Commander: The Equis Invasion

by Meep the Changeling


2 - Orgins...

Amber’s hooves clicked against the hard tile floor as she left her carpeted office in a blur of half-panicked activity. Motes of white light trailed behind her as she levitated her notebook from her desk to a messenger bag hanging on the back of her door, followed immediately by the reliquary, then finally pulled the bag to her as she entered the hall, slipping it over her head and shoulder. Meanwhile her hands scrambled to latch her belt around her hips, strap her crossbow holster to her thigh so it could be properly drawn, undo the holster flap’s buckle, and shrug her way into her jacket with her free hand.

All while sprinting out of her office towards the nearest exit.

Most ponies would scream at me to leave the jacket, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to ride my bike without one in the rain or forget my warded jacket in my office during a bucking mage attack! Amber thought to herself, trying to remain logical about solving her panic.

Amber zipped up her jacket, activating it’s spell and hex resistant wards, causing a shimmer and ripple of lavender light to wash over her body for a few seconds. Every archeologist had a similar warding article of some sort. After all, nopony knew ahead of time which floor tile would activate the thunderclap trap they had missed during their inspection.

Hopefully this thing olds up to one or two of their spells… Better yet, hopefully I can get out of this stupid tower unseen.

Amber ran down the hall, her hooves clicking loudly on the tiles. One would assume sprinting in these circumstances was an idiotic choice. Surely every League of Mages soldier on the 14th floor could hear Amber sprinting towards the stairwell. As a matter of fact, they could, yet it didn't matter. Sneaking past any spellcaster without knowing stealth assisting spells to counter their divination charms was the true fool’s errand.

The Mages will know where everypony is by now. They’ll also know that I’m up here running. Probably a lot of ponies are running. I don’t think I’ll stand out… But if they spot me running down the stairs towards a side exit, they’ll probably assume I have something important. So I can’t just run to the ground floor directly… I’ll take one of the sky bridges to another building. But which one? Amber pondered as she made her way down the beige walled corridor.

The Royal Canterlot University of Manehatten’s campus was one of the worst improvised campuses in the history of Equis. After the original RCU had been destroyed, dissolved into a crater by the pink fog left behind after the Sovereign Stone exploded, the Manehatten Campus had been created by buying a city block containing a large skyscraper, formerly an office building, and then just doing nothing at all to the surrounding buildings.

Warehouses converted into lecture halls. Old delis serving as micro-cafeterias. Shopping centers turned into laboratories. A hotel to serve as a dorm. Little to no renovation happened anywhere. The most anypony did was link every building with more than five stories with skybridges.

They could have put in more elevators and made transit hubs in this tower, but nooooo! Gotta have the first flowers for the memorial garden. Never mind the living, the dead need fancy shit! Amber grumbled as she planned her escape route.

Amber skidded to a halt in front of the stairwell door, nearly falling over thanks to the recently waxed tile floor. She threw the door open with a grunt of effort, took two steps, and froze, her ears twitching as faint whispers echoed up the stairwell.

“You’re sure this is her?”

“Yeah, I can sense a muted power signature. He said Doctor Hex would probably flee with the artifact. Now be quiet, she might hear us.”

Amber’s brow furrowed. Oh. The dean sold us out. Cool. Her teeth grit in rage as she stepped out of the no longer safe, definitely now cursed stairwell. Okay, they are after me specifically, and this stairwell is right out…

Amber thought for a moment about the layout of her office floor. It was basically just a big square loop around the separate inner core of the building, linked only through one elevator and some stairwells. I could go down two floors, get into the core, then take one of the express elevators to the fifth floor.

Amber’s frown softened as a thought occurred to her. “Or…” she said to herself as she checked her tool belt. I don’t think I used it on the dig, should still be.. Ah ha!

Amber’s left hand retrieved a small folding grappling hook and 30 meters of thin steel cable from one of her belt pouches. The hook wasn’t designed to be thrown upwards to permit somepony to scale a cliff, or a wall… But if you needed to get down something and had a moment to securely mount the hook, well…

Amber turned around and ran across the hallway to the first office door she found. She reached out with her free hand and jiggled the handle. Nothing. Buck! Of course Doctor Ivy locked her door!

Amber dashed down the hall, trying door handles at random, occasionally wincing at a panicked squeak or gasp from the other side of the door.

Sorry, Not trying to freak you guys out… Just trying not to die. Amber thought though increasingly worried huffing  breaths.

She’d never been all that good at sprinting for long periods. Amber’s lungs were beginning to feel a bit like they were starting to combust. Not that it mattered. Slowing to a jog would be futile. They’re definitely coming up the stairs after me by now.

Amber reached out again, seasing the next door handle and wrenching down on it. It turned. Amber threw the door open. A lime green pegasus mare squeaked in terror and ducked behind her desk. Amber stepped inside and slammed the door shut.

“Sorry! Gotta get off this floor,” Amber called out to the pony she didn’t recognize as she ran towards their office’s window.

“O-oh! Doctor Hex,” the mare stammered, letting out a sigh of relief. “Wait… Uh, this isn’t the stairs.”

“Yeah,” Amber agreed as she reached the floor-to-ceiling wall-to-wall window.

The storm still raged outside. Amber could hear the windows howling and groaning, see the sleet battering against the slightly tinted window pane, feel the building twitch with each thunderclap. Streamers of lightning shot down, striking the tops of the skyscrapers stretching out before her, creating brilliant blue-white columns of light as the rooftop Thunder Rods stored some of the lightning’s energy for ponykind’s future use.

Amber looked out into the hellstorm for several moments before nodding once. Better odds than the stairs.

Amber withdrew her rockhammer from her belt.

The lime mare’s eyes bulged. “Do not?”

“Stairs are occupied,” Amber said as she drew back her arm. “Feel free to climb down after me.”

“NO DON’T!” The mare squeak-yelleded as Amber swung at the glass.

The hammer’s point struck the pane. The glass spiderwebbed under the impact with a sharp crack. The tower’s security wards reacted instantly, electrifying the glass with a sharp crack and hiss. Sparks shot out from the glass, enveloping the hammer and racing across Amber’s body. Her jacket’s wards shimmered and crackled as they shirked off the stun spell before fading out of visibility.

Amber struck again, and again, then once more. Her hammer plunged through the safety glass on the third blow, more folding the glass outwards than breaking it. The winds instantly screamed and hissed as they pushed through the small breach, the sheer force of the gale outside pushed the glass inwards, inverting the small cone shape Amber’s assault had created the moment her hammer no longer pressed against the glass.

Amber quickly tucked her hammer back in her belt, opened her hook with a flick of her wrist, wedged it into the metal window frame beneath the pane she broke, then kicked the shattered pane as hard as she could.

The once window now shards-of-glass-attached-to-a thin-sheet-of-plastic popped free of the frame and fell the 14 stories into the grounds below. Wind, rain, and sleet exploded through the gap, chilling both mares to the bone in an instant. Amber grit her teeth against the cold, turned around to put her back to the window, made sure her hook was secure, and tossed the cable out the window.

The wind threw the cable into the glass walled tower, cracking several other panes of glass. Amber grabbed hold of the cable, gave it a firm tug to make sure the hook was still secure, and—

The office door exploded inwards, turning to splinters and shrapnel in an instant. Amber yelped, instinctively jumping backwards. Out the window.

As she fell back, Amber got a good glimpse of the Mages bursting into the room. Two of them. A unicorn, and an earth pony. 

Their features were hidden beneath the League’s uniform form-fitting purple cloth hood/mask combos. Their bodies were obscured beneath bright gold robes remmenessient of Ancient Equestrian battlemage’s garb. Each identified with a colored sash designating their rank, though none outside their order knew what the colors ment.

Amber’s eyes locked onto the earth pony horror. Everypony knew the League accepted anypony who could cast spells. Not just unicorns, but any Powered ponies whose abilities allowed them to cast. Everypony also knew that Powered ponies were often quite detached from normal ponies. Their lives and experiences were just too different to relate to normal ponies very well. Especially when it came to things like relative durability.

I’m gonna die! Amber thought as her eyes widened and ears lay back.

Then the backs of her shins caught the window frame she’d just accidentally jumped through, flipping her upside down and out into the stormy night.

I’M GONNA DIE! She reiterated, her horror having been doubled.

Amber plunged through the sleet like a brick, but only for a moment. Her right hand still held the cable she’d lashed to the window frame… A fact she instantly regretted as the wind caught her and whipped her outwards from the building, wrenching her entire arm hard enough to make it burn, then slammed her into the side of the tower, forcing her shocked arm to let go.

Amber plunged dowards, scraping the glass walled tower amid a truly pitiful yelp as two stories vanished behind her in a heartbeat. Amber had just enough time to think she should scream before the cable glowed blue as one of the League Mages animated it.

The cable shot down, guided by the Mage’s spell to Amber’s left leg. The cable cracked like a whip, the end curled around her left leg and cinched around it. A few seconds later she reached the end of the cable with a painful jolt that came just shy of dislocating her hip.

Wow! This got so much worse somehow, Amber panicked to herself as the enchanted cable began to pull her back up the tower.

Thinking quickly, Amber fumbled for her hammer. Fortunately it had managed to stay tucked into her belt during the fall. With strength born of desperation, Amber slammed it into the glass, burying the spike to the handle and stopping her accent with another sharp painful jerk. The magics protecting the glass sparked and popped, blasting Amebr’s warding with another stun spell. Amber could feel her jacket grow warmer as its magics struggled to handle a second spell so soon after the first.

Hope I can get three before this thing burns out...

Gritting her teeth against the pain of her leg being pulled almost hard enough to tear it off, to say nothing of her burning arm, Amber panic-scrambled for another of her tools. Specifically, the cable cutter she’d carried ever since that time she’d been trapped in a tomb for three days without any way to free a counterweight which would have forced open a sealed door.

The cable pulled and pulled. Amber’s arm burned and twitched. Her grip holding out purely due to adrenaline. The window cracked and creaked as the hammer’s spike slowly started to break a channel through the pane. Amber’s hand found the cable cutter just as the enchanted cable began to tear her pants leg.

Summoning up all of her remaining strength, Amber curled up so her hand could reach the cable near her hoof. She tossed the cutter’s jaws over the cable and squeezed for all she was worth. The hard diamond coated blades snipped through the thin cable with ease. Amber breathed a sigh of relief as the cable coiled around her leg fell free… then yelped as she began freefall.

Her hammer rotated against the cracking glass, grinding and scraping, then popping free of the hole.

Ohhh, I am become error… Amber thought as she plummeted to the ground once more.

A truly impressive gust of wind slammed into Amber’s back, knocking her into the tower, right square against the pane she’d hammered into. The Campus tower audibly groaned as the gale force wind slammed into it like a freight train, visibly swaying under the force of nature’s fury. The glass shattered, sparking and hissing as the stun ward went off a third time.

Amber’s jacket started to smoke, the outside nearly ignitng as its warding failed with a flash of bright purple light. Her jacket was now just a jacket.

Amber hit the floor with a loud thud barely audible over the storm’s howling, glass cutting her face and hands as she landed. Unbeknownst to anypony, the reliquary on her bag cracked under the impact. The sound of cracking obsidian and splintering petrified wood lost to the wind.

The box. Was breached. Yet death did not come for the University. A fact Amber would have found unthinkable were she even aware of the reliquary’s now-damaged state.

“Ow…” Amber whimpered over the roar of the wind outside.

“Celestia’s cake fetish! Are you okay?!” a stallion’s voice panic-shouted over the roaring wind.

Amber looked up to see an older, reedy looking unicorn stallion, hunched to brace himself against the wind which tore and ripped at his tweed jacket. She recognised his straw colored mane and gray fur instantly.

Two Bits. The university’s Chief Financial Officer.

“Nope. I got what the League wants, Bits,” Amber said as she pushed herself up, ignoring the pain of her cuts due to her many years of experience being randomly battered and injured.

Bits glanced down at Amber’s overstuffed messenger bag, his silver eyes narrowed, then widened, then narrowed again. “Get it out of here. Your best bet is the tunnels. They lead to an old shelter. It was made to protect ponies from Tirek levels of magic. It’s your best bet.”

Bits reached into his jacket’s inner pocket and produced a ring of keys along with his ID badge. “These will get you there. Whatever you do, don’t tell the dean you have it if you see him. I’m pretty sure he’s responsible for this.”

Amber nodded in agreement and took the keys and badge, wincing at her very much on-fire leg and arm. “Yeah, me too… My leg feels pretty bucked up. Got any painkillers?”

“No. But there should be healing tinctures in the bathroom med kits. Take as many as you need,” Bits said as he jogged to the office door and opened it, peeking left and right in the hallway. “It’s clear, get out of here. I need to find another place to be, they’ll be following you through the window soon enough.”

Amber nodded and limped her way out of the office and into the much nicer hallway. Hardwood floors, cheerful yellow painted walls, potted plants, posters. Everything the “drones” weren't allowed to have since it could be “distracting”.

Amber looked up and down the hall. It was indeed clear. She could also see a nice black sign hanging from the ceiling just in front of a rather lovely oiled bronze light fixture reading “Restrooms”.

Yeah… let’s go for the med kits. I won't make it out of the building like this and how often does a mare’s boss tell her to go drink a shot that costs two months of her pay?

Amber limped her way to the bathroom, covering the ground as fast as shock and adrenaline permitted her to move on a twisted angle, hyperextended knee, and seriously tweaked hip. 

Fortunately for Amber, she made it into the mare’s room in under a minute. Unfortunately for Amber, the pain prevented her from fully enjoying the marble floored, gold trimmed, perfumed and lavishly decorated executive bathroom. Ignoring the display of wealth entirely, Amber staggered her way to the whit painted metal box on the wall and ripped it open with her magic.

Adhesive bandages flew everywhere as Amber dug through the contents, stopping only when she found a pair of blue crystal vials stoppered with rubber corks. Amber popped both viles open and threw them back like a pair of shot glasses. The amber liquid inside flowed down her throat and evaporated instantly on contact with her flesh, transforming back into magical energy and casting their spell.

Amber nearly screamed as her body contorted and twisted back into the correct shape. Her ankle slotted back into place, the tendons relaxing and knotting their rips back into a singular whole. Her knee popped, fluids receding as swelling vanished. Her shoulder clicked, its spatial dislocation shlooping away with an unpleasant grinding of bone on bone. Glass pushed out of several of Amber’s more major cuts as they sealed up.

The potions effects faded, leaving Amber with only her most minor of wounds. Bruises, light cuts, and of course, dull throbbing pain from the accelerated healing process.

Buck me… Those suck a big fat one,” Amber groaned out loud. At least there isn’t an old pony here to complain about when they didn’t hurt to use.

“So I hear,” a gruff stallion’s voice stated with a surprisingly large amount of menace. “Turn around, slowly.”

Amber closed her eyes tightly. Buck me in the eye socket… All of that pain for dick and/or diddly.

She turned around and opened her eyes. The League mage standing in the bathroom doorway was tall, thankfully a unicorn, had a crimson colored rank-sash, and their black gloved left hand was holding out a crystal and gold-wire talisman of some sort which glowed with an inner light of a color that defied easy description.

“This can go two ways,” the Mage said with an eerie calm. “You can hand over the Stone then walk out of here a free mare, no worse for ware… or I can unleash the Amulet of the Screaming Beast and use you to figure out what it does, then take the Stone from what I presume will be your mindless feral mutated form. Your choice.”

Amber’s ears fell at the news. He has no idea what his toy does. He wont let me go. He’s going to find out.

Amber let out a long, slow sigh. “Yeah… okay. Just, let me get it out of my bag. It’s enchanted. It will electrocute anyone but me who tries to open it.”

The League Mage’s hood wrinkled as he made some expression or another under it which Amber couldn’t read. “Okay… But one false move and I blast you. I can put a spell bolt in your chest before you can reach me from there, just in case you think you can dodge my amulet.”

Amber reached for her bag’s buckle and fumbled with it, doing her best to move it away from her hip. She continued to fumble a little, then looked up. “Sorry, my hand’s still kinda bucked. Fell on glass. Let me just…”

Amber took her right hand off the buckle, replacing it with her right… and dropped her left hand to her holster, where it thankfully found her crossbow.

Amber unbuckled her bag’s pouch.

The mage’s eyes flicked to her bag reflexively, forcing him to look away from her other hand for the briefest instant.

Amber drew her crossbow and let her knees fold, dropping as she pulled her weapon free.

Time slowed to a crawl.

The Mage unleashed his amulet.

Amber brought her arm up to aim.

The amulet warped in on itself.

Amber’s bow snapped open with a metallic click.

A bleeding a crackling ray of colorless yet colored light welled up from the amulet’s heart.

Amber twisted as she fell, moving away from the ray’s path.

Her finger tightened around the trigger.

The ray oozed through the air.

Amber’s bow sang as it spat out a dart.

The ray flew past Amber’s cheek.

Amber’s dart wooshed towards the Mage.

The ray hit the wall behind Amber, splattering across its surface.

The Mage jerked to the left to dodge Amber's shot.

Amber hit the floor and fired again.

The reliquary in her bag slammed into the hard marble floor.

The wall behind Amber began to hiss and bubble, concrete flowing like mud.

The reliquary’s cracks spread further from the impact.

Amber’s first dart caught the mage in the neck. He’d dodged into it.

The wall behind her liquified, flowing down to form a hole into the Gentlecolts Room.

Amber’s second dart caught him in the side, stopping in his robes.

The magic tranquilizer in Amber’s dart transmuted into a stun spell.

The mage dropped to the floor like a sack of hammers.

Amber let out what felt like the longest breath she had ever held. Holy bucking crap! That was awesome! Amber silently shouted as her lips twisted into a manic grin… then slumped into a frown. I am never going to do anything that cool ever again and nopony saw it… Aww…

Amber pushed herself back up onto her hooves, took a second to remember her escape plan, then booked it back out the door. Okay. Stairs. Tunnel. No shelter. Probably trap. Bits could be working with the dean. I don’t know. Get out. Get to bike. Buck right the hay off!

Amber made her way to the closest stairwell and quietly opened the door, keeping her hand crossbow drawn and ready. While she knew damn well the League knew where she was, she wasn’t about to let them know they had line of sight to her if she could help it. There are four more darts in the magazine. Turns out a pony isn’t much harder to hit than a timberwolf. I can do this!

“What do you mean Kale’s down?” A mare’s voice whispered quietly from above Amber, distorting somewhat due to the small stairwell.

“Tac-Wisps say he got hit with a monster stunning spell. He’s going to need to be carried out of here.” A stallion answered.

“Well buck me… Okay, new plan, just blast her and take it from the corpse.”

“Yeah, no shit.”

Amber’s ears drooped. Oh no. Uh...

Amber quickly weighed her options. There weren't many good ones. They’ll have somepony on each starwell by now… Elevators are out… I’m not going out a window again. Just. Buck. That… Stairs are too slow to run down to escape these guys without somepony cutting me off… Oh no… nononononono!

There was only one option. You can do it… They literally trained you for this as part of your degree. Amber whimpered to herself. I soooo don’t wanna though...

Amber bit her lip. “Fate of the world,” she mumbled quietly.

Amber eyeballed the not-all-that-large gap between her landing and the one below. Come on Amber, big mare panties time. Literally part of your job description. That is super still a pit tho...

Her tooth started to pierce her skin. “Fate of the world!”

Amber… You’re not afraid of heights. Technically, a pit is heights. There’s not always spikes, or acid, or cheese wire, or piranha at the bottom. There’s super-duper none of that at the bottom of this. It’s just a stairwell. You can make the jumps. You can do this!

Amber took a deep breath to find her courage, then raced towards the railing protecting ponies from the 8 story drop down the hollow center of the stairwell, and vaulted over it with a panicked cry.

“FATE OF THE WORLD!”

Amber soared out into open space, her mind flashing back and forth between trauma inducing years in highschool track and field, and trauma inducing mad leaps over deep pits in the darkest of ancient temples and tombs. She cleared the opposite guard rail by a hair’s breadth, landing on her hooves with a loud thud.

“There she is!” the mare cried from now further up.

Amber whimpered, ran to the wall, turned around, ran back and jumped again. This time with a cry of “N🌣PE!”

And so began her descent. Land, run, jump, scream nope. Once, twice, three times. Spellbotls sizzled through the air as the Mages above her began to fire down into the stairwell’s core. 

Three, four, five times. Amber’s panic-yelps devolved into manic laughter. Her legs began to throb, really not liking the rapid impacts.

Six, seven, eight times. A spell bolt lanced past amber close enough to catch her left pant leg on fire. Amber frantically slapped it out amid half-mad cackling wimpers.

Amber turned and ran for the doorway into the ground floor amid the flurry of spellbotls slamming into the now quite scorched floor tiles, reaching them before remembering the tunnels and turning back towards the stairwell, yelling otherself with each step.

“Never-again-never-again-never-again-never-again!”

Amber reached the shelter of the overhanging stairs as a spellbolt scorched tip of her tail away. Morning Snow’s instructions on how to use the hidden passage came to mind, but only partially. Most of Amber’s mind was stuck on being shot at by evil crime wizards and also being amazed at the fact she hadn’t wet herself during that little stunt she somehow survived.

Adrenaline is one hay of a drug, Amber nervously laughed in her head as she walked at the space the stairs should be, hoping the hatch mechanism just worked.

It did. It worked perfectly. Unfortunately for Amber, the hidden passage was perhaps the single most horribly designed set of stairs in all of Equestria. After all, stairs are absurdly dangerous things, especially when one cannot see them and are standing at the top of a flight or two.

And also don’t know where they start.

The hatch’s charm detected Bits ID badge and the presence of a pony trying to walk down, and slid open with a soft hiss. Amber’s hoof sailed through the space she thought a stair would be, and past the space any reasonable stair should have been, entirely missing the rather steep and narrow steps, prompting Amber to tumble straight down the stairs amid a collection of pained cries and compound-swears.

Amber bounced down the steps, shoulder back, hip, guts, ribs. A brief but seemingly never ending cycle of pain until her momentum carried Amber free of the stairwell entirely to plummet a good meter down onto the concrete floor of the bunker… and also whip her shoulder bag around like a meteor hammer to smash into that very same floor.

Time slowed for Amber once more, her pain forgotten as she watched the reliquary fling itself from the bag she’d forgotten to close earlier. It sailed from the pouch like a slingstone.

“NooOoo!” Amber screeched with the terror of a pony who had just lobbed a weapon of mass destruction directly into a stone wall. Corner first.

The damaged reliquary shattered with a truly terrible crunch, breaking into dozens of pieces. Amber’s heart stopped. She curled up, waiting for a death-blast of arcane light.

Please contain the blast, tunnel!

No blast came. Nor did an ominous black crystalien sphere bounced out of the shattered remains to roll across the floor.

Instead, a small, diamond shaped, silver, spindly, thing amounting to a decorative silver frame for a blue crystal meant to serve as a pendant bounced across the floor, sliding to a stop just ignorant of Amber’s nose.

“Oh…” Amber said, tembeling in terror. “Good.”

I’ve never been happier to have been mistaken about what a dig site contained. Amber thought to herself as she pushed herself to her hooves despite her once-again battered body’s protests. So… the hay is this thing? Is my “Danger communicator” translation correct?

Amber looked down at the thing for several long moments, quite hesitant to touch it. That was, until something banged against the closed hatch at the top of the stairwell. Amber winced at the sound echoing through the tunnel, then groaned.

“Right. League of Mages. Want me dead,” She groaned, doing her best to ignore her growing fatigue.

Amber spared another look at the mystery crystal and it's delicate looking silver diamond frame. Whatever this is… They shouldn’t get a hold of it. With luck, they’ll see the broken reliquary and… oh hey, wait a minute! The tunnel walls are probably thick enough to block lifesense spells!

Amber wasn't a mage, but most every unicorn learned a spell or three which were relevant to their occupation. Amber focused her mind inwards, searching her memory for a somewhat repressed fragment from her foalhood. The pink clouds which clung to the old Canterlot University campus when her mother had rushed her over to the Campus the day her father had died.

Amber’s face clenched as she drew the memory out and examined it in detail, weaving her spell from it. Her horn shimmered, sparkled, then glowed white as her spell completed, ready to be cast.

Doing her best to keep her concentration, Amber turned towards the stairs and yelled “RUN! THE RELIQUARY BROKE! IT HASN'T BLOWN YET BUT—”

Then she cast her spell. The illusion started with a loud, dull, basy thud and a crackle like a spell matrix failing, only huge. Then a bright flash of light, and lastly, a dense bank of pink fog filled the tunnel around her.

Amber let out a quiet breath and wiped her brow, ignoring the headache of casting such a potent illusion so quickly as best she could.

There. If they breach the hatch they’ll see this and run, and also think I died. Perfect. Now let’s just scoop the mystery-pendent up and quietly leg it the buck out of dodge.

Not wanting to touch the mystery item, just in case her idea of what it was turned out to be the worst mistake she’d made so far today, Amber reached out with her telekinesis to pick the relic up and put it in her bag. The instant her magic enveloped the device, the crystal within it began to glow a bright blue.

Amber had just enough time to think a terrified Oh no! Before the world around her blinked out of existence, replaced by a starry expanse which stretched out to eternity.

An alien presence filled the space around her. Something ancient. Something twisted. Something hateful. A wounded animal, but much much bigger. A plural entity unfathomable to an individual mind existing outside of itself.

“P̶o̷n̷y̸…̸” the living presence said with an endless hunger and bottomless lust.

“Eep!” Amber squeaked in existential dread.

The presence lurched and leaned, moving towards her. Amber recoiled, unable to move within whatever rift she’d been transported to. The presence extended itself, reaching out in hunger and need. Amber felt her heart speed up, threatening to burst under her massive building panic attack.

A shimmering purple crack opened within the air in front of Amber from which a hand extended. An alien hand. Pale peach in color, but shadowy and oily, as if it didn’t really exist within this place.

The hand lacked any fur, or scales. Its skin was dry, lacking any mucus or slime like other skinned creatures Amber had seen before… But it had five fingers, a thumb, and nails just like her own.

“Grab my hand!” An alien voice called through the rift.

An individual alien voice. One much more attractive than the thing lurking in the expanse all around her.

Amber needed no further prompting. She seized the hand, which immediately pulled her through the rift into a dim, hazy, white or possibly gray room. Like the hand, and like the hand’s bipedal, twice her size owner, this place didn’t seem to really exist.

“What the buck is happening?!” Amber demanded of… well, everything and anything.

“I’m going to assume that was an expletive,” the alien figure said with some amusement in its voice. “Don’t panic. They can’t reach you here.”

“Okay yes, but the buck is happening though?!” Amber demanded, her chest heaving with panicked breaths. “I have absolutely run out of bullshit tolerance juice for today!”

The alien figure pulled a chair out of nothingness and sat down, looking for all the world like they'd just reached over and moved a chair over to sit, yet there had been no chair. “It’s okay. You activated a hyperwave communicator. Your mind has been linked to a universe-spanning psychic network. It’s okay, it’s not permanent. Whatever you do, do not disconnect. Your world is in extreme danger, and since you clearly didn’t know what you were touching, you don’t even know about the threat yet. But don’t worry, we’re here to help.”

Amber frowned and did her best to process all of that in spite of her panic. “Oh… speak with the demons. That… that thing in the void. It made the talisman.”

“Demons are a good name for them,” the alien agreed. “We call them lots of things. X-Rays, Xenos, Elders… The individual species have names, but they don’t seem to have any name as a collective group. The Elders aren't really the kind of people who let their subjects have free will so it doesn't matter.”

Amber gave the alien a blank look.

“Ah… Right…” The figure cleared its throat. “What you just encountered was a technologically created psionic hivemind. It is composed of the individual soldier-slaves belonging to an alien faction calling themselves the Elders. They are currently in the process of invading your world through clandestine means.”

Amber blinked, frowned, then shook her head. “Okay… That’s a lot to take in.”


“I understand,” the alien said calmly. “We have time. Whatever you were doing before you touched the communicator can wait. Time flows differently in this link. We could talk for days and only a few seconds would pass in the real world.”

Amber gave the alien a quizzical look.

“No, really. It does. Take your time.” He insisted.

Amber nodded and just stood there, letting things process for a bit. “Okay… So, aliens are invading. Why?”

The alien cleared his throat. “Long story short, a very long time ago, the Elder’s species tried to transcend reality and become purely psychic beings, living their physical forms behind. Only a few managed to do it. The rest became vampire-like creatures that need to feed off the mystical energies found within certain species… and they also want to find new bodies to transplant themselves into since their physical forms have withered away to almost nothing.”

Amber winced, her frown deepening immensely. “Oh… That’s pretty bad.”

“Mhm.”

Amber bit her lip. “Okay. So… I’m guessing you guys are their enemies?”

“Yes. As far as we know, we’re the only species to fight them and win,” the alien answered calmly. We’ve been monitoring your plant for…”

He looked down at his hand at some sort of rectangular device which just appeared in it form nothing then vanished as he looked away. “Seventy of your years. A massive pulse of psionic energy radiated out from your world. Drew these last few Aliens out of some temporal rift they were hiding in. Dregs from the fleet we fought a long time ago. We’ve been trying to find a way to communicate and warn you while monitoring the Alien’s activities.”

“Okay,” Amber said slowly, shaking her head slowly. “I mean… It's indisputable to me that there’s something horrible…” she slowed to a halt, her eyes narrowing dangerously. “Oh for buck’s sake! The bucking Change also summoned bucking space vampires to eat our magic? Come the buck on! That’s just not fair!”

The alien smiled slightly. “Life seldom is. I take it The Change was some sort of disaster?”

“Yeah it was,” Amber sighed, shaking her head. “Okay… So, we have a problem.”

“What kind of problem?” the alien asked calmly.

“You’re right. There are aliens. You, at the minimum… But, I can tell you’re not that… that thing! Totally different arcane signatures. Not even tangentially related. I’m not a mage and I can feel it! That thing is big, and also objectively evil. I didn’t even think anything could be actually objectively evil, but there you go!” Amber laughed nervously then looked up into the aliens’ eyes. “So, you want to warn our army, right?”

The alien nodded silently.

“Yeah well, I’m an archaeologist. Pulled this crystal out of a ruin,” Amber answered with an awkward and nervous cough.

“I see. Well, it’s a simple matter to prove the invasion exists if your species can sense the Elder’s nature though the link, and there’s nothing stopping us from hacking into this comm again later. Our technology is much better than theirs now,” The alien said calmly. “Take the communicator to one of your leaders, and we’ll deliver the warning.”

Amber laughed and then slumped somewhat. “Yeah, about that… I’m not in the field. I'm in a University. And not like, in my office on a normal bucking day. We’re being attacked by a criminal syndicate that wants this thing… They think it’s something else but they want it. I’m hurt. Like, bad. If they don’t buy a bluff I made, they’ll kill me. Knowing the League of Mages, they won’t warn the Princess about the invasion if you tell them about it. They’ll find a way to exploit it for profit and political power. They’re… psychos with a good point. Our world is in chaos. Historically we’ve been ruled by powerful spellcasters. We’re not right now, most of our leaders are normal ponies. Maybe we do need our leaders to be people with literal physical power as well as political power. I don’t know. But I do know damn well that the League is NOT the people we want or need in charge!”

“That is a problem,” the alien agreed with a steep frown. “Are you injured?”

“Yeah. I don’t even know how bad. I downed some healing pots, but I’ve been shot, well, grazed, and fell down some really bucking stupidly designed stairs…” Amber closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. “Look, I’m exhausted. I just repelled down a building in a hurricane, sprinted a good three hundred meters, and just jumped down a stairwell while being shot at, floor by floor. For all I know, I have until the adrenaline wears off before I just drop the buck dead. I… I don’t think I can help you warn everypony. Sorry.”

Amber hung her head. The longer she talked to the alien, as surreal an experience as it was, the more the terror of her escape faded and the more clarity she could muster up. This was probably her end. Sure, thick stone walls could block detection spells, but the hatch was just a hatch,nice and thin. Her bluff would probably not do a damn thing. Especially if one of the Mages has a spell running to detect illusions, which, why wouldn’t they? I’m dead already…

The alien nodded and hummed. “Yeah, that’s a problem. Look, the state of your world is at least  partially the Alien’s fault. They invade subtly at first. They infiltrate, find weaknesses, exploit them, seed chaos and distrust. Warp society. Make cracks. They only attack openly once they’ve cut away the bulk of your defences. For example, my people had to fight them with one military base and a few dozen good soldiers at first. We had to build ourselves back up during the Long War.” the alien sighed and stood up to pace the room in thought. “This League of Mages might even be working for them, whether they know that or nor is another question entirely.”

Amber gulped. “Excuse me, what?”

“Trust me, creating terrorist organizations is exactly their MO for the early phases of an invasion,” the Alien repeated. We can’t risk the communicator falling into their hands. Look… My people want to help you. We’ve dispatched a fleet, but space is big. Really big. You may think it’s a long ways down the road to the grocers, but that’s nothing compared to space.”

Amber nodded slowly. “Yes, space is big. How soon can you get here?”

“My people, erm, we call ourselves Humans, by the way,” the alien informed casually. “We’ve developed what our science says is the fastest possible engine you can build. We might be wrong, but that’s extremely unlikely. Thing is… the Aliens only got to you because they used an emergency temporal rift to transcend space and time to get away from us. You’re in a whole other galaxy. It will take us twenty years to get there.”

Amber’s ears and heart fell as one. “Oh… That’s too long, isn’t it?”

“It is,” he confirmed with a nod. “Even worse, if you can’t repel their invasion, by the time we arrive, the Aliens might be able to beat us in spite of the tech gap since they’ll have your absurd psionic powers and strong physical forms once more. Just know that no matter what, we’ll fight to free you. The Aliens need to be stopped once and for all… And even those of us who don’t care about ending their threat understand that if they win their invasion of your world they are a threat to us again, and will almost certainly come right for us to take revenge. We kinda killed most of their religious leaders this one time.”

Amber winced.

The alien nodded. “Yeah… So… This isn’t our optimal play,” he admitted, “but we have this one ace in the hole we were going to send one of your world leaders. That’s no longer an option. If you have gods, thank them. Today’s your lucky day. You’re going to live.”

Amber snorted. “Oh yeah, real lucky! I’m going to get transmogrified into a snack food and my planet is being invaded by pure evil space vampires,” she said with a dismissive hand wave. “And I’m also possibly gonna just drop… Wait, going to live? How?”

“We have… a protector,” the alien explained slowly. “Recall how the Elders became psi-vampires?”

Amber paused and thought back a moment. “Yeah, you said some of them ascended.”

“Turns out, ascending does create a powerful psychic entity.. But it wipes out your entire personality. Blank slate. The creature that spawns from you is not you,” The alien explained. “The Etherials who managed to ascend… which are rather unimaginatively called “Ascended Ethereals” drifted through the cosmos, washed ashore on various worlds, and have become gods, guardians, or friends to many different species. Ours… Well, he’s the most personable of them we’ve encountered. What’s more, he’s a brilliant strategist. Even better, as a psionic entity, we can transmit him as information through this link.”

Amber’s heart skipped a beat. “You can email me a genius tactician wizard? Oh buck the hay yes! That might just get me out of here alive. Do it! I’ll show him where our leaders are as soon as we’re out of the mess I’m in!”

The alien cleared his throat. “It’s… not that simple.”

It’s not? Amber’s eyes narrowed. “What’s the catch?”

“Well… The Commander can’t exist in the physical world for long without a host. He’s a symbiote. He’ll have to bond to you once he arrives,” the alien said slowly, making sure to lean into every word so he couldn’t possibly be misunderstood.

“Ah… Okay,” Amber’s lips pulled into a frown to match her narrowed gaze. “And that will do what to me?”

“Well… Your personality and his will blend to form a gestalt consciousness. An independent personality from either of you. The resultant person will have your combined abilities and knowledge. Once separated, you’ll believe everything that it did was in fact done by you. If he chose to bond to you without you knowing of his existence, you’d never know he existed. You’d just feel like you’d suddenly gained then lost tremendous mystical power. But… for however long the Commander exists within your body, you won't actually exist. A lot of people, and even entire species, see this as dying.”

Amber nodded and took a breath to think about it. “Well… I’m probably going to die anyway. If I say no… We’ll probably all get enslaved and eaten by space vampires… I’m not selfish enough to say no to that.” Amber took another breath and shook her head. “But… that depends on whether or not you’re telling the truth. For all I know, you could be helping the aliens out like the League might be.”

To Amber’s surprise, the alien nodded. “That’s right. We could be. Of course, if we were working with the Aliens we probably wouldn’t need to find a dying archeologist in a real bind to slip our friend into, now would we?”

Yeah no… They could just grab somepony with political power in their sleep or something. 

Amber hummed and nodded. “Fair point… Can I talk to this Commander first?”

“Sure,” the alien replied instantly, looking over his shoulder. “You’re on, sir.”

The room’s dim shadowy nature recoiled as a being of pure blue light shimmered into existence within it. It was about as big as the other alien, and also humanoid in shape, but had four arms instead of two, and its head was large and bulbous, kind of like somepony stuck a jellyfish atop the aliens head. An image that was greatly enhanced by long, thin, bulbous tipped tendrils growing from the creature’s shoulder blades.

“Sup!” the glowing creature of pure magical essence said with shocking casualness. “Is this their Volunteer?”

“Not exactly, sir,” the alien reported with unmistakable military bearing. “The situation is already sideways and FUBAR. She’s all we got, but she seems like a tough little thing. She apparently repelled down a building mid hurricane and is currently escaping a terrorist attack while wounded... By jumping down a stairwell one flight at a time while being shot at and nursing some recently healed wounds.”

Woah!” the glowing blue entity said, clearly impressed. It reached out towards Amber with a closed fist. “Badass!”

Amber looked at the fist and frowned. “Uh… Before we merge—”

The magic creature shook its head. “No, this isn't that. It’s a fist bump.”

“A what?” Amber asked with a confused head tilt.

“A way to show someone respect,” the flesh-and-blood alien said oddly quickly. “Sir, please, do be a little more thoughtful. This is their first contact.”

Amber stared at the outstretched fist. Respect? I… But… But it’s a god-thing… I… Wait, badass. Bad ass. Ass. Butt. flanks. Badflank. An Elder Thing thinks I am badflank… What?! How?!

Amber stood there silently for several long awkward moments, just processing. Then she extended her own fist and bumped it against the Commander’s, as the gesture’s name implied.

“See? She gets it,” The Commander said to the other alien.

Amber cleared her throat. “Okay so… he said I’ll never really notice you using my body. Is that true?”

“Oh it’s more than true,” the blue glowing alien replied instantly. “My first host… Look, it’s two way. I honestly thought I was William Carter for the first few weeks of my life. I was just as surprised as he was when our friends figured out I existed. We both get combined into a new being, my power and skills combined with their will, memories, knowledge, and physical form. What you bring to the table is more important than what I bring. No! Really! Your unique experiences, knowledge, it’s all crucial to this. I don’t know anything about your species. I’ve only ever augmented humans before. I thought I’d try a Viper one time, but they’re too noodly to grab hold of.”

Amber raised an eyebrow. “Augmented?” That’s not how the other alien described it...

“Yeah, it’s what I prefer to call it. To me, I’m more the interface and my host is the Commander. I am my own person… but each “Commander” has always behaved more like my host than me. Except Carter. He was… a tool,” the Commander said with a little sadness. “A broken man. And not because of me, before you ask.”

Amber nodded slowly. “Okay… Well, uh… I actually don’t know what else I should ask. Other than that, you will let me go, right?”

“Totaly,” the ethereal alien said, flashing Amber a gesture she recognised, a thumbs up. “You’re a unique person. You have rights. I only inhabit someone in times of need. I don’t like being bound up in flesh, unable to truly be myself anymore than any of my hosts did. It’s not fun, but the Elders need to be stopped once and for all. I’m sick of fighting them every so often. This will be the thirteenth time, and whats worse for me is I exist outside of space and time as you know it, so I’ve fought the fuckers in three fucking timelines! These are the last of them that exist anywhere and anywhen I can exist. Let’s go finish them off, then you can go do… whatever it is you do, and I can finally have some time to see if that old show Firefly is as good as everyone back then said it was.”

Amber couldn’t help but smile at that statement. That was so genuine. This isn’t some Elder Thing, it’s just some nerdy colt in the same pinch as me who happens to be a tactical genius.

“Okay, I’m ready,” Amber said with as much confidence as she ocul dmuster. “Let’s do this.”

The other alien nodded, seemingly satisfied. “Alright. Break the connection. We’ll send him through after you and he’ll bond once transmitted. It will be almost instantaneous.”

Amber rocked back on her hooves. “Okay, but how—”

“It’s like waking from a lucid dream,” the alien informed.

Amber nodded once more then thought about opening her eyes. In an instant she was back in the tunnel, surrounded by an illusion of pink fog, her body aching, her muscle sore, and her heart beating like a drum.

Amber frowned slightly. If that was a hallucination I’m going to be—

The crystal within the relic pulsed rapidly, building in arcane energy at an alarming rate. Amber winced, ready for the end of her for the moment. The gem flashed brightly, releasing the same magical essence she felt while speaking to the Commander. Then she felt it, a very gentle, almost imperceptible brush against her arms and back.

<Okay, there we go,> The Commander’s voice said from somewhere adjacent to her mind. <Bond… wait a minute, uhhh… Oh my god! They’re adorable little pastell pony people! Those monsters are going to hurt adorable little— OH, THEY ARE SO FUCKING DEAD!>

Amber recoiled somewhat as she felt the Commander’s rage towards the aliens. We’re not cute. We’re just… people. This guy is acting like we’re puppies or something! Wait a minute...

“Aren’t I supposed to not be here?” Amber asked out loud, more than a little perplexed.

<Wait, you…> The Commander trailed off sounding very concerned. <Okay! Problem, like, huge ethical problem! Your species; psionic—>

Amber felt the Commande brush against her mind, searching for cultural references. <Uh, what you call magic. Your magical nature makes you somewhat immune to me. We’re both in here, controlling this body. Like at once.>

“Both?” Amber asked, her tail flicking curiously.

<Yeah, watch.> The Commander said before waving Amber's left arm.

To Amber, it felt like her body had moved on its own. Reflexively. But she’s also been entirely aware of the action. Amber narrowed her eyes and moved her left arm. It responded just like it had before today had happened.

“Actually… This is better,” Amber said with sincerity.

<You… genuinely feel that way. How?> The Commander asked.

“Because this just feels like I have a friend over. I still exist. I have control. I’m just sharing,” Amber replied earnestly, wincing as the mages on the other side of the hatch struck it again.

Okay, they’ll break through soon. We need to move. Amber thought to herself.

<Yeah, we can sort out our problem later. Let’s get out of here.>

Amber yelped. Okay, you hearing my thoughts is a little freaky!

<Sorry. It’s just surface stuff. You’ll know if I pry. Not that I’m experienced with this sort of… half bond. I just, I can feel you doing things, so, I assume you also feel me doing things.>

I mean I did feel you dig around earlier, Amber noted as she started to limp her way down the tunnel, following a painted arrow on the wall labeled “Weather Lab”. I guess I’ll believe you for now.

<It should be two way. Dig into me. You’ll see I’m an honest guy.> The Commander offered.

Amber frowned, uncertain how exactly she could do that. But, then, instinctually, she did. It was just like trying to remember anything. She could feel the Commander’s mind and his form, and even powers and abilities as if they were her own.

You’re not lying. Good! Amber sighed in relief, then stopped limping. Wait, you can heal me! I can sense the power there. Would you mind?

The Commander laughed. <Yeah! Sorry. I haven’t been in the field in forever. Normally I’m stuck in HQ using a psi-amp to help guide the actions of five or six special operatives at a time. Let me just…>

Amber felt an upwelling of alien magic within her. Her horn glowed blue, no sparkles, no shimmering, just on. Like the old days of magic. The blue light washed over her, painlessly knitting her battered body whole once more.

“Woah! Okay… Maybe the old timers got a point. With magic at least,” Amber said out loud as she looked down at her no longer sliced up and glass filled hands.

The realization that this healing power couldn’t be used willy nilly hit Amber as if it were her own spell. Once cast, the Commander’s spells needed time to rebuild themselves. Almost ten minutes, in the case of this particular ability.

<I could pry and learn what you mean by old timers having a point… but I think I’d like to take this opportunity to have a proper friend for once. How about we get out of here and hash out how we’ll work while together?>

Fine by me… Uh, for now though, you’re the tactics guy. I’ve got a motorbike parked in the garage near the Weather Lab. Should we head there or… what?

<Bike sounds good. Lead the way. If we get into trouble, I’ll feed you tactical info and move you out of harm's way when I can. Sound good?>

Amber snorted and started to run down the tunnel. “Sounds like it would have been awesome if you could have shown up ten minutes ago…”