Ready? Set? Rock!

Shepard and Ash walked into the main room of their little building and discovered that for once they were the first ones to arrive. Shepard used his magic to levitate a muffin over and passed it to Ash who took it with a grateful nod before he grabbed one for himself.

“Ash there’s something that I’ve been meaning to ask you.” Shepard told Ash around a bite of his muffin.

“Shoot Ethan.” She replied while she looked around the kitchen for something to drink.

“Well you’ve been awfully silent on the topic of God since we got here, not that I mind of course, it’s just kind of out of character for you.” Shepard was nervous about bringing it up, he wasn’t the most religious guy.

“Shepard at the very least there are three physical gods living here, two of which we’ve met and are worshiped as queens. I’m not changing my beliefs but I’m not going to insult the local gods by asking them why they haven’t accepted Christ into their hearts, besides just being bad manners I have the sinking suspicion that it would get me fried.” Ash told him mater-of-factly.

“That makes sense.” Shepard replied with a little inward sigh of relief, he’d been dreading Ash trying to give Celestia a lecture on religion.

“Shepard you didn’t really think that I would do that, did you?” Ash asked sounding slightly hurt.

“Well you did try on Wrex, and Garrus, and Tali, and when you met her in the temple you tried to do it to Samara, so I was slightly…worried that I would have to find a new girl because you’d be a pile of ash Ash.” Shepard told her and then ducked the muffin that she had thrown lightly at his head. Before things could go much farther Garrus and Tali emerged from their room causing Ash and Shepard to settle down.

‘Morning Shepard, so what are we doing today, please tell me it’s something suicidal?” Garrus asked with a grin on his face.

“That’s up to Twilight and whatever she’s found Garrus, but if we get the chance to do something suicidal then I promise to let you go first.” Shepard replied his grin matching Garrus’s.

“Excellent.” Garrus and Shepard said at the same time while Tali and Ash rolled their eyes simultaneously. There was a knock at the door.

“It’s open.” Shepard called from his place at the table. The door opened and Twilight walked in with a medium sized book floating magically next to her head.

“Commander Shepard I believe I’ve found the cause of all of our recent problems, what do you know about an organization by the name of Cerberus?” Shepard and his crew exchanged worried glances; you could have heard a pin drop in the silence that greeted her question.

“You think that Cerberus is behind the assignation attempt on Celestia and I.” Shepard said, it wasn’t a question.

“Yes, yes I do. After consulting this text, which I’ll let you skim over as soon as we’re done talking, Cerberus seems to be the most likely source of these attacks.”

“I blew up their base and killed all of their best people; I doubt that they could even be here let alone have the influence to set up a large powerbase.” Shepard told her doubtfully

“Shepard weren’t you recently among the deceased?” Twilight asked him dryly while she raised an eyebrow.

“Touché” Shepard replied while he thought it over.

“When did you have time to visit Paris?” Twilight asked him drawing a stunned look from Ash.

“How could you have been to Paris?” Ash asked Twilight.

“Well it’s a long commute but I’ve been twice.”

“Twilight I hate to burst your bubble, but Paris is in France, which is a part of Europe on the planet Earth, which resides in and orbits around the star Sol, in the Milkyway galaxy.”

“Actually it’s on the other side of Equestria.” Twilight corrected.

“Ash every city that I’ve heard them mention has a horse pun for a name, let it go.” Shepard told Ash with a sigh as he turned back to Twilight. “So what makes you think that Cerberus is involved?”

“Circumstantial evidence and this rather enlightening book.” Twilight replied tossing Shepard the book.

***

Dash woke up with Fluttershy sleeping contentedly on top of her; with a rueful smile Dash disentangled herself from Fluttershy, after all even if Twilight had left that didn’t mean Spike wasn’t still around somewhere and that was hardly the best thing for a baby dragon to see. When did ponies get so bashful about sex, back in my day nopony cared who saw you doing what, this one time Shalkan and I even… Shika said from inside her head before Dash cut her off. Please stop, the last thing I want or need to hear about is my extremely great grandparents having kinky sex!She heard Shika sigh in annoyance and drift to the back of her mind. Dash decided that the only thing that she could really do at the moment was to make breakfast for Fluttershy, after all Twilight would be gone for around an hour and Dash had nothing better to do. As she was walking towards the kitchen however she noticed a group of heavily muscled and well armed griffins approaching the library with murder in their eyes.

“Oh Buck.” Dash swore under her breath as she reached for the sidearm that she had picked from the rack back in the hospital while crouching behind the couch where Fluttershy was sleeping. “Fluttershy wake up we’ve got trouble!” Dash shouted to her companion who snapped awake with surprising ease.

“Who and how many?” Fluttershy asked quietly as she hunkered down behind the couch with Dash while she also reached for a sidearm.

“Griffins again, around ten.” Dash replied tersely as she surveyed the griffins through the library windows. The lead griffin approached the front door and tried the knob, but it was locked, the griffin shrugged before he contemptuously kicked it in with a hind leg.

“Spread out, we’re under orders to take them alive!" The lead griffin said with a squawk, which was odd because usually griffins talk like any other pony. Dash signaled to Fluttershy and whispered.

“On three…one….two…three!” the both leapt to their hooves and let out a brutal amount of fire at the incoming griffins, Dash’s shot completely decapitated the lead griffin while Fluttershy took down another two. Blood stained the library floor as the other griffins tried to enter the building causing the first to slip and be cut down by Dash’s Carnifex. Then a small metallic object was thrown into the center of the room where it landed with a quite thud, Dash and Fluttershy looked at each other in confusion. Suddenly the small object let out an incredibly bright flash that caused both of them to become momentarily blind and a loud sound that almost popped their eardrums. Shoot you idiot they’re going to use this to gain ground! Shika yelled inside Dash’s head causing her to regain her senses and look up in time to see a griffin clear the doorway, she slowly brought her Carnifex up and fired a shot into the griffin’s stomach causing him to fly back into his buddies.

“You’ll come out if you know what’s good for you!” Yelled a griffin from outside

“Not happening featherhead, why don’t you come in and get us!” Dash called back as she readied her Carnifex for another shot.

“Because if you don’t we’ll burn down this entire town then we’ll rape everypony to death before we skin you and cook you on a spit over an open fire!” called the griffin, Dash’s blood ran cold at the threat, but before she could do anything a familiar feminine voice from outside said.

“I think not darlings, say have you met Tom?” there was a loud crash followed by a series of bonecrushing crunches before Rarity called. “Come on out darlings I don’t think that they’ll be hurting anypony again.” Dash and Fluttershy exchanged nervous glances before they walked out the door and into the sunlight to discover Rarity casually wiping blood and feathers from hooves with a small handkerchief.

“Rarity what happened to the griffins?” Fluttershy asked her.

“Oh those brutes well Tom didn’t like them threatening his town so he decided to have a civil discussion with them…” she then pointed to the large splatters of bones and internal organs that were lying around the outside of the library, one of which had Tom sitting nonchalantly on top of it. “…oddly they weren’t very receptive.”

“Rarity how…?” Dash asked her, she was at a loss for words.

“Well it was a simple application of magical force really, kind of like bowling but with much stupider pins.” Rarity told them “oh but now Tom’s all dirty, I simply must get him home to be washed up, I’ll see you at Shepard’s.” She walked away humming s cheery tune while she carried Tom next to her with magic.

“Fluttershy…” Dash said turning to her mare-friend “...have I mentioned before that we have really weird friends?”

Next Chapter: Mind games Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 8 Minutes