"Can you even use those, feathers?"
Fluttershy huffed. "Our hooves are much more versatile than they look." the pegasus proved this by hefting a rather large dumbbell off its rack. "See?"
"I'll be damned," James said surprised. "Guess I'll have to share then."
"Not like you could use all of them at once anyhow," Fluttershy smirked as she used her biotics to array the various fitness instruments throughout the Normandy's hold. After arranging them she went over to the armoury also located in the hold and stripped to her bare fur, stashing the armour in one of the lockers. Her eyes passed over the requisition station that was placed there, She'd have to take a look if her Spectre status would give her a new toy to play with later.
"Fluttershy?" The pegasus turned to see Twilight trotting out of the elevator.
"Twilight! Perfect timing, I was going to get some exercise in before we arrive at Palaven. Want to join?" Fluttershy smirked as she walked over to the equipment. Her body was already muscular, not like Rainbow's that was merely toned and made for flying, but more like Applejack's rough farm work.
The unicorn blushed and nodded, walking to a set of dumbells, looked down at them, and tried to lift it. James laughed from the sideline as Twilight struggled, "I think you better take these." The human got a set of lighter weights instead.
"T-Thanks" Twilight blushed as she was actually able to lift the lighter dumbbells, Fluittershy taking the heavy ones.
"You have no clue what to do with those, don't you?" Fluttershy smiled, Twilight shaking her head. "Rainbow always showed me how to use them when we were young, that helped me out a lot when I first started."
Fluttershy went ahead and instructed Twilight how to use the weights, explaining what exercise would hit which muscle group. It didn't take long for Twilight to be sweating bullets as she wasn't used to this kind of abuse of her body, Fluttershy encouraging her to push on further every time she was about to give in.
"So, Feathers, how did you meet the Commander?" James asked as he joined in on the lifting.
"Got sent through to the relay in the Presidium, I ran into him after fleeing for a while. Joined up on the SR-1 and slowly got more involved with his fight against the reapers," Fluttershy summarised. "Me and Garrus spent a little time on Omega in the middle some time after the original Normandy got blown up."
"That's one hell of a rough place to bunk out," James commented.
"Yeah... we built up a little bit of a reputation in that place. I'm sure every gang in that place still has us in the back of their mind," Fluttershy chuckled darkly, staring off into nowhere for a bit. "Anyhow. You?"
"Spent time on Omega too after a botched mission, Admiral Anderson personally tracked me down for some reason and recruited me to act as guard to Shepard while he was on earth," James summarised his own meetup with the Commander. "The moment the reapers arrived I got my ass to the Normandy, that got me here."
"Must be good if Anderson tracked you down to that craphole. Most people go there to disappear," Fluttershy chuckled.
"Probably would have if not for him... Might have ended up like that Archangel turian and his team," James shrugged, but he did keep an eye on Fluttershy to gauge her reaction. The pegasus's smile became more bitter.
"We lost a few good friends there, Garrus got out pretty well but it broke our team's back," Fluttershy closed her eyes as she remembered how she got captured by a krogan strike team and how she'd downed the starship they'd tried to imprison her on.
"Shit... Bad memories I take."
"Not the most positive kind, no," Fluttershy responded. "Mind a change of topic?"
"Of course not compadre, we all got our demons." James looked at Twilight, "So who's your friend here?"
"This here is Twilight Sparkle, biggest genius Ponykind has to offer," Fluttershy said, a genuine smile returning as she poker the unicorn in the ribs.
"H-Hey now, there's plenty of smart ponies back on Equestria... Most of whom haven't screwed up before either..." Twilight said while fidgeting uncomfortably.
"Oh? Then tell me, who was the pony that figured out how to jury-rig a miniaturised mass relay to accurately send ponies to the Citadel... Twice," Fluttershy said smugly. "Say what you will but you managed with limited knowledge to fire up a highly advanced piece of technology, something which established races haven't even been able to do."
"Gotta say Sparkles, that's kind of impressive," James too commended, making Twilight blush and shrink down a bit. Before they could tease Twilight further EDI called in over the speakers.
"The commander is on board, do you wish for me to inform him you have arrived?"
"No, I'll go up to personally see him and inform him." Fluttershy replied.
"Understood, the commander is currently heading up to his private quarters."
"Got it." Fluttershy turned to James and Twilight. "Mind if I leave you with this mess to clean?"
"Nah, go ahead, I'll keep Sparkles here busy while you speak with the commander."
"I-It's okay I guess," Twilight stammered.
"Don't worry, I'll be right back."
Fluttershy stood at the holographic table in the war room, a display of Palaven and its moons smack centre of the display. Around them icons of fleet movements and engagements that the Normandy's sensors and datafeeds picked up were displayed as well, mostly showing the reapers absolutely mauling the turian vessels that attempted to block their advance... though one small fleet that seemed to be dashing from engagement to engagement actually had some success.
"Turian losses are going to become unsustainable at some point if they don't figure things out," analyst Trainor said as Shepard too was looking at the projection. "See that bright spot on Palaven? That's the turian's capital."
Fluttershy's face hardened at that little tidbit of information. "Where's the Vindica?" she asked.
"Right here, above the moon of Menae, it seems to have an escort of light frigate attached to it." Trainor zoomed in on the tags representing the vessels.
"Just light cruisers? That's all?" James questioned.
"The Vindica has been making manouvres that would tear any larger turian vessel apart, its mass effect generators must be very impressive to remain in a single piece through that kind of punishment," EDI chimed in. "I have sent out hails to her, Fidelis has provided rendervous coordinates and docking procedures."
"Get the Normandy there as soon as you can," Shepard ordered.
"Joker already has the Normandy on route. we shall remain silent to attract as little attention possible."
"Good. Fluttershy, James, Liara, get ready for possible deployment," Shepard continued, "For everyone else, battlestations. Rotate the crew for as long as we are in the system and keep on high alert." The ships lights turned to red, and an announcement was made through the ship. Not that it mattered much as Fluttershy knew most of the Normandy's crew already were glued to their stations. "Dismissed."
Fluttershy went down to check up on her new rifle, Twilight who hadn't been allowed into the war room due to lack of clearance, waited at the entrance for Fluttershy to come out. "S-So what are we going to do?"
"We're going to meet up with the Vindica very soon," Fluttershy answered, filing into the elevator to head down to the armoury along with Twilight, Liara, and James.
"But?..." Twilight pressed.
"I may need to deploy down to a moon or the planet. These things never turn out to be very simple in my experience."
"S-So you're leaving?" Twilight stammered as they stepped out of the elevator, Fluttershy pulling the unicorn to the side as Liara and James went to get their stuff.
"Look Twilight, there are going to be times where I'll be off on my own. You can't always be right next to me."
"I-I just don't want to lose you again," Twilight croaked, trying to hold back tears.
"And I'll promise do my very best to get back up here." Fluttershy made the motions for a Pinkie promise to reinforce that fact. "You're going to have to deal with this, Twi, because I have no doubt that before this is all over we're going to need that brilliant mind of yours." Fluttershy rubbed Twilight's hair, messing it up royally. "Now I need to go prepare, I got myself a new rifle and I need to make sure the scope is calibrated correctly."
"Alright, alright... just be careful you know," Twilight nuzzled her friend and smiled. "But I'll be watching!"
"Of course, wouldn't expect otherwise."
"Jeez..." The rest of the observers had a similar reaction to Joker as they approached the small fleet detachment with the Vindica. A black scorch was dragged over the vessel, the armor in the section hit had been partially melted though didn't look like the ship was penetrated by it.
EDI and Joker guided in the Normandy under the Titan nad held there as instructed by Fidelis. Doors on the belly of the Equestrian vessel slowly opened up and a set of mass effect fields pulled in the relatively tiny Normandy and docked it to internal docking clamps before shutting close the hatches again.
"That's one hell of a way to invite your guests," Joker said in awe as a docking ramp attached itself to the ship. As they left a group of heavily armoured batponies accompanied them to bring them to a conference room where they waited for Princess Luna to show up.
"No offence intended to you all but could we make this meeting quick?" Luna stated as she entered. "The turians are already not happy about this little distraction."
"We shall be curt. Liara, show her," Shepard let the asari step forward.
"I have been looking for ways to stop the reapers over the last few months, the thing I found was a device under construction by the protheans." Liara brought up the hologram that depicted the parts of the device. "They called it the 'Crucible' but they were not the only species to work on it. Another part of its mechanism was being worked on by your kind. The data was kind enough to provide the location of where your kind was working on the part." she brought up the hologram of the milky way with the specific star. "The problem is it is too far from any relay for us to reach the system..."
"...so you require this vessel's jump capability to reach the starsystem," Luna finished for her, studying the hologram intently. "I regrettably cannot help you right now," the princess stated after deliberating.
"Luna, we have to get to this star system," Fluttershy pleaded but the princess shook her head.
"I am going to assume humanity has already started construction on this thing?" Shepard nodded to Luna. "Then at some point you will have to deploy it too and you can be sure the reapers will counter you when you do. The point being is that you will require a fleet to protect it."
"And if we pull the Vindica away from Palaven the turians bill both suffer and probably be unwilling to help us out," Shepard followed up as he got the logic.
"Exactly," Luna confirmed. "I shall relay that it is our intent to detach from the naval engagements if they do not negotiate for an alternate solution but I suggest you go talk to the turian Primarch in the meanwhile."
"Well, let's not waste time and get going." Shepard stepped away from the table.
"Agreed. I have operations to run, last engagement was way too close an affair," Luna agreed. "Good luck commander, may your aim be true."
"Yours too." The commander looked at his three strike team members. "Let's go."