Chapter 53

Dave and the others all sat in silence as Braeburn walked out of the spare bedroom, smiling to himself

“So you had your apples bucked I take it?” Dave shook his head

Braeburn frowned as he pulled his hat down “I was held captive for a week, ah think I’m entitled to some fun”

“Yeah fun is a night out with some mates” Shining Armour chuckled “Not sleeping with a dirty whore that was bought by a baby dragon”

The prostitute left the spare bedroom and silently left the library without so much as a glance at the males around the room

“So… what now?” Spike hopped onto the sofa, sitting between Shining Armour and Big Mac

Dave shrugged “Well our entertainment ended up being a whore for Braeburn”

“Can ya drop that now?” Braeburn drank his cider quickly “Fine how about a few stories?”

“Stories?” Dave chuckled “How do you mean?”

Braeburn smirked “You know… mating stories”

“Well I doubt anything we have can top what you just did” Shining Armour joked, receiving a laugh from the group

“Alright captain” Strong Shield smirked “What is the best time you have done it?”

Shining Armour leaned forwards “Me and Cadence after the changeling attack, we went back into the caves beneath Canterlot and had hot, dirty sex across the floor”

The group nodded but Big Mac chuckled “Mine’s better”

“Oh really?” Shining Armour relaxed as he sipped his cider “Go on then”

“Me, three mares, in a pile of zap apples” Big Mac smiled proudly as Braeburn chuckled

Dave shrugged “I don’t get it”

“Zap apples contain electrical charges” Strong Shield shook his head in disbelief “The mixture of sweat and juices must have made one hell of a conductor”

“Ohh shit really?” Dave gawped “And what did you do with the apples after?”

“The mares ate the messy ones” Bug Mac laughed at the various gawped faces

“I don’t understand” Spike shrugged “A bit of dirt never hurt anypony”

Shining Armour patted the dragon’s innocent head “You will understand someday”

“Alright sit down because here comes a good one” Braeburn cleared his throat “Me, a nice pony mare and a buffalo”

“Really?” Big Mac quickly drank his cider to stop his laughter

“Seriously!” Braeburn tipped his hat “I gave them both a pounding harder than the buffalo stampede”

The guys all roared with laughter, wit the exception of Spike that continued to shrug. Once the laughter had stopped, the gazes turned to Strong Shield

“I suppose you aren’t expecting much,” Strong Shield murmured from behind his drink

“Nnnope” Big Mac egged the ex-guard on

“Fine there was this one mare” Strong Shield hummed before continuing, “She was sleek elegant, married”

“Oh shit this is getting good” Dave eagerly shuffled forwards along with everypony else “What happened?”

“I needed to get access to a particular area due to an infiltration mission” Strong Shield sighed, “Her husband was a suspect in part of a powerful mafia ring”

Shining Armour coughed loudly “Who was it? Also skip to the end, we don‘t need to hear every detail”

“The husband agreed to assist with the taking down of the mafia… some ‘gentle’ persuasion on my part” Strong Shield lifted his drink but stopped “Also his wife was Fleur de Lis”

“WHAT?” Shining Armour yelled, “That was all you?”

“Yes” Strong Shield smiled “All off-record, I had a code name and everything”

“I hope it was Snake” Odio sighed, “Just this once let it be something game related”

“What was it?” Spike asked

Strong Shield thought back “Serpent”

“SO FUCKING CLOSE!” Odio cried, “I got so confused at the end of Snake Eater I want to see a reference somewhere”

Dave shook his head “Well mine still tops all of yours”

“Go on” Braeburn “I bet it isn’t as shocking as that”

“One whole day of nothing but sweet love with Celestia” Dave nodded at the gasps from Braeburn, Big Mac and Spike “We did it everywhere!”

“The bath?” Braeburn asked and smirked as Dave nodded

Big Mac leaned closer “The royal gardens?”

“The Captain of the guard’s desk?” Strong Shield smiled

“Twice” Dave chuckled as Shining Armour’s face became petrified

“WHAT?” He groaned “But I eat there”

“So did I!” Dave laughed along with the others as Shining Armour rushed to the bathroom to clean his teeth

Two hours later…

“Alright one more time” Braeburn wiped a tear of laughter from his eye…

A gryphon is in a bar and goes to the barkeep and says, “Can I get a cider?”

The barkeep nods and pours him another drink before mentioning “That will be two bits”

“Don’t worry” The gryphon smiles “But it on my bill”

Dave and the others roared with laughter again as the drank more cider and their legs collapsed beneath them

“Oh that is funnier here than on my world” Dave continued to laugh, “How much have we drank?”

“Enough for irreparable liver damage” Strong Shield chuckled “But the day is young and we have lives to lead”

Spike pushed himself from a cushion he was laughing into “Hey Dave”

“Yeah Spike?” Dave gulped his seventh drink down and poured another as he looked at the slightly intoxicated dragon

The dragon managed to hold his balance as he stood and pushed his chest out “Do you think I would make a good dragon?”

“You would make a damn fine dragon” Dave rose a glass to the child

“Shame you won’t see him get that big” Odio sighed, “Can you drink less? You are lagging my game”

Dave looked down as he remembered the prediction of the future “Hey guys, can I ask a random question?”

“Eeyup” Big Mac burped from his slumped position across the table

“If you had only a short time left alive… what would you do?” Dave cradled the cider in his hands

“Spend time with my family” Braeburn sighed, “Even if they are scattered everywhere”

“Same” Big Mac hiccupped “How about the unicorns?”

“I would fight” Strong Shield frowned at the ground “I would fight for more time”

Shining Armour shook his head “I would spend what time I had making Cadence happy”

“I would like to spend time with my friends” Spike looked around as if he was already being hunted “What about you Dave?”

“I suppose that I would…” Dave looked out the window at the sun “I would fight to make Celestia happy”

Strong Shield shook his head “She will be fine so long as she knows that she made your life the best it could be”

“Am I that easy to read?” Dave sighed “How long before she would move on?”

“As in love somepony else?” Shining Armour shook his head “Never, I’m surprised she even considered loving you… no offence”

“None taken” Dave finished his eighth cider and started a ninth “But what if another alicorn comes along? A male that sweeps her off her hooves”

“Never” Strong Shield frowned at Dave “She is in complete love with you”

“But what if…” The older unicorn cut off Dave

“She could meet somepony better than you in everyway and she wouldn’t pay the blind bit of notice even if you had been dead for a million years,” Strong Shield continued with his drink “Don’t let that nightmare worry you”

Odio swirled against Dave’s worries “Listen if you are really that worried about the whole death thing then stop sitting on your ass and do something”

Dave lowered his voice to less than a whisper “I still find it odd that I am going to die soon and that an evil power is going to use me”

“And? Major coincidence or evil plan, either way you are very important at the moment” Odio grumbled “I still would like to know what you intend to do against this… thing that is supposed to destroy the princesses”

Dave looked at his friends around the room “I am not going to let anything harm my friends or Celestia” the slightly drunk human looked at his clenched fist “I need to get stronger”

“How so?” Odio stopped his gaming and turned his attention to Dave “You have me to do things”

Dave allowed a small smile to spread across his face “But what if we could get more? We could protect everypony”

“I am not being a hero,” Odio snarled “But I suppose a bit of training couldn’t hurt”

Dave placed his drink down and turned to Shining Armour “Hey is it alright if I can come use some of the gear up at Canterlot?”

“Sure, Princess Celestia would like to have you around too” Shining Armour took another swig of his drink “just don’t beat up my guards this time”

Dave chuckled “Thanks… actually is it possible that… nah leave it”

“What is it?” Braeburn adjusted his hat

“I was wondering if you could send a message to Adamas” Dave shrugged “But I take it that you don’t want to wander into a dragon’s home which also happens to be a dragon”

“Nnnope” Big Mac held up his hooves in defeat “I would rather live”

“What does this dragon look like?” Strong Shield placed his drink aside

“Umm… big, green and may have broken scales where I punched him in Appleoosa” Dave scratched his chin “Besides the obvious head pikes and his name, I can’t think of anything else”

“What purpose do you need him for?” Strong Shield was already mulling situations over in his mind

“I was going to see if he could help me train” Dave squirmed uneasily under the unicorns stare “Don’t worry he is friendly”

“The dragon causing those earthquakes is friendly?” Braeburn shook his head “Now I doubt that”

“He was in that cave for a diamond which he gave away” Dave frowned at the earth pony “He helped me out anyway”

Strong Shield stood and shook his legs “Right so when do you need him?”

“Wait… you’re going?” Dave gawped “But not all the dragons were friendly”

Strong Shield shrugged “I will be fine Dave”

Shining Armour chuckled “Retirement is boring you?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe” Strong Shield sighed “But I will return to Canterlot by tomorrow evening”

Spike sat up “But that would take ages for you to get there and back”

“Don’t worry, when I say I will do something, I do it” Strong Shield nodded to the group before walking to Dave “You look after yourself until then”

“Alight dad” Dave exchanged smiles with the unicorn as he left the library “So who is going now then?”

Braeburn and Big Mac stood up together “I’m gonna sleep at Sweet Apple Acres tonight and get the train home tomorrow”

Big Mac simply nodded as he guided the drunken pony out of the library. Spike stood and yawned loudly

“I’m going to bed, I will see you in the morning Dave” the baby dragon stumbled upstairs as he left for his bed

Dave stood and sat himself next to Shining Armour “So are you going too?”

“Nah… I assume Cadence has heard that I was meeting you” he stretched his back and sighed happily “You going?”

“Not while I have friends here and cider on the table” Dave smiled happily, but his smile slipped as he looked at the floor “Can I ask you a question?”

“Go ahead” Shining finished his drink and set it aside

“Do you ever wonder what Cadence will do once you pass away?” Dave looked at the white unicorn out of the corner of his eye

The captain shook his head “I try not to think about it, I mean I want her to be happy but…”

“That might mean her loving somepony else?” Dave sighed as Shining nodded

“Well if we have a child it may make her happy for a while but…” Shining rubbed his head “I don’t think about it”

Dave sat back in the sofa “All we can do is bear with life and hope that our alicorns have fun”

“Immortality is a bitch ain’t it?” Odio chuckled “Still he is with the princess of love so she is almost guaranteed to marry again”

The unicorn and the human sat in a sad silence until Shining coughed loudly and placed his drink down “Well I am going to go back home now”

“Alright same here” Dave stood and followed the captain onto the streets that were bathed in the sunset’s glow “I will see you tomorrow”

“Get the morning train” Shining Armour waved as his horn began to glow “I’ll get stuff ready for you”

“Thanks” Dave smiled and waved in response as the unicorn disappeared in a flash of light

Dave closed the door to the library and began his slow lonely walk back home, ignoring the sun that shone into his face