The Normandy descended towards the shielded planet below while the three ponies and Gabby watched through the windows that were placed in the cockpit. As they came close, Luna lit her horn and opened up a decently sized hole in the large shield through which Joker piloted the ship.
“Congratulations ladies, welcome home,” Joker said bringing up a crude map from limited surface scans they'd gotten. “Just point me a place to park and I'll head there.”
Luna helpfully pointed him towards the Canterhorn mountain and Dash warned not to descend too fast as to avoid hitting a pegasus at a lower elevation. While Joker flew them towards the Equestrian capital Dash and Fluttershy loaded up the shuttle with their firearms. Garrus and Tali, who’d be joining them, doing the same.
“Nervous?” Rainbow asked as Fluttershy sat down after having loaded everything up, only waiting for the go-ahead from Joker.
“To be honest? No, not anymore,” Fluttershy replied relaxing into the seat. “I’ve made peace with what I did, and I’m sure the others will understand once they understand the situation.”
“Huh, guess that’s one way to look at it,” Dash said surprised as Garrus and Tali stepped into the shuttle.
“Joker’s descending right now, we’ll be let out shortly,” he announced as Tali took seat in the shuttle’s cockpit and fired up the shuttle’s thrusters. Half a minute later the hangar bay door opened and allowed Tali to guide the shuttle out of the hangar bay, the Normandy shooting off north while tali broke off the shuttle to fly east under the guidance of Rainbow.
“The forest below is called the Everfree forest, if we head in our current direction we should end up somewhere in AJ’s orchard,” Rainbow pointed out to Tali. In the back Garrus looked out over the trees that were covering the ground below.
“This place has some real Earth vibes...” He stated as he watched the trees go by below.
“According to Fidelis, that’s because ponies used to have a presence on Earth. There’s plenty of differences too in flora and fauna though,” Fluttershy said, a small smile on her face as the forest gave away to rows of apple trees. “Let’s set the shuttle down outside the farm so we don’t cause a panic in town.”
“Got it, I’ll put it down around here,” Tali acknowledged, the shuttle slowing down before setting down in a clearing. “I saw a building about a click away, I assume that that’s your friend’s place?”
“Yeah, that was AJ’s farm,” Rainbow said grabbing her shotgun and SMG off of the weapon rack and clamping them to her body.
“Let’s go for a hike then,” Garrus chuckled as he opened up the shuttle and stepped onto the grass outside. “You t-”
A net and lassoed rope flew over Garrus’s head and three colored blurs smashed into him... not that it really did anything to the turian who just looked down at what hit him.
“Come on Scootaloo, ya gotta pull harder!”
“I am! It's not budging!”
“G-Girls!”
Tali gasped as she saw three little fillies trying to bring down Garrus, jumping forward and swooping one up. “They're so cute!”
“Girls ru- Wait, what?! I'm not cute!” Scootaloo exclaimed as she tried to get out of Tali's grip.
“Can I keep this one?” Tali simply ignored the small pegasus to talk to Rainbow.
“Well, maybe if you ask her nicely,” Dash chuckled, stepping out into the grass too. The three fillies' jaws dropped at seeing the Rainbow maned pegasus only for their surprise to increase further from the second pegasus who stepped out of the shuttle.
“Rainbow Dash? Fluttershy?!” they said in unison.
“Hello girls, I see you're still hunting for your cutie marks?” Fluttershy chuckled. “Do you mind letting my boyfriend go free?”
“Wait, what? Him?” Sweetie pointed at Garrus who still patiently waited while looking on in amusement.
“The name's Garrus Vakarian, pleasure to meet you three.”
“Sweetie, Ah think it spoke?” Bloom whispered a bit too loud.
“Bloom, this one talked too,” Scootaloo bluntly pointed out, grumbling as she pointed at the quarian that was in the process of squeezing her flat.
“Girls be polite and introduce yourselves,” Fluttershy chuckled as she helped Garrus to get from under the net and rope.
“I'm Sweetie Belle!” the unicorn happily chirped.
“Apple Bloom,” the earth pony nodded respectfully
“Scootaloo,” the pegasus grumbled.
“I'm Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, good to meet you three too,” Tali said happily.
“Uhh, miss Tali'Zorah, mind setting me on the ground?” Scootaloo asked, Tali letting her go.
“Hey Rainbow, are you wearing armor?... Are you all wearing armor?” Sweetie asked, tapping Dash's main plate. Scootaloo gasped as she now too noticed it.
“Ohmygosh, Ohmygosh, Ohmygosh, did you fight like a space alien with lasers and such? Did you?”
“Oh come on, Scoots, Ah'm sure they didn't.”
“Well, there was this one time- Oof,” Garrus was knocked in the side by Fluttershy.
“Let's not go into detail with kids around, now will you?” Fluttershy told him, turning back to the fillies. “Girls, it's good to see you but we kind of are still on a clock. I would like to see my friends in Ponyville.”
“Of course! AJ should be at the market today, sellin' the apples,” Bloom Told them, “Ah know mah way around these parts, we can take a shortcut if y'all want?”
“That'd be appreciated,” Tali said as the bigger group made their way through the rows of trees, the three fillies asking questions the whole way to the edge of the village. As they moved through the village itself they attracted the sight of pretty much everyone on their way, most whispering to each other but, to their credit, none ran away. The market was pretty busy as the group arrived but locating Applejack's stand wasn't too hard.
Fluttershy smirked deviously as she halted the others. “Allow me to get her.”
Garrus couldn't help but chuckle as Fluttershy disappeared into nothingness. Scootaloo, Sweetie, and Bloom gasped in surprise.
“Don't worry kids, my little angel is letting her devious side show again,” Garrus chuckled. Fluttershy meanwhile snaked through the crowd with expert ease, dodging ponies left and right until she was so close to the unsuspecting farmer that she could whisper in her ear.
“Boo.”
Applejack yelped in surprise as the pegasus decloaked right next to her. “What in tarnation?! Ah-” Her eyes widening as she realized who startled her, jumping forward to pull Fluttershy into a hug. “Sugarcube! What- How- where-”
“Slow down there AJ, we should get the other girls too,” Fluttershy chuckled. “Rainbow is over there with the Crusaders and two of our other friends.”
AJ raised an eyebrow as she saw Garrus waving at them. “Must have been an interesting two years for ya.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Fluttershy laughed as she opened a channel over her omni-tool. “I’m going to get Rarity, would you mind getting Pinkie?”
“Got it, where should we meet up?” Rainbow responded.
“Y’all could head over ta the library?” Applejack answered, looking at the tool in awe. “Spike still lives there after Twi… well… Ah think the others should be there ta explain what is going on with her.”
“Alright, we heard some things from Luna but she hasn’t given us the full rundown of what happened when we were gone exactly. Rainbow out.”
“Ah guess Ah’ll have to close up shop fer today. See ya at the library, sugarcube.” Applejack chuckled, giving Fluttershy a quick hug before quickly starting to pack her apples back onto her cart. Fluttershy opened her wings and shot into the air, flying over to the Carousel Boutique and walked into the store. The little bell that hung above the door rang as the door opened and closed.
“I’ll be right down!” Rarity called from upstairs, the clopping of hooves on the stairs as she came down. Fluttershy by that point was facing away from her and had her hood up. “What can I do for you, madam?”
“I’m here because I owe an apology for all those spa days I missed,” Fluttershy said looking over her shoulder at Rarity, the unicorn’s mouth dropping open.
“F-Flu...” Rarity’s legs gave out as she fainted, being caught by Fluttershy’s biotic aura before hitting the ground.
“Oh my… Rarity, are you okay?” Fluttershy asked as the unicorn woke up again within Shy’s forelegs.
“Y-yes, Oh darling I missed you so much!” Rarity exclaimed, hugging Fluttershy in the same way Applejack had done.
“Same here, Rarity,” Fluttershy smiled, pulling off her hood as she returned the hug.
“Fluttershy your face!” Rarity gasped as she saw the scarring on there clearly. “You must have had a dreadful two years!”
“It wasn’t too bad actually,” Fluttershy chuckled. “There were some hard times but I had plenty of good too. The scars I earned along the way.”
“Oh dear, you sound like Rainbow Dash… is that darling with you?”
“She’s getting Pinkie right now. We agreed to-” Fluttershy’s omni-tool beeped from an incoming call from Rainbow, a hologram of Dash appearing above her tool as she answered. “Something up, Dash?”
“Yeah, Pinkie wanted to hear from you after I told her you were here.”
“Is that really you, Fluttershy?” Pinkie’s voice came through the tool as Dash’s hologram was replaced by the bubbly mare, her voice was hoarse and it sounded as if she was about to burst into tears.
“Yes Pinkie, it’s me. I’ll be right at the library where we can see each other, okay?” Fluttershy replied.
“O-Okay, see you there then,” Pinkie stuttered before Dash cut off the call from the other end.
“What was that?!” Rarity exclaimed, looking in awe at Shy’s foreleg.
“It’s a machine that does… a lot of useful things. One of which is make long-distance communication possible.” Fluttershy showed off the tool again so Rarity could study it better.
“That is amazing...” Rarity gasped as she waved her hoof through the hologram. “But we should be heading out to the library, Pinkie could really use some good news.”
“Of course, let’s go see them because I think Spike could also use some good news.”
“That he could,” Rarity chuckled. The unicorn quickly closed her shop before trotting over to the tree-library, finding the others were already there.
“You know, I’d never thought that I’d ever see a tree this large, much less one that had a house carved into it,” Garrus chuckled as Rarity and Fluttershy entered. “Look who’s there! You’re late, babe.”
Before she could reply Pinkie slammed into her and started crying on her shoulder, Fluttershy starting to comfort the mare by rubbing her back. “I’m here Pinkie,”
“Are you going to stay around?” Pinkie choked, a smile on her face regardless of the tears.
“I… There are things I need to do out there, Pinkie. Things I can’t just stop doing, friends that need support,” Fluttershy gently said. “But now I know where home is I can come back.”
“Oh… Okay.” Pinkie’s hair still puffed up significantly.
“Twilight never believed you were truly lost. Seems she was right,” Spike stepped forth with a tray of drinks and a smile on his face, it dropped relatively fast though. “She could really use your help… Last news I heard Celestia headed over to Manehattan personally.”
"Of course, Spike. We'll see what we can do along with Luna."
“I’m sorry, but who are you two?” Rarity looked at Garrus and Tali. Fluttershy glanced at Rainbow and smirked.
“This here is Garrus Vakarian,” Fluttershy jumped on his lap, “my boyfriend. And that over there is Tali’Zorah…”
“...Rainbow’s girlfriend.”