//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: The Alien 
// Story: Mass Effect: Shepard's Rebirth 
// by Redbow Rose 
//------------------------------//

Twilight Sparkle didn’t know what to do. Her experiment has been going perfectly, but within a few seconds it had gone horribly wrong. Her calculations were perfect, every variable had been accounted for, it all pointed to the experiment going perfectly. What had gone wrong? What was the unknown factor?

Thankfully she was  able to create a barrier around them before the artifact exploded, leaving them coughing and shaken, but otherwise unharmed. Before Twilight could investigate the remains of the artifact she heard movement from the test area. She froze, along with everypony else, fearing what it could be.

They all watched in horror as a silhouette of...something... rose from the remains of the ancient device. After what felt like an eternity, the dust cleared enough to see that the being in front of them had the shape of a pony. She let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding in, though she was still wary of the new and explosive arrival. 

“H-hello, m-my n-name is Twi-Twilight Sparkle. W-what’s yours?” The librarian asked, trying to be friendly but failing to keep the fear she still had out of her voice.”My name is...Commander Shepard.”
“A-are you o-okay?” Twilight asked the pony, hearing the strain in his voice as he struggled to say that one sentence. In response the pony looked at Twilight before falling to the ground, unconscious.

“Oooh, so THAT was the doozy!” After taking a few minutes to process what Pinkie had just said, Twilight then facehoofed, recalling what had happened on the way to the old castle.

Twilight and the girls had been walking through the Everfree Forest, taking care to stay on the path. Rainbow Dash had been arguing with her about the artifact when Pinkie started shaking violently. “WwOoOoAaAaHhHh!” Everypony froze and watched as Pinkie continued shaking, knowing what Pinkie Pie’s Pinkie Sense meant. “Wow! There’s gonna be one HECK of a doozy at the old castle!” Pinkie said cheerfully.

Twilight quickly recovered, seeing this as a proving point in her argument. “See? Even Pinkie’s Pinkie Sense shows that the artifact will be amazing!” Applejack then decided to intrude on the argument. “Twilight, sorry to burst yer bubble, but that’s not how Pinkie’s Pinkie Sense works. If she’s sayin’ it’ll be a doozy then nopony, and ah do mean nopony, will know what will happen. Last time you tried to figure out how it worked, ya got injured  and we got chased by an angry hydra!”

Twilight shivered, the memory all too clear for her. She had worn an umbrella on her head for weeks after the incident. She hated how Pinkie seemed to disregard the laws of reality at times. She gave Discord a run for his bits. “Even so,” Twilight said, “I still have a firm belief that everything holds to some set of rules, even if it doesn’t follow the...conventional ones. So, I believe that Pinkie’s Pinkie Sense acts in relation to Pinkie herself. If something will fall, Pinkie will only react if it will affect her. After all, I don’t see her Pinkie Sense acting up all the time! So, because Pinkie has no idea what the Artifact will do, her Pinkie Sense will tell her it’s a doozy. Because I DO know what it will do, it isn’t a doozy for me. So, Pinkie’s Pinkie Sense will only be in relation to her.”

Applejack gave Twilight a flat look and raised an eyebrow. “Fine, believe what ya will, but I bet ya ten bits that yer wrong.” Twilight, confident that she had finally found a rule that even Pinkie had to abide by, happily agreed. “You’re on!” She said.

Twilight sighed, seeing logic fail to hold the conundrum that was Pinkie Pie once more. “O-oh my! Is he ok-kay?” Fluttershy coughed out, now more concerned than scared. “W-well,” Rarity said as she tried to get out of the dust-polluted air, “it doesn’t look that way. I think we should ALL get out of this horrid dust, and it just can’t be any good for our new friend here.” After everypony coughed their agreement, they all went upstairs to the old castle’s throne room with Applejack and Rainbow Dash carrying the surprisingly heavy stallion between them.

“Mother of Celestia, he’s heavy!” Rainbow complained. “Ah hear ya. This feller is heavier than Big Macintosh.” The farm pony agreed. After putting down the mystery pony, Rainbow and AJ joined their friends in recovering from the excitement. After a while Pinkie decided to start a conversation. “So, what are we gonna do with the alien?”

Twilight blinked. “Alien? What alien?”
“Oh you know, the alien Rainbow and Applejack carried up here! I mean, he has to be an alien because he came from outer space instead of the bit!” Pinkie Pie then gasped. “What if when we launched the bit it hit him, and when you started pulling the bit back it pulled him too! What if while the bit was pulling him it turned him INTO a pony! That’s amazing! This way I can throw him a ‘Welcome to Equestria’ party, a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party, and a ‘Have fun being a pony’ party! That’s THREE parties at once! It’ll be the best. Triparty. EVER!” Pinkie then finished her thought by pulling out her party cannon and shooting out confetti.

Twilight and the others, of course, had to take a bit of time processing what Pinkie said. When they had finally understood what the party pony had gone on about they all took a closer look at the unconscious pony, trying to find anything out of the ordinary with him. He looked like a normal earth pony. He had a light brown coat, and a black mane and tail. Twilight opened his eyes and just saw blue, regular eyes. Nothing abnormal there. He was muscular, and Applejack said that he was probably a hard worker. He was covered in a burnt material though, and Twilight ripped a piece off to research later. 

“He doesn’t look like an alien to me.” Rainbow Dash said, frowning. “The only weird thing about him is his outfit and how heavy he is.” Twilight thought for a moment. “Well, we can try to piece together who he is by what we know. His name is Commander Shepard, he has a hard worker’s build, and is wearing the charred remains of something. He is obviously an alien soldier, and a leader if the title ‘Commander’ is anything to go by. He is probably wearing the remains of his armor, though it’s not like anything I’ve seen. It’s also baffling that, despite his armor’s condition, he is virtually unharmed. Perhaps Pinkie is right...somehow...and the bit hit him and caused a reaction with his body. We need to take him to ponyville and help him recover, we can learn more there.” Twilight finished, the logical thinking helping her calm down.

“Well, you can just teleport us to Ponyville, right? It’ll take forever if we have to drag his heavy flank there!” Rainbow pointed out. Twilight, to RD’s dismay, shook her head. “I can’t do that for multiple reasons. One, Ponyville is too far away, so at best I’d make it to Fluttershy’s cottage. Two, That’s just on my own. Including all of us, I’d not make it too far. Finally, I really doubt that it’s a good idea to teleport an alien who could react badly to the process. As much as I know that it’ll be hard to carry him, we don’t have a choice unless he wakes up and walks on his own.” Rainbow just groaned and slumped to the floor.

“Ah don’t see what the problem is.” The cowpony said. Rainbow gave her a blank stare. “Well, if we work smart, and not hard then movin’ him won’t be a problem. I’ve had to haul mah brother to the farm from the bar after one too many drinks. Besides, Rainbow, think of it as Wonderbolts trainin’!” The prismatic pegasus just grumbled and crossed her hooves.

“Well...I think I can help with moving him.” Fluttershy said. “That is, if you don’t mind…”
“How  so, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked. “Well,” Fluttershy started, “when you move someone that’s unconscious, it helps to give them a massage. After all, when he wakes up he’d be easier to talk to when he is calm and rested.” Twilight thought for a moment. “Well we definitely want him to be calm and relaxed when he wakes up...okay Fluttershy, it sounds good to me!” The unicorn finished with a smile.

The yellow pegasus nodded and trotted over to the unconscious stallion and started to gently rub his back in circles with her hooves. She frowned as she discovered how tense his back was. “You’ve been through a lot of stress through recently, haven’t you?...” She said quietly. She continued to massage the stallion, wondering what happened to him to put him in such a sorry state. As went on, she also looked at the armor he was wearing, and found something faint upon it. “Um...Twilight? What does N7 mean?” The butter colored mare asked.

Twilight frowned and looked where Fluttershy was pointing and saw the letter and number, barely visible. “I don’t know Fluttershy, but it looks like it means something important. We’ll have to ask him when he wakes up.” Rainbow Dash, who had been relaxing, took interest at this point. “Hey, maybe it means that he is part of a special group? After all, I bet that his military has too many soldiers to give them numbers like that. What if we came across one of their best, a soldier who was willing to throw his life away to save everyone when BAM! Your experiment accidentally saves him! Oooh that be so AWESOME!”

“Well, Rainbow, if that’s the case then we better get him to ponyville safely.” Twilight said. “Fluttershy, I want you to head to Ponyville with Pinkie and Rarity and tell the hospital to expect a special guest, and give him a room of his own. Dash, AJ, Spike, and myself will salvage what we can and bring back the Commander. That okay with everypony?”
Rarity frowned. “Yes, Twilight, I’m sure nopony would mind the arrangements, but now that you’ve mentioned him...where IS Spike? I haven’t seen him for a quite a while.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “He’s probably down by the treasury. He says he found a lot of gems around there and likes to try picking the lock on the treasury door. I keep telling him that those gems belong to the princesses, but he insists that ruins are ‘fair game’. I’ll go get him.” As Twilight started towards the stairs, she and the others froze after hearing a loud roar. “What in tarnation was that?!” Applejack exclaimed. “Trouble. Let's hurry!” Twilight said, before running down the stairs, the others following soon after.

Just after the mares left, the mystery stallion groaned. Slowly he got up, rubbing his head with a hoof. “Son of a...where am I?” He look around a bit before realizing something very different about himself. “Well...that’s different. At least I know I’m not dead, though.” Hearing commotion from the nearby staircase the stallion shakily got up. “What better way to see if I’m at 100% than to beat the crap out of things till I feel better.” Shaking his head, he started down the stairs.