Chapter 3. First Impressions.
The veil that had been placed over the minds of the crystal ponies had been lifted, and the memories of what they had done under King Sombra’s rule flooded their minds. A terrifying fear that he would return to strip them of their free will again had forced many of the citizens to hide in the remains of their houses, barricading themselves in the disheveled buildings and run-down stores.
Only a few select ponies knew for certain that the old king wouldn’t return since they had all witnessed him get savagely beaten to death by the monster he had dragged in. Among those who witnessed the end of the old king were Emerald Secret, Cannon Fodder, and a yellow pony with a purple mane named Track Record.
After being freed from his bonds, Track Record went to spread the news that Sombra was dead while Cannon Fodder rushed off towards the armory to grab a weapon to possibly use against the monster. Which unfortunately left Emerald Secret alone with the creature, at least until two maids came in to… take care of the mess.
Emerald Secret silently watched the two maids clean up the blood that painted the walls of the throne room, her eyes never leaving the two mares who had the misfortune of being sent to the throne room by the yellow coated pony. Just like her, they were terrified by their ominous new dark master who, after killing King Sombra, had decided to silently look out the open window and let his gaze travel over the Empire.
He didn’t say a word, make a claim, or give any grandiose speech about his rise to power. He just stood motionless by the window, watching the clouds lazily drift by in the sky and the citizens dragging themselves on the streets. If it weren’t for the gentle rise and fall of the mysterious creature’s shoulders and the rapid tapping of his right foot then Emerald Secret would have been convinced that he had died standing up.
She couldn’t read the creature’s body language since she had never seen anything like him before, and she was silently grateful for that. Emerald Secret tried not to move, hoping that the creature’s sight was based on movement, leaving her completely invisible to the beast that had beaten the tyrant king to death.
Once the old king stood in front of the creature, he used a spell that seemed to make the creature more aggressive. King Sombra and the monster stood still for nearly a full minute before a crack suddenly appeared on King Sombra’s horn and blood leaked from his eyes.
An instant later, King Sombra's horn exploded into a hundred shards, freeing the blue bipedal behemoth of whatever spell King Sombra was casting on it. The beast then held out its hand to let the scepter fly into its grasp before it repeatedly hit the corpse of the old king with it. As he was distracted beating the king’s corpse, the two enslaved guards galloped out of the throne room, leaving Emerald Secret alone in the room with it before the two maids that were sent by Track Record when he bumped into them in the halls.
While Track Record seemed overjoyed by the creature’s actions, Cannon Fodder was absolutely horrified. His steely white mane grew a few hues lighter at the sight of the beast bashing in the old king's skull. As soon as Track Record galloped off to scream the monster's praises, Cannon Fodder ran out after him to do something.
Cannon Fodder would gather the rest of the liberated guard and come back to… to do something. Maybe build up a small battalion to attack it? No, no, if it could kill King Sombra then a small group of guards on the brink of starvation wouldn’t be a threat to it. Emerald Secret thought to herself.
The only alternative was that Cannon Fodder ran away and… and that he wasn’t going to be coming back.
Of course, he’s not coming back, he did the bucking smart thing and ran from it! Why the buck am I still in a room with it?! Emerald Secret internally questioned before her eyes momentarily flicked to the blue skinned behemoth. While a part of her was overjoyed that their old king had been slain, a much larger part of her was too terrified of the creature that did it to think about how elated she was.
It was a creature straight out of Tartarus, with a furless body and a disturbing primate skull for a head that held two prominent fangs in its jaws. Everything about the creature from its appearance to its demeanor painted a terrifying portrait of a dark mastermind that had easily overpowered King Sombra. It hadn’t even bothered to use its magic to kill the king, it had made a spectacle out of beating the tyrant to death with the skull of one of its victims.
Emerald Secret tried to avert her eyes from the dangerous monster that that had risen to power, worried that catching his glance would earn his ire. She didn’t know what it wanted, what it was, or what it would do. For all Emerald Secret knew, it could have been a tyrant far worse than King Sombra, if such a thing was even possible. All she could do was pray to Faust that she would be saved from her waking nightmare.
As Emerald Secret worried about what her new dark lord would do or say, the bipedal demon nervously stole a sideways glance at her from the corner of his eye socket, terrified to accidentally meet her irises with his invisible eyes.
The idea of not moving had worked surprisingly well and, if it weren’t for the quick glances he had caught from the green furred creature standing a few yards away, he might have actually believed that he was actually invisible. But they knew he was there, and they weren’t doing anything. Anything yet at least.
He had expected them to do something by that point. He waited nervously for one of the other creatures to attack him and planned to jump out the window since the door was most likely guarded on the other side. Maybe there was an entire army on the other side of the door waiting for him to run, waiting to skewer him with a plethora of sharp weapons as soon as he opened the door. There had to be some form of righteous retribution waiting for him.
He had just killed one of those… things by bashing its head in with his scepter, which was still painted in a fresh coat of blood and brain matter from his attack.
He forced back the bile that threatened to jump from his stomach and turned his eye sockets back to the crumbling empire that stood below the window. He watched the dazed and dull pastel colored ponies stumble in the streets with a terrified fascination. The odd creatures below him had an odd resemblance that reminded him of ponies from his uncle’s ranch, except the creatures below had colorful coats and appeared to be incredibly malnourished.
They dragged their bodies through the streets sluggishly, tears staining their cheeks as their eyes scanned what was left of the crystal houses. The few who had spotted him looking down from the window quickly trotted out of sight like their lives depended on it.
The few that didn’t run away immediately seemed too terrified to move, a sensation he was all too familiar with at the moment. Even as the snow began to pile onto their fur, the few paralyzed ponies still refused to move until one of the others forcibly pushed them away when they saw the reason for their fear filled gazes.
His eye sockets quickly moved from one pony to another, from destroyed buildings to crumbling towers, desperately searching for some sign of human life out in the snow. There was nothing familiar from his home, no people, cars, or even normal looking buildings.
His hand slowly lifted back up to his chest to feel his heartbeat to see if it was still there, not that it gave him much comfort when he confirmed it anyway. A thousand thoughts raced through his mind as he felt his rapid heartbeat pounding in his chest. Where was he? Was he dead? Was it a dream? How did he get there? Where was “there”? And most importantly of all, would those things kill him?
He had murdered one of their own right in front of them, it would only make sense that they’d try to get some sort of revenge or something. He knew it was only a matter of time.
He also knew that they were intelligent since he could hear a faint whisper from the two ponies in maid dresses behind him. Whenever he caught just a faint sound from them, he’d turn his head hoping to see a human or something standing there, only to see the same two ponies freeze under his curious gaze whenever he looked at them.
He could also faintly hear some chatter coming from the streets below, cries of joy, exclamations of fear, and a few cautious voices could just barely be heard over the sound of the wind. The man leaned a bit closer to the open window, trying to hear the subtle sounds of conversation on the ground below to make sure that they were talking. He knew they could talk, the grey one in the black void could talk, so of course they could all talk. But even so, he wanted more proof of it, as if one shred of evidence to the contrary could tell him that they couldn’t talk. That they weren’t alive…
That he hadn’t just become a murderer.
The pit in his stomach began to grow as he remembered how he savagely attacked that other creature. He didn’t feel bad about killing it, it was an act of self-defense after all. What ate away at his mind was how easy it was, and how he would probably need to do it again if one of those creatures attacked him. The only thing that had allowed him to kill the other creature was a sense of pure adrenaline and his natural fight or flight instincts taking over. It had all happened so quickly too.
One second, there was a demonic horse standing in front of him and then, in the blink of an eye, there was a corpse on the floor. He couldn’t remember attacking it clearly, he could only remember swinging his scepter like his life depended on it. He couldn’t even remember how long he was hitting it for, it was all just a blur to him.
Part of him was secretly grateful that he could only remember a few flashes of what he did. If he could have remembered it all clearly, he probably would have emptied his stomach on the floor of the large crystal room.
As his thoughts wandered to what he had done, each sliver of a memory slipping from his grasp before it could pain an accurate picture, the two large doors to the throne room opened again. Out of the corner of his eye socket, he could see a small platoon of the creatures in modified roman armor. They wore steel cruppers that went from their flanks to their withers, along with helmets that had purple crests that matched the purple accents in their armor. Many of the soldiers were brandishing spears, somehow holding them in one of their hooves as they stood on their other three legs.
A majority of the guards held stoic expressions as the entered the room, at least until their eyes spotted the corpse of the other creature laying in a wool sack. The man held his breath as the creatures stared at the sack and slowly turned their gazes to his back.
Ever so subtly, the man placed one hand on the window sill, waiting for when he would need to leap out of the window to make an escape.
The stunning silence that filled the room set his nerves on edge as he waited for one of them to do something.
Track Record arrived with a small group of sixteen guards by his side, along with Cannon Fodder who had taken up the rear of the group. While Track Record had been ecstatic when the creature killed King Sombra, Cannon Fodder had been severely worried. It was only because of Cannon Fodder’s insistence that some of the guards came armed with spears.
The creature had just slain the tyrant with ease and since the Empire wasn’t on fire and they still had their free will, Track Record chose not to worry. Some ponies may have called him overly optimistic at the idea of having a literal demon as their new king, but in his eyes, anything was better than King Sombra.
Some of the guards he brought shared his enthusiasm when he described the scene he witnessed while a majority of them remained skeptical about the tyrant’s supposed demise. However, when their eyes landed on the recognizable remains of King Sombra sticking out of a wool sack, they all became firm believers of Track Record’s fantastical story.
Unfortunately, Track Record couldn’t fight back the small grimace on his face as he stared at the bloody sack. While he was over ecstatic that the king had been killed, he couldn’t help but feel a bit queasy at seeing the lifeless corpse of another pony, even if that pony was a monster in a pony’s coat.
Their eyes collectively landed on the one who had killed King Sombra as it overlooked its new domain with an unreadable expression on its face. One of its hands rested on the window sill while the other firmly grasped his scepter, openly brandishing the proof that he was the one who had single hoofedly killed King Sombra.
With the arrival of the guards, the two maids quickly departed, leaving the corpse of King Sombra in the sack that sat in the throne room.
The guards threw each other cautious glances as they waited for their new leader to acknowledge their presence. Cannon Fodder made his way to the forefront of the group and looked at Emerald Secret, making sure that was alright before he turned his attention back to the bipedal beast.
“So… Can it talk?” One of the guards asked Cannon Fodder. Before he could answer, the tall creature turned its head towards the armored ponies that had entered the throne room.
Many of the soldiers flinched under his gaze as he stared at them. The lavender hood he wore had hidden his face from the guards when they initially arrived, only Track Record and Cannon Fodder had caught a glimpse of what it looked like when the old king died. Even though both of the guards had seen what laid under the hood, neither of them was completely comfortable looking at it.
“I… I can…” He quietly said as he turned his head to the armored ponies. “You can talk too?” It asked them.
Several guards nodded their heads to his question, too afraid to answer verbally as their words became stuck in their throats. An awkward silence fell over all of them as each one waited for someone else to speak next.
“Was it you… You killed King Sombra?” One of the guards asked. The creature appeared to tense up as the guard asked that question.
“… Is that the one I killed?” He asked, his voice barely above a whisper, almost as if he was asking that question silently to himself.
“Yes?” Track Record stated with some skepticism. He was originally under the impression that their new majesty knew who Sombra was, and had come here with the explicit purpose of killing the tyrant.
A sudden sense of worry and unease washed over the once optimistic Track Record. He had thought the creature was a being sent to answer their silent pleas of freedom, that it was a skilled mage that had practiced and prepared to slay their king. But was it all just a coincidence? Was the only reason why King Sombra was dead was because he was simply unlucky?
The other guards appeared to share the same thoughts as they looked at their new leader. The news that the creature didn’t even know who King Sombra was a startling revelation. If his goal wasn’t to kill King Sombra and free the Empire, then what was it? It couldn’t have been to take over the Empire, he would have needed to know who was in charge in order to do that.
“Um… What… What should we call you, my…? My Lord?” One of the guards fearfully asked.
“What?” The creature asked the guards, causing the guards to flinch under his scrutinizing gaze.
None of them wanted to acknowledge him by a title like prince, simply because they were worried that such an assumption would earn his ire like it had King Sombra. The old king had made it his mission to kill any creature that referred to him as a prince, enforcing the self-imposed title of king on everypony.
The guards in the throne room didn’t know if their new dictator wanted to be a prince, a king, a god, or heck, maybe he wanted the title of a princess. They didn’t know what would please him or what would anger him, and after seeing what he had done to King Sombra, none of them were eager to unintentionally upset their new leader.
“Well… You killed King Sombra, which makes you the new leader of the Crystal Empire. S-so what do you want us to call you?” The same guard asked.
A moment of silence filled the air as the guards waited for their new leader to do or say something.
The guards waited with bated breath as their ruler contemplated their seemingly innocent question, a war raging within his mind that none of the guards would completely understand.
The creature looked down at the hand that laid on the window sill, his thumb rubbing roughly against his index finger for a moment as if he was trying to wipe something off of it. His hand slowly lifted to one of the perturbing fangs, allowing him to run his thumb along the long tooth.
“Skeletor,” their majesty finally answered.
The guards gave their new leader time to follow his answer up with a title or perhaps even a last name. Many of them assumed he’d choose to be called “King Skeletor” or “Emperor Skeletor”. But, when no more words escaped his throat, the guards took his silence as a sign to thank Faust that they hadn’t somehow managed to upset Lord Skeletor unintentionally, and left their new ruler to his own devices as they left to inform the citizens of their new overlord.
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So Ainz Ooal Gown similar situation?
Them thinking of him higher, than he thinks of himself, and him eventually becoming bolder, etc?
I don't see a problem with that
I just hope that Skeletor will grow his backbone soon
Did you get it?
Can't wait to see how this story develops.
10134441
Thanks for the humerus joke, it was a real rib tickler.
A LOT more realistic than a lot of stories start out with
10134469 THAT was worse than Mitril's
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Yeah. Unfortunately, I don't have a funny bone in my body.
Oh, this is getting interesting.
10134441
https://m.Nice
I foresee many awkward moments in the days to come for the Crystal Empire, Skeletor for not knowing what to do, and the guards not knowing what to say...or not, not my call.
Good chapter though, I will admit that I'm not usually a fan of displaced stories, (aka ones that make use of the 'merchant') but this one is good so far, keep it up.
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I can't wait to see more as I wanna see how this story will develop.
10134477
Vegeta: Goddammit, Sans.
10134477
Very Interested, So Far. ;)
More please! Xd
Things are proceeding quite nicely indeed.
10134636
Oh come on this is a skele-ton of fun.
Man, if people don't stop it with the puns, this story is boned.
Very nice.:D
When they made him their king, I half expected skeletor to start crying because he murdered someone
10135142
sam's approves of you
after all they are broad bones of the workshop
xD
wait a minute .. is candence dead?
well, i can't wait for luna and celestia's reactions to the new bony king xD
10135350
Cadence is alive and well. She’ll be appearing in the story soon. Count on it. 😈
10135357
ok, and that from the point of view of the slave poney,
makes it look like she was killed by shadow.
the little question
when does the next chapter come out?
10135363
Sometime between a week and a month. Instead of trying to stay in a schedule like I did with my Bizarro story, this story will update infrequently.
10135371
okay, i see your point.
the more you avoided talking about the slave poney's point of view.
Fake it till you make it.
I always felt that displaced stories had such potential, but then they try to combine it into some huge multiverse thing. On paper it's a grand idea, making a whole new universe that other authors can play with and add to. In practice you have people with different degrees in skill and style trying to mash together pieces with stories that had different tones, themes, and characters.
Really like the way this story is going so far. If I was in his position I would try to play a character until I could get alone to freak out and try to plan. Evil overlord was always a fun hat to wear in my opinion, because Evil gets minions. Cannot wait for the next chapter.
Oh I must say this is the first He-Man mlp crossover I’ve seen. Lets see how this is for I did so much enjoy He-Man
I like it so far I do hope to see rapid publishing of chapters but not so rapid as to ruin their quality. Keep up the good work and I can’t wait to see more!
10135357
Ohhhhhh god
I read a lot of stories where main character takes over the Crystal Empire before Cadence, it's always the same way with her
If you add Skeletor finding changelings to join his empire, then I'm even more sure what will happen
Cadence always changes into Blueblood when someone takes away "her" empire that she was "destined" to get
10135921
No spoilers.
i could definitely see someone like skeletor, with as buff as he is, being able to quite easily beat someone to death. he definitely does not have the stereotypical strong mind/weak body build indicative of most mages in fiction. he is a powerful mage with an exceptionally well built body. i think some heavier clothing would do him some good tho....
10136439
Yeah, he needs to change clothes for something more useful
He has too much exposed space on chest and legs
10136439
10136606
How's this look?
i.imgur.com/yo5j9c2.jpg
10136630
Surprisingly the worst thing/most cursed thing about this image are heels, he wouldn't fit for sure
10136439
Well, technically Skeletor wasn't mage at all, he was a warrior king not inequal to He-Man, but power-hungly.
10136439
i.pinimg.com/564x/03/c2/25/03c225c9393aecee777afbfec6cb57a7.jpg
10136630
You know what'd be even scarier, if the creature in that image was actually female.
10138215
i.pinimg.com/736x/9f/12/47/9f12475c68a5733e71e90be954d5a4ab.jpg
10138220
10136630
i.ytimg.com/vi/0Vixx3bw6gA/hqdefault.jpg
What is the name of our new Lord the great fighter that slay the king ."skeletor". And?
10138220
This is significantly better than what I meant, and you know it.
This is one of the few times it makes sense for someone to use the name of their costumed persona. Thank you for that.
10139285
My mind is blown for not realizing that trope way earlier, since the majority of displaced are forced to use their name or not remember their name. Unless I’m wrong.
Reading the word overlord at the end makes me want a third overlord game.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's the links to the good overlord games:
Overlord (2007)
Overlord II (2009)
There are so many mistakes, and these are the ones I could remember - Emerald Sectey & the grey on tin the black void could talk
Pretty certain you mean Emerald Secret, and for the phrase, it should be "the grey one in the black void could talk"
So, is this a case of amnesia, memory wipe, or does he still have some memories, but not anything too personal?
10231000
If you see any more, be sure to let me know and I'll try to fix them.
Thank you for pointing out those errors!
And to answer your question, "Skeletor's" mind is warped and twisted in ways even he doesn't realize yet.
“Skeletor.” Oh yeah
10270561
Try to hear the song in the original singer's voice in your head. You can't.
It feels a bit short. Hm...