Chapter 76

Strong Shield sat quietly as another cool breeze swept across his face, he looked away from the sky and moved his gaze over to the lavender mare beside him. “I’ve missed you,” The unicorn sighed as he kissed the side of Flux’s head.

“I missed you too,” Flux smiled as she rested her head against Strong Shield’s chest. “What should we do now?”

“Nothing,” Strong Shield rested his eye. “For now we should just… enjoy the moment.”

As the pair sat in silence, Battering Ram smirked as he walked past the window, deciding to leave the reunited couple alone. He continued walking until he heard slow and heavy hoovesteps, he turned the corner and saw Luna slowly making her way to a set of stairs, her head hung low.

“Princess Luna?” Battering Ram called as he slowly approached the alicorn, the princess of the moon slowly turned and frowned at the earth pony.

“How did you escape your cell?” Luna turned to glare at Battering Ram, the earth pony noticed a slight redness in Luna’s eyes.

“Uh… Dave let us out, Strong Shield went to see Princess Celestia and he is now with Flux in the gardens,” Battering Ram relaxed slightly as Luna turned away and tried to look away. “Where is Dave?”

Luna visibly flinched as she looked down at the ground, “I don’t know and frankly I don’t want to know.”

Battering Ram rubbed his chin as he slowly approached the princess. “Listen, I know you don’t really like me but if there is anything I can help with then I am more than willing to assist.”

“You and your friends have caused enough damage,” Luna turned to stare at the earth pony with cold eyes. “I think it would be best if you left.”

Battering Ram’s ears fell against his head but stood up again as he heard something approaching, he turned and saw Dave turn the corner and walk over, he was covered in silver armour and held an intimidating helmet under his arm.

“Both of you, I need information,” Dave kept a clear expression as Battering Ram gave him a suspicious gaze and Luna turned her head away with a groan.

“IMPOSTER!” Chrysalis yelled as she dropped from the ceiling and landed on Dave’s shoulders, she froze as Dave looked up at her rather than falling over unconscious as she had hoped.

“Get away from him!” Luna and Battering Ram snarled in unison, they exchanged a confused glance before focusing back on the changing.

Dave sighed as he allowed Chrysalis to jump to the floor and face her two foes and a passive human. “Allow Chrysalis to leave, she can’t provide any assistance and she is no threat.”

“That human is not Dave!” Chrysalis pointed at the armoured human. “He has his body but he is void of all emotion.”

Odio groaned as he whispered into Dave’s ear, “That bug is so pathetic, she thinks that anypony would believe her.”

“She is correct,” Dave sighed. “I am not completely Dave, when his mind was torn apart his conscious mind was disabled and I am a fragment of his subconscious.”

“Wow, I go through all this effort trying to make this subtle and make sure I can talk to you in secret and in the end you just admit everything,” Odio made his voice clear to the other ponies and changeling.

Luna stepped over to Dave’s streamlined chest plate and gasped as a pair of red eyes appeared in the silver. “W-what is going on?”

Dave looked at Luna, “I have two days to make things better for Dave, once my time is up then you will have normal Dave back.”

Chrysalis sighed thankfully, “So when I kissed you I wasn’t kissing some imposter.”

“You what?” Luna stared at Chrysalis with disbelief. Her nostrils flared as she looked ready to charge the changeling queen and stab her with her horn.

“Stop it, all of you,” Dave ordered, all the present beings went quiet as the human stepped over to Luna. “I promise that I will give Dave back, but I need your help.”

The princess of the night looked up at Dave, shuddering under his empty eyes as she slowly nodded. “What do you want?”

“Where is the most secure place in the castle?” Dave held up a small piece of parchment. “I need to make sure that these artefacts are kept safe.”

Luna used her magic to take the sheet and looked at the list, “Purification orb, lucid clock, mirror of possibilities… why do you need all these.”

“I don’t need these,” Dave placed his helmet back on and slowly rotated his neck. “Dave might need these so I am making sure he is prepared.”

“Ok,” Luna stared up at Dave as Battering Ram and Chrysalis remained quiet. “I’ll make sure the artefacts will be kept in the same chamber as the Elements of Harmony.”

Dave nodded, “I am going to head to the dining room, if you or anypony else have any questions then bring them along, I will explain everything then.”

Luna nodded as Dave walked away, she shuddered as she looked at the floor before turning to Battering Ram and Chrysalis, “I’ll go get my sister, I think Strong Shield should come too.”

“What about me?” Chrysalis met Luna’s angry glare as the alicorn gently snarled.

“You can come, so long as you inform Adamas of the meeting,” Luna smirked as Chrysalis’ eyes popped open. “I will see you all there.”

Later…

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Odio hummed. “They won’t like anything you say.”

“Because it is the truth,” Dave sighed as he looked at his blade on the table. “They can’t change anything now so there is no need for secrecy.”

The fog of hatred grumbled before swirling to Dave’s helmet and tapping Dave’s head with a small tendril. “You still haven’t told me the full plan, only that Harvest is coming and that it will be here in two days.”

“Two days and then everypony can go back to normal,” Dave removed his gauntlets as he held his palms against the blade, his fingers gripping against the crystal. He ignored the pain from his mark as the blade slowly twisted, the crystal phasing through the table and his hands as some parts of the sword melted.

The dining room door slowly opened and Dave pulled his hands away from the sword as it snapped back to reality and returned to being a normal sword. Odio poked Dave’s hands with fog as the human slipped his hands back into his spiked gauntlets.

“What the hell did you do to that sword?” Odio muttered quietly as ponies began to enter the room and take their seats. Dave glanced at the crystal blade before taking it from the table and resting it against his chair as he sat down.

Celestia sat opposite as Luna and Shining Armour sat beside her, Chrysalis was about to sit next to the captain of the guard but a quick Cadence quickly snatched the spot. Strong Shield and Battering Ram sat either side of Dave, Flux sat next to Strong Shield whilst Chrysalis took the other spot next to Battering Ram. A large shadow of a dragon head filled one of the windows and signalled Adamas’ arrival.

“I will answer any questions you have,” Dave sighed as he removed his helmet and placed it down on the table, he spotted Celestia’s suspicious glare as he looked back up. “Where is Nox?”

“He is in Ponyville, staying with Applebloom’s family,” Celestia narrowed her eyes. “Who are you and what have you done with my fiancée?”

Dave looked at the table as he cleared his throat, “Well I am just a part of Dave’s subconscious, just the fragment responsible for him not killing himself.”

“You have done a glorious job so far,” Odio chuckled.

“The first time he died was a shock yes,” Dave hummed. “But when it became apparent that my role as survival instinct was no longer required I… watched.”

Strong Shield glanced at the princesses before leaning forward, “So when did Dave actually disappear?”

“When a piece of Dave’s mind was torn from his skull, I stepped in as a reflex but actually filled the void as this body’s conscious,” Dave scratched his cheek with one of the spikes on his gauntlet. “After seeing what Dave does for others I saw fit to make some adjustments so that Dave never has to sacrifice himself in some ways to help others.”

“You are just trying to protect Dave, like always,” Cadence hummed. “When Shining told me that you had been acting odd I had assumed that Tartarus had warped him err… you… I mean Dave.”

“Dave doesn’t need anypony to help him, that is the problem I am solving,” The human rubbed his eyes as the ponies all exchanged nervous glances. “I am making sure Dave deals with his own problems, which is the only way things can be normal.”

Flux leaned forward and cut off the princess of the sun, “What will be different when Dave comes back?”

“Nothing, he will remember everything except this part where I currently act as his conscious,” Dave glared as Luna gave a smile. “No I will not remove his memory of Tartarus, he learned a lot and it is useful to him.”

Chrysalis hissed as she pointed a hoof at Dave, “What do you want? I refuse to believe that you want to disappear again.”

Some of the other ponies reluctantly nodded as Dave looked down at his hands, “I am Dave’s survival instinct, I don’t have one of my own so why should I care about fading back to my corner of Dave’s mind?”

Most of the ponies seemed satisfied with the answer, Battering Ram looked past Dave to see Strong Shield and Flux exchanging nervous looks. “What about your father? Will he still be punished?”

“No, neither will you or Flux,” Dave looked across at the unicorn and Pegasus. “Dave doesn’t blame any of you and he would actually benefit from having somepony else with certain knowledge like yours.”

Shining Armour stared at Dave as he shuffled forward in his seat, “What is going to be done about this… Harvest?”

“It will be destroyed completely and Dave should awaken as if he had just been asleep,” Dave pointed to Luna and Celestia as they glanced at each other. “Both of you will have to help him readjust, he will still have to recover from Tartarus but that should only be for a few days.”

“We won’t let him down,” Celestia nodded as Luna copied her big sister. “So when are you going to solve this?”

Dave tapped his head, “I can feel the other part of Dave’s mind reaching out, it should be here in about two days.”

“What should we do to help?” Luna sat forward eagerly. “We can help restrain it or…”

“No,” Dave tightened his fist as he stared at his helmet. “It is between me and Harvest, Odio will repair Dave and ensure Harvest’s destruction.”

Odio whizzed happily around Dave’s armour, “Woo! Best job!”

“That is the basics, I can answer any questions you may have,” Dave sat back and waited patiently as the ponies exchanged glances or mumbled to each other.

“Does Dave really love me?” Chrysalis asked as she avoided Celestia’s, Luna’s and Cadence’s furious glares.

“Dave respects you as a ruler and as a sister,” The human hummed as he noticed a small blush on the changeling queen. “But a permanent relationship is out of the question for now.”

“For now…” Chrysalis smirked as Celestia’s horn almost began to glow from her rage.

“What about Harvest?” Adamas asked, causing the windows to rattle from his booming voice. “What is it likely to do?”

Dave turned to look at the silhouette in the window, “Harvest gained Dave’s emotions, it will likely be distracted by things it has feeling for but it will come to me because it craves the memories, it is harmless to anything but me.”

The shadow of the dragon nodded before everypony slowly fell into an awkward silence, Dave stood and looked around at everypony that was around the table. “I will require you all to leave, I need a private word with Celestia.”

Strong Shield stood as everypony began to leave the room, “How are you going to beat Harvest?”

“I am going to let it kill me.”