//------------------------------//
// Chapter 24: Scattered 
// Story: All Hail the Overlord 
// by TheAncientPolitzanian 
//------------------------------//

Shining Armor coughed up water as he pulled himself onto the sandy beach. The waterfall they had been thrown over the edge of thankfully dropped them into a lake, instead of a sharp river bed covered in pointy rocks. Said lake was a small natural reservoir surrounded on all sides by more temperate trees, which had somehow managed to remain undamaged from the Overlord's nuking of the Everfree Forest. 

Shining Armor flopped onto his back and looked straight up into the air, breathing heavily. "Sweet Celestia…" he panted. "This has been the single worst day of my life..." 

Pharynx looked over at him. He was laying on the beach too, except he hadn't actually pulled himself out of the water like Shining had. He instead simply lied on his stomach, too drained to even lift his head. "Ditto... I don't think I have been this exhausted in my entire life." 

Seaspray stood above the group in his hippogriff form, seemingly completely energetic without a single sign of exhaustion on his face. "Pip-pip. No use in laying about. We need to get back up there ASAP! We can't even begin to imagine what horrible atrocities that the Dark Lord is committing."

"Negatory," Flare anxiously said. He was currently further up on the beach, using a tree to prop himself up and he held a claw against his chest, trying to calm himself down. He looked like he was on the verge of a panic attack. "There is no way we would be able to survive going up there."

"Especially seeing as how we are down three fighters," Shining Armor said as he brought himself into a sitting position. 

"Three?" Seaspray asked, confusion evident in his voice. "I mean... I can see that Gallant is out for the count, and I can imagine Pharynx being too tired to fight, especially after turning into a Sea Dragon at that last bit... But who is the third?" 

Pharynx gestured over to Gowland, who was hunched over on the side. The large Yak gagged a couple times, holding their stomach. "Mountain Gods... Forgive Yak..." the behemoth stated before retching and emptying the contents of his stomach onto the sand and grass. 

"Eck... Yeah, I can see three of us being out..." Seaspray said, covering his nose with one of his forelegs. 

"Make that four," Flare said as he raised his hand, dropping into a sitting position and removing his helmet and revealing his honey-colored scales, and deep blue spines that resembled a mohawk. He had two rather small horns that resembled those of a baby goat. They were basically small nubs that would have been indistinguishable from his spines, if they weren't ivory white. 

"Wow..." Pharynx, Shining, and Seaspray said in Unison. 

"What?" an agitated Flare said as he flipped his helmet over, dumping a little water out of it. 

"Your horns are tiny..." Pharynx said, staring up at him. 

Flare stood up quickly and threw his helmet violently onto the ground. "Say that to my face, reindeer games!" 

Pharynx hissed in rage. "Oh, that's it!" he shouted as he tried to get up, his weakened and tired legs shaking as he pulled himself up. "I am going to turn your scales into a cloak, you overgrown lizard!" 

Flare stomped up to the Changeling, towering over him. "Big talk coming from a beetle! Your antlers are gonna look good on top of my hoard!" 

Seaspray rushed in-between the two, pushing the dragon and changeling away from each other. "Now is not the time to get involved in petty arguments! Those crimson chavs could be barreling down on us at any second."

Shining then pulled himself up into a standing position and raised an eyebrow. "Wait a second... Has anypony seen Gallant?" 

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him. 

"No..." Pharynx, Seaspray, and Flare responded. 

Gowland tapped Shining Armor on the shoulder, then pointed to the center of the lake, where Gallant was currently floating unconscious, but his armor was clearly weighing him down and he would likely be sinking to the bottom soon. 

"None of you helped him!?" Shining shouted in alarm as he rushed into the water.

"Yak no swim," Gowland said. 

"I can't even take care of myself, how am I supposed to help him?" Pharynx asked. 

"I thought you had him," Flare nonchalantly stated. 

"I actually forgot he was unconscious," Seaspray sheepishly responded.  





The Frozen North. A cold, distant place devoid of almost all greenery and animals. One could spend a life time up here, and never meet another intelligent creature. A single pony trudged through the darkness, his head and body covered up by a large and black cloak, meant to soak up what little heat made it in from the sun, and to keep him warm.

The pony walked through the north, craning his head left and right, before he stopped in a single spot. He looked down. The snow was oddly bumping up here. A slight thing that no one else would notice, but he had a sharp eye. That meant one of two things. Either a burrow of some animal was beneath, or a much more fruitful option. 

The pony bent down, and started to dig into the snow with his hooves. His white coat was taking on snow, making his legs wet. If this wasn't the thing he thought it was, this was a waste of time and energy, and would potentially give him frost bite.

He finally dug through the snow to reveal grass. Dead, yellow grass that was frozen stiff. But that was exactly what he wanted. He bent his head down, and with several great tugs, he ripped it from the ground. 

'Good,' he thought. 'Now all I have to do is take this home and thaw it out.'

He turned his head to begin his hike back to his home, when a crimson vortex opened above his head, and a blue dragoness was tossed out. She hit the snow with a boom, flinging snow particles all over, unintentionally burying him. 

The pony shook the snow off him and stared ahead, greatly irritated. "What is the big idea, drag-" he started before he noticed something. She was staring up at him, her eyes pathetic and waterlogged, and her arm twisted at an unnatural angle, leaking blood. 

"Oh my," he said as he noticed her condition. "You are greatly hurt, and I do believe you dragons are cold-blooded. You won't last a day out here on your own."

A faint light emerged under his cloak and she found herself grabbed and lifted up into the air by a golden orange aura. "Come, come. I will help you. It has been too long since I have had a good visitor," he said as he dragged her through the air. 





Twilight screamed as she flew through the Overlord's Vortex. It was nothing like the portals or teleportation that she was accustomed too. It was painful, and odd, and it lasted for far longer. It would go from scalding heat, to frigid cold, back to scalding heat until finally it stopped. 

She was dumped through the sky and landed on her back in a puddle of some kind. Her eyes were closed, but she still felt the cold pitter patter of rain. She groaned and slowly pulled herself up, opening her eyes.

She was in a large mountain range, with rain falling down around her in a large pitter patter, and the crack of lighting filled the air, followed closely by the boom of thunder. 

This mountain range reminded her of what she read the gryphon lands were like. "Ok..." she said aloud. "Looks like I am in the gryphon lands.... good to know..."

Twilight looked around and pulled herself up, her purple coat covered in mud. She looked around before she gritted her teeth. "But where in the gryphon lands?"

Twilight looked down and shook her head. She could feel her eyes start to water. "How could this have happened?" she asked aloud before sobbing loudly. "T... this wasn't supposed to happen."

No one had ever beaten them like this badly before. Not Tirek, not Discord, not even Chrysalis. She shook her head before wiping her eyes with the front of her forehooves. This wasn't the time to be sad. She needed to find her friends and her allies. 

She turned her head to and fro. It was too dark to see anything. She looked around. She noticed something in the shadows. She turned her head to stare at it. She took a step back. "Hello?" she called out. "W-Who's there?"

There was a flash in the sky as lightning shot out of the clouds revealing who was there. They were creatures, assumedly gryphons, in full silver armor. 

The armor, in the short amount of time she could see it, appeared to be half-plate, featuring morions with built-in lion-shaped metal masks. The armored gryphons wielded metal maces and steel shields in the shape of lengthened pentagon. 

Twilight took a couple more steps away from them. 

"Stay back!" she shouted as she walked back until she backed into another armored gryphon twice as large as the others. 

"Look what we have here?" the gryphon said, his voice identical to Gallant's. "A wanted criminal down on her luck."

She spun around and was about to say something, before she received a rude, and violent punch to the face, which immediately dropped her unconscious. 





The Overlord was sitting on his throne again. Standing before him were his three generals, minus Barxt, and Ember. Apex was sitting at the foot of the Overlord's throne, serving as his master's foot rest. The Throne room had greatly changed in appearance as of recent compared to its earlier form, but not enough to seem alien. 

Black metal braziers burned with Crimson fire throughout the room, and a banner rested directly behind the Overlord's head, showing off the insignia of the Overlord's Empire. It was a light grey banner, with a crimson flame burning in the middle. Emerging from that flame, were two dark grey Antlers. 

The Overlord laughed as he spread his forehooves in an inviting stance. "Well, my minions, you have done it. You have secured me my rightful place as ruler of Equis. So I say, bust out the chardonnay!" He shouted pointing at a Guard in full plate. The soldier nodded before he and two others rushed down a hall. 

They returned moments later with five golden chalices full of the wine balanced on a platter, and the other two came in, each carrying two bottles, in case they wanted a refill. 

The platter was held before the Overlord first with a bow. The Changeling lord grinned as he grabbed his chalice with his claw, before it was held before the others who each took their drinks with pride and joy in their eyes.

"All hail the Overlord!" Morion shouted, raising his chalice into the air, which was echoed by the other generals and Ember. 

The Overlord held out a claw. "No, no, no, stop. This victory goes to you. I couldn't do it without you."

The three generals smiled greatly, Haras in particular. 

The door to the Throne room suddenly slammed open and Pharynx limped in, completely coated in water. After a few seconds his leg healed fully and he was able to regularly walk. Pharynx marched in and pushed Lurick and Haras aside, causing the two to spill their drinks. Lurick, the physically weakest one of the two, was completely soaked, his uniform being easily stained. 

Lurick opened his mouth to complain, but he was silenced by Pharynx's glare. 

The Overlord narrowed his eyes at his brother. "What are you doing interrupting me and my generals? I told the guards to not let anyone into this room!" 

A guardsman at the door peered down the hall Pharynx had just come down. "It seems like he mortally wounded anyone who got in his way, sir," a guard said.

Another guard sighed deeply. "I'll go get the healers." 

The Overlord face hoofed and sighed. "You do that captain."

The Guard nodded and left the room as the Overlord looked at Pharynx, narrowing his eyes even further. "What do you want?" 

"My chew toys escaped," Pharynx said matter-of-factly. 

The Overlord's eye twitched and he quickly closed his claws, shattering his chalice into pieces. "You let them escape? A group of elite warriors who could potentially slaughter their way through my army, the army I just sent out to hunt down the elements and leaders that they are friends and servants to, and will give their lives to protect?" 

Pharynx was quiet for a second. "Yesssss…." He stammered out slowly.

The Overlord backhanded Phayrnx across the face, flinging him across the room. where he crashed into a pillar and slid down it slowly. As soon as the Overlord had lashed out however, he had calmed down. He sighed and rubbed his brow. 

"Take a unit of my guards and go look for them. Take these with you to demoralize them," he said, levitating Thorax's severed purplish wings into the air. 

Pharynx nodded grabbing the wings with his own levitation and quickly hurrying out of the room, a unit of guards following after him. 

The Overlord sighed and stood up. "Sorry," he said as he started to walk away, "But my brother's incompetence has put me off of this celebration. We shall have to try again later." He entered a door which lead to his personal bed chambers with a sigh.

Morion sighed. "Of course, my lord," he said before he turned to leave the room. He walked out and went down the hall deeper into the palace.

Lurick and Haras left a minute or so after Morion. 

"I don't know why the Overlord keeps such a senseless brute around," Lurick said as the two walked out, Hara merely glared at him with his single eye in response.

"Don't question the Overlord. He has his own reasons for everything he does. He is perfection!" Haras shouted in response as the two turned a corner. 

Ember was the last one to go. She quietly stared at the door the Overlord had gone through. She tapped her foot a couple times before she turned to the door and quickly sped out into the hall after Morion. She deigned that she should learn a little about her new master, and Morion seemed like the perfect way to do it.

He was the closest to him, after all.





Cadance pulled herself up from the viewing screen she had watched. She quickly turned as if the rush to the portal.

She was stopped by Starlight who rushed in front of her. "No! You can't go!"

Discord appeared in front of her to stop her. "Look, Cadance. If two Celestias and Thorax could barely put a dent on him, you can't do anything," Discord said staring down at her. 

Cadance looked up at him. "I can't just sit around doing nothing! He just tortured Thorax, sicced a monster on my husband, and scattered the only hope of beating him all across the alternate world! I need to do  something!"  

"I feel that the best thing you can do right now," Starlight said, putting a hoof on Cadance's shoulder, "is stay behind and lead everyone while the current leaders are away." 

Cadance looked at her for a couple seconds before she looked down and nodded. "You're right... You're right..." 

With everyone's attention, no one noticed a certain pale blue changeling slink away down the hall towards the mirror, followed by a purple dragon.