Chapter 5: Swamp Ruins
"Our most evil, diablolical, surpreme ruler of the Netherworld, the one who dominated Stalie and made its citizens slaves to his will. The Overlord who made it his goal to kill a goddess, destroy the Alicornia Kingdom, and make a mistress of a horse with wings and horn. The one, and only... Well who did you think I was talking about? Our beloved master Discord of course! Anyhow, our master entered the new land, seeking out the hive of the Greens."
A massive black gate of Nether energies erupted from the ground up, breaking through tons of rock as it formed into a massive spiked base. Onto the sides of it, three gates made themselves known, two which were glowing brightly with brown and red colors, another seemed to be closed off but small tendrils of green emitted from it.
A bright color of blue flashed outward from the Nethergate, revealing a great dark figure. The Overlord, Discord, walked out of the gate and took a look at his surroundings.
It seemed Grubby had built the base on top of a fortified hill, surrounded by large stones that cleverly hid the constructs of the Nether. Looking down the hillside through, Discord clearly saw the massive swampland and a set of ruins within it. Looking to the right, he spotted in the distance, the town of Cornis.
Raising his minion gauntlet, Discord summoned forth from the minion gates fifteen browns and ten reds.
"Ah, there you are master! I swear this thing needs some tuning... I assume our first order of business is to retrieve the stabby Greens."
Something suddenly urged Discord’s curiosity, as a old childhood memory of horses surfaced up. ‘Gnarl, a question.’
”Speak master, I’m here to advise you. As well as make quirky remarks now and then.” Gnarl replied.
‘Long ago, my kind used horses as means of labor and riding companions.’
”Yes, I do recall those bothersome human warriors that ride to their inevitable demise. Knights they were called by the people. Oh, are you going where I think you are Mi'lord? Oh, I can see the nefarious acts that need doing!” Gnarl toned down his excitement and continued, “As you know master, the previous Overlord used wolves and salamanders as riding mounts for the Browns and Reds.”
‘I recall reading of my predecessor’s tactics. However my idea’s a bit more complicated. Can you open a link to the Alicorn?
Gnarl grumbled a bit at the mention of the Alicorn Mistress, ”As you wish master, we minions were made to obey your every command… Hey, stop chewing that you imbecile!” The sounds of a good minion beating were heard before the Mistress answered.
'Yes mi'lord?' The Mistress said.
'I need you to... Persuade the classified Earth Ponies into being mounts for my minions.' Discord commanded, straight to the point.
'Wow! Your a lot less grumpy than when you speak-'
'Now, Alicorn!' He demanded.
'Okay, okay, sheesh. You're still grumpy after all.'
With that the link was cut, with a grumbling Discord.
'Being an Overlord is hard work.' The majestic lord of Evil thought to himself.
His most evilness proceeded to trek down into the swampland, he knew his goal, find the Greens. No matter the cost of minions necessary, it's not like he'll run out of any life force soon. He did conquer a town recently after all. Anyhow, as the Overlord entered the swampland and closed in toward the ruins within. He soon noticed how the entirety of the ruins seem surrounded by a moat, also known as the watery grave to minions.
Without a word needed, Discord glanced around to find a way in. Which usually consist of one of the following three. A conveniently placed old ruined wall, ready to be knocked into bridge material. A already built gate guarded by killable enemies which then is opened by a mechanical device of some sort for his minions to push. Or the later, a shallow enough water spot for his majesty to get across and seemly having his minions locate a way in without drowning along with screams mixed in.
Today's consistency went with number one, which Overlord Discord smashed down a ruined wall to make a bridge for himself and his minions.
Discord narrowed his eyes when he saw large beetles with puffs of green toxic smoke emitting from their backs.
"Ack, six legged insects, those beetles seem to crawl out from whatever hole no matter what sort of world shattering cataclysm there is! That's not the worse of it, they reek more than the Greens, and that's saying something!"
A slight pause, before the Overlord simply raised his gauntlet toward a small overlooking hill. The dominating evil lord ordered his red minions to head toward that direction and then rain fire down upon the beetles.
This strategy worked excellently, the insects running about as magical flames came from the skies and burned through their carapaces. The Overlord smirked underneath his helmet before calling from his minions to rally to himself. The green poisonous beetles lay burning even in death as the Overlord and his creatures stamped through them.
"Well done, those green life sources gained from their deaths will prove much more useful than what they could ever do with it." Gnarl commented from the Netherworld.
As the esteemed Overlord trekked along the swampy ruins, he and his ever loyal minions discovered a small band of ponies camped at the entrance to a cavern. Discord walked close enough for him to hear their conversation.
"Have you heard about the strange disappearances?" A unicorn pony said to his three fellows.
"The one where Pegasus would just disappear after smelling some sort of awful odor? That's just a myth to scare foals off." A Pegasus replied, waving a hoof off.
"They say it all happens when they enter this very cave through..." The unicorn said with slight fear in its voice.
It didn't take long for the Overlord to figure out what exactly the so called 'myths' were originating from. The Greens were within his grasp, he only needs to enter the cavern and collect their hive. With that in mind, he raised his gauntlet, a hum only heard by his minions sounding their attack.
The Brown minions charged forward with tenacious fury, slashing and bashing at the surprised camp of unicorns as the Reds surrounded the site and burned the fur off their very bodies.
Needless to say, it was a slaughter.
"Too easy," Discord commented as he recalled his minions back into formation, after they ransacked the campsite of course.
"Always welcomed to hear a fine slaughter and looting in the morning, but enough of that, those sacks of puss had information in which your genius mind probably already comprehended." Gnarl spoke, "I've ordered Gubby to construct more minion gates near your position."
Overlord Discord nodded, entering the dark cavern with his minions behind him.
The Overlord traveled deeper into the overgrown cavern, using his minions to cut through the weeds push large objects out of the way. He suddenly paused, calling his minions to him he carefully analyzed the surrounding area. Ruins decked the great expanse of the cavern room in which he was inside, castle-like, and no doubt human in making.
"Only ancient magic could have preserved these ruins my Lord, there must be a Nether object here alongside the Greens!" Gnarl spoke.
"Greens, Greens!" One of the minions yelled, pointing toward the sight of its green colored counterparts.
Discord glanced toward that direction, and spotted the Greens running through small tunnels, taking looks towards him.
'At last,' Discord thought, as he began to follow their general direction before being stopped by clouds of poisonous gases which suffocated two of his brown minions before he stopped them. He frowned, before looking to the side and spotting three different minion gates popping up. Some Greens jumped from a small tunnel opening right into their minion gate.
The Overlord easily understood them, and sent all his Red minions back to the Netherworld, knowing full well that they were useless for the time being. And, seeing how his browns couldn't bypass the fumes, sent them back too. In which Discord then summoned forth his first ever Green minions, and used them to absorb the poisonous gases.
With a small pathway made available to him, the master of the Netherworld, followed by his Green minions, journeyed into the cavern. Along the way, he collected as much Green life force as possible from the cave's critters and disgusting beetles.
"At last, the Green minion hive! Quickly master, retrieve it and bring it back to the Nethergate!" Gnarl started, before stating as Discord looked to a object nearby, "The Fireball spell! A old favorite of all Overlords, make sure to get that too, sire.
Discord ordered the Green minions in his control to lift their own hive, and which they followed him back the same way he entered. A bad feeling came into his gut, and as they approached the minion gates, he summoned ten browns so he had a maximum of twenty five in his command, the other fifteen being the greens that carried the hive and object.
When approaching the exit, he was met with a armed group of ponies at the entrance, he picked out five pegasus, four unicorns, and a Alicorn captain.
'Troublesome,' Discord thought, raising his gauntlet to which all the minions rallied to him, dropping the hive and spell object still safely behind them.
The Alicorn Captain's eyes widened when looking at the menacing appearance of the Overlord, but then regained her composure and shouted, "By order of the Alicornia Kingdom, I hereby state you surrender immediately and come quietly for questioning, or else we will be forced to use dangerous means."
"No," He merely said.
"Very well then," The mare Alicorn captain said, "Ponies, attack!"
Instantly, Discord placed his brown minions in front of him as the pegasus soldiers attacked. The winged ponies dived from above, and his brown minions could barely strike at them, he lost three browns quickly. However, the Overlord thought of a solution, he split in Greens in groups of two, and then allowed them to circled around his browns. When the pegasus dived in, the Greens jumped on to them from the sides, stabbing at them with large claws, piercing their skin and armor, blood gushing before they fell like flies.
Now that the pegasus were dealt with, he ordered his minions to charge forth at the unicorns.
It was then, did he himself get staggered back from a magical force. The Alicorn Captain herself charged forward, and bypassed his minions to get to the Overlord. She slammed into him, and he felt himself be pushed into the cave wall.
"Perish evil doer!" The Alicorn Captain said, bringing a telekinetic raised sword to bare.
But Discord raised his gauntlet, and channeled all his magical energy into his Evil Presence spell. He watched as blue lightning coursed from his hand and into the Alicorn's head, directly into her horn in fact.
The result, her entire skull exploded.
Overlord Discord breathed a calm sigh, and noticed the soldiers dying from the combination of his superior minions. But he knew this was more like a task force than a military regiment.
"Did you see what you did to that horse whore's face? Priceless! Well, now we know what happens when you overload the Evil Presence spell, very satisfying indeed." Gnarl commented in amusement.
'They were unprepared for me, I should not be overconfident.' Discord thought to himself, but first, he had to return both the Green Hive and the Fireball spell.
Which he did, a simple trekked through the swamp before he returned to the grand Nethergate, successfully returning both objectives.
Now the Overlord's next order of business is what shall he accomplish with the town of Cornis, Domination or Destruction?