Chapter 10

Rarity held her head as her eyes slowly opened “What a strange dream” She stretched her back as she looked at the sofa she slept on “Urgh… so unlady like”

“Yeah well I wasn’t going to carry you to bed, last time I had to undress you,” Dave teased from his seat near Rarity. He placed his hand over her mouth as she let out another scream “Can you please be quiet?”

The white unicorn pushed the hand away “H-h-how are you alive?” She finally managed to say as Dave chuckled

“Well let’s say that I had a reason” As he finished he held up Nox to the bewildered pony “I don’t get why you are surprised, I died once or twice before”

“But you had that ghastly fog inside of you” Rarity sat up “How could you have come back without him? Unless… AHHH!” Again, Rarity had her mouth covered as she screamed

Dave rolled his eyes “Odio has completely gone, he made it so I could come back but it would have taken much longer if I didn’t have a target” he looked down at Nox “So when I was a spirit I managed to talk to Celestia while she was dreaming”

Rarity finally calmed down enough for Dave to remove his hand “S-so you aren’t evil in anyway?” She sighed happily as Dave nodded “Well it is a delight to see you again” She hugged Dave as her eyes began to water “I am so sorry for my actions last time, I couldn’t see what was truly going on”

Dave hugged the mare reassuringly “It wasn’t your fault or any of the other girls, so there is nothing to forgive” he placed down the alabaster unicorn as she tidied her mane “So why are you here?”

“Clothes” Dave pointed to his trench coat “This is all I have and it is getting a bit nippy” He smiled to Rarity as she rolled her eyes and began working

“Destroyed clothes?” Rarity chuckled “Some things never change do they?” she flipped through one of her notebooks and found her old measurements “Simple design?”

“Glad you remember” Dave chuckled but his attention shifted to Nox as he hopped over to Sweetie Belle. The filly blinked as she sat up, rubbing her head

“What happened?” Sweetie Belle groaned until she came face to face with Nox “Oh hello, umm… you’re on my tail”

Nox looked down at his hoof that was pinning her soft tail down, his face turned red again as he lifted his hooves so Sweetie Belle could get away. Dave smiled at the sight before walking over to Rarity and sitting next to her workstation

“So how have things been? Since I… left” Dave avoided saying the obvious around Sweetie Belle

Rarity sighed “We were confused at first, we didn’t know how much Odio affected us” She looked at Dave “We didn’t know if you were working with him or if you were an illusion” she continued to cut materials to size as she worked “The princesses reassured us that you were good”

Dave watched Rarity carefully sew and trim the fabrics she was using “What should we do about the others?” he looked back at Sweetie Belle and Nox. Sweetie Belle was tidying her crayons whilst Nox rested on the sofa “Can you get them to all come over?”

“I would try but any time I have an emergency they ignore me” Rarity tapped her chin “Last week I misplaced some royal blue silk and they merely passed it off as nothing”

Dave hummed “So only something that is an actual problem” the human got lost in his thoughts as Rarity continued to work. His eyes moved over to the various dresses around the room, some were simplistic and looked like designer pyjamas, one was almost coated in sapphires and diamonds

Dave stared at a large diamond as Nox let out a deep yawn, almost like a roar. Sweetie Belle cast Nox an interested look before finishing her cleaning, the white filly smiled at Dave before sitting on the sofa and resting her eyes

“Rarity?” Dave stood up as an idea formed in his mind “I have a plan that is sure to get the others to come over”

Rarity did not look up from her work “Is it as ridiculous as they used to be?” She raised an eyebrow as Dave agreed, “What are you going to do? Get a manticore to attack my boutique?” She said sarcastically before she chuckled, she lost her smile as Dave didn’t laugh along

“No, well… not exactly a manticore” Dave smiled before heading for the back door “I’m gonna make sure nothing bad happens but it will be quite loud” He ignored Rarity’s questions as he stepped outside “Hey Adamas?”

The diamond dragon’s head appeared, dwarfing Dave by it’s size “What do you require?” he listened to Dave’s plan before chuckling “That is both ridiculous and brilliant”

Meanwhile…

Twilight sat on her balcony reading as usual, her scaled assistant brought up a bowl of salad and placed it next to her “Thank you Spike, are you having anything to eat?” she asked as the purple dragon shook his head

“I just had some, besides we have still got some apple pie left over from yesterday” Spike looked over the horizon “I haven’t had any news from the princess yet” he sighed sadly

Twilight placed a purple hoof around the baby dragon “Listen Spike, you shouldn’t have to worry about that” She sighed as she saw a tear form in Spike’s eye “When the princess has her baby I am sure you will be the first to know”

“You really mean that?” Spike looked back up at the unicorn “Will I get to spend time with it?”

“I’ll make sure of it” Twilight hugged Spike before an ear-splitting roar made them jump apart “What was that?” Twilight gasped

“I don’t know, it sounded big!” Spike rubbed his claws nervously “And angry” He spotted a rainbow coloured blur coming towards them “It’s Rainbow Dash!” he pointed

As the cyan Pegasus slowed down and hovered off the balcony she turned to Twilight “What the hay was that?”

“I don’t know, can you see anything?” Twilight used her magic to teleport onto the streets and Spike dropped from the balcony onto her back. Rainbow looked around before shrugging “Go find the others!”

Rainbow Dash saluted before shooting away, returning every few minutes with another one of her friends, except Rarity. Applejack adjusted her stetson hat before looking around with concern, Fluttershy cowering behind her

“What in tarnations was that? I heard it from the farm!” She looked around “Where is Rarity?”

Rainbow Dash shrugged “Nopony answered the door at the boutique, but we don’t have time to hunt for her”

Pinkie bounced in the air “What about a party while we look? It can be a… hunting party!” She jumped around happily “If Twilight makes some tranquilizers, I can make the guns and Fluttershy can provide the hounds!”

“We aren’t looking for Rarity until we find out what that noise was” Twilight groaned, “What are guns anyway?”

The girls all screamed as the noise tore through their ears again and the ground shook. Applejack looked up before her jaw dropped “Oh horseapples”

The rest of the girls all turned their heads to look where Applejack was before their jaws dropped as well. They looked up at the huge diamond dragon that roared and snorted at the scurrying ponies beneath it

“HELP! Oh won’t somepony hear my cries of fear?” Rarity bellowed from her boutique, “This dragon has held me captive in my own home!” She saw her friends from her bedroom window and glared at their faces “It would be nice if my friends could come and rescue me!”

Spike grabbed Twilight’s mane like reigns “Never fear my lady Rarity! I will save you!” He cheered, but Twilight turned to talk to her friends

“We have to get Rarity out of there!” She said in a panicked tone “Rainbow! Fly in and grab her!” her plan was shot down as Rarity screamed again

“Oh no!” She held her head as she hung out the window “I am being trapped by magical incantations, trees full of apples, time trials, wild animals and cake! Oh woe is me!”

“Do ya think she knows about the dragon that is three times the size of her house?” Applejack rolled her eyes at Rarity’s self-pity “But we can worry about that later, let’s save her!”

The girls all cheered as they ran to the boutique, with the exception of Fluttershy “Umm… I don’t think this is a good idea” She shied away but Rainbow Dash raced back to grab her and drag her to the boutique

The gang kicked the door open and jumped in, expecting a wave of horrible creatures being controlled by the dragon. Instead they saw a grey colt sat in the middle of the room drawing a picture, Twilight gasped when she saw the horn and the wings

“An alicorn? B-but how?” Her puzzling was put on hold as a green blur whipped past and a long piece of silk wrapped around her hooves and pulled her up to the ceiling, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie soon followed. Spike dived for cover whilst Fluttershy hid with her hooves over her head

Fluttershy opened an eye and saw the web of silk binding her friends, her eyes moved over to the colt in the middle of the room. She carefully crept over and extended a hoof “Come on now little guy, let’s get somewhere safe” She looked around nervously but froze as something grabbed her

“I wouldn’t risk touching Nox” Dave chuckled “The combined cuteness if you hugged would cause everyponies hearts to flutter out of their chests and explode in showers of blood and daww” Dave smiled at Fluttershy “It would be beautiful and disgusting at the same time”

Fluttershy spluttered before her eyelids closed and she collapsed, leaving the rest of the girls with their jaws open yet again. Spike crawled out from his hiding spot and gazed at Dave

“D-Dave? Are you really here?” Spike stared at Dave, not blinking out of fear the human might disappear again

Dave nodded “Yeah Spike, I’m back with a surprise” Dave picked up the gray alicorn by his feet “This is Nox” He smiled as he showed the ponies his son “Celestia gave birth two days ago and thought that you would like to meet him”

The ponies all gasped as Nox huddled against Dave and shied away from the ponies’ eyes. Dave hugged him as he released the ponies’ from their silk prison

“Sorry about that, I didn’t want anypony to do something silly” Dave shrugged “That included you Pinkie… Pinkie?”

Pinkie was shaking madly, her mane wobbled as sparks danced around her. Everypony took cover as excited eyes and a huge smile grew on her face

“What is going on?” Dave asked as he grabbed Nox and jumped behind the sofa, reaching out and grabbing the fainted Fluttershy’s tail before pulling her behind the sofa as well

“It only happened once before” Applejack covered her ears “She can throw a new kind of party for the first time, which means she can throw a party to celebrate”

“And you just gave her two reasons to throw a new kind of party!” Twilight frowned at Dave “You’re back from the dead and now you have a son!”

Dave chuckled “You miss me?”

Twilight rolled her eyes “Kinda” she admitted before sharing a smile with Dave. Everypony covered their ears as Pinkie began to vibrate and bounce around the room

Dave peeked over at the pink moving blur “I think she is gonna blow!” Dave ducked as he placed his hands around Nox’s ears rather than his own