[Overlord's POV]

The minions, Sarra and I arrived at the most southeastern village of my domain just as the sun broke the horizon. Or rather, what was left of the village, a whole three buildings out of what was once a ponyville sized town, the rest were either burnt out husks or crumbling ruins. Colorful shops and market stalls were blackened and the quaint homes of the village, all of which were in multiple sizes, were half collapsed, their entrails exposed to the elements. I could see nothing of any real value in the wreckage, most likely either being picked over by the remaining inhabitants or the Arimaspi. One thing, however, was left behind... at least some were...

Bodies, left to fester and waste away in the glare of the sun. Several were already halfway to being nothing but sun-bleached skeletons. The sight of so many of my citizens dead filled me with anger... they were mine! And I HATE it when my things break! The arimaspi would pay dearly for this.

At Gnarls 'request' we were traveling by sedan-chair, essentially a large room carried by minions with smaller, more comfortable thrones inside surrounded by curtains. Curtains which I was currently peering out of in order to watch the extra Greens I had brought follow the orders I gave them to spread out and secure the village, finding and safeguarding any survivors and also to direct the Browns who were carting us along to said survivors.

"Ohh, now that's what I call sacking a village! You should try to do more of that m'lord, I can say from experience that it is a great stress reliever!" Gnarl said from where he was leering out at the devastation.

"Gnarl, if I were you I would just stop talking right now. Nobody is in no mood to listen to you right now, trust me. Unless, that is, you want to become a small dark grey stain on the inside of the sedan-chair?" Sarra said, shutting up the annoying little walnut, who only gave an angry pout at her.

"Master, you really should have let me know beforehand about any rituals you had planned, I could have looked it over and made sure it was safe! It could have been a trap, or worse a way of controlling you! And then what would we have done? Hmm?"

"How Dare You! You sniveling litt-" Sarra began, practically snarling at him before I cut her off in a quiet, but deadly cold voice.

"Are you suggesting that Sarra, my mistress, would betray me?"

For a full ten seconds the silence was deafening.

Chokingly, sensing the danger he was in, Gnarl began,"Well, s-sire, I-"

"Because, if I cannot trust my mistress then I most defiantly cannot trust my adviser, as her safety and prosperity depend on mine while the advisers does not, and if I don't trust someone close to me, even a little, then the only option is to get rid of them. Permanently." At this point Gnarl was shaking ever so slightly, however he seemed to have taken my inaction as weakness or unwillingness to follow through with threats, as he had a more than defiant gleam in his eye. "Well, that won't do."

I leaned forward and, faster than he could dodge, grabbed Gnarl by his scrawny neck. I brought him close to my face, squeezing tightly enough to cause pain, and said, "So I'll ask again, Are you suggesting that Sarra, my mistress, my family, would betray me, my, Loyal, Adviser?"

Gnarl managed to gasp out a strangled "No, Sire!" before I could crush his windpipe so I released him, dropping him to the floor where he began coughing and doing his damnedest to not vomit.

"Your attitude lately has been unacceptable, Gnarl. If it continues you will find yourself replaced and quite possibly the punching bag you seem to think everything else is." I could vaguely hear a "Yes master..." but I had already stopped paying attention to the petulant adviser, looking instead to the surrounding village.

The Greens were rummaging through the ruins of the town, pulling up half-burnt pictures, smashed pottery and furniture, and more bodies, likely killed by the collapsing buildings they were in thankfully. With the condition of the bodies in the streets, it was apparent that the arimaspi had not let them pass easily, instead deciding to... 'play' with them.

"That is just... inefficient. Unless they wanted to inspire fear, but they failed in effort that with me. This doesn't make me afraid, just make's me angry, and not in the 'life was lost and that's bad' way, more of the 'I'm like a five year old, you broke my toy in front of me and are now lighting the pieces on fire' kind of way... I should get myself checked by a professional next chance I get, the corruption may be getting to me."

"Oh, don't worry, you're fine. I would know if there was anything affecting your mind, and while I would draw your morality into question, there is no 'evil energy' altering your thought process." I heard Sarra whisper in my mind, filling me with a sense of calm and love.

It was still somewhat... odd... having more than one someone in my head, and while I had some concerns about privacy at first, I quickly found it to be a nonissue. If anything, it had actually helped bring me and Sarra closer together, as we could show each other our memories at will while preventing anything or anyone from seeing what we didn't want them to. Which was very useful for keeping Sarra, and the rest of the changelings for that matter, from having an existential meltdown at the knowledge that their universe was, for the most part, a child's entertainment program.

Outside three Greens ran up to the lead Brown before gibbering to him, the Brown nodded before smacking the three of them to shut them up and directing the sedan-chair to a new area of town. The Greens ran off to search other parts of the destroyed town, whooping and making other rowdy noises as they did so at their success.

The Browns quickly found a smooth, safe path to a small half collapsed house which looked more like a hut compared to the homes around it. The two sheeple faces in the window proved that at least a few of my citizens, aside from the girl who told me of this, had survived, though with the size of the home I had my doubts as to how many managed it.

If there were too few then it would be better to just abandon the town until a large enough group was willing to try to reclaim it, but at the same time the longer it took to set the town back up, the harder it would be as nature slowly, or quickly depending on the environment, worked it's way back into control of the area.

My fears of abandoning a settlement so soon into my rule were banished by the many other sheeple, dogs, and even a few ponies who practically streamed out of a small half-burnt building with a collapsed roof, some with happy faces, others with tears of sadness, and one or two looks of anger. Though, I couldn't tell yet if the anger was at the arimaspi or me.

As I exited the sedan-chair the group of rushing happy faces stopped in their tracks, turning to shock and awe... and perhaps just a tad too much fear for my liking. What people seem to forget from 'tis better to be feared than loved', is that 'loved' is still an option. And the preferred one at that.

"It's okay, given time they will either stop fearing you and love, if not at least respect, you... unless you give them a reason not to, but I doubt you will." Sarra sent to me, full of confidence. She was certain, beyond a doubt that what she said was true, and who was I to disagree?

One of the sheeple pushed a medium sized dog at me, wither because he was the leader, or he was expendable should I be violent I couldn't tell. Maybe both.

"Ulp..." he gulped as he stared up at me, "They said you were big, but... ahem, right, uh... you are the Overlord, right?" the dog asked in a small, squeaky voice, leaning away from me as though afraid I would hit him.

"No, he's the milk man, and I'm part of a traveling circus who just happened to pick him up. Wanna see me juggle?" Sarra asked with her normal amount of snark. So, a lot.

Before the dog could say anything stupid I said, "Yes, I'm the Overlord. This is my Mistress Sarra and my adviser/meat-shield-should-something-go-wrong, Gnarl. We came to deal with the Arimaspi that attacked your home and to provide aid."

"Well, he is. We're more... moral support." Gnarl said with a slight grin. Through the hive mind I told one of the Browns to smack Gnarl upside the head. It was so much more fun to pick on Gnarl then the Jester.

Ignoring the shouts and whimpers behind me as Gnarl retaliated, I stepped forward to look over the survivors that didn't flee back into the hut at the sight of my advance. Those who either were brave enough to stay outside or too wounded to hobble inside in time were all in very great need of medical supplies, some just managing to not bleed-out from lost limbs due to hastily made bandages made from the cloths that they were able to scavenge from around the ruins.

"Um, while we are very grateful for your arrival sire, we were hoping for a rescue team. You know, to get us all out of here? No disrespect is meant, but very few of us actually want to stay in this broken-down hole. Not to mention that a few of us can't even move anymore, and I won't be able to smell anything ever again..." The dog said while bowing to me and just generally schmoozing in my direction.

"Aid will be sent here, but none of you are leaving. This town will be rebuilt after we teach the arimaspi a lesson. Specifically, no one and nothing can attack one of my towns without retribution, and we will not abandon land once we have gained it." I practically yelled so that even those in the building could hear me.

Several towns members, most prominently being the dog talking to me, looked more than a little depressed at my words. However, it seemed like more of the survivors were happy/impressed by my conviction.

I turned and walked over to one of the mid sized wrecks and with a thought commanded my Browns to clear the debris in order to set up a small camp, we would need a place to rest after all and I was not spending another night with Gnarl sleeping in the same room as me.

Little bastard snored. Loudly. While he was still awake.

As the imps swarmed the ruined building, practically mulching it in seconds before using what was left to build flimsy walls and a rickety roof, both of which were full of holes. It was no dark tower, but it would do for now.

"Besides there was only so much to build with, and there wasn't much need to make an elaborate building that Gnarl would call 'worthy of an Overlord', It's not like I would be coming back to this town in the foreseeable future... Though it might look a bit better once it's been cleaned up and the dead bodies have been moved. Might smell better too." I thought as I watched the minions go about setting up our camp.

"I'm soo glad that your nose is less sharp than mine, as long as I focus on what you smell I can ignore what I smell. Almost make's this place bearable." Sarra thought at me.

To be honest, I wasn't sure if I should be insulted or not.

"Not." She answered my half-thought question/remark.

"Rotting corpses are quite... let's say distracting, aren't they? Let's try to fix that." I thought back to her, while simultaneously ordering the Greens to move and bury the bodies.

"Thank you dear. Now let's focus on why we came here, shall we?"

And with that little exchange we began working. First we had to actually evaluate the extent of the damage the town had suffered, not only to be able to calculate how much it would cost to repair/rebuild it but also to get an idea of just how strong, at base minimum, the arimaspi were on average. The answers to both, after a few hours of walking around with Sarra and Gnarl and looking at... everything, were around fourteen thousand bits to rebuild the town (well within my price range as I rarely spent any of my own money) and that the arimaspi were at least strong enough to break solid stone, and smart enough to use said broken stone as projectile weapons if the state of some of the corpse's were any indication.

By that point most of the town, at Sarra's direction, had been cleared. Wood, stone, bodies and other objects had all been moved into several piles each which were easy to navigate around. The fact that we didn't need to watch where we were walking so as to avoid stepping in something/one really sped up the process. It also made it easier to deal with the bodies, I even let one of the towns people light the pyre.

It seemed to make them all somewhat happy.

By that point night was falling, the surviving towns' people returning to the remains of what I had been told was the equivalent of a doomsday preppers home, complete with underground bunker and five months worth of non-perishable foodstuffs and water, and the minions making a few minion holes. Sarra and I were snuggling on a hacked together bed, made from the remains of several other beds (one of which I was told came from the former mayor), finally able to relax now that Gnarl wasn't hovering over us twenty-four-seven. We weren't talking or even thinking to each other, just enjoying each other's company. I could definitely get used to this.

Sarra broke the silence in our minds, "Promise me you'll be careful tomorrow? The arimaspi aren't like the changelings, they are used to fighting to kill, not to capture... I don't want you to get hurt..."

"I can't promise that I won't get hurt, but I can promise that if it comes to it, I will definitely be a giant cowered and run away as fast as I can back to you. How does that sound?" I thought back to her, making fun of her doubts. With as many minions as I have because of their constant fighting in the arena, I could win through sheer numbers alone.

She giggled aloud, pushing my shoulder with a hoof "You had better not! I did not join with a weakling who can't finish what they start! If you did then you could never claim to order me around again!" she thought with an obviously fake serious voice. Then, with a slightly sultry tone, she added, "Then we'd just be back at square one... Though you were rather dashing as you dominated the other Queens..."

"Oh, so you like to be dominated eh?" I thought at her, making her face redden as she squirmed closer.

"Maybe..." she answered in a playful tone.

I may not have slept that much that night, but what sleep I got was very restful.

Author's Note

I'm not happy with this chapter.

I'm not sure why, but I just am...

Next is a side chapter, you don't need to read it, but why wouldn't you?