Wolves and the Shepard

by Chemtest

Encounter

Hook and Amber trudge through the Everfree, their bickering replaced by kind chatter. They don’t notice as Shepard stops suddenly behind them, but they do when he speaks, “How close are we to the river?”

Hook looks back at him, “Uh, about a minute.”

Shepard gets the two close, and starts to whisper to them, “Okay, I need the two of you to trust me. No matter what happens, do not give me away.”

Amber shares a look with Hook, before turning back to him, “Why?”

He smiles, “Because I have to hide, and I need you two to act natural. Okay?”

Hook nods, “Sure, I trust you.”

Shepard pats him on the head, and hops up a nearby tree, swinging off a branch and into the canopy of leaves.

The two below turn to continue, only to discover why he hid so quick.

A group of Griffons come out of nowhere, wearing loose clothing and fancy hats. Three of them draw their hand cannons, and the fourth draws their cutlass. The Griffon smiles, and holds it up to Amber’s neck, “Well what have we here? Looks like a grandad and his daughter got lost, don’t it lads?!”

The other pirates all cheer, drowning out the protests of the two ponies.

The female pirate in charge motions to the others for them to calm down, and cups her ear, “Sorry, what’d you say?”

Amber speaks, “He is not-“

The pirate laughs, “You want to be sold into slavery? Well why didn’t you just say so!”

Hook steps forward, “I will not allow-“

The pirate moves her cutlass over to his neck, “You don’t have room to speak, grandpa. If you keep on jabbering on about what I can and can’t do, I might just have to shut you up permanently.” She leans in real close to his face, “Besides, won’t your precious Princess save you? She does care about every pony under the sun, don’t she?!” She laughs, “What a fool! She’ll forget about you as the tides rise and drown the sun in their deadly embrace!” She leans back in, “But seriously, come on, and don’t complain anymore. I really don’t want to clean your brains off the forest floor.”

Hook sighs, “Amber, let’s go.”

Amber looks over at him, “What?! But what about-“

He stomps, “Let’s go!”

The pirate smiles, moving her cutlass back and only cutting a few hairs off his neck, “There’s a good pony.”

———

Wrex smiles in genuine joy as Fluttershy shoots another of his biotic illusions out of the sky. He looks over at her, only to see her hold the shotgun in a much better position than before. Her feathers wrapped around the trigger and pump, but her body supporting the recoil.

But as he looks at her, his keen eyes spot something beyond her. A quick flash of red, which just as suddenly stops.

Wrex growls upon sight of the familiar flash. He moves up to Fluttershy, “My gun.”

Fluttershy places it in his expecting hand, “Did I do something wrong?”

Wrex moves past her, “No, you did good. But I am going to investigate this damned flashing. It woke me up, and I want payback.”

Fluttershy rushes after him, “What if it is just some harmless animal that accidentally flashed?”

Wrex smiles, “Dinner.” He then stops, and looks at Fluttershy’s horrified face, “It was a joke, grow a quad.” He doesn’t see all the fear disappear, so he sighs, “If it is an animal, then we need to get it away so I can get my damned sleep.”

Fluttershy follows along as he continues forward, “How will you get it away?”

Wrex looks at her, “Well, since you seem to be following, might as well use you. Since you can understand those creatures back there, why not this one?”

Fluttershy smiles, “Alright, but no killing.”

Wrex looks into her eyes, “I can’t make that promise.”

His eyes meet Fluttershy’s, and find an impenetrable wall of will.

He glares a little longer, before sighing as he sees no effect, “Fine. I will try not to kill anything.”

Fluttershy smiles, and they walk along, “You know, I think I’m making some progress on you, Wrex.”

Wrex grunts, “The you standing up to me shows that I’m making progress on you.”

———

Shepard moves through the trees, each action practiced and learned from hard days in forest specialization training.

His armor sprouts little hooks that allow him to latch onto every branch, and for him to move sneakily and without much effort.

Sadly, the pirates were quicker than him, and are a minute ahead of him. However, they do leave behind a pretty noticeable trail with two prisoners.

Shepard comes to a stop as he reaches the final tree before the river, and he swings up to sit on a branch.

He looks down, and sees a pirate boat parked within the river, it’s crew returning belowdecks for the night.

Shepard observes for another fifteen minutes, noting patterns and where Hook and Amber were taken.

He finally reaches to his back, and takes out his assault rifle. He fits in toxic rounds, and deploys the spikes in the bottom of his boots. He uses them to keep himself attached as he swings to the other side of the branch.

From his upside down perspective, he aims down at one of the pirates.

He fires three shots, a sound like three quiet firecrackers sounds off, and the pirate melts into nothing.

He uses this new hole in the guard system to drop down to the ground, and sneak aboard without any issue.

However, as he steps into the deck, he is taken by suprise. A blast of some black beam takes out the gangplank to land, forcing Shepard onto the boat proper.

Pirates come out of every hole on the ship, moving to surround Shepard.

Shepard doesn’t allow this. He whips around with his assault rifle, making every pirate that shows themself into nothing.

He fires until his assault rifle overheats, which is when he draws his pistol instead.

He fires with one hand, turning pirates to ash with fire hotter than a star.

With his other hand, he summons his biotic power. He throws pirates overboard, pulls their neck and not the rest of their body, and tears them apart at a molecular level.

Eventually his pistol overheats as well. Shepard cracks his neck as he puts his pistol away.

He activates his biotics, and gathers it all around him.

He charges at a nearby pirate, the built up biotics send the pirate flying, breaking all their bones as they are.

He stops a swing from a nearby cutlass, and punches the offender with even more built up biotics.

He turns to find another pirate, only to see the deck empty. With one exception.

A pirate, taller than all the others, and bigger in every way. His eyes glow black, and he glares at Shepard. He draws his cutlass, the thing buzzing with dark lightning. He laughs, “Welcome, Shepard. I see there is no one with you. No marines to hide behind, just you and some slavers.”

Shepard draws his assault rifle, now cooled down, “What do you want?”

The pirate breathes in, shifting the winds around, “I want to fight you, Shepard. I know you want the ponies, so I will offer you a fair challenge.”

Shepard moves his finger onto the trigger, “I will not bargain with pirates.”

The pirate takes a step forward, almost cracking the boards beneath his talons, “As I shall not parlay with the Butcher of Torfan!”

Shepard braces himself, “How do you know that name?!”

The pirate glares at him, “For I am Captain Shearwater, the greatest pirate of the entire universe! You slaughter pirates, you butcher my brothers! So I shall butcher the Butcher of Torfan!”