(Overlords POV)

I was slightly stunned, enough to just silently stare at Celestia for a moment while trying to reboot my mind. I suppose that she took my silence as anger, as she had a very shameful expression, ears down, tears in the eyes while looking down, even her hair had gone straight.

"I'm sorry about the start of this conversation, I didn't really think that you could do such a thing, but I needed to make sure for the safety of my ponies and the other races of this world." I nodded a bit at her words, "I hope that you can forgive me for the accusation, but can you really blame me for this?"

"What?" I asked, still slightly flabbergasted. My slight empathetic ability due to the hive mind kicked up at that moment, I could feel how stressed Celestia was, it was like a dam trying to hold back a torrential flood of negative emotions... and I felt the dam crumble.

"What do you mean what? You mean the fact that I've been able to accurately predict how the world stage will go for over a thousand years, then suddenly, out of the blue, some armored giant with a legion of violent imps shows up and conquers at least three quarters of the southern part of my continent, something that the nobles are getting extremely antsy about by the way, and the only other time something this big happened and I didn't see it coming was when my sister tried to overthrow me?! Or what about the fact that most of the other world leaders surrounding us are damn near panicking?! The only thing keeping them from declaring war is the fact that your trade practices are some of the most lax, with the lowest taxes, in the world! And none of us know anything about you! You've been here for almost a full year, plenty of time to talk with other leaders, or even invite others to come talk with you! As far as we know, whenever something gets in your way or annoys you just crush it and move on!"

At this point she had run out of breath and collapsed into a heap of quietly gasping and sobbing mare. Over the course of her rant her voice had risen in pitch and volume until she was basically screeching her frustrations at me, and to completely honest I did feel somewhat bad about how much pain I had put her under without meaning to.

If I'm going to hurt someone, I'd like to want to hurt them first if possible.

I remained sitting at my end of the table, waiting for her to calm down. I really don't like it when girls cry, (like any sane male does?) but at the same time Celestia and I weren't close enough for me to feel comfortable actually trying to comfort her, so instead I spent that time thinking about what she had said.

I couldn't really argue against anything she had said, she was right. I hadn't talked with anyone other than her, and even then it was only for a brief time, not enough to really learn anything about me. Perhaps enough time for me to convince them that I wouldn't attack them outright, which was my goal at the time, but all that meant was that I wasn't an enemy at the moment and that would worry any leader, especially considering my recent land grab. I couldn't even blame the other leaders for keeping their distance, they hadn't even gotten an assurance that I wouldn't attack them at any moment. For all they knew, they were next on my hit list...

Perhaps now was the time to consolidate what I had gained, give the others some time to calm down and forget before trying to expand some more... I had been getting some disturbing reports while destroying the arimaspi...

Celestia had cried herself out and was simply leaning against the table with her eyes closed, quietly hiccuping every few moments. Her eyes and most of her face was red and puffy, snot was dribbling out of one of her nostrils and her hair was a mix of straight and knotted clumps. In short, she looked like hell.

"Celestia..." I said with forced calmness, waiting for her to lift her head and look at me. "What, exactly, do you need my help with?"

She just stared at me for a moment, like she was surprised that I would try to put the conversation back on track, before sitting up straight, cleaning herself up and clearing her throat.

"Yes, well you see almost eleven hundred years ago, in the far north of our kingdom was a fiefdom known as the Crystal Empire. It was named so due to the incredible amount of rare magical crystal formations from which most of the buildings in the capital of the province were carved, the effects of which were an offshoot of the main pony races."

"Oh, so that's whats going on..." I thought to myself.

"What? What do you mean by that?" I heard Sarra ask me.

"Nothing, don't worry about it. It's nothing I won't be able to handle."

"Is this one of those things you're afraid of me learning? I wish you would at least give me a hint, I'm a big girl, I can take whatever it is!"

"Oh, so you think you're ready for deep existential knowledge of how your universe works, the effects of destiny and my possibly destructive impact upon it?"

"... Maybe, I don't know! But the only way to find out is to tell me!"

Now, this wasn't the first time Sarra and I had had this conversation, in fact I had lost count of the times she had asked to see what was in the areas of my head that I wouldn't let anyone in. In hindsight I realize that she was being very clever, bringing this up again when I was already unbalanced by Celestia breaking down in front of me, reigniting the pent up frustration of having the same argument over and over. Finally I just said to myself, 'fuck it, if she want's to know so badly then I just won't stop her.'

"Fine! You want to know?! You're a made up story! A story that I know the most of, it was never important enough to me to learn all of it, but I know enough to know that I wasn't supposed to end up here! The ponies are the protagonists, that's why I don't want to fight them, if I do, then I'll lose!"

"Oh, please, like the ponies could- Wait, WHAT? I'm a fairy tale? Am I the bad guy? Girl? Whatever, do I die soon? Later? Do I want to know? Is everything a lie? Am I nothing but a puppet dancing on the strings of some all powerful writer? What do you mean the ponies are the protagonists? Is there anything we can do to change something? Do you think people know about that thing we do with the banana and tub of choco-" she asked, mostly to herself, becoming quickly more and more panicky with time until she was screaming in both our heads.

"SARRA!" I screamed for the third time during her tirade, finally getting her attention. "The only answers that matter are, we are real from our perspective and don't think about it. And as for the last one, I hope they don't as the story was mostly told to children."

"Oh... so we're a children's story... I think if anything that makes me feel worse about all this..."

"Sarra, real from our perspective, and don't think about it. If you really need more of an explanation I'll talk to you about it later, but right now I need to listen to Celesta so I can know what to prepare for."

"Wait, wouldn't you already know what to expect since you know the story?"

"I know most of the story, but there are things I don't know. I didn't know about the multiple changeling hives or you, though I'm glad it was a surprise."

"Hrmp... Charmer..." She thought with some grump in her voice.

"I love you too, now please let me concentrate." I thought with not so grump.

"Do you think she's prettier then me?"

"Roughly the same in attractiveness, but I doubt she's as kinky as you."

I could feel the happiness and satisfaction coming from her.

I focused back on the conversation in time to hear Celestia saying "- and now, via the vision, I became aware that the empire will be returning in three days time, bringing the shadow of Sombra's black magic back with it. While I have the utmost confidence in my student, I feel that you would be particularly skilled at defeating him as your own magic is very similar, though a bit more... present then his."

"Giblet!" I yelled out, practically making Celestia jump out of her skin, "When is the earliest that my new armor can be ready?"

Celestia looked confused for a moment before we heard the padding of tiny feet quickly followed by Giblet entering the room. I liked Giblet, he didn't talk much and he enjoyed his job, he was a very simple yet pleasant minion.

"Two days if thin, three and a half if right." He grunted at me.

"Will your student be able to hold him off for half a day?" I asked, turning back to face Celestia.

"I planned on sending Princess Cadence and her husband, the captain of the royal guard, first to secure the empire as a staging ground anyway, arriving one day late is perfect to aid Twilight."

"Do you not care about what happens to Cadence? Or are you just that confident in her ability to force out Sombra?"

Celestia looked aghast, "Of course I care about what happens to her!"

"Yes, sorry... It just slipped out." I stood, stretching towards the ceiling as Celestia did her own stretch.

"Dat flank!"

"God, you're lucky I love you Sarra..."

[Sarra's POV]

"So sire, are we going to help them only to betray them and take the land after they do all the heavy lifting?" Gnarl quietly asked Nobody as we waved to Celestia as she made her way back to her kingdom.

"No Gnarl, isolated plots of land are too difficult to defend properly. Not to mention that doing that would probably start a war with the ponies, which in turn would start an all out brawl with everyone else. Possibly in the world, but even just the few surrounding countries would be bad enough."

"Not to mention the plot armor the ponies have... No wonder they've always done so well... ... But what if we could make ourselves the main characters?"

Author's Note