AJ, Rarity, Pinkie, and me can take care of this. 44%
“You three go help Shepard, I’ll scout out the Everfree to see if there’s a significant presence of heretics in there,” Fluttershy told the others. “Wouldn’t be the first time I run recon.”
“In my experience from Omega that usually meant another crime boss was going to bite the dust,” Garrus chuckled. “Good luck in there, we’ll see you after taking care of the Badlands.”
Garrus, Tali, and Dash Gave their spare thermal clips over to Fluttershy before running off back to the shuttle, leaving her with the three other girls, Spike, and the fillies.
“Soo… if I told you three that I’d go alone you’d come after me regardless, wouldn’t you?” Fluttershy asked flatly to which her old friends sheepishly nodded.
“So we’re going on a field trip?” Scootaloo asked hopefully.
“Absolutely not,” Fluttershy shot the filly down immediately. “None of you know what you’ll be running into and taking them is already enough of a risk. You along with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are going to stay right here with Spike.”
“Ahhh, but I want to go on an adventure too!” Scootaloo wined.
“Ah’m pretty sure Fluttershy here knows what she’s talking ‘bout here, and that’s beside the fact that’s the Everfree forest. Ah ain’t having you kids there with us,” Applejack agreed with Fluttershy, Rarity following soon after. The three fillies grudgingly agreeing to stay with Spike after none of the adults, not even Pinkie, agreed to let them come too. Not wanting to get caught by the guard in the library, the four ponies swiftly made their way to the edge of the forest.
“Say Fluttershy, mind filling us in a bit on what happened over the last two years? I didn’t really get much other than: ‘aliens’ before. Everything is just moving so fast,” Rarity spoke up as they walked along the path.
“We really didn’t, did we...” Fluttershy sighed. “I guess I should start at the beginning then. Remember that device that fired me off? It’s called a mass relay. There are massive versions of them in orbit around stars that facilitate long-distance travel between star-systems. The one I took tossed me out on the Citadel.”
“The Citadel?” Applejack asked curiously. “That like a fortress or somethin’?”
“It can be, but mostly it’s the space station that acts as capital to the Citadel Council, an alliance between four main races. It’s a massive place, I could show you how it looks but that does not do the place justice.”
“So what did you do after arriving?” Pinkie asked.
“I met Commander Shepard pretty soon after and stuck along with him, got tangled up in his mission to take down a rogue Spectre, a special kind of agent of sorts. We found out there’s another race of machines set to exterminate all advanced intelligent life in the galaxy.”
The three others gasped in horror and disbelief, “Y-You stopped the meanies, right?” Pinkie stuttered.
“It’s been a work in progress for the last two years. The machine you saw in the forest is one of the ones aligned with the reapers AJ,” Fluttershy explained, making the others shiver.
“Reapers… that sounds ominous. So that’s what you’ve been doing all this time?” Rarity asked.
“There was a brief period of a year or so where Garrus and I spent fighting gangs on another station. But other than that I’ve been actively working to stop the reapers.” Fluttershy stopped as they had reached the edge of the forest. “You three sure you really don’t want stay here? This isn’t like the time with Nightmare Moon, these things will kill on sight.”
“Ain’t changing my mind,” Applejack shrugged.
“Nor mine!” Pinkie agreed.
“We’re coming, darling,” Rarity finished, making Fluttershy sigh as the idea of just cloaking and heading into the forest crossed her mind but was quickly dismissed.
I don’t even want to know what the geth heretics will do to them if they find those three wandering through the forest alone while searching for me…
“Alright then,” Fluttershy said, loading a thermal clip into her black widow. “Stay close behind me and don’t wander. If I tell you to do something you do it without question. Clear?”
The three ponies nodded, giving the go-ahead for Fluttershy to take the first step into the forest. “So, now I’ve given you the overview about what I’ve been doing, mind filling me in what happened to Twilight after Luna came through the relay a while back?”
Applejack was the first to speak up from the three behind Shy, “Ah assume you know that Twilight and Particle Bit went underground to get a third shot at sendin’ somepony through after Dash went for it?” Fluttershy nodded. “Well, the night guard has been movin’ her all around the place since then. The princess, Celestia that is, has been goin’ after her for that time. It’s also why the guard is in Ponyville, to prevent us from harboring her.”
“How is the night guard getting away with that? I don’t remember them being that large a force,” Fluttershy asked while keeping her gaze firmly locked on scanning through the trees.
“Because the Princesses have equal legal standing,” Rarity answered. “The solar guard can't arrest the Lunar one for following the orders of their Princess. So long as they keep Twilight out of the Solar guard’s hooves they can keep moving her around indefinitely.”
“That must cause some serious friction between the guards,” Fluttershy guessed.
“Yeah, they don’t exactly have any love for Twi left now Shining’s not there and Twi hurt their princess. The extra Ponyville guards don’t like us jus’ fer bein’ friends with Twilight,” Applejack confirmed. Fluttershy abruptly stopped in her tracks, her friends knocking into her but none of them managing to stagger her. “Wha-”
“Silence,” Fluttershy hissed, glaring out into the forest. None of her three old friends moved a muscle as Fluttershy slowly reached for the black widow under her wing. Slowly standing up on her back legs, scoping out the disturbance in the leaves she’d noticed. Not hesitating a moment as she saw the familiar light coming from the head of a geth, she pulled the trigger.
KABOOM!
The heretic’s head exploded as the anti-materiel round slammed through it, the one next to it didn’t even get to turn around before the same thing happened to it.
“We need to move, the other heretics now know where we are,” Fluttershy swiftly said, starting to run towards the destroyed machines and running past them, her wings lighting up as she snagged up the two rifles the geth had been carrying.
“What in tarnation was that?!” Applejack exclaimed as she sprinted after Fluttershy with Rarity and Pinkie on her tail.
“A rifle! The weapons in the galaxy are way more advanced then what we have here on Equis!” Fluttershy replied, sliding down a slope into cover at the bottom. “Here, these are automatic rifles, the switch on the handle here fires a projectile at high speed straight out of the front here. Don’t ever point the two of these at me or anyone else, only at things you want to destroy.”
Rarity and Applejack both got a rifle pushed into their hooves. “Shy, Ah’m not su-”
“You decided to come with me, now you’re going to have to be able to defend yourself if I’m busy. I’d prefer that you wouldn’t have to fire them in the first place anyway, much safer for everyone around,” Fluttershy cut her off. “We should move quickly and find the hub where these things are operating from and take it out… First place we should check is the Castle of the Two Sisters, it’s nice and central location that’s easy to defend.”
“Alright, you lead the way,” Applejack said as she quickly tied her rope around the rifle to make carrying it easier.
“Good, stay close and I’ll pull you three through this.”
Well, Celestia has lost it.
Excuse me but...
...who ordered this?
Ah, I see SassyShy has developed thanks to her adventures; glory be to her.
Cause Luna's better than Celestia?
That works too, I guess.
Speaking of Shining...I'm assuming he's back on the Citadel for the time being...though if he were there and knew what was going on... Ooh...
...can I say again how proud I am of...what rank would she be? I was about to say commander but...that's Shepard, isn't it.
10385203
We're going to need to resolve that soon or this planet's going to the Reapers real quick
10385203
10385199
She is being stopped by bureaucracy. If she had gone off the deep end and acting as a dictator then having a branch of the military effectively revolt on her because of an order her sister, who is not present anymore, gave would not be a thing at all.
10385222
If we go officially, Fluttershy is a civilian. If she were to enlist in, say, the Alliance Navy, her rank would be somewhere in the Petty Officer ranks if we're going below Shepard's rank. You can see the ranks from this link.
Her ME Class, however, I would have to speculate Vanguard.
Celestia indoctrinated??? Or maybe she's just gone coo coo for coco puffs.
10385236
Luna being on board the Normandy should at least give an about equal chance of being able to talk everything out with Celestia, but it does depend on whether the heretics have been in contact with anyone on Equis since Luna, Particle Bit, and Gabby left. And also whether the Princess' last orders from their parents is still being followed even though I suspect it will need to be dropped.
10385199
Not "lost it", so much as whicked ****** and paranoid. Her desire to keep her little ponies (and everycreature else on the planet) safe at any cost is at odds with her surrogate daughter's desire to bring her friends back at nearly, but not quite any cost. The fact that Luna went missing because of Twi's actions isn't helping things. In short, 'Tia is motivated by the greater good, and if there is one thing that can turn Saints into Demons, it is the pursuit of "The Greater Good".
Antimaterial, as in AP HEX rifle round takes out Geth?Is a Geth armoured enough to be throwable through a tree trunk as thick as its torso, or would it pancake on impact? If its broke, then AJ can splash their heads with a good kick? How are the eth with mud on optics or do they have decent full body scanners that can handle the interfereing chaff of Rarities needle swarm?
Just how badly nerfed is poor Pinkie? she should be impossible to hit. And her hot sticky toffee fudge cake should be a nightmare to mechanics and organics alike?
10385403
Suddenly I have an image of Pinkie pulling the party cannon out of katanaspace, and firing a blast of confetti that screws up their targeting scanners. "What?" she asks in innocent confusion. "I also pack foil confetti. It's nice and glittery!"
Congrats on the move and we have yet another excellent chapter.
10385588
Pinkie Pie is the only pony that could ever get Windows to work.
10385250 10385352
Then she bloody paranoid.
10385937
Because she is trying to keep her people safe and attempting to stop Twilight from potentially killing all of Equestria?
The array kept the Ponies alive, and Twilight wrecked it voluntarily in an ADDITIONAL attempt to send even more ponies through, a second attempt that was straight up irresponsible since the team with actual preparation for a retrieval mission had already gone through (or at least attempted to, Rainbow screwed that one too).
Lets not act as if Twilight was innocent in this, she endangered everyone unnecessarily and attempting to stop her from doing even more damage is logical. This kind of screw up and damage is what would send any normal, modern society into martial law, so the measures that we know Celestia has taken so far are outright tame.
10386284
I'm sorry but Adser as a point
10386284
And yet now Luna has made it clear that the princesses have had a way to open the shield in the sky all along. That makes the damage from the second activation Celestia’s and Luna’s fault, and the damage from the third activation squarely rests on Helioplot’s broad, sunny flanks, because she could have easily just worked with Twilight to safely reactivate the mass relay from the get go.
#tyrantlestiaisbadlestiaagain
10798101
The point was to keep the shield up all the time. The only reason why they are ok with lowering it now is because the Reapers are already aware of the ponies, making it stay up 100% of the time pointless.
The damage of the second activation is Rainbow's fault, because in her impatience she went and screwed up a well planned and controlled rescue operation (the damage was so severe because it sent 2 ponies, not 1 as planned).
And the 3rd activation was meaningless, born out of Twilight guilt that she couldn't just fix everything. The rescue party had already gone, the only thing her attempt would have caused is to add one more pony that needs saving, there was no point in pushing for it, much less to do it by herself against Celestia explicit orders.
No armor or shield can you say minced meat in White , Orange and Pink?
10385203
Pretty sure Celestia lost it long before that but she stopped pretending otherwise...
10385250
Good point, unless losing her image might be what keeps her back...
10385259
Sounds about right. Unless private military might fit better?
10385352
The path to Tarterus is paved in greater goods...
10385403
Realism vs MLP i guess?
10386284
Agreed, Twilight get off the deep end... Unfortunately very closr to galaxy cleaning day as well...
10798615
Twilight was never a stable pony. Celestia made her effectiv and got the other end of the stick. A very fitting fate. To bad it's so close to the 'Welcome bsck Reaper from dark space' party...
Maybe Fluttershy should have emphasize that killing/ destroying is the only way of staying alive if they go along with her agsinst the Geth.