*Location: Convention Center, Boston, Massachusetts, United States, Earth*
It was supposed to be a great day. And I'm sure it would've been, if things hadn't gone horribly wrong. If I hadn't gone to that shady vendor. If I hadn't bought that stupid keychain.
I suppose I should start at the beginning.
I was so hyped. Today was the day. I'm sure someone amongst you knows the feeling.
My first con.
I'd been waiting so long and it was finally here. It was a good one too--a huge gaming con up in Boston. I'd saved up for months just to afford the plane ticket and spent even more time working on my cosplay. I'd be going as my favorite villain ever (of all time), Usurper King Zant from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It was incredibly detailed--I wanted to be as accurate as possible. It wasn't perfect though. To save money, I'd used cheap fabric, so it was VERY itchy. I'd also made the helmet and shoulder pad (for want of a better word) thingy out of papier-mâché to prevent them from being ridiculously heavy, but as a result they were pretty flimsy.
But I didn't care. I was going to an awesome con, I had a badass cosplay, and today was going to be EPIC!
The first thing I noticed when I went in was the sheer size of the crowd.
So. Many. PEOPLE.
It was ridiculous! A massive sprawl of human bodies all pushing and shoving each other, fighting just to get from one end of the main hall to the other!
The second thing I noticed was a certain vendor. He was sort of off to one side, a bit in the dark. He was even dressed as the merchant from Resident Evil 4 (though I didn't know it at the time). Intrigued, I decided to see what he had for sale.
"Welcome! I got rare things for sale, stranger!" he said in an accent I couldn't place. After briefly examining his wares, something caught my eye: a keychain with an excellent scaled-down replica of the symbol that appears behind Zant when he changes the scenery when you battle him in Twilight Princess. I held it up (not very easy to do with the absurdly long sleeves that are one of Zant's defining traits) and asked, "How much for this?"
He looked at the keychain, then at me, then at the keychain again. Looking back to me he said, "For you, I guess...fifteen bucks."
I thought it over for a moment. My job didn't pay that well, so every penny counted, but the thing was just so well made! In the end, I couldn't resist. "Deal," I said as I pulled my wallet out of a pocket hidden up my sleeve.
"Pleasure doing business with ya," he said as he put away the money I'd just given him.
I walked a short distance away and stopped by the wall. I held the symbol close to my face so I could see the detailing better when I saw something unusual about the little thing.
It was glowing a sinister red.
"The hell...?" I said under my breath.
The symbol started to vibrate in my hand. Panicked, I let go of it. I expected it to fall to the floor and maybe shatter, but it did neither of those things. Instead, it just STAYED there, floating in mid-air, and started to grow. Before long it was slightly taller than me, including the helmet of my costume. The symbol, or whatever it really was, flashed blood red a couple of times, and the next thing I knew, everything had gone black.
~~~
*Location: Castle of the Two Sisters, Everfree Forest, Equestria, Equus, present day*
"Oh god, my head."
That was my first thought as I regained consciousness.
My second thought: "Where the hell am I?"
The ground was cold and hard, like stone. There was almost no light whatsoever, and it was deathly quiet--a sharp contrast to the bustling convention center I'd just been in. It was then that I decided to take stock of myself and my personal belongings.
"Okay, so what do I have inventory-wise?" I thought to myself.
I checked up my sleeves to see the secret pockets I'd put there, only to find they were gone. Feeling the inside of my sleeve just to be sure the pockets hadn't vanished into thin air (they had), I noticed the fabric was a much higher quality than the crap I'd originally made the costume out of, almost like silk.
"That's weird," I thought. "Wait a second..."
Checking up my sleeve once more I noticed something even weirder: my arm had turned a pale shade of blue.
"What the..." I said to myself, only to hear that my VOICE had changed as well!
"What in the heavens!" I said to myself, unintentionally channeling my inner PewDiePie. My voice had gotten somewhat lighter, but not by much as it wasn't that deep to begin with. It certainly sounded more menacing though, almost like Seto Kaiba's without all the drama and cockiness.
It was only then that I felt a strange weight on my head and shoulders. Feeling my helmet, I could've sworn it was oddly cold and smooth, like metal.
"Well that explains the weight," I said in a voice that wasn't my own but still came out of my mouth. "But I made those out of papier-mâché..."
I was starting to grow panicked, so I figured the only reasonable thing to do was to run to the faint light source I saw ahead. As I ran, I noticed that my shoes were also considerably heavier, which indicated that they were metal as well. When I reached the light source I saw a wood-and-rope bridge that looked to have been built (or at least restored) not very long ago, but also rather lightly used. Taking a moment to catch my breath, I also took time to look down at my attire.
It looked...authentic. That was the only word I could think of to describe it. It looked exactly like what Zant wore in Twilight Princess, from the gilded shoes to the blue patterns on the sleeves and chest.
"What on Earth is happening?" I wondered aloud.
"Wait, if you're from Earth, does that make you a human? 'Cuz if you are, then I have to throw you a 'congratulations on being the first human in Equestria' party!" said a perky female voice.