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

“GOOD MORNING EQUESTRIA!!!” Adam shouts as Nikolas and I go outside.

“Oh God, please put some pants on!” Nikolas exclaims, covering his eyes.

As we stand outside my house, I yawn and rub my eyes as I watch the sun rise. My hooves are wet from the fresh dew on the grass. I watch the horizon as the warm sun shines its warm colors onto the land. I hear my dad and older brother hard at work at the forge.

“What? OOOOH YEAH!!” Adam shouts.  “I need clothes.”

“I think I got a spare set of clothes in my duffle bag.” Nikolas states. “Let me go check.”

Nikolas runs off toward the direction of his car, leaving me and Adam at the house. We stand in silence for a minute or two

“Soooo…” Adam breaks the silence. “You read any good books lately?”

“Uh…I’m getting close to finishing off the Daring Do series.” I reply.

“That’s good. I just finished reading The Phantom Tollbooth.” Adam says.

“That’s nice, course I’ve never heard of it.” I comment.

“That’s fine. Hey, is that Octavia?” Adam says, pointing over towards the path to Ponyville.

I look and, as Adam said, Octavia is trotting toward us. Vinyl is following her close behind.

“Is it true?” Octavia inquires as she stands right in front of Adam, looking in concern.

“Is what true?” Adam replies with a question. “That I’m awesome? Oh honey, I’ve know that fact since I was born.

“No, that you’re a werewolf!” Vinyl exclaims.

“Ah…well, yeah.” Adam grumbles, as he rubs the back of his head. “I’m guessing you talked to Rainbow Dash, huh.

“She pretty much made it sound like you were a horrific monster.” Vinyl comments.

“Great. Just what I need. A plethora of paranoid ponies petrified of my presence.” Adam sighs. He then smiles widely. “ALLITERATION FOR THE WIN!” He shouts.

“I think she said something about going to see Twilight Sparkle.” Octavia states. “If we hurry, we should be able to at least stop her from riling up the whole town.”

“Stop who from riling the whole town?” Nikolas shouts as her runs back from his trip to his car, his duffle bag slung over his shoulder. He then hands Adam some shorts and underwear. “Sorry, it’s the only thing that would fit you.”

“We need to get to the library.” Adam states firmly as he puts on the clothing. “They know…”

Nikolas looks at Adam in confusion. He then looks with understanding and nods his head. “We better hurry then.” Nikolas notes.

We all begin to gallop toward Ponyville. Once again, Adam dashes ahead of us at breakneck speeds. Heh, at least now I know how he does it. As we run into Ponyville, I watch many of citizens stare in confusion as we dash past them. Adam almost runs into a cart, but leaps up about a good two meters just in time to avoid it. In the distance, I can see the library. A small crowd of ponies are in our way. As I take off to avoid them, I watch Adam leap over the entire crowd. As I reach the library, I watch Adam throws his body into the door, tearing it from its hinges.

“HEEEEEEERE’S JOHNNY!!” I hear Adam shout.

I hear some screams from inside the library. I gallop in and see Rainbow Dash in a defensive stance. She is guarding Twilight Sparkle and Spike.

“Back off you filthy dog!!” Rainbow Dash snaps.

“Well that’s not nice…he’s just a pegasus.” Adam says, looking back at me.

“Very funny, Adam.” I chuckle.

“Mr. Welling…” Twilight quietly speaks up. “Are you really…”

“Adam Welling, supernatural investigator, tutor, cook, professional cat confuser, and werewolf, at your service.” Adam states proudly, bowing.

Immediately, I see Twilight’s eyes light up. She then leaps out from behind Rainbow Dash and begins thoroughly examining Adam.

“Oh my gosh…a REAL werewolf!” She squeals with delight. “Granted, it’s not a pony, but still, you’re a werewolf!!”

“…Getting kinda uncomfortable here, Twilight.” Adam comments.

She begins touching his feet. Adam then screams and begins scaling the bookcase. “Leave my feet alone!” Adam shouts. “I NEED AN ADULT!!” He then takes a couple of books from the bookshelf and puts them around him.

“Adam what are you…” Nikolas says as he walks into the library. He then takes a look at the situation. “Well, this is awkward…”

“I have so many questions to ask! What’s it like? Does it hurt when you change into a werewolf? What are the stipulations of your transformations? Is it true that you have to eat hearts to satisfy your hunger?”

This goes on as Twilight continues to bombard Adam with questions. Adam then covers his ears with his hands and yells “My brain is overheating”.

“Twilight! Don’t you know what this means?!” Rainbow shouts. “He’s a monster that can really hurt us, maybe even kill us!”

“You know, if I was trying to kill you, I would have crushed your ribcage when we first met.” Adam reasons. “Really, I was trying to put you in a sleeper hold and put you in an unconscious state.”

“That doesn’t make you less of a monster.” Rainbow Dash growls.

“My dear, if in your life you ever read another book, definitely think about reading Frankenstein. You might learn something about the so called “monsters” you bad mouth.” Adam retorts, smirking.

Rainbow Dash begins to mutter under her breath as Adam climbs down from the bookcase.

“So, didja figure out what the symbols meant Nik?” Adam asks Nikolas.

“Yeah, but do you know what it means by “Where the dead walk among us"?” Nikolas replies with a question.

“The best I can consider is zombies.” Adam responds.

“Zombies!?” All of the ponies, including me, shout.

“Let’s not get too hasty, that’s not a guarantee that its zombies.” Nikolas states.

“True, true…what do you think the best course of action is?” Adam asks.

“Well, to gather information of course.” Nikolas chuckles. “Vinyl, Octavia, could you go out look around for newspapers from the past few days? Check for anything relating to ponies getting bit by other ponies, cases of violent insanity, accidents with pony’s heads being decapitated, or disease based deaths that no pony has seen before.” He asks the two mares. “If it is a zombie outbreak, that’s where we should start looking.

“No problem, be back in a flash.” Vinyl replies cheerfully as she trots outside with Octavia following her.

“Twilight, could you look around the library for a book on communities that have a history of the dead coming back to life, or something along those lines?” Nikolas asks Twilight.

“I highly doubt that there’s anything that fits the description in here, but I will check.” Twilight states.

“Spike, you can send letters directly to Princess Celestia, correct?” Nikolas asks Spike.

“Yep. Do you need to send her something?” Spike answers.

“She mentioned before that a report came in about the dead were walking. Ask her where the report came from.” Nikolas commands.

“I’ll get right on it.” He replies as he runs upstairs.

“That leaves the three of us to keep watch over Rainbow Dash.” Nikolas states.

“What!? You can’t keep me here!!” Rainbow Dash protests as her wings flare out.

“Not unless you promise not to go blabbing about how Adam is a werewolf. We don’t need the unwanted attention.” I state firmly.

“I can say what I want! You can’t stop me from saying what I want!” She shouts.

Nikolas pulls out his “gun” from his pocket. Rainbow Dash quickly backs away and her wings contract back to her sides. “You want to bet?” Nikolas growls.

“Nik, not a good idea.” Adam comments. Adam walks over to Rainbow Dash. She responds by narrowing her gaze at him and taking a defensive pose. “Look, I know we aren’t on very good terms right now, but I need you to do this for me.”

“Buck. You.” She snarls.

“You know what? I wanna ask you something.” Adam comments. “And if you answer it honestly and truthfully, you can leave. You can tell everyone that I’m a werewolf or whatever, I don’t care.”

“Great, lay it on me so I can go about my business.” Rainbow Dash scoffs.

Adam sits there for a moment looking Rainbow Dash in the eye.

“Why do you care about me?” Adam asks.

She looks back at Adam in surprise. “What…what kind of question is that? I don’t care about you! I hate you! I don’t even what to be near you! Why would I care about you!?” She protests.

“Rainbow, I know a liar when I see them. You don’t think I’m a bad guy. In fact, I think you kind of like me. You’ve only bound you’re feelings inside of you because of anger. You’re still upset that I betrayed your trust. You’re right…I should have told you a while ago…I’m sorry.” Adam speaks. “So…why do you care about me?”

Rainbow looks at Adam with confusion. She looks like she wants to say something, but can’t.

“Okay, I just sent the message.” Spike says as he walks down the stairs.

“That’s good. Now we wait for a reply.” Nikolas sighs, leaning against one of the bookcases.

“Anyone know any good jokes?” Adam asks.

Nikolas takes a book off one of the shelves. “Do you mind if I read this, Twilight.” Nikolas asks.

“Oh please do!” Twilight exclaims happily. She then turns to Adam. “So, Mr. Welling, what’s it like being a werewolf?”

“Well to be honest, I pretty much better than anyone else where I come from.” Adam replies. “I have better speed, stamina, strength, and damn near impossible to kill. I can be killed by silver weaponry or decapitation, but that’s it.”

“So, what about transformation? Can you do it now?” Twilight asks.

“I am not restricted by the moon and I can transform at will, but I’d rather not…” Adam responds. “First, the amount of pain I have to go through in transformation is near nightmarish hell. Bones break and reform, skin stretches, the feeling like your brain is on fire…It’s not fun. Second, in my other state, I cannot promise your safety. In my human form, I have complete control.”

“Like last night?” Rainbow Dash remarks sarcastically.

“Okay, near complete control.” Adam grumbles. “It was a couple of days since I fed, and I was damn near starving. I just ate last night, so I’m good for a couple more days. Oh, and no, we just have to satisfy the hunger, it doesn’t mean we have to ingest hearts to satisfy it. Although I’ll admit, the heart is the most juicy and delicious part of the body.”

“Were back!” Vinyl shouts as she walks in the doorway. “Sorry Nikolas, but there’s nothing about any of the things you asked about.”

"Don’t apologize, that’s a very good thing.” He responds. “That means it is unlikely that there was a zombie outbreak, or the outbreak was too small that it was needed to be documented.”

“Thank Celestia…at least we don’t have to worry about zombies.” I sigh in relief.

“That does make our job a little more difficult, however.” Nikolas states. “With no evidence of what the passage means by “Where the dead walk among us”, were running blindly into God knows what.”

Spike makes a face that looks like he’s going to throw up. He then burps, and a scroll appears in a green flame. He picks the scroll up, and reads it. “The reports came from a community of earth ponies living far south of the Everfree Forest. When my guards got there, a mare came to them ranting and raving about how none of it was real and the citizens were dead. The guards tried to calm the poor mare down, but she became violent and had to be sedated. She is currently under psychiatric evaluation. As far as I can read from the report, the community is a bustling and a thriving farm community. The town is named Pleasant Town.”

“I got a bad feeling about this…” Adam comments.

“We’d better get going. If a Piece of the Hero is there, one of the ponies of the community may have it, and from what I’ve experienced, it’s probably important to the towns peo-er, ponies.” Nikolas states, as he puts his book back on the shelf.

“Right, let’s get moving everypony. We have a few hours of traveling to get to the…” I stop mid-sentence as I walk outside. There is a large carriage with two royal pegasus guards at the front of it latched to the cart.

“Princess Celestia presumed that your group was headed on the way to the town. We have been ordered to take you there as fast as possible.” One of them says.

“Wow, really? That’s wonderful!” Octavia exclaims.

“I get to ride a in a carriage that is pulled by talking ponies. I love my strange and twisted life.” Adam laughs.

Everypony and the humans climb into the carriage. The pegasi flap their wings and jettison off with us into the sky.

“AGH! FAST!! VERY FAST!!!” Adam shouts.

“By Celestia, this is so awesome!!” Vinyl shouts as she leans over the edge of the carriage and looks down at the ground. “The ponies look like ants!”

“Bud'te ostorozhny! Be careful! We don’t want you to fall off!” Nikolas shouts, grabbing Vinyl by the tail.

As we watch the scenery flies by, we began chatting about random things. Nikolas begins filling in Adam about the Elements of Harmony. Octavia begins chatting with Twilight about etiquette and a possible meeting. Vinyl continues gazing at the ground. Rainbow is sitting in silence and is just staring out at the skyline.

“So…how’s thing’s?” I strike up a conversation with Rainbow Dash.

She grumbles something unintelligible.

“Uh…could you repeat that?” I ask.

“Adam’s an idiot…I don’t care about him…I don’t like him in the slightest.” Rainbow mumbles.

“He does make a good point, though.” I admit. “You did kinda like him before you found out he was a werewolf. I would think he only did it because he didn’t want to scare you.”

“Hmph…That’s not an excuse.” She turns away from me.

“Well, what would have you said if he told you he was a werewolf? Wouldn’t you have tried beating the Tartarus out of him?” I inquire

She doesn’t utter a sound. “Ah, is that silence because you don’t want to say something, or you can’t?” I ask. She glares at me. If looks could kill…

“Admit it.” I say. “You still care about him. You’re just too full of yourself to forgive him he hid that secret that he was a werewolf away from you. And the only reason you’re mad at him is because you like him.”

“SHUT UP!!” She yells at me. The entire carriage slips into silence. Everypony stares at Rainbow Dash. “Uh, are you alright Rainbow?” Twilight Sparkle asks. Rainbow Dash groans and turns her back from the rest of us.

Adam leans over the edge of the carriage, his tongue hanging out of his mouth.

I sit down next to Nikolas.

“Stubborn one isn’t she.” Nikolas jokes.

“I know she must have some liking for Adam. She could have flown away at any time and told the whole town. So why stay?” I whisper.

“If I may state, she reminds me of my deceased sister. It took her ages to forgive Adam when he first turned into a werewolf. But for some reason she remained loyal to him. She was the first person to not try to kill him when he turned. They made a great couple.” He cups his head. “Th-they were a great couple.” He begins to cry.

I pat his back. “It’s okay. I’m sure wherever she is, she’s watching over you and Adam.”

“T-Thanks.” He sniffles. He wipes the tears from his eyes. “You know, you’re a good friend to have, D-Pad. Even if you are a talking, flying bat-winged pony.”

“Okay so that’s the first two humans that I’ve made friends with. Where’s my bucking medal?”  I joke.

Nikolas laughs.

“HEY! I SEE COTTAGES!!!” Adam shouts.

He then…OH MY CELESTIA HE JUST JUMPED OFF THE CARRIAGE!!

“Adam! What the hell!” Nikolas shouts.

I jump off and fly down after him. This human is gonna get himself hurt! Damnit I’m flying too slow! Dear Celestia, he’s just about to hit the…

Adam slams into the ground with enough force to crack the ground. There is a small dip where Adam lands. He picks himself up and brushes his shorts and skin off.

“I AM METEOR!!! WATCH ME SOAR!!” He bellows, as he runs toward the town, his arms flailing wildly.

…I’m not even surprised about this outcome…

“We are here.” One of the guards says. Everypony gets out from the carriage. We step onto a path leading to a small town. “We will wait north of the town until you have retrieved the Piece of the Hero.” With that, they fly off northward.

“I JUST CAN’T STOP THE MUSIC!!!” Adam shouts as he runs toward the town.

“Come back here, psikh!” Nikolas shouts as he runs after Adam.

“After you.” I say, bowing to Octavia and extending a hoof towards the town.

“Aww…you’re so sweet.” She laughs and kisses me on the cheek. Vinyl makes a gaging noise.

We make our way into the town. As we enter the town, we are greeted with a brightly lit sign that says “Welcome to Pleasant Town. The town’s houses look like the ones in Canterlot, finely decorated and brightly painted with warm colors. The ponies around town laugh and chat with each other. The street lamps have balloons tied to them…Oh dear; Adam is talking to one of the townsfolk.

“HAY LAAAAADEEE!!” Adam shouts. Nikolas, who is standing behind Adam, brings his hand to his head once again.

“My, aren’t you the peppy one! Welcome to Pleasant Town!” she laughs, extending a hoof in greeting.

Adam shakes the ponies hoof. “I have integrated into their society! NOW THE MATING CAN BEGIN!!” He bellows.

Nikolas smacks Adam in the back of the head, and from the sounds of Adam’s yelp, I would guess he hit him very hard.

“My goodness, visitors!” A pony says. The rest of the ponies turn to me and the rest of my squad. They all begin to greet us and shake our hoofs.

“Friendly town isn’t it.” Vinyl laughs.

“Now, now. Let’s not crowd our new visitors.” An elderly pony with a top hat says. “Greetings visitors, and welcome to our humble hamlet! I am Mayor Shepard.”

“Pleased to meet you, Mayor Shepard. I am Princess Twilight Sparkle.” She says, shaking the hoof of the mayor. “My friends and I are looking for something in your town. Would you know anything about something called a Piece of the Hero?”

For a split second, he looked at Adam and Nikolas with surprise. He then smiled brightly again.

“Hmm…nope, sorry can’t say that I have. You sure what you’re looking for is here?” The mayor responds.

“Indeed, sir.” Octavia replies. “We are very sure that the piece is here.”

“Well, I don’t think I know about it, but feel free to look about the town. If you need a place to stay for a night, we have a motel. Oh goodness, look at the time! I’m late for a meeting. Do enjoy your stay in Pleasant Town.” The mayor states, as he walks away.

“FLY ME TO THE MOON!!” Adam shouts. A couple of pegasi mares are lifting him in the air and examining him.

“Adam! Come here!” I shout to him.

“Okay guys, I got to get back to work.” Adam says as he lands back on the ground. The mares whine as he walks away from them. “So whatcha, whatcha, whatcha want?” He asks.

“What do you think we should do?” I ask him.

“I think we should split up.” Nikolas buts in. “Twilight, why don’t you and I look in the north part of town? Adam and Vinyl can look in the south part of town. D-Pad and Octavia can look in the west, and…” He pauses and sighs. “…Rainbow can look in the east part of town.”

Everypony agrees to their posts. Octavia and I walk westward, moving through the market streets.. “Hey, Octavia…about that night we got hammered.” I speak up.

“Yes? What seems to be troubling you, honey?” She inqures.

“Uhh…I have to ask…Are you okay with…Do you think we’re ready for a foal?” I muster up the words.

She smiles. “Honey, I know you’re worried about what happened, but you shouldn’t be.” She hugs me. “Don’t worry; if we do have a foal, I know you’ll make a wonderful father.”

I smile. “Well, I just wasn’t sure about what you were thinking.” I admit.

“If you want my honest opinion, I was more concerned about why you didn’t try to have intercourse with me earlier. I mean nine months?” She states.

We both laugh, and then kiss. We walk down the market street, asking everypony about the Piece of the Hero. A bombardment of no’s seem to plague us as we continue our questioning. As we reach the end of the street, it seems that nopony knows about the piece.

“Well, this is getting rather tedious…isn’t there at least one pony that knows about it?” Octavia complains.

“I dunno…hey look a café!” I say, pointing at café named the Barnyard Café. “Perhaps somepony in there will know something.”

We walk into the café. The smell of baked potatoes and cooked veggies fill the air. We walk across the black and white checkered floor over to a booth. A waitress trots over to us. “Hiya! My name’s Tessa and I’ll be your waitress today. What can I get you?”

“Just some green tea, please.” Octavia says.

“I’ll have the same.” I state.

“Alright, I’ll be right back with your tea.” Tessa responds as she trots away. I look out the window. Looks like a stallion is washing the windows of a second story-OH MY CELESTIA! The ladder topples over and the stallion slams headfirst into the ground. I can see that his head has been gashed open. I can see his muscle…I think I’m gonna be sick.

“Oh my Celestia…” I gasp. Octavia looks out where I’m looking and gasps as well. “Somepony needs to call a hospital! The poor stallion is…”

What follows next…I…I can’t even…The stallion gets up, blood still dripping from his head wound and his muscle tissue still exposed, and sets his ladder back up. He then begins climbing the ladder and continues working like nothing happened.

“What…What the buck…” I manage to speak.

“Excuse me sir…”

I turn around to see Tessa with our tea. “Th-th-thanks.” I studder. I begin drinking my tea.

“By Celestia…what the Tartarus…” Octavia gasps, continuing to watch the stallion wash windows.

“Ok…something is very wrong here…” I whisper to Octavia. “Let’s just finish up our tea and get the Tartarus out of here.”

“We still need to find the Piece of the Hero.” She whispers back.

“…right…” I take a sip of my tea, to which I spit it right out. I look in the tea. It is a thick red liquid. Celestia…I think its blood!

“Octavia…We need to leave now.” I state.

“What are you…” She looks in her tea and gasps. “By Celestia…”

I place some bits on the table and we both hurry over to the door. Tessa stands in front of the doorway. “My goodness, what’s the rush?” She pulls out a knife. “You haven’t told us how you wanted to be roasted” All the other ponies in the café stand up and start slowly walking toward us.

“Mother of Celestia…” I gasp as Octavia and I back away from the crowd, only to bump into the back wall.

“D-Pad…whatever happens…I love you.” Octavia states. She begins to hold me tightly. The crowd inches closer to us.

“COOK ‘EM RARE!”

“NO! WELL DONE!!”

“I love you, honey.” I say as I close my eyes as Tessa raises the knife high above her head.

BAM!!!

As I slowly open my eyes, I see Tessa has stopped moving, she has a small hole in her head. I hear a couple more loud bangs and watch as metal ball things tear into her skin and jettison out the other side.

“Goret' v adu , suka!” I hear somepony say as one of the windows are smashed open. Nikolas walks through the window as he puts some metal things in the “gun”. He then points the gun at the crowd and begins firing his “gun at the ponies. “Get out of here you two!” He shouts.

“Oh, they can’t leave. Their meat hasn’t been prepared.” Tessa says, facing Nikolas. Her face is bleeding badly, but she doesn’t seem to even care. She charges Nikolas. Nikolas leaps out of the way and fires another metal ball into Tessa, knocking her to the ground.

“This way! Twilight shouts from outside. Octavia and I jump out the window and onto the sidewalk. Thousands of ponies are walking toward us. Twilight starts blasting ponies back with her magic, but to no avail. They just keep getting back up.

In the distance, I see something plowing its way through the crowd of ponies. Whatever it is, it must be something very powerful, as ponies are flying all over the place. What even is it?

“WOOWOOO!! ALL ABOARD THE PAIN TRAIN!! WE HAVE THE BEST FROZEN DELICACIES IN THE LAND!!”

Well, that’s one question solved.

“WOOO! Tear ‘em a new one!” Vinyl shouts, who is riding on Adam’s back. Adam stops right in front of us and Vinyl gets down off of Adam’s back. At the same moment, Nikolas jumps back out of the window.

“You know, you’re a bad influence on these ponies.” Nikolas comments, firing his “gun” at another pony.

“I blame society!” Adam comments as he picks up one of the ponies and tosses it at the crowd.

Eveypony begins fighting back the ponies. It doesn’t seem to help, since no matter what we do, they keep getting back up.

Adam literally yanks the head off one of them.

“NOT SO GOOD WITHOUT A HEAD, ARE YA!!” He yells threateningly.

The decapitated pony body continues to walk forward.

“NOPE! NOPE! NOPE! SO MUCH NOPE!” He screams.

“LOOKOUT!!” I hear Rainbow Dash yell. I look up and see her careening right for us, being chased by a group of pegasi.

“I got ya!” Adam shouts as he jumps up. He catches her and is blasted back a couple meters, tumbling and rolling while trying to protect Rainbow Dash. They come to a halt, and Adam is badly battered. “You okay, Rainbow.” He asks, twitching from the pain.

She looks at Adam. “You…you…Yeah, I’m fine.” Adam lets her go. She stands up on her feet. “Everypony okay?” She asks.

“We won’t be if we don’t find some shelter, and fast!” Nikolas shouts, now aiming his “gun” at the incoming pegasi.

“When I was flying around, I saw a cemetery with an old building in the middle of it. I don’t know if it will help, but it seems to be a place where the ponies avoid.” Rainbow states.

“Then that’s where our next destination is!” Nikolas shouts.

“I’ll lead you ponies there!” Rainbow shouts, taking off to the sky once again. Nikolas grabs hold of her back legs. “Hey! No free rides!”

“Oh shut up and fly!” He growls. Twilight takes off after them, struggling to keep altitude.

Adam picks up Vinyl and begins charging through the crowd of ponies. “WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGARBARGARBAAAAAAAAR!!” He bellows.

I grab onto Octavia. “Hold on.” I tell her. I flap my wings and lift us both into the air. We begin to follow Rainbow Dash. As I look down, I watch Adam leap from building to building with Vinyl hanging on for dear life.

After a few minutes, I see a large cemetery. There is a small metal building about the size of a woodshed in the center. “That the place, Rainbow!?” I ask. She turns her head towards me and nods. I swoop downwards into the cemetery and land, setting Octavia down gently.

“Hope that wasn’t too rough of a ride for you.” I say.

Everypony lands in the cemetery. Adam runs up to the shed and kicks the door down. “I’M THE TANK!” He shouts.

“You’re the tank!!” Vinyl shouts in agreement, jumping down from Adam’s shoulders.

We run into the shed. There is nothing in here, except a stairway leading downwards.

“Where does this go?” Twilight asks.

“Better than where we are right now!” Nikolas shouts as he runs down the stairs. The rest of us run down after him. It seems like the stairs go down for minutes upon minutes. We reach the bottom only to be in a dimly lit area. Blue lights are coming from small T.V. screens. Wow, you could play hundreds of video games with this setup. There is a large pad with letters and numbers on it.

Adam walks over to the screens. “Looks like a supercomputer set up.” He comments. He pushes some buttons on the pad. The screens begin showing some weird pictures. The pictures depict a bunch of humans in weird dark green coats and wearing weird furry hats, with large metal weapons killing hundreds of ponies. My…My Celestia…Everypony gasps as the pictures continue to pop up. The last thing that appears up is a single date that pops up on every screen.

… February 4, 1943…

“What…What the fuck is this?” Adam mumbles.

“Those…those are World War Two Soviet Union uniforms.” Nikolas gasps.

“Who is there?”

Everypony jumps and turns around to the voice. There is an incredibly old earth pony stallion strapped in a wheelchair. He has a bunch of tubes and wires connected to him. There is a monitor with the words “Heart rate” on it that is beeping.

“Oh my…I…I am so sorry…we didn’t know somepony was down here.” Twilight apologizes.

“Do not be sorry, dear child.” He coughs.

“Who…who are you?” I ask.

“My name is Shepard…I was the mayor of this town over a hundred years ago.” He rasps.

“Wait…do you know that there is some stallion up there that it is claiming he’s you?” Rainbow states.

“Of course, I made him…I made everyone from the blueprints I was given by Concerto Melody.” He replies.

Vinyl, Octavia, and I look at the stallion in shock. I knew we wouldn’t hear the last of him.

“My…my father helped you?” She gasps.

“You were related to him? Well, it’s is quite a wonder to see the offspring of one of the most brilliant minds of the new age of Equestria. Yes, he helped me. He showed me how to make clones of all the dead ponies of this town, and I repopulated the town.”

“What do you mean dead? Like dead, dead?” Rainbow Dash asks. The stallion nods. “So those ponies up there were trying to kill us…” Rainbow shakes her head in disbelief. “Why…why are they trying to kill us?”

“I…I programmed them to.” Shepard admits. “I see you’ve seen my pictures…When I first became the mayor of Pleasant town, an incident occurred where a bunch of creatures like these two here…” He points at Adam and Nikolas. “…attacked the town. They had metal weapons that spewed metal ball things at rapid speed. I hid underground, and the royal guard destroyed the humans, but not without heavy casualties. When I came back to the surface, I saw nothing but death. Years pasted. I couldn’t leave this place. I just couldn’t. It felt wrong to just leave. A few years ago, I was approached by Mr. Melody and asked if he could try and clone a mutation. When I agreed, he took a sample from a dead mare, and he made a clone that couldn’t be killed unless its link is killed.”

“That’s…that’s impossible…not even our world has gotten the full hang of cloning.” Nikolas interrupts.

“I was skeptical as well.” Shepard continued. “But the proof was there. Yes, the clones were imperfect but now I could make my community come back. I made devices that would simulate the daily lives of the ponies, and made the computers able to watch the lives of the ponies through their eyes. I also made them kill any human and their companions that came here.”

“Thanks, you almost killed us, mudak!” Nikolas growls.

“Sir, we are looking for something.” Octavia speaks up. “Do you know where the Piece of the Hero is?”

“Is that what this is?” He responds, wheeling over to the computers, he opens up one of the drawers. “I found it down here the first time I came here. There is a treat here, as well.” He hands Octavia the piece and the treat. She hands the treat to Nikolas.

“Woo! Three down, two to go!” Vinyl cheers.

“A Chinese fortune cookie?” Nikolas inquires, looking at the treat funny. He breaks the treat open, and large wad of paper falls to the ground. He picks it up and opens the paper. “Heh, the Chinese alphabet. Clever.”

“So, how are we going to get out?” Adam asks. “Is there a way to turn them off?”

“I am linked directly to the ponies. As long as I live, they will live.”

“Okay. Then there’s only one way to fix this.” Nikolas says. He then pulls out his “gun” and…points it directly at Shepard.

“NIikolas! What are you…” Rainbow begins.

He fires the “gun”. A splatter of red comes from Shepard’s head. He slumps to the floor and begins to bleed out. There is a long monotonous beep.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU NIK!?!” Adam shouts angrily.

I hear the sound of bodies falling down the stairs. A couple of ponies fall onto the floor we are on, staring at us with lifeless eyes. Nikolas walks over to them, steps over the bodies and begins to climb the stairs.

Adam just stands there, looking at the lifeless body. “I…I‘ve never wanted to see anything like that. I never wanted to see anything like that.” He mumbles sadly.

Rainbow Dash walks over to him. “Adam…Are you okay?” She asks, rubbing his back.

Adam just walks away from the body and walks over to the stairs, proceeding to walk up them. I look back at everypony else. They’re all looking at the corpse in shock. I…I don’t even know what to say right now. Why did Nikolas do that? Is he that heartless?

“Let’s go…” I say, as I turn away from the body. I hear everypony follow me to the stairs, to which I let everypony go ahead of me. I look back at the corpse one more time. I turn back and begin my ascension to the surface.