Chapter 72

Strong Shield blinked slowly as he stared at the dirty wall opposite him. Battering Ram was sleeping whilst Flux continued to stare at her beloved that was only a few feet away. The three prisoners were all silent as the dungeon door opened and Matrix stepped in with three food trays

Flux glanced at the striped guard before looking back to Strong Shield, “Please eat something today, you shouldn’t punish yourself like this”

Matrix nervously looked at the veterans and gave the trays of basic and tasteless food to each of the prisoners. He stopped at Strong Shield’s cell and glanced at the dungeon door before looking back at the vacant unicorn. “I don’t know why you are in here but… the guards are still behind you, if you need us”

“Tell them to give up on me,” Strong Shield lowered his head. “I made a mistake and the princess deserves to punish me”

“We all make mistakes,” Matrix sighed. “Whatever you did, you have done more good than any guard I have ever known”

Strong Shield glared down at himself as he slowly turned his head to look at the private, “But I sent my son into hell, why shouldn’t I be punished?”

“Because you make it up to Dave someday,” Matrix glanced at Flux before shaking his head. “You aren’t helping Dave by being locked up in here”

The Pegasus placed the food tray through the little gap at the bottom of the cell door before walking away and locking the dungeon door behind him. Flux watched the guard go before slowly shaking her head, “Why can’t you accept that you made a mistake?”

“Because the last time I made a mistake…” Strong Shield looked over at Flux, “I lost you, and I never wanted to fail since”

Battering Ram lifted his hoof from his eyes to glance at the unicorn, “Didn’t you miss me?”

“Yes, of course,” Strong Shield chuckled, his smile lingering before his emotionless stare made him look at his meal. “Unless I am mistaken, shouldn’t there be a meeting between Dave, the changelings and the gryphons today?”

Meanwhile…

Celestia walked beside Dave, her nervous glances to her human never stopped until they reached the dining room door. “Are you sure you want to do this alone? I will come in if you are feeling unsure”

“Celestia please,” Dave gave Celestia a reassuring smile. “I will make sure that everypony will come to an agreement, you can attend to your duties”

The white alicorn stared at Dave before slowly nodding, “Alright, I will see you at dinner?”

“Yes,” Dave nodded before moving towards the door. “I will make sure this will be over quickly”

The human stepped into the dining room and closed the door behind him, he turned in time to see a maid leaving the room. “Excuse me,” Dave called the maid over. “There is a potato sack in the store cupboard near the royal gardens, can you make sure somepony sends that straight over?”

“Yes your majesty,” The maid bowed before leaving the room. Dave waited for the door to close again before looking up to see Queen Chrysalis and General Talon both glaring at each other

Chrysalis smiled over at Dave whilst Talon sneered at the new arrival. “I hope you have seen sense and are going to assist with the extermination of the changelings”

“No,” Dave sighed as he sat at the head of the table. “You are going to ease on the border control, reduce the amount of patrols and will allow some changelings cross”

“WHAT!” Talon stood and dug his claws into the marble table. “This is unacceptable! You are allying yourself with these bugs?”

Dave shook his head, “There is to be a restriction on how many changelings can cross, if they exceed this limit then you may kill any that try to go near the border”

Chrysalis frowned at Dave, “This won’t do, they have to trust us and leave the borders completely”

“Trust you?” Talon snorted. “We gryphons don’t trust anypony, and nopony trusts the changelings!”

“Silence!” Dave yelled. “My proposal is beneficial to both of you, if neither of you like it then I will be forced to take drastic actions”

Talon stood and growled at Dave, “You shouldn’t throw your authority around so much, you haven’t been in Equestria for more than a few months and you already believe that you know more than us!”

Dave glanced at the door as it creaked open and a pair of guards dragged in a bulging potato sack, the guards saluted Dave before leaving the room. “So you won’t consider my proposal?”

“No,” The gryphon spat as he looked away

“Chrysalis? Where do you stand?” Dave stood and picked up the sack before placing it on the table

The changeling queen hissed at Talon before looking back to Dave. “I trust your judgement and so I will agree, so long as we negotiate a fair amount of border use”

“So Talon, are you the immoveable object in this scenario?” Dave sighed as he rested one hand on the potato sack

“Yes,” Talon stared at Dave’s blank face. “I am not moving from my decision”

Dave sighed as he slowly walked along the table, pushing the sack along as he spoke. “Well I am an unstoppable force, and that means I have the advantage,” Dave stared at the gryphon as he neared him. “Immoveable objects can’t move, unstoppable forces can move around, find weak points like…” Dave opened the sack and a beaten and bruised gryphon fell out, gasping for breath as its’ pleading eyes looked at the startled General Talon. “The foundations”

“What is this?” Talon stood to snarl into Dave’s face. “I demand answers!”

“This is one of your Eagle Eyes, trained gryphons that spy for you,” Dave grabbed the gryphon’s head and dragged him closer to the general. “I used my resistance to this world and I caused him to crash to the ground, then I made him talk, tell me things about you”

Talon growled as he raised a claw to Dave’s face, “I will tear the skin from your face, APE!”

“And I will get your niece, tear her head off with my bare hands, hallow out her skull and use her neck as a straw as I suck out her blood,” Dave snarled as he willingly pressed his face against the sharp claws.

Talon flinched as Dave slowly dragged his face along the sharp claws, “What makes you think I have a niece?”

“Your soldier told me about how your sister died in childbirth and you took care of the child in your spare time,” Dave tilted his head as the general flinched. “You are just going to give me a scratch and I can heal”

“You leave my niece out of this!” Talon snarled

“Then do as I say,” Dave kept his face straight as the gryphon looked between the human and the gryphon that was laying on the table

The gryphon general shuddered before he slowly sat down, staring at the floor as his claws visibly shook in fear before pressing them against the table. “We… agree to your terms”

“Good,” Dave released the injured gryphon he was holding before moving back to his chair. “I also want the leather that gryphons use for their armours, the leather from your bodyguards’ armour should suffice”

“Fine,” Talon mumbled as he glared down at himself, not even looking up at Chrysalis as she stood and walked over to Dave’s seat

The changeling queen was smiling the entire time she took a step closer to Dave, her thoughts buzzing after the scene she had witnessed. She couldn’t contain herself, she threw herself at Dave and her tongue slipped easily into him

Dave slowly moved his eyes to look at the changeling as her expression switched from happy to as fearful as Talon’s was when he saw his battered soldier. The queen slowly pulled her head away from Dave as she pulled her tongue back into her mouth

“Y-you’re empty,” Chrysalis shuddered. “You are normally overflowing with love but now… there is nothing”

“Emotions are easy to fake when you remember how to act,” Dave stared at the changeling as he stood. “Negotiations have finished, let yourselves out… oh and Talon?”

The gryphon looked over before nodding in acknowledgement, “I will have the leather delivered by the end of the day”

Dave tipped his head, “Good, now I don’t want either of you two causing any more problems for me”

Chrysalis shuddered as she looked over at Talon, the normally ferocious gryphon was reduced to a quiet creature that sulked in his chair. The changeling tapped her tongue with her hoof before looking at Dave. “Who are you?”

“I’m Dave,” The human responded. “Now please leave, you should be happy that I am not going to punish your race for wasting my time”

“Does Celestia know?” The changeling queen shuddered. “She wouldn’t allow this behaviour”

Dave frowned, “No, and she wouldn’t believe you after all the things you have done in the past,” Dave narrowed his eyes as Chrysalis glanced at the door. “Are you going to try? Why would you bother?”

“Well... Dave has done enough for me to earn my respect,” Chrysalis stood her ground. “And as queen of the changeling hive, I repay my debts”

“Go ahead,” Dave stood aside. “Go make a fool of yourself, you have a ten second head start,” Dave began slowly tapping his feet as the changeling bolted for the door

The human sent a small glare at Talon before leaving the room and began walking after Chrysalis, the changeling queen used her wings to fly down the corridors and upstairs as she headed for Celestia’s quarters

The two guards that were standing guard at Celestia’s door instantly got into position in front of the door as the changeling queen appeared at the top of the stairs. “You have to get Celestia quickly,” Chrysalis looked back at the stairs, “She is being deceived by an impersonator that is pretending to be Dave”

The guards glanced at each other before shaking their heads, “No, Dave has been through a lot and Princess Celestia doesn’t need your kind messing around anymore!”

“But I am trying to help you insolent whelp!” Chrysalis hissed. “I am doing this to help Dave because I owe him and he has done more to help my kind than anypony else!”

The golden doors opened and Celestia stepped out, her confused expression switched to a snarl as she saw Chrysalis. “I should have known you would cause problems if I allowed you near Canterlot and even within a mile of Dave”

“The Dave here is an imposter!” Chrysalis froze as she heard footsteps coming up the stairs behind her. “You have to believe me, this Dave is deceiving you and you are falling for it, just like when I managed to infiltrate Canterlot”

Dave reached the top of the stairs and had a large frown on his face, “I doubt a changeling could look as handsome as me, even with magic”

Celestia glared at Chrysalis as Dave walked over and stood beside the alicorn. “Dave, please go into my room,” Celestia gave Dave a worried glance. “I don’t want the stress to affect your recovery,” The princess sighed as Dave slowly nodded

“I managed to negotiate a decent truce that will ensure a stable peace,” Dave sighed as he rubbed his eyes and entered the bedroom. “I just think that Chrysalis enjoys messing something up wherever she goes… Remember the time she pretended to be you in order to try and get with me?”

Chrysalis froze stiff as the guards exchanged shocked glances before glaring with murderous eyes, furious that they had been tricked by a changeling. Celestia nodded to Dave before slowly turning to stare at Chrysalis

“Leave now,” Celestia said in a quiet and threatening tone. “If I see you near Dave or I even suspect you of even thinking about him then I will come for you, not your swarm… just… you!”

“B-but,” Chrysalis stammered but was silenced as Celestia took a step forwards and the two angry guards lowered their horns. The changeling queen looked past the ponies and saw Dave standing in the bedroom, his hands behind his back as he gave her an emotionless the stare. His stare that showed his true status and condition