Fidelis
Chapter 89
Fidelis
Is this what death is like?
Shinings head and body hurt as he gasped for air, the ice-cold air that entered his lungs was painfully chilly. More warmth escaped his body from the cold metal surface he was laying on.
Wait, I was wearing armor, wasn’t I?
“C_UUUST_ODIA PR_TOOOCOL COMPLEEEE_”
Shining shot up from his lying position after hearing the metallic voice blast through the room only to flop back down onto the ground. His legs felt like he’d just ran the Canterlot marathon and stomach sore as if being beaten down by thugs. The room he was in was only lit by a small blue light on the wall. The light seemed just as cold as the rest of the room, but what little he could see was covered in a small layer of undisturbed frost.
What in Tartarus was that?! How did I get in here? And where is here in the first place?
The frost crunched under the captain’s hooves as he made another, more successful, attempt at standing up. He shivered as the cold was quickly sapping away his body heat. He needed a source of warmth very quickly if he were to avoid going hypothermic. His barrel hurt terribly every time he took a step towards the little blue light but he tried ignoring the pain for the moment. The source of the blue light was something covered in more ice. Shining used his hoof to scratch the layers off until he found a glowing screen of sorts that had a hoof dead center.
What do I have to lose anyway?...
Shining placed a hoof on the ‘screen’ and hoped something would happen… something did. A white line slowly moved down from the top of the screen to the bottom and then, after flickering a couple of times, turned green. A moment later a screech of metal and the cracking of ice broke the deafening silence of the room once again and a door that was positioned right next to the screen slowly slid open. More cold air met Shining from the hallway as he stepped out into it. A couple of faint lights in the ceiling provided enough light to actually see properly again. Deciding to spare a moment to check himself, Shining glanced at his barrel. A myriad of scars covered his right side and his fur was shaved away around them.
H-how?! N-no that can’t b-be right!
The captain’s breathing sped up slightly as he tore his gaze away from his own body and shook his head. He had to get out of here. The lights in the ceiling blinked a couple of times and a couple of passageways were shrouded in darkness again leaving only one he could travel down. With feeling already slipping from his hooves from the cold, Shining decided that following the lights might be the only option available to him. There were a couple more doors along the hallway but all of their panels seemed to be powered down, leaving only a blinking door panel at the back of the hall.
Why do I get the feeling I’m being herded...
Shining opened the back door, finding a room with a central console of sorts, three light blue glowing cylinders sticking out of it. The room was freezing cold, worse than the room he’d woken up in or the hallway after, making him shiver with every step as he approached the three cylinders, a hoofhold sitting on top of each one of them. Shining tried pulling on the holds but the cylinders wouldn’t budge, and it wasn’t as if he was able to put much strength into it anymore due to the cold anyway.
“Come on y-you stupid thing!” Shining sniffed as he wasn’t sure why he was trying to get the thing out anyway, tears welled up in his eyes as he swallowed a sob and flopped down onto the cylinder. “I-I’m so sorry T-Twilight, M-Mom, Dad, I don’t think I’ll b-be coming home. P-Please, be s-strong-”
The cylinder sunk down under Shining’s weight, the sound of something activating below him shut him up immediately. Light’s started blinking on and vents in the wall started blowing out air. At first it was still freezing cold, but the little flow of air soon started heating up. Shining immediately jumped on top of the second and third cylinders, pushing them into the machine below as well. More sounds came from below and the heat from the vents became much warmer. Wasting no time the captain rushed to one of the vents and planted himself against it, the hot air warming his numb body.
“Hello? Who’s there?” The voice, though less metallic sounding, echoed through the chamber. Shining held his breath as he looked around the room, hoping to identify the source. “Please come out!” The voice sounded scared as a light flashed on the center console, a small hologram of a little pegasus filly springing up. Her hair and coat were blue and her wings seemed a bit too large for her age. Carefully stepping forward, Shining approached the little filly who jumped and turned to face the unicorn. “S-Stop right there!”
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you little one,” Shining assured the hologram, feeling slightly silly as he did so but his mind was still too hazy from the cold to really care.
“Everypony was gone… for so long… Did you come to get me?” She asked, looking hopefully at Shining who gazed back in confusion.
“I’m sorry but I’ve got no idea what you mean. I’m not even sure how I got here,” Shining admitted, sitting down in front of the main console and looking at the filly who seemed to relax as well. She sat still and zoned out for a moment before refocusing her eyes.
“Custodia protocol was activated. You were critically injured so the automated systems teleported you here and put you in stasis while it patched you up… The drop in my already low power supply nearly de-activated me completely...” The filly looked ashamed, “...I panicked and went into full power conservation mode.”
Shining let out a breath of astonishment. “You’re a machine… that’s impossible!” His mouth was wide open as he took a step back.
“What do you mean? I'm only a simple AI, that shouldn't be that surprising, should it?... What has happened on the outside?” the filly asked, standing back up again and making a couple of holograms appear next to her. “My sensors have been faulty for a hundred thousand cycles now, I’ve been waiting for somepony to repair them or retrieve me… It’s been so long since I talked to anypony...”
A pang of pity shot through Shining. Even though he did not really understand how the filly could possibly exist in the computer system he sympathized with the lonely program…
Wait, program?... Buck! The reapers!
“Kid, I’m going to need to ask you to get me out of here. I need to stop a terrible event from happening which was only two days away last time I checked!” Shining quickly told the filly whose eyes widened.
“Y-you’re going to leave again?! Please, I beg you, don’t leave!” The filly burst out into tears, looking at Shining pleadingly. The captain stopped, feeling very conflicted suddenly even though he knew he couldn’t stay.
“Can I take you with me?”
The crying abruptly stopped, the filly looking at Shining with a teary smile. “Yes. And yes I’d like that. I’ll make sure the automated machines in the armory adjust that suit you came in with to allow my fitting.”
“Alright, if you’re going to be coming with me I’d like to know your name.” The filly smiled and dismissed all the little consoles floating around her.
“My name’s Fidelis, yours?”
“Shining Armor,” He grinned, “Mind lighting the path to the armory for me? We’ve got a lot of work to do and probably not a lot of time left.”
twiddles thumbs
Hope you enjoyed? 
[Paragon] or [Renegade] are colored when available, though normal options might also contribute to one or the other. As for the shippers under us, [Romance] is now also a thing.
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Now edited by gerandakis and lordelliot
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Wow.
Oh! We might finally have someone who might be able to give us answers.
Cool.
Hers a good question: When did Ponies leave their system the first time?
...so...should be call him Master Chief Shining Armor?
10127601
My editor made a similar comment
10127603
Sorry.
Though this does raise new questions since Shining was teleported, healed and met an AI modeled after a pegasus so...former Equestrian base?
10127609
no worries
also, Spoilers!
We seem to have found an old pony stronghold.
Fidelis, that means faithful or loyal. A promising start for the (unknowing?) father.
Wait. Does this imply the fact that ponykind once had actually had AI tech? Could Ponies actually have evolved backwards while hiding from the Reapers?
10127581
Better Question: Just before the Reapers came, how advanced were they?
Seems like we are finally going to get the answers from before!
10127656
I think both questions are linked
Temper fidelis?
Is this one of those game critical events that occur no matter what you do, or is it one of those really useful ability, resource aquisition optionals that is so easy to overlook unless youve read the walkthrough, and watched the video?
"So Liara, I know you love studying Precursor Civilizations and well, have I got some news for you..."
I don't trust this... I don't trust this at all.
10127654
Or perhaps they evolved backwards to hide from the reapers. The protheans had hoped that the Reapers would see humanity as too primitive to be relevant, and that they would ignore humanity. They were right. Perhaps the ponies regressed back to an earlier technological state in order to make it appear that they would be irrelevant until the next cycle, and perhaps- wait, no, they had that... No, nevermind. I'm probably wrong.
10127915
You get knocked out and captured no matter what, but if you fight off five waves of attackers so the Reaper artifact has to do it you get an achievement.
Shining Armor getting something actually significant here is specific to this story. In the game, you just improvise an escape using a remote control LOKI mech* until you get your weapons back, and the main consequence is that you lost so much time while unconscious that mission failure due to the Reapers arriving is a serious possibility. Starting when Shepard wakes up, you have about 90 minutes to finish the mission. If the countdown hits 0, you get a cutscene slideshow of the Reapers harvesting the galaxy.
* LOKI mechs are the crappy cannon fodder type. The big tough boss fight mechs are YMIR mechs.
10128233
Ouch. Thats me definitely not even going to try playing that franchise then.
Gurenteed TPK on time limit, pixel perfect, puzzle solve? Games are getting so much more demanding, its like theyre trying to turn gamers off actually purchasing their products?
10128244
The time limit is generous enough that most players should have plenty of time to spare. It's mostly just a reason to not dawdle through it.
Also, Arrival is a DLC and an optional mission. If you don't play through it, Hacket sends a much larger unit of soldiers in Shepard's place, and they complete the mission successfully but take heavy losses. This is represented by a penalty to your war assets in Mass Effect 3.
Aww Shining's got his own little pony Cortana now nice
Wait, an AI? Oh thank God! I was getting Star Child flashbacks for a second there.
.....pony precursors?
10128678
You are definitely not the only reader to immediately make that connection. Nope!
Well... I am lost. No idea what is going on...
Insert Halo theme because we got ourself a duo that shall become legendary!
Shining Armor just got a virtual filly adopted, congrats!
You are a daddy now Shining Armor