Evil (and Friendship) always finds a way…
Long ago, in a beautiful enchanted land of adventure, majesty enthralling the landscape in its power. However, an adversary of this world rules with an a power so absolute, that he is feared by all. His name was Noxas, but all knew him as the Overlord. Until a battle long ago removed the Overlord from his head, literally. Long after that battle, the hero wanted to use the dark ones helmet as a trophy, only to find that it could not be located. The dark magic on the helmet had hidden it, keeping it far from any who may want to use it.
I, Nightmare Moon, will cause the sun to never rise again; the moon will be all the ponies ever see, and I will lead these ponies into a new empire!
Nightmare Moon, I Punish you to the place you love most and where you can’t cause anymore damage…The Moon!!!
“I’m sorry, Luna.”
Luna woke up from another night of sleep, if you could call it sleep. She had been in isolation for so long, the days no longer held any value to her. All she knew she was asleep for years, but it always seemed that the poor princess had the same nightmare every time she closed her eyes.
A thousand years changes a pony, and the mare known as Nightmare Moon was no exception. Hate turned to anger, which turned to grudges, which turned to self-pity, then remorse, then genuine guilt. Luna knew now that she was wrong and all she wanted was to return home.
“Home”, she uttered in her daze.
A place where you were always safe, comfortable, and well fed, a place that she missed more than almost anything. But even more than home, she missed her elder sister, Celestia. The pony that taught her love and kindness, who never doubted her little sister even when she doubted herself, the pony that she let down in a way that was unforgivable.
She came from time to time to visit, not in the last hundred years, but she would come by. But that was back when Nightmare Moon still had a hold over Luna. Princess Celestia would come, and determine if her sister was ready to come back, and wait for an answer. Every time it was a ‘no’. But Luna still remembers her sister’s face every time she came. It was a look of disappointment and disgust, a look that conveyed to the now remorseful alicorn that she could never come back. The worst part was she didn’t even blame her older sister.
“Sister… I’m sorry… can I please come home? Luna whimpered.
If there was even the slightest chance that her sister was out there, she would scream her loudest, in her official Canterlot voice, begging for Celestia to take her home. But that was far-fetched as no amount of wishing could save her. she had to stop dreaming that something or someone would just be with her and keep her sane. Luna got up, and decided to go for a walk. It was the first one she had in at least ten years. Most of her solitude had been spent immobile.
After spending the day, or it could have been many days walking, she decided to try to find a crater comfortable enough for her to sleep in. She hadn’t taken a step when she heard a noise right behind her making Luna jumped. The moon was always quiet, so this incessantly loud roar was the first real noise she heard in nearly a thousand years.
She turned around to find something had just smashed into the moon, a new crater formed right behind her. Luna was lucky that she was just far enough not to be hit by what she assumed was a meteor. Luna did like this bit of excitement although meteors aren’t exactly rare on the moon, even if none ever hit during her banishment.
Luna was about to walk away from this new crater when she heard a strange noise come from the center of it. Almost like heavy breathing from a large beast, the moon began to move under her like a small earthquake. Then out of nowhere a roar came from the crater, and then something flew out of it straight at Luna. The Princess was hit in the head by something, knocking her out with the last thing she remembers was a scream…
I Need More Skulls!!!
When Luna finally came to, the lunar surface was quiet again. The crater was gone. She took this time to look around; pieces of moon rock were floating about, lying on the ground, making a mess of the area. But something was still bothering the young princess; she thought she heard a voice…
It started coming back to her, but she could only remember what she heard, anything she saw was lost to her memory. There was a voice— the deep, booming voice that seemed to resemble her official Canterlot voice. Suddenly, a thought struck the princesses mind, it had to be a pony. Unless she was going crazy… she really hoped her first assumption was the correct one. She inspected the area that was the epicenter, as far as she could tell anyway. After walking and looking for at least a few hours, or maybe days, she gave up and began to walk back to her sleeping crater when, off in the distance, she heard it.
“By the Gods above, where the hell am I?!” It was the voice, just as booming as ever if a bit quieter. To Luna however, his voice was a chorus of angelic unicorns. She ran towards him more excited than she had boon in nearly a thousand years. As she ran, she heard the voice again…
“Oh my bloody skull, like I was hit by a battle axe…”
Luna couldn’t stand waiting any longer, after such a long and miserable time in solitude on the moon, here was a pony that seemed to be in the same boat as her. She finally reached where the voice was echoing from and screamed in her Canterlot voice…
“My fellow pony, your princess of the night is…here?” There weren’t any ponies here. Only a hard ugly metal helmet lying on the ground, her eyes must have been playing tricks on her, she assumed. Just like her ears, there were no ponies here. With her expectations shot down, she left the crater with her head hanging lower than usual.
“I guess I’m alone again…”
“What, is someone there?” Luna looked, but there was still nopony there. “Hello? I’m over here! Come over here! I can’t move!” Luna took a few steps into the crater.
“I can’t bloody move, why the hell can’t I move?! Luna still didn’t see where the voice was coming from as she now stood next to the helmet.
“Make your location known. Your princess does not enjoy being played with like this!” Luna was starting to be annoyed.
Luna looked down at the helmet next to her.
“Stop staring at me you fool!” The eye sockets of the helmet glowed a dim red and stared at the princess. She jumped back in terror, and tripped over a moon rock behind her causing her to fall flat on her back. Luna was quiet as the helmet eyes begin to glow a bit brighter.
“For death’s sakes, get up off your fat ass and help me, minion!” Luna had so many emotions going through her mind. The first was fear as this ugly helmet was talking to her. It didn’t even have a mouth, was this a sign to confirm that she was losing it. Next was relief. Even if she was going crazy, there was now somepony to spend her solitude with. But the emotion that filled her heart the most was anger, this ‘thing’ dared to talk to her in such a way, did he not know who he was addressing…
“You would do well to mind your tone with me, commoner!”
“What in the hell are you?! A talking pony!?” The helmet sort of moved to get a full view of the princess as its eyes stopped glowing to fine dim red. Luna could tell this helmet was shocked, but she couldn’t understand why, it had to have met another pony in his lifetime…right?
“Of course I can talk! I have received many forms of education as the princess!”
“Oh for the love of the Gods, why is there an annoying talking pony speaking to me!?”
“I am an alicorn, not just any common pony.” Luna was getting fed up with this helmet’s tone with her.
“What kind of hell am I in and what hell has freaking talking ponies in it?!”
“I am a ruler of Equestria… or at least I used to be…”
“What the hell is ‘Equestria’?!”
“You know, the land of pony-kind and other creatures living in harmony.” The helmet was quiet for a few minutes, this was a odd situation for the Overlord to think about.
Luna was about to say more to this rude helmet when she felt Nightmare Moon awake in her mind. Nightmare Moon had since Luna’s banishment ‘slept’ thru most of the time on the moon to save her strength for her return to Equestria. But sometime Nightmare Moon would awake to show Luna who is in control, however she had to awake this time to teach this helmet manners. Suddenly Luna lost control over her darker self and Nightmare Moon took control over Luna’s body, her coat became dark black as a aura of malice surrounded her.
“I am Nightmare Moon! You will show me respect worm or suffer!!”
“I Am Noxas, the Overlord!! I have slain countless warriors, crushed mighty wizards, and enslaved the living with my armies of dark minions!!! It is you who should show me respect or die!!!”
Nightmare Moon and Noxas then started a interesting shouting match with each other for what seemed like hours, back and forth they gave grand, evil speeches until Noxas was tired of talking to this pony…
“That’s it!! I have had enough!!” From the helmet’s eye sockets a red beam of dark magic shoot out and struck Nightmare Moon, knocking her out.
Princess Celestia took a step out onto her balcony, She looked up at the full moon in the sky and thought about her sister. She thought about her every night, and wondered what she was doing up there on the moon. Celestia hoped that her sister was ok. It hurt her to see her sister was in so much pain up there, but her duties had to come first, even before family. The white alicorn sighed.
“I love you, Luna. I really hope you are ok.” Celestia turned and went back inside.
Luna’s eyes bolted open, her head was in a bit of pain as she rose up off the ground. Luna looked around to speak with the helmet that was lying in the ground.
“By the Gods, I had the weirdest dream…” Noxas looked up at Luna. “Damn it I thought I was done with this…” Noxas tried to move but did not budge.
“What is going on!? “What did you do!?” Luna asked as confused as he was.
“I don’t know, you turned into that horse’s ass that dared threatened me, so I cast a spell on her to shut her up…”
“Nightmare Moon, she’s gone, I can’t feel her in my head anymore.”
“Well it looks like I just sealed that pain in the ass in your head for a time, she must have had dark magic in her for me to do that…and I still can’t move!!”
Noxas had seen horrors from beyond, fought wizards and warriors, and even ruled a dark empire. However being a talking helmet on a moon in another realm with a talking pony as his only company was definitely new to him.
The two unlikely companions were still sitting in the same crater they found each other in. To Luna, it seemed like they had been there for hours, days even, and it was the best time of her entire lunar exiling. Finally, a voice that talked back to her, Another pony, even if he was very different from anypony she ever met before. She now learned what her sister meant by the power of friendship, because right now, with only one friend in the entire universe, she felt hope and happiness once more.
Nearly this whole time they spent sitting together, Noxas had been recounting his life story. She understood that he lived in a magical yet dark world, that he was the son of the former Overlord, and that he tried to take over his realm with the aid of his minions , still, hearing a voice other than her own was soothing at least, so she listened with her eyes closed slightly in contemplation.
It sounded to Luna like her friend’s story was drawing to a close; “…and that’s why you should always kill your enemies instead of imprisoning them, right Luna? Luna? Did you fall asleep, Luna wake up you fat horse’s ass!”
Luna’s eyes bolted open. Maybe his wasn't the greatest source of a good conversation “No i’m not asleep, and I completely agree… I think.”
“Thank you. Now tell me why you're here and bit more about yourself, don't let me do all the talking.”
“Well,” Luna answered, “the reason why I was sent here. You see, as Princess of the Night, my job is to raise the moon every night, but I felt that the ponies of Equestria appreciated my sister, Celestia more than me and I guess I ‘cracked’ and became Nightmare Moon.”
“Hey, for banishments and imprisonment goes this is pretty good, heck your sister could have easily turned you into a slug or put your head on a pike,so I think you should count your blessings, as small as they are.”
“Oh, thank you that’s surprising to hear you say that.”
“All because I was an evil overlord, does not mean I don't learn from my own mistakes. I mean I wanted to be a bard, but i was the son of the Legendary Overlord and I ended up trying to taking over the world to be like my father, that's a heck of a mistake if I have ever heard one.”
“Thank you, Noxas.”
Luna and Noxas in a weird way grew together as friends, each of them keeping the other one sane on that lifeless rock. They passed the time by talking about there life before the moon, there dreams, and the possibility of the future. Eventually after a few more years on the moon, Luna was consumed by Nightmare Moon again and managed to escape her banishment for to set in motion a series of events that were meant to happen.
Sometime later after the imprisonment of the villain,Tirek…
After a long night of royal appointments Luna finally had time to go back to her room and rest for a minute. Making sure that Tirek didn’t cause any permanent damage to Equestria was a bit tiring for the Princess, however she does talk about with her ‘friend’.
“What a long night it has been, can’t wait to relax a bit.” Luna lay on her silk linen bed and looked up at her bookshelf at the helmet placed in-between rows of novels.
“Well don't take too long, I like to be alone when I read my sexy romance novels remember?” Noxas exclaimed to the Princess.
Meanwhile in another realm...
Long ago, Nothing stood a chance against the Overlord. Not hydras, not sand worms, assassins, skeletons, nothing, Best of all, he didn’t treat the minions, his loyal imps, as bad as the previous ones did. No, he didn’t even hurt them. Now sending them to their death or doom, now that was another story. The minions suffered all kinds of death. Either they were ripped, burned, torn, shredded, stabbed, poisoned, frozen, you name it. But this did not matter. Not to the imps. They followed their master’s every word.
But during a battle with an upstart hero the Overlord lost his head. This was what happened long ago. Back when their master had been there and even when he left. His presence left an impression on the horde of imps for eternity. Gnarl, the old and wisest imp of all sighed as he left a makeshift tent and walked along the polished, yet old, castle hall. The paintings of the defeated commanders of the past decorated the walls. Their faces of shock and agony brought joy to the old imp.
Within the ruined remains of a tower various colored minions searched thru the rubble as Gnarl, the minion master managed the search of the ruin. Gnarl had the minions look under every rock for the Tower Heart, an elder artifact warp sphere that could allow one to travel to anywhere he or she wanted. Usually Gnarl after an Overlords death would just search for the new one. However the key item of darkness, the Overlord’s Gauntlet was not responding, the gauntlet after an Overlord’s death would seek out the new bearer but for some reason the Gauntlet was inactive.
“Advisor Gnarl! We have found the Tower Heart.” Gnarl walked to the relic as the other minions gathered around the Tower Heart, the minion master hoped the Heart would activate the Gauntlet.
Gnarl stood in front of the massive sphere and held the Gauntlet in the air, the Tower Heart lifted in the air a few feet and shot a beam at the Gauntlet. To Gnarl’s surprise the Gauntlet activated for only a second to give the minion master a vision.
It was a vision of a strange world, There were rolling hills of verdant green, fields of lush crops and beds of vibrant flowers. The land was encased by dark tall mountains that stretched far into the sky. It was pure and harmonic with barely any evil to be seen. Gnarl almost threw up at the sight of it as the vision then showed the problem, the Overlord’s helmet was in this world and his soul was inside the helm. Gnarl now knew what the gauntlet wanted to show him, as long as the old Overlord’s soul was in the helmet the Gauntlet would not properly active and there would be no new Overlord.
The Tower Heart lay back on the ground and the vision was gone. Gnarl knew what he had to do, he placed the Gauntlet in his clock and touched the Tower Heart and in an instant he disappeared leaving the minions around him very confused.
Back in Equestria….
“Yes, don’t remind me.” Luna giggled at the thought of an Overlord with a romantic side.
Out of nowhere a large crashing sound echoed from the hallway causing the Princess to jolt her head up from her pillow. Without warning a strange creature entered Luna’s room.
Gnarl hoped that the Tower Heart would teleport him to wherever the Overlord’s Helmet was so that he may claim it. What he wasn't hoping for was to be thrown across the cosmos into a wall, the elder imp had a killer headache and stumbled into a room, which in the long run worked out for him greatly.
“Who in Equestria are you?!” Luna screamed at the elder imp who was still shaking off his migraine.
“Gnarl, what in the seven levels of hell are you doing here?!” Noxas was almost as loud as Luna.
“Master your alive? I thought your soul was trapped in this multicolor hell hole?”
Suddenly the royal guards and Princess Celestia came charging down the hallway to find Luna and a strange creature talking to an ugly helmet. Celestia found herself very confused as she asked her sister what was going on and if she was in danger. Luna wasn't sure if she was until Noxas told them that Gnarl is his old advisor from his realm. That didn't really make anything clearer to the Princesses however Gnarl told the princesses that he could easily explain everything, and so with the guards following very closely the princesses, gnarl and the helmet in the imps hands traveled to the throne room.
Once inside the throne room, Princess Celestia demanded to know what was going on. Luna started with her time being banished on the moon and how her only friend as Noxas the talking helmet that appeared one day. This was the first time Celestia had heard this and in a weird way she was glad Luna hasn’t alone during her banishment, however she then turned her head to the elder imp and the helmet.
Gnarl explained that the helmet contained the soul of his last master the Overlord, and how dark magic is a bit unpredictable as it sent his lord to Equestria. Gnarl wishes to free the Overlord from his prison and have his Overlord back.
“…and that is my problem, I need the Overlord free of his prison and back in a mortal body.” Gnarl finished.
“Luna you have been with this helmet, what do you think?”
“Noxas, do you want to be free? To be alive again and go back home?”
“Well, mostly I like to move on my own again, so aye I do.”
Luna looked at Celestia and the two sister agreed to give the helmet to Gnarl. Once in his impish hands Gnarl used a bit of his magic to create a portal back to their realm, Luna had one word with Noxas before he left.
“Goodbye, although it was under strange circumstance you taught me the power of friendship in my darkest hour and i will never forget you...my friend.” Luna had a tear in her eye.
“I feel the same way about you, you're my best and only friend and don’t forget that.” The Overlord said to the princess of the night as Gnarl and him left into the portal.
It took sometime but Luna felt that Noxas, the Overlord and her best friend would be ok back in his realm, he was definitely somepony she would not forget.
It took some time but the Overlord had been restored to a mortal body, reaped revenge on the hero who killed him, and rebuilt his kingdom back to glory. Noxas did change as he felt a lighter touch with others nations would work out better than slaying and pillaging them. Gnarl and the minions were happy to a point, even if this Overlord had many new banners of the moon princess made in her honor. however like the old stories say...
Friendship Always Finds A Way...
