• Published 27th Mar 2019
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Mass Effect: Element of Kindness - CommanderApplejack



[CYOA] While exploring an old ruin an unfortunate accident sends Fluttershy halfway across the galaxy, how will the shy pegasus cope with being stuck away from her friends?

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Embassy

Chapter 2

Embassy

Gore warning

Do the sensible thing and panic 76%

Fluttershy's rate of breathing increased considerably at the sight of the dead bodies, not that the pegasus had never seen a creature get killed, she was friends with predators after all, but never had she seen so many creatures be killed this quickly. The contents of her stomach rose up her throat and were emptied next to the crate she had hidden behind.

"Are you okay?" One of the creatures from the new groups asked the suited one who had positioned herself between her and the newcomers, not that this registered in Fluttershy's mind anyway.

T-they're going to kill me! I need to get out... out... OUT

Scrambling to her hooves Fluttershy jumped over the crates and bolted away from the strange creatures...

... slipping over blue liquid that pooled on the metal floor next to the corpse of the bone faced creature. It took over a second of staring at the dead creature for her to realize that this wasn't just any liquid, this was blood, the creature's blood. If it wasn't for the fact that she had already thrown up she would have done it again. The yellow pegasus jumped out of the pool of blood and tried scrubbing the blood out of her coat, only for the blood on her hooves to stain it even further.

In her momentary distraction didn't notice one of the creatures had approached until it had wrapped its arms around her. Fluttershy whinnied with a volume uncharacteristic of the pegasus while struggling to get her forelegs loose from the grip she found herself in, failing as the creature's arms didn't budge under her assault.

Fluttershy continued struggling until she heard the creature... singing? Looking at the arms that surrounded her she found them to be the same as the masked creature that had stood next to her moments ago, this finally broke the dam that had been holding back all the stress and the pegasus broke down sobbing in the arms of the creature who slowly rocked her as she sang.

"Hey there little one, don't be scared. We're not going to hurt you, unlike those bosh'tets." The creature softly told her as her lullaby came to an end.

"O-okay." Fluttershy whimpered back, the creature jolting in surprise making Fluttershy cringe.

"Keelah, did your translators pick that up as well?" The creature holding the pegasus asked the three others who had approached the pair that sat on the floor, nodding in confirmation. "Can you tell us your name?" it asked as it turned it's attention back to the pegasus.

"F-Fluttershy,"

The creature stroked through Fluttershy's hair in an attempt to put her further at ease. "Okay Fluttershy, can you tell me where you are from?" The pegasus nodded and started telling about Equestria and how Twilight had dragged her and the other girls along to go explore the ruin, the group meanwhile moved out of the alleyway into one of the flying carts.

Introductions were also made after they entered the cart, the creature that had comforted Fluttershy after her panic was called Tali Zorah and was from a race apparently called the quarians.
The second creature to introduce itself was the leader of the group of three, a human who called himself Commander Shepard of the Alliance navy, from what Fluttershy understood he was part of a guard organization of some sort.

Following on Shepard's introduction was Garrus Vakarian of the turian race, apparently he had been chasing a criminal but couldn't find definite proof until Tali had found some which was the reason they had come for her.
That left the last member of the group, Wrex a krogan. Fluttershy couldn't help but be uncomfortable around the krogan as he sported vicious claw marks on the scale that covered his forehead and his armor looked as if it had been well used, it also didn't help that Wrex had told her that he was a mercenary and would fight for money.

After the transport shuttle landed Tali carried the little pegasus with her into the human embassy where they would be speaking to the human ambassador, a man called Udina. "You're not making my life easy, Shepard. Firefights in the Wards an all-out assault on Chora's den, do you know how many..." The ambassador stopped talking as he saw Tali and Fluttershy, "...Would you mind telling me why there's a quarian carrying a pegasus into my office."

"The quarian is going to make you very happy, as for the pegasus she's an unfortunate traveler. You might have heard about an incident here on the presidium this afternoon." Shepard answered, Fluttershy ducked behind her mane as the ambassador scrutinized her and Tali.

"Yes... I'd like to hear about that later, now what has this quarian to offer to us?" He asked, Tali put down the pegasus who immediately hid behind Garrus who positioned himself in such a way that Fluttershy could hide behind his legs. The turian already having figured out the extent of the pegasus's shyness.

"My name is Tali Zorah nar Rayya, I was on my pilgrimage when I started receiving reports that geth were traveling beyond the perseus veil me and a few other pilgrims decided to investigate." Tali started, "We ambushed a lone geth and pulled its memory core."

"I thought The geth fried their memory core when they died?" Captain Anderson, the second man who had been in the office asked inquisitively.

"My people made the geth, remember? If your quick, careful, and lucky you can preserve some cashes of data. I salvaged this from its data banks." Tali answered while tapping a few instructions on a glowing hologram of some sort that had appeared around her left arm.

"Eden prime was a major victory the beacon has brought us one step closer to the conduit..." A voice started, Fluttershy meanwhile did her best to hide even further behind her mane as a second voice continued, "And one step closer to the return of the Reapers"

"Uhm, what are the Reapers? If I... may...ask... eep!" Fluttershy whimpered back behind Garrus's legs as the attention of the room turned towards her,

"The according to the geth, the Reapers were a hyper-advanced machine race that wiped out the protheans fifty-thousand years ago. The Geth seem to revere them as gods." Tali answered drawing the attention back to her, Shepard head perking up at the new information.

"That would be an explanation of the vision the prothean beacon gave me." He theorized.

"The council won't believe this talk about 'Reapers' but it does prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Saren has gone rogue," Udina said, cutting off any further discussion on whatever the Reapers were supposed to be, "I'm going to request an emergency meeting of the council now, be ready to join me in session commander."

Shepard nodded and motioned for the others to follow him out of the office, after the door closed behind the group he turned to Tali. "So, now you've given us the evidence are you going to continue your pilgrimage?"

The quarian shook her head, "If you'd have me I'd like to join you on your mission commander." She said wringing her hands, nervous of what the Commander would tell her.

"What about your pilgrimage? isn't that important as well?" Shepard asked.

"The pilgrimage proves we are willing to give of ourselves for the greater good, if what you say is true then the galaxy is at risk, my pilgrimage can wait," Tali said resolutely, a small smile creeping onto Shepard's face.

"In that case, welcome to the team." He told the quarian, turning to Fluttershy afterward, "If you want you can accompany us as well."

"I don't think I'd be very useful for your mission, I'm no soldier." Fluttershy answered, her ears drooping flat against her head and looked down at her hooves.

Shepard crouched down and raised Fluttershy's head to look her in the eyes, "I'll need more than soldiers to take Saren down, I'm sure Captain Anderson has an open spot for you on the Normandy, we were running a skeleton crew anyway. Now is there anything in particular you can do?"


1. I can understand and talk to animals

2. I know how to treat sick and wounded animals

3. I can use the stare

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Author's Note:

You can vote for this chapter's choice here: https://www.strawpoll.me/17697102
If you can argue your case in the comments below as to why one choice is better than the other It'll count as extra vote.

These might seem insignificant but they'll be much more important later on :raritywink:

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When an option is not available due to various reasons it will be colored [Grey]

Hope you enjoyed and I'll see you in the next chapter! :twilightsmile:

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