I'm Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy
Commander Shepard slowly opened his eyes, closing them immediately when the light was too much for them to take, a small groan escaping his mouth.
Where am I? What happened? Did I win?
He tried moving an arm, but it felt as if an elcor had been sitting on it for the past hour. Eventually, the commander decided to try again. Gritting his teeth, he blinked his eyes open, almost able to see his new surroundings. He was in some kind of grassy field, with mountains, hills and forests surrounding his vision, along with what looked like a small town just a few kilometers away.
The last thing he remembered was destroying the machine that controlled the reapers and everything synthetic in the universe. He had blacked out after that, but he didn’t remember returning to any of the planets. Maybe Garrus or Tali had brought him back after their victory.
He tried moving his body again, taking his time to get the feeling back into his fingers. Eventually, he settled himself into a sitting position, pushing up from the grass with his arms. He sighed once before doing a check on his inventory and armor. He still had his predator pistol on him and most of his armor was still missing after that blast from Harbinger. His shield generator was gone, and his armor definitely wasn’t going to be protecting him from anything.
“Perfect…” he breathed and leaned back on his hands. “No power, no energy, no thermal clips. Brilliant.”
Without any power, Commander Shepard had no way of figuring out which planet he was on. Though, someone must have brought him here. Highly likely someone he knew. Or maybe not.
Still staring out over a mountain range in the horizon, the commander almost failed to see the strange creature standing just a few feet behind him. He spun himself around with a soft cry of surprise and threw his body to the ground, pointing his pistol forward. Unfortunately, that action alone cost him all his strength, bursting stars in front of his eyes. He clicked his gun a few times before remembering that he was out of thermal clips.
“Woah, careful there!” the creature said, running up to him. From the looks of it, it was a horse. But horses didn’t have wings and horns did they? Nor were they purple in colour. “I’m not here to hurt you. You look wounded, human.”
It even speaks! I must be on the verge of death.
Commander Shepard scuttled himself away, trying to escape the odd horse, but the animal simply bent its head; its horn began glowing with pink energy before it shot out, surrounding the man in its warm glow.
“What are you doing?” he croaked as he covered his eyes with an arm. He didn’t come all this way just to be killed by a purple talking horse and a pink magical glow. Then again, he had no idea how he had appeared here.
“Just hold still…” it replied. Only now did the commander notice it had a female voice. “I’m taking care of your injuries. You've been hurt pretty badly.”
The commander didn’t believe it at first, but soon, he felt the bones in his body mend themselves, along with the cuts and burns all across his skin. In no time, he found he could stand, taking a few steps around to prove it to his unbelieving mind.
“No way…” he mumbled. He turned to the purple horse creature. “Uh, thank you, but… what exactly are you? And what planet am I on?”
“This is Equestria,” the horse explained. “And I’m a pony, of course. My name’s Twilight Sparkle. It’s not so often we get humans around here.”
“Twilight Sparkle?” Commander Shepard couldn’t help but think he was in some kind of kid’s show. He shook the thought out of his head. His priority was getting home. “Well, could you- wait. Did you say humans? You mean there are more of my kind that magically woke up on this planet without any proper explanation as to why we're here?”
“Sure!” she nodded happily. “I can take you to the others if you want. I’m sure they’ll all be glad to see another one of their kind.”
Shepard stared dumbly at her for a second, but... Finally, a lead the commander had been waiting for. “Lead the way, Twilight Sparkle.”
Commander Shepard swiftly took in his surroundings on his way to the village he had seen earlier, just in case he needed to fight his way out of anything. The purple horse, Twilight Sparkle, seemed nice enough, but he could only wonder what else this world might have in store for him.
“You aren’t the first human here as I've said earlier,” Twilight Sparkle began to explain as they neared the small town. “To be honest, we’ve had plenty. Some good, some bad. The good ones reside in our town, while the bad ones… well, they’re out there somewhere. We’ve caught a few, but unfortunately, not all of them. Don't worry, though. Ponyville is a safe place to stay.”
“Well…” Shepard didn’t even know what to say. “Alright.”
The town surprised the soldier more. Instead of people, like he had first thought, there were more of these sentient horse creatures, walking about the streets, unlike any other alien race he’d had contact with. Perhaps he’d found a new civilization unknown to the Citadel or any space navigators.
“Right this way,” Twilight Sparkle pointed a hoof at one of the houses, which was shaped like a long football dome.
He followed her in as she pushed the front door open, revealing familiar looking forms to the commander.
Other humans.
“Hi!” Twilight greeted the rest of them. “We’ve got another one! Do make him feel at home!” She turned back and headed out the door, giving Shepard one final nod of reassurance before leaving. “Take care, umm… Oh, how careless of me, I forgot to ask your name.”
“I'm Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy,” he replied as he looked around the establishment. Everything seemed to be made of wood, except for the windows of course.
“Well, take care, Commander Shepard,” Twilight smiled and was off.
“Hi, there,” a man with a dark blue shirt and shoulder holsters swooped up to the commander and shook his hand. “Nathan Drake, treasure hunter. And you are?”
“Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy,” he shook the brown haired man’s hand firmly.
“Navy? Unusual outfit for the navy.”
“Unusual?” Shepard raised an eyebrow. “Everyone in the navy has one of these. It’s for protection.”
“Hmm…” Drake put a hand under his chin. “Where are you from?”
“My home planet was Earth, probably just like yours?” He got a nod from the treasure hunter. “But I spent most of my time on the Citadel, or my ship, the Normandy. I was just fighting in the galactic war, finally finishing off the reapers for good, but… Next thing I knew, I was here. On this planet.”
“You know, I don’t know half the things you were talking about, but I do know your last bit.” Drake wrapped an arm around the commander's shoulders and steered him in. “You’ll fit in here just perfect. Just you wait and see.”
Shepard was led to a table with a few other humans in the middle of a card game.
“I am Kratos,” the first one forced a smile. He had strangely white skin, almost like that of a piece of white chalk, along with red war paint. Plus, he wore almost nothing on his person, which was almost a little too much for the commander.
“Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy.”
“Nay-vee?” the bald man wore a questioning face. “I don’t know what that is, but I was from Greece! I had finally taken my revenge on Zeus. With nothing left for me, I killed myself, but instead of dying, I found myself here when I woke up.”
“Huh…” Shepard mused. “That’s almost how I got here.”
“Me too,” Drake smiled. “You know, I had passed out after crashing my boat on an island, but when I woke up, I was in the grassy fields, just outside this town. After that, I found these ponies and befriended them. It's been a pretty interesting time here."
“Now that’s a little odd, isn’t it?”
“Just you wait.” Drake pointed to the others at the table. “Tell him your story, guys.”
“Edward Kenway,” a man in a white hood gave a short wave. He reminded the commander of a pirate. “I was attacked and stabbed in my home one night, but when I came to, I was here.”
“Solid Snake,” a man with grey hair and a moustache wheezed out. He wore a black and white suit of some kind, though by the looks of it, it was ancient. “Thought it was all over when I passed out, but… here I am.”
“Wait, did everyone get here the same way?” Commander Shepard stopped them. “Seriously? When we die or go to sleep, we appear on this… this planet? What?”
“Pretty much,” a man in full green armor said with a low voice. This was the only other person at the table that had more recent technology, or at least, the commander thought it was recent. "None of us know why, but that's just what happens.
“Huh… Now that’s a question I want answered.” Everyone turned to Shepard and waited. “Why does everyone wake up in Equestria?”
“Don’t know,” the pirate leaned back and shrugged. “None of us have bothered to find out. We’re all just happy here.”
“Well, happy as in, living here is better than being dead,” Drake placed a hand atop the chair, which immediately broke in his grip, causing the pirate to fall back onto the floor.
“Hey, watch it!” Kenway yelled as he pushed himself back up. “I told you not to touch anything!”
“My bad,” Drake helped him up, careful to avoid touching the table too. He saw the commander looking and shrugged. “Don’t know why, but most things I touch tend to break.”
“Right…” Shepard looked at his hand, which had shook Drake’s hand earlier. He made a note to never do that again, just in case.
“I too, am happy here!” Kratos yelled at the top of his voice, startling the old war veteran. “I do not have to kill to have my way here.”
“Don’t you want to know why you woke up here?” Shepard tried to get his point across. “Why this planet of all places? One full of talking horses.”
“I have always wondered,” Snake rubbed his moustache before letting out a guttural cough. “If you find anything, do let us know, Commander Shepard.”
“None of you are going to help me?”
“Well, Princess Twilight will be more than happy to help you,” Snake coughed and gagged a few times before steadying himself. “If you want to look for her, she should be over by her palace. You’ll know it when you see it.” After he finished talking, he gagged again, slowly rubbing at his chest.
“Weak human!” the one called Kratos grunted and looked at his cards. “In my time, someone like you would be cast out! Left to rot on his own weaknesses.”
“I’ve told you a million times, Kratos,” Snake gave him an evil eye. “Ancient Greece is over. We’re in modern times now.”
“And I’ve said,” the one green leaned over. “You’re age of heroes is over. I’m from the modern age. Not you.”
“Whatever, Chief. We all came from different times. It doesn’t matter.”
“Okay, guys, hang on,” Shepard waved his arms in front of their faces, getting their attention. “I’m going to go out there, and figure out how in the world we got here. Right?”
“Well, go have your fun, space man,” Kratos grumbled and picked up his cards again. “This card game is more interesting than your bald head.”
Shepard wanted to give that white-skinned man a piece of his mind, but he figured he was most likely going to get his head ripped off instead, so he turned around and left the building. He stood outside for a few minutes, deciding what to do, at the same time, looking at all the strange horse creatures going about what was probably their daily lives.
Some were seated at a table drinking… smoothies? Shepard didn’t even know, but that was a weird sight. Another bunch were walking along the streets carrying bags of… groceries? Things were definitely not processing well in his mind.
“Oh boy…” he mumbled to himself and rubbed a hand across his shaven scalp. This was going to be a weird adventure.
Author's Note
Hi, everyone! Thanks for reading to the end of this.
Just wanted to say thank you to all of you who wrote stories of famed characters waking up in Equestria. Those stories created a new question for me, along with this story: Why does everyone wake up in Equestria?
Who knows... Does anyone really?
Cheers!
