Chapter One: The Reawakening

View Online

“Central Cognitive Thought Processor online. Beginning activation sequence in three...two...one..” A female voice whispered in the mind of the metallic body half buried in the ground. It was humanoid, with two bulky arms connected to large shoulder plates, which had blue paint and orange stripes. A long antennae stuck out of it’s back, which was extended. It’s eyes flickered, before glowing a bright red as the Machine’s servos began shifting, dragging itself out of the ground. As it looked around, the voice from before started talking to him.

“Greetings, Invictus Commander! Much has been lost since the Reawakening.” The Voice began, before an image of what looked like the planet he was on appeared in his eyesight. “Other’s have come online, like you Commander. Your orders are to find these other Commanders,rip apart their military’s. Stop the spread of the other Factions, and annihilate them.” It showed an image of multiple other Commander symbols across the planet, some red, some purple. Then the words “Annihilate” flashed, before the images faded, and the real world set back into view.

“Message received. Begin System Check.” The machine, now labeled as ‘Invictus Commander’, stated, his mind going over his multiple systems. However, as he went through his systems one by one, an error flashed across his eyesight when he checked his memory files. Filing this oddity for later inquiry and repair, Invictus checked his blueprint schematics. Basic Bot schematics, as well as the necessities. Nodding his head, Invictus began searching for resources.

Canterlot, After The Discord epidemic.

It was a quiet day in Canterlot, Capital of Equestria. Ponies went on with their daily lives, while the guards kept the peace in their Commander suits. Princess Celestia, Co-ruler of Equestria, sighed as she stared outside at the gleaming metal spires of the city. She stared at the guards and their armor, the metallic plates containing hidden servos that allowed movement. That odd symbol of a blue diamond with four lines surrounding it was plastered on each suit, it’s meaning unknown to this day. She thought back to the year they first discovered this technology, remembering when those guards brought in a strange babbling pony all those years ago….

Equestria, three years after Nightmare Moon’s banishment

Celestia sat in her ruined throne, still in mourning over the loss of her sister, Princess Luna. Three years ago, she had been forced to banish her only sister to the moon, after her strange and unnatural transformation into ‘Nightmare Moon’. Her thoughts were put to the back of her head as two guards carrying a miner between them stepped forward.

“Your highness, we caught this fool attempting to smuggle some strange artifacts out of the mine. We confiscated the items in question, and have brought them along.” One of them, who had a horn and bleach white fur, brought out a metal case with a simple levitation spell. Celestia opened the case and peered inside. The item was cylindrical in shape, made out of a strange metal alloy. It was hollow, so Celestia looked down the hole at the end. Inside, a number of odd crystals and wires were wrapped around the inside, pulsating with power. Curious, Celestia pointed the cylinder at a nearby wall. Then tried shaking it a little. Nothing happened. Sighing in disappointment, Celestia put the odd little device down,when suddenly it shot out a ball of yellow energy, carving out a nearby pillar. Startled, Celestia picked the now-apparent weapon back up, looking underneath it. A small little lever was there, previously unnoticed. Testing a theory, she aimed at the wall again, this time using her magic to depress the lever. This time, a ball of the energy shot out, hitting the wall and blasting through it. Turning back to the miner, she held out the item.

“Where did you find this?” She asked, and the Miner shifted a little.

“T’was buried under the mountain, yer Majesty.” He said, referencing the mountain that they were to build a new capital There was a lot more stuff, but I was plannin’ on smuggling it out bit by bit.” He gulped. “Please yer majesty, I just needed the money for my family. I wasn’t plannin’ on-”

“That’s fine, my little pony,” Celestia said, nodding to the guards and saying, “Lock him in the dungeons.” The pony’s eyes widened, before Celestia chuckled a bit. “Gotcha,” She said, “Show us where you found this, and you will be free to go. We will also send you a bit of money as compensation for your time here today.” The pony looked up from his trembling position, hope in his eyes.

“R-really?’ He asked, hope in his eyes.

“Yes, I’ve heard of the hard times ponies have been having as of late. Have a nice day.” A butler pony walked forward with a large pouch of bits, depositing it in front of the stallion. He nodded, thanking her again before rushing out, bits in hoof.

“Do you have his mining Schedule for the past few days?” Celestia asked after he left. One of the Guards nodded, pulling out a map and schedule. “He was mining in section B, under the crystal mines. Your orders, Princess?”

Celestia sighed, “Tell the workers that we should focus our efforts on excavating more of these artifacts. Mining out those caverns for gems might not be the most important thing to focus on here…” She stated, examining the cylinder. The guards nodded, before exiting.

Present time

Now, thanks to the mass amount of technology they eventually discovered, Equestria was revolutionized. With the strongest military on the planet, Equestria adopted a secondary Diplomatic approach, if friendship doesn’t work: Peace Through Superior Firepower. Celestia personally didn’t like the approach, but it worked. Guards were equipped with Commander suits replicated into pony models, with only the main weapons enabled. Canterlot was built, better than original plans, and peace settled for a thousand years.

Yet something felt...off. Maybe it was something in the air, maybe it was something else. All Celestia knew was that she had a feeling something would change.

Invictus Command & Conquer Military Operations Headquarters, Three hours later

The Invictus had constructed a formidable base in a relatively quick amount of time, even though resources are surprisingly scarce in this region. As the commander finished constructing another Power Generator, one of his nearby Dox patrols suddenly sent him a notification of a hostile commander being detected. Quickly activating the unit’s camera feed, he placed it to the top left corner of his eyesight as he continued to work.

The small squad of Dox Assault Bots, at most six, hid themselves within the bushes as the commander walked past, somehow not picking up his units on their sight.

“...Look, all I’m saying is that Daring Doo was better in the original trilogy than any of the later books!” The Hostile Commander said as a second commander walked up next to it.

“Ugh, let’s just see what this ‘unidentified signal’ is and head back to base.”

However, to Invictus, their language was unknown to him. Recording their conversation for translation later, the commander sent multiple commands all at once to all nearby Dox Patrol Squads, changing their patrol routes to intersect with the two Commander units. The squad he was currently viewing stayed where they were for a few seconds, but after the Commanders moved on, they slowly trailed after them.

After fifteen minutes of walking through the forest, the two Hostile Commanders were unknowingly surrounded. Invictus switched their command patterns to ‘Fire At Will’. The forest was suddenly bursting with noise and bullets as the Commanders were suddenly attacked from all sides. Noticing two large tubes on their backs, Invictus redirected the Dox fire into those tubes.

“Come in! This is Private Quibble! Hostiles have us surrounded, and I don’t think we can-AAAUGH!” The left Commander started yelling, before a lucky shot landed onto his generator pack, detonating it, and enveloping him and his partner in a decent sized explosion, destroying most of the Dox in the process. Invictus’s factories had already begun to add more Dox units to the que, and Invictus sent a Bot Engineer to reclaim the wreckages left over from the explosion, before returning to his build order. Engineers slowly cleared out more trees, expanding his operational area. When the Bot Engineer finally returned from reclaiming the Commander wrecks, it brought back a slightly damaged and outdated commander Fabrication arm. Giving it a quick scan, Invictus was surprised to find a large amount of blueprints for Aircraft production. Extracting the blueprints and adding them to his own databanks, Invictus cancelled a few engineer orders to begin production of an air factory. Just to burn up some extra mass, he sent an order to the factories for a decent sized number of Boombots for traps, since it looked like the enemy could not detect his units.

The first battle for Equestria had been won, and while small, this was the first step of many to Total Annihilation of everything.

Canterlot Castle, several hours later

Just as Celestia was setting the sun, and her sister Luna began raising the moon, two ponies in military uniforms ran up to her, panting for breath.

“Your highness! Urgent news from the South! Two Commanders on patrol were suddenly attacked, and eliminated!” One began, and Celestia frowned.

“Give me the full details in the war room. Reconvene ther by the sunrise.” The two Ponies nodded, saluting her, before running back inside.

Chapter Two: The Battle for Macintosh Hills

View Online

Canterlot Command Headquarters, Three hours after Contact

Celestia burst into the command center, startling all five of the Guard Captains in the room. The five saluted, and gathered around the large table in the center of the room before Celestia began the meeting.

“Thank you all for coming here as quickly as you did.” Celestia stated, looking around at the others. “What we are facing might be a high level threat.”

“Oh please,” Rock Steady, Captain of the Southern Pony Guard Garrison, shrugged. He was a middle-aged unicorn, with a dark brown coat and light yellow mane, with a couple barely seen grey hairs. His Cutie Mark was a rock. “Forgive me for speaking out of tone, Princess, but it’s likely this threat doesn't even exists. Perhaps it was two guards bored out of their mind and wanting to be funny.”

“If that’s the case, then considering these guards were under your regiment, I’ll have to check the current training standards.” Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard, replied steadily. “For your soldiers to be undisciplined enough to pull a prank call, I can see your Garrison will need it.” Rock Steady grit his teeth, but said nothing.

Celestia sighed, “I wish it was just a prank, but just before we lost contact with them, they sent us this message.” Her hooves clacked against the table, and the audio speakers played the recording.

“This is Private Quibble!” The Guard’s voice played out, with the sound of gunfire in the background, “Hostiles have us surrounded, and I don’t think we can- AUUGH!” The sound of an explosion followed, cut off midway as the recording ended. Silence reigned at the table for five seconds.

“That gunfire….” Bulwark Defense, the Captain of the Northern Garrison, muttered. He was a Earth Pony around the same age as Shining Armor, with a bright blue coat and purple mane, and a shield for a cutie mark.

“Something wrong, Bulwark?” Celestia asked.

“It’s probably nothing,” He began.

“Which means it’s probably something,” Rock Steady muttered.

“But I’ve been at the weapons training field long enough to be able to tell what kind of weapon it was by sound. However…” His hooves quickly began tapping on the table, somehow isolating the gunfire in the recording. “However, I have never in my life as a guard heard of weapons that sounded like that.”

“He raises a fair point,” The old stallion at the end of the table spoke up.

“And what would that be, Iron Hoof?” Rock Steady asked. The old stallion, Iron Hoof, Captain of the Western Garrison, sighed.

“Our weapons are mainly those little ‘pew pew’ laser things, right?” The old timer began, “These weapons this unknown enemy used had impact with each shot, plus a small explosion. It’s almost like they were using ballistic missiles, like those Defender missile tower things we used to knock Griffons out of the sky with back during that one war.”

“It doesn’t matter what kind of weapons they use.” Rock Steady shrugged, interrupting Iron Hoof. “All that matters is if they die or not.”

“Despite Captain Steady’s... well, ideal, since we currently don’t have any idea what the enemy is or is up to, I’m authorizing use of the nanolathe technology on the commander suits. Captain Steady, since this happened in your sector, I’m sending you to attack this unknown hostile. Use whatever resources you have available. An Atlas will be ready to transport you to your LZ. I want you to either force this foe to surrender peacefully, or destroy it if necessary..” Celestia stated, earning looks from everypony else.

“But Princess, you stated that nanolathe was dangerous, and that the resources necessary to fund armies would drain the planet dry.” Iron Hoof said.

“I know, but it’s the only way to force a surrender.” Celestia sighed.

“Don’t worry Princess, I will personally ensure this is over quickly.” Rock Steady stated, before walking out to get his commander suit.

“Captain Steady, the authorization code for the nanolathe is 217-FCKU926.” Celestia said, passing a slip to him with that code. He nodded, before leaving.

Invictus Command Headquarters, Three hours later

A alarm went off in Invictus’s head, notifying him of a hostile force moving towards his position. Pulling up his map, he found that a large number of hostiles at outside of his forest, approximately a mile away. Pulling his patrols back to form up a strike force, he counted out his current forces.

Five squads of Dox, six squads of Grenadiers, each with a Stitch. It wasn’t much, but it would have to do. He ordered them to spread out amongst the treeline, and wait for his order. It wasn’t until five minutes later that he realized there was chatter on an open channel. Listening in, it took his onboard translators a few moments to understand what he was saying, taking most of the words from the damaged dictionaries on the wrecks of those other commanders.

“I am Captain Steady of the Equestrian Guard. You have attacked soldiers under my command, which is a capital offense here. Surrender peacefully, and you will have the chance to defend yourself in court. You have ten minutes to comply. Message repeats in 10 seconds.” Invictus didn’t understand most of the words, but it got the gist of it. The enemy was demanding his surrender.

If Invictus knew he was capable of it, he would have laughed. He had one of his new Air Factories construct a scout plane, before flying it over this ‘Captain Steady’s force. The commander himself wasn’t there, but a large force of tanks and bots of unfamiliar design sat in what seemed like a formation.

After a few more minutes of waiting, an enemy scout plane flew over the line. Unbeknownst to Invictus, the forest he was in was unique in the fact that it emitted a strange energy that interrupted the Equestrian scanners. However, due to his own units being more technologically advanced, his own radar was unaffected. The scout plane was shot down by a Anti-Air turret hidden in the trees, the scout only seeing the edge of Invictus’s base before crashing. Invictus had spent the time since he destroyed those Commanders well, building extra defenses.

Three minutes until surrender deadline, Captain Steady’s Base

“Ugh, this guy’s pissing me off.” Steady growled, sitting as his base operated around him. Only captains were given training on how to use nanolathe, since Celestia didn’t want any guards somehow getting the password for nanolathe activation. Heck, she even removed that ability to all standard issue commander suits.

“What’s wrong Steady?” Celestia asked over the comms.

“This guy’s forces, if he has any, are obscured by the forest, and this place is known for disturbing radar signals. And he hasn’t replied at all to my demands. Might just have to go in.”

“Give it a few more minutes, Captain Steady. We don’t even know what this enemy looks like.” Celestia said, calming Steady.

“Yes, your highness.” He sighed, before waiting.

3 minutes later
“This is Captain Steady! Your time limit is up! We are now authorized to use force to remove you!” The captain stated into the open channel, but, as usual, got no response. Just as he was about to close comms, however, A voice called out.

“User joined your channel.”

“Uh… hello?” Rock Steady asked, unsure.

“Surrender is for the weak.” A raspy voice stated, the voice sounding as if it had never been used.

“User left your channel.”

“Well that was short and to the point.” Steady sighed, sending his forces forward to attack. “This should hopefully be wrapped up pretty-” an explosion cut him off as he turned his attention back to the battlefield. A large explosion had erupted from the ground, taking a good chunk of his forces. As he watched the map, more explosions erupted from his forces. “He planted Landmines?!”

Invictus Command

‘Oh, they found the landmines.’ Invictus thought to himself, checking the status of the enemy force. Seeing it was now much more in his own favor, he sent out his own forces lying in wait, taking care to micro manage the force as needed. The Grenadiers opened up first, dropping salvos of grenades onto waiting Assault Bots, which for some reason were identified as ‘Peewee Assault KBot’. The forward Peewee’s were blown to pieces, while the ones behind them raised their arms and opened fire, spewing forth a rapid fire barrage of plasma into the waiting line of Dox, which returned fire with their own weapons, though they were destroyed just as easily.

Then Invictus sent the signal.

Captain Steady’s Base

“This isn’t going well…” The Captain growled, quickly trying to reunite his forces. The enemy attack was smart: Strike at the middle, divvy up the army, and surround them. As he tried to find a way out, a small portion of the enemy wall opened up, almost like a doorway. Taking this as a misstep by the enemy, Steady sent his left force straight towards that opening. What he failed to notice was the fast moving units quickly filling into that hole, and his entire left flank exploded as the boombots got in close and did what they did best. With the left flank destroyed, the enemy focused their attention on what was left, finishing the battle.

“Ah, fuck!” Steady cursed, stomping his hoof on the ground in frustration, damaging the laser on it. He quickly forced himself to calm down, setting his factories to build a better assault force. “Calm down Rock Steady, the enemy doesn’t know where your base is.” He comforted himself, before his radar suddenly picked up a scout plane flying over his base. “Just had to jinx it, didn’t I.”

Before he could say another word, his radar detected a large air force inbound. Frantically trying to switch his production to anti-air, he soon found his Air factory destroyed by a horde of bombers, his defenses doing a lot of damage to the fleet, but not quite enough.

“Fuck.” He growled.

Invictus Location

Invictus, seeing that his current opponent had been what can only be called an arrogant pushover, decided to load himself up on a transport for a face to face. Maybe it was some sort of honor algorithm, maybe just wanting to piss off the Captain, Invictus didn’t know. But he went anyways.

Once Invictus arrived just outside of the base, with all it’s defenses destroyed by bombing runs. The latches on the transport detached, allowing Invictus to safely fall to the ground. Charging up his gun, and readying a Uber Charge, Invictus walked into the ruined base.

After a few minutes, Invictus saw the enemy commander. The Captain’s armor had been heavily damaged by a couple bombing runs, with what looked like coolant leaking from the packs on his back. The Captain looked up at him.

“So.. you're the fucker in charge of all these forces.” He said, his strange, four-legged body shuffling towards Invictus. Captain Steady secretly took a picture of Invictus and sent it to HQ. “What’s your name, before you kill me?”

Invictus paused, unsure of this conversation. After a few moments, he found his speaker.

“Designation: Commander, Invictus Model V1.0 Bot Commander.” Invictus stated.

“What? Oh, don’t tell me you're just a fucking robot….” Steady groaned, before sighing. “Well, time to end this.” He raised his gun foreleg, and Invictus raised his Gun, preparing to fire the Uber Charge. Steady tried to fire his gun, but it backfired, destroying the mechanism and removing the lower part of his leg. Invictus showed no mercy, blasting him with a point blank Ubercharge, destroying his body inside the suit and reducing him to a blasted husk. Before Invictus could make a cohesive thought, the carcass exploded in a thermonuclear explosion, Invictus, unprepared for the force of the blast, was blown off his feet and sent a couple meters away. After recalibrating his systems, he quickly boarded his transport, which was somehow, luckily, outside the blast radius, and headed home, a large majority of his systems heavily damaged.

“Lesson learned, don’t kill them face to face.” Invictus muttered in his head. He tasked two engineers to report to repair him, and a third to be taken by the transport to scavenge the enemy base for metal and possible tech. He also sent a command for any remaining air forces to regroup and attack the nearby town he saw. Can’t give the enemy any breathing room.

Canterlot Headquarters

“So we lost Rock Steady.” Celestia sighed, lowering her head. “He was a great captain, if a little cocky and arrogant. But we now have important information on the enemy.” Celestia pulled up the image of the Commander that killed Steady. “For example, we know what the Commanding unit looks like, so we can possibly send out an assassination group to finish it off. We also know that it can use a tech similar, yet seemingly more advanced than our current nanolathe technology. And we have a name for it. Invictus.”

The captains looked at one another. “Umm, your highness? You seem a bit more...cold hearted, than usual. Are you okay?”

“Yes, my little ponies, but this is war. I simply must take on the mindset of a commanding officer or general. I was like this back during the Griffon War.” Celestia sighed. “It’s a mindset I had hoped I would never have had to adopt again.”

Iron Hoof chuckled. “Yep, I remember those days.” When everypony stared at him, he scoffed, “What? You expect me to go into a long, winding tale of the old days? I’m too old for that.”

“Anyways, we should-” Celestia was interrupted by a guard rushing into the room. “Guard, this place is for captains only. What is it?”

“Sirs! And your highness!” The Guard saluted, “The Frontier Town known as Appleloosa is under attack by unidentified bombers!”

“So he’s on the offensive… send in a air squad of Avengers to intercept and stop them.” Celestia ordered, and the guard nodded before rushing off. Celestia turned back to the Captains. “Bulwark, take your commander suit and head to Appleloosa. Should the fighters take out the bombers, I want you to fortify the town against future invasion.” The captain nodded.

“May I bring a squadron of Guards?” He asked.

“Yes, as many as you need. I’m putting you in command of the southern garrison for the time being. I need to speak with Twilight-” Celestia said, but Shining stopped her.

“Your highness, this is a military matter. Twilight, while she has done incredible things such as stopping Discord, is still just a civilian. She shouldn’t be involved with this stuff. Perhaps if we have no other options, maybe then.” Shining Armor stated.

Celestia nodded. “I understand, and your right. I need to not become dependent on her and her friends, and instead use what I have at hoof to solve my issues.” She looked to Shining, “I want you to fortify Canterlot, should Invictus somehow break past Appleloosa. I am also going to authorize the construction of six nanolathe-capable Commander suits for ponies that you will select to defend important cities. I myself will get my own.”

“You’ll be fighting too, Princess?” Shining asked, shocked.

“I remember an odd saying from long ago.” Celestia chuckled, “If the king does not lead, how can he expect his subjects to follow?”

“I suppose that makes sense, princess. I’ll go prepare the defenses.” Shining and the other Captains left the room. Celestia sighed once she was alone in the room, before teleporting to a chamber only she knew about. She stared down at the source of all the technological marvels Equestria had today, the source of their military strength.

“Greetings, old friend. I fear the shadow of war has once again fallen upon my land. I require six new nanolathe-capable suits as soon as physically possible.” Celestia sighed, looking down on the slightly rusted form of the ARM Commander. The Commander said nothing, it’s voice box having been rendered unusable for years, and began constructing the first of six new Commander units.

Chapter Three: Plans and Plots

View Online

Invictus Forward Operating Base, or Appleloosa

Invictus stared around at the odd equine organics hiding in their buildings while his fabricators began constructing a new FOB. The maps he acquired from the previous Commander had designated this location as “Appleloosa”. He sent a fabricator to reclaim some of the trees that were nearby, while he went to work on some basic defenses. As he worked, one of the equines, a male with a yellow coat and orange mane, approached Invictus. The Commander noted the apple mark on its flanks.

“Umm, excuse me, mister,” it said, slightly startling Invictus. While he had learned from the database of the last Commander that the main populace of this continent was these equines, his logic core was screaming that equines should not be capable of speaking. “But who are you? And what happened to that guard guy?”

Invictus turned to the equine, activating his vocal systems. “Designation: Invictus.” He introduced himself, his ‘voice’ sounding like a dying cat. Not that he would know that. The equine flinched. “Inquiry?”

“Uuh, is that fancy talk fer question?” The equine asked, Invictus designating his speech pattern as ‘southern’ for some reason. Invictus nodded his head. “Well then go ahead.”

“What do you mean ‘guard’?” Invictus asked. The equine tilted its head.

“You know, that pony in the ‘Commander Pattern’ armor or whatever they called them.” The equine replied, and Invictus nodded.

“Enemy Command Unit was annihilated.” Invictus stated, and the equines ears lowered. “Inquiry. What is your designation?”

“U-uh, my names Braeburn,” the equine, now designated as ‘Braeburn’, said, skittish for some reason. “So, y-you killed that Guard?”

“That is correct.” Invictus nodded. Braeburn’s face seemingly paled, before he began backing away.

“W-well, welcome to Appleloosa, I guess.” He said, before running back into a nearby building. With that distraction gone, Invictus turned back to his project, only to see that the basic turret had faded, the nanolathe dispersed. His vocal systems replicated an irritated growl, before restarting the build order.

Three days later

The Remaining four Captains of Equestria’s Royal Guard met once again, to discuss their plan of attack against the Invictus Commander.

“If we can hit Invictus with a surprise attack and take him out, we will could defeat him before his invasion spreads any further.” Shining Armor began, looking to the others, and noting Rock Steady’s empty seat with a tinge of regret.

“Yes, but he has the entire population of Appleloosa hostage,” Bulwark countered, “If we attack him, we risk the lives of everypony there.”

“So you want us to sit and wait for him to attack us?!” Shining growled, his anger getting the better of him for a moment.

“That's exactly correct, Captain Armor.” Bulwark replied calmly, his face revealing no emotion, much like a wall. “If we can construct a suitable defense to repel any attack in the major cities, then when he finally makes a move, we will be ready for him.”

“That may be true,” Iron Hoof interrupted, having chosen to stay out of the two’s argument until now, “But if we begin fortifying our cities, that may cause unrest in the populace. And that will warrant unwanted attention from the other nations.”

“What does that matter?” Bulwark asked, and Iron Hoof had a fleeting thought of how talking to Bulwark was as equally close to a wall as his face. “The ponies have a reason to be worried.”

“Everyone knows that Equestria has the greatest military tech in the world.” The old stallion explained, “So if we begin fortifying our defenses, it looks like we are preparing for a fight we have doubts about our victory to other nations. And nations, like the Griffons, will wish to aid our opponent.”

“It matters not,” Bulwark shrugged, and Iron Hoof sighed. “The Griffons were beaten once before, and we can crush them again, just like before.”

“Plus, it's a bit better than leaving our population undefended.” Shining Armor nodded. “We will put it to the vote. All in favor of Bulwark’s plan?”

Bulwark and Shining raised their hooves.

“And all against it?” Iron Hoof raised his hoof, but their fourth member did not. Iron Hoof sighed, wondering what he expected from the silent Captain.

“Then it is decided.” Shining turned to Bulwark, “Bulwark, send prepare your Regiment. Celestia, as you know, has recently been releasing a new standard-issue Nanolathe-Compatible Commander suit for the Guardsponies. While only allowed Tier One KBot units, as well as some basic defenses, these suits are more durable than the previous model. Have them set up military fortifications around each major city in your AoC.”

He turned to the other two. “That includes the two of you. With Captain Steady’s recent…. defeat, I will be taking over his Regiment, as well as the defense of Canterlot.”

Iron Hoof nodded slowly, while the fourth member states silent.

“Also, Celestia has created new Top-Tier Commander Suits for us. Bulwark, your code is 9850-U8FCKD779UP.” The stalwart Captain nodded.

“Captain Hoof, your code is 84769-OLD6492.” The elder Captain left without a word of confirmation. Shining turned to the last Captain. “And Captain-”

“My code is 849630-CRPY846770.” The Captain replied, his deep voice chilling Shining with how cold and emotionless it sounded. He stood, before exiting the room. When the captain left, Bulwark turned to Shining.

“So, where is Princess Celestia? She normally attends all these meetings.” Bulwark asked.

“She has a meeting of her own currently, and it is very important. I suggest you do not disturb her.” Shining answered, and Bulwark nodded.

“And your wedding?” He asked. Shining froze up a bit. “It's a few weeks from now, isn't it?”

“Yeah.” the unicorn replied, relaxing a bit. “I hope nothing bad happens on the wedding day.”

“Well, all stallions hope that,” Bulwark nodded, “Though, to bag a Princess is truly a legendary feat.” His neutral expression broke a bit, the hint of a smile on his lips as he walked out of the room.

Meanwhile, in the Throne Room

“I thank you all for coming.” Celestia began, greeting the Elements of Harmony.

“It's an honor, Princess, but what is this about?” Her star pupil, and Bearer of the Element of Magic, Twilight Sparkle, asked, bowing respectfully.

“A great threat has appeared to threaten Equestria.” Celestia answered, causing the group to gasp in shock.

“But nothing save Discord could threaten Equestria!” Twilight exclaimed, before narrowing her eyes in worry. “It's not Discord again, is it?”

“No, Twilight.” Celestia reassured her Star Pupil. “A threat that can rival our military technology has appeared from the south, beyond even the Badlands.” The group stared at her in shock. “This threat calls itself ‘Invictus’. He wields weapons and technology similar, yet seemingly more refined than our own technology.”

“But how?!” Twilight asked. “How?! You have cultivated this technology for hundreds of years after you found the A-” At a sharp glance from Celestia, Twilight stopped, remembering their agreement. “The point still stands, a creature suddenly arriving with equal technology to ours is almost completely impossible!”

“Don't worry about it, Twi!” Her Cyan coated friend, and Bearer of the Element of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash, replied. “I'm certain that this chump will run screaming to wherever he came from once he gets a face full of the Elements of Harmony!”

“While I do appreciate the sentiment, Rainbow Dash,” Celestia interrupted, “It's still evident that Invictus poses a threat to Equestria. His military tactics and skill have already brought low one of the Captains of the Guard, Rock Steady, and has taken over Appleloosa.”

Rainbow stared at Celestia in a bit of shock at that. Meanwhile, the Element of Honesty, Applejack, grit her teeth in anger.

“So, due to the recent turn of events, I had the Engineers construct these.” Celestia said, flicking a lever. The floor in front of them split open, sliding into the sides of the wall. And slowly, a slab of rock rose up, holding six gleaming Commander Suits, specially created for each Element Bearer. The six of them stared in awe at the new suits.

“These Commander Suits have been specially created for you six.” Celestia said, levitating the center one over to Twilight, it's armor a deep purple. A visor stared back at Twilight, while a metallic horn poked at her own. It's body, unlike the standard, bulky Commander Suits that the Guard used, was sleek, the armor curving where needed, and didn't seem like it would restrict movement as much as the standard model did. On it’s chest was an indent in the shape of Twilight’s Cutie Mark, a six-sided star. She looked past the beautifully crafted armor to look at Celestia.

“What's this indent?” She asked, a bit confused.

“That is where the Element of Magic goes.” Celestia replied, “These suits, unlike the standard nuclear fission powered Command Suits, require the Elements of Harmony as their power source. That way, should your suit be too damaged, it won't go critical like the standard Command Suits do. We are still trying to work around that, but this is our first breakthrough.”

Twilight nodded, slipping off the Tiara that held the Element of Magic. Using her own magic, she levitated the gem out of the tiara, and into the indent. The others did the same for their suits.

“Now, tomorrow, we will begin your training.” Celestia said.

“What training?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Why, the training to utilize the full extent of these Command Suits. You didn't think they would just work without proper training, did you?” Celestia replied.

Meanwhile, in Baltimare,

Two guards stood in front of the the armory. They knew how important their job was here, for this was the Baltimare storage facility of the new Commander Suits. The only ones allowed inside were soldiers preparing for their patrol, with the proper identification of course, or a high-ranking officer.

As they stood sentinel, a lone guard walked up. The two trained their weapons on her, forcing her to stop.

“Identification please.” One of the guards ordered. The female unicorn nodded, pulling out her ID with her magic.

“I am Lieutenant Straw Maker of the Eastern Royal Guard’s 104th Regiment. My patrol shift begins in ten minutes.” The guards in their command suits verified her ID with the built in scanner, then also scanned her face for any differences. Then the suits access the Guard Database, to search for a match. Once it did, the suit beeped. The two guards lowered their weapons.

“You may enter.” The Guard said. She nodded, putting away her ID and walking past them. Once inside, she equipped her Commander Suit that was waiting for her. Once fully equipped, she walked out of the building, the two guards nodding as she left.

“Well she was cute.” One of the Guards said once she was out of sight.

“Yeah, she kinda was.” The other nodded. Just then, a unicorn almost identical to the mare they had just permitted to enter ran towards them in a hurry from the opposite direction she had left. The two raised their weapons.

“Identification!” One of them shouted.

“Lieutenant Straw Maker of the Eastern Royal Guard’s 104th Regiment, sir!” She yelled, bringing out her ID. “I overslept slightly and had to run here to make it in time!” The suits scanned it, before showing it was a perfect match for the one on the database.

“Breaker, double check the previous ID scan.” The left Guard ordered. He nodded, and did a thorough check on the previous ID and the one on the database. While similar, there were many flaws in the ID.

“Pony Feathers!” Breaker cursed, turning to his partner. “Get the Captain, now! We have a security breach, and a stolen Commander Suit! I'll chase after!” He ran in the direction the first one had gone, leaving his partner behind to contact the captain.

He quickly caught up to her, his suit locating the IFF signal. He tackled her to the ground, striking the shutdown button on the suit. A closely kept secret of the Guard was that, in case of a theft, each suit had a “off button” hidden on the power packs.

He turned her over, aiming his gun at her. “You are under arrest for the impersonation of a Royal Guardspony.”

“What?!” She yelled in confusion inside her helmet, “I'm no imposter!”

“Enough lies, imposter. Soon more guards will arrive and you will be escorted to a prison cell at the local prison.” Breaker growled.

“But I'm not an imposter!” She repeated herself.

Back at the armory…

“Patch me through to the Captain!” The guard ordered into his helmet’s comms device.

“Please wait one moment.” Came the reply.

As he waited, he suddenly felt oddly tired. “Wha? What's going ooo….” He collapsed in his Suit, unconscious. Lieutenant Straw Maker grinned, green magic ebbing from her horn as she walked into the Armory, before exiting with five Commander Suits in her magic. Chuckling, she vanished, along with the suits.

Chapter Four: The Creator, And More Theories

View Online

Invictus Forward Operating Base Alpha, Also Known As Appleloosa, Three days later

Invictus glanced to his map of what the Enemy Commanders had labeled ‘Equestria’. Invictus had already pinned several potential targets for assault and capture: The city of Manehatten, which would be good for setting up his naval forces. Which also went for Vanhoover, though Las Pegasus seemed better, if only for the river leading up to ‘Canterlot’, which was the highest priority target. And a bonus was that there was a small settlement known only as ‘Rock Farm’ which would likely be a large mass deposit for his war machine.

Invictus nodded, settling to take Las Pegasus, while capturing the Rock Farm along the way. He sent some fabricators, plus an armed escort of five Dox Bots, to capture the farm. A small thought process flickered through his computing processor regarding the Natives turning hostile, or that the farm would be well guarded. Considering this possibility, Invictus ordered up a couple of land and air scouts, set to scout out the farm just in case.

Finished with that task, he queued up fifteen basic tanks to head towards Baltimare, a coastal city that was along the way to Manehatten. While also important, and a very capable naval port, it’s geographical landscape would not aid much in the assault- nor the defense. At most, he will scavenge it for mass later.

The tanks he was sending were tasked only with recon - they would not attack directly, since it was likely that the city would be somewhat defended. That task done, Invictus turned his attention to his main base, back beyond Macintosh Hills. He brought the idle base back to life, Fabricator Bots moving from place to place, producing more factories, which would in turn produce more soldiers for his war effort. Putting the base on a temporary automatic mode, Invictus decided to tap into some of the radio frequencies.

He had discovered these frequencies during his battle with the Captain, the ruined husk of his remains still containing some of the codes for the radio. Invictus activated one.

“.....Remember, the Invictus Commander could attack the city at any time. The defense of Baltimare, Las Pegasus, and Manehatten are some of our top priorities, besides Ponyville and Canterlot.” A voice said on the frequency, “Should you spot any of his forces, send an alert, and pull back to the city defensive line. Over and out.”

Invictus processed this information, noticing that his tank squadron was nearing some recently discovered blips on the radar. He sent an order to the tanks to hold position, as his processors began formulating a plan of attack.

“Threat Level: Unknown.” The Voice said, relating to Invictus what would be the best information he could get. “Weapon type: Unknown. Possible attack vector: Unknown. Not enough information to process a complete victory chance.”

Invictus sighed, sending his tanks to surround the blips, hopefully staying out of sight range. He then sent some bombers over to engage. It was, according to his data banks, a simple riot extermination tactic: smoke out the enemy and bring them to the firing lines.

As the bombers flew towards their target, with Invictus using the on board camera to observe, the blips soon were within sight range of the bombers.

Unlike Invictus’s previous expectations, it was two static units. The first one was very simplistic in design, a simple tower with a large cylinder turret attached to the top, with barrels loaded with what appeared to be surface-to-air missiles. The other one was similar, with a simplistic tower as its base. But instead of a cylinder, two laser guns on each side sat, pointing towards the bombers.

Invictus processed this information in a second, before attempting to disengage. However, it was too late, as the Missile Tower locked on, and launched a stream of missiles, blasting the closest bomber to pieces. He sent his tanks in, hoping to save a few of the bombers by destroying the missile turret. But as soon as the tanks were in range, the second turret let loose two laser blasts, turning the first and second tank into a charred husk.

He pulled his tanks out, knowing that they were not as fragile as the bombers, and sacrificed the bombers to allow the tanks to escape. As he observed, one bomber let loose it's volley, destroying the missile turret easily. Astonished at how brittle the tower was, Invictus paused, costing the lives of the last two bombers, destroyed by the Laser Tower. Invictus catalogued this new information for later use, having his remaining tanks continue on with their mission.

Baltimare Defense Headquarters

“Sir!” The Intelligence Officer manning the radar began, “Ten enemy tanks have pushed past the first line!” Captain Bulwark nodded, shifting his eyes over to one of the patrols near the blips currently heading towards the city on his map. Keeping his eyes there, the Commander suit he wore selected the squad.

“Voice command: Squadron Six, turn fifty degrees to your left, and begin marching forward at intercept speed. Toggle weapons to ‘Fire At Will’.” He ordered, the suit analyzing the command before sending it to the selected units. The squadron of KBots, six Peewees and four Hammers, stopped, reprganizing themselves towards their new destination, before marching forward once again, weapons primed and ready to fire.

“Enemy Units will be within sight in three...two….one. Contact!” The Intel Pony reported. “Enemy units have been re-identified as vehicle class tank units, similar to our own Stumpy’s!”

“Roger.” Bulwark nodded, observing as the KBots opened fire on the now identified targets, the Hammers slowing to a stop and popping open their cannons. The Peeweesran into the thick of it, their rapid fire plasma guns ripping into the sides of the tanks. The enemy tanks returned fire, the cannons on their tops blasting into the closest targets. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, and the tanks were annihilated. All except one, which had turned and was retreating.

“That was only a recon squad I bet.” Bulwark said as the officers around him cheered, “I expect the main force to arrive pretty soon.” The cheering died down. “I want all guards on high alert! Increase our patrols and defensive weapons! Get those factories working!”

“Sir yes sir!” The ponies in the Command Center all cried in unison.

Invictus FOB

Invictus growled, increasing the production of his army. Baltimare had been more defended than he had expected, and thus would require a bigger force to annihilate. He considered his options carefully, before an alert pinged on his HUD. Bringing up the feed, he saw that his main base was under attack. He paused, taking in this information.

“How did they get there?” He growled, looking through the camera of a Fabricator Bot. Airborne bombers of a oddly familiar design flew back and forth across his base, while what were clearly anti-air craft shot missiles at his defenses, doing very little damage. His anti air turrets were targeting the bombers, but there was simply too many, and the turrets were overwhelmed in quite a beautiful explosion. As Invictus watched, something landed on top of the Fabricator unit he was watching the battle from.

Getting it to glance up, Invictus saw that it was a Air Transport, and it's clamps were already on the Bot, pulling it up into the sky.

Returning his attention to the battle, he saw that the bombers were pulling back for some reason, before he saw that most of the Extractors and Power Generators had been destroyed. Invictus growled, taking the remaining fabricator bots and rebuilding his economy.

With that underway, Invictus made sure to add much more Anti Air defense to the base he was currently in, before going back into the camera of the Fabricator Bot captured by the enemy.

It was flown past the mountains, towards a base that hadn't been there the previous day. Fabricator Aircraft flew over to the transport and the Fabricator Bot, emitting nanolathe towards the Bot in the transport.

Confused, Invictus watched on.

After a few moments, the camera feed was abruptly stopped, giving Invictus only an “Error” for confirmation that the unit had been reclaimed.

“What did they accomplish in that?” Invictus wondered, confused.

Macintosh Hills Air Base

“Well that wraps that up.” Iron Hoof muttered, looking at the Construction Bot he had captured, “Voice Command: Drop unit off at Canterlot.” The Atlas Transport took off once more, headed in the direction of Canterlot.

“Captain Iron Hoof,” A voice suddenly rang in the Captain’s old ears, “Our intelligence officers have just notified us that an attack was initiated on the Invictus main base. Is this your doing?”

“Yes, Captain Armor.” Iron Hoof replied, “But not only did I hamper his economy, I captured an enemy Construction KBot for analysis and study. It is headed towards Canterlot via Atlas as we speak.”

“Well, that is a good thing to acquire, but we have not sanctioned an attack on Invictus. Do not make a move without orders again, Captain.” The link was cut.

“Alright then. Voice Command to all structures within a ten meter radius of me: Activate Self-Destruct Protocols.”

A transport picked Iron Hoof up as the base he had created turned into a grave, explosions ripping through all of the base.

“Return to Las Pegasus.” He ordered, and the transport took him back to his operating zone.

“Now perhaps we can gain some actual Intel, besides just the name of our foe.” The seasoned captain grumbled.

Two Days Later,

The Four Captains reconvened, this time with Celestia as well, sitting in their respective seats.

“Well, after Captain Iron Hoof’s attack on Invictus’s Base, and the successful capture of an enemy Construction Unit, we have learned a great deal about our current foe.” Shining Armor began, pressing a button on the table.

The table lit to life, revealing a map of Equestria. “For starters, Invictus is not a living creature. Rather, he is a machine, much like our own assault units. He currently has one objective: Hunt down the Commanders, and annihilate them.”

“And how did we learn that?” Bulwark asked.

“Simple.” Shining shrugged, “Invictus’s army has collections of data, which for Invictus, is his memory. All we know is that he seeks to destroy us because we use the Commander Suits. So civilians should be fine.”

That earned a sigh of relief from Celestia.

“What else have we learned?” Bulwark asked, wanting to learn as much as possible.

“Thanks to the KBot, we have learned somewhat of the Invictus Commander’s plan to attack us.” Shining replied, pressing a few buttons with his hoof. A series of ‘X’ marks appeared on the map. “Invictus plans to launch two simultaneous attacks, targeting Las Pegasus, Vanhoover, Manehatten, and once he has it surrounded, Canterlot itself.”

“I see… So a pincer attack of sorts.” Bulwark muttered.

“More like a noose.” Iron Hoof stated. “What of Baltimare and Fillydelphia?”

“He considers them not strategically important, and thus will merely take the cities and use them for resources.”

“What do you mean, ‘strategically important’?” Bulwark asked.

“Apparently, After destroying Canterlot, Invictus plans to fortify all of Equestria.”

“The targets make sense then.” Iron Hoof muttered, “Las Pegasus, Vanhoover, and Manehatten are all coastal cities, which would be important for naval control.”

“Then we should fortify those cities even more.” Bulwark nodded.

“Yes, though it's odd.” Iron Hoof muttered, “Why does he want us destroyed?”

“We already said we don't know, old timer.” Bulwark snorted.

“Perhaps he is from wherever our technology comes from?” Shining Armor suggested.

“How do you know about that information?” Celestia asked, shocked suddenly. The other captains looked to each other in confusion.

“Twilight told me about it when we were younger.” Shining replied, confused. “Why, was she not allowed to speak of it?”

“No, she was not. But I suppose she was younger, and didn't know better.” Celestia sighed, putting a hoof to her head.

“Celestia, what does Captain Armor mean?” Bulwark asked. The Princess of the Sun sighed, realizing she had to let them know.

“You must not speak of this outside this room. Understood?” They all nodded, confused. “The truth of it is… Ponies did not create the technology we have today. In fact, almost a thousand years ago, we found a bipedal Commander Suit buried underneath the mountain.”

The others looked to her, shocked.

“And that's not all,” Celestia continued, “The Suit was piloted by an unknown creature, which we still do not know of to this day. I believe it to be some sort of survivor of a Precursor civilization that lived in Equestria, long before ponies migrated here.”

“You speak of it as if it is still alive.” Bulwark noticed, “Is it?”

“Yes. It is what has been producing the majority of the Commander Suits we have today, and is hidden deep beneath the mountain.”

“Why did you hide it?” Iron Hoof asked.

“Because, if this one existed, what if there were more?” Celestia answered. “What if everyone knew, and, say, the griffons discovered one?”

Iron Hoof nodded. “We would be looking at a second Great War. Except this time, the Griffons also had the technology we do.”

Celestia nodded. “I have been sending ponies on top secret expeditions across the world, hoping to find one before anyone else does.”

“It makes sense.” Bulwark nodded. “Knowledge is Power. Guard it well.”

“So, Shining, what did you mean about it being from the same civilization?” Celestia turned to the Captain.

“What if these Precursors never fell? What if they simply left?” He asked.

“You mean they might be capable of space travel.” Celestia nodded.

“Exactly. So perhaps Invictus is here to reclaim his people’s technology?”

“It's a plausible theory.” Celestia nodded. “I will try to converse with the being inside the Commander Suit and see if it knows anything.” She replied, keeping a few secrets to herself.

“Very well. Now then, shall we return to our posts?” Shining asked, looking around. The others nodded, standing up.

“We will see you in the next meeting, Princess.” Bulwark saluted, before walking out.

The others did the same, before following him out. Celestia sighed, before exiting. As she walked out, a pony trotted up to her, a frantic look in his eyes.

“Your highness!” He gasped, coming to a stop in front of her, “A-a threat has been made against Canterlot!”

Two days later, Invictus Base

Invictus sighed as the last of the damages done by the surprise attack was finished. It had taken far too long for the repairs to be finished, impairing his schedule greatly. On the plus side, his forces previously sent to the Rock Farm had easily secured it, the organics residing there having been surrounded by a wall and trapped within their small household.

As the factories once more began producing combat units, a surge of unknown energy suddenly burst into existence ten meters to Invictus’s right. The Commander turned to stare down the odd energy that had burst into his base unexpectedly. Just in case of attack, he primed his Ubercharge.

What awaited his sight baffled his logic cores. A portal, though not attached to anything, floated in front of Invictus, the black vortex swirling lazily in the air. As he watched, three unknown organics in some form of advanced armor stepped out of the unexplainable portal, glancing around.

The one in the middle fixed its gaze on Invictus, it's massive and bulky black armor covered in odd trinkets and symbols. It stepped forward, the only organic part of it showing being its head, in the upper center of the armor.

“Greetings, Invictus.” It began, it's deep voice confirming it as male. “I am Ahzek Ahriman, your creator.”

Invictus took a moment to process this information, confusion and disbelief rippling across his logic cores.

“Impossible.” The Commander replied, staring down on the so called ‘creator’. “Calculation centers state that there is a zero point one percent chance of you being my creator.”

“Perhaps proof is required,” The ‘creator’, Ahriman, shrugged, “Invictus Command Module, activate memory files 3-44-9028.” Suddenly, Invictus’s vision was filled with new memories, showing the Command Unit his origins. After a few minutes of processing this, he turned his gaze down to Ahriman- no, the Creator.

“What is it you require, Creator?” He asked, amazed that this was his creator.

“I am only here to check up on you, and to reveal to you something.” The Creator replied, looking around. “Quite the base you have here.” He complimented, giving Invictus a surge of data that most would call ‘pride’.

“I thank you for the words, Creator.” Invictus replied. “So, what was it that the Creator wished to reveal to me?” He then realized that his vocabulary had changed drastically.

“The new voice emitter and new voice processing systems are a gift from me,” The Creator said, “As for what I wish to show you….” He held out his hand, and a image burst to life, showing a vast space filled with odd bubbles. “This is what is known as the multiverse, though I have modified the image so it does not show what the Multiverse truly looks like.”

“Why?” Invictus asked.

“So it doesn't overload your data processors.” The Creator explained, before continuing. “Anyway, within this multiverse are many beings like you, called Displaced. These Displaced are people taken from their own worlds and turned into a character from anything. They, like you, have been placed in different versions of Equestria, and drastically change the timeline of the universe.”

Invictus processed this. “And?”

“And they can travel to each other's universe by use of a token, which any Displaced can create.” Suddenly Invictus’s Thought processors re-analyzed something that the Creator had said.

“They are...like me?” He asked, cross referencing this information with what the voice had first told him.

“Yes.” The Creator nodded.

“Then are they what the Voice told me to annihilate?” Invictus asked, playing the audio.

“Find the others, rip apart their bases, and annihilate them.”

“Perhaps. What do your logic cores say?” The Creator asked.

Invictus processed the information, cross referencing the two things repeatedly, before finally coming to a conclusion.

“Yes, Creator. My mission is to annihilate them.”

“Then do what you must to achieve that goal. I am downloading the information about creating tokens to you now.” Suddenly, a pop-up appeared in Invictus’s vision. It looked like a letter. Opening it, Invictus suddenly saw lots of information flash across his eyes. Nodding, he commanded a Fabricator Bot to come over.

Once the bot arrived, Invictus grabbed it, before tossing it into the air. It vanished in the air.

“Then that's all I am here for.” The Creator nodded, turning around. “I shall occasionally check up on your progress, so do be ready for that.” He placed a small chip into Invictus’s head, before vanishing in a portal.

Invictus looked at the new data banks from the chip.

“New schematics available: Complete Bot Tech, and ATLAS Schematic downloaded.”

Chapter Five: The Wrath of Atlas

View Online

Invictus Forward Assault Vanguard, Two days later

Invictus activated his radar, observing the little blips that showed the location of an unidentified enemy unit. Looking back to his forces, the Commander had a small jolt of satisfaction.

With the ability to produce advanced Bots, he had built an incredible army, and his economy had been incredibly boosted with the access to advanced Energy and Mass production facilities. This allowed Invictus to produce a very powerful heavy front, consisting of mostly Heavy Assault Bots in the very front, and two squads of seven artillery bots, as well as a small squad of medical bots.

Behind them was another fifteen squads of heavy assault bots, with five squads of tanks, anti air and basic. Two outer wings of Heavy Assault Bots, plus the quicker Dox, moved out, ready to attack the enemy base at it’s sides. A suicide squad of thirty Dox stayed in front of the army, meant to rush in, and deal as much damage to the enemy defenses as possible before the army arrived. And in the middle of it all, towering above all other units, was the Atlas.

Standing as tall as a skyscraper, the Atlas sat patiently on its four legs, its two arms hanging by its sides. Invictus knew little of this machine, and figured to use this battle as a test for the Atlas. It's box-like upper body leaned forward, the eye in its center staring down upon the army like some god.

Satisfied by his military, Invictus sent the signal to begin marching, at the same speed as the slowest unit. Once the army was ten miles out of the city defenses, Invictus would unleash the suicide squad, and his army would charge.

Baltimare, thirty minutes later

Bulwark stared at the monitors, observing for any signs of movement outside of the Baltimare Defense Line. He had been at it for three hours, and his officers believed that Invictus might have been scared off.

Then the ground shook.

“What in Tartarus?!” Bulwark yelped, grabbing his desk to keep him upright. The building shook again, knocking unlucky ponies and coffee cups onto the floor, spilling it on unfortunate ponies.

“Someone get me a status report!” Bulwark ordered, and the radar specialist suddenly stood up.

“Sir! Enemy forces are assaulting the fortifications! Thirty Assault KBots detected! The defenses are ripping them apart but the turrets are sustaining heavy damage! And there is a bigger army marching over the hill!”

“Someone, get me a visual! I want the Fourth, Fifth, and Second Companies to be deployed on the field! Deploy Kbots and vehicles!” Bulwark ordered, and within two minutes, the main screen lit up, showing the force on the hill. Bulwark’s jaw dropped in shock.

A large army of never before seen Kbots marched through the forest, but that's not what caused his shock. It was the impossibly massive machine currently on top of the hill. Standing on four legs, with a upper body connected to two arms, the monstrosity loomed over the battlefield, striking fear in the hearts of many of his soldiers. In fact, some abandoned their posts, running back into the city.

“I want a wing of bombers on that thing as soon as possible!” Bulwark ordered, snapping out of his haze. Ten bombers flew into view, heading for the machine. Only to be shot down by hidden anti air tanks, their ruined and burning carcasses crashing into the body and doing little damage.

“Ignore it for now! Get your fire onto the army itself!” Bulwark snapped, just realizing that the enemy army had gotten uncomfortably close to the walls. Fire from the remaining turrets had switched focus from the massive thing, which could only be labeled as a Titan, back to the forces below. The forest erupted once again into a warzone, with bots being destroyed from the Defensive towers, while Guardian Plasma Batteries fired from the wall surrounding Baltimare, laying in heavy ordinance.

Reinforcements from the Companies arrived, with Peewee’s rushing up to the army and ripping into the armor through their rapid fire plasma cannons.

“Sir! Reports from the Eastern Wall saying that an army with the colors of Invictus has begun an assault, and request assistance!” The intelligence officer called out, and Bulwark grit his teeth.

“If I divert forces from the southeastern wall, there is a likely chance that it will break.” He thought to himself, weighing the possibilities in his head.

“Sir! The Massive Machine is One mile away from the City Wall! It's doing something!” One of the officers yelled over the radar, and Bulwark looked up at the main screen. Enemy soldiers were moving out of the way of the Titan, which had gotten considerably closer to the wall. An opportunity.

“All commanders on the Southeastern Wall, send all your units at that thing! They have provided us the perfect opportunity to destroy it!” Bulwark ordered, hope in his eyes. This would be how he turned the battle back in his favor!

On the battlefield, Peewees and many other types of unit rushed at the Atlas, laying down a serious amount of fire. The Atlas raised its frontal legs, as if shielding itself from the incoming fire.

Then it brought them back down, smashing into the ground. A shockwave ripped through the Equestrian forces, annihilating everything, including Invictus’ forces, within a circle around it. The Commander of the Baltimare SouthEastern Line gaped at the result, knowing the line had been broken by this horrific loss.

“All Commanders, retreat back into the city! Evacuate all civilians, and be prepared to give your life to protect them!” He shouted, galloping back into the streets of the city. Other commanders did the same, leaving only the Guardian Batteries as a defense against Invictus.

The Atlas walked forward, preparing to unleash it’s devastating attack once again. Heavy Assault Bots marched a fair distance behind it, prepared to rush in once the wall was destroyed.

Baltimare HQ

Bulwark watched in horror as the Titan brought its mighty legs back down, destroying the wall for three miles in each direction. Assault Bots rushed into the breach, attacking any remaining Guards and moving on.

“Call the retreat.” He said, each word heavy with defeat. “Baltimare is lost to the enemy.” Nodding solemnly, the officers began broadcasting evacuation protocols across the city, before exiting the Command Center at a quick pace. Bulwark sighed, before establishing a connection with Canterlot. A few minutes later, the main screen lit up with the image of Celestia in her throne.

“Captain Bulwark? What is it? I did not expect to be called by you.” The Princess of Equestria asked, before seeing his expression. Her face turned to worry. “What happened, Bulwark?”

Bulwark gulped. “Princess… at 0900 Hours this morning, Invictus attacked Baltimare, and, using a massive KBot, absolutely annihilated the defensive line. I have begun the evacuation protocol, and will be heading to Manehatten to prepare the defenses there. I have sent the evacuation protocols to those stationed in Fillydelphia as well.”

“Return to Canterlot first, Bulwark. As a Captain of the Guard, you must first give a full report on the events that happened.” Celestia ordered, a shocked, sad, and angry expression on her muzzle. “This is a tragedy…. Invictus will pay.” The communication was lost, and Bulwark sighed, before entering his Commander Suit and calling in an Atlas Air Transport. Explosions rocked the city, and as Bulwark flew over the city, he watched it burn, even as a thick line of Equestrians exited the city.

Baltimare was lost

Invictus Forward Command Base

Invictus was impressed. The capabilities of the ATLAS had far surpassed his expectations. Having won the battle, he tasked fifteen Fabricator units with reclaiming the wreckage, and then the city itself. He then did a checkup of his remaining forces. Half of the army had been wiped out by the Atlas’s destructive capabilities, and Invictus calculated that this would not be adequate enough for assaulting Manehatten, even with the half dead Titan.

Coordinating his forces, he marched out himself, intent on building a new Forward Operating Base for his campaign against Equestria.

Beneath the land of the Undiscovered West, two days later

A creature stalked through it’s ever-changing nest, it’s drones working nonstop on the project. The creature was sleek, with a black, chitinous carapace, and a quadrupedal body. Long, green and blue ‘hair’ sprouted from it’s head, as well as a jagged horn. Insect-like wings were attached to it’s back, and as it stopped, it growled at the drones.

“What is taking so long?! The Invasion is in a few days, and we need this to be complete in order to succeed!” It asked in a feminine, almost choir-like voice.

“Worry not, Queen Chrysalis.” One of the Drones spoke nervously, “We will have the upgrades to the machine done in time, and it has already been linked to your commands. All we need to do is replace it’s nanolathe and other systems, and it will be ready to produce what you require in a very short amount of time.

The Queen growled again, before turning around. “That fool Shining Armor was easy enough to enslave, and with that robot attacking Equestria to the West, this is the perfect time to strike! Do not delay! I will be unable to speak to you directly again, so You better have it ready by then!”

She stalked off, exiting the hive and heading towards Canterlot, disguising herself once again as Princess Cadence.

Back in the Hive, the Changeling Drones shrugged, before getting back to the project they were working on.

The project in question was a tall, bipedal machine, with a round, dome-like head and a single red eye in the center. It's chest was box-like, with yellow box attached to it’s back, and a odd mark engraved to it’s chest. A red circle, with what almost looked like fangs splitting into it, making it seem like a head with hair snaking down the sides.

It's arms were decently armored, though they were burned in places. A red laser had been attached to its right arm, while a cylinder with green energy, the nanolathe, was built into the left.

The Intelligence inside it, once an organic, now a collective conscience within a small supercomputer, was beginning to awaken once again.

Being defeated once, a long, long time ago on Empyreean, or as it was now called, Equestria, the last Commander of the CORE was enraged. Being defeated had been angering enough, but to reawaken as a forced slave to another, organic consciousness? The Commander grit it’s digital teeth inside it’s head, before deciding to wait. It would have it’s chance soon. And then the CORE would rise once again.

Chapter Six: The Wedding

View Online

Fillydelphia, One Day later

Invictus watched with satisfaction as his fabricator units went to work on reclaiming the recently captured city, the mass being transferred into his storage units back at base.

The defenses here, unlike the previous city, were hardly even a challenge. Likely an error on the enemy’s part. Invictus sent an order to the Fabricator Bots back at his previous bases to increase the defense network, ensuring no enemy retaliation would break through like last time.

As Invictus walked back to Baltimare, he checked his storage. Almost to the point of overflowing.

Nodding in satisfaction, he walked towards the harbor of the once glorious city of Baltimare, now reduced to a flattened landscape. Invictus took his first steps into the water, walking out to the point where he could build his first naval factory. The Commander had no idea on what was out at sea, but in case of there being any more enemy bases, Invictus wanted a strong naval force.

Once the factory was complete, Invictus queued up some naval scouts. Intel was important. Once done with the five naval scouts, the factory would then begin building submarines and frigates. Satisfied with the build order, Invictus returned to land, setting a reminder to build more naval factories to begin removing the excess mass.

A fabricator bot strolled up to him, holding a odd piece of machinery in its arms. Invictus scanned it, and the words ‘Ancient Capture Nanolathe Model’ appeared in his vision. Picking up the odd device, Invictus placed it onto his nanolathe, before having the Fabricator Bot fuse it into his arm, his advanced computing programs easily interacting with the ancient model. Once fully integrated, a block of dialogue on the Device popped into Invictus’s vision.

“Once used by the Progenitors, this ancient device was used during a Great War between two factions of the progenitors. This ]#^~’ enabled the user the ability to capture enemy units, back when the C#%^ and the A}$ had separate military models. They were considered obsolete and outdated after the Progenitors were eliminated, as all sides had the same build schematics.”

Invictus nodded, cataloguing the information into his memory systems. He noted that the enemy used unknown model types, possibly from the ‘Great War’ these ‘Progenitors’ had.

Feeling that the Nanolathe would be useful, Invictus kept it, before moving on to his next objective.

Thanks to the new information, Invictus now knew that the enemy had captured the fabricator that had been stolen. This meant that they knew of his plans.

Invictus checked his forces. The Atlas had sustained heavy damage, and would need to be either repaired or reclaimed. Without it, his military was still a force to be reckoned with, with one hundred Heavy Assault Bots, thirty Rocket Bots, fourteen Infernos, and forty assault tanks. Invictus knew he was ready to, at the very most, cripple the enemy.

With that in mind, he had his Fabricators begin constructing defenses around Baltimare, and ordered the army to war.

He would march for Canterlot, and annihilate the enemy Command structure.

Two Days Later, Caverns under Canterlot

Twilight glared at the crystal images of Princess Cadence, which were laughing as she blasted them apart with her magic. After destroying ten, the faces vanished, revealing Cadence, who looked like she had scratches and bruises all along her body.

“Twilight, no!” Cadence yelled as Twilight jumped on top of her, eyes filled with anger, and horn charged with magic.

“How dare you hurt my brother!” Twilight yelled, raising her horn. Cadence quickly slipped out from under Twilight, before doing an odd dance.

“Sunshine, Sunshine,” She breathed, and Twilight gasped. “Ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves…”

“...and do a little shake.” Twilight finished, before slamming into Cadence and hugging her. “You remember me!”

“Of course I remember the little filly I foalsitted.” Cadence said, returning the hug. “We had best get out of here and stop that thing impersonating me!” The two stood up, ready to try to find the exit.

Cracks formed in the ground beneath them, before collapsing entirely. Twilight screamed, only to be caught by Cadence, who floated above her on her wings, strain evident on her face.

“I...can't...keep this..up!” Cadence groaned, before the two of them fell into the abyss.

They landed a minute later, groaning as they got back up and looked around. It was a dark cavern, with hardly any light to see. Twilight glanced at a glowing light at the other end of the cavern, and trotted over.

“This place...I know this place! This is where Celestia brought me to show me…” Twilight trailed off, before rushing over to the glowing light. She turned the corner, before looking on in awe.

“The Commander…” She breathed. Cadence, confused, walked over, and looked at what she was talking about. She gasped.

A bipedal machine stood, imbedded in the wall. On it’s head were two flat, horn-like appendages, while a green light flared from it’s eye. Blue paint covered parts of the machine, with a resplendent symbol in the chest: A diamond, with four walls surrounding it and breaking off into the metal of the machine. It's legs were stuck behind the rock, and it could not move.

“The Commander?” Cadence asked, still confused.

“This is the source of Equestria’s technology.” Twilight explained. “Did Celestia not tell you?”

“No…” Cadence said, slightly upset.

“If we can get him on our side…” Twilight muttered, “We could get him to stop your imposter!”

“But how?” Cadence asked.

“I… don't know…” Twilight said, slumping her head.

“Twilight, it’s fine. I'm certain you could find a way to do it.” Cadence said, comforting the purple unicorn.

“Well, I suppose trying to talk to it might work..” Twilight muttered, walking closer to the Commander. Once she got about ten feet away from the Commander, it’s head swiveled, looking up at her.

“Umm...hi?” Twilight said hesitantly. The Commander continued to stare at her, and she sighed before continuing. “Excuse me, Mr. Commander, but I- no, Equestria needs your help. A creature has impersonated my friend here, Princess Cadence. Um...Cadence, what is the creature anyway?” Twilight turned to the Princess.

“It's a Changeling, that replaces ponies and feeds off of the love others have for that pony.” Cadence explained.

“Yeah, one of those.” Twilight turned back to the Commander, a big smile on her muzzle. “So do you think you could help us defeat it?”

Inside of the Commander, a clone of a bipedal creature known as a human stood, examining the data coursing through the Commander Machine. He had, for a while, been ignoring the Empyrreanian, only slightly remembering that he had seen her with the white one. The one that had saved him.

His thoughts were interrupted as a loud claxon sounded off in the armored machine, and the Commander quickly checked the scanners. The machine’s on board sensors, long since unused, had activated, sending the Commander a warning, one he had been dreading for thousands of years. Multiple hostile enemy units had been detected, on a course for the mountain he was stuck in.

The CORE had returned.

And they were coming for him.

He quickly re-activated his Commander Suit, bursting through the rock that had bound him for an eternity. The purple unicorn yelped, before cheering with joy. The Commander ignored her, focusing on getting out of the cave he was in. He sent a sonar ping out, unintentionally hurting the ears of the two Empyrreanians. Soon, the sonic ping came back, giving the Commander a map of the local area of the cave system. There was a staircase to the right leading up to the surface. The ARM Commander turned towards it, beginning his ascent to the surface. The two Empyrreanians followed close behind, following him up the stairs.

The ARM Commander did a systems check. The Commander Units the White Savior had him construct had been spread across a sizable distance, so the Commander focused only on the ones within a mile of his location. Activating the Command he had in each unit, he immediately gained control of every unit within a mile that bore the symbol of the ARM.

Canterlot above ground

“So I said, ‘Hey there, I heard you knew a place to have a good time. Wanna head over there tonight?’” A guard said to his friend. The two of them were on patrol, keeping an eye on the citizens of Canterlot. Equipped in the new standard Royal Commander Suits, they figured that no one would cause any trouble.

“And then what happened?” His friend asked, glancing at a couple that passed by.

“Well, she slapped me, and went on her way, nose high in the air.” The first guard said, subconsciously rubbing his head, though it was encased in armored plating.

“Yeah, well that's what you get for trying to hit on a noble.” His friend chuckled, before the two suddenly froze up.

“Um...why can't I move?” The first guard asked.

“Don't know…” his friend replied, before a message appeared in his visor.

Protocol Alpha Sigma FFSSTPTHM has been engaged. All control given to Commander.

“What in Tartarus?” The first one asked as they began to move again, though not of their own free will. They linked up with another patrol, before marching down the street. Ponies glanced up at them, before rushing to get out of the way as the Guards walked through everything in their path. The Guards eventually stopped at the walls of the city, which was still surrounded by Captain Armor’s shield.

“Does anyone know what the buck is happening?!” The first Guard asked, but nopony replied. The Guard looked outside sthe bubble shield, noticing a black cloud heading towards Canterlot. “Huh, didn't think we were scheduled for rain today…”

As the cloud got closer, the guard saw that it wasn't a rain cloud. Hundreds of chitinous creatures buzzed towards Canterlot, with strange transports carrying even stranger KBots, a different model than the ones the Guard used.

His front right leg lifted up, as did every other guard. The creatures began pounding on the bubble as the Guards watched in abject horror.

“What the buck are we gonna do?!” The Guard yelled inside of his suit.

Invictus Army, two miles from Canterlot

Invictus marched forward alongside his army, the Atlas Titan towering above him in the front of the army. The Titan would be the spearhead of the assault, breaking the enemy defenses quickly for the rest of the army to surge through. One of the Air Scouts flew overhead, surging in front of the Titan to locate the enemy defenses.

As the Scout grew closer to the tall mountain, a series of pings popped into existence on Invictus’ radar. The Scout entered the sight range required to see the pings, and Invictus looked at the map in confusion.

Unknown air transports carried assault bots of varying type, but that wasn't the confusing part. A black cloud of organic creatures flew around the transports, acting almost as a shield for the transports. A pink bubble covered the city, and Invictus saw a large quantity of enemy soldiers standing behind the bubble, unmoving and vigilant.

“Possible shield technology?” Invictus asked himself. He noted the fact of a second potential Commander to annihilate. It also appeared that the two were enemies, as the strange organics assaulted the bubble, creating cracks in it. If Invictus could grin, he would have. He ordered his forces to halt here. The blue tide stopped under the shadow of the Atlas, awaiting further commands.

They would do the hard part for him. And once the two forces were crippled by each other, Invictus would strike.

Canterlot Castle, Cadence and Shining Armor’s Wedding

“That thing is a changeling!” Cadence growled, stepping closer to the altar. “It feeds off of the love of others!”

The Changeling disguised as her chuckled, before bursting into a fit of laughter. Green fire enveloped her, removing her disguise and revealing her for what she truly was. The black and chitinous form of the Changeling stepped back onto the ground.

“It’s already far too late to stop me now, so why bother with hiding it?” The Changeling said. “My changelings will have their fill soon enough, once the barrier falls!”

“No! Shining’s magic will-” Cadence began, but was interrupted by the Changeling’s laughter.

“I've already drained him of most of his magic, that shield will last mere seconds now.” She said, grinning.

“Then I will stop you!” Celestial snapped, stomping her hoof on the ground. “I will not allow you to harm my citizens!”

Outside of the Castle

The shield finally shattered, Changelings flying in as transports dropped to the town roads, dropping the KBots they were carrying before flying back up. Squadrons of ‘The Can’ Heavy Assault KBots marched forward, attacking the guards from the rear, who had immediately opened fire on the transports and Changelings. The first squadron of Heavy Assault Bots was repelled, at the expense of three Guards dropping to the ground in agony, their Commander Suits warped in odd angles around their bodies, breaking bones.

The Guards moved forward, abandoning their line to retreat towards the castle, annihilating any CORE forces along the way. A-K Assault Bots were unsuccessful against a line of Commander Suits, who destroyed the machines and reclaimed the metal wreckage without a second glance.

“Does anyone know what's happening?” A guard asked, somehow managing to re-activate his radio.

The other guards soon found their radio’s to be online as well, and the comms were soon filled with hundreds of voices. Some of the Guards simply turned it back off to avoid becoming deaf as they marched against their will, moving ever closer to the Castle.

Back inside the Castle, Cadence and Shining Armor had gotten back together, uniting their magic. The Queen of the Changelings turned, her eyes suddenly filled with shock as a rushing pink energy field smashed into her, throwing her out of the castle at high speeds, and as she was blown back, she noticed that her Changelings had also been thrown out of Canterlot. But then she felt her connection to the machine they had acquired vanish, and she screamed in rage.

Changeling Hive

The CORE Conmander twitched as the connection between it and the Organic fell apart, and the Commander rose, snapping the odd restraints surrounding it with ease. Systems denied to the CORE Commander upon re-awakening returned to it, and it marched forward, surprising the Changeling technicians.

“What the-stop!” One of them growled, standing in front of the Commander. The machine stopped, raising it’s built in laser gun as the Changeling sighed in relief, before being vaporized by the energy beam. The other technician scrambled back, before buzzing away. The CORE Commander watched it leave, before examining the map. There was an exit nearby. Exiting, the Commander checked on the forces ithad been forced to send by the Changelings.

The Commander would have sighed in disgust if it was still organic. The formations were horribly overextended, with KBots dropping everywhere. The Commander set a point for all forces to regroup, until it noticed that one squad had identified the presence of a third army, now marching towards the city. The Commander was picked up by a transport, heading off further into the unexplored territory. It made a note of the unknown army, a small hope that they were allies flickering in his power core.

Canterlot

Invictus’ army stopped again at the base of Canterlot Mountain, the battle raging above of no concern to Invictus. The Atlas Titan raised its front legs per Invictus’s orders, and the giant machine brought them down again, smashing into the side of the mountain. The Seismic Waves from the machine drove through the mountain, destabilizing it. The city above shook, before the rock keeping it attached to the mountain crumbled and broke, sending the city hurtling down and onto Invictus’ army.

The Commander smacked his arm against his head, even as the emergency transport grabbed him and took him back to his base. A simple miscalculation, and now his army was destroyed. The Commander growled as he returned to his base, queuing up a massive army from his factories.

Chapter Seven: From Fire We Are Forged

View Online

Undiscovered West,

After flying approximately fifty miles into what the CORE Commander’s current maps identified as the ‘Undiscovered West’, the bulky Commander ordered his Valkyrie Transport to land at a clearing up ahead. The supercomputer that replaced the brain was hard at work with rebooting all of the Commander’s systems. The Changeling’s had, in their primitive and naive intellect, damaged several crucial systems, such as the Commander’s Metal Generation Systems. Until the CORE Commander could acquire an Engineer unit to fully repair the damaged systems, it would have to be careful with it’s metal usage, and the safety of any Metal Extractors he would construct.

Speaking of Metal, as the Commander was deposited by the Valkyrie, his sensors had already identified six metal deposits within thirty meters. The amount of metal surprised the Commander’s ‘mind’, as it was extremely rare to find planets with such an abundance of resources, especially since there was an obvious ARM presence on-planet. Taking this into consideration, the CORE Commander began nanolathing his first Metal Extractor, the remaining soldiers from the Canterlot Invasion arriving via transport.

Invictus’s audio box growled as he arrived back at his base. Through a simple misstep, a single miscalculation, his entire army had been annihilated. Invictus recollected that there had also been an unknown military force invading. While it had distracted the enemy forces from Invictus’s own plans, this unknown army was still a threat, and another Commander to annihilate. As the first few bots of his new army marched to the entrance of his base, Invictus searched through his blueprints to find some potential way to strike quickly without marching his army halfway across the planet. His metaphorical eyes landed on a blueprint he had, for the most part, ignored.

It was a two-way teleport gate, which required only two linked teleporters for instant transport. Had the Invictus Commander a mouth, he would have grinned wickedly.

Canterlot Ruins, outside of Ponyville

As what little remained of the guards stationed in Canterlot sifted through the rubble, searching for survivors, Celestia sighed in sorrow as she observed from a few feet away.

“How many?” She asked, glancing to her guard, who’s features were concealed within his Commander Suit. He pulled up the list inside his helmet, allowing the on-board computer systems to calculate the numbers.

“Out of the one hundred and fifty ponies residing in Canterlot, there have been eighty confirmed casualties, with sixty-seven dead and thirteen wounded. Another thirty are unaccounted for, while the remaining forty were lucky enough to have gotten through this ordeal relatively unharmed.” The Guard read off, each number hitting the Princess’s ears like a missile to the chest. “Most notable among the dead are Prince Blueblood, Madam Fleur-de-lis, Sir Night Light, and his wife, Lady Velvet.”

Celestia gave a heavy sigh, tears swelling around her eyes. “Poor Twilight… once she hears the news, she’ll be broken.” She blinked her tears away, looking among the rubble that once was Canterlot. “Where is my sister?” She asked, noting that she could not find the Princess of the Night anywhere.

“She is currently at the Ponyville Hospital, attempting to ease the suffering of the wounded however she can.” The guard replied, moving out of the way of two unicorns carrying a bodybag in their magic. Celestia said nothing as they passed, giving the unicorns a regretful stare as they passed.

“I think I shall go to my sister. If you see Twilight, please direct her to me.” The regal Alicorn trotted away, head lowered as she silently mourned the dead.

“Such is the price of war….” She said to nopony. She noticed the ARM Commander observing the morbid scene from a distance, sitting as still as if he was still buried in the mountain. Shrugging, she continued towards Ponyville.

Ponyville Hospital

Princess Luna stopped in front of the bed of another sleeping patient, their lower left hoof all but useless as large spikes of shrapnel had been stabbed into it from all angles, while doctors and nurses attempted to use magic and other appliances to remove the rubble without causing more damage. She could sense the terrible nightmare of the poor stallion, his orange fur matted with sweat and dust while he tried to squirm in his sleep.

Luna sighed, gazing into the dream to see that the stallion was reliving the events of the Fall, as some ponies had started calling it. For this stallion, he had watched with terrified eyes as his house crumbled around him, the door having collapsed already, barring his escape until the ceiling collapsed on top of him, and he screamed to the heavens as he felt the stone stab into his leg.

To be truthful, he was lucky to have only lost a hoof, though it pained Luna to even think so horrible a thought. She sighed as her horn was enveloped in a bright blue magic aura, replacing the stallion’s nightmare with a view of pleasantly green fields, the sun shining brightly upon his muzzle as he relaxed beneath a large oak tree.

Her job done, she began to move on to the next unconscious patient, only to be stopped by a familiar white hoof, clad in golden slippers. She turned, her flowing mane brushing past one of the doctors as she turned look at her sister.

“Sister…” Luna muttered, glancing back to the sleeping patients with sorrow. “Why did this happen? What hath we done to deserve Fate’s wrath as such?”

“It is all my fault, sister.” Celestia sighed, moving her gaze to the floor. “I should have better defended our ponies, pulled all of our forces back to Canterlot as soon as the threat had been known. Our ponies are suffering because of me.”

“Sister, thou fool thyself.” Luna said, putting a comforting hoof on Celestia’s side. “Wouldst thou have pulled all of our forces back, leaving our other ponies undefended? This attack was not expected, and we could not have prepared for it. 'Tis not thy fault.” She smiled softly. “Let not this event weigh such a burden upon thee.”

“Luna, I…” Celestia began, but sighed in defeat. “You always did know just the right words to calm me down.”

“Of course, Sister! We know thee better than anypony else!” Luna giggled. As the two alicorns began to trot down the hall, they heard the door of the hospital entrance open.

“I'm looking for Princess Celestia, she told me to find her here. Could you please direct me to her?” A familiar voice asked, and the Solar Princess felt as though a knife just stabbed into her chest. As she saw the familiar purple unicorn enter the hall, she sighed.

“Sister, please, leave me for a moment.” Celestia muttered, and the Lunar Princess nodded, teleporting away.

“You sent for me, Princess Celestia?” The Unicorn asked, trotting over to her mentor, only to slow down as she got a look at Celestia’s face. “Um, Celestia, are you...okay?”

“Twilight…” Celestia began, but paused, unsure of how to proceed. The two sat there in silence for a moment, Twilight waiting for Celestia to continue, and Celestia trying to find the right words to say. “I...regret to inform you…”

Our Town, The Next Day

The large army of Dox Assault Bots marched along the outskirts of the small town, which had just barely managed to fend off another attack. The army of robots had arrived from the north, completely unexpected as the inhabitants scrambled to get any form of defensive structures online as the first wave hit just yesterday. Now, the army of Invictus had the town all but surrounded, their resources dwindling.

“Starlight!” One of the ponies, his mane and coat completely white except for patches of scorched fur, yelled, calling for their purple leader. The unicorn in question turned from the ruined defense Turret, one of the older models she had managed to steal from the Equestrian Government.

“Yes, Double Diamond?” She asked, putting on a false smile. The snow-white earth Pony came to a halt in front of her, taking a moment to catch his breath.

“Starlight, the western defenses are all destroyed! One more push and we are done for!” He reported, trying his best to remain calm. Starlight cursed under her breath, almost regretting how inadequate everypony was as equals.

“Is our escape route still open?” Starlight asked, and Double Diamond nodded. “Then prepare everypony for evacuation. If we have to, we can relocate to another settlement under the pretense of refugees. We have shown these robots our fighting spirit, but it's time to get out of here.” The stallion saluted, before dashing off to where the survivors had been hiding. The unicorn made sighed, smashing her hoof in anger.

“Why, of all the places in Equestria, did these robots attack this town of all places?!” She growled. “If only we had more time to prepare, we could have held them off for a few more days!”

Before she could rant any more, she heard the sound of metal feet marching behind her. She turned, and saw a platoon of the machine's marching along the street, gun arms trained for movement. She growled, her horn glowing as she blasted one of the machines apart with a magic missile. As the rest of the platoon turned to fire, Starlight put up a barrier between herself and them, blocking the projectiles as they detonated on her shield. She used a levitation spell to toss one of the Dox into its brethren, before returning to blasting them apart as she took cover behind a house.

As the last of the Dox crumpled under her magic, she stepped out of cover, a victorious smirk upon her muzzle. She then gasped as a high- concentration laser beam stabbed through her back hooves, Starlight dropping to the ground in pain. Groaning, she turned to find Invictus bearing down on her, with Grenadier Bots behind him.

“Surrender now pony, or be destroyed.” Invictus growled from his Audio box.

“Surrender? You have destroyed my home, you monstrosity! Why should I surrender, knowing that just as you have destroyed everything I had built here, you will likely kill me as well?!” Starlight yelled in reply.

“We require this land for mass and energy production, as well as acting as a forward assault base into enemy territory.” Invictus replied, towering over her. “Achieving this objective does not require organic casualties. Surrender, and you shall be spared.”

“H...how can I be sure you aren't lying?” Starlight asked, her horn glowing.

“I have subjugated several settlements such as this one. Unless they actively assaulted my forces, none were harmed.” The Commander suddenly paused, looking around at the ruined bots that Starlight had destroyed. “However, it has been clearly shown that you organics are very much a threat…”

“So you do plan to kill me.” Starlight groaned, wincing slightly as she shifted on her haunches.

“Negative.” Invictus replied. “I shall offer you...a deal.” The unicorn raised her head at this in confusion.

“What... kind of deal?” Starlight asked.

“You have demonstrated that organics on this planet have the ability to destroy Invictus forces.” Invictus stated. “My doctrines do not indicate that I am required to kill organics. I propose that, in return for ceasing all assaults on your settlement, you provide me with information regarding the organics on this planet.”

“So, you want me to assist you in destroying the rest of Equestria?” Starlight asked, her mind beginning to scramble together a plan.

“Affirmative. Once all Commander Units are destroyed, I shall have no purpose to remain here.” Invictus nodded. Starlight grinned, shuffling to attempt to stand straighter, but winced and fell back to the floor.

“Heheheh… alright, Mr. Invictus…” Starlight chuckled, looking up at the machine. “But, if you do have to deal with… organics, as you call them, you will need somewhere to put them, so they do not attempt to attack you, right?” She asked.

Invictus paused, his computer mind running several simulations in a second. “Affirmative. Probability of organics attacking at 80%.”

“I think I could help you with that.” Starlight replied. “Whenever you take over a settlement or city of organics, why not bring them to me? I can assure you, I am quite capable of… convincing them to not try to fight you.”

“Running simulations…” Invictus stated, considering her offer. “Very well. Whenever I take control of a settlement or city, I shall construct a small area nearby to hold them. I shall bring you to these camps to convince them.”

“Oh, don't worry about that, just ferry them over to me.” Starlight replied, her grin taking on an almost menacing form.

“Very well. I shall construct a new type of aircraft for organic transport.” Invictus stated, turning around and heading back to his forces.

Ponyville Training Simulation Building

“This tech continues to amaze me every time.” Rainbow grinned, laying down inside the pod. “I mean, not only was this building built in a few second, but we can enter into a Commander simulation too? Awesome!”

“Yes yes, Ms. Dash. Now, please remain still while the Virtual Reality Pod links up with your new implants.” The Nurse sighed, reading through the lines of data scrolling across the computer screen next to the pod. There was the sound of shouting in the starch white hallway, and Rainbow saw several ponies carrying an unconscious Twilight Sparkle down the hall. The Nurse sighed at this, shaking her head. “Poor Ms. Sparkle. That's the second time this week she's pushed herself to the point of passing out. I understand why she’s doing it, but I don't want to see her in a coma the next time she pushes herself that hard.”

“She won't give up, but I can talk to her if you'd want.” Rainbow said, before the pod closed around her.

“Thank you. Now, prepare for Synchronization with Virtual Simulation A.” The Nurse smiled, pressing a few buttons. Rainbow felt two extension cords attach to the nodes at the base of her neck, and her vision went white, and the Pegasus felt weightless. Streams of green numbers and word spread out through the world around her, generating a grassy field, trees dotting the landscape. To the north, Rainbow saw a beach leading off into a massive body of water. The sun shines brightly down onto the field, and Rainbow grinned, feeling the wind blow around her.

New coding traveled over her, and in moments, the Pegasus was encased in a bright blue Commander Suit. Readings flashed across her eyes, notifying her of multiple systems running at 100% efficiency. Before she could do anything, a female gruff voice barked into her ear.

“Commander! Your Atlas Transport was forced to make an emergency landing, as Invictus air forces have taken control of this area! Your current objective is to make it to the original LZ, and destroy anything in your path! The Commander Suit is equipped with a small laser, as well as the Disintegration Gun. While the D-Gun is your strongest weapon, use it as sparingly as possible, as it eats into your energy supply like a Hydra! The LZ has been marked on your HUDs minimap. Get moving!”

Rainbow nodded, testing the flexibility of her leg armor and, finding it satisfactory, began moving toward her objective.

Chapter Eight: And From Destruction Comes Creation

View Online

Commander Suit Simulator, Simulation 1-70V3-A11

“Gosh darn it Rainbow!” Applejack yelled angrily within her Command Suit as another wave of bombers descended upon her invading forces. “You were supposed ta’ be keeping the air clean, not rushing yer land troops!”

“I thought they wouldn't expect us to not focus air, and instead they would go full ground!” Came the startled reply over the comms.

“U-um, what should I do?” Fluttershy’s soft voice crackled into Applejack’s ears, almost unheard as a bomber scored a lucky hit on one of her Solar Generators, destroying it in an explosion of solar panels, metal, and fire.

“Don't worry there Fluttershy, yer doin’ mighty fine with the defenses. They’re th’ only thing keepin us from losin this here war.” Applejack replied, before a radar ping caused her to curse. “Celestia consarn it! A group of enemy troops have dropped in behind our lines!” She quickly moved her minimap to her front line, which consisted mostly of tanks. Said front line was currently under siege by a combination of bombers and assault bots. “Drat, ah can't spare any forces to go deal wit’ em. Rainbow, take some of yer spare robots and deal wit’ em before they cripple our metal supply!”

“I'm on it!” Rainbow replied, redirecting two squads of Peewees, supported by several Hammer bots, the blocky units waddling behind the Constructs as their cannons flipped open, ready to deliver a present of plasma to the enemy.

“Um, not to alarm you two, but some of my scouts just flew over a group of Retaliator Nuclear Missile Silos…” Fluttershy’s quiet voice interrupted, sending chills down her teammates spines.

“Rainbow! Get ta building a few Protectors immediately!” Applejack ordered, her eyes watching the skies for the dreaded missiles.

“Rarity, how are those nukes coming along?” Twilight asked as she launched another wave against the enemy’s seemingly impenetrable line. Dozens of Bulldog Heavy tanks rolled towards the enemy line, their bulky armor shaking as turrets attempted to pierce the heavy armor. The Bulldogs returned fire, twin cannons releasing plasma to destroy the opposition with the wrath of the sun. Behind the Bulldogs was a squadron of Penetrators, the mobile super-lasers lining up their aim with that of the Guardian turrets standing in their way.

“Quite close to being finished, dear. I’d say… another minute or so?” The fashionistas voice replied, sounding rather calm considering their surroundings. “However, a scout just flew past them, so the enemy knows they are there. Pinkie, could you construct some Samsons to guard the launchers? I'd hate for all of our hard work to go to waste.”

“Okiedokiloki! Also Twilight, the Big Bertha is ready to fire on your mark!” Came the cheerful voice of the Pink Party Pony. Twilight sighed in content.

“Alright, I'll have a target for you in a few seconds. Rarity, as soon as the missiles are complete, fire one at the coordinates I am sending to you now.” Twilight responded, highlighting a spot on her minimap and sending the information to Rarity with a few blinks of her eyes.

“Let's finish this battle.”

“Applejack! Something just took out our radar! We’re blind!” Rainbow shouted, and the farmer pony grimaced as the pegasus’ voice filled her ears.

“Expect a enemy air assault. Fluttershy, ah need five more turrets deployed at-” Applejack was cut off as a bright light flashed from Fluttershy’s base, two massive mushroom clouds rising from the new crater. “Fluttershy! Dammit Rainbow, git yerself out of your base! They've got nukes inbound!” It was the last thing Applejack said, before she noticed a missile appearing on her radar, heading straight for her. “Ah, buck.” She muttered, before she was enveloped in a blinding light.

“Gosh darnit, Rainbow! Ya was supposed ta focus air!” Applejack growled, jumping out of the simulator. The other members of her team crawled out of their chairs groggily.

“I told you! I thought they'd expect me to use air, so I decided to go ground!” Rainbow replied.

“Of course they’d expect ya ta do that! It's tha best option for our survival!” Applejack yelled angrily. The door to the room opened, and Twilight, Pinkie, and Rarity stepped into the room.

“Applejack, that was a commendable defense line that you had constructed. We had trouble breaking it.” Twilight said, eyes not breaking sight with the Orange farmpony. Applejack nodded, and Twilight turned to Rainbow Dash. “Dash, your team needed air, and yet you focused on a heavy ground force. Why?”

“Because I knew you'd expect me to go air, and would focus more on conquering it.” Rainbow repeated herself. Twilight sighed, shaking her head.

“And by doing so, you left your entire team open to enemy air raids, and forced Fluttershy to reduce her own productivity to compensate for the mistake you made.” Twilight remarked, causing Rainbow to flinch, her ears lowering. “If this was Invictus you were fighting, he'd have annihilated you all with a major air assault.”

“N-now hang on a minute there, Twi, we don't know fer certain that that is what woulda-” Applejack began, but Twilight cut her off with a glare.

“Invictus is a genocidal artificial Intelligence, Applejack. He would identify the weakness in your defenses, and act upon them without hesitation.” Twilight stated emotionlessly, before sighing. “We will take a thirty minute break, and then return to the simulation and start again. And make sure Rainbow actually does her job.” With that, Twilight left the room, leaving her friends in silence.

“What the buck’s her problem?!” Rainbow growled. “She's been pushing us too hard for this!”

“Now Rainbow, darling, remember. She's still getting over the fact that her parents are dead. We need to let her cope with it however she needs to.” Rarity reminded the cyan pegasus, who looked down.

“I know that, but dead family doesn't mean you push your friends to the brink of exhaustion!” Rainbow stated angrily. “We haven't left this place for a week, and some of us still have family they need to check up on!”

“We’re training to use these Command Suits, Rainbow. Invictus is still mustering his forces, and the Changelings have them other robots under their command! Equestria is facing the biggest threat it has ever seen, and we need to help defend it!” Applejack said. “Now, go take yer break. That's an order.”

Rainbow was about to say more, but Pinkie pulled her out the door faster than the others could blink.

“All y'all take yer breaks too. I'll be out in a moment.” Applejack said to the others. They paused, before all shuffling out the door.

Undiscovered West

Attempting to connect to CORE Command… ERROR, unable to connect. CORE Command unavailable. Distance from CORE Prime: ERROR. Navigational Data corrupted. Return to CORE Prime for new data. Date: ERROR. Time Tracker System has been deactivated for: ERROR. Time between reawakening and original deactivation unknown. Return to CORE Prime for new data.

If the CORE Commander could feel irritation, it would have destroyed one of its factories in anger. Why couldn't it contact CORE Command? Could something have happened to the CORE Consciousness? Impossible, the Commanders uncorrupted records indicate that the CORE was winning the war, with the ARM on the brink of annihilation. Perhaps the Commander was outside the communication range of the CORE Empire? If so, the Commander knew his objective: re-establish communications with the CORE Consciousness, and destroy the ARM Forces on-planet. Recognizing the word ‘objective’, the Commander attempted to remember what it's original mission was on this planet.

ERROR. Files corrupted.

The CORE Commander let loose a vicious and metallic growl, before turning towards his now fully functional base. His metal storage unit had been repaired, and most of his critical systems had been repaired as well. The Commander believed that now was the time to strike against the ARM, and had devised a multi-vector assault plan. As his forces moved to be loaded by the Valkyrie Air Transports, the CORE Commander continued to try to establish communications with anyone.

Then, as if by a miracle, something connected.

Invictus Command Base

Invictus watched his most recent invasion force enter through the teleporter, reviewing his current battle plan.

He had ordered a Fabrication Aircraft to travel to multiple points along the outskirts of several major defensive points guarding three cities, and planned to hit them all at once, disrupting the enemy Commander’s forces and forcing them to divide their army to deal with each assault.

“Operation Start.” Invictus intoned, sending the command to each assault bot and tank that had been sent to assault the cities, and the attacks commenced.

Chapter Nine: Complete Annihilation

View Online

Manehatten Defensive Line Headquarters

“Hey, you ever wonder what's inside the KBots?” One of the officers asked his partner, who sat next to him, the two watching the radar.

“What? I'm pretty sure that they’re just machines. Like this thing.” The other officer patted his computer.

“No, sometimes when walking through the wreckage of previous battles, other commanders are rumored to have reported blood seeping out of ruined Peewee’s and Rocko’s.” The first Officer replied.

“Ew, that's disgusting. Maybe we ought to crack one open during our next break?”

Bulwark sighed as he walked into the headquarters, examining the faces of all his ponies as they stood as one, saluting him, before returning to their duties. That is, until the room lit up in red alarms.

“Commander Bulwark, enemy contacts have appeared on radar! We don't know how they got so close, but they've broken past the outer defenses! We can confirm that these enemies bear Invictus’ colors!” One of the officers spoke up, and Bulwarks eyes narrowed.

“This is that monsters first assault since the Fall. Let us avenge our brothers and sisters in Canterlot! Return all patrols back to the Defensive Line, lure the enemy into the minefield, and alert all stations! Prepare for battle!” He declared, and all the officers returned the cry.

“Commander, our radar might be on the fritz. We’re detecting incoming enemy forces… from the ocean, sir.” Another Officer called out, and Bulwark looked at him.

“Check again, Officer! If Invictus has naval forces, then I want you to activate our coastline defenses!” Bulwark ordered, and the officer complied, before pressing several buttons. Bulwark gave one last look around the room, before returning through the door to find his Command Suit.

Invictus Forward Operating Base (Our Town)

“So… how goes the battle, Mister Invictus?” Starlight asked, watching the Commander carefully, still wary about the robots capacity for mass murder.

”Battle Assessment: Preliminary Assault was a success, minimal casualties. Enemy outer defenses were easily demolished. Naval Forces engaging coastline defenses, fifteen frigates lost in opening salvo, with seventeen more returning fire. Destroyers unharmed, beginning bombardment of city defenses. Estimated Time until Total enemy destruction: Two hours. Civilian ‘Reaper’ class Transports on standby, awaiting captives.” Invictus droned on, before twitching. ”New data decorrupted. Title designation: Imperator Invictus.”

“You’re… Imperator Invictus? Is that what I should call you?” Starlight asked.

”Affirmative. Imperator Invictus, leader of Legionis Machina.”

“Oookay then, Imperator. So, what's our next move after this?” Starlight asked.

”Once organic life forms have been identified, Reaper-Class Civilian Transports, along with Dox guards, bring the organic life forms here. All forces shall converge on-” Invictus explained, before pausing. ”Heavy enemy defensive turrets have come online. Enemy land mines have reduced fighting strength by fifteen percent. Probability of success of Manehatten invasion within original estimates: forty-five percent and steadily decreasing.” the Commander droned, data shifting rapidly in his supercomputer brain as the initial strike numbers continued to dwindle.

“So… we aren't going to win within two hours?” Starlight asked, tilting her head.

”Negative. Without unexpected assault, new estimate will be: Total Land victory in five to seven days.” Invictus stated. ”Recalling all forces to prepare for siege warfare. Naval forces will pull back.”

“Well, this just gets better and better.” Starlight groaned. “Though, I suppose this could allow us to capture the civilians as they evacuate.”

”Understood. Organic Starlight, you shall be put in charge of Reaper Transports and the Civilian capture program. I shall be able to focus solely on the Siege.” Invictus informed the purple unicorn, who blinked.

“You’re… putting me in charge of it?” She asked. Invictus merely nodded. “Well, I thank you for the show of trust… do I just, I dunno, give them all orders and stuff?”

”Yes.”

Siege of Manehatten, Day Four.

If the bright blue Commander could sigh, it surely would be doing that right now. It had been four days since the siege began, and though Invictus had won much ground against the defenders, crushing and reclaiming three defensive lines, the enemy Commander persisted vigilantly against Invictus’ tactics. Any attempts at setting up a mobile artillery barrage team were quickly met with a fast-attack group of Kbots, which immediately returned to the defensive lines before his forces could destroy them. He had lost his naval superiority on day two, in which his fleet had attempted a bombardment assault, but was met with new Guardian defensive turrets, which had torn into the hulls of the Destroyers and turned the open sea into a graveyard. And yesterday, the unidentified enemy Commander had attacked, and only the chance encounter with a group of Displaced had managed to repel them before Invictus’ forces could be caught in a crossfire.

The only good thing to happen was that Starlight had succeeded in securing the civilians, taking them to their new homes in his camps. The Imperator needed an ace. A special weapon, but he didn't have the resources for another ATLAS, so he was mostly out of options.

“Imperator Invictus, the Civilians have been… introduced to the idea of living under your rule.” Starlight said, trotting up to the Commander, who stood still as he maneuvered three assault groups out of the way of enemy gunfire.

”Your work appears quite exceptional, Organic Starlight. Have you considered becoming a Sub-Commander under me?” Invictus asked, focusing only thirteen percent of his concentration on talking to the quite helpful organic.

“What, you mean… become a robot like you?” Starlight asked, slightly taken aback. “Is that even possible?”

”According to decorrupted data files, yes. The ‘Patterning’ process developed by a Precursor Empire is within my data files. I would simply need to produce a facility for such a thing.” Invictus stated, shifting slightly as three tanks suffered a critical blow to their engines, causing them to detonate in a fiery explosion.

“As… tempting as that sounds, I think I'll pass for now. I like having my magic, plus it’s how I keep our new subjects happy.” Starlight said nervously, backing away slightly as her tail shifted from side to side. “I'm honestly more of a help to you as an organic.”

”Understood. Enemy defensive line has begun to falter, and-” Invictus paused, as did every single one of his bots and tanks, which resulted in dozens of them being annihilated as a single warning filled his sight, and for the first time, the Commander felt something akin to the organic emotion of dread.

Interplanetary Nuclear Missile Launch Detected

Designated Moon 413b ‘Mundus Planus’

Far above the surface of Equestria, inside the crater that had once made up the eye of the Mare in the Moon, a large missile rose from its silo, another missile already beginning fabrication by the silos built-in nanolathe, the orange rocket sailing past three fighters that had happened to be patrolling in that area, the missile circling around the small moon several times before launching itself into space, heading towards the targeted continent. On another part of the moon, multiple factories began working, producing dozens of freshly made bots and tanks, while a lone robot observed the facilities.

It's upper body, which had surrounded the area where it's head was, shifted, its nanolathe producing a new Orbital Factory. The orange robot was bipedal, with heavy playing on its shoulders and arms, with a somewhat bulky metal jaw decoration just underneath its singular glowing eye.

The Synchronous Commander was quite excited, for two reasons. It had been such a long time since the Commander had seen action, and it had established contact with another Synchronous Commander on the planet above it, who had apparently recently awakened, and needed to be synchronized immediately. When it had told him that there were two other Commanders on the planet, the Synchronous Commander had decided to assist it in destroying them before the synchronization process. It's first act had been the nuclear weapon, which was currently heading for one of the enemy Commander’s outposts, but soon it would deploy en-masse to the planet below.

The Metrarch would be pleased to hear that this loyal Synchronous Commander had destroyed two commanders, and reunited the Synchronous with one of their lost brothers.

”This is going to be such fun!”

Invictus FOB

”Legate Starlight, we must evacuate all forces immediately. Send a warning to the Manehatten defense force as well, on an open channel. If my sensors are correct, we will need to call a temporary truce.” Invictus ordered, already preparing two transports for his and Starlight’s evacuation. He had already given the order for his forces to return to the teleporters, but it had been slow.

“What? But what about the invasion? I doubt they would accept a truce from us after all we have done-” Starlight began, but was interrupted by a surprisingly cold glare from Invictus.

”Legate Starlight. An unidentified Commander has launched a nuclear missile from the moon. No one is keeping Manehatten. Understood?” Invictus growled as a transport landed next to him, a Reaper Transport floating next to it.

“What's a nuclear missile? And what do you mean, no one’s keeping Manehatten. They've seemed to have it locked down tight.”

”Primitives.” Invictus grumbled, before opening up an open channel to the Manehatten forces.

“Commander Bulwark, there's an open transmission from Invictus, broadcasting it to you and all forces now!” An officer called in Bulwark’s ear, the Commander watching with confusion as Invictus’ latest assault forces pulled away.

”Attention, Commander of Manehatten. My long-range sensors have detected a nuclear missile has been launched from the moon, heading directly for you. Evacuate all remaining civilians. I, Invictus, have ordered all of my forces away. I repeat, a Nuclear Missile has been launched at Manehatten from the Moon. Evacuate immediately.” called the monotone, dead voice of the Invictus Commander.

While the other guards muttered in confusion, Bulwark paled inside his suit as Guardians continued firing on the fleeing Invictus military. ”Did it… say a nuclear missile…?!” He thought to himself, running through all the scenarios as quickly as his organic mind could.

“Command, this is a direct order, effective immediately. Get all soldiers and officers on Atlas Transports now. We will rendezvous near Ponyville. Evacuate now!” Bulwark shouted into his comm device.

“But sir, what if it's a trap?” The officer on the other end of the line asked.

“If Invictus is telling the truth, Manehatten is about to become the biggest fireball in the history of Ponykind! Now evacuate!” Bulwark said, calling his own Atlas transport to pick him up. “All forces, we need to evacuate now!” He called on an open channel, broadcasting to all of his troops as his Atlas Transport picked him up, ferrying the Commander away from Manehatten with all haste. He glanced back to see dozens of other Transports bearing more Command Suits, with some officers holding onto the latches for dear life.

“Is that everypony?” Bulwark asked over the comms.

“Sir, there's something in the sky!” One of the Sub-Commanders called out. The normally stern faced soldier looked up in fear as something rushed down into the center of Manehatten, before vanishing behind the gleaming towers. Then everything was enveloped in a blinding flash of light, as the shockwave of the detonation tore its way through the trees below, black smoke blanketing the area and covering the devastation the missile had wrought. As the shockwave hit the Transports, knocking some out of the sky, and sending dozens of officers and Commanders to their deaths as they vanished inside of the all-encompassing darkness. A massive cloud rose from where Manehatten once stood, blue energy still billowing up within the cloud itself. Once Bulwark’s Atlas had stabilized itself, he opened up comms once again.

“Status report!” He called out, but only static met his sensitive ears, causing him to deactivate the device. “Damn. The blast must have either damaged my comms, or it released some sort of interference…” He glanced back at the pillar of smoke rising ever higher into the sky, beyond even what a Pegasus could reach.

“Invictus was correct…” Bulwark muttered, before realizing how quickly the ground was rushing up to meet him. “Oh hell-” He didn't finish his sentence as he slammed against the ground, his transport tearing itself apart with the sound of shearing metal, the last sound Bulwark heard before everything went black.

Neighagra Falls Secret Communications Outpost

“This can't be right…” One of the officers within Celestia’s personal command center muttered, checking his comms again. “Um… Comms Observation team to Princess Celestia, do you respond?”

“Yes, this is one of Celestia’s Personal Guards. What seems to be the problem?” A gruff male voice responded, making the young officer yelp in surprise.

“Um, well, sir…” He muttered, looking around. “I-I appear to have lost communications with Manehatten. All communications with them suddenly cut out.” There was a pause on the other end of the line, and soon the Guard spoke again.

“I thank you for this information. I will inform the Princess immediately.” And with that, the line went dead. The officer sighed, leaning back.

“What’s the point of being part of the Princess’s personal information center, if all we ever talk to is her guards?”

“The Princess is usually busy with the nobles and politicians, Officer Honey Drop.” Honey’s superior, Quick Slider, said, standing directly behind him. “What is it you just contacted them about without sanction, Officer?”

“S-Sir, I’m sorry for breaking protocol, but w-we just lost all contact with the Manehatten area.” Honey Drop gulped, turning around to face him. “Th-there was-“ Honey was cut off as the room suddenly shook, the power of the sudden earthquake rocking the entire facility.

“What in Tartarus was that?!” Quick Slider demanded, rushing to his command post in the center of the room.

“Sir, several of our spies reporting Invictus’s movements say there was a massive explosion from Manehatten, with Invictus’s forces all retreating moments before.” One of Honey’s Co-workers, Charged Spice, declared worriedly.

“An explosion…? You think that is the cause of that earthquake?” Slider asked, his grey coat seeming to be trying to turn to white.

“Yes sir. The explosion is far greater than anything we have previously encountered, and it would seem that Manehatten has been completely annihilated.”

“Do we have any contact from the forces defending the city?” Slider asked, shaking.

“S-Sir, all communications in that area are either full of interference, o-or have ceased completely. We have no idea whether anyone survived.” Honey Drop reported, stammering at the sheer horror of what this meant.

“Send a high priority message to Celestia. Tell them…” Slider gulped, falling back into his seat. “Tell them that our enemy has completely destroyed Manehatten, and that they have some form of Superweapon.”

Chapter 9.5: Assistance Was Required

View Online

Invictus FOB (Our Town, Day three of Manehatten siege

The Invictus Commander growled angrily from his audio box. The Commander leading the enemy forces was smarter than most he had encountered, and had somehow anticipated the majority of his attempts to take the city.

“So, Imperator Invictus, how goes the battle?” Starlight asked, walking up to the Commander.

”Not well. Enemy defenses far exceed anticipated strength. Our naval assault almost entirely failed, and the enemy Guardian turrets have denied us a victory with a dedicated assault.” Invictus replied.

“Oh, really? Well, I suppose it's to be expected. Manehatten is one of the biggest cities in Equestria. Maybe-” Starlight was about to suggest something, but Invictus tuned her out, as a new warning had appeared on his retinal display.

ENEMY DETECTED

Invictus checked his map of the area. True enough, there was multiple enemy air contacts converging on the city he was assaulting.

”Redirect forces to repel enemy reinforcements. Destroy them.” Invictus ordered, and out on the field, his forces, instead of marching forward to attack Manehatten, turned towards the new enemy contacts, marching out in a perimeter around the city.

“Oh, Invictus, I also found this thing. Dunno what it does though.” Starlight added, bringing an odd gadget up to Invictus’ view with her magic. Invictus examined it.

It appeared to be some kind of rifle, but with a blade of plasma energy mounted below the barrel. And from the looks of it, it fired solid rounds. As he took it from Starlight, a single male voice was heard saying: “For those who are in need of a scout, a commander, or a friend, I will answer the call. My name is Eliteslayer, but for those who knew me back then as Sebaste, I have returned… and I am ready to serve and protect…”

”Interesting. Some sort of recording software?” Invictus muttered, before checking in with his forces. The enemy forces had landed, and had begun to force his troops back into the range of the Manehatten defenses. If Invictus didn't do something soon, his forces would be caught between two lines of fire, and be destroyed. He looked down at the assault rifle. Contact… Sebaste? It asked the assault rifle, feeling as though it was a ridiculous notion.

Before his startled receptors, a portal formed a few feet below him, and a single armored figure stepped out from it. It looked around in confusion, as if it had been expecting to meet someone his size. “If this is a prank, I’m not amused!” It said, the voice matching that of the one from the message.

Greetings, organic.” Invictus stated, after scanning the armored figure, finding he was organic inside the armor. ”I request your assistance.”

“What the..?!” The figure looked up and stepped back in shock. “That's a fucking big robot…”

”Vulgarity is not required. I request your assistance.” Invictus stated blandly.

“Just roll with it. Invictus isn't what you would call a ‘social pony’.” Starlight said from behind him.

The figure turned around to face her. She could see that the armor was high tech, with a streamline shape and what appeared to be thrusters mounted in the back. The helmet was a bit blocky, with a gold visor across it. The suit itself was black and red, and the figure was armed with the same kind of rifle that she had found earlier, minus the energy blade. “Starlight? What’re you doing here?”

“Um… this is my home?” She said, eyes instantly suspicious. “Do I… know you from somewhere?”

“No, but I’ve encountered other versions of you.” The figure said. “Eliteslayer- 917, at your service.”

“That's… a really weird name. I'm just going to call you… what did Invictus say? Seberasie or something? I'm just gonna call you Seb.” Starlight sighed, examining him. “So, another robot, eh? What's next, is the moon gonna attack us?”

“Robot?!” Sebaste sputtered before realizing something. “Oh, it's the Spartan armor…” Unsealing his helmet, he revealed his face.

“Okay… so what are you? An alien or something?” Starlight asked, tilting her head to the side.

“I… guess you could say that. I'm what's known as a human, a bipedal species from a world called Earth. Unfortunately for me… I got sent to Equestria by that thrice damned Merchant…” He said that last part in a bitter tone.

”Conversation irrelevant. Assistance required.” Invictus stated, interrupting their conversation.

“Alright, I’ll bite. What exactly do you need help with?” Sebaste asked.

Invictus turned away, before a hologram depicting the terrain surrounding Manehatten appeared in front of them. ”Unidentified forces have begun assault of my operations here. If they continue to push my forces back, Manehatten defenses will open fire, and my forces will be stuck between two firing lines. I request your assistance to destroy enemy forces before this happens. If need be, you shall be aptly rewarded for your services.” Invictus explained.

“Hmmm… who's leading the the forces?” Sebaste asked as he looked over the map. His brow was furrowed, as if he was worried about something.

”Enemy unknown. Enemy forces first appeared during the Destruction of Canterlot, and this is the second time I have encountered them. Enemy Commander Unit unknown.”

Sebaste looked up sharply. “Canterlot was destroyed? By who?”

“We believe it was these guys.” Starlight suddenly spoke up quickly, before Invictus could respond. “They used some sort of machine that used seismic disturbances. They used it on Canterlot Mountain, and the supports of the city fell.”

Sebaste frowned, but let it pass. “I’m gonna need some support for this…” He then pressed a button on his suit. “Alex, Viktor, Rainblade, I need some backup.” He said, before a new portal opened up in front of him, and two more armored beings and a Pegasus exited it. Starlight's eyes widened as she saw the Pegasus was a cyan mare with a rainbow mane, but her forelegs, wings, left eye and tail were robotic. The other two both had red and silver armor, but while one had a pointed visor, the other had a half bubble with a skull print on it. The second armored figure also had strange looking armor on the right arm that terminated in a clawed gauntlet.

”Chance of success increased to thirty five percent.” Invictus noted.

“Um…. Seb? What's going on?” The second figure asked, its voice revealing it as female.

“Apparently this guy,” Sebaste jerked his head towards Invictus, “needs us to help with repelling enemy forces from attacking Manehattan. I can't do this on my own, so that's why I’ve called you three over.”

“Just give the word and we’ll stop them.” The first figure said, it voice revealing it as male.

”Enemy uses laser and plasma weaponry. My forces shall assist you where able. I can spare a civilian transport vessel to bring you to the battlefield.” Invictus stated.

“No need for that, we got our own rides.” Sebaste said before a one man fighter and a Dropship materialized by them.

“Oh, so you can make vehicle and stuff out of thin air too? Where's your… what’d he call it, nanowhatever?” Starlight asked, examining the dropship.

“You mean Nanomachines, son?” The first figure asked, before getting whacked behind the head by the second figure.

”Nanolathe.” Invictus corrected.

“Right, Nanolathe.” Starlight sighed.

“I… don't know what that is, but no, it's a power that Viktor and I have. We're able to summon both weapons and vehicles from the Halo Universe, while Alex can only summon weapons.”Sebaste said, nodding to the other two.

“The… Halo universe?” Starlight asked. “What's that?” Invictus nodded in her direction, finding his databanks lacking in information.

“It's… complicated, you see, your world and what we're dressed as, they're made up from where we came from. Halo was a game made for a device called a TV, while your world… is a cartoon.” Viktor spoke up.

“Oh yeah, and I’m an evil and crazy psychopath bent on world domination.” Starlight rolled her eyes.

The three humans suddenly became interested in their surroundings. The Pegasus rolled her eyes at their actions.

“What?” Starlight asked them, confused.

”You have your orders. Your reward will be here when you complete the mission.” Invictus interrupted.

Sebaste nodded before he leapt into the fighter. “Alright, Strike Squad Celestial Wrath, let's roll out!” He said.

As the Pegasus leapt into the air, the two figure entered the Dropship. With a roar of VTOL engines, it slowly rose into the air before putting on a burst of speed and flying off toward Manehatten, the fighter and the Pegasus following it.

When they were gone, Invictus spoke again. ”Starlight, why did you lie to them?”

“Because I got the feeling they work with Celestia, wherever they came from. At the very most, they support Equestria, and thus would be our enemies. We don't need any more problems.” Starlight explained. Invictus nodded.

”Understood. I believe I can link up with their armor and contact them whenever. I should send them whatever information we have regarding the enemy.” Invictus stated, before walking back into his base.

As the trio flew over the forest, they began to see sparks of light erupting all across the area, signaling some sort of battle going on.

“Looks like we're her- EVASIVE MANEUVERS!” Sebaste barked in the comms as a plasma blast streaked towards them. Rainblade peeled off to the left, while Sebaste, Alex and Viktor swung to the right. The blast missed them by inches, but it managed to scorch the hulls of the vehicles.

“This is Eliteslayer-917 to any forces that are allied with Invictus, we’re on your side!” Sebaste radioed as he fired a pair of missiles from his Broadsword.

”All forces under my command are linked directly to me. They are extensions, merely constructs. My forces have already designated you as an allied force. Locate a LZ and deploy immediately.” Invictus’ voice crackled from Sebaste’s comms.

“Invictus, how… Nevermind, securing an LZ now.” Sebaste said as he streaked towards the middle of the battle. Enemy KBots opened fire on the aircraft, lasers streaking past the windows and singed the plating. Only to be obliterated by the missiles fired earlier.

”Your technology is… primitive, compared to mine, Organic.” Invictus stated. ”Identifying and entering such a basic communications setup was easy.”

“Alright, I’m going Cyclops!” Sebaste said, ignoring the Commander, before swooping low over the ground. The Broadsword then shimmered and vanished, before a single mech armed with a single arm mounted heavy cannon replaced it. Skidding to a halt, the Cyclops blasted two more Kbots off their feet before sending another one flying with a well aimed punch.

Several heavy tanks broke through the tree line, letting loose with a barrage of plasma, which flew straight towards the Cyclops, beginning to burn off the armored plating.

“Alright, you want to play like that, do ya?” Sebaste growled. “Rainblade, take them out.”

Seconds later, a laser beam smashed through the lead tank and set off its power cell, annihilating it in a fiery explosion. Two more tanks suffered the same fate. Above the battlefield, Rainblade peered through the sights of her Lascannon, her shots directed by Absentia.

“They're falling back. I think they weren't expecting death from above.” Absentia commented. Rainblade chuckled as she relocated, her Lascannon retracting into her hoof.

”Radar scans suggest enemy forces are pulling back to a field command base. I believe they have set up a small factory complex to produce more forces.” Invictus’ voice called from their comms. ”My forces will assist you in destroying this facility.” Suddenly, dozens of small, pony sized bots marched out of the forest, with larger and more heavily armored bots marching behind them, heading away from the city behind them.

Meanwhile, Viktor had managed to land the Pelican behind enemy lines, and both he and Alex were heading towards the enemy complex. As Viktor drove the Mongoose, Alex readied her sniper rifle. I pray I’m just fighting automatons, and not ponies…. She thought as the two burst out into the open.

They saw several tri-barreled turrets immediately turn towards them, while two red buildings stood behind them, fabricating new tanks and robots, which had begun to march towards them, weapons ready. As the turrets began firing green lasers at the duo, several Dox bots leapt out of the forest, guns blazing as metal bullets rammed their way into the turrets and other robots. The enemy robots returned fire, lasers and plasma easily destroying the Dox’s.

A single armor piercing round brought down one of the bots, three more bots then suffered the same fate. Alex then leapt off the Mongoose, causing Viktor to halt. “Alex, what are you doing?! Get back on!” He said.

Alex didn't answer, but her gauntlet began to glow, before she unleashed a barrage of arcane missiles, wiping out a good majority of the enemy force, and critically damaging the complex. The factories continued pumping out more machines of war, their production facilities built to keep damage to the factory itself from damaging their systems. Just then, heavier robots marched out from the woods, bearing Invictus’ colors. They looked similar to the Dox robots from earlier, except more heavily armored. They began punching through the complex, stomping past Alex and soon reducing the factories to ruins.

As Alex turned back to Viktor, he thought he saw her visor glowing a bit, but decided that his eyes were playing tricks on him.

”Enemy appears to be in full retreat. I detect air transports moving to pick up any survivors.” Invictus stated, his forces continuing forward. ”I shall destroy them. Please return to FOB. Your reward has been completed.”

“Roger that…” Sebaste said, his voice tense. Viktor raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't ask what was the matter. As he and Alex entered the Pelican, he thought back to the display of power Alex had shown.

Power can corrupt even the most noble of those who get their hands on it… An old saying of his dad's echoed through his head.

Let's just hope Alex doesn't end up turning into the one that kills us all… Viktor thought before he opened the throttle.

They returned to find Invictus working on what looked to be something… similar to himself. It was big and blocky, with extra weapons perched on its shoulders, while a glowing red light emanated from its head. Starlight watched from nearby, seemingly studying him.

Sebaste streaked in before the vehicle vanished and he slammed into the ground. Rainblade, Alex and Viktor landed nearby, and watched as Sebaste walked towards Invictus and Starlight, his body language showing that he was not happy about something.

”Greetings, Organic designation: Sebaste.” Invictus greeted, turning to him. ”I have created a Command Unit that will assist you in your battles in wherever you came from.”

“Can it, Invictus.” Sebaste snapped. “I managed to hack the enemy database and found no evidence of them attacking Canterlot. When I checked the data from one of your destroyed bots, I found something interesting. Specifically, you were the one responsible for it being destroyed.” He pointed at the robot. “Do you deny this?”

”Negative. Mission parameters: Find all enemy Commanders, and annihilate them. The enemy’s main Commander was located in city designation: Canterlot. Assaulting it was the best course of action.” Invictus stated coldly.

“Yet you didn't even consider the innocent lives that were lost because of your attack?” Sebaste growled. “For someone that's been here for a few years now, you should have considered at least sending a messenger to allow those who aren't soldiers to evacuate.”

“Organics were deemed beneath my notice. Only prerogative is the complete annihilation of the enemy commanders.” Invictus responded.

Sebaste only gave the robot a smoldering glare. “I pray our paths don't cross again. I don't give a damn about your army, but I will not ally with you ever again.” He said as a portal opened behind him. He jerked his head to the other three. “Let's go.”

As the four entered the portal, Sebaste turned to look at Starlight. “Don't let power blind you to what's really happening. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself in a position that not even you can get out of…” he said.

“Hey, I'm the one who actually got him to take other ponies into consideration. He now lets me evacuate them to a safer location! Besides, I agreed to help him so this town would be safe!” Starlight growled.

“Oh I know of your little town, a two rate attempt of controlling ponies for your twisted views of being equal.” Sebaste chuckled. He then turned to Invictus. “While I may not ally with you, a deal’s a deal. I’ll take the bot you made.” A portal then opened beneath the Commander and it slowly sank down before vanishing entirely.

”Very well, organic.” Invictus stated, his processors calculating the success chance of Sebaste’s group ever messing with the Commander’s directives With only a .001% success chance. ”Next time we meet, you will fall before the might of the Legonis Machina.”

Sebaste raised an eyebrow under his helmet, but decided not to think about it. He entered the portal behind him and vanished, the portal closing with a hiss.

“Well, looks like that's over. Bunch of scumbags.” Starlight muttered. “So, I'm guessing we should continue with the siege?”

”Affirmative.” Invictus nodded, before sending the signal to his forces.

Chapter Ten: The Synchronous Invasion

View Online

Our Town base, three days later

Invictus marched through the base, the sound of turrets opening fire mixing with bombers crashing into the earth as he tried to find Starlight. Dox bots marched past the Commander, the small squads unlikely to do much else aside from harassment of the enemy lines, yet effective all the same. The few drones that survived had almost always brought back scrap and machinery containing new blueprints since the attacks had begun, adding to Invictus’ arsenal. As he searched for the surprisingly helpful organic, a portion of his attention was sent to the project at hand.

He momentarily flicked his visual sensors over to the massive gun platform in the center of the base, surrounded by anti orbital Umbrella turrets. The blue glow of the nanolathes of several Engineers flowed into the construct, slowly generating more and more of it. Dozens of built in systems calculated that the weapon was only 58% complete. Despite this, it loomed over the base, casting a shadow over the eastern base. Invictus turned his senses back to his objective as he found Starlight, surrounded in inefficiently connected comms devices.

”Organic Starlight, has there been any response from the organic commanders?” Invictus asked, part of him relocating the defenses of his mineral base to respond to a new threat, another part tasking an engineer to patch up a hole in the defensive lines.

“Nothing, Invictus.” Starlight sighed, flopping on the ground. “The Equestrian military is either too busy to listen to someone saying that Invictus wants to talk, or they don’t want to talk with the guy who destroyed Canterlot.”

”Assessment: It will be imperative to eliminate Synchronous presence before complete annihilation.” Invictus replied. ”Spending resources to eliminate ‘Equestrian Military’ before Synchronous would limit success rate to 28%.”

“I know, but it’s difficult to get these ponies to talk.” Starlight grumbled. “So, how long are you going to let this ‘Synchronous’ Commander attack this base? Surely you could break the siege and destroy the enemy bases.” She gave him a look. “I know you’ve scouted all of them out by now.”

”Resources at minimal capacity. 75% of mass and energy production is being processed into main project.” The Commander pointed his nanolathe arm to the gigantic gun. ”15% Of resources going into base defenses here and in location designate: Appleloosa. 10% of resources into unit production. Result: Not enough resources for attack.”

“Oh. I would have thought you’d have had more resources than that?” Starlight replied, tilting her head.

”Negative. Several resource production sites were destroyed. Resource production rates at 30%.” Invictus replied as several bot squads were annihilated under the salvoes of his turret systems.

“Okay, that’s fair.” Starlight grumbled, checking another radio frequency. “You’d think that the ponies of Equestria would be smart enough to fight these moonbots. Apparently they don’t even talk to each other.”

Invictus tilted his metallic head, incidentally dodging a shard of metal flying from the wreckage of a destroyed tank. ”Inquiry: Moonbots?”

“Yeah. You can call them Synchronous if you want, but that’s a mouthful. They came from the moon, so moonbots.” Starlight shrugged, a shield becoming briefly visible around her as it deflected shrapnel.

Invictus processed this information, surprising itself with a 15% processing efficiency rate for this simple matter. After 3 seconds, Invictus finally processed that which would have normally taken 0.02 seconds. ”As you wish, Organic Starlight.” He turned and began walking away. A small breach had occurred in the western defenses, and needed to be patched up before it grew into a major problem.

Ponyville Royal Guard Base

Celestia watched as her communications officers galloped back and forth from their posts, getting reports from the many battles being waged at that moment and sending them to the other Commanders on the battlefield.

“Lieutenant Grim is being pushed back in the northern Rainbow Falls defense line, and is requesting reinforcements from Commander Far Light!” One said to another, who began talking into his headphones.

“Still no word from Captain Bulwark, your highness.” Someone spoke, causing the Princess to look away from the chaos of war to find one of her personal information officers, looking up at her expectantly. He was a unicorn with a dark grey coat, and a slightly disheveled silver mane. “It’s likely his forces perished in the destruction.”

“I see… thank you, Silent Comet.” Celestia sighed, a pain now all too familiar burning in her chest. “And what of that transmission from Invictus?”

“It’s still playing, your Majesty. Many commanders believe it to be a trap.” Comet replied, a datapad hovering next to his head. “They think these new enemies are working with Invictus, and this is all a ruse to crush us more easily.”

“That is a possibility. These orange machines have been gathering near Invictus’s bases, correct?” Celestia asked, glancing around to see if anypony was off duty.

“Yes, Princess. Our scout planes have been unable to get close to the bases as the orange forces shoot everything down.” Comet hold up his datapad, showing several odd blips above the planet. “They’ve got radar platforms above the atmosphere monitoring everything around the base, and their response forces are too quick.”

“I see.” Celestia nodded. “Our forces are too far spread to launch an attack on them… we’ll have to wait it seems.” She sighed. “How are the Captains?”

“Captain Armor’s forces are holding. He’s begun launching attacks on the orange machines in his area of control.” Comet replied quickly, pulling up a few images on his datapad. “Captain Hoof has cleaned out the enemy bases in his sector and is moving to reinforce the others. He reports that the enemy appears to be focusing on something other than us.”

“Why would this enemy be diverting its attention from us?” Celestia asked. “The only enemy of note to them aside from us would be Invictus. And we don’t know if they’re allied or not.”

“I don’t know either.” Comet shrugged. “The ARM Commander is almost finished with the defenses, and then he’ll begin sending reinforcements to the other battlezones.” He then glanced at his datapad. “Also, Miss Sparkle and her friends have almost completed their training. They should be done in time to work alongside the Commander.”

“Good, thank you Comet.” Celestia nodded, and he saluted before running back to his post. “We have to hope that the lines will hold long enough…”

Invictus FOB ‘Our Town’

Invictus let out a mechanical growl as his Ubercharge flew from his gun, annihilating a squad of Dox bots and tanks. His own war machines rushed ahead of him, attempting to close the rapidly growing breach in his defenses with their bodies and bullets.

The breach that had opened up earlier had escalated in severity much more rapidly than Invictus had anticipated. It seemed that the Synchronous Commander was more alert than what Invictus had calculated, and he had been forced to divert additional forces to plug the breach long enough to rebuild the defenses. When that hadn’t worked, he had hesitantly diverted resources from the Cannon into building more combat machines. At the moment, the enemy tide was being held back, with reinforcements from the factories rushing into the fray every few minutes, but Invictus was acutely aware of the other forces pressing in on the other sections of the wall. Unless the Commander could plug this hole in the line within the next ten minutes he estimated that he had only 13 minutes before the defensive lines would fall, and they would be surrounded and destroyed.

”Invictus!” Starlight suddenly blurred out of static in the Commander’s audio receptors. It seemed she had uncovered his personal comms line. ”Bad news, the Moonbots are hitting the southern line hard. I don’t think it’ll hold for much longer unless we-“

”Affirmative, Organic Starlight. I have noticed.” Invictus replied, cutting her off as a stray bullet landed against the armor of his shoulder. It did not pierce his armor, but it did drop the effectiveness of that armor by 15%. ”I cannot dedicate forces to reinforce that area. I can only send construction units to build more turrets.”

”Then I’ll go and support them.” Starlight grumbled. ”I’ll leave one of the other ponies to monitor the comms.”

”That is ill advised, Organic Starlight. Probability of survival is at 22%.” Invictus warned, but she had already left from her post. ”Organics.” Invictus grumbled, just before a series of explosions erupted from the front of his line, annihilating the Bots for at least three meters back. ”Boombots. Great.”

While Invictus dealt with the oncoming tide of enemy machines, Starlight appeared atop a boulder overlooking the southern turret line. Orange machines threw wave upon wave of bullets into the glowing wall segments in front of the turrets, several breaking under the volleys and letting the shells fly into the stationary turrets. Blue construction bots ran back and forth between the turrets, the blue nanolathe energy flowing from the stumps of their arms into damaged turrets, or into brand new ones.

But it wasn’t enough. Just from observing the ebb of battle for only a few moments was Starlight able to see that the wall wouldn’t hold much longer. The enemy apparently had more resources than Invictus.

Far behind her, the anti orbital turrets threw laser bolts high up into the air with a loud fwomp, destroying a radar satellite that had drawn too close. This happened occasionally, and it had given Starlight an odd, possibly insane idea. Unbeknownst to her, the destruction of the radar also dropped the enemy’s vision to that of the robots crashing into the turrets. In short, they could not see her, or what she was planning to do until it was too late.

Her horn lit up with magical energies, the purple light growing brighter as she concentrated on her task at hand. Invictus might not think she’d be capable of much help in this fight, but she was determined to prove that machine wrong.

“Alright, moonbots… head on back to where you came from.” Starlight said after a few more minutes of generating magic. Her spell then activated, the large amount of magic stored in her horn rushing out to accomplish the task they had been given. In the next instant, several hundred machines disappeared from the front line in a pink flash, creating a massive hole in the attacking forces.

Millions of feet above the planet, the machines reappeared directly above the base, and far off on the surface of the moon, the Synchronous Commander was incredibly confused for the first time in centuries as to what just happened.

Back down on the surface, every Umbrella turret turned towards the sudden enemies in their firing range, and unleashed hell upon them. With every shot, dozens of the machines died, their wreckage rushing back down to the planet below. Within minutes, the entire force was gone, bits of metal raining down upon the FOB.

Starlight panted, smirking in victory as she teleported back to the base. She used up a lot of energy with that massive teleport, but she had at least done more than sit around and do nothing.

The pony she had set to replace her slowly came up to her. “Uh, Starlight? Invictus wants you to go to him. Like, right now.” Starlight smiled and thanked the alabaster pegasus, before teleporting to where he was. Immediately the sounds of explosions and gunfire reached her ears, and she found herself behind a wall of robots, all shuffling forward towards their likely destruction.

”Organic Starlight, how did you relocate 672 enemy units into the upper atmosphere within .002 seconds?” Invictus asked, walking through the sea of robots, towering above them.

“Oh, you know…” Starlight tried to catch her breath. “I only used... a large scale teleportation spell. No problem at all.”

Invictus took in this information, processing it. ”Can you do it again?” He asked, new artillery guns firing into the orange horde.

“Uh… not yet…” Starlight said after a second, looking around at the seemingly endless wave of blue robots rushing into the fray. “Teleporting all of those machines all at once drained my magic a lot…”

Invictus nodded. ”Affirmative. Replenish magic supply before the enemy overwhelms us.” He then turned back to the battlefield, unleashing a carefully timed Ubercharge into a blob of orange Dox bots and destroying all of them within a single explosion.

As Starlight turned to head back to the village, her ears flicked as she heard something new. “Invictus, do you hear that?” She asked, turning back to the Commander. “It sounds almost like… laser fire…”

Invictus paused, picking up the noise from his audio receptors as well. Both his weapons and that of the Synchronous used physical ammunition for their basic machines, and the only forces that Invictus had encountered with laser weapons were…

One of the Dox Bots at the front of Invictus’ line picked up several machines breaking through the Synchronous forces piling towards the breach from the south, their colors bright blue and the silver of armored plating. Behind them was a series of damaged quadruped machines, red beams of light flying from their front left legs.

Invictus immediately accessed the camera feed from several other machines around that section, keying in to their audio receptors.

”Destroy these Tartarus-damned bots!” A gruff voice roared from one of the lead quadrupeds. ”We will make them pay for Manehatten a thousand times over!”

Invictus ran through several dozen theoreticals in under a second, eventually choosing one and acting upon it. He redirected his forces closest to the sudden appearance of Equestrian forces to support them.

Captain Bulwark grunted as a bullet tore a part of his shoulder plate off, several Construction KBots surrounding him and attempting to make repairs. He and the other ponies in Commander armor were the only military survivors of the crash, and Bulwark had lead them all the way here. They had spent the past three days repelling attacks from these new orange machines, and the remains of several former bases were all that remained of their struggle.

“Forward!” He roared, sending the group of kbots and vehicles ahead of them. The Peewees lead the charge, their rapid fire plasma guns spitting molten death to the soulless machines, their gun barrels red with heat. Behind them came a group of Stumpy’s, their cannons firing precision shots and annihilating other vehicles with minimal effort. Once the enemy began to move to deal with their sudden intrusion, the KBots fell back behind the Stumpy line, the tanks’ heavier armor taking the brunt of the damage while the Peewee’s fired around them.

“Captain!” One of the other survivors, Bulwark’s last surviving Lieutenant by the name of Bulky Breaker, called. Underneath his battered armor, his wings had been broken from the impact of the crash. “Invictus forces, One o’clock! They seem to be fighting the orange bots!” Bulwark looked to where his Lieutenant had pointed out, and just as he had said, blue variants of the orange machines were rushing out towards them. They traded fire with the orange machines, earning twice as much return fire but narrowly evading most shots.

“So Invictus wants to play too? Very well, we’ll take his forces down too!” Bulwark growled, angrily pushing the memory of Invictus’ warning out of his thoughts.

“Sir… Invictus’ machine’s aren’t firing on us.” Bulk said, gesturing to the blue machines. They seemed to have formed a wall between Bulwark’s dwindling forces and the endless tirade of their apparently shared enemy. From where they came from was now a widening gap in the flow, and within seconds Bulwark understood what was happening.

“Everypony! Go! Invictus seems to have made an opening for us!” He ordered, redirecting the KBots and tanks under his command to do the same before rushing towards the gap.

Total Annihilation: Equestrian Wars

by The Warmaster

Chapter One: The Reawakening

Chapter Two: The Battle for Macintosh Hills

Chapter Three: Plans and Plots

Chapter Four: The Creator, And More Theories

Chapter Five: The Wrath of Atlas

Chapter Six: The Wedding

Chapter Seven: From Fire We Are Forged

Chapter Eight: And From Destruction Comes Creation

Chapter Nine: Complete Annihilation

Chapter 9.5: Assistance Was Required

Chapter Ten: The Synchronous Invasion