//------------------------------// // Manehattan // Story: Mass Effect: Element of Kindness // by CommanderApplejack //------------------------------// Chapter 145 Manehattan “So, to be clear, there's a massive underground base on the planet made by your kind fifty thousand years ago?” Garrus asked as Fluttershy finished her side of the story with Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie. Luna and Cadence had moved into a side room for a more private conversation. “Yes. I think there is space for thousands to live down there,” Fluttershy answered. “Well, we knew there was a good possibility we'd find something like that after Shining found that AI,” Garrus chuckled, “I told you your 'recon' missions always get more interesting.” “That they do, so what happened in the Badlands? You look gross.” Fluttershy pointed at the goop covering Garrus, Tali, Shepard, and Dash. “And you really should clean that cut on your cheek,” “Uhm, yeah… let's just say we had some technical difficulties,” Rainbow awkwardly said. “By that, she means almost all mass effect fields got dulled to uselessness,” Tali added for Rainbow. “There was this strange chair... throne at the center of the fortress we found there that blocked nearly all mass effect fields. ” “And that included guns,” Shepard growled. “Considering how y’all look that ain’t all of it,” Applejack said in disgust of the smell coming off the group that had come from the badlands. “Yeah… We found not only heretics there,” Rainbow shuddered. “Remember what Luna said about changelings, Shy? They were there… a lot of them.” “That explains the blood, but how did you get through there without weapons?” Fluttershy asked, Rarity and Applejack gagging as they finally realized what the mess covering the others was. Rainbow, instead of answering, just activated her omni-blade. “Ah.” “Could we please not,” Rarity looked sick as she tried figuring out how many things would have to die to be that drenched in blood. “I think I don’t really want to hear it.” “Yeah, I’ll fill Shy in later,” Rainbow grimaced, Luna and Cadence came walking back onto the bridge with each other. “Commander, I’d like to get to my sister. There’s been some things Cade- my niece here has informed me about,” Luna told Shepard seriously. “Preferably as fast as possible.” “Wait, we can’t jus’ leave this place without anypony here! Not after the effort we put into keeping the darn thing!” Applejack exclaimed. “Sounds like you’re volunteering to stay then?” Shepard smirked, Applejack opened her mouth to reply but closed it again to think it over. “Ah guess Ah’d be the best pony fer the job since Ah already know how ta defend this thing jus’ in case… Alright, Ah’ll stay” “Me too!” Pinkie exclaimed, “I found this cool option on the communications console that showed me something called the ‘extranet’. They even have pictures off all of you on there!” the pink pony giggled as she pointed at Garrus, Fluttershy and the others who’d been on the Citadel. “What? How did yo-” “Don’t question it Tali, it’s better for your sanity,” Rainbow cut her off before she’d spend too much mental effort into it. “I’ll stay as well, I’m pretty sure I broke something and I want to find out what it was,” Rarity offered as well. “That sounds good, I will send over my guard to relieve you three after I get in contact with them,” Luna promised. The others said their goodbyes for now as they left the three ponies behind to keep watch. Shepard and Luna lead them through the ship’s hallways, which were a bit cramped for the two-legged members, towards a small hangar bay where the Normandy’s shuttle sat. All of the doors were seemingly keyed to the ponies as they opened up the moment any of them got close enough, which was probably the reason how Shepard’s group had reached the bridge as quickly as they had done. “You can guide the Normandy to this Manehattan, right?” Shepard asked Luna as they flew over to the stealth ship in the shuttle. “Of course, though I would appreciate it just being myself, Cadence, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash going down. My sister will have enough stress, I want to speak to her before adding to that.” “You know how to call and we won’t be going anywhere anytime soon with that shield up there,” Shepard chuckled, pointing up to where the planetary shield was. “Feel free to stay here in the hangar, It probably won’t take that long to get to our destination.” “Understood,” Fluttershy said, sitting down in the hangar and leaning against some storage boxes as the others excused themselves to head further into the ship. “So, Rainbow, mind filling me in on the details about what happened in the Badlands?” Rainbow sat down across from her and allowed Shy to check on the cut that ran across her cheek, Cadence joining in too. “We ‘landed’ nearby the fortress Luna mentioned before, by that I mean the shuttle mass effect generator went offline and we nearly smacked into the ground if it hadn’t been for conventional thrusters. We followed that up by heading into the fortress itself, that place really wasn’t cool. The walls and stuff moved all over the place and I don’t think that without Luna there we’d have found the central chamber in the first place.” “No heretics or geth yet?” Fluttershy asked with a raised eyebrow. “I think we ran into all of them at once in that central chamber, the heretics had set up all sorts of machines in there and these changelings just scurried around and carried equipment for them. That’s when it pretty much turned into a clusterfuck since no-one could use real weaponry it became a massive brawl. I’m not entirely sure how we pulled off that fight but Legion managed to get the virus before they could send it out… That’s when she showed up.” “She?” Cadence questioned. “Queen Chrysalis is what Luna called her. She did a number on us for a bit but after we blew up throne… it was a massacre Shy.” Rainbow trembled slightly, “The queen got away but most of the drones were killed in the firefight between the remaining heretics and us… there was so much blood,” Dash croaked. Fluttershy pulled the blue pegasus close into a hug, stroking her hair. “It’s okay, Rainbow, you can’t control everything. Those changelings were working with the heretics so I think it’s safe to assume they’re with the reapers somehow,” Fluttershy comforted. “Joker here, we’re approaching the city right now. Luna’s coming back down to join you.” “Copy that, Joker,” Fluttershy replied, letting go of Dash who got back on her hooves and collected herself as the elevator opened and revealed Luna. “So, how are we going to find Celestia?” Dash asked. “Manehattan might not be the Citadel but I still remember it being really large.” “I will go by the City hall with Cadence here to see if they know more, I suggest you two check the north and south Guard precincts respectively,” Luna told them. “Dibs on the north precinct!” Dash immediately said, her confidence back in force. “I know where that is and if I don’t find anything I’ll fly down south over the central park and check Bridleway.” “Sounds good to me. I was never too familiar with Manehattan anyway,” Fluttershy nodded, “I’ll head to Bridleway after checking the south precinct and meet up with Dash there, we’ll contact you by omni-tool if we find something, Luna.” “Perfect. Mister Monreau, could you open the hangar bay doors for us?” Luna asked the pilot. “There you four go, we’re up pretty high right now though. Want me to bring you lower?” Joker asked as the hangar door opened up. Rainbow peaked over the edge to see the cloud layer far below. “Nah, we got wings. We’ve got this… Geronimo!” Rainbow let herself fall off the ramp and through the thin air, gaining speed as she plummeted down. Behind her, the other three ponies did the same though they slowed down their decent by going down in a flare. Rainbow didn’t care though, she loved the screaming air around her ears as she opened her wings to start leveling out. G-forces squeezed her innards as she broke the cloud layer, leaving a hole, and got level between the city’s skyscrapers. The few other pegasi she passed didn’t even get to see what passed them as Rainbow weaved through the scrapers while looking around to identify where exactly she was, spotting the central park and heading in its direction. Huh, that’s quite the crowd down there… A group of ponies had assembled on one of the large fields in the park, a small stage with a pony standing on it in the middle of the crowd. Maybe I should take a peek there first… couldn’t hurt, right? 1. Head down to the park. 2. Continue on to the guard station. [Vote link]