Pain.

Such absolute ungodly huge amounts of most unadulterated pain ever felt by any sentient being!
That was pretty much everything that occupied my mind right now.

…

Oh and of course the walking supernova, shaped like a certain former Princess of a world full of talking, pastel colored Ponies, gem obsessed bipedal Dogs, shape shifting Bug-Pony-Things and (at least one) surprisingly alluring Dragoness and so much more.

“My, my, what a mess you made out of this place. Oh well, I had some Re-Decorating planed anyways.” A voice sweet like honey and smooth as velvet rang out, carried into my ears by solar breeze that nearly toasted my eardrums.

Scratch that, it toasted my eardrums. Lucky me that I didn´t really need them anymore.

Yay.

Looking up from my comfortable pile of wall debris, armor pieces and growing puddles of my own blood, I found myself eye in eye with her as she stepped casually through the roughly me-shaped hole in the wall.

The very monster I created in a soupcon of enthusiasm, spiced with a truckload of asininity.

“Oh, hi… Celly… fancy meeting you her…” I forced the words over my bruised lips before I was cut short by an armor clad hoof that slammed into my sternum, adding another broken bone to the list.

Her mane and tail, long trails of billowing blue fire, turned bright white for just an instant before turning back to blue. But that was enough to cause me first degree burns. Not that it would have mattered.
Or would have been very obvious since my skin had this nice tone of midnight black since I arrived in this diabetes causing Universe. She brought her head down to face me properly, her horn passing my cheekbone by an µ. The bone sizzled with barley contained heat as it grazed my skin ever so slightly.

I screamed and grasped the leg that was holding me down in a halfhearted attempt to free me from the growing pressure and regretted it instantly because not only her horn but her whole body was a literal furnace right now.

>>Right, no more limiters and stuff. Vollidiot [Moron]!<< this annoying, little You-should-have-known-in-advance-voice in a recently very active part of my brain berated me.

“Now Umbra, what is my name?” she asked me again with that sweet voice while fixating me with glowing white eyes.

Instead of responding, I coughed up blood against Ms. Supernovas leg piece.

She rewarded my attempt of adding more color to her palette with increasing both, the pressure her hoof applied and the heat her body radiated causing the remains of the red tunic I wore underneath my armor to start smoldering, probably unable to decide if she should deep-fry or just crush me.

“…n´t… breathe…” I finally managed to wheeze.

After the most torturing five seconds of my life until now, she gracefully decided to lift her hoof, allowing me to take a few greedy breaths. Ah, air. Such a trivial thing. One does never appreciate it enough until it ran out. I made a mental not to invent a proper holiday to celebrate this incredible element with the due respect.
If I would be able to survive the next few minutes.

“I´m waiting you know? What. Is. My. NAME?”

Ouch, royal canterlot caps lock.

“M-ourning…” I whimpered in pain.

The flaming mare gave me an approving nod. “But there is more, isn´t it?” she said in a mock voice, sounding like a mother that was giving her child a lecture.

“Mourning… Star...” the words finally found their way out of my mouth.

“There. Was it that terrible?” the alicorn cooed in a tone that suggested I was in for a triple chocolate chip cookie.

Satisfied with my answer, Mourning Star took a few steps backwards and pulled me on my feet with her magic at the same time. This caused more parts of my abused armor to flake off from my body like dead leaves from a tree during fall, leaving me effectively with my ragged tunic, a dented left pauldron, my seemingly indestructible Gauntlett of Dominance and the armor on my legs plus my heavy armored boots.

Some of my bangs fell over my own glowing eyes. With a weak huff, I blew them out of my vision, wobbling on my legs to keep myself up.

Mourning Star gave me a pitying once over. “It so sad how the mighty have fallen my dear Umbra. It truly hurts me to see you in this ragged state.” she said softly, almost as if she was consoling me. “Reduced from a powerful ruler to a helpless ragdoll. Completely at my mercy.”

“Well… you didn´t need to beat me up that bad, y´know?” I retorted with a blood caked excuse for a smile. “But hey, since we are already talking so nice, how about discussing this whole ‘living all together in harmony’ thing again? Sounds mighty fine to me right now if I´m honest.”

The monster I unleashed took herself a few seconds before puckering her lips and softly shaking her head. “I am afraid not.” She said, giving me her best impression of drop dead attractive AND three hundred percent lethal corrupted deity. Alongside those words, magic started to build up in her horn. “But since it was you that finally opened my eyes and because you have growled so nicely before me just now, I shall make your end quick. And almost painless.”

Oh great~y. As the magical glow began to grow brighter, I considered my situation. I was pretty battered, my armor was down, almost out of Mana and my mace was probably still embedded in the throne chambers floor. My minions were scattered throughout the whole palace and Onyx… oh gods, Onyx! Last time I saw her, she was doing the dying swan head on towards the castles cobblestone yard. I mean, sure, that dragon was one hell of a though cookie but a face plant after a free fall of approximately one hundred and fifty meters right into solid ground after taking a supercharged solar beam in the ribs?

“Now hold still!” Mourning Star ordered, aiming her fully charged horn at me.

>>Shit, time for plan B!<< I thought with a hint of panic. “H-hey… didn´t I get some last wish o-or some last words to say at least?” I blurted out while cumulating and concentrating every last ounce of Mana into my left palm.

Raising an eyebrow, the poniefied Sun Goddess turned Supernova delayed my upcoming incineration. “And what would that be oh dearest Umbra? A last meal perhaps? I´m afraid the castles chef is not available at the moment. Or is there something else you crave for?” Mourning Star asked me with a sultry tone “A kiss? Or maybe… a last tumble in the sheets?” The last one came with half lidded bedroom eyes for fucks sake.

Believe it or not, I actually blushed at that. After all I had done up until now, I blushed. My reaction caused a half surprised, half maniacal laughing fit from Her Suness.

“Really now?” Mourning Star asked me while whipping away a tear. Not that she needed to because the tear vaporized nearly the moment it had left her eye.

Shuffling my feet, I gazed onto the floor with great interest. “Well… a kiss would be nice… y´know… since you offered it and all…”

For a second, the self-styled empress looked like she was about to blast me into Oblivion right away. But then, her magical aura vanished. “Fine. I will grant you your last wish.” she declared before sauntering towards me, sashaying her hips. “I´m not a monster after all.”

I felt the magic form in my palm.

Mourning Star had reached me.

Just a bit more.

“Well?” she asked me.

I gulped nervously before leaning towards her. Good thing she was as tall as me so I did not need to crouch down.

She closed in to me, something predatory glinting in her eyes.

“Hey Mourning?”

“What?”

“Surprise Miststück [Bitch]!” I brought up my armored palm and unloaded everything worth of magical energy I had left into a powerful burst of electricity into Ex-Celly´s face. It was not nearly enough to hurt her, hell, it probably would not even stun her for more than a heartbeat but that was all I needed.

Not waiting for that crazy mare to recover from my Corruption spell burst, I dashed through the whole I left in the wall as fast as my mangled body allowed me to. All I had to do was to reach the throne room and then…

BOO~OOOOM!

Jupp, now she was pissed, judging from the intense heat and the shockwave that just rolled over me. A beam of pure plasma whizzed past my head, reducing a statue of a random pony decorating the hallway into nothing. I didn´t even dared to look back. If I had learned anything from all those movies where some cliché ridden teens were on the run from a murderous monster/psychotic serial killer/whatever than it was to never, ever, under no circumstances look back at whatever is chasing you.

So I kept running.

And screaming.

A lot of screaming.

Skidding around the last corner, I reached my destination. The throne room. With a good portion of haste I slammed the doors shut and latched it. “That should buy me a few miliseconds.” I said to no one in particular as my eyes scanned the room. There was my weapon, my beautiful, beautiful mace. Still embedded into the marble tiles. With a strained grunt, I freed my trusty steel companion and walked over to the throne.

Really, the show had never done it justice. On the screen it was just a chair with a big backrest and a purple pillow. But the real deal! The real throne from up close showed so many details, such craftman… ehrm, craftponieship of course, it was astonishing. With an audible ‘whompf’ I sat down on the royal furniture, my mace at reach over my legs. >>Hmm, comfy.<<
With nothing left but waiting for Dark Celly to come after my armored ass, I let my mind roam.
How in the name of Gabba Gandalfs secret ganjah stash had I gotten myself into this mess?
Ah, right, it started with that big Con back on good ol´earth. Just like one of those HiE fics that were flooding Fim-Fiction back then.

[Roughly two years and a few months prior, late Saturday morning]

“Aww, come on now Vivi. You promised me!” I mock-whined. Vivi, short for Vivianne, best gal-pal and roommate a crazy daughter of a mother like me could have, gave me an irritated moan before climbing out of my little VW.

“Remind me why I agreed to this meat inspection you are calling a Con again.” She groaned, tugging at her costume.

“Because,” I grinned devilish “because you have just the right body to pull this through Vivilein... or should I say Lelith Hesperax?” Checking her long red wig, my roommate did her best to glare at me but she failed miserable. It had took us months to get her costume right but now she was dressed up as Lelith Hesperax, the Dark Eldar Wych Queen from Warhammer 40.000, complete with an authentic pair of daggers (blunt of course), black armor covering her legs and left arm and the matching ‘bikini’, leaving her lithe as fuck body out on display.

I think I drooled a bit the sight.

“But why I have to be this character? I´m practically nude.”

Placing my helmet on my head, I closed my cars luggage compartment and walked up to her, patting her shoulder. “Because you let me and Phil choose your costume Kitten. Plus you look drop dread sexy. Really. And you promised your boyfriend photos.”

Hearing my pet name for her and my honest compliment, Vivi blushed a bit but managed to smile again. “And why do you have a costume that covers your full body Sara?”

“That’s because it’s awesome. Also I don’t want to run around, causing spontaneously eyeball combustion with my beer belly and my thunder thigh’s.”

“You could have laid of the sweets for a while and trained at the gym with me.”

“And miss this?” I gestured alongside my body. “Never!” Right now, I was dressed up as a female version of my most favorite game villain ever, the Overlord from “Overlord II”. I was wearing an almost exact replica of the ‘Netherworld Armor’, meaning lots of overlapping, black steel plates covering my torso, my shins and the dragon skull like pauldron on my right shoulder with a shortish, red came drapped decorativley over my left shoulder and back, all over a red tunic and simple brown pants. That and the ‘Evil Glare Helmet’ in all its two horned and sinister majesty, both made from stainless Russian steel (courtensy of one of my dad’s friends, still expensive as fuck), since I planned to use this bad momma as live role-play equipment. I was already giddy to see the jaws hitting the floor at our next meeting.

“Ready to rock?” I asked and Vivi gave me a thumbs up. After locking the car, I picked up my weapon, a replica of the ‘Unleashed Beast’, the in my opinion coolest mace in the whole game. Fondly I gave the weapon a few swings while walking towards the big convention center. Building that weapon had took three tries but it was worth it. Modelling the wolfs faces on the maces head out of rubber foam had been the hardest part. I even had added some lead band to the core staff to give the whole thing a more realistic feeling. Painting it was much easier even though our apartment still smelled like a factory for latex gloves.

The convention center was bursting with cool stuff and cool people. More than once my friend and I were stopped by other visitors, costumed and non-costumed to pose for a photo. Or two. Mostly they asked Vivi, much to my amusement and her irritation but hey, I had a reason to stick with the original concept for my costume and not pulling some fan service with a free midriff and deep cleavage.
I was aiming to win the annual contest for the best costume and I was going to win it the old fashioned way. By working hard!

We had just reached the hall where the contest would be taking place as fate decided to fuck me over. I was ogling the merchandise at a stand for resin figurines as another visitor bumped into me. Or rather, into my left gauntlet. My gauntlet of Dominance as I called it. This cool thingy that acts as a remote for the Overlords minions. Anyways, I felt a bump and heard a sharp crack. Locking down I felt tears flood my eyes. The gem on top of my gauntlet was broken. No idea how that happened. Maybe it was pushed against the stands edge? In any case, the supposed extra durable security glass was cleanly split into three pieces. I watched stunned as the pieces fell out of the frame. Collecting the pieces, I walked numbly towards my waiting friend.

“Hey, I signed us up. The contest will start in ten, so we still have a little time for dawdling.” Vivi greeted me cheerful. I noticed that she already was carrying a large bag full of swag.

“Well, I´ll just do the dawdling then. Universe, the old killjoy just fucked me over again.” I said bitterly, showing my friend my broken gauntlet.

At first, Vivianne was depressed too but then her face lit up. She took my hand and started pulling me towards a small stand.

“Hey, what gives?” I growled.

“Just you wait.” came the answer.

The stand was nothing more than a small camping table, covered in various knick knacks. I discovered a red Power Ranger action figure, several old Avengers comics in mint condition and a big chest full of… gems? In fact, right on top of the small pile of probably cheap children’s jewelry sat a twin to my own broken gem. It looked even better at second sight. “How much for that one?” I asked the gentleman behind the table, because that was exactly how he looked. A dapper grey suit with black pinstripes, carefully combed black hair with white temples, a top hat that was a little on the worn side but was still classy and a walking cane with a familiar looking golden knob cradled in the crook of his arm. He looked at me, then at the merchandise.

“Ten.” He said in a warm and cheery tone.

“Hmm, eight?” I tried a little bartering.

“How about seven fifty?” the gentleman caught me of guard.

Vivianne and I stared at him before he started laughing.

“Oh ladies, you should see your faces. Priceless!” he snickered “Alright. We have a deal here. Eight and it is yours.” He took of his hat and held it in front of me.

Quickly I dropped the money into it and took my new gem. While doing so, I finally recognized the canes knob. It was the Twi cane from episode two, season four.

“Twi cane is best cane.” I snickered. To my astonishment, the gentleman nearly jumped over his table in a burst of happiness.

“Finally!” he cheered “Finally someone who gets it!”

“My pleasure good sir.” I smiled.

He put on his hat after taking out the money and tipped it. “Tipping intensives.”

I could have sworn that his whole body started to vibrate slightly as he said that but I was dragged away by my roommate, towards the stage entrance. After a stagehand let us in, I went and fixed my gauntlet. Good thing I packed some superglue this morning. With my costume finally fixed, I examined the other participants. I noticed a good bunch of WoW characters including the typical fan service slut blood elves, a big sister from Bioshock and much to my delight even a few characters from Skullgirls. I spied one particular girl dressed up as Ms. Fortune and started smiling. I loved that thieving feline. Taking Vivi with me because she had the camera, I approached her and asked for a photo with her. Turned out she liked my costume and character too and gladly agreed.
Afterward that, the narrator appeared and we gathered around him. I knew the basic stuff he would tell us already but Vivi and “Ms. Fortune” were visibly nervous.

“Okay now friends, first of all, it’s great to see so many of you this year again. Now, this will be a simple show. You will enter the stage one at a time. You all have a minute to do some cool posing, show of your costume and generally elate the audience. The more applause you get, the better are your chances to win since this contest is all about ‘audience choice’. Okay now, get into line, I going to introduce the first of you. Good luck everyone.”

With that, he entered the stage and called out the first contestant. I was the fifth in the line, Vivi the sixth. ‘Ms. Fortune’ was the fourth. Judging after the deafening applause, she would be made the at least third place. Then it was my turn.

“And now, I present to you our next contestant. I´m sure you will recognize her for she is the mistress of minions, the darkness personified. Here is Sara Schneider, as rule sixty-three Overlord form Overlord II.” boomed the narrator’s voice through the mic.

With that, I strode out into the spotlight, my ‘Unleashed Beast’ casually resting on my shoulder, giving the crowd my best ‘evil glare’. Now, the extra price for the fluorescent contact lenses paid off, judging after the cheers. I stopped next to the narrator and started my routine. At first, I swung my mace in a wide arc in front of me before aiming for the killing blow. I had pestered Phil for weeks to help me build a sound and light system into my gauntlet of Dominance which could be triggered by a hidden switch near the base of my forefinger. Stepping towards the edge of the stage and looking at the audience, I raised my left hand high above, performing the gesture that would call back the minions in the game and pressed the switch. I doubted that more than the first rows would get it but instantly a LED illuminated the big gem and a speaker we had ripped out of a mini Bass Cube blared the unmistakable horn signal to call my minions.
The audience liked it and I basked in the applause they gave me. I was about to turn and leave the stage as suddenly the light from my gauntlet came back to life and with every second it shone brighter.
And brighter. It shone so bright, it hurts and no matter what, I was unable to turn it off. Also I was unable to take the gauntlet off for that matter. Or even move. My whole body was paralyzed.

The audience started to make a run for it.

I panicked.

Then, the wooden boards of the stage started to erode as a bright blue and white light poured out from underneath my feet. I remembered hearing Vivi shout my name as I began to sink into the floor. God, she sounded so afraid.

The last thing I saw before I was swallowed by the light was the gentleman with the Twi cane. He was standing alone in the empty front row, contently munching away at some cotton candy. He smiled at me, tipping his hat.

Then the boards of the stage closed above my head and I started falling, screaming.

Author's Notes:

Jupp. A HiE Fic.
And an Overlord, ehrm, Overlady on top.

Onward, to Glory!

EDIT: Yes I changed dark Celestias name from "Corona Blaze" to "Mourning Star". The first name was something of a placeholder until I found something better.