The table she laid on was cold. A single fluorescent bulb lit the room only a few knew about, in the depths of SPARKLE Industries' Research Labs. Twilight has already done this, she reminded herself, and so have RD and Pinkie. If they can do it... so can I. The pale orange earth pony lifted her hoof to the selection pad hovering above her, displaying what features she could add to her body. The first thing she selected was her hind legs, being the tools of her trade. She leafed through a few options, ignoring those that were semisolid "magical energy constructs", preferring to have something reliably supporting her. She hesitated for a moment between the biotech limbs and the mechanical ones, finally selecting the mechanically augmented legs. These displayed themselves on the silhouette she saw of her frame, and she chose a body to match her legs. Since this was a prototype military design, she was informed that "onboard weapons systems" would be incorporated, and that she would get to choose one unique weapon" designed specially for her. Moving through that selection menu, she whistled appreciatively as she saw the vast selection of various weapons, magical and otherwise. Scrolling through the menu, she tapped her hoof on a design of a built-in battle saddle. Adorned with a chaingun firing... metal apples? No... Grenades. That look like apples. Wow.. In addition, the battle saddle came with a magical energy cannon. She smiled as she made it fire orange. Finally, she tapped out that her chosen modifications were the most important, and the rest should be left to the designers. Twilight had told her that almost all their tech was universal, but she was still worried about that "almost". She winced at the sharp prick of the needle, and drifted off into unconsciousness.
An indeterminate amount of time later, she reawakened to the sound of pinging. It played a soft, insistent beat on the inside of her aching head. She groaned, and realized that she no longer sounded like herself. Her eyes flew open, and she immediately closed them, regretting having done so. The light hurt even more than the noise, but she eventually managed to get her eyes open. A slew of information was overlaid on her new eyes, the only part of her body to be made purely of magical energy. She slowly began to learn, following the prompts until one of them mentioned her hands. What in Equestria do they mean, hands? Her question was immediately answered through the neural feedback net, prompting her to use a certain neural command. Upon doing so, she was shocked as her body seemed to metamorphose, her foreknees rotating, her forelegs extending, and her hooves splitting into digits as her hips shifted, her spine realigned, and her neck revolved, and she found herself suddenly bipedal, if still lying down. In addition, her coat had completely disappeared, leaving an armored metal exterior, resplendent in orange status lights. The clinking and general noise of this transformation had sent pitter-patters of residual pain through her head, but the ache was quickly fading. The shock of it only now setting in she spoke again, "What in tarnation...? 'Twi never mentioned this!" She realized finally that her voice sounded more like her, finally merging to sound nearly normal, but with a slight metallic tone. Her new vocal cords catching up with her brain, she realized. She shifted back to her pony self and stood up normally, shivering at the aftereffects of the transformation. It would take some getting used to, she decided. She finally looked around the room she was in and noticed the pane of one-way glass. She gestured at the door, and it slid open silently. Stepping out into the hallway, she was confronted by none other than Twilight Sparkle. "Well?" Twilight asked, gesturing to AJ's new body, "How do you feel?" "Fine, I guess." replied AJ, "But we need to talk. What's goin' on with all this...two-legs stuff? Is that what ya meant when y'all said they would design a 'more efficient' shape for combat? And exactly who are we supposed to be fightin' anyways? Celestia wouldn't tell me anything, just asked for formal consent. " Twilight started, surprised. "Oh. I thought she would have told you. We don't know." AJ sighed and shook her head. "Then how in tarnation are we supposed to fight them?" Twilight looked grimly back. "We know where the fighting is. We just don't know who yet. But whoever they are, they have technology far different to our own. Their army is entirely biological constructs, somewhat insectoid, but armored, and very tough to kill, according to the reports." This was not exactly the news AJ had been hoping for, but it was something. "We leave for the Everfree training facility at 0800," Twilight said, "so I'll be teaching you to use neural commands and all your onboard systems. Come on, let's get to the transport ship."
