//------------------------------// // ACT 1: Mission Breifing // Story: Metal Gear Twilight : Magical Espionage Action // by DJ-Otakon //------------------------------// I awoke with a start as the emerald flame died away from Spike’s mouth. After a minute of shuffling around on the floor, he found the letter from Princess Celestia. As he opened the scroll, I stared in anticipation, wondering what might be so important that the princess would send a letter this early in the morning. Spike looked over the letter then looked anxiously up to me. He read: "My Dear Student, A very urgent matter has arisen that requires your presence in Canterlot immediately. I'm afraid I cannot discuss it in this letter; it must wait until we are able to have a private meeting. I will be awaiting your arrival. Yours Truly, Princess Celestia" I looked around the library which was usually a mess. With books strewn everywhere, today was no different, and, as I listened, I was already writing another letter to send in response. Just as soon as Spike finished reading the first letter, he had another shoved into his face. I quickly said, "Don't bother proofreading. Go ahead and send it." Spike breathed his fire over the letter and it immediately caught ablaze, disappearing into a green haze, heading out the open window. After he was finished sending it off, he looked at me saying, "What ya’ think that was about?" "I don't know Spike," I replied, “but whatever it was, it seemed to have the princess awfully worried.” I walked down the stairs into the main part of the library. I had to find some of my research for one of my new spells, a long range teleportation spell, but then I realized that I had lost it in the piles of papers sitting atop the desk. “Hey Spike do you remember where I put the notes I took on long range teleportation?” I asked as I shuffled the piles of paper around on my desk. Spike waited for a moment before saying, “Oh yeah, it’s under those papers on the mass healing spell that you were working on last Monday.” He was right, of course. He was usually pretty good a remembering where I put things in the disorganized mess that I usually turned this place into. If he wasn’t there to keep track of everything for me, I would never get much work done. I would spend all of my time searching for lost notes. I found the notes under the folder of healing spells that I had been researching. This was going to require a lot of energy and concentration. At one point in the notes I had made sure to point out that it would not get me into places with heavy magical barriers such as the Canterlot Castle. I browsed through the notes until I finally spotted the part about where I needed to focus my magic. I memorized where each point was, how I needed to focus my magic, and the condensation rate of the air that I would need to perform such a long range teleportation spell. After a few minutes, having finished memorizing my notes I asked, “Hey Spike, you don’t mind that I won’t be having breakfast this morning do you? I have to go prepare for a visit to the princess.” “Can’t you just get ready after breakfast?” he replied. He stepped out of the kitchen and stood at the bottom of the steps. I stared down at him saying, “No Spike. If this is as urgent as the princess made it out to be, I will need to be in Canterlot as soon as possible.” I turned around to finish packing my saddlebags with a couple of books that I had been reading at the time. The sun was peeking into the window beside my bed and it illuminated my face and my frazzled mane. “Ah…no. I can’t see the princess looking like this,” I said to myself as I pulled the brush off of the nightstand and ran it through my mane. When I was finished, I put on my saddlebags and started walking down the stairs. As I reached the bottom, Spike came out of the kitchen with a plate of toast. He offered me some, but I shook my head at him. “I think you can take a break while I’m gone. I don’t know how long I’ll be away, but I’m sure you can take care of yourself here until then,” I said as I walked towards the door. Spike gulped down a piece of toast, and replied, “Ok I will, but can I go and hang out anywhere?” I shook my head again saying, “I don’t think that’s a good idea considering Fluttershy and Applejack are still missing.” “Oh,” he said as he lowered his head. I turned back to the door and opened it, while saying, “Just stay safe here, please?” I proceeded out the door and prepared for the long range teleport. My horn started to glow furiously as I concentrated even more to force the spell to start bending reality around me. There was a bubble of pink energy starting to form around me. It was repelling the air, and was making a mark on the ground wherever it touched. My ears also started popping as the air around me was reaching the critical compression. My body started to glow as the space around me began to bend ever so slightly. Then suddenly, in a burst of energy, the light flashed and I disappeared into nothingness… [Loading...] Everypony around was surprised as I materialized in the middle of the Canterlot Castle courtyard. I got a few strange looks, but as more people realized who I was, they waved it off as a somewhat normal occurrence and carried on with their mundane banter. I groaned as I approached the Princess’ throne room. An unknown tension hung in the air as the guards carefully monitored my every move while I approached the door to the throne room. This made me even more anxious to find out why the Princess’ letter had been so urgent. The two burly stallions, clad in the traditional golden Canterlot Guard armor that were blocking access to the throne room, immediately recognized me and shuffled to the sides of the doorway. I was not used to being in Canterlot Castle with the guards, and had forgotten how they usually conducted themselves. Even so, I took these actions as an effect of the tension from the unknown situation, and it was really getting to my nerves. As I passed through the doorway, I noticed that the Princess herself was just leaving her chamber to take her place at the throne. Celestia noticed me before she reached her throne and stopped where she stood to wait for me to approach. When I finally stood before the magnificent ruler, I noticed the fatigued look that blanketed her. Celestia then said, “Come with me, my student.” I realized then that the Princess was leading me into her private chamber. I solemnly followed the Princess, and shut the door firmly behind us, proceeding to ask,” What's wrong Princess? You seemed very urgent in the letter that I received earlier.” “I'm afraid two of your friends are in very grave danger, and you are the only one that possesses the skills necessary to resolve this situation,” she replied. My eyes widened, “Is this related to Fluttershy and Applejack’s disappearance last night?” “Yes,” replied Celestia with a sigh, “We recently got a letter from our most elite of the Canterlot Guard that has taken up arms with a force of maligned zebras. The letter included a list of demands and hostages. Fluttershy and Applejack were on the list of hostages.” She handed me the list of demands, and I started to read over the items. They apparently wanted some kind of asteroid parts that were used in the construction of Nightmare Moon’s armor and the scrolls for our balefire megaspell research, or they would launch balefire bombs into the three main population centers of Equestria: Canterlot, Fillydelphia, and Manehattan. “How long did they give us to meet the demands?” I asked as I turn the list back over to her. “They gave us about a day and a half,” She replied. She walked over to the other side of the room. She then hit a pressure plate on the wall, opening up a door next to it. She led me down the staircase which was concealed behind the newly opened hole in the wall, and we descended into utter darkness. [Loading...] As I reached the bottom of the staircase, the princess and I lit our horns with illumination spells. The princess pointed her horn to one of the torches on the wall and magically lit all of them at once. I winced at the sudden flash of light that nearly blinded me. That was of course considering that I had spent almost two minutes in the almost darkness of my illumination spell. I looked around me as the room came into focus. I unbuckled the straps to my saddlebags and floated them over to the wall next to the staircase. I turned back around, and noticed that there were a few tables against the back wall with what looked like a black suit of some sort on top. Next to the suit was a square device with two black pieces lying next to it and a small chrome box with some sort of locking mechanism. The princess noticed that I was staring curiously at the little device and explained, “That’s your codec. It’s what we’ll use to keep in contact as you carry out your task. Basically, the codec works by stimulating the inner bones of your ear. It will allow you to keep up a direct communication line with me any time that you might need me.” “What’s with the suit?” I asked as I turned back towards it. “It is a stealth suit very similar to the one you used to sneak into the library for that time travel scroll,” She said with a sly grin. She then turned to me and continued, “The difference is that this suit is a lot better suited to a harsher environment and can keep your body temperature warmer even in the subzero temperatures…” “Why was the suit designed for subzero temperatures?” I interjected. “There is a megaspell storage facility in the Everfree Forest. It is underneath the old castle where we used to live before the time of Nightmare Moon,” She replied as she turned towards me, “I honestly don’t know what sort of traps that they could have set for you there.” “Oh,” I said as I sat down on the cushion beside the table. She then continued, “You see, the problem is that I cannot just send some of my guards there because these were my most well-trained guards. The regular guard wouldn’t stand a chance against them.” “What exactly makes you think that I could even try handling them?” I asked, realizing that she wasn’t kidding about the threat of those opposing us. I turned back towards the table as she pressed a button on it and an image flickered up onto the wall behind it. It was an map of the old castle. She looked at me like I had said something wrong, saying, “The fact that you bear the element of magic and that two of your friends are being held captive by these people. Those should be reason enough, my student.” A red dot appeared on the map of the castle. “The red dot is the insertion point,” She paused for a moment as the dot shifted positions, “This is the entry point into the facility. It’s one of the easier to access air vents that supplies the facility with fresh air.” She turned away from me, and then used her magic to press a button on the console that sat beside the table. After she pressed the button, the little chrome box lying next to the stealth suit unlocked and opened with a soft whooshing sound. Inside the little case was a small black pistol with a pink gem built into its frame. The Princess looked back at me after picking the gun up out of the case. She held it out to me saying, “This is a magic energy pistol. It has been infused with a tranquilizer spell, and I would like for you to keep it set to that until you can actually determine their hostile motives. I want you to capture one of their operatives once you infiltrate the facility and see what you can find out.” “So basically you want me to be gentle until it can be proven that lethal force is necessary?” “That is precisely the point, but the final decision to modify the spell matrix within the gun rests on you. I have had the gun modified to also support a direct magical connection so that you could amplify the gun’s power with your own magical abilities,” she replied as she pressed the second button on the console. The room darkened as a circle of glyphs appeared on the floor. The circle’s greenish glow intensified as an aura appeared around the outer ring of the glyphs. After the aura formed over the outside ring, the glyphs became animated and intertwined themselves towards the central ring which was about the right size to fit the princess. After the animated glyphs had taken their place in between the two circles, it had formed something reminiscent of an alchemical transmutation circle. The Princess then looked away from the circle and nodded at me. Then she said, “This is the insertion method that we decided to use. This teleportation ring will teleport you directly into my old bedchamber at the old castle, but unfortunately it will be a one-way trip for you. The spell was rigged as an emergency only transport for me to escape in, and it only works one way.” “Are you sure?” I asked whilst still studying the teleportation circle. It was very similar to what I had been studying for my long range teleportation spell, but instead of mine using the glyph circle I had to completely generate a new pathway for my teleportation. This had a single permanent layout that would have to be recharged from both ends before it would function again. “Of course, the importance of this mission takes priority over my need to escape,” She replied, “but there isn’t any more time to waste. You need to hurry up and get ready. Once you are ready, simply move to the inner circle and kneel down. I will talk to you via the Codec once you are inside." With that, she proceeded to exit the room, and trotted back up the stairs. I walked back over to the table with the stealth suit and set the pistol back down beside it. I picked up the two black pieces that lay beside it and tried to figure out what exactly they did. Wow I felt stupid! After five minutes of fooling around with them I found that they came together with the two Velcro straps on the sides to create a mask with a visor. The suit seemed simple enough as I picked it up. It had a zipper in the front and straps that buckle in various places. I unzipped the suit and slid into it. It was a very snug fitting suit, but I still hadn’t finished with all of the straps hanging around me. I walked back over to the desk to retrieve the sheet of paper on the desk that had the straps’ instructions. I had to sit down and loop together and tighten the various straps and buckle them underneath each one of my legs. After this was finished I felt that my range of movement was limited, but not severely enough to worry or discomfort me. I holstered the pistol on my right flank and gave the suit a thorough look over and discovered that it had pockets for various things and a strap for larger weapons across my back. It also included a serrated combat knife along the side of my left hoof. Since I was done making sure everything was in its proper place I walked over to the circle’s center. Then I crouched down and felt the ground shudder as the spell activated with a burst. The once green glyphs had started alternating between the entire spectrum of light, and I felt as it I was being stretched in several different directions at once. Once the spell’s effect had reached its peak the world fell away into a rainbow-colored frothy swirl and everything dissolved into black. (Credit: Kojima for their awesome game series, Hard Boiled Banana and DitzyDoo for editing and providing inspiration for it.)