In a huge building, lights everywhere, ponies clamored to themselves. In this auditorium, was the public service announcement that was given once every year.

This was a mandatory assembly as the ponies had been promised an update on the empire’s standing from their leader. Out of the curtains, a gray stallion with white hair and a short white beard trotted forward. His body looked beaten and his face was worn with the times.

War.

Cigar in mouth, the stallion moved it over to one side, and stepped to the podium. He cleared his throat, “Every place in the universe needs balance. No matter how good something is, there has to be something somewhere to balance it. This is a necessary part of our lives”, he said emphatically,” Our nation – our universe – is in desperate need of that balance. We live in a world where magic has evolved past its users and has risen to new technological heights; things that ponies before us only dreamed of making. But that has not come without hard work and dedicated ponies.”

A wave of cheers erupted over the crowd.

“The balance we seek is close and you can help us achieve that. You, my ponies, are going to be the ones to help that happen. You, my ponies, will be the ones that bring that order!”

The ponies in the crowd stomped their hooves in applause. The gray earth pony waved his hoof, and smiled at his crowd as he blew a smoke circle in the air. He then stepped back behind the curtain to a dark brown unicorn mare with glasses and a white lab coat waiting for him.

“Fools.” The gray stallion snorted and looked to the dark brown unicorn, “Is the extraction process ready, Motherboard?”

“Yes Commander. The selected unicorns in the crowd are being sent to the training camp as we speak.”

As Motherboard said this, stallions with sunglasses emerged from behind the curtain making their way to the crowd. Some ponies knew what this meant and stood upright. They were proud. This was a sign of loyalty to the ponies; to serve the empire. A shining medal with an electrical bolt for an emblem was pinned on a select few unicorns as they were escorted to several carriages outside of the assembly hall. The other ponies cheered them away as the rest of the ponies left the assembly.

This was the balance that the Commander was talking about. Some ponies, whether they knew it or not, had to be modified to maintain the lifestyle that was the status-quo. The unicorns in the crowd that were of age were escorted away from assembly, and sent to a training camp. But that was far from the truth. The ponies were taken to gated building with spotlights around it. Above the gates on the building was sign made with the same cold metal as the building and it said ‘Training Camp for The Commander’s Army’. From the windows, ponies could see workout machines and other ponies doing different training regimens, but this was a ruse. The ponies were actually being sent underground where the real purpose for the rest of their lives would be determined.

Only underground could the screams of the unicorn be heard as they were systematically tortured and siphoned of their magic, treated like batteries. The Commander did his best to keep it silent in the form an army recruitment rally.

***

The empire he had now was not the empire The Commander wanted. Being a former member of Celestia’s royal guard, he knew something of magic from the talks with Celestia and her star pupil. Also, being an earth pony, he couldn’t do magic himself but studied enough of the texts, some of them forbidden, to find magic more advanced than Celestia’s rising of the sun. He proposed the use of this magic to better all ponies and was immediately denied. Celestia explained the sacrifice that using that type of magic would have on her kingdom and wouldn’t have that.

Celestia knew that she couldn’t have ponies spreading ideas like that around and exiled him from Equestria. This banishment gave the Commander time to think and time to plan. That plan lead to Technicolt, his empire.

***

Motherboard was a very lucky pony in her own way. Being born as a unicorn in Technicolt, she knew she would most likely be drafted unless she showed another way to be useful to The Commander. She had seen her friends and some of her family separated with no real reason except to ‘serve the empire and The Commander’ and the Training Camp. She couldn’t help but notice that everypony that went there never came back. The only explanation that was ever told was that the soldiers were being sent off to fight and expand the empire. Motherboard noticed that the borders of Technicolt never expanded nor did was there really ever a mention of fighting or a war. Motherboard wanted answers.

One day, she went to the library in hopes of finding something that suggests wars or heroes or anything of the sort. In the history section, she found only references to founding of the empire but not anything about fighting wars at all. There wasn’t even a list of the ponies that had been sent to the camp. It was as if it never happened. Motherboard didn’t want to believe that. There had to be an explanation. Ponies just don’t disappear without any record of it.

Motherboard trotted to the center of the library and rang a small silver bell. An older mare with glasses and two sticks in her mane, holding her bun in place, trotted over to her. “May I help you?”

“Yes, I am looking for anything you have on the wars we fought or the soldiers of Technicolt.”

“Oh dearie”, the librarian said in a sweet voice, “That kind of information is at the Training Camp. The Commander wants to make sure that his army is well trained not only of the body but of the mind.” The librarian patted her head. “You will know about all of that in good time.”

“But we don’t have any records here?” Motherboard hesitated to ask more. She seemed to be redirected to the same place that she was trying to avoid. With no help from the librarian, she was put back in the same boat. Something would lead her to some answers. It had to! Perhaps she was looking in the wrong area.

Motherboard poked her up to the desk again, “Where is the magical section located again? I kinda lost my place last time?”

“That’s no problem.” She pushed her glasses up and pointed down what seemed to be an endless hallway of shelves. “It’s just past the seventeenth shelf on the right, against the wall.”

“Thank you.” Motherboard trotted over that direction and scanned down each book until she noticed that there was a book out of place.

“That’s weird. Maybe someone checked it out.” Motherboard looked at the empty space and noticed there wasn’t a card for the book placed there so it wasn’t a place for a book. Ever more curious, Motherboard climbed on the shelves and lifted herself up to the exact spot. The spot was covered in dust. She blew the dust off and coughed as some dust went in the other direction. That cough caused her to bump her head on the shelf above, and as she fell down she heard a faint click.

“That hurt”, she said, wiping the rest of the dust from her face. “What was that sound?” She looked around her else had fallen but the shelf she was climbing jutted out just a bit. Looking behind her to make sure nopony else noticed, she pulled the shelf to reveal a door. Checking her surrounding again, she entered the door, closing the shelf behind her. She was amazed to find just one book sitting in a dark room. She trotted over to it and noticed pieces of parchment next to the book and a still wet quill with ink. Somepony had been in here not too long ago. She lifted the book with her magic and read the title along the spine, “Advanced Magic with Mystical Properties: Canterlot Archives”.

“Canterlot Archives? I’ve never seen a book from them before.” This was just getting stranger for Motherboard. She took upon herself to read where the last pony left off in the book.

Reading through the chapter, Motherboard noticed an addendum to the chapter.

Notice: The magic described in this chapter is forbidden under
royal decree and no pony is to try any spell explained in this
book for practical application.
~Princess Celestia~

Motherboard, still curious to get the bottom of whatever was going on continued reading. In the book, there were a series of words underlined in red ink.

“…fatal spell.”

“…life force.”

Not trying to take more time than she had, she closed the book back and left the hidden passage. Luckily enough, no pony was there and she was able to sneak out and walk out of the library. The walk back to her house let mind try to piece together what she read about. Why would The Commander have kept something like that private? Was he trying to use that kind of magic?

It would be normal for a unicorn to try and practice this magic but The Commander wouldn’t really understand the long term effects. The book talked about are workarounds for earth ponies to use some type of magic, such as the hidden magic each earth pony has with the earth. She concluded that The Commander must have tried to use other unicorns to help him with the spells and they failed. The failure, she read, lead to a magical backfire taking the magical force from the users but tenfold. Since the commander was an earth pony, without unicorn magic, what was taken was his life force. The Commander was dying, and she knew it now.

***

Her eighteenth birthday; she passed by the assembly hall and noticed a pony around the corner. It was The Commander. But what she saw when she got there wasn’t the strong Commander everypony loved but a weak and sickly one. Motherboard kept quiet behind the corner of the building as she saw the Commander with one hoof on the side of the building, coughing up blood. She knew that this meant she was right and that he was dying.

She decided to make her move. “Umm, Sir?”

The Commander wiped the blood from his mouth and turned to the small unicorn. With a gruff, he looked to the mare, “Who are you? What do you want? The assembly doesn’t start for another few hours.” Even though this, he could not keep the crimson beads falling from his mouth. He looked like a mess and Motherboard felt compelled to help.

“I know that you have a condition. I know that, slowly, part of you is dying. I know of where we can get a cure to heal you.”

“How could a small unicorn like you know anything of the sort?”

“I have had a great deal of time to study, Sir. I..” she paused, “..wanted to prove my usefulness to you. Let me, Sir.”

The Commander had a bit to think about. She could take on this unicorn and at least see what she knew. If she was useful, she would stay alive. If she wasn’t, it was off to the pods with her. On the other hand, he could just kill her and nothing would be gained or lost. But that was the problem; nothing would be gained. The Commander knew he was running out of time on a clock he couldn’t stop or reset, but this pony be able to assist with that. Considering that she had the gall to confront him means that she was either very determined or very stupid.

“Let me make something very clear; if you what you say is true, then I will keep you with me. You will be my assistant of sorts and you will make it your life’s goal to find a cure. Understood?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“I do not want any distractions. I know you are a young filly but as long as you are with me, which will be for the rest of your life, there will be no distractions. I will not tolerate it. Understood?”

“Yes, Sir. I understand completely.”

***

PRESENT DAY

Motherboard levitated a clipboard and a quill checking something off of her list. “Sir? I have just been informed that my- your project is ready for its demonstration. It’s waiting for you in the Operations room.”

“Then let’s go. I wanted this thing to be up and running yesterday.”

Motherboard nodded her head and the two ponies continued backstage, coming to a door and trotted outside to a carriage. They stepped inside, “To the office”, the Commander said as the chauffeur trotted off.

Through the tinted windows of the carriage, the Commander looked to his ponies. Some young, some old but all cheering the Commander carriage as it went by. Some earth ponies were putting up poster’s that read ‘What you do, you for The Commander’. The Commander smiled at this. Though his empire wasn’t complete, he had the ponies eating out of his hooves. He would make sure that never changed. Nopony said a word for the whole ride until Motherboard broke the silence with a sigh.

“What is it?”, asked the Commander flatly.

“Nothing sir. I just wonder how long things will be like this. It isn’t healthy and I just wonder how long we can keep this charade up.”

“Well, if this little toy of your works, then we won’t have to worry about that will we?”

“Of course not, Sir. I just worry about them.”

The Commander just raised a hoof at her. “Don’t. Let me about those fools and you worry about this toy of yours, lest you’ve forgotten how I deal with failure.”

Motherboard shook her head, “Understood, Sir.”

Swallowing a lump in her throat, By Celestia, I hope it does work.

The chauffeur let them know that they had arrived. They trotted out to a large gray building with a number pad on the side of the front door. The Commander muttered to himself as his punched in the numbers, “6331. And open.”

The doors opened to an elevator the two ponies trotted and descended deeper into the basement of the building.

DING

The doors opened and soon ponies gathered around the Commander giving him documents to sign and, pen in mouth, he signed them. Both of them trotted to a room labeled “Operations Room A” and pushed the doors open. It was a laboratory with flickering screens along the walls and tubes filled with blue energy hung along the walls. The tubes tangled and connected to a small circular device on the operating table.

Motherboard took her position next to a large lever and awaited the signal of the Commander. The Commander was behind a thick magic proof glass in preparation of another failed attempt. This had been the fifteenth trial they had gone through, and it was Motherboard’s last chance. She had to keep good on her word to The Commander; that promise she made to him when she was eighteen.

Behind the glass, The Commander put his muzzle to the intercom, “Ready? Begin the sequence.”

Motherboard nodded and pulled the lever. Electricity crackled in the room slowly. As the energy poured from the tubes in the room, it leaked out of its protective tubing shot of like a bolt of lightning. Beakers were exploding and ponies ducked behind cover, all but Motherboard. She stood still focused on the device on the table.

Work, work!

“Turn it off!”, one of the ponies yelled.

Motherboard stood her ground, “No! It just needs more power! Just a little more!” She gripped the level tighter, holding it down. She winced when a small bolt of electricity shocked her flank.

Work! Come on, dammit, work!

Through the noise, the Commander stood still watching the chaos, not moving a muscle.

A cold calculating voice came on the intercom, “Process complete.” The circular device was lifted and placed into what looked to be a holding shell where it was closed up and eyes of the shell opened and glowed. The shell was a metallic pony, a cyberpony. This cyber pony was gray, like the metal it was made from, but had gray and blue streaks in its mane with black tipped highlights.

Motherboard pushed the lever back up and fell to her flank. She tried to catch her breath before the Commander came from behind the wall. He trotted through the broken glass and frightened ponies to the operating table. “So, what is it now?”

Motherboard picked herself up and trotted slowly to the table. “Sir, may introduce to you, the H.E.A.R.T.; Health Energy Autonomous Response Terminal. With this, we can-

“Prep it. I want that piece of metal working completely by sundown,” the Commander interrupted.

“But Sir, we haven’t run any of the diagnostic checks on him!” Motherboard exclaimed.

The Commander raised an eyebrow, “Him? When did this thing become a him?”

“It-It didn’t, Sir. I just named him. His name is Circuit Wave.”

“So you named him too?” The Commander put a hoof to his forehead, “Don’t get attached, Motherboard. This is a tool.” The Commander made a dismissive gesture with his hoof toward the sleeping Circuit Wave. “Tools get used and put away. Did you finish the memory matrix?”

“Yes, I have the three months of data you requested. But don’t you think that he will need a bit more than just the military aspects you have requested?”

“Explain.”

“Well, sir. If we send him-”

“Motherboard.”

“-it,” she corrected, “outside as an empty shell don’t you think that will cause some unneeded attention. No pony has ever seen anything like this and we don’t want any unneeded questions, especially not from Celestia. I know you don’t want an assassin to kill the ponies. You want somepony that can gather intel on the group and hopefully be able to find the source of their power; the power that can cure you, Sir.”

The Commander knew where Motherboard was coming from but time was of the essence and it was never on his side. “Fine. Do what you will. But I when I arrive tomorrow, this piece of metal had better be running and ready for transport.”

“Yes, Sir. It will be ready.”

“Good.” With that, The Commander left the room and the other ponies finally took a deep breath.

“Good job, everypony.” said Motherboard, “I will take of the last installation sequence and have it ready for The Commander.”

One of the other ponies spoke up, “Shouldn’t you be going home? You took a pretty nasty shock there during the boot up. Don’t you want to get checked out?”

“Now, don’t worry about me. I will be fine. It wasn’t the first time. I will be fine. Go on home.”

The concerned pony patted her on the haunches, “Good night, Motherboard.” He and the other ponies left and there was only Motherboard with the un-moving Circuit Wave. Motherboard hugged the cyberpony and tears fell from her eyes.

“I didn’t think it would work but here you are, Circuit Wave. After years of attempts, you are alive. I know you can’t hear me yet but you can’t stay here. You need to have a better life. I want a better life for you.”

She trotted to a black filing cabinet. The cabinet had taken a bit of beating during the small electrical storm in the room with lower half of the cabinet singed. She opened the top most cabinet and filed through the folders and levitated one called ‘Circuit Special’. She turned the folder upside-down and a single yellow disk fell out. It was labeled, ‘Memory Matrix I’ but there was a small ‘MB’ written at the bottom of the label. The pushed a button on the H.E.A.R.T. and inserted the disk.

“At least, you will have some sort of personality, Circuit. And maybe you could really just get away from him. At any rate, do your best.”

Motherboard looked for a response from the metallic pony but there was only silence. She knew he couldn’t speak yet but she still hoped and held onto it.

As she finished the last of diagnostic checks, the screen to the right of the metallic shell read, ‘Matrix Installation Complete: Please wait 10 hours until full system use.’

“Done.” she breathed. She went over the door and flipped of the light switch. The only light in the room now was the cyberpony’s eyes, until they closed.

“Goodnight, Circuit. I love you, my son.”

Author's Note

Thank you MistressSarah-kun for the edits upon edits...upon edits.