“Its…it’s over…it’s all over…”
I walk out of the castle. All of the guards are regaining their composure. The red aura surrounding Canterlot is dissipating. I can hear much hubbub coming from the city. Octavia runs over to me.
“D-Pad…You did it…” She says.
“Octavia…your father…he wanted me to tell you…he was sorry…” I say.
She hugs me, starting to cry. The purple armored guard walks over to me.
“You did it…you actually stopped it…I thought you were going to be mince-meat.” He speaks, flabbergasted.
“I’m very good at surprising ponies.” I joke.
“Yeah, no kidding.” He says, looking at my bat wings.
A couple of the guards walk over to me.
“He stopped it?!” One of them exclaims. “Holy…you are awesome!!”
They began praising me and cheering. More and more guards come over and join in the cheering.
“Excuse me…”
The guards all stand at attention. Who said…Oh!
I turn to see Princess Celestia is standing not a meter away. She walks over to me.
“You seem to find yourself in some of the most interesting situations.” She jokes.
I nod, and then proceed to bow.
“Well, I was never one to lead the dull life.” I quip, standing up.
She smiles. “Come with me. Let’s go for a walk.” She says.
She begins to walk towards a large hedge maze, to which I follow. We walk for a couple of minutes. “Where are we going?” I ask.
“Nowhere.” She replies.
I raise my eyebrow at her reply. I shrug and continue to walk. After a few more minutes, we come to a clearing in the maze. There is a brick path in front of us, which lead towards entrances back into the hedge maze. There are many statues of ponies in regal stances. There are a couple of benches here and there
She walks up to an open spot and sits down. I stand next to her.
“You may sit down, if you would like.” She kindly says.
I sit down. Princess Celestia looks up at the moonlit sky. I look up towards the sky. There's something peculiar about tonight. The moon seems brighter tonight, and the stars seem to glisten more colorfully and vividly. Some of the stars fall in a beautiful array of colors. I feel calmer and more at ease looking up at the sky.
“Beautiful, isn’t it…Luna has really outdone herself” She comments.
“It is very pretty. I feel like I could watch the sky for hours.” I agree.
“It kind of makes me jealous of my sister. Hah, how about that? Me…being jealous.” She laughs.
I laugh with her. We return to looking up at the sky.
“I wish Octavia could see this.” I say.
“I’m certain that she can see it as well, along with Vinyl and Lance…” She replies.
“Lance! I almost forgot!” I say standing straight up.
“Don’t worry, D-Pad. Lance is just fine. I had some of the guards pick him up and take him to the Ponyville Hospital.” She reassures me.
“And there’s this huge area just under Ponyville that’s full of machine like things with all these…”
D-Pad, it is ok.” She says, calmly. “I already know about it, and it’s already being taken care of.”
I sit back down. I breathe a sigh of relief.
“You’ve done a great deed for Equestria.” She says. “I was going to send for the Elements of Harmony, but thanks to your efforts, they will not be needed. For everypony in Equestria, I wish to be the first to say…thank you.”
“Princess…I will accept your thanks…but in truth, I don’t want it.” I reply.
She raises an eyebrow at me.
“…I want to believe that anypony would have done that. I can’t be the only one who wanted to defend Equestria…look at that guard in the purple armor. He didn’t fight for profit, or any physical gain. He fought because he believed he should. He fought for what he thought was right. That’s what I did. I fought because I thought that I was fighting for what was right. I believe in me…in you…in everypony…in Equestria…”
She smiles and pats my shoulder.
“Now that is a thought I can get behind…” She agrees, smiling.
We gaze back at the moon, and sit there for a few minutes.
“Goodness, what time is it? You should get back to Ponyville. Octavia’s waiting for you.” She says.
I stand up and thank Princess Celestia for talking with me. I then flap my wings and take to the sky.
Currently, I’m not even a kilometer from Ponyville. Hoo-ah, what a day…I haven’t been this exhausted in a long time. Finally, I can just relax…What’s that noise? I land on a nearby cloud and listen…It sounds like a massive amount of ponies are chanting something. I put a hoof to my ear and listen carefully.
…D-Pad…D-Pad…D-Pad…
They’re…chanting my name? I take off from the cloud and fly towards a section outside Ponyville that looks heavily populated. There are a lot of bright lights and I can hear music. There is a large stage that has been set up. The chanting is getting louder. As I get closer, the music stops. Vinyl steps up to the stage and the chanting stops.
“Mares and Gentlestallions! Here he is! The hero of Equestria! The bat-winged badass himself…D-PAD!!!” I hear Vinyl yell into a microphone as she points towards me.
The entire crowd looks up at me and begins cheering. I fly down and land onto the stage. I underestimated how loud it was, Vinyl is trying to talk to me and I can’t hear her. They begin chanting my name again. Octavia walks onto the stage and kisses me on the cheek.
“SPEECH! SPEECH! SPEECH! SPEECH! SPEECH!” The crowd chants.
Vinyl hands the microphone over to me. Oh boy…well, let’s give them one heck of a good speech.
“Hello, Ponyville!” I shout. The crowd cheers loudly. “Wow…I don’t even know what to say…I’ve never given a speech in my life. Well, I guess first I should thank Vinyl for setting up this shindig up, and for putting up with my shit.” The crowd laughs. “I’d also like to thank Lance…Lance! You out there!?”
“Over here!” I see him walking over to the stage with his wings bandaged up, and his front hoof in a sling. He makes his way up onto the stage.
“Alright, I’d like to thank Lance for being the best badass motherbucker I ever became friends with.” I continue. “Don’t let his appearance fool you. This stallion survived a train wreck. You’ll be back on that hoof in like…what, tomorrow?”
The crowd laughs. Lance laughs as well.
“I’d also like to thank Octavia…well, what can’t I thank her for? She’s my girlfriend. She puts up with me almost all of the time. She loves me for who I am. Which reminds me…excuse me for a sec…”
I walk over to her, take her in one foreleg, and kiss her full on the mouth. The crowd cheers.
“Sorry, forgot that I didn’t do that today.” I quip.
The crowd laughs and applauds.
“Now to conclude this speech…How the Tartarus do you end a speech? Oh to Tartarus with it. I am getting smashed tonight. Who’s with me!?” I shout.
The crowd laughs and cheers. The crowd begins to chant my name again. I walk off stage. My mom comes over to me. She is crying with joy. She hugs me.
“I am so proud of you. You have grown into a wonderful stallion. And look at you now…hero of Equestria.” She says.
“Sorry about that “getting smashed” bit. I didn’t know how to end off.” I admit.
“You did fine. Now, go have some fun.” She says. She kisses me on the head.
I walk back to the crowd.
“Anypony know where I can get some vodka and Redbull at this hour?” I ask.