//------------------------------// // Everfree // Story: Mass Effect: Element of Kindness // by CommanderApplejack //------------------------------// Chapter 139 Everfree AJ, Rarity, Pinkie, and me can take care of this. 44% “You three go help Shepard, I’ll scout out the Everfree to see if there’s a significant presence of heretics in there,” Fluttershy told the others. “Wouldn’t be the first time I run recon.” “In my experience from Omega that usually meant another crime boss was going to bite the dust,” Garrus chuckled. “Good luck in there, we’ll see you after taking care of the Badlands.” Garrus, Tali, and Dash Gave their spare thermal clips over to Fluttershy before running off back to the shuttle, leaving her with the three other girls, Spike, and the fillies.  “Soo… if I told you three that I’d go alone you’d come after me regardless, wouldn’t you?” Fluttershy asked flatly to which her old friends sheepishly nodded. “So we’re going on a field trip?” Scootaloo asked hopefully. “Absolutely not,” Fluttershy shot the filly down immediately. “None of you know what you’ll be running into and taking them is already enough of a risk. You along with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are going to stay right here with Spike.” “Ahhh, but I want to go on an adventure too!” Scootaloo wined.   “Ah’m pretty sure Fluttershy here knows what she’s talking ‘bout here, and that’s beside the fact that’s the Everfree forest. Ah ain’t having you kids there with us,” Applejack agreed with Fluttershy, Rarity following soon after. The three fillies grudgingly agreeing to stay with Spike after none of the adults, not even Pinkie, agreed to let them come too. Not wanting to get caught by the guard in the library, the four ponies swiftly made their way to the edge of the forest. “Say Fluttershy, mind filling us in a bit on what happened over the last two years? I didn’t really get much other than: ‘aliens’ before. Everything is just moving so fast,” Rarity spoke up as they walked along the path. “We really didn’t, did we...” Fluttershy sighed. “I guess I should start at the beginning then. Remember that device that fired me off? It’s called a mass relay. There are massive versions of them in orbit around stars that facilitate long-distance travel between star-systems. The one I took tossed me out on the Citadel.” “The Citadel?” Applejack asked curiously. “That like a fortress or somethin’?” “It can be, but mostly it’s the space station that acts as capital to the Citadel Council, an alliance between four main races. It’s a massive place, I could show you how it looks but that does not do the place justice.” “So what did you do after arriving?” Pinkie asked. “I met Commander Shepard pretty soon after and stuck along with him, got tangled up in his mission to take down a rogue Spectre, a special kind of agent of sorts. We found out there’s another race of machines set to exterminate all advanced intelligent life in the galaxy.” The three others gasped in horror and disbelief, “Y-You stopped the meanies, right?” Pinkie stuttered. “It’s been a work in progress for the last two years. The machine you saw in the forest is one of the ones aligned with the reapers AJ,” Fluttershy explained, making the others shiver. “Reapers… that sounds ominous. So that’s what you’ve been doing all this time?” Rarity asked. “There was a brief period of a year or so where Garrus and I spent fighting gangs on another station. But other than that I’ve been actively working to stop the reapers.” Fluttershy stopped as they had reached the edge of the forest. “You three sure you really don’t want stay here? This isn’t like the time with Nightmare Moon, these things will kill on sight.” “Ain’t changing my mind,” Applejack shrugged. “Nor mine!” Pinkie agreed. “We’re coming, darling,” Rarity finished, making Fluttershy sigh as the idea of just cloaking and heading into the forest crossed her mind but was quickly dismissed. I don’t even want to know what the geth heretics will do to them if they find those three wandering through the forest alone while searching for me… “Alright then,” Fluttershy said, loading a thermal clip into her black widow. “Stay close behind me and don’t wander. If I tell you to do something you do it without question. Clear?” The three ponies nodded, giving the go-ahead for Fluttershy to take the first step into the forest. “So, now I’ve given you the overview about what I’ve been doing, mind filling me in what happened to Twilight after Luna came through the relay a while back?” Applejack was the first to speak up from the three behind Shy, “Ah assume you know that Twilight and Particle Bit went underground to get a third shot at sendin’ somepony through after Dash went for it?” Fluttershy nodded. “Well, the night guard has been movin’ her all around the place since then. The princess, Celestia that is, has been goin’ after her for that time. It’s also why the guard is in Ponyville, to prevent us from harboring her.” “How is the night guard getting away with that? I don’t remember them being that large a force,” Fluttershy asked while keeping her gaze firmly locked on scanning through the trees. “Because the Princesses have equal legal standing,” Rarity answered. “The solar guard can't arrest the Lunar one for following the orders of their Princess. So long as they keep Twilight out of the Solar guard’s hooves they can keep moving her around indefinitely.” “That must cause some serious friction between the guards,” Fluttershy guessed. “Yeah, they don’t exactly have any love for Twi left now Shining’s not there and Twi hurt their princess. The extra Ponyville guards don’t like us jus’ fer bein’ friends with Twilight,” Applejack confirmed. Fluttershy abruptly stopped in her tracks, her friends knocking into her but none of them managing to stagger her. “Wha-” “Silence,” Fluttershy hissed, glaring out into the forest. None of her three old friends moved a muscle as Fluttershy slowly reached for the black widow under her wing. Slowly standing up on her back legs, scoping out the disturbance in the leaves she’d noticed. Not hesitating a moment as she saw the familiar light coming from the head of a geth, she pulled the trigger. KABOOM! The heretic’s head exploded as the anti-materiel round slammed through it, the one next to it didn’t even get to turn around before the same thing happened to it. “We need to move, the other heretics now know where we are,” Fluttershy swiftly said, starting to run towards the destroyed machines and running past them, her wings lighting up as she snagged up the two rifles the geth had been carrying. “What in tarnation was that?!” Applejack exclaimed as she sprinted after Fluttershy with Rarity and Pinkie on her tail. “A rifle! The weapons in the galaxy are way more advanced then what we have here on Equis!” Fluttershy replied, sliding down a slope into cover at the bottom. “Here, these are automatic rifles, the switch on the handle here fires a projectile at high speed straight out of the front here. Don’t ever point the two of these at me or anyone else, only at things you want to destroy.” Rarity and Applejack both got a rifle pushed into their hooves. “Shy, Ah’m not su-” “You decided to come with me, now you’re going to have to be able to defend yourself if I’m busy. I’d prefer that you wouldn’t have to fire them in the first place anyway, much safer for everyone around,” Fluttershy cut her off. “We should move quickly and find the hub where these things are operating from and take it out… First place we should check is the Castle of the Two Sisters, it’s nice and central location that’s easy to defend.” “Alright, you lead the way,” Applejack said as she quickly tied her rope around the rifle to make carrying it easier.  “Good, stay close and I’ll pull you three through this.”