The Walkers

Chapter Two
Test Time

After being dragged down into a cold basement, forced to remove his shirt,( though after a brief argument D was permitted to have it unbuttoned all the way instead) electrocuted, set on fire, had skin and raw flesh scraped off of him, and had more than what would be considered the normal amount of blood drawn out of him, Little D was none too happy. He sat on a cold examination table, expressionless as Twilight frantically wrote down notes. Meanwhile, a constant beep rang loudly in D’s ears. “Would you mind turning that damn thing off, it’s really starting to bug me.” he said snappishly and he sat up. “You could have just believed me, but no, you had to go out of your way to check, double check, then triple check all of these heart monitors, just because you thought it was malfunctioning.” he yanked the suction cups off of his chest and dropped the cords onto the floor.

“It just doesn’t make sense.” Twilight stated in disbelief. “You just simply can’t, not have a heartbeat, it’s impossible.”

“Want proof, here, just hope you’re not squeamish.” D said as he stood and faced Twilight. He let out a deep breath as he slammed his fingers deep into the flesh above his heart. He grunted in pain as he pulled on the the wound he just made, making it wider and wider. With a final yell of pain, D tore open a hole through his skin and muscle, revealing an unbeating heart and a steady stream of impossibly slow blood. D let go of the walls of his wound and flesh snapped back shut, instantly healing on contact. “Now can we please, please, please! Just go upstairs and study, their entire fate of the world depends on us reading these books!”

“Ok, ok, fine, just one more thing.” Twilight said quickly, forcing Little D to groan loudly and pull at his bangs in frustration. He let go of his hair and breathed deeply.

“What can I help you with?” he said pleasantly with a false smile plastered on his face.

“Why did you want to keep your shirt on? “ Little D raised an eyebrow at the question. “I know how it sounds, but someone as in shape as you normally wouldn’t have an issue with simply taking off their shirt.”

“That’s it? That’s all you wanted to know and if I tell you we can go study, right?” D asked hopefully. Twilight nodded with a smile. “Well, alright then. I wear this shirt all the time because my cutie mark is on my back and it’s weird looking. Ok? Ok. Let’s go hit the books shall we?” D smiled and walked past Twilight. He started buttoning up his shirt again but a purple aura gathered around his torso and dragged him back towards the examination table. “OH COME ON!” D yelled as he was set back up on the table. “You promised!”

“Well when someone mentions weird cutie marks in weird places, a scientist’s first reaction is going to be to see it, so, take your shirt off.” Twilight said as she turned to a new page on her clipboard.

“No.” D crossed his arms across his chest and frowned.

“It will only take a second, ok? Just take your shirt off and we’ll be done.” Twilight replied

“How about this,” D interjected. “, I keep my shirt on and we go upstairs and study, like, right now.”

“Little D, you’re acting childish, just take your shirt off and we’ll be done here.”

“No!”

“Little D you take your shirt off this instant or I will be forced to take it off of you myself.”

“I’ll yell rape.” D said as he slid off the table and backed away from Twilight. “I will.”

“Go ahead and try.” Twilight grinned viciously. “The whole basement is soundproof. Now let me see your cutie mark!”

“Never!” D cried defiantly.

“Your choice.” Twilight lunged at him but D somersaulted over her and landed on his feet. He dashed to the stairs and began buttoning up his shirt again.

“I’m telling Celestia!” D yelled as he ran up the stairs.

“No you are not!” Twilight shot back as she grabbed him in her magic and yanked him down the stairs. D landed with a painful grunt and rolled to his knees. “On your stomach!” Twilight demanded. She grabbed onto his arms and legs wit magic and pulled them out in different directions, pinning him to the floor. “You had more than enough opportunities to do this the easy way, now I have to force you to do this!”

“I need an adult!” Little D cried out as he tried to break free of Twilight’s grasp. “Why are you so strong?”

“I’m suppressing your magic, man you have a lot.” she grabbed his shirt with both hands and started pulling on it.

“You are being really forceful about this!” D exclaimed as he struggled under Twilight’s magical restraint. “How do you even know a restraint this powerful?”

“It’s not that strong,” Twilight yelled back as she continued to pull at D’s shirt. “I recognized the spell release you used last night. Before bed I looked up the suppression you used, I’m just super enhancing your spell and using it against you.” small tears began appearing all across his shirt.

“That’s really clever.” D grunted. He couldn’t help but chuckle as he felt his magic being locked away. “Like, really, really, clever. How’d you know that would work?”

“I’ll explain later.” Twilight replied. “Right now it’s time to get a look at your cutie mark.”

“Not quite, Twilight!” Suddenly, great big white wings appeared on D’s back. He flapped his wings in an attempt to hit Twilight off of his back but Twilight just grabbed onto his wings with her magic and pulled them away from his body. “Hey! No fair!”

“You tried to hit me with your wings!” Twilight complained. “This is fair.” she began tearing at his shirt again.

“”And you think this is?” D asked incredulously as he bucked underneath Twilight. “Why is this such an issue for you.”

“It won’t be for much longer, your shirt is almost off.” D heard loud tearing as Twilight ripped his shirt to shreds.

“Why are you doing this?” D cried as he continued his attempt to break free.”

“Because Science!” Twilight exclaimed as she tore the last bit of fabric apart from D’s shirt. “Now let’s take a look at your-” Twilight’s voice stopped in her throat as she gazed at D’s mark, and it looked right back. “Wha-.”

“Yeah. Now you know. Let me up and you can see it better.” D sighed as he felt the restraints being released. He got to his feet and popped his neck with a groan. He tore what was left of his shirt off of himself and spread his wings wide, giving Twilight full view of his mark. She now knew why he wanted to keep it covered.

A highly detailed skull was positioned between D’s shoulder blades. It grinned at Twilight with pearly white teeth and hideous cursed eyes, each eye sharing the colors red and blue simultaneously. A small black boat sat on rocked on a sea of purple smoke. Twin sickles ran up his back starting at the base, crossing in the middle of his spine with the purple smoke trailing around the entire image, weaving in between the sickles and around the skull like a banner.

“Woah.” was all Twilight could say as she gazed at D’s mark. Her vision rested on the skull’s eyes which held disturbing realism. “The eyes on your back, are they-”

“Like the ones in my head? Yeah, identical, aside from the whole, driving you into hysteria thing." Twilight kept her eyes on the D's mark.

"They look so life-like." she remarked, transfixed on the eyes. "I've never seen anything like this. What does it mean?"

"It should be obvious." D said shortly. "The skull and sickles represent Death and the boat refers to the role of ferryman, escorting souls across the river into the afterlife. The purple smoke is the aura of Death, the end, dark thoughts, and just all-around general nastiness." Little D cleared his throat. "Can I put my shirt back on now? This is pretty uncomfortable for me." without waiting for a response, D snapped his fingers and scraps of fabric that were strewn about the room began to glow white. The scraps floated up and quickly flew to D and clung to his body. In a few seconds his shirt was completely repaired and looking better than ever.

"Now can we please go back upstairs and study?" D asked wearily.

"Well, I still have more questions for you, but I suppose we should go and read those books." said Twilight. Little D visibly relaxed at that.

"Thank you Twilight. I promise to answer any questions you may have about me or my family at a later date." he gave a weak smile. "Just, no more tests."

"Ok D, and, um, sorry about earlier. I just got so caught up with learning as much as I could about you that I sort of got a bit carried away." Twilight smiled apologetically.

"Just a little, yeah." D chuckled. "But yeah, it's cool. Now let's go." He followed Twilight up the stairs in silence but he couldn’t help but think of what kind of mess he had gotten into a few moments ago. “This is going to be one strange adventure.” he thought to himself as he entered the Library’s main lobby. “Now I’m not sure which is going to be more dangerous, Twilight’s tests, or Steel’s wrath.” D grinned as he watched Twilight pick up the stack of ten books that he had divided earlier. D floated the other pile over to himself as he went over to a chair and sat down in it. “Study time now, right, for real?” he asked Twilight with a smile.

“Yes D, we can read these books now.” Twilight nodded as she grabbed the book off the top of the pile.

“Finally!” D sighed as he leaned back in his chair. “Study time with no more tests, questions, unnecessary force, or other miscellaneous distractions.”

He never noticed the cannon pointed at the back of his head until it was too late.