Chapter 53

Dave walked into the barracks and was instantly greeted by nods from the guards that were off-duty. He checked the side rooms for any sign of Strong Shield but was met with nothing but tired ponies or empty rooms

“Argh, where the hell is he?” Dave scratched the back of his head as he stepped out of the secret entrance to Strong Shield’s bunker. Dave turned to see a charcoal Pegasus staring at him, his sudden appearance made Dave jump. “Jeez you kinda snuck up on me”

The Pegasus nodded, his red mane bouncing slightly, “I was aware when you screamed”

“I didn’t scream,” Dave frowned slightly. “Anyway do you know where my dad is?”

“I believe that he is on the training grounds with the new recruits,” the Pegasus continued to stare at Dave, his dark armour caught the human’s eye

“So are you a night guard then?” Dave chuckled, “I wouldn’t have thought that you would be awake at this time”

The guard nodded, “I serve as one of Princess Luna’s bodyguards during social outings”

“Alright, simple answers it is,” Dave muttered to himself. “So do you have a name?”

“Yes I am Lieutenant Night Stalker,” the guard saluted. “Is there anything else I can assist you with Prince Dave?”

The unwilling prince rolled his eyes, “No, I’m fine but I suppose it would be helpful if you could take me to the training area, it has been a while since I last went there”

“Yes sir!” Night Stalker turned and marched away, allowing Dave to follow alongside. “May I ask a question?”

“Go ahead,” Dave placed his hands in his pockets as he followed the night guard

“I heard that you are in a relationship with Princess Luna as well as engaged to Princess Celestia,” Night Stalker glanced at Dave before focusing his eyes forward again. “Is it true that you left Princess Luna before?”

Dave sighed, “She turned me down, and I won’t leave her anyway… if I can help it”

“Pardon sir? I didn’t catch that last bit,” Night Stalker looked over as Dave gained a smirk

“Just don’t worry, I won’t hurt your favourite princess’ feelings,” Dave stared at the Pegasus, his smile grew as the guard held his composure

Night Stalker aimed his gaze forwards again, “I am not allowed to have a favourite princess because it would affect my judgement as a guard”

“You definitely sound like my dad,” Dave chuckled as they reached the training area and stepped out to see a cream stallion hanging from the tree by his hind legs

Strong Shield was standing on the back of a white unicorn as he did press-ups. The drill sergeant sometimes bouncing every time the recruit made a grunt

“No weakness!” Strong Shield yelled at the back of the unicorn’s head. “And you fly boy! Get those wings moving, I want to see that concrete fly!”

Dave and Night Stalker both looked up to see a black and yellow Pegasus flap his wings as hard as he could. The trainee’s legs were tied to a large block of concrete that weighed him down, his mane dripping with sweat

“Strong Shield, Prince Dave is here to see you!” Night Stalker saluted, gaining the attention of everypony in the training ground

The cream pony suddenly dropped from the tree and his eyes widened at the appearance of royalty. “Prince? Excuse me your majesty but my name is Rich Kid!”

The posh pony galloped over, only to get his outstretched hoof grabbed and twisted back into his face. Punching himself in the nose with a loud crack, the Pegasus responsible then swept his black wing under the large body to drop the unicorn on his side

“Access denied!” Night Stalker smirked before coughing and returning to his saluted position. Strong Shield walked over and frowned at the Lieutenant

“Your performance just then… could have been faster,” Strong Shield hummed before turning to Dave. “Your son is certainly learning quite quickly… and from an unlikely source”

All the ponies and Dave looked to the back of the training grounds and saw Nox falling through one small wormhole and appearing out of another just above it, resulting in an endless drop

“Now you’re thinking with portals!” Odio laughed as Nox pointed his nose downwards and picked up even more speed

Dave rubbed his eyes, “Remind me to not let Odio teach my son any more video game references”

“Alright Nox, now here is a trick I like to call teabagging,” Odio formed a pair of legs with his fog but stopped as Dave jogged over and dispersed the fog with his arms. “Oh hello Dave, how are you?” Odio sneered

“Hey!” Nox opened his wings and used his magic to close the two wormholes. “Uncle Odio was going to show me something called a… Reaper?”

Dave shook his head, “Odio can you not teach my son about video games?”

“Why not?” Odio glared as he formed a fist within his fog

“Because I think that…”

“I’ve had enough of your disingenuous assertions!” Odio frowned as he shot the fist forward and punched Dave to the floor

Dave held a broken nose as he pushed himself to his feet, “Ow what THE HELL!”

“That was for not talking to me about you getting engaged to Celestia!” Odio narrowed his eyes again as he snorted. “Anything else you want to tell me?”

“I’m in a relationship with Luna?” Dave smiled as Odio’s eyes flared open and a bolt of red lightning raced through his fog. “So we good?”

Odio roared as his fog coated the ground in a dense black mist and lightning crackled from his body. “NOOOO! MY FRIEND HAS RESPONSIBILITIES!”

“I was going to propose a game of Team Fortress 2 tonight,” Dave smirked as Odio’s fog quickly receded and his eyes moved close to Dave’s face

“R-really?” Odio’s eyes formed love hearts. “Can I be a scout?”

Dave nodded, “anything you want!”

“Cool, BONK!” Odio punched Dave again. “Next time don’t get in relationships without letting me know and potentially ruin it for you!”

Strong Shield rolled his eye, “Alright take a five minute break, you can make the time up later when you are polishing every single piece of armour in the entire armoury”

Rich Kid and Tough Heart both groaned as they collapsed to the ground and began gasping for air. Each breath was embrace as their muscles screamed in agony. Matrix stopped flapping his wings and dropped to the ground, strangely finding the strength to remove the binds around his hooves

Strong Shield and Night Stalker marched over to the large fog whilst Matrix walked over to Dave, his wings hanging loosely to the floor as he watched Dave’s nose snap back into place. “Doesn’t that hurt?”

“Like a bitch but I’ve gotten used to it,” Dave sniffed as he wiped the blood from his nose, his eyes opened wider as he looked at the Pegasus. “Whoa! Is your name hornet?”

“What? No!” Matrix ran a hoof over his black stripes. “My name is Matrix and I am just here for guard training”

Dave stood up and offered his hand to the pony, “My name is Dave and I am the uhh… prince I suppose”

The Pegasus placed his hoof in the hand and shook it with a smile. “I never thought I would be shaking hooves with a prince this early in my career”

“You don’t have a career yet!” Strong Shield growled back at the trainee. “And until I say you can be a guard you will address everypony by their rank or status… especially Dave”

Matrix saluted before bowing to Dave, “My apologies Prince Dave”

“Don’t worry, I let my friends and the guards be less formal,” Dave winked before turning to allow Nox to jump into his arms. “So how have you been?”

“I’ve been great!” Nox turned his head to smile at Odio. “Uncle Odio taught me about some really weird creatures like these one green things that explode!”

Dave’s smile faded as he narrowed his eyes at the fog of hatred, “Creepers?”

“Yeah!”

Odio whistled innocently as he avoided Dave’s stare and instead decided to smile at the two dark ponies in front of him. “Hello moody, hello… other pony with a glare”

“I am Lieutenant Night Stalker,” the Pegasus frowned at the fog. “Does Princess Celestia know that you assault her husband?”

Odio grunted in response, “I assume you will write a letter?”

Night Stalker turned to look at Dave, “If you feel threatened then inform the guards, we can protect you”

“Odio is just a dick,” Dave chuckled as Strong Shield nodded in agreement. “Also he is petrified of Celestia”

Odio glared, “I am not!”

“Tell that to her,” Dave pointed to an empty spot behind Odio and the large fog spun around in surprise and slowly rotated back with an evil frown. “Fooled you and proved my point!”

Odio cracked a smile, “I’ll let you get away with that one”

“Oh and for the punches,” Dave flicked his fingers at the fog, a few drops of human blood passed through the fog and left a flaming trail through the dense blackness

“OW!” Odio swirled madly as he flared his eyes at Dave. “Fine. I get it!”

Dave and Odio slowly began chuckling but were stopped as Strong Shield whistled loudly. “Alright, I have training to get on with!” He turned to each of the beings in the training area in turn. “Lieutenant I believe you have other duties, Trainees can run ten laps of the city, Nox can you go and see if your mom is doing anything tomorrow?”

The trainees all groaned as they began to jog away and Night Stalker saluted to Dave before flying away. Dave gave Nox a kiss on his head before the grey alicorn created another wormhole and dived through

Strong Shield sighed as he looked at Dave and Odio, “Right, I have recruited another member for our little group, he will get to us all to Manehatten Trainyard faster than any train”

“Alright, who?” Dave folded his arms as the air behind the unicorn and the fog shook and a set of diamond scales appeared. “Adamas?”

The diamond dragon tipped his head to Dave as the rest of his body slowly appeared. “Hello Prince Dave, may I congratulate you on your engagement?”

“Cheers Adamas,” Dave sighed as he looked up at the large dragon. “Sorry you had to get roped into all our mess”

“Not a problem, I…” Adamas moved his nose closer to Dave before giving him a few sniffs. “Your breath reeks of gold, I take it that you ingested the key?”

Strong Shield nodded, “Good thing you are up to speed already”

“I will meet my apprentices later,” Adamas suddenly frowned. “Let it be known that I will assist in getting you all to this Daedalus, I will guard the outer perimeter of Tartarus with the Cerberus but I don’t recommend that Dave goes into that infernal place”

Dave shuffled his feet nervously as Strong Shield narrowed his eye at the dragon. “What do you know about Tartarus?”

“I know nothing,” Adamas sighed sadly. “But the elder told us that we would be better off dying than entering that… hell”

“Oh brilliant,” Dave shivered with a sense of dread. “A million year old dragon calls it hell”

Odio hummed as his fog swirled slowly around his burning eyes. “I still say we should look for some other way before we throw Dave in there”

“Dave is going in due to his own free will,” Strong Shield glared at the fog and dragon before looking at Dave. “Are you still up for this?”

Dave looked at Adamas and Odio’s concerned faces before he sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I’m in”

“Good,” Strong Shield looked at his small task force. “Right, we finish off anything we have to do and we will leave in two days time”

Adamas nodded, “That gives me time to speak to my apprentices here”

“I can finish off that boss,” Odio muttered

“And I get to spend a meal with each of my favourite mares,” Dave’s laugh was full of concern as he looked back at Strong Shield. “I am going to spend all of tomorrow with my son, no interruptions”

Strong Shield nodded, “Don’t worry, you have been through worse than this”

Odio, Dave and Strong Shield entered the castle before going their separate ways, each with a reassuring nod to each other before the diamond dragon was left alone

Adamas sighed as he watched Dave walk down the clean corridor and move out of sight, “You have suffered death before… but Tartarus is a prison, I don’t think it is meant to kill”