Chapter 61

Dave awoke screaming, his left arm burning with agony as he clutched it with his other hand. The royal changelings that had fallen asleep at his side were thrown wide awake as they head Dave’s cry of anguish

“What’s wrong?” Chrysalis placed a hoof on Dave as he slowly pried his hand away from his arm. “What is that?” the queen asked as she saw the letters that were branded into Dave’s forearm

The letters were black and were written in an elegant yet unnerving text. The three letters stretched across Dave’s left forearm, blackness covering from the back of his wrist to the top of his elbow. The bottom of his arm was still healthy and smooth

“What the?” Dave still shook as he looked his arm, his finger traced along the outside of the flat burn. His body shivered as he continued to stare at the brand on his arm, “My dad has to know something”

Dave rolled out of the hole in the wall and landed on the ground, taking off at full sprint as the royal changelings were still getting up. The human not wasting time as he bashed the door open and began running down the dark corridors, the sound of the buzzing hive filled his ears

Dave ran out into the large central clearing and saw the Daedalus was still imbedded in the wall. He ran at the smooth surface before he began pounding his fists against the side of the train

“DAD!” Dave hit the train, desperately searching for the hatch. His ponding eventually gained a response as the hatch slid open and Strong Shield poked his head out

“Is everything alright?” the unicorn asked before Dave grabbed him by the throat and held his scared arm in front of his eye

“Did you know this would happen?” Dave growled. “I swear to god if you knew this was going to happen I will fucking KILL YOU!”

Strong Shield wrapped his front hooves around Dave’s arms before using his rear hooves to push Dave away and escape his grasp. “I don’t know what happened, just tell me what is going on”

“Last night I was strung up like a prize pig and fucking branded!” Dave held his arm up again. “This is only a goddamn identity mark! The worst hasn’t even happened!”

Odio floated out of the Daedalus’ open hatch and chuckled at Dave, “Wow, I am loving your Tatau, what skills did you get?”

“The skill of GO FUCK YOURSELF!” Dave snapped. “This isn’t going away and it hurt more than you can ever imagine”

Odio sighed, “Don’t worry I can help you get rid of it.” The black fog floated over before he slowly wrapped a tendril around Dave’s arm. “No let’s see what we have OW FUCKING HELLS TIT BELLS!”

Odio’s eyes shook and deformed as his fog began to split and crackle as red lightning bounced across his body. His voice began to vary in pitch, his voice almost breaking into separate frequencies before his fog turned into a black tar and fell to the ground

Dave looked at his arm and saw the large mark was still there. “What happened?”

“Strong Shield,” Odio groaned in pain as his fog began to slowly rise out of the tar. “This is on your head… and I wouldn’t blame Dave if he ripped it off”

The black unicorn looked at Dave will concern, “What’s wrong?”

“Oh nothing, only being hurled into the sun by your testicles would hurt less,” Odio growled as he looked at Dave. “And I am guessing it hurt less actually having that thing burned into the very fabric of who you are”

“You have no idea,” Dave snarled as he looked at Strong Shield, his eyes full of hatred as he heard the buzzing of wings behind him. The human turned to see Chrysalis and Larva fly over and land in front of him. “What do you two want?”

Chrysalis sniffed Dave’s marked arm as she looked up at his glare. “What is going on?”

“A lot of shit that I can’t be bothered to explain,” Dave snapped as he turned back to the Daedalus. “I should have listened to everypony else and not bothered with all this crap!”

“We are doing this to protect others remember?” Strong Shield sighed as Dave clenched his fists

“Maybe they should learn to protect themselves every now and then,” Dave snarled as he stepped into the Daedalus, pausing to lean back out and point at Chrysalis. “Oh and you have to show up in Canterlot someday soon otherwise I am going to let the gryphons tear this place apart”

Odio floated past Strong Shield with a growl, leaving the unicorn to drop his head and climb onto the train. Strong Shield closed the hatch behind him before connecting himself with the driver’s seat again

“The voice said that you acknowledged me as the prisoner,” Dave narrowed his eyes at Strong Shield. “Does that mean the same voice talked to you?”

Strong Shield looked at his hooves that connected him to the train. “The Daedalus must work on a form of telepathy, I know that you are going into Tartarus so the train must have intercepted that thought”

“Great,” Dave kicked the wall as he snarled. “Just fucking brilliant!”

Odio floated over to Strong Shield as Dave began pacing along the train. “Listen, if Dave tries to hurt you then I will protect you, because I know that he isn’t in the right frame of mind right now”

“I’m ready for the ‘but’ part,” Strong Shield turned his head to look at Dave

“But,” Odio snarled. “If Dave suffers and wants you dead then I will do it personally, because I can make it worse”

“The last thing I wanted was for Dave to get hurt,” Strong Shield’s ears fell against his head as he began to speed up the Daedalus

Odio snorted, “yeah but you don’t mind so long as your personal vendetta gets resolved”

Dave sat at the far end of the Daedalus, glaring as his arm. The black letters stood out even in the dim light, almost constantly mocking him as he pulled his sleeve back over the mark and closed his eyes

Odio floated beside Dave before hovering around his head. “You alright Dave?”

“No I’m not you fucking moron,” Dave spat. “And you might as well start calling me Inmate 1EC”

“Inmate 1EC?” Odio hummed as he saw the top of Dave’s brand on his wrist. “Oh… well I am sure that we can find something to do about that… mark”

“There is no ‘we’ anymore,” Dave opened his eyes to glare down the train at Strong Shield. “From now on, if I want something done then I will do it myself”

Meanwhile…

Matrix sat tuning his guitar, one of his wings plucking at the strings as his other slowly turned one of the silver knobs. He paused to look around his small room, his armour rested on its stand and it gleamed enough to help brighten the room. His bed was simple and average, not too hard but not soft either.

He finished tuning his guitar before dragging his wing across all the strings to produce a smooth tone that resonated around the small room. But before he could begin to play his instrument properly his door opened and Night Stalker stepped in

“Oh hey Lieutenant,” Matrix smiled before he burst into action. “Oh I mean, yes sir!” the Pegasus placed his guitar on his bed before standing to attention

Night Stalker glanced at the guitar before rolling his eyes. “If Strong Shield knew you had brought that here then he would have it confiscated”

“Well Strong Shield hasn’t been around for days,” Matrix shrugged. “I don’t know why but he seems to have disappeared”

“The princesses have come down into the barracks multiple times to see if they can find out about Strong Shield or Prince Dave,” Night Stalker hummed. “Anyway we have another patrol, one of our other squads has been called away to deal with a disturbance and we are to replace them”

Matrix groaned as he carefully placed his guitar back into its case and slid it under the bed. He began to place his armour on as Night Stalker left the room. Matrix made sure his armour was secure before placing his helmet on, making sure his ears poked through the holes before securing it beneath his chin

The Pegasus did some stretches before stepping outside his room and seeing that Night Stalker was already prepared in his ebony armour. “Were you adding another layer of polish to your armour?”

“No, I just like to make sure I am comfortable,” Matrix closed his door before following Night Stalker into the barracks and towards the balcony door. The ponies stepped out onto the flat surface as they extended their wings and allowed themselves to glide off the edge

Night Stalker glanced behind him to make sure his partner was close behind before altering his course slightly. “We are going to land near the train station and work our way back through the shopping district”

“Roger partner,” Matrix called ahead as he kept up with the charcoal Pegasus. The two guards slowed their decent as they neared the train station, a few ponies waited patiently for a train as they sat on some wooden benches

Night Stalker and Matrix both landed near the station and had to hop to the sides as a large navy earth pony charged past with a lavender Pegasus close behind. The guards glared after the impatient ponies before deciding to leave it and begin their patrol

“So why are we down this end of Canterlot?” Matrix asked as they watched some ponies run to catch one of the leaving trains

“Like I said, the patrol guards that were supposed to be here have been called away because of gryphons proving unruly,” Night Stalker sighed as he looked down some of the back alleys. “The gryphon general allowed some of his patrol to stay in Canterlot and they started a bar fight”

Matrix shook his head, “For a security group I would have thought that they would at least be able to keep themselves out of trouble”

“The problem with gryphons is that they don’t understand the concept of discipline,” Night Stalker frowned as he saw a familiar unicorn walk down the street, his body covered in patches of black dust

Fix It coughed as he looked around, he let out a sigh of relief as he ran over to the guards, “Thank Celestia I found you”

“What’s wrong?” Matrix asked, his eyes looking at the coal dust that fell from the unicorn’s mane. “And why does it look like you were in a coal mine?”

“Well I needed some money because I was looking at moving flat but my newest employer is kinda…” Fix It tapped his chin. “Mental”

Night Stalker rolled his eyes, “We can’t arrest somepony because he has an odd personality”

Both guards walked around the unicorn but didn’t get far as he jumped in front of the pair again. “Can we help you?” Matrix groaned as Fix It blocked their path

“I don’t think you understand,” Fix It held up a hoof. “When I say mental, I mean he built a bomb in his bathroom”

Both guards frowned at the unicorn. Night Stalker stepped closer to the unicorn and glared at him. “That is a serious allegation”

“And how did you know it was a bomb?” Matrix frowned

“Well he employed me to fix a broken tap in his bathroom, we had to climb through a tunnel and we were in a different house.” Fix It rubbed a hoof through his mane and coal dust fell from his long fur. “And there were these large bricks with wires and timers attached”

Night Stalker narrowed his eyes, “is that it?”

“Well when I asked him what it was, he said it was a bomb!” Fix It threw his hooves in the air. “So I just got the hay outta there and tried looking for some guards”

Night Stalker and Matrix exchanged anxious glances, “Do we have time to get reinforcements?” Matrix frowned nervously

“I doubt it,” Night Stalker tapped his chin. “Fix It, can you tell us where this bomb is?”

“Sure I can take you right to the tunnel entrance,” Fix It nodded, allowing more dust to fall off him. He turned and began jogging, allowing the guards to stick close behind

“And how good are you with electrical equipment?” Night Stalker called to the unicorn

Fix It chuckled, “From a light bulb to a giant speaker, they are all the same on the inside”

“Good, because you are our bomb defusal pony” Night Stalker finished before he focused on running

“WHAT?” Matrix and Fix It both gasped as they looked at the dark Pegasus. They exchanged nervous glances before they resumed running