Mass Effect: Crossroads

As the Kodiak roared through the atmosphere, Velron and Shepard began a short conversation, starting with Velron.

"So, why aren't we bringing Banlik, again?" she asked.

"Because we're gonna be moving through torn hallways, broken hangers, maybe even the frame of the ship itself, and I doubt he'd be able to move through any kind of wreckage without drawing attention from every possible survivor on board." Shepard replied.

"Still think there might be something in there? Look at it. It's been days since it crashed. I doubt anyone survived for that long."

"I'm a bit more worried about what caused the crash."

"What about it?"

"Came from inside the prison blocks."

"Shit. That's right."

They both turned to the view-screen of the ship as they began to approach a massive gnash in it's side.

\\\//////

Celestia trotted about the halls of Canterlot Castle with a slight skip in her step as she carried herself. Her student had found something that she apparently was dying to share with her, and had already done so with her friends. Twilight also had mentioned to her that she had sworn her friends to secrecy until they showed the Sun Princess. Even though Celestia was one of the most powerful mares in Equestria, she had a certain soft spot for watching her protege get excited about something that she wanted to show her something, 'amazing'.

They had scheduled for a meeting in a few minutes, as the Day Court finally ended. And Celestia was happily making her way to see her faithful student.

She arrived at one of the private balconies overlooking Canterlot and saw all six of the Elements of Harmony waiting for her, with a strange box in the center of their little circle.

"Hello, my little ponies." Celestia said as she came up to them.

They all turned away from the box and looked to her and smiled widely at her. Twilight went up and hugged her mentor as Celestia nuzzled her in return.

"It's such a pleasure to see all of you."

"Princess," Twilight started, suddenly becoming serious, "we have something to show you."

Pinkie leaped up in front of Celestia rapidly as she spoke.

"This super-duper-cool thing came crashing down by Fluttershy's place, and there's this lady that talks about some extra-special-amazing things that YOUGOTTASEE!"

Twilight picked her up with her lavender magical field and held her still as she spoke to her friend.

"Pinkie! Calm down! We have to let her see it."

She then released her friend as they went over to the strange object. Celestia followed towards it, slightly confused as to why there were several small lights coming from it, along with a center ball that seemed to spin in place.

"Whatever have you found, Twilight?" she asked.

Twilight then raised her hoof to the strange thing and pushed the side of it.

"Evidence of alien life."

The box opened up and released a small hovering ball, which then released a strange wall of light from it's front and sent it upon each direction of the balcony. Celestia stumbled a bit in shock as it began to beep in place, and then sprouted a massive three-dimensional image of a bipedal creature. Amazingly, it's image came with color, showing off in great detail the white clothing it had on, with blue stitching here and there. What shocked Celestia more, however, was that it's face resembled a Pony massively, except for greatly smaller eyes. On top of it's head, instead of a mane or fur, was a collection of tentacles that ended at the back of the head, with a shining blue that matched it's skin. As it then moved, it spoke.

"Whoever is watching this, at whatever time, know that you are safe to rise to the stars. No longer will this message be focused on warning your kind, but rather to welcome you to a fear-free future." the figure spoke with an angelic feminine voice.

Twilight pushed a light on the box and the image stopped, allowing for all of the mares to look to Celestia, who was currently hanging her jaw in shock and awe. She shook her head and tried to collect herself before stuttering out a question.

"W-w-what is this, this... thing?" she asked.

"From what I can tell," Twilight responded, "it's a message sent to us by a more advanced being. She said that it was supposed to be a warning, but not from what. All she talked about was a hero of some kind."

Celestia looked back at her student.

"A hero?"

Twilight pushed another light and the image continued to speak.

"Thanks to the efforts of the Galaxy's greatest hero. A truly noble spirit, who was kind, merciful, intelligent, and above all, righteous. Know that you are safe because of not only him, but because of the people that stood by him. The collective efforts of this hero and his closest friends, who fought off the greatest darkness ever encountered in history of any life. The efforts of one man, and those that followed him on a ship that brought hope to all those who gazed upon it, and a name that inspired every species to bound together against a common foe, to bring a future to you. If you wish to truly be accepted in the Galaxy, you will need to learn the story of our greatest hero, our greatest savior, as well as his ship, and the crew that helped to bring hope back to all life, everywhere. The story of the Normandy, and of Shepard."

Twilight pushed another light, and once again, the message stopped.

Celestia looked into the image with awe and wonder. It spoke of a hero whose name alone brought hope to all, a ship that fought against the darkest threats, and how they owe their futures to this, Shepard.

"This, Shepard," Celestia started, not turning away from the image, "what did she say about him?"

"That he apparently united the entire Galaxy against an ancient threat that no species could ever defeat, and lead them all to victory over an unbeatable opponent."

Celestia tore her gaze from the blue and white alien figure at last to look to Twilight.

"Why did you bring this to me?" she asked cautiously.

"Because we wanted you to hear about all the things that he's done, and, also, the fact that this does kinda prove that there's alien life out there now. And, they'll probably worship him, or praise him, and that we could possibly learn about this, 'Galactic Society' by looking into the archives that were stored in here. It also said that we should bring this to our highest leaders so that you can research it and-"

Twilight was interrupted by the sound of multiple Unicorns firing a shield spell into the sky, as one of the bolts flew right by the edge of their balcony. The seven of them all scrambled to see the shields being raised massively over the city, as gigantic metal bodies began to tear through the sky towards Canterlot.

Before they could react, one of them lowered itself and fired a blue bolt from it's front towards the shield. The explosion that followed broke through instantly, sending a massive shock-wave through the city as it kicked up large storms of dust.

"T-tha-that was," Twilight stammered, "that was a level 14 shield! Not even Nightmare Moon could have broken that! What is-"

Again, she was interrupted. But this time, by massive clouds of smoke errupting through the city, until a small metal cylinder landed amongst them with a 'clank'. Before they could step back, it exploded into a cloud of smoke, which proceeded to choke them all into unconsciousness.

As Celestia's vision faded, she saw more bipedal figures come from the smoke and take her subjects while she was powerless to stop them. One more came from the smoke and went down to her level before producing a small rod from it's appendage. It then struck her in the chest, and she collapsed into darkness.

*GASP, cough, cough*

Celestia awoke with a resounding cough as her vision came back to her, allowing her to take in her surroundings.

The walls were metallic and dim as lights flickered away. The room was mostly empty, save for massive amounts of torn metal and strange strings that sparked occasionally. The room itself was at an angle, and the entrance to it was blocked by a familiar lavender figure.

"T-Twilight?" Celestia managed, as her voice cracked from soreness.

Twilight straightened up and galloped up to her, causing a symphony of clangs to ring out as she went to ferociously hug her.

"Princess!" she cried as she wrapped her hooves around Celestia's torso, dampening her coat with rivers of tears.

Celestia tried to light up the room with a spell, but screamed in pain as her horn felt as though it exploded in pain. She rose a hoof to it as Twilight backed away from the sudden outburst. When the white Alicorn reached the tip, she found that it was missing, and that almost her entire horn was cracked and split from an unknown impact. She winced in pain and stomped down into the metal floor, making only a slight dent in it's surface. Celestia tried to get up, but collapsed upon her first try, causing Twilight to rush to her side as she continued to tear up.

"Celestia! Are you alright!?"

She arched her head enough to look Twilight in the eye as she spoke.

"Twilight... wha... what h-happened?"

"I-I don't really know. I woke up in here, and I saw you throwing around strange creatures while burning through the walls with magic." She looked towards another part of the room as tears began to swell up in her eyes. "I've n-never seen you so... threatening. You got me out of some kind of magic cage, and then we went through this thing looking for a way out. We came to this room and... one teleported in here and did something to break your horn. Then, before it got to me, the whole building shook and then I was knocked out after hitting my head. I came to a few hours ago, trying to see if there were any more of those... things, and then I came back here when I saw where we were."

"Are we in the Everfree?" Celestia asked.

Twilight slowly nodded her head as tears began to fall.

"Are we in the Badlands?"

Twilight shook her head more.

"Are we even on Equis?"

Twilight looked into her eyes with sadness and after a few tense seconds, shook her head.

Before Celestia could fathom the gravity of their situation, a screeching sound pierced the air, and shortly after it reached it's peak, there were thumps coming from down the hall.

\\\//////

Shepard held his Lancer high and forward as he began to march through the Cruiser's corridors. As he made his way through the derelict ship, he examined the conditions of the walls. There were massive burns that sliced through the plating and even gouged sections that seemed to have miniature stars pass through the ship. Another thing that made Shepard cautious about being alone was the bodies of Cerberus troops. Some were burnt massively, some were broken and bended at odd angles, while others were simply dead, as if they broke their necks on the ceiling when the ship crashed. He thought those were probably the lucky ones.

As he reached another corridor, a small purple glow came down the hall, making him duck next to the wall. Shepard inched his way towards the turn and looked down it carefully. The glow was somewhat fading in and out from the Bridge. Of course.

"Wouldn't be a mission without shit hitting the fan right off the bat." Shepard commented to himself.

He raised the Lancer and turned the corner, approaching the entrance to the Bridge slowly. He took cover at the door and leaned to the opening, peering inside. In the center of the room were two creatures. One was small, about 3 to 4 feet in height, with a lavender body, hair that had three colors, with two being their own respective stripes, a pair of wings, and a horn, that just so happened to be the cause of the light-show. What interested Shepard more, however, was the fact that it had a symbol of sorts on it's rear: a purple star with five white stars around it. The other one, however, seemed to be much larger, with a white body, and hair that had four colors, like a rainbow, which was flowing on it's own for some reason. This one also had wings and a horn, but this one's horn was cracked and had a jagged surface where there should be a tip. On it's rear was a simple picture of a star that one would use to signify their Sun. The purple glow from the first one seemed to be pouring into the white one. As this continued, the first one began to trip, as if it were tired.

"They're sharing some kind of energy." Shepard noted.

Out of the corner of his eye, Shepard caught a glimpse of movement, and a slight distortion in the air. As he scanned the room, he saw a familiar shape and stance approach the smaller creature from behind, and prepared to strike as it's cloak gave out.

"PHANTOM!" Shepard shouted as he burst from his cover.

The two creatures looked behind them to locate the source of the noise, but instead settled upon the Cerberus Phantom in front of them. It swung downwards, and slashed it's sword into the floor as the small creature jumped away from it. Taking the opportunity, Shepard raised his left arm and activated the Overload ability. An arc of electricity shot out to the Phantom as it's barriers exploded on contact. Shepard squeezed the trigger of the Lancer and fired off a series of kinetic rounds at the center of it's mass, shredding through the Phantom's vital organs as it flew over the body of the white creature from the force of the rifle's ammunition. It landed on the deck with a wet thud as it bled out. Shepard grasped the Lancer with both hands and walked around the larger creature on the floor and approached the Phantom. He reached down and plucked a Predator off it's waist and threw it out the door, leaving the Phantom with no weapons.

Shepard turned to the two creatures, who now looked at him with what looked like fear in their eyes as he approached the white one. He placed the Lancer on his back as it locked itself up, and scanned the creature with his Omni-tool. As he ran his hand over it and tapped in multiple series of commands, he heard a small voice utter something he couldn't make out. He turned to his left and saw the purple one looking at him.

"What?" he asked, expecting a result.

"Who are you?" it said.

He looked at the thing in somewhat shock, as it spoke something that could be translated to him through his Omni-tool. He pushed all doubts aside and answered it.

"My name's Shepard, and I'm here to help."