Author's Notes:

From here on, there will be switches from the Overlady´s POV and the third Person now and then to help me tell the story better and provide some extra infos and/or funny moments to my dear readers.

Enjoy.^^

The universe is a really funny place.
Not necessarily ‘Ha ha’ funny, no, more like, ‘visiting a convention to partake in a costume contest in one moment, then find yourself in a free fall through a tunnel of light after being swallowed by the stage in the next’ funny if you catch my drift.

I did not know how long I was falling. Maybe hours, maybe days. Heck, even only a few seconds would have been possible since everything that was surrounding me was a tunnel of blue and white light. Somehow it resembled a trans-warp tunnel from one of these old SciFi series.
“Beam me up Scottie, har di har har.” A raspy voice I don’t recognized as my own at first said. For a long time, all I had done was falling and screaming until my voice finally broke down. So I limited myself to falling. One could fall in a surprisingly high variety of ways as I found out.

The first and most obvious way I dubbed “The Flailer”. It was pretty easy. All you had to do was flailing your arms in an uncoordinated manner while falling. Kicking your legs and screaming on top of your lungs was optional for more advanced and/or experienced persons.

The next one was “The Hero”. Another pretty simple figure. One arm was stretched out in front of you while the other remained close to your body, pointing backwards. Optional, both arms could point forwards.

The third way, I dubbed “The Thinker”. It was obviously inspired be piece of art, depicting a naked guy, sitting on a rock, with his chin placed on one fist while looking somewhat think-y.

Another good one is “The flying T”. Just straighten out both arms until your body resembles a capital “T”.

After a while, coming up with different ways to zoom towards an uncertain destiny became boring so I ‘sat down’ in a tailors seat with crossed arms and shifted my attention to observing my surroundings inside the ‘tunnel’.

First came the detection that I could not leave my place in the relative center of the tunnel. Sure, I could wobble a bit in every direction but I never really left my spot. Some unknown force was holding me right where I was.

Following that came the observation that every now and then, a “Whisp”, a brightly glowing ball of light, in lack of a better term swished past me. Some passed me and flew down and at least as much zoomed past me in the different direction.
Those Whisps going up I envied the most.
Lucky little bastards!
At one point, I tried to catch on of the up zooming light balls, desperately hoping to maybe hitch a ride back home but it passed right through my hand as if it weren’t there. Or solid for that matter. That experience caused me to pull my hand back with a high pitched yelp. Upon closer inspection, I noticed with great relief that neither my hand nor my gauntlet were now sporting a nice new hole. After pondering over the properties of these “Whisps” and what they could be and how one could explain their ability to ‘phase’ through solid matter for a good while, I noticed the next thing.

I was not able to accelerate or slow down my fall. No matter what, for some reason I kept a constant falling speed.

That was the next thing. If I were really falling, why was there now wind blowing in my face or tugging at my clothes? As a falling body I had to meet some kind of resistance, even if it were just molecules colliding with me but nothing.
Nadda.
Zip!

Also, I didn’t grew hungry over the time. Or tired.
Okay, the last thing might have been the adrenaline rushing through my veins but still. A circumstance I was really thankful for was that there was no need to use the bath room. Would have been really awkward if I had to.

The most unnerving thing was that there were no sounds at all. Except from my own voice now and then or the clanging of my armor when I moved my body I was falling in total silence.
That was creepy on a whole new level!

At one point, I simply closed my eyes and waited for whatever may be happening to me.

…

I reopened them only when something around me changed drastically. Suddenly, there was sound again, like an all muting veil surrounding me had been violently ripped open. And wind and pressure building up against my falling form.
And heat.
I opened my eyes and to be honest, I was stunned. Right in front of me was… a planet.

A.

Mother.

Fucking.

Planet!

Quickly I rubbed my eyes to check if I was dreaming. Note to self, rub your eyes really carefully while wearing steel gauntlets with pointy edges. After confirming that I was not asleep and managing not to lose an eye I tried my best to take in the sight that was offered to me.
It was breathtaking. The orb somehow resembled my most favorite chunk of dirt in the whole cosmos, Earth with its wide blue oceans and the landmass of mixed browns and greens. I could see vast mountain ranges (at least I thought it were mountains) and a big patch of yellow-sih color which I supposed to be some dessert region of sorts. Yet I could tell without a doubt that this was not my beloved home planet. The array of the continents was off. Like total off. The whole setting resembled more pictures of the supercontinent Pangea, except for a chain of longish islands trailing up to the northern pole, from way back then, when Littlefoot and his gang where still roaming the place.
Ah man, I loved that movie.

My fond memories of precious childhood days were brought to an end as I entered the planet’s atmosphere.

The air friction around my body gave birth to a, I must admit, really impressive and somehow even beautiful corona of fire.

“Oo~okay universe, God, Odin, Amaterasu, Cthulhu, Buddha, Manitou, horned Rat, Tzeentch, whoever is responsible for this and is listening, let me get this clear: you decided to drag my ass out of my life, out of my universe and out of everything I knew and hold dear just to drop me into some strange, prehistorically looking planet’s atmosphere to watch me burn to cinders? You gotta be kidding me!” I yelled over the constantly growing roaring that my atmospheric entry caused. Of course I never got an answer. Would have been too good to be true anyways.

Ever heard that a dying person goes through five phases before finally passing?

At first came denial.

Despite to unalterable evidence in front of me, I simply denied my fate.
Sure, I knew that I was going to die one day, because circle of life and death and all that jazz but I refused that I had to go this way. I probably just slipped on stage and hit my head, resulting in some crazy dream. It just could not be!

This went on for a while before making way for the next phase.

Anger.

And fuck, was I angry!
I raged for I don’t know how long while slowly but surely falling towards my end. I cursed each and everything I knew, using every swearword, every curse and even invented some new ones.
I was angry at the universe for pulling this sick joke on me.
I was angry the asshole that bumped into me, causing my need to fix my costume with that gem which without a doubt was a key element to my misery.
I was angry at that “gentleman” who sold said gem to me.
Angry at the my car for properly functioning and transporting me to the Con.
I was even angry at Vivianne. Why had she not talked me out of this? She did not even wanted us to partake in this contest because our costumes would take too much money and time to make!
But first and foremost, I was angry at myself. Angry because I had an abo for the conventions newsletter. Angry because I decided it would be cool to dress up as Overlord or better, as Overlady to rock the costume contest. Angry because I thought I would stand a chance in the first place. Angry for setting up three alarm clocks to really be on time for the Con and not simply staying in bed and enjoying the weekend.

After my anger had subsided came the next phase.

Bargaining.

This phase however was really short-lived. I made a few attempts to formulate a deal with any higher deity that would listen but never brought them to an end.
I was never overly religious to begin with.
Sure, I believed that somewhere out there simply had to be some beings so far above our own point of existence that they could only be considered ‘gods’. But I too believed that I would never pass the needed requirements to be allowed to enter their respective after lives.

So Bargaining took a step to the side and allowed Number Four to enter the stage.

Depression.

All the things I left behind flashed through my mind, all the things I always wanted to do but never did and now, would never be able to do.
First of all, my family. I had always been incredible proud of them. I have witnessed other families to break apart over something more or less trivial but my family was always a like a rock. Sure, there had been many times in the past, that rock had been hit hard by the waves of destiny, had suffered cracks and even now and then, a part of the rock and been chipped of. But Mom always kept her caring and jovial self. Whenever one of us seemed to drown in sorrow, she had been there with a smile, a hug or just a few kind words of support.
And Dad. Dad had always been so… I dread the word schizophrenic in his behavior. In one moment, he was dead serious, unmoving and superior to everyone only to be a totally silly fool, a great friend and a fierce protector in the next.
That led me to Leo, my darling little brother. Born whole eighteen years after me, he was most of the time an insufferable little dick but who could blame a nine years old for building his own personality? I remembered helping him build a little den behind our garage and how much we laughed when the whole thing came down on us just because of one little gust of wind.

Tears started to well up in my eyes and the cold claw of dread closed around my heart.

Next came my friends. I did never had many but those I had were the best bunch of idiots, nerds, gamers and potheads a girl could ask for.
Vivianne, my roommate. Always in action, sportive to no end yet she had the ability to radiate a strange tranquility if she wanted. The voice of reason in our little flat share.
Phil, Viviannes boyfriend and my BFF since elementary school. Oh, the shit we went through together.
Dominik, Shean, Ester, Kim, Mark and Jan.
I would never be able to see them again.
Never be able to say ‘Goodbye and thank you for all the fish.’ Ha, even now I could not stop myself from being a goof.

Sobbing slightly, I starred through the roaring fire around me towards the planet´s surface that kept coming closer and closer.

Finally, the last participant showed up.

Acceptance.

It washed away all the emotions its predecessors had stirred up, gently wrapping me in a soothing blanket of assurance. The assurance that, even now that my end was drawing near, the world would keep on spinning.
Vivianne and Phil would probably move in together and became parents of the most contradictorily and adorable little munchkins since in the history of mankind.
My family would take their time to lament. I would most likely get a small substitute burial and a nice grave located near those of my grandparents and great-grandparents. But then, they would move on. Mom would hopefully quit her awful job and become a self-employed nanny like it had been her dream since long. Dad would probably keep his job as a glazier till kingdom come and Leo would without a doubt become a fine guy that will make the girls swoon in droves for him, once his dream carrier as a soccer player gets off the ground.
My friends would follow their own ways for sure. Dominik would become a lawsuit that rivals Phoenix Wright for sure, Shean and Ester would hopefully finally came to terms with the fact that they were destined for each other and be happy together. Kim would someday take over her old man’s car workshop, Mark would fulfill his dream of travelling to Japan to introduce his own brand of good old German cuisine to the population and Jan would without a doubt continue to be the world’s most hopeless stoner and best spiritual guide ever.

Comforted by this knowledge, my demise did not scare me anymore. I had a swinging time but now it was time to leave the stage and get some rest.

Yes. A little rest sounded good.

Managing to put on a small smile underneath my helmet, I gazed upon the beautiful planet in front of me until I lost consciousness from the sheer heat and pressure that had built up against me.

[POV third Person, Canterlot Castle Garden]

“Check dearest sister.” A white alicorn announced with a impish smile. Her counterpart however, a smaller and midnight blue alicorn fixated the chessboard between them with a piercing glare.

“Nay! `Tis long from over Tia!” Luna, Princess of the Moon and co-ruler of Equestria shot back. Sure, Celestia had her in a pinch after moving her bishop into place a moment earlier. A blue hue of magic surrounded one of Lunas own chess pieces, a black knight since Luna had preferred to choose black since the first day her sister introduced her to this game. She then moved the piece in its L-shaped move and took out Celestias bishop. “Ha! Have at thee sister! Today thou shalt not overcome the might of my army of tiny wooden figurines!” the lunar princess cheered in her amusing mixture of old and modern speech.

Celestia, Ruler of the Sun, big sister to Luna, Ruler of the Moon and habile strategist sipped daintily at her cup of chamomile tea hold aloft in her trademark golden aura.
“Is that so Lulu?” she asked, carfully setting the chineighse cup back onto the table.
Then she moved one of her pawns toward Lunas line of defense, obviously a vain attempt to avenge her fallen bishop.

“Indeed. Thou art getting sloppy.” The moon goddess smiled wildly, taking out the pawn with one of her own. “Ha ha, another step towards mine victory!”

Wordless, Celestia countered by moving her last rook all the way to Lunas side of the bord, trying to align it to Lunas king.

Luna countered the bold move with her queen, taking out another part of Celestias pieces.

Celestia smiled at her younger siblings antics but then, then the smile was replaced a frown.
“Luna? Is that yours?” the solar diarch asked.

Holding up the freshly captured rook with her magic, Luna answered smiling “Of course it is Tia. My queen hath defeated the rook in honorable combat. If you want it back, one of your pawns hath to reach mine side of the chess board as stated by the rules.”

“No, I´m not speaking about the rook Luna. I´m speaking of… that.” Celestia pointed her gold clad hoof at something behind Luna.

Following her sisters hoof, Luna quickly discovered the source of Celestias concern. Right there, a blazing trail of fire lingered in the afternoon sky, rapidly descending towards the planet.

A meteor.

“None of mine sister.” Luna said while following the trajectory with her eyes “But fear none, as far as I can see, it is going down far away. Deep inside the barren badlands. Nopony should be endangered.”

Celestia let out an audible breath of relief. Her sister had always been the better one with estimating trajectories which was crucial since an important part of the nightly sky were the occasional shooting star or even a whole swarm of them once in a while.
“Thank you for alleviating my sorrows little sister.” the solar alicorn smiled before moving her own queen all over the board, following the carefully cleared path she had prepared throughout the whole game and directly took out the black king.
“Check and mate dearest sister.” Celestia announced holding up her price.

Luna starred at the floating chess piece slack jawed.

[A small crater somewhere in the Badlands]

“Ouch.”

Moaned a muffled voice. My voice.

Dirt filled a dry mouth. My mouth.

But even though my eyes were open, all I saw was darkness.

“Fuck me sideways with a broomstick covered in glass shards…” I moaned and again was rewarded with a mouthful of dirt.

It was icky, it scratched in my throat and crunched between my teeth. But at the same time, it was smooth like the smoothest velvet and tasted so damn delicious I could have polished of a truckload of it on the spot.

Because it meant that I was still alive somehow.

Even though doing ‘the Shepard’ without Cerberus to patch me up afterwards!

Even though hitting the normally unforgiving surface of a planet with a speed of I-don’t-know-how-many-kilometers per hour.

Fighting down a flash of euphoria, I commanded my brain to send an impulse to my limps with the intent to stand up because I realized that I must have face planted right into the ground. At first my brain failed to comply but at a second try I felt a familiar tingling. Just like when you regain the feeling in your leg or arm after it had fallen asleep. Gritting my teeth and ignoring the onslaught of pinpricks that was maltreating me I slowly pushed up my upper body, get on my knees and slowly stood up.

Instantly, I fell backwards and hit the ground again.

“Damn legs. How could you betray me like this? After all we have been through together…” I accused my own appendances. Taking in a deep breath, I gazed into the sky. It was bright blue, sunny and not a single cloud in sight. The air smelled dry and earthy. “Okay legs, second try.” I said to no one in particular after spitting out dirty saliva for a last time.

This time, I took it slow. First I sat up and scanned my surroundings for the first time. It appeared that I had crashed down in some kind of desolate plain or dessert. All around me, reddish-brown earth stretched to the horizon. No trees, no grass and no streets on that note. Just some rocks, varying in their size from a football to a small house and in the same color like the earth now and then protruded from the ground. “Of course. Of fun-fucking course!” I half yelled, slamming my left fist against the innocent ground. “Of course I had to crash down in mother nature’s ash tray!” Huffing angrily, I stood up and inspected myself. To my surprise everything was still intact. Not even the tunic and pants I wore under my armor or my cape were singed. Okay, there were some new minor scratches and dents decorating my armor but who cares? I should have been nothing but a smoldering pile of ash by now but here I was standing, absolutely unscathed. With a sudden wild grin, I raised both of my arms skyward and flipped the birds.
“HA! Fuck you universe! You failed miserably you fucking fucktard! I´m still alive and kicking, ya hear me?” I yelled as loud as my abused vocal chords allowed me too. It was then that I noticed something. The skin on my arms had turned black. No, not Afro-American black but black. True and through black.
I stared at my still outstretched arms.
Then I screamed.
Loud.

After some time I calmed more or less down. Still a bit spooked by my sudden palette swap, I took of my gauntlets and my helmet.
Upon closer inspection I discovered that every last square centimeter of my skin had turned black. Besides that, I was still me. Well, I could somehow feel that I was now much more muscular then before. Nothing mayor but I definitively felt more lithe. I made a mental note to check that out once I had found a place where a girl could undress in peace.

After slipping into my gear again, this led to my next discovery. Had my armor been at most only two millimeters strong before, now the single parts seemed to be up to eight millimeters strong which would have made it a real ordeal, if not impossible for someone like me to carry it, let alone walk around. Yet it felt nothing different from before. With a ‘Meh!’ and a shrug, I ticked it off as ‘weird shit of the day so far’ and looked around for my mace. Sure, no sane person in my situation would have done that but hey, I never said I was sane or did I? After spending so much time and effort making it, I was not going to let it behind and since I had made it down here in one piece, there was no way the Beast wouldn´t.
I found my accessory half buried a few steps away from the little crater that I had stamped into the landscape. “Hello beautiful. Come to momma.” I greeted the mace and attempted to pull it out of its earthen prison.
Attempted.
Because somehow, the former rubber foam weapon had become the real deal which meant that it now had a weight roughly around five kilos or even more. After putting more effort in it and pulling with both hands, I succeeded. I gazed at the beauty of steel, leather bands and magical poison in my armored hands. The red eyes of the maces wolf faces seemed to glow with predatory intent and occasionally a thin cloud of green mist billowed around the dull steel before drifting apart.
A though came to my mind. If my mace was now the real unleased Beast, would it have the same effect when I smashed it into the ground like in the game?
“Only one way to find out.” I said and lifted the weapon over my head. It came down with a thundering crack and just like in the game, a wave of thick green poison splashed in every direction away from the impact zone. A wide smile was plastered on my face. “Awesome.” was all I could whisper. Then I smashed it into the ground again with the exact same result, just for shit and giggles.
After having satisfied my fangirlish urges I sobered up a bit.
I was in dire need of civilization, water, food and a bed if I do not want to reduce my diet to dirt, dirt and dirt. Resting my new and supercool mace on my shoulder to make it easier to carry I picked a direction and started walking. To pass the time and occupy my mind, I started singing as loud as my sore throat allowed me. Who knows, maybe someone would hear me and would rush to my rescue? >>Even though I´m hardly looking like a frail maiden in distress right know.<< I thought amused. And if no one would show up, my horrible excuse for singing should at least hold eventual wild animals at bay.

[POV third Person, the Badlands, Impact Zone, early evening]

The impact zone lay still, like the rest of the badlands in the setting sun. A lone tumbleweed was blown across the new small crater. Then, a faint rumbling filled the air mixed with the scratching from pickaxes and claws against stone. A portion of the ground collapsed and left behind a hole, not very large in diameter. A clawed hand attached to a brawny arm appeared out of the darkness of the hole and dug its claws into the ground in an attempt to pull out the body that belonged to the arm. Shortly after, a bald head with extremely long and pointy ears, yellow glowing eyes and a mouth full of needle like teeth appeared. The head was quickly followed by another arm, a naked torso and finally the legs.
This creature was not very tall, a meter and a few at most. Its only article of clothing was a ragged dark brown, short trouser that was nearly indistinguishable in color from its brownish skin. Soon enough another creature like the first appeared and another until there were seven of them.
The first of the creatures started sniffing the air, looking for something while the others started gibbering excited and taking in their new surroundings. Suddenly, an object came out of the hole and hit on of the gibbering creatures over the head with a resounding ‘THUNK’. Baffled the creature took it up. It was a simple wooden club.

“You morons forgot those in here. I nearly tripped over that damn thing!” croaked a very, very old sounding voice from the hole before six more clubs were flung out of the hole and in the general direction of the creatures, hitting several of them. This resulted in a medicore brawl between the creatures. “Oh for the love of the Netherworld, stop that you imbecile maggots! Bruiser, stop chewing on Ruffians ear! Gnawer! Stop trying to rip out Scrappers leg!” the voice barked from the hole, carrying a clear tone of command.

The effect was not immediate but it was there. The brawling stopped and the creatures gathered in a loose group around the hole.

“Rufus, got anything yet?” the voice croaked.

The creature in question, Rufus nodded eagerly. “Yes.” He said in a screechy voice “Got the track, the scent is still strong.”

Seven pairs of glowing eyes watched as a eighth creature left the hole. It was of the same kind like the first seven but seemed to be centuries older, judged by its paler skin and crooked back. “Well, what are you slime bags are waiting for then? We´re wasting time! Get going!” Gnarl barked at the minions and to the old minion’s satisfaction the younger ones began to follow the trail Rufus had discovered. Rubbing his clawed hands together, Gnarl allowed himself to smile. Soon they will be reunited with the Overlord. Soon the reign of evil would begin anew.

After all, Evil always finds a way!