Chapter 46

Twilight appeared beside Pinkie and Dave, she frowned in confusion as she saw them eating cupcakes “So Dave… you’re back”

“Mm? Oh yeah a slight meeting with dragons” Dave licked his fingers

Odio coughed loudly “I wouldn’t mention that you are a doomsday device, besides with me here you are totally buggered”

“Who are the things after you anyway?” Dave mumbled quietly

“None of you business” Odio spat

Twilight looked at Dave “Did you say something?”

Dave looked up, remembering that he wasn’t alone “I was just thinking aloud”

“Right…” Twilight sat down as they finished their cupcakes “What is with the clothes?”

Dave looked down at his new attire “Pretty cool huh? It was given to me by a dragon elder”

“A dragon openly gave you a gift?” Twilight raised her eyebrow in suspicion

Dave nodded “Yeah something about generosity allowing them to help others”

“So Dave why did you leave?” Pinkie smiled

Dave chuckled nervously as he scratched the back of his head “Well to be honest I…” Dave was cut off by Pinkie inhaling and darting away “What is up with her?”

“Welcome party” Twilight sighed before looking at the red mountainside “What happened here?”

Dave looked at the large red pattern that slowly ran down the rocks “umm… sneezed”

“Sneezed?” Twilight glared unimpressed

“Yeah just as I hit the mountain” Dave grinned “And the extra force splattered me everywhere”

“I don’t need to be applejack to know that that was a lie”

Dave sighed in defeat “Yeah but I’m not saying what actually happened”

Twilight hummed as she stood, she looked between Dave and Ponyville “Listen if you don’t want to go strait back I understand”

“Where else can I go?” Dave stood as well, he leaned back slightly “Unless… you’re thinking of going to my house”

Twilight blushed lightly “Well I don’t know, if you want to” the purple mare looked around awkwardly before slowly trotting away

“Something isn’t right,” Dave whispered as he followed the unicorn around the town

“Ignore it, have some fun, you just hit a mountain now you can hit that flank” Odio made suggestive noises but stopped when he wasn’t getting a response from Dave “Come on she wants you more than Celestia does”

Dave shook his head “She seemed almost reluctant”

“You have been away for a while… don’t worry, she will come back around” Odio sighed quietly “They all will”

Dave decided to ignore the last comment and jogged to catch up with Twilight “So how have things been since I left?”

“Well everypony was upset, Strong Shield managed to find out where you went” Twilight stopped “The princesses said that they were going to look for you”

Dave stooped a few steps ahead of Twilight and turned slowly “When were they supposed to leave?”

“Today” Twilight smiled nervously “I-I’m sure that they will be fine, how hard can dragons be?”

“Umm…” Dave responded with another nervous smile that removed Twilight’s “I met one that was pretty big and… he flicked me here”

“How big?” Twilight licked her lips nervously

Dave began to walk again, “It was a mountain… literally”

“Don’t worry Dave” Odio reassured him “Nopony can kill Celestia or Luna without you”

Dave and Twilight hurried towards Ponyville, Dave’s trench coat did not sway much in the wind as he ran

Meanwhile…

Celestia and Luna began to descend towards the moving mountain, “It will take years to get comfortable again,” it groaned as it moved its tail back against its legs

“How big is that dragon?” Luna gasped as they neared the rocky beast

Celestia glared “I am more concerned on what it has done with Dave”

The smaller dragons assisted with helping the elder move back into his original position “Thank you young ones, it appears my joints are as hard as my scales” it sighed sadly before chuckling “At least I shall be a sturdier home for your hatchlings”

The elder rolled his eye up to look at the descending princesses “Well well, we have visitors” The elder open his claw and the alicorns landed “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, we welcome you”

The enlightened landed where they could and slammed their tails, Luna looked around curiously, her gaze stopped on a large green one that stared intently, and she carefully walked over while Celestia looked at the elder

“What are you looking at?” Luna asked gently as the dragon leaned down

“Are you one of the princesses that Dave is fond of?”

Luna blushed slightly “Well yes I suppose… what is your name?”

“Adamas… given to me by Dave” The dragon chuckled and small rocks bounced that rested near him

“Well Dave seems to be making an impression on everypony” Luna sighed as she sat down “Some more than others” Luna looked over her shoulder at Celestia

“Is he special to you?”

“More than imaginable, but it seems he returns the feelings for my sister rather than mine” Luna returned her gaze to the dragon

Adamas shuffled “So you will allow your sister to have the one you care for?”

“Yeah… I know Dave cares somewhat but…” Luna smiled “I am happy knowing they are happy”

“Thank you” Adamas smiled “I have learned a lot about generosity recently, I hope to be as great as the elder one day”

“How do you know Dave may I ask?”

“I was the dragon your sister sent Dave to dispose of” Adamas groaned, “I never did keep that diamond”

Luna smiled “I’m sure you will find something else to fill that hole in your heart”

Celestia and the elder secretly watched the pair talking, Celestia smiled as she looked at the elders large eye “It seems friendship can find everypony”

“Yes it appears so… now may I ask why we are blessed with your visit?” The elder continued to shuffle but left his wings unfolded

“Do you know the whereabouts of a creature called Dave? He is very… special to me” The princess blushed slightly but cleared her throat and retained her composure

“I sent him to you… did you not receive him?” the elders eye dropped in thought

Celestia shook her head “No and I even flew here so I couldn’t have missed him”

The elder reared his head and looked over the horizon “Oops… I may have not taken the shifting of the land into account” the elder chuckled “Only off by a few miles”

Celestia’s horn glowed brightly and she dragged the elders head back “Tell me where he is!” she snarled slightly, her horn strained with effort as the dragon pulled his head from the magical grip

“He is in a town referred to as Ponyville” The elders head was released and Luna hurried to her sister’s side

“Thank you, we wish you luck with your enlightened” Luna smiled before beginning to push Celestia away “Don’t upset him” she warned

“Wait!” The elder boomed causing the dragons to stir “I hope you keep him protected… I don’t want my kind put at risk”

“Risk?” Celestia frowned and swerved away from Luna’s shoving “What risk?”

“Have you not felt the sea of time crashing back onto present shores?” The elder shook his head “The mistakes you made are returning”

Luna frowned “What mistakes?”

“The one you chose to banish rather than destroy” The elder growled “Do you not remember the seeds he planted in your mind?”

Celestia frowned “The nightmare was removed by the Elements of harmony” she smiled at her the princess of the night “Anger and hate no long rule my sister”

“The Elements were responsible for bringing it here in the first place” the dragon snarled “sometimes I wonder if Discord knew what was going to happen”

“If we didn’t know then Discord surely didn’t” Luna pondered, “Wait… how do you know about Discord?”

The dragon looked down at his cracked body “I was just a young drake but the purification of Equestria will burn forever in my mind”

“Well we are glad that you saw an end to the chaos” Celestia stood close to Luna “But what do you know of… its return”

“Ashamed of what you allowed to live?” The dragon sighed, “All I know is that it will want revenge and if he gets Dave then it can crush you”

“We can stop it with the Elements” Luna cheered but Celestia’s head drooped slightly and Luna caught on “But if it get’s Dave then…”

“Then Dave may be effected as well” Celestia sighed “and I don’t want Dave gone”

“If it gets a hold on Dave then there is nothing you can do” The dragon shook his head causing rocks to break from his chin “Thousands of years planning for every situation”

“I won’t let it get close to Dave!” Celestia snarled as she stamped her hoof

“Neither will I!” Luna stood proudly

The combined stare from the princesses gave the elder hope “Then I wish you both well” the elder nodded gently

“Thank you for showing Dave hospitality” Celestia nodded “This time we are teleporting” she whispered to Luna as her horn glowed brightly

As the princesses disappeared Adamas stood in the place they once were and looked up at the elder “I take it that you aren’t going to tell them that Dave is a risk even on his own?”

“No, so long as they don’t anger him” the elder smiled “Now help me get my wings around”

The dragons rolled their eyes as they all flew over and helped lift one of the enormous wings around the old beast

Meanwhile…

Celestia and Luna appeared in Twilight’s library, Pinkie was firing her party cannon in all directions, streamers and balloons stuck where they hit, but in her excitement, Pinkie fired a blast at Luna

Celestia could not help but laugh as her sister became decorated with a party hat and a party blower landed in her mouth, she wiped her smile away as she returned to the task

“Princess Celestia? Princess Luna?” Pinkie rolled the party cannon aside “You got my party invites already?”

“Umm… no we just came to see if Dave was here with you” Celestia sighed as she looked around the decorated library “I guess he isn’t”

Pinkie tapped her chin “I left Dave with Twilight when I remembered that I had to start getting the party ready”

Luna gasped and her party blower squeaked loudly, as she spat it out her mouth she turned to Celestia “Twilight is part of his harem!”

The white alicorn realised what was being said and turned to the door, her hoofs carried her as fast as she could out of the door, she looked round at the town that was slowly beginning to awaken as her sun illuminated their dark homes

Luna caught up, using magic to remove the various party items that covered her as she helped look around the town

“Where would they be?” Luna searched, not only for her sister’s benefit but for hers as well

“I don’t know… maybe his house or…” Celestia shook her head “They could be anywhere”

Luna nudged her out of the library door “Well let’s start at his home”

The princesses said their quick goodbyes to the party pony before hurrying to the edge of town, Luna kept up with Celestia, nervously looking at the windows of the houses around them

“How are we going to get him into private?” Luna heard a door opening behind her and looked to see a yawning mare

“I don’t care if all of Equestria sees what I am going to do” Celestia quickly looked down the backstreets as she turned onto the road that led to Dave’s home

Meanwhile…

Dave hung up his dragonscale coat next to the door as Twilight sat down in the living room, Dave smiled nervously as he walked into the kitchen

“Can I get you a cup of tea?” Dave called as he turned the kettle on, his dislike on tea had turned since he arrived and started to drop a teabag into a cream mug and readied another

Twilight rubbed her hooves nervously “Um… milk with four sugars please” she looked around the room as she heard the clinking of spoon on mug

“Wait… four?” Dave leaned back to look at the purple unicorn “Can I just base that on a pony thing?”

Twilight nodded before chuckling “I keep forgetting that you’re human… shame you couldn’t stay as a pony”

Dave lifted the boiling kettle and poured the scolding water into the two deep mugs “I much prefer being human”

Twilight smiled as Dave returned with two cups of tea and placed one onto the table next to the sofa “so umm… how are you?”

“I’m good” Twilight nodded as Dave sat down next to her “So did you do anything exciting while you were away?”

“Not anymore than usual” Dave laughed as he took a sip of his milky drink, the sweetness instantly forced his head away “Ah… I have yours”

Twilight smiled as she reached for the mug but her hoof accidentally tipped the mug around Dave’s finger, causing the drink to spill over his lap

“OHHH SWEET CHRIST!” Dave screamed as his lap suddenly jumped in temperature

Twilight panicked as the stained clothes were obviously causing discomfort “Take your clothes off!” she yelled the advice and Dave quickly jumped to his feet and pulled his trousers down

Dave sighed as his hot legs were exposed to the cool air “That’s better” he smiled reassuringly to Twilight

Suddenly the door burst open as Celestia and Luna bounced in, they quickly scanned the room before their eyes landed on a bare-chested Dave with his trousers around his ankles

The princesses’ jaws dropped and Twilight nervously squirmed as their gazes darted between her and Dave

“Oh um…” Dave’s throat became suddenly dry as Celestia’s gawp turned into a furious frown “I can explain”

Dave did not have time to take a breath as Celestia charged and dived over the table, tackling him to the ground, she sat above him and began slapping him with her hooves

“OW! Stop please I, OW! I wasn’t going to, OW!” Dave used his arms to protect from the angry alicorn’s swipes

Twilight looked from the strange heap over to Princess Luna that simply responded with a shrug

“You left me!” Celestia managed to yell down at Dave as her hooves began to turn red with the repetitive strikes

“OW! Well in all fairness, OW! What other choice did I have?” Dave managed to grab one of Celestia’s hooves “I wasn’t happy in the harem, so the only other choice was to leave because I didn’t have you!” Dave’s arm was slapped away and followed with a smack to the face

“How dare you! I was going to get you but I find an empty house and a note” Celestia looked at Dave’s bruised arms and she began to shudder “I realized that I want… need you”

“Let me guess, a dragon told you that I could potentially destroy you and Luna” Dave shook his head with mild disgust “well I find it very funny how you expect me to jump from you to harem and back again”

“I know this may seem false to you but… I want you to come back to me” Celestia’s shudder turned into a weak sob “I realized before I even knew about the dragon”

Dave smiled in disbelief “I’m sorry are you planning on having sleeping with me again and then conveniently realizing you never actually cared?”

Celestia cried harder as she resumed her hitting “I always cared!” her tears fell from her face with every strike “I’m sorry I played with you, I’m sorry I hurt you and I’m sorry I didn’t realize this all sooner”

“OW so why are you hitting me?” Dave managed to yell from the shelter of his arms, his arms were slowly covering with a mix of bruises and tears

“Because I hate myself for almost losing you” Celestia collapsed, Dave opened his arms to catch her and she cried loudly into Dave’s neck “I-I just want to be happy but I can’t knowing you might live your life I somepony else’s hooves”

Odio writhed in pleasure at the combined sight of watching Celestia squirm and the power of her self-hatred

Dave slowly wrapped his arms around the crying alicorn “I know you’re sorry, but I am not being used again”

“You’re not being used, I swear” Celestia’s sobs were quiet, even though she held back as much as she could “I know you want to be with me”

“So are you going to play on that?” Dave’s reassuring hug slipped slightly “Use my feelings to make me come flying back to you?”

“No!” Celestia sobbed louder as she realized everything she said made things worse “I just want us to be happy”

“Your happiness or mine?” Dave pushed Celestia off the top of him and climbed to his feet, pulling his trousers up along the way

“Ours” Celestia laid on the floor looking up at Dave who shook his head

“I’m going to bed and if you cared about my happiness then I won’t see you when I wake up” Dave glared at Luna as he climbed the stairs and slammed the bedroom door behind him

Twilight, who had been staying silent, finally spoke up “What was that about?” she asked Celestia but was answered by Luna

“Twilight Sparkle I recommend returning home” Luna smiled weakly as Twilight reluctantly nodded and left the house “Now I shall return to Canterlot to take care of our duties”

“I’ll come too” Celestia wiped the tears from her eyes before standing tall again “I am not welcome here”

Luna blocked Celestia’s path “No, you are staying right here”

“Why? Dave doesn’t want me, I failed” Celestia’s ears drooped against her head

“Do you love him? Don’t you want to be with him?” Luna advanced towards her sister

Celestia looked at the stairs that lead to Dave’s room “Yes to both”

“Then stay here to show that you care about him the most” Luna placed a hoof angrily on her big sister “I am not letting you throw him away like I did”

“You could probably make him happier” Celestia removed the dark hoof that rested on her chest “So why don’t you stay?”

“Because I can’t make him happy” Luna glared angrily “Only you can”

Celestia climbed onto the sofa and laid her head on the armrest “What if I can’t?”

“Then you try your hardest doing the best job you can” Luna closed the windows and locked the door using her magic “Because if you don’t then he will never look at you the same way again”

Celestia smiled at her sisters encouraging words “I-I’ll try Luna”

“I will see you happy,” Luna vowed as she teleported from the lonely house and back into her quarters in Canterlot Castle

Celestia listened for any signs of movement from upstairs, when she heard silence she lowered her head again and drifted into an uneasy sleep