Equine Effect

by Not so Elite

3. The Dream, the Vision, the Nightmare

Spike and Rarity were somewhere out in the Rambling Rock Ridge doing some gem hunting for Rarity's summer fashion line coming up soon, she wanted these dresses to look better and more original than ever before. A theme she had been experimenting on lately was armor-like outfits, because of royal guards being around Ponyville protecting the newly appointed Princess Twilight.

It was in the later hours of the day and Spike was getting a little anxious about wanting to go back home, for Rarity's sake of course.

"Hey Rarity, it's getting a little late. Do you think we should start heading back now?" asked a worried Spike who was right behind his crush pulling a red wagon almost full of rubies and other precious gems.

"Oh I know it's getting dark but I need just a few more for my new line. Just a little longer ok Spike?"

Spike sighed, "Only for you Rarity."

"Thank you my Spikey Wikey."

Spike let out a little blush when he noticed something unusual in the distance to their left, "Uh, Rarity?"

"Yes Darling?"

"What's that thing?" He suspiciously pointed at what looked like a metallic structure. Upon getting a closer look at it they noticed just how big it really was. The almost flower looking structure towered over them.

The mysterious artifact had multiple arms that aimed upwards then arched outwards, there was a mysterious object inside the center that had a greenish glow that activated when they got within a few feet from it.

"I have no idea" Answered a cautious Rarity.

She circled around it while keeping a small space between her and this discovery, when suddenly she felt a sharp pain go through her head and rushed through her entire body.

An invisible force lifted and suspended her up in the air. Spike tried to jump to her rescue, but a defense mechanism activated and he ended up being shocked and thrown down to the ground unconscious.

Rarity didn't know what was going on outside of her head, she was experiencing something like a dream... Or a nightmare. She was seeing a vision of the end of days, no, she was seeing the end of everything. She saw her friends and everything she knew being destroyed before her very eyes. She saw large machine-like beings that made a noise so intense it sounded like the shriek of the damned, only it was coming from inside her own head. Tearing right through her skull, it almost made it impossible for her to think.

She let out a painful cry, yelling at the top of her lungs to make everything stop. Then she also fell to floor and sunk into unconsciousness.

...

A few hours later, Spike woke up and saw Rarity laying helplessly on the ground. He tried waking her but all of his attempts didn't work. It was now nighttime and Spike didn't want to wait and see what dangers there could be out here.

"Rarity please wake up! We have to get back to Ponyville!" She didn't respond at all.

He put his head on her chest to make sure she at least still had a pulse. After being relieved by hearing her calm heartbeat he gathered some dead wood and made a fire to watch over her for the night, he would head home and get help in the morning.

When morning came and she still didn't wake up, Spike urgently ran to Ponyville to get Twilight and the rest of the gang to help Rarity...

...

Rarity's eyes slowly opened and she found herself in the Ponyville Hospital and was relieved by the sight of her friends whom she saw die during her vision with the Reaper artifact.

"Oh I'm so glad you're all alive! Where's Spike? Where is he?!!"

Her friends tried calming her down, it had been 8 hours since Spike had led them to Rarity and brought her home. Twilight was right next to her dear friend holding her hoof as she was in the unusual sleeping state, and was the first to speak up. "Rarity relax! Spike is doing ok he's here too, he's sleeping because he watched over you last night. He told us everything that happened and about the structure you found, no wonder you never came home. We've already sent a team over to secure it. You two have been through a lot and you need some--"

A voice from behind interrupted her, it was Nurse Redheart, "Now please don't overwhelm our patient, she needs to relax with all the stress built up in her."

"No no, I'm fine really."

"You sure? From the looks of your stats, you've been through a lot recently. We noticed that while you were unconscious, you had rapid eye movement. Something that usually occurs during intense or lucid dreaming."

Rarity shuddered and fear flooded her entire being as she recalled what she experienced, "I saw, oh... I don't know what I saw. My friends were being burned right before my very eyes, all of Equestria was in ruins! There were these immense beings that destroyed everything they saw, they made a noise so maddening and terrifying it made you want your head want to explode! It sounded as if it were the shriek of the Changelings, only it felt like it was originating from your own mind. I fear Equestria is in grave danger, I know how unreal all this may sound."

Applejack now spoke up, "We believe ya Rare, we know exactly what you saw and its all true. Equestria IS in danger, the Reapers are a'comin back and we were about to go and warn every pony when Spike came to town and started rambling about that thing y'all discovered."

"Oh my goodness, something needs to be done before its too late!" Silently yelled a terrified Fluttershy.

"Oh we're gonna do something about it alright, we are going to wait for these 'Reapers' and we are going to show them the magic of friendship!" Exclaimed an ever so confident Rainbow Dash.

"Now Rainbow Dash, we still don't have much information on them, we'll have to check the codex when Rarity gets better." Explained Twilight.

"Oh don't let me slow down your progress Twilight, saving Equestria is more important than a single mare such as I."

After giving Rarity's point some thought, Twilight agreed "You're right Rarity, it's imperative that we learn as much as we can from Liara's time capsule and get to work right away! Lets go girls."

"Don't worry Rare, we'll be back as soon as we can ok?" Assured Pinkie Pie.

"You can count on us. We'll be back for you, then we'll save Equestria."

"I know you will, Twilight", responded a more relaxed Rarity. She slowly laid her head down on the hospital bed, then closed her eyes and smiled, "I know you will."

...

The 5 friends got back to the capsule and started to take in the knowledge it contained once again.

"The planets of the main council species are Thessia, which is the homeworld of my people; the Asari. Palaven, the Turian homeworld. Surkesh, the world of the Salarians. And finally Earth, the homeworld of the Humans.

"There are other races that exist during this cycle, but if you want information on those, you will have to access the 'Non Council Races' section."

"Hmm, the human world sounds very interesting, with a name like Earth. Wait, didn't the humans colonize this planet during their cycle?" Asked Twilight, who was accessing the codex and was so very interested in everything about the cycle before her.

"Why yes, this planet was known to the humans as Eden Prime. It became a symbol for humans, to them it meant that they were ready for life among the stars alongside other species."

Rainbow Dash shook her head and asked to nopony in particular, "Wait a minute, Eden Prime? That's our planets name? I thought--"

Twilight blocked out what Dash was saying while she was lost in her own thoughts as she was thinking things out in her head. 'We're going to need to use this Mass Effect technology to prepare for the Reapers, we also need to start creating ships for space travel. It would be wise for my friends and I to start taking military training to prepare for war. We need to make new weapons and armor. Oh we have so much to do, And we don't even know how much time we have to ready ourselves! I must report all of this to Princess Celes-- Oh wait, I don't have to report to anyojne now that I'm a princess. Duh!'

"Okay okay, where can we acquire this technology that you rely on?" Twilight was now done with her own thought process.

"There is both a benefit and a drawback from Mass Effect technology. It's based on Reaper tech, it's what every race eventually depends upon. It is a gamble as it serves advanced enough for whatever reasons you have for using it, at the same time you know it's their technology that you're relying on. This only proves just how formidable and clever your current foe is."

"Well isn't there a way we can avoid and fight the Reapers without their own toys?" Pinkie Pie was actually listening to the VI.

"Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be another way. Only Mass Effect technology can give you the adequate advancements, it can provide Faster Than Light travel and helps to create biotics and greatly improves your firepower."

Applejack didn't like this and was very upset, "Gah! The Reapers are givin us no choice but to play this game by their rules! It's cheatin is what it is! There must be some way we can beat'em without using their tech."

"What about magic? Can that be used against them?" Twilight was looking forward to hearing Liara's answer to this question.

"I'm sorry, but my programming is limited and cannot answer that question for you. From the archives I was given though, magic is considered a myth. Nothing more."

The ponies all gave eachother dumbfounded and confused looks. Now it was Twilight's turn to be angry...

Author's Note:

Ok so you see that vid I linked? Its the theme of this chapter! I understand my writing is not as good as you'd like, this was the only way I could get this story out there since I don't have a team of animators at my command. So hopefully these will put some more feel into the chapters from here on out.

Comments

[Masterweaver]

You're moving too fast and not allowing the characters to develop. Great concept, poor execution. I... would suggest starting over and allowing a bit of buildup before you leap right to the discovery.

[Not so Elite]

3062085

I understand what you're saying but considering this is a fanfic, the readers already know who these characters are. Though you will see development among them later on, I want the theme of this part of the story to be somewhat fast paced so the readers could feel like the characters would when all of these events start suddenly unfolding.

I'm a newer writer and I appreciate the feedback on all of this, so thank you for that.

[Masterweaver]

3073457

Not necessarily. For one, this is a crossover, so you have to assume half the setting is unknown to any reader and it may not be the same half as another reader. For another, even if it IS a fanfic, you need to set roots before you try to grow. At least "this is how it was before." At the moment, though, all it is is "SUDDENLY ANCIENT ARTIFACT EVERYONE SCRAMBLES WE HAVE NO EMOTIONAL CONNECTION." Fiction is about the characters and their interactions, but I'm not feeling these guys at all.

[Sleepyted]

Don't the reapers only kill people if they have space travel? T'soni is pretty much dooming them all.

[Not so Elite]

3141757>>3136450

Just wait and see

[Bronzer]

Humanity's innate, overwhelming badassery will be remembered.

There must be some way we can beat 'em without using their tech.

Sure there is, but you ponies advance so slowly that you'd likely die of overpopulation before inventing a rocket capable of leaving your atmosphere. Then again, you have 50,000 years. On the other hand, humanity seems to be the only ones who advanced quickly enough, due to curiosity and tenacity combined with competitiveness, that 50,000 years would be enough for us to simply laugh at the Reapers and squish them like over-sized bugs.

For example, canon says the Prothean cache moved our tech forward by two hundred years. Two hundred years when the other species had it for hundreds, even thousands of years. Meaning that if we had the time they did (either the second newest citadel species or the Protheans), the Reapers would have had no chance.

3136450

To be fair, there was no reason to expect sapient life to develop on Eden Prime. Partly because it was one of the worlds burned by the Reapers. Which is why she put the capsule there, because she figured anyone who could find it must have space flight, given the state of the world it was put on.

[articunos bitch]

Liara left Glyph in her time capsules, she was there to give an introduction but I thought Glyph would be the primary VI.
Also, Liara should have known you don't need to use Reaper tech. Ezo wouldn't hurt their chances but they should develop their own tech, biotics, magic, weapons and more. And no-one said ponies had to leave Eden Prime at all, if they stay where they are the Reapers will never come for them.
And are you making Rarity the 'Sheperd' this cycle? That should mix things up from Twilight or Spike leading things as they usually do.

[Dat Stoopid Goi]

3136450 The reapers kill off every space fairing race, yes, but she would have expected them to be a bit more advanced than they are and the cycle repeats, so the ponies would die one way or another.