Calm before the storm

They made good time, arriving in Canterlot the next morning and immediately headed towards the castle. They came upon Celestia in the large dining room carefully sipping what appeared to be her ninth glass of orange juice, her eyes appeared slightly bloodshot and her mane was in a state of disarray. When she saw them come in she looked up and smiled brightly.

“Princess we have terrible news!” Twilight shouted causing Celestia to wince visibly. “What’s wrong Princess, are you hurt?” Twilight asked her voice tight with concern.

“Twilight she’s hungover.” Shepard input softly before Celestia decided to smash Twilight into the ceiling for being so loud.

“Thank you Commander, He’s right Twilight I just had a little too much to drink last night so please keep it down. Now what’s this terrible news that is concerning you?” Celestia asked her star student softly.

Garrus leaned over to Tali and whispered “Oh she can get drunk but I can’t?” Tali elbowed him; she wanted to hear the conversation.

“We uncovered that the people who hurt Luna and attacked Shepard earlier are planning to assassinate you by dawn tomorrow!” Twilight told her teacher quietly but with great urgency, Celestia’s face grew worried.

“This is grave news Twilight, what do you know about the attempt?” Celestia asked softly

“Next to nothing, all we really know is that they plan on you dying sometime before tomorrow.” Twilight told her sadly.

“Well that’s a lot to go on; I would suggest speaking with my lead guard, Captain Arsenal.” Celestia told her student and motioned an older brown coated stallion over to the table, Shepard didn’t know why but he liked the pony immediately. While Twilight continued to talk to Celestia Arsenal turned to Shepard and in a voice that sounded strikingly like Aderson’s asked.

“So what’s this about an assignation attempt son?” Shepard couldn’t talk; the stallion sounded so much like Anderson that his mouth just wouldn’t work. “What’s the matter son, cat got your tongue?” Shepard shook his head quickly to clear it before he said

“Sorry sir your voice reminded me of an old friend’s.”

“That’s fine I get that occasionally, so about the assassination?”

“Like Twilight said we don’t know anything besides the fact that they want her dead by dawn tomorrow.”

“Hmm, well I wish you could offer more information. That’s not a lot to go on, but I’m sure we’ll figure something out.” Arsenal told him with a shrug “If nothing else we’ll definitely add more guards to the rotation and be on watch for suspicious activity.” Shepard nodded and turned back to his group who were hungrily eating food that Celestia had ordered be brought for them.

“So Commander how has Equestria treated you since we last talked?” Celestia asked him quietly.

“I can’t say that I don’t like it Ma’am. But I’m concerned about the large number of well armed griffins that I keep running into, and killing.” Shepard replied with a shrug and a smile.

“Yes I’ve looked into that, private mercenaries apparently, however I couldn’t discover who hired them but I’m still looking into the matter. Now on to the matter of my approaching assassination, what did you and Arsenal decide on?” she asked him

“He’s decided to double your guards and put them on watch for suspicious activity.” Shepard told her.

“I’m guessing that you believe that more should be done, don’t you Commander?” Celestia asked him dryly

“How did you know?” Shepard asked wryly, Celestia chuckled softly

“When you’re over a thousand years old you learn to pick up on vocal quos and body langue Commander.” Celestia smiled at him with her violet eyes before she asked “What do you propose that I do in addition to doubling my guard?”

“Well there are two options that you could take really, you could either flee and or hide somewhere completely safe, but I’m guessing that that isn’t your style. The other option is to trick them into making the first move and then trapping them within a room or building so that we can take them down slowly and safely.”

“You seem to know a lot about assassination Commander.” Celestia told him raising her eyebrows.

“Well I learned from the best, and I wish I had him with me here today.” Shepard replied sadly while he thought of the heroic drell who had slowly died of an incurable disease. Celestia graced him with a pitying glance and said.

“I wish I could have met him, anyone who gains the respect of a stallion like yourself must have been truly great.”

“He was…he’s one of the people that I miss the most, him, Mordin, and all the rest.”

“Mordin?” Celestia asked

“A great doctor and scientist, he was just as likely to shoot you then he was to heal you, but he had a heart of gold.” Shepard said, he had no idea where this melancholy mood had come from but he was suddenly aware of how just many friends he had lost up to this point.

“Trust me I know how you feel Commander, after over a thousand years I’ve lost my fair share of good friends.” Celestia told him, a note of great sadness colored her voice. “But now isn’t the time to be distracted by the past, what’s your plan?” Her voice was tempered with iron and it snapped Shepard out of his mood.

“We act as though we didn’t learn anything, we mope around the castle all day with defeated expressions on our faces, and with any luck the enemy will buy it. My squad will be placed around you in strategic positions all day waiting for the enemy to appear. When he or they do, we jump them and haul them off for questioning before we shoot them in the back of the head and move onto the leader.” That caused Celestia to raise her eyebrows even higher, up to this point everything that Shepard had done seemed to indicate that he was a merciful paragon of virtue even for a pony, but this mood that he was in seemed to be upsetting something inside him.

“I like your plan Shepard, but I have to ask, is something wrong you seem very angry?”

“I guess you hadn’t heard yet, someone with a sword killed all of Flutter’s animals it’s caused her to be almost indifferent to the death of those around her. The loss of that innocence makes me angry, very angry.” He said it quietly, but his eyes had hardened and there was a bright fire burning behind them. Celestia gasped in shock, come to think of it Flutter did seem to be acting strangely today, she thought to herself.

“Well Commander we cannot stand for this, that makes two ponies that I deeply care about that were about hurt by these evil ponies, for this they will pay mark my words!” Even though she said it quietly there was unmistakable menace in her voice. Shepard smiled at her before he went to get a muffin to eat, as he walked away Twilight walked up to her teacher.

“That sounded bad Princess, is there anything you need?” Celestia sighed inwardly, Twilight would always be Twilight.

“No my little pony there isn’t, except for maybe another glass of orange juice and for this dreadful business to be concluded.” Celestia told her star pupil with a far off look on her face, she wasn’t the only one. Dash also had a far off look on her face, but that was more to do with the fact that she was currently having a conversation with a dead mare inside her head then because she was thinking about all the star students she had watched die over the years.

***

“I still say that you should be able to teach me something!” Dash yelled at Shika as they flew through the clouds of her mind.

“I told you already Dash your powers aren’t developed, if I tried to teach you anything now it would simply take longer before you could use them correctly!” Shika told her calmly, but she was obviously growing tired of Dash’s yelling.

“But why does it work that way?” Dash asked her in annoyance

“Well what would have happened if you had tried to fly before your wings were ready to carry you?” Shika asked Dash.

“I don’t know, I guess that I would probably have died, but what does that have to do with anything?”

“If flying before you’re ready can kill you, what do you think wielding immense cosmic powers would do to you?” Dash fell silent at that as she thought over what Shika had to say.

“I probably shouldn’t bug you about this anymore should I?”

“That would probably be best Dash.”

***

“Dashie are you ok?” Flutter asked her mare-friend gently nudging her shoulder; Dash shook her head for a minute to clear it of the beautiful clouds before she looked over to Fluttershy.

“I’m fine Flutter; I was just talking to the dead mare who’s decided to live in my head for a while.” Instead of cringing in horror Flutter just nodded and picked up another muffin. Meanwhile Garrus and Tali were having a discussion about drinking.

“I still can’t believe that you risked dying just to get a drink Tali, especially using a straw!” Garrus told Tali in worried annoyance.

“Not a straw, an Emergency Induction Port, there’s a big difference when it comes to these things that I wouldn’t expect you to understand.” Tali said hotly, Garrus sighed and facehoofed while simultaneously wondering how his forelegs managed to bend in that direction.

“Whatever you call it, it was still extremely dangerous for you to do.”

“I don’t think it matters anymore Garrus, I’m out of the suit.” Tali said softly her voice tapering off into silence as she thought about how most of her life her senses had been censored by the suit.

“Rare what in tarnation do you expect to accomplish by doing this?” Applejack asked her friend as Rare tried again and again to cast a spell on her armor.

“What I expect to do darling is cast a powerful shield spell on this armor, but for some reason it just won’t stick.” Before any of the conversations could go any farther Princess Celestia rose to her hooves and said.

“I’m going to visit my sister in the hospital, and as I understand it you have two friends staying there as well so it won’t arouse any suspicion if you accompany me.” She then began to walk out of the dining room Shepard and Twilight followed directly behind her, followed by the rest of their large group.

***

When they arrived at EDI and Liara’s room they were surprised to discover both James and Joker there.

“That was a…” EDI was saying as they entered the room

“A joke, EDI I know.” Joker said before he noticed Shepard standing behind him frowning, before Shepard could say anything James spoke up.

“He deserved to see her Commander; if I need to be court marshaled for it then I accept that…”

“James even if I wanted to I really doubt that there’s an Alliance court anywhere around here so let’s just let it drop, how’re you two doing?” Shepard asked Liara and EDI.

“Besides the fact our doctor has a cane stuck up his flank we’re fine Shepard.” Liara told him from her bed.

“They still think that you’ll be out for another week and a half?” Shepard asked her.

“Yeah apparently magic isn’t as good as medigel at fixing bullet holes, then again we’re alive so that counts for something I suppose.”

“Get out of my patents’ room you idiots, they’re still healing and the last thing they need is to catch a virus from a bunch of unwashed soldiers!” From out of nowhere Dr. House had appeared behind them “The only reason I let the pegasus in here was because he begged!” Shepard shrugged, it wasn’t his hospital. and he wasn't a doctor.

***

Celestia looked at Luna’s virtually unmoving body deep in thought; the ponies who did this would pay dearly for injuring her baby sister.

Next Chapter: Let the fun begin Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 55 Minutes