> Mass Effect: Equus
>  by Pabulos
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue: The End before the New Begining
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

If anyone had told Augustus Shepard he'll be the savior of the galaxy, the hero for the Krogan people, uniter of both Qurians and Geth, and destroyer of Reapers at any point before his mission to Eden Prime. 

He wouldn't have believed the person, still could hardly believe it if he hadn't experienced it all himself!

But, this is what fabricated into reality, when a recovery mission of a Prothean beacon on Eden Prime turned into more than he thought with the added Geth presence there. Unfortunately, as he fought through the Geth and Husks, the Prothean beacon was destroyed during the mission with the loss of a Spectre agent, Nihlus Kryik.

'Such a shame for Nihlus to die the way he did...'

This was the catalyst of his journey, his travel to Spectrehood and mission to hunt Saren Arterius, as he figured out why the attack on Eden Prime happened. He learned the existence of an ancient species, a dangerous race of soulless machines with an AI hell-bent on the harvest of all advanced life within the galaxy. Imminent to return and wreak havoc upon the galaxy once again, in a race against time, he traveled to the planet of Ilos after the Reaper known as Sovereign captured the citadel and closed it, leaving only an experimental ground mass relay on Ilos to get inside.

Augustus Shepard managed to defeat Sovereign at the battle of the Citadel, with his victorious fight against the indoctrinated rouge Spectre agent Saren Arterius.

The victory was short-lived, however...

As the SSV Normandy was lured into an ambush, tricked with 'reports' of Geth activity. Which became quickly apparent to be false by the arrival of an unknown vessel, which then resulted in the destruction of the Normandy by its energy weapon fired from its center. 

While Shephard hurried to check the wellbeing of his crew, relieved to discover most of the people had managed to board one of the many emergency shuttles in time. Jeff Moreau, better known as Joker, had been more stubborn with the foolish hope he'd be able to save the Normandy. Fortunate for him, or else he'd also perished. Shephard was able to convince Joker that the Normandy was finished, it's been too badly damaged to function. But, just as Shepard had managed to help his friend into the emergency shuttle, an explosion occurred which shockwave shot metal toward his direction that made him unable to board the shuttle as well.

Flung into the darkness of space by the piece of metal, unlucky enough as it is, he's hit with another piece of metal that went right toward the air supply of his.  If fate couldn't be crueler to him, with the slight flicker of orange that engulfed his motionless body. His body was dragged into the gravitational pull of a nearby planet his ship had been in close proximity to, resulted in him becoming nothing but a charred remain in the deep of the sea.

But, he eventually came back to life with the help of Cerberus, a pro-human organization bend on safeguarding the interest of humanity reforged his body anew. Having the technology to rebuild him from the ground up, vast pools of monetary resources and manpower put into this goal, as Project Lazarus was a success as Augustus Shepard opened his eyes once more.

Shephard was tasked to discover the reasoning for the mysterious disappearance of human colonists, aboard a newly constructed ship with new and familiar faces on board.

He was successful in discovering who was responsible for the disappearance of the human colonists, vile abominations of flesh.

The Collectors, mindless blobs of flesh, genetically altered Protheans to serve the Reapers who were the ones responsible for the many abductions. They'd harvested humans for their nightmarish project to construct a human-shaped Reaper, with Shephard and his team stumped upon a partial build one inside the Collector base.

Thankfully, or else he wouldn't have been able to save the galaxy. 

Shepard and his team managed to survive and destroy the Collector base, despite The Illusive man's protest about how 'short' sighted it would be to destroy it with how 'much' they'll be able to learn from it.

But just six months after that came the invasion of earth, Reapers rained down from the skies with its minions as they brought the carnage of war to beloved Earth. Shepard was present during the invasion on earth, able to witness the initial damage brought by their arrival. As he was initially to be put on trial for the death of 300,000 batarian colonists after the destruction of the Alpha relay in the Bahak system, destroyed to delay the Reaper arrival.

Together with Admiral David Anderson, the only other survivor present during his supposed trial. The two managed to fight through a horde of Reaper minions before the Normandy came to the rescue. But, despite Shepards' best wishes, Anderson remained on earth to organize the resistance against the Reapers.

After a trip to the Martian archives, informed by Admiral Steven Hackett to go there with the discovery of something of importance. Shepard managed to learn about a weapon called the Crucible, a weapon of unimaginable proportion and scope, said to be a super weapon against the Reapers. His new mission now was to unite the galaxy in the struggle against the Reapers, or else they all eventually would perish and become the gooey slush which would fuel the next Reaper invasion.

After a race against time, a mad dash to gain every species support to build the device. Shepard's mission had been a success, with his two feet now placed under the metal floor of the forged weapon. 

The Crucible was built and successfully attached to the citadel, with only one thing left to do was to activate it.

Shepard was met with the visual representation of the citadel, somehow being in the shape of a small boy he managed to help to a shuttle before it was shot down.

After Shephard's questions were answered, and an explanation of which route he could take now. 

Shepard slugged across the floor, with each step that filled him with an unframeable surge of pain. Despite the pain, as it screamed out for him to stop what he was doing. He arrived at a junction for him to choose which fate shall befall the galaxy, in which way should the trillions out there speak about him when they bring up his name?

In front of him, this humming beam of energy which swirled around itself. His option was to add the energy of his whole being to the crucible, to change the very fabric of their DNA, to fuse organic and synthetic into one. But Shepard was unsure how this future would pan out, having already proven organic and synthetics could live in peace. 

It was also what the Reapers wanted, 

To his left, informed by the catalyst, he would have the chance to gain control over the reapers. The goal of the Illusive Man, to control the Reaper horde. Unfortunately, while the Illusive Man was right they could be controlled, it would cost his mortal body in the process thought.

Their accumulated information of countless civilizations would catapult them into a golden age of scientific discoveries, but what if it's just a lie from the catalyst to trick him?

Then to his right, as the last option of the three. Was the choice to destroy the Reapers throughout the galaxy, to rid everyone of these harvesters of death once and for all to end the cycle permanently.

This choose felt the easiest for him to pick, the third option, being the sole reason he began his undertaking three years ago. Since the discovery of the Reaper threat, his goal has remained unchanged in the face of all odds. Death shall befall these genocidal abominations for their crimes against the untold trillions, liquified and processed into sludge and forged into new Reapers to continue the cycle. 

Shepard limped away to the right, his hand tightened around the pistol grip of his gun. But, while he stood before the pathway down, he remained where he stood with eyes locked onto the power conduit.

'The end of the train is fast approaching, at last, three years of the constant battle for the survival of the galaxy... Anderson, Mordin, Thane, Kaidan, Legion. Your sacrifice will not be in vain!'

He took a glance behind to see the ongoing battle between the United Fleet and Reapers play out, as red beams flashed across the darkness with a quick flash explosion before it vanished into the vacuum of space.

It made Shepard think of his crew aboard the Normandy, good men and women who'd been with him through thick and thin. His wish, after all this, is over. Is for them to survive this whole ordeal, go on and live happily afterward in peace.

'I'd hoped to be present during the construction of the house, watch as your people rebuild their lost heritage anew. You wanted to see me build a house for the two of us with my own two hands, instead of all the destruction we're witnessed together... God. I'm sorry that I won't be able to return, my sweet Tali. Keelah se'lai, my love...'

Shepard thought as mere seconds after he raised his M-6 Carnifex steadily, with each step taken, his index finger slid closer toward the trigger with his aim being the power conduit before him. Shepard pulled the trigger once he managed to get close enough to not miss, with no desire to waste any of his shots to seal the deal of his fate. 

Roars echoed out through the barrel in quick succession, with dark red sparks that shot in all directions. Shepard raised both hands to cover his torso and head after the fifth shot, seeing the gush of flame which burst out toward him from the Power Conduit.  His body was catapulted back by the shockwave and landed onto the metal floor, as anew pain shoot through his body.

With the faint dizziness which overcame him, a soft warmth crawled up along both legs like a spiders leg. He watched as the light around him changed into a passionate red hue, the image of a white winged unicorn with the image of a sun on its ass flickered past him in the blink of an eye, before everything became dark in front of him and he lost consciousness.
> Chapter One: A March through the Tedious Sand
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Oh by all that is holy and sacred stop this unbearable pain!'

Heavy, and in a stream of pain.

Commander Augustus Shepard sat up with a loud groan, the back of his eyes felt like someone had poked him with a hundred needles. Every time he tried to open his eyes another flood of pain surged through him, and every slight touch sent a painful warmth that traveled across his skin. His head felt like someone had brought a sledgehammer down onto his head, then proceeded to play whack-a-mole with his body until every bone in his body felt like it'd been broken.

It was after ten long and intolerable minutes his senses recovered to tolerable levels, with his feet upon the steady ground and cracked eyes looked forward. He was able to see his surroundings with a soft breeze which swept over the dunes, to ankle level a soft moving blanket of sand toggled over the landscape. As Shepard saw sand everywhere so long the eye reached, the scorching sun came down unrelentingly upon him.

'Got to find someplace with a shadow, and quickly.'

His thoughts rang on repeat while he marched onwards, his eyes scouted all around for a cave to hide in. Luckily, for him, It wasn't long before he found a cave to escape the sun's wrathful grasp, his march over there aided by the support of his M-7 Lancer he leaned on. Once undercover he checked out what other weapons might have transported over, a smile cracked across his lips with a cheerful chuckle. 

Shepard discovered that his Graal Spike Thrower hanged on his back together with his M-6 Carnifex that hanged around his belt, his trusty equipment he'd used for a while now on his missions.

'Glad to see my weapons have somehow remained on my person during this strange event...'

After he arrived under cover he used this opportunity to take off his N7 armor to get some fresh air onto his skin, and sat against the chilly rock afterward, but not before he checked if the air was safe to breathe. After a quick read from his Omni-tool to determine if the air is safe or not, he stripped down and dematerialized his armor. He let out a soft sight while he sat with his back against the stone in nothing but a tank shit and sweatpants, he enjoyed the less warm stone surface.

'At least the air is safe.'

Being out of the most dangerous situation now, without having to worry about dying under the sun, it left him able to think about his current bizarre predicament.

' Still, I can't figure out how I arrived in a desert of all places, I'm more or less surprisingly alive and well. I should have been spaced with the explosions that happened, not to mention burned to a crisp once more if I'd gotten dragged by Earth's gravitational pull...'

He didn't even know where to start and think what might have happened for him to be alive and kicking, as with all reasonable explanations. He should've been dead, more so than the first time.

The questions would have to be asked later, and worry was something he couldn't do right now. Shepard raised his arm with his Omni-tool appeared seconds after.

"This is Commander Augustus Shepard of the SSV Normandy, are there any Alliance personal on this frequency?" He called out with naught but silence coming back in return.

"I repeat. This is Commander Augustus Shepard of the SSV Normandy. Are there any Alliance personal out there on this frequency? Please Respond." He tried a second time, but like the first attempt, nothing but silence came back in return

"I repeat again, to all survivors out there, this is Commander Augustus Shepard of the SSV Normandy. Admiral Hackett? Joker, EDI, Hammerhead, Sword fleet, Tali, anyone?” Once again, as the first and the last. No response was uttered out over the comms. 

'Great, no response. Seems like I'm the only one here.'

After the third attempt, with the same result as the first, he stopped his attempt to see if any other were out there and waited till nightfall befell the desert. Once night had fallen, having taken a quick nap during the day. He ventured outside again with his armor on, reforged with his fabricator as it gave adequate warmth during the cold desert night. 

He marched throughout the night, only having brief breaks in-between. With the sight of a more greener existence coming into view, the savannah which resembled something plucked right out from the African planes. It was a pleasant change of sight with its trees that dotted here and there, not to mention bushes of all shapes and forms that was about.

But this slight positive development was short lived.

Augustus' ears picked up a low pitch growl which became audible, quick on his reflexes and finger on the trigger. Some alien creature seemed to have followed him, having not noticed it at all, as it became apparent to him why he hadn't spotted this creature stalk of him. 

The flimsy reflection of light rapidly collapsed as it revealed the strange combination of a tiger head that split apart into four pieces upon a lion's body, not to mention a scorpion's stinger attached to where a normal fluffy tail would be.

'Oh, great. What in God's name is that Mad Doctor's petri dish experiment... and its ability doesn't flicker as the Geth's does...'

Augustus didn't hesitate to raise his M-7 Lancer toward the strange creature, its mouth opened that allowed him to see an array of sharp teeth going down the throat in a circular manner. It began to circle around him with its stinger wiggling back and forth, his aim followed as it sidestepped to the left. 

The reality around the beast then became flimsy with its body vanished into the air, its growl ensued. The sudden gush of wind, which blew past his head, made him dash backward with his rifle raised to accelerate a few shots directed toward the same direction. 

Augustus hit the ground, the force sends dirt flying up, as it enabled him to get a visual of the creature with a large portion of the dirt landed upon the beast's body. After that, now visible, it was nothing else than to point his M-7 Lance and pull the trigger to send down damnation to the beast. Its whimpered cries rolled out as Augustus scored a direct hit, going right through the head, as its lifeless body fell like a rock sinks in the water of a river.

He looked around the area to see if anything else might have the balls to come at him in the attempt to gain a meal, as he shot a few rounds down into the ground to make it rain brown. But, luckily, every piece of dirt send sky-high came back down without a hitch, no beasts of a similar nature hung around his immediate vicinity to attempt a sneak attack to get a bite out of him.

'God, how I have missed these type of models! Much more suited for situations where you're constrained with insufflation material to fabricate Thermal clips! I know we wanted to have more firepower to send toward the enemy, but these models sure bring back memories.'

Augustus let out a sigh as he eyed the beast, his stomach began to growl with his mouth starting to water. He made his Omni-tool appear to analysis the beast to determine if its dextro or levo-protein based, with his hope being that it'll be levo-protein based for him to be able to digest it and not starve. The result, which brought a frown on his face, turned out to be dextro-protein based, meaning he wouldn't be able to digest to gain nutrient from it.

'Ah, damn it! Would've been nice to get some food into my system...'

With this unfortunate result, having kind of hoped to get some food. He walked away from the dead creature since he couldn't eat it, making it a horning beacon for any stomach growling predator within the vicinity. 

It was when the sun had reached its zenith on the blue sky, constantly watching, that he picked up the sound of water slamming against strange large rocks in the middle of a small river, the water crystal clear for him to see the button of the stream. After he conducted some tests with his Omni-tool, making sure it was safe for him to drink. He went onto his knees himself and began to scup some water into his folded hands to drink from after the tests came back it was safe for consumption, feeling his throat rejuvenated with the cold water which flushed down.

Augustus dipped his whole head into the small river, its cold flow being a pleasant sensation to have run across the skin. The water droplets ticklish glided down his cheeks with his once submerged head coming up for air. As he shakes his head and ran a hand across his face as he stood up on his two feet, taking a prolonged breath of air into his lungs as he s

'How divine it is to feel cold water against the skin, would've only been better if I had some body wash and shampoo to clean myself.' 

But, despite Augustus' desired wish, he didn't have such luxury to daydream about such things, not for now at least. 

Once he matched through the water and stepped onto the other side, the water went to his waist with a current too weak for it to sweep him off his feet with the current. Augustus noticed a faint brown dot move across the boundary of his vision, it stroked a curiosity as to what this moving object may be. 

It became more apparent that the small brown dot Augustus saw was the movement of a wooden wagon, built in the image of the very old wild west of the nineteenth-century during the gold rush. As Augustus laid eyes on this it brought up a lot of questions, but still pleased to see that this planet had some form of civilization. 

The most forefront of questions: Who left this wagon with naught a starch on the wood or holes in the clothed roof? Where are the people who owned this wagon at exactly? Why is there an old fashioned wagon in a place like this?

When Augustus took a peek inside the weapon he found unopened wooden crates, untouched and not a scratch on the wood with a logo of an apple stamped on its side. His curious side got the better of him as he opened one of the crates with his Omni-blade, making a clean, as he pulled the top lid without any difficulties. 

What he discovered inside made his heart jingle with glee, raised cheeks with a small grin, as he reached into the crate and fished out a delicious looking red apple. Augustus didn't hessitate as he began to devour apple after apple, pulling out the small seeds to eat the core as well. As before long, with the sun slowly coming to a set, he sat up against the wooden wall with a relaxed sigh that left him.

'To be honest, only been about close to two days since I arrived. This situation here is far more comfortable than anything I've faced the last six months... simple survival in nature, instead of having to be stressed out with the fate of the galaxy on your shoulders.'

Tiredness unexpectedly fell over him, having finally gotten some food into his system and not at the risk of swiveling up. Augustus now felt the effect of having wandered the desert all night and all day in this savanna, his eyes felt like anvils had somehow fused together and now pulled his eyes down. 

Augustus laid down close to the button part of the wagon to look into the sky with a smile, his hands behind his head to serve as a pillow of sorts upon the wooden floor. 

'Would have loved to wake up to you beside me, Tali... Hope you're not suffering too much because of me...'
> 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...'