Chapter 71

Adamas crawled back into the elder’s cavern, he bowed respectively as the eye opened halfway “Elder the elements have been used and Dave was turned to stone… as planned”

“G-good” The elder coughed and the mountain shook “Return to Canterlot, wait for the next stage… it shouldn’t be more than a day or two”

“Elder why couldn’t we warn the ponies or help Dave with his explanation that the spirit of hate is residing within him?” Adamas looked at the large eye with his own pleading ones

The eye drooped before looking up again “Because this way is best” The elder’s voice sounded weak “Now return to Canterlot before they suspect anything and make any altercations”

“No I demand to know why I am having to lie to my so-called ‘friends’ rather than protecting them” Adamas snarled, “I listened to your words and took in your wisdom but you deny me the truth”

The elder’s eye closed as the mountain shook gently “You will go far young one” The elder chuckled before coughing again “Fine here is the truth, you must let this happen or everypony could potentially meet their end”

Adamas searched the elder’s eye for anything that could be a lie “Fine… what is going to happen?”

“Everyone will get what they deserve… Dave, Odio, Celestia… even you” The elder sighed as he revealed the truth to the younger dragon

Meanwhile…

Chrysalis and Larva both rolled their eyes as Dave and Odio stopped giggling like children. Larva winced as she pulled herself from the sack, the yellow dimmed and the tip sealed up. The squelching made Dave stop smiling as Larva flicked the goo from her tail

“Well it has been a real pleasure being French kissed by a bug and all that but I really must be off” Dave received a nod from Odio. He looked back to the royal changelings “Yeah where am I going again?”

Larva smiled at her sister, her wings buzzed and Chrysalis responded with her own deep flutter of wings. The exchange of faces and buzzing continued for a few moments before Chrysalis rolled her eyes “Fine seeing as you have been stuck to the sack for a while you may take Dave to the edge of our territory but not a step further”

Odio cleared his throat loudly “What is going on? Tell us or I will break out the bug spray”

“My sister will take you in the direction of Canterlot” the queen moved against the wall “once you have dealt with your problem you could return to have the rest of that love pumped out”

Dave shook his head “Nah I may come back for a postcard but that is it” His joke made Odio and surprisingly, Larva chuckle

The queen smirked as the wall pulled her through and left the human, spirit and changeling alone “Alright!” Larva said in a more upbeat tone than her sister “Let’s go!”

Dave followed the princess through another section of wall that took them into a steep tunnel. The changelings walked along the surface in numerous directions, they gave bows to Larva, not the respect and fear they gave Chrysalis but instead gave looks children would give their mother

Odio’s fog engulfed Dave’s feet and hands that allowed him to easily climb the slimy and smooth wall “So how large is the badlands exactly?” Dave asked as Larva cleared the path

“Large enough, my children are taken and buried in various places before they become maggots” Larva stopped to nuzzle a sleeping changeling “There they grow and make their way back alone”

“But only the strong will make it all the way” Odio sighed “I suppose nothing changes”

Larva sighed sadly “The hive must stay strong, it pains me and my sister to lose so many lives but it is a necessity” She stopped as she stepped into a room, the roof held a small hole which allowed a small amount of sunlight to stream in “Here we are”

Dave walked into the sunlight, a small cluster of tendrils extended from the fog that shrouded his arm and pulled himself up and out. He emerged into a small trench that then opened out into a large flat dull orange and brown ground, the sky had no clouds and the sun seemed oddly large

“Ahh Celestia’s sun is different” Larva flew up and landed next to Dave “I assume that it was your fault” Odio chuckled as the changeling took the lead and began to walk away

“Yeah… I guess,” Dave muttered sadly “Anyway how long will it take to reach the end of the badlands?” he walked slowly to keep up the same pace with the changeling

“The sun is almost down so we will have to set up camp, the nights here are a bit chilly” Larva smiled as she skipped in the sun “Afterwards it should be half a day to the edge of changeling territory, the rest of that day to reach the end of the badlands and then you know the way through the Everfree forest don’t you?”

Dave nodded “Yeah well I have a good idea and I have this foggy GPS anyway”

“Hey!” Odio’s eyes narrowed before scanning the area “Just because I don’t get lost doesn’t mean that I am a GPS”

The changeling princess smiled at the arguing friends “Come on lets get going” She lead the way as Dave walked alongside her, Odio went back into Dave’s body and resumed his quiet gaming. The changeling and human talked about small things like what the other’s favourite colour was. Dave’s was now black for some reason that he blamed on Odio and Larva’s was an emerald green

As the horizon turned into a long, drawn out sunset, Larva and Dave got into a little game where one would throw a stone in the air while the other blasted it apart. The playful destruction got them laughing until they decided to stop to set up camp, Dave collected a few dead plants that hid in the small cracks in the landscape whilst Larva got the fire going

Dave took off his trench coat and used it to keep his body off the hard ground, Larva meanwhile used her magic to coat a piece of ground in the same stuff the changeling hive was made of. As Dave laid down, he instantly rested his eyes “Hey Odio can you wake me up the moment the sun begins to rise?”

“Huh? Oh yeah… sure thing” Odio returned to his game as Dave laid his head down. Larva watched Dave for a few moments before her horn began to glow.

Meanwhile…

Twilight stared at the library floor, her magic catching anything that fell from the shelves as Spike rampaged around

“How could he?” He yelled angrily “How could Dave be the bad guy? He was the best guy ever!”

Twilight shrugged “I don’t know but it came as a shock to us as well” She caught a row of books as Spike kicked the shelves “He is gone now so there is nothing we can do”

“No I am not giving up on him!” Spike growled, “There has got to be something that will clear Dave’s name!”

“His name was Odio!” Twilight responded in a slightly louder voice “And the elements turned him to stone, move on Spike!”

The purple dragon growled again, “You moved on too quickly Twilight” He growled as he stormed up to the bedroom, slamming the door behind him

The purple unicorn was left alone, she replaced the fallen books and cleaned the room again. As she did so, she stumbled across the small bag containing Dave’s belongings he had when he first arrived, the small tools he used to break out from his prison in the basement

“Prisoner when he arrived and prisoner at the end” Twilight sighed as she put the items back in the bag and set about doing some late night reading

Meanwhile…

Dave opened his eyes to stare at the roof of Celestia’s bedroom, he looked around and the room was indeed hers. The door opened and his head quickly turned to see the white alicorn enter. His heart pounded heavily as she smiled lovingly at him

“Did you have a nice sleep?” Celestia smiled as she made her way over to the bed “You looked so peaceful”

“That wasn’t real?” Dave glared at the princess of the sun “am I dreaming?”

The princess climbed onto the bed and moved closer to Dave “Does this feel like one?” She pushed her lips against Dave’s and her hooves fell around his neck. His heart fluttered as he stroked the side of her face

Dave pulled back so he could smile at her, his face dropped as he saw her lips were black and her mouth was fanged, the spot he rubbed returned to its original black. He snarled as he grabbed her horn, her body shook violently as the illusion around her and the room melted away

Odio grabbed Larva as her disguise fell, his fog restrained her entire body and Dave stood up “What exactly did you think would happen you pathetic bug?” Odio snarled as claws clutched her neck “I outta squash you”

Larva looked at Dave “Why did you resist me? Celestia broke your heart yet you still love her” The changeling stared into Dave’s eyes “Why don’t you accept me? I will gladly have your love and you can have me”

“Just because Celestia broke my heart doesn’t mean I have to get revenge by sleeping with you” Dave held out his hand and the fog dropped the changeling “Point in the exact direction Canterlot is before me and Odio split your precious egg sack in half and drown the changelings in the pus”

“Argh you could do so much more if you cooperate with me and my sister” Her smile grew wider “Together we could rule everything and I would gladly satisfy any desires you may have,” She shrieked as Odio put pressure on her neck

Dave shook his head “Celestia is the only one that ever made me happy… directions or I will let Odio do unspeakable things” Dave’s snarl made Larva reluctantly point and Dave began to follow her direction “Tell your sister that I will be fine from here on out… also see if you could buy breath mints or toothpaste seriously!”