Mass Effect: Element of Kindness

by CommanderApplejack


Locals

Chapter 185

Locals

Shadow the colt 81%

"Go after him, Twilight!" Fluttershy said over the radio. "Figure out where he's heading but try to stay out of sight! I'll be right down!"

"O-Okay!" Twilight replied, Fluttershy seeing Twilight's beacon start moving and the video feed showed her diving into the bushes after the colt. Twilight cast a few spells on herself, making herself a little less visible in the plants and reducing sounds in her immediate area as she barely managed to keep up with the smaller pony.

"Papa, Papa! A unicorn! There's a unicorn!" The little colt called out as Twilight slid to a halt as she saw a small caravan. on a road running through the trees. Twilight took a position inside a bush with a good view and made sure her spells were in perfect working order. An older stallion looked down at the smaller colt and raised an eyebrow.

“What are they saying?” Twilight asked with a whisper even though her dampening spell would mute any sounds regardless.

“They're talking about you. The older one is the colt's father, he doesn't seem to believe the colt saw you,” Fluttershy stated as she continued to listen.

The monsters don't roam the land widely anymore, my little Petrov, the angels will not return unless they do too,” The stallion patted his son on the head and turned back to setting up his tent for the approaching night. The little colt looked around nervously, trying to see if he could spot Twilight again. Fluttershy mulled over what she'd just heard before relaying it to Twilight.

“Wait so you think...”

“It sounded really like a religious thing,” Fluttershy confirmed as she had finally reached the surface and was flying nearby. “Can you teleport directly to me if I fly straight to the city?”

“With the beacon I should be able to, but-” Twilight stopped as there was some tumult in the camp and the ponies that had previously been setting up tents. They were carrying around devices with glowing crystals embedded into them. “Fluttershy, what is-”

“Over there, over there!”

“Get out of there! Now!” Shy exclaimed as she picked up the speed. Twilight's video feed showing the ponies in the camp pointing straight at her, the father of the colt tossing something right at the unicorn as others jumped for cover. The video feed cut out less than a second later, followed by static coming over the comms. Shy cursed as she dove down through the canopy of the forest, smashing down right where Twilight's beacon had just been.

“BACK OFF!” Fluttershy thundered, sending out a wave of biotic energy to throw the local ponies off balance. A glance at Twilight showed her still twitching as the device that lay next to her was sparking electricity. When she turned back to face the locals, though, she found them in various states of shock. A few were just frozen in the position they had landed in after Fluttershy had pushed them back, others had their noses pressed into the ground and were covering their face with their forelegs.

"Damnit," Shy cursed as she ran up to Twilight, kicked away the sparking cylinder, and started a medical scan. It didn't take long for her to notice the lack of a pulse in her unicorn friend. Muttering a string of curses she immediately prepped a pulse with her omni-tool's defibrilation module. Twilight gasped for air as her heart was restarted, her eyes darting around as she flailed around for a bit. "Stay still," Fluttershy ordered as she kept Twilight from jumping up and jabbed a cocktail of medicine into the other pony. "That'll make you feel horrible but it'll make sure your heart doesn't crap out on me and that you stay awake."

"That hurt really badly," Twilight groaned as she got her breathing under control. "Don't mind me, I'm just going to lay here for a bit." With Twilight stable Shy could refocus on the group of locals. Most of the earthponies were still in the exact same position they had taken after the pegasus' landing, some had gotten the courage to actually peek, but the most interested of the bunch were the colt that they had initially seen Twilight and a few other fillies.

Well, that's one way to make first contact...

Taking a deep breath, Shy got her cloak back into place and stepped forward. Though she had felt some anger towards the earthponies before she couldn't keep onto it, there were probably some very good reasons for them to be carrying a sort of lightning grenade around and she really wanted to figure out why. "Come closer," she said to the colt, "Petrov wasn't it?"

His eyes widened as he froze too, glancing at his father who looked terrified. It took a moment before he stepped forward hesitantly inching closer.

"P-Papa didn't mean to h-hurt- H-He thought that- Please d-don't be mad!" Petrov blurted out, jumping forward to cling to one of Shy's forelegs while tearing up as he shook fearfully.

"I'm sure he has very valid reasons, he can probably tell us about it tonight," Fluttershy smiled as she patted him on the head with a wing. "Think he'd be willing to tell us? My friend there could use something to eat and maybe even a place to sleep."

"O-Of course!" Petrov replied, looking at the others. All the ponies that had been frozen up to now jumped into action, continuing their activities to set up their camp. Twilight, having caught her breath hobbeled up next to her friend.

"Aren't we going to talk about what just happened?" She asked asthonished.

"We are... over a hot meal next to nice and warm fire," Fluttershy smirked, she got a little more serious as Twilight gave her a blank stare. "We came down here for information and these ponies are travelers, they'll know plenty of stories that could set us on the right path."

"Right... I guess I could use a small nap too," Twilight admitted, rubbing her head.

Fluttershy gave her a pat on the back and started walking forward to the center of the camp. "Come on, let's not leave our host waiting!"


Pretty much every pony was crammed around the large fire at the centre of the camp, the only place where anypony had some room was around the sleeping form of Twilight and Fluttershy who was sitting close to the fire with an alcoholic bevrage from the locals. They had been treating them as if they had litterally decended from the heavens, which technically they had but not in the way the earthponies thought they did, and Fluttershy didn't want to contradict them for various reasons. "So you use the lightning cans to disable the metal demons?" Fluttershy asked as Anatoliy, Petrov's father, explained how they would run into the occasional threat from machines that came from 'blight zones'. Fluttershy quickly having figured out they meant the heavilly radioactive areas they had detected from orbit.

"Yes, yes, it stops demon, but only temporarily. Gives time to get away safely," the stallion nodded. "Some blights more dangerous than others. Most have metal demons, but a few have strange black creatures of flesh and carapace. It is said they lure you in by mimicing the one you love."

Fluttershy had to avoid spitting out the sip of her beverage as she heard that description. Wait, if there are changelings here how did the reapers not find this place? the pegasus uncomfortably shifted in place as she was reminded of her strange relation with changelings after her interaction with the queen in the collectors' base. Thought that could help me out to figure out what they are still doing here...

"Do you have a map showing where the blight spots are and which contain which danger?" Fluttershy asked, there was an immediate reaction from the crowd as several of the earthponies sprinted off, only to return moments later with various maps. Anatoliy pointed out the spots on each of the maps, Fluttershy using the implants in her eyes to capture pics of each of the maps to corralate with the orbital maps. This didn't go unnoticed by the crowd as the system made her irises glow as it worked.

"Are you like a warrior angel?" Petrov suddenly asked. "Will you make the road safer so nopony has to lose their mama ever again?"

"Petrov! I am so sorry, my lady, but-" Anatoliy was silenced by Fluttershy holding up a hoof as she knelt down to the colt's level.

"You're right, in a way I am, but I won't be around for long enough to make the entire world safe right now... After my true task is done though I may just come back with more of my kind to do just that," Fluttershy smiled, something that got the colt to excitedly jump in place before leaping and pulling her into a hug.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"But I am affraid me and my friend have to go now, there are things we need to do with little time," Shy told him, turning back to his father. "Your hospitality has been a joy, mister Anatoliy, I am truly glad we got to meet you and your clan."

"You're going already?!" he gasped, "Please, tomorrow we arive in Mareopol, I would be honoured to show you our cathedral! If you wish to stay out of sight we can even hide you among our own!" the crowd muttered an agreement, all of them sharing his sentiment. "I promise you will be amazed by the works in there!"

I really want to check out these blight zones but a cathedral may have some obscure lore that could help us out...

1. Go with the earthponies to the city

2. Go to a blight zone with machines

3. Go to a blight zone with changelings

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