//------------------------------//
// 7. By a Starving Beast 
// Story: Pony Gear Solid 
// by Posh 
//------------------------------//


"this doesn't strike you as a bit unfair? i mean, all you've got is a helicopter."






Atop its perch, IRVING coiled its legs, and Twilight’s gut instinct told her to move. "Everypony, scatter!"  Her friends dove aside, and she vanished in a violet flash, popping back into existence several meters behind where she'd been standing. By that time, IRVING was airborne, and dropping rapidly onto the spot which, moments before, was occupied by five frightened ponies and a baby dragon. It landed upon the piece of rubble where Spike had sat, crushing the block beneath its bulk.

"Well," said Pinkie, dusting herself off, "that explains the twitchy tail."

In the tower overlooking the courtyard, Rainbow Dash hovered behind an oblivious sniper, jaw agape and eyes wide. "What is that?" she whispered, forgetting herself.

The sniper she’d been preparing to ambush whirled at the sound of her voice and raised his rifle. "Who's—"

Dash’s ears drooped. Oh yeah, he’s here too. She jabbed her hoof into the sniper's jaw the moment he glimpsed her, stunning him, and followed through with a fluid kick across the cheek that sent him sprawling to the floor. He fumbled for his sidearm, but Dash landed on his wrist with all of her weight. She felt it twist beneath her, heard a snap, heard the sniper scream, knew she had to shut him up, and back-hoofed him across the jaw. He fell silent.

In the courtyard, IRVING uncoiled its powerful legs, rising to its full height with a shuddering bovine groan. Rainbow Dash’s ears perked at the sound. She peeked over the turret, once again staring in awe at the newly awakened war machine. It wasn't the largest beast she'd ever seen, but it was still enormous, dwarfing her friends and making her feel very, very small.

She smacked herself and shook her head. Stay focused, she thought. Still got one more to take care of. She glanced at the other tower. The second sniper had his eye on the courtyard, and rested the barrel of his rifle on his shoulder. He spared no attention to anything else around him.

So there's my opening.

Rainbow Dash sprang over the side of the tower and landed on the wall below. Pressing herself as closely against it as she could, she slowly crept toward the other tower. She thought about the giant standing amidst her friends, gulped, and clenched her jaw.





"WAYPOINT REACHED," IRVING said. The voice startled Twilight, who hadn't expected so bizarre a machine to be capable of speech. Though distinctly feminine, it sounded as sterile and lifeless as the machine itself looked. "XMG IRVING UNIT 00 AWAITING FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS."

In the keep, Macbeth turned to Cain. "Commander?"

Cain sighed. He tapped another series of commands into his keypad.

The group below watched, tense, as IRVING stood still for several long moments. A sudden shudder ran through its body. "ORDER CONFIRMED. WATCHDOG MODE ENGAGED."

"Watchdog mode?" Pinkie parroted. The party pony hid behind a piece of overturned rubble, but poked her head out of her hiding spot to glance confusedly at IRVING. "So it's gonna start barking now, instead of mooing?"

IRVING swiveled its head to focus on Pinkie. A yellow hoof and a clawed, purple hand rose from behind her and dragged her head down and out of sight. 

"HOSTILES DETECTED. DEFENSE PROTOCOLS ACTIVE. ASSESSING THREAT."

Applejack acted first. She charged, skidded to a halt beside IRVING's left leg, pivoted and raised herself onto her forelegs, and struck it in the calf with a double-hoofed buck.

IRVING's leg jolted a little, though more from surprise than from pain. It craned its head down to Applejack, who, initially put off by its lack of reaction, set her jaw and reared back a second time. IRVING didn't give her the chance, and kicked her lazily in the chest, swatting her like a nettlesome fly. Said fly sailed backward, slamming the rubble which concealed Pinkie, Fluttershy and Spike, and slumping face-first against the ground.

Fluttershy peeked over her cover and gasped. "Applejack!" She leaped to the prone earth pony’s side and knelt. She held Applejack steady as she struggled to her hooves. "Easy, now. Don't push yourself."

Satisfied, IRVING swiveled its head to regard Twilight. She swallowed her fear and mustered a glare; her horn shimmered and her aura rippled around her, kicking up a dust storm and whipping her mane about her head. Sparks danced up and down the length of her horn. A sphere of lavender light built at its tip, no larger than a pea at first, but immediately expanding to twice her own size.

She was interrupted by a sudden jet of flame which shot from IRVING's “beak”. Twilight reacted quickly, reshaping the offensive manifestation of her aura into a shield and enveloping herself in it, warding away the ignited gas which washed over and past her. The ground around her crackled and burned, but she remained unscathed. But her eyes were wide and her jaw agape, her confidence badly shaken. This She'd been caught off guard; had her reflexes been infinitesimally less sharp, she'd be a charred corpse. Normally, she'd take a measure of pride in her ability, but fear canceled it out.

"ASSESSMENT COMPLETE." Though certain it was all in her head, Twilight swore she heard a smugness in IRVING's voice. "THREAT NEGLIGIBLE."

Pain stabbed through Applejack. IRVING hadn't put much muscle into its kick (and ain’t that thought fright’nin', thought Applejack), but that didn't make her hurt any less. That wasn't even counting her collision with the rubble, not to mention her lingering pains from every other hit she'd suffered that day. Heck, she swore she'd been hurt more in the last twenty-four hours than she'd been in a lifetime of working on a farm. But pain wouldn’t hold Applejack back when her friends were depending on her.

She looked to the yellow pegasus at her side, who stared transfixed at IRVING. "Fluttershy," she said in a pained whisper. "I know y'all mus' be scared outta yer wits right now, but y'need to focus. You with me?" Fluttershy made no reply. "Fluttershy, did y'hear me?"

"D-dragon," she whimpered.

Of course her mind would have gone to her dragon phobia. The thing breathed fire; was she expecting Fluttershy to not make that connection? "I know what it looks like, but it ain't no dragon. It's a... it's a thing, which is definitely not a dragon."

Applejack's fumbling was lost on Fluttershy. "Dragon," she repeated, louder, but squeakily. Tears flowed freely from her eyes, her breathing picked up, and Applejack swore she could hear the sound of her heart hammering in her chest. "Dragon! Dragon!" Her voice rose in volume until she was practically shouting. "Dragon!"

IRVING took notice, swiveling its head toward the two of them. "DRAGON!" shrieked Fluttershy, rooted to the ground by fear.

Twilight shouted a warning, but it was lost as IRVING unleashed another jet of flame at Fluttershy. Applejack threw herself on top of the pegasus, protecting her body with her own. The flames themselves passed overhead, but the superheated air singed her coat and scorched her skin, making her scream as the nerves on her back blazed. A sudden and frightening burst of heat on her head made her panic; her hat had caught fire. She doffed it, and watched with dismay as it shriveled and burned on the dirt.

Twilight summoned her aura again, and fired blast after blast into IRVING. The shots that struck its armored head were shrugged off, not even noticed, but the shots which struck its legs made them jolt and shake with every impact. They did no damage, but annoyed it enough to draw its attention. IRVING lowered its head and charged toward her, impacting a hastily erected shield which flashed upon impact and strained inward. Twilight dug her hooves into the ground, taxing her muscles with the effort to remain firm and unwavering. But IRVING pressed against her shield with all of its weight, and she felt herself sliding backward. She grunted and channeled more energy into the shield, but quickly realized that her approach was all wrong. The shield was working fine; the amount of energy she'd initially put into it was enough to repel IRVING. IRVING was simply bigger than her, stronger than her. It could throw more weight against her than she could throw against it, and no amount of magic could change that.

So, she concluded, there was no way to fight a defensive battle against the thing. She needed to go on the offensive. The energy she'd summoned for her attack before, reformed into a barrier out of necessity, was still largely untapped. Most of it was channeled into reinforcing her shield at that moment.

Twilight collapsed the shield into a singularity, focused at the tip of her horn. Momentum carried IRVING forward for a fraction of an instant, then there came the sound of a thunderclap, and it rocketed backward, careening toward the window in the keep.

Trenton caught Cain by the collar, hooked an arm around Macbeth, and pulled them both to the ground, throwing his own body over Apple Bloom. IRVING crashed through the window, taking much of the wall with it, its weight and the force with which it was thrown far more than what the ancient masonry could withstand. Debris pelted Trenton, but his exoskeleton held beneath the bombardment, and IRVING passed him overhead. It skidded down the hall, upending tables and lamps, before slamming into the hall's entrance and coming to a stop. There it lay, crumpled and motionless on its side, its legs tucked under its chin.

Macbeth stirred first. His eye, shut tight when he was thrown to the ground, reopened. He regarded IRVING bemusedly, then looked at Trenton with an arched brow. "I hope you saved the receipt."

"Bitch, bitch, bitch," snapped Cain. "Shut up and wait."

In the courtyard, Twilight took a tentative step forward. Her chest heaved and her heart hammered as she struggled to catch her breath. A tired smile crossed her face, and she sighed in relief. Her body swayed, and she nearly toppled to her side, but something caught her and propped her up.

"Twilight?" It was Spike; he'd come to her side, and now braced his stubby arms against her flank. "I’m sure that took a lot out of you, but please don't do your Berry Punch impersonation right here."

She exhaled sharply in a tired simulation of a laugh. "It's... okay," she panted. "I think—"

An outraged bellow echoed from the ruined keep, and any and all traces of optimism in Twilight Sparkle died a sudden and inglorious death. IRVING stirred in the great hall, rolling onto its knees, then pushing off of them to stand on its three-toed feet. The twisted remains of a bench entangled one of its legs, and it kicked the offending piece of metal off, throwing it through the hole it had created and nearly striking Rarity, who backpedaled rapidly to avoid being crushed.

Cain, smug, glanced at Macbeth, who scoffed, folded his forelegs, and rested his chin upon them. "Could have fooled me."

IRVING lowered its head and charged, forcing Trenton to grab his employers and roll out of its path. Apple Bloom, no longer pinned beneath the ninja, gasped for breath and drank in a deep gulp of air. Her eyes widened at the sight of IRVING sprinting, heedless, toward her. Trenton grabbed her by the end of her mane and yanked her backward, then clutched the filly to his chest.

IRVING leaped from the hole its impact had made in the keep, landed in the courtyard, and stormed toward Twilight like a locomotive. She'd poured virtually all of her energy into the attack, hoping to incapacitate IRVING all at once. There was very, very little left that she could bring to bear against it.

She felt Spike's hands leave her, and, as he'd predicted, she dropped onto her side like a stringless puppet. The baby dragon stood in front of her, arms spread wide, feet planted firmly, chest puffed, and stout tail thumping against the ground. She wanted to warn him off, to tell him to get out of the way, but she couldn't catch her breath enough to form an articulate sentence.

IRVING drew closer, head bowed like a ram, and Spike opened his jaws wide. A plume of green fire burst from his mouth and washed harmlessly against IRVING's armored head. It struck him before he could make a second effort, tossed its head back, and threw Spike up and over. He landed hard on the ground behind IRVING. It didn't didn't break stride, didn't even slow, and it closed what little distance remained between itself and Twilight.

Twilight threw up another shield, but too much of her energy had been expended before to make it effective. IRVING collided with the shield; it bent inward, strained for a split second, and burst. Its individual pieces winked into nothingness, and IRVING's plowed into Twilight, slapping her hard on her jaw with the front of its beak and throwing her backward.

Twilight was unconscious as she arced through the air; she was still out when she struck ground and her limp body rolled, until she came to a rest against one of the turrets flanking the castle gate. From there, IRVING wasted no time, leaping across the courtyard and landing beside Twilight, its right foot narrowly missing her head.

Spike cried out Twilight's name and sprinted toward her on stubby dragon legs. IRVING's head swiveled to stare at Spike as he made his mad, vain dash to his oldest friend. The glowing red sensor dome on IRVING's head seemed to shine a little brighter as it lifted a foot high over Twilight.

A length of rope snared that foot, and IRVING, surprised, turned to its attacker. Applejack, unsteady but unbowed, clutched her lasso tightly in her jaws. She dug her hooves into the ground and strained her neck, putting every bit of weight and muscle into an effort to save her friend.

IRVING did not budge. It kicked the bound leg forward, yanking Applejack off the ground, and swung her like a ball on a chain into the curtain wall. IRVING kicked again, to the side, swinging Applejack a second time. At its full length, the rope snapped, letting Applejack fly freely. Momentum carried her through the air, over scattered debris, toward the entrance of the pristine ring-wall. She hit the ground and tumbled through the entrance, a groaning, rolling, bruised and bloodied ball.

"What in the..." The voice came from beside her; it was gruff, gravelly, and sounded incredulous. Applejack felt gloved fingers on her neck. "Still ticking, huh? What the hell are you made out of?"

Applejack made a noise that was an amalgam of a laugh and a cough. "Sterner stuff'n most."

A crash from the courtyard drew their attention. IRVING's foot was lodged in a shattered piece of debris; Pinkie Pie, somehow, stood upon IRVING's head, thrilled to no end with her own antics. Rarity stood, poised and tense, at IRVING's feet. Together, they'd drawn IRVING away from Twilight, and Twilight was still in one piece. "Atta girl, Pinkie," said Applejack hoarsely, breaking out a weak smile.

Applejack felt Snake's fingers rap her on the neck. His touch, while light, still stung, and she winced. "The plan seems to have hit a snag," said Snake. "Want to fill me in?"





Rainbow Dash was unhappy with herself.

The day's events had been stressful enough. The ease with which Trenton had cast her aside in the forest was a terrible blow to her pride. That her defeat came so quickly hurt enough, but that it was followed by Trenton making off with Apple Bloom, with everypony unable to lift a hoof to stop him – that just made her feel downright useless.

She wondered if that wasn't why she lashed out at Snake so often. Sure, he was unlikable and weird and left her friends to fend for themselves in a hostile environment surrounded by heavily armed soldiers, but did he really deserve the kind of treatment she subjected him to? Or was she just acting out her frustrations on him? His presence in the group, an intruder to their group dynamic, made him a convenient outlet. 

Should I treat him better? Maybe thank him for his help? Assuming he hasn't run off on me by now.

Adding to all of this stress was the knowledge that her friends were fighting a battle which she not only couldn't participate in, but couldn't so much as observe without breaking cover. She was impatient, restless. She wanted to ditch the mission Snake had sent her on and throw herself into fight, alongside the rest of her friends, where she knew she could make a difference. Heck, on more occasions than she could count, her speed and skill were the only things standing between a pony and messy oblivion. Yet she, valuable resource that she was, was a non-factor, and that killed her inside. The battle might be going terribly, for all she knew. How many of her friends were maimed, crippled, or dead? Whose bodies would she find when she did leap into the fray?

Warring with herself over her inaction, Rainbow Dash fluttered into the turret and folded her wings against her body. She pressed her belly close against the ground and crawled toward the remaining sniper, closing the distance between them inch by inch. The sniper kept his back to her. He cradled his rifle close to his chest, but Rainbow Dash could see that it was a decrepit old thing. The wooden furniture desperately needed a new coat of varnish; the scope's casing was rusty; the stock, visible beneath his right armpit, had a thick piece of duct tape wound vertically around it – it looked like it'd fall apart if it were fired just once.

She was directly behind him now. He had no helmet; his head was covered only by the same black balaclava that the other soldiers wore. A good hit to the back of the head would be enough to drop him. She unfurled her wings and kicked off of the ground, drawing back her right foreleg in the same motion.

The sniper whirled and side-stepped, barely avoiding her attack. He rammed the butt of his rifle into Rainbow Dash's chest. The blow sent her tumbling backward onto the floor of the turret. "Nice try," he said. She recovered in time to see him raising his gun. The end of the barrel was in hoof's reach; at such close quarters, he wouldn't even have to aim.

A faint, plaintive wail carried up to the turret from the courtyard below. Rainbow Dash recognized the voice as Spike's. He cried a single word, a name.

"Twilight!"

And suddenly, Rainbow Dash had a very good idea of how the battle was going.

A surge of anger shot through her. She smacked the barrel out of the way before the sniper could fire, jarring his finger away from the trigger. She pounced again and sucker-punched the sniper in the stomach. He doubled over, the force of her attack expelling the oxygen from his lungs, and she ascended 'til she was at eye level with him. Dash struck him with a right hook to the cheek, then a left, then an uppercut that drove his jaws together. She registered the sensation of something wet and warm splashing her face, but only distantly; she didn't have the presence of mind to stick a label onto the sensation. She pulled a foreleg back, and, with a yell, drove it directly into the sniper's nose. Bone and cartilage snapped beneath her hoof, and he stumbled, falling and striking the back of his head against the lip of the turret. He slumped forward, twitched for an instant, then lay still.

Wings beating, chest heaving, Rainbow Dash hovered in that spot for a long, long moment. She touched her hoof to her cheek, smudging the warm, sticky substance that had splashed her, and held it in front of her face, trembling. Against her cyan coat, the blood looked almost purple.

She dropped to the turret. Her eyes passed over the brutally beaten sniper, and she found herself suddenly compelled to vomit.  "No," she moaned, "no no no no no...!" She groped at his neck with her blood-stained hoof, until she felt the tiny beat of his pulse beneath his skin. The nausea passed; the trembling did not. Rainbow Dash's legs gave out, and she fell onto her haunches, breathing hard and quickly.





In the courtyard, a fetal Fluttershy watched with wide eyes as Rarity sprinted toward IRVING, with Pinkie Pie bouncing close behind her. The unicorn skidded to a stop and lowered her hindquarters, and Pinkie bounced onto her back. Pinkie bounced again, Rarity providing her a boost, and landed on top of IRVING's head, her hooves producing a metallic clank as she struck its armor.

Aware of its unwanted headgear, IRVING backed away from Twilight, swinging its head from side to side in a vain effort to dislodge her. It launched a clumsy, ill-aimed kick at Rarity, missed completely, and wound up thrusting its foot through a half-buried chunk of rubble, obliterating it.

"Whoo! They should put you in a carnival!" Pinkie lunged for the dome-shaped sensor and pressed her face right up against the electronic eye. "Whussis do? Is it like a second head?!" She giggled. "'Second head.'" Pinkie spun her new toy experimentally and caught it after a full rotation. "S'fun! I can make my head do that too, but it kinda hurts my neck if I wind it up too tight. Ever wish you were made of rubber?"

IRVING stumbled dizzily away from Twilight, futilely rolling its head back and forth. Unshaken, Pinkie spun the dome again, watching with child-like glee as it whirled like a roulette board. A jet of flame, perhaps fired in some artificial approximation of desperation, spewed from its beak. Like a flashbulb, the flames bathed the courtyard in light before burning out.

Rarity bared her horn toward IRVING's exposed leg, even as Pinkie continued her antics atop its head. A thin, black cord extended from IRVING's underside and snaked up its back, coiling around Pinkie's rear leg.

"...I don’t even know what she was so upset about; I’ve never even seen a platypus, much less—" Pinkie froze mid-anecdote at the sensation of something tugging at her leg. She dipped her head down to glance between her forelegs, and saw IRVING's prehensile tentacle wrapped tightly around her right hind leg. She lifted her head and grinned sheepishly at IRVING's sensory dome. "Well, I prefer to wait until the third date—"

IRVING tugged, yanking a yelping Pinkie off of its head. She dangled, upside-down, and flailed her limbs helplessly. With strength belied by the tentacle's slender appearance, IRVING slung her into Rarity's path, and Pinkie bowled her over before the unicorn could so much as cry out in surprise. They collided, and rolled together across the rubble-strewn courtyard, finally coming to a halt when they struck the half-crumbled remains of a structure.

Twilight stirred. Pain assaulted her, compelled her to stay down, but she fought it off and raised her head enough to get a glimpse of where the fight now stood. Pinkie and Rarity were down – unconscious, or worse. The miniature Metal Gear hunched down, head pressed almost against its knees, and made a noise like a horse's nicker. It aimed the top of its head, where Pinkie had danced moments before, at the helpless and unconscious ponies, and charged. They weren't dead yet, Twilight knew, but that was about to change.

She felt a stirring in the deepest recesses of her chest – a spark of warmth, accompanied by searing anger, that died out as quickly as it came. She wanted it back; it was comforting, and oddly familiar. But she couldn't find it, and she was alone. Applejack was nowhere to be seen; Fluttershy was crippled with fear, and Pinkie Pie and Rarity were about to be ground to paste. She glanced sidelong at the hole she'd made in the keep, where she knew Macbeth and his dogs watched the show. She hoped they'd enjoyed the performance.

Something latched onto IRVING's right calf just then, something purple and green and pudgy. IRVING, its assault stalled, reared to its full height, stumbling and bellowing in a sudden fit. Spike's arms and legs formed a tight ring around IRVING's leg. He opened his jaw wide, and sank his teeth deeply into IRVING's meaty calf.

Twilight felt an instant of relief that Pinkie and Rarity were safe, one which promptly gave way to renewed terror. Spike was attacking IRVING. Spike, who'd been held so precariously in the jaws of the timberwolf, who'd had a sword that rent molecules held to his throat, who'd choked back tears and begged Twilight to let him keep his pride, brewer of tea, baker of cookies, shelver of books and number one assistant in Ponyville, in Equestria, in the world, a baby who'd barely lived a thumb of a life, now sank his teeth into the leg of a beastly machine, fighting a battle that wasn't his to fight, that he never should have been involved with. Spike – her Spike – was in danger.

A ripple of energy danced through Twilight, like the spark before, but magnified tenfold. Shocked – she hadn't expected it to return – she tried to seize it, but again, it danced away before she could take hold of it. She felt like a child groping for a balloon caught in the breeze. Once again, the comforting familiarity of that power vanished, leaving her alone and broken and watching the ones she loved drop like flies.

Spike squeezed his eyes shut and sank his teeth deeper into IRVING's calf. Blood – or some artificial substance resembling it – flowed from the wound, through his teeth, down his face and IRVING's own leg. Spike pulled, wrenching his head back as hard as he could, and with a sickening ripping noise, tore out a chunk of meat. Blood sprayed from the wound, spattering Spike’s face. The baby dragon spat the bit of leg out of his mouth, coughing and sputtering, frantically trying to erase every hint of the blood's bitter taste from his palate.

IRVING's cry was one of agony: high, warbling, and manic. The prehensile cord wrapped around Spike's midsection, and he gasped at the unexpected cold constricting around his body. The cord wound tighter, forcing air from Spike's lungs and turning his breathing into shallow, gasps. Dragon skin may be impervious, but the boy still needed to breathe.

It started pulling. Spike, in response, dug his claws deeper into IRVING's muscle. Artificial blood pooled around his fingers and ran down his palms, slickening his hands and loosening his grip. The reeking, metallic taste still festered in his mouth, but Spike closed his eyes, drew in what breath he could, and chomped down on IRVING's calf again.

The cord fell away as IRVING cried out in pain again. It took a different tactic; it raised its leg high over an exposed block of rubble, and swung it down, Spike-first. The block shattered into bits, and Spike, shaken free by the shock of impact, fell into the pile. A twitching, purple arm stuck out of the rubble. The rest of him was buried.

Applejack charged (or tried to, limp and bloody as she was) toward the courtyard, restrained only by Snake's hand catching her by the back of her mane. "Get offa me!" she snapped, her voice cracking. She slapped ineffectually at his hand. "Lemme at it! I'm gonna—"

"Get yourself killed?" Snake finished. He yanked hard on her mane, pulling Applejack back into cover. "A corpse won't be able to rescue Apple Bloom."

IRVING's whip-like arm slithered into Spike's cairn. It drew him out of the rubble, dangling him by his right ankle. His eyes were half-open, but his breathing was labored, and punctuated with heavy coughing. His scales had kept him safe from serious harm, but he was still in pain... and terrified. IRVING pulled him close to its beak. He dangled, centimeters away from its flame thrower aperture, almost nose-to-nose with the mechanical beast.

Spike spat a cloud of fire, but his breathing kept him from mustering much air to put behind it. It came out small and weak, and vanished against IRVING's armored beak. The weapon made a sound reminiscent of a laugh. Drawing Spike closer to its beak, it bellowed at full volume. Spike shut his eyes reflexively at the noise and turned his head away, covering it with his in arms in an instinctive, protective, gesture.

IRVING emitted a mechanical click – not a vocalization, but a noise like some part shifting within itself. A moment later, a river of molten fuel, different from the ignited clouds of gas from before, rolled from its beak and engulfed Spike. It ran off of his scales like rain on a slicker, leaving Spike completely unharmed. IRVING bellowed again, its synthesized voice soured by a note of irritation, and released its grip on the dragon. He dropped with a sharp gasp onto the pile of rubble from which he'd been extracted. 

Twilight's blood thrummed in her ears at the sight of Spike lying helplessly. With some effort, she was able to aim her horn at IRVING's head. Shutting her eyes tightly, she focused, summoning every stray bit of energy she had left. "Get away," she panted. Pain ran the length of her neck, down her spine and through her legs, but she forced herself to endure it. "Get away from him!"

IRVING swiveled its head to stare at Twilight, and nickered. She focused harder, trying to summon the strength to project a bolt at IRVING. 

"I said..." 

Something inside her began to rise, and she felt it again – that primal feeling, deep within herself. A white glow came into her eyes, and a purple shimmer built at the tip of her horn. 

"I said, get away from him!" she screamed. 

Her voice boomed unnaturally, deep and bass, and her words reverberated through the courtyard, carrying to the turret where Rainbow Dash lay. The sound of her friend's magically amplified voice broke her state of shock. Dash remembered herself, leaped to her hooves, and pulled herself over the lip of the turret to stare into the courtyard below. Her eyes were drawn to IRVING, standing above Spike. Still facing Twilight, it raised its bitten leg high over the dragon.

"NO!"

The unexpected cry pierced the armor of Twilight’s rage. Her aura vanished, her eyes stopped glowing, and she collapsed back to the ground. But she saw a cyan blur with a rainbow contrail strike IRVING in the beak, knocking it off balance, and smiled. Rainbow Dash springboarded off of IRVING's armored surface, backflipped, and landed gracefully on the ground, folding her wings. 

That works too.





"Well," said Macbeth. "The cat came back."

A piece of cement the size of a fist fell onto Trenton's head, pinging gently. The ninja glanced up; he and the others stood in the spot where the throne and dais had been, in the wound created by IRVING's impact with the keep. Bits and pieces of the ceiling pelted them intermittently. The last had been the largest yet. 

"Indeed," said Trenton softly.

Apple Bloom looked at the ninja, and followed his gaze upward.





Knocked off balance, IRVING staggered backward, away from the frightened dragon. Scrabbling for purchase on his bed of loose rubble, Spike frantically dove aside, scrambled back to his feet, and sprinted on stubby dragon legs toward a visibly relieved Twilight.

IRVING's head rotated, tracking Spike's movements. "Hey!" Rainbow Dash barked. She kicked a chunk of concrete into the air, reared onto her forelegs, pivoted, and bucked it at IRVING's head. IRVING jerked backward and grunted, startled, now turning to look at Rainbow Dash. 

"You're not touching him." Rainbow Dash arched her back like a wild cat and unfurled her wings to their full breadth. "Or any of them. You got ears on that ugly body of yours? Use 'em: You are not going to hurt my friends ever again!"

IRVING bellowed. The flame thrower clicked again, shifting away from napalm, and it launched a burst of flame from its beak. Rainbow Dash kicked off the ground and took to the sky, flapping hard as she ascended vertically, barely ahead of IRVING's attack. The stream of fire cut off, and Rainbow Dash darted toward its head. She halted just above its sensory dome and swung her hoof, striking with a resounding metallic clang and causing the dome to spin on its axis. Stunned and dizzied again, IRVING stumbled backward. Its manipulator cord extended from its undercarriage, and it clumsily swung it like a whip toward Rainbow Dash, lashing her across the face.

Rainbow Dash gasped from the sudden, stinging blow, and held a hoof to her stricken cheek. Blood seeped from a long cut and ran down her face and over her hoof, mingling with the blood of the sniper she'd beaten into unconsciousness on the turret.

As rational thought fled, replaced by blood-red rage, a distant part of Rainbow Dash wondered if she might have an anger problem.

The manipulator cord danced in the air, and Rainbow Dash dove for it, catching it in her mouth. She swooped beneath IRVING, between its legs, pulling the cord behind her. The cord, at the end of its length, snagged. Straining her neck and beating her wings, Rainbow Dash forced herself to move through the air. Her teeth bit harder into the cord. The pain in her jaws, and from the exertion in her muscles, was excruciating. To a pony like Rainbow Dash, though, pain was just one more measly hurdle. She bit down harder and, screaming her throat raw through the cord in her mouth, forced herself to pull harder.

The giant fell to its back, bellowing, flame thrower blazing wildly in the air. Rainbow Dash released the cord. IRVING's sensory dome was now directly behind her, and she slammed it apple-bucking style, denting its metal casing and eliciting another outraged bellow from IRVING.

Down, but not out, IRVING somersaulted backward. Rainbow Dash darted away to avoid being crushed when IRVING pressed the top of its head against the ground and raised its legs vertically into the air. It tilted backward, its legs shifting, gradually bringing its feet to rest on the ground, and pulled the top of its body up after itself. Now standing at its full height, IRVING kicked backward, striking Dash dead-on without sparing her a glance. Rainbow Dash tumbled head over hooves, but spread her wings to reduce her momentum and righted herself in midair. She streaked toward IRVING, weaving beneath a flame thrower burst that trailed her as she flew. She adjusted her course and lowered her head, aiming the top of her skull at IRVING's knee. The leg shook from the impact, but then IRVING pecked Dash – pecked, like a hen – between the wings, catching her just right of center. Her eyes widened, and she dropped to her belly, furling her right wing defensively.

Pegasi in schoolyard brawls have an unspoken rule: Never, under any circumstances, go for the wings. It’s just something that’s commonly understood, the same way boys – of any race – don’t go for the ‘nads. Aside from wings being symbols of a pegasus’s freedom, which every sky-dwelling pony wears as an emblem of pride, hitting them runs the risk of doing serious, lasting damage. Dash’s own wings were well-kept and strengthened from years of training, but they were still as much a weak point as they were her greatest asset. She grimaced as she tested her wing, extending and furling it experimentally. It was difficult to extend all the way; she’d been hurt, there was no way around that, and she wasn’t sure if she could fly anymore.

Of course, IRVING didn’t care about her new handicap. So Rainbow Dash scowled and climbed shakily to her hooves again, defiantly tossing her mane over her shoulder. "I don’t need wings," she said. Her raspy voice shook, and sounded faded and weary. "I got four hooves’ worth of whoopin’, right here. So come and get it."

IRVING's response was a jet of fire.





Snake had released his hold on Applejack's mane some time before, but she stayed in cover with him, watching Rainbow Dash from a distance. Still, with the fight turning against her, she felt a swell of irritation with Snake for his passivity. "What the hay do you think you're doin'?" Applejack hissed. "She's gettin' her butt kicked out there; they all are! How much longer d'you plan on jus' watchin'?!"

Snake didn't look away from his scope as he replied. "What do you expect me to do? I don't have the firepower to go toe-to-toe with that thing."

"So the gun's just for show, eh?" Applejack snorted. "So much for savin' Dash's ungrateful butt with it."

"The point of espionage is to avoid open conflict," said Snake. "Especially when it's an uneven fight that runs a high risk of getting you killed. I could take a shot at that thing right now, but it wouldn't make a difference. All it'd serve to do is blow my cover, at which point it'll come after me."

"So it's got one more target t'deal with! That just ups our odds of survival, don't it?"

"It would still be a pointless fight, one that neither of us would walk away from. If we die, then what we’ve learned dies with us, and your people don't have a prayer. I know you want to help, but there's nothing that you or I could possibly do for them now." His hands tightened around his rifle. "All we can do is wait for an opening. You can make another go at your sister, and I can make another break for Metal Gear."

Applejack exhaled sharply through her nose in anger. "That sounds an awful lot like you're tellin' me to let my friends die."

Snake took his gaze away from his rifle scope to look into Applejack's eyes, a resolute frown on his face. He made no immediate reply, and an unsettling silence fell between the pony and the man, broken by the not-so-distant hiss of IRVING's flame thrower and the heavy thudding of its footsteps. Snake finally returned to his scope. "I won't tell you to do anything."

Applejack's jaw went slack. She shook her head, her singed mane fluttering around her face, and planted her forehooves on Snake's shoulder. "Dang it, Snake! You've already written them off, haven't you?!" She beat a hoof half-heartedly against his shoulder. "Those ponies out there, they might not mean a lick to you, but they're my friends. My family! They ain't jus' disposable!"

Snake curled his lower lip into his mouth and bit lightly into it. He lowered his rifle and pushed Applejack off of his shoulder, turning away from his vantage point to confront her directly. "I don't enjoy watching them die, if that's what you're implying. But I'll tell you what I told Rainbow Dash." He jabbed a finger in Applejack's face. "If it comes down to choosing between saving the world, or saving our lives, there is no choice." Curling his finger back into his fist, he added, in a grave voice, "We're all disposable."

He spoke with such gravity that Applejack found herself momentarily stunned into silence. It would have been easy to mistake Snake as a disinterested mercenary, sending her friends to die for his own gain. But his words conveyed a sense of self-sacrifice that she'd be hard pressed to find in anypony. We're all disposable, she thought. Like he'd long ago accepted that he would die in the pursuit of his cause, whatever that cause might be. Like he was okay with that.

The problem, Applejack knew, was that she wasn't okay with death – for herself, or for her friends. And she counted Snake among her friends.

Accepting Applejack's silence as an concession, Snake turned back to the scene in the courtyard and knelt. Before he could raise his rifle again, Applejack softly rested a hoof on his upturned knee. "Nopony is disposable," she said. "'Specially not you. Right now, yer the only human in Equestria who ain't tryin' ta turn the world upside-down, not to mention the only one tryin' ta keep it rightside-up. An' that makes you precious – not disposable."

Snake growled something unintelligible under his breath.

"I appreciate what y'all wanna do, Snake, but it's our world on the line, and we got every right to fight for it ourselves. You let my friends die out there, an' you take that right away from them. But if you help 'em, they at least have a chance t'survive. Maybe we make it, maybe we don't, but what matters is that we try." She paused in her speech, glanced at the ground, and slowly removed her hoof from Snake's leg.

The flame thrower in the courtyard hissed again, and muted amber light flickered against the two of them. In that instant of illumination, Applejack saw the lines, the creases and folds, that age had carved into Snake's face. She hadn't noticed before, but in the right light, Snake looked very old.

Applejack noticed something else, too – a brief twinkle of orange in the distance, caught from the corner of her eye. "What was that?" she asked.

"Mm?" Snake raised the rifle and gazed down the scope. "What was what?"

"Left tower, by the gate. Some kinda sparkly nonsense. Like a flash."

"A flash?" There was an uncertain quality to Snake's voice that worried her. "Like a..." He moved the rifle in the direction Applejack had indicated, and grunted with mild displeasure. "Sniper," said Snake in response. "Good catch. There were two; I only see one. He looks like hell. Rainbow Dash must've taken the other out of commission, but she didn't quite finish the job on this one. Hm."

"Shucks," said Applejack. She leaned forward, squinting at the top of the tower where the flash had come from. She barely made out the lumpy shape of a human head and shoulders, and something else, too – another rifle, probably like the one Snake had.

"Dammit!" Snake snapped suddenly. His hurried, harsh tone brought Applejack back to a state of worry. "He's gonna take a shot!"

"Take a shot? At what?" Applejack looked into the courtyard, frantically glancing between her friends. Pinkie and Rarity were out, Fluttershy was nowhere in sight, and Twilight and Spike were both out of the sniper's line of fire. The only one he could logically be aiming at was the cyan pegasus, who daringly rolled between IRVING's legs, away from another deadly burst of flame.

Applejack looked at Snake, heart racing. "Snake, please...!"





A shot rang out from across the courtyard. The unexpected noise brought the battle to a sudden halt. All participants stood (or lay) in tableau, save a collective turning of their heads in the direction of the ring-wall. A human figure and a hatless orange mare stepped out from behind the colonnade that defined the wall's entrance, and strode into the courtyard. The human held in his arms a sniper rifle which he aimed at a turret beside the castle's gatehouse.

Spike and Twilight stared, disbelieving. The dragon braced himself against his friend's shoulder and grunted with pain, trying to raise the unicorn to her hooves. Fluttershy, jarred out of her catatonia by the sudden cessation of noise, dared to peek from her cover. Pinkie Pie, still unconscious and curled into a ball, snored and scratched her nose with a hind leg. Rainbow Dash climbed to her hooves and moved to Rarity’s side. She nudged the unicorn; Rarity stirred and looked at her, at Applejack and Snake, at IRVING, then back at Rainbow Dash. They promptly backed away.

In the broken shell of the keep, Alistair Cain slowly unfolded his arms and let them dangle at his sides. Macbeth glanced at Trenton, awaiting an explanation. The ninja made no sound nor movement, but stared impassively at the figure in the courtyard.

Apple Bloom planted her hooves on the wrecked window and pushed herself over it slightly to peek into the courtyard. A smile slowly broke across her face.

Unseen by anyone, a rifle fell from the turret to the ground below, accompanied by bits of red-tinted cranial matter.

Solid Snake turned away from the turret and leveled his rifle at IRVING. The machine, like its opponents, stood in a frozen state of shock, focusing squarely on the intruder. In a swift motion, Snake cycled the rifle and fired a second shot. The bullet bounced harmlessly off of IRVING's beak. It emitted a deep, low nicker, and bent its legs until its prow nearly touched the ground.

Snake chambered another round. "The hell is it waiting for?" he asked. 

Applejack looked from Snake, to IRVING, and back. "Maybe it's surprised. Prob'ly didn't count on runnin' into a human it weren't workin' with. We have a shortage o'those in Equestria."

In the keep, Cain stepped to the edge of the broken window. He leaned against the jagged, stony remnants, and squinted into the courtyard. "Can't be," he muttered. "Can't be."

Trenton's head turned, and his eye drifted over Cain, lingering on his fingers. They tightly curled around the remains of the window sill, clenching tightly, until they trembled. "Can't be," the commander said, louder this time.

Rainbow Dash and Rarity had moved to Pinkie's side. The unicorn nudged Pinkie's nose with a hoof, and Pinkie grumbled, batting sleepily at the spot where Rarity's hoof had been. Rarity nudged her harder. Pinkie smacked her lips, batted again, and rolled onto her other side, mumbling to herself. Rainbow Dash frowned. "Is she unconscious, or napping?"

Slowly, IRVING rose from its crouch. A tremulous groan rumbled from its synthesized voice, and a shudder ran through its body, one which built in frequency and intensity, until the machine vibrated from head to toe. Snake tensed and braced himself; Applejack squared her shoulders.

The hideous groan rose in volume and pitch. What was once a bass, animal noise was now a high, shrill, feminine shriek. IRVING turned its beak skyward, stretching its legs to their full height, and projected its wail to the moon and stars. All at once, the noise cut off, and the vibration ceased. It relaxed its legs, returning to a more natural height, and lowered its head to regard Snake once again. When it spoke, it was once again with the synthesized woman's voice. Its response – starkly calm and composed – was spoken in monotone.

"JACK."

"'Jack?'" Twilight repeated.

"'Jack?’" Rarity and Rainbow Dash echoed together.

Commander Cain's hands slipped from the window, and fell to his sides, balled tightly into fists to mask their trembling. "A ghost," he whispered. "It's a ghost."

Trenton, unnoticed, watched the commander intently.

And in the courtyard, Snake tilted his head in confusion, then glanced at Applejack. "I think it's talking to you."

"JACK." IRVING repeated the name, louder now, with a frantic edge to it. "JACK!" Now it was a yell. IRVING crouched and lowered its head. "JACK!" The name became a battle cry when IRVING charged.

Snake's eyes widened as IRVING swiftly closed the distance between the two of them. "Move!" he snapped to Applejack. He dove head first to his right; Applejack went in the opposite direction, and IRVING passed them both by. Snake rolled, tucking the rifle close to his chest, and quickly rose to his feet to confront IRVING. The machine turned its head to him. Crouching so that the flame thrower aperture on its beak was level with Snake's head, it let loose a stream of napalm which Snake leaped backward to avoid.

From behind IRVING, Applejack landed a double-kick upon a coiled leg, but her blow rebounded harmlessly off of the powerful calf muscle. Ignoring Applejack, IRVING pivoted on its back foot and stabbed at Snake with a kick, its toes pointed and sharp claws bared. Snake backpedaled, but his feet lost purchase and he slipped and fell; IRVING thrust its claws again, and Snake rolled backward, barely avoiding being impaled. He emerged from the roll in a kneel. Now at point-blank range, Snake raised his rifle for a retaliatory shot. IRVING's leg was perpendicular to Snake's head, and the wound from Spike's bite was big enough, and close enough, to render scoping pointless.

Snake fired. The round ripped through the still-tender chink in IRVING's calf and emerged out the top of its thigh, accompanied by a splash of blood and tissue. It yelped – a canine noise, so unlike the guttural, bovine sounds of before – and dropped the leg immediately, the rest of its body sagging after it. Snake backpedaled again to avoid a flame thrower burst and chambered a new round, watching IRVING carefully for another opening.

IRVING struggled to raise itself again, hobbled as it was by bite and bullet. It succeeded, partially, but the amount of weight it put on the injured leg kept it unsteady. Applejack took advantage of that, sprinting toward the leg at top speed. Rather than kick, though, she drew inspiration from Rainbow Dash's failed attack, and threw herself at her target, slamming into IRVING's lame leg with all her weigh and momentum behind her. The force of the blow knocked the leg out from beneath it, and IRVING fell to its side with a groan.

In the keep, Apple Bloom hollered joyously at the sight of IRVING tumbling over. "Thatssit, Applejack, take it down! Hit it again!" She propped herself up on what remained of the window to get a better view of the action in the courtyard. Her hooves practically danced on the ruined sill. The sight of her sister emerging from the ring-wall, and with Snake, no less, was enough to stir her out of the morose slump she'd fallen back into. That she – no, they – were taking on that monstrous machine and not only holding their own, but winning, just made her giddy.

Beside her at the window was Commander Cain, and he looked a fair bit less happy with the situation than she did. Before and during the fight, he'd seemed detached from, and almost bored with, the situation. Something changed in him when he saw Snake and Applejack, though – no, probably not Applejack as much as Snake, Apple Bloom decided. He'd already known that Applejack was around. Snake was a surprise. Truthfully, it was kind of satisfying to see Cain – whom she'd decided, in the brief time that they'd known each other, was a Very Bad Apple – so shook up, but it left her wondering what was the reason behind it.

Fun as the thought was, though, it was more fun to watch her sister clean the clock of an ugly robot, so she mostly ignored him and focused on the fight.

She heard a shuffling beside her as Cain turned away from the courtyard, and a soft tapping noise as he fiddled with the thing on his wrist. Then she heard him speak, with a tremble in his deep voice that was almost silly. "All castle personnel, this is the commander. I am ordering an evacuation, effective immediately. Take to the skies, and salt the earth."

Apple Bloom's ears perked up, and she looked away from the battle and at the commander with an expression of confusion. She didn't need to be an expert in voices and the like to pick up on the terrified waver in his words. It wasn't hard to miss; it hadn't been there at all before when he spoke. Now, though, when he talked, he sounded almost like Fluttershy did at dinner the other night, when Applejack's anger with her boiled over. She didn't completely understand what he was talking about – the meaning of "evacuation" eluded her – but the last part of his sentence seemed mostly clear to her, salt notwithstanding. They were leaving the castle, and going off someplace else.

And, she thought, her good mood evaporating, they're prob'ly takin' me with 'em. 

Macbeth's jaw dropped, and he focused his good eye, wide with shock, on Trenton. "An evacuation? On what grounds, Commander?!"

Trenton watched with curiosity as the commander lowered his arm to his side, appearing to ignore his client. "What of our assets here?" the ninja asked.

"Nothing here but the choppers that we can't live without," said Cain, "and we're taking those with us." Sparing the courtyard one last glance, he clenched his fists tighter and strode down the path to the exit.

Trenton stared after him. "The Hind is still inoperable—"

"Then leave it!" roared Cain over his shoulder.

Apple Bloom jumped at the sudden harshness in Cain's voice. Her confusion persisted; what could have gotten into him to make him so afraid? He hadn't shown a lick of fear until he saw—

Her eyes widened with sudden realization. Looking at Snake, one who wasn't familiar with him might write him off as just a hairless ape in a silly outfit who smelled like smoke and wasn't any good with kids. But she'd watched him tackle a manticore, fight it off unarmed, survive the deadliest death sentence it could give to a pony, and be fit as a fiddle the next day. She knew what he was capable of.

And, judging by the way Cain reacted to the sight of him, so did he.

Macbeth rounded on Trenton. "This is mad," he said pleadingly. "Trenton, say something! Do something! What the hell has gotten into him?!"

"The situation has changed," said Trenton. "That man's presence has affected our mission's parameters – possibly beyond his ability to contain." The ninja's voice carried a hint of curiosity, a decidedly non-robotic lilt.

"Why?" asked Macbeth, baffled. "I grant that the presence of another human is disconcerting – his performance against your machine moreso – but to think that one man could so radically alter the course of the plan is beyond ludicrous!"

Trenton still stared down the hall after Cain. "You don't know who that is. What he is. What he represents to the commander. No fault of your own, of course." Trenton turned to Macbeth and stared down at him. The blaze in his eye seemed to freeze over as he spoke to his client coldly. "But you were not at Zanzibar Land, and I cannot expect you to understand." He jerked his head in the direction of the exit. "You should follow him."

Curling his lip into a sneer, Macbeth spat and trotted after Cain. "And shooting the bastard is out of the question?" he said to himself. "What do I pay you for?"

Trenton was left alone with his thoughts for all of ten seconds, when the soft voice of a filly spoke to him. "Are you takin' me with you too?" Apple Bloom had been bright and fiery upon seeing Applejack again, but the news of the evacuation seemed to deflate her. Now she stared up at him with eyes reddened from a night's worth of tears, her mouth drawn into a pitiable pout.

"On the contrary," Trenton said, in an expressionless voice. "I have no further use for you."





My first impression of Applejack was that she was the only one of the gang of seven that I'd want on my side in a fight. Squaring off against the timberwolves had forced me to revise that impression: Applejack wasn't the only fighter among them, just the most competent. Even when I was wrong, events had a way of proving me right. Now, there's another side to that, of course. We'd gained the upper hand for the moment, with one hell of a display of teamwork, but I'd initially rated the odds of defeating IRVING in combat as suicidal. We'd lasted a little longer than I'd thought, but, like I said... even when wrong, I tend to be right.

So it wasn't a surprise (though it was a kick to the metaphorical balls) when IRVING proved itself lethal, even when knocked on its ass. It swung its wounded leg like a club at Applejack. She nimbly ducked beneath it, but she didn't see the other one coming straight at her. IRVING was swinging them like the blades of a fan, and the second hit her like a Wasilla redneck on a bender (I've been told that not everybody understands my library of Alaskan analogies, but this one should be self-explanatory). She caught a blow across the face that knocked her away, and didn't get back up. Goodnight, Applejack.

IRVING didn't move in for the kill. Either Applejack was dead, or it didn't figure it had to waste time taking her out. With two rounds still in the gun's magazine, I fired again, aiming for the unhurt leg this time. The shot struck, tossing up a little spurt of blood, but did no appreciable damage. Disheartening, but not unforeseen. If it was made of the same synthetic tissue as RAY, then it’d take a much higher caliber than the rifle offered to penetrate it – anti-material ammo, at the least. Judging by the lack of reaction, it seemed to know that too. So I'd lost a round of precious ammunition demonstrating that shooting an unhurt leg wouldn't be a feasible plan of attack.

Well, the more you know. Fortunately, the other leg had a Spike-sized gash in it, which made for a prime target. Had to hand it to the runt, he was less useless than I'd thought.

"YOU'VE GOTTEN STRONGER."

Shit. It was talking again. Funny thing about that, though. Whereas before, the voice had a sort of unnerving, robotic monotone to it, its current vocal tone was... not. When it talked, it sounded like it was trying to convey emotion. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear it sounded proud.

I chambered a new round and took aim at the open wound on its hobbled leg, when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a cyan pony with a rainbow tail flapping behind her like a pennant gallop toward IRVING. Goddammit, Rainbow Dash, you had your chance, and you grounded yourself in the process of blowing it. I saw the shot she’d taken to her wing; the girl had spirit to get up after that, but if she couldn’t fly, then her primary advantage was gone, which meant that she was fighting IRVING on the same terms as the others. Not to mention, as long as she was mucking about with IRVING, I didn't have a clear shot.

Without looking, IRVING raised its good leg (slumping noticeably as it rested its weight upon its wounded leg) and thrust it toward Rainbow Dash as soon as she came within kicking distance. The claws on its foot caught her across the muzzle, and droplets of blood trailed from three parallel gashes on her face as she tumbled backward. And, yet again, it focused on me rather than finish off another fighter.

With Rainbow Dash out of the way, I had a clear shot at IRVING's wounded leg. I fired, but in the instant it took for me to tighten my finger around the trigger, IRVING had bared the top of its head at me. The round bounced off its armor, and it charged. And here's the funny thing about IRVING, something that fighters all around the world have learned by now. Even when they're hobbled by unfortunate leg wounds, they are still damn fast.

Of course, at the time, I didn't know that. I was expecting it to be slowed considerably by the damage we'd inflicted onto its leg. Its speed caught me off guard. I had an instant to react, and I seized it, diving out of its path and rolling to a kneel. It passed me by, and it kept on running, then shocked the hell out of me by coiling its legs and springing into the air toward the curtain wall. It raised its good leg, toes pointed, and struck the wall, bending the leg to absorb the impact and digging its claws into the masonry. It clung to the wall like a cat, toes splayed and legs spread vertically. It swiveled its gargantuan head and the sensory dome stared expectantly – not at me, but at the spot just a meter or so to my right, the spot where I'd been standing.

IRVING had laid an egg on that spot. It was a long, cylindrical egg, painted red, with its tips rounded off at either end and a nozzle stuck on one side. Gas tank, I figured, probably the fuel source for IRVING's flame thrower. Around the nozzle was a complicated series of wires, cords, and a blinking red LED, all connected to an ugly-looking black rectangle.

It took about half a second to connect the dots. The little black box was a detonator. The gas tank was an improvised explosive device, probably meant as a last-ditch attack, given that IRVING was apparently sacrificing its primary weapon by using it. The blinking red LED, which pulsed in faster and faster sequences, was a countdown mechanism. And given how quickly it was pulsing, I probably had moments before it blew, which I'd squandered figuring out that the thing was a bomb, and that I had moments before it blew.

What a day.

I turned to run – pointless, given how short the countdown was, and how big the explosion would likely be – but a feeling of sudden warmth and weightlessness enveloped me. I glimpsed a shimmering, lavender aura surrounding my body, then a white flash which blinded me. For a moment, I assumed that the bomb had gone off, but I didn't feel the instant of searing pain that I was expecting, nor did I hear the terrible roar of the explosion. The light cleared, but the afterimage still muddled my vision. It was like a flashbang, sans bang. I was still running, though, and I felt my foot catch on something that yelped in surprise. I tripped, cracked my forehead on something hard that I couldn't see, rebounded off of it and fell backward, landing painfully on the ground. That sucked. Not as much as being swallowed by a fireball of ignited gas would, for which I was peripherally grateful, but still – kind of graceless, kind of painful. And there was something spiny digging into the small of my back.

Then I heard the sound I was expecting: the heavy boom, the explosion as the fuel tank burst and set the area around it alight. I felt the heat wash over me; it was uncomfortable, but not, as I'd expected, lethal, not as hot as it should have been, and kind of distant, overall. Blinded, confused, and with a throbbing pain in my forehead, I tried to puzzle out why I wasn't dead.

"Sorry," said a sheepish voice. "The way you were looking at that thing worried me, so I decided to do something. Given how impressive that explosion was, I think I made the right call."

"Uh-huh," said another voice – younger, more boyish. Beneath me. "Real impressive, Twi. So, uh, Snake, you gonna hang out there much longer? Should I start charging rent?"

So that's what I'd landed on. I rolled off of him, squeezing my eyes tightly and rubbing at them. "Thanks," I said. "Guess I owe you one." She teleported me. Right; I saw her pull off that trick against the timberwolves. That was on herself, though. She could do that to others? From a distance?

As an experiment, I opened my eyes to slits, to gauge how much of my vision I'd recovered. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the afterimage effect was almost completely gone. The temporary blindness was unpleasant, but at least it was short-lived. Twilight had yanked me a considerable distance. The spot where the bomb had gone off was ablaze now, a great big bonfire in the center of the courtyard. Luckily, there didn't seem to be much combustible material around for it to consume. It’d stay contained, and probably burn out before too long. I glanced up at the spot where IRVING had embedded itself in the curtain wall. It still hung there, orange light flickering off of its armored head, which was positioned to stare down at me. Son of a bitch looked about as mad as a faceless robot could possibly look.

I dug into my pocket in search of a clip. "That was a good trick you pulled off," I said to Twilight. "That mean you still got some fight left in you?"

"I think so," she said, stepping up beside me. "Teleporting you took a little bit out of me, but you and the others bought me enough time to regroup. I think can hold my own."

"Good." I found a clip, stripped the bullets into the open breech of my rifle, and tossed the useless clip away. "Round two starts now." I stared down the my scope at IRVING. Its legs were splayed vertically, with its unhurt leg beneath it, and its wounded leg above. The legs were too tough to knock out with a single shot, but I wondered if its toes were a little more vulnerable. Each foot had three toes on it; I set my crosshairs on the middle toe of its unhurt leg and fired. The shot took the toe clean off, and the shock jarred its foot from the wall. It barked and scrabbled to get a new foothold in the wall, but its other foot tore free, bringing down with it a solid chunk of wall the size of a pony. IRVING fell, striking the ground with a crash.

The impact tossed up a dense cloud of dust and debris, one that made it difficult to get a view of the thing, much less a clear shot. "Twilight," I said. "Can you do something to clear up that—"

The chunk of wall that IRVING had torn down with it came flying from the cloud, hurled through the air and hurtling toward us. I dove, tackling Twilight and shoving her out of the way as the rock struck where I'd been standing and rolled. I heard Spike yelp, glanced over my shoulder, and saw that he'd narrowly avoided being crushed by it. I wondered if his scales could withstand that kind of impact.

IRVING emerged from the cloud, bellowing and charging, head lowered. There was no way I could get a shot at its legs, and it closed the distance too quickly for me to dive out of the way. Twilight magicked up a shield, but IRVING powered through it without slowing, and bashed her aside with its beak. Spike shouted her name; IRVING raised its bitten leg and stomped on Spike. I heard a sharp exhalation as its foot crushed the air from his lungs. Teeth grit and heart pounding, I brought the rifle to bear on its gaping leg wound, but IRVING's prehensile manipulator cord curled around the barrel and wrenched the whole thing free from my arms. It kicked Spike away, and he thudded against the curtain wall, lying still.

Its head craned down at me; its sensory dome stared into my eyes. It thrust its leg toward me suddenly, catching me on the shoulder and knocking me on my back, pinning me to the ground. I felt a sudden popping sensation in my shoulder, and an expanding swell of pain across the right side of my body. Dislocation. Had to be. Blood seeped from hole where I'd shot off IRVING's toe, and it pooled on my chest. Its two remaining claws splayed across my body, one digging into my right shoulder and exacerbating the pain from the dislocation, the other pressing painfully against my jugular.

"THAT ARM STILL HURT?" The claw on my jugular pressed down harder. I could feel it slowly breaking the skin, and knew that the machine was planning on taking its time to rip out my throat. "GO HOME!"

I assessed my options. My right arm was useless. The only weapon that had proven effective against IRVING was the rifle, and that was out of the question now. Twilight and Spike, the only ones in striking distance who could save my bacon, were both down for the count. With my left hand, I groped for my hip holster, felt the Beretta, and despaired. Hell of a way to go, I thought grimly as IRVING's claw curled deeper into my throat. To hell with it; what could it possibly hurt? I started to draw the Beretta from its holster.

And then I saw it: chrome, cylindrical, hovering beside IRVING's leg, encased in a lavender aura. My ears rang with what I can only describe as the godfather of all gunshots – less like a report, more like a bomb going off. IRVING's right calf exploded into a confetti of synthetic meat and blood, and it stumbled off of me, collapsing onto its side. Pinned no longer (and confused, but grateful), I flopped onto my belly and quickly rose to my feet as I saw IRVING eject something from its underside: another fuel tank, this one clearly marked "NAPALM".

Right. It was equipped with two kinds of flame thrower.

The detonator was nearly at the end of its countdown when Twilight appeared at my side. Her horn flared brightly, and a shimmering dome of purple light emerged around us just before the tank blew. Twilight's shield held against the heat and the flames, but not the kinetic force of the blast. We were thrown backward, and collided hard against the wall, pained and bruised, but alive.

I heard a rumbling noise from above, and, farther off, the distinctive chopping noise of a helicopter's rotor. Glancing up, I saw chunks of wall break free and descend rapidly toward Twilight and I. The ancient castle, having clearly seen better days before, had hit its breaking point with IRVING's last-gasp attack.

"Never rains, but it pours," I growled, and I threw my left arm over Twilight's prone body. With two arms, I could have carried her properly; I did not have two arms at my disposal, so I just wrapped her under my arm, and rolled with her onto my stomach again. With very little time to move, I pushed onto my feet and sprang feebly forward, just far enough to avoid being crushed by the largest chunks of debris. Not far enough, I'm afraid, to avoid being pelted with the smaller chunks. My back and shoulders were battered by a hailstorm of debris. Knocked to my knees, I pulled Twilight tightly against my chest and squeezed my eyes shut. A particularly large hunk of wall nailed me between the shoulders, and I collapsed completely, falling to the ground with Twilight clutched against me.

The pain sustained me – pain in my dislocated shoulder, pain throughout my body from a day's worth of abuse, pain from the rocks that pinned me, pain from Twilight's horn digging into my chest. I grit my teeth and endured it, though. Pain became an ally. Pain was how I knew I was alive. The absence of pain, the comforting, gentle numbness – you feel that, and you're dead.

The cacophony of falling rock petered out, replaced by the spinning of the helicopter's rotors, no longer so distant. My knees held, although my calves were stuck beneath a heavy chunk of rubble. The piece of wall on my back had knocked me further down, and I'd be flat on my belly if I weren't propped up by Twilight beneath me. The back of my head was sore, but it didn't feel wet. No blood. Good sign. Blind, dumb luck; a big enough blow to my head could have killed me. I should have kept it covered with my one good arm, the one that clutched Twilight like a life preserver.

No use staying down. I pulled my arm off of Twilight and placed my hand on the ground, elbow crooked, fingers spread. Pebbles dug painfully into my palm, and ground against my finger bones. It was uncomfortable, but nothing unendurable, especially compared to the pain which coursed through my every other bone and muscle. Bracing myself, resting my weight on that arm alone, I pushed up. It was slow going, but gradually, I rose. I shrugged my shoulder, letting the offending hunk of rock slide to my left and rest on the ground beside us. Freed from that particular weight, I reached behind myself and lifted the debris pinning my calves just enough to wrench my left leg out from beneath it. My right followed in short order.

I staggered to my feet, cradling my right shoulder close to my side. I could see Twilight more clearly now. Her eyes were open, though half-lidded, a fact which I found surprising. She wasn't unconscious at all, just exhausted, and probably in a great deal of pain as well. So much for catching her breath; IRVING's last attack must have really taken it out of her. She tilted her head and looked at me with those wide purple eyes, but didn't say a word. I got it though, understood what she was trying to tell me without needing her to speak.

I nodded once at her, and winced at the pain it caused me to do so. Then I looked around, took stock of my surroundings. Things had changed noticeably. The wall was in shambles where IRVING's device had gone off. The gatehouse, too, was a pile of rubble; the teeth of the portcullis jutted out from it like broken javelins on an old Laconic battlefield. It didn't look like it could be scaled, especially not in my present state. So much for slipping out of the castle.

IRVING itself lay on its side, remarkably intact, and, judging by the intermittent twitching and guttural cow noises, still alive and in a great deal of agony. The rubbery black skin on its legs, from its toes to its lower thighs, had been seared away by the explosion. The exposed flesh was red and raw, but the hole in its calf – about the size of my fist – no longer bled, cauterized by the blast. Patches of flame burned the charred ground where the weapon had detonated.

The sound of whirring helicopter rotors overhead drew my full attention at last. I looked upward, and saw one of the Chinooks from the other courtyard hovering over the battlefield at a curiously low altitude. Its side hatch was open, and in the port stood a tall, muscular, bald-headed man, staring directly at me.

Cain.

The chopper was low enough to the ground that I could just make out his expression. His gaze was steely and unwavering. His jaw was clenched, his nose wrinkled. The man's expression was downright livid. I couldn't do much of anything, at that point, besides draw my Beretta and open fire, but I doubted I could beat him in a quick-draw at that point. So I just stared right back at him, locking eyes and holding his gaze.

He blinked. Shook his head. Leveled his MP7 at me. I wanted to dodge, roll aside, but I could barely stand, let alone move. I drew in a deep breath through my nose and stared defiantly at him.

And then, as if he'd ridden in on a cloud, Trenton fell from the sky, interposing himself between the commander and I. Slung under his left arm was a yellow bundle with a red tuft of tail sticking out of its behind. Apple Bloom was alive and intact, after all. Trenton raised his own head to gaze at Cain; his body blocked my view of him, so I could no longer see his expression, but I couldn't imagine him looking particularly pleased.

The chopper was low enough to the ground to kick up a hell of a dust storm. Trenton stood like a rock in the face of that storm, and his body shielded me from the worst of the wind, though I still had to cover my face with my good arm and squint just to see anything. I glanced below; Twilight still lay there, watching the scene intently. The others were where we'd left them. Rarity was still with Pinkie Pie. Rainbow Dash and Applejack stood together, leaning on one another for support. I didn't see Fluttershy anywhere; she must have still been hiding. All of them recoiled from the gust of wind and the swirling dust stirred up the Chinook's rotors. All, that is, but Trenton.

He did something that surprised me, just then. He raised his right arm, crooked it toward his sword, and grasped its hilt in his fingers.

I waited for the rattle of submachine gun fire and the dancing sparks from Trenton's sword cutting bullets out of the air. Neither came. Instead, the wind died down and the dust settled as Cain's chopper ascended. It rose far above the treetops and headed away, following the path out of the castle and back into the forest.

I wondered, as another Chinook rose from the courtyard beyond the Great Hall and turned its nose down the same path Cain had taken, just where, exactly, they were going.

"Shnaek?" Rainbow Dash had come up beside me; her raspy voice sounded slurred and indistinct. Looking at her, I noticed it was because she had something in her mouth: Captain Case's Model 500, the barrel clenched horizontally between her teeth. "I sink yoo drof dis."

At least she had the sense not to point it into her mouth. I accepted the gun, and thumbed the catch to open the cylinder. Four rounds left. Not a problem; so far, I (or, rather, Twilight) had used one more shot than anticipated.

Trenton released his grip on Apple Bloom, and she dropped to the ground with a quiet "oof". She rubbed her behind and glared at the ninja, but if he noticed, he certainly didn't care. He kept staring off into the distance, in the direction where the choppers continued to fly. Apple Bloom looked away from him, at Twilight, then rotated herself to look at me. For the first time in almost a day, our eyes met. Before, when we'd met in Zecora's hut, she'd gone from looking at me with shy curiosity, to seeing me as an annoyance wrongly foisted upon her. Just then, as she stared at me, tired and wounded as I was, I wondered how she saw me.

"Apple Bloom!" Applejack's cry was audible, even over the heavy beating of helicopter rotors. Apple Bloom and I both looked across the courtyard at the walking, hatless, partly cooked orange bruise. 

Applejack, smiling radiantly and shedding tears, looked more full of life than I'd ever seen her before. 

Apple Bloom spared me another glance. I nodded to her, and then she was off, galloping across the courtyard toward her sister.

I watched Apple Bloom for a little bit. The eagerness in her gait, the smile on Applejack's face as she prepared to receive her. I looked away from them, at Trenton, and thought this is too good to be true. Too easy, too simple. There needed to be a catch.

Twilight's eyes shot wide open, pupils dilated. "Spike," she whispered.

I looked over my shoulder, at the spot where the falling debris had nearly crushed Twilight and I, and saw a tiny purple arm sticking out from under a very large piece of wall. Our blood price. Solving the ongoing mystery that was Trenton's motivation would have to wait. I had a little boy to rescue. God, if it wasn't one idiot child getting herself into danger, it was another.

Frustrated as I was with the situation – with Spike, for insisting on being a burdensome little shit, and with Twilight, for putting him in harm's way in the first place – I wanted to rush to that pile and dig the poor stupid dragon out with my bare hands. So I turned – turned right, which, as it turned out, was not such a good idea. Jostling my shoulder sent a fresh wave of pain up my right arm, and I bit back a cry of pain.

Twilight had to be in a pretty severe amount of pain as well, if not from being swatted aside by the lizard before, then from the beating she'd taken earlier. Her wounds weren't as severe as mine though, or if they were, they just didn't impede her so much. Whatever she was running on, I could've used a cup of it right then. She frantically, and ineffectually, tried lifting the debris by hooking her hooves beneath it and lifting. Didn't work. She set her horn against it, squeezed her eyes shut tightly, and grunted as the faintest shimmer of an aura enveloped the offending chunk. It trembled, rose up a centimeter, and then she lost her hold. It settled back against Spike, and she collapsed against the thing, panting deeply. Either she was too tired to move it, or it was just too big. Regardless, she needed help.

I squatted beside her, on her left, set the revolver down, and wormed my good arm beneath the block pinning Spike. Rainbow Dash went on her other side, planting her hind hooves on the ground and curling her forelegs beneath the block. "We lift together," I said, "on three." Without my right arm, I'd have to rely even more on my lower body strength to raise it. Rainbow Dash would have to pick up the slack. "One... two..."

And before I could reach three, Trenton appeared beside me. He reached down, took hold of the block, and raised it like it was made of cardboard. With a shove, he sent it away. He looked down at me, silently judging me for squatting like a moron. I squared my jaw and and glared right back, empathizing very much with Apple Bloom's frustration.

"Oh, sweet Celestia..."

Twilight's pained whisper broke up our little staring contest. Looking at Spike, there wasn't any obvious outward sign that he'd been hurt at all; the upshot to having impervious skin, I guess, is that you don't scar easy. His mouth was ajar, his eyes shut. His chest rose and fell, for whatever that was worth, but only slowly, slightly. His breathing seemed labored and pained, and he didn't look conscious at all. I watched the unicorn slump, like her whole body suddenly went limp. Her jaw was slack and her eyes wide as she stared at Spike. She looked almost as lifeless as he did. Rainbow Dash shut her eyes and turned her away, choking back a sob. Her eyes opened on Twilight, and she unfurled her good wing to wrap around her friend's shoulders.

"Spike?" Rarity, carrying an unconscious and snoring Pinkie Pie over her back, nudged herself and her burden under Rainbow Dash's wing. She moved with surprising quickness, considering, as she rushed to Spike's side. "Spikey-Wikey?!" Her voice was strained and frantic, the opposite of Twilight's limp and lifeless countenance. I wondered which of the two was more upset.

I glanced over my shoulder, at where the reunited sisters stood. Applejack's head was bowed, her eyes closed and tears drying on her cheeks. She had a leg wrapped around Apple Bloom, pulling the filly close against her chest, where she nuzzled against her sister's coat. A familiar weight grew in the pit of my stomach as I marveled at the irony. Applejack's sister's safety was secured. The price just happened to be Spike's well-being.

"Come now, darling," said Rarity, her voice building in pitch as she grew more desperate. "On your feet, then! It's nothing, really – you're alright; you have to be alright!"

I saw Fluttershy approach, having apparently wrenched herself out of whatever hole she'd been hiding in. She fluttered toward Spike, her lips trembling. "Rarity," she whispered. "He isn't..."

"Wake up, please," Rarity begged. "Spike, you brave little dragon, you need to wake up now. You need to... you need to—"

"He needs medical attention," said Trenton, rather bluntly interjecting.

Rarity whirled her head to glare at Trenton, mane flying and tears sparkling in her eyes. "You stay out of this!"

Trenton was not cowed. "You mourn him prematurely. He is not dead."

Now I was getting angry. "You trying to be helpful now?" I asked, rising and looking Trenton in the eye. I reached for the Model 500, calculating whether or not I could get a shot off at him in my present state before he cut me in two. "I don't know what your game is, Trenton, but nobody asked for you to step in."

"Had I not, you would be likely dead," said Trenton. "Ignore what I say now, and you will undoubtedly be."

"That a threat?" Twilight was exhausted; I was disarmed in a literal and figurative sense, and the only capable fighter left among us was a one-winged Rainbow Dash. If Trenton decided to start something, I didn't like our chances.

"No. Advice."

Wasn't expecting that.

"Commander Cain has ordered a complete evacuation of this installation. Scorched earth."

"Scorched earth?" They were gonna burn the castle down? How and why?

"This castle is old, and built upon a ruin stretching back hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years. Its remains still run beneath this castle, serving as sub-levels, catacombs, dungeons. In the event of a rapid evacuation, to prevent the equipment here from falling into enemy possession, demolition charges placed in key structural points, in the structures and on the castle's foundations, will detonate. The keep, and most of the surrounding complex, including much of this courtyard, will implode and collapse into those catacombs and sub-levels, burying or destroying everything beyond salvage. In minutes, virtually everything you see here will simply be so much rubble in a giant pit. " 

That got everyone's attention. "What?" asked Fluttershy. "But why? What could motivate someone to do that?"

Trenton looked at Fluttershy, then jerked his head in my direction. "Him."

"Him?" Rainbow Dash asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Me?" I asked, perplexed.

"You." Another Chinook displaced the air around us with its rotors as it passed overhead, tousling the ponies' manes and my bandana. "Your sudden appearance has caused an unexpected change in his demeanor, no doubt affecting the way the rest of this situation will unfold." I detected a faint note of curiosity in his mechanical voice.

"Lemme get this straight," said Rainbow Dash.  "So you kidnapped Applejack's sister to lure us into a trap out here, but you totally forgot to mention to your boss that Snake was here too? You an idiot, or something?"

"This man's arrival in Equestria was not something I had anticipated," said Trenton, looking at Rainbow Dash. "Our meeting in the forest was a further complication. I needed to play for time, to factor this new data into my simulation, so I lured you out here to keep you occupied while I devised a means to contain this development."

Trenton had a funny habit of standing rail-straight when he talked, betraying nothing through body language, which made what he said just that much more unnerving. 

"And not telling Cain about me?" I asked. "That was part of the plan?"

"I wanted to see how he would react to your being here," said Trenton. "It was not what I had expected, but informative nonetheless."

So everything that had happened over the past twenty-four hours – Apple Bloom's kidnapping, the trap in the castle, the fight with IRVING – was all part of some ruse that Trenton staged, simply out of curiosity. Why did that sound so familiar? 

"You no doubt have many questions," he said. "You will have to save them for later. This is neither the time, nor the place, for me to answer them." He raised a hand and splayed his fingers. "By my calculations, you have five minutes to escape this castle before the charges detonate, and you all die horrendously."

Rarity rose off of the ground. Her body trembled, shaking Pinkie loose; Pinkie plopped on the ground, twitched, then smacked her lips and resumed her snoring. "You endanger Applejack's sister, you lure us out here to play games with us, just to see how we react – Spike could die because of this situation you've devised, and you – you're proud of yourself for this, aren't you?!" An aura sparked into existence around her horn.

"Rarity," said Twilight. "Later. No time now." She looked away from Spike, for the first time; Rarity turned to look back at her. Their eyes met. "We have to go. Now."

Something in Twilight's expression, or voice, or general demeanor, must have reached her. She didn't look any less angry, but she backed down, silently seething. 

"Are you all mobile?" Twilight asked.

Fluttershy, Rarity and Rainbow Dash nodded, that latter with a moment of barely noticeable hesitation. Twilight looked at me. 

"I've had worse," I said to her unasked question. "I think Applejack's more or less fit, too."

Twilight nodded at that. She glanced at Spike. "I don't think I can carry him." She spoke with no emotion in her voice.

"I got him." Rainbow Dash stooped forward and gathered Spike in her forelegs with more tenderness than I'd expected from her. Blood dripped from the cut on her cheek onto Spike's forehead. "Sorry, little guy," she said, wiping it off with a hoof. She spread her wings – her left farther than her right – and gently beat them until she hovered in the air, wincing as she did.

"You’re hurt," said Twilight. “I don’t think you should carry him."

"I can do it," said Rainbow Dash, looking back at her. "I’m okay. He isn’t that heavy, anyway. Are you, kid?"

"Darling, please,” said Rarity, reaching toward Spike. “Let me—"

"I got him!" snapped Rainbow Dash, pulling away. Rarity recoiled at her tone; softer, Rainbow Dash said "I got him. Please, let me do this." She looked pleadingly at Twilight. "Please." 

Twilight hesitated for a moment, but nodded.

"What about Pinkie?" Fluttershy asked. "I don't think any of us can—"

I stepped forward and nudged Pinkie in the side of the head with the bottom of my foot – not hard enough to hurt her, but enough for her to feel it. "Wake up!" Sure, I could have been more diplomatic about it, but we were on the clock.

And, thankfully, she did wake up. She leaped a foot into the air and vibrated like an alarm clock, making a noise like one too. What fucking acid flashback did they find her in? "What happened?" she asked. "Did I miss a fun thing?" She looked around quickly; her eyes fell on Trenton. "What's Wild Blue Yonder doing here?"

"Shut up!" I snapped. "Castle exploding; no time to talk!"

"Castle? What are you—" Her eyes fell on the unconscious dragon in Rainbow Dash's forelegs. Her ears drooped against her head. "Spike? What happened to—"

"Pinkie," said Twilight. Her voice still lacked emotion, but it had the same firmness with which she'd addressed Rarity. She sounded tough. She sounded like a leader. "We'll talk about it later. We have to go. Now."





We ran. It took us a minute to cross the courtyard, collecting Applejack and her sister as we passed. Apple Bloom sat on Applejack's back; the orange pony galloped like a prize racehorse, despite having taken more abuse than anyone else among us. Knew there was a reason I liked her.

Trenton stood where we left him, never moving, and watched us as we left.

It took us another half of a minute to get up the stairs and into the ruined Great Hall. The room was now even shittier thanks to IRVING being thrown through it. Broken lamps and twisted benches littered the room around us; bits of rubble peppered us from above. Applejack, with Apple Bloom on her back, passed me as we ran down the hall toward the twisting corridor; she disappeared around the bend. The others – Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy – were close behind them. Twilight lagged closer to me, with Rainbow Dash just behind her. Theoretically, she should have outpaced all of us. Then again, that hit to her wing was probably slowing her down; the fact that she was flying at all had to be a small victory for her.

A rolling crashing noise filled the hall. To my horror, what remained of the roof began to cave in on us. "Move!" I shouted. We pushed ourselves into the Great Hall, tapping into whatever bit of stamina we had left in our bodies.

"The bombs!" Rainbow Dash cried over the sound of the hall crumbling behind us. The noise seemed to chase us down the corridor. "They've gone off early!"

"No," said Twilight, shaking her head. "The keep's structural integrity was weakened even before we got here. When I threw IRVING through the window, I must have—"

A piece of ceiling narrowly missed the top of my head. "Hate yourself later!" I snapped.

We emerged from the corridor into the antechamber where we'd ambushed the guards. The lockers where I'd stashed them were shut tight, just the way I'd left them. No use worrying about them now. The doors were still open from when the others had passed through them ahead of us, and we emerged just in time to see the last Chinook rise and take off toward the staging area, leaving the Hind alone. The others were far ahead of us, climbing the stairs on the other side of the garden and moving into the building where we'd found IRVING's crate. As we crossed the threshold, the keep's structural integrity failed completely, and the whole thing came crashing down. "Faster!" Twilight cried.

We passed beneath the arch, chased down the keep's stairs by a tsunami of rolling rubble. A sizable portion of the keep fell forward, smashing into the top of the arch, and the whole thing came down over our heads. Twilight was ahead of me; she emerged unscathed. I leaped forward, just ahead of a rock that could have broken my skull. Behind me, though, came an agonized scream.

I skidded to a halt and whirled around, my heart pounding and heavy within my chest. Amid rubble and dust, Rainbow Dash's hindquarters were pinned. Her upper body squirmed and writhed, vainly trying to free herself. Spike, though, was safe; she'd thrust her forelegs forward to keep the rubble from burying him too.

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight turned and galloped back to Rainbow Dash's side. I stood my ground; half of me wanted to keep running, the other commanded me to stay with Twilight. She fell in front of Rainbow Dash and dug at the rocks burying her.

"Twilight, no," she pleaded, in a voice strained with pain. "There's no time!"

"We're not losing anyone, Dash," said Twilight from beside me. She pushed her head against a large chunk of rubble, groaning as she struggled to lift it. It didn't budge.

"There's no time," Rainbow Dash repeated. "Leave me behind! Take Spike and run!"

"I can get you out of—"

"I'm as good as dead!" she shouted. Twilight froze, and locked eyes with her. "But Spike isn't! You aren't! You both have a chance. Better I die, and the two of you live, than the three of us all dying together!"

I hated Rainbow Dash. Hated her. Couldn't stand her. Brash, arrogant, headstrong – more Raiden than Jack in manner. Hell, I'd tried to punch her lights out not too long before; hell, I'd  drawn my gun on her. I shouldn't have cared that she was pinned beneath a pile of rock, with no hope or rescue. I shouldn't have cared that, for her, death was a certainty.

So I chose not to. 

"Twilight," I called. "She's right." Returning the revolver to my right ankle holster, I walked to where Rainbow Dash was pinned, wrapped my good arm around Spike, and cradled him against my chest like a baby.

"Dash, no," Twilight moaned. She was crying. Whatever emotional shock she'd been in when Spike got hurt had worn off. Tears rained down her face as she reached a shaking purple hoof toward Rainbow Dash.

"It has to be this way, Twi," said Rainbow Dash. She reached toward Twilight in turn; their hooves met and hooked tenderly around one another. "Don't look back, egghead. Keep runnin', and don't look back."

Twilight dropped Rainbow Dash's hoof, bowed her head one last time, and ran. I frowned at Rainbow Dash. "You shouldn’t have taken Spike," I said. "With your wing, he slowed you down too much."

Rainbow Dash chuckled. Or hiccuped. Could have gone either way. "Yeah... what can you do? Element of loyalty." Whatever that meant. I turned to leave.

"Promise me something," Rainbow Dash said, and I stopped, looking back down at her. Tears ran down her face; she didn't bother trying to hide them. "Promise me you'll stay with them! Hate 'em all you want, but don't you dare try to run out on 'em again! You promise me, Solid Snake!"

I felt the weight of the injured dragon in my arm, thought about the battered, bruised, and unbeaten group of infuriating dopes still waiting for me. Knowing full well that it was the last I'd ever see Rainbow Dash, I swallowed hard and nodded, once, soberly.

That seemed to bring her some peace. She smiled at me, smiled through the pain. "Take care of 'em," she said. "Take care of Twilight, okay?"

I nodded again. I didn't have time to give her the same lingering look that Twilight had; I'd wasted enough time as it was. Stupid of me. Should have left her behind, left her and Twilight behind. Probably shouldn't even have bothered to grab Spike, either, if I wanted to be a stickler about it. And yet, weighed down by an additional burden that I really did not need, I ran after Twilight, leaving Rainbow Dash pinned in the garden.

Through the gate. Up the stairs. The double door was open, and I staggered inside. Twilight was there, waiting for me – or maybe just for Spike. IRVING's crate was still on the podium; its dented lid rested on the floor. We ran past rows of canvas tents, past the tent where the possibly dying dragon in my arm had shouted at me that he didn't want to be a liability. The way out was right ahead; a few more steps and—

"FAIL-DEADLY SYSTEM ACTIVATED." The voice came from behind me, accompanied by heavy footfalls. "JACK!"

I froze. I turned. I looked through the doorway, at the half-dead machine crouching in the threshold. "You've got to be fucking kidding me!" I roared.

"JACK!" IRVING took an uncertain step and tumbled into the room face-first. It struggled to raise itself onto its charbroiled, rickety legs. "YOU'RE A SOLDIER! FINISH YOUR M-MISSION! PROVE YOUR L-L-LOYALTY!"

I couldn't reach the revolver and carry Spike. "Got enough juice to take another shot at it, Twilight?" I asked.

She didn't say anything; she stared at IRVING, gaping, tears and snot flowing freely, and just shook her head.

Then I'd have to chance being able to outrun it. So I turned, and I ran, with Twilight beside me, and I hoped to whatever god watched over Equestria that it wasn't as fast now as it had been before.

The bridge was a straight shot ahead of us. We heard a crash, and the sound of falling timbers, and knew that IRVING had bowled through the guard tower. So much for Private Squat-Thrusts.

Twilight's hooves clanged loudly against the metal bridge as we ran across. I clutched Spike tighter against my chest. The other side, and the other four ponies, were right ahead now. We were going to make it. With one last effort, we were across the chasm, the remnants of the old rope bridge to the side.

We were spent; we didn't have it in us to run any longer, and the pain in my shoulder was now unendurable. I fell forward to my knees, backward onto my butt, and sat gasping, panting, dripping with sweat. It took all of my willpower to resist the urge to drop Spike and clutch my shoulder. Twilight sat beside me, similarly winded, her eyes never leaving Spike. The others gathered around us; Rarity came to me, stared at Spike. Fluttershy and Applejack were with Twilight. Pinkie’s head whipped from side to side, and she frowned. “Where’s Dashie?”

I couldn’t gather the breath to explain. I just looked at her and shook my head. I didn’t see Pinkie’s face, but I could hear the grief, the trembling sorrow, in her voice, as she spoke "D-dashie? She isn’t—"

A bovine stutter from the direction of the castle reminded us that we were still being pursued, and we turned back to the castle. IRVING was on the other side of the chasm, staggering toward the bridge. Though its gait had been slow and unsteady, it was gradually picking up steam. Its legs, damn it all, were knitting themselves back together; the blood was clotting, the muscle tissue somehow regenerating, and IRVING would soon be back to full speed. And when that happened, we wouldn’t be able to outrun it.

I carefully set Spike down beside me and drew the revolver. I tried to level it at IRVING, but my body refused to cooperate. One shot was all I needed; one good shot at the leg Twilight had blasted before, and our trouble would be over for the time being. Except I couldn't steady my hand. The pain in my body, and especially in my shoulder, kept me from focusing. The barrel wavered, drifted everywhere but over IRVING's leg. All the while, the machine crept closer.

Rarity was beside me, then, standing over Spike. The revolver was encased in a light blue aura, and it rose out of my hand and leveled itself at IRVING. I looked at Rarity. Her horn glowed, and her face was set into a scowl.

Applejack snarled and bounded to my other side. “No more runnin’, then. Fluttershy, take the kids and git ‘em back to town. Keep ‘em safe, an’ sound the alarm!”

"I will." Fluttershy’s voice sounded firmer than I’d ever heard it before. She gathered Spike into her forelegs; Twilight’s gaze followed him. "Count on me!"

"Sis, no!" Apple Bloom cried. "I jus’ got you back!"

"Don’t argue, Apple Bloom. Go with Fluttershy, an’ don’t never forget that yer sister loved you."

Apple Bloom cried plaintively, but did as she was told, sprinting down the path back into the forest. Her sobs faded into the distance, along with the rapid beating of Fluttershy’s wings. I selected two grenades from my belt and set them down before me. "Stalling for time," I muttered. "What are the odds we survive?"

"Fie on the odds," Rarity responded, voice low and defiant. "Rainbow Dash didn’t survive this, so neither will that monstrosity."

"Couldn’t’a put it better myself," said Applejack, exchanging a tight, grim smile with Rarity.

"Let’s do it, girls." Pinkie bounced forward, taking up position in front of me, her cotton candy mane and tail slightly less buoyant. She arched her back and raised her hackles like a cat. "For Dashie."

IRVING placed a foot on the bridge and nickered.

"No," Twilight whispered from behind me. "We can’t win this fight."

Applejack dug her hoof into the dirt.

"We’re going to die." Twilight’s voice gained strength, grew in pitch.

Rarity lowered her head and thrust the revolver forward a little. I had no idea if she even know how to fire it.

"And we’ll have lost Rainbow Dash for nothing!" Dour as her words were, Twilight didn’t sound broken in the slightest, not anymore. She sounded angry.

Pinkie growled, a dead ringer for a lion.

"No more." Now Twilight’s voice dropped in pitch. There was some new quality to it, like heavy bass. I felt my teeth tremble in my mouth. "We’re not losing anypony else!"

On the bridge, IRVING raised its beak skyward and howled. "FACE ME!"

Wind kicked up behind me, slight at first, then suddenly heavy, overpowering. I turned, and saw Twilight on her hooves, ripples of violet light dancing around her body, whipping her mane and tail about her crazily. 

"Fine." A white glow drifted across the corners of Twilight's eyes. 

"Twilight," I snapped, "what the hell are you—"

Tendrils of purple light curled from the tip of her horn. The white in her eyes shone brighter, enveloped them completely, erasing all traces of her purple irises. Where the exhausted mare had gone, I didn't know. This new, resolute Twilight showed no traces of pain, of fear, of sorrow, or of any emotion besides white-hot fury.

IRVING wasn’t afraid. It marched, picked up speed, and though still hobbled by its significant wounds, it somehow managed to run. The grenades in front of me lifted off the ground and glowed the same purple as Twilight's aura. One streaked toward IRVING, a miniature meteor, and exploded against its armor in a brilliant plume of orange that consumed the machine completely. The next grenade followed, exploding into an even larger ball of fire.

Twilight stomped forward, passing between Rarity and I. The energy whipping around her body coalesced in front of her, in a shifting, writhing mass of purple light that creeped toward the bridge and gradually enveloped it, from one end to the other. The fire that surrounded IRVING cleared; it lay on its back, its underside charred and the red muscle beneath the skin on its legs completely exposed and raw. It was still functional, though; its legs writhed as it struggled to right itself. Twilight inhaled deeply at the sight of the thing, and screamed. I crushed my palm against my ear to block out the noise, but it wasn't just auditory. The noise echoed in my head, in my body – hell, it vibrated within every cell in my being, and it wasn’t just me. The others fell, too, clutching their heads tightly.

And then the bridge began to melt. The light shining around it superheated the metal, starting at one end, and gradually crawling to the other. The bridge slumped forward as the molten metal ran like a waterfall into the chasm below. The angle of the thing grew sheerer, and IRVING slid forward, its position no longer secure.

“JACK!” Molten metal came into contact with its legs. “JACK!” The reek of burning flesh filled the air. “JACK!” IRVING slipped off of what little remained of the bridge, and plummeted, chased by a river of lava. "JACK!" Its final cry echoed off the chasm's walls.

Twilight's scream died down. Her light show faded and died, as quickly as it had come. The unicorn's legs gave out; she fell, spread-eagled on the ground, not moving save the rise and fall of her back from her breathing. The rest of us remained where we were; Rarity, gaping at Twilight, Applejack staring at the gorge with grim satisfaction on her face, and Pinkie Pie bowing her head, sniffling softly.

As if to add the final punctuation to the fight, the castle flashed, popped, and crumbled into dust.