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

“This is great and all, but it will still take time to translate the Hebrew language.” Nikolas says, taking the book from Adam.

We make our way into Ponyville. The sun is starting to set and many of the ponies are closing up their shops and heading home to their families.

“You know, I kinda wonder why the Bible was here.” Adam comments.

“Who knows? But it does go to show whoever this unicorn of legend was, he was aware of the existence of other religions.” Nikolas states

“Kind of a baseless claim don’t you think?” Adam says.

Adam looks around in the town.

“Not a lot goes on in the evening, huh?” Adam comments.

“Not really, most ponies are going to settle in their homes.” Twilight says. “Well, I’d hate to leave you guys alone, but I need some rest. I’ll see you ponies and humans tomorrow.” She then walks away from us.

“Yeah, I’m tired as well…” Nikolas says as he yawns. “Perhaps we should find a place to sleep.”

“Hey D-Pad!!” I hear Quicksilver, my older brother, shout.

The large, maneless, dark red pegasus stallion with bright brown eyes and a drop of silver as his cutie mark lands in front of me. He looks up at the humans and nods his head in greeting. “Evening gentlestallions.

“HAI DERE!!” Adam shouts.

“Evening, Mr…” Nikolas states.

“Ah, Quicksilver, and you must be Nikolas…mom talked about you.” He greets him. “She also mentioned a human by the name of Adam, and said that he was quite…anomalous.”

“IM AN ANOMOLY!! AWESOME!!!” Adam shouts with joy.

“Quite appropriate in this case.” Quicksilver laughs.

“Hey Quick, do you think mom will mind if I bring the two humans over? They have no place to stay for the night.” I ask.

“Knowing our mom, she’d take in a rabid manticore.” Quicksilver jokes.

“You don’t have to trouble yourselves; we can find a place.” Nikolas states.

“Please, you guys must be bushed. It’d be nice to sleep on something comfortable than on the ground.” I insist.

“Welp, I’m going home.” Vinyl yawns. “If we got another big day ahead of us, I wanna be ready and raring to go.”

“I suppose I should head home too.” Octavia says. “Goodnight D-Pad.” We kiss and she walks away with Vinyl.

“How bout that…my little bro, the stallion who was the most frightening thing in Ponyville over half a year ago, kissing his fillyfriend on the mouth.” Quicksilver laughs.

“Come on, don’t make me blush…” I say, turning a bright red.

“I think you’d make a fine husband.” Nikolas states.

“Sorry to interrupt, but I’m gonna hit the hay. I’ll see you stallions tomorrow.” Rainbow says as she flies off.

“Yeah, we better get home too.” Quicksilver says. The humans follow us as we made our way to my house.

As the moon begins to rise over the horizon, I can see the red, two story cottage that my family lives in. There is a blacksmith’s forge a few meters away from the cottage.

“And here we are.” Quicksilver speaks up.

“Looks quaint.” Nikolas states.

“And old fashioned.” Adam chimes in.

Nikolas brings his hand to his head. “That’s the same thing as what I said.” Nikolas groans.

“Oh, ok…” Adam says.

“Well, well…”

Adam and Nikolas jump as a voice comes from behind us. We all turn around.

“Oh, Hi dad!” I greet my father.

My dad, a dark gray pegasus with a black comb over mane, silver eyes, and a blacksmith’s anvil as a cutie mark, smiles as I greet him. “Ah, Nikolas and Adam…Windstorm spoke highly of you two. It great to see that my adopted son can make friends with even the strangest of creatures.”

“Daw…your jus sayin dat…” Adam says, holding his hands behind his back and kicks the ground playfully.

“Your son has been kind enough to offer us somewhere to rest for the night.” Nikolas says. “If it is okay…”

“Of course! We love new company!” He exclaims. “If you hurry, I think Windstorm is making tea.”

“Ohohohoh, you guys haven’t lived until you’ve had a cup of my mom’s tea.” I joke.

We all walk to my house. Forge opens the door and we step in. The living room, which has a couple of comfy chairs, a sofa and a dining table, is connected to the dining room. Mom is setting up a couple cups of tea on the dining room table.

“Oh my goodness, I didn’t know we had guests coming.” Windstorm states, noticing us. “Give a minute and I’ll get you some tea. Oh and dears, please don’t be too loud. Bolt is asleep and he has school tomorrow.”

“Mom, can Adam and Nikolas stay the night?” I ask. “I’d hate for them to wander around at night looking for somewhere to sleep.”

“Of course! As long as they are respectable in the house, they are welcome to stay as long as they need to.” She says from the kitchen.

“Hey mom, have you seen my…” My sister Storm Drum asks as she trots down the stairs, only to stop mid-sentence. The white pegasus mare with a black bob cut mane and blue highlights, light blue eyes, and a drum as her cutie mark just stares at the humans, jaw agape.

“Hello!” Adam greets her.

“Uh…um…hi?” She mumbles.

“Hey, where’s Swift Strike?” I ask.

“He’ll be back in the morning. He was going to Detrot to meet up with an old friend of his.” My mom replies as she brings out two more cups of tea.

We all sit down and start drinking tea. “Mmmm…this is some very good tea.” Nikolas comments.

“Thank you, I make all my own tea.” Windstorm thanks Nikolas, smiling. “It’s not my calling, but it is a hobby of mine.”

“Oh yeah, the thingys on your butts. That’s supposed to be what your calling is. I read that in a book.” Adam comments.

I see Nikolas cover his mouth at the butt joke, holding in some laughter. “Don’t worry, he just tells it like he sees it. He never means to offend.” Nikolas struggles to say without laughing.

“It is fine.” She laughs. “He did catch me off guard, but I am good now.”

We talk for a bit about random things. Where the humans came from. What it’s like in their world. That sort of stuff.

“So you’re the one who stopped the dragon?” Quicksilver asks. “Everypony says it was some large creature with a flowery shirt. And you fit the description pretty well.”

“Yes sir. I stopped the dragon. Pretty easy dragon, too.” Adam answers.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but a “pretty easy dragon?” I doubt any dragon is easy.” Forge comments.

“Oh, trust me, Adam has fought tougher dragons. And zombies and werewolves and vampires…” Nikolas states.

“Excuse me?” Windstorm comments. “I apologize, but besides dragons, none of those things exist. They’re just fairy tale monsters usually found in ghost stories.”

“Oh no, they’re real.” Adam says as he takes another sip of his tea. “Trust me, I’ve seen and “dispatched” my fair share of them.”

Storm Drum laughs at Adam. “I’m nineteen years old. I think I’m a little old for ghost stories.” She laughs.

“That’s easy to say for someone who hasn’t seen one.” Adam kindly retorts.

“Well, if they do exist, where’s the proof?” She offers as a rebuttal.

“Proof.” Adam grumbles. “That’s always the case with everyone. Too skeptical to believe in anything, so they ramble on about their proof. Is it impossible to take things on good faith anymore?”

“Well, sir.” Quicksilver states. “In all honesty, if we haven’t seen one in all of our lives that we lived here, it’s quite hard to say that you aren’t off your rocker.”

Adam shakes his head, stands up and walks toward the door.

“Hey, where are you going?” Nikolas asks.

“For a walk, I need to think.” Adam grumbles as he opens the door, walks outside, and closes the door behind him.

“Storm Drum, that was not nice at all.” Windstorm scolds.

“Oh come on, mom!” Storm Drum laughs. “Seriously, you’ve never seen any zombies or ghosts or werewolves, and I certainly haven’t. Perhaps the guy is a little batty.”

Nikolas begins looking in his tea, frowning. Whatever Adam has seen, Nikolas must believe in them too. I kinda feel sorry for Adam. He honestly believes in the stuff.

“Well, how was your day D-Pad?” My mom says to me, trying to change the subject.

Proof. Bloody proof. That’s all they want anymore! Can’t be bothered to listen to the story, all they want is cold hard facts. Eugh…if only they’d have seen what I’ve seen… had what happen to me happen to them…then they’d believe.

“Heh, what you doing up?” A voice from above asks.

I look up. Sitting upon a cloud is Rainbow Dash looking down at me, smirking.

“Can’t sleep.” I reply.

“Join the club.” She says as she flies down next to me.

“Well, I thought maybe a walk would tucker me out a bit. Would you like to join me?” I ask.

“Sure, a walk might do me some good.” Rainbow Dash comments.

We begin to walk down the path to Ponyville. I note that I kind of slouch as I walk along.

“Wassup? You look kinda bummed.” Rainbow Dash comments.

“It’s nothing.” I state.

Na-ah. It’s never just nothing. What’s up?” She asks.

“…You ever tell someone something, and they won’t believe you unless you prove it, but you can’t show them proof.” I ask in reply.

“Heh.” Rainbow Dash chuckles. “Not really, I can usually back up my claims.” She then flexes her arms.

I laugh.

“…Just like my old girlfriend.”

We walk for a few more minutes.

“Okay, I gotta ask.” Rainbow Dash speaks up. “Can you tell me about your girlfriend?”

“Of course.” I reply, as I sit down on the side of the path. “I met Veronika Alvang when I went to watch her brother Nikolas shoot for sport…”

“Whoa hold up! You dated Nikolas’s sister?! Isn’t that a little weird?” She comments as she sits next to me.

“I don’t think who you’re dating matters as long as you love them, and let me tell you, I loved her.” I state. “I loved every minute I was with her. I took her out on dates, visited her on the weekends…hell, we got so hammered once that she ended up staying at my house and we fell asleep on the couch together. I skipped college classes just to be with her if she was in town.”

What did she look like?” Rainbow Dash asks.

“She was beautiful…Blonde hair, a beautiful thin body, and a bright, charismatic personality that could light the darkest room. She was very competitive. I told you about how she wouldn’t even talk to me for a while after I beat her at chess. Seemed like she always wanted to prove something.” I begin.

“Heh, sounds a bit like me.” Rainbow Dash chuckled.

“And she was loyal. I’ve never seen someone so proud and ready to defend her beliefs and the new country she moved to, no matter how bad it got. I’d see people bad mouth the country, and she defended her new home till she couldn’t defend the country anymore. It’s funny…she came all the way from another continent, and pretty much swore allegiance with the country she moved to. I still think to this day she didn’t have any faith in her old country.” I continue.

“She sounds cool! Whatever happened to her?” Rainbow inquires.

I take a deep breath and sigh. I can feel tears starting to well up in my eyes. “…Last October on the 29th, I woke up to a call from Nikolas. He was crying, and I could hear what he said at first. I asked him to repeat what he said…”

“…Veronika is dead…She hung herself…”

Rainbow Dash gasps. “Oh my Celestia…I…I…I am so sorry…”

I hang my head and begin to cry. I feel the cold tears flow down my face. “It’s hard, ya know? You think you give someone all the joy you can muster up and they still suffer from the harshness of the world….I still have no idea why she hung herself. I try to think about it, and it hurts too much to think about. All I can think about is that I never got to say I loved her more than anything in the world.”

Rainbow begins to rub my back. “Hey…it’s okay…I bet she died knowing that someone so wonderful still cared for her.”

“That’s why I act so crazy.” I say, wiping the tears from my eyes. “I feel that, even if there is no hope left for a person, they need to know that there is still some guy who wants to give them hope by making them laugh. I don’t want to have anyone suffer the same way that I did.”

“You know, I’d have to say you’re luckier than me.” Rainbow states. “You at least had a “girlfriend”…I still haven’t been able to find the perfect stallion for me.”

“Well, maybe you just need to go out and look around. In a world full of candy colored ponies, there’s gotta be a stallion you could grow to love.” I say.

“I wish it were that easy.” She continues her rant. “Every time I meet a potential date, we never seem to stay together. It feels like I get bored of being together or it the stallion can’t take being with me.”

“Sounds like a case of setting ones standards to high.” I comment.

“Please, if you wanna see high standards, go talk to my friend Rarity.” Rainbow Dash laughs. “I just wanna meet some stallion who likes racing, speed, competition, and can still be interesting.”

“I’m interesting and I can run fast…I GOT A SHOT!!” I shout.

“Yeah, when you turn into a pony, then we’ll talk.” Rainbow Dash laughs as she rolls her eyes.

“Hey, you’ve seen the kind of stuff that can happen here. It’s not impossible. Improbable, unlikely, but not impossible.” I say.

“Don’t get me wrong, you’re pretty cool, even if you are random and weird. But I don’t see you and me ever dating, even if you were a pony.” Rainbow says, standing up.

“Ah, but as the phrase goes, “time will tell”.” I state as I stand up and continue walking. Rainbow rolls her eyes and follows me as we walk for a few minutes.

“Right well-OW!” She shouts as I hear a small smash of glass. She lifts her hoof up to reveal a broken bottle.  “Damn it, why would anypony just leave that around.” She then looks at her hoof to see a small gash on it. The wound begins dripping blood.

“Damn it…well at least it’s just a small cut, right Adam?” Rainbow Dash comments.

I…I…I can’t speak. My heart begins pounding harder and harder in my chest. I just stare at the blood. As it drips to the ground, it feels like it falls slower and slower before it splashes magnificently to the ground.

“Adam?” Rainbow Dash states.

I begin to drool as my head cocks to the side, never leaving my sight from the wound. I feel so hungry…I just want to tear the wound open even more and just drink from it like it’s a fountain.

“Hey! Equestria to Adam!” Rainbow Dash shouts

What’s one pony gone missing right? Right? I mean, I’m not important to her, she’s not important to me. Just take care of her now, hide the body and never mention it again. It’s so easy! Just do it!

“HEY ADAM!” Rainbow yells in my face.

No…No I can’t…I just can’t do it…not to her…I need to find something else…I feel my legs buckle as the bones in my leg feel like they’re going to break. Oh damn it…not now…

“Rainbow, listen I got to do something on my own. It’s very important, and I would like to keep it private. Thanks, bye.” I rush as I run away to the nearest forest.

“HEY WAIT! WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!” I hear Rainbow Dash shout.

“You seem very interested in the Elements of Harmony, Nikolas.” I say.

“Well, that’s they ARE interesting. I’ve never seen anything like them.” Nikolas comments. “And trust me; I’ve seen a lot in my time.”

“I think it’s weird how you haven’t heard of them.” Quicksilver states.

“Well believe me, I asked enough questions to be almost a scholar on them.” Nikolas jokes. “With you guys being gone, I practically gathered as much information as I could. I was going to talk to Adam about them.”

“Speaking of which, is your friend going to be okay? He’s been gone for a while.” Windstorm asks Nikolas.

“Oh I’m certain he’s fine. If the guy can take on a dragon, he can handle whatever is out there.” He jokes.

“Yeah, like those vampires!” Storm Drum laughs.

“Storm Drum, that’s quite enough about that.” Forge scolds Storm Drum. “I know what he believes in is quite…“interesting”, but we must respect what he believes.”

“You know, I think I’m gonna go look for him.” I say as I stand up and walk over to the door.

“Okay, but be careful.” Windstorm bids me farewell.

As I step outside and take off toward the sky with my bat wings, the cool summer air feels soothing as it flows past me and my wings. It’s just a gorgeous night. The bright full moon looks beautiful in the starry sky. It’s nights like these I could just look up at the sky and stare for hours. Huh…that cloud seems out of place…wonder what it’s doing there? I move the cloud back up with the other clouds.

In the distance I hear a wolf howl. Strange…that sounded kind of close. Must be a timberwolf out and about. I thought the usually stayed in or at least near the Everfree Forest. Maybe it’s just a wolf then. I fly around for a bit calling out Adam’s name. I then notice a small spot of red on the path to Ponyville.

As I land down on the path, I examine the red splotch on the ground. It smells like blood. I look around and see more blotches of red along with a broken glass bottle. Well, I guess a pony or something must have accidentally stepped on it, and cut themselves on it. The red splotches seem to form a path towards a small forest not too far from here. I decide to follow the trail.

As I reach the forest, I hear another wolf howl. It sounds very close. My better judgement is telling me to avoid the forest, but whatever cut itself ran into the forest. I’d feel like a total jerk if I let something die in the forest and I could have helped it. I trot into the forest, making my way through the brush and flora.

As I follow the path of blood, I come across a floral shirt. It looks just like the one Adam was…Oh no…

“Adam!! Are you there!?!” I shout. “Damn it, Adam! This better not be a joke!”

There is a rustling in the bushes ahead of me. I jump and shout in surprise. I then take a defensive pose and flare my wings out. “Don’t come near me!!” I growl. “I am not afraid to hurt you!”

“Is that you D-Pad?” I hear Rainbow Dash speak. She peaks her head out from the bushes. She then steps out, keeping one of her hooves off the ground. Her lifted hoof is bleeding a bit. That Celestia, that solves one problem. I stand back up normally.

“Are you okay?” I say, looking at her hoof.

“Heh, this? This is nothing.” She states proudly.

“What are you doing in this forest?” I ask her.

“I could ask you the same question.” she returned.

“I was following a blood trail to this forest.” I state. “But it didn’t take long to find out what was bleeding. You really should get that bandaged.”

“I told you, I’m fine.” Rainbow defends.

“So anyways, what are you doing the forest?” I ask.

“Looking for Adam.” She replies. “He started acting really strange after I cut my hoof, and just ran off into this forest for no apparent reason.”

“Why in Equestria would he come here?” I inquire.

“Your guess is as good as…” Rainbow Dash stops and looks in fear at the top of my head.

“What are you…” I begin to ask.

Warm air begins blowing on the back of my head. I hear heavy breathing and growling. I feel my body just lock up as my hair stands up on end.

“Th-there’s s-s-something b-bad behind me, isn’t there?” I ask, my voice trembling. Rainbow Dash slowly nods her head.

I slowly turn my head and look at what is behind me. A giant, brown, bipedal wolf is right behind me. It is staring back at me with glowing gold eyes. The stench of blood and wet fur emanates from the wolf. It stands up on its hind legs and howls upwards toward the sky. Its hand-shaped paws and claws glisten with dark red as blood drips from them. Its face and its body are caked with blood.

I jump away quickly and land next to Rainbow Dash. “Back…Back off!!” I shout at it.

It gets back down on all fours as it begins to sniff towards us. It begins to crawl its way closer. I swallow hard as it gets right next to us and begins sniffing our bodies. It then squats down on its hind legs and reaches a bloody hand out to Rainbow Dash.

“I said BACK OFF!!” I shout as I ram my head into the wolf’s stomach.

It backs away and rubs its stomach. It looks at me and whines as its ears lower and it tucks its tail between its legs. I take a step towards it and it gets down on all fours and back away. “What do you want, you…you monster!” I yell at it. It whimpers as it backs away again. “Oh, so you think it’s okay to sneak up on me like that, but as soon as I hurt you and yell at you, you start running away! What do you have to say for yourself?!” I yell at it again.

It rolls on its back in submission. “Well!?!?” I shout.

“I…want…pet…po…nee…” it rasps.

“You…what?” I ask, looking at it in question.

“I…want…pet…po…nee…” It growls passively.

It crawls over to Rainbow Dash. She takes an aggressive stance and the wolf…begins stroking her mane. “Pret…ty…po…nee…” it growls with happiness.

“What…what are you?” Rainbow Dash asks as she jerks her head away.

“I’m more concerned about why he is so bloody.” I comment.

The wolf’s ears perk up and it jumps into the brush. After a minute, it comes back with disemboweled deer.

“Oh my Celestia…’ I gag.

“Is…yum…mee…” It growls happily as it tears a leg off of the carcass and begins eating it.

We watch as the wolf begins picking apart the deer and begins eating it.

“Well whatever you are…did a human pass by here a while ago?” I ask it.

Its ears perk up and it stops eating. It cocks its head at me in question.

“His name is Adam.” I add.

He then looks at me with sadness. “Wait…what did you do with him!” Rainbow Dash growls.

He begins backing up again.

“Please, we need to know. Even if he is dead, we need to know.” I state.

It hangs its head. Oh no…he killed him…

It begins closing it eyes and howling at the moon again. Suddenly its fur begins shedding rapidly. Its snout begins pushing into his head as his ears begin lowering to the side of its head. His tail recedes into his rump and I hear its legs break and reform. It howls in pain as its arms and hands crack and break and magically reform into shorter, less wolf like hands and arms. His claws fall out. I hear the creature begin crying in pain.

And I watch as Adam crawls forward from where the creature was, naked and crying.

It hurts…it hurts so much…no matter how many times it happens…I look at the two pegasi standing in front of me. They look like they can’t believe what they’re seeing. A naked man, crawling their way on all fours, and just turned back from a werewolf. I don’t blame them in the slightest. I stand back up on my feet and cup my goods.

“I-I can explain.” I say.

“You better damn well!! What the buck was that!?!” Rainbow shouts.

“I…I don’t even know what to say, Adam.”  D-Pad states. “I…I’ve never seen…well THAT.”

“Ok…That wolf attack that I was in?” Adam says.

“Yeah, so?” Rainbow Dash growls.

“Wolves weren’t the only thing there…they were led by a werewolf…and I got bit.” I say grimly.

A silence falls upon all of us.

“Th-that’s not possible.” Rainbow Dash half laughs, half refutes.

“You just saw what I did! “ I announce. “And you still don’t believe it?! And here I thought I was weird!”

“So, you got bit by a werewolf?” D-Pad reiterates.

“Yeah…” I sigh. “I have been a werewolf since a last summer.”

“This…well, this is just…wow.” D-Pad comments.

“Don’t worry though. I’ve learned to maintain control of the other me.Nikolas knows about this and he’s been helping me control myself.” I reassure the two. “I’ve not hurt anyone besides the deer, I promise.”

“I would hope so.” D-Pad comments. “Is there anything else we should be worried about?”

“That it.” I say. “I have nothing else to hide.”

“Right!” Rainbow Dash scoffs. “Of course you have nothing else to hide.”

“I seriously don’t! You have to trust me.” I defend

“Trust!? TRUST!?!?” She yells. “Adam, you have just lost my trust with you! With something this dangerous, you should have told somepony that you were a werewolf! I don’t care how crazy it sounds, somepony would listen! Heck, I know Princess Celestia would have listened, and she could have explained it to us! You can’t just hide something as dangerous as this!”

“I couldn’t do that!” I shout.

“And why not!” she retorts.

“Because everyone who I thought I could trust with my secret couldn’t! I told a handful of people and…and they tried to kill me…and I had to kill them in self-defense.” I shout as I start to tear up.

“That’s why I don’t trust you…I guess now you’re gonna kill us if we try to kill you because we know?” She growls.

“I swear to God I won’t hurt you.” I say.

“Yeah…keep telling yourself that” Rainbow sneers. She then takes off to the sky.

“God…fucking…DAMNIT!!!” I shout. I begin punching a tree.

“Adam…look I can keep your secret safe.” D-Pad tries to comfort me.

“It’s not going to matter anymore! Knowing her, she’s going to tell this entire world that I’m a werewolf!” I yell.

“Look, I’ll reason with her. I’ll get her to keep it a secret. You can trust me on that.” D-Pad states firmly.

I look over at him. He is smiling kindly to me. I can’t help but smile back at him. “Anyone ever tell you you’re a true friend D-Pad?” I state.

“Yeah, but this is the first human that ever said it to me. I’m wondering if I can get an award for it.” He jokes.

We laugh as we walk out of the forest. We walk back toward his house.

You know, for just this moment, I don’t care that I’m a werewolf. I don’t care that Rainbow Dash knows and is probably going to tell everyone in this world that I’m a werewolf. I look up towards the full moon. I smile as I scan the sky. I don’t care about anything bad anymore.

God, if you’re looking down on me right now…I just want to say…thank's for this great pony who I can call a friend.