Chapter 57

Luna continuously journeyed from Dave to the surface and then back again, relaying the air down to him. During her stops at Dave, she spent a moment trying to remove his feet from their resting spots. After a few minutes of struggling, she managed to get both his feet free. She froze as he lifelessly floated upwards and bobbed on the surface.

Luna looked up at shuddered at the sight of Dave’s silhouette hanging above her and she quickly swam up to the surface. She pushed Dave over to the edge of the bath and pushed him onto the cold bathroom floor

“Dave?” Luna panted as she rolled Dave onto his back and silence greeted her “Dave I’m so sorry”

Again, Dave remained on the floor as silent as the water that filled his lungs. Luna held back her tears as she stood up and looked down at him

“Wake up” She commanded in her royal tone “Wake up… please” her tone dropped and became a beg rather than an order. When Dave continued to remain still she allowed herself to break into a sob “Why did you do that?”

Dave responded with silence

“I didn’t want you to do that for me you… you stupid human” Luna yelled as she slammed a hoof on Dave’s stomach, causing him to bolt upright and release the water in his lungs

“Holy shit that felt weird” Dave gasped for air and began coughing

Luna’s face lit up and she threw her hooves around Dave “Don’t you ever do that to me again” Luna cried into Dave’s neck

“Now you know how Celestia felt,” Dave snarled

Luna slowly released Dave “What?” she whispered

“Celestia killed me and now you have too” Dave massaged his throat “See why Celestia never wants to leave my side?”

Luna’s mouth hung open “You did all that to… prove a point?”

“Basically” Dave groaned as he climbed to his feet and retrieved his shoes from the edge of the bath “I wanted you to feel what Celestia felt when she was forced to watch me die”

“B-but I…” Luna was lost for words as she looked at Dave “I just wanted to…”

“You made it clear you wanted to be equal with Celestia” Dave brushed past the princess “well there you go”

Luna turned and hurried after the drenched human, blocking his path to the door “No Dave I can’t let you go”

“Why not?” Dave rose an eyebrow “You got what you wanted”

“I wanted you to be honest, not kill yourself” Luna’s eyes began to fill with tears “Would you rather die than love me?”

Dave sighed as he stepped around the princess and left her alone in her room. Dave let the door slowly shut on it’s own as he walked through the castle

“Don’t you dare do that again” Odio growled “Reviving you that close to Luna was a massive risk”

Dave shook his head “I don’t want anymore relationships other than the one I have with Celestia”

“By showing you would die for Luna?” Odio chuckled “No offence but that was a pretty shit idea”

“She thinks that I am over her and that is exactly what I want her to think” Dave grumbled, “Besides I am really getting pissed off”

“Wow you are getting pissed off?” Odio clapped “I just risked my entire existence by bringing you back alive so you could prove a point to a princess”

Dave snarled, “Well your existence is pointless anyway!” Dave yelled, “All you do is play video games and make stupid comments about me and my choices!”

A guard that was carrying some metal chains stopped and looked over at Dave “Are you ok?” he asked

Dave turned to the guard “No and I suggest that you fuck off right now before I cave your fucking head in!”

“Shut the hell up Dave!” Odio ordered as the guard reluctantly left “Keep this up and you will reveal my position”

“TO HELL WITH YOUR POSITION!” Dave yelled louder “Why the hell am I stuck with you anyway?”

“Shut up Dave” Odio growled angrily “And I mean it”

“NO!” Dave clutched his head “I end up on some random world and all I get is hate with a voice! Why the fuck didn’t you chose somepony else?”

“BECAUSE I NEEDED TO GET BACK TO EQUESTRIA AND YOU WERE THE BEST OF A BAD SITUATION!” Odio yelled

Dave’s mouth hung open “What?”

“ARGH look what happened Dave!” Odio screamed to himself “I was on my last bit of energy but I needed a vessel to travel in and I found you!”

“You took me from my home? My family?” Dave held his forehead as a headache set in

“Yes” Odio growled “I was almost out of energy and if I had any less I would have never made it back here”

“So you used me as transport” Dave collapsed to the floor in his wet clothes “You tormented me with your voice inside my head”

“Yes Dave” Odio grumbled, “I was going to let you die but…”

“But what?” Dave spat

“I felt sorry for you” Odio groaned “I only felt it once before in my life and all it got me was a one way trip to space”

“Sorry for me?” Dave laughed, “Why the hell would you feel sorry for me?”

Odio growled at himself “I was weak once and I tried to be nice but as a spirit of hatred I didn’t work out”

“What did you do?” Dave allowed himself to drop his hands from his head

“I caused was an accident that I couldn’t fix” Odio’s voice almost sounded sad “I was young and weak… I couldn’t control myself”

Dave climbed to his feet “Listen Odio… thanks”

“Thanks? What for?” Odio’s voice sounded tired

Dave smiled slightly “For bringing me here, for giving me the chance to meet Celestia”

“Y-you’re welcome Dave” Odio sighed, “I need to… I need to think about things”

“Take all the time you need mate” Dave began to walk up the stairs to Celestia’s quarters “I need to think about things too”

Meanwhile…

The guard carrying the chain stopped at the training grounds and dropped his cargo “Alright Strong Shield, here is the chain you wanted”

“Thanks” Strong Shield weighed some of the chain in his hooves “This will do nicely”

The guard looked around the empty training ground that was normally busy “What do you plan to do?”

“Just a small tug of war” Strong Shield smirked “If you see Dave can you tell him to come here please?”

“I just saw him” The guard shook his head “But he was acting weird”

Strong Shield looked up from the silver chain “How so?”

“He was yelling at himself” The guard shuffled nervously “And I have never seen anypony that angry before”

“Why was he angry?” Strong Shield placed the chain on the ground “I admit when he got wounded make have been annoying”

“He was soaked and extremely angry” The guard shrugged “That is all I know”

Strong Shield nodded “Thank you for telling me this”

The guard nodded and returned to the castle and to his duties. Adamas flew down and hovered above the unicorn “What is happening?”

“I am not sure” Strong Shield rubbed his chin “And that is a first for me”

Adamas groaned “Should we check on Dave?”

“No let him calm down first” Strong Shield looked up at the dragon “But can you find him for me?”

Adamas nodded before flapping his wings to fly back into the skies around the castle

Meanwhile…

Dave dragged his feet up the stairs in silence, no Odio, no friend. Only the sound of wet feet walking up stone steps. As Dave reached the golden door he stopped, the guards looked at Dave’s sad face

“Are you alright?” the taller unicorn asked, “Do you want to go in?”

Dave stared at the door, his hand moved to knock but his arm fell “Do I?”

The guards looked at each other before one knocked and entered Celestia’s room “Princess Celestia… Dave is here”

“Send him in” Celestia had to put a lot of effort in to hide her smile

Dave wandered in through the open door and stopped as it closed behind him. Celestia’s anticipation was replaced with concern as she saw Dave, soaked through

“Dave what happened?” She asked in a worried tone as she trotted over, her pace quickened as Dave fell to his knees “Dave?”

Dave merely sighed as he stared at the ground “What would you have done if I had never shown up?”

“Dave are you feeling alright?” Celestia sat opposite the human as he looked up at her

“Can you answer the question please?” Dave’s face was still wet, which hid the tears forming in his eyes

Celestia shuffled uncomfortably “Well I suppose my life would have continued as normal”

“Ok, that’s all I wanted to know” Dave smiled as he stood up “I made your life better right?”

“Of course” Celestia stood and gave Dave a powerful kiss “Now I have something to ask you”

“Can I dry myself first?” Dave asked as he looked towards the bathroom

Celestia’s smile dropped again “Yes, you don’t have to ask for something like that”

Dave did not respond as he walked into the bathroom and grabbed a towel, the words Odio said to him still echoed in his mind. Celestia watched Dave as he slowly dried himself and held his face into the towel

“Dave… do you love me?” Celestia asked out of curiosity

Dave looked up from the towel “Of course I do” he sighed

Celestia sat on her bed “Then why do I get the feeling that you are about to say you have to leave?”

Dave chuckled “I suppose I’m just tired after the training session”

“Oh… so do you want to sleep then?” Celestia’s heart sank as she held back the question that burned her mind

Dave left the bathroom and sat next to the white princess “No, not really”

Celestia looked at Dave out of the corner of his eye “Dave you know I want nothing but our happiness”

“As do I” Dave sighed as he dropped his head into his hands “I want you to be happy”

“Well I want you to know that I will always cherish what we have now and will never let it go to waste” Celestia shuffled closer to Dave “Do you remember when I said that ‘I want to experience it all’?”

“Yeah” Dave sighed, “I remember”

Celestia allowed a small smile to creep across her face “I want to experience something I never thought I would want to”

“What’s that?” Dave’s curiosity overwhelmed his depression

Celestia smiled at Dave as a small blush spread across her cheeks “I want to have a child with you Dave” She smiled at Dave but it wavered as his head dropped to his hands again

Dave groaned into his hands “Why now?”

“Dave I’m sorry but I thought is was the right time” Celestia retreated away “I’m sorry if you don’t want to try just yet, I understand”

Dave looked up at Celestia “You’re going to hate me”

“I could never hate you Dave” Celestia moved back to Dave and wrapped him up in her hooves “No matter what it is you did I could never hate you”

Dave took a few breaths to calm himself “I went to see Luna before I came here”

“Ok” Celestia said in a reassuring tone “Then what?”

“She was upset about me thinking lesser of her than I used to” Dave stopped his voice from shaking as he continued “she thought that I was pushing her away every time I got closer to you”

Celestia sighed “So she must have thought us having a child would remove her completely”

“She tried to get me to confess feelings for her, to prove she was the same as you” Dave held Celestia tightly “so I made her feel how you felt”

“What feeling?” Celestia shuddered at the thought of Dave giving himself to Luna before meeting her

“She kept bringing up how I died” Dave shuddered “She kept saying how you murdered me”

Celestia looked down at Dave “What did you do?”

“I drowned myself in her bath” Dave sobbed “She kept trying to give air to me but after a while…”

Celestia gawped down at Dave “You did that to my little sister?”

“I’m sorry” Dave begged, “I just wanted her to stop saying all those things, I got so angry that I just wanted to shut her up”

Celestia released Dave “I couldn’t stand the feeling of having you gone because of me”

“I’m sorry” Dave reluctantly let go of Celestia “now do you hate me?”

Celestia looked at the emotionally broken human “No Dave”

“Y-you don’t?” Dave looked up at Celestia

“No” Celestia smiled “It changes nothing”

Dave smiled but a white hoof smacked him across the face and forced him to fall onto his back “OW! What the hell?” Dave rubbed his face in anger but the feeling soon disappeared as Celestia climbed on top of him

Celestia smiled “Isn’t this how we always work? I slap you then we make up”

“I suppose but that seriously hurt” Dave’s nursing of his face was stopped by Celestia pinning down his arms

A cheeky smile spread across her face “Because we are seriously going to make up”