"You need to let me speak with your Princess. Right now! The fate of organic civilization rests on it!"
"Only Ponies are allowed past this point, Human. That's the whole point of the giant Barrier."
The two groups stood at a stand off. On one side, the guard-ponies weren't really guarding anything - the barrier was expanding, and 'impenetrable' besides. They were there to stop the more foolish attempts at forcing entry.
One the other side, there was a human, a remote-piloted-android, and an alien in a enviro-suit, curiously enough all female (female-based, in the android's case).
They were there for far more important reasons.
The two groups stared down each other while the Barrier continued to slowly expand.
Then the human cursed, and began to remove her armor.
The android turned to stare at her organic friend. "Shepard, what are you doing?"
"I need to talk to the Princess, and this is the only way I can do that." Shepard dropped her equipment to the ground. "Hang onto those for me."
Before Tali or EDI could stop her, Shepard had reached over to the wagon-station the guards were clustered around, and taken a bottle of Conversion Serum and swallowed a mouthful.
Light briefly enveloped Shepard's form, and when it was gone Shepard had been changed into a black-furred Earth Pony with a red mane. Her Cutie-Mark was the Paragon symbol, a blue wing. The last feature of note was that Shepard's Biotic Amplifier appeared to have been changed into a series of intricate tattoos surrounding... something imbedded into the back of Shepard's neck.
Shepard raised her right fore-hoof, generating a ball of Dark Energy and letting it dissipate. "Good, that still works."
She looked back to her companions. "Be right back. I just need to talk sense into the Princess, alright?"
Without waiting for an answer, Shepard galloped past the also-stunned guards and into the Barrier.
Xlestia would never say it out loud, but this world was perfect for her schemes. Oh no, Equestria can't sustain any technology within its borders? The prospect of becoming a pony was nothing compared to the prospect of becoming a Husk. It had taken only the slightest bit of propaganda to cement her image as a messiah to the masses.
She had refugees flocking to join her. So many, in fact, that she was having trouble fitting them all in her fair land. That was what this meeting was about, actually - finding more room to fit so many new-foals in.
"Order, order!" She cried. "I hereby bring this meeting to-"
"Hey, wait! You can't go in there. Hey!" Came the muffled voices of guards outside the throne room. Xlestia paused to hear the commotion.
Hushed arguing could be heard outside, then the doors slowly opened.
Shepard trotted inside, eyes locked onto Xlestia. "Are you Princess Celestia?"
"I am." Xlestia confirmed. "Are you a new-foal?"
"If you mean I drank your serum, yes. I'm not applying for citizenship or anything like that. My name is Commander Shepard, and I am a SPECTER of the Citadel Council. I need to talk to you about the War." Shepard calmly responded, before bowing as best as she could with limited experience with four legs.
Xlestia gave a motherly smile. "Why bother? You are safe now. The War cannot enter here. This is a safe place. Forget your Council."
Shepard looked up, and Xlestia could see titanium in her eyes. "I can't do that, Princess. After this, it's straight back to the war for me."
Xlestia tiled her head in light confusion. "Strange, Conversion was supposed to clear away all your negative traits. Why so eager to return to the battlefield?"
"Last I checked your Highness, Loyalty was hardly a 'negative' trait." Shepard replied quickly, and a little testily. "There are hundreds of billions of people out there whose homes are burning. I'm not going to leave them behind to hide away in your little paradise."
Ponies around the room became nervous when they heard just how many people they would have to convert if they were to save everyone. They were stretched tight as it was!
"Then bring them all in." Xlestia suggested soothingly.
Shepard narrowed her eyes. She'd need every bit of Paragon in her to say this and leave alive, but... "Do you know know what the Reapers do, Princess?"
"They are killers of civilizations, burners of worlds." Xlestia narrowed her own eyes. "They are utterly despicable."
Shepard idly wondered how much of that hate was a act. "They take the survivors of their attacks, those who are unable to fight back, and melt them down to make more Reapers."
The ponies in the room all broke out in frightened whispers at that.
"Princess, if you want history to remember you fondly..." Shepard spoke with the utmost care. "...don't be 'The one who saved life from the Reapers by copying their tactics.'"
The whispers became into angry yelling, and Shepard could see actual anger in Xlestia's eyes. Huh. She really thought of herself as better than the Reapers. Self-deception, maybe?
When the Princess began to speak again, every pony in the room became deathly quiet. She had presence, Shepard would give her that.
"You would compare my dear new-foals to those despised Husks?" The Princess was quiet, but Shepard could hear the dark undertones. She had well and truly offended the Alicorn. "You would compare those half-dead abominations to the innocent, wide-eyed foals that I shelter?!"
The atmosphere between the Sun Princess and The Shepard was intense. Shepard found her mouth curling into a smirk on its own violation. "You really think you can protect them from what's coming?"
"The Reapers cannot breach my Barrier." Observing an eye-roll from Shepard, she added icily "You disagree?"
"This place is just as vulnerable to Indoctrination as anywhere else." Shepard opened. "How good is your Barrier at protecting ponies from forces already inside?"
Xlestia shook her head slightly, like one might do to a foolish schoolchild. "Indoctrination cannot pierce this Barrier."
"Oh good." Shepard interrupted. "You must know how Indoctrination works, then, if you're so sure you can block it. Please, share that information. It's completely stumped us. We were starting to think it was magic or something."
Xlestia didn't break eye contact, but she didn't speak either. Just continued to glare.
Shepard didn't actually think Indoctrination was caused by magic, although it well might have for all they knew about it. She just needed to throw the Princess off her game.
"Even if this Barrier can stop the Reapers just burning your kingdom directly, there's nothing stopping them from rendering the rest of the planet uninhabitable and letting you choke yourself to death."
"Ah, but there is." Xlestia smirked. "The Barrier was designed as more than a defense, it also changes the land it engulfs. Poisoning the land wouldn't be a problem for us."
"Even if the rest of the planet is gone?" Shepard pressed. "We saw evidence that the Reapers can artificially age a star at Dholen. Or they could just detonate the Mass Relay in-system, same difference. Can your Barrier save you from a Supernova?"
Xlestia's eyes widened just enough to know that Shepard had hit her point home. She remained silent for a full minute, clearly thinking furiously.
"...what exactly did you come here to propose?" She asked.
Shepard smiled.
"Dammit Shepard, when I said go talk to the Princess, I didn't expect you to give up your Species just to get in the door! What the hell were you thinking?!" Hackett wasn't happy at all that his poster girl no longer matched her posters.
"I was thinking that the Reapers are a force that can only be beaten if everyone works together, even those who joined our galaxy at the last minute. I was thinking of how obtaining the secret to the tech-proof barrier could be the key to safe locations where the Reapers can't get at our troops while resting."
Shepard made eye-contact with the Admiral's hologram as best she could, given her head now came up to his waist. "And I was thinking of how if drinking that potion could save even one life, then of course I was going to drink it."
Hackett rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Shepard, do you any idea how many humans will join the ponies now that you have?"
"Tell them I give the experience a D-. Not worth the price of opposable thumbs." Shepard retorted.
The old fleet commander eyed Shepard. "...and how do you feel, Shepard?"
Shepard gained a pensive expression. "You know that reluctance against killing they beat out of you in Basic? I think I need to retrain myself to get there again. Which of course in a perfect world wouldn't be an issue, but... I also have to stop myself from trying to cheer everyone up all the time."
Hackett frowned. "Why is that a problem?"
"Joker had to stop me playing party music though the intercom." Shepard deadpanned. "Generally I feel like I belong in a little girl's holovid as well as look it. I have this desperate, naive desire to stop everyone in the whole freaking galaxy from dying right this minute."
Hackett was quiet for a moment. "I think you should spend some time with your crew. Re-adjust to life in the greater galaxy."
Shepard involuntarily gave a wide smile at the prospect of time with her friends. She hit herself with her forehoof to dislodge it. "Don't worry sir, I'll beat that naivety out of myself, don't worry."
As she trotted out of the comms room, Hackett smiled. "Well, maybe not all of it, Commander. Hackett out."
Shepard wasn't in a good place. Her armor had melted onto her, guaranteeing third-degree burns minimum. She had moved the galaxy's trump card into place, but it wasn't working. Just moments before, The Illusive Man had forced her to fatally shoot Anderson. And all she had was a pistol and a half-empty bottle that she carried around for sentimental reasons. (How it had survived Harbinger's main weapon was anyone's guess.)
That was when the Catalyst showed itself and explained what was going on.
Shepard gave the momentous decision all the thought it deserved. Then she had an idea.
"So -cough- if that's the Crucible up there, that must make -wheeze- this machinery down here the Catalyst." She thought aloud.
The hologram nodded. "You are standing in my 'brain', yes. You should note that I have enough redundancies and defences to stop you doing any damage to my systems."
"Good enough." She wheezed. She couldn't really tell how all this machinery worked (she was a Sentinel, not an Engineer) but that looked like a processor.
Gripping her half-empty bottle of Conversion Serum in her Biotic Grip (she'd been using that skill much more often since her Conversion) she poured its contents onto the processor.
"What are you doing?" The Catalyst demanded. "Simple fluids won't eveneveneven aaaaafffffffff."
Like an antique TV, the Catalyst's hologram fizzed into static before reforming... as a light blue pony colt.
"Yayayay!" The Catalyst glitched. "Partysugerrainbows-"
"Kid!" Shepard put on her best begging face - which came far to naturally to this body for Shepard's liking. "You see the scary monsters out the window?"
The foal-hologram turned - jumping back as though it had never seen a Reaper before. "Ahhh! ScaryfearPANICRUN!"
"They listen to you!" Shepard tried to steer the Catalyst's glitching actions. "Make them go away!"
"GO AWAY!" The eons old computer screamed like a little girl.
As she watched Reapers explode in great big fireballs, Shepard thought that she'd have to think of something more dignified for the history books.
World Four - Where friendship is the only hope for survival