Go see why Twilight called. 75%
Fluttershy tried to call Twilight back but got no response, though as her attempt at contacting Twilight failed she noticed something peculiar. Why is the civilian communications net down? Dialling into the encrypted C-Sec communications grid, she received no communications at all.
"Something is wrong," she interrupted the Council's bickering.
"We are quite aware," Udina growled, "Captain, remove her from this cha-"
"C-Sec's data-net is down, the civilian nets too... Fuck!" Fluttershy picked up a functioning data stream. "It's Cerberus!"
Fluttershy turned and sprinted out of the room towards the Citadel Tower's shuttle bay. The guards who hadn't been in the room as Fluttershy made her discovery saw her running by and opened fire, Shy's shielding flaring as they stopped the incoming projectiles. The pegasus didn't care though as she jumped into a shuttle and took off, the Guards wouldn't be able to stop her regardless of the communications being down.
"Damnit Cerberus, what are you after!" Fluttershy growled as she flew straight down towards the Presidium ring at the base of the Citadel. The scenery had completely changed in the time she'd spent up in the tower, where previously people had been going about their days now there were gunfights going on between C-Sec forces and Cerberus infantry and mechs.
The university was no exception to that rule.
The doors seemed to have been blown off by explosives, various casualties laying about the grounds in front of the building. Fluttershy set down the shuttle right outside the university and jumped out, cursing herself for not taking any weapons with her now. Twilight hold on!
Shy turned on her cloak, preferring to remain undetected as she looked for Twilight, a search that didn't take long as the intercom activated with a crackle. "Twilight Sparkle, come towards the cafeteria or we will execute a student every minute starting now." BANG!
Twilight will never allow more of her fellow students to die... Fluttershy rushed to the cafeteria, arriving at one of the balconies overlooking the large space. It was filled with students and teachers, all of them surrounded by Cerberus soldiers and forced to sit on the ground. On the podium the body of a student lay, a salarian with a hole in his head. Further up on the balcony another Cerberus soldier stood, looking down on the crowd of students.
There's my opportunity for a weapon.
Fluttershy approached silently, activated her omni-blade, and cleanly severed the human's spine at the neck, making sure that he didn't fall over and alert the rest of the troops.
"STOP!" Just as Fluttershy had predicted, Twilight couldn't allow more students to come to harm. Quickly grabbing the rifle off of the dead human, along with some thermal clips, Fluttershy went about devising a plan to take out all the Cerberus troops.
They're clustering around Twilight, I can get those fairly easily with biotics but those around the crowd... I can't let them get Twilight though... I hope she can forgive me. In Fluttershy's quick assessment there was simply no way to take out all the Cerberus forces without any of the other students getting caught in the middle of a firefight, but she couldn't allow Twilight to get captured either.
Taking advantage of her cloak, Fluttershy flew down right in front of Twilight before revealing herself. The Cerberus infantry in the immediate surrounding getting tossed into the air helplessly, the moment they were out of the way Fluttershy pushed twilight into cover and opened fire on the humans surrounding the students.
"F-Fluttershy?!"
"STAY DOWN!" Most of the students and teachers did the smart thing and lowered themselves even closer to the deck, though a few tried to make a break for it. That's where the first of them got cut down. Fluttershy did her best to provide them with cover fire but two of them got caught by Cerberus' rounds as they switched from targeting Fluttershy to the running students.
With a flick of her wings and some biotic power, Fluttershy slammed all the Cerberus soldiers that had been floating in the air down, loud cracks coming from their bodies as their bones broke and organs were turned into mush. Whatever the reason, that was the moment the others decided they couldn't win any longer and turned their guns on the crowd. Fluttershy charged forward to take out the last few of them with biotics and close range omni-blades but by that point well over a dozen student's lay dead.
Fluttershy panted heavily as the hoof to hand combat had left red splotches of blood on the cloth covering her armour. The teachers were thankfully able to keep most of the students from panicking as they watched Fluttershy with dreaded anticipation, not knowing what the pegasus would do next.
"Twilight, were you hurt?" Fluttershy asked as she turned and flew back over to the unicorn that looked at the carnage that had been created in shock. "Twilight, I need you to answer me."
"Y-Yes, I-I'm not hurt," Twilight finally replied, swallowing nervously.
"Good, we need to get to the embassy. I don't know if they were after you specifically or if they just want to catch a pony."
"T-They have Particle Bit," Twilight stammered, Fluttershy let out a curse below her breath.
"Where did they-" Fluttershy's eye fell on one of two pods the Cerberus soldiers had taken with them, walked up to the pair, and opened them. Particle bit's form lay in one, a quick check confirming that he wasn't dead but drugged out of his mind. "I don't have the countermeasures with me to wake him up. Twilight, can you carry him in your telekinesis?"
"Y-yes?"
"Then do it." Fluttershy turned to one of the teachers in the crowd. "Keep the students here until C-Sec regains control, they shouldn't come after you if we aren't here."
The teacher gave her a shell shocked nod as she loaded a new thermal clip into the assault rifle. "Twilight, follow me closely and make sure to do exactly as I say."
Twilight picked up Particle Bit and carried levitated him along, though making sure that he wasn't too high up and didn't create a large profile. Fluttershy made for the main entrance, checking if their exit was still secure. The shuttle she'd come in with had been turned into a fiery ball of scrap, no longer an escape option, though the Embassy district wasn't all that far away from the university. C-Sec Shuttles mixed with ones from Cerberus flew overhead as they swiftly made their way in the right direction, barring the occasional stop to clear out Cerberus forces or give fire support to pinned C-Sec officers.
The Embassy district itself was a mess, the various institutions had shuttered and various security forces were entrenched in their respective buildings. Cerberus wasn't inactive either as they had forces and even mechs trying to break into the buildings. The Equestrian embassy in particular seemed to be getting attention, all of its shutters closed but with a hole blown into the front door, the only thing holding back the Cerberus troops being multiple differently coloured shields.
"They won't hold out long! My shields were strained by those weapons and I got my shield matrixes from Shining!" Twilight called out over the roar of the gunfire in the area.
"Got it! When I give the signal you make a break for the embassy!" Fluttershy lept over her cover, heading straight for the group attacking the embassy. Without any students mixed into the crowd like at the university Fluttershy could go all out with her biotics, not having to worry about other casualties. There was a mech in the mix with the assault force, slowly lumbering towards the shields to blast them apart but it would be dealt with in due time.
Lighting her wings, Fluttershy threw a massive singularity smack centre of the force followed by a charge close in and going at it with her omni blades. The Cerberus soldiers' response was swifter than she anticipated, they seemed not to give any second thought to the troops that had been downed and opened fire as a unit on Fluttershy...
They were too late.
From within the midst of their formation crossfire was a major issue and Fluttershy made the most of it, slashing and dashing whilst using her cloak to conceal where she was going to strike and staying out of the sights of the heavy guns on the mech. The mechanical walker supported by its infantry would be a problem, but now without the infantry, she could use her far superior agility to fly circles around it and kill it.
"Twilight, move!" Fluttershy ordered as the mech exploded in spectacular fashion, the purple unicorn immediately galloped over to the door. The few unicorn guards in the embassy dropping their shields for a moment to let the three of them through, all of them sweating from exertion. "What's your status? Is everypony accounted for?"
"Outside of you, miss Twilight, and mister Bit, everypony was safely inside," the leader of the guards, a pegasus, stated as he cradled one o the rifles Fluttershy had used in the Griffin base. He seemed slightly shocked at what he'd witnessed the fellow pegasus do right outside the door.
Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief. "Call me if more of them return, I will take care of them. Twilight, bring particle bit to a room deeper into the embassy," she said as she checked the networks again, finding the C-Sec's communications were back up. Quickly navigating to the highest level she tuned into the channel.
"-Reports on every sector so we can take back this station." she heard Bailey order.
"Bailey, Fluttershy here, what's C-Sec's status?" Fluttershy cut in on the conversation.
"Perfect. You were the last person I know to see the Council before crap hit the fan, what is their status?" Bailey immediately cut to the chase.
"They were still at the top of the Citadel tower when I left them. I didn't do anything to their security so they should be protected up there. I'm currently at the Embassy district and there are significant forces here to take on the embassy's security details."
"Copy that, we'll send heavy re-enforcements right away... Damnit. They're not in the tower anymore, they're at the Presidium's outbound shuttle bay. They must be trying to evacuate to the Destiny Ascension but they've got Cerberus forces hot on their tails."
"That's not good, I can hold down the Embassy here which would free the reinforcements to head over to the shuttle bay," Fluttershy proposed.
"Nice plan, won't work. They're too far out." Bailey shot her down. "I've seen the recordings of you in action Fluttershy, your help would really be appreciated right here."
Leaving the embassy would mean it'd only be lightly defended... no offence to the security detail but they don't exactly seem like Spectres. On the other hoof, even though they are stubborn as hell, having the Council killed would do immense damage to the stability in Citadel territory which would be very bad with the reapers.
1. Stay at the Embassy, let the reinforcements go.
2. Go to the Council, let the reinforcements take the Embassy district.
3. Go to the Council with the reinforcements, they have to be saved.