Complications

Celestia walked the group into a glass enclosed offices and shut the door behind her, she turned and addressed Shepard directly in an honest and sincere voice.

“I owe you an apology Commander, over the past few weeks my mind hasn’t been my own. It turns out that someone has been attempting to gain control of my sister and I by systematically brainwashing us, needless to say I am suitably angry.”

“That sounds familiar.” Shepard said with a grim smile “I guess that the Reapers are in Equestria.”

“No it wasn’t them. Trust me even if our minds were being destroyed nothing that purely evil could ever break through the barriers that we erected around Equestria; with our neighbors being who they are we have very strong wards in place.”

“Who could possibly be more evil then the Reapers?” Ash asked uncertainly.

“Have you ever heard of Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgal, or Slaanesh?” Celestia asked her, Ash shook her head at the alien names. “Then pray that you never have a reason, before them the Reapers are nothing but insignificant pieces of space debris, no we have a problem from within Equestria itself.”

“We’re back to square one then.” Shepard said resignedly, he had been down this path before.

“Not quite, we know that a pony was sighted wearing a leather coat who seemed to be heading towards the building that the sniper was stationed at. Eyewitnesses report that he actually dodged bullets as they were coming at him with little to no effort; he also saved quite a few lives. This pony is obviously after the same ponies that we are so your first step should be to find him and confront him. To aid you on your journey I’ve done a little meddling and was able to create some pony sized versions of all of your old armor and equipment, this is only for your use of course the last thing I need is for my people to be running around with assault rifles.”

“Why do I get the sinking feeling that these are the only things that she can supply us with?” Garrus whispered furtively to Ash, as if on cue Celestia said.

“Unfortunately that is all that I can provide you with, as my Sister is currently recovering from the worse case of mind destruction that I’ve ever seen I must take over her duties and will be too busy to help with much.” Then she turned to Twilight and her friends and said “Twilight Sparkle as the current bearers of the Elements of Harmony I charge you and your friends with the duty of helping Shepard and his group in whatever manner that you see fit. The normal rules and laws of Equestria no longer bind you; I bestow upon you and your friends the title of Equestrian Paladin and everything that comes with that.” Twilight almost fell forward in shock, Fluttershy fainted.

“But there hasn’t been a Paladin since before you took the throne, since the time of Starswirl the Bearded!” Twilight almost yelled in disbelief

“Twilight Sparkle this is an order you are now all Paladins that means that the law is now yours to interpret as you see fit, that means that if you have to kill somepony then you kill somepony if you must steal lie or cheat to complete your mission then you will steal lie or cheat. If you have to choose between your mission and your friends then you choose the mission, you are now the living embodiment of righteous justice deadly justice when and if it comes to it. Am I Understood!?” her voice was serious and deadly a deadly look had come over her face. “Listen to me Twilight I want you and Shepard to find the ones who did this to my citizens and my Sister and I want you to end them, permanently and I want it done in as painful of a way as possible so that they suffer far worse!” Twilight was scarred never before had her mentor ever looked like this.

“Don’t worry Princess we won’t let whoever did this get away with it!” Dash shouted apparently extremely excited about her promotion to Paladin.

“All of your armor and equipment will be sent up as soon as I leave, good luck my little ponies.” Celestia told them before she walked out the door of the office, Fluttershy snapped out of unconsciousness in fright and leaped into the waiting arms of Dash who had been anticipating it for several minutes. As she snuggled into Dash’s arms Fluttershy asked.

“Did what I think just happen just happen?”

“Well Darling are you talking about you confirming what everypony had known about you and Dash for around a year, or the fact that we are now free of any lawful restraints?” Rarity asked her with a small smirk on her face, causing Fluttershy to notice how she was currently wrapping herself around Dash. Fluttershy blushed with enough force for her cheeks to be the same color as her mane.

“The second one.” She said in a small voice, as she slowly unwrapped herself from Dash, who for her part just smirked.

“Can you idiots get out of my office now that your moment of lesbian heartwarming is over?” Dr. House asked somehow managing to appear out of nowhere “It isn’t enough that I have to deal with the nursing staff who act like they’ve never seen a purposely inflicted injury in their meaningless lives, I also have to deal with you crowding my office! Ugh I hate this place everything is to perfect and when something finally goes wrong I’m stuck with naive incompetent morons!” with several mumbled apologies the large group made its way out of the office and into the hall to wait for their new equipment.

When it arrived the former crew of the Normandy found armor that matched their old armor exactly but it was now molded specifically for the bodies of the ponies that they had become. Shepard felt something click in him the moment that the armor locked in place around him, some innate sense of rightness that came from having the armor’s protective weight around his body. Along with the armor he had found a M-27 Scimitar shotgun along with a Carnifex Hand Cannon, after a few moments of learning how to use the weapons in his new body he felt confident that he would be back in his stride shortly. Apparently Celestia was a techno genius because the guns required no ammo and never overheated.

“Alright ponies we have equipment, we have a destination, and we have a score to settle let’s get to work.” They set off out of the hospital resplendent in their armor, at least Shepard and company were. Twilight and her friends looked extremely uncomfortable, except for Dash who looked almost as at ease as Shepard in her sky blue armor. As they walked down the street towards the building where the shots had originated Shepard turned to Twilight and said.

“That was a very good biotic barrier for someone who hasn’t seen any serious combat Twilight; I’m impressed that you were able to keep it up for so long.”

“What are biotics, it was my magic?” She asked him in confusion.

“Magic?”

“Yes the magic comes from a unicorn’s horn and powers spells.”

“Never mind, I’ll learn about it sooner or later, but the sentiment still stands that was a great barrier.” Twilight accepted the compliment easily; she had accepted many such compliments over the years and had eventually grown used to it. After a long elevator ride up to the top floor of the building during which they exchanged small awkward conversations about nothing the elevator arrived on the roof. As they stepped out onto the roof the glare of the setting sun hit Shepard directly in the face yet he could faintly make out the outline of the pony in the leather jacket who stood directly in the path of the sun’s rays. The pony in the jacket inclined its head to Shepard before he did a back-flip off the edge of the roof, Shepard ran to the edge and saw the pony falling fast but his jacket began to slow his decent rippling like a parachute. Before he touched the ground the pony flipped to face forward and spun into a roll which dispersed any excess speed as he rolled to his feet he set off down the street at a canter.

“Well there goes our lead.” Garrus said as he stepped up behind Shepard “By Celestia what I wouldn’t do for some good old turian beer!” Suddenly Pinkie Pie flashed into existence next to Twilight causing several ponies to jump.

“Hi guys I can’t stay long because apparently I’m hard to write so I just wanted to tell you that you should check at the nearest bar for more information. Goodbye I’m off to go and have lunch at the end of the universe with Ford, Arthur, Zaphod, and Trillian.” With that she vanished.

“How does she do that?” Ash asked, in the background the wind whipping across the building was her only answer.

Yes warhammer 40k is one universe over; it’s the only way that I can possibly understand how Equestria can be so perfect. It acts as an opposite to the 40k universe, ok so the theory isn’t perfect but I’m sticking with it

Next Chapter: An Old Friend Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 43 Minutes