//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Pony Effect // by Grif //------------------------------// [ESV Normaredy, Appleloosa orbit] The Normaredy was the only ship within a thousand light years of Appleloosa that was considered even remotely close to battle ready. The next available reinforcements were hours away: even if the nearest battle groups were ready to depart at this very moment, it would still be too late to offer any form of meaningful help to the stricken colony. Given the circumstances, Nihilus decided to utilise the ship’s experimental stealth system to its fullest. The Normaredy would insert him and a supporting squad covertly and attempt to retrieve the beacon, before the enemy ships surrounding the planet noticed them. After some deliberation, the captain chose her chief engineer Rarity and a pegasus marine named Coryander to accompany Twilight down. Her best people she assured Twilight, which did naturally not reassure her one bit. Nevertheless, she did not argue, since the Spectre himself had offered no opinion on the matter. As was agreed upon, the Spectre had been dropped off first, somewhere to the north of the colony, with Twilight’s squad making their way from the south as his backup. With Nihilus already had been dropped off, Twilight and her squad were standing ready to be deployed at the second drop point as agreed. “Approaching second drop zone, commander,” Scootaloo announced over the intercom. “Alright, let’s do this.” Twilight glanced at her squad mates for one last time. Rarity was tugging at her armour, apparently deciding the crease on her otherwise immaculate armor was her nemesis of the day. Sensing Twilight’s eyes were on her, she quickly stopped fidgeting and flashed a reassuring smile. The red coated pegasus marine just nodded, his wings slightly flaring in anticipation. Satisfied her squad was ready, Twilight took a deep breath, and concentrated. The mass teleport spell was one of the more difficult and complex spells for a unicorn to cast. However, the mission called for a quick insertion into the combat zone, which the spell provided, and with the least theoretical risk compared to other options. She had practiced the same spell multiple times in Canterlot University. All in controlled environments, of course, but Twilight estimated she had an 86% chance of casting the spell successfully in this environment. Her horn began to glow, a soft purple glow at first, gradually building in intensity. The ship’s cargo bay faded away as Twilight focused on her spell; every incantation, every spark of energy, each iota of focus had to be precise; lest they could be transported straight into the earth! A white circle enveloped the group, illuminating the bay with unnatural light. Then with a clap of thunder and sound of rushing air, the group vanished into thin air. [Outskirts of colony complex, Appleloosa] The first thing Twilight sensed was the change in the air around them. The smell of recycled ship air and motor oil no longer permeated her nostrils, replaced by the sweet scent of apples and good old earth. The air was subtly warmer, and a cool breeze blew over her mane. Opening her eyes, she spied the rolling hills of Appleloosa, innumerable apple trees covering the landscape. The sky was a dusky red colour, with the Appleloosan sun shining steadily in the east. To the north, she could make out a plume of black smoke rising from distance—The colony under attack, Twilight guessed. Taking a quick glance around, she was relieved that her squadmates appeared to have arrived in one piece as well. Doing a double take, Twilight noticed Rarity seemed wobbly on her feet. A sickly green hue suffused her delicate features. “Remind me never to volunteer for this again,” Rarity said weakly, before gagging and disappearing behind a bush. Moments later, Twilight could hear the engineer retching. Coryander just shook his head and faced the commander. “Your orders, ma’am?” “Let’s wait till our chief engineer finds her bearings first,” Twilight said. Inexplicably, she felt a wave of nausea sweeping over her body as well. Feeling bile rising to her own throat as well, she quickly joined Rarity behind the bush. For a few minutes, the sound of two ponies retching was the only sound echoing over the silent apple orchards. The two soon relived the contents of their lunch and trotted out sheepishly. “Let us never speak of this again,” Rarity said. Twilight chuckled. “Agreed. I guess I overdid it with the teleportation spell.” Her face became serious as her mind focused on the task at hand. “Alright ponies, let’s move out,” Twilight ordered. The squad slowly made their way across acres of orchards that covered the outskirts of Appleloosa.  The apple trees seemed to have remained mostly intact, with only the occasional craters and fallen tree. Disturbingly though, they didn’t find anypony. Nor were there any indication of the enemy so far. Even the skies were silent. No birds, no insects, nothing. “This place got hit hard, commander. Hostiles everywhere,” Nihilus reported over the radio.  Sounds of gunfire could be heard in the background. The Spectre must have landed in a hot zone. Twilight nodded. “Acknowledged. Moving to Point Alpha.” The group continued forward and cleared the orchards. Only a cluster of hills separated the squad from the outskirts of the colony now, if memory served Twilight right. Spotting the entrance narrow rocky valley, she held up a hoof and halted. “Looks like a perfect place for an ambush,” she whispered over the radio. Twilight considered the situation for a moment, before waving the pegasus marine over. “Cory, fly up and scout for hostiles.” “Yes, ma’am.” The red pegasus saluted crisply. Spreading his wings, Coryander took off gracefully. The pegasus began flying lazily above the valley. “No sign of hostiles. Looks like it’s - wait, I see something. Looks like…” A brief pause. “Drones! Unknown make... Oh gods, they spotted me! Taking evasive manoeuvres!” Twilight watched in horror as several drones rose up from their hidden positions amongst rocks around the valley. Sensing the pegasus, the drones tracked their target unerringly and opened fire. The pegasus began to circle back, zigzagging in a desperate attempt to evade the hail of bullets. All in vain, as his kinetic barriers failed under the onslaught. The pegasus seemed to jerk slightly as several bullets punctured his light armour, before plummeting to ground in the distance. “Oh no…” Rarity said. Twilight felt a primal rage grip her heart as the horror of the spectacle began to fade. “Let’s teach these drones who they’re messing with,” she said, horn already glowing as she began levitating the rocks scattered around her. Rarity just stared at the distant horizon, her blue eyes taking on a blank look. The drones finished sweeping the area around the obviously dead pegasus, and had begun flying back to their hiding places, apparently getting ready for a second ambush. They did not appear to notice the two ponies hiding behind the rocks at the mouth of the valley. As the drones settled down one by one, abruptly one of drones erupted in a shower of electrical discharge. “You miserable pieces of scrap! Take this!” the white unicorn yelled with barely contained anger. Twilight momentarily gaped at the furious reaction of her companion. She must be taking this pretty hard. The remaining drones whirled about and began to close in on the pair, gun barrels already tracking their new targets. Picking her targets carefully, Twilight began hurling the rocks she had levitated earlier at the oncoming drones. Several found their targets, damaging the drones and forcing some to crash on the ground. Another drone erupted in a merry explosion as Rarity overloaded its electrical systems. Running out of rocks, Twilight switched to the twin assault rifles on her shoulders. A holographic HUD appeared over her right eye, helping her target the last drone, now trying to fly away from the ponies. Steady… steady… FIRE! The drone’s kinetic barriers flared for a moment, as Twilight’s bullets connected. A moment later, the barriers failed, and the drone exploded in a shower of sparks. Silence reigned again. “Chief Engineer, are you okay?” Twilight asked, concern on her face. Rarity was slumped on her haunches, panting heavily. She must be exhausted by all that usage of magic, Twilight thought. “I… I’m fine, darling. Just that… it’s been so long since I lost a friend…” Tears brimmed in her blue eyes as the words tumbled out. “It’s okay, Chie— Rarity. I understand,” Twilight said, hugging the white unicorn. Rarity hesitated at first, and then buried her head in Twilight’s mane as she sobbed uncontrollably. *** [Digsite, Appleloosa] "Are you sure you're okay, Rarity?" Twilight asked. "Yes, commander. I'm perfectly fine now. Just needed to get some emotion out of the way," Rarity replied, her eyes still somewhat red from the tears earlier. "Look, that must be the digsite." The digsite was a cluster of prefabricated habitation units arranged around a central depression, which Twilight guessed was the main dig site. Crates of various size were stacked haphazardly throughout the site. Heavy lifting equipment lay abandoned in a corner. As was becoming usual, nopony was around, nor a single pony body could be found. This was getting creepy. Where are all the ponies if they’re not dead? The pair advanced on the encampment cautiously. “They must be getting ready to move out when the attack began,” Twilight observed, as she inspected the abandoned equipment. Before Rarity could answer, a Texan-accented voice rang out across the encampment. “Who goes there? I swear if you’re one of them foalnapping zombies...” The two looked at each other in surprise. “A survivor!” they exclaimed together. “Sweet mother of mercy, ain’t y’all are a sight for sore eyes.” An orange mare trotted out from the cover of the crates she hid, an assault rifle in her mouth. Her saddle-armour looked battered from multiple hits. Strangely though, she also wore a very unregulation stenton hat, which she seemed to have retained through the battles she must have endured. The expression on the soldier pony’s freckled face was one of relief. As Twilight approached however, the orange mare’s eyes widened in surprise. Dropping the gun in her mouth, she yelled, “Look out, ma’am!” Twilight whirled around to find a bipedal robot, with what appeared to be a flashlight for its head, leveling a weapon — an unknown make of assault rifle — at them. The robot chattered in a sort of twittering language as it lined up its shot. Before Twilight could respond, she glimpsed the shadow of a heavy object moving past her. The robot abruptly found itself pinned underneath a heavy crate that landed neatly on its torso. Taking advantage, Rarity stomped on the robot twice, making sure it stayed down. Twilight glanced back to see the orange mare grinning, her back towards them. That crate must have weighed a ton. That’s some powerful bucking, Twilight thought. “Applebuckin’. Good trainin’ for these here hindlegs,” the soldier pony answered, as if reading her thoughts. Her grin faded as she belatedly realised Twilight outranked her. “Gunnery Chief Applejack of the 302nd, ma’am!” Her hooves clicked together as she saluted smartly and stood stiffly at attention. “At ease, gunnery chief,” Twilight replied formally, waving for the earth-pony to relax as well. She flashed a reassuring smile. “Now, what in the name of Princess Celestia happened here?” “It’s the geth, ma’am. They came out of nowhere and started shootin’ up the place.” “Geth? You mean those flash-light head… things are geth?” Rarity said incredulously, pointing towards the still-warm robot. “I must say their fashion sense is horrible.” “I thought the geth had not been seen since three hundred years ago,” Twilight said thoughtfully, recalling her history books on the Geth-Quarian War. A downright nasty example of rogue AI running amok; the quarians had created the geth with the intention of robotic work force. The geth inadvertently achieved sentience and rebelled against the quarians. The quarians were forced them to abandon their homeworlds after a long and bloody war. Much to everypony’s surprise, the geth had not bothered anypony else since, staying behind Perseus Veil. Until today anyway. “That’s what them intelligence people say. Until they went offline anyhow,” Applejack answered with a shrug. Then in a darker tone, she continued, “I don’t rightly know what they are, how and why they came here. But I do know this: they just darn near murdered my entire squad. Who knows how many good folks already died.” The angry look in her green eyes betrayed the depths of her emotions. “I’m the only one left,” she continued in a softer voice. “It’s okay, Gunnery Chief. We’re here to help,” Twilight said, laying a sympathetic hoof to Applejack’s shoulder.  “That’s not all,” Applejack said. She motioned the ponies to gather closer.  Leaning closer, she almost whispered, “They got this spike thingamajig which turns ponies into… into—” “Into what?” Rarity interrupted, clearly not amused by the secrecy. Applejack threw up her hooves in frustration. “Hay if I know! Zombie ponies. Or something. It ain’t natural, I tell you. I been watching them. Those geth been at it the whole day.” “Zombies?” Twilight arched an eyebrow at the term. “In this day and age? Really, Gunnery Chief, I expected better. Right, Rarity? Rarity?” Not hearing the expected answer, Twilight glanced sideways at her companion. Rarity was shaking on her hooves, her ears flattened in fear, apparently disturbed by the very idea. “Z-z-zombies...” she whispered. Twilight planted a hoof in her face. “Chief Engineer Rarity, pull yourself together! There’s no such thing as zombies. It’s probably some kind of geth construct,” she said confidently. Rarity and Applejack both shot the commander a disbelieving look. “Then how do you explain that?!” Rarity pointed to a shadowy figure behind Twilight. “Explain wha—” Twilight’s voice trailed off she saw the shadow as well. “What the hay is that?” she exclaimed, her eyes glued to the dark figure slowly shambling towards her. Twilight was unable to make out any features on the advancing creature, save that it looked like a pony and had glowing blue eyes. All the same, it made her take an involuntary step back. Applejack quickly stood on her hind legs and leveled the assault rifle she was carrying with her forehooves. “Stay back, you no-good zombies,” she warned, the barrel of her gun following each step the creature took. Twilight blinked as she took in the strange way the orange mare was holding a gun. Almost like how the Citadel races hold... Her train of thought derailed as the creature moaned again, sending a chill down her spine. She could almost smell the creature now, a strange mix of industrial fluids and decaying flesh. The figure stumbled closer and into full view. It was a horrifying sight. The entire body was stripped down to its muscles, with wavy tubes protruding from the face and disappearing somewhere below the torso. Alongside the tubes,softly glowing blue lights running up and down the body. Even the hooves seemed to be deformed, sharpened on one end. “That’s close enough,” Applejack said with finality, and fired her gun. The entire zombie-pony’s head disappeared in a hail of bullets. The remains of the zombie stumbled, before collapsing with a loud thud. A cascade of wails echoed from the digsite around them in response. The unnatural noise made their hair stand on end. “Gunnery Chief, what was that?” Rarity asked, panic creeping into her voice, her body trembling. “Oh, Celestia’s skies, more zombies!” Twilight yelled, unaware that she adopted the term without further thought. More of the shambling creatures appeared from the all sides, some appearing from the prefabricated buildings, others shambled from places unseen. Applejack just cocked her gun and smiled mirthlessly. “Gonna be a tough fight,” she said, calmly shooting the head off another zombie who had climbed behind her. Twilight and Rarity found themselves pressing into each other’s back, their weapons waving here and there at the oncoming zombies. With another piercing wail, the zombies charged. *** “Well, that’s that, I suppose.” Twilight sighed with relief, having managed to survive the zombie assault relatively unscathed. Rarity seemed to have overcome her fear of zombies remarkably quickly once the zombies closed in. All in all, she actually acquitted herself well in the battle. That and the fact that one of zombie had inadvertently splashed some gunk onto her immaculately polished armour. It seemed to have touched off some sort of rage-switch. Twilight never knew a unicorn could buck a zombie that far, and she most certainly did not expect that from the fashion-obsessed unicorn. Applejack on the other hand… “By the way, Gunnery Chief, where you’d learn to fire a gun like that?” Twilight asked casually.  Normally, military earth ponies mounted the guns on their shoulders on account of their lack of opposable thumbs that other bipedals have, and telekinesis that most unicorns are gifted with. Shoulder-mounted guns was the natural answer, even though it was considered somewhat unwieldy. Some unicorns, like her, mounted the guns on their shoulders so that they can concentrate their magic on other uses. Applejack however, was holding the gun like one of the bipedals of the Council races. Very strange indeed. “Oh, this?” Applejack indicated her gun on the floor. Twilight nodded. “Them salarians were testing a new omni-tool mod that lets us earth ponies handle a gun like they do. See?” The orange mare demonstrated by picking up her gun, the omni-tool on her fore-hooves lighting up as she did so. ”Mighty kind of them, if I may say so myelf. ‘least I don’t have to worry ‘bout taking my shoulder weapons off before going indoor.” She chuckled and swung her gun left and right theatrically, before losing her balance and falling on her rear. “Eh heh heh, still need to work on standin’ on mah hind legs though,” Applejack said sheepishly, brushing a stray forelock out of her eyes. “So long as you can fire a weapon, I suppose,” Twilight commented, rather dubiously. She figured she had time to study the curious tool in the Normaredy later. The Princess would be most interested in such a device... “Come on girls, let’s get moving. Applejack, where’s the beacon?” Applejack scratched her head. “I don’t rightly know, commander. It was here when I left for my patrol. Reckon the science team moved it someplace.” Twilight was mildly disappointed by the news. “That’s unfortunate. Alright, let’s keep looking.” Nihilus’ voice crackled over the radio. “Commander? Change of plans. There’s a small spaceport up ahead. I want to check it out. I’ll wait for you there.” Twilight nodded at the instruction. “You heard the Spectre, let’s get to the spaceport.” [Spaceport, Appleloosa] “Spaceport just ahead, ma’am,” Applejack reported. “Good, stay sharp girls.” Twilight had her visor up, scanning for any signs of hostiles. They had already eliminated several geths and at least a dozen more of those zombie things along the way. Twilight still shuddered every time she encountered one of those things. The spaceport was quite impressive for a colony world. Probably for moving all those apples and farm produce off-world for export. Twilight couldn’t help but compare the size of the colony’s spaceport to the ones in Canterlot. Ponyville Intergalactic Starport alone was at least thrice the size of this starport, and it was considered one of the smallest starport on the capital planet. Rarity let out a sudden gasp. “Up ahead, commander. I think I see something… is that Nihilus?” She pointed a hoof at the general direction of some sort of cargo storage facility. Twilight narrowed her eyes, following the direction of Rarity’s hoof. “Oh no…” Twilight began galloping ahead, her heart racing with dread. *** “Well, he’s dead as dead can be,” Applejack remarked, checking the body of Nihilus over again. Rarity looked green, apparently not used to seeing a dead body up close. Twilight stood beside the dead turian, studying the corpse. Nihilus was lying face down, in a pool of his blue blood. There appeared to be no sign of geth around, and nor any sign of battle. A single gunshot wound to the back of his head was all Twilight had to go on. His pistol remained holstered on his hip, another curious oddity. “I don’t understand, he told us to meet him here,” Twilight said, a puzzled expression on her face. “And someone got ta’ him first, by the looks of it,” Applejack replied. A small thud echoed through the empty spaceport. Twilight whirled to face the source of the noise, her horn glowing in anticipation. “Who’s there?” Twilight called, gesturing for her squad to be ready. Applejack and Rarity leveled their weapons, their eyes darting in all directions. A mewling sound. Then silence again. “Sounds like another survivor,” Rarity said. Her blue eyes scanned the deserted cargo bay again. Twilight nodded to Applejack, who lowered her rifle, and then called out, “It’s okay now, you can come out. We’re here to help.” No response. The ponies glanced around uneasily, wary of an ambush. “It’s alright. We won’t harm you,” Twilight called out again. A rustle from Twilight’s left. Glancing at the direction of the noise, she was surprised to find a small white rabbit hopping out of the mess of containers just a few meters away. Twilight blinked again and looked more closely. The white rabbit was clad in some sort of body armour, apparently cobbled from various bits and pieces of other armour. Carrying a shotgun twice his size. With an angry expression on his face. “Would ya look at it? A rabbit carryin’ a shotgun. Ain’t you cute?” Applejack commented, to the obvious annoyance of the rabbit. Twilight and Rarity found themselves giggling at the sight. The rabbit looked the three ponies up and down, and then signaled to somepony hiding behind the containers. He continued to stare at them warily, his shotgun aimed at the general direction of the ponies. Twilight had a feeling the rabbit was quite experienced with the weapon, despite his diminutive size. A scared pony face poked out of the containers, relief spilling over on her face when she saw it was fellow ponies. The yellow pegasus slowly trotted out from the shadow of the container she was hiding. She had a wavy pink mane with a cutie mark of three butterflies on her flank.  Her entire body was trembling from fear, and her wings were folded tight. “O-Oh, thank you so much for r-rescuing me. My name is F-Fluttershy,” she said in a soft voice. She flinched when the ponies trotted up to her, evidently still shocked from the ordeal. “Pleased to be of service, ma’am.” Twilight nodded, not sure of what to make of the heavily armed rabbit next to her. “Are you the only survivor?” “Um... I think so. I didn’t see anypony else when I hid there,” the yellow pegasus answered shyly. “Did you see anypony else, Angel?” Fluttershy asked, directing the question at the rabbit standing near her hooves. The rabbit shook his head. huffed and glaced around, apparently looking for a convenient geth to vent her anger on. Meanwhile, Twilight’s curiosity finally got the better of her. “Um, may I ask who is the rabbit?” she asked. Fluttershy smiled, and rubbed Angel’s head. “Oh, this is Angel. He kept me safe while those scary monsters were coming and shooting their big scary guns.” “Right, am I ta’ expect this lil’ rabbit can— Woah!” Applejack started, before suddenly finding herself floating in the air. A light blue shimmer surrounded the now-floating orange mare. Twilight blinked in astonishment and glanced the the rabbit. Angel was holding his paw out, as if channeling some great power. “Angel has special powers… I think she got them after playing in one of those eezo containers,” Fluttershy offered in a soft voice. Twilight blinked in confusion. Eezo, element zero? Why would... Then understanding dawned. “The rabbit is a biotic.” Twilight stared in fascination at the little rabbit as he toyed with Applejack, sending her flying in various directions with a flick of his paw. “Amazing! I’ve never seen any animals with biotic abilities before. I mean, I read about them and the Council races have biotics but I’ve never seen any ponyfolk demonstrate any form of biotic ability yet.” Not that ponyfolks needed biotics to begin with, since all ponies, regardless of type, have innate magical abilities. Citadel scientists have long documented the side effects of exposure to eezo, which included the fatal development of cancerous growths. However, in select individuals, like Angel’s case, it led to a development of biotic potential. Something which he was using to great effect now. “Wokay, you kin put me down now. I mean it! Stop flyin’ me around,” Applejack shouted, as she was made to do impossible acrobatics in the air. “Angel, please stop. They’re friends.” Fluttershy nudged the rabbit gently with her muzzle. The rabbit shot an irritated expression at his master, but complied nevertheless. With the final wave of a paw, Applejack found herself dropped into a pile of spare parts, landing with a huge crash and cry of pain. “I’m okay!” Applejack called out from beneath the pile of junk after a moment. Twilight stared at the rabbit for a moment, unsure of whether to laugh or be extremely wary of the biotic abilities of this unpredictable rabbit. Then she saw Fluttershy nuzzling the rabbit gently, which the rabbit reluctantly acknowledged. Angel seemed to notice he was being stared at and met her questioning gaze unflinchingly. After several seconds of locking eyes, Angel nodded slightly. Twilight sensed that under the gruff exterior, the rabbit was fiercely protective of his master. For some reason, she knew the rabbit was indicating his acceptance of them as friends of his master. She smiled slightly and nodded back in reply, surprised on how verbose the rabbit was for somepony with no words. Turning towards Rarity, she said, “Anyway, with Nihilus dead, we should—” “I saw that turian before…” said Fluttershy softly, looking at Nihilus’ body. “What?” Twilight exclaimed, as she whirled around and faced Fluttershy. Fluttershy shrank back at the sudden outburst. “Oh… it’s nothing important really—” “Tell me. It’s important!” Twilight shouted, eager to find out more about the incident. Fluttershy shrank back from the commander in response, fear evident in her aquamarine eyes. Twilight realised she was scaring the pegasus and forced herself to calm down. Taking a deep breath, she started again, “Please tell me Fluttershy. It’s very important that we know what is going on.” “Well… there’s this turian, Nihilus, he came here first. He looked scary, so I hid behind these containers.” “Then I heard another voice speaking to the turian. It was another turian. Nihilus seem to recognize him, and called him Saren. He seemed to relax and turned his back. Then…then…” “Yes, go on.” “He did something terrible.” Fluttershy looked distressed, and began shuffling her hooves. Her rabbit companion seemed agitated and hopped around yellow pegasus. “Who did something terrible?” Twilight asked patiently, gently coaxing the pegasus to continue her story. “The one called Saren… he shot Nihilus in the back.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “He shot him, then he just walked away and left him to die.” “It was horrible… I was afraid. I hid here ever since. It was so scary.” Fluttershy buried her hooves in her face, crying softly as the events of the past few hours overwhelmed her. Twilight stood back, unsure of what to do. Fortunately, Angel hopped towards the pegasus’ face and laid a tiny paw on her face, apparently trying to comfort his friend. “Thank you, Angel,” she sniffed, visibly calming down. “That no-good Saren fella’ is up to somethin’. Why would he go around murderin’ good folks in cold blood?” said Applejack. “Fluttershy, where did this Saren go?” Twilight asked the yellow pegasus gently. Fluttershy shook her head. The unicorn stamped her hooves in frustration, the trail cold before they could even catch up to this turian who murdered the spectre. “Commander, I think the rabbit knows where he went,” Rarity piped up, indicating the rabbit who was jumping agitatedly and pointing off in the distance. Applejack followed the direction of the rabbit’s paw. Understanding began to dawn in her eyes, “The cargo terminal… Commander, I reckon I know where that two-timing bastard went,” Applejack said, breaking into a gallop towards the indicated building. “Wait, what about the civilian?” Rarity called. “We can’t very well leave her here.” “She’ll just have to follow. The biotic rabbit might be helpful in a fight,” Twilight answered, gesturing for Fluttershy to follow. The yellow pegasus mewled, clearly reluctant to follow them into the teeth of danger. The lavender unicorn trotted to her side and smiled reassuringly. “Fluttershy, we’ll protect you. Just follow us closely and you’ll be fine.” “W-w-wait!” *** “The geth certainly isn’t making it easy to reach Saren, wherever he is,” Twilight remarked, as they cautiously stepped off the train that connected the northern and southern portion of the spaceport. The bodies of several geth littered the train compartments. “Certainly not,” Rarity agreed. “Um... I’m sorry to interrupt... but what’s that?” Fluttershy indicated a largish device the size of a postbox lying in one corner of the abandoned tram stop. An angry red light was blinking on a panel set on the top of the device, incomprehensible words scrolling past the screen. Rarity gasped as she studied the mysterious device. “It’s... it’s a bomb.” She looked the device over. “Ten kilotons by the looks of it. Enough to level the colony and then some.” “Can you disable the device?” Twilight asked worriedly. “Best get crackin’. I betcha those geth ain’t happy to see us,” Applejack said, pointing to a squad of advancing geth troopers. *** “No need to thank me, girls, I know I’m good,” Rarity said with a hint of pride, as she adjusted the curls of her coif delicately. “And Angel helped as well,” Fluttershy added shyly, the white rabbit on her back gesturing madly, evidently annoyed he was forgotten. Twilight had to grin at the way the rabbit handled one of the bombs. Apparently using biotics to rip the detonator out was a perfectly acceptable way to disarm a nuclear bomb. “Yes, thank you, Angel.” Rarity smiled sweetly at the rabbit. Angel subsided, apparently mollified. “Mebbe the geth was blowin’ the base to destroy the beacon,” Applejack mused. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure they didn’t plant those bombs for fun,” Twilight replied dryly. The ponies rounded another building, finally reaching the their destination: the spaceport’s special cargo storage. Twilight unlocked the metal gate with her magic and started pushing it to one side. “What in the world is that?” Rarity exclaimed, as the gates opened. The ponies approached the artifact, which was shaped like a stylized L. The base of the thing was covered with ancient hologlyphs which nopony was able to decipher. An antenna rose from the base of the machine and reached thirty feet above the ground. The whole beacon was crackling with energy. “It wasn’t doin’ that when we dug it up,” Applejack said. “Something musta turned it on.” “Saren has gone to a lot of trouble to keep it from our hands,” Twilight said, eyeing the beacon with keen interest. She began trotting up to the beacon, examining the artifact more closely. The beacon seemed to glow brighter as Twilight wandered closer, though the unicorn pony was too preoccupied with other matters to notice. “Rarity, radio Scootaloo for pickup. We need to get this back to the ship. The scientists at the Citadel will be able to make more of this.” “Commander, wait—” Fluttershy began. A green burst of energy suddenly manifested at the tip of the antenna. It lashed out, and struck Twilight as she turned her head to answer Fluttershy. The blast knocked the lavender unicorn down, and caused the other ponies to take several steps back. Before she could recover, a stream of green energy arced towards Twilight and enveloped her body. Twilight eyes rolled upward as she was lifted into the air, the beacon’s unnatural energies filling her body. ’ve to do somethin’!” Applejack yelled, her hooves clattering as she rushed forward to shove the commander out of the way. “Gunnery Chief! No! You don’t know what it will do.” Rarity tackled the Applejack as she neared the levitating figure of Twilight, the momentum of the unicorn causing both to crash into a pile of crates nearby and away from the twitching figure of the commander. Twilight felt her consciousness being stretched hundreds of thousands of light years. Innumerable images flashed through pony’s mind as she struggled to make sense of it. A huge insectoid ship. Vistas of far away planets. Machinery. Screams of terror. Cries for help. Cities burning. After what seemed to be an eternity, the visions began to disintegrate. Twilight found herself falling into dark, sweet oblivion…