//------------------------------// // In Which There Is an Unveiling // Story: The Usurper King of Equestria // by UsurperBronyZant //------------------------------// *Location: Ponyville, Equestria, Equus, now...* I'd been staying with Princess Twilight Sparkle and her assisstant Spike for a few days now. They hadn't let me out of the castle for fear of what Ponyville's populace would say when they saw me, which was totally understandable. I'd been something of a closet brony before winding up in Equestria, so I knew how the locals could be. However, that's not to say the last few days had been totally unproductive. I'd figured out what Twili eat: primarily meat. Not good for me, considering I am a Twili now and I'm in a world dominated by herbivores. Luckily I could at least digest some fruits. Kinda hard to chew though. Twilight had also been helping me master my powers. She had what she called her "unbreakable room" where she practiced her more dangerous spells. It was basically the prep room from The Matrix--an endless white expanse of nothing. The only difference was you couldn't summon tons of guns at will. Still, it was great for practicing magic. Under Twilight's instruction, I'd mastered teleporting myself up to five miles (and even into mid-air), which was very useful for getting fish to eat from Fluttershy without going outside; and teleporting myself and an undetermined number of others a fair distance away (maybe about a mile or so). I'd also developed a sort of Radar technique. I'd send out a pulse of magic, and it'd tell me if there's any sentient beings within a quarter of a mile of my location, and where they were relative to my location. In addition, I'd figured out how to fire simple projectiles--spheres of dark magic about the size of a grapefruit. According to Twilight, they'd leave a pretty good burn mark on a piece of wood. Perhaps the coolest thing I'd learned was making things out of magic, which Twilight referred to as 'conjuring'. So far, all I could make was blades about as long as my arm (which is still pretty long) and totem poles (for some reason), but it was still awesome. Finally, I'd learned telekinesis and oddly enough telepathy. I didn't even know I could learn the latter, but apparently I could. Anyway, the day had finally come. Today was the day I'd be introduced to Ponyville's populace. Twilight had arranged for a stage to be set up right in front of the palace rather than the town's main square like it usually was. That way, when it was time for me to come onstage, I could simply teleport from the inside of the castle to the stage. As I looked out from a one-way window in one of the castle's many towers, I could see as Twilight made her way to the middle of the stage and began to address the gathered ponies... *Location: Outside Twilight's castle, Ponyville, Equestria, Equus, now...* Twilight Sparkle mentally prepared herself. She was about to introduce someone entirely new to the citizens of Ponyville, someone who belonged to a species never before seen by ponykind. She had a sinking feeling that told her it wouldn't end well. She took a deep breath and began to speak. "Thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to be here today," she said. "First of all, I'm sure some of you noticed the strange phenomenon a few days ago. For those of you who didn't, a pulse of red energy spread out over the treetops of the Everfree Forest, dissipating just before it reached Ponyville. It is unknown whether this pulse would have had any negative effects on Ponyville, as are its exact nature and origin," she continued. "But don't worry!" she said before the citizens began to panic. "We're working to make sure it won't happen again, and we're still trying to learn more about the anomaly," said Ponyville's resident princess, doing her best to assuage the fears of her subjects. "On a lighter note," she said, changing topics, "There's someone new living in Ponyville. Now I know what the usual reaction to new, unfamiliar ponies usually is, and I'm telling you it's not okay! I want you all to try and keep an open mind about our new friend! He's come a long way to get here, and he's been living with me the past few days, so I can vouch for him! Anyway, without further ado, I'm happy to introduce Ponyville's newest resident, Zant!" *Location: Inside Twilight's castle, Ponyville, Equestria, Equus, now...* As Twilight was finishing her brief speech, she connected with me telepathically. I was watching her talk at the ponies when suddenly I heard her voice in my mind. "Zant!" she said. "Now! Teleport down here! Right next to me! Face the crowd!" Her "voice" was filled with urgency. I imagined myself right next to her, facing the assembled citizens, as she'd asked. Immediately I dissolved into a small scattering of small, black, rectangular particles with turquoise edges. There was a small noise as I did so, no louder than a polite cough. *psoooom*... *Location: Outside Twilight's castle, Ponyville, Equestria, Equus, now...* *pssm!* As soon as I appeared, I saw the ponies recoil in horror, which was no surprise. It was a good thing I wasn't wearing my helmet. Surely their reaction would've been worse if I'd been wearing it. As it was, however, I saw at least three mares faint, while the general populace had seemingly endless fear in their eyes. The bearers of the Elements of Harmony just looked disappointed. "Better try to calm them down before they riot," I thought to myself. Of course, this was easier said than done. "Hello everypony!" I said to them, doing my best to sound friendly. Suddenly, they all stopped, apparently shocked by the fact that I could speak. "As Princess Twilight's told you, I'm Zant. Now, before you all panic, I'd just like to say that no, I will not harm you in any way," I continued. "If I wanted to do that , I already would have." This seemed to calm them down, at least somewhat. The three mares from before were somehow miraculously revived from their comas and they sprang back to their hooves, and the fear seemed to lessen at least a bit. "What sort of creature are you?!" asked a mint-green mare. "Well ma'am," I responded, "I am a Twili. My species makes its home in the Twilight Realm, which can be accessed via teleportation or the Mirror of Twilight. And no, it doesn't belong to the princess here," I said, referring of course to the alicorn beside me. "What about--" The stallion who was speaking was cut off by the sudden appearance of a certain draconequus directly in front of me. "Well well well, what have we here?" said a smooth, almost deranged-sounding voice that for some reason reminded me of John de Lancie. "Discord!" said Twilight, apparently pissed. "What are you doing here?!" she said. "Why Twilight, you wound me!" said the incredibly strange individual, feigning injury. "You assume I'm up to no good, when all I want is to meet Ponyville's newest resident!" he continued before turning to me. "So you're this new guy I've heard Fluttershy talking about so much," he said, getting uncomfortably close to me. "She swore me to secrecy, you know. Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep something like this under wraps? The temptation to reveal your existence to the world was staggering!" said Discord, trying (and succeeding to some degree) to look tragic. Suddenly he righted himself and looked around, incredibly alert, as though he were a meerkat. "Well Zanty-boy, I'd love to stay and chat, but you're about to get a visitor." As if on cue, the air was filled with a terror-inducing cry that was about halfway between a guttural roar and an ear-splitting shriek. I recognized it for sure, but that thing couldn't possibly exist here! This was Equestria, not Hyrule! Why would he be HERE?! "Oh, and before anyone goes pointing any hooves, this isn't my fault. Bye!" And with that, Discord was gone. My fears were confirmed as I heard what was undoubtedly the flapping of massive, leathery wings and the clanking of armor. Somehow, it was here. The creature was massive, covered in black metal armor with barely any of its scaly red hide showing. The claws on its two legs looked like they could cut through a tree as though it were butter. At the tip of its tail was a strange gold attachment that appeared to be some sort of battering weapon. It was at least twenty feet long from the tip of its snout to the tip of its tail, and its massive wingspan seemed to block out the sun. As it let out another heart-stopping roar its split, thin purple tongue waving about as it did so, my doubts vanished. It was impossible, but it was right here. It was real. Twilit Dragon Argorok was in Equestria. The citizens panicked of course. I couldn't blame them for this one. I mean, a GIANT FUCKING DRAGON had just appeared out of no where! If it was me, I'd panic too. Regardless, the ponies were panicking and it looked like Argorok was about to start snacking on them, and that was not okay. But one thing struck me as odd. It hadn't attacked yet. Argorok was just staying there, maintaining altitude above the square. I decided to try something different. See, usually this would be the part where the hero slays the dragon and saves the day, but video games had taught me that the dragon isn't always trying to simply cause mayhem. Because of this, I decided to try and communicate with Argorok via telepathy. "Hello?" I asked it. "You there bro?" "Master!" replied a deep, smooth baritone in my mind. "It is good to see that you have retained at least some of your magical prowess!" it continued. "Master?" I thought to myself. I hadn't been aware that Zant commanded Argorok in the games, but it did make sense. "Uh, yeah, sure. Hey man, could ya maybe stop and land? You're kinda scaring the locals," I told the dragon, who was apparently male. "Of course my lord," came the reply. "Though I am not sure why we would want to gain the favor of such weak creatures." Surprisingly, Argorok did as I asked. He slowed his wings and descended to the ground with a massive *THUD*. Unfortunately, the citizens were still panicking. "Everypony!" I shouted to no avail. They couldn't hear me over the sounds of their own panicking. "Everyone!!" I tried again. No luck. "My lord?" Argorok asked in my mind. The locals were starting to annoy me. "FOR THE SAKE OF MY SANITY, WILL YOU PONIES PLEASE SHUT UP!?!" At once, the ponies stopped and stared at the source of the outburst. In my rage, I'd apparently learned how to use the infamous Royal Canterlot Voice. "Thank you," I said at a much more normal volume. "Now then, there's no need to panic--the dragon's with me," I continued, still somewhat pissed. "His name is Argorok. He serves me. Anything I ask of him, he'll do, and I've asked him not to bother you all, so you don't need to worry." "How do we know!?" asked a tan-coated stallion. "What do you want, a demonstration? Fine. Argorok, speak," I said. "Greetings," said the dragon, to the amazement of everyone present, myself included. His actual voice sounded identical to the voice he used for telepathy. Upon hearing him speak, the ponies simply stared at me and Argorok in shocked silence. Twilight, still next to me and looking quite done with it all, decided enough was enough. "Alright everypony, thank you for coming, but I think we've spent enough time here!" she said to the gathered crowd. "I'm sure we all have things we need to do, so please get back to whatever it is you need to do!" Her words seemed to have the desired effect, because as soon as she'd finished, the crowd dispersed. "Confound these ponies," she said under her breath. "They drive me to drink!" She turned to me and Argorok, visibly frustrated. She sighed and said, "I'm so sorry about them. This always happens." "Don't worry about it," I said, trying to calm her at least somewhat. "To be honest, I expected it to be worse. My only concern is where we'll keep Argorok." It was true. Where does one store a massive dragon in a small town? "Concern yourself not with my accommodations master," said the dragon. "I've been fine in the forest until now, and I will be fine there still," he said. "Well okay then! Great! Problem solved!" I said to Twilight. I really felt bad for her. She'd tried to run a perfectly normal event and it'd all gone and blown up in her face. "Hey, don't worry about it," I told her. "You tried your best, and that's all anyone asks of you. Sure it went a bit haywire, but what else did you expect in this town?" She looked around, then at me and Argorok. "Yeah, I guess," she said, still disappointed. "I just thought that after the same thing happening with Zecora AND Princess Luna things might be a little different! I guess I was wrong." Twilight was obviously distrought. I tried to think of something to say, but it was Argorok who spoke next. "Princess, if there is anything I've learned in all my years, it's that ponies are intensely afraid of what they are unfamiliar with. If it isn't exactly like them and what they're used to they will reject it, whether they respond with anger, disdain, or fear. It is no fault of your own, it is simply the way of the masses," said the dragon in his deep, rumbling baritone. Looking at the two of us, Twilight smiled. "Thank you, both of you," she said. "I'm so glad I can have such good friends to pick me up when I'm down. You two can go and meet the townsponies if you want. I'm sorry I can't give you a tour right now, I've got court to attend to," continued the mare. "I promise I'll give you a tour later. For now, go and try to make friends with some of the other ponies. Good luck!" And with that she turned and went back into the castle. Argorok and I watched her go. After she'd gone, he turned to me. "Master, if there is nothing else you require of me, then I shall take my leave," said my dragonic companion. "Nah, go ahead. I think I'll go meet the locals," I said in reply. "Farewell then, my lord. Simply call should you have need of me!" He said as he took off. I watched as he departed, and with nothing else holding me back, I walked into town.