All Hail the Overlord

by TheAncientPolitzanian

Chapter 9: Discord Ex Machina

Overlord Thorax sat on his throne and sighed slightly. This was going to end poorly for that particular acolyte.

He disconnected from his minion's gaze and sat back. He yawned and stretched out his arm and back. Conquering was an exhausting job. You had to spend months on end planning and even longer replanning when those original attempts to outsmart your enemy failed.

Conquerors were underappreciated in the modern world. It was creatures like him that gave Celestia and Luna reason to sit on the throne. Would they be considered good rulers if the alternatives were creatures like Thorax? Definitely no.

With another yawn, Thorax slumped into his seat. Constantly projecting an aura of intimidation was incredibly tiring. Nobody actually knew how much work he put into trying to be terrifying.

Might as well take advantage of his new position as the Overlord of Equestria, The Dragon Lands, and The Changeling Lands and take a well deserved nap. He snapped his claws, and a changeling landed in front of his throne and laid down.

Thorax sat back and kicked up his feet using the other changeling's back as a foot rest. With a content sigh, he closed his eyes and placed his forehooves behind his head.

---

Nobody said anything to the Changeling holding Ocellus captive. A majority of the crowd were holding their breaths in suspense and fear.

"Fine then," the changeling said. "Since I am not getting an answer, you are not getting this bug!"

The Changeling slashed the dagger he was holding in his magic across Ocellus's throat. Their was a squeaking sound, like one would hear if you were running a hand across a pool noddle, but there was no wound on Ocellus's throat.

In fact, the one the Changeling has made earlier when he pressed the knife against her throat was also gone.

"What?" the changeling asked as he held up the dagger to his eyes. It was now made of foam.

The Changeling was dumbfounded, before a laugh echoed throughout the Hall.

"If this is what constitutes an invasion, then the quality of the villains these days is really going downhill," the voice of Discord said, from above.

Everyone looked up to the ceiling, but there was nothing there.

"What in the Overlord's name?" The Changeling said before there was a flash of light at his side and the Ocellus he was holding turned into a long amalgamation of a series of random animals.

Better known as Discord, the Lord of Chaos.

"Boo," Discord whispered to him.

The Changeling leapt into the air in surprise before spinning around and slashing his sword at the draconequus, but the millisecond the blade touched Discord's brown middle section, it turned into bubbles.

"My my my, that was a bad idea," Discord said before he snapped his fingers and the changeling was suddenly thrown into another dimension.

"Anyone else?" Discord said floating into the air and sitting down on a levitating chair. "Because I can literally do anything."

"It's this world's Discord!" a changeling in the back said, pointing at the floating creature. "Full retreat! Go go go!"

The changelings suddenly began running away, a couple even tripping over each other. Pharynx was the last to go. He stared at Discord and growled like a rabid animal before taking off in a sprint.

Discord threw his head back and laughed at this.

"Where's Ocellus?" Sandbar suddenly screamed from the crowd of people.

Discord stopped laughing and sighed, his form deflating. "I just singlehandedly stopped a squad of invaders and routed a guy who kicked Shining Armor and Thorax's brother's butts with a snap of my fingers, and I don't even get a 'Thanks, Discord!' or a 'Wow, Discord, you are so amazing!'?" Discord sighed again. "Why do I even help you guys?"

Discord snapped his fingers again and a chest appeared above Thorax. It opened by itself and turned over, dumping the dizzy cyan form of Ocellus on top of Thorax.

Thorax grunted and picked up Ocellus and put her off to the side. "Are you ok, Ocellus?" he said.

Ocellus slowly nodded, before she was suddenly tackled by Yona who gave her a bear hug. (Yak Hug.) The two were joined by the more sensitive members of the Young six, Sandbar and Silverstream, while Gallus and Smolder stood off to the side, too cool to hug, but still obviously happy and relived.

---

Twilight sighed in relief. She was really scared that she would either lose a student, or the changelings were going to lose a monarch. She walked past Thorax and the Young Six, towards a grumpy-looking Discord, who was filing the claws on his lion paw.

"Thank you Discord. I don't know what we would have done without you," Twilight said.

"Hmph, about time someone noticed my importance to the team," Discord replied leaning back, still floating.

The two were interrupted by Celestia who ran passed them and fell to her knees next to Sombra.

"Sombra! Sombra are you ok? Speak to me!" Celestia screamed to him.

"Celestia," Sombra said weakly, reaching up with his hoof. "Promise me you will stop the Overlord. Promise me that you will stop that monster."

Celestia's eyes were filled with tears. "I will my love. I promise," she replied sadly.

Sombra smiled. His eyes were equally filled with tears. "I have many regrets, my dearest Celestia. Don't let one of them be that my last sight was you crying. Let my last sight… be of my love's smile. Please."

Celestia nodded and tried her best to smile. It was not a true smile, but it was close.

"Thank you my love. I'm... sorry..." he said as he laid his head back. "I can die happily now."

Celestia felt more tears fall down her face, as suddenly, Sombra's body began to harden and crystalize, until it was nothing but a black crystal in the shape of a pony.

Celestia held the dead body of her former lover close to her body. This was the worst pain she had ever felt.

---

Pharynx and the rest of the changelings arrived at the mirror.

They all arrived at the other side in unison, but found themselves staring at a firing line of Changelings in Black Chain mail armor with Crossbows.

In front of the firing line staring at the Changelings dead in the eyes was General Barxt.

"Fire," he said, and the Changeling Crossbow men fired, peppering the Initiates and Pharynx with arrows.

The Initiates were mowed down, each pierced by at least 6 arrows.

"Argh!" Pharynx said as he fell to the ground a Bolt in his chest, and another in his Leg. "WHAT THE HELL BARXT!!" Pharynx screamed, ripping the arrows out and standing up. The wounds slowly closed themselves, healing the damage.

"That is Lord General Barxt to you, whelp," Barxt said, walking forwards past Pharynx, who backed off the second Barxt had said that he was a Lord General. "I had to execute these whelps for running from battle, and besides, none of the Bolts actually did any damage to you, now did they?"

"Clearly not, but still-" Pharynx started before he was silenced by Barxt holding up his hoof to shut him up.

"If you must know, I was asked to move this damned mirror so when our new enemies emerge we can easily ambush them. And I thought I might as well kill two birds with one stone and deal with the initiates before they tried to run from their execution."

"Hmph, You could have waited for me to move out of the way first. That hurt," Pharynx replied.

"Maybe it would not have hurt so much if you had armor on," Barxt said as he turned to his men. "Pick it up. We have to move this thing before any prey come through."

"YES SIR!" the changelings replied before rushing past the two.

"Well I am sorry that when I get into fights my armor gets damaged," Pharynx growled, his voice ripe with anger.

"Don't get snippy with me. Maybe if you actually tried protecting yourself when you fought instead of randomly slashing like a mad man, you wouldn't need a new pair of armor after every, single, engagement, "Barxt replied as he directed his men.

"How did you even get a promotion to Lord General anyway?" Pharynx said as the mirror was slowly lifted up and began moving, the two walking along side the mirror as the warriors carried it.

"I led our forces in a defense against an Army of Dragons." Barxt said, barely paying any attention to Pharynx and more on micromanaging the men.

"An army of Dragons, you say? By the Overlord, I wish I could have been there." Pharynx said in reply.

"Eh, it was pretty anticlimactic. They showed up, burned a section of the wall, then the Overlord kicked their leader's face in and they joined us." Barxt said, suddenly one of the Changeling's stumbled slightly and almost lost grip of the mirror. It tilted for a second before it was rightened. "Fibula! Overlord's sake, can you watch where you are going!?"

"Sorry, sir," a female changeling responded.

"You're right. That does sound boring," Pharynx responded as they resumed walking.

After a couple more minutes of walking through the dark, dank dungeon halls, they arrived outside and began to escort the mirror towards a large plaza in the center of town. The Plaza was already surrounded by a large group of makeshift defenses, and a small army of 120 warriors.

The Soldiers moved to the middle of the Plaza and began to slowly lower the Mirror.

"Careful now. If you drop the mirror now, I swear I will rain down fury upon you," Barxt said.

The warriors slowly lowered the mirror. However, at the last second, a different changeling lost their grip and it fell to the ground, face first.

"OVERLORD DAMN IT!" Barxt yelled.

"Sorry, sir." a male Changeling said, before Barxt raised a hand crossbow and shot the soldier directly in the face.

"Pick it up! If it is broken, all of you are going to be flagellated!" Barxt yelled.

The mirror was slowly picked up and put into place properly. The mirror was thankfully unbroken and without any damage.

"That was a close one Barxt. You might have been demoted if it broke," Pharynx said.

Barxt did not say anything. Instead he responded by shooting Pharynx directly in the knee with his Hand crossbow, which caused Pharynx to fall to the ground for the 2nd time since he returned, and walking away.

Author's Note:

Flagellate: To flog someone for reasons of Religious Discipline.

Yeah, the title speaks for itself.

I realize I gave an overly emotional death to a pretty minor character in the thick of things, but, if you read the source material (The IDW comics), the death makes sense.

Comments

[fanreader999999]

Combat fatigue.