"It's about fucking time!"

Hard to believe those were the exact words that got me into this technicolour yawn of a world I'm imprisoned in.

You see, I'd finally gotten the the parcel containing last piece I needed for the outfit I was wearing to the Supanova pop-culture convention.
I'd decided since I had never been to any convention, that from the date the previous year's Supanova finished, I was gonna get together, piece by piece, an epic cosplay for this year's, and I finally got it.
A full scale replica of the sword and the hip-masks for my costume.

As I made my way into the lounge-room my six foot six' room-mate walked in from the kitchen.

"Finally here, is it, mate?" he asks, already wearing most of his own.
Shooting him a look that blatantly questioned his intellect, I answered, "And it took 'em bloody long enough!"

Now it was his turn to give me the look.
"I'm not the idiot who ordered their costume one part at a time."
"Yes, but in doing so, I've got a much better quality outfit."
"True, but you also only have ten minutes to get it on before we head out."

With a steady stream of "Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit," I tore open the package, grabbed out the masks and blade and ran to get changed while my room-mate pissed himself laughing.

Pulling on the crimson top and trousers, spiked gauntlets, boots and finally the cloak, I ran back out and shouted, "Get you're bloody hood up and let's go!"

I was almost out the door when I heard him say, "Hold it."

As I looked around the corner at him, he threw an amulet at me, which I caught, absently.
"It was in the box. You must've missed it."
"Thanks, now let's move it! You're driving."

Over the course of the drive into the city, I took a closer look at the amulet.

I noted that while a unicorn head and wings seemed a bit... off, it certainly did look evil enough for the character I was cosplaying, and decided I'd wear it anyway.

Now before we go any further with this, I'm going to be very clear. I have nothing against Bronies, but I will NEVER tolerate someone pushing something at me.
Unfortunately, that was how I interpretted a particular encounter at the convention.

When we got there, we both grabbed our blades off the back seat and added the finer touches to our costumes. I put on the hip-masks, face mask, pulled up the cowl and put on the amulet which was surprisingly warm.

Just as I finished working the clasp, his girlfriend parked beside us and got out, dressed in a costume to go beside his.

With a back-handed tap on the arm, he pointed at her and said, "Now there's a real angel."

Looking up at him, I replied, "How in the hell you got a girlfriend that hot, who was willing to dress as an angel from Darksiders, is beyond me."

After awkwardly listening to the two of them gush over each other for ten minutes, while I slid the hooked blades and claw-weapons into their hidden sheaths, we finally headed in and started checking things out.

Eventually, we made our way to the area where the food was sold, and as the designated wallet for the day, I was waiting in line get hot chips and gravy for them.

While I was waiting in line some random from off to the side comes over and says to me, "Nice Alicorn Amulet. I didn't peg you as one of us until I saw it."

Now, given that I'm not entirely happy with my current crop of friends, I didn't exactly intend to make any new ones, so I dismissed him with, "I don't know what you're on about."

Still, the random insisted. "The Alicorn Amulet from My Little Pony. You know, 'Join the herd'?"

Turning back to him, I warned him, "Listen, I don't care about you bronies, but if you don't get the fuck away from me, I'm going to hurt you."

Having seen me start to lose it, my room-mate came over and said, "Hey mate, take it easy. You're gonna get us kicked out."

"Stay out of this. I'm not gonna do anything stupid," I told him and lightly pushed him with my arm that wasn't holding the blade.

Now remember he's 6' 6' and he's also built large enough to cosplay as War and look the part, so you can imagine my surprise when my light push put him on his arse.

Before I could help him up, the shit-head who started the whole mess shoves in and tries to shove me away, so I turned on him and shouted, "I said, piss off!" and shoved him with my open hand.

Now, at a guess, I would say the guy flew back around three feet, but I can't say for sure, because as soon as I touched him, the amulet felt like it was melting and getting tighter.
Before he even touched the ground, I saw the full colour spectrum flash in my eyes and felt like I was falling and then everything went black.

When I regained conciousness, I opened my eyes slowly. As the blurriness faded, I noted that I was no longer at the exhibition grounds where the convention was held, but rather some sort of clearing in a forest.

Slowly pushing myself into a sitting position, I felt around my neck for the amulet only to find it wasn't there.
Worried it had fallen off, I quickly pulled away the collar of the costume and looked down at my chest and neck only to find a large scar in the shape and position it was in.

"What the fu- What the fuck's wrong with my voice?!" I thought aloud.
My voice was deeper and much more... sinister than it was supposed to be.
In fact I sounded exactly like... 'No. I couldn't possibly... could I?'

Getting up after a mild panic attack, I grabbed my blade, which was just beside me, and started walking, because I knew I wouldn't find any answers by just sitting there so I started along a path that I could see just outside of the clearing.

After what felt like a couple hours of walking, the path stopped as a seemingly still river had apparently cut its way through the middle of it.
Giving a wide berth to the end of the tail on the bank on my side I slid into the water and moved as quietly through it as I could.

Upon reaching the other bank, I returned to the trail and looked back at the tail, followed it's general path to the snoring head of a luminescent water serpent.
...
With a moustache to make Murgo jealous.
...
A fucking moustache.
...
'Why the moustache? I'm beginning to think this place needs a fucking rock troll.'

Ignoring the newly designated River Lord Stache, I hurried along the path into a particularly dark patch of trees where I proceeded to have another panic attack, which I'm not going to get into the details of, because I assure you it was rather generic, as far as panic attacks go.

Calming down yet again, I resumed my trek through the eerie woods until I came across a particularly dense area with the silhouette of a sleeping creature up ahead.

As I got closer I started to make out details such as a thick lion's mane, leathery wings and a god damned scorpion tail.

'You've got to be shitting me. A fucking ma- Fuck it. I don't care any more,' I thought with a tired sigh.

By the grace of some god, or several, I managed to sneak past without waking it.
...
As it turns out the gods hated me.
I know this, because I almost slipped, but still managed to kick a pebble into the manticore's nose, causing it to wake with a sneeze.

With a now awake, and angry, I might add, manticore glaring at me, I did the one thing any sane person would do and ran.

How I maintained my grip on my sword is beyond me, but I was ever thankful to have it when the beast leapt over me.

I stopped dead as it landed and thrust its tail.

Acting on pure instinct, I moved what was meant to be a blunt replica, but miscalculated as I made contact behind the first segment of its tail, too distracted to care that instead of pushing the stinger aside, as it should have, it sliced through, causing the tip of the stinger to scrape along my left gauntlet as I subconsciously brought my arm across my chest.

As it roared in pain, I seized my advantage and swung the now glowing blade down, easily slicing through the flesh and bone of the skull, leaving only a vertical line down its face and growing pool on the ground as evidence of the attack.
Distracted as I was by this, I almost missed the little green orbs of light that vanished when they touched me, making me feel stronger as they did.

Realising that I truly possessed the powers I suspected, I placed the blade along my back, disinterested with how it stayed suspended when I let go, and with a heavy breath said, "Thus is the power of the Sword of Aeons."

What came next I could never have expected.
Right behind me a soft voice choked out a sob and whispered, "How could you?" before suddenly screaming, "How could you?!"

With a snarl, I turned and lashed out with an open hand, backhanding the being behind me as I turned.

I looked it up and down and it seemed roughly equine in shape, but far too small to be a horse. It actually looked like, 'A mother fucking pony.'
The small, grey pony before me had a pair of wings that looked too small to lift its weight, but given its height it would have had to have been flying when I hit it.
It was whimpering slightly as it nursed its muzzle with its fore-hooves.

It took all of my self control not to just flip my shit at the sight of the small creature nursing its face.

Instead, I walked over to her, muttering, "Pitiful creature," placed my palm on its bottom jaw and forcefully lifted its gaze to meet my own.

As I glared at her, I assumed it was female from her voice, I noted that one of the spikes on my gauntle must have scraped along her muzzle, because while there was no blood, the was a bright red line beneath on of her eyes.

As I thought over everything that had happened so far, I decided that if this world was going to change me into the character, I had nothing to lose by becoming the character.

I told her, "Do not assume you can intimidate ME. The only reason you are alive right now is because you are not worth the effort it would take to lift my blade."

With that, I roughly shoved her back down and forcefully said, "Now tell me, who are your leaders and where?"

Afraid, it looked to the ground and didn't respond
"If you value your life, you will answer me."

"Princesses Celestia and Luna," it sniffed.
"The castle of the Royal Pony Sisters is that way," She continued and pointed along the path with her hoof.

Turning towards the path I took a few steps before willing my new energy into my body and slowly rose into the air and drifted in the direction she pointed.

I'd only made it a few metres before I heard her shout, "Wait!"

Half turning, I looked back through the corner of my eye as she asked, "Who are you?"

Turning away once again, I gave her my answer.

"I am Jack of Blades"