The Life Of D-Pad

by FoxVillain321

Chapters

Chapter One: Abandonment
Chapter Two: Façade
Chapter 3: Fury
Chapter 4: Hope
Chapter 5: Detonate
Chapter 6: Intrigue
Chapter 7: Problematic
Chapter 8: Waiting
Chapter 9: Hate
Final Chapter: Life
Chapter 10: Fear

Chapter One: Abandonment

“That…thing needs to be killed.” A dark blue unicorn stallion spoke up, piercing the evening silence.

“But…h-he’s just a baby.” A bright yellow pegasus mare reasoned.

“There you go again…it doesn’t matter what gender it is, it’s an abomination.” The unicorn growled.

“No! There’s nothing wrong with him!” She defended.

“DID YOU NOT SEE ITS WINGS!?! NORMAL PEGASI WINGS DON’T LOOK LIKE THAT!!!” The unicorn shouted.

The pegasus stepped back in fear.

“W-w-we could put him up for adoption!” She tried to reason again.

“Who’s going to adopt it? With that last attack by those…those…disgraces of pegasi, no one would want to take it in. They’d probably want it dead, too.” The unicorn explained.

“Please, don’t do this…” the pegasus begged.

“How can you still want it? That…freak of a Pegasus did that to you…you bare its child…and you still want it?” the unicorn asked.

“He’s still my child! You can’t tell me what I have to do with him!” The Pegasus shouted, crying.

“It’s going to grow up to be like them! DO YOU WANT THAT!?” the unicorn shouted.

“No…No he…No…He…”She stammered, choking back her tears.

“Mommy, why are you and Daddy yelling at each other?”

The two looked towards the new voice. A light blue unicorn filly approached the two.

“Go back to bed honey, Mommy and I are talking.” The unicorn said, ushering the little filly back to her room.

“Why is mommy crying?” The little filly asked.

The unicorn went and put the little unicorn to bed. He then came back to the pegasus.

“Fine. It’s your child. You kill it.”

The pegasus’s jaw dropped.

“No…NO! Don’t make me…”

“If you don’t kill it, I have someone else kill it.” The unicorn spat.

“You wouldn’t!”

“The whole town wants all of their kind destroyed. I just have to tell everyone that there’s a baby one in my home. They’ll do anything to kill it.” The unicorn cackled.

The unicorn walked back to his bedroom. The pegasus paced in fear. What to do, what to do? If she won’t kill the baby pegasus, the unicorn would rile the town to kill him.

She forced herself into her room. She slowly walked over to the baby’s bassinet. The tiny pegasus stirred with his mother’s approach. The pegasus kissed her baby’s forehead. She then lifted the baby and put him in a stroller.

The Pegasus and her baby approached a lake. She pushed the stroller near the lake’s edge. She wrapped her baby in a blanket and took him out of the stroller. She started to walk into the water, the baby and blanket on her back. She stopped and looked to the sky. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky tonight. The moon glowed dimly in the sky.

“Oh sweet Celestia…if you can hear me, please help me.” She begged.

She continued her descent into the water.

“Quicksilver! Don’t fly so fast!”

The Pegasus stopped and looked back. A large gray pegasus stallion was chasing a smaller Pegasus colt around in the sky.

The bright yellow Pegasus rushed back to the stroller. She laid her baby back in the stroller, and then darted off into the sky.

The smaller Pegasus landed to the ground. He was dark red with bright brown eyes and a black buzz-cut mane. His flank was barren of a cutie mark. The larger pegasus landed next to him. He was dark gray with silver eyes and black comb-over mane. He had a blacksmiths anvil as a cutie mark.

“Come on, daddy! I just got to be ready to fly on my own. Just let me try!” the smaller pegasus begged.

“I don’t doubt that you can fly on your own, Quicksilver. Heck, you flew around half of Stalliongrad when we first settled there. I just worry about you. You are my son, after all.” The larger pegasus replied.

“Daddy, why did we leave Stalliongrad?” Quicksilver asked.

The larger pegasus sighed heavily. He then hung his head.

“It just wasn’t a nice place to raise foals.” The larger pegasus sighed.

Quicksilver looked at his father with concern. He then brought his attention to the lake.

“The moon looks very pretty in the water.” Quicksilver oohed.

“Indeed it does.” The larger pegasus agreed.

The larger pegasus then snapped his attention to the baby stroller. It was slowly rolling away into the lake, with something wailing in it. In a split second, he darted over and lifted it to dry land. He looked in the stroller, and found a tiny pegasus wrapped in a wet blanket. He unwrapped the baby pegasus.

“Dear Celestia…” the larger pegasus gasped.

The baby was light yellow with light green eyes and short, untidy mane. Instead of normal pegasus wings and feathers, he had a pair of bat wings. He was still wailing from the cold.

"Quicksilver! Go get Windstorm as fast as you can, and bring a blanket!” the larger pegasus commanded Quicksilver.

Quicksilver flapped his wings and flew into the sky. The larger pegasus did his best to warm up the baby Pegasus by cuddling up to it. The baby pegasus snuggled up to him.

“Where did you come from, little one?” He murmured to the baby pegasus.

After a few minutes, Quicksilver flew back with a blanket. A bright red pregnant pegasus mare with hazel eyes, long blonde hair, and a tornado as her cutie mark flew down to the ground. She was holding a baby carrier in her hoof.

“Forge, is he going to be alright?” Windstorm asked.

Forge wrapped the baby pegasus in the dry blanket. He then placed the baby Pegasus in the baby carrier next to another baby pegasus.

“He’ll be just fine.” Forge replied.

“Do you think he’ll get along with Swift Strike?” Wind Storm asked.

Forge looked into the baby carrier. He listened to the two baby pegasi. The light yellow pegasus eyes slowly closed.

“I think they’ll be just fine.” He replied, smiling.

Forge and Windstorm rubbed noses.

“I have something to tell you, Windstorm. But first…” Forge said, turning to Quicksilver. “…You need to get back to the cart and go to sleep, Quicksilver. It’s past you bedtime, and we’ll be in Manehattan in a couple hours.”

“Aww…” Quicksilver whined, flying away.

Forge and Windstorm took off, Windstorm holding the baby carrier with her hoof.

“What did you want to tell me?” Windstorm asked.

“Okay. When I unwrapped the little one, he did not have normal pegasus wings…he has bat wings.” He explained.

Windstorm gasped in shock.

“But that means…”

“Yes…all those raids…all those ponies…he is an offspring of one of those…fiends.” He murmured.

“The nearby towns will want to kill him if they find him…Forge, what are we going to do?” Windstorm asked.

Forge thought for a few minutes.

“…Do you believe that he deserves to live?” Forge asked.

Windstorm nodded.

“He may grow up to be just like the pegasi that have been ransacking some of the towns nearby.” Forge responded.

“I will do everything I can to make sure he never grows up like that.” Windstorm defended.

Forge smiled.

“I didn’t expect anything less from you. He deserves a good and happy life. We will raise him up as one of our own.” He said.

Windstorm leaned up to Forge and kissed him on the cheek.

As the two landed by the cart, they noticed that Quicksilver had already fallen asleep in the back of the cart. He made a makeshift bed out of all of the suitcases that the trio had packed. He had also scribbled some words on a piece of paper. Windstorm looked at the paper, and noticed that it was a list of names.

“Looks like Quicksilver wanted another baby brother.” Forge spoke, reading over Windstorm’s shoulder.

One of the names was circled and underlined.

“D-Pad…he’s been hanging out with his unicorn friends.” Forge chuckled. “There always talking about those “videogames” and techy whatnot.”

“I like the name. It has a nice ring to it…” Windstorm spoke.

Forge gave a confused look at Windstorm. He then shrugged his shoulder.

“It’s an unusual name, I’ll give you that…but your right. For some reason, it seems to fit him.” Forge agreed.

Windstorm hopped back into the cart with the baby carrier. Forge saddled up to the cart. After a few minutes, the family was on their way to Manehattan.

Windstorm looked up at the moon.

“Thank you for this gift.” She spoke to the sky.

And for a split second…

…She thought the moon smiled.

Chapter Two: Façade

“KILL IT!!”

“IT’S NOTHING BUT EVIL!!”

“DESTROY IT!!”

“IT’S HORRIBLE!!”

“IT WILL EAT OUR CHILDREN!!”

“KILL THE BEAST!!”

I snap awake. And not a moment too soon. That nightmare was getting horrific. That’s what I get for getting hammered at two in the morning. Ugh, so hungover…Erp.

“Oh, this isn’t gonna be good!” I shout.

I jump off my bed and run into the bathroom. I kneel down, put my face into the toilet, and spend the next few minutes puking my entire stomach contents into the toilet.

“Ugh…I don’t remember eating cupcakes.”

I walk over to the sink and rinse my mouth out. I look into the mirror. Now, who’s that good looking yellow stallion in my mirror? And my, what a lovely videogame controller cutie mark he has! I stretch out my yellow bat wings and flap them lightly. I turn on the shower and step in. OW! OOOOW!! TOO HOT!! TOO HOT!!

After scalding myself, then nearly freezing myself, then get the water to a tolerable temperature and shower, I get ready for the day. I comb my mane to the short, unkempt style I grew up to enjoy. I dry off my long bushy tail and walk back to my room. I look around my room. I look at my P-box 360 and makeshift T.V. set. Can’t believe it’s been five years, and that old machine still works. I then look down at the floor pad with a bunch of buttons I custom made for pegasi and earth ponies to play videogames with. It must have taken years to perfect it. Heck, it’s taken years to play videogames. Unicorns have it so easy.

I walk downstairs.

“Morning, sunshine! How’s my bro doing?”

I am greeted by a light gray pegasus with a black mohawk and a short spiked tail. He has light green eyes and two swords clashing together as a cutie mark.

“Morning, Swift Strike…” I grumble.

“Sounds like somepony had a liiiiiiiiittle to much to drink last night.” He comments.

“Swift Strike. Quit picking on your brother.”

I turn to face my foster mother, Windstorm. The bright red Pegasus looks at Swift Strike with slight humor.

“I know mom, I just messin with him.” He replys, putting a hoof on my shoulder.

Swift Strike walks back to the table in the dining room with the rest of my foster family.

“You do need to be careful when you go out drinking…” my mother states, turning to me. “Forge and I know that you’re a grown stallion and you can take care of yourself, but please try to take it easy. We worry that one of these days you’re going to do something you’ll regret…or worse.”

“I know…It’s just…”

“I know…” She interrupts me, putting a hoof up to quiet me. “This is the eighth time we’ve had to move. You’re a fine stallion. But you know about all those bat-winged pegasi…”

I nod my head. It’s been a couple of months since many of the bat-winged pegasi that have been causing trouble in much of Equestria had been apprehended. Some still are out there, but most have been imprisoned.

“It hurts every time we have to move, but we’re willing to. You’ve done so much good for the people you help. But those pegasi have done any good for your reputation.” She continues.

I nod my head again.

“But here I am, talking my head off. You must be hungry. I’ve made you some jelly toast.” She says, smiling.

She walks back to the dining room, with me following behind.

“So, there I am, about to sell this guy a silver medallion, when BOOM! There’s this huge rainbow in the sky! And I mean huge! It went like in a massive circle!” A dark red pegasus stallion exclaims to a bright white pegasus mare.

“Sounds like you got to see a Sonic Rainboom. I heard that one of the pegasi around here does that…Rainbloom Crash or something.” A dark grey pegasus stallion replies to the dark red pegasus.

“Aww…I never get to see the cool stuff…” A young pale red pegasus colt whines.

“Morning everypony.” I interrupt.

“D-Pad!” The white pegasus exclaims, running over to me. She had a black bob cut mane with blue highlights and a short tail. She has light blue eyes and a drum as her cutie mark.

“I like what you did with your mane, Storm Drum.” I complement her.

I turn to the pale red pegasus. He has hazel eyes, a blonde fauxhawk and a short, spiny tail. He doesn’t have his cutie mark yet.

“And how are you doing, Bolt?

“Did you get to see the Sonic Rainboom!?” He asks.

“Yeah, and it was loud. I had to cover my ears.” I reply.

Bolt whines even louder.

“So, how goes the silver business, Quicksilver?” I ask the large dark red pegasus.

He turns to look at me. You know I still don’t know why a pegasus would shave his mane off. Well, whatever, he’s good at making silver trinkets and what not. I mean his cutie mark is a drop of liquid silver.

“Not bad at all!” He replies. “I’ve made quite a bit of a profit in this new town.”

I look at the large dark gray pegasus.

“Morning, Dad.” I greet him.

“Morning, son. Did you have a good time last night?” He asks.

“Yep. I met a couple of the ponies from here, too.” I reply.

“Goodness! Look at the time!” Windstorm interrupts us. “D-Pad! You better hurry up, if you want to get to the town before everypony floods the market.”

I quickly munch my jelly toast.

“Mom, I need help.” I say to Windstorm.

She nods. She grabs some rope and ties my wings to my sides. I then put on my full body jacket, and run out the door. Outside, I pick up my sandwich board, and put it on my back. I look out towards Ponyville. It will take some time to get there, but I’ll manage.

“PONY FOR HIRE!!” I shout, heading out to Ponyville.

“Darn it, Vinyl…” Octavia grumbled.

Octavia had never planned to go to the Ponyville market today. She planned to finally straighten up her basement with her roommate, Vinyl Scratch. Maybe even listen to some Beethoven on her record player. But her roommate thought it would be nice to take that record and see if she could mix techno with classical. And as luck would have it, her roommate broke her record. And by broke, she had somehow managed to split the record into two perfect halves.

“Now where is that record store again?” She asked herself.

Many of the ponies had started coming out of their homes. Some had started setting up their shops, while others were patiently waiting for the shops to be open.

“Ah, here we are…Oh, of all the…

Octavia approached the record store, only to find that the owner was on holiday, and the store was closed until he came back.

Disgruntled, she decided to check around the market to see if any of the vendors had a Beethoven record.

After about a half an hour of searching, she finally called it quits. None of the vendors had even one Beethoven record.

“Wonderful, just wonderful.” She grumbled sarcastically.

She started walking back to her home. She wasn’t exactly excited to go back and clean out the basement. Even with Vinyl, it would take about half the day to clean it out. At least some good classical music would have made it more bearable.

“Well, cheer up Octavia. Something good will happen to you. I’m sure of it! I mean it just has to!” She thought to herself.

“PONY FOR HIRE!!!”

“PONY FOR HIRE!!!” I shout out again.

I ring my bell a couple of times. Next to me sits my sandwich board with the words “Pony for Hire” written in red marker. I drop my bell.

“PONY FOR HI-”

I find myself shouting in a gray mare’s face.

“Oh my goodness, I-I-I am so sorry!” I apologize.

She looks at me with shock. I don’t blame her, considering I just shouted in her face.

She takes a moment to adjust herself.

“Ahem, yes…well, no harm done. You were saying you’re a pony for hire?” She asks me.

“Yes, ma’am. D-Pad: Pony for Hire at your service!” I reply enthusiastically.

“What exactly do you do?” She asks.

“Everything ma’am. Moving, unboxing, boxing, labor, painting, building…pretty much anything that an earth pony can do!” I reply.

“How much does it take to hire you?” She asks.

“Depends on what the job is, and how long it takes.” I reply.

She thinks for a moment. You know, she looks very pretty. That grey coat, the long, dark gray hair, the treble clef cutie mark…

“When can you start?” She asks.

I form the biggest grin that I can.

“As soon as possible!” I reply, happily.

“Very well then, would you be willing to help me and my roommate clean out our basement?” She asks, lightening up.

“WOULD I!?!” I shout.

She looks at me in shock again. Nice one D-Pad. Mister Smooth.

“Right.” She says, clearing her throat. “Follow me.”

I walk behind her. We walk for a bit.

“Hey, by the way, I didn’t get your name.” I state.

“My name is Octavia.” She replies without turning to face me.

“Epic! That’s an awesome name!” I complement.

“You think my name is “awesome”?” She asks, bewildered.

“Yeah! It has this awesome ring to it. Octavia…Yep, still cool.”

She turns to face me.

“Thank you for that.” She says, finally smiling. “To be honest, I wasn’t feeling to excited about coming to the market today. I was originally looking for a new Beethoven record…”

“OH! That’s awesome. I like classical music! Beethoven is a great composer! I love his 5th Symphony! You know, duh duh duh daaaaaaa…” I say, mimicking the song.

“Really!?” She says, brightly grinning. “What else do you like?”

“I like rock, pop, techno, electronica, dance, dubstep, and all the others. Except rap…seriously, who thought rhyming about cheap mares, money and drugs was a good idea?” I joke.

She slightly giggles.

“Oh, here we are!” She says, stopping.

We come to a two story house. White wood siding, shingles, windows…yep…It’s a house. I hear loud thumping music coming from inside.

“Oh dear…it sounds like my roommate is awake.” She states.

“It’s no problem, why is so bad that she’s awake?” I ask, opening the front door.

To which I am greeted with the loudest dubstep I have ever heard.

“VINYL!!” Octavia shouted over the blaring music.

Vinyl Scratch was bobbing her head to the loud music.

“VINYL!!”

“YO, TAVI! YOU LIKE MY MORNING WAKE UP!!” Vinyl yelled over the music.

“NO! NOW TURN THAT MUSIC DOWN! YOU DON’T WANT TO DRIVE AWAY OUR-”

D-Pad was bobbing his head to the music and dancing.

“THIS PARTY CAN’T EVEN HANDLE ME!!!” D-Pad shouted.

Vinyl shut off the DJ booth.

Wait…what happened to the awesome music!? I hope I didn’t break anything.

The white unicorn approaches me. She has a blue and cyan striped mane. She has bright crimson eyes and a bridged eighth note cutie mark.

“Sup.” She greets me.

“Morning! My names D-Pad. Octavia says you two have a basement that needs to be cleaned.” I say, shaking her hoof.

“Aw Tavi, do we have to do it today? I wanted to work on my latest song.” Vinyl whines.

“You said the same thing yesterday, and all you did was nap all day.” Octavia comments.

Vinyl grumbles and walks into their dining room.

“You’ll have to forgive her. She’s very nice, she just likes to procrastinate.” Octavia explains.

“Oh, no problem. At least she is going to help us.” I say.

We walk into their dining room. Decent décor, I will admit. It looks nicer than my house’s dining room…wait, is that a freaking speaker on the washing machine!?! What!?! That’s the coolest thing ever!

“And here’s the basement.” Octavia says, pointing to an open door.

We walk down a flight of stairs. Wow. Boxes upon boxes of stuff. Vinyl is opening a box labeled “Rave stuff”.

“So that’s where those white glow sticks have been. I’ve looked everywhere for them.” She cheerfully stated.

“So, what do you want me to do, and where do you want me to start?” I ask.

“Well, we would like to get some of these boxes unpacked and some of the boxes put away more neatly. Could you help us take some of the boxes upstairs?” Octavia asks.

I nod compliantly.

“You can start by taking these boxes upstairs.” Vinyl says, putting a couple of boxes on my back.

…

“Well, that’s almost all of the boxes upstairs!” I shout up towards Octavia.

“How many are left?!” She shouts in reply.

“Four boxes.” Vinyl states.

“Four boxes!” I shout up the stairs.

Vinyl and I pick up the boxes downstairs. I notice a box that isn’t labeled.

“Vinyl, what’s in that one?” I ask.

“I’m not sure. Might as well bring it up as well.” She replies.

She levitates the box onto the two other boxes on my back. We walk up the stairs. The dining room is now filled with boxes. Some have been opened.

“Thanks, that saves us a couple of hours.” Octavia thanks me. “Now, how much do I owe you?”

“Well, It took about four hours, and it was a transport job…I’d say about 20 bits.” I calculate.

“Oh dear…seems I only have 13…” Octavia says worriedly.

“I can take that. In fact if you would like, I could help you unpack or pack for a little longer, free of charge.” I offer.

“That’s…very kind of you. Are you sure it won’t be a problem?” She asks.

“Ma’am, you are one of the nicest ponies I’ve met in a long time. It been years since anyone has been so kind to me. You’ve talked to me, laughed at my jokes I’ve made today, even if some weren’t that funny, and even gave me some lemonade. It would dishonorable to not help such a good pony.” I complement Octavia.

She stands there, blushing.

“Wow…thank you…” She thanks me.

I set the boxes down.

“What did you mean “it’s been years since someone has been so kind to me”?” She asks.

I swallow hard.

“I can’t tell you…” I sigh.

“Don’t be silly. Why do you think you can’t you tell me?” She asks.

I sit on the ground.

“Because everyone who I thought would understand didn’t.” I reply.

She sits down in front of me.

“It’s okay…tell me what’s wrong.” She says.

I sigh and just sit there for a while. After a few minutes I take off my jacket. She sees my bat wings tied with ropes. She gasps.

“Please, don’t scream or anything. Yes, I am one of those bat-winged pegasi, but I swear I would never do anything that those other pegasi. I have been raised by a group of pegasi who have taught me not to behave like the bat-wing pegasi. I can’t show my true self in front of ponies, as they tend to think of me as a…monstrosity. Please don’t tell anyone…I don’t want to move again…” I beg

…

“You know, I think it make you look unique.” She comments

I smile.

“Hey Tavi! I thought you were coming up stairs to…”

Vinyl comes back into the dining room. She stops and just stares at my wings.

“Oh…my…” Vinyl gasps, backing up.

I get up.

“Now, Miss Scratch please don’t…” I say taking a step toward her.

“GET AWAY FROM ME YOU CREEP!!” She shouts at me.

She tosses a plate from one of the boxes at me, to which I duck under it. She then levitates Octavia over to her.

“Please, Vinyl just let me…”

The second plate hits my forehead. A third plate hits me in the face. I fall over and put my hooves on my face. She keeps tossing plates at me…

“Take that, you monster!” Vinyl shouts.

“VINYL!!”

Vinyl put down the plate she was about to toss. She looked over at Octavia. She had never seen her so angry. She had never raised her voice like that.

“Tavi…”

Octavia walked over to D-Pad. She moves his hooves away from his face. His face is nicked in a few places. He is bleeding slightly.

“Are you going to be okay?” She asks him.

He stands up. He looks like he’s been crying. He nods.

Octavia grabs a rag and gets it wet. She then wipes off D-Pad’s face, cleaning some of the blood off his face.

“Tavi?” Vinyl whispers.

Octavia glares at Vinyl.

“How dare you!” She growls at Vinyl. “He did all these nice things for us! He was going to take less money than he was going to charge us, and was going to help us even more, free of charge! He’s only reaching out for somepony to be his friend!”

“But, he’s one of those…” Vinyl began.

“SAY IT! CALL HIM A MONSTER!!”

Vinyl backed away.

“JUST LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID TO HIM!!!”

Vinyl stood there, unable to utter a sound for a while.

“O-Octavia…”

“JUST…just go back to your room…” Octavia growled.

“…Eight times?” Octavia asks me.

“I’ve been a bunch of places. Manehatten, Fillydelphia, Maneyapolis, Chicoltgo, Detrot…and I’ve been kicked out of all of them.” I reply, still holding the wet rag to my face.

“Dear Celestia…how do you keep going?” She asks.

“My family helps. But the real thing I strive for is this simple idea…One day, I will be able to walk outside, stretch my wings, and fly into the sky without anyone judging me. That’s why I keep going. I hope one day, I’ll be part of the reason that I can live this dream.” I reply.

I hear a creak from the stairs. I assume Vinyl came downstairs. I look toward the stairs.

“Hey…I…I’m really sorry for throwing all those plates at you…And for messin up your face…and for calling you a monster.” She whimpers.

“Well…It’s not the worst thing that’s happened to me.” I joke.

She averts her eyes from looking at me.

“Hey. It’s okay. I’m not mad at you.” I reassure her.

Vinyl looks at me in bewilderment.

“You’re not?” She asks, puzzled.

“Vinyl, if I had a bit for the number of times I was pelted with stuff, I wouldn’t need to be working.” I joke.

She chuckles.

“Well, now that were all back together again, how about we finish up this clean up.” Vinyl says, happily.

Octavia and I both smile.

“NO WAY!” Vinyl exclaims.

“Yep! I built my own floor pad to play videogames. Let me tell you, I am phenomenal at Pony Fighter III.” I reply.

“I have got to see you play videogames. To think, unicorns aren’t the only ones to be able to play them.” Vinyl commented.

“Hey, Octavia! What’s in this unlabeled box?!” I shout upstairs to her bedroom.

“Go ahead and look, I’ll be down in a sec.” She shouted in reply.

I open up the box. Inside is a bunch of white packing peanuts. There’s something under all of them. I reach in…

…And pull out a dark gray saddle. It has Octavia’s name stitched on it.

“Well…Err…This is awkward.” I state, taken back.

“What…Oh my Celestia!” Vinyl laughs, inspecting the saddle with me.

“What are you two…”

Octavia stops dead in her tracks.

“Th-that’s not mine!!” She gasps.

“It has your name on it.” Vinyl comments.

Octavia turns a bright red.

“I didn’t think you were into that kinky stuff, Tavi.” Vinyl comments.

“I-I-I’m not!” She replies, turning an even brighter red.

“Wait, wait there’s got to be a matching pair of socks…Aha!” Vinyl says, pulling out two pairs of dark gray socks.

Octavia face turns the brightest red I’ve ever seen a pony’s face turn.

I started busting a gut laughing.

“Thank you so much for doing all this stuff for us today.” Octavia thanks me.

“No problem, and thanks for not judging me because of what I am.” I reply.

“Well, it’s getting late. You should head home.” Octavia says.

I put my jacket back on and head towards the door.

“Hey, Octavia.” I say turning around.

She looks back at me.

“Are you doing anything tomorrow night?” I ask.

She smiles.

“Not that I know of.” She replies.

“Would you like to go out and have dinner with me?” I ask.

She walks me to her door.

“Tomorrow at 6:30?” She asks.

“I’ll be here to pick you up.” I reply.

I walk out. She shuts the door behind me.

YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!

Chapter 3: Fury

“Do you think I look ok?” I ask. “I mean, do you think a tie would be better?”

“D-Pad, you look fine.” Windstorm replies, tying my wings down.

Yeah, she’s right. Bowties are always in style. I put on my full-body dress coat over my dress shirt.

“I never thought I’d see my little colt finally get to go out with another pony. I’m proud of you, son.” Forge says to me, patting my shoulder.

“Thanks, dad.”

“Hurry up, D-Pad! You’re going to be late!” Storm Drum calls from outside.

“Coming!” I shout, trotting out the door.

Swift Strike and Quicksilver are saddled up to a wooden carriage. I sit down in the carriage. My brothers and I take off towards Ponyville.

“YO, TAVI! YOUR DATE’S HERE!!” Vinyl shouted up the stairs.

Octavia walked down the stairs. She wore a white collar with a pink bowtie.

She walked outside to a wooden carriage.

“Evening, miss.” Quicksilver said, bowing.

“Hey, what’s up?!” Swift Strike shouted.

Quicksilver and D-Pad both facehoof themselves. Octavia giggled at them.

She climbed into the carriage.

“You look very pretty.” D-Pad complimented.

“Thank you. You look rather dashing yourself.” She complemented D-Pad.

D-Pad smiled.

We arrive at the fancy restaurant my dad had told me about. I don’t think I’ve seen so many unicorns in one place! I heard that Canterlot was one of the most prominent unicorn cities, but I think prominent is an understatement. I think they sensed that non unicorns were in their city, as they immediately lifted their noses. Talk about posh.

“Have you seen this many unicorns in one place?” I whisper to Quicksilver.

“If I said yes, I’d be lying.” Quicksilver joked.

I get out of the carriage, and help Octavia out of the carriage.

“We’ll be back in a bit. We’re going to try and sell some of our silver trinkets to some of the unicorns here.” Quicksilver says, unsaddling from the cart.

I walk with Octavia into the restaurant. Man, look at this place! Red leather booths, fine oak tables, crystal chandeliers, astonishing artworks…this IS posh.

“Do you have reservations?”

I snap my attention to a mustached unicorn in a tuxedo behind a fancy red podium.

“Do you have reservations?” He repeats himself, snootily.

“Oh right! It’s under D-Pad.” I say.

He looks at a list on the podium he is sitting behind.

“Ah…yes, that booth over there.” He points at a booth.

We walk over to the booth.

“Friendly bunch, aren’t they?” I joke.

“It’s because you’re not a unicorn.” She explains.

It’s always the little details. We sit down in our booth.

“I’ll admit this place looks stunning.” I comment.

“Indeed, I admire the work they…”

Octavia stops midsentence.

“Oh no…” She whispers, hiding her face in the menu.

“What? What’s wrong?” I ask.

I look around and see two grey unicorns, a mare and stallion, approaching the table. The mare was the splitting image of Octavia, but older and had a base clef as a cutie mark. The stallion bore a weird resemblance of a male Octavia. His cutie mark was covered by his tuxedo.

Wait…are they?

“Hello, Octavia…”

“Hello…Mother.” Octavia grumbles, putting down the menu.

I take a few seconds to examine Octavia and compare her to her parents.

“HAH! Genetics.” I laugh heartily.

I hear Octavia stifle a snicker.

The two unicorns give me a quizzical look.

“And you are?” The stallion asks me.

“D-Pad.” I say extending my hoof for a hoofshake.

“Interesting.” He says, staring at my hoof.

“You didn’t tell me you were dating someone.” The mare says to Octavia.

I would gather a guess that she didn’t WANT to let her mother know she was dating.

“He’s just taking me out for dinner. We’re not exactly dating.” She replies.

“Oh good, then you will not mind if we join you, then.” The mare stated.

Oh I mind. But I have been thrust into an awkward situation here. If I say something, I’ll look disrespectful, and these are her parents.

“No, please join us.” I say.

They sit down in the booth with us. Wonderful.

A waiter comes to our table and asks for our orders.

“Chef’s salad and…sarsaparilla.” I say.

Celestia, I could go for some vodka and Red Bull. I could down a couple of glasses of it right now.

“I will have the same.” Octavia says to the waiter.

He walks away.

“You never said why you and your roommate moved to Ponyville, Octavia.” Her mother commented.

“The rent here was getting too high for our tastes.” Octavia replied.

I would not be surprised if she just wanted to get farther away from her parents. By Celestia, if I weren’t the good, gentle pegasus that I am today, I probably would have taped their mouths shut. They just keep going on and on about how wonderful unicorns are. I have half a mind to slam my head on the table so that I knock myself out.

“So, what do you do for a living?” Octavia’s dad asked me.

“Oh, I’m pretty much a pony for hire. I work where I can get work.” I reply.

“Hmm…Interesting…” He huffs.

At least one of us leads an interesting life. I can only imagine what boring job you have.

I turned back to my chef’s salad. I eat a little more of it.

“Where do you live?” Octavia’s mom asks.

“About a mile outside Ponyville.” I say, swallowing my food.

“Appropriate.” She replies.

I don’t know if she’s being blatantly honest, or insulting me.

“I’m also very good at videogames. I built a custom pad that non-unicorns can use to play videogames.”

“Huh…That is quite a feat. I am surprised an earth pony was able to do that.” Octavia’s mother commented.

Okay, I am almost certain that one was an insult.

“Excuse me; I have to use the restroom.” I say getting up.

“Mother, must you insult him?” Octavia asked her mother.

“I wasn’t trying to. I am genuinely surprised he was able to make such a contraption.” She replied.

“He’s quite the character. Where did you meet him?” Octavia’s father asked.

“He offered to help my roommate and I clean out our basement. He’s very sweet; he even offered to stay longer than I paid him for.” She replied.

“You paid him to help clean out your basement?” Her father asked, shocked.

“He IS a pony for hire.” She replied.

“Why didn’t you just ask someone else who would do it for free?” Her father asked.

“I just moved there! Who do you think I knew that could help me?” Octavia retorted.

“Why did he have cuts on his face?” Octavia’s mother changed the subject.

“…Some plates fell down on him.” Octavia lied.

“Surprised he didn’t sue.” Her father commented.

Octavia grumbled.

“Don’t get me wrong, he is a charming stallion. He’s just a little…off.” Her father added.

“And what exactly does that mean?” She asked.

“He seems a little anti-social. He never contributed to any of our conversations.” Her father replied.

“He’s nervous. He didn’t expect to meet you tonight.” Octavia reasoned.

“He also seemed irritated when I talked about pegasi.” Her father added.

“He was adopted by pegasi.” Octavia replied.

“That explains it, with all the lies they probably told him.”

Octavia nearly choked on her salad.

“What?” She said, astonished.

“Pegasi control the weather. They water the earth pony’s crops, and provide sunshine for warmth. That story’s been told a hundred times over. But all it would take is a bunch of unicorns to learn weather changing spells, and we wouldn’t need the pegasi anymore.” Her father replied arrogantly.

“You can’t seriously believe that!” Octavia exclaimed.

“Well, it’s true. We even learn spells to walk on the clouds. You’ll soon come to realize that, when it all boils down to it, pegasi are as useless as a common-”

WHAM!!

D-Pad slammed a hoof into Octavia’s father’s face, knocking her father to the floor.

“I’m sorry! I couldn’t hear you over the sound of your teeth rattling!” I yell.

I’ve been waiting to do that all night. Maybe now he’ll shut up about pegasi.

Octavia looks in shock.

“Y-y-you just hit my dad!” She exclaims.

“Serves him right for insulting my family’s kind.” I growl.

Her father lifts himself off the floor.

“How dare you, you filthy earth pony!”

“You mad? Come at me, bro!” I shout at him.

He charges at me. I try to hit him with my hoof again, but he tackles me to the ground. We scuffle around for a couple of minutes.

“Stop it D-Pad!!” Octavia shouts at me.

I end up standing on him.

“CALL MY FAMILY USELESS AGAIN! I BUCKING DARE YOU!!”

He glares at me in anger, then is eyes widen in fear.

I look around. Everypony in the restaurant is staring in fear at me.

…I don’t have my coat on anymore, do I?

“It’s one of them!!” A unicorn shouts in fear.

“It’s going to kill that unicorn!!” Another one shouts.

“No! Please! Listen to me!” I shout to the crowd.

I feel food and silverware being thrown at me.

“Get out of here, you monster!!”

“Go away!!”

“Call the Royal Guard!!”

Octavia runs over to me. She tries to shield me.

“What are you doing?! Get out of here!! I’ll be fine!!” I shout to her.

“No! You’re my friend! I’m not going to let them hurt you!!” She shouts in reply.

I can’t help but smile and hug her.

“Octavia! Get away from that creature!” Her mother yells out.

“No! I want to help him!” She shouts back.

She begins shouting in pain. I look down. Plate shards are everywhere. Someone threw a plate at her. Her leg is bleeding profusely.

Words cannot describe…HOW ANGRY I AM!!

“WHO THREW THAT PLATE!?!”

Dead silence.

I tear off my ropes off my wings.

“WHO. THREW. THAT. PLATE!?!?!”

I flare my wings out. Then I hear a clashing of plates. I turn to find a unicorn trying to put some plates back on the table.

I gallop over and slam my head into the unicorn, knocking him over. I then stamp my hooves into him repeatedly. He starts spitting out blood.

“BURN IN TARTARUS YOU BUCKING BASTARD!!

“D-Pad!”

I look at Octavia.

“Please stop!”

I look down at the broken, bleeding unicorn.

I suddenly feel grief and regret.

Dear Celestia…what have I done!

I gallop of out the restaurant door. I take off toward the sky.

DAMNIT CELESTIA! WHY DO YOU TORTURE ME!!!

So close…SO CLOSE TO NORMALITY! AND THEN THAT BUCKING HAPPENS!!

I trot back and forth by a lake.

IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT!?!

…I’m done…I can’t do it anymore…I’ve tried for so long…

With tears streaming from my eyes, I grab a bunch of heavy stones. I jump into the lake, swim to the bottom and pin my wings under the heavy stones.

Well…This is it…Celestia…If you can hear me…Just watch over my foster family…That's all I wish…ERGH! I wish this wasn’t as painful…my vision is blurring…I’m swallowing a lot of water…I’m letting my last breath out…

Flomp!

The heck was that…I thought I heard something…Wait…I see something…Is…Is that Octavia? What is she…

She put her mouth on mine. I take a breath of “fresh air.” She then pushes the stones of my wings. I swim upwards.

“HEAAAUUH”

I start coughing violently. I swim to shore, and I am greeted by my two brothers. Octavia swims out behind me. She has bandage wraps around her leg.

“Octavia…” I say.

She smacks me across the face.

“WHAT THE TARTARUS WERE YOU THINKING!?!?”

I deserved that.

“I’m really sorry about tonight. I didn’t mean for that to happen. You dad…He was being so horrid… and…You were bleeding and hurt and…I will not be saddened if you want me to leave and never come back.” I say.

“Do you think I would have followed you if I never wanted to see you again?” She asks.

She hugs me.

“It’s not your fault. My father believes that all non-unicorns are unimportant. He treats them like dirt. He knew what he was saying. He wanted to insult your family.” She adds.

I sigh.

“What about that other unicorn?” I ask

She sighs.

“He’s being taken to the hospital…You really did a number on him…”

“I promise I will learn to control my anger more. It won’t happen again.” I reply.

We both sit down and look at the stars.

“Well, I have one more problem facing me…” I state.

“Which is…”

“How am I gonna get my coat back?”

We just stare at each other. We then both burst out laughing.

“Shame that we don’t have any music…” Octavia comments.

…

Quicksilver started humming.

“Some…times in our lives…We all have pain…We all have sorrow…” Swift Strike started singing.

“But…If we are wise…We know that there's…Always tomorrow…” Quicksilver joined in.

“Lean on me…When you’re not strong…and I’ll be your friend…I help you carry on...” I join in singing.

“For…It won’t be long…till I’m gonna need…” Octavia sings, looking straight at me.

We both start slow dancing.

“Somepony to lean on.” Octavia and I sing.

Chapter 4: Hope

You know, I’m starting to get used to everypony running into their homes when I walk down the street. It’s been about a week since, well, I lost my temper. Let me tell you, word spreads fast. The day after the incident, the entire market was in panic when I came to town. The shoppers ran to their houses, the store closed, and all that good stuff. Maybe someday, I’ll try to reason with the ponies that I am no threat…Ah, but that’s for another day. Today, I have my videogame floor pad, a bottle of Stalliongrad Vodka, a six pack of red bull, and a rose. It looks like the sun is going to set in an hour or so.

I approach Octavia’s house. I knock on her door. After a couple of seconds, her door opens.

“D-Pad! You made it!” Octavia exclaimed, hugging me.

“Of course. I wouldn’t miss a chance to show Vinyl who’s the true master at Pony Fighter III.” I joke.

“Yeah, right!” I hear Vinyl shout from inside.

I step inside. Heh, it never ceases to amaze me that about one week ago, this house was full of boxes. Now I can see the red rug floor, and all of the kitchen and living room furnishings. It must be nice to have the kitchen right next to the living room. I walk into the living room. Vinyl is attaching her P-Box 360 to the…the…T-T-Th-THAT’S THE BIGGEST T.V. I’VE EVER SEEN!!!

“Wh-wh-where did you get that!?!” I exclaim.

“This 60 inch bad boy came as a gift. You see, I was performing as a promotional campaign for this unicorn production line, and they gave this to me as payment.” Vinyl explains.

“It’s…beautiful…” I swoon.

I drop my backpack. I pull out the rose I hid under my wing.

“And a present for you.” I say, presenting the rose to Octavia.

“Oh my, thank you!” She exclaims.

She takes the rose and puts it in a vase. She then kisses me on the cheek.

“That’s…the first time you’ve ever kissed me.” I comment, blushing.

“And now you’re redder than Big Macintosh.” She giggles.

“Yeeeeeup!”I imitate Big Macintosh. Octavia giggles again.

I pull out my floor pad from my back pack. I connect it to Vinyl’s P-Box 360.

“That one of the weirdest devices I’ve ever seen. It looks like a giant flat P-Box 360 controller.” Vinyl comments to me.

“Well, not completely flat, all the buttons, the analog sticks, the directional pad, and the bumpers and triggers are all protruding outwards. I had to read books upon books on how to wire the buttons to the plug.” I explain.

Vinyl turns on the T.V. and turns on the P-Box 360. She levitates the Pony Fighter III C.D. into the P-Box.

After a minute or two, the main menu comes up.

“PONY FIGHTER…III!!” The announcer says.

“You ready to get your pegasus ass whipped by a unicorn?” Vinyl challenges.

I step onto the floor pad.

“Watch and learn, horned one…” I reply.

“K.O.!!!”

“Unbelievable…” Octavia gasps.

“FIVE TIMES!?!” Vinyl shouts.

“I still got it…” I say, smirking.

“Seriously! How can you do all those button combinations with only your hooves?!” Vinyl asks.

“My back hooves are for movement, my front hooves are for punches. I’ve mastered synchronization between the four.” I reply.

“Yeah, I can tell.” Vinyl grumbles.

I walk over to my backpack.

“I’m gonna make myself a drink.” I say, pulling the vodka and Red Bull out of my backpack.

“Yeah, I think I can go for a drink myself. Hey Tavi, What do you want?” Vinyl asks Octavia.

“Oh you don’t need to cater to me; I’ll get myself a drink.” She replies, walking to the kitchen.

“So, whats next? I ask Vinyl.

“…How good is your singing?”

“Goodbye, Amareican mare! Goodbye, Amareican chick! Goodbye, Amareican broad!” I sing into the microphone.

The in-game crowd cheered.

“88%...Dang, I’m good.” I cheer.

“90%...top that!” Vinyl brags, holding a Rock Band guitar.

“83%...that’s not too bad, right?” Octavia ask, putting down her guitar and taking a sip of her scotch.

“Not bad at all!” I reply.

“I didn’t think you were a vodka drinker. You look like a beer stallion.” Vinyl admits, taking a swig from her Rum and Coke.

“Oh, I do enjoy beer, but there’s nothing as strong as Stalliongrad Vodka.” I reply, finishing off my glass of vodka and Red Bull.

I go to the kitchen and pour myself another drink.

“So, Scotch!” I shout to the living room. “I thought you were a wine mare, Octavia!”

“Scotch tastes better to me!” She shouts in reply.

“I don’t blame you.” I say, walking into the living room, glass on my back. “I got totally hammered off of box wine, and haven’t been able to drink the stuff since.”

“I heard that.” Vinyl comments. “I had a bad experience with absinthe.”

“Absinthe!? Holy…that’s some powerful stuff!” I reply in astonishment.

“Well, I was younger and my friends pressured me into trying it. I still don’t remember what happened that night.” She adds.

“What about you, Octavia? You ever get hammered off your plot? I ask.

“I try to make it a habit of being respectable in public, even when I drink.” She replies.

“Like that time that you passed out in the club?” Vinyl hints.

“Th-that does one does not count! I was furious with my parents that day and I wanted to forget about it!” Octavia defends.

“Ok, so…” Vinyl says, turning to me. “She’s drinking scotch all night. She gets up, staggering around. She falls into this random brown stallion, and says she wouldn’t mind making babies with him.”

I start laughing hard.

“Then…” She continues. “She starts drunk dancing, hitting a couple of the partygoers. Suddenly, I see her just stop, and then make a beeline for the bathroom. I walk in, and she’s passed out on the toilet.”

I laugh so hard that I start coughing.

“I don’t even remember going into the bathroom.” Octavia comments.

“What’s odd is that I could definitely see you doing that, Octavia. You’re very refined. I wouldn’t be surprised if part of you just wants to let loose.” I state, still laughing.

We all put our instruments on.

“So, what song is up next?” I ask.

“…Ponies! At the Disco it looks like. Nine in the Afternoon.” Vinyl replies.

“Why don’t you sing, Octavia?” I offer.

“Oh, I don’t…”

“Come on, Tavi! Give it a shot!” Vinyl says enthusiastically.

“…Alright…”

“And that's what you get, when you let your heart win, whoooooa…” Octavia sings.

Vinyl and I finish up on the guitars. The in-game crowd cheers.

“97%! Wow, I did that good?” Octavia asks.

“Is it me, or does the more she drinks, the better she gets?” I ask, confounded.

“I don’t know, but I’m still doing better than you!” Vinyl brags.

“Well, looks like I need some more super juice!” I joke, taking a drink from my vodka and red bull.

Vinyl drinks the rest of her rum and coke. She walks back out to the kitchen slightly staggering as she walks.

“You know, I actually feel comfortable drinking with you. When Vinyl mentioned you would be bringing your own alcohol, I was very worried. But you seem to be holding you alcohol well.” Octavia admits, finishing up her scotch.

“Oh I’ve been worse…Oh, and before I forget, could you tie my wings to my body?” I ask.

“Sure…why?” She asks, retrieving some rope from her closet.

“Friends don’t let friends fly drunk.” I reply.

She nods and ties my wings securely down. She then walks into the kitchen just as Vinyl comes back.

“Hey, Vinyl.” I whisper. “How do you think I’m doing as a coltfriend?”

She laughs.

“Dude, trust me, you’re doing fine.” Vinyl replies. “Tavi may not straight forward show it, but she really cares about you. You’re like the next best thing to happen to her.”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

Vinyl checks to see if Octavia is back.

“Things have been going rough for Tavi, even before that incident at the restaurant.” She replies. “You’ve seen her parents, right? Well, remember that drinking incident she had that I talked about?”

“Yeah?” I reply.

“That was a little over a week ago.” She continues. “Her father yelled and trash talked her after the concert she performed. AT HER OWN CONCERT. How could you even do that to your own daughter? She couldn’t take it. She moved to Ponyville the day after. So now, after having to buy a new house, she having financial issues and confidence issues.”

“What happened after she bought the new house?” I ask.

“Well, the following day, I accidentally broke her Beethoven record. She went out to buy another one.” She replies.

“I like where this is going.” I joke, smiling.

“You should. I met you.” Octavia says from behind us.

I turn to face a smiling Octavia. She rubs noses with me. I turn a bright red.

“You truly are a great friend, no, coltfriend. You’re generous, kind, and funny. You may have a troublesome temper, but we’re working on that. And horrible bat-winged pony? Please, you blow the stereotype out of the water. I feel honored to say that you are the greatest coltfriend I’ve ever had.”

…I’m crying now, aren’t I?

“I claim liquid pride!” I exclaim, wiping the tears from my eyes.

Octavia and Vinyl laugh.

“Show what song do we listen to next?” I ask, slightly staggering.

“You know, we could…Probably get some Deadmau5 going…on in here.” Vinyl says, trying not to slur her words.

“Vi-inyl…” Octavia stutters, pulling me towards her. “I think our guest wo-ould like some classical music.”

“But…I wanted to listen to dubstep…” Vinyl whines.

“I think I can solve our problem.” I say, walking over to the DJ booth.

I put a song on, and stand on my hind legs. The song starts off with a piano.

“Just take those old records off the shelf.” I start singing. “I'll sit and listen to them by myself. Today's music ain't got the same soul. I like that old time rock and roll!”

I walk over to Octavia. She and Vinyl are clapping their hooves together to the beat.

“Don't try to take me to a disco.” I continue. “You'll never even get me out on the floor. In 10 minutes, I'll be late for the door. I like that old time rock and roll!”

“Still like that old time rock and roll.” We all sing. “The kinda music just soothes the soul. I reminisce about the days of old…With that old time rock and roll!”

“I thi-think…I aaaaaaaam…drunk…” I sputter, staggering around.

Vinyl is passed out on the couch. Octavia staggers around and falls on me.

“I think…someone else…haaaaad a liiiitle too…much.” I slur.

“No…No Iaaaaaaam…comple-completely fi-fine.” She replies, trying not to screw up her words.

“Let’s get…yooooou…tooooo…bed.” I slur.

I try as hard as I can to walk normally up the stairs with Octavia leaning on me. We get to her room. You know, I’ve never seen her room. It’s very organized. Her books are all neatly in the bookshelf, alphabetically at that. Her floor is spotless. All of her bedroom furniture is dust-free. Her bed is well made.

Octavia climbs into her bed.

“You’re…shuuuuch a shweet guy…” She slurs.

She kisses me on the cheek. She then snuggles into her bed.

I walk back downstairs. I slump the floor, and fall asleep.

Uuuugh…what…what time is it? 5:34 A.M.? Ugh…My head hurts…

BOOM!

What was that!? Sounds like it came from outside!

I look outside. What the!? I can barely make out anything outside! Its pitch black out! The only light is coming from the bolts of lightning. It sounds like a hurricane is rampaging through the town. What is going on out there?

I look around for a light source inside the house. There are a couple of glow sticks on the kitchen counter. Well, when life gives you lemons…

I grab the glow sticks and put them in my backpack. I untie my wings, put on my backpack, and open the door. Holy…I can barely move forward! The wind is crazy! And the down pouring rain doesn’t help either! I slowly make my way out of the house. I light one of the glow sticks. I wave it around.

“Can anypony see me!?!” I shout against the roaring wind, still waving the glow stick.

A dark gray pegasus stallion lands in front of me. He is wearing purple armor with a webbed crest. He also has gold cat-like eyes and black bat wings…B-b-b-b-b-BATWINGS!?!

I swallow hard and I take a step back in fear.

“What are you doing outside!?!” He shouts in a booming voice.

I stay silent.

“WELL!?!” He shouts even louder.

“Oh dear Celestia, please don’t kill me!” I beg.

He looks disgusted.

“Oh for the love of…look!” He shouts. “I am one of Princess Luna’s royal guards! I’m not one of the terroristic bat-wing pegasi, understand?! Now get to some shelter!”

“What the Tartarus is going on!? What’s with the storm!?” I ask, calming down.

“I don’t know!” He shouts in reply. “The storm just showed up out of the blue, for no reason whatsoever. It’s tearing up trees, shattering windows, and knocking carts around. Wait…You wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with this, would you?!”

“By Celestia, no!” I shout.

He glares at me. Great, he doesn’t believe me.

Another one of Luna’s guards lands by the first guard.

“Captain! There’s still no sign of the three fillies that have been reported missing!” The second guard shouts to the first.

“Damn it! Well keep looking!” He shouts back. “Leave nothing to chance! Check every house you can! Look in every cave!”

The second guard nods and flies off, battling against the wind.

“And you! You’re coming in for questioning!” The first guard shouts at me.

“But I didn’t even have anything to do with this!” I argue.

WHAM!

The guard is knocked unconscious by a large flying branch. I stare at the now unconscious guard. His face is starting to bleed. I do my best to shield his face from the wind. I take my glow stick and start waving it in the air.

Another guard flies down to us. He looks relatively young for a guard.

“What happened!?” He shouts.

“A branch just flung through the air and slammed him in the face!” I reply.

“Damn it! Go find another guard! Tell him that Lance had to get the captain emergency medical attention and that Lance requests that he take the Everfree Forest scouting perimeter! I have to get the captain out of here!” He orders.

He then picks up the captain and flies off. I take off toward the wind and rain.

“It will take forever to find another guard in this weather.” I say to myself.

D-Pad…what have you gotten yourself into?

So, here I am…flying above the Everfree Forest…fighting the wind and rain…looking for any sign of the missing fillies. Great job, D-Pad…I should have just stayed inside Octavia’s house.

I land in a clearing of the forest. I light a couple of glow sticks, and stick them into the ground as a marker, just in case I get lost. I then make my way into the forest.

This place gives me the creeps. I’m terrified of just looking behind a tree, and getting my face ripped off by a manticore. OW! Bucking stepped on a thornbush…Oh thank Celestia, a path. I walk along the path for a couple of minutes. I then come to and overturned cart.

I wave my first glow stick in the air.

“Is anypony here?!” I shout.

The cart shifted slightly. I peer under the cart.

“OW!”

I did not need a stick to the nasal cavity. I push the cart upright.

Three little fillies begin screaming at me. The first is a pale yellow earth pony with a red mane and orange-gold eyes. The second is an orange Pegasus with a reddish-pink mane and purple eyes. She is also holding a stick. The third is a light gray unicorn with a light purple and light pink mane with pale green eyes.

The orange Pegasus began smacking me with the stick.

Ow! Ow! OW! Stop! I’m trying to help you girls!” I shout, trying and failing not to get hit with the stick.

The Pegasus drops the stick.

“Oh, gosh! Sorry mister! I thought you were a monster!” She replies.

“What are you fillies doing out here?” I ask.

“Well, we were plannin’ to do some campin’ outside the Everfree forest. We were trying to see if we could our Cutie marks for campin’, but then the big storm came up and blew our tents away. We couldn’ move away from the forest, so we went an’ looked for a place to hide-I mean sleep in the forest.” The earth pony filly replies.

“You should get home. Your families must be worried about you fillies.” I say.

“Can you take us home?” the unicorn filly asks.

“Where do you girls live?” I ask.

“Ponyville.” The all reply in unison.

I saddle myself to the cart. I pull it next to the fillies.

“Hop in! Next stop: Ponyville!” I shout cheerfully

The three fillies cheer and jump in the cart.

“Okay so, if we follow this path…”

Suddenly, I start hearing wolf howls. A couple bushes begin rustling. Then, from one of the bushes, comes a wolf like creature that is made up of a bundle of wood pieces.

“What in the name of Celestia is that!?” I shout.

“Timberwolf!” The earth pony filly shouts.

It leaps upwards, trying to get to the fillies. With a quick flap of my wings, I tilt the cart backwards, allowing me to head-butt the Timberwolf in its torso, knocking it backwards. I then let the cart tilt back, and gallop along on the path. Up ahead, there’s a small pack of those Timberwolves heading straight for us. The fillies scream in fear.

I see an opening in the tree line.

“Hang on, girls!” I shout.

I flap my wings as hard as I can while continuing my gallop forward. The cart starts to lift from the ground. The fillies begin screaming in surprise. In one quick movement, I fly out the opening, cart and fillies in tow.

The storm has finally let up. There are a couple patches of pitch black clouds here and there, but it’s mostly cleared up.

I fly to the edge of the forest. I land down onto the path to Ponyville.

“Sorry about the sudden take off, girls.” I apologize.

“That was…AWESOME!!” The pegasus filly cheers. I burst into a hardy laugh.

“Looks like we’ll be in Ponyville in a half an hour. Hang on!” I shout.

I gallop forward towards Ponyville.

“It’s that bat-winged pegasus! Run for your lives!”

As the sun begins to rise, Much of the market street closes up their shops and run for their homes. Well, home sweet home, I guess…

I unsaddle myself and look in the back of the cart. The fillies have fallen asleep.

“Wake up, girls. We’re here.” I say, softly.

The three fillies wake up. The all hop out of the cart.

“Gee, thanks mister!” The unicorn filly says, cheerfully.

“Yeah! You’re really cool! I can’t believe you head-butted a Timberwolf!” The pegasus filly cheered.

“I want to keep you girls safe. I’m sure anypony else would have done the same thing.” I replied.

“Sweetie Bell! You’re ok!”

I look over to where the voice came from. A white unicorn mare with indigo long curled hair, bluish eyes, and three diamonds as her cutie mark is running towards the unicorn

“Rarity! Big Sister!” the unicorn filly says running to the unicorn mare. The two hug each other.
The white unicorn mare turns to look at me. Her face is suddenly filled with fear. She pulls the unicorn filly behind her.

“Be gone with you, you…ruffian!” She shouts.

“Well, you’re a friendly one aren’t you?” I quip.

“Rarity, he saved us from a bunch of Timberwolves.” The unicorn filly spoke.

“Yeah, he even head-butted one of ‘em.” The earth pony filly adds.

“You…you saved my sister?” She asks, shocked.

“I did what anypony would have done.” I state.

“But…you’re…”

“A bat-winged pegasus? Yes miss, I am. That doesn’t mean I am just like the rest of them. The fillies were missing, and I went looking for them. Like I said, I did what anypony would have done.” I interrupt her.

She hugs me.

“Thank you so much.” She thanks me.

“What in tarnation are ya’ doin’ Rarity!?”

I look around and see an orange earth pony a couple meters away. She has blondish hair that’s tied in a bun at the end, much like her tail, and shes wearing a cowmare hat. She has green eyes and three apples as her cutie mark.

“Big sis!” The earth pony filly shouted, running toward the earth pony mare.

“Applebloom! Where in Equestria have you been? Everypony’s been worried sick ‘bout you.” She asks.

“We got stuck in the Everfree forest, and he came an’ found us. He saved us from a buncha Timberwolves!” the filly replies, pointing a hoof at me.

“Like I told this mare here, I just did what anypony would do.” I state.

“But…ain’t you that pegasus that ponies been sayin’ scary things ‘bout?” She asks.

“I wouldn’t doubt it.” I reply. “I am a bat-winged pegasus after all.”

“Well, if ya’ went and saved my sis from them Timberwolves, ya’ can’t be all that bad.” She complements.

“Thanks, I appreciate that.” I thank her.

I see a couple ponies leave their houses. The begin murmuring amongst themselves, examining me.

“He doesn’t look too dangerous.” I overhear one of them say.

“Saving those fillies from Timberwolves…”

“He was very nice, even before we knew he was one of them…”

“Maybe he isn’t that horrible…”

A light blue mare with a long brown mane, green eyes, and a green pear as her cutie mark walks slowly and cautiously over to me.

“Hi.” I say cheerfully to her.

She looks in surprise at me.

“My name’s D-Pad. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” I greet her, extending my hoof for a hoofshake.

She shakes my hoof. She starts to smile.

“My name is Pyrus.” She says.

Now more ponies are walking towards me. Many of the ponies are coming out of their homes and greet me. There smiling and talking to me, like I’m a normal pony. There asking me questions and complementing me.

I feel something weird. Like, I finally fit in. Everyone seems unafraid of me now. I feel wanted.

“Excuse me; pardon me…D-Pad!” I hear Octavia’s voice over the crowd.

I look around in the crowd, and see Octavia galloping towards me. I gallop toward her.

We meet up somewhere in the crowd.

“I can’t believe it Octavia.” I say. “For once in my life, ponies aren’t running away from me. They find interest in me, and want to talk to me. I-I can even comprehend all of this. I-I…I never felt so accepted.”

Octavia smiles.

“D-Pad!”

I turn around. My mother is making her way through the crowd. I gallop over to her and hug her.

“It’s happening mom! I’m actually being accepted! There not running away! I-I-I never felt so happy!” I say, starting to cry

I notice that my mom has tears streaming down her face

“My little colt…My little D-Pad…”

She hugs me even tighter.

“Excuse me, but are you…D-Pad?”

I turn to face a poststallion.

I wipe my eyes of tears.

“Yes sir.” I say.

“I have a letter for you. Direct from the Royal Castle.” He says.

My eyes widen.

“D-did you say the royal castle?” I ask, shocked.

“Indeed I did.” He replies, handing me a letter.

I open it. Th-th-th-that’s the Princess’s royal seal! My hooves are trembling in excitement. I begin reading it…

…Princess Luna wants to meet me?!?! OH-OH-OH MY CELESTIA!

“What is it? What does it say?” My mom asks.

“PRINCESS LUNA WANTS TO MEET ME!!!” I shout in joy.

And then, something amazing happened. My mom hugged me tighter then she has ever hugged me before. Octavia cheered for me and kissed me on the cheek.

And the entire crowd applauded for me.

Chapter 5: Detonate

“Princess Luna will be here in a minute. Please wait here.” A unicorn guard says to me, walking away.

Wow…It’s…this place is amazing. I can see my reflection in the polished black and white checkered floor. There is a massive red rug that makes a path toward the center of the room, to which it branches out to two other rooms and one way up a flight of stairs. There are purple and blue finely decorated tapestries lining the room. The walls are a pale purple with a gold trim. There are two stained glass windows, one is a bright yellow with a sun pattern and the other is blue with a moon pattern.

“Hello?” I say.

My voice echoes throughout the room. I grin brightly. Well, if I have to wait for her…

“ECHO!” I shout. My voice reverberates around the room. I laugh heartily.

“MY NAME IS D-PAD!!”

I laugh again.

“HOORAAA!”

I laugh even harder.

“HUZZAAAAAAAAA!” A booming voice shouts.

OW, OW, OW, OOOOOOW! MY EARS!

I cover my ears in pain.

“Oh my, art thou okay?”

I uncover my ears, and turn around. I come face to face to Princess Luna. Well, rather I have to look upwards to come face to face with the alicorn princess. Didn’t think she was that tall. She has a dark blue coat and a long bright deep blue glittering mane and tail. She has light blue eyes and a darkened flank with a crescent moon. She’s wearing a black crown, a black choker with a crescent moon on it, and light blue shoes.

“I’ll be fine miss.” I say, smiling.

You forgot to bow, you idiot!

I quickly kneel down, almost smacking my face into the floor.

“We presume thou art D-Pad, are we correct?” She asks.

“You are correct miss, and why do you refer to yourself as ‘we’?” I ask.

“We choose to speak the traditional royal ways.” She replies.

“Oh ok, that’s cool.” I comment.

“Now, First of all, we would like to commend thou for thine actions in finding the missing fillies.” She compliments me.

“Thank you, but I just did what I thought any other pony would do. There was little chance I was going to find a guard in this morning’s weather, so I went and took the post myself.” I reply.

“Very admirable, however we will say that what thou did was dangerous.” She comments. “Our guards were out, not only trying to control the weather, but looking for the fillies.”

“I…I understand Princess…” I say bumming out.

“Furthermore, this meeting is not a friendly get together. Thou are to be interrogated.” She adds.

“But…but I didn’t do anything! I swear!” I exclaim.

She looks in me in disbelief. I suddenly feel my legs and wings being bound together by magic. I flop to the floor. A group of royal unicorn guards tie my limbs and wings together.

“This is only for our safety. We apologize for this.” Princess Luna says.

The guards set me in a sitting position.

“I swear! I was drinking with my fillyfriend and her roommate at their house! Ask them! They’ll tell you the same! I woke up at 5:30 in the morning! I have no clue how the storm started!” I defend.

“And how drunk were you?” She asks.

“…I…was hammered of my plot.” I admit.

I hear the guards murmur amongst one another. The guards consult with the princess.

“Unfortunately, much of thine statements are unacceptable. Thou admits to being inebriated, so thou could have caused it in his intoxicated state. ” Princess Luna states.

“But I swear I didn’t leave!! I even had my wings tied up! You have to believe me!” I beg.

“Hold everything!!”

Everypony, including myself, turned to face the voice. The gray bat-winged guard that flew away with the captain approached the gathering, panting. He is not wearing his armor, showing that he is a little shorter than the rest of the guards. He has a short black crew-cut mane and gold eyes with cat-slit pupils. He has a red lance as his cutie mark.

“He’s telling the truth.” He says, still panting. “I just got back from our test labs. The clouds weren’t moved by a pegasus. In fact, the clouds were made and moved by using magic.”

Luna nods her head. Some of the guards snicker at the bat-winged guard.

A pegasus guard approaches the group, holding a file.

“Gentlestallions…” He states. “…reports have come back from the labs. The cloud samples we have from this morning have an abnormal amount of magical energy, and they lack pegasus hooves. From this, we can deduce that at least one unicorn was involved in making them, and that they moved them using their magic.”

The guards nod in agreement and begin praising him. The bat-winged pegasus growls.

The guards untie my legs and my wings. I stretch my body and wings.

“Thank you.” I growl.

“We are terribly sorry for the inconvenience. We only wanted to be safe.” Princess Luna states.

I want to be mad, but I can’t even be mad about that. That is a totally legitimate reason.

I look over at the bat-winged Pegasus. He’s glumly walking away. I walk over and catch up with him.

“You’re Lance right?” I ask.

He turns to me and smiles.

“Oh, you’re that bat-winged stallion from this morning! Yes, my name is Lance.” He replies.

“Cool! My name’s D-Pad. Nice to meet you!” I say, shaking his hoof.

“Whoa, how come you don’t have slit pupils?” He asks, befuddled.

“I don’t know…I’ve given up on trying to understand our genetics.” I joke.

He laughs. He starts to brighten up.

“So, what do you do here?” I ask.

He bums out again.

“I was in Princess Luna’s royal guard…” he grumbles.

“What happened?” I ask.

“I was kicked out for deserting my post.” He grumbles.

“Wait… but you were taking the captain to get medical attention! That’s not fair! They can’t kick you out because of that!” I exclaim.

“Yeah, but I’m just a low-life. They’re not going to listen to reason from me!” He growls, starting to get angry. “Not even three months into the guard, and I get kicked out! It’s because I’m a pure-bred bat-wing Pegasus, that all the reason they need! Why congratulate me?!? You know, I could smash all of their…”

“Easy now, let’s not make a big scene…let’s go get some lunch, I know a place.” I say, pulling him away from the crowd.

I decided to take him to a local sandwich stand in Ponyville. It took some doing, but the ponies now seem to be able to accept Lance. He’s starting to cheer up, but I can tell he still needs someone to vent to.

We approach the sandwich stand. I order a daffodil and cabbage sandwich, and Lance orders a dandelion and tomato sandwich. We get our sandwiches, to which I pay for them, and sit down at a table.

“You almost lost your cool back at the castle.” I say, taking a bite out of my sandwich.

“I know.” Lance says. “I just…when you’ve lived most of your life with bat-winged heathens, you tend to get pissed off very easy.”

“You lived with the bat-winged pegasi? Like the actual criminal bat-winged pegasi?” I ask, shocked.

“Born and raised.” He states. “Both my mom and dad were bat-winged pegasi. I grew up in their society. Quite an interesting lot, they are.”

“So how old would that make you?” I ask.

“21 years old, I left when I was fifteen, and that was six years ago.” He replies.

“Same here! I don’t know where I came from, but my foster family has taken care of me for as long as I’ve been with them.” I comment.

He starts mauling his sandwich. He scarfs as much as he can in his mouth.

…Okay…

“What was it like, growing up with them?” I ask.

“Well, when you weren’t stealing from other communities and beating the Tartarus out of innocent ponies, you were avoiding the older pegasi who were into child molestation and did anything for sex. And I mean anything.” He says, his mouth bulging with his sandwich.

“Really? That’s a sounds a little over-exaggerated.” I admit.

“When you live in a godless society, a lot of over-exaggerated shit really happens.” He replies, swallowing his food.

“So, you couldn’t take it?” I ask.

“I got out of there as fast as I could. When I finally turned into a grown stallion, I flew away from my home.” He replies.

“What happened to your parents?” I ask.

“Can we stop talking about this?” He asks, looking very uncomfortable.

“Oh, um…I’m sorry.” I apologize.

“I don’t like talking about my home…I still suffer from the memories I wish I could forget.” He whimpers.

“Perhaps we should change the subject…Are all Luna’s guards bat-winged pegasi?” I ask.

“Yes, Princess Luna picks her bat-winged pegasi from those who wish to abandon the old ways and wish to make a difference in society.” He replies. “They don’t get to see a lot of action though. They scare most ponies away, and they’re not well respected by any group. Usually they’re dispatched when the other guards would be ineffective…”

“How so?” I interrupt.

“We can see in the dark. If its pitch-black out, we are very effective.” He continues. “And the guard works in the shadows. You’ve probably never seen them, but they’ve seen you…heck, there’s probably one in Ponyville right now, and nobody knows about him, watching and recording all suspicious activity.”

Well, if I didn’t have a reason to be paranoid before…

“So…I don’t understand. Why kick you out on the basis of being a bat-wing pegasus?” I ask.

“It’s a tad complicated. All of the guards, including Luna’s guard, are all delegated by captains. The captains get together to judge a guard if he is unfit. As I said, Luna’s guard is not very well respected, so the other captains claimed desertion. My captain didn’t see it as that, but he was out voted. So he chose to kick me out of the guard, and the other captains agreed.

“Well, that’s a bunch of bologna.” I comment.

“I wouldn’t say that. Princess Luna’s guard is very ruthless. You really buck up, and they beat you until you can’t move. If you are seen during a covert mission, your put in a small, pitch-black room with no light or openings, and forced to stay in there for three days with no food or water. I think getting kicked out was the kinder thing to do.” He says.

“Dear Celestia…I have a little bit of trouble seeing why getting kicked out is something to grump about.” I comment.

“Well, I don’t have any background in any other jobs, or any other skilled abilities beside how I got my cutie mark.” He explains.

I look at his red lance cutie mark.

“Jousting?” I guess.

“Impaling ponies with a lance.” He says.

I gulp hard.

“Well…that explains it…” I say uncomfortably.

I finish up my sandwich.

“Well, sorry to run, but I got to get home. I have to get my sandwich board and bell.”

He gives a quizzical look.

“I’m a pegasus for hire, and those are my advertisement and attention getter.”

“Ahh, that does explain it. Well, have a good afternoon, and thanks for the sandwich!” He thanks me.

I fly off towards my house.

Ahh, home sweet home. Looks like dad just finished painting the house a bright red. He even fixed the shingles. You know, it’s been only a week and a half since we moved into this old two-story house. In that time, I got a girlfriend, made a new friend, and became accepted in a society. Things are finally taking a turn for the better.

I pick up my sandwich board. Now where is that…Oh yeah! I left my bell inside the house. I walk over to the house and push open the front door. I hear something fall on the floor.

“Hey Mom, could you hand me my...”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

I slowly open my eyes. I’m lying in a hospital bed and have an IV in my left front hoof and a mask blowing air into my nostrils. I have stiches and bandages in multiple places around my body. I look up at the green ceiling and then the blue walls. I move my right front hoof upwa…Why can’t I feel my everything?

A nurse pony comes in. She takes the mask of my muzzle

“You’re awake. Do you feel okay?” She asks me.

“Auuaauaagh I han feeer mah bowry.” I manage to speak.

“That’s just the anesthetic. It will wear off in a few minutes.” She cheerfully says.

“Oaahkaaah. Whar ahmmai?” I sputter.

“You’re in Ponyville Hospital. A young, gray, bat-winged pegasus brought you in. You were brought here with multiple lacerations and first degree burns.” She says.

That would explain the stiches and bandages…

“Sho whad igshactly habbined?” I sputter.

“You were blasted backwards about 20 meters.” She replies. “An explosion happened inside the house you were at. Why it happened is still unknown, but were lucky that you were outside the house.”

“D-Pad! You’re awake!”

My mom and dad rush into the room.

“What did I tell you, Windstorm…tough as steel. Just like his dad.” Forge says.

“How are you feeling?” My mom asks me.

“Well, I’m thdarting to feel ma mouth. Tho thath a pluth.” I say, still messing up my words.

“I’m so glad you’re okay.” My mom says, lightly hugging me.

“Oh, I do apologize. Am I interrupting something?”

Octavia is standing in the doorway.

“Octabia!” I shout, happily.

My mom and dad turn to Octavia.

“No we just came to see our son.” Forge replies.

“Oh! You are his parents? He talks about you two quite a bit.” Octavia replies.

“Wait, I know you…Octavia, right?” Windstorm asks.

“Yes miss.” Octavia replies.

“Oh, it is so wonderful to meet you! D-Pad talks very highly of you. He calls you a sweetheart, a kind and accepting pony. I can’t praise you enough for your kindness to him, even if he is considered evil because of his appearance. You brought hope to our son and us as well. You don’t know how happy you’ve made us.” Forge complements her.

“Thank you, sir.” She thanks Forge.

“So, how was your meeting with the Princess?” Windstorm asks.

I heave a sigh.

“That…That witch! How dare she accuse you of doing such a terrible thing!” Windstorm huffs.

“I can’t be mad at her. She had a legitimate reason to question me.” I reply, pushing myself to a sitting position.

“But to tie you up! Has she no respect?!” Octavia growls.

“I agree.” My dad adds. “If she can’t face you as a normal pegasus, then she has no right to make accusations about you.”

The three begin to talk amongst themselves. It is then I notice that the rest of the family hasn’t shown up yet.

“Hey, not to be mean or anything…” I interrupt. “…but where is the rest of the family?”

“They have to pick up the house and try to keep the house together. The explosion blew up part of the house. We’re going to have to repair most of the living room, and much of the dining room.” Windstorm replies.

“How did it happen?” I ask.

“We don’t know.” Forge replies. “Everyone was out of the house. We took a trip to Cloudsdale to sell our silver trinkets. We were going to come back later this evening. No one saw anyone go in. All we know is that whatever caused the explosion was very powerful.”

I lean back and sigh.

“Give me a second to think…” I say.

I close my eyes and think for a bit.

“How long am I going to be here?” I ask the nurse, opening my eyes.

“At least two days.” She replies.

“Dad, I know this is strange, but I need you to do something for me.” I say to my father.

“What do you need?” He asks.

“I want you to find that bat-winged pegasus that brought me to the hospital. He’s a gray stallion with a black mane and a red lance as his cutie mark. Have him look at the house and where the explosion happened. He was part of the royal guard, so he may have seen something like this.” I reply.

“He should still somewhere in the main square of Ponyville. I’ll go and get him.” He says walking out of the room.

“What do you need the pegasus for?” Octavia asks.

“It seems too perfect. An explosion happens at the house that we just moved into. Very few ponies know that we live here. The explosion happens when nopony but I was coming back home earlier than the rest of my family, and the explosion happened after something fell on the floor. From this, I assume that I was the intended target. I don’t know about you mares, but this whole scenario sounds slightly suspicious.” I explain.

“That sounds a little extreme…but I will let your friend look at it.” My mom says.

“Thanks mom.” I reply. “And not being mean, but do you mind if I take a nap?”

“Of course! You don’t need to ask.” My mom giggles.

My mom walks out of the room.

“I’ll come back tomorrow. See you then!” Octavia says, leaving the room.

“Bye!” I shout.

I lay back and close my eyes. Man, one heck of a day, I tell you. I saved a couple fillies form some wolves made of wood, became accepted into a society, met and be interrogated by royalty, met another friendly bat-winged pegasi, and got blown away by an explosion and wound up in a hospital.

Celestia…my life is weird.

Chapter 6: Intrigue

“So, how long do you have to keep the bandages on?” Octavia asks me.

Finally out of the hospital. That was the longest two days I ever experienced. Now I can walk around, but I got to wear these irritating bandages. My abdomen is wrapped up, along with my left upper hind leg, my left foreleg, and my neck. I also have a large bandage on my nose.

“Two weeks.” I answer. “Then I got to go in and get the stiches out.”

“Two weeks ain’t too bad.” Vinyl comments.

“Yeah, but the damn things itch like Tartarus.” I reply.

Octavia rubs noses with me.

“I’m so glad that this is the only thing that happened to you.” She says softly.

I hug her.

“Even if I were to die and have to choose between the perfection of heaven and the vices of this world I’d fly back down in a heart-beat to be with you.” I softly whisper to her.

Vinyl makes a gaging noise.

“What? Too much for you?” I joke.

“No, it’s just so…sappy.” She replies. “Couldn’t you have thought of something, I don’t know…cooler? Like at least 20% cooler?”

“Sometimes the sappy stuff is the best stuff.” I laugh.

Vinyl rolls her eyes. Octavia and I laugh.

We all walk for a while.

“So, have either of you talked to Lance?” I ask.

“Nah, I’ve been too busy making remixes. Sorry.” Vinyl replied.

“And I’ve been busy practicing for a concert in Canterlot.” Octavia apologizes.

“It’s okay, I’ll just go talk to him myself. I’ll talk to you mares later!” I say, flying into the air.

I fly to my house. Well…there’s a gaping hole that’s in the process of being boarded up. Some of the wall is charred up and the door is absent from its hinges. I see a couple pieces of burned and blown up furniture outside.

Quicksilver and Swift Strike are moving a burned chair out of the house.

“Hey! D-Pad’s home!” Swift Strike shouts.

Both pegasi put the chair down and run over to me. They both hug me.

“Easy, bros! My body is still sore.” I chuckle.

“And here’s the badass motherbucker himself! Not even an explosion can keep him down.” Quicksilver jokes.

Lance walks out of the house.

“D-Pad! Glad to see you up on your feet!” He shouts, trotting over to me.

I trot over to him, and we meet half-way of each other.

“Hey, just the stallion I was looking for. So, what have you discovered?” I ask.

“Well, the bad news is that I can’t trace it to anypony yet. No hoof prints, no fur, no hair, no feathers, not even a trace of magic anomalies. There’s little evidence that conclusively reveals the identity of the culprit.” He replies.

“Damnit! So were screwed then?” I grumble.

“Not so fast, there is some very good news. I know what kind of explosive they used.” He comments. “I found some traces of diatomite and nitroglycerin around the blast area. Whoever it was used dynamite.”

“Dynamite? Where would they get that?” I ask.

“I have a hunch that they made it themselves.” He replies. “Usually dynamite is put together very well. While there’s not a lot of explosive residue, there seems to be an overabundance of nitroglycerin. This leads me to believe that they used way too much nitro in their explosive.”

“Nitroglycerin…wait, that explodes when hit to hard right?” I ask.

“More or less.” He replies.

“That would explain why the dynamite exploded when it hit the ground.” I assume.

“That or they used nitroglycerin as some sort of priming explosion to set off the major explosion. Either way, they wanted it to explode when it was knocked to the ground.” Lance adds.

“Well, this is good information and everything, but I would not consider that “very good” information.” I comment.

“I wasn’t finished.” He says. “Three months ago, just when I started my job in Luna’s guard, there were multiple cases I worked on that involved dynamite explosions killing bat-winged pegasi. They all died the same way. Explosion right by the door, blowing them away as they walked inside.”

“Interesting.” I say, grinning.

“Turns out, a couple of various ponies were setting the explosives in houses of bat-winged pegasi. The even killed a couple of new recruits for the guard. We never did find out who exactly made the explosives, but we came pretty damn close. Had a huge list of names and evidence linking them to the crimes.” He adds.

“A list and evidence links? Can I see them?”

A sudden look of uncomfortability appears on his face. He starts sweating and pacing, biting his hoof from time to time.

“I…really don’t think you should see it…” He replies, still sweating.

Oh…shit just got real…

“Somepony tried to kill me.” I growl. “And now I have a possible list of suspects and their links to the crimes, but you won’t let me see it…” I stomp over to him, glaring him in the eyes.

“I. Want. Those. Papers. Now.”

I hear him swallow hard.

“…this is not gonna end well…” he wimpers.

And here comes Lance now! I like is backpack, red and jet black. He lands right next to me and pulls off his backpack.

“Okay, here’s a copy of all the stuff, and don’t ask where I got it. I may or may not get in deep trouble for it.” He says.

I open up his backpack. Wow…look at all those files! I pull out a couple small files and skim through them. Don’t know that pony…neither that one…nope…nope…I pull out a couple more and look through them…Nada…Oh, nice moustache…no…

“Damnit, don’t even know anypony in these files!” I grumble.

I pull out a large file. I start looking through it…Wait…OCTAVIA’S DAD?!?!

“My fillyfriend’s dad was a suspect!?” I ask, bewildered.

“That’s kinda why I didn’t want you to see it…” he mumbles “Yes, Concerto Melody was one of the major perpetrators in this case. One of the biggest lists of evidence I’ve ever seen. Witness testimonies, eye-witnesses, hoofprints, chemical and explosives evidence, hairs from his coat at the scene of the crime, and he openly admitted to setting explosives in some of the houses. And yet we could not place him as one of the bomb-makers.”

“Why not? The evidence looks conclusive to me.” I ask, flipping through the file.

“Something interesting happened…eyewitnesses started forgetting major details. Evidence started to go missing or was forgotten. He was only charged with murder in the third degree.” He replies.

“Well…I’d ask him about it, but I don’t think he’s forgiven me for that fiasco at the restaurant…”

“Wait…you caused the ruckus at that fancy restaurant in Canterlot?” He asks.

“Err…yeah, I’m not proud of that…” I say, rubbing the back of my head with my hoof.

I turn my attention back to the file…Yeah, look at all the evidence…Wait…torture with magic?...deformations?...Unrecognizable victims?...I turn another page to find some photographs of multiple bat-winged pegasi with horrifically twisted bodies and mangled faces…What have you been doing, Mr. Melody?...

“What the buck is all of this?” I whimper.

“That…is one of the biggest pieces of evidence that just showed back up…It went missing right before the trial, and found its way back a few days later…” He replies, obviously perturbed about the subject.

“What in the Tartarus was he doing?” I ask.

“He said he was “getting information.” You can guarantee I did not believe that at all. I don’t know what he was doing, but whatever he was doing wasn’t exactly legal.” He replies

“Do you think he had something to do with the evidence going missing?” I ask.

“Yeah, but I can’t prove it.” He grumbles, nodding. “He was locked up in the royal dungeon until his trial, and even if he used some sort of teleportation or invisibility magic, we would have known, and went on high alert.”

“Do you think he paid someone to take the evidence?” I ask.

“Definitely, but like I said, I can’t prove it.” He says. “I don’t know who he could have paid off that could have infiltrated the evidence room. We have multiple guards keeping watch of the room. You need a key to get in, and when you’re done in the room they give you a pat down, a strip search, and a body cavity search.”

I then picture in my head a guard putting his hoof up a pony’s…

“Ok…eww…” I say, squinting my face in disgust.

Lance laughs at me. He starts putting the files away in his backpack and puts his backpack on.

“Now, I got to get these back to the pony I “borrowed” them from. I’ll be back in a bit!” He shouts, taking off to the skies.

I watch as he fades to nothing but a speck in the sky. I start pacing, thinking to myself.

So, here’s what I know. A few months ago, group of ponies started setting up explosives in various bat-winged pegasi houses, killing a bunch of their targets. The explosive they used is the same as what the pony used to blow up my house. My biggest suspect is Octavia’s dad. He probably is still furious about what happened at the restaurant. But, even with a possible motive and a past in this kind of terrorism, I need more evidence. What I really need is something that links him to the scene of the crime. Hmm…I wonder if…

“I’m back!” Lance shouts, landing beside me.

“Good. I’ve been thinking…” I begin, starting to pace.

“What about?” Lance asks.

“Our main suspect is Concerto Melody. We can’t prove that he was the culprit and we don’t have enough evidence to link him to the crime. What can we do now?” I ask.

“Hmm…”

We both begin pacing. What DO we do? I don’t think beating the Tartarus out of my fillyfriend’s dad for evidence would be the most successful and legal thing to do. Hmm…

“I have an idea…” Lance speaks up.

“What’s your idea?” I ask.

“It’s a bit of a long shot, but hear me out.” He begins. “You and I both suspect that Mr. Melody had something to do with this, right?”

“Right…”

“And more than likely, he’s not going to be willing to admit he had anything to do with setting the explosive in your house, or willing to admit conspiring with anypony to set the explosive in your house, right?” He adds.

“Right…”

“So, here’s my idea...leverage.” He says.

“Leverage?” I ask.

“If we get some dirt on Mr. Melody, we could use it to get him to “spill the beans” as the saying goes.” He states.

“Wait…you want to get dirt on him by finding out how he had his evidence to his trial go missing. Am I correct in assuming this?” I ask.

He nods.

“That’s more than a long shot…That’s a shot from half the way across Equestria.” I joke.

“I know…but I’ve been thinking as I’ve been flying back and forth. I first thought whoever took the evidence would have to be a very powerful unicorn. Considering that the evidence mysteriously disappeared, I first thought magic had to be involved. However after further thinking, I have also concluded that maybe the person who took the evidence was so prestigious and trustworthy that the guards felt that they did not need to check that they took evidence. Then it hit me…maybe the pony that took the evidence was both…only more so…” He explains

“Only more so…what does that mean?” I ask.

“They may not be just a unicorn…”

He looks up towards the city of Canterlot. I follow his gaze towards the city.

“Wait…”

My eyes widen.

“You don’t mean…”

He nods.

“…Princess Celestia…”

Chapter 7: Problematic

“NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO…NO…NO.”

“I know it sounds farfetched…”

I look Lance straight in the eyes.

“You just insinuated that Princess Celestia had a part in removing evidence from the evidence room to help a criminal! OF COURSE IT SOUNDS FARFETCHED!!” I shout.

“So, you have a better idea?” He asks.

…Beating up my fillyfriends dad still illegal, right?

“No…no I don’t.” I grumble.

“Then we don’t really have any other lead, do we?” He states.

“And how are we going to get the information from her? I don’t think she’s just going to admit that she removed evidence from the evidence room willingly.” I say.

“Right…Umm, well…”

He turns away and starts biting his hoof.

“What? Can’t think of anything?” I laugh.

“No, I just don’t know how to tell you that were going to foalnap the princess.” He says, turning back around.

…

“NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!” I shout, shaking my head violently.

“That’s what I figured you were going to do.” He sighs.

“Do you know how insane what your proposing is?!?!” I shout, pushing my head into his. “You want us to foalnap the princess!!”

He stuffs his hoof in my mouth.

“Tell it to everypony, why don’t you!” He growls. “It may be a bad idea, but it will be even worse if somepony overhears us!”

“Point taken…” I whisper. “But I still don’t like this idea. It’s going to get us imprisoned…or worse.”

“Look, I know it’s not a great idea, but like you said, I don’t think she’s going to admit that she took evidence for the trial.” He whispers back.

“Do you even have a plan?” I ask.

“…well, not exactly…” He replies, rubbing the back of his head with his hoof.

I facehoof myself.

“Look, give me a couple of hours and I get something put together. I’ll talk to you later!” He shouts, taking off toward the sky.

…D-Pad, what are you getting yourself into?

“You hardly touched your salad, honey. Is something wrong?” My mom asks me.

6:30…Suppertime…My mom is cleaning up the leftovers off our dining room table. I sit there, flicking through my food.

“No, I’m fine…” I lie.

She sits down next to me.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” She asks.

“I’m fine.” I grumble.

“Honey, I know you’re a grown stallion and all, but I do worry about you.” She says, rubbing my back.

“You don’t need to worry about me…” I mumble.

“I know, but as your mother, it’s my job to worry about you.” She jokes.

I heave a sigh.

“… Lance found something out about the explosion that blew up some of the house.” I admit.

“What exactly did he find out?” my mom asks.

“We think we know who tried to blow me up.” I reply.

She looks at me in question.

“…my fillyfriends dad…”

…

“That’s…quite an accusation.” My mom says, taken aback.

“We aren’t absolutely sure he is the stallion in question, but he’s the only lead we have. We’re trying to figure out how we can prove he did set the explosives up. So far, we haven’t come up with anything.” I explain.

My mom stands me up and looks me straight in the eyes. She puts a hoof on my shoulder.

“D-Pad…I know your upset about this whole ordeal and you want justice, but don’t dig yourself into a hole you won’t be able to get out of. I don’t want you doing something that will get you into trouble.” She says.

“I’m not going to do anything that will get me in trouble…”

I feel a sickening burble in my stomach…So that’s what it feels like to lie right to your mother’s face…

She hugs me.

“Just be careful, I don’t anything to happen to you.” She says.

“Hey, D-Pad!”

Swift Strike walks into the dining room.

“Lance is outside. He wants to talk to you.” He says.

I walk out of my house and over to Lance. We fly a couple meters away from my house.

“That didn’t take long…What do you got for me?” I ask.

“What I got is a way to kidnap the princess.” He says, pulling out a pamphlet.

I take the pamphlet from him and look at it. “Come to the Manehattan Summer Fair.” I read aloud. “Ride the new Ferris wheel. Enjoy our sweet treats directly from our fine citizens. The world famous Ponies! At the Disco will be performing live on Friday. Bring your family and friends for three nights of fun. Don’t miss it. Friday through Sunday. 20 bits admission ponies, 10 bits admission foals.”

I put down the pamphlet. “So? Fine, todays Friday and it starts tonight. How’s this going to help us?” I ask.

“I’m glad you asked.” He replies, pulling out two suit of armor and two helmets worn by the royal guard. “It turns out that Princess Celestia is planning to go to that fair tonight. She is going to be flown there by a two stallion armored escort. Now, I don’t know who, but somepony gave the two escorts false information…” he winks at me. “By the time they realize they got the wrong orders, it will be two weeks too late.”

“Wait…you forged royal documents!?” I shout.

“You learn some interesting tricks when you’ve been raised by a community of criminals.” He states. “Anyway, we have to dress up like the escorts. I “borrowed” the escorts armor and helmets. The escorts are white, so we’re going to have to scrounge up some white fur dye.”

“Sounds easy enough…” I say, shrugging.

“Not so much. The escorts are normal pegasi. We’re gonna need something else…something rather…interesting…” He explains. He starts to grin.

“Interesting? What exactly does that mean?” I ask, concerned.

“You leave that to me. How about you go and find some white fur dye. I have to go find a certain zebra in a certain forest.” He says.

He then flaps his wings and flies away. Weird…he’s heading straight for the Everfree Forest. Huh…well, whatever. I have to go find some white fur dye. That day spa in Ponyville might sell it…

…Day spa…6:35 in the evening…

…CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP!!!

I run back into the house and grab some bits from my earnings jar.

“Goodness! What is going on?!” Windstorm exclaims, staring at me in surprise.

“Sorry mom, be right back! Urgent! Got to go get something!” I shout, galloping out the door

“Sorry sir, we’re closing up for the night. Do come again tomorrow!” The blue spa pony says.

She starts to close the door on the day spa.

“No, wait please! This will only take a second! Do you have any white fur dye? I really need it!” I ask, almost begging.

She opens back up the door. She looks at me in curiosity.

“What in the world do you need white fur dye for?” She asks.

“…A play! We ran out of white fur dye, and the play is tonight!” I lie.

She looks at a clock on the wall. She then sighs.

“How much do you need?” She asks, cheerfully.

“Oh thank you, thank you. We need enough for two pegasi.” I reply.

She disappears into the day spa. After a couple of minutes, she comes back with two large bottles of white fur dye.

“Here you are. That will be 64 bits.” She says.

“Here, take the 75 bits I have. It’s the least I can do.” I say, giving her my bits and picking up the bottles. I then gallop off towards my house.

“Thank you! Have a nice evening! Hope the play goes well!” she bids me farewell.

“I got the white fur dye!” I shout to Lance as I gallop over to him.

“Great and I got our ticket to normal pegasus wings.” He says.

He then pulls out two sealed glass vials of a bright blue liquid.

“What in the name of Equestria is that?” I ask, befuddled.

“This…this is a potion that will turn you into a normal pegasus for 12 hours.” He explains, giving me a vial.

“Cool. So we just drink it?” I say, opening the vial.

“Pretty much.” He replies, opening his own.

“Here’s to good health.” I say, clanging my vial against his.

We both down our liquids. Wow, what a nice minty and sweet flavor. Kind of tastes like blueberry with a hint of peppermi…

I suddenly feel a sharp pain in my wings. I drop to the ground, shouting and wincing in pain. I can hear Lance growling in pain. It feels like somepony is driving nails into my wings. My wings start to feel heavier and larger. The pain begins to fade. I stand back up and look at Lance.

“Oh my Celestia…” I gasp.

Lance's bat wings have been replaced with grey Pegasus wings.

“It worked!” Lance exclaims.

I look over my shoulder. I am greeted by a light yellow, feathery pegasus wing.

“This is…awesome!” I shout with glee. I flap my new wings and fly around for a minute.

“Hey! I know you’re excited, but we still need to look like those escorts! And soon, the Princess is going to be expecting us!” He says grabbing a bottle of white fur dye.

I land back down on the ground.

“Now, hold still for a bit. After I’m done dying you, you dye me.” He says, coating me in dye.

“Hey! Watch the bandages!” I shout as Lance pours dye on me.

“Very stunning! You look just like a royal pegasi guard.” I complement Lance.

“Thanks, you look dashing as well.” He replies.

“What are you going to do about your eyes?” I ask.

“I have contacts I can use. There back at my shack. I’ll be back in a flash. You put that armor on.” He says, flying away.

I put on the armor. Ugh, Celestia this chafes my ass. Seriously, how does the royal guard wear this without getting sores on his rump? I put on the helmet. Wow, it’s surprisingly light. I can move my head freely around.

“Um, excuse me?”

I turn around…

…and come face to face with Octavia.

Oh, boy…well, let’s see if this works.

“Uh, can I help you?” I speak with a low, grumbling voice.

“Yes, did you see a yellow bat-winged pegasus around here? He has green eyes and a videogame controller as a cutie mark. He also has bandages on his…” She stops. She begins looking at the bandages on my body. Oh buck… “On his left legs, body, neck and a bandage on his nose…”

“No ma’am I have not seen him.” I say in my grumbly voice, trying to keep my composure.

She then looks me straight in the eyes. “You look oddly like him…” She then peers at my wings. She shrugs. “Huh, must just be an odd coincidence. If you don’t mind me asking, why do you have the bandages on?”

“Oh, I accidentally crashed into another guard and plummeted to the ground.” I reply in the grumbly voice.

“Ok, well if you see him, could you tell him that his fillyfriend is looking for him and went to his house?” She asks me.

“Yes, miss.” I reply.

She walks away towards my house. Phew, that was a close one. Good thing the armor covers my cutie mark, or my cover would have been blown…Oh hey, here comes Lance.

Lance lands beside me.

“Wow…You look just like a royal guard.” He complements me, putting on his own armor.

I notice he now has normal yellow pony eyes.

“Those are some pretty good contacts. I can’t even tell you have slit pupils.” I comment.

“You have to strive for perfection if you want to blend in.” He quips, putting his helmet on. “Now come on, we have to get to the castle before they suspect something’s up.”

We both take off towards the castle…I still have a bad feeling about this…

We both arrive at the castle. At the bottom of the steps sits the royal carriage. A unicorn guard is standing by the carriage.

“Just in time, men! The princess is almost finished getting ready.” He says.

Another unicorn guard gallops down the steps.

“Attention men! She’s on her way!” The unicorn guard commanded.

Both Lance and I stand at attention. The large castle doors swing open. Out steps the princess herself. She walks down the steps and approaches the both of us. She examines both me and Lance.

I swallow hard. The princess of all of Equestria. The tall white alicorn with magenta eyes, a blue, green, and pink mane, crown and a sun as her cutie mark. And she’s standing right in front of me. And I’m going to foalnap her. I start sweating. My stomach starts churning…I don’t feel so good.

“Goodness, are you feeling okay?” The princess asks.

I shake my head and try to pull myself together.

“I’m okay, I’m just a little nervous. It’s my first time escorting somepony really important.” I reply, rubbing my face.

She walks over to her carriage. Lance hits me in my side. I wince in pain.

“Ow…what was that for?” I growl.

“Cool it! We don’t want to blow our cover. The less talking, the better.” He growls through his smile.

We both saddle ourselves up to the carriage. Princess Celestia steps into the carriage. We gallop forward, flap our wings, and take off toward the sky.

We land near my house.

“Sorry, princess, but my compatriot here isn’t feeling too good. Give him a couple minutes.” Lance says to the princess.

“I didn’t think he was feeling well.” She states, smiling sympathetically.

We unsaddle and walk a few meters away from the princess.

“Lance, what are we doing?” I whimper.

“Keep your cool!” He growls. “We’re in this way too far for you to get cold hooves!”

“I’m not getting cold hooves! I just really don’t like this.” I grumble.

The princess walks over to us.

“Is he going to be okay?” She asks, smiling.

“He’ll be fine. He just needed to breathe.” Lance replies.

“Oh good. I’m glad D-Pad is okay.”

A cold chill flows down my spine. I stare at the princess.

This is not going to end well…

“E-e-excuse me, princess?” Lance stutters nervously.

“I’m just glad D-Pad is okay. I would be very disappointed if he got sick on his first foalnapping attempt, Lance.” Princess Celestia replies.

I hear Lance swallow hard. He starts to sweat profusely.

“I…uh…um…I…well…er…well…”

“It’s fine, this is not the first time I have been foalnapped. I am very surprised at how intricate this plan was! Forging official papers, dyeing your fur, stealing armor, and undergoing a wing transformation.” Princess Celestia complements us.

“I…uh…thanks?” Lance says, confused.

“We…appreciate it?” I add, befuddled

“I will say that I am saddened that you had to stoop so low as to steal the armor and forge royal documents to go with this plan. I am certain that you could have negotiated the trade of armor and reasoned with the original escorts to…”

“No…no…stop.” Lance interrupts. “This is getting way too weird. Our intended victim is criticizing our foalnapping attempt. I’m sorry, but isn’t our captive supposed to be screaming for help?”

“Oh dear…I didn’t realize you wanted me to scream for help. Um…Oh my! I have been captured! Please come rescue me! I am a damsel in distress!” She shouts, placing her hoof on her forehead in a shading manner.

I can’t tell if she’s just humoring us, or if she’s being serious.

“Excuse me miss, but how did you know we were planning to foalnap you?” I ask the princess.

“Oh I knew when a copy of the documents to the trial of Concerto Melody went missing. Lance is the only pegasus who wouldn’t stop looking at the file. He was obsessed with that case.” The princess explains.

“Well…I wouldn’t say obsessed…” Lance comments.

“Nevertheless, when Lance was removed from Luna’s royal guard and the copy went missing, there was only one pony who would have taken it.” She glances at Lance. Lance starts rubbing the back of his head, grinning. “As for how I knew you were involved, I looked into the bombing incident and my sister’s interrogation and noticed that you two formed a bond. Later, after the explosion, both of you revisited some old suspects and found Mr. Melody’s case. You were as curious about the case as he was. I guessing you read the file and know about Mr. Melody’s past experience.”

I nod my head.

“I see…well, after that, I kept tabs on you two. That pretty much sums it all up.” She continues. “Well, I suppose you have some questions regarding the case with me?”

“Oh, uh, yes.” I say. “Well, we’ll go with the big one here: Did you take evidence from the evidence room for the case?”

“…Yes…” She sighs.

…

I finally found the answer to the question that has been nagging both of us. So, why do I feel saddened that it’s true?

“Okay, so why did you take the evidence?” I ask.

“Mr. Melody had found out a certain piece of information that may or may not incriminate me in a very scandalous affair. It was a long time ago, and I only did it because of the circumstances. Believe me; it was better that did it then not doing anything at all. Nevertheless, if the information gets out it could cause widespread pandemonium. He found out about it, and used it as blackmail to get me to steal the evidence to his trial.” She explains.

“What information is it that can’t get out?” I ask.

She glares at me.

“Perhaps that’s not the right question to ask…” I chuckle nervously.

“Do you know where Mr. Melody is?” Lance asks.

“No, he disappeared before the bombing incident. My guards have not seen him since.” She replies.

“Did you ever see what happened to his interrogation victims?” I ask.

“…yes, and I would never want anypony to see what I saw…”She replies grimly.

Perhaps we should avoid pursuing that question

“That’s pretty much all the questions I had.” I say.

She smiles.

“Sorry about ruining your trip.” I apologize.

“Sorry? The night is still young. And I still need escorts.” She replies, smiling.

“You mean…” I begin to say, ecstatic

“First, to make you two more presentable...” She says.

Her horn starts to glow a bright yellow. Lance and I are engulfed in gold auras. The white dye starts dripping off my body, as well as Lance’s. I feel my wings become smaller and lighter. I look back and see my light yellow bat-wings back where they should be. She levitates the armor off of us. The gold aura fades as her horn returns to normal.

“That…was…awesome!” I exclaim.

“D-Pad! There you are!”

I turn to see Octavia trotting over to me.

“Where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for…” She asks.

She then notices Princess Celestia right in front of us.

“Oh my goodness! I-I do hope I’m not interrupting anything.” Octavia says, concerned.

“Oh, no you are fine. Its Octavia Melody isn’t it? I just came to ask your friends here if they would be willing to pull my carriage to the Manehattan Fair. My other escorts got sick, and they offered to help earlier this afternoon.” She explains, winking at us.

“Wow, you guys get to pull royalty? Well, I guess that’s a promotion for you D-Pad.” Octavia jokes.

I laugh at her joke. Then I think of something. “Princess Celestia, would it be okay with you if Octavia came with us?” I ask.

“I would be honored to have her come with us.” Princess Celestia replies.

“Oh, my…thank you very much, princess!” Octavia thanks her, bowing.

Octavia walks over to me and hugs me.

“You are amazing, D-Pad.” She complements me.

She then kisses me on the cheek. I turn a bright red.

She climbs into the royal carriage. Lance and I saddle back up to the carriage.

“Next stop…Manehattan!” I shout.

Lance and I gallop forward, flap our wings, and take off towards the sky.

Chapter 8: Waiting

Three months…

Three months have gone past since that incident with Princess Celestia. Lance and I have been looking high and low for Octavia’s dad, but with no success. Come to think of it… Lance and I have been hanging out a lot lately. Maybe a little too much. I haven’t been offering my services lately, and haven’t been making many bits at all. I have so much on my mind right now.

I’ve also been getting more intimate with Octavia. A month ago I had to, unfortunately, spill the beans on the information Lance and I have on her father. She took it as well as I expected…she denied it, but slowly came to terms with our information…its funny…it seems that when I’m not hanging with Lance, I’m with Octavia. We’ve stopped rubbing noses and have started full mouth kissing and such. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. I guess you could say we’re committed to this relationship. Oh and before I forget, I learned something new about myself today…

I am turned on when Octavia wears her saddle…

It’s kind of a funny story. I had just arrived at Octavia’s house with the intent of taking Octavia out for a drink. I knocked on their door, only to get no answer. I knocked again. Still no answer. I flew up to Octavia’s bedroom and looked into her window. I watched as she stood in front of a hanging mirror, wearing her saddle and socks, and admired herself. That’s about the point where she saw me in the mirror and turned and screamed. She tried to pull of her saddle, but noticed that I was making a fanning motion with my hoof, and she blushed. I mouth the words “You look sexy.” She opens up the window and invites me in…

...and that’s about when we started making out…

“D-PAD! HEY! EQUESTRIA TO D-PAD!”

I snap back to reality. I’m sitting near the edge of a lake and looking out towards the sky. Lance is standing in front of me and waving a hoof in my face.

“You zoned out there bud. You okay?” He asks.

“Yeah, I’m just thinking…” I reply, blinking my eyes a couple of times.

“About what?” He inquires.

“Well, Octavia mostly.” I admit. “This is the first fillyfriend I ever had, and she is a one of a kind mare. She’s beautiful, kind, friendly, and she’s an amazing cellist. Any tips on making this relationship last?”

“You’re asking the wrong stallion. Any relationship tips I have are about how to rape a mare without her squirming too much.” He says, poking at the water.

…Yes, very wrong stallion to ask…

“Say, how has your relationship with Octavia been?” He asks.

“Very good, although we did have an argument a couple days ago. I accidentally insulted her parents and we bickered about that. Then she talked about how I don’t even know about my real parents. We settled down, and we apologized.” I replied.

“What? No make-up sex?” He joked.

“Dude, it been like three an a half months!” I exclaim. “I think that it’s too soon to think about sex!”

“I’m just pulling your leg, bud. I don’t give a buck if you two have sex or not." He laughs.

“Good to know I have my best friend’s permission to have sex.” I joke.

We both laugh for a good minute. He sits down beside me.

“So, how goes the search?” I ask.

“Not good.” He grumbles. “I still haven’t found anything that points out where Concerto Melody fled to. No pony has seen him or heard from him. Even his wife doesn’t know where he went. It’s like he disappeared from Equestria entirely.”

“Damn it…” I growl, hitting the ground with my hoof. “How in Tartarus did he just vanish? Yeah, he is a unicorn and probably can teleport, but most can only teleport a few meters away.”

“Dunno, It is a puzzler to me…wait…aren’t you supposed to be at the Golden Oaks Library?” Lance asks.

My eyes widen. I jump up into a standing position. “Crap! What time is it?!”

“When I left, it was about 3:00. It took me at least five minutes to get here, so I’d say about 3:05 P.M.” Lance replies.

“Damn! I was supposed to be there five minutes ago!!” I shout, galloping of toward town.

Crap! Ten minutes late! I look up at the library. You know, whoever decided to build a library in a tree is amazing. How does anypony even manage to do it? Not only that, but how do they get the windows in. Damn it, D-Pad! Quit stalling! I knock on the red door. Oh, nice candlestick sign.

“It’s open!” I hear somepony say from behind the door.

I open the door and walk inside. I close the door behind me. “Hello!? D-Pad: Pegasus for Hire!” I shout. I look at all of the shelves of books…wow…there’s got to be at least a thousand books here! I notice a small table with a gold globe in it. I also see a small figure carrying a rather large pile of books.

“Here, let me help you with that.” I say, walking over to the figure. I pull a couple books down and set them on the table. The figure sets the rest of the books on the table.

The figure, as it turns out, is a small purple dragon with a very light green underbelly, green..."ears”, and green spikes on his head going all the way down to his tail. I think I saw him before…yeah it was at that party I was thrown when I first moved here. He left early with that purple alicorn before the party really got started…

“Hey wait, I know you!” The dragon exclaims. “You’re that pegasus that everypony was scared of for a while.”

“Yep. Hey, sorry for being late, I got caught up in some things.” I apologize.

“It’s no problem. So, are you here to help me out?” He asks.

“Yessir! D-Pad: Pegasus for Hire, at your service.” I say, making a heroic pose.

I notice he is looking at me with a puzzled look. I chuckle uncomfortably.

“So, its Spike isn’t it?” I ask, to which he nods. So, what do you need done today?”

“We just got some book donations from the Crystal Empire library. They need to be cataloged and shelved.” He explains. He hands me a long list of book titles with blank check boxes by them. He then leaves to go up a stairway, and comes back down struggling with a very large box.

“Careful there! Let me help.” I say, propping the box up with my body. We move it over by the table with the globe in it.

“There, that’s should do it.” I comment as we set the box down. “Wow, that's quite a bit of work for a little librarian such as yourself.”

“Oh, I’m not the librarian. Twilight usually deals with getting ponies books.” He states.

“Twilight? Is she that purple alicorn princess that lives in Ponyville? I’ve seen her walking the street sometimes. I heard some very prestigious things about her.” I ask.

“Yep. Princess Twilight Sparkle.” He says, proudly.

“Cool. My dad got to see the princess coronation. To be honest, she’s a little small to be an alicorn from the alicorns that I have met. No offence.” I say.

“None taken, but yeah she is the new princess.” He says.

“Which makes you…”

“Twilights number one assistant!” He exclaims proudly.

I hear a flapping noise. It sounds like a bulky bird is flying around.

“Hey, is there a bird in here?” I ask, looking around.

“That’s probably Owlowiscious. He’s the junior assistant. He works at night while I sleep. Wonder what he’s doing up so early.” He explains.

“Your junior assistant is a bird?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.

An owl flies onto the box we just sat down. He is facing away from me, and his head turns to look at me.

“Whoo.” He hoots.

“Okay that’s creepy.” I say, backing away from the owl.

“Yeah, you’re telling me. He does it all the time, and I still haven’t gotten used to it.” Spike comments.

I shoo the owl away and pry open the box. Spike jumps up into the box and pulls out a book. I pick up the list and grab a pencil form the table with my teeth.

“The Equestrian Bestiary, Volume 1.” He says, showing me the book.

I look on the list and find the title. I check it off the list. “Check.” I reply.

“So, where exactly is Miss Sparkle? I haven’t seen her roaming around in Ponyville for a while.” I ask, setting the pencil down.

“She’s gone for a while. She’s over in the Crystal Empire investigating a very strange claim.” He explains.

“Strange claim? What exactly is strange about it?” I ask.

“I don’t really know.” He replies. “But from what Twilight told me, ponies have been going missing, and then reappearing the next day, with no recollection of anything about being foalnapped. And they’re disappearing from everywhere. Baltimare, Fillydelphia, Cloudsdale, Maneyapolis, you name it. The Crystal Empire just had its first foalnapping.”

“Huh…any suspects?” I ask.

“I’m not sure; Twilight just started working on this a few days ago. She hasn’t come back yet, so I don’t anything.” He replies.

“I see…welp, we better get back to work.” I say, picking up the pencil with my teeth.

He starts rummaging through the box again. We get half of the list done. After that, we take another break and talk for a while. Turns out this dragon has a crush on one of the ponies. Rarity, as I believe. I think I know her…hey yeah! I saved her little sister from some timberwolves a couple of months ago. Hmm…I wonder how that relationship will go…you know what? It could happen. Stranger things have happened before…

He then asks what I’m going to do after this. I tell him that I plan on going to the concert in Ponyville Park later this evening to watch my fillyfriend perform. There is no way I can miss this…Octavia is going to be performing with the rest of her group, and I promised I would make it…

“…and that should be the last book.” I say, checking the last checkbox and putting the pencil on the table.

“Hey, thanks for the help! It definitely saves me the rest of the night. What do I owe you?” He asks.

“…22 bits.” I calculate “But I enjoyed the time I had here, so I’ll lower it to 16 bits.”

“Really? Thanks! I’ll be right back.” He says, bounding up the stairs. After a minute or so, he comes back down the stairs and hands me a small bag.

“That should do it. Have a good evening!” He bids me farewell.

I thank him and leave the library, closing the door behind me. I take off toward the sky and head for the park.

I land just outside the park. There is a huge crowd of ponies already sitting in front of a huge covered stage with a large curtain. I look around for anypony I know.

“D-Pad! Over here!!”

I see Vinyl waving her hooves in the air near the front of the crowd. I fly above the ponies and land next to her. A couple of ponies behind us give me dirty looks.

“Cutting it close, don’t you think? The concert is about to begin, and Tavi and her band are going to perform first.” Vinyl scolded me.

“Sorry, I’ve kind of been running late all day today.” I apologize, rubbing the back of my head with my hoof.

The curtain opens up a bit, and I see a brown stallion with a white mane at a piano. He begins to play a tune. The curtain opens up a bit more to reveal a light blue mare with a brown mane with a tuba that begins to play along with the tune of the brown stallion. The curtain opens more to show a blue-violet stallion with a harp. He joins in with the tune of the other two. The curtain opens all of the way. A cello lies on the ground with no musician. The three ponies stop playing and begin to murmur amongst one another.

“…the bloody ‘eck is she...”

“…She was there a couple minutes ago…”

“…maybe she had to go to the bathroom…

“Vinyl, something not right.” I whisper. “Octavia would not just up and leave if she had to go to the bathroom…”

Suddenly, I hear blood-curdling screams from the back rows. Ponies begin pushing us forward toward the stage.

“HEY! STOP PUSHING US! THIS ISN’T A MOSH PIT, KNOCK IT THE BUCK OFF!” Vinyl shouts over the screams of the other ponies.

“What the buck is going on back there?!” I shout, trying to move through the crowd.

I pass by the last fleeing pony. And look toward a pale white pony slumping towards…towards…Mother of Celestia…I-I don’t even…Is that even…a pony?

The…thing…shambles closer to me, and gives me something to look forward to in my nightmares. Its face is split down the middle, crudely stapled together with bloody nails. Its mane is shaved off, and there is a bleeding hunk of flesh where its tail should be. Its flank has been carved into on both sides where its cutie mark should be. It has three pairs of malformed pegasi wings growing out of its body, and three cracked horns growing out of its head. It’s coughing out a lot of blood. It is bleeding out of its clouded-over eyes.

“H-h-hello.” I say to it.

It looks at me with its dead eyes. It begins making a gurgling sound and begins to walk faster towards me. I shuffle backwards in fear.

“S-S-Stay back!” I shout at it.

Suddenly, it slumps to the ground and begins shaking uncontrollably. One of its eyes begins expanding, and explodes in a spurt of blood. It starts puking out blood violently.

…What the buck…I don’t even…I…I can’t even think of what to say…

“Eeeeeeeveeeeeeeerfreeeeeeeeeeee.” It rasps over its puking fit.

It then begins puking out its intestines, followed by its entire stomach and one of its lungs. It springs back up, begins running around, violently whipping its head around. It begins to run it a straight line towards a large tree…

…It lowers its head…

And slams head first into the tree.

It stops making any noise and movement at all. I walk over to look at it. It cracked open its crude stitch work on its face and reveals the rotting muscles and cracked bones underneath the skin. A fountain of blood pours from its now vacant eye socket.

I start to puke. I couldn’t help it. If the sight of this mangled creature wasn’t enough to get me sick, the foul smelling, rotting flesh is doing a bang up job.

“D-Pad…What the Tartarus…are you okay?”

I look over to see Vinyl heading my way. I run over to her, trying to hold back my vomit.

“Don’t go over there.” I command her. “You don’t want to see it…nopony should have to see it…”

“What is…was that thing.” She asks, glancing over at it.

“I…I don’t know what it is…but I think it was a pony before…” I speculate.

Her mouth drops. Yeah, that my reaction, too. Who was that pony? What the Tartarus happened to her? What kind of sick bastard would do that to somepony?

Well, I think I might know where to get my answers…

“Vinyl, we’re going to the Everfree Forest.” I state.

“H-Hey wait a minute! I didn’t agree to that! Why are we going there?!” She asks.

“That creature said something along the lines of Everfree. I think if we’re going to discover what it was and where it came from, it would be there.” I explain.

“What about Octavia? Shouldn’t we find her first?” Vinyl asks.

I look back at the creature. A pool of blood is now flowing outwards onto the grass and flowers.

“Something tells me that when we find the source of this creature, we’ll find Octavia.”

Chapter 9: Hate

“Eugh…I hate this place. I came here once…got so spooked that I ended up breaking my leg…” Vinyl comments.

I don’t blame her for despising this place. I still feel like there’s going to be one of those timberwolf things and it’s going to jump out of nowhere and eat me. Well, nothing like fear to keep you moving…Celestia, I can hardly see anything this deep into the forest. The setting sun isn’t helping, either. We’re losing light fast, and we didn’t bring any light source. Vinyl’s using her horn to give us light, but that light source only goes as far as a few meters. If we don’t find anything before too long, we’ll have to wait till tomorrow to continue searching, and I don’t think that we have time to wait.

“Keep looking for anything out of the ordinary.” I say to Vinyl.

“I would if we could see more than a few meters away.” She grumbles.

I try to look around us, but all I’m seeing is darkness. I walk forward a little…EW EW EW WHAT DID I STEP IN?!?!?

I quickly lift up my hoof to see a puddle of a red, sticky, liquid. I notice that there is some of the liquid on my hoof. Against all better judgment, I lick the substance off of my hoof. It tastes irony.

“I think we may have found a clue. I just stepped in a puddle of blood.” I say, grimacing.

“Great, just great.” Vinyl grumbles. “And that helps us how?”

“We came in from that way.” I explain, pointing my hoof southward. “This must have been the way that the “thing” came from. If that’s the case, the place it came from may be around here somewhere.”

“So you’re saying it came from somewhere in the Everfree Forest. Well, that’s one mystery solved.” Vinyl jokes.

A boom comes from above us. We both look up. Dark, foreboding clouds begin forming over the forest. It begins to downpour on us. Lightning and thunder deafen any other sounds made by the forest. The whole storm was accompanied by ungodly whipping winds.

“Well, this is just fan-bucking-tastic!!” Vinyl shouts over the storm.

I look around for anything to help us wait out the storm. With the help of the multiple lightning strikes, there is enough light that I am able make out an entrance to a cave.

“This way!” I shout, motioning to Vinyl to follow me.

We strain to move in the tornado-like winds. Bit-sized hail begins to fall, pelting us with ice. I hear Vinyl curse, to which I look back and notice that the hail hit her in the face, smashing her glasses. We eventually we both make it into the cave.

“Damn it! I just had these fixed a few days ago!” She growls, taking her glasses off, and tossing them to the ground.

I look outside the cave. The hail begins to grow to the size of apples, and the wind grows to hurricane force winds.

“Looks like were not leaving for a while.” I say.

“Damn it to Tartarus! Great, just great, so now we’re stuck here in the middle of the Everfree forest and no one knows where we are! Great plan, D-Pad.” She growls at me with discontent.

…She’s right. I was far too headstrong to just run off to the forest without telling anyone. I was stupid for not getting a light source. Now we’re trapped here because of me.

“I’m sorry.” I apologize. “But something doesn’t feel right. Call it a gut instinct, but something seems amiss. I know the creature mentioned Everfree, I just know it. There is something here.”

“You went to all this just because the…thing…mentioned it?” Vinyl asked, still perturbed about the whole situation.

“Well, kinda. There’s also the factor of ponies going missing. According to the assistant of the alicorn that lives in the library, ponies have been getting foalnapped and then returned with no recollection of who foalnapped them or where they were taken. I think that these incidences may link up somehow.” I explain.

Vinyl raises an eyebrow.

“That…sounded more reasonable in my head.” I admit.

Vinyl lies down on the ground. “Well nothing to do now but wait out the storm.” She grumbles.

I lie down and close my eyes. Maybe I can get a nap in while the storm rages on.

…D-PAD! HELP! HELP ME!!...

I see Octavia tied up by her hooves to two carriages. The back hooves to one carriage, and the front hoofs to the other. They begin to roll away in opposite directions. They jerk backwards as they hit the ends of their ropes. I hear Octavia scream as they begin to roll again, this time continuing to move forward as they reach the ends of their ropes. I try to take a step forward to help her, but I can’t feel anything. My body feels like it doesn’t exist! I can’t move! I watch helplessly as Octavia’s limbs begin to tear away from her body. I watch as her fur and skin is torn from her body, exposing muscle and bone. Her back legs snap off of her body, and she is dragged along by her front hooves, her body being torn up by the ground. The carriages stop moving after a good minute. Octavia is bleeding profusely out of her body and limbs.

“D-PAD! WHY DID YOU JUST STAND THERE?! WHY DIDN’T YOU SAVE ME?!” She screams.

“OCTAVIA!!!”

I snap awake. I begin to breathe heavily. I swallow a couple of times. I look over at Vinyl, who is staring at me in shock.

“D-Pad, are you okay?! You were thrashing about wildly, I almost thought you were having a seizure!” she says, worried.

I look around. We’re still in the cave. I look outside the cave to see the storm still raging on. I start to calm down and lighten my breathing.

“Yeah…just…just a bad dream…” I reply, rubbing my face with my hooves.

I walk around the cave. I begin to worry about Octavia. Please Celestia…please let her be okay. I don’t know what I do if she-AAAH!!

A jet of hot air hits me in the face. I jump back in aversion. I put my hoof up to feel where the air is coming from. I trace it to the wall beside me. I put my ear up to the wall, and knock on it. It sounds hollow!

“Vinyl, come over here!” I shout. Vinyl walks over to me. “This wall is hollow! There’s something behind it! Quick, get a big rock and help me break it down.”

We both grab a rock. We begin to slam them into the wall. After a few minutes the wall begins to crack and crumble. We make a hole in the wall big enough for us to fit in. Behind the wall is a pitch black tunnel. Heat is radiating from the tunnel.

“Well, that’s interesting…not very helpful, but interesting.” Vinyl comments.

“Come on, let’s check it out.” I say, climbing over the rubble into the tunnel.

“No way! I’m not going in there! There could be some creature in there that will tear our faces off! We don’t even know where it leads!” Vinyl complains.

“Well, were stuck here until the storm passes. It’s not like we have anything better to do.” I retort.

Vinyl growls and climbs over the rubble. Her horn glows again, giving us some light to work with. We start our trek into the tunnel. We walk for a few minutes. We then come across a large paper sprawled and taped to the tunnel wall.

“Hey hold up, let me look at this.” I say, raising a hoof to stop Vinyl. I begin to examine the paper. There’s a bunch of thick lines of altering lengths heading toward a very large circle in the middle. The far ends of the lines all have names of cities and some land marks… Maneyapolis…Baltimare…Chicoltgo…Everfree Forest…wait…is this?...

“Vinyl, I think this is a map of a tunnel system!” I exclaim. “Look, these entire systems link up in one area, and look at all the system entrances.”

“There are entrances all over Equestria! But why? What purpose do these caves have that most of Equestria is linked to them?” Vinyl asks.

“Only one way to find out. Let’s keep moving.” I say, motioning to Vinyl to follow me.

We continue our trek forwards. Geez, it’s getting hot. I start sweating up a storm. Seems like the further we press on, the hotter it gets. That could either be good…or very, very bad. We walk for what I guess to be about a half an hour. Suddenly, I see a glowing green light.

“Hey, there’s light up ahead!” I exclaim. “Maybe somepony is down here! Come on!”

We both run towards the light. As we run closer, I feel the ground change. What was once a gritty, earthy surface is now a smooth, metallic surface. The walls and ceiling begin to take this surface change as well. The glowing light is now very bright and coming from a larger opening. We both enter the new opening.

The room we enter is massive. Metal multi-leveled buildings are everywhere. Heck, everything is made of metal. The floors, the walls, the ceiling, even some of the decorations are made of metal. I look around the room. The metal walls are glowing green. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not…I hope it’s not radioactive down here. I walk closer to the wall and notice that all the green glowing is coming from millions and millions of some weird metal cylindrical structures with green glowing liquid. They're radiating so much heat that it feels like my skin is going to melt. I take a closer look at what’s in the…Mother of Celestia…

There is a horribly disfigured colt with needles penetrating his skin inside the structure. Its body is inflated like a party balloon. Its head is devoid of eyes, and has eight legs growing out of its body. It is twitching and writhing in pain. Vinyl walks over to me and looks in the tube. She puts a hoof to her mouth and as she looks into the structure, the both of us looking at the colt in disgust, pity, and complete horror.

“What kind of monster would do this to a foal?” She gasps.

We both look in some of the other tubes. There a bunch of other ponies and foals mangled in various horrific ways. Celestia…how many ponies are there? I look around at all the glowing structures. When we get out of here, I am going straight to the princess about this.

All of the sudden, I see some movement from inside one of the buildings. “Vinyl! There’s something in that building! Come on!” I shout. We run over to the single story, metal building in question. The door is open. I creep in to the house as quietly as I can. I see a grey mare with a dark gray tail tied together by its hooves and a brown bag over its head. It has a purple treble clef cutie…OCTAVIA!!

I yank the bag off of her head. She has a cloth gag in her mouth. She looks at me gloomily, then immediately brightens up, smiling with her gag. I untied her and take the gag off.

“D-Pad! Thank Celestia! I knew you would find me, I just knew it!!” She shouts, hugging and kissing me.

Octavia and I hold each other close for a minute or two. “I was so scared. I don’t know where I am or what’s going on, but it’s horrifying. I’ve seen what’s in the glowing tubes. I thought the worst was going to happen, and they would turn me into one of those…things.” She cries.

“Octavia, I would never let anypony do anything to harm you, I promise.” I state, trying to cheer her up. She smiles again and hugs me tighter.

“What the heck are you doing down here, Tavi?” Vinyl asks.

“I don’t know.” Octavia replies. “One minute I’m getting ready for the concert, and the next thing I knew, I was in this big metal prison. Then a stallion came over to me and put this gag on me and…D-PAD BEHIND YOU!!

I swing around. There is a grey unicorn stallion standing right in front of me. He is wearing a leather mask and a full-body suit. His horn is glowing red. A red aura is levitating an empty syringe in the air.

“Back off! I won’t let you hurt my friends, and I will hurt you if I have to!” I shout at the stallion, taking a defensive stance

“Who says I need your friends.” He growls.

The syringe flies through the air right into-OW! DAMN IT! Right into my shoulder. The plunger pulls back and blood from my body fills up the syringe. The unicorn uses his magic to yank the syringe out, to which he levitates the syringe into his suit pocket. Ohohoh, if you think you’re getting my blood without a fight, you’ve got another thing coming.

I lunge at the unicorn. He dodges backward, and a fall flat on my face. He laughs at me. Yeah, just keep laughing, that’s it. I carefully position myself, and spring headfirst into the unicorn. My head collides with his body, knocking him over. I pounce on him and pin him to the ground. I grab his mask with my teeth and yank it off.

“Why am I not surprised?” I growl.

“Father?!...No! NO!” Octavia shouts in disbelief.

“Mr. Melody?!” Vinyl shouts in confusion.

Celestia, the resmblince between him and Octavia is still uncanny. He flings me off of him with his magic. I fly across the room-ARGH!-and slam into a wall.

“…Filthy pegasus…” He growls as he stands back up.

“Nice to see you too.” I wittily retort. I get back up and take my defensive stance. Blood is trickling out of my shoulder. “Novel work with the weather outside. You are very impressive.”

“Oh, so you figured that one out! Bravo! You have far surpassed my expectations!” He says, clapping his hooves.

…to be honest, I just guessed that…Well, If the villain admits to it, there is no need to state further…

“Father…all these ponies…you didn’t…” Octavia whimpered. I sense that she’s still trying to comprehend that her dad did this. I don’t think she wanted to believe that her father could do this.

He laughs. “My dear, I would not be that stupid. Honestly, foalnapping thousands of ponies and destroying their genes in the process? I couldn’t possibly bring myself to stoop that low.” He snapped.

“Well, what the Tartarus is all of this! What the buck are you doing down here?!” I shout.

He takes a few steps forward. He begins to laugh again. “Really?!” He laughs. “The one pony that I knew was going to cause me trouble, and you haven’t pieced my plan together yet?! Oh my Celestia!” He brings his hoof to his head. “And here I thought the project that got away would be a dead giveaway!”

I raise an eyebrow at him. “What are you getting at?” I growl.

“Think!” He shouts. “Use that pathetic brain of yours! Why would I capture thousands of ponies, put them back and create all these abominations?!”

I brainstorm as I watch Concerto Melody closely. Think, D-Pad! He must have a reason for all these creatures.

“You’re building an army!” I blurt.

He begins laughing as hard as he can. He ends up having a coughing fit over it. I think it’s safe to say that I’m wrong.

“Good idea once I get them to obey me!” He laughs. “Completely useless as they are right now. They’d rather kill themselves than anything else. Can’t tell you how much foal blood I had to clean up after the first dozen foal clones jumped off one of the roofs…”

“SHUT UP!!” Vinyl screamed.

“Oooooh. Touched a nerve did I?” He cackles at her.

“Eyes to me, asshole!” I shout at him. “You mentioned clones. I presume that’s what’s in the…whatever the Tartarus those things are. How in Equestria did you make them?”

“isn’t it obvious?” He scoffs. “I’m a unicorn, and if you haven’t figured it out by now…”

He pulls of his full body suit. I look at his cutie mark for the first time in my life. It is a double helix with multi-colored rungs. I saw one of those things in a Biology book I found. I think it’s something called DNA.

“…I’m damn good at Genetics.”

Genetics…I hate genetics…

“So you used your magic to make DNA copies of all the ponies you captured, and are now using them as your test subjects...” I growl.

“Now you’re getting it. Keep going. You’ll unveil my plan sometime.” He laughs.

Celestia I cannot wait to beat the buck out of his cocky face….RRRRGH! I can’t figure it out! Why would he go to all this trouble to make test subjects to do…eugh…genetic things with them? Think! Grrr…

“…Go ahead and gloat, I can’t figure it out…” I growl.

“I figured as much…” He laughs.

“Father! Just tell us what you are doing!” Octavia shouts.

He levitates a vial of black liquid with a cork in the top out of his coat on the floor along with the syringe full of my blood. He uncorks the vial and empties the syringe into the black liquid.

“I remember a time when I was a foal.” He speaks to us. “I wanted to be a powerful alicorn. I had a horn but I was missing wings.” He starts to laugh. “I remember making a pair of wings from some old newspapers. I would give anything to be an alicorn. Then, Princess Celestia came to my town for a celebration. I got to see the princess face to face. “She’s the most powerful thing there is in Equestria, maybe she can grant my request” I thought to myself. I asked if she could make me an alicorn. She told me that what I was asking for was inconsiderate and dangerous. I was enraged. Inconsiderate!? How DARE she! I put my life into becoming an alicorn, and she has the audacity to crush my hopes and dreams. I remember the following day I was reading a genetics book. I learned about genes and DNA. I learned that you could change yourself with this amazing stuff. “If she won’t turn me into an alicorn, I will do it myself.” I thought to myself. As I grew older, the thought of being an alicorn seemed too small. I wanted to be better than an alicorn. Faster, stronger, more magical power.”

He fills the syringe up with the black liquid.

“This…” He says, holding the syringe and pushing the plunger just enough to empty the air out of it. “…is five years of experimentation. The liquid breaks down genes and when injected into a host, will alter the genes of the host. With your genes and all the genes I have collected, I will become unstoppable.”

“Hold up. There’s still one thing I don’t understand!” I exclaim. “Why all the bad weather? What purpose does it serve?”

“Well, everypony needs a means of escape. These caves all connect to this massive cave…right under Ponyville. I was not going to risk walking through Ponyville even in the dead of night. After all, the princess has eyes everywhere. So, what better distraction then a storm to end all storms.” He explains.

That’s…pretty impressive thinking right there…

“Why…why are you doing this?” Octavia asks.

“Because I hate everypony…” he growls. “They called me a monster for what I did to my test rats. They laughed at my discoveries. They turned me away when I offered to change what they were. I was kicked out of universities for my use on these new discoveries.”

He then glares at Octavia.

“And you…” He growls. “Do you know how much work I put into making sure you were a unicorn? I planned everything to the mark. I looked at everything I could on breeding. I gave your mother some unicorn genes that I thought would be sure to make you were a unicorn. And yet…there you stand. A mistake…a mixup…a filthy, damned earth pony. It seems like sort of sick joke. I almost think I’m being punished…I don’t know where I went wrong.”

“SHUT THE TARTARUS UP!” I shout.

Everypony stares at me. I’m trying so hard not to go into a frenzied rage. He may be her father, but how dare you talk about your daughter like that.

“Do not call her a mistake! She is the greatest mare I have ever met! How can you be so uncaring?! She’s your daughter for Celestia’s sake!” I shout. I try my best to compose myself. “I swear to Celestia that you be punished; by my hand or the hand of the system.”

He laughs at me. “I can hardly wait for the system to try to take me down.” He sticks the syringe into his hip. “The next time you see me, I WILL BE A GOD!” He pushes the plunger down, injecting himself with the black liquid. His eyes start uncontrollably twitching. He begins to yell in pain and begins thrashing about. He slams into one of the walls and falls over. He begins to convulse and twitch like he was having an epileptic seizure. His yelps of pains are turning to guttural roars. He suddenly stops moving. His eyes go to the back of his head, and he stops breathing. Against better judgment, I poke him. He does not move.

I look back at Octavia. She is just staring at her now deceased dad. She drops to her knees and begins to sob. I walk over to her and pet her back.

“I-I am so sorry, Octavia.” I whisper to her.

“Tavi…are you going to be okay?” Vinyl asks.

Octavia doesn’t say a word. She stands back up, still crying. She tries her best not to look at her father as she walks out of the metal building.

“Come on; let’s get her back to Ponyville. Then we can go to Canterlot and tell Princess Celestia about this place.” I say to Vinyl.

“What do you think they’re going to do to everything in here?” Vinyl asks.

I look back over at the body of Octavia’s dad. I then remember what the foal in the machine looked like.

“I don’t want to know…” I reply glumly.

Final Chapter: Life

“Its…it’s over…it’s all over…”

I walk out of the castle. All of the guards are regaining their composure. The red aura surrounding Canterlot is dissipating. I can hear much hubbub coming from the city. Octavia runs over to me.

“D-Pad…You did it…” She says.

“Octavia…your father…he wanted me to tell you…he was sorry…” I say.

She hugs me, starting to cry. The purple armored guard walks over to me.

“You did it…you actually stopped it…I thought you were going to be mince-meat.” He speaks, flabbergasted.

“I’m very good at surprising ponies.” I joke.

“Yeah, no kidding.” He says, looking at my bat wings.

A couple of the guards walk over to me.

“He stopped it?!” One of them exclaims. “Holy…you are awesome!!”

They began praising me and cheering. More and more guards come over and join in the cheering.

“Excuse me…”

The guards all stand at attention. Who said…Oh!

I turn to see Princess Celestia is standing not a meter away. She walks over to me.

“You seem to find yourself in some of the most interesting situations.” She jokes.

I nod, and then proceed to bow.

“Well, I was never one to lead the dull life.” I quip, standing up.

She smiles. “Come with me. Let’s go for a walk.” She says.

She begins to walk towards a large hedge maze, to which I follow. We walk for a couple of minutes. “Where are we going?” I ask.

“Nowhere.” She replies.

I raise my eyebrow at her reply. I shrug and continue to walk. After a few more minutes, we come to a clearing in the maze. There is a brick path in front of us, which lead towards entrances back into the hedge maze. There are many statues of ponies in regal stances. There are a couple of benches here and there

She walks up to an open spot and sits down. I stand next to her.

“You may sit down, if you would like.” She kindly says.

I sit down. Princess Celestia looks up at the moonlit sky. I look up towards the sky. There's something peculiar about tonight. The moon seems brighter tonight, and the stars seem to glisten more colorfully and vividly. Some of the stars fall in a beautiful array of colors. I feel calmer and more at ease looking up at the sky.

“Beautiful, isn’t it…Luna has really outdone herself” She comments.

“It is very pretty. I feel like I could watch the sky for hours.” I agree.

“It kind of makes me jealous of my sister. Hah, how about that? Me…being jealous.” She laughs.

I laugh with her. We return to looking up at the sky.

“I wish Octavia could see this.” I say.

“I’m certain that she can see it as well, along with Vinyl and Lance…” She replies.

“Lance! I almost forgot!” I say standing straight up.

“Don’t worry, D-Pad. Lance is just fine. I had some of the guards pick him up and take him to the Ponyville Hospital.” She reassures me.

“And there’s this huge area just under Ponyville that’s full of machine like things with all these…”

D-Pad, it is ok.” She says, calmly. “I already know about it, and it’s already being taken care of.”

I sit back down. I breathe a sigh of relief.

“You’ve done a great deed for Equestria.” She says. “I was going to send for the Elements of Harmony, but thanks to your efforts, they will not be needed. For everypony in Equestria, I wish to be the first to say…thank you.”

“Princess…I will accept your thanks…but in truth, I don’t want it.” I reply.

She raises an eyebrow at me.

“…I want to believe that anypony would have done that. I can’t be the only one who wanted to defend Equestria…look at that guard in the purple armor. He didn’t fight for profit, or any physical gain. He fought because he believed he should. He fought for what he thought was right. That’s what I did. I fought because I thought that I was fighting for what was right. I believe in me…in you…in everypony…in Equestria…”

She smiles and pats my shoulder.

“Now that is a thought I can get behind…” She agrees, smiling.

We gaze back at the moon, and sit there for a few minutes.

“Goodness, what time is it? You should get back to Ponyville. Octavia’s waiting for you.” She says.

I stand up and thank Princess Celestia for talking with me. I then flap my wings and take to the sky.

Currently, I’m not even a kilometer from Ponyville. Hoo-ah, what a day…I haven’t been this exhausted in a long time. Finally, I can just relax…What’s that noise? I land on a nearby cloud and listen…It sounds like a massive amount of ponies are chanting something. I put a hoof to my ear and listen carefully.

…D-Pad…D-Pad…D-Pad…

They’re…chanting my name? I take off from the cloud and fly towards a section outside Ponyville that looks heavily populated. There are a lot of bright lights and I can hear music. There is a large stage that has been set up. The chanting is getting louder. As I get closer, the music stops. Vinyl steps up to the stage and the chanting stops.

“Mares and Gentlestallions! Here he is! The hero of Equestria! The bat-winged badass himself…D-PAD!!!” I hear Vinyl yell into a microphone as she points towards me.

The entire crowd looks up at me and begins cheering. I fly down and land onto the stage. I underestimated how loud it was, Vinyl is trying to talk to me and I can’t hear her. They begin chanting my name again. Octavia walks onto the stage and kisses me on the cheek.

“SPEECH! SPEECH! SPEECH! SPEECH! SPEECH!” The crowd chants.

Vinyl hands the microphone over to me. Oh boy…well, let’s give them one heck of a good speech.

“Hello, Ponyville!” I shout. The crowd cheers loudly. “Wow…I don’t even know what to say…I’ve never given a speech in my life. Well, I guess first I should thank Vinyl for setting up this shindig up, and for putting up with my shit.” The crowd laughs. “I’d also like to thank Lance…Lance! You out there!?”

“Over here!” I see him walking over to the stage with his wings bandaged up, and his front hoof in a sling. He makes his way up onto the stage.

“Alright, I’d like to thank Lance for being the best badass motherbucker I ever became friends with.” I continue. “Don’t let his appearance fool you. This stallion survived a train wreck. You’ll be back on that hoof in like…what, tomorrow?”

The crowd laughs. Lance laughs as well.

“I’d also like to thank Octavia…well, what can’t I thank her for? She’s my girlfriend. She puts up with me almost all of the time. She loves me for who I am. Which reminds me…excuse me for a sec…”

I walk over to her, take her in one foreleg, and kiss her full on the mouth. The crowd cheers.

“Sorry, forgot that I didn’t do that today.” I quip.

The crowd laughs and applauds.

“Now to conclude this speech…How the Tartarus do you end a speech? Oh to Tartarus with it. I am getting smashed tonight. Who’s with me!?” I shout.

The crowd laughs and cheers. The crowd begins to chant my name again. I walk off stage. My mom comes over to me. She is crying with joy. She hugs me.

“I am so proud of you. You have grown into a wonderful stallion. And look at you now…hero of Equestria.” She says.

“Sorry about that “getting smashed” bit. I didn’t know how to end off.” I admit.

“You did fine. Now, go have some fun.” She says. She kisses me on the head.

I walk back to the crowd.

“Anypony know where I can get some vodka and Redbull at this hour?” I ask.

Chapter 10: Fear

“Hey, mom! Can my girlfriend and Miss Scratch stay the night here?” I shout upstairs.

We walk into my house. All of the renovations that were done after the explosion are finished. The walls got a fresh coat of white paint, and there is new furniture. Octavia and I sit down on the sofa. Vinyl sits in one of the chairs. My mom walks down the stairs.

“Sure honey, I’ll get the…What happened to your shoulder?!” Windstorm exclaims.

Oh jeez, I almost forgot about that. I inspect my shoulder. The wound has stopped bleeding, but my arm is covered in streaks of dry blood.

“I’m fine mom. It’s just a small puncture wound.” I say, trying to not make my mom worried.

“Yeah, he just landed on something funny.” Vinyl lies.

“Oh, yeah…Mom, this is Vinyl Scratch. Vinyl, this is my mom, Windstorm.” I introduce.

“Pleasure to meet you.” My mom says, shaking Vinyl’s hoof.

“Sup.” Vinyl replies.

It’s strangely quiet for our house

“Hey, where’s the rest of the family?” I ask.

“They’re in Maneyapolis selling silver trinkets and such. Bolt and Storm Drum begged your father to take them with him. They’ll be back tomorrow.” She explains

She then grimaces at my shoulder.

“Please D-Pad, go wash up. It looks terrible.” Windstorm tells me.

I walk out to the kitchen and grab a rag from the sink. I turn on the sink and get the rag wet. I turn the sink off, and begin washing my leg clean.

“Well, I know it’s a tad bit late, but would you three like some tea?” My mom offers.

“That would be great, mom!” I shout from the kitchen.

“I wouldn’t mind some, thanks.” Vinyl thanks my mother.

Octavia doesn’t reply. I come back to the living room, my leg cleaned off. She is just staring at the floor.

“Octavia…would you like some tea?” I ask her softly.

She doesn’t say a word. After a minute, she nods her head.

“Octavia would like some tea as well, mom.” I say to Windstorm.

My mom walks into the kitchen. I start rubbing Octavia’s back with my hoof.

“Octavia…it’s okay…it’s...it’s all over now. You have every right to be angry and upset.” I say

…

“Why did it have to be him?”

She begins to cry again. “He may have not been the best father, but he was my father nonetheless. How could he do this? How could he torture ponies like that? I know they were clones, but they must feel pain too…I-I don’t know why he thought this was the best thing to do. He was never the violent type. He never hurt anypony, physically.” She whimpers.

My mom comes to us with a tray of tea cups. She gives us all a cup of tea. She notices Octavia’s crying.

“Honey, is something wrong?” My mom asks.

“No…no. Everything is fine.” Octavia replies, wiping the tears from her face.

“Hey, I’ll be right back. I have to go talk to somepony.” I say, walking out the door.

“At this late at night? Most of the ponies are asleep by now.” My mom states.

“Yeah, I just have to tell them something…” I say.

“Where in the world are you going?” She asks.

“Err…well…I just…”I stutter.

My mom looks at me with concern.

“Please honey, I just want to know where you’re going.” She says.

“…The Royal Castle…” I sigh.

She nearly lets the tea set fall off her back.

“What in Celestia’s name for?!” She asks, surprised.

I look over at Octavia, and then to Vinyl. I then turn back to my mom. I stand there, silent.

“Is everything alright? What happened to you three?” She asks.

We all stay silent. None of us say a word for a few minutes. My mom stands there waiting for an answer. To be honest, part of me wants to tell her everything. How Octavia’s dad was behind everything. How he did so many horrible things. How he died from his own creation…

My train of thought is de-railed as our door is shunted open. Lance is in our doorway. He looks like he has seen a ghost or something.

“D-Pad! You got to see this! You’re not gonna believe this if I just tell you what I saw!” He exclaims in near panic.

“Jeez, Lance! What the Tartarus has got you so spooked?!” I ask.

“It Mr. Melody! He’s…he’s…I don’t know what in Celestia’s name he is! He looks like a walking freak show! You got to see it to believe it!” He replies.

…Buck…

Octavia and Vinyl look at me.

“Well, we better hurry. I don’t want him to get away.” I say to Lance. I start walking to the door. My mom stops me and holds me back.

“D-Pad, don’t go.” Windstorm says. “Please don’t go.”

“Mom…I have to do this…”

“No, you don’t! There’s no reason for you to go!”

“MOM!” I shout. She steps back in shock. She starts to cry.

“…I just…I just…” She sniffs.

I give mom a huge hug.

“Mom…I-I-I’m sorry…It’s just…all of this happened because of me…I need to put an end to it…” I say.

She looks with concern through her tear filled eyes.

“I will come back home. I promise.” I say.

I let her go. She stands there for a minute. She then walks outside.

“Come on, we have to go!” Lance shouts.

“I am not leaving without my mother’s permission.” I state, firmly planting my hooves to the ground.

He grumbles something that I am unable to hear. I hold my ground. A few minutes pass, and my mom comes in with a long case. She sets it on the floor.

“D-Pad…” She says to me. “If you are going to go out, put these on.”

I open the case. There are two long, sharp, bladed wing guards.

“These are your father’s custom wing guards.” She says. “He made these for extreme emergencies. These guards have razor-sharp blades on them, so be careful. I’ve seen these things cut through an entire block of stone. The only thing I want from you is to promise me you will use these only if you need to.”

I nod. She helps me put the wing guards on. They’re a little heavy, but it shouldn’t prevent me from flying. The hinges on the armor allow my wings to fold up. My mom kisses me on the forehead.

“Be careful.” My mom says as she walks back upstairs.

“Let’s go.” I say to Lance as I walk towards the door.

“We’re going too.” Octavia states.

“No.” I say. “I want you to stay here. You’ll be safe here. I would never forgive myself if you got hurt.”

“And how do you think I’ll feel if you get hurt?” she shoots back. “D-Pad, I know you feel obligated to stop whatever my father has become, but you can’t take him on by yourself.”

“Lance is coming with me.” I state.

“And what if Lance gets hurt? Look…you don’t even know what my father has become. There is safety in numbers right now. It may change later, and if it does, Vinyl and I will come back to the house. But right now, we’re going.” She says.

“…you are adorable when you’re dead serious.” I joke. “Well, I already know I’m not going to win this argument…Alright, but stay next to me.”

Octavia nods. All four of us walk outside and begin our trek over to Ponyville.

“GET THEM OFF ME! PLEASE, GET THEM OFF!!”

An earth pony runs past us screaming and crying, swatting at the air. The center of Ponyville now has a large fissure in the ground and the town hall is split in two. Some of the buildings have fallen apart. Ponies are going crazy. Some are running away from things that aren’t even there. Even more are cowering in fear of imaginary creatures. I see one pony laughing hysterically with tears streaming down her face. I try to stop one of the traumatized ponies.

“Excuse me! Ma’am!” I shout.

The mare looks at me. Her eyes are completely black. She begins screaming at the top of her lungs.

“NO! DON’T KILL ME! I’LL GIVE YOU ANYTHING!” she screams. She empties her saddlebag onto the ground and runs away.

I stand there, trying to comprehend what the Tartarus just happened.

“Well…that happened.” Lance comments.

“Did you see her eyes? Completely black. Something’s wrong with everypony.”I say.

“It looks like somepony put some type of spell on them to make them afraid of…well, whatever they’re afraid of.” Octavia guesses.

“Three guesses who.” Vinyl jokes.

“Well now we have a new question: Where is Mr. Melody?” Lance says, looking around.

I instruct everyone to look around town for any sign of him. We all split up and start to look around. I head north, Vinyl goes east, Lance heads west, and Octavia walks south. Looking forward, I can see a huge pathway that has been crudely carved into the ground and many of the shops and houses. I look up at the mountain the holds the city of Canterlot. There is a crimson aura surrounding the city.

“Guys! I think I found something!” I shout.

The other three head over to me. We all look up at the aura-engulfed city.

“Bits to bagels that’s probably where we need to go.” I say.

“Well, we better start hoofing it.” Vinyl says walk forward.

“Why hoof when we can ride?” Lance says, pointing towards the Ponyville train.

We all walk over to the train. I climb into the train and look around. The train car is vacant. There are random bits of garbage on the floor.

“It looks like the train was abandoned!” I shout to everpony outside.

I walk into the engine room…and jump back to avoid getting hit with a shovel.

“Get back, crazy pony! I have a shovel! I will kill you if I have to!”

I see a tan stallion earth pony in a train conductor’s suit. He is holding a small shovel in his hoof.

“Whoa! WOAH! Hang on! We’re not crazy! We were just looking in the train!” I shout.

The stallion drops the shovel.

“Good, I don’t think I could have killed you even if I tried.” He says, taking deep breaths.

“What happened to the train?” I ask.

“Emergency stop. Somepony stopped on the tracks, and I had to pull the emergency break. I don’t remember what happened after that. I woke up with a bump on my head, and terrified ponies bashing on my door. I peeked in and I came face to face with a pony with completely black eyes, screaming about zombies or something. I closed the door back up, and I’ve been hiding in here ever since.” He explains.

…Buck…What the Tartarus is going on?

“Can this thing take us to Canterlot? My friends and I need to get there as soon as we can.” I ask.

“Yessir, if you give me a couple minutes to get this train up and running again.” The stallion says.

I run back to Octavia and the rest of my friends.

“The conductor says he can get us to Canterlot. Hop in.” I say.

Everypony gets in the train car. After a few minutes, the train springs to life and begins to move. We start out slow, and then progress to a faster pace.

A half an hour passes as we wait to arrive to our destination. We pass through the red aura…

CRRRRRRRUUUUNCH!!

We are all flung forward. I cling as hard as I can to one of the windows, and watch as our train car derails and flies off toward a hill. Our train car rolls over and over as everypony is tossed around like ragdolls in an avalanche. The car finally stops rolling, righting itself back onto its wheels. I stand up. Somehow, I manage to escape the accident with minor injuries. A few scrapes and bruises here and there, but nothing horrible. Good thing I had these wing guards on.

I look around the train car for the rest of my friends. I see Vinyl trapped under some broken seats. I move them and she climbs out from under them. She has a small gash in her right hind leg and some cuts on her body. Octavia climbs out from behind a hunk of metal. She is cut in a couple of places, but she seems to be okay.

“Where’s Lance?” I ask.

“…over here…” I hear Lance mumble.

I look around. I see him pinned against the wall by some seats with shards of glass embedded into his wings. I pull the seats away, and help him out. He winces when he tries to move his wings. He tries to walk, but he collapses after the first few steps. It looks like his right front leg is broken.

“Crap…what do we do?” I say, trying to remain calm.

“Well, it’s a good thing we’re four-legged.” He jokes. He begins to move on three legs. I bust open one of the broken doors. He makes it outside and sits down.

“Alright, that’s better.” He sighs with relief.

I look over at the train and its cars. The entire train engine is aflame. Many of the cars are annihilated. There are metal pieces and glass shards everywhere. The conductor is nowhere to be seen. I hope he’s okay…

“D-Pad, get going. You need to end this.” Lance says.

I turn back to Lance. “I’m not leaving you.”

“Oh for…look, I’ll be fine. Once I feel like I can move on my own, I’ll seek medical attention. YOU need to find Mr. Melody and stop him.” Lance says.

“I’ll stay with him.” Vinyl says. She starts to pull some of the glass shards out of Lance’s wings.

“Ow! Damn it all! Watch what you’re doing!” He growls.

I look over to the city of Canterlot. The bridge into the city is down. Handy I gue…Is that Octavia on the bridge…Did she just jump off!? No…no way…She’s right next to me. I look over at Octavia, then back at the bridge. I shake my head.

“Is something wrong?” Octavia asks.

“No…no I’m good.” I reply.

“Well, we better get going then.” she says, walking over to the bridge.

I follow her across the bridge. I look down off the bridge. I shake my head again, and continue into the city gates. My eyes must be playing tricks on me.

“D-PAD, HELP ME!!” Octavia screams.

I gallop into the city. I see Octavia cowering…at a signpost. I raise an eyebrow.

“Octavia…it’s a signpost.” I say, poking her.

She stands back up and blinks a couple times. She looks at the signpost.

“I swear to you D-Pad, my father was going to kill me.” She whimpers, still uneasy.

“Let’s try to stay together. Whatever’s going on, we’ll be safer together.” I say.

We continue our walk down the road. The town seems abandoned. That, or everypony is hiding in their homes. Many of the shops are open, but no one is tending shop. I tell Octavia that we should try and get to the royal castle. If anypony wanted a safe haven, some of the ponies would have tried to get into the castle.

As we continue on, Octavia stops at a small shop.

“D-Pad, I’m going to check for some bandages in this shop. We’ve got to have a way to control our bleeding if we sustain any worse cuts.” She says, walking into the shop.

“Very well, I’ll keep watch.” I state as I stand by the entrance.

After a few minutes, I hear Octavia scream. I run into the…Oh no…

Octavia is lying down on the ground. Her stomach is slit into. Blood is all over the floor. All of her organs are on the ground. Her heart has been stomped on. She is not moving or breathing.

No…No! NO! NOOOOOOOOOO!

I cradle Octavia in my forelegs. I begin to sob uncontrollably

“I’m sorry…I am so sorry…I shouldn’t have let you come…Oh Celestia…I am so sorry…”

“D-Pad, what in Equestria are you doing?”

I look up and see Octavia looking at me funny.

“OCTAVIA!!” I shout. “But…”

I look back at the dead “Octavia”. I am holding a store mannequin in my forelegs. I drop the mannequin.

“Ok…something’s very wrong here…” I say, backing away from the mannequin. “I heard you scream and…”

“I didn’t scream.” She states. “I was looking around for the bandages, but the shop has been cleaned out. What were you doing to the mannequin?”

“It didn’t look like a mannequin to me. It looked like you, and you were dead.” I explain

She looks at me with concern.

“First my father, then me dying. What is going on?” She asks.

“I don’t know, but we need to get to the castle, and we need to stay together.” I say.

We leave the shop and continue our trek to the castle. Along the way, I keep seeing multiple “Octavias” die in horrific ways. A couple jumped of balconies and splattered onto the ground. Octavia has bouts of freak-outs, screaming about how she’ll be a good girl and tells her father to stop yelling at her…

After a half an hour, we reach the entrance to the castle. Guards are running around frantically, trying to avoid random nonexistent things attacking them. A guard in a purple armor is shouting at the rest of them, trying to rally the troops.

“Hey! Over here! Can you help us?!” I shout to the purple armored guard.

He looks over at us and runs over.

“What are you two doing outside!? Don’t you know what’s going on!?” He exclaims.

“Not exactly, but I guess it would have to do with all the hallucinations I’ve been seeing.” I surmise.

“Somepony, or something, attacked the castle. This creature cast this spell around Canterlot, and now everyone is running around like crazy. The city folk are all cowering in there homes. And it’s not just here. The creature attacked Ponyville and Cloudsdale. There is mass insanity in both places…” He explains, stopping to look over at something. He shakes his head and returns his glance to me.

“You’re hallucinating too, huh.” I sympathize with him.

“My sister…I keep seeing her die in front of me.” He says in a low tone.

I flare my wings out. “Where is the creature now?”

“Inside…wait, you’re going after it?” He asks.

“I’m not just going after it…I’m going to destroy it.” I say, walking toward the entrance to the castle. The massive wooden doors swing open. I swallow hard, take a deep breath, and walk in.

The doors slam behind me. I can barely make out anything from the main hall. Every form of light has been shrouded in darkness. A red aura is glowing from atop what I assume is the stairs.

I hear a guttural roar coming from the red aura.

“Hello, Mr. Melody…quite a mess you’ve caused.” I speak to the aura.

The aura growls at me. It begins making sounds like it’s trying to talk, but all that comes out is gurgles and roars.

I flare my wings out.

“OOOOOOOOOOORAAAH!” I cheer.

I begin to gallop towards the aura. The aura disappears and I-OW!-run into a wall.

The voice begins to laugh at me. Laugh it up, asshole. I’ll stop you if it kills me. Celestia, I need some light. I look at the mural windows. Hmm…sorry about this, princess.

I kick one of the widows. It shatters and lets the bright moonlight in. I hear the thing hiss at the light.

I look at the thing that made the hissing noise, which is standing right in front of me. The creature is about three times as tall as me. Its body is splitting in parts, showing muscle and bone. Its face is completely split open, showing the skull of the creature. It has three pairs of wings, and an array of horns like it has a mohawk made of horns. Green steam is exhaled out of his nostrils. It has one bloodshot, red, eye. The other eye socket is vacant.

It opens its mouth and roars, exhaling a disgusting greenish haze in my face. My head starts to hurt like crazy. My heart starts pounding. Images of Octavia being brutally murdered by me flash before my eyes. I’m starting to lose consciousness. The room is starting to spin. It’s starting to get dark. I must…I need…to…stay…awake.

“Hello?”

Where…where am I? It’s completely black. I can’t even see what I’m walking on. I walk forward. I don’t even feel like I’m moving forward.

“Is anypony here?! Hello?!”

I see a figure walking toward me. As he gets closer, I make a discovery.

…The figure is me.

“H-h-hello?” I say to myself.

The other me smiles. “Hi! So, seems we got ourselves into a huge mess haven’t we.” He says.

“Well, you could say that.” I joke.

The other me laughs. “Even in near death, you still have a sense of humor.” He laughs.

“I’M DEAD!?!?” I shout, wide-eyed.

“Near dead.” He corrects me. “That green mist the guy breathed conked you out. It didn’t kill you, but you are unconscious and laying on the ground. It’s only a matter of time before Mr. Melody kills you.”

“Great. So I’m gonna die. Wonderful.” I groan.

“Not so fast.” He says raising a hoof. “We can get back and try and probably fail to take on the new and improved Mr. Melody. However…I have to wonder something…”

“And that is?” I ask.

A large hole opens above us. A white glow emits from the hole. I look in the hole, and see millions of happy white earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns are all congregating on an unimaginably massive cloud. They all have yellow halos above their heads and are wearing white robes.

“Why go back…when we can live in harmony forever.” He says.

“Is that…” I gasp, amazed.

“Heaven.” He says, nodding. “Just think, no more fighting. No more moving. No more prejudice. You will be accepted with open arms by everypony. We’ll finally be able to achieve the goal we’ve been striving for. Our lives will be perfect. All you need to do is let go.”

He extends his hoof outwards. I look at his hoof.

I close my eyes…

…take a deep breath…

…and swat his hoof away.

“No.”

“No?” He laughs. “Are you kidding me? No?”

“I made a promise to Octavia. Even I were given the choice to choose the perfection of Heaven and the vices of Equestria, I would fly back to Equestria just to be with her.” I say.

I start walking away from the other me.

“You can’t just turn down a perfect life!” He shouts.

“Watch me!” I shout back.

“You’ll die if you go back!” He yells.

I look back the other me. I grin at him.

“I don’t plan on dying today!” I shout.

I feel my eyes grow heavy, and I lay down onto the floor. I close my eyes.

I open my eyes. I am lying on the steps of the royal hall. Mr. Melody is sniffing my body. I slowly outstretch my wings. I then lunge at his legs. I feel my wings slice through all four of his legs. I hear him wail in pain, as I look back. He is now lying on four bleeding stumps. He begins flapping his wings trying to fly. I swing my wing at one of his wings, lopping it off. He wails in pain again. I walk to the front of him and look at him in his skeletal face.

“I’m truly sorry, Mr. Melody…You are truly a brilliant stallion. I am amazed at what you we able to do. I just we could have met before. I could have prevented this.” I say.

He looks at me. He does not growl or anything. I think he knows it’s the end.

“I am sorry…but I have to stop you.” I apologize.

He lays his head sideways on the ground.

“TELL…OC…TA…VI…A…I…AM…SOR…RY…” He gurgles.

I smile at him. “I promise I will tell her.”

I raise my hoof over his head…

…And bring it down as hard as I can…