet in her hoof. This thing had caused so much trouble in the past. "The Alicorn Amulet corrupts anypony that tries to use it. It's dark magic."

"I know. But it's best to have options. Also probably a good idea to make sure the dogs keep their paws off it." Bullseye said. Twilight had to admit, he made sense. "So what's the plan chief? Rescue the prisoners and get outta here?"

"You should stay here, or try to find some place and get patched up." Twilight told him, sounding more like an order than a suggestion.

"Ah, I got three more legs. I can walk. Besides, you'll need all the help you can get." Bullseye said as he began to stand.

"You need-"

"What I need is a moving target and some distance. Now let's get going." Bullseye strode adamantly past her. Twilight followed the stallion. His cutie mark, appropriately a bullseye had a little bit of blood on it. Despite the fact his leg was torn up, it didn't impact his walking at all as far as Twilight could see. They both moved out of the cellblock together and headed out of the complex towards the mine.

Author's Note:

Here we're seeing more development between Twilight and William's OC. At this point, I'm using Bullseye as a way of teaching Twilight about direct action. We're not able to examine Twilight's emotions in great detail although a great deal of emotional conflict at this point is expected, having the hero go through a nervous breakdown every two seconds would not be appropriate for this type of story. Like Snake in the Metal Gear games, her goals will push her forward and keep her mind focused. The question of how long she can keep this up arises but a constantly changing plot will focus her mind on new objectives to achieve those goals. There will be moments where we will be able to see her deeper internal feelings but those will be demonstrated through interactions with other characters. Having her express her feelings to others, concerns, conflicts, etc will also help to establish other characters and their attitudes simultaneously but there is only so much that can be done that way. At this point, the story is a tad on the rushed side but the pacing is all right for now. Spacing up chapters with flashbacks and transitions has helped in this regard. All in all, the story will have to be edited when I have more time to correct errors in spelling and grammar but the foundation will be layed and the reader will see the story from beginning to end with a minimal amount of guesswork.

Comments

[Barrobroadcaster]

2212298 I'm going to use your character to demonstrate to Twilight how she will have to adapt to these new situations in order to survive. While her feelings for her friends, her emotional conflict is pressing down on her mind, her feelings of failure, inadequacy and loss are mounting upon her, her duty to save Equestria MUST take precedence, it MUST drive her forward and it WILL give her focus. But during down time, her nature is going to continue to surface and Bullseye is going to demonstrate how she needs to toughen up, steel her resolve in order to see this fight through to the end.

[Agent_Smith]

hmmmm but i have a question. what caliber are they using?from the looks of the low recoil...high power... .45 acp hollow point or what?im asking this cus im a gun fanatic. and proud.

P.S me gusta chapter

[Barrobroadcaster]

2222823Laser weapon using crystals as a power source.