The Displacement of ponies across the Multiverse

by DemonWolf

Collectors Part 2

Nuada led the way beam saber at the ready the first encounter with a Collector squad was less impressive than he had expected. His sword had cleaved thru the first one like a knife thru butter.

Bestla and Cinder on the other hand learned that while GXP armor and shields were good, stopping a couple shots before needing to recharge. Succubus magic and GXP blasters left something to be desired as their attacks did little against the shields and armor of the more advanced foes.

“Nuada how do I use one of these?” Cinder asked holding one of the collector’s assault rifles. Her prehensile tail held around the grip and pointed the jaw-shaped end the nasty projectiles came out of down the hallway.

“To be honest, the only thing I know about guns is point at things and pull the trigger.” Nuada said taking a moment to point at the trigger part which Cinder placed the tip of her tail against.

“That covers most guns use. Reloading is another thing.” Bestla said tossing a couple into a subspace pocket over her shoulder. She paused long enough to inspect one, “See this lever here would release the spent clip it seems then you just insert a new one in.”

“I need to do that when it stops shooting projectiles?” Cinder asked.

“Yes but you have to use these ones.” Bestla said holding a piece of metal that looked like a beating heart.

“That looks a little gross, and I grew up in Tartarus, with demon parasites.” Cinder said watching as Bestla tossed the ‘clip’ over her shoulder into her subspace.

Further instructions were set aside as a group of collectors advanced upon them. Nuada put up a shield using the master key’s power, shots bounced off the shield as Bestla and Cinder ducked for cover.

“Okay so point at them and press the trigger?” Cinder asked holding the gun up.

“You’ll want to brace it in some way.” Bestla said demonstrating holding the weapon awkwardly, The weapon was oddly shaped and rested strangely on her shoulder. Pulling the trigger she watched only a few of her shots hit a few collectors but no telling damage. “Hard to aim this thing.”

“WHOW!” Cinder had used her tail to brace against her shoulder, however with the kick of the gun and not knowing any better, she tumbled backwards on her back.

“Are you girls done?” Nuada asked his face had turned hard as they continued through the ship, a rigid flat look covering his face. The collector fire meant little to him, and the collectors hadn’t tried advancing on them yet.

“Well my sexy man, I can’t be a good wife if I can’t even fight alongside you.” Cinder said eyeing him seductively from the very open pose she had found herself in.

“Cinder we do have Sparkle counting on us, we shouldn’t hold up any longer than we must.” Bestla said taking more shots, each time her aim got better and a few collectors started dropping as their own ammo bypassed their defenses and tore through them in vital areas.

“Cinder if you can keep a trace on Sparkle’s location we’ll keep you covered. When we get home you can join me in combat training.” Nuada said walking forward with his shield. “We need to get to her.”

Cinder bit her lip as she had to accept the situation, she didn’t have the skills to help here other than act as a blood hound. “Right lets finish this quickly.” When they got home, she was going to go into training overdrive.

<hr>

Gaige and Garrus managed to meet up with Shepard as they approached the command room. Fluttershy heard them arrive and turned around to see the four humanoids in one piece. She jumped in the air and shrunk down to normal pony size. Fluttershy approached the group speaking softly.“Oh goodness I’m glad all of you are ok, I hope the rampage was helpful. Where is Twilight though?”

“She disappeared, a Displaced team is searching for her right now. We need to focus on our missions right now.”Garrus explained. He shifted his rifle, as Gaige approached the team and pegged all of them with her syringe-gun, giving them a boost and clearing most of their wounds.

“Thank you Gaige.” Fluttershy said softly, she didn’t really get hurt when Raging but she still got tired and the stimulants in the medical shot helped a lot.

“No problem, so we ready to drop this guy?” Gaige asked hefting her bass cannon on her shoulder.

“Edi has informed that Tali’s team is in position and currently sabotaging the primary drive reactor.” Shepard said priming his rifle. He was equip with one of Sparkle’s modified rifles, the assault rifle fired armor piercing shots, and had the added benefit of redirecting excess heat to his shields which had been expanded to having multiple layers. He still had to swap thermal clips if his shields didn’t receive damage now and again but in his line of work he didn’t have to worry about that often.

“Then let's stop talking and start shooting.” Grunt was getting irritated, most of this battle was him watching this tiny little horse creature ripping through legions of collectors. He knew that even the greatest krogans probably would never match what she had done this day, but he was itching to show his skills were not to be dismissed.

“Alright, hacking the console.” Shepard said as Fluttershy flew up and latched on to Grunt’s back to hide. Garrus and Gaige readied their weapons trained on the door, and Grunt held a large shotgun ready standing in the middle of the door.

The team was met with pitch black darkness. Helmet mounted lights lit up parts of the room as they advanced in. Once the last member of the team entered the room the doors slammed shut. Lights flared to life temporarily blinding most of the team. Once their eyes adjusted they were greeted by a disturbing sight.

A giant half built human looking technorganic monster, supported by various tubes, cables, and mechanical arms. The thing began glowing blue as it powered up, it’s dead blue eyes opened to look at them.

“Well buck.” Fluttershy swore looking up at the monster.

<hr>

“Did you just feel that?” Jack asked looking up her biotic tuned mind sensing something fundamentally wrong just happened.

“Nothing besides this stupid reactor being difficult.” Tali complained, rewiring collector tech was not on her list of things she did often.

“This unit has observed nothing abnormal to our present situation.” Legon said keeping an active guard of the area watching for enemies.

“Whatever the fuck that was it didn’t seem right.” Jack said trying to ignore what just happened as she went back to guarding the Quarian as she worked.

<hr>

Far far away in a separate universe Discord looked up from a set of equations a different Twilight Sparkle and him had been working on and blushed slightly.

“What is it Discord?” Twilight asked, “did you think of something that could help us get Fluttershy back?”

“No my dear Twibright Spankle, but I must say Fluttershy has gotten quite a mouth on her.” Discord said gnawing on a carrot before scribbling a note down with it on a large leaf, rolling it into a tube and sticking it into his ear. It disappeared in the void that was where his brain logically would have been.

“Right, so back to the task at hand.” Twilight said trying to ignore the Draconequus' actions.

<hr>

Cinder shivered she felt the wrongness more than anyone due to her ability to sense emotions. Before she could mention it though she felt Sparkle’s aura growing stronger, “Nuada, Bestla, we’re getting closer and I think she’s starting to wake up.”

“Good.” Nuada said absent mindedly cleaving through a group of collectors. His Juraian armor was meant to stop high velocity energy attacks, and had a thin layer of shielding from the master key and said weapon was supercharged by the goddess jewels embedded in the hilt. He had found at this point he didn’t even have to dodge and had taken to just marching towards the collectors, cleaving them down as he walked, a bored expression took over his face.

“Nuada’s a little scary when he’s like this.” Bestla said quietly as she followed behind. She knew he was strong considering Katago’s records, but didn’t realize how strong because of the facade he put on for everyone around him.

Cinder didn’t register Bestla’s comment, as a blush forming on her face, power was one of a few traits that demons were attracted to, and Nuada was putting off such an aura Cinder was starting to have a hard time focusing. She even recognized that she wasn’t feeling lust for the man like she normally felt. She felt a different tug, one that she only ever felt in ponies like Mr. and Mrs. Cake.

She was pretty sure she was in love with Nuada and not sure how to deal with it. ‘It’ll have to wait till we get home.’ Cinder thought trotting after Nuada, not even realizing she was starting to consider Nuada’s house actually home.

<hr>

“What happened?” Sparkle asked herself, her head hurt and she couldn’t get her hooves to move enough to rub her head.

Sparkle was instantly awake at that, noticing she was held by multiple robotic arms, her armor and weapons stripped from her. Having been in the armor so long she felt naked without it, idly wishing she had some pants. Looking around she realized she was still on the collector ship and was being mostly ignored by a giant looking collector that was talking to a hologram of a creature she never wanted to see again.

A Reaper.

‘Well this can’t be good.’ Sparkle thought to herself as she tested the bonds, couldn’t muscle her way out. Magic? Nope ring on her horn was pulsing a mild throb disrupted her focus, must be a prototype magic inhibitor, if she had some time she could overload it probably, but that would alert the big guy.

‘Sparkle are you there?’ Nuada’s voice echoed in her mind.

‘Yes, I can hear you, kinda in a pickle right now can’t come see you.” Sparkle replied ignoring the pain in her head best she could.

‘I’m on my way hold tight, eta in a few minutes.’ Nuada thought as Sparkle felt the lack of emotion in his voice.

‘Be careful.’ She thought back getting okay in response.

“It awakens.” The hologram of the reaper turned and looked at her, at least as close to look as a faceless, soulless robot bug thing could.

“Release me.” Sparkle said trying not to sweat as she felt the reaper pressing against her psychi.

“It resists me.” The audio came from speakers Sparkle realized. “What manner of creature are you, you were not here last cycle, and we have seen none of your kind here except the yellow one you brought with you. Answer my questions.”

“First off Reaper, I am Lieutenant Commander Twilight Sparkle of the SR2 Normandy, and I AM AN ALICORN PRINCESS OF EQUESTRIA! I will not bow to you or your kind, nor will I answer your questions.” Sparkle said pushing as hard as she could causing the collector leader to recoil as some of Sparkle’s magic leaked out as a mental backlash against the reaper.

“Interesting, the unique energy field around this alicorn princess is able to cause feedback. We will dissect you and incorporate your energy into our own systems.” the reaper said. The collector at the console began pressing buttons as different manipulators came down primed with various tools, some resembling medical tools.

A loud crash sounded in the room, all three occupants turned to see the super heavy blast door had been cut in half diagonally, and the pieces had flown across the room. Where the door should have been was a very calm looking Nuada with a slight scowl on his face, lowering his foot after having kicked the door. Sensors exploded as read out data on this ‘human’ flew by on the screens, none of it making sense to reaper.

Sparkle felt a warm arm holding her up, in the blink of an eye Nuada had severed her bonds and was holding her like a child in his arm. “Nuada?”

“Are you hurt anywhere?” Nuada asked looking her over.

“I’m okay.” Sparkle said, noticing the lack of emotion in his voice.

“Good. I understand that you’re hear to kill this thing?” Nuada asked pointing at the collector that was stunted as the reaper was trying to figure out what was happening.

“Yes.” Sparkle said noticing that Bestla and Cinder were both in the doorway watching.

“Okay, go stand by the girls, I’ll take care of this.” Nuada said setting her down. As she quickly ran over to the door Nuada walked forward. Saber at his side, Nuada ignored the collector’s attempts to push him back with biotics, and other physical means were met with a quick slash from his sword. Once he was standing at the foot of the over 9 foot tall creature, Nuada swung his sword once, turned around and walked away.

“I am leaving for now human and quadruped but we will return.” the reaper image said fading out. The body of the collector commander fell over, the top separated from the bottom. Nuada didn’t even acknowledge the reaper as he walked away.

<hr>

A little while earlier.

“What was that Commander?” Garrus asked as the stood over the dead husk of the giant robot they had just had to fight. Fluttershy was catching her breath, being big still took a toll on her especially when she had to do it more than a few times a day or for really long period of time.

“If I had to guess that was what was harvesting humans for our parts.” Shepard said looking around the room, it was sparse, but they did see some husks, and some humans that looked like they were half turned to husks.

“That’s pretty gross.” Gaige said shivering.

“Commander the sabotage team has completed their objective and is moving to rendezvous with your team. Eta is a less than a minute.” EDI’s voice broke over the radio.

“That’s pretty fast.” Shepard said as a door opened as Tali’s team joined them.

“We were done a little bit ago. But EDI said you were fighting and the coms were fucked up.” Jack said strolling up.

“Ship is rigged to explode we should be getting out of here.” Tali said anxious not wanting to be shipside when the reactor went critical.

“Right, any word on Sparkle?” Shepard asked.

“One minute.” Gaige said ringing her own bell to contact Starswirl, “Hey Star… Yeah.. that’s good… can you evac them back to the Normandy when they’re done?”

“Good news?” Garrus asked.

“Nuada is minutes out from her, apparently the Succubus can pinpoint her based on ‘lust’ energy that she’s giving off while out cold.” Gaige said with a chuckle.

“Then let's get outta here.” Shepard said turning around just in time for a shot to miss him. The shot hit Legion right in the chest area, the machine looked down for a moment before collapsing to the ground in a heap.

“NOOOOO!” Fluttershy yelled, rage taking over her mind again. Her body exploded out as she threw herself at the collector that had taken the shot at them.

“Can you girls repair Legion?” Shepard asked Gaige and Tali, taking pot shots as he dragged the robot with Garrus’ help behind a console for shielding.

“DAMN IT! I’m a doctor! Not a xenotech specialist! Compared to Deathtrap, Legion is the Mona Lisa compared to a child’s macaroni doodle!” Gaige fretted, pulling on her pigtails. The rest of the team was forming a defensive area around Legion shooting back at some of the collectors. Fluttershy was leading the counter attack, well she was counter attacking, and the others were just shooting things that shot at them.

“I appreciate the compliment to my people’s skill, but we need to bypass the main energy conduit if we’re going to keep his core from dying!” Tali shouted as she quickly used her omnitool to rip off a piece of the black and red N7 armor next to the new gaping hole in Legion’s chassis. “Just give me any conductive material you think could withstand a charge of-!” Gaige quickly shoved her prosthetic arm into the gaping hole, suddenly sparking Legion active.

“Here, have a hand!” Gaige nervously snarked with a wry grin as she began going through the process of detaching her robo-arm.

“This u-unit is comp-p-p-ro-ro-pro-romised-ed-ed-ed. Sug-g-g-g-gested-ed-ed course of ac-ac-ac-action: abandon for-or-or-or own sur-ur-ur-urvi-v-v-v-v-val.” Legion spoke with bad glitching

“Not a chance Legion!” Gaige said as her arm hissed and broke free of the socket locks. The arm flopped slightly as Tali grabbed it and placed it across Legions chest. In the background Grunt laughed as he and Fluttershy both had grabbed collectors and were using them as melee weapons.

“This-s-s-s-s unit-t can not-ot-ot help-p-p-p-p with the mission-ion-ion a-a-a-any longer. Ally Ga-a-a-a-a-aige-e-e-e is now also compro-ro-ro-ro-romised. Best course of-f-f-f-f-of action is to aban-ban-ban-bandon this unit and-d-d-d-d-d continue mission-ion-ion-ion.” Legion said his limbs moving slightly erratically.

“It’s okay Legion I can still fight.” Gaige said with a grin as she hefted her gigabass onto her shoulder.

“You’ll be fine Legion.” Tali said tack welding the arm in place, “We get back to the Normandy and we’ll fix you right up.”

“Tha-a-a-a-ank you Creator-or-or-or-or Tali-zora-ra-ra-ra-ra-a-a-a.” Legion said standing, his movements were a little rough but he was moving at least, and stable. The ship shook with a large explosion.

“What that’s too soon we should still have more time.” Tali said panicking.

“Commander you need to leave, an explosion has occurred in the core of the ship.” EDI informed them, “it appears Nuada has completed his mission.”

“Okay we’re getting to extraction.” Shepard said calling everyone over, Grunt and Fluttershy took lead as the latter barreled her way through the door they came in and was leading back down the path she had previously made on her first rampage. Grunt just followed along finishing off anything still moving after Fluttershy was done.

The rest of the team was moving with Legion in the center protecting him as they moved in unison. A flash of light and purple startled those watching the back. Sparkle out of her armor grabbed Legion and Gaige and vanished again.

“Looks like Twilight is okay.” Garrus said as she flashed in again grabbing Jack and Tali.

“That’s a relief.” Shepard said as light flashed and he tasted, purple?

<hr>

“Never do that shit to me again!” Jack yelled trying to not vomit all over the floor. But Sparkle had vanished again before the light had cleared from Shepard’s eyes.

“Looking like a pretty successful mission.” a new voice said to Shepard’s side. Vision clearing enough he realized there was a humanoid wolf in some form of military uniform standing next to him. Looking around he realized he was in the cargo hold of the Normandy.

THUD

Everyone turned to see Grunt on his back holding Fluttershy. Looked like he fell a few feet judging by the dent in the floor. Sparkle was next to him collapsed breathing heavily.

“Joker take us out.” Shepard said walking over to the last arrivals.

“Shepard.” Grunt said from under the unconscious Fluttershy, who thankfully was back to normal size.

“Grunt you okay?” Shepard asked gently picking up Fluttershy and depositing her in Garrus’ arms to be taken to med bay.

“Fine Shepard, takes more than a little fall to hurt a Krogan.” he said rolling over and standing up. It was pretty funny to watch though everyone kept their thoughts to themselves.

<hr>

“I’m done here.” Dr. Karin Chakwas said marching out of the medbay compartment in a huff. “Commander, I can deal with ponies, The odd human with cybernetics is fine. But I will not put up with some undead, that defies everything I know about medicine, trying to wax poetry on me.”

Shepard just stood back and stared at the retreating doctor left towards the rec room. Entering med bay he saw the problem. Scorpion had his mask off and was reciting Shakespeare from memory.

“Scorpion what are you doing in here?” Shepard asked moving to check on Sparkle and her friend Fluttershy, both were okay, they were just napping it seemed.

“Alas my vessel of conflict took a fatal wound to the chest. Mine own life spared only by a few hands as metal twisted in upon itself upon my throne.” Scorpion said grabbing his mask and replacing it looking passably human again, “Alas I feared I was wounded and thus I requested the aid of thine fair maiden of healing.”

“Uhg Scorpion cut the crap.” Sparkle said rousing from her nap.

“Hey I could have been badly wounded. I come to help you save your world and this is the thanks I get.” Scorpion turned from the just waking up alicorn in a pout.

“Scorpion we appreciate your contributions to the fight, if you’re okay could please head down to the mess hall.” Shepard ordered more than asked.

“Aye aye my Captain.” Scorpion said leaving.

“It’s Commander!” Sparkle called out as the door closed, growling. Scorpion was one of her friends that she dealt with in small doses, occasionally, and when she didn’t have a magic burnout headache.

“Don’t worry about it Sparkle, how are you doing?” Shepard asked sitting on the bed next to her.

“Well my magic is burned out, my armor and weapons are gone, and I was taken captive because I made a mistake. However I am alive and safe now. I would settle on, could be better but okay for now.” she said, rubbing her head. “I remember teleporting everyone back to the ship, did we win?”

“That’s a hard question to answer.” Shepard said rubbing his chin, “we definitely defeated the collectors, but from what Nuada told me the reaper wasn’t even phased and just said they would return.”

“So the fight isn’t over.” Sparkle said with a sigh.

“Until we beat the reapers this fight will never be over. But we’ve earned ourselves a break.” Shepard said standing up, “Up for a small party before we head back to earth?”

“Sure, is Nuada still here?” she asked getting up, the headache was bleeding off and she felt better, though she knew no magic for a while, she thought hopping down to the floor.

“Yeah he said he wanted to see you before they left.” Shepard said, “should we wake Fluttershy?”

“Let her sleep, she’ll need a bit to recover, she’s still not a fan of violence and there was a lot of that today.” Sparkle said leaving the medbay with the commander.

<hr>

“Sparkle! You’re okay.” Bestla said sweeping the poor alicorn into a hug.

“Glad you’re still with us.” Nuada said flashing one of his slightly rare genuine smiles. Sparkle thought he should smile more, it suited him better than the smirk or neutral face.

“Well the princess is okay, we can go home now?” Cinder said faking disinterest, even though 5 minutes earlier she had been antsy with worry.

“Yeah we need to head back.” Nuada agreed giving Sparkle a quick if awkward hug.

“Oh right time dilation, how long have you been here?” Sparkle asked.

“About 7 hours, so figuring the time dilation estimation was one day to a week, Ushio last saw us two days ago.” Bestla said running the numbers in her head real quick.

“You Displaced give me a headache.” Joker complained, Sparkle then noticed that the mess hall was filled with the crew and they looked to be in the midsts of a party.

“Could be worse, have you met Mistress Change?” Nuada asked.

“We have, that was awhile back, one of Sparkle’s first friends.” Shepard said remembering back. “She definitely was stranger than you three.”

“Well we have to go, see you all later.” Nuada said shaking the commander’s hand, “You’re all welcome to come visit my place at any time. Sparkle I hope to see you soon, we’ll keep your room clean.”

“Thanks.” Sparkle said blushing slightly getting some laughs from the crew, a glare silenced some and made others louder. Twinkle twinkle little star sounded through the room and the visitors dropped out of the room.

“Good people.” Shepard said patting Sparkle’s head, it was a sign of affection she hated at first but grew to like.

“They are, I don’t like involving them in this, but who knows what would happen without their help.” Sparkle said nuzzling into his hand.

Author's Note:

Here we go that took way too much time to write.
Crossing over with my other story No Need for Equestria thanks to Reinard Toma for coming up with Gaige, Scorpion, and displaced Fluttershy, and for helping me write this.

Comments

[dar88]

Now that's a very interesting idea cant wait to read more.