Mass Effect: Equus

by Pabulos

Chapter Two: A Startling Discovery

Augustus woke up in the early morning feeling newly rested for the first time in a long while, his dreams he normally saw had vanished altogether to bluff him with a full nights sleep.

After a couple of apples to satisfy his hunger with a trip to the river to quench his thirst, and a quick dip into the water itself to clean all the sweat off his body. Augustus returned to the wagon afterward to take an apple in each hand before he continued onwards, with no desire to waste precious time he could use trying to find any town or city for help.

Not a mere five minutes out from the wagon an onslaught of flies came into view, but besides that, he couldn't see a thing with an unusual abundant growth of trees obstructing his sight. What small cracks within the growth did allow him to see was stranges hides, at least he thought it was a hide of some beast, in various colors.

The stench permeated the closer to the swarm of flies he came, one very familiar stench which he'd the unfortunate luck to encounter from time to time on the battlefield. What August stumbled on was the lifeless bodies of three horses, at least he assumed they're horses, but the miniature size and strange color of its hide made him unsure.

He flipped out his Omni-tool to do some data collecting on these strange creatures, scanned the three bodies, as the result brought Augustus to remain still for a brief moment as he read the report on his Omni-tool.

'Well... somehow they have a shit load of Eezo, not to mention the most bizarre thing out of this, but also share the same internal buildup of a pony back on earth.'

Augustus didn't know what to make out of this, to be honest. It wasn't unheard of creatures born with the ability to use Mass Effect fields, Thessia being the prime example with how rich that planet is with Element Zero. But, that leaves one question still unsolved, with the minuscule amounts of Element Zero in the air on this planet, one of the reasons why the air is safe to breathe. It still didn't explain why these creatures have readings twice times that of Jacks in their bodies, with so little in the environment.

'Hmm. Must've been exposed to Element Zero one way or another, I'll figure it out later when I have more answers to where I am.'

His eyes drifted to the tattoo on their rear, as he tried to make out why someone would put a tattoo on the behind of a pony. The first one, a light-grey with a muscular build, carried what looked like a wooden wagon wheel with gushes of winds around it. The second one, a buttery yellow hide with a dark brown mane, had different kinds of numbers on its rea. And the last one, with bite marks present on its hind legs, had a bright red hide with its tattoo resembling a medieval sword, at least he guessed with how shredded its legs were.

'Hmm. Must've been the handiwork of the beast I encountered, poor animals probably suffered a lot. Probably poisoned the first two and ate some part of the other.'

Just as he was about to walk away from this unapologetic view into the animal world, with a shimmer that hit his eye. Augustus crouched down to pick up a small necklace of sorts buried lightly into the dirt by the first one, a small detachable picture frame had sprung open. What he saw was the same light-grey horse of brawny build with one of its hoves around a smaller build horse, which bore a softer and more feminine look to it, with two identical light-grey hide offspring, he couldn't make out if they were colts or fillies.

'Perfect, at least now I know, I'm not the only intelligent species on this planet... probably should bury these three and save the location on my Navpoint. I don't know if I'll be able to find the ponies in the picture, but I'd like to at least try at some point.'

Augustus's body became submerged in the glistening blue glow as he used his biotics to dig three holes, and hoisted the corpses to carry them to the graves. After he covered the graves with the dirt and crafted three shabby looking crosses, plunked down into the earth facing north. He resited a small prayer afterward, in hopes they'd found peace in the afterlife.

Before he went on his way, once more in search of civilization with the confirmation that intelligent life exists on this planet.

Augustus kept his eyes fixated on the photo necklace he held in his hand, as he noted every detail present within the tiny picture. There was the family in front, smiling widely as they can, with a small wooden house in the background with a flower bench that hanged right outside their storage level window. Though the reflection of the window he could see more houses, with more of these horses walking about, with green patches of grass in front of said houses.

Augustus' attention got drawn away from the photo necklace with the outburst of shouts present in the distance, followed by loud crashes of metal going against metal. He broke out into a light jog before he arrived at a large boulder, his body pressed up against it as he crawled to the top to oversee the possible skirmish.

From his vantage point, with decent coverage, he was able to see that a small band of... six zebras had broken out into a swordfight against a numerical similar force of ponies.

Though it soon became apparent that they weren't like the ones he'd buried, not by a long shot. Two of the six were flying in mid-air with one of them performing some kind of biotic show as two zebras were thrown away, with the two in mid-air performed a dive to pierce the zebras with swords attached to their wings. The unicorn, which was quite obvious with a horn that stuck out from its head, blinked in-between two zebras and send a shockwave to knock the zebras off their hoves before death by sword befell them by another dive from the Pegasuses.

'Yeah, those are pegasuses and a unicorn, seeing this only brings up more questions than it answers... not to mention zebras. Hmm. How do I form contact without having them too spooked and assume I'm going to kill them and eat their young?'

The other three normal ponies clashed against the remaining zebra's swords in full force, with a lower physical build. It wasn't long before the remaining zebras fell under the blades of the ponies, washed with the blood of their fellow zebras, they died with their last breath as the sword thrust through their hearts and the eyes of a pony stared into theirs.

With the fight over, a flawless victory for the ponies. They became to collect the fallen zebra's weaponry and armor and loaded it onto their wagons, and all other possible possessions these zebra's once possessed.

And Augustus watched all of this unfold, just observing as he wondered how this whole thing would play out, to learn about these creatures' fighting capabilities if they turned out to be hostile. He made a mental note to take out the unicorns and pegasuses first, their agile flight capabilities and able to use biotics being bothersome at best. The normal ponies could be dealt with if space is kept between any two forces.

' Still, despite their large eyes and cuddly appearance: Tough if once should be faced with a combination of all three. Though quite surprising to see that more than one species, at least I hope these zebra-looking creatures are capable of complex thought.'

"Alright, let's get going once again!"

"Don't have to yell that loud, you'll be inviting all the Stinger-jacks in the area to come here!"

Augustus got yanked right out of his inner thoughts as he heard a scruffy male voice yell out, knowing God knows how far away from Earth or how it could even be possible, call for them to get going once again. In. Understandable. English.

This brought him to stare toward them with a blank face, his breathing stopped for a few seconds before a long breath came in. If he hadn't heard the feminine voice that yelled afterward to the first voice, her voice filled with a high pitch voice that suddenly cracked.

Augustus would've thought it'd been something his mind was playing up, but no.

'They spoke English, somehow they spoke English...'

Author's Note:

Augustus has found out here's not alone anymore on Equus, and somehow they speak English! Hope you'll enjoy this chapter, been having a blast writing them thus far!

If you see any miss spelling or grammatical errors, can't all be perfect, I'll be happy if you point them out!

Comments

[Pabulos]

9609897

Probably will, when she finds out.

[SuperSaiyanDiclonius]

Hmm, a war with Zebras eh?
I'm interested.