Sight Seeing

Celestia shuddered slightly as she appeared inside of Discord’s mind, the place was a plethora of change and disorder, Celestia whished he would tidy up but that was Discord after all, utter chaos. She found him doing some terraforming to a nearby mountain, he was so distracted by his work that he didn’t notice her until she cleared her throat causing him to jump with surprise.

“Tia what have I told you about doing things like that, I could have killed you.” He told her in mild annoyance

“I’ve bigger problems then having my avatar destroyed, I think someone or something is messing with my mind!”

“Well it wasn’t me if that’s what you’re insinuating, I respect the rules of our deal.” He told her defensively “I’m allowed to do whatever I want when I occasionally escape, as long as there are no long term problems, except for one or two ponies whose minds are slightly…unsettled. And then after some fun I allow myself to be stopped by the current bearers of the Elements” Celestia sighed she had been expecting this reaction from him.

“No I know that you had nothing to do with it, I want you to see if you can figure out who is responsible!” Discord scratched his chin carefully with one of his claws before he motioned for her to sit down in front of him.

“This brings back memories doesn’t it Tia dear?” He asked her innocently, she snorted and ignored him, their past was the only thing that stopped her from killing him, well that and frankly she found him to funny.

“Just check my mind I want to know how to reverse whatever it is that’s been done to me!” she told him in exasperation. He just chuckled to himself and set to work probing her mind to see if he could discover the source of her problem. His chuckle cut off suddenly and it sounded as if he were choking.

“No, no, no, no, my word this is horrid, I’m surprised that you’re still functioning as anything besides a walking flamethrower!” he exclaimed in surprise and horror.

“Discord what’s wrong, what’s happened to me?!” she cried in terror.

“Someone has been rewriting you mind my dear, they’ve been in the process of turning you into a mindless puppet thank yourself that you came when you did!”

“What are you talking about Discord what do you mean rewriting me!” she cried

“Well Tia if you hadn’t come here now then in a matter of days your mind would be a gray mush sloshing around inside your head leaving you wide open to assaults and control. Now I know that I have a copy of your mind in here somewhere which is fortunate otherwise I would have to start from almost scratch, and the results could be…unexpected.”

“But what’s causing it!” she yelled, from behind her she sensed him shaking his head.

“I have no idea, but I can reverse the damage and prevent more from occurring; now there’s the matter of Luna.”

“What about Luna?” Discord sighed as if he were talking to a filly, which at this point he guessed that he essentially was.

“Really Tia, if your mind is mush, then hers must be at the point of wet glue especially after her time spent as Nightmare Moon! Now hold still I’ll be done in an hour then you go and get your sister and bring her here now, I don’t care what it takes! If we don’t do it now then we’re going to have one hey of a problem on our hooves!” Discord spent the next hour doing the most intensive mental surgery of his long, long life. When she came to, Celestia stretched slowly working the kinks out of her back, legs, and wings before she turned to Discord who stood happily behind her grinning from ear to ear.

“I… I feel so much better Discord, my head is clear again for the first time in what feels like months.”

“Happy to be of service Tia, maybe once this whole mess blows over…”

“We tried that remember it ended with you being thrown out of our universe and into the warp; I don’t think you want to go through that again.” Discord sighed sadly, he may have been an admittedly evil being, but he still felt something for the white Alicorn.

“You’re probably right Tia; now go get your sister before she breaks down in a corner somewhere and starts drooling all over herself!” Celestia’s mind shot back into her body and she jolted awake with a start. She ran inside the palace and tore into her sister’s room only to find Luna eating a tart and reading a book. When Luna looked up she raised an eyebrow.

“What is it that you require of us Sister?”

“Luna someone has been destroying our minds! You need to come with me immediately so that you can be healed before you collapse!” Luna popped the last part of the tart into her mouth.

“Alright sister, if you think it’s necessary, I’ll come with you?” before it was even out of her sister’s mouth Celestia sprang on her trapping her in a net of magic that she had designed incase Discord had ever gotten out of control. “Sister what’s wrong with you? It’s me your sister Luna, don’t you know me!”

“Yes I do know you Luna, and I know that your use of the royal we is one of your deepest ingrained speech patterns! Think about it you just used singular pronouns three times!” a look of shock came over Luna’s face

“You’re right I did, what’s wrong with me?” she shouted

“Like I told you sister someone is toying with our minds.” With that Celestia slung the net of magic that net of magic that held her sister into the air above her head and headed towards the statue garden. The guards just ignored the small spectacle of the two princesses; they had seen much stranger from the pair. When they arrived in Discord’s mind Celestia found him terraforming again, but this time it looked like he was forming a fortress of some kind that was made out of a strange black rock that had chunks of purple speckling it. When he saw Luna who at this rate had reverted to just starring wide eyed with fright at everything she saw, Discord gasped in shock.

“This is much worse than I feared it would be, much worse indeed. Tia, Luna will need to be kept hospitalized for at least three weeks while I coax her mind out of wherever it has gone to hide from the madness consuming her head.”

“Three weeks?!” Celestia shouted

“Yes although that shouldn’t be a problem Canterlot has a beautiful hospital.”

“But three weeks how bad is it?”

“She doesn’t even hear us talking right now Tia, now you need to leave so that I can get to work!”

***

Shepard and company were being showed around Canterlot by Twilight and her friends when suddenly Shepard caught a movement out of the corner of his eye, it was a pony wearing a black leather jacket and carrying a load of apples on his back. Shepard wasn’t sure what about the pony caught his eye but Shepard felt like he knew the other pony from somewhere. His thoughts about the strange pony were interrupted by EDI asking a question that Shepard had wondered since he had come to Equestria.

“Miss Twilight I have been pondering why there is an image of one of my former avatars adorning my flank.” EDI asked.

“I was as well, because as much as I like the fact that I have a set of angle wings with a pair of sniper rifles on my butt I would really like to know why they are there in the first place.” Garrus seconded

“Those are called cutie marks; they appear when a pony finds his or her special talent as a way to tell other ponies what you’re good at. My star for example means that I am very talented with magic.” Twilight told them “Although I don’t understand most of yours they all seem really odd.”

“Well Garrus at least you didn’t get a book as you mark like I did.” Ash told Garrus enviously eying the impressive mark on Garrus’s flank. Before the conversation could get much farther a palace guard came running up to the group and told them that they were wanted by Celestia immediately in the hall of Elements.

“That was fast; I expected a longer wait after the fire that we set under her flank.” Liara said in surprise.

“We only get summoned to the hall of Elements in extreme emergencies like when Discord breaks out or when some great evil comes to Equestria, this must be bad!” Twilight said apprehensively.

“Well then you’re all in luck, if there’s one thing that Shepard is great at it’s killing evil monsters.” Ash told the surrounding ponies drawing an angry look from Fluttershy.

“We never have to kill things in Equestria we just blast them with high powered friendship until they are defeated.”

“Because, brainwashing is so much nicer then killing right?” Garrus commented

“These arguments are getting us nowhere and if we are going off to fight some great evil then we’re going to need to be working as a cohesive team and we can’t let a minor disagreement fracture us.” Shepard told Garrus and Ash “If they’ve found ways to avoid killing then more power to them, if it becomes unavoidable then that’s when we step in and lend a hoof, until then we’re guests here and we play by their rules.” Twilight shot Shepard a thankful look.

“Thank you Commander, now we need to back to the castle.” They set off at a brisk trot and out of the corner of his eye Shepard caught sight of the pony in the leather jacket again, Shepard knew him from somewhere he was certain. As they were walking closer towards the castle grounds a sudden sharp crack disrupted their progress followed by a spurt of blood coming off of Liara’s chest as she fell out of the air. She had intercepted a bullet headed for Shepard’s head.

“We’ve got a sniper, everypony get inside as fast as you can!” Shepard yelled above the confusion that had quickly consumed much of the street that they were walking on. “Garrus do we know where the bullet came from?”

“From the impact wound I would guess that it came from one of the taller buildings over to the east but other than that I can’t tell!” Garrus yelled back as another shot rang out this one striking EDI in the shoulder.

“Buck! Shepard we need to get out of here now!” Ash yelled, suddenly they were enveloped in a strong purple light and they heard another bullet bounce harmlessly off of the dome.

“Commander we need to get your crew members to the hospital as soon as possible I don’t know how long they can survive otherwise!” Twilight yelled at him while pouring much of her concentration into the barrier holding stable above their heads. Shepard saw the pony in the leather jacket racing towards a building to the east nimbly avoiding the other ponies in the street and incoming bullets. Whishing for an application of medigel and a good assault rifle Shepard looked around for another way to take the fight to the enemy, unfortunately he could find none.

“Ok Garrus grab Liara, Ash grab EDI we make a Beeline for the hospital the as soon as Twilight gives us the signal!”

“The hospital is one street over on the left if we move fast I can keep this magic barrier up long enough for us to reach it without being exposed to too much fire, dear Celestia why is it always us !” Twilight yelled back her voice now frantic as several more bullets bounced off of her shield.

“Alright yall, ya, heard the lady let’s get this show on ther road!” AJ yelled as she helped lift Liara onto Garrus’s back.

“Now!” Twilight yelled and their group ran full gallop over as much ground as they possibly could. As they ran down the street, bullets continued to ricochet off of the shield flying into walls and the occasional window. When they finally got into the hospital they were greeted by some very busy looking nurses who were starting to panic, then a Unicorn stallion with a grey mane, and a brown coat, who walked with a limp entered the room and shouted.

“They’re gunshot wounds you idiots, not magical flea bites or now get them up on the operating tables so we can cut the bullets out, unless you want them to bleed to death that is!” After he had said that he walked out of the room followed by a stream of nurses and patients on push carts. As he walked out Shepard caught sight of his flank and saw a walking cane with a red ball balancing on top of it.

“Who was that?” Garrus asked looking impressed at how quickly the stallion had drawn order from the chaos as he carefully unloaded the still breathing Liara onto one of the push carts and into the hooves of a nurse.

“That was the princesses’ private Doctor, Dr. House, he came out of nowhere but from what I’ve heard he’s the best Doctor that Equestria’s ever seen.” Twilight told them, suddenly the doors of the hospital boomed open to reveal Celestia.

“We need to talk.” She said evenly.

While the plot thickens you must liberally add in a small amount of heat to the fire.

Next Chapter: Complications Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 49 Minutes