Chapter 51

Dave and Odio never spoke another word until they reached Sugarcube Corner, and entered the shop. Dave looked around to see Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Twilight sitting together in the middle of the room

“Hi Dave!” Pinkie cheered and Rainbow turned to look at him with a smile but Twilight gave him a quick glance “Can I get you a cupcake? Bowlcake? Bucketcake? Cartcake?”

Dave shook his confused head “I’m fine thanks”

“Are you sure?” Pinkie bounced behind the shop counter and into the kitchen, returning with a tray of cupcakes and treats, “I made them for your return party!”

“Can you just suggest something to get rid of her?” Odio growled

Dave rubbed his eyes “Ok Pinkie can you set up a small party for me and friends”

“Yay a party for everyone!” Pinkie bounced happily on the spot

“No a relaxed, quiet party” Dave paused as he thought “Just a party for me, Spike and maybe some other guys”

“A guy party?” Pinkie hummed “That sounds weird but fun”

“Well I would label it hanging out but meh” Dave shrugged “See if Spike has any ideas for anything to do”

Pinkie saluted as she placed on a military party hat “Yes sir!” she yelled before charging out of the door

Dave turned back to the two mares “Well that’s one way to start this conversation,” he grumbled as he sat down

“So Dave what did you get up to while you were gone?” Twilight sipped her drink as Rainbow shuffled around the table to get closer to Dave

“Well I met some gryphons, changeling maggots and some dragons” Dave plucked a cupcake from the tray and licked some of the icing “One dragon was a mountain”

“That sounds so cool, I wish I was there” Rainbow Dash shuffled closer again “So what are you doing later because you still owe me a go”

Dave dropped the cupcake “Alright I am going to take this really slow because the last three times I went really fast and it never went ok”

“What do you mean?” Twilight’s gaze finally moved to Dave

“I like you both and the rest of the harem but… I love somepony else” Dave dropped his eyes as Twilight and Rainbow exchanged glances

“Who?” Rainbow frowned angrily “Who do you love?”

“It’s Celestia isn’t it?” Twilight sighed “its ok Dave”

“What?” Dave and Rainbow gasped in unison

Twilight shook her head “It’s obvious you love her more than us and I want you to be happy”

“Ok I’m confused now. Why are you ok with this?” Dave leaned over the table

Rainbow stood up “This isn’t ok! Dave chose us first”

“The element of magic has appeared to have grown” Odio hummed “This is interesting”

Twilight rubbed her head “Listen all I’m saying is that Dave made that choice for us and not himself”

“You are getting dropped by Twilight” Odio chuckled “Aren’t you going to fight for her?”

Twilight rubbed her head again “I’m not feeling well”

“You should go home” Dave sighed, “I’ll talk to you later”

Twilight nodded gently as she left Sugarcube Corner and headed home. Dave turned and came face to face with an angry Pegasus

“Hey Rainbow, are you ok with this?” Dave smiled weakly until the cyan mare jabbed him in the stomach

Rainbow Dash turned and hurried out of the shop yelling back “I stayed loyal to you!”

Dave groaned as he stood and held his stomach “Great” he grumbled sarcastically as he left the building and began the journey home

“Well mission complete” Odio sighed, “So you’re going to crawl to Celestia and grovel at her feet and server her in any way she wants?”

Dave avoided eye contact with the ponies “Listen I am going to go to sleep and if I am not satisfied with what you have to show me then I am not going to be happy”

“Well you aren’t going to be happy either way so what is the fucking point of me even trying to cooperate with you?” Odio yelled angrily

“You calm the fuck down” Dave whispered “I wont spend that long with Celestia if that makes you happy”

“Ok” Odio sighed, “I’m sorry but I am annoyed that you take me for granted”

“Is that an apology?” Dave smiled

“Well I can either apologise for that or the fact I may have to do some shit to piss you off” Odio chuckled

Dave shook his head as he smiled “just go play some games”

“Yes sir” Odio flowed into his usual spot “Want to play together later?”

“Yeah sure” Dave scratched his chin as he saw his house approaching “Anything else you want to do?”

“Can I change your appearance? I was playing Jak 2: Renegade and damn do I think you would look cool with a dark form” Odio pleaded “Please or at least let me give you claws or some shit like in Prototype”

Dave shook his head “We will discuss it later”

“You aren’t going to sleep with Celestia?” Odio gasped

“No I know how mad you have been since I have been neglecting you” Dave shrugged as he reached his front door “So no hanky panky”

“Thanks that means a lot”

“You know unless she does something exceptional like…” Dave opened the door and saw a trail of rose petals leading upstairs “that”

“OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE!” Odio yelled but silenced so Celestia would not feel his sudden presence “Be quick”

Dave chuckled as he followed the trail upstairs and towards the bedroom. He knocked gently before slowly opening the door to reveal a candle lit room

“Well this is nice” Dave smiled, as he looked around the room “Where are you?”

Celestia poked her head around from the bathroom “Oh you’re back already?”

“Yeah and I assume that this is some form of reward for my physical, emotional and mental trauma?” Dave raised an eyebrow

“Well yes” Celestia blushed “But can you go out and come back in again… I wasn’t ready”

Dave looked around at the various candles before slowly moving out of the room “Ok but I don’t see how you could make this better” Dave stood and waited patiently until he heard a rummage inside the bedroom followed by the sounds of a perfume being sprayed “You done yet?”

“Wait!” Celestia called “Just a few seconds”

Dave laughed quietly “This is very romantic”

“I thought you deserved a treat” Celestia replied, the sound of wings flapping accompanied her voice “So you have talked to the entire harem?”

“Yeah Twilight took it well actually” Dave leaned against the wall next to the door “And Pinkie is going to help set up a small party to welcome me back”

“Who’s going?” the alicorn continued to shuffle inside the room, muttering, “No, this won’t do”

Dave stretched his neck “Me, Spike and a few others”

“I’ll see if Shining Armour wants to go” Celestia called before one final flare of her wings ended the small talk “I’m ready”

“That sounded seductive” Dave smiled “You sure you don’t need another minute?”

“Just get in here” Celestia called less seductively

Dave slowly opened the door again, this time the light of the candles were being reflected by Celestia’s open wings spread open in the shape of a heart

“Well this is certainly a surprise” Dave stood with his eyes as far open as they could go “I like what you’ve done with the place”

Celestia smiled at the candles around the room, the scent blended with her perfume to produce layers of different flowery fragrance “I know you must feel terrible for what you had to do”

Dave shook his head, as he walked over to the bed “Can we not talk about it”

“Sorry” Celestia smiled as Dave climbed onto the bed and shuffled closer “but I want you to know that you are the most important thing in my existence”

“You’re the most important thing in mine” Dave rested his head against Celestia’s chest

Celestia shut her eyes and allowed her wings to drop as Dave listened to her heartbeat, his eyes also shut as he ran his hand through her mane. Celestia kissed the top of Dave’s head as she moved her mouth to his ear

“Dave” she smiled as he rubbed his head against her “for the time you have with me I want to experience it all”

Dave chuckled “I didn’t know you wanted to try anal”

“What’s that?” Celestia rose an eyebrow “Or is it best if I didn’t know?”

“You don’t wanna know” Dave pulled his head away to look into Celestia’s eyes “As you were saying?”

“I know that I will live on long after you… move on” Celestia shuddered at the thought “but I want to spend your life making it the best one ever”

Dave smiled “And I want to make you happy but” he looked away as he held the alicorn in his arms “I don’t want to make you sad forever when I die”

Celestia shook her head “I would never be sad again knowing I made your life perfect”

“You already have” Dave smiled along with Celestia as they finally pushed their lips together

Meanwhile…

Strong Shield sat alone in the cartridge of the train, behind one of the small tables. The driver walked through the door and sat down opposite the guard

“So you got sacked protecting your son Dave?” The driver shook his head in disbelief “I would have thought you would have got a medal”

“I have enough of those” Strong Shield smiled as he tapped his scarred eye “Got three just for this”

The driver nodded “Impressive I guess”

“Valour, courage and determination” Strong Shield tapped his hoofs together “All gone due to selfishness”

“Protecting your son isn’t selfishness” The driver turned his gaze to the window “so how far are you going? Canterlot?”

“No not that far” Strong Shield smiled “Just Ponyville”

The driver nodded in understanding “family reunions” he chuckled as he returned to the front of the train

Strong Shield opened his small guard saddlebag and pulled out a brown notebook. He flicked through the notes of criminals, crimes, points of interests and stash points until he reached a blank page in the middle

Strong Shield looked around before his horn glowed and letters began to appear across the page, an accurate description of the secret entrance into Canterlot castle

“Heh I wonder if Princess Cadence knew that she was sat on top of the tunnel during her imprisonment” Strong Shield hid the letters again, he didn’t need them for any purpose yet. They were just insurance

The driver poked his head back inside the cartridge “You get some shut eye and I’ll wake you up when we are close”

Strong Shield nodded “alright just… yell my name”

“Will do” The driver left again as Strong Shield walked over to one of the bunks and climbed in

The unicorn looked out the window at the descending sun “You had better make sure he is good for when I get back” he glared as he dropped his head and forced himself to sleep

Meanwhile…

Dave opened his eyes in brown muddy water. He quickly dragged his head from the puddle and gasped for breath

“Odio?” Dave called as he wiped his eyes and saw the various stone headstones around him “What the fuck?”

Dave climbed to his feet and looked around at the grim scene. The rain poured down heavily and quickly reduced Dave’s vision

“Odio!” Dave called louder as he looked around the graveyard, the rain reducing his view but a glimpse of white against the grey stood out

Dave stumbled closer, pain raced through his legs. He looked down to see a large burn on the side of his left leg “What is going on?”

Dave ignored the pain as he neared a familiar image, the sun cutie mark stood out against the rain “Celestia?” Dave reached out until he noticed the large grey wing covering her

A tall grey alicorn, stallion looked at Celestia he smiled briefly before joining her in staring at a solitary grave

Dave walked around the pair and followed their gazes to a mossy, cracked and chipped headstone. Dave collapsed when he saw the inscription labelled across the front. Most of the inscription was covered but the part he could see pained him

Here lies Dave Shield

Dave looked back at the alicorns, the grey stallion kept gazing at Celestia and back to the grave, his large wing protecting the princess from the wind and the rain

Celestia herself was crying but closed her eyes as she reached over and rested her head against the handsome stallion

“I know you don’t like this but it is for your own good” Odio placed a black claw reassuringly on Dave’s shoulder “And before you ask I am not making this up”

“Then what is this?” Dave growled as he glared at the grey alicorn “And who the fuck is that?”

“This is the future” Odio sighed as he looked at Dave’s grave “I spent a lot of time with only my own mind for comfort and I learned how to see what was going to happen based on current events”

“So how far in the future?” Dave looked up at the pair of red eyes that flickered in the rain “A thousand years?”

Odio looked at Dave “More like twenty two”

“Twenty two?” Dave flicked his head to Celestia “What happened?”

“I can’t say” Odio released Dave “and the answer to that grey alicorn is about to be revealed”

The princess of the sun hurried back inside the corridors of the castle and the grey alicorn sighed, his horn glowed and a large golden helmet floated onto his head, its design was too elegant to be a guard’s helmet

“How long have I been dead for this to happen?” Dave turned as he got to his feet “TELL ME!”

“You have to swear that you can’t let this information affect you outside of your mind” Odio’s black fog sheltered around his burning eyes “If Celestia suspects anything too soon then we are in trouble”

“Fine” Dave glanced back at his grave “How long have I been dead?”

Odio’s eyes looked away “Twenty two”

“But if this is Twenty two years in the future and I’ve been dead for twenty two then… no” Dave’s eyes searched the floor for answers “no it can’t be”

“It is happening soon I’m afraid” Odio’s black fog slowly wrapped around Dave “You had to see… I will speak again soon”

Dave managed to get a final glimpse at the grey alicorn before the fog engulfed him