Golden

Wrex and Hackett faced each other panting, Hackett sent out another flurry of spells all of which Wrex easily knocked to the side with a small shield spell. Hackett held up his hoof in the general sign that they were done and they both lowered their horns.

“Wrex it’s time we had a little talk brother.” Hackett began as he sat down on one of the room’s bed and patted the mattress next to him, taking the hint Wrex sat down next to him.

“What is it Hackett?” Wrex asked cocking his head to the side, he and his brother didn’t really talk that much, that’s what he had Flash for.

“Well you know I’m leaving for my guard training tomorrow, and you’re twelve now so I think it’s time for dad to tell you the full truth.” Hackett told his little brother solemnly.

“The truth about what Hackett?” Wrex asked inquisitively.

“The true ending of the story about what happened when mom, dad, and the rest first got to Equestria.” Hackett said Wrex frowned.

“Wait what. You mean dad lied to us?” Wrex asked uncertainly.

“Yeah, but it’s not as bad as you think. He just gave us a lighter version of it; he didn’t want us having nightmares.” Hackett said with a smile.

“Alright, so what do I do?” Wrex asked his brother.

“Just go up and tell him you’re ready for the golden ending.” Hackett told him with a slight smile.

***

Wrex walked down the stairs from his room, his father Ethan Shepard’s voice drifted up to him from the main room. He was talking to Serina the house’s AI who had somehow been provided by Aunt Pinkie.

“…So we still don’t know…” His father’s voice said worriedly.

“That is correct Shepard, now your son has just finished walking down the stairs and is now wondering what we were talking about…” Serina trailed off with a slight smile before her avatar vanished leaving Shepard alone at the table in the middle of the room.

“Hey Wrex what’s up?” Shepard asked when he turned to see which son had come down.

“Dad, Hackett told me that I need to ask you about ‘the golden ending’” Wrex told his father who nodded in thought.

“I suppose it is time that I tell you…”

***
Shepard stood in front of a massive steel doorway, there was a large pile of griffin corpses stacked behind him and the blood was starting to leak towards him.

“So what do you we’ll find in there?” Garrus asked his friend.

“All we know is that the Illusive Man is in there, other than that everything is unknown.” Shepard replied with a shrug.

“Whatever it is we’re ready, Right Shy?” Dash said to her marefriend who nodded silently and drew her sword. A panel next to the door suddenly turned green and Tali rose from where she’d been kneeling in front of it.

“That did it, I’m surprised at how high tech the lock was but it should be open now, although I’m guessing that it’ll shut again the second that we’re through.” Tali said with a slight smile crossing her face as she pretended to dust her hooves. Twilight looked up from the book that she’d been flipping through.

“Yes, the book is referring to this as something called the Very Definitely Final Dungeon, the doors will definitely close the second that we’re through.” The purple unicorn said looking at the doors with a slight frown. “Whatever the case it’s time to end this once and for all.” Twilight said determinedly, Shepard nodded and pressed on the open button.
They entered the room and as predicted the doors slammed shut behind them with a deafening crash of steel. The room before them was dark and only illuminated by several streams of lava that flowed down the walls, a large object moved in the background creating a dark shadow. Scattered around the room were several terminals that Shepard thought would make perfect cover spots.

“Hello Shepard, it’s nice to see you again.” Rumbled the thing creating the shadow, Shepard almost jumped at the unexpected noise but managed not to.

“The Illusive Man I presume.” Shepard said upholstering his shotgun.

“The very same.” The being in the shadows said with a casual air. “I would suggest putting that toy away, it won’t hurt me.”

“If it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll keep it out.” Shepard replied with a grim smile.

“Oh how droll, you really think I’m afraid of you…oh Shepard you should never have come here, and it’s my job to make you realize this. I feel honored!” The Illusive Man said with quiet laughter.

“For someone who talks big you certainly like to hide in the shadows.” Dash said with a smirk, her remark drew more laughter.

“Oh I’m not hiding; I just want this little moment to last. You see this is my first real stepping stone to taking over this little world and I want to savor it as long as I can.” The Illusive Man said with something approaching glee entering his deep voice.

“You’re a little slow on the uptake aren’t you Illusive Man?” Garrus asked him “Even if we die there’s a full army of staunch soldiers out there determined to kill you, and that’s not even taking Celestia, Luna, Discord, and the Dragon Council into account.” Garrus told him with a smug grin, the Illusive Man’s laughter shook the room.

“You truly believe that any of you pests can stop me? Celestia and Luna are nothing; Discord is an inconvenience nothing more probably less, and as for the Council… well I think that between my army of false griffins and myself we should manage to pacify them once I’ve taken care of that king of theirs.” The Illusive Man said arrogantly.

“We’ve been talking long enough, and frankly I’m tired of hearing your voice…” Shepard said as he sent out a powerful shockwave towards the shape in the darkness.

“As you wish Shepard.” The Illusive Man said. Lights all around the room turned on and Shepard was slightly surprised to find a large black and silver dragon sprawled across the floor in front of them. Shepard’s shockwave hit the dragon who just sat there as the wave rolled over it doing nothing more then throw up several rocks which fell to the floor and clattered softly as they landed. The dragon stretched and turned to regard Shepard and his party with a bored look. “If that’s all you have to give me Shepard this’ll be over quicker than I thought.” The dragon said with a rumble before he sent out a large streak of fire, thinking quickly Shepard rolled forward towards one of the computer terminals to take cover. Unfortunately he was a few seconds to late and his flanks were now screaming in pain thanks the very serious burns he’d received from the flame. Somehow the flames had completely ignored his armor and gone straight into his skin.

“Hey Shepard I knew Ash always said you had a hot ass, but I think this is taking it overboard.” Garrus called from his cover spot a few feet away, apparently the Illusive Man had only been aiming at Shepard because all the others had already found cover spots.

“Shoot him first then make jokes!” Shepard shouted back as he applied medigel to the affected area and sighed with relief as the gel took effect. While they’d been talking Fluttershy had charged the dragon with her sword held high above her head yelling a battle cry. The Illusive Man lifted up one of his hands and blocked the swing with an easy flick of his claws before swatting at her. Fluttershy didn’t let it stop her though and she fought off the sudden onslaught of claws parrying and deflecting the claws with her blade. After several minutes of fighting Fluttershy landed a solid hit and one of the Illusive Man’s talons fell to the ground with a thud, black blood leached from the wound and the Illusive Man roared in anger and spewed fire at Fluttershy. Before the flames could reach Fluttershy Dash zoomed in and grabbed the yellow pegasus pulling her out of the way of the incoming flames.

“This changes nothing Shepard; you cannot begin to imagine the power that I have at my dispos…” The Illusive Man was cut off mid sentence by a sniper shot from Garrus that slammed sharply into the dragon’s forehead causing a small hole to appear that bled profusely. “Oh you’re first then Archangel.” The Illusive Man said plunging his talons down to encircle Garrus in their grasp before lifting the struggling pony up to eyelevel.

“Try me you scaly fu…” Garrus was cut off as the Illusive Man began to squeeze his chest between two oversized fingers causing Garrus to gasp in pain.

“Go for the eyes!” Tali called launching her combat drone that as instructed shot a spark of electricity towards the dragon’s eyes. The Illusive Man roared in pain and threw Garrus towards the far wall where he impacted with a sickening crunch. The Illusive Man turned his baleful eye towards Tali and he sucked in his breath in preparation to unleash a torrent of fire. Shepard however beat him to the punch and sent out a sudden wave of biotics to pull Tali towards him. The fire swept over the place where Tali had recently vacated and melted the computes to slag.

“Hey ugly try me on for size!” Dash yelled as she kicked the Illusive Man in the jaw with a flying buck that sent his head flying back to impact against an overhanging stalactite which shattered into a million pieces and rained down on the ponies. The dragon turned back to Dash and snarled fiercely sending out twin jets of flame from his nostrils that fanned out to the side of his face.

“I think I’m going to eating rainbows tonight…” The dragon said with a malicious grin and snapped his jaws down over the cyan pegasus. Fluttershy let out a scream of rage and charged the dragon who knocked her aside with a effortless backhand. The yellow pony smashed into the ground and her sword clattered to the ground. “And now for the other three…” The Illusive Man said turning to look at Shepard, Tali, and Twilight who was rapidly flipping through pages of her book trying to find a solution to their problem. “...you know you really should pay more attention to your betters!” The Illusive Man roared and he shot a jet of flame at Twilight who unconsciously raised a barrier over herself to deflect the flames. The dragon grumbled in annoyance but turned away from the unicorn with a shrug, he had all the time in the world to kill her, how much trouble could one unicorn possibly be?

Shepard charged, he didn’t care he’d just seen three of his party slaughtered before his eyes and he wanted to make the arrogant dragon pay dearly for it. The dragon swept his claws at Shepard but the Commander nimbly danced under them before firing several shots of his Carnifex into the hand as it passed by. The Illusive Man screamed in rage and unleashed a stream of fire at him but Shepard activated his Charge so that he materialized several feet in front of where the flames impacted. The Illusive Man’s claws made another pass but Shepard jumped onto them and ran up the arm only narrowly avoiding sliding off the slippery surface. The Illusive Man’s other hand came towards him but Shepard fired off a burst of biotics that forced it away. Instead of continue that approach the Illusive Man simply slammed his arm into the wall behind him smashing Shepard against it, through sheer willpower Shepard clung on.

The Illusive Man grabbed the half conscious pony between two talon points and hung him in front of his face. “You aren’t very good at this are you Shepard?” The dragon asked him with a sadistic smile as he prepared to toss Shepard into his mouth, Tali charged forward and shot several rounds of shotgun into the dragon’s feet causing him to switch his attention long enough to send out his clawed foot in a viscous kick that sent Tali sprawling. “So this is how it ends Shepard?” The Illusive Man asked the pony between his talons. “I suppose I thought it would prove more enthralling, oh well no matter.” The dragon held Shepard above his mouth and prepared to drop him. Suddenly the dragon’s chest burst open in a large shower of blood and gore, Dash emerged panting heavily literally coated in blood.

“Didn’t, anypony, ever, tell, you, rainbows, are, spicy?” Dash asked before she fainted in a pool of dragon blood. The Illusive Man fell backwards and landed with a crash sending Shepard flying, Twilight looked up from her book long enough to grab him and deposit him safely before she turned back and began to turn through the pages with a greater frequency.
“Well that was fun…” Garrus said as he pulled himself out of his crater in the wall. “…thank the gods for this armor” He said as he staggered over to Tali to make sure she was ok, Shepard did the same to the others.

***

Celestia looked at the situation and let out a groan, her army was surrounded on all sides by Cerberus troops. This situation had been playing out over and over again over the last week, Celestia’s forces would start out and destroy a Cerberus army while barely losing a pony, and then the next day they would be surrounded by another three armies. The only thing keeping them from being massacred was a combination of Celestia’s magic and the tactical support offered by Arsenal, Ash, and Legion. Well that and the Wonderbolts who thanks to the training that Joker had given them were able to shred their way through the griffin air force like a hot knife through butter. Even so they just couldn’t keep doing this, the counterattacks took a heavy toll on the lives of her troops and they were getting weaker and weaker. What Celestia really wanted to know was where could the Illusive Man even get this many troops, she was certain that they’d shot, stabbed, and exploded their way through more griffins then there were in the Griffin Land itself.

“Celestia we have incoming on the western air zone, permission to engage?” Joker asked her from two feet away, his wings allowing him to hover in place with ease.

“Permission granted Joker, be fast.” Celestia replied turning her head back to the action, she heard EDI whisper to Ash.

“Jeff is always fast…” Ash looked at her for a few seconds “…That was a joke.” EDI clarified, Ash who had apparently been confused as to whether it was a joke or not before broke into laughter. Celestia joined in herself while she sent a bolt of solar energy through a column of enemy soldiers incinerating the entire column without showing any effort.

“Celestia Princess we have a problem.” Legion said.

“What is it Legion?” Celestia asked him in concern; she didn’t know how many more ‘problems’ she could take.

“There is a large aerial force incoming; they appear to be large dragons dressed in armor.” Legion said uncertainly, Celestia broke into a dazzling smile.

“That is our backup.” Celestia said, she rose into the air and yelled “Ponies of Equestria know this day that when we called for aid the Dragons of the Council answered!” out of the clouds descended dozens of dragons led by a monumental white one and a colossal black one,this may be overkill, but then again there’s no kill like overkill Celestia mused silently to herself as the dragons swept through the ranks of Cerberus ranks clearing them with tooth, claw, and fire.

***
The battle still raged, even with the dragon’s considerable aid the enemy were simply to numerable for it to be decided within the first four hours of their arrival. Joker and the Wonderbolts flew holes through the enemy and grinded them to a bloody pulp, the feeling of the wind below his wings made him cry out with joy as the pure feeling of happiness hit him in the face, this is how he should have been born! A griffin dived at him but Joker easily barrel rolled to the left before snapping off a quick shot from one of the canons mounted on his wings, the Griffin spiraled away a bleeding broken piece of discarded garbage. Spitfire and Soarin joined him and together the three of them blasted through more griffins then they could count.

***
Legion and Ash were standing back to back surrounded by on all sides by the corpses of griffins who had sought to challenge them. A new wave charged forward yelling and squawking obscenities at the two soldiers, they quickly turned to meet each other’s eyes before they nodded and began to fire into the mass of feathered flesh. A griffin closed with Ash and she shot it in the face as Legion threw a throwing knife into one who had begun to aim at Ash with his rifle. The two spun and killed in companionable silence until all of their enemies were dead, then they smiled at each other and prepared for the next rush.

***
Apple Jack and James entered the fray yelling as they shot concentrated bursts from their assault rifles into the enemy with deadly precision killing dozens in a matter of seconds, carving a path to Rarity who was fighting with an odd sword made up of shards of diamonds.

“Darling it’s marvelous to see you here, but I’m rather busy showing these brutes how a lady treats those who disrespect her, I’ll talk to you later!” she flourished her sentence by quickly beheading a griffin and magically sending the head flying into another.

***
Celestia realized that this was her time to shine, and she did. Her entire body was bathed in liquid fire and she swept through the enemy like a lava flow. Suddenly above her a bright flash of light distracted her. Above the battlefield nonchalantly drinking a milkshake hovered Discord and his student Screwball, appearing next to him was her sister and her guards.
“Tia dear I thought it best to bring along your sister, after all I think she’s old enough to come to this party!” Discord yelled down to her, every griffin on the battlefield stopped to look up at Discord who smiled a large maniacal smile and shouted “Think you can fool me into wasting my time on astral projections did you? Well prepare to be surprised!” Together he and Screwball launched out balls of chaos magic which left terribly mutated holes in the enemy, many of whom looked like they wanted to flee in terror. Celestia supposed that seeing your best friends turned into chocolate replicas could do that to somepony. “So my dear I miss much?” Discord asked her alighting behind her and with a bored gesture sending out a spray of toxic cotton candy flying into the mouth of a griffin charging her.

“Not much, well we’ve been fighting for our lives, but you probably knew that.” She said as she shot another wave of fire out and roasted dozens alive.

“Do I smell chicken?” Discord asked with a mischievous smile.

***
“Luna have I ever told you how much I love our job?” Arrow asked Luna as his foot forced its way through the back of a griffin’s skull with a small pop. Luna smiled, she was already coated from head to hoof in blood, but this was her element.

“You may have mentioned it once or twice now that I think about it.” Luna replied while she delivered a blast of sheer cold into a platoon of griffins turning them instantly into ice where they began to melt rapidly.

“Fighting is truly the best stress relief method, now if only Blueblood were here…” Arrow said as he drove his sword into an approaching griffin’s stomach.

“Shut up and fight.” Saber said as he diced his way through twelve enemy troops with a flourish of his sword, he wasn’t named Saber for nothing.

***

“This is worse than clinic duty!” House yelled as he sewed a pony’s stomach closed, again. Liara rolled her eyes and blew another enemy away with a blast of her gun. She’d been charged with keeping the sarcastic Dr. alive and by the Goddess she was going to, but nothing said she had to like it.

***

Kaidan galloped towards the volcano, he’d made unbelievably good time all things considered. When he got closer however he was confronted by an awesome sight, sitting on the ground was a large dragon eating a mountain of griffins.

“Oh hello there, I hope you’re not here to fight me, you don’t look like you’d taste very good.” The dragon called from where she sat.

***

Commander Shepard gathered his squad together and headed d for the exit of the chamber luckily everypony had been fine after a quick application of medigel. Suddenly evil laugher echoed off the walls of the room from the corpse of the Illusive Man. Shepard turned and to his surprise found much to his horror the dragon was regaining its feet. The dragon was glowing with dark energy and when it spoke its voice was layered with a dark undertone.

“That was a good one-liner Dash, I’ll have to remember to chew my food from now on” The dragon said with an evil grin in his eye.

“You’ve wasted enough time talking to them, kill them and be done with it!” another voice ordered, Twilight, Dash, and Fluttershy gasped they recognized that voice.

“Nightmare, I thought we destroyed you.” Twilight growled in anger.

“Simple filly, one does not just kill an immortal being of such power that its power eclipses the power of the gods of the universe themselves!” The Nightmare replied, Shepard who at this point was very tired decided to end the conversation. Focusing all his biotic might he pulled down several stalactites which slammed into the dragon’s head, much to Shepard’s surprise they disintegrated on impact.

I told you earlier Shepard you can’t kill me!” The dragon roared before it spewed out flame directly at Shepard who found himself beneath a purple field.

“I think not…” Twilight said her voice becoming slightly dark. “…are you aware of the trouble you’ve forced me to go through? I’ve had to become a killer, and I’ve found that I hate it, but as much as I hate it, I hate you far more!” Twilight unleashed a blindingly powerful spell and shot it directly at the dragon, who took it full in the chest without flinching. Twilight followed up with several bursts of ice and several lightning bolts but nothing affected the dragon. Eventually Twilight ran out of magic

“Oh dear, was that the best you could do, didn’t anypony ever tell you that dragons are immune to magic?” The Nightmare asked with a sneer. Dash meanwhile had stopped paying attention.

“Shika please tell me my powers are available” Dash asked the old Paladin desperately.

“As a matter of fact they are, oh and bonus points earlier for your little stunt I just love the look on things’ faces when you burst through their stomachs.” The dead Paladin told her with a mental chuckle. Dash began to glow as she was enveloped in a rainbow of colors drawing the attention of everything in the room. When the light faded Dash hovered in place, her mane had gotten longer and fell over her shoulder with casual grace and a smile appeared on her face.

“You think you can hurt my friends and get away with it?” Dash asked rhetorically. “Well actually you see that’s not how it works; the way it works is I kick your sorry flank so hard that you crap out your mouth.” Dash told the dragon before she charged it. She started with a powerful uppercut that sent the dragon’s head flying upwards until it smashed against the ceiling. She then launched a trio of blue lightning bolts out of her hooves which sent him flying across the room till he crashed into the opposite wall. The dragon pulled itself off the wall and charged her but Dash was having none of that, with a simple move Dash bucked it in the stomach sending it rolling back across the chamber floor.

“Hey Shepard do you ever get the feeling that it’s really unfair that we can’t do this kind of stuff?” Garrus asked his friend as the beat down continued.

“All the time…” Shepard replied as he watched in fascination as Dash swung the dragon by his tail and sent him tumbling into a wall. The fight continued for several minutes until Dash suddenly stopped glowing.

“Oh sh…!” She yelled as the very angry dragon grabbed her and began to crush her slowly.

“Now where did that actual challenge go? Oh well I can always just kill you instead!” the Dragon roared.

***

A very blood covered Kaidan suddenly ran into the room and saw the sight of a dragon squeezing a pony to death while Shepard and several others shot at it and a yellow pegasus tried in vain to cut off its fingers with a sword. Without otherwise announcing his presence Kaidan took aim and fired the small device that Mordin had spent years making. The pistol like device shuddered before it shot an evil looking green beam out of its barrel which impacted against the dragon’s hide. The dragon screamed in rage as the green beam washed over it and a black energy detached itself from the monster. The dragon immediately began to fall apart, apparently the only thing holding it together had been the black energy. Kaidan smiled this was much better then waiting around in his room on the ship ever had been.

***

Shepard watched in amazement as the dragon crumbled and the Nightmare revealed itself.

You think that you’ve won? Bah I’ll be back!” it screamed before it vanished.

***

“And you know everything after that.” Shepard told Wrex who nodded. Pinkie suddenly appeared.

“Come on Sheppard you took out the part where I saved the day!” She whined.

“Pinkie how many times do I need to ask you to knock before you burst into my house?” Shepard asked the pink pony who shook her head.

“I’m not talking to you Shepard. Seriously how could you cut me out like that?” Pinkie asked nothing plaintively. “Fine be that way, but I like the original way more!” Pinkie said before she vanished leaving a very confused Shepard and his son to wonder what in the world she’d been talking about.