[Use the Stare in an attempt to purge the indoctrination] 93%
Fluttershy had no doubt within her mind as to what she needed to do. Back on Virmire, she had figured out that the Stare was able to purge the reapers’ indoctrination from the minds of its victims, as proven by the captured STG operative and the asari scientist. Last time when she had tried it on Saren, it had backfired on her, though it now seemed that hadn't been a complete waste of time.
The pegasus steeled her mind and jumped out of her cover, her eyes focusing on Saren's. To the others surrounding her it was as if gravity had changed direction, like everything suddenly centered around Fluttershy. Only for it to stop seconds later and Saren to fall unconscious.
But to the pegasus, these few seconds felt much longer. As her mind connected to the turian's she was immediately assaulted by the black corruption that was clouding his mental processes. Except where she had been utterly unprepared before, now her mental defenses held strong, the black tendrils chipping at Fluttershy's defenses but never breaching them while the pegasus went to work purging the taint from Saren's mind.
The deep-rooted corruption fought with all its might to stay attached to the turian Specter's consciousness, clinging on to it for as long as possible, but it was all for naught. Once it seemed to realize it was fighting a losing battle it changed its focus in on itself, trying to destroy as much of Saren's mind as possible.
Fluttershy abided none of it as without the tendrils slashing at her own mind she could focus on keeping his safe. It took an eternity longer before the final wisps of darkness were at last destroyed, leaving the badly mauled—but untainted—consciousness of Saren…
…and it was failing.
The damage done was far too severe for the healthy portions of his mind to fix and collapsed into the voids that the corruption had left when it was purged.
Nonononnono, NOT now, not after all the effort I went through to try and save him! Think Fluttershy, how do you stop his mind from degrading further?
The answer to her question came to her almost immediately after thinking it up.
You fill the holes!
Increasing the power of the Stare a bit, Fluttershy tried something new. She placed her power into Saren's mind, and instead of using it to push or pull on strings of intellect, she simply let it go.. Pale blue glowing energy immediately filled the holes, acting as scaffolding that kept the rest of the turian's consciousness in place. Feeling her energy reserves almost completely drained, Fluttershy cut off the flow of energy to the Stare and fell to her knees while Saren simultaneously fell unconscious. The turian fell off of his hovering platform, through a glass window, and into a garden that lay below the audience platform.
Shepard didn't waste a moment in sprinting towards the master control unit—the large holographic interface Saren had used to give Sovereign control of the Citadel's systems—and ran the program Vigil had given to him, leaving Garrus to check up on Fluttershy who was trying to get back up on her legs.
Tali had run up to the control panel as well and started typing in commands too. The two of them managed to get the Citadel arms open along with establishing a line of communication with any friendly forces in the area.
"…The Destiny Ascension. Main drives down and kinetic barriers at sixty percent. The Council is on board. I repeat, the Council is on board!" A distress call immediately sounded from the speakers as Shepard tuned into the local battlenet.
"Normandy to the Citadel, do you read? Please tell me that's you, Commander," Joker called out as well.
"I'm here, Joker. What's your status?" Shepard immediately asked, wanting to know what the status of the surrounding fleet now they had a shot at Sovereign.
"I'm sitting here in the Andura sector with the entire Arcturus fleet. We caught the distress call, commander. We can save the Ascension, just unlock the relays around the Citadel and we'll send the cavalry in!" Joker reported. Wrex huffed as he heard the proposal.
"You'd sacrifice human lives to save the Council? What have they ever done for you?" he asked skeptically. "You should hold them back until the Citadel's arms have fully opened up."
Does Shepard open the relays around the Citadel? Yes
"I can't, Wrex. Even though they've been in my way the entire time, if I let them die now, that'll create resentment towards humans which will make cooperation harder. Something we can't have if we are to oppose the Reapers," Shepard explained as he typed the necessary commands into the console. "Opening the relays now, Joker. Save the Ascension!"
The console screen immediately showed dozens of new contacts entering the space around the Citadel and engaging geth ships, the heightening fight costing the geth many ships and the Alliance a few as well. Knowing that they couldn't do anything about the space battle outside, Shepard turned his attention to Saren and then Fluttershy.
"Is he alive?" the commander asked, receiving an unsure nod from Fluttershy.
"He should be, but I'm not sure if he'll wake up."
"Garrus, take Fluttershy and check it out. If he's alive, make sure he can't harm you if he comes to," Shepard ordered. Fluttershy, having regained some of her energy, opened her wings and slowly glided down into the garden below while Garrus made a jump down. Fluttershy used her omni-tool to check on the turian’s vital signs, finding a consistent heart rate, something she was thankful for.
The tower suddenly trembled as the Citadel's arms had opened far enough for the Alliance fleet to open fire on Sovereign, the explosions from the shells violently impacting on the reaper's hull.
What the team in the tower couldn't yet see was the red lightning forming on the hull of the reaper that was slowly arcing down towards the tower. Fluttershy was about to call out to Shepard that Saren was alive for the moment when the lightning entered the chamber.
Without warning, it impacted Fluttershy, sending waves of agony through the pegasus' body. Her scream piercing the air as the lighting burned her fur and skin beneath through her armor.
“You persist too long after your own defeat.” Fluttershy couldn't identify if the voice came from inside her mind or from outside of it. She really could only focus on the crippling pain the lightning was inflicting on her body. “The cycle is inevitable, you cannot win.”
Images started flashing through Fluttershy's mind. Cities she had never seen and strange starships that didn't look like anything the current races possessed. But what was most remarkable was that ponies walked through the streets and manned the ships, peaceful and joyfully speaking to each other…
…Then hundreds of reapers, just like Sovereign, descended on the planet, firing their lasers at anything and everything that moved. Taking down buildings and starships alike, only losing a couple of their own numbers in the process.
“We shall be your downfall, just as we were before.”
Fluttershy gritted her teeth as she tried fighting the lightning that still bounced around her body.
"No."
The statement was resolute. The images that were being implanted into her mind stopped as Fluttershy forced memories of her own to the forefront. Fighting Nightmare moon, facing a dragon, re-sealing Discord in stone, all tasks that any sane pony would deem impossible.
"Me and my friends faced impossible tasks before, and now my new friends face another one. You might say that this is all for naught, but we'll find a way to stop you. Your cruel acts have gone on for long enough!" With her last statement Fluttershy felt herself filling up with new energy, the same energy she had been filled with when she had faced Nightmare Moon and Discord. Opening her wings wide released streams of blue lightning that, whenever it touched its red counterpart, dissipated it.
As the final bits of lighting faded away Fluttershy collapsed to the ground, her body completely spent from purging Saren's mind and taking on Sovereign in a battle of wills. She still remained conscious—barely—and was in no state for any action as the smell of burned fur reached her nose from beneath the armor.
"FLUTTERSHY!" Garrus shouted, sitting beside the fallen pegasus.
"G-Garrus, I feel cold," she whimpered as the turian checked her, his omni-tool warning him of the burns Fluttershy had received.
"Shhh, it's all right. You'll be fine," he said as he held Fluttershy close.
Outside, Sovereign had let go of the tower and helplessly drifted away from it, all of its systems offline.
"Its shields are down, now's our chance!" Joker's voice boomed from the speakers around the chamber.
"Hit it with everything we've got," Fleet Admiral Steven Hackett immediately ordered. Through the window outside the team could see how the helpless reaper was being pummeled, armor that had previously been protected by strong shields peeled off like it was nothing. Chunks of reaper were flying everywhere, and the barrage was not intending to show it any quarter.
But the killing blow did not come until the Normandy made an attack run, the nimble scout ship using a disruptor torpedo to completely pierce the monstrous starship and set off many internal explosions. The cheer of the group was short lived as one of the pieces of debris from the reaper flew directly towards the tower.
Garrus immediately took action and carried Fluttershy to one of the walls, hoping that it would shield them from the flying chunk of spaceship. Something it managed as the wreckage crashed through the large window and smashed down in the council chamber, burying the two of them below a heap of scrap metal.
This was also when Fluttershy finally let her consciousness slip away from her, all the pain coursing through her body simply becoming too much. But she had done what she had set out to do. Sovereign was gone. Although the greater threat still loomed, she could rest now.
So......Fluttershy's gonna be spending a lot of time in medbay methinks. ...so proud of her though.
Wow, saved Saren (probably), went nose to nose with a reaper and gave it a brain hemorrhage with the full power of her element, while firing it off solo. Think she just hit the level cap.
9735590
Bah. Ponies are like characters in Disgaia games. They go all the way to Lv 9999.
9735590
9735634
Silly people. Ponies have no level cap.
9735686
Fair enough. However, some settings might leave them hitting a Soft Cap. If enemies have their xp reduced in relation to one's level, and that xp gain can drop to 0, then said setting has a level cap, Pony or no. Thankfully, ME isn't one of those settings.
Good. This story has had a bit of an issue with following the Stations of Canon too closely, but this, this is a major deviation. If all goes well, it'll be the start of a snowball effect, causing Mass Effect 2 to be drastically different as the effects of Saren surviving and Fluttershy's presence (not to mention getting into a mental slugfest with a Reaper and winning) continue to push events off course.
Interesting, I abandoned the council, shit ended up fine and the new council even commended me for my quick actions, udina also was able to get into the council and humanity was now a respected race. This'll be new territory for me.
The Reaper went up mentally against the only being to Nudge a God?
Good thing Pinkie wasnt there to go all out, she would break the game code.
That reminds me, I still need to cross AI with Recursive LISP. At least I was brought up in the days of games using Self Modifying Code.
Fluttershy is nicely wrapped up while the end of ME1 is cleaned up and the start of ME2 or Interlude is set up? All that rest is going to giver her Biotics time to infuse, integrate better, so she can either use them more easily of have new ones when leaving Med?
Last chapter? Isn't it another one?
9735829
Small interlude of a couple of chapters and then a chapter I've been sitting on for two months
9735837
Nope, the last thing that happens in ME1 is the choosing of the councilor—something Fluttershy won't be involved with. So for the campaign itself we're done.
Welp, this is a smashing read.
Well Done.
9735847
Then why isn't the story complete?
9735890
Because it covers the entire trilogy, not just ME1.
The realist in me is saying that if Saren would have survived, even with fluttershy purging him of his indoctrination, he would still be declared a war criminal. Very doubtful the council would pardon a former spectre who committed acts of treason and attempted genocide in citadel space.
Hehe, last time the Reapers didn't have to deal with Discord, can't wait wait!
9736013
I tend to agree, but an argument could be made that he was acting in his capacity as a spectre up until he was essentially mind controlled and is therefore absolved of any crime. I think if Udina gets on the council, Saren is screwed, but Anderson might actually let him go, despite the grudge he had.
9735801
I always save the council and punch Udina whenever possible.
9736772
Kinda same for udina only when he's being extra dickish. But I do admit he's a good politician when it comes to getting humanity's interests across since humanity hadn't been taken completely seriously and his aggressive methods get things done for the human race.
9736772
The problem there is that he has no verifiable evidence of Indoctrination, and any testimony he gives could be dismissed as just lying to exonerate himself. For other sources of testimony, Fluttershy is nearly a complete unknown to the Council with no verifiable background and no reason for the Council to trust her, and Shepard and his crew have nothing more than they did in canon and we all know how canon went.
The only things I can think of that might potentially help are if they can track down Rana Thanoptis, whose testimony might be considered suspect for the same reason as Saren's, or Lieutenant Ganto Imness, the salarian prisoner Shepard freed, who is never confirmed in canon to have escaped the blast that destroyed the base on Virmire.
Saren's survival gives Shepard a Spectre-level allied operative who may additionally have some extra insights into the Reapers, but I don't think it would change the basic outline of how events between the first two games go. The Council tries and fails to find hard evidence of the Reapers, concludes they were just made up, and isn't particularly concerned when the Normandy's destruction leaves Shepard presumed killed in action.
I think the most likely thing to happen with Saren is that he stays imprisoned, possibly sentenced to hard labor, until TIM busts him out to add to Shepard's crew in ME2. Actually, scratch that, he stays imprisoned until TIM sends Shepard to bust him out and recruit him in ME2.
This will probably be the final comment of mine on this story, although I will have plenty of comments on the other two, three if the ending of my suggestion comes to pass.
That research log is really sad. It... Wait a second... A year and a half? The time between ME1 and ME2 was three years! I really hope that Twilight succeeds, because A, if she doesn't I will be extremely sad, and B, If she does it will probably have results within the time span of the next story.
If this means something, then yay!
9738940
This story goes through all the games (or wherever it leads). The author only meant that the story progressed through to the end of ME1 continuity, not that the story is over.
9739154
Oh.
Cool. So I don't need to follow the author. While that is annoying because it means one less chance to see how following works, it is also cool because it means that this story will be longer, which is always good in my eyes.
Did I use that phrase right? I'm bad with non-literal speaking.
Edit: Also, the first story I am ever liking. Not like like enjoy like, like like official like. Like like thumbs up button like.
sweet! this was a great chapter as always. can't wait to see what you have planned for an interlude! also I wonder whats going to happen when sheppard gets killed? like what will shy and garrus do in that mean time? I hope they stick together. that would be awesome. the archangel could have a partner!!!!
Sorry for all the comments, but I tend to have a lot to say and not all at once.
Soooo... I think there's something wrong with me.
I have been checking this story for a new chapter every few hours it feels like.
9740453
Don't worry about the comments, most authors will appreciate the fact someone's actually taking the time to write about and ask questions about their stories
New chapter is going up in about an hour/ one and a half hours from the moment this comment's posted. (Make that 3 hours, my phone doesn't allow me to create the straw poll.)
9740817
Okay, and yay!
As cool as it is that Fluttershy can fight the indoctrination effect, I’m not a fan. It trivializes the most terrifying part of the Reapers, and makes them look weaker then they are if little ol’ Shy can take on a multi-million year old apex machine in a battle of wills. Sovereign probably has a multi-core supercomputer processor or some crap, and Shy’s ‘special eyes’ beat him somehow? Seems a bit deus ex to me.
Points if you get the ‘special eyes’ reference.
9801708
There's a good reason why shy is a teensy tiny bit overpowered though I can't say because that would be a massive spoiler
Yeah, folks thinks Shy's overpowered, but imagine if Celestia or Luna or Discord were involved?
Oh wait.
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/299981/why-no-one-messes-with-celestia
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/319262/why-no-one-messes-with-luna
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/362040/why-no-one-messes-with-discord
It's hard to preserve a level of threat when you can use celestial objects as projectiles.
Fuck yeah! Can we add Saren to the Reaper slaughter forces?! Reaper fear not just Shepard later on ♡♤
Time for Anderson to do his thing now. Fluttershy and Garrus better make it in one piece so Fluttershy can ride Garrus dry
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A rest that is very well earned...
9735590
Archivment gained: Element of Kindness kicks ass!
9735634
Than what level is Fluttershy now?
9735686
Ha-HAAA Alicorn Fluttershy
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As reader i indist on at least 1 exp for rvery enemy... Time to kill a Deathstar
9735702
Mass Effect 1 effect two very strongly. Love to see it happen here.
9735801
Than you played ME2 and got shitfaced by default Especially when ME3 will make you feel it in the final confrontation
9735829
Pinkie Pie welcome back to the universe party:
Invited:
All Reapers.
All non Reapers Battleships.
Explosiv success ♡
9735844
Neat! With Saren deal done it's time for the group to split ?
Tali Flottila.
Krogan to Wrex the way it is suppose to on Tuchanka.
Garrus making the cutest Foal Army to ever have existed and mass murder Reapers with cute stares
9735847
1 game done, two more to go and than...Andromeda
9735912
Sequel will be Andromeda perhaps?
9736013
Unless they do what they always have... Backroom deals
9736772
Solid reasoning.
Good man
9738578
There are things like demonstration of the stare?
Also... Cute pone puppy eye attack
Absolutly priceless. Sooo Fluttershy get a Turrian sabdwitch experience after all?
9739154
The best is yet to come.
Me 1 is finished and it was glorious ♡