The Life Of D-Pad: Unlikely Heroes(Cancelled)

“So what are you planning to do with your…“car”?” Twilight asks Nikolas.

We’re at the place where we first met Adam and Nikolas. Nikolas is messing around with the metal beast that they came in. He pulled out a scorched black box a few minutes ago. Adam is lying down in the grass, sleeping. The rest of the mares are shooting the breeze.

I begin looking at the old journal again. I really feel bad for the guy…having to sacrifice himself just to keep the dragon in. I want to read his earlier entries, but they’re so worn away that I can’t make heads or tails of them. What I am more curious about is the date that was mentioned. February 4, 1943…I just want to know what’s so important about that date.

“Well, I’m looking at the damage the car took from the lightning.” Nikolas replies. “Seems to be that the battery took most of the damage. Once I get the power source replaced, I have a good idea on how to make a dimensional rift.”

Huh, can’t wait to see what he wants to try.

“D-Pad!!”

Bolt, my little brother runs over to me. The pale red pegasus foal gives me a big hug. He looks at me with his hazel eyes and with the biggest smile on his face. My family must have just got back from Baltimare.

“Hey, Bolt.” I laugh. “How was Baltimare?”

“Really cool! I got to see some huge ships!” He says, almost jumping with excitement. “You shoulda seen it! There was this big fair, and there was some cool…” He pauses as he stares at Nikolas.

“Hi there!” Nikolas says.

“AAAH! MOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!” He yells as he runs away.

“Oh dear…” Nikolas mumbles.

“What was that noise?” Adam yawns as he woke up.

“That was my little brother. They just got back from Baltimare.” I say.

“Baltimore?” Adam asks.

“Baltimare.” I correct him.

“…Ugh…the pun…it hurts…” Adam grumbles as he lies back down.

“What on Equestria are you talking…Oh my Celestia…”

I look over to see my mother staring with her jaw agape at Nikolas with Bolt hiding behind her. The bright red pegasus mare with hazel eyes and a long blonde mane slowly walks over to Nikolas.

“Can I help you?” Nikolas asks.

She gasps and jumps backwards. “You can talk!” She exclaims. “What…what are you?”

“Hi mom.” I say. “Windstorm, meet Nikolas the human. Nikolas, meet my mother, Windstorm.”

“Pleasure to meet you.” Nikolas says, smiling and holding out his blacked hand in greeting.

“Oh well, pleased to meet you too.” My mom greets him, smiling sweetly and shaking Nikolas’s hand.

Adam gets up of the ground and yawns again. “WEELL HEEEEELUUUUUU!” He says in a squeaky voice.

“AUGH…err…Hello?” She greets Adam. “And you are?”

“I am Buzz Lightyear of Star Command!” Adam shouts proudly, making a heroic pose. Nikolas walks over to Adam and smacks him in the back of the head.

“Please Adam, this is my mom.” I say to Adam.

“Hah! Really? Well, I’m Adam Welling, ace janitor! You know, with the wing difference, I was going to make an adoption joke.” He laughs.

“…I was adopted.” I grumble, offended.

Adam’s smile drastically fades. “Oh…I-I-I…I’m really sorry.” He apologizes. He sits down, forming a look of depression. Wow…this is the first time I’ve seen him look so sad.

“Hey, are you ok?” I ask.

“I hate offending people…” Adam mumbles. “I only want to make people laugh…make them feel good about their day. When I make someone sad…it’s the worst thing in my life.”

“Hey…it’s okay.” I say trying to cheer him up. “It happens to everypony. You didn’t know I was adopted.”

“It doesn’t make what I said right.” Adam mumbles.

“Come on, you got this!” I shout. “Say it!”

“I got this.” Adam grumbles.

“Louder!” I shout.

“I got this!” Adam shouts in reply.

“LOUDER!” I yell.

“I got dis!” Adam shouts even louder.

“LOUDER!!!” I yell again.

“I GOT DIS!!!” Adam bellows. He jumps up and runs around yelling “I got dis.” Now there’s the Adam I’ve grown to love…that sounds weird.

“Well, he’s full of pep.” My mom laughs.

“Hey D-Pad! What’s this?” Bolt says, holding up the journal.

“Careful with that! We need that!” I shout.

“Why in Equestria do you…” My mother stops mid-sentence. “Oh, D-Pad…please don’t tell me you’re putting yourself in danger again.”

“Well…not really.”

“LITTLE LARRY LIES A LOT! QUIT LYING!!” Adam shouts at my response.

“Please tell me, and I want the truth…I just don’t want to worry about you.” She implores me.

I want to lie and tell her everything is okay…everypony is looking at me, expecting the truth…

…well…here goes nothing…

“So…right now we’re working on trying to open up a dimensional rift…” I finish explaining the whole story to her.

She sits down on the ground. “Well, you never did like to lead the quiet life.” She jokes.

“In all honesty miss, we have been very careful and no one has been hurt.” Nikolas states.

“And we already have one of the pieces, see?” Vinyl says, holding up the first piece.

“I don’t know…” Windstorm sighs. “I mean…I almost lost you before…

“Windstorm…” Octavia speaks up. “I know what you’re feeling right now. When D-Pad had to destroy my father, I worried constantly about him. But we are with him.” She then walks over to me and leans against me.

“Yeah, we got his back!” Vinyl adds, as she walks over to me.

“Yeah! He’s a pretty cool stallion.” Rainbow Dash says as she puts a hoof on my shoulder.

“Equestria is lucky to have somepony so devoted to keeping it safe. I’ll help him every step of the way.” Twilight states, walking over to me.”

“There’s a phrase in my country. "You get to really know your friends when trouble comes." I wouldn’t mind getting in trouble with him more often.” Nikolas says as he stands next to me.

“FRIENDSHIP IS AWESOME MAGIC!” Adam shouts. He runs over to us and puts me on his shoulders.

My mom starts crying. “…How lucky you are, to have such wonderful friends…”

“Mom…”

She hugs me. “Just be careful, okay?”

“I promise.” I reply.

“I’ll see you tonight.” My mom says, wiping the tears from her eyes.

“Okay, that should do it.” Nikolas says. “The turbines are linked up to the engine and ready for traveling. All we need is a power source.”

“So how are we going to get a new car battery?” Adam asks.

“Let me see something.” Vinyl says, looking into the metal beast. “…Hah! I can get this thing up and running, no problem.” Vinyl laughs.

“That is going to be interesting to see.” Nikolas laughs, skeptically.

“Excuse me Mr. Alvang, but have you figured out what the numbers meant?” Twilight asks.

“X, Y, and Z.” Nikolas replies. “As far as I am sure, they are possible points in the dimensional plane. I’ve connected Adam’s laptop to the car and, using a program I created and added to his computer, set up the coordinates according to where the points meet.”

“So…who’s going?” I ask.

“OOOOH! OOOOH! MEMEMEMEME!! I’LL DO IT!!!” Adam shouts happily.

“That seems like a bad idea.” Rainbow Dash states.

“Actually it’s not.” Nikolas whispers to her. “Unfortunately, he’s the most expendable of the group. If anything, four people should go. Adam is one.”

“D-Pad, why don’t you come with me?!” Adam suggests.

“Actually, that would be a good idea.” Nikolas comments. “In fact, a human, an earth pony, a unicorn, and a pegasus, would prove the most useful for whatever is beyond the rift.”

“Okay, no problem.” I say. “Vinyl can get the car running, so she should come with…You want to come with us Octavia?”

“Are you sure this is safe?” Octavia asked Nikolas.

“Not really, no.” Nikolas admits.

“…Oh well, I’ve lived a good life.” Octavia sighs.

“Excellent. Well, if you ponies and Adam would please get in the car…”Nikolas says.

Nikolas opens up a hatch on the metal beast and opens it up. Inside are two cushioned seats. I slide in as Octavia slides in next to me. Adam and Vinyl sit in some cushioned seats ahead of us. Adam grabs hold of a wheel connected to a hard plastic thing in front of both of them.

“Okay so, here’s what you do. Turn the car on, then press the enter key on your laptop.” He says as he points to the “laptop” connected to the car with wires. “After that, flick the switch on the dashboard, and then floor it. When you get the piece just get back in the car hit the enter key and just repeat the process. Oh, and don’t think about how this works. We are definitely breaking multiple rules of physics, and if it finds out, you atoms will explode one-by-one until you cease to exist.” Nikolas explains.

I swallow hard. Well somepony better distract us. Nikolas steps a couple meters back. “Vinyl! Start her up!” Nikolas shouts.

Vinyl’s horn glows blue as the metal beast makes the weirdest noise I ever heard…like it’s trying to breathe with a very bad cold. After second or two, the thing begins to make a steady humming noise. Adam taps a button on his laptop. He the flicks the switch on hard plastic thing, and pushes a lever at his feet. The humming gets very loud. The metal beast begins glowing and rocking back and forth. I feel my body becoming lighter than air as I start to lose consciousness.

“I DON’T WANNA CLOSE MY EYES! I DON’T WANNA FALL ASLEEP, CAUSE I MISS YOU BABY, AND I DON’T WANNA MISS A THING!!” Adam shout-sings.

“Hey! Hey D-Pad…D-PAD!! Wake up!!”

I open my eyes. Octavia is standing over me, looking worried. She sighs in relief as she sees me wake up.

“Thank Celestia… come on, up on your feet.” She says, pushing me up on my feet.

I look around to see we are now in a dense forest. It looks like I was dragged out of the metal beast.

“Where are we?” I ask.

“No clue.” Vinyl speaks up from inside the car. “Whatever happened, it worked.”

“Where’s Adam?” I ask, as I continue to scan the area.

“OVER HERE!!” Adam shouts from behind the metal beast. He walks out from behind the metal beast.

“Well…at least we made it…” I sigh.

“What now?” Octavia asks.

“Well, if I were Nik, I’d probably look for a location marker or something. Why don’t we go in different directions and look for a point of interest. When we find one, let’s head back to the car.” Adam states. He then instructs the two mares to go east and west, and then tells me to go south as he heads north.

After about ten minutes of walking southward, I’ve yet to find anything of interest. Ugh, I know it’s important that we need to find some place of interest, but it’s like this place is just one big forest maze. Every step I take is like I’m in the same spot that I was a few seconds ago…maybe I should just head back. I’m certain one of the mares or Adam must have found something…

“Hello? Is somepony out there?! Amy?! Joystick?! Record?!” Anypony?!” I hear a voice call out.

“Over here!” I call out. I gallop over to where I heard the voice. Where is the-OHCRAP!!

I ram into a gray stallion, and knock him to the ground.

“Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!” I say as I pick him up off the ground.

“Oh, you’re quite fine. I’ll be okay.” He says, stretching his legs out.

Wait…something’s odd about this stallion. The gray fur, the black mane in a pompadourish style…the purple treble clef cutie mark!?!?

“O-Octavia?” I gasp.

“Who? I’m sorry I’m not quite sure who you’re talking about.” The gray stallion states. “Wait…you look like one of my friends. Have we met before?”

“No, I don’t think so.” I say.

“Well, anyways, I’m Melodicai. Please to make your acquaintance.” He says, stretching out a hoof in greeting.

“I’m D-Pad, pleased to meet you.” I shake his hoof in greeting. “Why don’t you come with me? We have a sort of home base that we’re using. Your friends might be there.”

“We can only hope. Lead the way.” He says.

Getting bored…bored, bored, bored, bored, bored…board…shuffleboard…shuffling…EREDAY I’M SHUFFLIN.

As I walk forward, I find it harder and harder to keep myself entertained. Great…it’s been ten minutes and I’m already disinterested in our mission. I’m thinking about turning back. Mostly because I’m running out of humorous things to think about.

“Hey! Anypony out there!” I hear a male voice call out.

“A voice! FOLLOW ME, MAGICAL VOICE!” I bellow.

A hear the pounding of hoof steps as the get closer. It looks like Vinyl Scratch has also found…

“Whoa… another human? Who are you?” A white unicorn stallion with blue hair asks me.

That’s…not Vinyl…well it is…but it isn’t…MY BRAIN HURTS!! Okay…it’s a male unicorn that looks like Vinyl…hmm…I think I know what’s going on…

“I’m Adam, the greatest thing to happen to this place since sliced bread. And you are?” I reply.

“Record Skip, or to my fans, DJ ST4LL10N. You know, you remind me of a human I just came to this place with. She very…weird.” He states.

“Yeah that’s pretty much me.” I say. “Why don’t you come back with me? I think I have a logical explanation of what is happening here. We’ll go back to my car.”

“A car? You have a car?!” He exclaims.

“Yeah, we’ll walk and talk. FOLLOW ME TO THE WIZARD!!”

“And here we are right back at…whatever Adam calls it.” I say as we reach the metal beast.

“…What are you playing at?” He growls.

“Excuse me?” I ask. I look behind me, and Melodicai is in an offensive stance. He lunges at me and tackles me to the ground, and then pins me against the ground. “Hey! Get…off!”

“This isn’t your car! This is the car I came in! How dare you think you can just take it!” He growls.

“It’s not yours! I came in this car! Now, get off me or I’ll make you get off!!” I shout, angrily.

“You aren’t going anywhere!” He says as he places a hoof on my throat. “I-I’m not afraid to kill you! My girlfriend killed my mother to stop her from destroying Equestria half a year ago, so don’t think I won’t hesitate to kill you.”

My eyes widen and my jaw drops.

…what the buck is going on here?! I killed Octavia’s DAD to save Equestria, not this stallion’s mother, and I KNOW I was the one who killed him…

“D-Pad!” I hear Adam’s voice. “Get off of him!!” I see Adam yank Melodicai off of me.

“HEY! Leave my friend alone!” A white unicorn stallion that looks almost like Vinyl Scratch slams into the back of Adam. The two stallions start attacking Adam, although Adam does pretty well at defending himself.

“STOP!” I shout. Everypony stops fighting. “Look, there seems to be a miscommunication between us. Why don’t we find the rest of our groups; then we can decide whether to kill each other or not.”

“Fine. Do you think we should wait for them?” Melodicai asks.

“Actually, I’ve been forming a theory.” Adam says. “I bet if we head in that diagonal direction, we’ll find your friends.” He points toward the north-east.

“Great, by the way, Record Skip, good ta meet ya.” He says.

“D-Pad.” I say.

“My name is Melodicai. Sorry for trying to hurt you.” He says to Adam.

“Name’s Adam, and don’t worry about it. I’ve been attacked so many times, I hardly feel pain anymore.” Adam jokes. Melodicai laughs lightly. Celestia, even his laugh is really close to Octavia’s. “Let’s roll! ONWARDS TO GLORY!!!” Adam shouts.

“We’ve been walking for a half an hour.” Record grumbles. “Are you sure you know where you’re going?”

“Course I know!” Adam shouts. “I am best navigator ever! Now we were heading north-east, right?

“Oh great…we’re doomed.” Melodicai groans.

“Oh great…we’re doomed.” I hear Octavia groan.

“Octavia!?” I shout.

“Melodicai!?” I hear a mare’s voice shout.

Melodicai’s ears perk up. He begins galloping towards the voices, as do I.

Thank Celestia! I’m glad she’s safe. I continue forward to come face to face with…

…A pale yellow bat-winged pegasus mare, with a long, untidy brown mane and bushy tail, light green eyes, and a video game controller cutie mark.

“What the…” We both say in unison. We raise our respective left hooves at the same time. We then touch each other’s left hoof.

“Is that…me?” we say in unison.

“Jeez, don’t run ahead of us like…”Adam and a mare’s voice stop in mid-sentence. “Oh my giddy aunt…”

The mare isn’t a mare at all, but a female human. She is wearing the same thing Adam is wearing, but it seems to fit a little better for her, probably because she quite a bit thinner than Adam. She also has a brown bob cut mane…err hair.

“Hello?” They say in unison. “Hey, don’t copy me!”

The rest of the ponies make their way to the others Vinyl and Octavia examine Melodicai and Record Skip.

“What’s going on?” My mare counterpart and I say in unison.

“It’s just what I thought.” Adam and the female human say in unison. “We have found ourselves on a plane of existence in which our parallel universe counterparts are able to travel to which I presume they are looking for something, the Piece of the Hero in this case. There are probably two here, in theory.”

“So, why are we saying the same thing at the same time?” Octavia and Melodicai ask in unison.

“Presumably, were just doing whatever we are intended to do by the timelines. Put simply, the only thing altered is our genders. As such there are not a lot of changes, hence why we talk at the same time. However…If we can just break the “time link” that makes do what the other does, we may be able to communicate with our counterparts.” The two humans explain.

“How do we do that?” My mare counterpart and I ask.

“Even in multiverses, there is at least one discrepancy. Usually, the discrepancies are very simple. Unfortunately, were pretty much gonna have to guess.” The humans say together.

“Great so what, we just start guessing words like, Apple and we can talk normally with our mare counterparts?” I ask.

“Great so what, we just start guessing words like, Plum and that’s it? We can talk with the others?” My mare counterpart asks.

We both gasp. “Did you just say something differently?” She asks me. She then gasps again.

“Or you can get it on the first try.” Adam jokes.

“PROGRESSION SUCCESSION!!” The female human shouts.

“Ok, I like you.” Adam says, pointing a finger at the female human.

“So, we can talk normally now?” Vinyl asks.

“Indubitably.” Adam replies.

“OOO! I love that word!” the female human comments.

“I know right!?” Adam agrees.

Everyone begins to introduce themselves to each other.

“My name is D-Pad. It’s good to meet you.” I say, shaking my mare counterpart’s hoof.

“My name is Joystick.” She replies. “This…this is just so weird, and yet so cool! I’m actually talking with a stallion version of me!”

Took the words right out of my mouth…

“Adam Welling, illegal in two states and one country, at your service!” Adam states.

“Amy Welling, still dancing with myself, good to meet you.” The female human states.

“Well, now that we have that formality out of the way, what is our next course of action?” Melodicai asks.

“WAIT!!” Amy shouts. “My brain is working! This is presumably the center of the entire area right?”

“Right…” We all say in unison.

“OH! OH! So you think that the piece has to be around here somewhere!! I AM MASTER MINDREADER!!!” Adam shouts, starting to dig in the dirt.

“I WANNA DIG TOO!!” Amy shouts, joining Adam in the digging.

“And you thought one was enough…” Vinyl jokes, to which Record Skip chuckles.

We all begin using our hooves to dig around in the dirt. We chat with our counterparts, and learn that most of their lives have been the same as ours. They have two princes instead of princesses as their leaders. I say how it would be interesting to see our parents in the reversed world, to which Melodicai sighs. Oh, right…his mom...

“Hey, can I ask a question.” I ask Joystick.

“Fire away.” She states.

I motion to her to come closer.

“Do…do mares in your world get pregnant the same way in our world?” I whisper.

She raises an eyebrow at me.

“I’m sorry, it’s just…well…I just…” I murmur.

“Shh…” she hushes me, placing a hoof on my mouth. “I know what you’re going to say. I know how worried you are about it. I mean, I still am troubled by it. But you and I both know we will make good parents. Don’t worry about it. You have many friends to help you out.”

“I know…but…”

“Look. If you’re so concerned about it, just talk to Octavia.” Joystick says. “I’m certain it will ease both of your fears.”

“You sound like my mom…” I joke.

“Actually I was going off what I thought my dad would say.” She comments.

We chuckle and continue digging. After an hour of digging, I come across a pair of books. “Hey, I found something!” I call out.

“What did you…Lord Almighty…” Adam gasps.

He picks up the books and brushes them off. He opens one of them up and a gold one fourth of a circle that is adorned with sapphires. “Well…in a way, I should thank God for this.” Adam jokes, picking up the Piece of Hero.

“What do you mean by that?” I ask.

He hands me the book…The Holy Bible? What kinda book is this? I open it up…that’s some small print. Someone has scribbled words in here in a language I don’t even know…wait, it looks like one of the lines on the journal the “Forgotten one” wrote down.

“Hey Adam!” I exclaim. “There are symbols that look a lot like those in the journal!” Adam and Amy both look in the journal. Their eyes widen.

“…HEBREW!!” The two humans shout in unison.

“Excuse me? He brew what?” Joystick asks.

“No, Hebrew. As in, the Jewish language.” Adam exclaims.

“…what?” Octavia asks, befuddled.

“So is there another piece of…AHA!” Melodicai says as he opens the other book and takes out a Piece of Hero exactly like Adams.

“OH YEAH! HEADBUMP!” Amy shouts. Adam and Amy then bump heads and then begin groaning about how what they did hurt.

“Well, that was relatively easy.” Octavia comments.

“Yeah…easy…” Adam agrees. He seems to be in thought.

“Something on your mind?” I ask him.

“I’ll tell you later. Right now, I think we can head back. We got the Piece of the Hero, and one heck of an interesting story.” Adam states.

“Do you have to leave!? I LIKE YOU!!” Amy whines.

“We have to leave too, you know.” Record Skip points out.

“Oh yeah…” She says, smiling.

“Well, it’s been nice meeting you all for the brief period that we did.” Octavia states.

“The pleasure has been all mine.” Melodicai says as he bows. Record Skip groans and facehoofs himself.

Everypony laughs.

“So, what’s up? You seemed concerned about it being too easy.” I say as I climbed into the metal beast.

“It’s nothing really…it just seems too simple…” He admits. “We come here, with very little resistance I might add, and just get the Piece of Hero. Doesn’t that strike you as odd?”

“Perhaps the unicorn that brought it here figured that it would be near impossible to get here.” Octavia guesses as she slides next to me.

“I’m not so certain.” Adam responds. “Most people in this case, as the objects were being hidden, would have some sense of paranoia. Psychologically, simply burying the books underground isn’t the most discreet approach.”

“When did you get so smart?” Vinyl Scratch asks.

“I always have been; I just choose to entertain the masses with my randomness and insanity.” Adam replies. “If you would kindly, Vinyl.”

Vinyl’s horn glows as the beast begins sputtering again. Adam hits the key on his laptop and flicks the switch on the hard plastic thing. As the beast begins roaring and rocking again, I once again feel my body begin to feel lighter than air. I once again start to lose consciousness.

“TEENAGERS SCARE THE LIVING SHIT OUT OFME!! THEY COULD CARE LESS AS LONG AS SOMEON WILL BLEED! SO DARKEN YOUR CLOTHES OR STRIKE A VIOLENT POSE! MAYBE THEY'LL LEAVE YOU ALONE, BUT NOT ME!!!” Adam shout-sings.