As Ainz and Sunset walked down the road, the light of the moon shining brightly and illuminating the lands, Sunset suddenly asked something.
“Umm, Mister Ainz, why are your hands and chest all… bony? Did you lose the flesh to a dragon and somehow survived?”
Ainz flinched, before looking down. As Sunset stated, his ribcage and skeletal hands were exposed for the world to see.
“Ah, um, well…” Ainz muttered, before a green light overcame him, and he immediately calmed. “The truth is, Sunset, I'm actually a skeleton.” Ainz said, defeated as he removed his mask, his glowing red eyes staring up at the girl riding on his head.
She stared, wonder evident in her eyes, much to Ainz’s surprise. “Wow….so does that mean I can crawl inside your chest when it gets cold? Your clothes look nice and toasty…”
Ainz stared at her. “You’re… not scared by me? At all?” He asked, unable to convey his confusion.
“Of course not! You’re the man.. er, skeleton, who saved my life! I could never look at you and see anything but pure awesomeness!”
“Of course… children.” Ainz’s groaned, putting a skeletal hand to his skull. “Anyways, thank you for notifying me of that flaw in my disguise. I'll be sure to correct it the next time we go looking for civilization.”
The two walked in silence for a moment, before Sunset looked down again. “You didn't answer my question though. Can I pllleeeasse ride in you when it gets cold?” She gave him a big, glistening stare.
“No. For one, having another living being inside me would be extremely weird. And two, I don't want to know what would actually happen.” Ainz replied, immune to such a gaze. Sunset pouted, giving Ainz another hopeful stare, before sighing in defeat and returning to her place on top of Ainz’s head. After another bout of silence, Ainz asked a question. “Say, Sunset, what year is it?”
“Year 1000 AD. Duh. What, have you been living under a rock this whole time?” Sunset replied. “Or maybe you spent the last few years in a grave?”
“Neither are correct, but I thank you. What does the AD stand for?” Ainz rolled his eyes, looking back at the child.
“Umm… ‘after donuts’? No… oh! It was ‘After Disco’! No, wait, that wasn't it…” Sunset thought about it for a moment. “No, it was ‘After Discord’!”
“Discord? Who's that?” Ainz asked. Sunset looked down at him.
“Have you been living under a rock or something? Discord was this super-evil chaos god who tried to take over Equestria! After a little bit, the Princess used the Elements of Harmony to seal him in stone!”
“The Princess? Elements of Harmony?” Ainz asked, getting more questions than answers.
Sunset slouched on his head. “Ugh! You must live under a rock if you don't know the Princess! She's our immortal rulers, who uses her immense magic prowess to move the sun and moon! Celestia has guided our people for almost a thousand years now!” She looked down at him. “Or maybe you’re just so old that you've been buried since before Discord?”
“Ugh… let's just find somewhere to stay for the night…”
back at the destroyed town…
“As you can see, your highness, the entire town has been burned to the ground. We believe that the cause may have been griffon raiders, but…” One of the guards paused, eyes wandering over a corpse. He had a dark green hair color and bright blue eyes, with a lighter green skin color beneath the traditional golden armor of the Royal Guard. “As far as we can tell, there are no survivors.”
“That's impossible. My visions told me there'd be at least one survivor, a young girl with a great destiny ahead of her. My visions have never been wrong, so you must have missed her. Continue searching.” Their leader commanded. She was taller than the rest, with multi-colored hair draping down her side, flowing slightly as the wind passed by. Her skin had a light tan to it, buried under a heavy suit of gold armor, which she barely noticed as her pink eyes surveyed the scene of the ruined town before them.
“At once, Princess Celestia. And what should we do about the dead?” The guard asked.
“Give them a proper burial once we return to Canterlot. Find out if they have any next of kin, and break the news to them.” Celestia sighed, looking at the ruined town with pity.
“And what about the ones responsible for this atrocity?” The guard asked. Celestia’s gaze hardened into a glare as she looked down at the guard.
“We will find them. And they will suffer, for what they have done is blasphemy against the very existence of Harmony.” Celestia ordered
“We will send for a search party right away, your Highness. If you will excuse me.” The guard grabbed his spear, before walking into the rubble and barking orders at his soldiers. Celestia sighed, before looking upon the moon above, the likeness of the mythical unicorn forever marked into its surface.
“Sister… what else would you have me do? For almost a thousand years, I have searched for the ones who could free you of your curse, yet even now they continue to elude me. Where do they hide, my sister?” She asked, but no answer came forth.
Two Years Later…
Ainz picked up a quill, dipping it in ink before he began to write in the journal he had acquired.
It has been two years since I first arrived on this world. Sunset was, surprisingly, well studied for someone so young. With her assistance, I have learned much about the world I have been thrust into against my will, but still I have yet to learn of the cause of my relocation. I can safely assume that I have been transported into a new world, as my old one never had magic. Speaking of magic, with Sunset’s help, I have learned many new spells. Surprisingly, many of the spells in this world are identical to the ones in the Overlord Anime.
Ainz paused in his writing as he felt a small hand grab his cloak. He looked down to find Sunset, a small, confident smile on her face.
“Mister Ainz, I've completed my homework for today.” She said, presenting to him a small stack of papers. Ainz took the papers, reading through the detailed algorithms and equations. “Can we practice magic now?”
“Impressive, Sunset. I suppose this does deserve a reward… let's go outside for this.” Ainz said, standing up from his seat, putting the quill down, away from his journal. “So, what new magic have you learned today?” He asked, as they walked down the hall of their underground home.
“Well, I've learned some impressive fire spells, as well as some lightning spells. I still haven't gotten past the second tier though…”
“You’ll master tier three eventually, Sunset. I'm assuming that in this world, third tier is the limit for humans?” Ainz said, opening the door as they stepped out into the open fields, the sun shining down upon the small hill that hid their home.
“That's correct. Only Celestia and other immortals have used spells from the above tiers of magic.” Sunset replied, moving towards their usual practice area, marked by the torched grass surrounding blackened earth.
“Really? How interesting.” Ainz said, taking his place on the other side of the ring from her. “I guess I'm as powerful as your Princess then. Do you know what tier your Princess tops out at?” Ainz asked, before casting a spell. “Magic Resistance: Fire.”
“Hmmm… the legendary battle against Discord depicted her using seventh tier magic… so about that much?” Sunset shrugged. Eighth tier magic is mostly considered a myth, though I've heard the Elements of Harmony transcend all tiers of magic.”
“You mentioned these ‘Elements’ before. What exactly are they?” Ainz asked. Sunset let loose a torrent of flames from her hand, washing across Ainz’s view. A light aura appeared around his body and robes, protecting him from most of the flames.
“The Elements are these powerful artifacts used by the Princess long ago. They embody six different elements of a good person: Loyalty, Laughter, Kindness, Honesty, Generosity, and Magic. When used together, they can… um…” Sunset’s focus faltered, and the flames sputtered, dying off completely. “I don't really know, but they managed to turn Discord to stone.”
“I see. All things considered, that would put these Elements at either Super Tier… or World Tier. I will have to look into them.” Ainz looked back at Sunset. “I believe you had more to show me?” She beamed brightly, before casting another fire spell, this one launching a tornado of flames towards Ainz.