//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: A Date with Destiny 
// Story: A Tale of Tyrants and Ponies 
// by TroubleMaker 
//------------------------------//

	“B-but I thought we were friends!”
“Please… let them live.”
“All her anger, her rage and hatred, are dedicated… to destroying you.”
“You made this personal, Princess. Not me.”
“I won’t fail again!”
“You will die quickest.”



You know, a lot of ponies have asked me why I’m called the Tyrant Pony. Those who don’t know the story don’t understand why I’m hated. I could start when I was just a child, but that might be too far back. I could start at my encounter with chaos, but I don’t think that’s when it all started. It started the day I got my smile.
Now, don’t ask me where I got the cloak I was wearing at the time. To be honest, my memories before that day are rather fuzzy. I remember living in the Everfree Forest, but I could have very well started in the desert. All I can say is that I started that day with a purpose: I was going to venture out into Ponyville.
I didn’t really have a reason, no desire for companionship, no hunger for a special Ponyville food, but I did have to get out of those trees. I guess you could call it wanderlust, if you believed in such a thing.
For a while before then, I had been training myself to blend into the background. It was a survival skill in the forest, and it helped in Ponyville as well. I intended to have no unexpected contact with anypony. 
Of course, looking back on it, I could have been fooling myself. It’s possible that I was noticed by everypony, but they merely decided not to initiate a conversation, the embarrassment of Zecora still fresh in their minds. At the time though, I was rather proud of myself, as I passed the local bakery, that I had passed unnoticed among the local populous. Of course, that didn’t last.
“Surprise!”
“Gah!”
I jumped backwards as a smiling pink pony appeared from practically nowhere and started talking at a mile a minute. "Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! I saw you wandering around Ponyville, and I was like, 'I don't recognize that pony!' which is different because I know everypony in Ponyville! Then I remembered that whenever I don't recognize somepony in Ponyville, it's usually because that somepony is new! Like this one time, I met this Unicorn named Twilight Sparkle..."
As the pony before me went on and on, telling me all about her adventures in friendship, I tried to gather my bearings. I wasn't really expecting anypony to talk to me, let alone tell me their whole life story. To be honest, I was kind of frightened. I tried to sneak away, but the crazy pony reappeared in front of me, once again from seemingly nowhere, without even pausing her story.
"...and now she's an Alicorn princess! Which reminds me, I need to get more glitter. Oh, you're going to have so much fun at your 'Welcome to Ponyville' party!"
"NO!" I exclaimed at the mention of a party. Pinkie Pie looked at me with an understandably confused look. After a moment of silence, I sighed and explained how I wasn't yet comfortable around large crowds. 
"Oh!" she exclaimed with comprehension, "I see. You don't have much self-confidence, do ya?" I nodded. "Well, we don't need to have a lot of ponies to have a party. It can be just the two of us. Ooo! We could have a lunch party at Hayburgers!"
Frankly, I was exasperated. Here I was, telling her that I didn't like crowds, and she's inviting me out for lunch at a well known public restaurant. However, before I could protest, she spirited me away to the edge of town.

At the Hayburgers, I was mortified. In the course of only a few minutes, I could tell that the extreme personality of my companion tended to draw the eye of anypony within earshot. I could feel the eyes of the other patrons of the restaurant drawn towards us as she played with her happy meal toy and I unsuccessfully tried to melt into the floor.
"...and so I said, 'Oatmeal, are you crazy?' and then- say. Are you okay?" she asked, "You haven't touched your cupcake."
"Look," I said, "you may be used to everyone staring at you at all hours of the day, but the fact is that I am not, so if you wouldn't mind, please turn down your voice a few decibels."
The pink pony blinked after a second, and smiled. "Oh you silly filly," she said, "nopony is staring at us, because nopony is here!"
"...Pardon me?"
"Just look around you!" I did, and Pinkie was right. Not only were we the only customers, but it looked like even the cashier was on break. "Nopony ever comes in this time of day," she explained, "they are usually too busy with their jobs. Besides, most ponies prefer home-made lunches anyways, but nothing's too good for my friends!"
I was silent as the gears turned in my head. I reasoned that the only way she would have known that their wouldn't be anyone there would be that she had lunch there before at that exact time. This surprised me. From everything she told me about herself, I never would have imagined that she would ever want to be alone.
"Why are you doing this?" 
She looked at me with confusion and said, "What do you mean?"
"The meal, the party, the cupcakes that I still don't know where you kept on you your body...why are you trying so hard to be my friend?" I looked down at my uneaten meal. "I mean, I've always thought a friend is someone who understands you, and you don't even know my name. Yet you decide that you want me as a friend. Why? I'm nobody special..."
Pinkie put her hoof on mine. I looked up and saw the most intense eyes I had ever seen. "You are the most important pony in the world." she said, keeping my gaze transfixed on her, "Don't let anyone tell you differently."
We stayed like that, staring silently into each other's eyes, for about five minutes.
Then, all Tartarus broke loose.
Without warning, a dragon crashed through the roof of the restaurant. This particular dragon was known as the Jabberwocky, and had a reputation in Equestrian for being the only dragon exiled from the Dragon Lands for the sole purpose of being completely insane. The insane dragon started thrashing around wildly, driven mad by the unfamiliar surroundings. 
Pinkie Pie, being a reasonable pony, albeit a strange one, did the most logical thing she could in that situation.
She yelled, "EVERYPONY PANIC!!!" and ran for the door.
Unfortunately, before she could reach it, she tripped on a piece of debris and slid across the floor, face-planting herself on the wall beside the door. And I, despite the seriousness of the situation, realized how ridiculous it was to be the victim of a random dragon attack on the first day that I venture out of the relative safety of my forest, and have lunch with a completely insane pink pony. Consequently, I did nothing except giggle at Pinkie's pratfall.
It was at that moment that I realized that I couldn't remember that last time I smiled, much less giggled. Yet there I was, doing both because of one mare. I turned to the Jabberwocky and smiled, Pinkie's words of encouragement echoing in my ear. If I truly was the most important pony in the world, it was time I proved it.
Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was trying to calm herself down. She pulled a brown paper bag out of her mane to breathe into. When that failed to calm her down, she popped the inflated bag and hiccuped.
"Okay Pinkie Pie, calm down," she said to herself, "you've faced worse than this. Calm down? You expect me to calm down? The only reason you survived previously was because your friends were with you! That's it! I'll go get Twilight! But what if she can't get here in time? PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER MAN! Gee, it's gotten awfully quiet all of a sudden."
Pinkie looked back to find that the Jabberwocky was no longer moving. Instead, I, cloak shed, was staring in the dragon's eyes, as if daring him to make a move. This was the first time Pinkie had seen me without my cloak, and she noticed that my fur was as green as freshly cut grass, and my brown mane was smoothed forward, yet still had a roguish charm. Finally, the dragon blinked.
I smiled with confidence, and held out a large, green crystal, which the Jabberwocky eagerly lapped out of my hoof. "Now leave." I said. And without question, the Jabberwocky flew away. I exhaled the breath that I had been holding for that past five minutes. I was not sure that would work, but it would.
I looked back and saw that Pinkie Pie was still staring in awe at me. I also noticed that my flank, which had been blank before that day, was now sporting a smile with a single drop of blood dripping from the mouth. I soon realized that the blood wasn't a wound, but a part of my new cutie mark.
"Pinkie Pie," I said as I spend my Pegasus wings, "thank you for the lovely lunch. We'll finish our date later."
As I flew off, Pinkie, still awestruck, slowly processed my words. When she finally comprehended their meaning, her eyes grew as wide as plates. "That was a DATE?" She exclaimed, but at that point, I was out of earshot. 
As for me, I was filled with a confidence I had never known before. I was excited to find out what I was going to down next, for at the time, I had no idea. I'd like to say I went on to become a powerful member of society, earning the respect of both Equestrian society and the princesses, and that was the end of it. However, this wasn't an ending. This was only the beginning.