Tibetan Thing

“The meeting is adjourned.”
>Your eyes close and then open to a different scene.
>White sunlight filters in through the small stone temple’s window and onto the floor.
>With a few pops your white colored body rises from its cot.
>A few stretches and breath exercises cure your body of its morning aches.
>Judging from where the light shines on the floor, it’s around nine.
>Your hooves click and clack as they cross the round chamber and take you to your telescope.
>Looking through it at the bright object confirms that The Astronomer was correct in his calculations.
>The burning brightness fades as the conical object falling through the atmosphere slows enough that it no longer burns.
>The object is a metallic black and shows no sign of damage from the blazing entry.
>Its trajectory put it on course to land nearby your small monastery; more precisely on an ice shelf on the side of your mountain.
>It will be landing within the hour, and the plan is for you to figure out what it is and report back to the council.
>The equipment you’d be taking had already been assembled the night before and rested on a table next to your cot.
>Leaving the telescope you gather several ingredients from a set of cupboards and craft a tasteful salad.
>After eating you complete some quick exercises to maintain your chakras and ensure your wards were still strong.
>When finished, your gear is equipped and you stand before a mirror to ensure it is properly fitted.
>The thick parka suit covered almost all of your body, save for your face, hooves, and tail which you opted to keep out for balance reasons.
>Your grey mane was tucked back into your hood, and your short beard protected your mouth.
>Thankfully you were neither a unicorn nor pegasi, keeping those extremities warm and functional in these conditions was difficult at the least.
>To be truthful you didn’t look too bad for a several hundred year old stallion.
>A shaking tips the mirror over, breaking it.
>Ah well, vanity was a vice.
>Before you exit the large wooden monastery doors you don a pair of climbing boots, scarring the stone floor slightly as you do so.
>With a pull of the door you exit to the outside, where snow has just begun to fall.
>Although pegasi did not regulate the weather here, you had forecasted a storm to hit, lasting for around a week.
>From the other side of your mountain came a small cloud of steam that floated its way to the other mountains in the range.
>Luckily the ice shelf it landed on was on the path you took to town.
>You embark through the cold, following the tattered markers to your destination as a few more snowflakes began to fall.
>Soon you arrived at the ice shelf where steam rose from a crater.
>The impact appears to have caused a miniature avalanche onto the path to town; you’ll have to clear it after the storm passes.
>As you close into the crater you’re already writing a report in your mind.
>Your wards strengthen as you pull more energy from the land around you.
>The object inside the crater has survived its fall, seemingly without damage, and lays still.
>There’s something anomalous about this object, the aura coming off of it is incredibly hard to read and overloads your senses.
>Shifting your focus away from its aura, you instead observe the object itself.
>It’s conical, with a rounded top and from what you can see, a convex bottom.
>It consists of a black metal that you’ve never seen before, with strange seams about it in a way that suggests it moves or unfolds.
>A hissing comes from it as gas visibly escapes from its top… hatch?
>It swings open as the gas dissipates, revealing nothing but darkness.
>There’s a skittering sound before a blur launches onto you.
>Soft musical tones are heard in your mind, indicating that your various wards are under stress as you stumble around, trying to pry a fleshy blob from your barrel.
>Tendrils expand from the mass and search your body, finding your hood and slithering underneath against your body.
>Where it touches burns, and the wards become louder in your head.
>Whatever this thing is, it’s some kind of parasite and it’s trying to get into your mind!
>Turning around you gallop, following the markers as you go.
>Your mind rushes through paranormal threats, trying to find a match with what this thing is.
>Would a banishment ritual help?
>Is it vampiric?
>Is it a magical manifestation of something?
>What is it?
>Snowflakes slash into your face as the wind picks up and the markers you’re following develop a coat of snow.
>The musical noises in your head grow louder and pick up tempo, creating a discordant song of panic.
>The monastery is in view as you feel your grip on the environment's energy begin to slip.
>Smashing into the door, it slams against the wall and closes behind you.
>The metal cleats on your boots slide on the stone floor and before you can process the thought you’re splayed out on the floor.
>A leg lays at an unnatural angle and agony fills your stressed mind.
>With a happy little thought and a few breaths you consciously numb the pain the best that you can.
>There’s a single loud bell in your mind as a cello and viola cry melancholy.
>Tendrils find your eyes and nose and plunge violently into them.
>Everything flashes as you retreat into your mind.
>Not even here are you safe, as you feel the thing probing curiously into it.
>You probe back.
>Knowledge pours into you and all at once you know what this thing is.
>What it does.
>How many worlds it has consumed.
>What it will do to this one.
>You cannot let that happen.
>It will not happen.
>This thing is building an archetype off of you for which to base all of ponykind off of.
>What is in your mind will direct what it does next. How it acts, thinks, lives.
>It believes you to be clay to work with as it pleases, but the opposite is true.
>An old hermit like you had a few… contingencies up his sleeve.
>What stirs in the abyss is unknown, and you had imagined a scenario wherein your mind would no longer be your own.
>You had prepared for this.
>There was, amongst others, another… personality wouldn’t put it correctly.
>It was more than a personality, it was all the aspects of a pony’s mind, personality, ideals, self image.
>The only thing it was missing was a consciousness, a soul.
>Amber.
>That was her name.
>She had been created with only good in her heart, to be the kindest pony the world has ever known, to the point of almost hypermorality.
>All the best of society, the ideal, all inside of her.
>The thing hadn’t yet entered your mind, it was simply exploring the “borders” of it.
>The only thing keeping it from penetrating was a single ward, one that only had but a moment left before it was overpowered.
>It was powered by the last reserves of your life energy.
>You brought Amber to the front of your mind.
>Your entire psyche trembled as you prepared to overwrite yourself with her.
>One final thing was placed into her mind before you became a different pony.
“I’m sorry.”
>You are Amber, and life is agony.