//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: Waiting // Story: The Life Of D-Pad // by FoxVillain321 //------------------------------// 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.”