• Published 17th Aug 2014
  • 9,227 Views, 478 Comments

Metal Gear Spark: Peace Zero - GreenS21



Metal Gear Solid crossover. Princess Twilight returns to Equestria after vanishing, but what story does she have to tell?

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Interlude

Spike hummed to himself as he walked towards Canterlot Castle, a half-eaten ice cream cone in his right claw. Earlier, Cadance had suggested they take Twilight out to enjoy some time out in Canterlot for the rest of the morning since she had missed the chance to be with them the other day, what with her final exam with the doctor and all. Her parents eagerly agreed, presumably because they wanted to spend more time with her and help her get used to being back home. They were surprised when she said that she was fine with just walking around the city for the rest of the morning and that they could decide what to do.

Even though they’d just eaten breakfast, they decided to stop in to see Donut Joe and get something light to eat. While they were there, Rarity thought of some more things that she said she would pick up the next time she was in Canterlot and, with a little convincing, got everyone to come along with her this time. From there, it hadn’t taken long for the purchases from her second shopping trip to start stacking up, with Spike being the one to carry everything. Twilight noticed soon afterwards that it was getting to be too much for him and took everything from him with her magic, saying she’d head back to the castle early and see if she could arrange to have everything transported back to Ponyville while Rarity finished shopping.

That had been a little while ago. Twilight hadn’t rejoined them since, but Spike figured it was either because she was still working out how to get everything moved to Ponyville or she didn’t know where else they were going, so he decided to go back ahead of everypony else and find her, stopping to get himself a little treat along the way. As he was walking around outside the castle looking for her, he thought he heard her grunting nearby. Curious, he headed in the direction he could hear it from, faintly hearing the sound of something striking something else as he got closer. He soon found himself at the edge of one of the fields that the guards used for training and stared at the sight before him.

Twilight was standing on her hind legs, her forelegs raised up in front of her, across from a training dummy. The dummy was rather simple in design: a wooden body that had wooden weights attached to the bottom of its torso and at the ends of its arms, a wooden pole that connected it to a base, and a small sack over its head with facial features drawn on. It didn’t look like something the guards would use, so if Spike had to guess, Twilight made it herself. It made him think of her Timberwolf puppet; it wasn’t horrible per se, but it wasn’t very convincing or something to be proud of. “Maybe that’s why she’s hitting it so hard,” he joked to himself as he watched her punch it a few times.

He soon finished off his ice cream cone and sat down to watch. As he kept watching, he saw that maybe there was something about the dummy that Twilight could be proud of. No matter how hard she hit it, it stayed upright, only rocking and tilting a bit before righting itself. It didn’t look like Twilight was using her magic nor did it look like she wasn’t putting a fair amount of force into her attacks, so she must’ve put some effort into making the dummy be comparable to a punching bag.

Still, the dummy wasn’t the thing that was really keeping his attention. It was more seeing Twilight doing what she was doing. Before, something like this would’ve ended up being something that wouldn’t work out and they’d all laugh about it later, but Twilight was really focused on punching the dummy. She had a faint sheen running across her brow to show just how into it she was. It was all so unusual to him, yet if her mock fight with Rainbow the other night was anything to go off of, it was something he was going to have to get to used to seeing Twilight do as part of her regular routine.

About a minute later, he saw her reach her right hoof up to one of the pouches on the front of her Sneaking Suit and pull out her Stun Rod, holding her hoof back a bit while she held out her left foreleg. She then began to practice with it, thrusting the rod towards the dummy and stopping short of hitting it every time. She also occasionally swung at it both from the sides and halfway from the front diagonally as if she was going to strike it. Occasionally he could see a spark of light come from the rod’s tip, which he assumed was from her switching it on given what she had mentioned about it.

While he was watching, Spike became acutely aware of others around him. Looking up and around, he saw that their friends had joined him. The girls were all standing, all of them seeming as intrigued by Twilight’s training as he was. He looked back at Twilight, seeing her still practicing with the Stun Rod and wondering how long she was going to keep it up.

The answer seemed to be not for long since about a minute later, after doing one more thrust towards the dummy, Twilight slid her Stun Rod back in its pouch and flopped back onto her haunches, wiping the sweat off her brow with her left foreleg. She then sat and looked at the dummy, a small breeze blowing over her body and through her mane and tail. Pinkie wanted to go over to her, but Applejack put her foreleg in front of the pink earth pony and shook her head when she started to move, the orange pony thinking Twilight would want things to be quiet while she cooled down.

After a few moments, Twilight turned her head to her right, looking at her saddlebags. Her focus wasn’t on the bags themselves, though; instead, she was looking at her knife in its holster, tucked between the top flap of the center bag and where her back would be if she were wearing them. She stared at it for several moments before she used her magic to unclip it and levitate it over to her, setting it down in her hooves. She looked down at it, using her right hoof to slowly pull it out. She set the holster down next to her and continued to hold the knife in her hoof, moving and twirling it a bit to get a feel for its weight. Its blade was shiny, but she was a bit rusty when it came to using it, especially in place of the Stun Rod. She looked up at the practice dummy for a moment before she nodded to herself.

Up on the small hill, Twilight’s friends watched as she rocked herself back up onto two legs and took her knife with the tip pointing down. She then started practicing with it in much the same way as the Stun Rod, though she stopped doing improvised strikes and instead practiced slashing and stabbing with it. They couldn’t help but be impressed by the degree of control she had with it, still able to stop herself from hitting the practice dummy each time.

After about a minute, as she was making a sideways swipe, the dummy suddenly leaned towards Twilight’s blade. Her eyes widened and she stopped and pulled her hoof back, just narrowly avoiding it. Before she could do anything else, the dummy straightened up and swung its right weight at her. Her left foreleg ended up taking the impact and she stepped back, the dummy hopping after her and swinging its weights as she tried to deflect them. Twilight’s friends looked on at the display in confusion; was this part of her routine?

It was not, unfortunately, but despite its unexpected nature, Twilight calmed slightly as she backed up and used her hooves to deflect the dummy’s blows. As she continued to back away, she glanced up and caught sight of a particular cloud overhead. After a few more moments, she leapt back and landed on all fours, raising her right hoof over her head. She then threw her knife, the downward angle of the throw causing it to land on the ground way short of the dummy and slide forward a bit. As she brought her right hoof back down to the ground, she raised her left hoof and grabbed her Stun Rod, quickly throwing it at an upward angle as she pulled it out. Once again, her aim was off, the rod flying over the dummy’s head as it continued advancing.

That had been her intention, however, as before it flew over the dummy, her horn lit up with magic and she grabbed it, stopping it past the dummy. She then pointed it right-side up and sent it straight up. It made it up to the cloud seconds later due to it being far below the sky and shot inside it. Even from where they were, everyone could hear a familiar voice say, “Oh? What is…” That was all Twilight needed to hear; with a quick adjustment to her magic, she flicked the Stun Rod on and Discord came shooting out of the top of the cloud with a cry, his lion paw and eagle claw cupping the spot underneath his tail as his legs flailed.

The others were surprised to see the draconequus. As he landed and splayed out on his back on the cloud, Fluttershy flew up to him while saying, “Oh! Discord!” Twilight, however, did not look amused as she sat down and used her magic to pull her Stun Rod and knife back to her, putting the former in its pouch while using her magic to bring the holster for the knife over.

After a minute, the two made their way down to the ground, Spike and the other ponies having made their way over to Twilight during this time. As they landed in front of her, Fluttershy asked, “Twilight, why did you do that?”

Before she could formulate a response, Discord piped up, “Yes, I mean, really, Twilight! Sticking a fork under my tail and giving me a jolt? What’s the big idea?”

Twilight stared up at him evenly, “Oh please, Discord. I had it on for less than second and it wasn’t even on full power. I had to do something to get you to stop interrupting my training routine.”

Discord glared down at her, “Routines are so boring! And besides, you were doing the same thing over and over again! I thought you could do with something different! I thought you’d enjoy it!”

Twilight rolled her eyes, “Yes, because I’ve reacted to such surprises in that way in the past, haven’t I? And you must’ve thought I wouldn’t have guessed you were doing it. Or that I wouldn’t notice your cloud.”

Discord argued, “If you knew I was there, you could’ve just asked me to stop!”

Twilight countered, “And since when have you listened when I tell you to stop doing something?”

Discord held his paw and claw out in front of him as he stammered, “Well, I… I listen! And I can do what I’m told!” He then pointed his claw at the practice dummy, “And besides, what if you weren’t paying attention? You could’ve hurt poor Woody here!”

Twilight replied, “Okay, first of all, you’re getting off-topic. And second…” She used her magic to teleport the dummy over to her and she placed her hooves on the front and back of its torso, “His name is Rebound and I could’ve introduced you to him if you had asked. I also could’ve told you he does not like having our training regiments interrupted.”

Applejack spoke, “Uh, Twilight… Look, Ah’m glad ya got yerself a sturdy, uh, practice partner and ya take care of it, but givin’ it a name and treatin’ it like it’s alive… Ain’t that a bit much?”

At this, Rarity huffed and remarked, “Says the pony who gets an extra train car for a tree, complete with a bed.”

Applejack whirled around to look at the fashionista, “Hey, don’t you talk ‘bout Bloomberg like that, Rarity!”

Rarity said, “You were reading a bedtime story to it when I walked in, Applejack, and then you were all ‘don’t get saddy-waddy’!”

Applejack argued, “That’s ‘cause Bloomberg has feelins’, unlike Twilight’s trainin’ dummy!”

Rarity replied, “Oh? Do tell, Applejack. Explain to us why one of your trees has more feelings than Rebound when they’re both made of wood!”

Applejack started, “Bloomberg ain’t just made of wood fer one thing, and fer another…”

Spike and the ponies looked on as the two continued with one of their typical arguments while Discord summoned a floating chair and some popcorn to enjoy the show with. In the midst of it, Twilight glanced at Rebound and whispered, “How about I get you away from all this? We can have another session sometime later.” With a quick flash of her magic, the dummy disappeared, stored away for Twilight to summon when she needed it.

Not too long afterwards, Shining Armor was walking across the castle lawn when he spotted Discord and began making his over. As he got closer, he found Rarity and Applejack still debating about the emotional capacities of wood while everyone else continued to look on. “HEY!” he yelled, catching everyone’s attention. “What’s going on here?” he asked as he walked over.

Discord spoke, “Oh, nothing to fret about, Shining. Applejack and Rarity here were simply having a rather important discussion about feelings.”

Applejack quickly nodded, “That’s right. Fer trees.”

Rarity added a bit teasingly, “And wood.”

Pinkie chimed in, “Fluttershy’s not a tree!”

The shy pegasus said, “I’d still like to be a tree. I think it would be nice, especially to know how Bloomberg really feels.” Discord glanced at Fluttershy at that, a slightly jealous expression on his face.

Shining stared at the mares in front of him for a moment before saying, “Okay… Uh, it’s getting close to noontime. Princess Celestia be going for some lunch soon. Mom, Dad, and Cadance went into the castle to go look for her and find out for sure. Why don’t we go find them?”

Spike quickly spoke up, “Yes, please. Anything would be better right now.” The look on Rainbow’s face indicated she strongly agreed with the dragon.

As they started making their way into the castle, Discord kicking back and letting his chair carry him the whole way, Pinkie said, “Well, that was fun! We went shopping, Twilight showed off her moves a little more, and we had an interesting discussion! What a great way to spend the morning!”

Rainbow nudged Twilight and asked, “Hey Twilight, I never got a chance to ask you, but did you do anything else fun while you were away?” Twilight looked at her for a few moments before her gaze fell on the ground, a sad look on her face. “What’s wrong?” Rainbow asked, looking concerned.

Twilight turned her head forward, looking at the ground for a moment longer before looking up and saying, “Well, uh… I’m kind of glad we took a break this morning because there is something I really do need to talk about. It’s important and the story isn’t complete without it, but… it’s a little hard to talk about.”

Author's Note:

Yeah... I realize there's not much here, but I figured I had to do something to bring us back to the storytelling portion. Plus more showing off what Twilight can do now, so... there's that.

Not much left to go...

Or is there?