“Good luck with your fight, Vindica out.” Luna stepped away from the command throne and down to where Shepard, Liara, and Fluttershy were waiting for her. “The turians have detached their ships from us, we are back on our own.”
“They will give it their all, but we have other important things to do,” Shepard stated as Luna led them into a private meeting room attached to the titan's CIC. Fidelis appeared above the central table, indicating that he was listening along too. “You require my vessel's jump capability, I would like to know the details of our destination.”
“Of course,” Liara stated as she sent over the data she'd gotten from the prothean archives on Mars. Fidelis' hologram disappeared as he brought up the star chart data he'd just gotten.
“Interesting, I'll extrapolate a course and send it over to the nav officer. Out of the twenty star systems reachable to the Normandy in that cluster I estimate three could be the system we are looking for by star type.” Fidelis stated as he marked the three stars as points of interest.
“How so? What makes them special?” Luna questioned.
“I matched the records and accounts I have on what Equis' artificial star looked like when you and your sister managed them. These stars have the most similar outputs of light.”
“Alright I'll take your word for it,” Luna stated turning back to the commander. “Will the Normandy join us out there?”
“No, it will not,” Shepard replied, surprising Fluttershy as she hadn't heard about his intentions yet. “The asari apparently have something they need to share with us now their systems have fallen under attack. I can't go dark at this moment.”
“Neither can I,” Liara added. “My contacts and projects need my guidance so I cannot go dark either.”
“So this will be left completely up to us,” Fluttershy stated.
“It is your original homeworld and I have no doubt this task is in capable hooves with you all,” Shepard smiled. “We need to cover a lot of ground and splitting up here will be beneficial... Besides, the Vindica is the only vessel that can go toe to toe with a reaper anyhow so you do not require Normandy's stealth here.”
“Agreed, and if there is no access there with the regular relays we should not have to deal with those regardless,” Luna stated. “I want to be on my way right away, we can do a lot of good out here conventionally too and this will take us away from the fight.”
“Commander, I want Garrus to join me,” Fluttershy stated, looking over at Luna immediately after. “If that is okay with you of course, princess.”
“I do not see why not, your mate was a turian, right?” Luna asked, making Fluttershy blush lightly and nod.
“It'll probably cheer him up to work on what's the biggest gun in the galaxy,” Shepard smirked, Fluttershy let out a giggle as she could imagine the turian's reaction.
“Anyhow, as the Princess has stated, we shouldn't waste time. EDI and Liara will make sure all relevant data is transferred to Fidelis.”
“I am already processing it,” the pony AI stated.
“Good. In that case good luck with your mission,” Shepard stated as they left the meeting room again. Luna gave a quick order to the nav-officer before turning back to Fluttershy who'd remained in the CIC.
“I'll have one of the officer's quarters made available to you and your mate, Fidelis can lead you to it. Your two fellow Elements of Harmony have gotten the next few rotations off as well so seeing you could help relax them,” Luna stated as she turned back to the command throne. “Faust knows they deserve it.” she muttered after sitting down and emersing herself back into the titan's systems.
“The princess has been tirelessly working to get the crew, and herself, up to snuff,” Fidelis stated as he'd appeared on a nearby holo-projector. “Garrus Vakarian has already been informed, he had actually already packed both his and your bags to come aboard. Twilight Sparkle joined him”
“Of course he had,” Fluttershy said with a giggle while happy Twilight was also here. “So, can you lead us to our quarters?”
“Of course. I also uploaded a full layout to your omni-tool to make navigation easier.”
“That'll be useful,” Fluttershy said as she brought up the map and scanned it. “So, Fidelis, how have you been fitting into your new role?”
“It's... been tiring sometimes. I was not designed to work on a vessel like this and even more so not to do it alone. There is processing space for well over eight intelligences here, I simply don't know how to properly utilize the power without splitting myself catastrophically,” Fidelis explained as he led Fluttershy up to the crew quarters. “Everypony has been very supportive though, it has been good to be able to interact with others again.”
“I can't even imagine being alone for as long as you were,” Fluttershy said, making Fidelis' hologram shudder.
“I had frozen the parts of me that process emotion for large parts of it but even then... Princess Celestia had some very useful insights that helped me quite a lot.” She nodded and entered a transport pod, swiftly getting relocated to the right sector. “Anyhow, we are here now and I am in good company. I took the liberty to inform Lieutenant Applejack and Rarity that you are here and where you are quartered.
“I assume they are already there and waiting?” Fluttershy chuckled.
“They are,” Fidelis chuckled. "Garrus and Twilight are also almost there. I'll leave you all to it."
"Thank you, Fidellis," Fluttershy smiled at the machine as it returned to other duties. As the doors to the quarters opened both Applejack and Rarity looked over at her and smiled.
"Good ta see ya, sugarcube," Applejack said as she stood up and embraced the pegasus.
"That it is indeed. With the things we heard from Palaven while we were up here..." Rarity shuddered. "Well, let us be glad you are still in one piece."
"Indeed," Fluttershy agreed, the door to her room opening again and Garrus along with Twilight entering as well.
"Girls!" Twilight exclaimed as she went to hug the two ponies. Fluttershy hovered up to Garrus and pecked him on the cheek.
"So, think you can remain focussed on a vessel filled with cute little ponies?" She smirked.
"Luckilly for me there's only one that's really caught my eye," He chuckled. "Besides, I heard there might be a chance of me working on a really big gun."
"Ah'd be the one to talk to 'bout that," Applejack said with a chuckle. "The Princess would probably appreciate if ya could improve the rail cannon."
"I'm sure you all have been doing an admirable job with how this vessel has been performing," Garrus chuckled.
"Well, shucks, we're just doin' Ah'r best ta keep alive and help a few others ta do the same too... If ya want Ah can give ya the tour of the place?" Applejack said with a smile.
"Do inform the princess first, darling, she may appreciate advice but does not like ponies just doing whatever they like," Rarity stated, halting Applejack before she could just go about doing her thing.
"Yeah, yeah, Ah'll get on that. She'll have probably replied by the time We make it to the darn thing," Applejack replied with a roll of her eyes. Fluttershy couldn't help but giggle at the giddy look Garrus gave her, wordlessly asking if he was allowed to go.
"Hey, I'm not stopping you, you big silly," Fluttershy smiled and shook her head, flying up to kiss Garrus on the cheek. "Go ahead and play with the big toy."
"You're the best girlfriend ever," Garrus chuckled as he turned back to Applejack who was holding back laughter as she shook her head.
"Just follow me," the earthpony said as she led the two of them off to the ship's main armament.
"So, what if I give the two of you a tour of your own?" Rarity stated as she was left with Fluttershy and Twilight. "There's some truly amazing places on this vessel we've discovered."
"Sounds good to me. I would love to see Gabby around as well," Fluttershy smiled.
"Of course, she'd chew me out if she heard you were on board without her knowing," Rarity chuckled, glancing over at Twilight who cringed down. "You're coming along too, darling, it'll be good for the both of you. Now trot along!"
"Initiating jump in three... two... one..." The transition was incredibly smooth as one moment they were in space that could be reached by mass relay and the next they had blinked into existence into an uncharted cluster of stars. "Jump complete, cooling down drive and recharging capacitors."
"Power levels stable," Rarity reported from her station. "Estimated time for the capacitors to make another jump like that is three days."
"And for a short hop? We may need to travel to adjacent star systems," Luna inquired. They could of course communicate by integrating themselves into the systems but Luna had chosen to remain not to do so for this jump as there were a few people on the bridge not connected. Notably Fluttershy, Garrus, Twilight, and Gabby.
"Eight hours," Rarity said after a second to check the numbers she recieved from Fidelis. "That jump took us all the way down to zero."
"Acceptable," Luna stated, turning to the sensor station. "Are we picking up good potential candidate planets?"
The stallion at the station stared at his screen for a bit before tapping a few buttons. "Better than good potential..." A blurry but rapidly sharpening hologram of a panet appeared onto the central holographic projectors. "The atmosphere is identical to that of home."
"Focus active scanners," Luna stated, the hologram suddenly becoming much clearer. A few ponies gasped as Luna zoomed in on the planet intensely. The night side clearly showing rest light of streets that indicated there was functioning civilization down there.
"Nav, plot a course into system. Sensors. stay focussed onto that planet and focus on any radio transmissions but make sure we don't run into something unexpected either. It wouldn't be the first time the reapers attempted a trap," Luna stated as she got the vessel under way, as things got going she adressed Fluttershy and the others who had been present. "Fluttershy, if we confirm it's safe to travel down I want you along with a very small team to go down and investigate."
"I have a functioning android ready, I could partition off a section of myself to accompany her. My protocols would make accessing any ancient tech much easier." Fidelis stated. "That said, the android won't be running at full efficiency, I've been having trouble with it, so don't expect wonders."
"I still want it on the team," Luna demanded. "I'll allow one more member to join you on recon, free pick."
Fluttershy looked at everypony present. Garrus has the most experience but if there's pnies down there he's never going to blend in... Twilight may be useful, her magic knowledge could get us out of some tight spots easilly... Gabby would be great for her insane engineering expertise, since Fidelis' android may not be too helpful if it runs on low efficiency... I could also just go on my own, have others join me later if needed...
1. Garrus
2. Gabby
3. Twilight
4. No-one