Commander Twilight Sparkle’s eyes snapped open at precisely 4:30AM. She had woken up at this exact time every day for that past fifty years so now she didn’t even need an alarm clock as it was an automatic action that she was sure she would wake at that time no matter what happened to her.
Stretching and yawning the mare looked around her room, her eyes scanning in every detail to see if anything was out of place. Seeing everything was exactly as it had been the night before the purple mare rolled to her hooves and stretched once more, marveling at how young she felt now as only a couple months ago she had been a grey maned unicorn and now she had the body she had when she was in her late twenties.
As she stretched the wings on her back extended and stretched as well, the young alicorn was still getting used to that feeling as well as the ability to actually feel through her four cybernetic legs as before her ascension she had had absolutely no feeling in any of her legs and had grown used to simply knowing where they were. Needless to say having wings and feeling once again was taking some getting used to.
Wither her wings folding back onto her back the alicorn made her way to her bathroom in the Golden Oaks Library right in the middle of downtown Ponyville and began her morning routine. Brushing her teeth, shower, dry, fix her mane and tail then the latest addition to this routine, preen her wings. That had been something Twilight had had to learn first about her wings, how to take care of them after that is was learning to fly which luckily she had taken too relatively easily do to already being used to being in the air thanks to hundreds of air lifts taken both in and out of combat so it was only a matter of learning how to fly.
Once her wings were dealt with the mare headed for the front door, making sure to walk quietly past the door to her assistant’s room as the young drake did not do well being woke up at this hour. Once outside Twilight breathed in the crisp early morning air as she surveyed the town of Ponyville.
The town has changed a lot from how it used to be when she had first arrived decades ago, no longer were the houses made of wood with thatched roofs. They were nearly all made of stone with reinforced wooden roofs and the streets no longer meandered randomly. They were almost all straight and ran semi-parallel with each other so as to allow for either quick defense or rapid evacuation, which ever was needed. While the mare had liked the old designed of the town and how quaint it had been before being destroyed by Tirek when he found the town empty during his rampage so long ago she had to admit defending the town was far easier now.
Taking one last look around the mare started to gallop for the edge of town and the path about an eighth of a mile outside of town. The path ran in a circle around the small town and had been worn there by a single mare taking the same route on her morning runs for decades and it still served its purpose as Twilight began her morning run, passing within view of Sweet Apple Acers and the Fluttershy Animal Refuge near the Everfree Forest. The Refuge sat where Twilight’s old friend Fluttershy cottage still stood, now with its boarders expanded and a few more buildings as well as a small onsite staff to take care of any and all animals regardless of what they were.
Twilight had seen to the creation of the non-profit refuge and was one of the main donators to the efforts of the ponies and changelings who worked tirelessly to follow in the hoofsteps of one of the kindest ponies Twilight had ever met. Twilight would visit the Refuge every couple of months and see how the staff was doing as well as the animals and if the staff place needed something Twilight made sure they had the bits to get it.
Running her route a hundred times Twilight slowed to a walk and took several deep breaths, it was strange being able to easily push past her old forty laps but she figured it was the earth pony traits she now had as well as whatever the magic that ascended her did to her cybernetics.
She had spent almost two weeks investigating her cybernetics as they certainly were not the same as they used to be, they were far more streamline now and looked more natural we well as her ability to feel through them now. Not to mention after her ascension she gained an additional one hundred pounds bringing her up to a weight of six-hundred pounds. Whatever her legs were made of it was a lot denser then the high grade steel they used to be, though all her attempts to identify the mental came back as an unknown if it came back with any results at all. According to most of the tests she ran on them the limps weren’t there as all tests came back blank except for visual and touch analysis.
With no real name for what her legs were now made of the mare simply called them her steel hooves as she always had because till she knew what they were there was no reason the change the name in her mind. Speaking of her mind she had gone through several brain scans to see if anything had changes with the implants in her brain that allowed her to run her mechanical body parts. Had there ever been a change, Twilight wasn’t sure how to describe it but where the implants had been on her motor cortex and frontal lobe they simply were no more implants, what there was, was a blending of machine and grey matter as her motor cortex was now merged with her implants seamlessly and half her frontal lobe was as well. One simply could not tell where the cybernetics ended and her brain began as they were now one and the same. It was very bizarre but nothing to worry about as nothing seemed to have changed.
Having finished her rune Twilight made her way back to the Library and headed up to her room where she spent the next hour exercising to ensure her body was in top physical condition and after that, when the sun was just started to peek over the horizon the mare made her way down to the kitchen where she made a lite meal for herself, she liked making sure she ate with Spike so always left room for a main breakfast and then went to read in her office while she waited for him to wake up.
This day something else happened as shortly after she started reading her book she was hit with a wave of nausea and barely reached the bathroom where she got to enjoy the sight of her early morning breakfast once more.
Spitting out what remained in her mouth the mare flushed her stomach contents down and made her way to the sink were she splashed water in her face and got a drink to rinse her mouth out. That was the third time that had happened in as many days and it was becoming concerning to both her and the baby dragon she lived with.
She sighed as shed need to make an appointment with pony Ville General for alter today as she had promised Spike that if she wasn’t better in the next few days she would see a doctor, three days fit that time frame and she knew her little dragon brother would insist she go.
Sighing the mare left the bathroom and headed for her office where she continued reading till a knock came from the door. “Twilight, breakfast is almost done.” Came the voice of Spike.
“Alright, thank you, on my way up.” She said before finishing the page she was on then marking it. Placing the book on her private bookshelf the mare made her way back to the main floor of the library and headed for the kitchen/dining room.
Taking her seat she watched the now three foot tall drake as he made eggs, pancakes and bacon for them both, the meal smelled rather good, better than usual actually though with her light meal now making its way through the sewers of Ponyville it made sense she was hungrier than usual.
As the dragon placed the last of the food on the two plates he turned around with the plates held in each claw. “Here we go.” He said placing one plate before the alicorn before placing another on the other side and taking a seat across from her.
Twilight smiled at the young dragon. “Thanks Spike.” She said happily before diving into her meal, it tasted absolutely amazing and before long her plate was empty and she looked around. “Um…mind if I make myself seconds?” She asked the drake who was only half done with his own plate.
“No not at all.” He said, while he knew the mare didn’t have to ask him she always did out of respect for him as he did a lot for her and she always wanted him to feel like it did matter. “You feeling any better?”
The mare was busy getting some eggs and extra bacon from the fridge as she spoke. “I’m alright more or less.” She said pulling her head out and heading for the stove, the breakfast items held in her magic. “I think I’m going to make an appointment with the doctors though as I was sick against this morning.”
“You alright?” The dragon asked with worry.
“Yes, I’m sure it’s just a mild flu or something, nothing I can’t handle.” She said waving a hoof before switching her cybernetics into biped mode so she stood on two legs. With five claw like finger sprouting from the ends of what was once her for hooves they were now her hands. The mare had to switch to this mode if she wanted to pick anything up without magic as the innate magic in pony hooves that allowed them to pick things up did not transfer to her cybernetics limbs when they replaced her old legs as she lost them decades ago on the world that had changes her from a simple librarian into a highly trained soldier ready to defend her nation by any means she saw necessary.
As she cooked she hummed a tune from one of the many songs she listened to, most of it was from the other world and was not what normally was heard in Equestria, least not years ago, however some of the songs she listened to were written and performed here as the music she had brought back had spread, first to her army and from them to the rest of the nation and beyond, there were now several new genera’s of music enjoyed by the people of Equestria.
Finishing cooking her second meal the mare placed it on her plate and reclaimed her seat at the table where she started to eat with the same enthusiasm as before, the meal seemed to taste even better this time.
“So what’s on the schedule for today?” Her assistant asked as he took the plates to the sink once Twilight had finished.
“Well I was going to log onto MNet and read over the reports from around the nation to see if anything that needs me to take a look at is happening and maybe send out a few orders to some of the bases before paper work.” Twilight said, it had been a couple of decades since Equestria had entered the age of the computers that were all linked via a network, there were two different version. The Civilian Network, or CNet, that everyone in the nation used and had access to provided they paid the monthly bill. And then there was the heavily encrypted Military Network, MNet, that served the military and allowed them to all stay in contact and access information other bases had and was totally free provided one has access. Only certain soldiers in the army had access to MNet for security reason and other security measures involved not all information being placed on the network from bases, certain sensitive information that could cause a lot of problems if falling into the wrong hands were sent via Email over a closed network straight to the person who should read it and they then decided who else saw it.
After talking with Spike for a few more minutes Twilight made her way to her officer where she booted up her computer, the computer wasn’t to the level she had been trained on but it was close and soon it would be just like what she learned on all those years ago. She had to admit that it felt good to use computers other than her datapad again. It had been maddening having a skill set she was unable to use as there was no way to do so, but now Equestria had computer and they were making huge strides in their technology and she was able to dust off her skill set, though she did need to read her old computer programming books in order to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything, she had even tried hacking a few systems here and there on CNet, not doing anything but just because she could and it felt nice gaining access to places she wasn’t supposed to with just pure skill and leaving no trace she was ever there.
Logging on to MNet the Commander checked the reports that had been posted for anything of interest. One of the factories at the Liston Complex has suffered an accident, no fatalities but over two dozen injured and the factory was shut down till what happened to could found and repairs made. The Captain in charge of the facility left a note that production would not be effected as the other factories would pick up the slack for the time being.
An Equestrian Military Ship was reporting a sighting of a zebra frigate close to Equestrian water and was keeping an eye on it and would report if anything changed but so far the ship had made no moves to enter Equestrian waters.
Harmony Station, the Space Station in orbit around the planet was reporting one of the communication satellites orbiting the planet had a thruster malfunction and was no longer staying in its orbital path, they were dispatching a repair team to fix it and make sure the satellite returned to its proper orbit before it hit another satellite which was good as putting a satellite in orbit was expensive.
Twilight read over reports and sent out a few orders to a few bases when she felt they should take a closer look at something they had reports and waited for confirmation on receiving the order before she logged off after two hours and started on her paperwork, while the mare loved to be organized she found that like everyone else in the world, she despised doing paperwork as it was exceedingly boring as most of the time it was pointless blathering that just needed her signature. Still one could not run any organization, military or otherwise without some form of bureaucracy.
After a few hours of this Twilight felt another wave of nausea hit her and she rushed to the bathroom, barely making it once more. After cleaning up the mare stared at herself in the mirror, whatever she had she was getting worse, it was time to see the doctor.
It had been an uneventful trip to the doctor, the biggest thing had been convincing Spike to stay behind as she would be fine, the doctor would give her whatever medication or shot she needed to deal with this and then she’d be home in time for dinner.
After waiting only a few minutes, being a princess and leader of the entire army had a way of making people make sure you didn’t wait long Twilight found herself in one of the exam rooms.
Taking a seat on the exam table Twilight waited for the doctor and as she expected he arrived within the minute she had been left in the room.
“Good afternoon Princess, I am Dr. Helpinghoof, what seems to be wrong?” The doctor asked pleasantly while smiling.
“Nothing major doc, just the past few days I’ve been experiencing sudden bouts of sever nausea at random and it seems to be getting worse.” Twilight said.
The Doctor nodded. “Yes well that does sound problematic, let me run a few tests and we will see if we can figure out what the problem is hm?” he said and Twilight slowly nodded, while she may be a trained doctor herself that did not mean she wasn’t still tariffed of anyone doing any form of tests on her, she still had nightmares about Damenil Labs and the thing they had done to her there in the name of science.
The Doctor seemed to have read her mood shift and he wore the most present smile he could and spoke soothingly and kept talking to her about random topics to keep her distracted as he took blood samples and other things. After he had everything he needed Dr. Helpinghoof excused himself to go see to it the tests were run properly.
This left Twilight with time to kill so she pulled out a book and began to read. She was near the end of the book when the doctor returned an hour later with the largest smile on his face.
“Well the test came back Princess, and yes I had them run them three times to make sure they were right.” He said.
“That’s good, what do I need to get better?” She asked as her book vanished.
“Oh, there is nothing wrong with you Princess.” He said with a chuckle.
“Um….doc I’ve been throwing up for three days, you have an odd definition of “nothing wrong” Twilight said flatly.
“Oh you misunderstand me, what I mean is you are not sick.” He said with another chuckle.
Twilight blinked at the doctor. “Ok, then what the hell is going on if I’m not sick?”
“Well…it’s simple Princess.” He said and smiled at her. “You’re pregnant.”