//------------------------------// // History // Story: Mass Effect: Element of Kindness // by CommanderApplejack //------------------------------// Chapter 25 History Humans 37% Fluttershy opened her omni-tool and opened the program that would allow her to access the extranet. She tried taking on a more comfortable position but all the various cables and tubes from medical equipment connected to her armor prevented her from doing so. Fluttershy sighed as she pulled the bed's pillow closer and rested her head on it. Using the holographic display in front of her eyes as a screen while she browsed through various extranet pages. "Where to start, where to start," she muttered just as she found a page that titled itself as a summary of human history. I guess beginning at the start isn't too terrible of an idea. The page started with the description of how the particular strain of humans called 'homo sapiens' rose to become the dominant type of human on earth, though it was only a short summary since writing hadn't been invented back then. This also meant that for the first tens of thousands of years very little information existed. The extranet site picked its summary back up at about five thousand years back of the current day, Fluttershy being astounded at that sheer violence the humans were capable of when building their empires that in most cases would collapse after they died. Ponies, in general, had a history that contained much less bloodshed, the pegasi being the most militarized tribe due to their interactions with griffin warbands but even they would most likely have recoiled at the described amount of violence. Despite this, the pegasus kept reading as a lot could happen in the thousands of years of history that she hadn't gone through yet. These stories sound way more violent than humans seem to be today, what happened to them that they changed their way? Fluttershy continued reading through the text, passing stories of the Egyptian kingdom until she reached a sperate section that was simply titled 'Rome'. At first, this little city-state seemed to follow the same path all the other empires followed but rather then remain a kingdom it turned into a republic This republic over centuries of conquest and assimilation created a relatively stable empire that would last almost a millennium before starting to crumble and even then a part of it remained standing for over another millennium. Fluttershy gawked at all the accomplishments the Romans had achieved. Considering that humans didn't have access to magic their progress was astounding: gigantic aqueducts that brought fresh water to their cities, a network of stone roads spanning across their not inconsiderable territory, and a number of gigantic structures built throughout various cities of theirs. It wasn't a surprise to the pegasus that after the empire fell a dark age of technology followed. The next section of the site covered what happened on the other side of the world in the same time period. Going over some of the major Asian dynasties before returning to Europe and continuing on to a period of time called the middle ages. Fluttershy finally having had enough of the older parts of history she browsed down to more recent history to see how humanity got to reach space in the first place. She almost passed a section called 'The Great War' but stopped as she saw a picture of all the countries involved in the conflict. Her eyes going wide as nearly the entire world was colored indicating a global conflict. What made it worse were all the other pictures that were accompanying the text, her rate of breathing going up as she looked over pictures of the dead and maimed while reading the descriptions of horrendous weapons of war. "Hey, Fluttershy?" "EEP!" The pegasus nearly dove off the bed only to be stopped by a fresh wave of pain. "Whoa, hold on there. I don't think you should be moving quite that much yet," Garrus chuckled as he approached the bedridden pegasus. "W-what are you doing here?" Fluttershy asked, extremely self-conscious due to her fuckup in the garage. Garrus smirked before replying, "Well, what's so wrong about visiting my favorite pegasus?" Forgetting her embarrassment Fluttershy rolled her eyes. "I'm the only pegasus you know," she said, pointing out the obvious. "Doesn't mean you're not my favorite," Garrus said smugly as he placed a plate of food in front of Fluttershy, something she probably should have noticed the moment he entered. "How are you holding up?" He said, his tone much more serious as he sat down on a stool next to the bed. "I'm fine," Fluttershy blatantly lied. "You nearly killed yourself with biotics which you were specifically ordered not to use and got confined to the medbay due to ignoring that order," Garrus stated with all the subtlety of a krogan, "Of all the things you are right now, 'fine' is not one of them." Fluttershy swallowed as Garrus' words hit home, "Y-you're right it's just..." Tears started forming in Fluttershy's eyes. "I-I'm just... I-I used to care for animals at home and go out with my friends, yes we had to stop both Nightmare Moon and Discord but neither involved hurting anypony," Fluttershy sniffed. "I just want to go home and see my friends and feed my animals but I can't! Every time I close my eyes that bucking vision flashes through my mind reminding me that even if I get back home nopony IS SAFE!" Fluttershy shouted through her tears, feeling a slight weight being lifted from her chest but also immediately feeling guilty. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have shouted at you." "And you shouldn't let stuff like that bottle up," Garrus said completely unfazed. "Look, Shepard might be angry now and you're probably going to get punished for nearly breaking the ship but after we've stopped these reapers, he'll still help you find your home. He seems to have a thing about helping others." Fluttershy wiped the tears from her eyes, "Thank you for hearing me out, I needed that." "That's what friends are for, aren't they?" Garrus chuckled before he stood up to leave the medbay, "Anyway I have to get some rest for the mission on Noveria, you good for tonight?" Fluttershy let out a small yawn, realising that she was much more tired than she had first thought. 1. Yeah, I'll be fine 2. [Can you stay with me until I fall asleep?] 3. Call Shepard on his omni-tool [Vote link]