Mass Effect: Crossroads

Shepard watched as the Pony before him collapsed to the floor, with Twilight rushing to her side. Shepard got close to the two and spoke as he scanned the hallway.

"Is she alright?"

Twilight's horn glowed as she moved it over her friend.

"She's completely exhausted. We need to get her back to the Normandy as soon as we can."

Shepard was about to respond before Hunter cut into the chat.

"Shepard, Captain. There is another civilian present within the armory."

Shepard turned to the room to see that there was another one of Twilight's kind in there as well. It had pink hair and yellow fur, with a pair of wings. Hunter materialized near the unconscious form of the Pony and picked it up. When the two got closer to Twilight, she levitated the yellow body down next to her and began to scan.

"Fluttershy... thank Celestia she's okay." Twilight managed with tears running down her face. She moved her friends closer to her and gave them both a massive hug, trying to keep them close to her. Shepard watched the display as he was contacted by Spark.

"Captain, I have sealed off the path towards the Prison Block, but a number of Cerberus troops were already inside the room. You need to clear them out before you release the civilians."

"We're on our way. Twilight," he called, causing the alicorn to look up at him, "I need you to stay a few rooms behind me. Stay with Hunter, and keep an eye on your friends. When I give the word, you come to my position and address the civilians while I work on opening their cells. Alright?"

Twilight nodded and picked her friends up once more. Shepard turned to Hunter and spoke to the construct.

"Hunter, protect Twilight. I'm authorizing the use of Combat Drones for this, but make sure they don't fire in her direction. Make sure they're safe."

Hunter nodded. "We will follow your orders." With that, Hunter pulled out a Plasma Shotgun, and went back to cloaking.

Shepard turned towards the next door with his rifle raised as he heard Twilight's magic make the popping sound that indicated use. The door opened to reveal another empty hallway, which Shepard scanned before advancing towards the civilians.

\\\//////

Spike raised his sword high to block the incoming alien blade as it pierced the air around him with great speed. Metal met metal as the two swordstallions crossed their weapons and glared at each other. Spike could only see a pair of faint red slits for eyes on the black texture of the alien, but was able to focus his rage all the same. When the alien realized how out-matched it was in a straight-up battle of wills, it flipped backwards a few times and crouched while Spike raised his sword towards it.

Spike began to scan the room he was now in, and remembered that they were in one of the many sectioned-off parts of the Everfree Castle, as it was now referred to as at the moment. The room around them was littered with the bodies of both Pony and Daemon, some with swords sticking out of their corpses, and some with limbs blown to shreds. After infiltrating the compound to rescue the captured Guards, Spike had to watch as a fifth of them were killed all around him.

'At least they went out with their enemies.' the lone Drake thought.

His thoughts were interrupted, however, when the air behind him began to make a swishing sound. He looked to where his opponent was to see that it was no longer there. In one swift motion, Spike raised his sword to his side to stop the incoming attack. Once more, sparks flew in all directions as the assault on his blind-side was denied again. He was about to reach for the alien's arm when it stuck its hand out at Spike's chest, and released a strange blue magic pulse that knocked him back into a pile of corpses. All Spike could do was watch as his sword flew out to the side, and landed next to another dead Daemon.

Spike began to chase after the sword, but as he did, the alien chased him as well. Before Spike could reach the sword, the Daemon landed in front of him and kicked the sword out of reach. It brought the blade down and stabbed it into the stone floor as Spike rolled to the side. He landed hard on his back and crawled away slowly, trying to find some kind of weapon. The alien brought the sword back from the ground and twirled it a few times before running for Spike.

With no time left, Spike reached for a nearby shape, a cylinder, and brought it up to his claws. As the Daemon swept the blade down one final time, Spike adjusted the object in his grasp, and felt a claw pull on something. The end of the shape exploded towards the Daemon, ripping off a massive portion of its head, causing it to fall backwards with a thud. Spike looked down and saw that he was now holding a Daemon weapon, a Thunder-Punch, if he remembered. It steamed from a small section at the bottom of the shape, and then Spike pulled on the lower end of the weapon. There was a strange vent-like sound as a small red object fell from the weapon and began to release smoke into the air as it fell. When it touched his scales, he actually yelped in shock, due to its massive heat output. Though it didn't burn him, it was enough to notice that it was too hot for anypony to touch. He stared at the weapon in his claws once more and smiled.

Spike held the weapon in his left claw as he scavanged for his sword, happy to find that the Broadsword had not a scratch on it. He picked it up and then put it in its sheathe, as he walked for the exit to inform the rest of the Resistance of their small victory against the Daemons. Spike looked up to the sky once more and watched as the skies over Ponyville were clouded with more Daemon Super-Ships than he saw over Canterlot. They hovered close to the ground, as if to scare off the remaining Equestrian forces. He gripped his armor and thought to himself.

'Now we bring the fight to them.'

\\\//////

Shepard pressed himself against the wall as he heard the Cerberus troops shuffle around the Prison Block. At first glance, the entire section was nothing more than a singular room with four cells, and a single control panel. The problem now, however, was that there was an Engineer that set up a Heavy Turret in the center of the room, and was manning the Control Panel. With him were nearly two-dozen standard troops, and a Centurion. Shepard brought out his Omni-tool as he heard the different things being said beyond the open door.

"Where are we?"

"What are those!?"

"What's going on?"

"How did I get here?"

"Where's my wife?"

"Daddy?"

"Are we in some prison?"

"Why's everything so bright?"

As the civilians began to wake up, the Engineer activated the anti-sound barrier to each cell, effectively silencing them. Shepard continued to press sequences into the Omni-tool as Twilight snuck up next to him.

"Shepard?" she whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Why are we waiting?"

"I need to do something real quick. Hunter?"

"I am present, Shepard, Captain. What do you need?"

"Get ready to take down that Centurion. I'm gonna lean in and use Sabotage on that Turret, causing it to self-destruct. When the Turret and the Centurion are down, I want you to get back while I go in there and take down those Troopers."

"Understood."

"Twilight, stay here. When I say it's clear, then come in and help with the civilians."

Twilight nodded once as Shepard stood next to the door. He looked to the opposite side where Hunter stood cloaked, wielding his Javelin. Shepard placed the Lancer on his back and drew two other weapons: a Paladin in his right hand, and a Locust in his left.

"Three... two... one..."

Shepard rounded the cover as he threw up his Omni-tool with his left hand, sending out a signal that caused the Turret in the center of the room to explode. In the next passing second, the head of the Centurion exploded in a shower of gore as its body fell limp to the floor. Just as the Cerberus troops were starting to recover, Shepard ran towards them, and fell into his own state of thought.

He raised the Locust out to his left and mowed down three Troopers before firing his Paladin at one in the back of the room. Two in his path tried to use their melee weapons, but missed their swings as Shepard jumped towards them and swung his right arm out, bashing in the skull of the Trooper on the right before swiping the leg of the left Trooper with a twist. As it fell, Shepard unloaded an incineration towards a group of five Troopers to his right, where the one on point burst into flames. He spun around and fired an Overload at the flaming Trooper while pumping a round from his Paladin into the one on the floor next to him. The flaming trooper exploded in a shower of fire and arcing electricity while Shepard turned to face the remaining thirteen assailants. Shepard aimed the Locust at a Trooper trying to charge at him, and fired through its body. It fell for Shepard, but was instead used as a shield while another group of Troopers began to fire their SMGs at the Captain. The body started to become more bloodied as Shepard fired the last of his Pistol's rounds into another Trooper's skull. He tossed the body forward as he ducked towards a crate to his left. With a quick reload of both weapons, Shepard stood over his cover and opened fire on the remaining Troopers, managing to mow down six of them before overheating the Thermal Clips of his weapons. Shepard ducked down once more into cover as the last five began to shoot at every edge of the crate. With the flick of a wrist, Shepard launched an Incineration at one of the Troopers, allowing them to burn to death as he switched weapons. Once Shepard pulled out his Lancer, he peaked over the right side before shredding another Trooper with a hail of Kinetic rounds. When the three remaining Troopers saw this, they focused their fire on Shepard as he rolled from his cover. He stood one last time and unloaded the entire Thermal Clip into the Troopers, piercing their armor and organs like wet paper.

When the room finally calmed down, Shepard examined the room and saw the Engineer floating in the hallway, surrounded by a lavender glow. Shepard walked over to the flailing Cerberus member and placed the Lancer on his back. He came up to the Engineer and looked at his mask. The Engineer tried to swing at him with a fist, but was turned around as it swayed. Twilight walked up next to Shepard and spoke.

"What do I do with... this?"

"Throw it at that panel in the room." he responded.

She looked to the panel and then focused on the Engineer in her grasp, before throwing it across the room, face-first into the display. It fell to the ground limply as the lights around the cells began to flicker out before remaining stationary at a thin blue. Shepard walked over to the panel and pulled up his Omni-tool and began to hack the security systems.

"Twilight? Wanna come out now?" Shepard called.

Twilight popped back into view near the center of the room, causing all of the civilians to look towards the center of the room. Shepard waved his hand over the panel once more, causing it to spark and explode. As it died, the lights in front of all the cells began to fade until the lights vanished entirely. The Ponies all began to crowd out from their prisons and filed into the massive room, flooding it with color and sound as they gathered towards Twilight.

"Everypony, listen!" she called. All of the Ponies in the room looked to her and waited. Twilight cleared her throat and pointed to Shepard. "This is Captain Shepard of the Alliance. He found Celestia and I in another ship like this, and helped us find all of you. He promised to bring us all home, and fight off the aliens that took all of us. But we need to listen to him and follow his instructions."

The group of Ponies all turned towards Shepard, who then began to address the lot.

"Okay. I know that you're all scared, tired, something, but I promise that I will get you all home. I'm going to go first and make sure that there aren't any Cerberus soldiers waiting for us, and when I say it's clear, you're all gonna follow Twilight. We'll continue doing this door-to-door until we reach the Hangar. From there, we're gonna move you in groups back to my ship by using the dropships we brought with us. When we finish moving everyone, we're gonna take you all home. Any questions?"

The room was silent for a few seconds before Shepard nodded.

"Alright then. Let's move."

\\\//////

After about thirty minutes of scanning hallways and checking doors, the mass of Ponies were now waiting behind Shepard as he neared the final door in their path.

"Alright," he started, "here we are. Behind these doors is our ticket out of here."

Twilight moved up to him, but felt a shift in her magical aura. She looked up to see that Rainbow Dash was waking up and moving.

"Wha... what happened?" she groaned.

Her eyes fixed on Shepard and her face went to pure anger.

"Hey! You! What do you think you're doing!?" she yelled, trying to charge at him.

As she flapped her wings, she found herself suspended by Twilight's magic.

"Twi? What're you doing!? There's an alien thing right there!"

"Rainbow Dash! Shepard's helping us!" she shouted.

"What did you do to- wait... Shepard? The... oh..."

Rainbow Dash slumped and stared at the figure in black and blue as he held a hand up to his head. She felt herself being lowered by Twilight and eventually was standing on her hooves, shakily. Dash turned towards Twilight and watched cautiously as the alien began to tap on an orange light that appeared on its arm.

"Twilight? Are you sure that's him? The one that box thing told us about?" she whispered to her friend.

"Actually, he told me that was his father. But from what I've seen lately, I think all those things that the device mentioned may as well be genetic. He just risked his life to save everypony here. That, and I watched him talk to some aliens called the "Council," and Pony, were they upset. They talked down to him like his superiors, that what he was doing wasn't allowed, but he said that it was still the right thing to do. He wasn't even supposed to let us see him, and here he is, bringing us home."

Rainbow Dash stared at the alien, taking in what Twilight had said. He broke who knows how many rules, for what, to save her? To save Equestria?

Before she could question anything else, the massive doors opened up to reveal the massive Hangar Bay, littered with spent Thermal Clips and Cerberus casualties. On the opposite side were two figures with four ships behind them.

"Let's go! We don't have much time!" Shepard shouted to the Ponies.

The crowd began to stampede towards the blue ships as they began to open up. Shepard stopped in front a Kodiak and motioned for them to pile in.

"Come on! Let's move it!" he chanted at them.

Ponies began to flood into the two blue ships, crowding their interiors tightly with enough color to be considered sickening. Once they were full, Shepard motioned towards the Hammerheads.

"The Kodiaks are full! Everyone else, move to the Hammerheads!"

The remaining Ponies numbered off at about fourteen or so.

"Alright, listen up! Six of you need to go with those two over there, and the rest come with me!"

Six Ponies ran for the opposite Hammerhead, where Banlik was waiting with the hatch open. He motioned for them all to file in while he stood outside the vehicle. Velron made her way to the center of the craft and started up the engines, prompting Banlik to duck inside as the hatch closed. Shepard looked back at the remainder of the group, and noted the last of the Ponies were staring at him. He went for the hatch and opened the craft, motioning for the rest of the civilians to pile in as well. The last group of Ponies crowded into the back of the Hammerhead, and evened themselves out. Twilight came up with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, who was still out cold, and then went inside as well. Shepard stood at the door for a moment, and then moved towards the entrance when he saw Hunter uncloak inside the Hammerhead. He made a mental note to punch him later for that, and activated the hatch for the craft before finding the Pilot's seat. Once inside, he activated the controls and started up the engine.

"Shepard to Normandy, come in Normandy, do you read?" Shepard called into the comms.

"Normandy here, Shep," Joker answered, "ready for pickup?"

"Damn right. Tell everyone to clear the bay, and have some medical staff ready. Also make sure to tell Celestia that her Ponies are coming home."

"Alright. I just need a second to scratch that off my Bucket-List of 'things-I-never-thought-I'd-say,' hope that's alright."

"Just get it done Joker. We're moving out now."

"Aye, aye. We're ready for you."

Shepard moved for the controls of the Hammerhead and started the flight. The craft shot up from the ground alongside the other Hammerhead as the Kodiaks flew out of the bay first, leaving enough room for the two combat vehicle to maneuver. Shepard's Hammerhead backed up before jetting out into the vacuum of Space for a few seconds, followed closely by Banlik and Velron's Hammerhead. The vacuum around them changed to the interior of the Normandy as they passed through the Mass Effect barrier, and landed on the deck as the Frigate shut its Hangar.

"Shepard, you there?" Joker called.

"I'm here. Any casualties?"

"Unless you count Cerberus."

Shepard sighed in relief as the hatch to the craft hissed open, freeing the civilians into friendly territory.