//------------------------------// // Chapter 23: Defeat // Story: All Hail the Overlord // by TheAncientPolitzanian //------------------------------// The Overlord grinned at his handiwork as he stared at his newest puppet. He grinned as he walked in a circle around the turned Changeling King, as said king trailed him with his now flaming eyes. The Overlord stopped directly in front of his new king. He decided to hammer his point home. "So then, Thorax. Tell these vermin behind you who it is that you serve," the Overlord said, grinning. "I SERVE OVERLORD THORAX!!!" the turned King shouted into the air. His voice was still the same sort of nasally, wimpy voice he had before, but it was tinged by rabid bloodlust and religious devotion. The Overlord patted Thorax on the head like a dog. "Good boy," he exclaimed proudly. The others from the good Equestria, and the formerly evil Celestia stared at him in what could only be considered pure shock. "Although," the Overlord started as he brought a claw to his chin, "in all honesty, calling you Thorax while I am also named Thorax will be a little confusing don't you think... Tell you what: from now on, your name is... Apex." 'Apex' immediately shoved a hoof against his head in a salute. "Yes my Overlord!" he said with pure obedience, as if following orders from a god in the flesh. "Uh-oh, Morion!" the Overlord shouted in a sing-song tone to his soldiers. "If you aren't careful, Apex here will replace you as number two!" The crowd of Changeling soldiers, including Morion, broke out into sadistic, jeering laughter. The laughing died down after a few minutes with a couple changelings wiping away tears. All throughout it, Ember had not taken her eyes off Thorax, her Thorax, not the Alternate one. Ember couldn't believe her eyes. This couldn't be true. This had to be a bad dream or something. There was no way Thorax could have been turned into... into whatever he was now! The Alternate Thorax started to practically prance his way towards her and the other leaders next. "Tell you what, inferiors. Anyone who pledges their loyalty, and the loyalty of their kingdoms, to me will survive, how does that sound?" The Overlord trained his gaze over all of them one by one until he arrived at Grandpa Gruff, who looked like he was seriously considering it. "Except for you and the dragon," he said apathetically. "I already have dragons and, to be honest, gryphons disgust me." "This coming from a giant bug!?!" Gruff said, before he was silenced by a punch from the changeling holding him down. "Ow..." "So what do you say, weaklings?" The Overlord said, sitting down and spreading his forehooves. "Not a chance, monster!" Celestia said, which was echoed by a nod from Luna. "I would never bend the knee to one such as you," Queen Novo said with narrowed eyes. "Yak will smash firefly!" Rutherford shouted out, trying to get up, but only being tackled by a couple more dragons keeping him completely pinned. The Overlord broke out into laughter at the insult. "Firefly?" he said through chuckles. "I don't think I have ever heard that insult thrown my way before." The Overlord patted the yak on the head a couple times. "Congrats on being original." "Wh... what have you done to him?" everyone suddenly heard Ember say. They turned their head to see Ember, who was staring at her former friend with the same look of shock that had not dropped this entire time. The Overlord was confused for a second before he laughed and walked over to 'Apex' slinging a foreleg over his shoulder. "You see, we changelings all have a form of fire inside of us. It's not hot or anything like dragon fire. It's more... cold, I guess?" "The basis is you can see it when we transform," the Overlord said with a shrug as he pulled his foreleg away from his alternate self a took a few steps away, before turning around. He paused for a second before he pulled out a pencil and a notepad and threw it to Twilight out of suspicion that she would start taking notes. He was correct, because after a few seconds Twilight had started to scribble down everything he had said using her mouth. "That inner fire is what controls our every thought, feeling and emotion, alongside our magic. Of course, due to being magical in nature, that fire can be controlled, like all magical things." "I have done Apex here a favor and taken complete control of his inner fire, and by extension, his thoughts and feelings. He now does everything I say and think, because let's be real here," the Overlord said before he used a clawed hoof to cover the side of his mouth facing his Alternate self. "His actual thoughts and feelings were pretty pathetic," he whispered, before breaking into laughter, which was of course echoed by his follows. The Overlord dropped backwards, and a changeling quickly rushed behind him and turned into a Throne. He kicked his legs up and a second ran forwards and turned into a foot rest, both with flashes of red fire as opposed to the Cyan or Green that the others were used to. "Let me give you a demonstration," the Overlord, said crossing his forehooves behind his head. "Apex, sit," he commanded. Almost mindlessly, the Changeling King dropped onto his haunches. "Roll over," came a second order, and he rolled to the side 360 degrees. Ember almost expected him to start wagging his tail in response. Ember convulsed in rage a couple times, snorting out smoke and cinders. "You monster..." she quietly said, her eye twitching. She roared as she got up violently, throwing the Alternate Ember off of her like a ragdoll. "YOU MONSTER!!!" "Ember, no! He will kill you!" Twilight shouted straining against her captor. Ember didn't hear her however, she was far too angry to think. Not that she would have cared even if she did. Ember shot towards the Overlord who merely narrowed his eyes at her without moving from his relaxed position on his throne. She was halfway there when she was tackled from the side. She growled before she raised her arm in an attempt to defend herself from her unknown attacker. She felt teeth violently and mercilessly dig into her arm, as well as hearing a gasp come from the others from her world. She finally saw just exactly who had her pinned and was attacking her. Above her was Thorax, violently digging his now razor-sharp teeth into her blue scales as if he didn't recognize her. He was practically foaming out the mouth, and the only things she could make out from his rabid gaze were bloodlust and rage. Thorax... No, this wasn't Thorax any more. Apex started to shake his head, digging even more into her arm, drawing blood and causing Ember to grunt in pain. "Thorax!" Ember shouted, working through the pain. "Snap out of it! I know you're in there somewhere!" Then there was a snap as Apex violently and quickly ripped his head to the side, breaking the bone in Ember's arm, causing her to collapse and shout out in discomfort. Apex spat her arm out before he raised his head and brought it down attempting to bite down into her throat like a predator going after prey. Using her other arm, Ember grabbed one of her antlers and used her legs to hold him back. The Overlord grinned at this before he snapped his claws. "That's enough. Come," he said, before Apex eagerly jumped off Ember and trotted up to the Overlord sitting down next to his throne. Ember hissed as she tried to get up again, but she was instead tackled down by her alternate self once again. The Overlord grinned as he kicked the foot stool away and stood up. Then he locked his eyes with the Alternate Celestia. "Ah, don't think I have forgotten about you," he said as he walked up to her. With one go, he grabbed her horn and lifted her up. There was a cracking until the tip of the horn was ripped clean off, and the Alternate Celestia was dropped to the ground. She screamed as she held her new stub. The Overlord looked down at her with contempt and hatred clear in his eyes. "This is what you deserve," the Overlord said, before he started to walk away from her and stood in the center of the plaza. The Overlord took the horn and pointed it up into the sky towards the sun. He narrowed his eyes, and gripped the horn tighter until, a dark red beam shot out of the tip of Celestia's horn, slamming into the sun. After a few minutes the beam ceased. There was now a red growth on the sun, which started to slowly expand, absorbing more and more of the sun. The Overlord smiled up at the sun for a second before he smashed the horn in his claw. He opened it and flipped his hoof, allowing the white powder that used to be Celestia's horn fall to the ground. The Overlord gave a content sigh. "The sun is mine." He chuckled. "Oh ME, I have never felt this happy before!" The crowd of changelings and dragons cheered in response. "ALL HAIL! ALL HAIL!" they chanted. The Overlord turned to his army. "TELL ME! HOW SHOULD WE CELEBRATE THIS WONDERFUL VICTORY!?" he shouted loudly to his men. The changelings in the crowd raised their weapons and screamed: "BLOOD HUNT!!" The Overlord's horns glowed blood red as the Elements and leaders were lifted into the air. "As they say, a leader is a slave to their people! A blood hunt is what you shall have!" Swirling vortexes of flames appeared in the air, behind the leaders and Elements. The Overlord grinned before with one quick toss, they were thrown into their vortexes. The Overlord grinned before he pointed at Barxt, whom had come flying down from the roof he was tossed on top of. "Barxt! Time to celebrate your promotion! Get you're soldiers ready! This blood hunt is all you," the Overlord said with a laugh. Barxt smiled viciously before he nodded and waved his arm to his men, who made up a two fifths of the soldiers. "Let's move!" The changelings roared in joy before they shot into the air in a swirling horde. The Overlord was practically beaming now. "Who can stop me now?" he shouted into the air, spreading his hooves.