Overlord: Dominate Equestria

by Jashin


Chapter 1 - Evil Always Finds A Way

“I can’t move, is this that sleep paralysis thing?” I thought to myself as I strained and grunted, trying to move at least one part of my body. All that accomplished was causing me to violently cough and hack, my throat felt like it was on fire and ants were crawling up and down it. I gave up trying to move, thinking that this would go away eventually if I just waited.

“Ah ha! I knew that spell was the one to work! See Giblet, alive and awake like I told you, and you said the tablet was probably a fake.” A strangely familiar voice said from above me. I slowly opened my eyes, wincing as the initial light burned my retinas. Most of what I could see was foggy and out of focus, but I could not mistake the distinct and very familiar sight of the impish thing staring into my eyes.

I played enough Overlord to recognize the face of Gnarl, “Am I dreaming?”

A second wracking cough that seized my body said a hard no to that, this was way too real of a feeling to be one of my dreams. And far too painful as well.

Gnarl looked over at someone else, probably another minion, “Hurry up and get the beetlejuice, can’t you see the Master is thirsty?!” Gnarl looked back down at me and singsonged, “Time to rise and slaughter Mast~er, Evil isn’t going to spread itself! And don’t mind the minor paralysis and the dry throat, a side effect of the spell we used to bring you back to life you see. We had a… minor mishap with the original summoning and had to improvise with a rushed Dark ritual, but don’t worry Master you’ll soon get feeling in your body once more!”

“I died?!”


Like Gnarl said, I was able to move not a few minutes later. Immediately after I got up I finally noticed I was in the personal chamber room of what I assumed was the Tower, Giblet began to strap heavy steel armor onto me and added small cape on my back, it was fit for an Overlord. I stared at and clenched my gauntleted fist, the one with the glowing orb thing on it, as I tried to piece together what the hell was happening. I wasn’t freaked out about this situation, or at least not in a way that would have me act like some sort of lunatic, but I was mesmerized by the surreality of it all.

Here I was, some nobody that lived in a crappy and cheap apartment while working a dead end job that somehow, through some leap in logic, got involved in something that I only knew as a game. I suppose this happening to me was for the best, it’s not like I had anything special in my life. No girlfriend, no real career, no family, I’m not someone who would be missed in any shape or form. Heh, my boss could replace me at the drop of a hat, I’m sure there were hundreds of people that could do my job. I stacked and worked in the back of a supermarket after all. My landlord probably wouldn’t notice I was missing until I didn’t pay the rent for the month.

The only things I could say I had going for me were whatever game I could afford at the time, the internet and all its glories, and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I had to scrounge up happiness wherever I could find it and while I can’t say I hold MLP as near and dear to me as others might I do enjoy watching it. Especially the violent stories some make with the show, I get a kick from those. So yeah, this was for the best, I could actually be somebody now and not some no-named and unimportant loser. With this new body of mine, and by the pure muscle on it it was absolutely not my original (I can likely thank whatever ritual they used to bring me here/back to life), I doubt I’d have much trouble physically.

Giblet finished with strapping on my last boot and Gnarl came up to me with my helmet in his claws, “You look like a proper Overlord now, sire. Here’s the finishing touch, I had to complete the last of the necessary enchantments on it before I handed it over. The previous Overlord’s helmet ended up in a volcano, it’s a long story.”

Gnarl held the helmet up to me and I took it, I held it in front of myself briefly and stared at the glowing orange light reflecting from its surface, my new eyes, before nodding and setting it down on my head.

“Perfect! You look absolutely menacing!” Gnarl bowed before me and continued, “Now, while I’m sure you’d love to get straight to the smiting I recommend some practice to loosen up your muscles and make it easier for you to use your minions. Then we can have a nice tour of your new Dark Tower before we go out and terrorize all the peaceful creatures out in the world.”

“Lead the way,” I said, noting that my voice was rather terrifying and unnaturally deep. It’s... hard to describe, but I know it is not something a normal person would have. If it was something being typed out in some fanfiction I've read over the years, it would be bolded in order to show just how menacing it probably was. Despite my new voice I wasn’t going to remain silent like the Overlords in the game, no reason to when I’m the one immersed in what’s going on.

“Of course sire,” Gnarl bowed one more time and lead me out of the chamber, I took my large battleaxe from Giblet as I left. It barely weighed a thing to me but I’d prefer a sword. The walls of my tower looked like the ones in the second game, which means that this is the Netherworld Tower. That’s good, I actually liked that tower more than the one from the first game, the throne was cooler too. Nothing says “Evil Overlord” like lava running behind the throne. Plus the floating stone platforms to different areas were a nice touch as well.

Our journey led us into the throne room and I got a good look at my throne, right now it was rather shabby and broken up. It won’t be for long, and it seems like the minions don’t care about taking care of the Tower if the Overlord isn’t around. I followed Gnarl past the magical teleportation circle that stood between the throne and the balcony that had the floating stones and stepped onto the same floating stone platform he did. We went to the forge and the minion burrows, which was uneventful and kinda boring, Giblet didn't have any other weapons for me to use either. So that kinda sucked.

“This platform we’re on will take you to the new arena we’re setting up, we're thinking about calling it 'Battle Rock Arena',” Gnarl told me and I grinned despite myself, the arena was the one thing I liked about the first tower over this one. Although I can kinda remember something about the second game having DLC that included an arena, sadly I played the game on the computer and didn't have the chance to play that particular expansion. “Right now it’s still mostly under construction and the arena proper needs to be mined out, but we put the minions on double time to set aside some room for you to practice. No sense in finally finding another Master after so long to watch him get killed because he didn’t know how to swing an axe properly! Don’t worry, we brought in a few lifeforms from above for you to kill, as well as starting to breed some beetles for you to harvest life force from near where the hives are to be kept.”

Gnarl sighed, “Sadly, the things above ground don’t breed like did in the past. Before, an Overlord could return to his Tower and come back to find everything had humped themselves back to a sustainable population. Nowadays the only creatures we’ve found that could do that again were these grotesquely adorable ball bugs.”

I stayed silent as we waited for the floating platform to take us a little deeper into the Netherworld, as we drew closer I saw that several brown minions were mining the rock out in a few areas. Really, it looked almost like a game of Dungeon Keeper. Gnarl and I stepped off the platform and I followed him to a separate area just through a small tunnel. We were greeted with a circular room with a high ceiling, almost half of the room was fenced off and I could see several baby seals moving around behind the fence. The other half had several targets standing up a little ways away from the entrance.

“Seals, the damned things can see straight through your soul!” Gnarl muttered. He shook his head and looked up at me, “Feel free to smash them all, you could use the lifeforce anyway. If you require some more swinging practice, we have some targets over there.”

“What about magic? I have never used it before,” I stated.

“Oh, you haven’t? What a shame,” Gnarl said. “No matter, we can work on that after you’re done.”

I nodded and walked over to the fence. I didn’t have any qualms killing these things, they were just animals and it wasn’t like I was doing this without a purpose. The next ten minutes was bloody, babies they may be but the seals still left quite the mess when a huge axe cut them in half. This was part of the game that you didn’t see, lest it became mature rated. Collecting lifeforce was an interesting experience too, when I touched it with any part of my body I felt its energies flood into my body and collect in my left gauntlet’s gem thing to be sent to the Tower’s life pool. When I focused on the gem, I knew exactly how many minions I could spawn.

After finishing off the last seal, and watching several minions come and take the bodies away for what I assume is for cooking, I started learning how to control my minions. That was beyond simple, I give them an order and they do it. I focus on the gem in my left gauntlet, move my hand around and they follow, it was much easier in real life than using a mouse or controller. When all that was done I told Gnarl I was ready for magic lessons.

“Magic is actually much simpler than you’d think. At least, it is for you sire and any other magical creature. Humans from the old age could do magic, but they had to study much longer to be able to do it, or use magical artifacts,” Gnarl said as he stood by and watched me raise my left hand. “Try and feel for that hidden power inside you Master, it should feel like it just wants to burst out of you.”

Gnarl was right, despite the fact that I’ve never used magic in any shape or form before I could feel something wanting to rush out of my body right now. I was able to direct and control it through my left hand, magical lightning shot out of my hand and incinerated the target in front of me. I could feel my magic restore itself to its original amount, probably because I’m in the Tower.

Gnarl clapped his claws, “Well done, sire! Well done! While we can’t say that you’re a proper wizard just yet, you’re on the right track!”

I straightened up and eyed the charred remains of the target, “Do we have spells for me to learn in the Tower?”

Gnarl rubbed his chin in thought, “Hmm, I can look for any old tomes of Dark magic we have lying around, and once you’re properly connected to the Netherworld all of the typical Overlord spells will become available in your mind. There wasn’t much of a chance for the spell stones to be scattered by wayward heroes when the world fell apart.”

I rose an eyebrow as the two of us walked back to the floating stone platform, but Gnarl wouldn’t be able to tell, “Am I not connected to the Netherworld Tower already?”

Gnarl winced, “That is a rather… complicated matter with a simple fix. You see, after the cataclysmic event that wiped the Humans and other races from the land, it was powerful enough to even affect the Netherworld. It knocked a few magical screws loose you could say. Since we didn’t have an Overlord at the time the damage was slow to fix itself. In fact, the last time I checked I’d say it was barely halfway done by the time we summoned you here.”

“So I take it that since I’m here now, and the new Overlord, that the Netherworld will fix itself faster?” I asked as we boarded the platform and flew back to the central Tower.

“At a much greater rate, yes. I’d give it a few months at most, The Overlord is a powerful position after all. If you begin your Overlording now, the time will practically fly by. But, I should warn you, the races above, and one in particular, are much more intuned with magic than the old races. The blue minions can negate and fight back their magic to a great extent, but even they can only do so much. I’m afraid that you will have to become much more magically focused than your predecessors, which is why your connection to the Netherworld is so important.”

“I see, then I will have to add magical lessons from you to the list of things that need to get done. If the races above are as magically attuned as you say, then I need more than destructive power. Theory and a variety of spells are just as important as the numbers of my army.”

Gnarl nodded, “You are correct, sire. Might I suggest sending a few minions out to search the various cities for the magical literature of the land? It would be a good idea to know how much they’ve advanced over the years. With you here now the various teleport stones should start charging themselves with magic and turning back on.”

I nodded and cracked my neck, “See that it’s done as soon as possible. Now, where do you recommend starting?”

“A good question my Lord!” Gnarl happily exclaimed as we stepped off and headed back inside the throne room. “Please, take a seat and we’ll bring up the map!” Gnarl hurried to the side of my throne and snapped his claws to a few minions.

I did as he suggested and leaned back on my stone throne. I should think of getting some pillows or just something to make this comfier, stone is not great to relax on. I did enjoy the heat from the lava running behind the throne, the fact that I wasn’t burning up or instantly passing out from the heat from such close proximity to it must be because of my new body. As soon as I got as comfortable as possible a huge cloth map dropped from up top. Several points on the map had a small glow to them, likely showing where the Tower could teleport me to.

The map itself… looked familiar.

“Ah yes, the current map of the world, it certainly has changed over the years. A small part of the world, to be fair. The map is magical, you see, and can adjust and change itself to suit the look of the world and your current reach. Most of the teleportation stones were destroyed a few thousand years ago and the glowing spots you see know are the ones that are left. We can repair and replace the old ones as we find them, but that’s expensive and for the future,” Gnarl explained.

“Which countries am I looking at?” I knew what I was looking at, I just needed confirmation. This can’t be real.

“Well, the prominent, and most powerful, is Equestria,” Gnarl pointed a claw around the middle of the map, “and this here is its capital, Canterlot. Their main population are… ponies, bleh, and they are the dominant species in the world. Not necessarily by population, although they do breed like rabbits.”

Gnarl shuddered, “And they have the most vomit-inducing set of worldviews I have ever seen! Happiness, friendship, sunshine, color! The world has certainly gone down a horrible path under their hooves, and not in a wonderfully Evil way! Just thinking about it makes my skin crawl with disgust! Peh!”

Gnarl spat and hacked off to the side and into a small stream of lava. I couldn’t help the minor wince in my face, I was actually in My Little Pony and I was a villain. I’m not necessarily proud of that, for now maybe, because the show is really great and all. Plus, the villains have a tendency to lose to Twilight and the gang when it comes to fighting evil. I pondered this for a bit and came to the conclusion that as long as I ignored Equestria for a while and built up my power, I should be able to beat them. Perhaps not in a one-on-one as they have the bullshit hacks of “Friendship Magic” on their side, but maybe more in an indirect sort of way.

I brought myself to attention as Gnarl started speaking again, finally done with his spitting and hacking, “I don’t recommend fighting them first, sire. As much as their continued existence disgusts me on a personal level, they are simply far too powerful a force for you as of now. Their rulers, Celestia and Luna, control the day and night cycle respectively after it was blown off the course the original gods that moved them set for them, and… well, the ponies somehow found some strange magical forces from which they draw stupid wins off of.”

“I see. So, where do we start then? The lands off to the east?” I asked.

Gnarl shook his head, “That is the Griffin Kingdom, and not even the entirety of it, lots of mountains and lots of griffins. I recommend waiting until you have secured the red minions before we venture there. They can burn the wings off of those stupid birds and in so, lessen the chance of death by falling. Much like your typical brown minion, they are easily flammable.” Gnarl pointed further south, in the middle of a desert, “Here, the fringes of the “Storm Kingdom”, although there is hardly anything stormy about it. A nice and easy target for your first Overlord venture, you only need to take one town and then a single castle!”

I eyed the map before us, trying to recall if the movie I watched a while ago actually showed the castle the Storm King ruled in, “Isn’t that castle on a small rocky island with storms? How do you suggest we go about getting there in the first place?”

Gnarl coughed sheepishly into his fist, “Yes, well. For that all you need to do is… “obtain” one of their many flying ships. Get one of those, fly the right flag, and you can land right in the middle of the castle and take it for yourself! With your new lands and the subjugation of the townspeople, you can make a tidy profit from trade that this kingdom relies on since there is not a lot of usable lands. Not much is illegal here and therefore, quite an extensive market for others to come by for things they can’t get in places like Equestria, which has a very tight grip on illegal goods.”

I admit it is a good starting point. Trade notwithstanding, the flying ship or ships themselves would be a huge boon for me. With it, it would make invading and moving things around much easier. Hell, Tempest and the Storm King’s army was able to move across Equestria with nary an objection from the country until they landed and attacked. I nodded to myself, Klugetown is my first objective.

“Then it's settled,” I said as I got back up from my throne.

Gnarl clapped happily, “Oh how wonderful! It’s been so long since I’ve seen a good ol’ fashioned Overlord smiting! I’ll prep the tunnel minions to dig a few pits to spawn more minions from right away! Just stand in the center circle sire and think of where you wish to go, the Tower will do all the hard work for you!”

I grabbed my axe and marched right in the middle of the teleportation circle. I did as Gnarl said thought about teleporting to Klugetown, in an instant the various slabs of the circle slid into the Tower and I ended up floating inside a pillar of mana with nothing under my feet except an expanse of nothingness. Immediately I flew upwards and in a flash of blue light, I found myself in the heat of the desert. I looked behind myself and saw a small circular magical stone glowing in the sand just a few feet away, the lines and runes faintly glowed with magical energy. Off to my right, a pit opened up and began glowing an ominous yellowish-brown.

I heard a tap, like the one you’d get if you tapped a microphone.

“Hello? Sire? Oh blast, is this thing even- Oh, good! Greetings sire, how’s the weather up there?”

“Hot and dry, like a desert.”

I heard Gnarl chuckle, “Oh, good one sire! Glad to see Evil hasn’t lost its sense of humor! Anyway, with this minor spell, I am able to relay any information to you through your helmet and see things from an outside perspective. Sort of like a scrying spell.”

I already knew this, but it's something that’s fun to experience for the first time. “Useful,” I said as I eyed the spawning pit.

“Quite. Now, while you might be tempted to take all one hundred and fifty of your minions out right now and storm the town, might I suggest taking only a smaller honor guard and scout around the city first? You shouldn’t be attacked unless you attack first.”

“So, I don’t have a limit on the number of minions I can bring out at a time?” I asked as I focused on the glowing pit, raised my left hand, and felt the call of my minions. Instantly, minions began jumping out of the pit and running towards me with cries of “The Overlord!” and “Masta!”. I pulled out twenty-five of my brown minions and eyed them as they formed up behind my back.

“Of course not sire, this isn’t some game with rules and regulations! You are an Overlord! You’re far above such petty trivialities.”

“Good to know,” I said as I cracked my neck and rolled my shoulders, experimentally shooting off some lightning into the sand to see if my magic regenerates unlike in the game. It did, seemed to be fast enough, and I was happy. I eyed the Tower gate, “Nobody can use this teleport circle, right?”

“Not unless you give permission or the invader is skilled or understands enough Dark magic. Don’t worry, sire, out this far and away from any place of learned magical pursuit you’d be hard-pressed to find skilled mages here. They tend to be scholarly and only a rare few have the stones to brave danger beyond a paper cut from a book.”

I looked around, trying to find where the town was when I saw a blob that looked like buildings off in the distance I guessed that was where I needed to go. I glared at the sun above me when some shiny bits of sand reflected its rays into my eyes. “This is going to be a long and tortuous walk,” I muttered as I reluctantly began my hike to Klugetown.