Everything felt wet.
I couldn't see anything.
My whole body felt numb.
My breath felt raspy.
There were noices, but they were muffled.

The noices turned into distorted voices after a while and i started regaining feeling in my limbs. I was lifted up by a pair of hooves. But that didn't worry me. I knew exactly who had grabbed me.
I knew were exactly were I was and what was going on. A few minutes went by until I could endly see and stand on my own.
"Are you alright, sir?"
Someone on my left asked. I didn't even turn before answering.
"yes."
My body felt awfull. But it also felt alive.
"Status."
A stallion on a terminal dutifully answered.
"Everything is going as planned. Energy levels are optimized. All systems are operative. Optics are on and vocals are functional."
Two other ponies moved a mirror in front of me. Had my feelings not been suppressed, I would not have believed it. It might have been fake, but it was an accurate copy of my old body. Five years younger and extremely thin as expected though. My mane also reached the floor. And I was so thin that had I had any real bones, I would have been able to see them. I tried to lift my wings up, but numb as they were I could only lift them a few centimeters up. It would take time getting used to everything.
"Sir?"
Again without looking I answered.
"Yes?"
"Everything seems to be fine on the terminals. And our data is consistent. If you could confirm that everything is functional on your end, we will be able to continue onto the next part."
I nodded. I simply told them how I felt.
"Everything is functional, though not at full capacity. Most of it feels numb. Even talking is a challenge to me. Bring doctor Joyful here. I'm going to need help to get used to this. "
"Yes, sir."
The pony that had answered turned around and went to fetch the doctor. The rest continued monitoring and testing me. As I looked around and answered a few other questions I noticed one of the many screens in the room had a pony on it.

I could see myself in it. An older me. A simulated image, a fake representation of my old self.
However I was the fake one. I had a body but no soul. The image had no body but it did have a soul. Ironic we thought in unison. We were the same. Our feelings, our thoughts, our memories. All i could see he could see. I was however but a puppet.
"All tests have been concluded sir."
I was handed a folder with all the data that had just been acquired. After reading through it I told them what to do.
"Inform all needed personnel for the next fase. Check for any discrepancies and make sure that everything is ready. Six months should be enough to prepare."
Everypony simply nodded and went to do as told. I kept looking into the mirror. I would have to cut my mane. And then i looked at the screen on my left.
The image on it had a fairly long mane. It stared back at me, but it didn't speak.
There was no need for it. We both thought the same thing.I always loved having a long braided mane. My mission would be dangerous, but I could at least grant myself that.
Just like old times.
Better times.

6 months later

After multiple months of therapy and training, I was now in proper fysical condition. I had regained full use of my wings and a lot of fat and muscle on my body.
My mane now lay into a pony tail. A bit shorter than when I first woke up. I was fascinated by what had been accomplished. My body was a made through a combination of cloning and cybernetics.
An extraordinary feat accomplished through science and magic. I was however more machine than pony. Any cut I had would heal instantly. Any broken bones, or rather hydraulics, would be repaired in a matter of minutes. Pain was non existent and pleasure limited. I could feel multiple talismans laying where my stomach should have been. Which meant I couldn't feel sick.
Good I thought as I stared at my armor.
The V29.
I never bothered in giving it a name. Why should I. Nopony beside me would ever use it.
It was just a superior version of the enclave armor. I had a lot of time to design it and then build it.
The real me to be exact. It was the only one of its kind. Unlike the v17 and v24.
The former being much weaker but perfect for mass production and the later just as good as real enclave armor.
I took the helmet in my hooves.
Made to resist the highest caliber of anti personnel weaponry. The best helmet there might ever be against headshots. Or anything really. I stared at the rest of my armor. It had thick armor and an incorporated shield alongside with multiple talismans that allowed it to fly with more ease and weight less. Alongside with air filters, thermal insulation and the best padding there was against shocks and blunt trauma.
There was a shotgun attached at the end of its tail instead of the usual enclave stinger.
It's helmet was red and black. The rest was the same. It took a lot of time to make.
We destroyed many prototypes testing it's resilience, until reaching satisfying results. It could take an shot from an antitank gun with relatively ease. I would be safe with it.
We could make more but they are extremely expensive and took a massive amount of time to make.
After one last sigh I put it on.

I walked out of my room. And headed towards the exit. Before I reached the main hall, I took some weapons and supplies for potential trade. All of which had been carefully prepared for my departure. And then I entered the main hall. Everypony was there, 1836 ponies to be exact. They looked at me. They all knew what was happening.
For them it was the first time they would ever see their "leader" in flesh and blood as much of an illusion as it might be. My helmet was off.
They could have a good look at my dark Grey fur and light grey mane. All reacted differently.
Some with fear And some with hope. Most would look away or cover their face when I looked at them. Nobody said anything to me or even got close to me. They just stared.
They weren't even scared of me, but of what I represented. Of what I would do outside and bring back. Things that would change their lives forever.

As I scanned the room I noticed a screen above the entrance I'm which my older reflection stood, simply watching. The ponies in the room waited for the front door to open. As it meant that our plan would be set in motion. I thought about those ponies around me and how they relied on me. If I died we'd just clone another body and learn from our mistakes. But we would lose time. Many of the ponies here wished they could live to see our goals accomplished. I hoped I could grant them that wish, to some of them at least. I analyzed the crowd surrounding me. All were quite massive ponies, just like my new body. Most of them were farmers, which had allowed them to live with plenty of food to spare and reach their current size. The rest were scientists, most of which tried to make sure we always had safe radiation free soil to farm on. And then there were our engineers who made sure our factory kept working.
Last was our tiny organic army.
84 ponies in power armor. Probably the best in what remained of equestria. It was, however, only a minuscule part of our true might.

The front door opened. There would be no speech to announce my departure. Everypony had been told everything they needed to know.
Everypony was smiling as I left. Sad smiles.
That's all you would get out of them. It did mean that they were hopeful. But after all this time stuck in this factory there wasn't much joy left in them. All that was left to them was a morbid loyalty.
I was like just like them. Hopeful, but any joy had left my body a long time ago.

I had now left.
I went through one of the factory main doors then crossed the construction site of our future city.
It was loud and hard to breath, because of all the construction going on. In there thousands of robots worked. Most were equidroids and their cheaper variants. They weren't made for construction, but for war. This meant that even making some simple foundations for a building would take time. It explained why so little progress had been made on that side of things. And why there were so many accidents. Luckily we had a massive stockpile of working equidroids. All of them came from the same place.
The Luxembuck military factory. It was one of many built all around l equestria. Producing massive amounts of weapons and robots for the equestrian war effort. And even some secret superweapons made to kill zebras. It now served a better purpose.
Underneath this factory lay a laboratory, without it none of this would have been possible. It had researched cloning and ai, also for the war effort. Thanks to which I now existed. And just like the factory it now served a better purpose.

I reached the wall.
A massive concrete barricade with towers and barbed wire surrounded our territory in which we would soon start building a city. Guarded by an army of robots, tanks and multiple ultra-sentinels. All staring mindlessly into the wastes searching for any possible threat.
I stepped though one of the walls entries. Taking one last look back.
It closed once i had gone through. I was now alone in unknown territory. Facing unidentified threats But that didn't matter.

For I had a task to accomplish.

Author's Note

Criticism and tips are welcome and appreciated.