Hello, my name is... Well, that doesn't really matter anymore. I have forgotten it long ago, but we are not here about that, you want to hear how I landed in Equestria don't you? Well here it is.
It was the day of the Gaming Convention in my town, I dressed up as one of my favorite video game character, the corrupted version of Talion from Shadow of War. I managed to acquire everything through various craft artists I found online but I was still missing Isildur's ring, I improvised and made one last minute, it barely looked anything like it sadly. I was adjusting said ring as my phone suddenly went off, I pulled it out of my pocket and answered the call.
"Hey." I heard a familiar voice of my best friend James, he was currently enjoying a vacation in Hawaii.
"Hey James, how was your trip?" I asked him and just as I said that I heard a loud bang coming from his side of the phone. "Is everything alright?" I asked.
"Sorry about that, I tripped over something" he said, I was glad he was alright and chuckled. Clumsiness is one of his defining traits.
"You need to be more careful or your going to hurt yourself one of these days. Oh, and before I forget, I made it to the gaming convention." Just as I said that I heard him sigh loudly.
"You know, I didn't want you going there. You know what has been happening at those places lately." he said with a worried tone.
"Yeah, I know, but I just have to find a better ring for my costume and maybe few souvenirs as well. I know you have been looking for Reaper's guns from Overwatch for over a month. I'll see if I can find you a pair so you can add them to your collection." I said
I heard him sigh again. "Alright, but remember what I said, be careful." He said one more time before hanging up.
After that, I continued exploring the Gaming Convention for maybe an hour or so before I stopped at an interesting, and somewhat, irie merchant sitting at his stall. But that did not matter at the moment because I found what I was looking for, a perfect replica of Isildur's ring from Shadow of War at the merchants table.
I walked up to the stand. "How much for that ring." I said and pointed at my soon to be precious. He saw what I was pointing at and simple smiled.
"Twenty-five dollars, is there anything else you want to purchase sir?"
"Do you have the Reaper guns from Overwatch?" I asked him curiously.
"No," he stated rather bluntly. "But! I may have something similar, if you want it that is."
I thought about it for a bit before saying 'Sure'. The merchant nodded and knelt down to grab something from under the table, he found what he was looking for and stood up.
He presented me with a pair of guns, they were similar, but the guns had a few a different color scheme than the ones in the game. I thought they were only black, but these were black and dark green in some places.
"No I'll keep looking." I told the merchant, he shrugged and placed them on the table.
"Is there anything else you want, sir?" I heard him say.
I thought for a while and asked curiously. "If you have anything dark magic or dark powers related? I would like a look at those as well." Like I said, I want to buy a few souvenirs.
He gave me a confused look and asked, "Why so are you so interested in the aspect of darkness?"
I gave him a big smile and happily said, "Many people think a hero must stay true to the light, a warrior in shining armor who would never do anything wrong, but not all heroes have to be like that. Take Talion, for example, he could have stayed down and accepted his fate on that bridge, but instead, he took Isildur's ring and made the power his own and fought against the darkness for decades before he finally fell to the power of the ring."
He smiled "I never thought of it that way thanks I think you gave me a new perspective on things" he went back to rummaging under his stall and came back up with a large box covered completely in dust; seems like it hasn't been used in a while.
I saw him pull out a lot of books and a few other items from the box and placed it all on the table. I was surprised that he could lift that much without any problems.
I must have seen him put three dozen book and many items that have no name for out of the box; many of them looked very heavy. I was even more amazed that all of that managed to fit inside that box, that stuff could fill up to 5 boxes of the same sizes and still be stuff left over.
"Do you work out or something?" I asked, still amazed by the feat of strength I had just seen.
"From time to time, yes," he replied while he went back to the crates to grab one last thing that was wrapped up in cloth so I could not see what was hidden under it, but its shape and size looked similar to a staff.
'I don't think I could afford all of this, let alone one-tenth on it!' he coughed loudly in his hand, getting my attention
"Will that be all, sir?" he asked with a smile.
"Give me a second," I said as I opened the box. The first things I noticed were the books as I spotted some of the titles. The first one was called 'Dark manipulation' another one was labeled as 'Dark Arts'. I also spotted a book with a very familiar conjuration symbol from another one of my favorite games, Skyrim, and the last one I looked at was called 'Necromancy'. I didn't look at the others cause there was so many, then I spotted some of the none-literature items, I recognized the Palantir from the lord of the rings movies, and many other things as well.
"Do you have any masks?" I asked nicely to not annoy him with my requests. And, again, he went under his stall and pulled a cool mask. 'His stall must be like that box, small on the outside, limitless space on the inside,' I joked.
"Is that all?" he asked me. I took a look at the mask and inspected it.
"Yes, that will be all how much is this going to cost me," I asked the merchant. Expecting the price range to be astronomical and having to but only the things that interest me the most.
He thought for a moment and said."Usually, this would cost you a lot of money, but since you are my first customer of the day, how about I give you a discount. I guess about one hundred and fifty dollars should be enough." It was surprisingly within my price range.
I pulled out my wallet and took out the exact cost needed, handed it to him, and put everything back into the box. I grabbed it and started to lift it, expecting a great weight, I instead discovered a near weightless box!
I looked back at the merchant, and he smiled at my surprised face. I grabbed the staff that was wrapped in cloth as well, a gave him farewell and began to walk away. I was almost out of hearing range when he shouted, "Enjoy your new life!" I was confused, and just as I turned around, he was gone along with everything on his stall. I took a step towards it only to find no ground under my foot and I began to fall.
I was in a dark void for what seemed like an eternity. The concept of time seem to be nonexistent here, it could have been minutes, hours or days and still wouldn't have known. Just as I was about to give up the hope of escaping this infinite void, I saw a light. I reached out to it, and gravity resumed, colors started to rapidly return and I realized that I was falling through the sky and into a forest. Before even uttering a scream I hit the many branches of the trees, but the pain was nothing compared to the agony I felt when I hit the ground. "Oh god I think I broke something. Or many somethings." I rasped out through the pain.
As the pain slowly turn to soreness, I open my eyes to find myself in a vast forest with the box that I got from the merchant beside me with the ring laying in the center of the container. There was also a note taped to the side of the box. I slowly crawled my way over to it pulled it off and started to read,
'Sorry about the fall, I did not mean to drop you in midair. Also congrats on your new life! I suppose you want to know what happened to you? I will try to explain this in the simplest matter I can; first, don't overreact, you are not in any [immediate danger, you are simply on another world, and if you do not believe me then just wait till you see yourself in a mirror.
Second, I gave you photographic memory, so you do not have to worry about forgetting anything except for a few unimportant details here and there.
I have to tell you this though, I might have messed up somewhere and made you forget your name, I could have written it for you but you never mentioned it to me, but hey, you can now use Talion's name since you now look just like him.
Also, just so you know where and when you are, you are in Equestria, and you are one year away from the events of Nightmare Moon's return. So you have a lot of time to master a few of your new powers, and if you don't know what Equestria is then you can use that time to learn about it as well.
Now this is important so read carefully. Only put that ring on if you are absolutely sure. If you do put it on then the pain you will go through will be immeasurable, the process will turn you into a wraith and you will never again be truly human once you go through with it. There is no going back, and you will never be able to join the friends and family you make in death because you will be denied death no matter how many times you die, how you die or who kills you.
This is a choice you and only you can make. And don't worry about the ring controlling you, it will obey you and only you, anyone else who tries to put it on, if they even can get it off you, will become corrupted and will make its way back to you.
-Sincerely
The Merchant
To say I was devastated was an understatement. As soon as I finished reading the letter, I rushed to the nearest source of water I could find, a pond a few feet away from me, and he was telling the truth. I looked exactly like talion before he got the corrupted ring!
And that was my very first day in Equestria.