Chapter 71

Odio whistled as he floated along the corridors, smiling at any passing ponies that responded with a slight glare. “I knew I chose a few renegade options but jeez,” the fog sighed as he floated around the corner and saw Celestia walking angrily in the other direction

Odio floated over and smiled as he followed the princess. “Can I help you?” Celestia sighed as the fog’s burning face began to float closer to her face

“I was wondering if Dave could come out to play Miss Celestia,” Odio pouted childishly. “I’ll make sure we don’t get into trouble”

“I am not in the mood for jokes,” Celestia frowned as she looked at the floor. “I just had to listen to a story from the earth pony”

The fog paused before floating alongside the alicorn again. “You mean Battering Ram? Why were you talking to him?”

“I needed answers and got nothing, only a story about Strong Shield and how he used to be a nice and caring recruit,” Celestia shook her head as she allowed her tired eyes to shut for a moment. “Am I really a hypocrite?”

Odio flinched as Celestia stopped to look at the fog, her eyes were forming tears as she tried to stop herself from crying. “Oh I uh… you’re not a bad pony,” Odio smirked uneasily before groaning. “Alright I know you and I aren’t best friends, friends, or even two entities that can get along, but I think you are trying too hard”

“I just want to protect Dave, he has done so much and continues to do so,” the white alicorn clenched her eyes as she held back the urge to begin wailing and falling to the floor. “I am so afraid that Dave will go for good if he keeps doing this”

“I know Dave better than anypony, I’m not bragging, it’s just fact,” Odio sighed as he lightly tapped Celestia with a tendril of fog. “He will always come back, Tartarus was just a deep hole that Dave didn’t inspect before jumping into”

“But if I stop and tell Dave everything then he might hate me for doing what I did to Strong Shield,” Celestia took a deep breath before regaining her composure. “I have to see this through and make sure that nopony things of using Dave again”

Odio sighed, “Alright, but make sure you know what Dave wants, he is very… vulnerable I suppose”

“Ok,” Celestia smiled. “Thank you Odio, if you ever need anything, let me know”

“Can I have thirty bits?” Odio smiled at the confused alicorn

“I suppose,” Celestia looked at the fog. “May I ask why?”

“Steam sale, don’t judge me”

Meanwhile…

Luna yawned as she awoke, her head slowly rotated in a large circle as she stretched her neck. She rolled onto her side again and wrapped her hooves around what she thought was her pillow. After squeezing the odd object she opened her eyes to look up at Dave

“Oh I am still dreaming,” Luna sighed before smiling. “Ah well, this is a good dream”

Dave looked down at Luna before looking back at the blueprints he held in his hands. He readjusted his sitting position as Luna continued to snuggle against his stomach. “How did Dave react before?” He whispered before using one of his hands to gently stroke Luna’s mane

“This dream keeps getting better,” Luna moved her head against Dave’s hand as she looked up at his face. “If only I could wake up to find you in my bed for real”

Dave slowly moved his gaze from his blueprints to look down at the princess of the night. He blinked a few times before dropping his documents off the side of the bed. Luna’s smile was replaced by a wide-eyed gaze

“Is this one of those wet dreams?” Luna blushed at the thought. “I accidentally stumbled into other ponies’ dreams like this but I never thought that I would get one”

As Luna began to sit up and move her lips towards Dave’s, a hand blocked her path. She opened her eyes to see Dave with a raised eyebrow. “You aren’t dreaming”

The alicorn’s seductive gaze was replaced with one of pure horror, her blush turned from rosy to a deep red that filled her face. “Please tell me this is a nightmare”

“Afraid not,” Dave leaned over the edge of the bed and picked his blueprints back up. “You still have ten minutes before you have to raise the moon so don’t worry”

Luna sat up in her bed and shuffled closer to Dave, her wing brushing against his arm. “Why are you in my bed?”

“I thought it would be… nice to surprise you,” Dave continued to stare at the paper in his hands as the princess shuffled a bit closer. “If it wasn’t a nice surprise then I apologize and I will leave immediately”

“No,” Luna said almost instantly before closing the final distance between her and Dave, smiling as she felt his skin against her fur. “I never knew exactly how much I wanted to wake up beside you until today”

Dave glanced at the nervous princess before looking away again, “So long as you are enjoying yourself”

“What are you reading?” Luna looked over at the blueprints. “Is that a plan for a set of royal guard armour?”

“Yes, I figured that I need a hobby,” Dave looked over the various armour pieces and designs. “I will make it myself and I still have to make edits so it with fit me”

The alicorn nervously looked at the serious face of the human next to her, “Why do you need this?”

Dave paused as he quickly thought of a reasonable lie to use, “I just thought it would be cool, not to mention it may come in handy for any uh… events”

Luna remained silent as she rested her head on Dave’s shoulder, her hoof slowly moved to rest itself in Dave’s palm. “Are you sure you don’t remember your… accident?”

“I assume I fell off something again,” Dave lied as he put the blueprints down and rubbed his eyes. His hand fell back to his side as he stared at the wall opposite, the slow sunset casted an orange glow into the room

“Dave…” Luna waited for Dave to look over at her. “Can you answer something? Truthfully?”

Dave paused as he slowly smiled, his mind ready to answer any questions, “Sure, ask away”

Luna slowly looked down at her hoof that rested in Dave’s hand, “What would have happened if we had never broken up at the start? You know… before I messed everything up”

“I always blamed myself for that,” Dave sighed before shaking his head. “Well I assume that you would have had a child and I might have never gotten into a relationship with Celestia”

“Ok,” The dark alicorn whispered as she rested her head back down again

Dave looked at the wall again before he looked down at his hands, “Dav… I mean I always wondered something”

Luna opened her eyes to look up at the human, “What’s that?”

“If I was with you first and Celestia wanted to join this small harem,” Dave looked over to Luna. “Would you have let her?”

The princess shuddered as she shuffled closer to Dave, “Honestly? No.” Luna stared down at her bed as she felt Dave’s hand reach over and stroke her face. “But I am so happy that she let me be with you, finally we can all move on”

“Soon,” Dave sighed as he pulled Luna in for a hug. “I will make sure that everything will be sorted, for you, Celestia, Nox, everypony… even Dave,” he whispered as he gently kissed Luna’s head

Meanwhile…

“Sunflower, would you please wait a minute?” A yellow stallion panted as he chased a white mare up a hill. He smiled as the mare used a hoof to brush her pink mane aside and smile back at him, his heart fluttered as she sat at the top of the hill

Sunflower glanced at her sunflower cutie mark, “Somepony mistook me for a young Celestia again today.” The mare looked around at the surrounding trees as she took a deep breath of fresh air

“Well if Celestia was ever as beautiful as you are then she is lucky,” The yellow stallion finally reached the mare and sat beside her. “I managed to get a reservation at that restaurant you like so much”

“Aww Splint, you shouldn’t have,” Sunflower blushed as the stallion shuffled closer. “You are normally so busy at the hospital”

Splint rubbed his mane as he nervously chuckled, “Well I had been working harder lately because I was saving up for time off, and I was wondering if you wanted to take a few days away somewhere”

Sunflower smiled as she nuzzled the stallion, “Oh you know what makes me smile don’t you?”

“Ssssselesssstiaaaaaaa”

“Did you hear that?” Splint raised his head to look at the surrounding trees before scanning the ground. “There are no snakes here right?”

Sunflower rolled her eyes, “There are no snakes!” The white unicorn groaned as she moved away from the scared stallion. “I wish you would stop watching those silly horror movies”

Splint was about to turn and protest at the mare but the sight of two yellow eyes made him freeze. “S-sunflower, we have to go,” the stallion gulped as a long and streamlined wolf stepped out of the shadows, its body was covered in dragon scales and two small changeling horns poked from its head

“I thought I would be nice for once and actually invite you back to my place but you have totally ruined the atmosphere,” Sunflower shook her head

Harvest’s long, drooling tongue began flicking through the air as the creature crouched down and leapt at the terrified stallion before he could react. Sunflower’s eyes shot open as the rush of wind, screaming and a high pitched roar filled the air

Harvest pinned the stallion down and its tongue began to rub against the ponies face. The monster roared again before walking away from the stallion and slowly advanced towards the mare. Sunflower slowly retreated from the monster, stopping as she was backed against a tree

The two small horns on Harvest’s head suddenly glowed green and the entire monster burst into flames. The four legged creature rose up to stand on two large, fleshy talons, the arms were thin paws from a manticore, the body changed to a simple leathery texture

Sunflower shivered as the rest of the fire disappeared and Harvest’s shorter, broader head slowly stopped next to hers. Her breaths were weak and rapid as the monster began to sniff, Harvest’s tongue licked her cheek as she it tried to determine her identity

“Sssselesssstiaaaa?’” Harvest hissed as it used its strong paws to hold the pony’s head still and slowly began sniffing some more

Splint sat up in time to see Harvest push Sunflower aside and roar to the sky in anger. The monster looked around in a blind rage before it brought one of its large claws up and slashed through a tree

Harvest roared again as it clutched its head, ignoring the two escaping ponies as it felt a surge of pain explode from its skull. Harvest finally stopped roaring as the creature began looking at the rising moon that replaced the sun on the horizon, “Lluuuunnnnaaaa…” Harvest hissed again before running off into the cover of darkness