Prologue — Fade to Blacklight
As the bus slowed to a stop, I looked up from my phone to see that we'd finally arrived at my destination. Wordlessly, I stood up from my seat and walked towards the front of the bus, offering a nod to the driver that she returned. Stepping out, the bus doors closed behind me before the gray transit vehicle drove off. I pulled out my wallet from my interior jacket pocket, checking to see that my ticket was indeed there along with about one-fifty in pocket money. I looked up at the line into the event I've been waiting three whole months for.
ComiCon NYC.
I was currently dressed in a white dress shirt and blue denim jeans, and black steel-toed leather combat boots. Atop the dress shirt I had on, I also wore a pale-as-bone gray zip-up hoodie through which the front of the dress shirt collar poked out, the hood currently being up over my head. Next, I had on a light brown jacket over it with the collar turned straight up. And on top of all of that, I wore a black leather jacket with a red interior collar and two white leather bands on each upper arm, along with red tribal marking embroidery on the upper back in the shape of two dragons.
Yes, I was currently dressed as the original viral shapeshifter himself, Alex Mercer. The Monster of Manhattan, the First Prototype, the Scourge of Blackwatch, Zeus — the list of aliases he had went on and on. Though why they called him Zeus, I'll never know. I honestly thought Hades was much more appropriate, considering the nature of his abilities. But that wasn't up to me, and it was already put in the game, so there's nothing I can do about it.
I showed the entrance attendant my ticket as I stepped through the door, receiving a nod as he let me pass through. The instant I did, I was greeted with the sight of hundreds of thousands of people moving from stand to stand, browsing merchandise and comic books and other such items. One had a life-size Xenomorph statue, while another had a Master Chief suit. There were also several dozen convention-goers cosplaying as their favorite characters. From Maka Albarn with Soul Eater’s scythe form, to Captain America with his star-spangled shield, to even Tommy Oliver in his original Green Ranger suit, carrying the helmet under his arm like a football.
Yep, I was in comic nerd heaven.
As I walked along and glanced about the place, I got asked by quite a lot of convention-goers to take a picture of me, or received compliments on my realistic costume, both of which I accepted. I saw a guy in a James Heller costume waving me over, coincidentally, though it was only so that people could get a good pic of the two of us posing as if we were about to punch each other in the face. Crazily enough, the guy's voice sounded comically high-pitched, kinda like the Hog Rider in those Clash of Clans commercials. Sure gave me a good laugh when I got out of earshot. Though by the time the hour had passed, I was starting to get pretty hungry.
After eating a rather bland hotdog from the food stand, I continued to browse through the many impromptu kiosks. Passing between a comic book sales-table and a sword replica kiosk, the glimmer of light off a shiny surface caught my eye. Walking over to the stand it originated from, I noticed it was a stainless steel pendant on a black chain. The pendant itself took the shape of the Gentek emblem — three crimson hexagons outlined in white with a second crimson border outside them, separated by three black lines that met in the center. Wrapped up in the chain was a small test-tube vial containing a bubbly dark crimson liquid, plugged with a rubber stopper.
“Like what you see, Mercer?”
Looking up from the piece of jewelry, I met the gaze of the man running the sales-table, who was dressed in a rather convincing cosplay as the Merchant from Resident Evil 4. He wore a tattered black trench-coat along with a large sandy backpack. A purple piece of fabric covered the lower portion of his face. The inside of his coat contained a number of belts, packs and pockets, all packed full of merchandise by the looks of it. He even had the same Cockney accent to his voice. I had to give him credit, he really knew how to pull it off.
“Well?”
“How much for the Blackwatch pendant?”
“Forty bucks,” he answered. “You've got a good costume, though, so I'll bump it down to thirty-two.”
I blinked in surprise, but then dug out my wallet. “Done,” I said, slapping the cash on the table. He promptly slid the whole thing toward me, vial and all. Tossing my hood down, I slung the pendant around my neck before pulling it up again, holding up the vial to my eye. “What's with the vial, though? Blacklight Virus prop?”
“Prop? No,” he said, before smirking beneath his purple mask fabric. “Blacklight Virus? Yes.”
I looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but he only began to give a rather evil chuckle. Unnerved, I turned and started walking away, before feeling a sudden sense of vertigo wash over me. I promptly leaned against the nearest table as the dizziness progressively got worse, and I massaged my temples to try to relieve it, but to no avail. The next thing I knew, I was collapsing to the floor as my legs suddenly gave out from under me. My vision started to fade in and out, before my world went black.
A sudden knocking on the door rang out through the room, causing the sole occupant to lift an equine ear in response. She shifted around on her king-sized bed, sitting upright as she looked at the door with tired, amethyst-purple eyes. It wasn't time to raise the sun yet, was it? “Your Highness!” came the voice of the offender from behind the door. “Your presence is required at once. We have a situation.”
Princess Celestia was instantly wide awake. Those four words always meant potential trouble. Her horn lit up with a golden glow, and her crown and peytral chestpiece floated over to her before the latter fastened to her alabaster white torso. Setting the crown on her head and placing the golden shoes on her hooves, she got up from her bed and cantered to the door. Opening it, she was greeted with the sight of an alabaster white Pegasus stallion clad in the golden armor of the Royal Guard, who immediately bowed in her presence. “What is it?” she asked the guard.
“We found the body of an unknown creature dead in an alley, your Highness,” he replied. “We believe it to signify a potential security risk. I'll brief you on the way, your Majesty.”
She gave a nod. “Lead the way.”
With that, the guard opened the window and took off through the skies, the Alicorn following suit. She flew slightly behind him and along his left as she followed him through the air. The moonlight reflected off her tiara and peytral as well as the guard’s armor as they cut through the night sky. The equine image on the moon's surface brought a frown to her face, though she shook her head and glanced at the pegasus guard as he spoke over the wind.
“It was found in an alley by a pair of drunken stallions of all things,” he began to brief her. “At first we dismissed it as nonsense because they were drunk, but then one of our rookies decided to check it out anyway and saw it. We moved it into the hospital morgue just minutes ago.”
“What does it look like?”
He shook his head. “I haven't seen it myself. All I know is it's tall, it's heavy, and it was dressed in layers of clothing when it was discovered.”
Celestia glanced in the guard’s direction for a moment before turning her gaze to the hospital that was now in sight. His description was vague, and that made her both curious and concerned. If it were a dangerous predator, or an unknown invader, then the civilian population of Canterlot would’ve been in danger. If it were an infiltrator from a known enemy of Equestria or even an allied nation or kingdom, then the incident would potentially spark a war. Either way, there was a breach in security, which would ultimately lead to more paperwork for both Celestia herself and her two secretaries.
Ohhhhhhhh, how she hated paperwork.
Landing in front of Canterlot General Hospital, Celestia and the guard stepped through the main entrance, where they were greeted by a pair of Unicorn guards who promptly stood at attention and saluted. “At ease, gentlecolts,” the Alicorn ordered. “Just take us to the morgue so we can view this… creature.”
“Yes, Ma’am!”/“Yes, Ma’am!” the two replied as they turned and led them to the stairwell. Following them downstairs to the basement level, they were then led down a set of hallways until they stopped at a set of metal double doors with windows. Stationed at either side were two more pairs of Unicorn guards who, like the first two, saluted.
Stepping inside the room, the Diarch of the Sun was met with the sight of the strangest creature she'd ever seen lying atop a dissection table. It looked like a cross between a minotaur and an ape, though it was almost furless save for the patch of black hair on the top of its head, mostly covered by a gray hood. It was covered in multiple layers of clothing, including — much to her displeasure — a leather jacket. The table on which it lay was surrounded on both sides by surgeon ponies, clad in doctors’ coats and masks, along with several trays containing dissection tools. Like the guards, the surgeons bowed in her presence.
“Report,” she commanded.
“Your Highness, this creature was found dead in an alleyway approximately three hours ago,” said one of the surgeons, presumably the head surgeon. “Reports indicated that it had been dead for at least several minutes when it was spotted by a pair of drunken ponies that were apparently out clubbing late into the night. It's body carries an immense weight as it reportedly took four of your unicorn guards to lift it by magic. When we tried to measure its body weight, the specimen by itself broke the scale. As for right now, we were just preparing to take some samples and later dissect it.”
“We were wondering if you recognized the creature's species, your Majesty,” the guard spoke up.
Celestia shook her head. “I'm afraid I do not,” she replied regretfully. “In all the centuries I've been alive, I have never seen a creature like this before.”
“All the more reason why we should cut this bugger up and see what we're dealing with,” the head surgeon said as he readied his scalpel.
Before they could proceed, however, the corpse jolted awake with a sharp intake of air.
Jerking awake with a gasp, I was hit with a wave of vertigo as I tried to get up. I heard several gasps around me, and eventually my vision cleared to reveal that I was laying on what appeared to be a dissection table. I was surrounded by roughly half a dozen small equine creatures of various colors wearing doctors’ coats and surgical masks, all of them with conical horns spiraling from their foreheads. Near what I guessed to be the entrance to the room — which I now guess to be a morgue of some sort — stood a white equine with wings wearing a set of gold-plated armor. But what really caught my attention was the being that stood next to him.
It — She, I corrected myself — was a tall alabaster-white equine whose height matched that of the average human, with large, elegant white feathery wings, a long sharp horn, and twin pools of kind magenta eyes. Tattooed on her flank was the image of a yellow-and-orange sun, though the meaning of such a mark was lost on me. She wore a golden peytral chestpiece bearing a rhombus-shaped amethyst in the center, along with matching regalia horseshoes, and a golden three-pointed tiara resting on her head just behind her horn, another rhombus-shaped amethyst embedded in the center spike. But what really grabbed my attention was her mane and tail, for they were long and swaying in a nonexistent breeze, briefly reminding me of an Aurora Borealis with hues of magenta, cyan, turquoise and aqua-green. All-in-all, she was a rather stunning sight to behold, one that screamed of power and regality.
I felt like I'd seen her before, and after a moment of thinking, I realized why a moment later. She was one of the Princesses in that My Little Pony kids show. I'd never actually watched it myself, though I did see bits and pieces of it sometimes when I was babysitting my neighbor's kids. It didn't really do it for me, though apparently a whole lot of people like it. Why, I will probably never know.
The Princess spoke first, a neutral expression on her equine muzzle. “Can you understand me?” she asked simply. It was a fair question. If I encountered a strange creature I'd never seen before, I'd want to know if it could understand me as well.
I gave a firm nod. “I can,” I replied.
“My name is Princess Celestia, and I am the current ruler of Equestria,” she introduced herself. “I would like to ask you a few questions. For starters, who and what are you?”
I opened my mouth to answer her questions, but then promptly closed it, mulling over recent events in my head. I was sent to another world, after buying a cosplay prop, by the Merchant. By default, that made me a Displaced of the character I was cosplaying as: Alex Mercer. With that insight, I had my answer. “My name is Alex Mercer,” I said. “I’m a hu—” I stopped to correct myself; I can’t be considered human anymore if my suspicions are correct. “...was a human.” That’s gonna take some getting used to.
“And now?”
I twisted around and hopped off the table. “Now I'm a sapient shapeshifting incarnation of a virus that survives off of biomass,” I summarized.
“A virus?!” one of the surgeons cried out in alarm, immediately backing away from me. His co-workers quickly followed suit, taking several steps back.
I shot him a flat look. “Relax, pal, I'm not contagious.” ‘Not unless I want to be…’ I added mentally.
Glancing at the clock, the guard finally spoke up, his voice deep and formal. “Your Highness, it is time for the sunrise.”
Checking to see that the guard was indeed right, Celestia nodded. “So it is.” She shifted her gaze to me, her smile widening just the tiniest margin. “How would you like to see something amazing?”
I raised an eyebrow, but followed her out of the morgue and through the hospital regardless. Upon exiting the front entrance, Celestia’s horn lit up with a golden aura. For a moment, nothing happened, but then the sun began to rise above the horizon. The landscape its light revealed took my breath away, plains and trees with a few mountains, and I idly noticed a small town within view of the city in which we stood. When the sun got high enough, Celestia's horn stopped glowing, and the yellow tint in the sky around the sun faded. My gaze immediately trained on her, and she smiled at me, confirming my suspicion. “Wait… You can move the freaking SUN?!?”
The Princess gave a nod. “I can.” Turning to face me, she spread her wings and craned her neck upward, standing at her full height. Despite having a good idea of what I can now do, I still couldn't help but feel awestruck. In that instance, she looked like the pinnacle of royalty. “On behalf of all my little ponies, welcome to Equestria.”