The Four Conquerors

Chapters

All For One
The Azure Knight
War Comes For All
Raise Thy Sword
The Overlord
Evil Always Finds A Way

All For One

Let me think… it all started several months ago, my friends and I headed to our third convention together, ever since our first one we went to two years ago. The five of us were dressed as favorite characters from different games and anime respectively, I almost forgot to mention my name, its Seth, my last name isn’t important though… never liked it. I was dressed as Nightmare from the Soulcalibur games, had the armor, sword, and even the mutated arm based off the version of Nightmare from Soulcalibur two… sadly I couldn’t find the helmet though or make it; I make things in my pastime and as my job, I’m a prop maker or an actual blacksmith.

My friend Kaiden is dressed as the Overlord… no not that one from the anime, the one from the Overlord games, specifically the second one… or was it the fourth? Anyway, he got everything, even the helmet which I made for him but I was unable to make the signature weapon though from that game. He doesn’t have a job, but gets paid through Youtube, and what kind of videos does he make, art; he has donations sent to him and makes some art-pieces for some of his fans.

There’s also Allen, our anime-loving friend who of course had to dress up as Ichigo from Bleach, well from what he said he’s dressed to look like Hollow Ichigo specifically, and not Ichigo himself. He has a mask of the Vasto Lord version of Hollow Ichigo, and the dude even got the sword – didn’t asked me to make it… wanted a “professional” he says.

Another friend of ours who we met five years ago and the one who suggested we meet and go to conventions together two years ago, Terry who’s a big fan of the Warhammer 40k series, DnD, and other tabletop strategy games – I’m not big on how it works or which ones are out there… I play them sometimes with him but again I just play. He is dressed as… what was it again… a Necron, something from the Warhammer series that’s supposed to be this metal skeleton of some kind. He said he was missing a cape, but he looks cool without the thing.

Finally there’s our last friend, my childhood bud since kindergarten, Ben; Ben was that one guy you could depend on anything; wanted last-minute tickets of a certain movie, he got it; needed somebody to drop you to an interview for your new job, he’ll do it; or heck, get super pricey one-week passes for a convention – for all three conventions by the way – oh he’ll do it.

Now Ben’s outfit was… both a shock and a laugh, as he dressed up as his Warcraft character that he used when he and I used to play the game back in our teens. It was a human paladin by the name of Paladin Baborlen the Great. He said he wanted to make an outfit of him since our first convention, told him it be impossible since the things he needed for the costume had to been specific to what his character looked like, and he and I hadn’t checked our Warcraft accounts in years… but he told me he had a drawing of him in his house and was using it as a draft.

Somehow he managed to get every single piece – EVERY, SINGLE, PIECE – not one missing, while the four of us were missing something. I forgot to make Nightmare’s helmet the day before we had to go to the convention; Kaiden didn’t have the signature weapon, the starter weapon called the Minion Axe; Allen couldn’t add the horns to the mask as they fell off every time he tried, and Terry… well Terry didn’t have his cape.

So while the four of us only had ninety percent of our outfits done, Ben was decked in everything he needed. Once we arrived at the convention, the four of us got the most attention, with Ben getting none whatsoever, but he was fine with that and didn’t like the attention. The four of us though were still upset having not our outfits done… that was until we met him.

Convention; 11:00am

We arrived by plane than car as only myself and Ben could drive but my sister needed to borrow my car for an outing she was going with some friends while Ben’s was going under repairs and wouldn’t be ready by a couple of days. After arriving at the airport near the convention, we stayed at the closest hotel and took two rooms, we were lucky to find these rooms as a lot of them were full from people who were also going to the convention.

Myself, Ben and Kaiden stayed in one room while Allen and Terry stayed in the other one, but when the day came for the convention, we woke as early around 5:00am, took showers and got our outfits on around 6:30am before arriving at the convention by 7:00am. The place was swarming with people, and we looked around as we had nothing to do until 12:00am as there was a presentation we were going to see – some anime thing that Allen was interested in.

We just went back to looking around the convention after eating when we ended up in some sort of market-like area in the convention… and that we lost Ben too.

“Where the heck did he go?!” That would be Allen, as the presentation was starting in one hour, and he didn’t want any of us getting separated right now and arriving there late. “One second he was here, the next he disappears!”

Right now the four of were looking for him somewhere in this convention, but as we kept searching… well we found him, but the place he was at was the creepiest locale I have ever found in my life. He was currently browsing inside this large dirty tent that had all sort of knick-knacks and such; inside was filled with so many referenced items from movies, games, shows, and a couple of anime that Allen told me or suggested I might like watching.

It was a place for a fan’s wildest dreams to come true! “Yo Ben; so this is where you been, what you looking at?” asked Seth.

“Oh hey guys, you will not believe what I found; so I was wandering a bit when I found this place, and I found ‘him’!”

“Found who?”

“The Merchant, you know from those fics I read,” said Ben. I looked at who Ben was speaking to and look and behold it was the Merchant from Resident Evil 4… oh and if you are wondering what Ben is talking about, he’s… a brony. Now I got no issues with that, I literally make weapons and armor for props for a living, my friends have their own interests – both the odd and strange – so when I was told Ben was a brony, it didn’t faze me… if I had to be honest some of the fics he suggest I try reading are pretty good… but I only read for the fics, not the show.

“Remember how the four of you are missing a piece for your outfits?” The four of us got confused at this point until we saw what Ben was examining; on a long wooden table where the Merchant was standing on the other side was Nightmare’s signature helmet from Soulcalibur 2, the Minion Axe from Overlord 2, Hollow Ichigo’s horns, and a Cloak of the C’tan were all here, and they were the greatest imitations I’ve seen. They looked almost exactly how they would in their respective sources… but I saw where this was going, I read what happens when you buy something from the Merchant in conventions… and I know exactly where you end up going. “I found them here, but I’m currently trying to buy from this guy but he won’t sell them to me.”

It was at that moment that the Merchant dude realized the rest of us and his eyes widened immediately. “Wait, you’re trying to buy this stuff for these fellas? If I knew that I’d sell it to you… but are you sure you don’t want anything else here?” asked the Merchant.

“Nah, I got everything I need but thanks for the offer,” said Ben. After the Merchant glowered at him, he sighed and asked Ben whether he pay in cash or card; once done paying, he gave us each the final pieces we needed for our outfits, putting them on immediately.

“Heck ya; I HAVE THE POWER!” shouted Kaiden, raising the Minion Axe.

“Dude, thanks for buying this stuff for us,” said Allen.

Terry looked at Ben, before nodding in thanks as I helped clamp the cloak to his back; after I put the helmet on, the five of us headed to the presentation that Allen wanted to go, enjoying the rest of the day. As we headed back to our rooms for the day, I talked to Ben about where he got the money to pay for all that stuff, it had to been pretty pricey to get all that stuff for us all.

“Ben… where did you get the money to pay all of this for us?” asked Seth.

“Oh… I um… I used the pay I have this month.”

“WHAT!? Dude, that’s nearly $300 to $400 dollars you used, not only that but you already have problems with paying the bills, why did you use up that money!”

“...You guys have been wanting to make those outfits for a long time… and I wanted to do something to help… but don’t worry, after the convention I got this job request that’ll pay a lot. Let’s go get some rest and enjoy the rest of the week of this convention!”

After that talk, the both of us went to our rooms, played some games, planned on what we should do next and so on… it would be the best week we’d have together… however what will happen the next couple of weeks… would be the biggest tragedy that’ll happen to all of us.

Several months later…

...They told us it was an accident… they said it was an accident… so was it an accident when some drunk bastard who was handling the crane, dropped his payload which just happened to fall and crash onto the same construction spot that Ben was working at.

Myself and the guys visited Ben’s grave after the incident, the job request that Ben got after the convention was to work in this construction site, he wanted to get the money to pay his bills and buy a gift for his elder sister. The guy responsible and the one responsible for managing the workers were both sued by his family, and won… but it still didn’t help that someone close to them passed away.

The four of us stood together before his grave, each of us giving a sad forlorn look, we all had different things that we wanted to say to him… something we all wanted to tell him… now… now we’ll regret that forever.

“Excuse me… but sorry to interrupt.”

The four of us turned around and see who would freaking speak at this current moment, but what we found… well both confused and made us wanted to scratch our heads. Standing right behind us was the Merchant from the convention we went to all those months ago… the same one.

I don’t like where this is going. “Who the heck are you?” asked Allen, angrily.

“I’m sorry about your loss, but I came here to collect the remaining payment, you see, your friend here hadn’t paid for the whole deal… which is why you four fine gents will just have to do.”

“What the heck are you talking about?” asked Kaiden. Terry looked ready to beat somebody’s skull in… and use said skull to beat that person with.

“Your it aren’t you… the real deal, the actual ‘Merchant’,” said Seth.

“Ah, I see you read the tales, indeed I am the very same Merchant, from those stories, but you see… the only way for me to bring those to other worlds is for them to make an exchange. They buy something that fits with their character, and I send them to whatever world it may be, whether it is one they’ll like or not, but since your friend didn’t buy an item for himself and bought four instead of one, the price had to be upped.”

“Seth, what is he talking about… is he… is he from those bloody brony stories that you and Ben read?! asked Kaiden.

Before I had the chance to answer, I felt a powerful weight over me, as myself and the others were brought to our knees. Each of us tried to stand up but could barely even look up; I looked up at the Merchant, imagining the smug grin under that bandanna he wore. I tried to extend my hand and reach forward… only to lose consciousness. The last things I remembered was the Merchant’s voice speaking to me.

“Don’t worry, the four of you will be together where you’re going… maybe you might even meet an old friend.”

What… the heck… is he… talking… about…

And that was the last thing I remembered before the lights went out… for now.

1700 Age of Chaos – Equestria; Western Equestria, White Tail Woods; 7:00pm

The silence of the woods with the occasional howl of nearby wolves, the wind blowing through the trees was the only kind of sounds you hear in the western part of Equestria, which consisted of mostly forests that stretched as far the eye could see, and mountains that ranged across like natural walls of stone.

That silence however would end when a screaming noise began to increase and grow before something… appeared. It left a scorched earth where it appeared – not landed, just appeared – as it was in a knelt position; it wore armor unfamiliar to this world, the right arm was mutated and grotesque, it had scarlet hair and wielded a giant sword that had a flesh grown in the middle and an eye that pulsed and gazed at its surroundings.

The figure awoke gazing at it’s surroundings, taking a careful look around before it gazed down on it’s own form. Many emotions went through it’s eyes, confusion, curiosity, anger but most of all, fear; the being was in a world it was unfamiliar with, a body it didn’t recognize and a situation it was currently very lost in.

With a voice that could make any weak willed being pee themselves ten times over… he spoke. “Well… shit,” said Nightmare.

Author's Note

It has begun; a little story origins for the main character antagonists, starting with Seth aka Nightmare.

The narration and thoughts are all by Seth from his perspective, so all bold and italics text was him speaking/thinking.

This is what I considered my first ever story using characters from other series (I'm referring to Nightmare and the other cosplays, not the people, their my original idea), and my second displaced story (isn't part of the Displaced multiverse).

Hope you guys enjoy this interesting new story premise and see how things will go in coming chapters.

The Azure Knight

Equestria; Western Equestria, White Tail Woods; 7:00pm

Nightmare or in this case, Seth was – and if he was correct – in Equestria, but as to where and when in particular was the real question. Since he could remember a little of what the Merchant said, he mentioned that he wouldn’t be alone meaning the others were transformed and in this world too… but he wouldn’t be lucky enough that they were close, and wouldn’t be surprised if they were several kilometers away from his location… all of them.

It didn’t help that he other than Ben, knew the basic stuff about the current situation and about the whole idea of being Displaced. Since he was the calmer of the four in any kind of situation compared to the others, he planned ahead about what he needed to do; he needed to look for the others, find out where he was right now on Equestria and… well he’ll wing the rest out.

“Okay, I’m in some kind of forest… doesn’t look like the Everfree, maybe White Tail... and my voice is damn different now,” said Nightmare.

Guessing by the hair I’m Nightmare from Soulcalibur 2, though I’m surprised I’m in control and not Soul Edge.

“That is because I have no need to, master.”

Nightmare stood up immediately, still gripping Soul Edge as he looked around his surroundings to find the source of the voice. “Who said that, show yourself!?” shouted Nightmare.

“Why it is I master, Inferno or should I say Soul Edge,” said Soul.

“Wait it was you, and why are you calling me master?”

“You are different than any previous entity that has dared to wield me… and you know more than you look. I wish to see what choices you make and how far you’ll go.”

This is interesting, not only is Soul Edge calling me master, but I won’t have any problems, with… “it” trying to do anything… hopefully. “And what exactly do you find so interesting about me?”

“Unlike previous wielders, you seem to recognize this world we are in… that and unlike previous wielders you don’t have a reason to wield me… that you are simply here and do whatever you want – the purest form of chaos, the act of doing something without reason or care!”

Or maybe he thinks I’m going to do something evil.

“Well whatever, let’s get outta of this forest and find some civilization,” said Nightmare. “And by the way, my name is Seth, if we’re going to be working together I might as well give you my name… what should I call you?”

“...A name… You may either call me Inferno or Soul, which ever works with you.”

“Great, let’s get going now.”

“Lead the way.”

Central Equestria, Everfree Castle; 7:30pm

Luna was up as usual at this time of the day, her sister resting at this hour, the lunar princess wandered the halls of her home for the last couple of centuries since Equestria’s founding. While it was built in one of the most dangerous places, it was also an important strategic location to be built back during the more chaotic times in the past.

Heading to her own personal office room that was just a few halls near her bed chambers, Luna approached the room that had two Lunar Guards guarding on both sides of the door. Entering inside, she headed to her desk and looked through what problems she had to deal with today.

Its been fifty years since Tirek’s invasion and his brother Scorpan joining our side to stop his brother. We are still repairing the damages that occurred during his invasion, but repairs are steadily continuing. Reports from Filly Delphia, Baltimare, Manehattan, Tall Tale, Vanhoover, and Luna Bay show things are doing well, Canterlot is doing well and more troops are being recruited and trained properly for future incursions. Even though we managed to defeat Tirek, remnants of his forces still remain, we know a large contingency of them are coming from further south but my sister and I have placed several outposts to make sure of any… further signs show up.

Putting down the reports, she looked through economical reports and requests from several towns and settlements about things that may or may not be accepted, depending what it was and who it came from.

“I guess it’s another night of more paperwork, I don’t understand why we need to do this and instead just make the decisions whenever we like. By the time we go through this strenuous crap, the situation has either been solved or gotten worse, in most cases it being the latter,” said Luna, grumbling.

Luna sighed and gazed outdoors through the room’s window to look at her night, the moon out and at its fullest and stars littering the skies. A knock came to her door, and entering inside was the captain of the guards in the Everfree Castle. “Captain Breaker, what brings you to my door?” asked Luna.

“I’m sorry to interrupt you during your busy work, your highness” said Breaker, bowing.

“No no, this interruption is something I needed for this ‘work’ of mine, is there something you wish to tell me?”

Breaker entered inside wearing the signature armor of the Royal Guard, it being a silver color that covered his body except around the back end, keeping the legs unarmored for better mobility, but wearing armored hoof-shoes. Captain Breaker, a notable unicorn noble – one of the rare few respectable ones – was in charge of the day-time guard while Captain Shade was responsible with the night-time guard at the Everfree, but both captains are used to working in either hours.

“Well, I came here because the magi have received several reports of different anomalies,” said Breaker.

“Anomalies, what kind of anomalies are we talking about here and where?”

“Well they’re not certain, but two of these anomalies are somewhere around western and north-eastern Equestria, the other two anomalies being outside Equestria’s borders. Should I send some scouts to check what these anomalies are?”

After some thought Luna decided that she would tell her sister this personally in the morning and that she and Luna would check these anomalies themselves. “Do not worry, my sister and I will check them ourselves, for now simply report any odd behavior from those directions and find the location of those other anomalies.”

With that Breaker nodded, leaving Luna to continue with her previous work. Anomalies… finally something interesting for me to do.

Western Equestria, White Tail Woods; 8:00pm

“How long have I been in this forest?” asked Nightmare.

“Only for half an hour, though it has been awhile and I expected to have reached the edge of the forest by now… I have an idea.”

“What do you got up your metaphorical sleeves?”

“Since you are unlike any wielder I’ve met before, do you know something called the ‘malfestation’?”

“Yeah… why?”

“Ah good good, my idea was to use a shard of myself and send it to a nearby animal, particularly one that may fly,” said Soul, a devious edge in his voice.

So he wants me to get a Watcher… but where the heck am I going to find an animal this close by? At that moment however, something flew straight down toward Nightmare… or in this case crashed down near Nightmare. Falling right before Nightmare was an injured black hawk, that had a bolt torn into one of it’s wings; the odd part about this hawk was that it appeared to be wearing a leather packet on it’s back. Well that’s convenient, but what is that on it’s back?

Taking a closer look, Nightmare found that the hawk was some kind of messenger bird, but as from who was a mystery. The bird was bleeding and didn’t look that well and would possibly die from the wound caused by the bolt; kneeling down, the hawk tries to scramble away from Nightmare, but the armored entity gently scooped up the injured hawk, examining it’s wound. “Hey, I won’t hurt you, let me just take this arrow out of you.”

Gripping the arrow he ripped it out, the flow of blood spurting out of the wing, causing the hawk to spasm and caw weakly in pain. Looking around for something to wrap the wound with, an object suddenly collided with Nightmare’s helm, creating a loud clang as he lost focus and dropped the hawk onto the ground.

Coming out of the forest at the direction that Nightmare was looking at was a pair of minotaurs, both armed with one wielding a crossbow. “The heck is that thing!?”

“I don’t know but it has the messenger hawk, we should kill it and get whatever intel is on that bird!”

Nightmare gazed down at the fallen bird, seeing it motionless as it’s head fell onto a stone, cracking the poor hawk’s skull. Those piece of shits…

“Are dead,” said Nightmare, gripping Soul Edge tightly.

“Yeeeeees, rage, wrath, kill them, kill these two insolent fools that dare cross your path.”

Before the two minotaurs could react, Nightmare unleashed a terrifying roar then charging straight toward the minotaurs with murderous intent in his eyes. The one with the crossbow fired a bolt which did nothing but bounce off the armor; seeing who attacked first, he swung his weapon overhead and smashed it into the minotaur’s pitiful body, turning what remained into paste. The other minotaur fell to his knees in terror, but before he could utter a scream his head was cleaved off with a swipe of Nightmare’s three-pronged claw, gripping the head before crushing it into a bloody ooze.

After his raging high passed, Nightmare gazed around at the bloody mess he left behind before turning to face the now dead hawk. “Bastards, attacking a defenseless animal… I guess I won’t be getting a companion now.”

“I wouldn’t give up too soon, point me at the body, and let me handle the rest.” Unsure what Soul was going to do, Nightmare followed and pointed him at the hawk’s body. Soon an eerie glow came from the eye on Soul Edge before it shot through the blade and into the hawk; at first nothing happened but then the body began to convulse and shake, the wound repairing itself and the sounds of bones going back into its proper places. After the transformation, the hawk stood on both talons and gazed upward at Nightmare, letting loose a powerful caw. “Voila, back from the dead.”

How in the heck, he can bring the dead back to the living?

“Now you are thinking right now, ‘He can bring the dead back’, and no I can’t… well not in the way you think; I need a body that at least has a shard of me inside, so I sent said shard and revived the hawk with it. From now on, this hawk will stay loyal to you for the ends of your days… So what you wanna name him?”

After listening, Nightmare extending his mutated arm out which the hawk flew up and perched itself on one of his prong-like claws, gazing back with red-glowing eyes. What indeed shall I call you?

“...Nightwing or Night for short,” said Nightmare, satisfied with the name.

“Odd choice, but whatever is to your liking.”

The hawk cawed, eager to please its new master; Nightmare began examining the two dead minotaurs and their equipment, when some new thoughts came to him now. That one minotaur mentioned they were trying to get whatever this hawk was carrying in that pouch of his. “Uhm Night, can I have whatever you have in that pouch of yours?”

Instead of saying no, the hawk nodded and moving its head into the pouch, slipping the beak inside and pulling out what appear to be a scroll of some kind. Night the hawk gave the scroll to Nightmare, which opening was some trouble due to his large hands, but after he did open it inside was some indecipherable language… which he could somehow read. “Uhhhh, how can I read this?”

“That be me; having been dragged across the world, also means having to listen to various languages… let’s say at some point I gained the ability to auto-translate what others say.”

Uhhhh, that… makes a whole lot of sense now. Focusing back on the scroll, Nightmare began to read diligently of what was written on the notes.

M11 D26 Y310;

It has been two weeks since we managed to escape from the minotaur lands, as a coup had happened between their king and his brother the general of their army. Now we are being chased by the bastards and are currently hiding in one of the Equestrian towns called Tall Tale; I’m sending this messenger hawk to the capital city of Canterlot in hopes to receive help from their leaders. I have also sent another messenger hawk back to Griffonstone to warn them of what’s happened.

From, First Lieutenant Sharphook

“So these minotaurs work for this general dude that betrayed his brother who was the king, and I’m assuming these two minotaurs were sent to retrieve this intelligence. Hey Night, can you lead us back to this Tall Tale place?”

The hawk nodded, readying to fly off to the sky, Nightmare watched which direction it went but instead… felt a presence; unsure what it was he was feeling, he realized it was the hawk and that he knew where it was and could see what it sees. Now knowing which direction it flew toward, Nightmare went to said direction with an unseen grin under his helm.

“Seems things only got interesting, let’s see what this world’s civilization is like,” said Nightmare, walking through the forest.

Western Equestria, Tall Tale; 8:15pm

Sharphook gazed down below from a deluxe room in one of the castle-like buildings in the town of Tall Tale, which consisted of tower-like buildings. The town had a high population of pegasi and griffons, with occasional earth ponies and unicorns mingling down below, though the only ones out tonight were the Lunar Guard and night-hour workers.

Sharphook heard noise behind him but knew who it was, so without even turning he addressed the fellow griffon behind him. “Sergeant Major Light Feather; how is the princess, is she resting well?” asked Sharphook.

“She’s resting well and I managed to calm her down, sir,” said Feather.

“Now now, there’s no need for formalities Feather, you can talk to me normally.”

“Sorry… its just we’ve been on the run for two weeks with barely any rest or proper food and I know you and I been through the training to deal with such conditions… I’m worried about her highness, especially since she saw Corporal Thunder Hawk get executed during our escape.”

“We knew the risks when she asked to come along, but this coup has brought all of us on the edge; I’m glad we are back in civilization but we’re still not in the clear. I sent two messenger hawks, one to Canterlot to ask the leaders of Equestria for assistance, and one back to Griffonstone to warn them of what’s happened back in the minotaur lands.”

The two heard a door open and found Princess Soft Beak rubbing one of her eyes, yawning sleepily as she wandered into the room before bumping into a sofa chair. Muttering to herself, she moved to a bucket of water, splashing the cold water into her face, waking up immediately.

“Princess, what are you doing up at this hour?” asked Feather. “You need your rest.”

“Can’t… been having nightmares ever since we came here… very vivid ones, I’d rather stay awake than deal with another nightmarish figure. What have you two been talking about?”

“Nothing much princess, we were talking about what we should do next.” Soft gave a suspicious look, but gave up and went to get a drink of water, sitting down on the sofa chair she bumped into earlier. While the princess relaxed, the two griffon soldiers gazed down below at the various lights sprinkled around this town, at this current moment of peace and quiet… that would soon be shattered.

Elsewhere some distance from Tall Tale – Western Equestria, Unicorn Range; 8:20pm

Somewhere amongst the mountains at Unicorn Range… was a military camp, but not an Equestrian one as this one was hastily set-up a few days ago, for this was a minotaur military camp. The two-legged beings move down the lane of tents like ants, but one particular minotaur who had a scar around his right eye and walked down the lane with an ominous feeling around him toward a larger tent stationed at the center of the tents.

Entering inside, the scarred minotaur placed his weapon down and knelt one leg down before the figure in the shadows. “General Iron Tusk, the scouts sent to retrieve the intel from that messenger hawk haven’t come back yet, should we send somebody to search for them?”

“...No Lieutenant General Black Hoof, we’ll proceed with the plan, tell the troops… we march for Tall Tale; tonight the Minos Empire will take over Equestria, then the Griffon Lands… and the world, for tonight will be the night the minotaur race will be the supreme ones!” shouted Black, grinning.

Nodding, Tusk went off to give off orders to the fellow army officers and prepare the soldiers to invade what would be the beginning of any international incident to come… but sometimes… things don’t always go as planned.

Author's Note

The first arc of the story - Small Beginnings - with Seth's perspective first as the Azure Knight himself; Nightmare.

Soul Edge/Inferno is the one with italics in his dialogue due to him speaking telepathically with Seth or anyone else nearby. The reason why Seth understands them minotaurs is due to Soul having been wielded by various users from different cultures, meaning he's gain a natural talent to auto-translate any language (as well as other abilities).

Nightwing the Hawk is basically a fusion of a Guardian and Watcher - Watchers are animal malfested while Guardians are beings who have a shard of Soul Edge in them for clarification to those who don't know what they are.

War Comes For All

Western Equestria, Smokey Mountains; 8:45pm

After leaving behind the forest, Nightmare followed or rather used Night’s aerial view to traverse his way out and into some mountains further north; climbing the mountains was at first a problem but with the help from the hawk he took more faster and easier routes to keep climbing up. However as Nightmare began to climb, he talked to Soul Edge and the various things he can do with his new body.

“So not only can I turn anyone into a malfested and into my minion or companion, but if they die as long they have a shard of you inside them, I can revive them into an undead malfested,” said Nightmare.

“Indeed, your hawk companion is half Watcher and Guardian, which is how I was able to revive him from the dead, but I wouldn’t willy-nilly give anyone shards of me as only a specific few can bare the raw power of a single shard. The reason that hawk could handle my shard was because I gave him a small one, but that alone has enough power, so it was a bit of a gamble if it were to work or not. Other than my shards, you can do various things; with the Evil Seed, you can cause various effects but the basic one is to induce a violent persona upon anyone, making them go insane in seconds. You can also enshroud me in fire and lightning, the fire is extra useful as you can create a wave of flames that’ll consume a large area or teleport to a location sending an explosive blast of flame behind where you were originally.”

Stopping after hearing the recent piece of information, Nightmare gazed down at Soul Edge, looking at the eye with incredulity. “Wait… your telling me I can teleport, then explain why we’re still walking?!”

“Well for starters I need to see where we want to teleport, or has to be somewhere familiar that we been to before long enough that I have a clear memory of the location. We’re climbing this mountain so we can gain a perfect view for me to teleport to.”

I guess that makes sense… I suppose. Continuing to climb even further, Nightmare pauses as Nightwing flies back down to perch onto one of his shoulders; the hawk rested, ruffling the feathers on itself before looking toward where Nightmare’s gaze is at.

“Tired huh, welp I guess we’re going in blind… this is going to be a long climb,” said Nightmare, gripping a piece of the mountain. With that said, he began to climb upward, putting his focus and attention into reaching the top and finding a source of civilization.

Western Equestria, Tall Tale, Eastern Wall; 9:00pm

Tonight was silent as ever, nothing out of the ordinary happening right now as a lonely Lunar Guard watched vigilantly above the walls that surrounded Tall Tale. The lonely guard would either pace on the eastern wall or stand above the main gate, he’d occasionally climb one of the towers at the corners of the wall to get a good view of the town below or the everlasting darkness outside the walls. This lonesome stallion was Private Sparks, a unicorn from a common family with a common income; he was like any normal pony and never knew the nobility life. He was told stories once that his family were once nobles, but his grandfather married a peasant mare and renounced his noble title, and while life was harsh at first, there were benefits living the simple life.

For starters, he didn’t get dragged into problems from the nobility, unless said problems somehow involved the common folk, but other than that, Sparks liked his life. He joined the guard to get some excitement and to pay the taxes, but sadly the Royal Guard was stock full so he ended being a Lunar Guard. The pay was no different, but the first few months he had to get used to being awake at an hour he wasn’t familiar with. He got used to it, but nowadays he fall asleep in the middle of the afternoon, luckily he wasn’t bothered at that hour unless an emergency or a sudden drill by the drill sergeant occurred.

Sparks was doing a routine guard patrol with another pony by the name of Private Sugarcane, an earth pony stallion who worked as a baker on the side. He worked with his fiancee at their local bakery here in Tall Tale; funny story how he joined the guard, one day a thief tried to steal from a vendor when he went out shopping for more sugar. He slammed the poor colt into the ground, and got an opportunity to join the guard, and at first he wasn’t interested but joined when he and his fiancee were having money problems.

The two aren’t friends, but are close enough to be considered brothers-in-arms, as they shared the same room during their days of training. Sparks turn was closing to an end, so he was heading to the bonfire above the front gate where Sugarcane was resting; approaching the bonfire, he spotted the stallion not asleep but gazing at the utter darkness with a narrowed gaze.

“Hey, Sugar, what you looking at?” asked Sparks.

Sugarcane turned around, recognizing the voice before going back to face the darkness ahead. “I thought I saw something… but must have been my eyes playing with me, is it time to switch?”

“Yep, as usual, I’ll take a three hour rest, and you’ll wake me at midnight.” Sugarcane nodded, getting ready to switch places when the two heard a voice.

“How’s the guard doing privates?” Both stallions stood rigid and saluted immediately toward their superior officer; the one who came up the stone steps was Staff Sergeant Winged Grace, a thestral who was in charge of those in Sparks and Sugarcane’s company. The thestral mare gazed at the two stallions, before smirking at the two. “At ease privates, just wanna see how was guard duty, I know it can be boring but at least you aren’t doing it in the morning when it’s hot.”

Both stallions lowered their hooves but still gave their rigid forms; back at the boot camp, they learned to never cross somepony who has a higher rank than you no matter how much of a dick they may sound like. Luckily Grace was the nicer ones in the guard stationed in Tall Tale… not unlike the Staff Sergeant of the Royal Guard, who harassed the Lunar Guard and even some of the populace, he was some noble’s kid who got the rank instead of earning it like anypony else.

Another hidden secret about Grace was this… Sparks saw her nude… or rather he saw her bathing; instead of taking the guard resting stations which had a bathing section and a restroom, Grace took a shower at a nearby waterfall. This was back when Sparks was still in the boot camp and during break, he wandered off that was still considered in the camp’s perimeter when he came upon her standing under the waterfall. He was hidden perfectly in some bushes, but it took him a few seconds to realize he was peeking, it didn’t help when she lifted her tail to show him… well… “the full moon”.

While the two did respect Grace, he did it out of embarrassment for that memory, it was also lucky that she didn’t spot him… well… that’s what he believes. “Indeed Staff Sergeant Winged Grace, the night patrol is much better than the day, mam,” said Sparks.

Grace nodded but before she could speak, Sugarcane stepped forward and raised his hoof, the one that didn’t hold his spear. “Permission to speak Staff Sergeant, mam?”

“Now now, no need for that formal talk, I’m not going to punish you if you got something in your mind, so go ahead and speak.”

“Well… I saw something just moments ago before you or Sparks arrived, I can’t confirm what I saw but I wanted to tell you that… mam.”

Grace took some interest at this, and stepped forward to take a look, for awhile nothing happened and as Grace scanned the surrounding darkness with her natural night-vision, she stepped back and scratched her chin. “Hmmmm… I’ll send some ponies to check the outer perimeter for any movement or tracks of any kind, you two just continue doing what you’re doing… Oh, and good work for telling me this Private Sugarcane, I’ll tell command for keeping a vigilant look tonight.”

“Thank you, mam.”

Grace smiled and began to leave, but as the two privates went back to looking at the darkness, Grace took a sneak peek at Sparks while he wasn’t looking. Darn… I was hoping to talk to Sparks alone… another time Grace… another time…

At the same time, at the edge of the darkness within the protection of trees and shrubs, two minotaur scouts stood from their hiding spots, both looking at one another. “That was close, quick, we need to head to the Lieutenant General and tell him that we found the town where the griffons are located.” Both scouts ran back to the main minotaur army that was slowly making their way to Tall Tale, bringing with them untold destruction and chaos to the unsuspecting pony settlement.

Western Equestria, Tall Tale; 9:30pm

Princess Soft Beak sat, relaxing calmly on the sofa chair she sat on; both the First Lieutenant and Sergeant Major were resting, leaving her to sit alone in the living room. Deciding to get some fresh air, she stepped out into the balcony, gazing at the sleeping town as many of the nearby building lights were now off, leaving a few lamp stands with lit flames inside them and a few other night-time establishments still active at this hour.

How could this all happen, I wanted to prove to father that I can handle any situation, so I asked to accompany into a simple diplomatic meeting with the minotaur king… but instead we got in between in a coup, one of the guards that accompanied me died, and we been on the run for two weeks. I just want to go home, and never leave my room, I don’t care if the nobles call me cowardly… they have no idea what the General of the minotaur armies is willing to do… he’s… a monster.

Sighing to herself, Soft reminisced of home and the peaceful times she had back then… however things in the Griffon Lands has been… a tad shifty as word of a civil war may occur in the future, and that these traitorous griffons, plan to invade Equestria and do who knows what.

For the last couple of centuries, Equestria has gone through a lot but has stood to the test of time… many countries are becoming afraid of what Equestria plans to do in the future… it wouldn’t be surprising for other forces to strike the country while it is at its most vulnerable.

Soft gazed at the distance… but then saw something… something that made her eyes widen in fear; quickly, she ran back inside, opened the door which the First Lieutenant was inside, only to find him stepping out of the shower with a towel wrapped around his neck. Blushing, Soft began to mutter about the fact that even though he was a decade older than her, he had some well-built abs; shaking away that thought, she quickly rushed him to what she saw. “First Lieutenant, quickly to the balcony!” shouted Soft.

“What is it, is something wrong!?”

Deciding to just show him than explain, she grabbed him by one of his claws and brought him to the balcony; in the distance, both Sharphook and Soft could see a sea of lights and ominous towers approaching from the east. Already realizing who that is, Sharphook swiftly turned to the princess with a serious and commanding gaze.

“Princess Soft Beak, wake up the Sergeant Major and tell her that the minotaurs are here, we need to leave this town before they surround us! We’ll take the southern gate and go by claw to Canterlot, we cannot let them reach this town before then!”

Nodding, Soft ran to the door which Light Feather and her shared the same room; Sharphook took one last look before running to his room to suit up and grab his supplies. This is truly happening, war is coming to Equestria.

Just outside of the walls of Tall Tale – Western Equestria; 9:40pm

After receiving the report from the two scouts he sent to find the town that the griffons were hiding at and a path for the siege towers to take that will get them there quickly, Lieutenant General Black Hoof ordered the minotaur forces toward their first Equestrian city to fall; they had several siege towers coming from the west, while the north and southern walls had several minotaur squads sent ahead to take down any runaways or stragglers that attempt to exit the town, and since the west wallhad no entrance since it only led to the woods, there was no possible way for anyone to exit the city except by flight or mass teleportation.

Black has thought of such contingencies as any who try to fly away would immediately be shot down with a wave of crossbow bolts, and a mass teleportation would be impossible as the number of unicorns required to teleport everyone out of the city would be an immense number, and to teleport them to a nearby settlement would take a miracle. They’re trapped like mice, even if they don’t attempt to escape, we’ll slowly move in and search from every nook until we find those griffons… and that princess.

“Move forward, for tonight we shall take over this settlement and soon take over these pathetic ponies!” shouted Black. A roar of minotaurs was heard as they began to march forward toward the town, ready to raze it to the ground.

Back at the wall, both Sparks and Sugarcane watched the two guards sent by Grace to check the outer perimeter come back after seeing the siege towers that were slowly approaching Tall Tale. The scouts reported seeing several minotaur squads surrounding the town from the north and south walls, making them trapped from within. After being told this, both the Lunar and Royal Guard that were stationed here were brought to the walls to defend the town to the very last pony; militia and reserve forces were brought forward as trained civilians grabbed armor and weapons.

Non-trained civilians were told to retreat back to the west wall as ponies nearby to the commotion happening at the east wall, quickly ran by and told their neighbors of what was happening. Amongst the chaos, Sharphook, Light Feather and Soft Beak try their best to retreat further away from the horde of ponies and other creatures like zebras, thestrals and griffons. “We can’t make it through this, they already surrounded the settlement and flying from the west wall will take forever, we’ll be spotted by the time we take flight and shot down, we’re trapped First Lieutenant,” said Feather.

“Dammit… then we have to help with the local guard and hold back their forces until we find a moment to slip through,” said Sharphook. “This way!”

The trio headed through some empty alleyways and side-streets until they came upon a swarm of military ponies who were in rows, being ordered by an officer. One of the armored ponies noticed the trio and approached them, a thestral mare who held a sense of authority as she trotted toward them.

“HALT! Who are you three and stat your business!?” shouted Grace.

“I am First Lieutenant Sharphook of the Griffonian Army, I know the reason behind this invasion and I came here to help in any way I can!” Before Grace could answer a yell was heard before a flaming rock flew by and crashed into one of the buildings, sending shrapnel everywhere.

“We need all the help we can get, you can explain to me what these invaders want later! You, get this chick some armor, she’s not standing on this wall without some protection!” With that order, a random guard approached Soft with some basic light armor, at first the princess looked at said armor before Light Feather helped with putting it on, saying it was for her safety.

Soon the trio were led by Grace up the north wall, where several ponies ran back and forth, giving ammunition for the enemy forces that would come into firing range. Hoofing them some bows and arrows, they were told to stand by the part of the wall near the front gate and prepare to fire any arrows on their part of the wall with the guards.

Even though Soft was a princess, she had some basic military training like any-griffon in their homeland, so she knew how to use a spear, sword and bow. Standing beside a random guard and Light Feather while Sharphook was somewhere else, she prepared to fight back the first wave of minotaurs.

Father… give me strength.

Western Equestria, Near the summit of Smokey Mountains; 10:00pm

Mother of all that’s holy, this is the worse mountain-climbing journey ever! Nightmare was still climbing the side of the mountain, and while he realized he never gotten tired in this new body, he felt bored and irritated at how long it was taking to climb up.

As he was beginning to climb up, he reached a spacious cliff-side when he came upon a cave; the cave seemed empty and a strong gust of wind blew from the cave, meaning there was a tunnel that led to the other side of the mountain. “Finally a break from climbing, maybe we can check the other side of this mountain and find a better view than here.”

“I suggest we send Nightwing to fly up above and ahead of us, he can scout ahead if he finds anything of interest on the other side,” said Soul.

“I see you gotten used to the name.”

“Meh, heard more odd ones than that, let’s get going.”

Wielding Soul Edge, Nightmare wandered into the cave while Nightwing flew away; inside the cave it was – obviously – damp, dark, and cold… though neither of these senses could be properly felt by him, as the darkness was clearly seen without any issues, while the dampness and cold air in the cave didn’t bother him either.

The cave was empty and had stalagmites and stalactites, the sides of the cave covered by mushrooms, but as he went further in… it began to get warmer suddenly which was abnormal as Nightmare wasn’t going deeper into the mountain and nor was it daylight, so the heat had to been coming from somewhere. Going further in, Nightmare came upon something interesting, there were piles of gold coins littered all over the ground with some gems and various treasures.

Gold coins? Wait a second, if there’s gold here then-

“Who dares come into my lair?” Nightmare stood still for a moment but more out of surprise than fear, before gazing up at a scaly snout; the dragon wasn’t that large but was slightly bigger than Nightmare, as it’s snout was bigger than his head. Blowing a puff of smoke, the dragon gazed menacingly down at Nightmare before speaking again.

“Hmmmm, I have never seen something of your kind before, what are you and why have you come to my lair?”

“I am Nightmare, there is no other like me nor will there ever be, I assumed this cave was empty and planned to use it to travel toward the other side of the mountain, I mean no harm to you or your hoard sir...”

“I am Everflame, son of Infernal Fire!”

“Well, sir Everflame, I only wish to cross toward the other side of this cave and reach the other side of the mountain.”

Everflame went into a deep thought, before his attention was caught by the sword that Nightmare wielded, grinning to himself Everflame pointed a claw toward Nightmare. “I will grant your request… however, you must leave behind that sword with my hoard if you wish to cross.”

Is this guy for real, I ain’t going to leave my weapon to him… that and I’m pretty certain I need it in order to access all my powers. “I am sorry, but this weapon and I hold a close connection… I cannot accept these terms of yours.”

This however only angered Everflame as he was ready to torch this strange being where he stood. “You dare, nobody dares to deny me of what I want!” With a roar, Everflame unhinged his jaw and fired a blast of scorching flames that melted the nearby gold coins and anything of interest nearby.

For awhile, Everflame watched as the flames in the cave filled the cave with smoke, expecting to see a melted scorched corpse before him… until something came slamming to the side of his head, sending him against the cave wall, sliding down onto the ground. Looking up in a daze, he came upon the angered visage of Nightmare, wielding Soul Edge with one hand that was raised high above him.

“You made your move… now for mine.” Like that, Nightmare brought down Soul Edge onto the dragon, crushing his skull as brain matter splattered everywhere, leaving the motionless dead drake. Ripping his weapon from the corpse, something interesting happened, a strange glow came from the dragon’s body and into Soul Edge, before the glow vanished. “What was that?”

“That would be me consuming his soul, those two other minotaurs souls were also mighty fine; while I’m uncertain, but do you plan to take any of this dragon’s loot?”

Looking around and onto his own person, Nightmare shrugged lugging Soul over his shoulder. “Nah, don’t got the pockets to bring this stuff, but I might come back for it, might as well leave it here for now, doubt anybody will come here to find it. Come on, I had enough fights as it is, bout time we cross this mountain and get this journey over with.”

Making his way through the piles on piles of loot, they reached a large pile of gold but after climbing over it, they reached the end of the tunnel and made their way to the other side of the mountain… but the first thing Nightmare spotted wasn’t what he expected.

In the far distance, beyond another forest was a town… that was currently on fire and under siege; from the west, Nightmare could see tower-like structures that were slowly inching their way to the town while some already made it to the walls that surrounded the settlement. From the distance he was at, he could hear the echoing sounds of battle as catapults unleashed their ammunition toward the town.

“I think I found out where those minotaurs were doing here,” said Nightmare.

“It appears that way… though this might be a good advantage for us.”

“Uhm, how so?”

“If there’s war, then there’s death, and when there’s death… there’s souls; I can use that teleportation power I mentioned, but Nightwing can’t come along, best you send that bird ahead while we take the quicker option.”

Huh… for once I agree with this idea. Nodding, Nightmare called down Nightwing, the hawk perching on Nightmare’s mutated claw, before flying off toward the town. With the bird gone, Nightmare focused his power to Soul Edge, soon being enveloped by fiery chaotic flames, and with a flash and boom he vanished, leaving behind a crater-sized hole and stones flying from where he was.

Those who fought at Tall Tale would soon understand that there much worse things to be afraid of… and tonight, that very thing was about to come appearing on their front door; tonight, the Azure Knight fights.

Author's Note

Introducing some side-characters that play their own roles in the story (and their own chapters from their perspective), this also might my first official OC couple I've made with possible romanticism in it.

War is coming to Equestria... but it appears a 3rd party may arrive late.

Raise Thy Sword

Several minutes earlier – Western Equestria, Tall Tale; 9:45pm

The battle between the defenders of Tall Tale and the minotaur army was reaching its climax soon; both sides weren’t giving up, but Tall Tale was slowly inching closer and closer to being defeated by the invading force. The siege towers were impenetrable, impossible to destroy as they slowly advanced toward the wall, the numerous minotaurs awaiting to charge toward the ramparts and swarm their enemies.

The ponies weren’t fairing any better, they were running out of arrows to fire and the continuous fire of burning rocks raining upon them wasn’t helping. The guards were running left and right to send in more supplies to the front, but soon they would run out of ammunition and forced to fight in close combat. “Staff Sergeant Grace, we’re running out of arrows and the siege towers are getting closer and closer, their main force isn’t approaching and we don’t have enough to stop those towers, what do we do, mam?!”

Winged Grace looked at the guard that ran up to her, then toward the enclosing siege towers, indeed the minotaur main force was just far enough to not be shot by arrows while the siege towers slowly made their way to Tall Tale. In minutes they’ll soon swarm forward and take over the town… and find what their looking for; Grace was told by Sharphook about why the minotaurs are here, and it seemed this situation was far worse than she imagined.

“Do we have anything to use that’ll slow them down?” asked Grace.

“Well… I’m not certain, but one of the guards found barrels of liquor but I don’t know what we can do with them, mam.”

Thinking about what use the barrels have, it was when a familiar face came approaching her. “Staff Sergeant Grace, we have a problem,” said Sharphook.

“What’s wrong now?” Guiding her, Sharphook led her to the gate of the eastern wall, before she spotted the problem as approaching the gate under a barrier of shields was a battering ram. The ram was bashing the gate down and was being protected by a wall of shields that blocked and bounced off the arrows that the defenders fired.

“Even if those siege towers come, by the time they do that ram would have smashed through the gate, we need to do something!”

Thinking quickly, she remembered the barrels of liquor a smile slowly creeping up her face. “I have an idea; you, get those barrels of alcohol up here, stat!” Nodding quickly, the guard gathered several others and ran toward where the barrels were kept.

“What will barrels of alcohol do in this situation!?”

“We’ll use it to pour it over these bastards and watch them burn, while it doesn’t solve our other problem, its the only thing I can think of.”

Seeing the temporary solution, Sharphook nodded when another guard approached with a fearful look in his eye. “MAM! The siege towers, one of them is closing in and is readying to board the wall, mam!”

Hearing this, Grace yelled out for the ponies to prepare themselves, all of them running to where the tower would be; everyone gathered, including the two griffons as the princess was still by where she was stationed originally at one of the towers. The ponies pointed their spears toward the approaching siege tower, but as it got closer… things went south quickly, as a barrage of bolts were fired upon the ponies, piercing through their ranks instantly.

Before the ponies could regroup, the drawbridge from the siege tower dropped, the minotaurs charged forth, slaughtering the ponies one by one. “Hold your ranks dammit, fight back, fight back!” shouted Grace, charging forth.

The ponies still standing fought back, but barely as they were cut down due to the minotaurs superior strength and weaponry. The only ones that were fighting one-on-one easily against them was Staff Sergeant Winged Grace, First Lieutenant Sharphook, and Sergeant Major Light Feather; the three were able to take down the minotaurs, but with the others unable to hold back the enemies, they would soon lose the east wall.

“Dammit, we need backup, where are the other guards!?”

“We need to hold our ground for them to come, they’re still evacuating citizens from the burning buildings!” As they continue to fight back, a screaming noise could be heard before a boom sounded off as an explosive round turned a nearby tower into rubble… the same tower that Princess Soft Beak was in.

“PRINCESS!” screamed Sharphook, rushing toward the destroyed tower. Sharphook bashed and slashed through various minotaurs before coming to the rubble of what remained of the tower, but as he searched a minotaur crept up behind him, ready to bash his skull in. Before the minotaur could act, an arrow flew by and took its mark onto the minotaur’s skull, causing the body to collapse backwards; looking where the arrow came from, he saw the princess at the top of the rubble, covered in dust and small cuts.

“Sir Sharphook, I think it’s best we focus on the problem at claw than myself, I may be a princess but I was trained by the best,” said Soft, grinning. Sharphook nodded, heading back to the battle on the ramparts.

Soon reinforcements came and overtook the ramparts, with them they brought several barrels of alcohol and dumped them onto the battering ram group, lighting the liquid as it came to a blaze of fire. Burning silhouettes were seen screaming in agony or running away from the blazing flames; the ponies cheered in victory, but soon the realization came to them that the battle wasn’t over just yet. “Prepare yourselves, the battle may be over but the war still continues; you four, search that siege tower for supplies and burn the thing down, we can’t let them use it when the main force comes! Repair the main gate after the fires die down and somepony get some guards to collect the arrows we fired outside the walls, we need to spare every arrow for the coming main force to come!”

As Sharphook watched Grace order the guards, he checked on Light Feather and the princess. “Are you two alright, that tower took a bad hit, was anyone else inside with you?” asked Sharphook.

“No, the other guards went to get more arrows so I was the only one inside, I was luckily able to get out before the tower was destroyed… is there no way for us out of this situation?”

“...No path that we can find, and even if we get out it wouldn’t do anything, the Equestrians will soon realize that the minotaurs are invading, the best we can do is assist and kill as many of the bastards. If we manage to survive I’ll report this to the king back at Griffonstone to send help here… we may even work with the Equestrians, they may not be warriors but will fight when threatened.”

The princess nodded, glancing back at the slowly moving siege towers, and the ominous army of minotaurs that awaited to charge any moment.

At the outer perimeter of Tall Tale, near the Minotaur’s Invasion Force...

Lieutenant General Black Hoof oversaw the minotaur forces, many of them itching to charge and slaughter the ponies… but they were forced to wait on orders of General Iron Tusk; the plan was to let the siege towers to overtake the ramparts while another team would use a battering ram to bash the door down. The reason they didn’t use all their forces and charge from all sides was because it leave a thin line of their forces to be easily taken down over time, instead they focus their attention on one wall, using the siege towers to attack the eastern wall rampart while several contingencies of squads were stationed at the northern and southern walls to make sure no stragglers try to escape.

Sadly the plan seemed to fail as the battering ram squad was torched by barrels of alcohol that was poured onto them, and one of the siege towers failed to take the ramparts was being looted and burned down. Several ponies were seen collecting arrows but were close enough to the walls to retreat and too far to commit attacking them. Dammit, if this continues we’ll be the loosing force here.

“Black Hoof… report,” said Iron, coming from behind him.

“Sir, the battering ram and one of the siege towers were taken down, we did manage to destroy one of their towers, but if this continues… I’m afraid to even imagine what will happen if we fail this battle,” said Black.

Iron Tusk scratched his chin before gazing at the burning corpses of the battering ram squad, he then went into deep thought and came up with a new idea. “Who’s the fastest of us here?”

“Sir?”

“Bring me the fastest of the troops here, and gather all the gunpowder we currently have… I have an idea, and tell the troops to prepare themselves… we’re charging toward the eastern wall.”

Back at the eastern wall of Tall Tale...

After arrows were collected and the fires died down, many of the injured and dead were moved off the ramparts, leaving the reinforcements to do repairs and various other things, preparing for the next siege tower to approach.

As they awaited for any movement other than than the siege tower, a roar was heard before the spotters saw the minotaur main force charging toward them, they prepared for them to get into firing range when they saw a lightly-armored minotaur carrying something charge ahead of the main force; the minotaur quickly gained speed and before any archers could shoot him down, he tossed something at the eastern wall’s gate.

“What the heck did he just throw!?” To answer the guard’s question, a loud explosion enveloped the gate and the ramparts above the gate, those nearby were blown back or consumed in the explosion. Those who managed to survive or were far enough from the explosion quickly realized what had happened, rallying toward the destroyed wall.

“THE WALL’S BEEN BREACHED, SPEARS AND SHIELDS FORWARD NOW!” shouted Grace. The guards moved forward into a semi-circular formation around the destroyed gate, creating a kill-zone out of the destroyed gate, quickly placing spikes and barricades to force the minotaurs to charge at their spears. Archers were stationed along the sides of the destroyed gate, other archers reading to fire volleys of arrows at the incoming army.

The minotaurs charged toward the wall opening, but some stayed behind so they wouldn’t stomp over their own or get punctured by arrows, but those that were young or cocky charged ahead, only to be killed by spears or arrows at the pony’s kill-zone. The bodies began to pile up, forcing minotaurs to climb over their dead, some managed to slip through but were killed by the skilled veteran guards, others brought ladders to climb the wall while some followed behind the approaching siege towers and use them to climb up onto the wall ramparts.

“Keep moving forward, we’ll take this pitiful town and soon kill every single one of these equine fools!” shouted a minotaur officer.

“What do we do, we’ll run out of arrows and soon they’ll climb over the rampart and overwhelm us, mam!?”

“We can’t lose this wall, if we do then they’ll swarm us and slaughter us in our own streets, stand our ground and keep fighting!” shouted Grace. The guards nodded, both the Royal and Lunar guard holding their ground while the local militia held still, willing to fight for their homes and family.

Grace watched the new found bravery in her troops and smirked, standing beside them, ready to take down the coming enemy. Even though they stopped firing their catapults, we’ll most likely die by their cloven hooves or weapons, but I’m proud these fellow stallions and mares are willing to die then letting these bastards take one step in our town.

As the next attack force approached, with a mighty roar the ponies charged forward, piercing, stabbing and slashing those they charged at, stampeding any who came upon their hooves. The ponies and minotaurs collided with one another, some fighting one-on-one while others fought in groups, but since the minotaurs were hardier than a pony, it took at least two to three ponies to overwhelm them and even then some minotaurs were harder to kill then a simple trooper.

Grace slashed one minotaur down before she was sent flying to the ground, looking up she saw a large buff minotaur who wielded a mace, grinning menacingly at her. “I, Captain Skull Smasher will kill all of you pathetic ponies, and take my time with your mares, maybe I’ll be taking my time with you, if I don’t end up bashing your head in!”

“Just try it you piece of shit!” Grace stood back up and posed ready; Skull deciding to take a direct attack, did an overhead strike with his mace, which Grace easily dodged but what she didn’t see was the other weapon that Skull held. He brought an axe from the side that was slowly going to collide with Grace’s side, raising her sword up, the blow was blocked but emptied her lungs from the sheer force used to move the weapon.

Skull did a boot kick that made her slide onto the ground into a nearby body, standing back on all four hooves, she found herself trampled over before being lifted up by her neck, her helmet having fallen off earlier her long mane draped down her neck and covering half of her face. Glaring back defiantly, Skull smirked before tightening his hold on Grace’s neck, crushing her windpipe; the mare began to choke as she tried to kick and flail, her movements becoming weaker.

“How about I just kill you and use your body instead, they’re a bothersome trying to keep them alive.”

I… can’t die… like this… somepony… help… Her prayers were answered when a piercing pain was felt on Skull’s back legs, bringing him to his knees and dropping Grace. The thestral sputtered and coughed, inhaling deeply for her much needed oxygen; looking around Skull saw his assailant, being a feeble looking unicorn. The unicorn in question was Sparks, who was currently evaluating his life choices and why he tried to attack this terrifying looking minotaur.

Oh right… I attacked him because he was going to strangle Winged Grace… why do I have to be such a nice guy… well if I’m going to die, at least I died trying to help somepony instead watching and doing nothing.Skull snarled and was about to kill Sparks but Grace clambered up and thrust her sword into his throat, spurts of his blood covering her and Sparks; Skull fell down, drowning in his own blood until Grace stabbed her sword into his chest, stabbing his heart.

Both Grace and Spark were huffing and wheezing from the tiring battles they each fought, collapsing back-to-back with each other. “Thanks… for saving me...” said Grace.

“I… couldn’t let him kill you sergeant… you still have ponies to lead… me… I’m just a private… mam...”

“Ha, yeah right, I know about your leadership skills back at the camp, you were the top in your class, that and your pretty skilled with your magic and know a few good spells… After this, I’ll buy you a drink...”

The two were soon interrupted when they spotted another horde of minotaurs charging forth; standing back up, the two were joined by several other surviving guards, with them being the two griffons, their numbers dwindling to a staggering two digits from the original two-hundred that were stationed in Tall Tale.

“I guess we’re going to die here huh,” said Sugarcane, limping.

“Be glad you fought and are still standing… though I’m proud to be fighting with a stallion like yourself,” said Light.

“I’m assuming we fight back till we drop dead, I’m not going let these bastards take me alive, nor will I let them near the princess,” said Sharphook.

“That’s the plan; you heard him, we either fight or die trying! FOR EQUESTRIA!”

“FOR EQUESTRIA!” The remaining ponies stood strong together, those who were still at the ramparts heard their fellow guards outcry and join them, preparing for what would be their last and final stand.

As the literal wave of minotaurs approached, something… happened; in an explosion of dirt, blood, and flying bodies, the minotaur charge was halted by a fiery explosion that knocked back bodies and killed many near the explosion. Some ran screaming as they were lit in demonic looking flames, while others tried to crawl with missing limbs.

The ponies were confused of what had just occurred, but the minotaurs were even more so, both sides were afraid to approach the fiery explosion, but some minotaurs slowly approached… until an armored gauntlet pierced the smoke and fire and clutched a minotaur’s head. The poor bull wailed and screamed from his own flesh being seared by the scorching hot metal of the gauntlet that clutched his face, soon he was tossed aside like a flesh-bag into the hooves of his kind.

The minotaurs backed up immediately, pointing their weapons at the new threat; stepping forth from the flames was an armored giant, bigger than anything either side seen before, it stood taller than the minotaurs at five feet and six inches. This creature wore armor unfamiliar to the eyes of any trained smith or armor-expert, as the one color that came to anyone’s mind was azure, but what spoke volumes were three things; on his left hand the creature wielded a grotesque large zweihander of some kind with a pulsing eye in the center that was covered in flesh. The other hand was more of a claw as it was mutated and had three pronged points that could tear anything it grasped; the final detail that stood out was the creature’s piercing red glowing eyes upon a helmet with two bat-like wing designsattached on it.

The armored being glanced around itself before slinging it’s mighty weapon over its shoulder; it faced the minotaurs who flinched before its gaze moved to the ponies. Seeing them for the first time, it slowly approached them, neither side moving but the ponies kept their guard as the creature approached them. Once it stood before them, it stood there silently neither side speaking until one of the ponies spoke out of curiosity and fear.

“Who… who are you?”

The armored giant stood stalk still but brought his sword forward, the ponies flinched but relaxed when it pointed the weapon to the sky, as if it were posing before them.

“I am Nightmare; the Azure Knight and wielder of Soul Edge! I am a wandering swordsman who has come from lands far and will fight for my own battles and my own wars, I will never be shackled to the whims of others nor will I ignore the needs of those before me… I traveled beyond the mountains just that direction from here.” Pointing toward the mountains just south of Tall Tale, the ponies looked back at Nightmare with little ease but kept their guard near him.

Stepping forward, Grace took front stage before the now named warrior, unnoticed by her or anyone but Nightmare or Seth in this case flinched at the blood-stained pony. Yeesh, this must not be her day.

“I am Staff Sergeant Winged Grace, I must ask why you have come here, as it is a bit of a coincidence that some wandering warrior would come into a middle of a battle.”

“Well, I originally planned to find civilization, but on my way to this direction I encountered this wounded hawk,” said Nightmare. Extending his mutated claw which made some of the ponies flinch and gag, a familiar hawk landed on one of his claw’s hooks; the bird cawed, gazing with red glowing eyes before it preened itself casually.

That hawk, its one of the messenger birds I sent out and if he encountered it, it must be the one I was sending to the Equestrian capital.

“How did you come by this messenger bird?” asked Sharphook, standing beside Grace now.

Having saw the shock in the griffon’s eyes, Nightmare knew the bird must of originally belonged to him. “As I was traveling beyond those mountains, two minotaurs wounded the bird, until they assaulted me without reason, I of course retaliated in return by slaughtering them like the mongrels they are. Being a merciful heart and one who believes in second-chances, I healed and made this hawk into… what you may call my familiar of sorts, in return he led me here, I however didn’t knew of this oncoming battle and decided to come down and intervene.”

“So are you planning on helping us?”

“...No.” The shock in their eyes was evident on their faces, especially the ponies who’s pupils shrunk but before they could fall to depression, Nightmare raised his mutated claw. “I plan not helping you, but I will deal with these minotaurs; I may be peaceful and calm with others, but I will not tolerate needless attacks, especially on those who attack me not out of revenge or reason, but to assault me because of my appearance is not a good enough reason either… So seeing how these minotaurs attacked me and do not appear to be in the speaking mood… I see no reason to play nice with them. Fight with me if you will, but do not get in my way...”

Hearing this, Nightmare turned and faced the minotaurs, balancing his weapon on his shoulder, stomping toward the wave of minotuars. The ponies looked at one another before gazing at Grace who was also baffled at this being’s reasons for fighting; shaking her head, she faced her fellow guards and allies. “We won’t get in ‘his’ way, we’ll follow behind and fight any surviving stragglers that are left behind, don’t act cocky and charge forth, you’ll end up killed by the minotaurs or that… thing’s backlash.” Nodding in understanding, the remaining force of guards split into groups of ten to fifteen, slowly moving behind Nightmare at a reasonable distance.

Nightmare approached the enemy forces, seeing the cowering and shaking forms of the minotaurs from the distance between them. “My my, not my reasons for killing these fools but whatever gets me souls without being chased or ran off by others,” said Soul.

“I wasn’t wrong, I am often peaceful and calm but after seeing those two scouts kill Nightwing so easily shows that these guys don’t plan to do anything good with those living in that town. If I had to choose who I’ll help, I’d go with the underdog instead of the winning side, no matter who it is.”

“And besides, the minotaurs have more souls than these ponies, and while I’d be pleased if you killed them all, you’re the boss so I follow your lead.”

Done with their short conversation, Nightmare prepared to begin his murderous spree upon the minotaurs, his eyes glinting as he prepared what would be a one-sided fight. “Time to begin the onslaught!”

“LET US FEAST ON THEIR SOUUULS!”

While slow, what happened next shocked everyone; seeing his slow movements one of the minotaurs charged thinking he could out-maneuver him, but what happened next was so quick he didn’t realize he died. Charging with a shoulder ram, Nightmare bashed into the bull before lifting him up, slamming him into the ground before finishing it with smashing his weapon into him, leaving a bloody pulp of flesh and blood that splattered everywhere, covering his comrades and Nightmare himself who continued on.

“Pathetic, not even worth the fight.” This riled up the rest, charging toward Nightmare with rage and determination in their eyes… before they would join the countless bodies to come.

Time to show them why I’m known as, the Symbol of Destruction. With slow but powerful strikes, Nightmare sweeps away the oncoming wave of minotaurs with each strike of his weapon, sending bodies and limbs flying, blood spraying everywhere as the agonizing screams of the dying echo across the battlefield.

With each death, their soul is devoured into Soul Edge, leaving behind a field of bodies in his path, the ponies follow but glance at the destruction brought by this creature. None were spared and those who did manage to survive were barely close to life and killing them was more of a mercy than an act of killing.

Wrecking havoc onto the minotaur army, they begin to run in fear some dropping weapons or removing pieces of armor to run quicker; seeing this, Nightmare grasp Soul Edge with both his gauntlet and malfested arm, before the weapon was engulfed in chaotic flames. With a powerful horizontal swipe of the blade, he sent a blast of flames that scorched those it made contact with, leaving behind embers, ashes and scorching bodies, some minotaurs running while still alight from the fires.

Seeing their comrades easily defeated, the remaining minotaur army retreated back, but not all managed to escape as Nightmare stared at the still standing siege towers that had some minotaurs inside them still. Charging at one tower in particular he smashed his weapon into the side of the tower, before it began to collapse killing those inside and those who couldn’t get out of the trajectory it was falling to, smashing all it fell upon.

“RUN YOU COWARDS, FOR I AM NIGHTMARE, THE SYMBOL OF DESTRUCTION; I WILL DEVOUR YOUR SOULS AND SLAUGHTER YOU LIKE THE ANIMALS YOU ARE! FEAR ME FOR YOUR END HAS COME, FOR TONIGHT I WILL FEAST!” With a horrid and demonic laughter, Nightmare unleashed a torrent of chaotic flames from Soul Edge that spiraled into the sky, turning the once midnight sky into a blazing mix of red, orange, and purple. Raising his weapon skyward, he stood before a hill of debris from the siege tower and bodies that Nightmare killed, as glowing wisps of the souls of the deceased slowly enter into Soul Edge.

“RAISE THY SWORDS, FOR TONIGHT HAS BEEN A GLORIOUS BATTLE OF BLOOD AND FIRE!”

“YES YES YES! THIS IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR, YOU ARE THE ONE THAT SHALL BRING THIS WORLD TO UTTER CHAOS AND DESTRUCTION! SHOW ME MORE MORE MOOOORE; WE WILL BRING THIS WORLD TO ITS KNEES OR DESTROY ALL IN OUR PATH! FOR YOU ARE THE ONE AND ONLY-”

Speaking together simultaneously, both Soul and Nightmare screamed with blood-lust in their voices, their maddening laughter echoed for all to hear. “AZURE NIGHTMARE!”

Grace watched with the rest of her troops at the demonic silhouette that was Nightmare, who laughed maddening at the surrounding blood and gore that he stood before without a care, as if it were all a game to him… a game that would bring forth untold destruction. Internally and externally she gulped, both regretting and amazed at what she was witnessing… and what may come.

Just what have I gotten myself into?

The next morning – Central Equestria, Everfree Castle; 6:30am

Celestia awoke, readying to raise her sun, feeling the warm rays touching her face; with a smile she made her way to the dining hall for breakfast with her sister before she took her needed rest. Arriving at the dining hall, she was met with a tired Luna who was sipping a cup of tea, nonchalantly eating a muffin.

“Good morning dear sister,” said Celestia.

“Morning Tia…”

“Is there anything I need to know during your rounds last night?”

Luna took a sip of her tea, putting it down on the teacup plate that made a light clack, looking at her Luna searched through her memories before the events of last night came to her. “Actually I do, Captain Breaker came by and told me that the magi discovered four anomalies that appeared during my rounds the previous night. He said two of them were in Equestria, one somewhere in Western Equestria while another at North-Eastern Equestria, the other two are currently unknown but he said he would tell either of us of any news-”

At that very moment a guard came bustling in frantically before looking around and spotting the two princesses, running up to stand in the view of both princesses and saluting. “I am sorry for interrupting your morning meal your majesties, but urgent news have come from the settlement called Tall Tale; a large invading force from the Minos Empire came and attempted to invade and possibly raid Tall Tale!”

The shock was clear on both princesses faces; Celestia glanced at Luna, the look on her face clear that they would continue talking about these anomalies later. “And is the settlement and those there alright, are there any injured?” asked Celestia.

“Sadly there are injured and many of the guard stationed there were killed, but the biggest report isn’t that… Tall Tale… its been taken over!”

Standing up quickly, Luna got the attention of the guard to look at her. “WHO HAS TAKEN OVER TALL TALL, WAS IT THE MINOTAURS!?”

“N-N-No your highness… something… else has taken control of the settlement… We aren’t clear of who taken over the settlement, but the one who sent the report has been told to send a request of seeing the leaders of Equestria from the one responsible of taking control of Tall Tale, pronto.”

Both princesses looked at one another, but after awhile they looked back at the guard with Celestia speaking. “Sent scouts to check the current status of Tall Tale and some more scouts to see the current whereabouts of this invading force; my sister and I need time to reevaluate about this information and make a decision.”

Understanding, the guard nodded and went off, leaving the two sisters alone until Luna spoke. “What shall we do sister, this… thing that took over Tall Tall may be controlling our ponies with an iron hoof, we must fight back and take it back!”

“Don’t be impatient Lulu, what I’m worried more about is this invading force from the minotaurs… something must have happened at the Minos Empire. For now we need to see the current strength of this force… let us hope that they are safe until we can make a swift retaliation to take it back.”

“Who knows what kind of monster is terrorizing our ponies...”

Western Equestria, Tall Tale; 7:00am

“...Welp… I’m bored,” said Nightmare.

Nightmare sat at the top of the eastern wall ramparts, watching the clean-up groups that were moving bodies at the battlefield and clearing debris; pony bodies were moved into the city for proper burial while minotaurs were looted and put into pyres to be burned. After the battle, there was some mistrust and suspicion around Nightmare, with the ponies not letting him enter inside but after several hours – being convinced by Sharphook – they let him inside and after that he sat on the ramparts and gazed at the wrecked battlefield, mostly caused by him.

He was currently gazing at the guards working, with some guards on the ramparts eye him before moving back to their patrol routes. Soon the Azure Knight was approached by who he was introduced to be as Winged Grace, with her were some new… faces to say the least; with her were three griffons and two other guards, possibly with her out of worry for their leader from him.

“Nightmare, I like you to meet First Lieutenant Sharphook, he was the one who ‘convinced’ me to let you enter, traveling with him is Sergeant Major Light Feather and her highness, Princess Soft Beak of the Griffon Lands.” Stepping forward, Nightmare takes a careful view of the three now named griffons with some intrigue, especially at the princess.

A princess you say… wait, this must be the group that the minotaurs were chasing in the first place. “A princess you say… never met one before in my life,” said Nightmare, extending his armored gauntlet. “Hello, my name is Nightmare the Azure Knight, its a pleasure to meet you.”

Light seems to stiffen while Sharphook watches with a careful but calm look, Soft takes a step back, but taking a calm breath extends a claw to shake his gauntlet. After the exchange, Nightmare still sits down but looks before the six beings before him.

“So, have you sent that request to your leaders, because I want to… talk about a few things with them?”

“About that… the letter I sent them might be ‘misinterpreted’, so they may think you took over Tall Tale,” said Grace, worriedly.

“,,,Well I may as well have,” said Nightmare, nonchalantly.

At those words, the two guards that came with Grace pointed their spears at Nightmare which caused Grace to order them to lower their weapons and Soft to sweat worriedly. Seeing this happen, Nightmare rose up which caused everyone to take a step back with their own fearful looks. “Oh, you wanna fight?”

“We… we won’t let you take over this town and harm the ponies here!” shouted Sparks.

“That’s right, as part of the Equestrian Guard, we’ll protect our homes even from something like you,” said Sugarcane, agreeing.

Nightmare stood there ominously, everyone on edge by his lack of reaction before he began to bellow out a light laughter which grew to a stronger one. “Ahhhhh, haven’t laughed that hard in a long time, I was serious of taking over this place but because I need someplace to stay… I’m in a world I’m unfamiliar with so it makes sense I make a place to come back to if I plan to travel this world… and besides I did saved all your hides so you all owe me. Whatever your leaders think won’t matter, in my own opinion you can only judge somebody with your own eyes and experience, not what others say.”

“So… you don’t plan on hurting anyone?”

“Only those deserving… so unless you give me reasons, I won’t lay a finger – or claw – on anyone; now while I’d love to continue our chats,” said Nightmare, picking up Soul Edge. “I have some exploring to do, I’m going to look around this town and check the sights, if you want to tell me anything just find the armored being wandering the streets.”

“Wai-Wait, hold one second there!” shouted Grace. Nightmare began stepping down the steps off the ramparts while Grace tried to catch up with his long strides; the two guards looked at one another before following behind, leaving the griffons on the ramparts.

Now alone, Soft Beak looked at Sharphook for what their next decision should be now. “So what now, with the minotaurs defeated we can head home, right?’

Sharphook stared at the receding form of Nightmare before facing the princess. “I don’t think so princess, with the Equestrian leaders coming here, we may need to get help from them… I also like to see who this Nightmare character is and why exactly is he here… it’s too much of a coincidence just for him to appear to stop the minotaur’s invasion army…”

With those words, the three griffons followed behind; Nightmare wandered the streets of Tall Tale, taking a look at the sights until the voice of Soul was heard. “Why are we not slaughtering these ponies, the more souls we gather, the more powerful I shall become!?”

“I don’t find the need for killing them necessary… why kill when I could conquer… I always wondered what it be like to control my own empire… There’s also the extra help to find my friends, the more eyes, the higher chance to find clues to find their whereabouts.”

“Hrmmm, well… it be chaotic to own your own army of malfested… Well I agree then, it be interesting to cause chaos world-wide than wandering the place; I shall assist in your new plans and give you power to begin your wide-spread control.”

“Good then… time to bring this world to its knees and maybe find the whereabouts of my friends.” With a malicious smile hidden by his helmet, Nightmare wandered Tall Tale, a glint of inspiration in his eyes.

Author's Note

Nightmare has saved the ponies (and other creatures) of Tall Tall from the invading army of Minos, and now he plans to conquer the world and use - his soon to come - future resources to find his friends.

Celestia and Luna hear news of a new "power" coming from Tall Tale, and signs of war coming. Who could this strange being be, and what does he plan for the future?

And where are the others, and what are they doing in this strange world?

The end to Nightmare's origin story is done; now onto our next character - a little teaser for who's next: THEME MUSIC TIME!

The Overlord

Beyond the borders of Equestria – Griffon Kingdom; 9:00am

Somewhere on the snowy mountaintops of the Griffon Kingdom, were the ancient ruins of a Griffon fort, deep into the old musty stonework of the castle, in a rusted dungeon cell laid anarmored being who wore fur clothing. His skin was an unnatural blue and was an average muscled build, he wore a helmet with three sharp pronged points that pointed upward, beside him was an axe that had a symbol of the face of a creature on the axe-head.

The armored being shook before his two eyes open to revealed two yellow narrowed orbs and while his face was hidden by his helmet, two emotions appeared within his eyes – annoyance and slight confusion. “Where in the hell am I?”

Kaiden stood up and took a careful look around his surroundings until he saw himself, silence reigned until a loud groan came from him. “No no no no… this can’t be happening… I swear if I find that freaking merchant I’m going to strangle the ever loving fuck outta him.” Looking at the floor, he grabbed the axe before exiting the open cell; the cell led to a long stone hallway and at first Kaiden wasn’t sure where to go but felt a cold breeze coming from his left, deciding to go down that path.

Okay, let’s think about this clearly; I’m… the Fourth Overlord of the Overlord game series and since I completed the game I know what I can do… the question is where am I? I know for certain I’m not in the Overlord-world… I swear if this is just like those stupid displaced stories that Seth and…

Kaiden paused before shaking his head from the thought. No… I shouldn’t blame them… but at least I’m someone I know and familiar with and not some damn random character that I lack knowledge about… though I wonder now. If I’m the Overlord does that mean that they’re he-

His thoughts were interrupted by some nearby scuttling and voices coming from a set of spiral stairs that were leading up. The voices weren’t clear to tell how many voices were speaking but… the voices were familiar to Kaiden, one in particular was definitely familiar as it had a certain scratchiness to it. “Wherever we’re at we need to find the Overlord stat; Giblet, who do we have accounted for right now?”

“Uhhhh, we got; Gubbin, Mouldy, Quaver, Gash, Gloob, Grubby, Mortis, Blaze, Stench, Zap, Grub… oh and my assistant Ricket too and twenty-five minions of all four minion tribes,” said Giblet.

“Don’t forget about the beasties, we got some wolves, spiders, and those fire lizard things that came with us to… well, wherever we are at.”

Kaiden recognized some of the names listed off, but a few were unfamiliar or never heard of before, quickly climbing up the steps, he found himself before a short hallway that led to a wooden door that barely held on its own hinges. Approaching the door, Kaiden was going to open the door but found it wouldn’t budge, not wanting to find another way out, he hefted his axe and slammed it into the door, sending wooden shrapnel and the doorknob to go flying outward.

Stepping out, he heard the crinkling of snow as he found himself at what he assumed was the courtyard of some kind. Gazing forward, he saw several Minions haphazardly wandering the castle grounds before all of them were now staring at the source that created the noise earlier; both Kaiden and the Minions stared at one another before he spoke first. “What the heck are all of you staring at?”

In a quick flurry, all the Minions rushed toward their Overlord in a mix of happiness and worry, once they all stood before him, Kaiden recognized a familiar face from the game series. “Ah master, I was worried something terrible happened to you but it appears you teleported somewhere else in this abandoned fort… strange… you appear… different than usual… did you always speak?”

Seeing the confusion that was going to happen Kaiden decided to make sure things were straight forward for all parties. “Okay first off, yes I’m speaking and two, I’m not the Overlord you know… hard to explain,” said Kaiden.

“Oh I know, the moment I saw you I noticed your mental state is far different from the previous Overlord… or any Overlord, but the fact you aren’t freaking out means you either done this before or are familiar with us and the form you are in.”

Kaiden paused at this but shook his head at not trying to understand how Gnarl put together that he wasn’t the Fourth Overlord. “Ooookay… let’s go with the second one.”

“Well then, it won’t matter, you are the Overlord and we serve you loyally; I must ask but do you know where we are my lord?”

“Nah, and the name’s Kaiden and I know as much as you of where we’re at, but I do know what we should do. I want some Minions that know how to build to make this place more livable, and send some minions to scout around the area to see what the nearby lands are like.”

“Ohhh, somebody with some backbone to him, it has been awhile since I met an Overlord I can talk to, the last few have been somewhat of the silent types. Now I would introduce the Minion elite but I believe you know them from your knowledge of handling the Minions?”

“You could say that, but I’d like to be introduced just in case.”

Gnarl nodded before calling upon several Minions forward, one wearing a welding mask, another in grim reaper outfit, another wearing an executors mask and another wearing a tailor’s outfit. “Here are the Minion elite and Minions who play an integral part in your new dark rule my lord. Our Forge Master and leader of the Minion Special Forces Team, Giblet and his assistant Ricket; Gash, who was responsible of the dungeon back at the Dark Tower and the Battle Rock Arena at the Netherworld, he also used to be an ex-Minion Guard; Grubby is one of our Minion Diggers and is responsible with creating tunnels to transport your lordship to other parts of this world; Mortis here can resurrect dead minions and is responsible with the birth of new minions; these three are part of the Special Forces Team that Giblet leads, here are Blaze, Stench and Zap; Grub is the Minion Tailor, so if you wish to wear something fashionable for yourself or have something made for your minions, he is the one you’d speak to… oh, and then there’s… Quaver, the Minion Jester… he also makes the meals for the minions occasionally. There are also some older minions that I thought you should know as they’ll be your elite guard and be by your side constantly, while I do not think you can’t handle yourself, we must be careful as we are in unfamiliar territory, we may be evil but we mustn’t rush head first to things.”

Kaiden stood to see who’d be his elite guard for his time in this new world, as he was curious who they were. “They’re all Browns but I’ll add other Minions from the other minion tribes into this elite guard; we have Gubbin, Mouldy and Gloob; Gubbin and Mouldy lived back around the Second Overlord’s time while Gloob here was from the Third Overlord’s time.”

Kaiden gazed at three armored Browns who were busy fighting one another before paying attention and saluting, with Mouldy saluting with the wrong hand… before going back to fighting. Gnarl face-palmed while Kaiden was a little amused from their simpleness, but you know what they say, the more simple it is, the less complicated it is to use… especially if your an evil-doer trying to command an army of creatures that can cause devastation in seconds.

“Good good, and my requests earlier?” asked Kaiden.

“Ah yes, we actually did a head start on things and are scrounging on what we can find in this abandoned fort, as for scouting the surrounding area, I suggest sending some Browns on the wolves as they will move more efficiently in this snowy climate we’re at.” Nodding in agreement, Gnarl turned to some Browns who stood near some wolves and ordered them to scout the perimeter around the fort and see where they were exactly.

Kaiden decided to go up some steps to the fort’s ramparts which he was followed by Gnarl and his elite guard, once up he gazed at the snow-covered ground around the fort but one thing did catch his attention, the clouds were closer to him than they usually would be. Looks like we’re on a mountain, but that only leaves one question, where are the ones who built this fort are now?

“My lord, is there anything else you wish us to do?”

“...Do you have the Minion hives somewhere safe?”

“Of course, before we could look for you, we placed the hives somewhere deep in this fort, we discovered some abandoned tunnel systems that were luckily empty.”

“Good good… I want some Reds and Browns stationed around the fort ramparts and any still standing towers, also see if there are any supplies that we can use and if I’m correct, there’s hopefully a forge of some kind, get it started up and make some equipment for the minions. I also want some living conditions made for myself, I may not feel tired yet but I ain’t going sleep somewhere cold and hard.”

Gnarl nodded, but before he left to do anything, Kaiden stopped him for one more thing. “Another thing; bring Grubby and Grub here, I have some personal plans I wish to tell them,” said Kaiden, giving a sinister chuckle.

Gnarl grinned mischievously before bowing to his new Overlord. “Of course, I shall bring them straight to you, pronto,” said Gnarl. Soon, Kaiden was left alone standing on the ramparts with his elite guard who busied themselves by tossing stones at Quaver with one stone clonking him on the head.

This new Overlord… may be promising…

Elsewhere – Griffon Kingdom, Griffonstone; 10:30am

It was not a good day for the king of Griffonstone, he just received an urgent report from First Lieutenant Sharphook that a coup has occurred in the Minos Empire as the General of the Minos Army has betrayed the king, and that he managed to escape with the princess and another griffon soldier were on the run and were hiding in a town in Equestria.

King Goldus would send his troops to rescue his daughter and close friend… but sadly the minotaurs weren’t the only ones having a coup; because of Soft Beak’s birth and that she wasn’t a he, many of the noble loyalists think she is unworthy of the crown, especially the more militaristic ones and have started a rebellion with some of the more mistreated populace. The Griffon Kingdom weren’t in dire straits when it came to there living conditions, but because Griffonstone is the only city in the Griffon Kingdom, many believe they should expand but due to already internal problems – financially mostly – the surrounding lands were near inhabitable or were infested with deadly beasts.

It also didn’t help that nature in the Griffon Kingdom was much wilder with the snow storms and powerful gales that swept through the land and sky, making the living conditions beyond Griffonstone difficult. Many suggest invading Equestria, but this was denied as Equestria was close friends with the griffons, even though their past transgressions with the pegasi, this was further proven from the fact that griffons and ponies live peacefully at an island in the Celestial Sea called the Griffish Isles where both races live together in a town called Trottingham which has become the source trading spot for both kingdoms.

Still, both the noble royalists and loyalists are at each others necks and sending forces to Equestria while at their current predicament may cause future problems, so sadly King Goldus was unable to send help… which was why this meeting was called for by some royalists, the king’s advisers, and a few loyalists who were staying neutral from the infighting.

“We’re here because the Minos Empire has been taken from a coup by the nation’s general, the status of Princess Soft Beak and her guardians are alright as they managed to run away and hid themselves in an Equestrian settlement… but not for long. I know for certain that this won’t stop the minotaurs and sooner or later they’ll send an invasion force to attack Equestria… which is why we must warn the Equestrians and make an alliance to defeat the minotaurs, say aye if you agree with this plan,” said one of the royalists.

The other royalists and loyalists look at one another until claws were raised except for Adviser Shadow Claw, the king’s spymaster. “Adviser Shadow Claw, do you have some disagreements with this plan?”

“Not at all, but the method of how we’re to contact the Equestrians, we shouldn’t tell them just yet with our own problems, we can’t be of much help if we’re too focus on the infighting in our own nation,” said Shadow.

“Shadow Claw has a point,” said Hawkeyes, military adviser of the king. “We need to deal with the traitorous loyalists that have caused this rebellion!”

“Now now Hawkeyes, let’s not do anything rash,” said Birdsong, diplomatic adviser. “What do you suggest, Rich Flight?”

Rich Flight the financial adviser was busy counting some gold coins before sliding them into a pouch. “Well, I would suggest doing the option that would do less of a financial rut to us, but taking care of the rebellion is important in order for us to be at full strength.”

King Goldus listened to the various griffons talk amongst one another before a young griffon guard came bursting in with a worried look. Many griffons glared at this sudden outburst, but both Hawkeyes and Shadow Claw noticed the fear in the griffons eyes… and knew something was wrong. The young griffon guard approached the king doing a failed attempt of a bow before quickly standing tall, rigid.

“My king, report from the southern border patrol!”

“Speak, what have they to report?”

“My king; the southern border patrol has spotted several flying silhouettes in the distance just an hour ago! They aren’t sure where they went but they should be in the nearby vicinity!”

Dragons. “Hawkeyes, get a contingency of griffons guards and some of the Blackwings to the southern border, we may have dragons coming to raid us again; make sure the coffers and some of the nearby farmland is safe from the foul lizards, we can’t allow them to dwindle our already meager supplies and gold!”

“As you wish my king, to me!” With that, several black armored griffons followed Hawkeyes who wore her signature helmet and left, leaving behind the other griffons to talk about this new recent news.

Things aren’t looking good for us…

Griffon Kingdom, Abandoned Fort; 11:00am

After Gnarl called Grubby and Grub to go see the Overlord, he told what the other minions to do with Giblet and Ricket finding a forge and getting it set up and ready for forging. The other elite minions like Gash, Mortis, Blaze, Stench and Zap decided to see what they could do; Blaze, Stench and Zap organized their respective minion tribe groups and trained them of their respective skills, making those three the minion generals of the Reds, Greens and Blues, while the Browns were all led by Gash who was an ex-Minion Guard as he had nothing else to do. Mortis wandered about until he found the dungeons and converted it into his own dank little hovel… and into the minions’ living quarters.

As for Overlord Kaiden – that is what he wished to be called – his living quarters were prepared as they found a big room that had its own balcony and king-sized bed. He was currently having some stables built for the wolves, spiders, and salamanders; some other things he wanted built from Grubby was to use the series of tunnel systems for two things, as Kaiden told him to build a tunnel to the foot of the mountain for easy access and to build several chambers within the mountain for the minion elite to use.

Each minion elite had their own personal room to work and live in and would have expand it further to make more living space for future minions and other areas for different sort of things. Grub was told to make something for the Overlord, a flag and while he was the Minion Tailor, he was happy to make a symbol for the Overlord, specifically from his exact orders.

With that now done, Kaiden checked on some things while followed by his three elite guards who now had weapons to wield with Gubbin wielding an axe, Mouldy wielding a spear and short sword, and Gloob wielding a mace.

Kaiden gazed at the various minions working or training at the courtyard, while various sounds of construction was heard within the fort and deep underground. When he spoke to Gnarl, he was told that Kaiden has access to all his spells – the ones that the Fourth Overlord had access to – all the health and mana upgrades and even the Minion upgrades. The only problems was that they were missing a smelter to use as the forge was barely in standing condition, with some weapons and armor rusted or broken, there was one clue of what happened to the smelter as a part of the forge wall was open to the mountainside, the armor was also peculiar as it was shaped for a creature that stood on fours and had wings.

Whoever were the previous denizens of this place must of broke the wall and flew the smelter away and seeing the condition of this place, it must have been a while since that was done.

Kaiden wore basic Overlord garment that the Fourth Overlord wore, meaning he was starting from beginning when it came to armor or weaponry, but he was good on the health and magic compartment as all his spells were fully upgraded. He had all upgrades for the Minions too other than their armor and weaponry, so he could bring with him a total of thirty-five Minions, he was told by Gnarl he could bring more than the required amount but it would be harder to control as it would feel like trying to tell a score of piranha to do something.

Kaiden asked Gnarl if the total amount of Minions he could bring was fifty and after that question Gnarl was surprised and responded with a yes. Gnarl now learned that this Overlord might know more about the Minions and the lineage of Overlords than he originally thought… all the more reason why he’s worthy of controlling them.

“If that is the case, then I want to make a to-do list,” said Kaiden.

“An evil to-do list?” asked Gnarl.

“More like a ‘Preparations before the evil deeds’ kind of list; we need a smelter, some resources and supplies, a crane would also help to move the heavier stuff… I also want to know what kind of creatures made this fort… and if I can possibly get them under my heel.” Kaiden rubbed his gauntlets together, chuckling evilly to himself, he was always told by the others he had an evil side to him, especially whenever he caused a numerous amount of mayhem and chaos whenever they played D&D together.

“HA! Even before you’re doing anything evil, you already plan on subjugating this world’s denizens! I will tell the Minions to prepare themselves; the tunnel that Grubby made to the foot of the mountain is done, we prepared a Warp Gate to the foot of the mountain back to the fort, we only have enough for this one trip so once you get down there, do find something of magical interest that we can use to create more Warp Gates for new locations. Walking from place to place can be a tiring thing to do.”

Nodding, Kaiden selected fifteen Browns, ten Reds, five Greens and five Blues, he took only five wolves with him and three of the Browns were his elite guard, those Minions being, Gubbin, Mouldy, Gloob.

The second he stepped onto the Warp Gate, Kaiden felt a pulling sensation before he found himself in what could best be described as a forest with the mountain to his back. The trees were covered in ice and snow the ground littered with snow… everything was snow, snow, oh and look more snow.

“This is a freaking winter fucking wonderland ain’t it.”

“Indeed my lord, though it best we keep our guard up, no matter how simple things look.”

Hearing Gnarl’s voice was at first a surprise but Kaiden shrugged it off, continuing further through the forest, he came upon something interesting. It looked like a gravel pathway and was recently used, but instead of using it he took an alternate path; wanting to know where this path led, Kaiden sent five of the Minions that rode the wolves ahead of them.

Moving parallel from the gravel path, he came upon the edge of the forest to a field of snow, but further ahead he spotted a walled settlement. The wolves he sent ahead came running back with their riders to report what they found. “Master, bird-thingies up ahead.”

“‘Bird-thingies’?” Looking where the Minion was pointing, Kaiden saw several flying figures; what he saw looked like griffons but they appeared smaller than he imagined they would be… and they wore armor, nothing to heavy like leather or something similar. They also had bows and swords with them, and instead of flying into the town flew to the main gate which after awhile didn’t open but did after a griffon in the front of the group spoke to a griffon on the wooden wall.

So the denizens of this place are mythological creatures and considering their low-tech stuff, they’re not that advanced… medieval maybe at best.

“Griffons you say my lord, hmmmm, from the looks of it they’re not bird-brains… well, not as bird-brained as you think a bird might think. It best we avoid them for now, there’s something of interest that the scouts found just further south, past this settlement.”

Following Gnarl’s directions, Kaiden led his Minions around the settlement, but decided to keep one of the Greens to watch the settlement and stay hidden.

After traveling further south, Kaiden and his Minions came upon some sort of military camp, not a big one but plenty of griffon-like creatures; they appeared to be either patrolling or simply mingling with one another, either laughing or talking with one another about something. The one thing however that caught his attention was the pillar of smoke coming from the other side of the camp, traveling around the camp carefully, Kaiden spotted a smelter, a very grand one at that.

“That smelter, we need it; since we’re not at full strength, we need to stealth the shit out of that camp…” said Kaiden. Looking around Kaiden tried to think of something but when he spotted some of his Reds playing with their fireballs, he grinned to himself. “And I have an idea.”

Sometime later – Griffon Kingdom, Military Griffon Camp; 11:30am

A young griffon guard yawned to himself as he gazed lazily at the far distance of the forest treeline, but after scanning the forest, he spotted something alarming. Squinting his eyes, what he saw brought him to full attention as there was black smoke just further deep within the forest; with a deep inhale he unleashed a loud squawk for the whole camp to hear. “FIRE! FIRE; THE FOREST IS ON FIRE!”

This caught the attention of all the griffons, after doing nothing for nearly two weeks, it was good they finally got some action so nearly all the griffons, especially the youthful ones armed themselves and ran or flew to the where the fire is happening. Some of the more experienced ones stays behind, but the distraction was enough to get Kaiden’s plan moving; with a good portion of the camp now empty, Kaiden had some Greens switch places with some of his Browns. The Greens stealthily ran through the snowy field toward their prize, the sound of crunching snow was overshadowed by the commotion the griffons were making.

Nearing the smelter, they doused the flames and quickly readied to carry the smelter off, but as they were just halfway out of the field to the forest… they heard a loud clatter. All the Greens slowly swiveled their heads to the source of this new sound, and spotted a griffon; this griffon didn’t wear any heavy armor but a simple tunic, another interesting thing was that this griffon was less stocky and had more feather fluff around the mid-section… it also had eyelashes.

The griffon gazed wide-eyed at the small green creatures that were currently tried to swipe away their smelter, having just woken from all the commotion, this griffon stepped out with sword in claw but dropped it out of shock from sighting the strange creatures. It lasted for ten seconds before the griffon was ready to scream before a swift motion to the head and audible clonk later, the griffon fell as standing on box with a wooden club was a grinning Brown who was apparently sent with the Greens as a backup precaution.

“Heh heh, birdy go nap nap.”

Now having two things to carry, the Greens carried the smelter while the single Brown hefted the griffon with zero problems back to the Warp Gate and the fort.

Sometime later – Griffon Kingdom, Abandoned Fort; 12:00pm

Silver Beak was just a simple squire of Knight Holy Wing, who was stationed at one of the military camps near the settlement of Beakerton. She didn’t expect to be woken by loud shouting of a fire, only to come face to face with small green gremlins and get herself knocked out by possibly one of them.

Now waking up, she found herself in some dank dungeon cell and was strapped to a chair by ropes bound to her wrists to the armchairs and around her mid-section. Looking around she saw the cell door, but as she glanced outside the cell, several figures rammed against the cell door, those figures being several of the small creatures she remembering seeing but of different coloration and a few wearing pieces of clothing and other junk.

For a time they tried biting through the cell door before the backed away and into the darkness, now alone, Silver sighed to herself until a voice was heard behind her. “So, who exactly are you?”

Silver was unable to turn her head, but the voice was very close, when a new figure came around her vision; standing before her was an armored biped, it wasn’t a minotaur that was for certain but whatever it was it looked terrifying with its two glowing and wielded a hefty axe over it’s shoulder.

“I said, who exactly are you?” asked Kaiden.

“M-M-My name is, Silver B-B-Beak, I’m a squire to-to Knight Holy W-Wi-Wing. I was supposed to be training under him for a month or longer and so far been with him for a week,” said Silver.

“I see… you appear to be a woman, or is it chick in this case?”

“Um I’m not sure what a woman is but if you are referring to my gender then I am indeed a female...”

Rubbing his chin, Kaiden faced Silver Beak once more which caused her to flinch; snapping his finger to armored Browns that wielded some spears removed the restraints on Silver Beak, before pointing their spears at her. Unsure what they wanted from her, Kaiden began to exit from the dungeon cell before facing her. “Well, don’t just stand there, follow.”

Having nowhere or any other choice, Silver Beak followed behind this strange being that was apparently the leader of these creatures. After following him up some spiral stairs, they reached a long hallway until they came outside to a courtyard filled with the creatures, each doing something – some were patrolling the walls, others were rebuilding destroyed parts of this fort and others were ordering said creatures like officers in an army.

“These creatures you see before you are called Minions, there are four types which are referred to as Browns, Red, Greens, and Blues; I’d go to further detail but that’s all I’ll say… but you my friend will tell me everything you know about this world,” said Kaiden, gazing alarmingly close to Silver. “Every, thing.”

Gulping loudly, Silver Beak had only one thing to say to this stranger… and possibly the only one to stop these Minion creatures from eating her alive. “I… read a little and know a couple things beyond my home’s borders but, I still don’t know who you are?”

Some silence befell the courtyard as all were quiet, suddenly the clouds darkened as a distant roar of some bestial creature could be heard, a storm was coming but that didn’t faze anyone but Silver Beak, but as she continued to gaze at this unknown figure. He swiftly turned to face her and while she couldn’t see his face, she felt his unwavering hidden smile… and the hidden darkness that was within.

“Oh me? I’m Kaiden – The Overlord.”

Author's Note

(Oops, this was supposed to be published on the sixth but I forgot to press the button, well here you go another new chapter)

Kaiden - Overlord of the Minions - has begun his plans of world domination, starting with the capture of the Griffons smelter and a female griffon squire; what does he plan to do with both things?

The Griffon Leadership are dealing with their own internal problems and now a possible invasion from the south by dragons, is there a way to defeat this new foe?

Some addition tidbit information, Kaiden can understand other languages similar to how Nightmare/Seth can understand them through the helmet he wears. The others will also have a way as to how they'll understand the language of other races later too.

Next time: Griffons, Dragons, Minions, a power-hungry Overlord, a grouchy Gnarl and one very terrified Griffon chick; things are about to get medieval here!

Evil Always Finds A Way

Further south of the Southern Griffon Kingdom border – Celestial Sea; 12:10pm

Thousands of miles in the skies above the Celestial Sea were a swarm of dragons, but these dragons weren’t the size of castles but were at least the height and size of young trees and cabins and even though their size was smaller to dragons of yore, the sheer numbers of them was enough to make a small kingdom like the griffons to tremble in fear. Right now this swarm of drakes were bating their time, hovering in wait to the call of the one who brought them all together; this drake was bigger but not big enough to be called a full-fledged dragon, but his bulging muscles, the smoke flowing from nostrils like water and drips of magma was enough to call him a threat.

Many of his kind call him the Shadow-Wing, a title for dragons who like the shadows to fall upon all, would appear and vanish without a trace; he has raided his fair share of towns and small settlements at the far reaches of some kingdoms, but now he was planning his biggest score – attacking a kingdom.

The griffons have lived close to the dragons and while they lived under rich veins of gold, they were well protected from all manner of invasions and threats… in the past that is. Now they were weak and vulnerable that even a swift blow of the wind was enough to topple most of their structures. Their target was the capital city, Griffonstone; the plan was to destroy every settlement they came upon, but not kill everyone, letting the surviving refugees to run to the capital, overcrowding and terrorizing all those within the city.

It was also helpful that Griffonstone was the only well-defended settlement, due to its geographical location and long history of surviving various sieges, but sadly it was the only successful city to be built as previous attempts had ended in varying problems and failures. Gathering all the youngest, bravest, rowdiest dragons he could find, their numbers were in the double digits standing at a total of eighty of them; there were varying types from the basic fire-breathers, frost drakes, rock dragons and a rare few wind-slicer dragons. There was also to be a steel-eating dragon, but he was currently late in arriving though it was no surprise as he was kind of a deep sleeper, the only reason he was coming was because there was stories of the steel of the griffons’ was beautiful… and delicious.

Finally, with all of these drakes under my command, I can show those old-wrinkly dragons the true might of our generation!

“Hey Shadey, metal-biter is here.”

“I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME THAT! MY NAME IS SHADE FANG!”

“Whatever...”

Looking around he spotted the dragon in question; the steel-eater was by the name of Chomp – not very eloquent, but it gets what he does to a T. He was currently eating some raw iron ore absently whilst another hyper red dragon was talking to him in such a rate, you couldn’t tell if he was actually listening or not. “SoIwaswonderingifyouknowthisoneguywholooksallscrawnyandatadsmallaroundhere?”

Biting the iron ore some more, he gulped it down before tossing what was left to the waters below, belching some iron shavings out. “Him? I think he went that way,” said Chomp.

“Ohthankyouandhaveagreatandwondrousday!” Before she flew off, she looked at Chomp with a smile. “OhandmynameisSunnynicemeetingyou!”

Flying off Chomp watched her leave before a tap to his shoulder was felt, turning around he noticed Shade and another drake who had blue scales and a cold bored look in her eyes.

“Finally you made it here, I’m assuming that iron you were holding means you were busy digging some to snack on,” said Shade.

“Something like that… and I see you got cold scales here; sup Frigid,” said Chomp.

Nodding, Frigid flew beside Shade as his second-in-command and while the two knew each other since they were hatchlings, they had this hidden respect for one another… they just never show it.

“Well now that everyone is here, time to begin this attack! OY, WE’RE BEGINNING TO ATTACK THE FIRST CITY, A PORT TOWN JUST NEAR THE COAST OF THE GRIFFON KINGDOM, BURN THESE BASTARDS TO ASH BUT LEAVE SOME SURVIVORS TO SPREAD OUR PATH OF DESTRUCTION THAT’LL COME TO THESE BIRD-BRAINS!” Hearing his order loud and clear, all the drakes roared as they began to swoop down and devour the griffons riches and burn down their homes; seeing the swarm of drakes begin their assault, Shade smirked to himself as his plan was flawless.

Nothing is gonna stop me!

Griffon Kingdom, Abandoned Fort; 12:30pm

After being introduced to the Overlord – though he wanted to be called Kaiden until told not to – she was given a quick rundown of what they are and a few other things from Gnarl while Kaiden was busy doing… Overlord-things. Silver was mesmerized by the lore and history of the Minions and their Overlord, it was truly amazing that beings from another world were right before her eyes, though while their history was “dark and evil” is what Gnarl best described them, history was still history.

If Silver had to decide a hobby she do forever, she pick history, reading and anything to do with books, sadly she had to choose something that didn’t require you having a nobility or riches, so she became a squire. One of the things she was told by Gnarl was that Minions were born through the gathering of life-force which can be gained by the death of other creatures by either the Overlord or his Minions. Having heard this, Silver suggested that they gain access of some livestock if they want to increase their numbers.

Wait, how come I’m giving such good advice to him, I shouldn’t be saying something like this and get their numbers big if what he says is true!

“That be helpful… sadly the Minions aren’t what you call… effective for peasant life, we were made for battle and conquest, not simple things like those sort of things,” said Gnarl. “Though… the master might have some idea how to handle our low shortage of forces… Maybe I can convince him of slavery.”

“S-Slavery!?”

“Hmmmm, a yes, in the past previous Overlords ruled over their respective peons with an iron-fist or terrorized them on a daily basis.”

“What’s this about scaring the shit out of people?” asked Kaiden.

“Ah my evilness, this she-bird-”

“Griffon and my name is Silver Beak.”

“Griffon… Has suggested we maintain our forces for new Minions by maintaining our own livestock; I was hoping you had an idea how to do this but I suggest we enslave the local beings of this world and-”

“No.”

“No? No to what master?”

“I won’t enslave other sentient beings.”

The utter silence that came was so big, that when Gnarl finally realized what Kaiden said, he shook his head and sighed. “Well this might be a problem, so much for you being completely evil.”

“Hey, don’t be questioning why I won’t accept that kind of thinking, taking in slaves isn’t evil just cowardly, what part of letting somebody else do your dirty work is considered evil? I rather do everything with my own two hands… besides, its more fun to watch and see who’s responsible than the subordinate, ain’t it.”

After some thought Gnarl grinned and cackled. “I see, well then I suppose the need for slaves won’t be required, but how are we to maintain a stable flow of life-force?”

“Well, while you say the Minions can’t maintain any livestock, I fair to differ, they just need proper training and discipline, if they can listen to me, able to tame wolves, spiders and fire salamanders, and even become organized to find themselves a new Overlord whenever the previous one is gone… Well then I must be crazy.”

“...I see your point, I will have some Minions to find any local wild livestock to care for until we can harvest what life-force from them.”

“Good, I will also oversee how this pet project shall work… we should also have certain Minions do further specializations like this, one to handle future construction projects, one to handle livestock and life-force handling, and maybe one for scouting out this new world of ours… a spymaster may do.”

“HA! You surprise me each passing day, you make it sound less like you conquering the world, but rather you wanting to create a land under your evil rule.”

Kaiden paused and thought about these new ideas… and it pleased him deeply; he smiled demonically under his helmet but the aura of malice felt from him made Gnarl and Silver shiver. “Now that… sounds truly appealing. I’ve decided, I won’t conquer this world, I shall make it bow before me as its Overlord – I shall be the Overlord of this brand new world!”

Gnarl had met and seen many masters – some wanted to conquer, others destroy… and that one particular one that manipulated several heroes into doing heinous acts – but this one, oh the evil inside him… HE was the one, an Overlord above Overlords… a Dark God. Gnarl grinned evilly to himself and with that he bowed down to his master and his new plans. This will be glorious.

“Not to be rude, but I don’t think that’s possible; the kingdom is currently under civil war and we’re low on resources. If you were to take over then all the problems within this kingdom would be yours… that and I don’t see how a small group of yours can handle a government and military that’s three times bigger than you,” said Silver.

“HAH! Don’t underestimate my dear, past Overlords had taken down foes that others would shy away! Taking over this kingdom of yours would be like taking candy from a baby!” said Gnarl.

“Heheheh, candy,” said Gubbin.

Silver watched as these so called Minions either worked, trained or patrolled along the fort’s ramparts, they were more organized than their own kingdom which was under civil war, poverty and possible attacks from outside forces. While having some unknown tyrant coming along to take over her homeland wasn’t a good option either… something about this Kaiden was different than past kings of her home.

“Now, back to our original topic; you were explaining to me of the various lands on this world,” said Kaiden.

“Oh… right, ahem.”

This world we live on has no shared name as all races call it by many; we griffons call it Yggdrasil, the minotaurs call it Olympus, while the ponies refer it as Equus, but I believe the name that best fits our world would be Eden. So Eden consists from my own knowledge at least three major continents, and on these continents are the many races that live on these lands.

There are too many civilizations and races to account for, but I’ll list the known major ones that be of interest to you; to the east are us, the Griffon Kingdom, ruled by a long lineage of kings, though things hadn’t been going well for us since the time of King Guto when the Idol of Boreas was lost to us. Far in the north-west is the Minos Empire, I don’t know much about them or their current situation, but some of our kind were sent there for peaceful talks.

To the south of us griffons are the dragons, but they don’t have an actual civilization with no cities, but they’re widely accepted by the other nations as their own. To the south are the zebras, distant cousins of the ponies, while they can’t fly or use magic like unicorns, they do use ancient recipes of potions and mystic arts.

Other nations like Saddle Arabia, Abyssinia and more are around, but the biggest one to rival the Griffon Lands and Minos Empire are Equestria. They been around for nearly centuries, going way back, ruled by two princesses of a rare breed of pony called alicorns. They consist of three types of ponies, earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns, with several sub-pony races like thestrals and so on.

There are legends and tales of other known races, there isn’t any evidence to tell if they still exist are where to find remnants of said lost races.

“And that’s everything I know about this world… Anything else you want to know?” asked Silver.

“Nah, that’s everything I need, you got that Gnarl?”

“Indeed my lord, I’ll have it written down later for future reference if we were to encounter any of these nations and respective beings. Though something is bothering me, with so many nations I’m surprised no all out war has happened yet?”

“Well, there have been wars and battles before but nowadays no body dares, especially the deeds and actions the Equestrian princesses and their heroes have done. If there were war, most likely the Minos Empire would attack due to past transgressions, but they been mostly quiet. The dragons are a likely second candidate whether it be to burn down a settlement for loot or simply bored, but dragons in general keep to themselves and won’t unite under one banner unless told by their leader.”

“Then I suppose we’ll give them a reason why they should be ready. Gnarl, prepare the minions, we’re going to strike this nation’s capital city… Uh, what is the capital city exactly?” asked Kaiden.

Silver was shocked, was he serious, would he actual start an all-out war with all the nations just for some petty ruling over the griffons. “ARE YOU NUTS! If you were to start a war, we’d be annihilated, especially us griffons, we have our own problems to deal with!”

“Not my problem… unless… you were to work under me.”

“Wha-What are you saying?”

Kaiden took some steps to face the ramparts edge, gazing at the horizon to what he assumed was where the capital was. “I’m unlike anything else in this world, I have both knowledge from two different worlds on how to use my new powers and forces, combined with the knowledge from my own world… and besides I’m not alone.”

“Uh yeah of course.”

“I mean, I’m not the only one from my world here… When I was sent to this blasted place, I came along… three other ‘associates’ of mine, and I won’t stop until I find them all. With my power and their help, nothing can stop me!” Silver, Gnarl and all the Minions heard Kaiden laugh wickedly as the spread both arms outward to the sky, like he was grasping the world in his hands. And then I’m going to beat the ever-loving crap out of that stupid Merchant when I get back home.

“Well, I won’t help you, I won’t betray my fellow griffons so some mad… whatever you are, rule us with an iron-fist!”

Kaiden paused before swiftly turning to face Silver, she squawked from the uncomfortable atmosphere from Kaiden inches close to her beak. Silence followed but it appeared Kaiden grinned before standing back up. “I like you, you got guts and the so-and-so balls to back them up, but you must understand I may want to conquer but I am fair when I feel like it… and let’s not forget… I hold the key to possibly saving when remains of your homeland.”

Silver Beak gave a curious tilt of her head, until Gnarl himself was curious too about what his lord was talking about. “And what may you be referring to my lord?”

Kaiden grinned under his helmet before raising his gauntlet, lifting one single finger up as if the answer was obvious.

“Why ain’t it obvious, I may have a force that is enough to take over an entire kingdom… but why do I need an army, when I can just take out the biggest problem you griffons have.”

“And that be what exactly?”

“You griffons need something to look up to, a symbol… What you need, is a true leader to look up to. I’m going to show you and every single griffon the might of the Overlord!” At that exact moment, distant thunder and sounds could be heard, looking what was causing such a commotion, they saw a horde of flying silhouettes that were slowly approaching across the landscape and toward a mountain with some sort of tree of some kind. “Huh, speaking of an opportunity.”

“D-D-Dragons! Oh no, this is bad, really bad, if dragons are attacking…” Silver looked up at Kaiden which he was still watching the distant spectacle. “If… If you are serious about wanting to rule over us and helping… please, I’ll help you, but please save our home. We griffons were once a proud race but after misfortune again and again, we’ve been kicked down into the mud more times we could count. So please… help us...”

Kaiden rubbed his chin before looking at the distant battles happening in the landscape; walking away from a bowing Silver, he approached Gnarl. “Gnarl… I want you to get Grubby and some of the other Minion diggers to make a tunnel at these exact areas.” Kaiden began to whisper into Gnarl’s ear, slowly the old minion began to smile and grin evilly as he nodded quickly with the idea.

“Yes, that is an excellent idea, I’ll have them do that immediately; what you wish for the others to do?”

“...Prepare them for battle, tonight we’re going to take over a country! TONIGHT, THE OVERLORD RISES!”

Silver looked up as Kaiden made his way toward the fort, soon all the Minions were getting ready for battle. It was strange seeing beings that looked ready to bite your legs and other extremities off, getting ready to fight for her home… but at the same time, if they were successful then technically they be under the command of some evil dictator.

But if some bad guy is willing to help a nation of greedy, stubborn, desperate griffons like us… then I wouldn’t ask for any one else. “WAIT!”

Kaiden turned to face Silver Beak, with a look that screamed, “What now?” but she could see the hidden smile under that helmet of his, his yellow eyes gazing back at her. “If you are serious about this, then I have an idea on how we can win this battle… but I have one question for you – how good are you at charismatic speeches?”

Griffon Kingdom; 1:00pm

The echoed blasts of horns were heard by all from the settlements that were scattered across the griffon kingdom, to the various small farms that dotted the land. Looking skyward they saw it, they saw them, a horde of dragons were heading right for them and while their size wasn’t terrifying it overruled the sheer numbers that were seen. The signs of smoke from burnt villages near the southern shores were seen, with many survivors running or flying away with their belongings or lives.

Adviser Hawkeyes or General of the Griffon Military, wore his ebony armor alongside his elite soldiers, the Blackwings, skillfully trained griffons that ranged from pre-battle experience to those who came form a long lineage of warriors. With them was the Griffon Army and Militia, that consisted of around two thousand strong trained soldiers and around a hundred or so gathered volunteered citizens who either brought their own weapons or whatever they could use from their bare claws to farming equipment.

“Sir, the dragons appear to be drakes, possibly a few decades old but not to be considered full-fledged dragons yet.”

“A dragon is a dragon, we can’t overrule that fact, especially with this many coming for us! I won’t care if they’re children, if they plan on attacking then that’s an act of aggression on the dragons, not us! Tell the first through fifth companies they are to prepare for battle on sky or ground! The sixth through eighth are to make sure none cross this area to Griffonstone, alongside with the militia! Finally the ninth and tenth are to rally any survivors to safety and help with the wounded!” shouted Hawkeyes.

“YES GENERAL HAWKEYES!” Each of the messengers flew to all the companies; as the troops prepared for battle, Hawkeyes saw one dragon as dark as the night flew with his arms crossed, a cocky smirk on his face.

“That one, he’s the leader, I can just smell the ego on that one. If given a chance take him out, but remember your training, stay in groups of three or more and never stay stranded! We’re not looking for heroics here so stay alive and brave! We won’t let these lizards beat us on our own land! FIGHT, FOR THE KING! FOR ALL GRIFFON-KIND! CHAAAARGE!”

With those words, every griffon yelled and flew toward the horde of dragons, with the dragons in kind charging in return. The two forces clashed as wings flapped, blasts of fire and ash filled the skies, sharpened claws met with scales; the griffons were trained and armed to fight against the harsh weather and beasts that roamed their lands… but the dragons fought were sheer brutal might and natural predatory skills.

Elsewhere while this was happening, the nearby residents of Beakerton were making their way to Griffonstone or a safe distance away from the battle, but the sudden attack of the dragons caused many to panic and several accidental incidents to occur around the area. The situation became worse due to the recent snowfall, making the weather outside cold and freezing, because of this, many of the villagers were low on food and rations.

Food was a scarce thing in the Griffon Kingdom, which led to looting so with this whole situation combined with the panic, many individuals took this as a chance to take while everyone else ran for their lives.

“Uhhhh, should we really be doing this, there’s literally dragons just that way you know,” said one of the looters.

“Quit squawking, we got to take everything worth while before the dragons get here! I’m sick of living in this bloody country, let’s go somewhere warmer… I heard the griffons in Equestria are living pretty swell lives.”

“You sure they even let us through, what if the border guard stops us out of suspicion?”

“And what for, those ponies are way to soft and besides we’ll just say that we’re trying to run from the war happening over there.”

“What war?”

“The one’s that’s coming soon, haven’t you been hearing the rumors! Some of them nobles are gathering some desperate griffons to fight for them to overtake the kingdom! Either way, whoever wins, I don’t want to be around when some bigger threat comes along to stop us down! I’m taking what I have and leaving this dump!”

As the looters continued their looting spree, one of them yelped and quickly turned around to see a young male griffon holding a stick with both claws. “THAT’S OUR STUFF!”

“Oh look here boys, we got ourselves a hero.” The looters surrounded the griffon before something dropped down in front of them, standing there in ebony armor, the wings were covered in razor sharp blades for both protection and as weapons.

Blackwing Gillen was the toughest of the Blackwings but had a soft-spot and a sense of justice was difficult to resist, so when she saw some poor young griffon being surrounded by a bunch of looters… well the rest was history. “Why don’t you boys play with me,” said Gillen, smirking.

The looters at first backed up, but wielded their weapons and whatever was on the ground, slowly circling Gillen. “Kid, stay behind me, things are about to get-” One of the looters charged before Gillen countered by blocking with her armored wing, the sparks from the contact making her eyes glimmer for a second. “Wild.”

All looters began to charge, as Gillen flapped her wings sending a powerful gust of wind and ash at their faces. Taking this as her chance, she smashed two of the looters, face first to the ground; twisting around she sent a blow to another looter.

“You freakin idiots, she’s just a hen!”

“A hen with armor and badass wings-blades! Come at me you, or are you all chickens!” That riled them up even more as they one of them tried to slam his hammer which she dodged. Using her surroundings and wit, she made one of them do a sideways strike with their sword which she easily dodged. The weapon got lodged into a beam and before he could get it out she slammed one powerful leg strike, sending him sprawling to the ground.

“Ahh, screw this!” Tossing his weapon to the ground the looters began to leave except for the lead looter.

“WHERE IN TARTARUS ARE YOU ALL GOING!? GET BACK HERE YOU COWARDS!”

“Cowards? Says the looter; now I put down that weapon before somebody is going to get hurt,” said Gillen.

The looter gazed back before his look became fearful, confused she felt a sudden sensation of heat; ducking to the side, she nearly dodged a blast of flames that torched the pathway she was on, alongside with the looter. Looking back, all that was left was ash with some small fire littered around.

“Phew, that was close. Hey kid, you alright!” Looking back where she found the young griffon, he was hidden behind another wall, nodding back at her. “Good, now you should get out of here before things get worse. Don’t worry, myself and the rest of the Blackwings will handle this drakes, you just get to safety and with your folks.”

“B-But, this is our home!”

“Nah ah, not buts, now you go along now before I have to drag you back myself.”

The young griffon frowned but nodded, turning around to leave with the rest of the villagers that escaped. Good, now with that done. Exiting her cover, she glanced up at the swarm of drakes hovering above the village; they ranged from the basic fire-breathers but Gillen spotted some other types like frost-breathers and even a few poison-fangs among them.

“This got more and more complicated,” said Gillen, preparing to fly up.

Shade Fang watched as the drakes and griffons fought with each other, the only dragons that flew alongside him instead of fighting was Frigid and Chomp. The black dragon watched as the griffons fought back but saw as their numbers dwindled the longer they fought.

“Why exactly are you keeping me back instead letting fight, I want a taste of that metal those griffons have,” said Chomp, impatiently.

“You’ll get your chance; Frigid, who’s the leader of these griffons anyway?”

“Can’t tell and why are you asking me, do I look like I would know,” said Frigid.

“I thought you said you scouted the griffon kingdom before our attack?”

“Yeah, I did, that doesn’t mean I freaking infiltrated some random bird’s nest and found out he was the General of the Army or something!”

Shade rubbed his temple, the main reason he sent Frigid was indeed to check the layout of the land, but to also seeing and find any key targets when the invasion happen. And this is why sending a stubborn dragon is never a smart idea.

“Well never mind, we’ll just burn and smash them all until they run away.”

As the battle continued to progress… something strange started happening; the griffons and dragons at first continued to fight but paused when they felt some strange sound. For those on the ground still felt it first as it started like a strange rumbling, as if the ground was shaking.

There were stories of places or creatures to cause the ground to shake, earth-shakes or earthquakes they called it for those who commonly lived alongside such phenomenons or witnessed it from earthworm-like creatures called tatzlwurms.

But what was happening right now was different, the rumblings made everyone indeed pause but when came next just stopped the entire battle. At the far reaches near Beakerton, geysers of dirt, rock and vegetation exploded skyward reaching for several meters. Arising from the ground were strange metal tendrils that then opened up like giant metal flowers, silence followed and then… music.

“What the heck is that sound?” asked Shade.

“Whatever it is, I have a bad feeling about it,” said Frigid.

From the griffons’ perspective, Hawkeyes pulled his weapon, a lengthy halberd from the corpse of a dragon when he heard the rumblings which was followed by the sudden appearance of strange metal flowers and the sound of music. “Sir, what are those things and what’s that… music?”

Hawkeyes continued to watch as the music grew louder and clearer, it was a simple beat of notes that was somewhat catchy… but that changed when the music blared louder and voices could be heard. “Trouble; split the remaining forces in half, it looks like we got compa-” Before he could give his order… they appeared.

Sometime earlier before the battle began – Underneath the Griffon Kingdom; 12:50pm

“Uh master? What exactly… is it that you want to do?” asked Grubby, scratching his head.

“I want you to have four of the gates at these exact areas, when I give the signal bring them up,” said Kaiden. Before Kaiden woke up and found the Minions, he was told later that not only did the Minions, himself and some of the artifacts that boosted his health, mana and Minions came along but several devices and constructs were found deep beneath the abandoned fort. Some of these devices were the Netherworld Gates used to bring both the Overlord and his forces to any area he wished.

This allowed easy access underground, making it possible to create tunnels underneath the Griffon Kingdom to the exact areas Kaiden needed to be at alongside his Minions. Gazing at his forces preparing for the fight that was happening above ground, Kaiden turned to Gnarl about a particular – and odd question – Kaiden wanted answered.

“Using the telepathy in your helmet as a… speaker? I’m sorry, but could you explain what you mean?”

“I was wondering, you use the telepathy in the helmet to speak to me and previous Overlords, but is it possible I can use to… say, play music to myself and those nearby?”

“Hmmmmm, there have been times that the helmet’s telepathy was used to increase the user’s vocals to make a speech and other times to communicate to other telepathically is their magical power was strong enough… but to use songs, especially ones from memory… that require some powerful mental strength…” Gnarl scratched his chin fur before grinned to himself with a nod. “Yes, Yes it could be possible; let me make some adjustments to the helmet and maybe I can play whatever song you like for all to hear, maybe I can extend to the gates once the battle begins… Are you planning to instill fear with whatever song you plan to play?”

I… actually just wanted to listen to something when fighting but, yeah I guess. “Yeah, correct, either way where’s the fun in battle without some awesome soundtrack to listen to… and I got the perfect one from a particular series a watched back in the day.” Kaiden grinned madly; he was then approached by a Minion wearing a hardhat, one of Grubby’s boys.

“Gates ready, when we get up boss?”

Time to get things rolling. “Get the Minions together, time for my epic speech.”

As the Minions gathered in four groups from Browns, Reds, Greens and Blues, the commanders leading them stood alongside them with some of the Minion elite too to hear. Silver Beak stood where Kaiden would make his speech in the underground cavern they found when digging below; it was both spacious and stable to make a perfect launching spot to begin their attack.

Kaiden took his steps up on a stone ledge, looking down on all his forces, armed and ready from the recently stolen smelter. Before the battle and before Kaiden’s appearance, the Minions main goal was to keep their numbers up and growing until they found Kaiden or at least a good replacement for Overlord.

The original two hundred Minions split in four to create fifty for each of the Minions’ groups alongside the twenty-five wolves, giant spiders and fire salamanders, have doubled due to the rush for life-force, whether it be from the smallest critter to whatever food that was edible they could find was converted. The exact number was a lot but rounded there was at least two hundred each of the four types of Minions and while they couldn’t find any giant spiders or fire salamanders there were some wolves in the wilderness that were easily captured and tamed, putting the Brown wolf riders up to the old twenty-five to seventy.

Kaiden looked down at the Minions who at first were rowdy and doing… well what Minions do as he expected, they quieted and looked up at him obediently. Yeesh, they never act this way in the game, I guess this what happens when instead a force for thirty or forty are used in the games, a literal army of them are battle-ready and trained for war.

“Ahem… I’m not good at speeches, heck to be honest no matter what I say the idea of getting to fight something new in some new world is exciting as it is!” said Kaiden. The response to follow was many bellows and laughter in agreement; some of the elite minions alongside him gave a toothy smile too. “But… no matter what does happen, know this… I don’t plan to simply pillage, kill and conquer. I’m not like your previous masters, I won’t simply go wherever I want, take what I want… I do want to rule over those of this world, and whoever is fighting up means we have to decide… I have to decide who to help.”

Many Minions stayed silent but that didn’t mean they disagreed… for once they were having an Overlord with an actual plan of domination, someone with a strategic mind instead of the usual evil-mastermind for something of their own gain or a battle-hardened warrior. Gnarl watched as this Overlord, this person called Kaiden… would possibly be the one true master they awaited.

“...However, you didn’t came here just to hear me talk, but know what I plan on doing! And what I plan on doing isn’t just simply subjugation and to rule over all this world has! I wish to build a world in my own image and to search for old allies of mine lost here just like you and me! So… in order to find them, I’ll do anything to search for them and maybe… Have some fun along the way!”

“Hey, why exactly do you follow this guy, what makes him so different than your previous masters?” asked Silver.

“...I don’t know… but there were those who wanted revenge, others who were just evil and to follow their own whims and gains, a few were just random baddies we picked for a short while… But I think the reason we Minions search for a master isn’t so he’s evil… A long time ago we followed not many evils but a lineage of sorts… but when others buried that lineage… let it rot away in the deepest depths… To be honest, we don’t just simply follow what is evil or who is evil, but someone willing to do something just… because.” Silver gave a confused look, but Gnarl continued to speak before she could ask even more.

“We Minions are chaotic in nature, we have no sense of morality or rather didn’t understand it, we do from pure instinct. We exist not because we ourselves are evil but because we just never knew what our purpose was… we seek purpose yes no matter what it was… maybe we could of followed good, but in general we just wanted to do whatever. While we followed many masters, I don’t believe any ever asked what we wanted and there was no problem with that as we have no idea what we did want, but I think that’ll change today.”

Kaiden looked at the many Minions from new to old, and grinned. “...JUST DO WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT!” Silver Beak jaw unhinged while Gnarl started to chuckle at Kaiden’s answer. “I mean, sure I don’t want you to go berserk but what’s the fun in following someone when you can’t enjoy it too to your fullest. There will be times I might not agree with what you guys will do, but… so what, I had to deal with people before who wanted me to do other things before… but I also met people who said that should do what I want, to hell with the consequences.”

“So when I’ll rule this world, I’ll do so my way, evil or not… so let’s get to showing the denizens of this place what it means to be chaotic and loose! LET’S GET THIS BATTLE TOPSIDE!” Stretching both arms upward, silence still followed… then a roar grew until it shook the whole cavern.

Weapons were raised, fireballs flew, Minions were tossed up by their own, but they weren’t angry or being the rowdy bunch you expect. They cheered and approved wholeheartedly; the Minions had somebody worth following… and protecting, this wasn’t the simple evil or masterminds from long ago, but somebody who understood to be them.

They had a master who didn’t want to be chained down by responsibility or to master others, to just be chaotic and crazy whenever. “FOR THE OVERLORD! FOR MASTER KAIDEN! GRAAAAAAH!” With that cheer, all minions yelled and screamed for their new master, now and forever.

As Kaiden, Silver and the minion elites watched, Gnarl turned to Silver who looked back at him. “Whenever we lose a master, we usual just replace him or her… we never do a burial or something grand or even try reviving him back… But I think this one… he’s a keeper; we found our purpose and we found our Overlord.”

Silver looked too and gave a weak grin. “You guys are a bunch of maniacs,” said Silver.

“Oh yeah? Well screw you, I do what I want when I want!” shouted Kaien. “But anyway – TIME TO SHOW THOSE UP ABOVE WHY I AM THE ONLY ONE WHO SHOULD RULE! YAHAAHAHAHAHHAHA!”

Present time – Griffon Kingdom; 1:15pm

The music gradually gotten louder but alongside other sounds could be heard… the voices of dozens of creatures; spewing forth from the Netherworld Gates was hordes of small creatures ranging from brown, red, green and blue. As they reached the surface, the music was clear enough for all to hear… and it shook all to their very soul.

The Minions while at first were organized as an invasion army… changed after Kaiden’s speech, he wanted them to be wild, crazy and the Minions he knew and loved… oh and they wouldn’t displease their new master like that. He wanted the full Minion experience, he was going to get it and more.

“KILL! KILL! KILL FOR OVERLORD KAIDEN!” One of the Browns stood on outcropping raising his axe wildly with his tongue hanging out his mouth. “TODAY IS GOOD DAY TO FIGHT!”

The griffons and dragons watched with a sense of worry and dread as the numbers went from the double-digits to to triple then quadruple and was slowly getting bigger. During Kaiden’s speech, at least there was rounded to be eight-hundred Minions… that were battle-ready; after hearing his speech, both those trained, the support staff of the Minions and those being recently born were reinvigorated with a sudden sensation.

At first their simple purpose of evil changed from doing something they never imagined doing or wanting – to simply do because you can… and it was glorious. The hives exploded with energy as wave after wave of new Minions came rushing forth like an unstoppable tidal wave, as the thousand Minions including the Minions that weren’t going to be part of the fight tripled and continued to grow to nearly ten thousand.

Alongside the Minions were the Brown wolf riders who charged forth and dragged wagons, inside the wagons and being quickly prepared were the same ballista turrets used by the Empire, one of the old enemies of one of the previous Overlords from long ago. Seeing as how most of what their facing will be in the air and not the ground, Kaiden planned ahead by having these built and used, with them being modified for the Minions to use and not just him.

Kaiden appeared and stood by the horde of Minions, axe in one hand and the other one pointed to the sky. “Remember, the griffons aren’t our enemy but if they attack you, you have my permission to fight back, whether they die or get hurt isn’t to my concern! The dragons on the other hand are to be eliminated, can’t have my future kingdom get burned down by these flying reptiles!”

“How do you want us to attack?” asked Gash, commanding the majority of the Browns.

“We’re dealing with dragons, so instead of the Browns in the front, switch them with Reds, but keep them close in case. Greens are to surround and take down any dragons that are felled by the ballistas and Blues are to retrieve any injured whether Minion or griffon. Take them down one by one and swarm them, quick and simple.”

Gash nodded, signaling the other Minion Commanders, Blaze, Stench and Zap, sending their orders to the Reds, Greens and Blues. Watching this, Kaiden was shaking in anticipation as the music flooded all around him, the beat invigorating the Minions to a frenzy. Today is a gooood day.

Hawkeyes watched as this new possible enemy flooded the ground in numerous numbers, he wasn’t sure what to do with them… until what happened next shocked him. One of the dragons both cocky and blood-thirsty charged at the new foe, until several shots from a ballista speared him easily. As he fell to the ground, several of the creatures swarmed him, at first the dragon fired a beam of fire at a couple of red ones, but they just walked it off like nothing. This was enough to surprise the drake before a swarm of green and brown ones appear and hopped onto of him, the dragons cries of agony were heard as sharp claws and various weapons were slashed, stabbed and bashed at his scaly hide.

A single weapon wouldn’t been enough to pierce the dragon’s hide, but several of them being repeatedly beat on him was too much. After the literal pummeling, the creatures got off as what remained was a bloody pulp of the drake as blood and scales littered the ground. The creatures roared vicious before continuing for their next target.

“Sir, those things just took down a… a dragon!”

“A young one, but a dragon is a dragon. Tell the troops to stay away from those things, our main focus is the dragons and it doesn’t appear those things want us so keep away from them for now!”

“Sir, yes, sir!” With his orders given, Hawkeyes gazed at the beaten pulp of the recently killed dragon. Just what are they and are they here to help or to make things worse?

Shade watched as one of his own went to attack the small creatures until he was brought crashing to the grown and swarmed. What remained made some of the dragons back away, he even heard a few gag and lose their lunch.

“CHOMP!” The metal eating dragon looked at him with some strange glint in his eye. “ATTACK THOSE THINGS, NOBODY BRINGS DOWN A DRAGON AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!”

Chomp didn’t seem to like the idea, but he came here for that griffon metal and if he had to fight some small creatures that managed to take down a dragon, then so be it. Flying down with some other dragons, Chomp hovered in the air before some ballista shots were aimed at him but bounced off. Due to him eating iron and various other metals his hide was tougher than other dragons, making him the perfect one to handle heavy artillery fire… however.

“Come at me you little… whatever you are!” As he dropped down from the sky, the creatures suddenly turned tail… until he realized that’s not why they were backing away. Approaching from the treeline, followed by three more of the small creatures that were armored with some pretty nasty weapons, stood a bipedal being that wielded an axe and two glowing yellow eyes. From what Chomp could tell, his skin was blue and the armor this thing wore was unlike anything he seen before.

“Hello there, wonderful day we’re having today!” said Kaiden.

“Well aren’t you ecstatic,” said Chomp.

“Yeah, well this is my first time fighting. Name’s Kaiden, I’m the Overlord of these guys.”

Chomp watched as the small creatures behind the Overlord seemed itching to just attack this guy and get it over with, but they also restrained themselves too unlike younger dragons. If they’re holding back near this guy, he must be the real deal. “Hey, I really don’t wanna fight, I was only hear for those metal weapons the griffons have. I heard they’re quite the delicacy for a metal dragon like myself.”

“Ahhhh, that explains why my ballistas didn’t take you down, no matter. So you wanna 1v1 me?”

“Sure, be interesting to see what the boss of these little guys can do.” Chomp stood before he began to circle Kaiden, while Kaiden stood while twirling his axe in one hand. Kaiden may have zero battle experience, however he was easy to anger as a kid and in a rough neighborhood, so what came next was no surprise.

[Battle Music]

Chomp charged forth but instead of Kaiden using the axe as he expected Kaiden slammed the axe to the ground and charged at him. Not expecting that, he went for a bite but Kaiden ducked below and grabbed him by the neck with both arms pushing him back with all his might. Even though Chomp was big, Kaiden had enough of a grip to push him back and slam him to the ground.

Kaiden began to throw punches but backed off when Chomp tried to slam him with his tail. Grabbing his axe again, Chomp went for a punch of his own but was deflected with the axe. Kicking him back, Kaiden rushed and smashed with the flat side of his axe against Chomp’s face.

His vision spinning, he was grabbed by the head and given a headbutt, though probably not a smart move as Kaiden started seeing stars too. “Whoa, let’s not do that again,” said Kaiden shaking his head.

Having had enough, Chomp roared and fired metal slag at Kaiden which he dodged, but as he dodged Chomp slammed with his tail at Kaiden’s mid-section, sending him to the ground. With him down, Chomp pounced on him but missed when he rolled out of the way. The two were back on their feet again and back to circling each other.

“You got a mean punch there,” said Chomp.

“I can say the same to that tail of yours… You mentioned you only came here for the metal right?” Chomp paused, but still kept wary about why Kaiden would suddenly bring up that. “Well… what if I made a deal with you.” At first Chomp was going to say no… but what did Shade do to him; he was told it would have been easy taking the metal from the griffons that they were weak.

However, not only did they were still ready for their attack, but Kaiden his forces appeared out of nowhere… it didn’t look good for the dragons, so he might as well change his own plans. “What you got in mind?”

“Well, while this griffon metal might be good… ever heard of, Minion metal?”

Back in the sky – Griffon Kingdom; 1:25pm

Sunny didn’t expect this to happen, the only reason she came wasn’t to fight; one of her friends got mixed up with the wrong crowd and she was here to find him. Not only that but she was actually close friends with some of the griffons at one the villages here, but when she heard some of the dragons her age was going to attack the griffons’ homes, she went to them first to warn them.

She did manage to save the griffons she befriended but the warning didn’t spread quickly to the other griffon villages. I just hope they’re all safe though.

“Jade! Jade! Where are you!?” shouted Sunny. Before the battle, she was told that Jade was last seen in this village by another dragon. After the battle was starting to last longer and the sudden appearance of another army, most of the dragons flew off and told her she should save her own skin, but she wouldn’t leave her friend. “It’s me, Sunny, where are you!?”

“Sunny, shush, over here and stay quiet.” Turning around she saw her friend Jade; he was a greenish dragon who was smaller than others and his wings weren’t that big but enough for him to at least fly and hover. “What are you doing here, are you insane? Some strange small creatures are trying to hunt us down one by one. If we try to attack them they shoot us down and surround us, and those lucky enough to not get swarmed are chased by the small bastards.”

“Then how come you haven’t flown away, you don’t look hurt.”

“I can’t, I’m… I’m...” Sunny saw her friend shaking, he was shaking so badly he couldn’t fly straight if he wanted to. “Look, you need to get outta here, forget about me.”

“WHAT! I’m not going to leave you here!” At that moment, several of the small creatures came around a corner and spotted the two dragons. Thinking they were going to attack them, she noticed these ones didn’t looked armed and were blue. She seen the brown, red and some of those green ones before but the blues ones seemed… different.

“Um… hello, we don’t mean no harm. I just want to take my friend away, I promise we’ll leave and never hurt any griffons or any of your friends.” The blues creatures looked at one another, before one of them approached. It held onto Sunny’s claw and was trying to pull at it, pointing his other hand to where the other blues were going. “Wait… you want us… to follow?”

The blue creature nodded, before it started going back with the others, looking back once awhile and waving it’s hand for them to follow. Sunny at first found this suspicious but was a tad too trustful of others and was going to follow. “Sunny are you crazy! It could be a trap!”

“I doubt it, I noticed earlier not all of them are fireproof and only the red ones are, so if this one willing just went up to me and asked me to follow it… Well, maybe it just wants us so we aren’t mistaken for the bad dragons.”

Jade was thinking real fast but heard the echoes of fighting deeper within the burning village. Better than having to face those other ones or a griffon. “W-Wait up!”

As the two followed the Blues – Sunny named them because of the coloration – they soon found themselves at a sort of camp, among them was other of the small creatures that looked hurt. There were also hurt griffons from soldiers to villagers; many of the griffons suddenly became rigid from the appearance of the dragons but didn’t do anything due to the armored creatures that were guarding this small camp.

Sunny and Jade watched as these black-armored creatures gazed at them before going back to standing and keeping an eye around them. They were soon led to a big tent stationed in the middle of this camp, the Blue that led them pointed to the camp, before going inside himself. Sunny decided to go inside and found a griffon hen, another of the small creatures but older looking, and what appeared to be a black-armored griffon who had some bandages around her head.

“Oh look, we got dragons in here, name’s Gillen, so what’s yours?” asked Gillen, smiling.

“You, why are these lizards in here,” asked Gnarl. The Blue approached Gnarl, before mumbling something in his ear before skittering off. “I see… so you two are wanting to surrender, correct?”

“Ummmm, yeah; a lot of the dragons are already retreating seeing as you guys appear out of nowhere,” said Sunny.

“Not surprising seeing that Kaiden and the Minions are taking out you dragons real quick,” said Silver.

“Minions, the heck is that?”

“That be us; we are called Minions and there are four types of us out there, we follow someone called the Overlord. Recently he just bested and gained a truce with a dragon, this dragon is apparently interested in working for us if he can eat some of the metal that only we Minions can make.”

“Did you say a metal-eating dragon? WAIT, YOU AREN’T REFERRING ‘Metal-Hide’ CHOMP ARE YOU!?” shouted Jade.

“Oh you mean that nice dragon that helped me where I might find you Jade.”

“Nice? NICE! Chomp is a metal-eater, they are the toughest dragons known out there and you call him nice?!”

At that same moment, entering inside was Kaiden alongside Chomp who were in the middle of something before finding two other dragons in the strategy tent. “Did I miss something?” asked Kaiden.

Everyone looked to find Kaiden with Chomp beside him, the two looked to have some scratches but fairly alright from the way Chomp was grinning. “Ahhhh the being of the hour is here! So you must be this Overlord I’ve been hearing about, name’s Gillen,” said Gillen, approaching Kaiden.

“...Gnarl, why’s there two more dragons and another griffon here?”

“Oh, about that sir, well some of our forces were searching the nearby village some time ago...”

Sometime earlier – Griffon Kingdom, Beakerton; 1:15pm

Gillen had handled so far, some dragons that were attracted to the sounds of battle but so far things had gotten quiet. Lucky for her as she was currently cleaning her recent wounds, she was hiding in a ruined building occasionally watching some flying silhouettes going by.

“Damn, that recent battle nearly took my wing, when are these bloody lizards going to fly off,” said Gillen, wincing. Gillen took what she had and found in the ruined building to bandage her torso and crippled wing.

Then she heard something, at first it sounded like the pounding of several feet but it was hard to tell with all the burning fires nearby and battle. However because of her intense training she could tell sounds between sounds, or that’s how her instructor told her. Focusing clearly now, she heard the tromping of several feet, heading for her direction. There’s four, no, six but… something feels off, they’re not griffons even though it sounds like their running in fours and the steps sound to light to be anything else.

At that moment, coming around a corner were six wolves but what were on top of them made her pause a little. Six of those small brown creatures were riding the wolves like mounts, each wielding weapons and some wearing pieces of armor… if she could call it that. Sure some of them did wear armor while others wore various random objects.

Is that one… wearing a bucket with holes for eye slots?

Gillen wasn’t told how to react toward these things, she was mentioned of the sudden appearance of an unknown army but so far they were targeting the dragons and not them. There haven’t been any incidents where either side have attacked each other.

One of the riders got off their wolf, looking around on foot, this one was sniffing the air before it went on all fours and began sniffing the ground. Gillen was sweating, while she was certain she could handle six of them, but she wasn’t sure what they were capable of as she was trained to handle dragons and the natural beasts of the Griffon Kingdom.

The one sniffing the ground froze still before it started barking at the others, pointing at the ruined building Gillen was in. Immediately both the riders and wolves slowly surrounded Gillen’s hiding spot in a semi-circle. Not sure what to do, Gillen slowly stepped out of her hiding spot, making sure was as non-threatening as possible. “Heeeey, I mean no harm, just want to head back to my camp with the rest of my kind, that cool,” said Gillen.

The lead creature, the one that was sniffing the ground looked at her with a spear to his side, before the creature slowly approached her. At first it stood there, before grinning in return, it wasn’t a menacing grin just a very… toothy one. “Tough birdy, birdy hurt, want help?”

Gillen was a bit shocked from the response and he seemed friendly enough so she gave her own cheeky smile in turn. “Yeah, you got any healing potions on you?” The creature tilted it’s head before motioning for the one wearing the bucket; it approached and pulled out a red-viscous potion that oddly looked like the creatures. “Uhhhh, thanks.”

Taking the potion, she gulped it down and suddenly she felt better but still sore. The creature motioned at her, before going back to ride his wolf. “Follow follow.” The group of six started to leave as Gillen watched.

They helped me so far, doubt there’s anything bad to follow them.

Present time – Griffon Kingdom, Overlord’s Camp; 1:30pm

“Then I followed them back, before I found myself surrounded by a camp of those things. I found several other injured griffons spread out and they recognized me immediately. They told me they were found by what I was told were called Minions and brought back to the camp. I told them to stay calm and stay here until further orders from superior officer. I was later introduced to this guy and was going to be introduced to their leader; now we’re here and I’m talking to you,” said Gillen.

Kaiden sat at the meeting tent, alongside him were his Minion Generals, Gnarl, all his advisers, Silver Beak, Gillen and the three dragons called Chomp, Sunny and Jade. Right now, with both representative from the dragons and the griffons here, Kaiden had all the possible cards and outcomes in his hands.

“So from what I can understand; the dragons who are led by this Shade Fang brought all these young dragons to invade and possibly rule over the griffons while they were weakened from civil war and poverty. The griffons on the other hand are dealing with their own problems leading to infighting among themselves. Now from what I can put together, all I can say is...”

Everyone awaited for Kaiden’s answer and what he said was both shocking but normal for those who been with him long enough. “Just, sad and hilarious! To expect for a sudden invasion from not a nation but just a bunch of punk-ass drakes who want some loot and bitches!”

“Of course you’ll say that,” said Silver.

“So you’re not going to help,” said Gillen.

“I never said that; look, if I am to do what I plan to do, then I am not only going to beat the dragons… but you griffons are going to have to submit to a new ruler. Sure what I’m saying can be considered evil or that I sound like some conqueror but you aren’t go to last in your current state. You need a new perspective on things meaning you need a new form of leadership… so either you accept my proposal or you can just fight your own battles.”

Gillen wasn’t involved much in the politics within the Griffon Kingdom, but she knew something will let loose and when it does, all Tartarus will go loose. “Alright, you have a point, but even if you were to handle these dragons and convince a majority of the griffons to join you, I still see some problems in the future,” said Gillen.

“Let me handle that; Gnarl, how are we doing in the fight?”

“The Blues are on standby in case needed, the Reds are smothering fires to clear the path for our forces and make excellent distractions for those dragons. As for the Browns and Greens, they’re focusing more on ambush and hit-and-run tactics than full on assaults. The wolf riders are being using as scouts and messengers in between the ranks; our losses are that high and the dragons are easy to take down with the ballistas or simply they just fly down thinking they can take us on before being swarmed by our forces. To say the least… these lizards have no chance on winning.”

The dragons present didn’t seem insulted, though Chomp raised his brow near the end. “Okay, I can agree that we dragons can be a bit prideful and arrogant, though to be honest we never expected to face a literal horde of small yet deadly creatures to suddenly appear,” said Chomp. “The reason I’m not with Shade right now is because that idiot thought he could conquer an entire nation. To be perfectly honest, that would just piss of the griffons, replace their current leadership and make us dragons a target. Sure we might win… but the dragons are cocky and slothful for the past centuries; I was told stories, before that dragons we strong and wild beasts that ruled the skies, that’s changed now.”

Silver stood up next, putting her own input on the discussion. “He has a point, the griffons would just retaliate due to this sudden attack. The best way for the griffons to survive both the civil war and this recent attack is if we’re followed a new ruler, a new perspective as Kaiden said.”

“That’s Overlord Kaiden to you, but yes; okay enough chit-chat, there’s only one way to deal with this problem.” As Kaiden stood up he lifted his axe and leaned on his shoulder, with his other hand he pointed toward the direction the battle was taking, a crazy grin under his helm. “TIME TO END THIS SO CALLED ‘WAR’ AND RULE THIS BLOODY KINGDOM!”

Griffon Kingdom, Griffonstone; 2:25pm

The griffon army was forced back to the capital, the remaining dragons followed Shade for a final attack toward the capital. Due to many losses on their side from the strange new creatures all the dragons learned to avoid them and while that angered many and harmed their pride, but they came here to attack the capital not some small gremlin-looking creatures.

Dammit, since I sent Chomp he hasn’t reappeared since, for all the things to happen; that mysterious army came out of nowhere and started taking us down one by one. “FRIGID! How many of us are left!?” shouted Shade.

“Twenty, maybe forty, but we should have enough to attack the capital,” said Frigid.

“Good, now then… ALL DRAGONS!” shouted Shade. All nearby dragons looked at Shade, awaiting for what they were planning to do next. “We came here to loot and take any valuables from these feather-brains and that’s what we’ll do! I don’t care what happens but we’re not leaving without taking something in turn! ATTTTAAACCCK!”

The dragons were let loose, flying toward Griffonstone, magma dripping from their maws with savage grins. As they gotten closer though… all hell broke loose; nothing strange happened, but then something started flying right at them. Sprouting from the mountainside near Griffonstone like pillars of earth were the sudden appearance of metal and wooden structures.

“What the heck is th-” The dragon that said that was obliterated as a flurry of ballista arrows and other projectiles were fired at the drakes. Shade watched as his forty dragons went to only a quarter of their numbers in moments.

“H-H-How?” As every dragon fell before him, Shade quickly flew off alongside with Frigid as all the other dragons were killed one by one.

Griffon Kingdom, Griffonstone; 2:30pm

Grubby watched as the dragons were wasted with only two faraway silhouettes flew off away from the falling corpses. Having been told by Overlord Kaiden to set up some defensive towers near Griffonstone before the battle was a smart move. “Good, you, tell the Overlord that we handled the drakes! The rest of you, pack up we’re moving back with the others!” shouted Grubby.

As all the Minions headed back, elsewhere at the same time, King Goldus had watched the quick defeat of the dragons from the strange beings further down the mountain where Griffonstone was at. When Hawkeyes returned with the remainder of his forces, the original two thousand soldiers fell to just half their size while one quarter went missing or possibly to be dead.

The other quarter were confirmed deaths and while they couldn’t retrieve all the bodies, they knew this was their last stand and if they fell all griffons would be doomed. That changed when the sudden appearance of those creatures attacking the remaining dragons back, but now that same force was slowly making their way to Griffonstone.

“My king, what do you want us to do?” asked Hawkeyes. Himself and the other advisers were currently bowing before Goldus, awaiting for his order for what should be done next. He knew fighting would be impossible, especially against an army of those magnitude.

“Gather our remaining forces to surround Griffonstone in a defensive stance but are to be on standby unless given orders. All citizens are to stay in their homes for now; Birdsong, you and the other advisers and nobility are to come with to the entrance of Griffonstone… We’re going to meet the leader of this army of creatures.”

Goldus and his advisers stood before the entrance, facing them from across the entrance was the leader of the Minions; Overlord Kaiden. Alongside him was Gnarl, all the Minion elite, Silver Beak, Blackwing Gillen, and the three dragons called Chomp, Sunny and Jade. Both sides were wary of another but Kaiden was ecstatic, he was practically bouncing in his armor. So exciting meeting the leader of a nation whilst holding the fate of an entire nation in my hands.

“Hello mysterious warrior, I am King Goldus, king of Griffonstone and ruler of the Griffon Kingdom! Myself and my advisers thank you for saving us from the dragon threat that approached our lands, but I must ask what is it you want in return?”

And here we go. Stretching his arms outward, he gained a reaction from both his own forces and the griffons. “What any new world-dominating conqueror would wan; to rule the lands of this new world under my grand plan! FOR I AM, OVERLORD KAIDEN!”

Immediately the griffons reacted violently, but Goldus stopped them from attacking but he himself was a bit wary about this new being. “I’d say you were joking… but considering what you done recently and the fact you come here with your entire army doesn’t show signs of any peaceful arrangements.”

“Righty-Oh; I heard some talk that you are dealing with a civil war before the dragons attack and I also heard rumors of financial problems, correct?”

While it sounded like a question, it was more a statement, Goldus learned from past experience that the one with the better information was the one who won before the battle began… and it appears he lost this battle of knowledge.

“You are correct,” said Goldus.

“My king!” shouted Birdsong. “We shouldn’t confirm this being’s suspicions-”

“They’re aren’t suspicions, we can’t lie or persuade this being into thinking otherwise; Overlord Kaiden, you said you wish to rule these lands, but how can you convince them to follow under your rule. It’ll take more than chasing off the dragons to fully gain the loyalty of griffon-kind.”

Kaiden stood there in contemplation before an idea came to him, a glorious one at that. “True true… but I hold my own secrets and knowledge and with my forces and own resources I believe I can solve all your problems and more. While I could just take everything from you, I’m not in the mood to deal with any backstabbing… So that’s why I’ll be just taking over and doing something you never had the guts to do!”

Goldus wasn’t sure how to react to what Kaiden was saying but he had to say something. “And what would you do that I haven’t tried?”

“Why, going to war of course.” The idea instantly silenced everyone, all of them looking at Kaiden with a new but worried gaze… except for one.

“AHHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Yes, that’s our Overlord, the best way to gain the following of new subjects is to direct them to do something productive!”

“War!? HAVE YOU GONE MAD! We’ll never survive a war with any of the nations!” shouted Silver.

Soon much of Kaiden’s group was talking back at one another about the idea of war, but then more laughter came but not from either Kaiden or anyone else except the king himself. All looked at him, until the king smiled his beak giving an almost upturned look. “I see I see… I believe I can entrust you with my kingdom, you seem capable and not the type that’s power hungry especially with that relaxed response. Though who would you target exactly, you can attack someone without a proper reason no matter what kind of reason it may be.”

“You got a point… any suggestions griffon king?”

“HA! ‘Griffon king’ not once did anyone refer to me as such… There is an option though; if you plan to rule under this land, I must ask for a request from you if you are to go with this idea of war. You see, recently I received news that my daughter and two of her bodyguards have been chased out of the Minos Empire due to a coup happening within their lands. Right now they are safe, but I wish for you to save her and possibly avenged both the loss of one of my own and this sudden aggression toward us.”

Ohhhh, so it appears I’m not the only one who wants to go on a full on war either. “And where is this land of cow-people?”

This caused more laughter from Goldus, before he quieted down. “Ahhhh, I haven’t been this entertained for a long time. While I’d love to speak, I believe we should do so from my castle, and then we can come to a proper arrangement of how you shall rule this land.”

“Excellent!” said Kaiden. As the king’s group led Kaiden’s, he lowered to whisper to Gnarl. “Tell the Greens they don’t need to assassinate the king and his group, I kinda like him.”

“Of course my Overlord,” said Gnarl, bowing back.

A few days later – Griffon Kingdom, Kaiden’s Fortress; 9:30am

After some time, King Goldus announced that the Griffon Kingdom would be under new leadership and while he would still be king, he’d would only handle certain matters within Griffonstone alone. Once every griffon was introduce to their new leader, Overlord Kaiden promised many things and changes to come, and they did come these changes.

The rumors of civil war were smothered down with a swift move, all nobility – both the loyalists and royalists – were abolished but certain nobility that both Kaiden and Goldus chose were handpicked to rule new towns being built by Kaiden’s Minions. The poverty problem was solved easily, the Minions would handle the hunts for food and in exchange, the griffons would trade the food with resources and other materials. Considering the fact that many griffons hoarded gold and other things, food seemed to be most important than riches, so it was quickly handed off to the Minions who brought them back to their Overlord.

Other problems like the rebuilding and costs was handled easily, as the Minions would do anything for their master with no payment required. The only things they wanted… well it varied but they were happy to satisfy their master. As for Kaiden himself, he decided to reside in the abandoned fort he was found in and did some heavy refurbishing.

The fort tripled in size and held a giant tower-like structure that was built for any griffon or flying visitors. The tower itself was hollow for an elevator shaft with the very top used as a lookout of sorts, lower down was the fort itself that consisted three areas; the outer area consisted of the wall and courtyard-area that was expanded. The middle area held several structures like the blacksmith, some storage buildings and a tavern. Finally was the center area where the fort was; a small moat was built around it with a giant drawbridge being the only way for those who can’t fly to enter. The fort was like how it originally was, with only some slight differences, but the real difference was below.

The whole mountain was hollowed out for several tunnels and rooms to be built for various uses; one area was for the Minion Hives and Minions to live, another area is where the Minion elite would reside, three areas are where the wolves, giant spiders and fire salamanders are kept.

There was a complex tunnel system that only the Minions could traverse, allowing them to appear anywhere in the Griffon Kingdom and this tunnel system continued to grow with each passing day.

Within the fort, Kaiden stood looking at the horizon at one of the fort’s balconies; after gaining the loyalty of all the griffons, he made some of the griffons and dragons that joined him to their own rules.

Silver Beak was made into Kaiden’s secretary, so she handled everything from his schedule down to every little detail that he should know. Goldus sent forth some elite Griffons called the Blackwings to work under Kaiden, one of these Blackwings was Gillen so she was made to leading the other Blackwings. Other griffons that were rescued and recovered under the Minions’ Blues joined Kaiden’s forces, these griffons were given better armor, equipment and training from the Minion Generals.

As for the dragons, Chomp helped out in the armory, it was discovered that combined with him eating Minion Metal – from smelting Minions into a smelter – if he were to spit it out, it would create an even better version of the metal than it was before. He was given the role to create said new metals… he would also enjoy the taste of these new metals for himself.

Sunny and Jade, at first there wasn’t anything useful, but Sunny worked at the tavern alongside Jade, the two decided to wanting to live a peaceful life away from their kind. They agreed to work for Kaiden, and many patrons enjoyed be served a beautiful dragoness such as Sunny… though occasionally they would get bopped by her swishing tail.

Things are going smoothly. “So, what’s next on the list Silver?” asked Kaiden.

“Well, Grubby said he and the other Minion diggers should be near the shores that are close to the island where Trottingham is. Goldus and his advisers said that while griffons and ponies live there, the area is considered neutral land so he suggests to ignore them.”

“Anything interesting on that island exactly?”

“Well, other than it being the prime trading area for both Equestria and the Griffon Kingdom, it is the only safe way to travel between the two nations.”

“Hmmmm… until Grubby finishes the tunnels to the shores just north of the kingdom, tell him to prepare a port area for us to travel to Trottingham. I also want you to send some letters,” said Kaiden, exiting the balcony.

“Of course and who am I sending the letters to?”

Kaiden had one of his ideas in his mind, with his usual grin under his helm; reaching for his newest weapon, the Apocalyptor, a mace that not only does fire damage but would cause an explosion on the third hit. While still wearing his normal Minion Armor and Helmet, he did had all the weapons and armor from the second Overlord game made already, but didn’t need to wear them right now.

Looking back at Silver, a manic grin that was hard to see under his helm with his two glowing yellow eyes seeming to blaze even brighter than usual. “Send them to the royalty of Equestria, it’s time I begin my second step into world domination and meet my competition,” said Kaiden. Stepping outside toward the various Minions and Griffons wandering the area, they all looked up at their leader with varying reactions.

“LISTEN UP! I handled the problems here in this kingdom, but now it is time for action; as you know I promised to the king of the griffons I’d save his daughter in exchange I rule this land my way! With that done and all problems dealt with here, it is time we move on! WE’RE GOING TO EQUESTRIA, SO PACK YOUR THINGS AND LET, US, GOOOOO!”

With a roar of approval, activity seem to blossom as everyone from Minions to griffons ran around to prepare for the expedition to the land of ponies. Kaiden watched as things began to smoothly begin; today the true conquest would begin. And I haven’t even heard news of the others yet… Wondering how they’re doing?

Author's Note

Pheeew, this one was lengthy to write; okay, at some point I may have strayed from the main point but I got the story over. Did some light editing but I'll come back to checking it later, but if you readers see anything need fixing, just comment below and tell me.

While Shade and Frigid managed to escape they aren't Overlord Kaiden's main focus; with order and prosperity brought to the Griffon Kingdom, Kaiden's sights are on Equestria and his promise to the king. Now with preparations to save the princess are on way, now Kaiden's needs a way to get across the land without agitating the residents and leadership of Equestria. Time to meet the royal sisters!

Elsewhere, it appears a certain Soul Reaper has been causing how own ruckus elsewhere in this new world. Let's hope things are going well for him.

Theme song for the next character's chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYVUaN3kudo