Overlord
An MLP:FiM fanfic by Forevermore.
No copyright infringement intended.
All characters to respective owners.
Darkness Cometh
I narrowed my eyes at the sight before me, not focusing on any one thing but allowing my gaze to survey all as but a single whole. Construction was proceeding well, the last stone of the great portal was almost ready to be set in place. After that, all that would be left was the power source, and that I could provide on my own.
Once there had been a time when I would have declared such a feat impossible, even for me. Once there had been a time when I would have feared to harness such unimaginable power and step across the nothingness which divided worlds. Once there had been a time when I was weak. Funny, how immortality tends to strip you of your fears, your inhibitions. . . your humanity.
"Master," a low, sultry voice cut into my musings.
I removed my gaze from the construction site, turning it upon my Voice, she who speaks in my name. She was young, but I knew for a fact that her appearance was a lie. I had granted it to her, after all.
A woman, just into her maturity, with supple white skin and luscious dark hair which fell down her back in an ebony waterfall. She dressed in a near-scandalous blue dress, and enough jewelry to purchase a small house. I took a moment to admire her, her current body was one of the finest examples of my new abilities. Almost no trace remained of the skinless, tongueless wretch I had pulled from the lowest of my dungeons and raised to carry the weight of my authority to the common Wraith. The only reminder of her imprisonment--and of my power over her--which remained was a stripe of raw skin, encircling her neck like a collar.
My Voice noticed my gaze, and curtsied low. Attempting, no doubt, to draw my gaze to her voluptuous form and thus gain some measure of power over me. If I desired her, I would not harm her, and if I would not harm her then she could forget her place and attempt to usurp me. I kept my gaze locked firmly onto her eyes, allowing her to gaze into mine and see the unshakable will which dwelt there.
"My Master, the Captain approaches."
I gazed beyond her, seeing the newest captain of my Wraithguard standing some feet away, at the base of the dais upon which I rested my throne. Like all wraiths, he was the skeleton of a man bound in swirling cloth and elaborate armor. Bound to serve the master of the Abyss unto eternity and beyond, taking joy only in the torment he inflicted upon others. I miss the Minions, at least their brand of evil was entertaining to watch.
Sensing my gaze upon him, the captain stood and shuffled forward, keeping his eyes carefully downcast. I had not yet allowed him the luxury of looking upon me, not since his incompetence had led to a month of setbacks and the destruction of a very valuable magic gem.
"Master," he rasped, his voice the product of magic and rusted bone, "it is done."
My surprise hidden in the shadow of my helm, I turned my gaze from my servants to gaze out upon the great portal. A semicircle of black towers rising from a stone platform near fifty feet wide. I had modeled it after the ancient Tower Gates, with which I had traversed the breadth of my first realm in an instant. This, however, had several key differences, as it had been crafted to send me across the dimensional divide itself. To my genuine surprise, and pleasure, it was as the captain had said, complete.
Leather creaked and steel clanged as I rose to my feet. All around me, my servants, soldiers, and slaves fell to their knees (or, in the case of the latter, fell flat on their faces in prostration). Hollow thunder boomed, the ever-present fires of the Abyss growing even higher as my elation threatened to overwhelm me. With a force of icy will, I smothered the happy emotions and forced my power to restrain itself. It wouldn't do to torch my subjects after they had finally managed to please their master. No, the torching would come later when I allowed the salamanders their chance to join the festivities.
I ascended the hundred steps which led up to the platform, passing as I did the decrepit forms of the damned and the dying. No worker had escaped the construction unscathed. Burns, lacerations, pustular boils, and charred bone abounded. A mortal man might find it odd how such clearly malnourished creatures could survive such horrific wounds. A mortal man might not realize the workers had already been killed a thousand times before, and a thousand times again. The Abyss did not allow such a thing as "death" to stand in the way of the will of its master.
At the top stair, I turned to face my gathered subjects. A vast crowd of ten thousand human slaves, and half that number in Wraiths spread out before me. A smile they could not see spread beneath my mask as pride welled in my breast.
"Servants of the Dark Master," my Voice proclaimed at my subtle command. "Know that on this day you have served your lord well, and for your service you are granted a reprieve of one week from your torments."
At this, I raised a hand and summoned my power. A torrent of energy surged through me, expanding my senses and bringing everything into sharp focus. I could smell the individual scent of ten thousand unwashed bodies, and from scent alone identify each individual by name. Every speck of dust became readily apparent to my eyes, every seam in my Voice's dress, every minute imperfection in the stone beneath me. I exhaled, and released the energy in a golden wave.
Cheers and calls battered my ears as the light swept across the crowd before me, mending wounds and restoring vitality with its touch. Since the beginning my subjects had feared me, feared their new master and what new horrors he would bring. Through that fear I had garnered their obedience, and their respect. Now I brought them life and joy, and they loved me for it. Fear begets obedience, love begets loyalty. Both are necessary for proper rule.
My Voice raised her arms, a wide, false smile stretching her face. Only she had been unaffected by my spell, and only she would continue to suffer the agony of her punishment without reprieve. A fitting fate, for the woman who had drunk the blood of children to retain her youth and beauty.
"See now the pleasure of your lord," she proclaimed. "See how he rewards success! Remember this day, and the joy that comes only through your devotion to your dark master!"
Tiring of the speech, I turned and strode to the center of the platform. As my servants celebrated, their part in this endeavor finished, it was finally my turn. At the center, surrounded on all sides by intricate glyphs and runes whose meaning even I did not pretend to fully understand, I stopped and turned my gaze towards the sky. With a simple effort of will, I shifted my perceptions to see beyond the ash and smoke filled sky, to the enormity of the infinite cosmos beyond. From there, I spied the infinitesimal rift, which led to the nothingness.
My Sight sped through the void, seeking familiarity. From my perspective, days transformed into weeks, into months, into years and beyond, but to my servants not even seconds passed. Until at last, far into the depths of the void I found it, a sliver in space-time which would lead me across the infinite and back to my homeworld.
Princess Celestia, Regent of the Sun, co-ruler of Equestria, shivered in the warm summer air. The unwelcome sensation drew her regal gaze from the pony before her and to the darkening sky. Night had come late to Equestria, as it always did in summer, but something about the encroaching darkness unnerved her.
Celestia was not superstitious by any means, but she took more stock in old mare's tales about things going bump in the night than did most. After all, she had been there when those stories were born, she knew very well that ponies had once had good reason to fear the coming darkness.
"Is something wrong, princess?" Captain Bulwark's soothing baritone cut through her misgivings like a warm knife through butter.
The solar diarch returned her gaze to the grizzled veteran, a pleasant smile gracing her lips.
"'Wrong' is not the word I would use to describe it, Captain," she assured him. "I caught a whiff of something on the wind, but it is not something you should concern yourself with." She chuckled ruefully, "Perhaps it is simply my old bones playing tricks on me."
The captain snorted, but did not press the issue. He knew best that his monarch was not the type to reveal more than she thought strictly necessary for her subjects to know. It irritated him, as it did all her commanders and advisors, but he trusted Celestia's judgment, if not her methods.
Celestia herself favored Bulwark with another smile, before returning her attention to her tea. The omen she had felt could wait until later, when Luna was finished raising the moon and would have time to discuss the day's events.
Tea lasted for the better part of a half hour more, before Captain Bulwark excused himself, complaining of a long day and a need for rest. Celestia bid him go with a smile, wincing slightly when his back was turned. The old captain had served Equestria faithfully for more than fifty years, and it pained her to see him grow frail and sick with the passing of time, while she remained young and strong. Such is the burden of immortality, she mused silently as she prepared to leave. You live to see the greatest wonders of the world unfold before your very eyes, but at the same time you can only watch as those not similarly blessed descend into oblivion.
No, not oblivion, she corrected herself. The ponies she'd known and loved would never truly die, not so long as she remained to remember them. The thought brought her comfort as she walked through the palace halls, flanked on either side by a snow white pegasus, dressed in golden ceremonial armor. Even as the names and faces of ponies come and gone were worn away by the annals of history, Celestia would endure, carrying the weight of their hopes and their dreams unto eternity. And of course, there were always knew ponies ready to take up their share of the burden.
By the time she reached her private chambers, the immortal goddess was sporting a sad, wistful smile. Her steps were light and heavy at the same time, buoyed by the comfort of her subjects present, and weighted by the memory of her subjects past.
As Celestia passed through the gilded doors into her personal space, her guards abandoned her to take up positions on either side. To intrude on the princess' private chambers was an offense worthy of three weeks scrubbing filthy toilets with a toothbrush. A harsh punishment brought about by the time when an overeager cadet had barged in on Celestia bathing. Equestria being a primarily nudist society, such an offense would hardly have been considered worthy of the term under normal circumstances. The real concern had been that the princess was not, ahem, alone at the time.
Celestia shook her head ruefully at the memory. Poor Fancy Pants had never been quite the same around her after that, double could be said for his wife.
Absorbed as she was in old memories, the solar princess failed to notice that her balcony doors were open, as she made her way through the cluttered mess of her sitting room to the pristine marble tiles of her bath. Using her magic, Celestia stripped herself of her necklace, her golden boots, and her surprisingly heavy tiara. Steam curled out from the open door of her bathing chamber, no doubt some kind-hearted maid had drawn a bath for her princess. The thoughtful gesture brought a softness to the alicorn's eyes, she would have to remember to find out who had been so kind and see that they were rewarded appropriately.
As she neared, she began to pick out the sounds of discontented splashing and the occasional grumbled word. Decades of fending off assassins and the misguided advances of love struck stallions (and mares), attempted to tell Celestia that everything about this situation was wrong. But the day had been a long one, and the next promised to be longer still.
Ignoring the screams of her combat reflexes, the solar princess entered the pristine chamber and made her way to the pool-sized bathtub at the far end. Steam nearly blinded her, and the gurgle of soothing water all but deafened her. Celestia sighed in blissful content as she sank beneath the rose-scented waters. The scalding heat eased cramps from muscles she didn't know she had, and the bubbles which blanketed the surface tickled her nose.
Celestia giggled as she attempted to balance one on the tip of her nose, going cross-eyed in order to see it.
"Sister!"
Celestia's hooves touched the ceiling as the impossibly loud voice trumpeted into her left ear. A second later, the heat of the bath fled into the empty air, leaving her soaking wet and shivering some ten feet off the ground. A silvery peal of pearly laughter cut through her panic, bringing the ancient warrior's mind back under control of a pony's natural fight-or-flight instincts. She knew that voice, furthermore she knew that only one (granted, two) being in existence could possibly have the skills and magic to sneak up on her. Luna.
Glancing down, the solar diarch could see that her suspicions were indeed correct. The indigo alicorn was currently in the midst of what looked like a sugar-induced seizure, as she rolled and roiled about in the foamy water. Like her older sister, Luna had discarded the trappings of royalty, so as not to tarnish them in the bath.
"Must you do that?" Celestia sighed, returning to the water, her former bliss gone.
Luna huffed and splashed water at her sister.
"Please, sister," the younger alicorn said, her voice mercifully low. "Dost thou not enjoy, to use the modern phrasing for such things, 'drinking a brew of thy own concotion'?"
"Medicine, Luna," Celestia corrected absently. "The expression is 'getting a taste of my own medicine'."
"Why would thou wants to taste thy own medicine? 'Tis a most vile substance, we remember how it burned on the way in, and froze on the way out."
Celestia rolled her eyes and grabbed the shampoo in her telekinesis. She used the distraction of lathering her mane to avoid correcting Luna yet again. Her sister was adapting to modern society at a miraculous pace, but her utter failure to grasp idioms was a constant thorn in her side. Not to mention the side of the royal council.
"Is there a particular reason you're in my bathtub?" Celestia asked after a few minutes of semi-awkward silence.
Luna huffed again and crossed her forelegs in a pout.
"We were banished from the royal kitchens after demanding our chef serve nothing but moonpies at the royal dinner this evening."
Celestia raised an eyebrow, "Moonpies?"
Luna spread her forelegs in a grand gesture, "But of course! The moonpie is the most perfect of all lunar-based delicacies, it is the perfect meal for visiting dignitaries to ingest whilst beneath our beloved moon."
"A moonpie isn't a meal, Luna. It's a snack."
Luna waved a hoof, dismissing the argument, earning a tired smile from her sister.
While Luna continued to rant and rave about the nutritional values of her favorite food, Celestia allowed herself to slide into the water, submerging herself up to her snout. Moments like these were what she lived for, tired from the day's work and able to simply unwind in the company of her sister. Yes, absolutely nothing could ruin this moment for her.
"Princess!"
Yes, absolutely nothing.
"Princess Celestia!"
Absolutely. . . nothing. . .
A gold armored unicorn guard galloped into the room, skidded on the wet tiles, before plummeting face first into the scalding water. Celestia heaved a heavy sigh before fishing the now sopping wet stallion out of the water and placing him on his hooves on the tiles. While the guard shivered in the brisk air, Celestia rose and floated a thick, fluffy towel over to him. The stallion seized it gratefully in his own magic and began rigorously drying himself while his princess floated two more for herself and Luna. She noted that her younger sister was trying, unsuccessfully, to hold back the giggles and school her face into a mask of regal serenity.
"My dear subject," Celestia forced her voice to remain calm, "what could possibly have happened that you would barge into your princess's quarters while she is bathing?"
The guard, his coat standing on end from the rigorous toweling, saluted sharply.
"My lady, at sixteen hundred hours, central intelligence received a report of a magical anomaly in the Everfree forest."
"So?" Luna raised an eyebrow, "The Everfree is rife with wild magic, an anomaly or twelve is to be expected every few days."
The guard saluted again, "Ma'am, we are aware of that. This anomaly, however, is not of the usual kind."
Celestia narrowed her eyes, "Explain."
"It registered seventeen point five on the Solar Scale, ma'am." The two pony princesses exchanged a horrified look. "I do not need to remind you that the advent of Twilight Sparkle, in which she destroyed most of a class A magically fortified structure, registered only a six on said scale."
Grim determination banished all traces of exhaustion and aggravation from Celestia's features. Striding past the guard, she gathered a plethora of brushes, combs, and assorted manecare products about herself. By the time she reached her sitting room, she was every inch the ruler of Equestria. Her golden regalia adorned itself upon her without breaking stride.
"Gather the Council," she barked to her waiting guards, "wake the Archmage, muster the guard, and alert the militia." The stunned pegasi stared at her for a few brief moments. Celestia glared at them. "Go go go!"
With a squawk and confused flapping of wings they went, moving at breakneck speeds through the lofty halls in pursuit of their tasks. Their princess continued to glare after them for a few moments, then continued on her way, satisfied that soon she would have everything under control.
"Sister," Luna manifested at her side, inexplicably exquisite in her silver jewelry. "Should we not also summon the Elements of Harmony? Twilight Sparkle in particular may be able to tell us more of the magical disturbance in the Everfree."
"We will summon the Elements when we have to, sister," Celestia replied without looking at the younger alicorn. "For now, we must handle the situation ourselves. We need more information about what's going on, I don't want to send Twilight and her friends into a dangerous situation completely blind."
"Now we both know that's a lie," the smooth, mocking voice echoed from everywhere. "You've done nothing but send the purple one and her team against impossible odds from the very beginning. I'm living proof, after all."
"Discord," Celestia acknowledged him. The patchwork form of the Prince of Chaos slithered up and out of the stone hallway to her left, matching Luna's position on her right.
"Discord," Luna's greeting was not nearly as cordial as her sister's had been, "what do you know of the anomaly? Is it your doing?"
The draconequus actually looked offended at the accusation.
"Excuse me," he hissed, "but I believe I made it clear that I'm not interested in conquering Equestria anymore. I thought after all these years you'd trust me a little more, and besides, what could I possibly have to gain by stirring up trouble now?"
Luna narrowed her eyes, but did not press the issue. Discord smirked at her, but when he returned his attention to Celestia his face was completely serious.
"For the record, I don't know what's going on in the old palace. I was going to go investigate but I got stopped on the way when an Ursa Major and her cub almost trampled Ponyville."
"What?!" the princesses shouted simultaneously. Discord held up a claw to forestall further interruptions.
"Relax, other than a few dozen trees there was no damage done. She didn't even get out of the forest. I turned her around and sent her off to the Crystal Mountains, hopefully she'll be able to find a cave or something to hide in until this all blows over."
Celestia breathed a sigh of relief, "Thankyou, Discord. I'm not sure what I would have done if a Star Beast rampaged through Ponyville, or any town."
Discord shrugged as if his heroism was of no concern. To him, it probably wasn't, but to the princesses it was undeniable proof that his rehabilitation was working.
"I don't like this, sister," Luna spoke mostly to Celestia, but her eyes flickered to Discord as she talked. "Ursa Major are considered one of the most powerful beings in existence, and for good reason. If something panicked one enough to make it venture towards civilization, than whatever we are dealing with may be more than we are prepared to handle."
"I wouldn't worry too much about that," Discord stroked his beard with his lion's paw. "We've got what, three deities, plus the Elements, plus that Shiny fellow, plus the Heart, and let's not forget everyone's favorite, me. I somehow doubt that between all of us we couldn't handle anything short of a full Tartarus breakout."
The offhanded comment froze all three of them in their tracks.
"Sister," Luna's normally strident voice was tinged with fear, "that can't be it, can it? I mean, if the Wardens were in trouble we surely would have heard from them? Right?"
Celestia stared off into space, a thousand possible scenarios running through her mind, each more horrible than the last.
"I don't know, sister," she said at last. "But I think we need to prepare for the worst, just in case."
