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                  Mass Effect: Crossroads                  
                     -by Dragonman461-                     
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                      Prologue to War                      
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Prologue to War
January 12th, 2215
Unknown Council Station
Unknown sector of the Attican Traverse
Priority: Citadel Council w/ Guest(s)
It had been nearly thirty years since the Reaper War, the Geth-Quarian treaty, the Krogan induction to the Council Races, and the unification of the Galaxy underneath the banner of life itself. In those thirty years, many things had come and gone. Smaller skirmishes had occurred because of old hostilities, the beginning of Reconstruction, and the new deployment of the Galactic N7 Peace Corps. However, the Councilors were concerned with one specific individual from the new N7 corps. Specifically, a certain few that fought alongside the Engineer before them.
He stood at 6'7", wearing jet-black N7 armor, with blue streaks across the arms and shoulders. His features were certainly able to draw attention, having paled purple skin, brown hair, and small flashing lights in his neck and eyes. The reason for his odd appearance was apparent to the whole Galaxy, seeing as how this was the son of Commander Shepard. A product of the greatest soldier to ever see the light of day, and the Quarian Admiral, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya vas Rannoch. However, during this phase of procreation, the Geth insisted that they were to help in stabilizing the child's DNA, seeing as how he was dying from the mix of Levo and Dextro cells. The result, one of the greatest Engineers to ever don the symbol of N7, according to previous commanders. "The Prodigy Child," he was called. Despite his Quarian and Geth mix into his mind, he still carried the name of his father, as they say he deserves.
They examined his pace as he personally escorted them to one of the ship bays in the station, careful to not get lost as he constantly flashed his Omni-tool for directions on his Heads-Up-Display integrated into his eyes. He walked with confidence through the station, checking each corner for guards and turning back to see the Council members.
There were five now, since the Reaper War, but still kept the same air of importance none the less. The Asari Councilor, Tevos, stood there with her hands behind her, trying to seem high and mighty. The Salarian Councilor, Valern, stood with his hood draped over his face as if to keep a secret. The Turian Councilor, Sparatus, stood tall with his hands at his sides, and eyes trained on the young Shepard. The Krogan Councilor, Urdnot Wrex, was behind Shepard by only a few paces, donning his red armor and Claymore shotgun. Shepard smiled inwardly at the Councilor, remembering how Wrex described him as a nephew of sorts. Shepard thought of Wrex as an uncle, similarly. The last Councilor stood with a slight hunch, and a slight limp, since his combat on Earth. Councilor Anderson, Shepard's wise mentor and voice of reason, since his induction to the Alliance. He wore blue and red robes with his old N7 cap, scars and stitching apparent over it.
As they continued on, more personnel started to fill the halls, until it became conclusive that a ship was indeed taking off soon. He stopped every now and then to return a salute, and butt a few heads. As they neared an observer hatch, the Councilors pulled Shepard's attention to them.
"Shepard," Sparatus started.
Shepard turned on the dime and looked to the Councilors. Tevos approached him as she began.
"In your career, we have seen a massive progression towards a rather... unique skill set. You've proven yourself adept in combat and a worthy leader."
Shepard cleared his throat and stood at attention as he replied.
"With all due respect, ma'am, Councilors, I don't believe that I've done anything that noticeable."
Veron pulled up his Omni-tool and started chanting Shepard's profile.
"You have been reported to have stopped 17 different pirate raids, 39 sneak-attacks, 15 boardings, both attacking and repelling, 217 counts of full-frontal warfare, and holding off a force of 8,932 Rampant Geth, on your own. Your own father could barely do that with a squad by him, let alone a full-on war against Juggernauts and even a number of Colossus. You've been commended on 398 different operations, put in for promotion nearly 2,000 times, and have even been noted as a hero to certain colonies."
Wrex stepped forward and slugged Shepard in the arm with a hardy laugh.
"Not only that, but, you've made entire Krogan companies look like Pyjacks the way you can clear a battlefield. I've been told to put you through 58 Rites of Passage to be welcomed into Clan Urdnot. You've proven your keep to the name 'Shepard' in my books, and you deserve what comes with it."
Sparatus approached, "Also, we have a certain cause for this to come to light."
All the Councilors stood together in a row before Shepard, Anderson to the right of Wrex, by the blocked window. They each pulled up an Omni-tool and began to address Shepard.
"By order of the Citadel Council, on unanimous decision, we have voted to induct Captain Anthony Shepard into the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance. Welcome to the Spectres."
Shepard stood in awe as they then confirmed his promotion and saluted the newest Spectre. He quickly returned the salute and released after them.
"Thank you, Councilors. But, what made you decide this? With all due respect."
Anderson stepped forwards and came up to Shepard, nearly whispering to him.
"We've got a lead on Cerberus. A cruiser was pinged as KIA near an uncharted Relay. The last transmission from it, identified one of the commanders."
He leaned in and looked Shepard in the eye.
"General Oleg Petrovsky."
At that, Shepard's eyes narrowed massively, and he felt his blood boil in rage at the name. He gathered himself with a cough and retorted.
"What would I be doing?"
"Well," Wrex started, "you'd be doing us all one great service for one, and making the Galaxy a whole lot happier."
Veron cleared his throat to draw attention.
"You will be investigating the ship, in case it's a trap, and extract any data on the location of the remaining Cerberus forces. And by rules of the mission, if you see Petrovsky at any time, you have permission to shoot on sight."
Shepard nodded to the Councilor and then began again.
"What's the situation on my crew, and the ship?"
Anderson chuckled slightly as he leaned against the armored window next to him, just as the door opened to reveal a group of familiar faces to the Engineer.
There was a deep green Geth Infiltrator with a red eye and circuits, with a Javelin Sniper Rifle on its back above a Plasma Shotgun. Next to it, on the left, was a female Turian Cabal, with blue armor and a Tempest SMG and Phaeston, along with a yellow armored Krogan Warlord Sentinel with a Claymore and M8-Avenger, on the right.
Shepard quickly recognized the squad and watched with glee as they made their way to him as he called them out.
"Hunter! Veria! Banlik! What are you three doing here!?"
The three came up to him and began exchanging head-butts, hand shakes, and arm-bumps as the Councilors watched as Sparatus answered the question.
"They are here as your first members of your new crew. We thought it would be best to bring in some... friendly faces to make this easier on you."
"Speaking of which," another voice started, "where's my welcome? What am I, chopped liver?"
Shepard turned to the source of the new voice to find a slightly older man with an Alliance uniform on, with a scruffy greyed beard, and a cap that had a signature card in the front.
"J-Joker?" Shepard asked.
"You know it. Who else would be piloting for a bat-shit crazy suicide mission like this?" he stated as he came up slowly to the group at the window.
"You're the pilot? Why?"
He crossed his arms as the windows began to unlatch form the outside.
"They said only I could drive it, and they're right. Take a look."
As the view finally became present to them all, Shepard felt his heart nearly stop in shock. Below, was a white hull with blue lines that formed a half-cylinder, smoothed on the bottom, that lead to a vehicle bay that donned a thicker black armor. On the sides came out the thrusters for the ship, having two rectangular propulsion engines on either side, with larger parts shooting forwards, in front of the wings. A familiar shape that was only confirmed by the name on the sides of the ship:
'NORMANDY SR3'
"Damn fitting. Like father, like son, eh?" Wrex added.
"The Normandy SR3," started Joker, "newest ship in the line. New stealth drives that actually make us stealthy! Plus, it's got way more to back up it's speed and stealth, unlike the last one. It's got newest end Geth anti-fighter Plasma Torpedoes for close-range, anti-air GARDIAN batteries that retract into the frame for ground engagements, Kinetic Barriers that even a Dreadnought would have a hard time punching through, and new top-of-the-line experimental armor plating and main battery. They wouldn't tell me what it is, but they said it's a prototype that only we have!"
Shepard took in all of this as he gazed at the ship, eying the massive difference in armor, size, and weaponry from what he remembered of the SR2 museum model. The ship seemed to be longer and slightly smoother on top as opposed to the slightly more hunched previous ship. As he made note of the differences, Anderson and Joker took place on either side of him.
"You've got a great career ahead of you, Shepard," Anderson began with, "just remember what we taught you over the years, and never forget about your team or your crew, because they'll be about as much as your family as we are." With that, he patted Shepard on the back.
"So, want to see the inside, or are we just going to stand here and take pictures, cause I'm good with either." Joker said.
With that, he turned to the Councilors, who began to walk towards their previous path. Anderson turned and addressed Shepard.
"Sorry, but we've got to clear out and ready the station for your launch. Council perks. Take care, soldier."
Shepard saluted, "Yes, sir." and turned towards Joker, who then lead them to the docking tube, and into the ship.
The interior was somewhat dark, with lights scattered along the ceiling and floor, across the dark grey metals that made up the walls and floors. They entered the main stretch of the Command Deck, and were greeted by walls that were imbedded with a number of chairs that had large orange and red holographic displays. To the left was a room with a large rotating leather seat underneath a mass of more holo-controls and a massive collection of windows. To the right, Shepard and his team made way through the deck to the center, which opened up to a massive triangle with the Normandy on display, showcasing the armor, weapons, and shielding upgrades as purple instead of the basic orange shared by the rest of the ship, and above it was a small incline with safety bars, most likely the Captain's nest. There were two doors behind the incline, one that was massive and likely the main elevator, and another to the left of it. Before Shepard could guess at what it was, a woman with dark skin and black hair in a communications uniform came up to him.
"Sir! Chief Comms Specialist Samantha Traynor, at your service." she saluted.
"At ease." Shepard replied, noticing that he was still in armor.
"Thank you, sir. And may I say, it is an honor to serve once again under the name 'Shepard'."
"You knew my father?"
"Oh, yes. During the Reaper War, I was the Normandy's Communications officer, like I am now, only I didn't get a chance to properly sign up the first time. I would like to welcome you to the ship, and give you a full introduction to the ship and it's crew and levels, respectively."
"Please." Shepard said, watching as his teammates went into the elevator and left the deck collectively.
"So, first off, this vessel is one of the few to sport a crew consisting of more than one or two species at a time. On this level, we have Asari and Humans that manage communications and functions of the ship overall. Beneath us is the Crew Deck, consisting of the crew quarters, mess hall, and lounges for casual or calming moments. Below that, is the Medical Deck, which is managed by Dr. Michel, who, may I add, also met your father some years ago. The deck also functions as a lab, run by former STG agents from Sur'Kesh. For emergency, there are elevators that run from Medical directly to the lower decks on the Port side. Beneath Medical is the Engineering Deck. The officers in charge also served with your father. Chief Engineer Greg Adams, Engineer Kenneth Donelly and Engineer Gabriella Daniels. The core itself is very impressive, might I add, and I would recommend you visit sometime. Also, some of the crew is actually Quarian. Beneath Engineering, we have the Arms Deck, which holds the ship's armory, weapons and armor repairs, and a shooting range for weapons testing. I recommend you don't try anything, the Turians down there are rather hard pressed due to their combat history. And finally, the lowest and largest level, the Hanger Bay. It's roughly 40 meters in height, 70 meters in width, and 120 meters in length. The ship is also packed with 2 Kodiak shuttles, 2 Hammerhead ground-combat vehicles, and 4 high-end Fighters, all ready to deploy at a moment's notice."
Shepard nodded as the decks were explained in detail to who runs them, locations, and purposes, trying to place where his squad would go first and where they would likely retire to, and then looked up when Traynor cleared her throat.
"Also, the only deck above us is the Captain's Cabin. I would highly suggest if you're feeling a bit uncomfortable in the armor at the moment, you could deposit your armor into the personal armory installed in it, as well as a personal weapons bench for personalizing a load-out. There's an intercom system if you want to invite someone up, and a personal bathroom as well."
Shepard looked at his armor and nodded.
"Thank you, Traynor. I'll go do that now."
She saluted and turned to one of the chairs in the wall and began to talk to an Asari crew memeber at her station. Shepard turned to the elevator and opened it, surprised by the pristine whiteness, stepped in, and went up to the Captain's cabin. Upon exiting the elevator, he found a massive room with a bed in the back corner, a sofa, trophy room with a door to what he assumed was the bathroom, a sofa by the bed, a holo-screen for personal communications, and a weapons table with a closed rack and armor closet.
Shepard approached the armor locker as he removed the black and blue armor, and opened the door with his Omni-tool. Inside was a standard black and blue Alliance uniform, a weird vest and leather pants, a white shirt with an N7 jacket and jeans, and a very formal suit. He finished removing his armor and locked it into the side of the locker as he pulled out the Alliance uniform, and began to put it on.
Just as he finished, the holo-screen roared to life. Shepard turned around and saw a dark figure in a bloody red room. The figure was completely distorted and unrecognizable as any kind of being, and gave a threatening air of sorts.
"Hello, Shepard." It spoke with a voice too deep to be natural of any kind, with an electronic echo in the background. "Do not try to hack this transmission, it's beyond secure. You're accomplishments are legendary, but I want you to know now: the Shadow Broker is amused. I've left a... gift, for you in your armory. It is not an explosive, and not a trap of sorts. It is merely a token to your mission. You might think it's primitive, but trust me: it's got a familiar touch to it. With that, know that I will be watching you, waiting for something big to come up. I will know. I always know. Now go, behold my contribution to your efforts, and contemplate."
Shepard turned to the weapons locker above the bench as it began to hiss open, revealing a rack of weapons. There was an M-77 Paladin, an M-11 Wraith, an M-98 Widow Sniper Rifle, an M-12 Locust SMG, and on top, an M-7 Lancer Assault Rifle. His father's Lancer. Shepard reached out and held the weapon in his hands, and felt the weight. He remembered firing it with his father years ago, and how right it felt to him. He turned to the screen, where the Shadow Broker waited.
"Well?" the Shadow Broker spoke.
"I'll keep them. And agree to your terms. I'll personally give you all of my mission details through direct chat, if you want."
"Good."
"One more thing."
"Yes?"
"Thanks, aunt Liara."
The screen flickered a bit before going out, leaving Shepard laughing a bit before he placed the rifle back with the other weapons.
"Captain." Joker's voice came up over the room's comms.
"Yes, Joker?"
"Ship's about to take off, want to come watch us off and give some speech, or something?"
"I'll come watch, but probably not a speech."
"Alright then."
The comms went out again as Shepard made his way to the elevator, but then decided to take a look into the other door.
"Holy shit, a real shower!"
\\\//////
Shepard stood at the new Galaxy Map underneath the Captain's platform in the center of the deck, and stared intently at the path laid down for the Normandy. It lead to the outer parts of the Attican Traverse, and out towards the edge of the disk itself, seemingly falling off the map. The map vanished as Shepard stepped down, squeaking his Alliance uniform boots on the metal plating underneath, as he made his way to the Pilot's nest in the front of the ship. He passed by Asari, Quarian, Turian, and Human alike on the way, and felt the ship lurch a bit as they began to disembark.
"Ready for take off." Joker spoke over the comms.
As Shepard came up to the nest, he watched out the windows as the white metals of the station turned into the black depths of space, stars coming into view as well. They passed by a fleet of Turian and Asari ships with ease.
"Throttle's check, preparing for FTL jump. Mission timer reads 30 seconds til official beginning."
Shepard gripped the chair as he felt the engine rumble in the heart of the ship, preparing the Mass Effect core for the shift in mass to propel the ship into deep space.
"Jumping in three, two, one..."
The windows lit up with lights and whiteness as they began to close for safety, and the ship slightly jumped a bit under his feet, sending the ship into the depths of space, chasing a rogue terrorist into the edge of the Galaxy.
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*Unknown Time Earlier*
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Spike was having an alright day, seeing as how the usual flow of stacking and re-stacking books had been cancelled, and Twilight and her friends had gone to Canterlot for royal business, meaning he had the Library to himself for a few days. He invited the CMC over for the night for games and food. He had been planning this for some time, and was happy that his new cooking skills would be put to the test with the three fillies and their picky tastes.
He heard a knocking at the door and went downstairs to see who it was, and saw Owlicious on his stand.
"Hoo."
"Yep, they're here alright. You're gonna be good to them, right?"
"Hoo."
Spike shrugged and assumed it meant yes as he continued to the ground floor. He opened the door, and saw the three fillies waiting eagerly outside.
"SPIKE!" they all called.
He walked outside to them and closed the door.
"Hey girls, what's up?"
They all came up to Spike with smiles.
"You ready for tonight?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Yep. Got the food ready and made the beds. Your sisters all said they'll be back tomorrow, right?"
To which they nodded accordingly.
"Great. Well, let's go-"
Before Spike could utter another word, or even turn, a loud roar-like sound came from the sky. They all turned to find the source of the sound, and then settled their gazes over Canterlot. Above the mountain kingdom, was a trio of large white blocks of... something scary. They started moving closer to the city and then let out swarms of smaller white flying things that began to fly over the city. One of them let off a massive sound as a blue bolt released from the front end of it, and exploded the shield around Canterlot with a massive boom, granting the smaller ones passage to the city. He stood there mouth agape as the one above the city began dropping small dots into the city, and stared in disbelief as the city began to erupt in smoke, drowning out the city's pristine glow, the foundation, even the mountains behind it. One of the large things moved away from the city and began to lift into the air. As it got close, Spike saw what looked like a symbol on the side. A symbol that was now burned into not only his mind, but the eyes of Equestria. And unknown to them, into the entire Galaxy.

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                 Stepping onto the Rubble                  
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Stepping onto the Rubble
*3 Days After the Attack on Canterlot*
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Spike watched the skies pass by with the trails of smoke from Canterlot continued to bellow out into the sky like the snoring Dragon Fluttershy had dealt with when he first came to Ponyville, and stared at the massive hulking white things above the unfortunate city, still trying to still piece together what had happened to the world he once knew.
From the reports by survivors, or escapees, some were calling themselves, the metal monsters had invaded the city with strange clouds of a type of knock-out gas, and small wingless creatures that carried random ponies away to the sky, and beyond that. He had heard that some of the Royal Guard had tried to take the city back... two days ago, and not a word has been heard from them since. He knew that whatever these were, they were beyond what any Equestrian had ever encountered. And it showed.
The ponies of Ponyville were now all evacuated towards Apploosa, or Manehatten, or anywhere far away from the Contact Zone, as Canterlot was now called. They had all started to leave after the initial attack, but they had not left it in improper care. The military that rolled in and set up faster than Spike had expected, as military leaders from all over Equestria began to file into the small town for the coming war, Spike began to question.
Should he fight? Should he go with the CMC to Babs Seed's apartment in Manehatten, and forget all his troubles for a bit? Or should he go to the Dragon Lands, and try to find refuge there until this all blows over? Or, again, should he fight?
He thought back to all the good times that he and his friends had in Ponyville, since the day he arrived, even. They were always smiling and having exciting adventures. Sure they got into trouble every now and then, but they never resorted to violence. He was taught that violence was never the answer. That violence would only lead to more violence. But he lingered on that thought for a bit, as they had done nothing to antagonize these invaders. They had come from the sky and just attacked. They started with violence. They took his friends, they took innocent ponies, they even took Celestia. They had taken so much, and now Spike saw the violence for what it needed to be: the answer. It was his turn to return the violence, and he would, to see them again. To see her again.
Spike clenched his claws and breathed deeply as he stared up at the sky above him, knowing now what needs to be done.
*2 Days After Launch*
The Normandy came out of FTL and began to drift towards the expansion of space before them, only to be altered by the burst of heat and energy from the thrusters. As they glided through the void, a planet came into view. A planet that happened to be tagged by Alliance as the initial step in locating Oleg Petrovsky.
"Shields up, Weapons heating now, and Stealth systems engaged." Joker said aloud to the crew.
Shepard came up to the Captain's Nest in the center of the deck, and observed the planet as the image was enhanced for showing the location of the downed Cruiser. The size of the sphere began to increase, until Shepard was looking at a field with a broken ship scattered across it. Some parts were flashing red as multiple systems were shown dying out, and some glitches in the image itself after some parts fell off from gravity and time. The Cruiser itself was almost unrecognizable at a glance, but there was a resemblance to an Alliance ship if he looked carefully at the bow of the ship, where the main cannon fired. Apart from that, it was almost a complete wreck.
"The Hell happened here?" Shepard whispered to himself.
"Shepard, Captain." an electronic voice called from behind him.
Shepard turned to see his friend Hunter standing behind him.
"Hunter. What brings you here?"
"I would like to inform you that I have been examining the reports of the wreckage of the Cerberus vessel, and have come to a conclusion. The attack on the ship was from within it's own barriers. There are burn marks and destroyed sections that were heavily damaged before it could crash, and evidence suggests that the way they appear throughout the wreckage, it was indeed struck from within. There are little to no indications of battle from the outer plates of the ship's armor, as well as the evidence of the Kinetic Barriers failing far too late for any kind of assault from another ship."
"Are you saying that whatever did... this.... was on board causing it?"
Hunter nodded. "Correct. Data suggests that the attack may have started from the prison block. However, there is something rather alarming."
Shepard stepped down from the nest to meet the troubling (sort of) tone of the Geth.
"What?"
Hunter looked Shepard in the face and narrowed his eye.
"The damage only started from a single occupation cell. It did indeed lead to another cell, but suggests that there were only two on this... rampage."
Shepard took a step back and stared at the scans of the destroyed ship. He shook his head and started walking towards the elevator as he spoke to the communications officer.
"Traynor, get Velron down to the weapons deck and tell Bay to ready a shuttle. I'm going down there. Also, tell Joker not to get within range of the Cruiser, but not too far for an emergency escape. Hunter, you're staying behind. We have no idea what it is, so we need to go in fast and get out before we find whatever did... that. And that means we keep it close-ranged and fast."
"Affirmative."
After nodding, Shepard made his way into the elevator, and went down to the Armory.
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When Shepard arrived at the Armory, he was greeted with the sight of two Turians by the weapons lockers. It was Velron, inspecting a Tempest SMG, and another male Turian that wore black armor and had an M-8 Avenger on his back. Shepard approached his own weapon locker as he listened in to their conversation.
"I told you, you need to forget that old Tempest model, it's a piece of junk. You've gotta at least try the N7 Hurricane with a Kinetic Dampener and Heat Sink. It'll mow down anything not in cover at 10 meters, and can punch through barriers with ease."
"No way. We're going into a wrecked ship, that's probably more wrecked on the inside, while searching through a still collapsing structure. If we get into a point-blank firefight, I need a weapon that'll deliver a storm of kinetic rounds the fastest at close-range. Besides, I'm a Vanguard. I'd rather charge at the enemy and shred them down than wait an hour before someone's stupid enough to peek their cover. That's why we have the Geth, Hunter."
As they were arguing, Shepard pulled out his father's M-7 Lancer, and examined the scope. It had a good range for an Assault Rifle, and the 50 round magazine was proof of it's versatility. The Kinetic rails that were identified showed armor-piercing enhancements, capable of piercing 2.5 meters in a shot. The rifle also appeared to have a Kinetic Stability Dampener in the handle, allowing it to be fired more steadily outside of cover.
Shepard locked the rifle down and placed it on the table behind him as he opened the Armor Locker. Inside was his new customized suit, with a Recon helmet, Serrice Council Chestplate and Shoulder-guards, and Kassa Fabrications Arm-plates, and Hahne-Kedar Leggings. The entire set was a deep black, with blue outlines and lights.
As he started to armor-up, locking the under-armor on first, Velron approached him and spoke.
"So, Shepard, what's the situation?"
"We've got a downed Cerberus vessel with high-value intel that was destroyed from the inside by an unknown force that broke out from within the ship. No signs of life yet, but the whole thing's giving off strange readings. We go in, get the intel, then get out, hopefully without meeting whatever caused the wreck."
Shepard gave a reassuring fist to the chest-plate as he locked it into place, and reached for his Lancer.
"A Lancer? How in he Spirits did you manage to find a working one?"
Shepard smirked as he placed the rifle on his back.
"Let's just say I know someone."
At the remark, Velron shook her head and picked up her helmet, and locked it atop her head. Shepard followed her actions as he reached for his weapon locker and pulled out an M-3 Predator, and an M-4 Shuriken SMG. He attached them to his armor on their magnetic holsters, and approached the elevator, where Velron stood waiting with her selected M-8 Avenger in hand.
Shepard stepped in and pushed the controls to take them to the Bay of the ship. When it arrived, Shepard was truly impressed by what he saw.
The Bay was massive, no doubt now, as Shepard inspected the massive deck as he exited the Elevator.
To the left and right were massive crates for storage, and the scale at which they were locked into the deck. There were at least 200 crates of varying sizes at first glance, and more visible underneath. Closer to the center of the deck's entrance, was a series of consoles used for flight diagnostics of the various craft that could be launched, as well as procurement interfaces, allowing the crew to make purchases on necessary supplies for the ship's stock, such as ammunition and food.
Shepard looked up as he left the small entrance and took note of the structure of the launch-section. On either side were a lock-down strip for loading vehicles, that each had an M-44 Hammerhead, troop variants with twice as many thrusters, a UT-47 Kodiak shuttle with stealth drives of their own, and surprisingly an M-35 Mako. It looked like the Council had thought it best to overstock the Normandy for this mission. To confirm this theory, Shepard looked up and saw a series of suspended platforms that held not 4, but 6 Alliance Fighters.
As he examined the overstock, Shepard felt a slug on the shoulder and turned to his left to see Velron motioning to the open Kodiak at the end of the Bay, by the doors. Shepard nodded and jogged over to it with her. When they got to the door, they stepped inside and found seats. From his seat, Shepard saw the lights in the cockpit flash as the remote-pilot began to take control of it. A voice came up from the radio shortly afterwards.
"Captain, do you read?"
"Affirmative. Who is this?"
"Flight Deck Sergeant Steve Cortez, Sir. I'll be flying this bird from the consoles."
"At ease, when you talk to me, Cortez. Any particular reason you're not flying us from the seat?"
"Well, sir, I've recently come out of surgery after a Cerberus attack that took my legs. The new ones are adjusting, so until I can feel them right, I thought it'd be best if I piloted from here."
Shepard nodded. "Noted. Take us down, Sergeant."
"Yes, sir."
At that, Shepard and Velron felt the ship lurch upwards as the door closed, and felt the familiar sensation of leaving a ship's Mass Effect field, entering space, and reentering atmosphere.

//-------------------------------------------------------//
                    Cruising Nightmares                    
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Cruising Nightmares
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."

//-------------------------------------------------------//
                    Setting the Charge                     
//-------------------------------------------------------//
Setting the Charge
Twilight was absolutely speechless. In front of her, right now, was the figure that she had heard so much about. An alien that was said to have done the impossible and become the hero that the Galaxy needed. The alien hero that was said to inspire armies with his name alone, and bring others to their knees with it as well. In front of her, was the legendary Shepard.
"S-Shepard?" she muttered in an awed tone.
He turned his head to meet her gaze.
"Yeah, that's me. Captain Shepard of the Alliance vessel Normandy SR-3." he responded.
Twilight raised her head a little as her ears flickered a bit.
"Wait, Captain? SR-3?" she asked. "I thought-"
"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Celestia screamed in pain.
Twilight rushed to her side with a mix of anger and fear.
"What's wrong!?"
Shepard held out his hand with the orange lights above Celestia's reddened coat on her side as he held her in place with the other.
"Relax! It's Medi-Gel. Yes, it stings, but it's better than bleeding to death here! Just calm down!" he yelled as Celestia's thrashing began to subside. As she began to steady her breathing, the lights over Shepard's arm faded away as he brought his hand up to his helmet.
"Velron? Spark? You there?"
"Confirmed, Captain Shepard." an electric male voice responded.
"You got something, Shep?" a slightly crackly female voice answered.
"I've got an unknown intelligent species here, one massive and bleeding out, another likely traumatized by Cerberus abductions. We need to get what we can and get out in 5. Calling the Shuttle for departure now. Spark, tell the Normandy to ready the Med-Bay."
After a few seconds, the voices responded.
"Message sent to the Normandy, Captain. Shall I draw out any information I can from the security terminals?"
"Go for it. Velron?"
"I'm on the way to LZ for extraction. Can they translate?"
"Been working so far."
"Alright. See you there."
With that, Shepard lowered his hand and reached for Celestia.
"Stay still, I've got you."
He scooped his left arm under Celestia and lifted with surprising ease, allowing the extra force to be exerted into making the experience more painful for her.
"GAAAHH!"
"Sorry, forgot the low gravity."
Before he could start walking, he turned back to Twilight and spoke again.
"Almost forgot, what are your names?"
Twilight gulped and held a hoof up to herself.
"I-I'm Twilight Sparkle. And she," she pointed her hoof to Celestia, "is Princess Celestia."
With that, he pulled out a strange device from his side and let it unfurl into the same thing he took from the one with the sword. He adjusted Celestia so that she was evenly hanging off his left shoulder as he pointed ahead of him with his right hand. He waved towards Twilight with his hand as he began to exit the room.
"Come on, this way."
Twilight shot up from her sitting position and followed him slightly slower, watching as he began to move through the halls.
"Where are we going? Where are you taking us?" Celestia asked, barely above a whisper.
"I'm getting you two home."
\\\//////
Shepard carefully lowered himself along with Celestia down the slant of debris as Twilight followed carefully, trying to remained balanced on her feet. He looked up towards the sky and saw a familiar blue streak race down and land near the bottom of the pile. He quickened his descent until his boots met the ground a few seconds later. He looked back to Twilight and watched as she unfurled her wings and tried to glide down safely towards the ground. A few seconds later, her flight faltered and she went tumbling down towards him at a heightening speed. Shepard tossed the Predator and backed up while bracing his synthetic-enhanced legs for the inevitable impact. He raised his right arm when he saw the whites in her eyes and felt his breath leave him as the lavender blur impacted into his side, sending him stumbling back a bit while he regained control of his stance.
"You... alright?" he asked between huffs.
She opened her eyes and looked up into his helmet with a sort of mix between fear and wonder, like how a child would wee another species for the first time. The sound of the Kodiak depressurizing brought her focus back to reality as Shepard set her down next to him. He looked over to the shuttle and saw Velron and Spark by the door, waving at them to hurry up. Shepard jogged carefully over to them with the injured princess in tow with Twilight not far behind.
When they reached the shuttle, Shepard bounded inside and looked around for a place to set Celestia. After a second of search, he laid her down on one of the benches to the side of the door. When he finished positioning her, he looked up to see that Twilight was right outside with Velron. Spark, however, was already in the Pilot's section, hovering in front of the holographic interface as multiple flashes went off across both the console and Spark. Shepard walked towards the door and called the other two inside.
"Let's go! Come on!" he said with a wave of his arm.
Velron looked up from the lavender alien and nodded, marching past him into the shuttle. Twilight looked at the shuttle with a hint of fear on her face as she slowly approached the entrance. Once she stepped inside, she began to make a clanging sound every time one of her legs hit the floor, causing her to jump back at first. Once she knew what made the sound, she got in as carefully as she could and looked for her associate. Once her gaze fixed on the white figure, she sped over to her side, careful not to disturb her anymore than needed.
Shepard banged twice on the side of the door, signaling the pilot to begin extraction. In the span of a few seconds, the doors were hissing shut as the blue mass began to lift into the air, gaining speed and height until it eventually left the constraints of the Planet's surface.
"Captain," Cortez reported, "good to have you back aboard, sir."
"Cortez, we need to get back ASAP. How long until we dock?"
"We're already inbound, Shepard" Joker chimed. "Should be docked in 10 to 15 minutes, tops."
"Good. I'll try to keep our guests stable."
"Aye, aye." Joker replied, cutting the link.
"So."
Shepard turned to Velron, who was now leaning opposite him, motioning towards the new occupants.
"New species, huh?"
Shepard crossed his arms and stood against the wall.
"Yeah. So far, they haven't treated us with hostility, and from the massive amount of evidence, I'd say they would have had every right to. They were probably abducted from their world by Cerberus, and-"
"Cerberus?" Twilight asked, causing both soldiers to look at her in surprise. "You mean the three-headed-dog that guards the gates of the Underworld?"
They looked at each other, and even though they were wearing helmets, Shepard could tell that Velron had a smug-ass look on her face. He shook his head and addressed the newcomer.
"No, they're a terrorist organization that want to take over the Galaxy by any means necessary. Unfortunately, now it seems to be abducting an entire alien species to use as cannon-fodder."
Twilight backed up a bit and looked between the two and then to Celestia. She began to sob a bit as Shepard and Velron exchanged a glance, Shepard's concern seemingly cutting through the air around them. He walked over to the sobbing alien, got down to her level, and put an arm on her back.
"Hey," he whispered, "don't worry. I'm gonna get you both home, and kick Cerberus off before they have a chance to do anything permanent. Alright?"
She looked up into his face-plate as she sniffled and wiped a tear from her left eye.
"B-but... my friends, they might-"
Shepard held up a finger to stop her.
"I'll make sure they're safe if I have to drag them out myself. Don't worry."
She blinked a few times and allowed a small smile to form on her face, to which Shepard smiled back to. The moment was cut short as they felt the shuttle lurch from underneath them as a deep clicking sound was heard underneath them. The door behind them hissed open as light began to shine through the cracks that expanded around it. By the time the door was open, Shepard had Celestia on his shoulder as Twilight kept close to his side. Velron stepped out first, allowing Shepard and the new species to exit into the bay. Directly into a crowd of medical staff and security teams with rifles at the ready.
\\\//////
Twilight gasped and stopped when she saw an assortment of aliens in front of her in the new environment. There were several types of aliens in front of her, all with different types of strange clothing as well. There were ones with white garments with red crosses on them, varying into two different species. The most abundant being a sort of human-looking, except with more of a peach-like range of colors instead of the massive spectrum she had seen after going through the mirror in the Crystal Empire. They had manes atop their heads, like how she saw, but wore masks that covered their faces. The other aliens that wore the white and red had ranges of orange and green skins, and seemed to be a sort of cross between a frog and a fish by the shape of their faces and textures if she looked closely enough. They were thinner than the other species in front of her, but somewhat taller than most of them.
The ones with the strange clubs wore black and blue clothes and what appeared to be armor, and were also split into two species. Like the other group, there were Humans with their manes cut short, except this majority had cuts on their faces and were predominately male. The other species looked somewhat like an avian leg-structure with a bulk of a torso, also standing on two legs. Their faces looked to be made of a natural armor, like a carapace the Changelings had grown, except with a slight flickering pair of mandibles at the sides of their mouths. They only had three extensions to their hooves, and each appeared to be razor-sharp, like talons. Which they used to point their strange clubs right at her.
"Stand down!" Shepard commanded.
"Sir," one of the avian-like aliens began, "Council protocol dictates that we assume hostility from an unknown race until we can-"
"We just found them on a Cerberus vessel, injured and scared. We are not going to threaten them on my ship! Now put your weapons down! That's an order as your Captain, and as a Spectre!"
The ones with weapons all looked to each other and put the weapons on their backs, where they began to retract into themselves as they hung magically where they were placed.
"Sorry, sir. We thought-"
"We've got bigger issues than enacting a currently useless protocol," Shepard interrupted. "For instance, we've got a foreign diplomat that's in need of immediate medical attention, and an entire planet that's being invaded by Cerberus."
They all glanced around as the one speaking to him came closer.
"Cerberus, sir? You think it could have been..."
Shepard motioned for the ones in white to come to him, and a second later, one of the taller ones with two Humans came up to him.
"She's got internal bleeding and organ failure. Get her to the Med-deck ASAP, and sterilize everything. Zero-G surgery if needed, just make sure everyone's clean before and after any operations." he said as he hefted Celestia to the two Humans, who carried her with ease. One of them nodded and the ones in white fled towards an open door to the side of the metallic room.
"Wait!" she pleaded, reaching out to her mentor.
Shepard went to her side and held her back by her torso.
"Hey, hey! Calm down! She'll be fine." he assured her as she ceased wiggling out of his grasp.
When he released her, Twilight turned and looked up to Shepard and watched as he pulled off his black and blue head, revealing a massively paled-purple skin underneath. As he bent down to her eye-level, she noticed multiple flashing lights in his neck that ran up to his right ear, which was replaced by a circular device that seemed to blend itself with his skin and face. His eyes were a shade of sky-blue, except his right eye seemed brighter, like a lantern or flashlight.
"We need to talk."
\\\//////
Spike looked up from his cover and regretted it instantly, as part of it exploded near his face after a red light nearly burnt his eye. He got back to the ground and panted heavily as the alien had withered his cover even more than before. Why they were so intent of guarding the Castle of the Elder Sisters, he would never want to know, but it felt more of a principal rather than a sabotage mission. For him, at least. The only reason they had let him go so early in his enrollment was because of his skills in close-quarters, what with scales and Dragon-Fire. Now, he felt powerless against these assailants from the skies as he was trapped behind a crumbling statue, nothing more than a sword and a broken crossbow in his possession.
Before he could analyze the situation, he heard a crack of thunder, and peered around his cover to find the balcony had exploded in a flash of electrical power, and his path was now cleared. Spike sprinted from his cover and went into the archway with his sword held close to his heightened form. In the shards of the broken glass from the balcony, he finally had a chance to notice himself in his combat gear and how this war had changed him.
Spike now saw how he had changed after Luna's spell had matured him, now being just as tall as Big Mac, with his purple scales poking out more than they had before the aliens, as he used them to cut through some plants every now and then. His tail had formed a blade of its own after it grew ahead of him, being twice his previous height from tip to base. He had used it to cut through some of the aliens he had fought, and his scales had proven well enough to survive the magic from the smaller weapons they used. His green fins went out like a bad Haypanese comic character, but he thought it looked cool. His armor glistened in the light, giving a golden tint of light on the walls around him. The sword had a fine bronze make, with its runes etched into the flat sides, allowing him to cut through the aliens' magic protection fields with a few decent hits. Spike smirked at himself, feeling like he would make a great hero in a comic book or something like that.
"Help!"
Spike jumped and turned towards the entrance, pulse rising as he recognized the accent of the voice.
"Applejack!" Spike cried as he charged down into the hall.
He rushed down the darkening corridor with his sword held up to his side as he burst through an unseen wooden door. He glanced around and saw three white and yellow armored aliens forcing Ponies into the flying metal boxes that he had seen before. They had strange fire-shooters on each of its ends of the rectangular shape, and grew somewhat in the back, giving it a cockroach-like appearance, except with a matching white and yellow theme.
As he ran towards one of them, the others took notice and pulled out a small metallic device, and fired a three-hit magical burst from their fronts, which bounced harmlessly off of his scales. As Spike neared the first one, he raised his sword high and focused on the runes, pushing his magical aura into it. He swung down with enough force to cut clean through the alien's protective gear and the entire body in a single slice, cutting it clean in half down the middle. Spike turned and saw one of the other two fast approaching with a lightning-rod in hand. He whipped out his tail and cut the attacking alien at the right leg, exposing bone and tissue as it stumbled forwards, plunging face-first into Spike's sword. The third one tossed one of the explosive cans at Spike's feet, landing right onto one of his toes. Spike rolled to the side behind a rock. When he landed, a deafening sound came from behind him as a flash lit up part of the cavern while dirt flew over his armor. He peeked around the corner of the rock and saw the alien try to ready a larger weapon, until an orange blur came from behind it, turned, and hit hard enough to make a sickening crack as it screamed in pain. He charged the fallen creature with his sword raised high and brought the handle down hard on the back of its neck, severing the brain with a liquid squishing sound.
With the three aliens dead, Spike began to pant and sweat through his scales. He looked up to the pony that helped him take down the threat, and recognized every feature. The brown Stetson, red handkerchief around the neck, white freckles adorning the same face with large emerald eyes, and a muscular flank that adorned three apples for a signature Cutie Mark.
"Applejack!" Spike proclaimed as he dropped his sword and tackled the farmer to the ground in a hug filled with sweat and tears. When they landed, Spike began to cry into her coat, clinging fur to skin with near-boiling tears.
"S-Spike?" she asked.
He looked up into her face and started to retract himself as she stared at his figure. When he rose to his feet, he reached out and helped her up.
"Yeah?" he replied.
"Wha... How in tarnation did you manage ta get like this?"
"I asked Luna if she knew anything that would help me in combat, seeing as how I wanted to fight to find you guys, and so she helped my physical body mature a few decades. I can't believe it though, how'd you get here!? Where have you been?"
Applejack brushed her forelegs as she sat on her haunches, looking up to the gold-armored Dragon.
"Well, I don't really know. I just woke up 'ere, and then watched 'em load up some Ponies into them strange doo-hickies, and then send 'em up ta their ships, or somethin'. Only thing was, they were all Earth Ponies. The only other one I saw was Pinkie, and she's knocked out in that there box thing." she said, motioning to one with her hoof.
Spike looked towards the strange thing and saw that it's door was open. He rushed inside to see the familiar pink Party-Pony on the floor of the empty space, with a series of burns on her back from the lightning-rods. He reached for her burned form and carefully picked her up and slung her over his shoulder. Spike walked out of the white metal box and waved for Applejack to follow him.
"Come on, let's get out of here."
Applejack came up to his side and glanced from side to side with an uneasy feeling, as if they were being watched by some kind of haunting presence.
\\\//////
"... And that's all I remember, up until now." Twilight finished.
Shepard stood in front of her with a hand under his chin, and an arm underneath in a thinking pose.
"So," Shepard started, "you found one of Aunt Liara's message-drones."
Twilight cocked her head to the side.
"Aunt Liara? She isn't your crew-mate like she said?"
Shepard shook his head and lowered his arms to his sides. He turned towards the elevator and waved for her to follow, to which she did indeed.
"She did follow a Commander Shepard, but not me. The one you heard of was my father."
"Wait, you're... his son? She never mentioned a child."
"That message is almost 30 years old, older than me, even. She couldn't mention me because I wasn't born then. However," Shepard reached out to the holo-panel at the main elevator door, opening the shaft, "that doesn't change the fact that I will get you home safely."
He waved his hand into the compartment, allowing her to go in first. She stepped inside and Shepard followed, pushing a transparent button that closed the doors. She looked up to him and tapped his leg.
"But, do you know where to go? What about how many Cerberus are there?"
"Didn't stop my father, why would it stop me? I made a promise, and I will keep it."
The doors opened to reveal the Armory, with staff at it's minimal, with only a few Turians and a specific yellow Krogan at the lockers.
"Banlik!" Shepard called.
The massive hulk of armor and flesh turned to see Shepard and his small purple companion at his side. He smirked and approached the small creature, which began to cower in fear of the mass before her.
"Stand down, Banlik. She's a guest, not an invader."
Banlik gave a deep chuckle and swatted Shepard on his arm.
"Relax, Shep. Just saying 'hi' to our little friend here." He bent down in front of the alien and extended his right arm. "It's alright, little one. I'm not gonna hurt ya."
Twilight leaned from her cover, which was Shepard's legs, and responded.
"What are you?"
Banlik stood at his full height and extended his arms out to his sides.
"I, am a proud KROGAN WARLORD!"
Shepard shook his head and leaned towards Twilight.
"He's an egotistical wall of muscle and armor, with a soft spot for children. Get in his way, you better hope you die quickly."
The Krogan then waved off at Shepard's comment and went to the Firing Range, where a Claymore was waiting for him. Twilight observed as Shepard went over to one of the walls and began to pull of his armor, one piece at a time, until he was wearing a black and blue uniform that matched most of the Human crew. He went back to Twilight and patted her back.
"You alright?"
She looked up at his face and then towards the crew and back to him a few times.
"It's just that... well,"
"Captain!" a voice called from the ceiling, "We need you in Medical!"
Shepard rushed into the elevator and pushed the number for the Medical Deck, closing the doors and sending both him and Twilight up the shaft. When they opened, they looked behind a glass wall, where several armed guards were aiming at the constricted form of Celestia. Shepard charged out from the elevator and through the scanners connecting the two rooms.
"Stand down! Now!"
One of the Turian guards stepped forward with his Avenger pointed at the white alien.
"Sir, we have orders to hold down this unidentified alien menace before-"
"I did NOT give you orders to take aim at a defenseless being, while she is in need of medical attention! Now stand DOWN!"
"Sir, please, the security footage showed that this was the one that ripped the Cruiser apart. If we let her go now,"
Twilight charged up to Shepard's side and faced the guards.
"But she can't do any of that now! Her horn's broken in too many places to focus any of her power to do a hundredth of what you saw! Please! She was only doing it to because we were taken from our home! She was doing what she thought was necessary!"
"And how long until we become a threat, huh? We won't take that cha-"
Before the Turian could finish his retort, his weapon exploded in his arms, sending him stumbling back a few steps. When he looked to where it was, he saw Shepard with his Omni-tool raised and pointed at the guards.
"Stand. Down. We are not to harm an innocent race, based on the footage of ONE encounter, against Cerberus. You really want to judge an entire species based on contact with them?"
The guards all looked between each other and began to holster their weapons as Shepard lowered his arm.
"Now," Shepard started, turning to Twilight, "care to explain what they mean?"
Twilight looked between the guards and him, and gulped loudly.
"Well, are they talking about that big ship you found us in?"
Shepard nodded once.
"Then I think they're talking about her magic."
"Magic?"
"Yes. Unicorns and Alicorns can concentrate their magical auras through their horns, utilizing one of the most versatile energies found in our bodies. Celestia's magic is by far the most powerful in all of Equestria, being the Princess of the Sun, but without her horn, she won't be able to perform any kind of spells until it's fully healed. Do you not have magic?"
"No. No species to date has been able to do 'magic'. Some can naturally use Biotics, like Humans and Asari, but what makes magic that you use special?"
"Well, we can use it for teleportation, levitation, like for writing and eating, but some can use it to construct shields or specific tools. But really, none of you can use magic?"
"No. We've relied solely on technology and sciences."
"Really?"
"Sir."
They both turned to the Turian guard, whose hands were charred slightly.
"I think it would be in everyone's best interests if our 'guests' were kept under surveillance."
"Tell you what, if either tries to harm anyone, blame me, because we are not going to treat civilians like prisoners. If either of them does, then I would willingly revoke my own Spectre status."
The guard switched to a stunned expression, staring slack-jawed at the Captain. He shook his head and stood at attention.
"Yes, sir."
Shepard nodded in response, signaling for the guard to stand at-ease. Celestia let out a moan from the bed she was held in, prompting Twilight to rush to her side. Shepard pointed to the Med-Crew behind another glass-plane.
"Release her."
With the push of a few lights, the field of light above Celestia's bed dispersed, allowing her to sit upright, revealing a massive bandaged torso that matched an equally wrapped horn. She raised a leg to her head and recoiled when she struck her own horn. Shepard rushed to her side and tried to calm her.
"Easy! Easy, it's alright. Staff?" Shepard called.
"Affirmative, Captain." A rapid, and somewhat high-pitched voice replied. "The patient's examination revealed several wounded organs, nothing major. We were able to easily patch up all arteries before a substantial amount of blood was lost, and have recorded the genetic make-up of the species. Luckily, we have a surplus of Levo-based medical supplies, as well as nourishment, so there is no need to worry about keeping them alive or fed. However, we have noticed a higher rate of healing through a source of energy that we cannot seem to examine. Perhaps the 'magic' discussed with your associate."
Shepard turned to Celestia, who was now looking around the deck feverishly, flicking her eyes between the guards and the staff.
"Wh-where am I?" she asked.
"It's alright. You're on the Normandy, my ship. I said I'd get you home, so here we are. On our way."
Twilight stood on her back legs to peek over the edge of the bed.
"Twilight!" Celestia gasped, reaching out to hug her.
They wrapped their front legs around each other and held on tightly. Shepard couldn't help but smile at the display, but let it fade when Celestia looked at him.
"Captain, Council's on the line." Joker called over the intercom. "Want me to pick it up for you?"
Shepard looked to Twilight and Celestia and sighed.
"Tell them to wait a minute."
"Roger that."
He looked down to Twilight.
"Do you think you can come with me? I need proof that your kind exists, and that you're civilized enough to give an excuse to save."
"Wait, why wouldn't they let you save us if you didn't show me to them?"
"Council law dictates that we can't get involved with an under-developed species or else we could upset the natural process of evolution and innovation."
"But, what about Cerberus? How can they come in and foalnap everypony from our planet?"
"They're a terrorist organization. They don't follow the rules."
"But... if you're trying to fight them, shouldn't there be an exception?"
"We're about to find out."
Shepard turned to the door and entered the elevator, motioning for Twilight to follow. She looked to Celestia, who nodded for her to go. Twilight fell to her hooves and went to the elevator. Once inside, Shepard pushed the command for the CIC deck, and they soon were greeted by the dark corridors of the bridge. Shepard waved to Twilight for her to follow, and they went to the door on the right side of the deck. When it opened, two female guards stood on either side of a blue scanner-doorway. Shepard stepped into the field and waited for a few seconds before being cleared through. Twilight then followed his example and stood still in the middle of the blue field. After a few more minutes, she was waved through by one of the guards, and met up with Shepard on the other side.
Behind the checkpoint was a glass-walled room with a smooth looking wooden table that seemed to fuse with the floor, located on the left with a massive window, showing the starry expanse outside. They passed the room and entered a large circular room with multiple seats that went into the floor that surrounded a blue-lit table in the center. The two kept going past the table and went into a room with large blue circles on the floor behind a rail. Above the circles were three familiar figures.
"Councilors." Shepard nodded.
The three ghost-like figures looked to Shepard and then to Twilight. Veron was the first to speak.
"Captain, is that one of the unknown alien life-form you found in the Cruiser?"
"Yes, she is. Her name is Twilight, and-"
"Shepard, please." Tevos interrupted. "We wanted to discuss your blatant disregard for Citadel Protocols in private, not in front of an unregistered species."
"With all due respect, ma'am, Cerberus abducted her and another, and may still be abducting their kind right now. We have bigger concerns than-"
"Now, Shepard."
Shepard gave a frustrated sigh and turned to Twilight.
"I'm sorry, just wait over there for a little bit."
Twilight nodded with a concerned frown and walked out of the doorway. Shepard turned back to the Councilors.
"Shepard, you made contact with an under-developed race, allowed them onto your ship, and have likely given them good reason to never trust the Citadel or the Council ever. Do you have any idea what kind of punishment that entitles?"
"With all due respect, sir," Shepard spit out, "I've just saved two foreign dignitaries, one of which is actually a figure of power for their race, and have just narrowed down where Cerberus may be hiding. We found the coordinates for a Mass Relay that Cerberus activated, and are likely hiding Oleg Petrovsky. Also, if they would have any reason to never trust the Council, it would be because we made them fight for themselves while a superior force, that we can stop right now, is occupying their world, and abducting their inhabitants. We have EVERY reason to intervene. And if none of you will see it, then I'm going to help them myself."
Two more figures came to life in front of him, along with a deep bellowing laugh.
"That's how you tell 'em, Shepard!" Wrex boomed.
Veron swiped his arm sideways to interject.
"It doesn't matter! You will report back to the Citadel, hand over the creatures to STG, and revoke your command of this operation, while we send in a fleet to prepare an ambush for the Cerberus forces behind the Relay."
Wrex pointed his finger accusingly at the Councilors.
"No chance! Shepard, you know how these Pyjacks can't understand what needs to be done, especially if they don't like the idea of playing hero for another species! Now, I say we put it to a vote. All those who want Shepard to go through that Relay and kick some Cerberus ass, while saving an entire race, say 'aye'."
"Aye." Anderson wheezed out.
"Aye." Wrex stated.
"Aye." Said Valern.
The other two Councilors looked at the Salarian with disgust and shook their heads. Veron stood with his hands behind his back before addressing Shepard.
"Fine. But when you return, we will hold a meeting discussing your position as a Spectre."
With that, the Turian and Asari Councilors faded out. Wrex turned to the Salarian Councilor and smirked.
"So, the Salarian's got some common sense, huh?"
"We already made the mistake of not acting on invaluable data once against Cerberus. I can't be responsible for yet another species to go extinct because of regulations that no one bothers to uphold. Shepard, please. Make it right. Save them."
Valern then faded out as well, leaving Anderson and Wrex. Wrex turned to Shepard and held a massive grin.
"Go get them, Shepard. Make sure Cerberus hurts for what they did."
"Yes, sir."
Wrex nodded and also faded from view, leaving only two Humans (and one Unicorn) in the room.
"Councilor Anderson, sir." Shepard started.
"Shepard, how many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?" he let out with a weak laugh. "I want you to know that your father would be proud. You go out there and show them that what's right is different than what's expected."
Shepard gave a salute to Anderson.
"Thank you."
Anderson gave one final nod and faded out as well, leaving only Shepard and Twilight. Shepard turned and saw the Unicorn waiting at the door, poking her head in from the frame. He smiled at her as she ducked behind cover. Shepard approached the doorway and spoke to her.
"It's alright, come out."
She looked up to his face and followed him as they made their way to the exit.
"Thank you." she said.
"For what?"
"For not listening to them. I mean, I would always follow what Celestia tells me, but with them, I'm kinda glad that you made your own choice."
"It's what my father would have done, that's for sure."
Twilight gazed up at his form and remembered what the device had told her and her friends. All the greatness, the power, the spirit, and even the warmth that was described about his father seemed more likely to fit him. And she felt safe, knowing that he cared more about doing what's right. She felt safer knowing that he swore to help her and Equestria, and felt awestruck at how he seemed to radiate qualities of a leader. That he was more than the story-book hero that the video lady had said.
"Yeah, like your father."

//-------------------------------------------------------//
                        Catching Up                        
//-------------------------------------------------------//
Catching Up
"... And that's about it." Twilight finished with a sad tone.
She had spent a good few hours with Shepard in the Lounge, explaining her homeworld and all of the things that she and her friends had done before they were attacked by Cerberus. It did get quite awkward when she mentioned their Cerberus, the three-headed dog, but was quickly resolved. Twilight had mentioned all of their adventures against dark forces and battling the God of Chaos, and occasionally about how they would over-exaggerate a small problem until it blew out of control only to be resolved then by what could easily have been done in the first place. Shepard listened with great interest, as it would be helpful to understand her world for when they do get there.
Shepard leaned forward on the leather couch, and looked out towards the black expanse of space, with a hand on his leg and his other under his chin.
"Wow. I've gotta say, that's impressive." he said with a smile.
Hearing his reply, Twilight managed a smile of her own, before she responded.
"Oh, please. I'm sure it's nothing like what you've seen. I mean, Equestria is beautiful, but you get to be in space! All the time! You can explore the entire Galaxy and go see places I couldn't even dream of! Why don't you share some of your stories?" she asked, lying down on the opposite couch.
Shepard let out a sigh as he leaned back into his seat, crossing his left leg over his right.
"Well, I haven't really been so much as an explorer as I have a soldier. The only places I've seen were mostly battlefields and ruins. I doubt they're that interesting to hear about."
Twilight frowned at this and laid her head down on her forehooves.
"Oh."
"But, that doesn't mean I haven't seen some nice things."
Twilight's head shot up with a renewed smile plastered on her face. Seeing this, Shepard chuckled and smiled himself, before starting again.
"When I was young, I spent most of my time exploring the area around my home on Rannoch, a nice little arid planet at the edge of the Rim. The landscape was nothing to be that impressed by, but what really stuck to me, was the sight of the cities being built in the distance."
"Oh? Why were the cities so nice? Were they made of something special? Like crystals?"
"No, not like that. Well, sort of. You see, a long time ago on Rannoch, my mother's people, the Quarians, created a race of Synthetics, or robot-people, called the Geth. The Geth were programmed to be servants of the people, hence the word used to name them. One day, the Geth began to form a collective network of sorts, and began to think like a living being. Eventually, they began to wonder things... Dangerous things. Then, one Geth unit asked a question that the old Quarians never thought any of them would ask."
He turned to Twilight to see that she was now in full-blown curious with the story, and stared hungrily at him, waiting for the question.
"'Does this unit have a Soul?'"
Twilight raised a hoof to her mouth as she gasped, some tears forming at her eyes. She blinked them away and looked to him.
"What... what did the Quarians do?"
"Well, some supported the growth of the Geth, showing that even a machine could be capable of thinking and feeling. A majority were scared of what they had done, and tried to exterminate the Geth. Unfortunately, the Geth were more than capable of fighting for themselves, with the way they were built to adapt, and drove the entirety of the Quarians off the planet. The remainder of the Quarians fled the system and formed the Migrant Fleet, a collection of vessels that served only one purpose: to house the Quarian people."
Twilight was nearly in tears, torn over which side to agree with. One only wanted to be free to think, but went to such violent means to do so, while the other wanted to destroy the first, but had nearly been given the opposite end of what they wanted, and had lost the one place they called home.
"W-what happened then?"
"About thirty years ago, the Quarian Fleet went to retake the Homeworld by force. The Geth were ready. My father, however, was not willing to stand by and let two great races burn each other down for the sake of one planet. They both wanted the right to live on the world they called home, and Dad saw an opportunity to make sure they both got what they wanted. He helped a Geth unit known as 'Legion' acquire a code that would make the Geth fully self-aware, truly alive.The Heavy Fleet Admiral, however, wanted to exterminate the Geth before they had a chance to recover. My father yelled down an entire fleet of nearly fifty-thousand ships, saying that the Geth only wanted to live in peace with them. After the code was downloaded to the Geth, the one known as Legion died. But, before anyone could react, the Geth fleet stopped firing, and sent messages to the Quarian fleets, saying, 'you may return to Rannoch, alongside us'. After that, the Geth and Quarians began to rebuild our world. Together."
He turned to smile at Twilight.
"The city I saw being built was the first joint city between the two races. They were tearing down the walls between the smallest of their ships, and joined them together to make something better, not only for themselves, but for everyone out there. If two races like the Quarians and Geth could find a common ground, and even peace, then there's no reason for any one-time enemies to keep hating each other."
Twilight smile widely as she heard the end to the tale of two races, once locked in bitter conflict over life-and-death, which was resolved and now looked as only a tale that would inspire more to do the same.
"That's... wow." she smiled.
Shepard nodded in agreement and smiled back intently at her.
After a few solid seconds of silence, the door behind them parted to reveal Celestia, accompanied by a Salarian and a Turian guard, with no weapon.
"Captain." the guard and Medical Officer saluted.
Shepard stood and returned the action, lowering it after a good few seconds. They lowered theirs and motioned for the Princess to come with them into the cabin.
"So," Shepard started, "looks like someone's got something they want to say."
Celestia chuckled a bit and waved her hoof at Shepard.
"Nothing bad about the staff. I can understand their concerns. If I had a powerful alien being in my court, I certainly wouldn't go about allowing it access to everything I had without knowing if it was safe to even let out of sight."
Shepard nodded once in agreement.
"I do, however, want to say thank you for helping us both, nonetheless. You were willing to risk a potential danger on the solitary fact that we were stranded in that... thing, and you knew that whoever took us did it without good intentions."
"Cerberus has always been a sort of magnet to trouble for every race since it first came up. Now it just so happens that they take one such as yourselves away from your home, and leave you stranded on a deserted planet? How am I supposed to let that go by without knowing I could have done something?"
"Well, I want you to know that I am forever grateful for your assistance. And even more so for comforting my most faithful student."
"Co problem at all. Twilight just finished telling me about your planet. It sounds like what a lot of us would consider paradise. When we kick Cerberus off of it, I've gotta make sure that I do some sight-seeing, or at least make note of it for Shore Leave."
"Well, I hope that we can end this violence quickly so that we may thank you appropriately for your services towards our people."
Shepard waved his hands out in front of him.
"Seriously, you don't need to focus on that. It's our mission to stop them, at every turn."
Celestia smiled warmly and nodded.
"Alright then. Thank you, still. I hope we can save as many of Ponies as we can."
"Knowing Cerberus, they'll more than likely try to take as many as they can alive, for tests. Hell, I wouldn't put it past them to have been given orders to use stun-rounds only, make sure they've got as many as possible."
Celestia's brow furrowed as her expression changed to concern.
"What kind of tests?" she asked.
"The kind that involves as many subjects as possible to make sure something works well enough for the majority of them. They won't try to kill them with anything, that'll put a damper on their goal. Before you ask, it's better if we make sure they don't get the time they need to even start the tests."
Celestia lowered her head with a sigh as she closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she looked at Shepard and spoke.
"I hope that we can stop them as well, because if one of them is experimented on in any way-"
Shepard walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"They won't be. You have my word."
She looked into his face and smiled lightly before turning around.
"Twilight, stay with him. I need to go back to rest. If we get back, please wake me."
With that, she left the room, soon being followed by both the physician and the guard. When the door closed, Shepard looked back to Twilight. He walked back over to the couch he sat on and replaced his spot once more.
"So, any more stories you want to know?"
Twilight's eyes beamed as she smiled brightly at him. Shepard smiled back intently, confident that he would make sure that she had a chance to later see the Galaxy.
\\\//////
Rainbow Dash woke up with a soft moan, which then escalated to a pained scream as she tried to stretch her appendages. She tried to move to her hooves, but found herself bounded by some kind of metal that kept her wings clamped onto her sides. When her gaze went to her hooves, she saw a similar metal that kept them locked at separate spacings, as if she were frozen in the middle of a trot.
Then, next to her was a noise of some kind. Before she could look around, the traps on her hooves unlatched, and only then did she fully realize that she was being hung upside-down recently. Her face became acquainted with a white metal ground as she heard several more rhythmic thumps beside her.
When she forced her eyes open again, she saw in front of her was a group of about twenty or so Pegasi, including one Fluttershy. The room they were all in had about eight beds, all mounted on the walls around them. However, where a massive door should be, was a see-through wall of orange energy, that seemed to crackle and hiss with an unseen power.
From the other side of the light-screen, came several creatures that wore yellow and white armor, and stood on two legs. The one in the center had on a uniform that had several stripes on the shoulders, and had almost no fur, except for the beard and collection on it's head, both seemingly faded black. The one with the stripes came up to the screen and smiled when it saw Rainbow Dash.
"It seems we have a resilient one with us." It spoke.
It made a gesture to its left and a moment later, the field dropped. One of the armored ones came up to her with a staff and jabbed into her mass of fur and flesh. Brutally. She howled in pain as the electricity from the rod jolted through her body, awestruck that they could do this much electrical pain to a Pegasus.
As she lost consciousness, there was a collection of sounds that she heard.
"Don't have... need... least three days... indoctri... es, sir, General Petrovsky."
With the final mention of a name, her world faded to black, and she fell into a deep sleep, unaware of the scans being performed on her and her friends.
\\\//////
"Captain, you gotta see this." Joker called over the intercom.
Shepard looked to Twilight and motioned for her to follow. They got up and went to the elevator, where they met Traynor waiting for them.
"Traynor, what's going on?"
"We found a Mass Relay that's almost dead, and the signature behind it matches the data pulled from the downed Cruiser. We believe that it may very well be the one that leads to their world."
The elevator doors closed as the three were brought up to the control center for the ship. They walked past the main table, which was displaying both a Galaxy Map and the schematics of the Normandy, and went directly towards the Pilot's Bridge. Traynor saluted and went off towards her section of the CIC, as Twilight followed Shepard to the front of the ship.
They passed two more sets of doors and entered a small room filled to the brim with control panels, shared between only five seats. The main one being operated by none other than Joker. He swiveled the chair and spoke to the Captain.
"So, Shepard, this is one of our guests? Gotta say, it's a nice break from always coming back with something that knows 37 different ways to kill me with nothing but a ball-point pen. Lemme just say sorry that we had to meet you by the means of Cerberus abductions. Hope you enjoy your stay."
Twilight nodded at the Pilot's remark, happy to hear that she was welcomed by him.
"But anyways, take a look."
Joker waved some controls around as the holo-screens rearranged before them, giving everyone in the room a clear view of what was outside the ship.
Before them, in the coldness of space, was indeed a Mass Relay. However, this one was indeed different. It was almost a fifth of the size, and every time the gyroscopes passed each other, the color of the core changed. It was as if the entire spectrum of visible light was playing with the spinning parts of the Relay, only revealing one every pass. The light in the center, however, was flickering to the point of almost being unnoticeable.
"What is that?" Twilight asked, her eyes practically glowing with curiosity.
"That's a Mass Relay." Joker answered. "Basically giant sling-shots that send you from one point in the Galaxy to another. You see, our ships can only go so fast, and since there's one Normandy, and I don't plan on sharing it with an entire arm of the Galaxy, Relays are kind of like instant-travel points for more massive distances. I first thought of them as like massive teleportation hubs."
"Amazing!"
"What's really amazing right now is how Cerberus managed to find a way to power it down. Pretty soon, there won't be any way to your world. Unless we pass the point of no return without some back up."
There was a moment of silence as Shepard stared at the dying Relay, pondering about which option would be best.
"We're going, aren't we?" Joker deadpanned.
Shepard nodded as Joker rotated his chair back around to the controls.
"Well, I've done stupider. And deadlier."
He waved his hands over the controls as Shepard addressed the crew.
"Attention, all hands: brace for Relay Jump."
He turned back to the window with Twilight. They watched as arcs of multicolored light began to strike the ship as they got closer. The gyroscopes began to spin rapidly as the Normandy drew closer to its side, stretching out more and more until they were gone in a flash. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAny5rbZC8k) Leaving only the dying light of a Relay becoming dormant once more.
\\\//////
Lights danced across the glass above the three occupants of the room as the ship began to settle in with the momentum. Joker turned his chair to them and spoke.
"Well, I've got good news and bad news. Good news is, we're on our way now, and should arrive in a new system in about two more days. Bad news, Relay's dead. We can't go back unless the Council finds the Relay and reactivates it. And well, you know how they are." he said with a wave of his hands.
"I know that some of them know when regulations are above all else, and when there's a job that needs doing. Hopefully, we won't need to deal with any moaning or whining about this until after we've dealt with Cerberus. Just make sure that everything goes smoothly when we transition back to normal space, alright?"
"Aye, aye." Joker saluted, turning his chair back to the controls.
Shepard looked down to Twilight, and saw that she was still frozen in awe, mouth agape in a child-like smile of wonder. He shook his head and reached to tap her shoulder. Her head jumped back at the sudden contact, but she smiled when she saw it was Shepard.
"We've got two more days before you get home. Anything you want to know or see?"
She raised a hoof to her chin and began to think. When she got an idea, her eyes widened and she raised her hoof to him.
"I would like to know if you have anything I could read. Like a library."
Shepard chuckled and pulled a drone sphere from his belt.
"Even better."
He tossed the sphere into the air in front of him, where it hovered for a few seconds. He pulled out his Omni-tool and activated the A.I. The sphere burst into a light-blue light with a holographic surface, and addressed Shepard with a frill mechanical voice.
"Greetings, Shepard."
Shepard motioned to Twilight.
"Spark, this is our guest, Twilight Sparkle. She wants to learn about our culture and our history. I give her the authority, as a Spectre, to be able to view whatever she wants."
"Of course, sir." Spark responded.
The Drone flew over to Twilight, where it began to introduce itself.
"Greetings, Twilight Sparkle. I am the personalized Artificial Intelligence for Anthony Shepard, codenamed: Spark. You may refer to me as such. I have been given orders to allow you any access to the files available on the extranet as well as our personalized databanks."
"Could you keep her out of my databanks?" Joker called.
Twilight beamed at the Drone with a wide smile.
"Oooh! So many questions!" she said while clopping her forelegs together.
Shepard shook his head as he smiled at her.
"Well, I'm off to check on the ship. Haven't really seen much of it."
Twilight looked between him and the drone, pondering.
"Um, if it isn't too much trouble, can I come with you? I'd like to see this ship for myself. Everything's just so fascinating."
Shepard smiled at her.
"Sure. You can ask Spark for any kind of clarification while we look around."
Twilight smiled brightly at the revelation, and made some sort of squeaking sound. Shepard turned towards the main deck and began walking. Twilight then followed closely behind him, determined to learn as much as she could about everything around her.

//-------------------------------------------------------//
                      Plan of Attack                       
//-------------------------------------------------------//
Plan of Attack
As time crept by, Spike felt as though his world were coming to even more of an end as he and Applejack waited outside the medical tent. While they were able to save the Ponies being held by the Yellow Daemons in the Castle of the Elder Sisters, they had lost their closest foothold to the origin of their attack: Ponyville. They had lost the one place that he had called home for the last few months, and he was not happy about it. Not one bit.
Thinking back to the encampment they had now, he was satisfied that they were at least planning on how to take it back. There were more than enough able Ponies here with the recent group of inductees that were transferred via Unicorn signals between the towns. They had even picked up a few groups of Changelings in the Forest, and convinced them to join forces for the fate of the world. While their numbers were now increasing, so was the risk for leaving the civilians. Not only had he found Pinkie and Applejack, but an entire sum of Earth Ponies trapped in weird laser-cages. Their profiles all matched those from the population from Canterlot as well, but there wasn't a single Unicorn or Pegasus from the city.
Before another thought about the city could come to the Dragon, a Medic came up to him from the tent with a mixed look on his face. Applejack got up to hear what he had to say.
"I'm sorry." he started, removing his helmet. "We did everything we could, but we weren't able to save her nerves from the damage of their lightning-rods. I'm afraid she'll never be able to walk again."
Applejack removed her hat and began to weep into it, words failing to form as she fell to her knees. Spike denied his new body the will to fight back tears, and felt his scales steam from the contact of his own juices. He clenched his fists in rage, and sobbed as quietly as he could while staring up into the sky.
It didn't matter now, how long they were to wait. It didn't matter if he would have to sleep for 50,000 years to take revenge on the Daemons. He didn't care if he had to travel across the planet and unite all the world under a single banner to make up for lost time. All he knew at that point, was that they were going to pay with their blood. Even if it meant waiting for even more help, from anyone. From anything. Anywhere.
\\\//////
As Shepard came out of the elevator into the CIC, he noticed that the rest of his team was already at their respective stations. Hunter was at one end of the Schematics Board, with Spark parallel. Banlik waited on the left side next to Velron, with their weapons already in their hands. However, one thing that truly interested Shepard was why Twilight and Celestia were also waiting for him here. He walked up next to Twilight and whispered to her.
"What are you doing here?"
"Captain." Traynor spoke.
Shepard focused his attention on the Comms Officer and leaned onto the railing.
"We thought it would be best they were here in light of a recent find. Spark? Hunter?"
The two A.I.s began to work on either side of the triangular projection table, Spark spinning in place while Hunter pulled up an interaction device, shaped like Spark, only red. After a few seconds, a station appeared on the hologram projector. It looked like a massive capital L, with a massive ring going around the longer part, by the mid-section. On the vertex of the L, was a highlighted Hanger Bay, and on the main shaft of the station was a room highlighted with at least 80 blue lights, crowded 20 in a section.
"When the Normandy reentered Normal Space," Spark started, "we detected a large station at the edge of the system's outer asteroid belt. The signature of which matches that of Cerberus."
"After running multiple scans," Hunter interjected, "we have determined that the station is indeed an Indoctrination Laboratory, with a defensive compliment of 60 fighters, documented to be the same models used in the Reaper War."
Shepard felt his blood pressure practically explode with the amount of tension the two brought forth, and leaned in closer to the projection.
"What about those dots? The blue ones?"
Spark blinked for a few seconds before responding.
"After scanning the station's logs and energy signatures, we have determined the origin of said life forms are yet to be documented. However, we currently have two specimen on board at the moment."
"What Spark, A.I. is trying to say is that the life forms within the station are the same species as our guests."
Shepard shot his head to the side to look at Twilight and Celestia, to see that they were just as surprised as him. Celestia approached the projection further and spoke.
"My Ponies are on board that... thing?"
"Affirmative." Hunter replied.
She looked back and forth between the group of soldiers and began to raise her voice.
"Why are we sitting here then? Huh? Why aren't we doing something!?"
Shepard marched over to her and spoke softly enough to try to calm her down.
"Because we don't know what kind of defenses we're dealing with yet, nor do we know where to go to find them, or if they're even able to move at all. Then, we have to figure out a way to bring them back to the ship, both in terms of transportation, and proper motivation."
"Captain." Spark spoke.
"Yes?" he responded, turning to the drone.
"Hunter and I have found access to their main systems. We are currently tracking all whereabouts of the crew and taking note of every security detail inside and outside the station."
Shepard leaned on the railing again to listen to what the two had to offer.
"The station itself," Hunter began, "is protected by a squadron of approximately 60 fighters dated to be at least 23 years obsolete. However, there are a number of highly advanced Anti-fighter turrets mounted around the only docking bay available on the station. Their overall range and capabilities would severely limit the possibility of out-classing the fighter squadrons without massive casualties."
"However," Spark interrupted, "if the Normandy were to stealthily move into a close enough range, I could use the Geth torpedoes to obliterate the turrets without causing significant damage to the station itself. After which, we may launch fighters while I shut down the inner-station security systems, allowing you and your team to find the civilians."
Shepard moved his hand out to highlight the section of the stations that connected the Hangar to the Prison Block.
"So that leaves getting into the station and then finding a way to get them out without resorting to force."
Shepard leaned back and thought for a second before focusing back on the display.
"I say we go in with the Hammerheads and save the Kodiaks for when we start moving the civilians. Hammerheads will give us the firepower we need to keep the Hangar secured until we can extract the civies, then bring in the Kodiaks to carry the bulk of them out."
Banlik armed his Claymore and approached the table.
"How are we gonna get the civilians to go peacefully, though? I doubt I can carry them all in one go, even if I didn't need to shoot anything."
Shepard raised a hand to his chin to ponder the thought, but was interrupted by a knocking on the railing. He turned to see that Twilight was trying to get everyone's attention.
"Um, I would like to go with you."
Shepard moved his hands down and went over to her.
"No, absolutely not. We are not risking another innocent life in this. We're going to be shooting our way through waves of soldiers, and you don't have any kind of armor, or a weapon."
"But, I can use my magic as a shield, or turn myself invisible!"
"No way. I'm not letting you go through with this."
"But Shepard-"
"Shepard." Celestia spoke up.
They both turned to her as she approached Twilight.
"She's proven herself time and time again, as not just a leader, but as a fighter. You need one of us to go with you to move my little Ponies, and I can't use my magic at the time. And I doubt that with your capabilities, you would let any harm come to her. I would agree with you, were the circumstances different, but I beg you. I'm pleading to you, just let her help convince them to follow you. If they see her with you, they'll be more than willing to trust you. Please."
Shepard shifted from foot to foot, tossing the thought around his head. Eventually, he sighed and shook his head.
"Fine. But Twilight, listen to me. There will be blood and violence, all over the place. If we end up making it in time, hopefully, that's all you'll have to worry about. And I really hope that Cerberus is all we have to deal with in there."
Twilight went up to him and looked up with a frightened expression.
"What do you mean by that?"
He looked down at her with a saddened expression.
"If we're too late... just don't think about that. Please."
She gave a weak nod and then went over to the elevator. She turned back to Shepard.
"Should I... wait in the bay?"
Shepard turned and nodded silently. When the doors closed her off from them, he turned to Celestia and spoke.
"What kind of experience does she even have?"
"She's faced off against some of the most evil beings I've ever faced, and beaten them all. Even when an ancient Centaur tried to destroy everything, she stood up against him and fought against his nearly-infinite strength, and won. If I were to choose anypony to ever be my replacement, it would be her, every time. Have faith in her. I know she has enough in you."
Shepard took those words into thought for a moment before focusing back on the plan at hand.
"So, now that we know how we're going to move civilians, let's lay this down for the record. First, we come up close with Normandy in stealth mode, launch all fighters, and then take down their anti-fighter defenses with the Normandy's close-range torpedoes. Then, while they're distracted, Banlik, Velron, Hunter, Twilight, and I will take the Hammerheads into the Hangar Bay. From there, we split into two teams: Banlik and Velron will hold the Hangar with Hammerhead support, while Hunter, Twilight and I move in to extract the civilians. Once we secure as many as we can, we call in for Kodiak extraction for the first groups, and take the last two with us in the Hammerheads. Since there's about 80, we'll need to split it according to however much space we've got for them. We'll probably end up sending the bulk in the Kodiaks, but we'll keep the Hammerheads in place, just in case. Meanwhile, Spark, I want you to keep hacking their systems. When we get the civilians moving, lock off every hallway that doesn't lead from the Prison Block to the Hangar. Are we good?"
He received a chorus of agreements, and moved for the Armory.
"Let's do this."
\\\//////
When Rainbow Dash tried to open her eyes, she found herself slamming them shut from the flooding of light. After they finally adjusted, she saw that she was in a room full of weird orange floating lights and white metal surfaces. She tried to move anything she could feel, but found them bound by something. To her sides, her wings were still clamped down with a giant metal ring. Her legs, however, were all stretched out in different directions, with giant metal clamps that held them in place from the hoof. Then, she look in front of her, and her heart dropped.
In the same kind of bindings, was her life-long friend: Fluttershy. She was also waking up, but as she woke up, a two-legged figure in white and yellow armor of some kind came up to a floating orange thing and waved its appendages over it. Now she noticed something odd: the lights were like the ones on the box that Twilight had found. As the alien kept on waving around the lights, Fluttershy began to hyperventilate rather loudly, causing the alien to look at her through a singular orange eye.
"Well, look who's awake. Don't worry, we'll be done with you soon."
Rainbow Dash fought against her bindings as the being moved closer to her friend, and then she shouted at it.
"Leave her alone!"
It turned and then approached her instead, giving off what sounded like a laugh.
"What's so funny?" Rainbow spat.
"Oh, just thinking how much you're gonna scream when we start." it said casually.
After swiping another series of lights next to Dash's bindings, a large mechanism dropped from the ceiling. As it lowered, so did a clamp that constricted her head as well. The machine drew closer to her, and as it did, scalpels and drills began to shift from its form, ready to mutilate the poor Pegasus. Fluttershy began to sob wildly as she witnessed a painful death-machine approach her friend.
Before the device could touch her fur, however, a massive explosion rocked the world around them, breaking the device from its hinges, sending it to the floor, along with the alien. As it fell, its hand wiped across the lights, and Rainbow Dash found herself freed from the metallic prison, along with the sweet relief of the pressure removing itself from her wings. She landed on the floor with a thud, and looked towards Fluttershy, who was now also free, put sprawled out on the floor.
The alien rose to its feet and then pulled out another lightning-rod. Dash dodged as it swung from the left, and punched it straight in the knee. It stumbled back a bit and dropped the rod. She grabbed it with her teeth and gave a flap of her wings. When she was airborne, she whipped her head and jabbed the rod into the alien's neck, causing it to scream. The alien collapsed to the floor, twitching every now and then as the Pegasus caught her breath.
She turned and ran straight for Fluttershy, who was now unconscious. After using her wings to lift Fluttershy on her back, Rainbow Dash made her way to an opening in the room. She looked down both hallways and decided to go to the right to try and find a way out. While galloping through the halls, there were more rattling explosions as the speakers in the halls screamed.
"ALL HANDS TO BATTLE STATIONS!!! IT'S SHEPARD!!!"

//-------------------------------------------------------//
                        Retaliation                        
//-------------------------------------------------------//
Retaliation
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.

//-------------------------------------------------------//
                          Rescue                           
//-------------------------------------------------------//
Rescue
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.