Mass Effect: Crossroads

Twilight trotted around the Normandy Hangar for a bit, trying to figure out why she even bothered to volunteer herself for this mission. She was told by Shepard even that she shouldn't try to go. That she would end up creating more problems than she would solve. She knew he didn't mean to insult her in any way like that, but that he could have at least let her make a point. Instead, she let Celestia make the argument for her. Like always. So she went up to the railings by the vehicles and just examined them.

The one she was told to be waiting by had a different design from what she had seen previously. Instead of the basic blue, this one was mainly white, with blue lines across its frame. On the sides were two large circles that had mechanisms of sorts inside, possibly ready to lift the craft, like the rectangles on the other one. It slanted upwards at the front and had a strange looking mark on the side, like everything else in the Hangar: an arch with blue stars inside. She thought it may be the symbol that they used for their ship, or their military overall, like the Sun for the Solar Guard. On top of the craft was a large cylinder attached at a parallel angle to the top of it, and jutted out at about her entire body length.

Before she could try to look more into its structure, there were sets of clangs approaching her. She turned and saw Shepard, fully armored with his white weapon in his hands. Next to him was the Geth unit, Hunter, who she learned about earlier. He held a weird weapon with three barrels facing outwards from an L-shaped structure that looked to be made of wires and pipes. Velron followed Banlik to the opposite side of the Hangar, each with their own respective weapon.

Shepard approached the craft next to her as it began to hiss open in the front, where the massive slant was. She peered inside and saw that there must be enough room for about 20 Ponies. Shepard motioned for her to enter first, following closely with Hunter. When they were all inside, Shepard found a seat in the center, where he pulled up a massive collection of orange screens for the controls. Twilight sat down to his right, and Hunter found a spot near the ramp on the left. Shepard tapped in a series of codes and the door closed with a hiss.

"Twilight." he said.

Twilight looked up at him as he turned in his seat to face her.

"Let me say that I'm sorry I snapped back there. You didn't deserve that. If you want to help, then I shouldn't try to stop you. I know what that's like, and I should have realized it sooner."

She smiled lightly as she replied.

"Shepard, you had every reason to argue my point. I don't know what I'm getting into, and I shouldn't try to burden you any further."

"You're not a burden. Hell, if anything, this is a breath of fresh air. I finally get to stop Cerberus before they can do any permanent damage. Besides, I heard you've faced worse, so I'll try not to worry. Just keep up, alright?"

With a chuckle Twilight nodded.

"I promise."

Shepard nodded to her and then returned to the panels for the control over the Hammerhead.

\\\//////

Shepard felt his heart jump as the Hammerhead entered Space, underneath the cover of the Normandy. He regretted that they don't have windows on these, because he wanted to see the ship as much as he could, in its natural form. Though he couldn't see it now, he knew that it was providing them the cover they needed until its assault began.

"Approaching the station now, Captain." Joker stated in the comms.

"Security system hack at 97%." Spark chimed.

"Begin the assault." Shepard commanded.

Soon after, the craft shook as Normandy brought down her Stealth Drive, and began to assault the GARDIAN batteries with Plasma fire. The Hammerhead then began to lift as Shepard piloted it towards the station, alongside another aircraft.

"Here we go! Fire-team Normandy inbound!" he shouted as they broke through the station's Kinetic Barriers, and flew into the Hangar.

There, the two Hammerheads hovered for a few seconds before opening fire on everything inside.

"Fighter down!" Velron called in from her end.

They continued to bombard the deck with explosive ordnance until the area was clear.

"Clear." Velron called.

"Spark?" Shepard asked over the comms.

"I have finished the hacking of the station, Captain." the drone responded. "There are no more Cerberus troops in the immediate area. However, more are on the way with reinforcements. I suggest that you, Hunter, and Miss Sparkle make your way to the prison bay."

"Alright." Shepard set the craft on the ground as the entrance hissed open once more.

"Warning: unknown life signatures detected wandering the facility. It is likely that some prisoners may have escaped." Spark interrupted.

Shepard got up from his seat as the controls made way for Twilight to exit behind him. Hunter shortly followed as the two wandered into the Hangar.

The entire thing looked to be three stories tall, and had multiple sections on the sides of the walls sectioned off for supplies and equipment. There were three sets of doors, one on each wall in the back of the Hangar. Shepard motioned for his two companions to follow him as they approached the door opposite the exit of the Hangar.

Behind them, Velron and Banlik began to set up cover for their eventual fight, by stacking pieces of rubble on top of each other. When Shepard reached the door, he flashed his Omni-tool across it, causing the red hologram to disappear and be replaced by a green one, which then faded as the door split open. He raised his rifle and looked down the hallway. When he stepped in, Hunter followed silently, with Twilight close behind.

\\\//////

Twilight's mind was still racing from the sudden change of scenery, especially since she could see the endless void of Space on the other side of a dim blue field. Outside were multiple shapes swarming around one another, some exploding and fading away as the largest of them continued to maneuver through the asteroids almost out of her range of vision.

A tap on her shoulder brought her back to the mission at hoof. She looked back to see Shepard, waving a hand over his mask, or more specifically, his eyes. Twilight nodded and began to channel energy into her horn. With a flash, she became transparent, and blended next to the wall behind Shepard. Shepard then waved his hand by the entrance, causing it to lock behind them.

She turned to Hunter to watch as he disappeared as well in a moment's notice. There was still a slight shift wherever he walked, though, so he took every pace slowly and carefully, calculating every step as he advanced. Twilight watched as they scanned every inch of the halls before proceeding with their search.

\\\//////

Rainbow Dash panted heavily as she set Fluttershy down onto a soft looking platform before her, finally able to adjust herself after escaping the... thing's wrath. She looked around frantically for any kind of inspiration to get out, and let the lightning rod fall from her mouth. It hit the floor with a liquid clang as she turned to examine her friend.

Fluttershy was still out cold, her breathing ragged and shallow. Her torso was thinner than usual, her ribs showing through her fur as they rose and fell with each breath. Her mane was tangled in many different places, and some had even been burned off. By what, Dash had no idea. She looked around the room they were in and frowned inwardly.

The entire thing was about the size of the room she was recently in, except without any tables or braces to hold her in. There were multiple odd racks lining the walls, filled with strange looking clubs. Some were just tubes while others looked like they had some kind of round handle at the end. They were all organized in shapes and had weird red tube things all in crates next to them. She reached out and touched one to find that they were colder than any cloud she had set hoof on. When she retracted, the door to her left opened up, revealing five more aliens in white and yellow standing there.

The one in front tackled her down before she could react, and put its weight onto one of her wings. She gasped in pain as they pulled some of the clubs off the racks and pointed them at her. Dash felt herself being lifted from the ground as they continued to point at her. They all began to check their strange objects, unaware of the micro-laser aimed by their heads.

\\\//////

"Confirmed, Shepard, Captain." Hunter stated, aiming down his Javelin. "The targets are in possession of a being similar to that of Sparkle, Twilight."

Shepard edged closer to the wall and swapped his Lancer for a Paladin.

"Can you give me any details?"

Twilight bumped into his leg as she tried to peer around the corner, but was stopped by Shepard's hand signals.

"Body color appears to be cyan with a set of wings and hair color that mixes six different colors: purple, red, green, blue, yellow, and orange."

Twilight gasped audibly at the mention of the physical traits.

"That's Rainbow Dash! We need to save her!" she whispered loudly.

Shepard nodded to her and looked to Hunter. He gave one more solid nod before raising his own Pistol, aiming at the black heads.

\\\//////

In an instant, Rainbow heard loud bangs from behind her and watched in horror as the heads of four of the aliens exploded one after another. The last one holding her stammered about for a moment before a lavender glow grew around her, pulling her free from the alien's grasp as its body exploded with another loud bang. She landed on the floor when the glow disappeared, and watched as a familiar figure came galloping down the hall towards her.

"Twilight!" she cried out, grinning widely as she began to move towards her.

They collided and hugged tightly for a few seconds as they both cried into each other's shoulders. Dash moved her head up to see that Twilight was smiling widely as well, glad to see her friend was alright. They got up as Dash began to speak out in shallow breaths.

"Twi... I'm, so, so happy to see you're alright. I mean, I wasn't scared, or anything, but, Flutters is out cold. We need to get out, fast."

Twilight nodded and motioned towards the end of the hall behind her.

"You're right. Shepard!" she called.

Just then, another alien came from around the corner. This one, however, seemed thinner than the other ones. It wore black armor with blue lights, and had a white club like the other ones did. Dash got to her hooves and felt her hear race as it approached.

"Twi... there's one... right there..." she whispered.

Twilight turned to the alien and back to her.

"No, Dash, calm down! It's alright. Remember the box we found? The one with the alien lady?"

"The one that talked about that Shepard guy?" she asked, leaning in as the alien got close to them.

"That would be my father." it spoke.

Dash found herself in a state of shock and awe.

"Wait... you're... real?" she breathed out before collapsing into darkness.