It was early in the morning for most ponies, but not for Motherboard. Celestia had not done her morning greeting of the sun to her subjects. Most ponies would still be tucked safely in their beds, under the watch of goddess of the moon. That was a luxury some ponies could afford, but not Motherboard. She did not sleep very well, if at all. A nasty recurring dream of failure kept stealing her slumber. The thought of being sent to 'Training Camp'; the battery pods, a terrible fate for anypony.

***

She dreams of herself being magically dragged from the room, overpowered by The Commander’s guards. She is kicking and screaming, fighting with all she has to try and stop them. She looks at the guards asking, pleading, with them to stop and let her go. Tears well up in her eyes. She shakes her head violently, pleading with them again, hoping for some type of emotional response. There isn’t one. The guards are stoic and stone-faced, uncaring of the fate they are sending her to.

The guards bring her through two white doors. She is thrown on her back against a cold metal slab, an operating table similar to the one Circuit was ‘born’ on but with a much more sinister purpose. Still held down by the guards’ magical grip, she can’t resist as one side of the slab rises, until the table is vertical. Leather straps wrap around her hooves, locking her in place. Still trying to fight, Motherboard pulls at the bindings, but to no avail. The guards let go their magical hold, seeing that their job is done. They leave, opening the doors just as the Commander and two unicorns wearing blood stained lab coats walk in. The doors slam shut.

The Commander nods to the unicorns with him and they move off to long tables on each side of the one on which Motherboard is trapped. These tables are lined with medical tools and vials filled with different colored chemicals. The unicorns, ignoring Motherboard’s cries, float syringes from one vial to another and carefully fill them with a very precise dose of each. They stop, turning to attention, waiting for The Commander’s orders.

A huge surgical light is brought down from the ceiling above and turned on. Motherboard shuts her eyes against its harsh glare, then squints to see as she hears The Commander walking toward her.

“You shouldn’t have failed me, Motherboard. I gave you chance after chance and you continue to disappoint!”, barks The Commander.

“Sir! Please, don’t do this! Please!”, Motherboard screams in terror.

She looks directly into the Commander’s eyes, pleadingly, but he raises his hoof and smacks Motherboard across the face, knocking her glasses off. “Silence! I have had enough of your excuses. I have had enough of your failures. I should have done this a long time ago.” The Commander gives a nod to each of the unicorns.

The ponies flick at the needles of their individual syringes and inject Motherboard with the strange dose. The chemicals have a quick effect on her as she immediately vomits on the floor. Small drops of it fall from her mouth onto herself. Motherboard's head hangs down as she struggles to keep herself calm. The ponies walk away from her and stand in front of her.

Motherboard screams, "W-what?! What are you doing to meeeeee! Ahhhhh!". Her horn glows involuntarily and she screams even louder as she feels the essence of her magic slowly separating from her body. The other unicorns and The Commander watch impassively as Motherboard violently spasms against her restraints. The spasms turn into an all out seizure for what feels like hours for Motherboard. Finally, her spasms stop and she is able to catch her breath. But now her eyes are wide open, as she can’t close them of her own volition. They quickly dart left and right, no longer affected by the light shining on her. Her brown magical aura has now engulfed her entire body. Her heart is pounding out of her chest, both with fear and the unknown chemical making its way through her whole body. Like a virus, it takes over her body and her magic as small sparks shoot from her horn.

The Commander turns around, crushing Motherboard's glasses under his hooves. He walks away from her and stops just before he reaches the doors. "Make sure you get every last drop from her", he says to the unicorns, "She has been useless to me from the beginning. At least now she will be good for something..." At this, he stalks from the room.

Nodding to each other, one of the ponies hits a button on the wall and a loud alarm is set off. The wall behind the drugged out Motherboard is opened and the slab she is strapped to pulls away into the darkness.

***

“No! Please! I’m sorry!”

Motherboard’s head shot up from her cot, sweating and panting. Awakened from her nightmare, she put her hoof to her heart and to her arm where she was ‘injected’. She breathed a sigh of relief, finally realizing that it wasn’t real.

Thank Luna...

Getting off her cot she slowly trotted to the coffee maker, her best friend during this time of night. With the coffee grounds already in the machine she tapped a button and let the machine do its work.

Motherboard normally slept in the break room, with the cot being a special addition for her. The Commander was very demanding with just about everything with Motherboard, and this did not give her time to sleep in her own empty house.

The Commander had held true to his word all those years ago. Her life was placed in his hooves, as tightly clenched as they were. Every moment had to be not only useful, but useful to him. Every idea she had, had to be for making Technicolt or - more importantly - him better. There was no room for fun and barely time to relax. The closest she ever got to a break was whenever The Commander didn’t need her, which was rare.

For now, Motherboard just stood next to the coffeemaker lost in her thoughts, her eyes half open until she heard the ding of the machine and poured herself a cup. After mixing her cream and sugar, she smiled at her mug. She took a big sip and exhaled happily, “I needed that...”

Levitating the coffee mug next to her mouth and a clipboard right below, she made her way to the room where Circuit was. Turning on the light with her free hoof, illuminating the room where her son was sleeping, she trotted to the desk next to him and looked at the monitor.

PROCESS COMPLETE. READY TO INITIALIZE.

“Good. All the checks went well.”, she said.

This project had to go without a hitch. It was less of a project to her at this point and more of a new beginning for her son.

“Good morning, Circuit”, she said trotting past him, “I know you can’t hear me or see me and I want to say that’s for the best right now. I don’t want you to know of this place. If I had my choice, we wouldn't be having this conversation. It would just be another beautiful, Celestia-filled day. I would wake up and make you oatmeal before you went off to school.” Motherboard sighed and a small smile flitted across her lips before she shook her head. “But we can’t have everything we want and we must work with the cards that fate has dealt us. No matter how bad they are.”

Motherboard went to her terminal computer and logged herself in. All the computers, and just about any piece of technology in Technicolt, had been fashioned in such a way that everypony could use it. From special mouse peripherals attached to the hooves to touch screens, when The Commander found a use for this new ‘technology’ from his magical accident, he wanted every pony to be able use it.

She went to the folder that stored all of the memories that Circuit would have when he woke up; military regimens, training protocols, weapons specification, guerrilla tactics. These were things for a soldier going to war, not for a pony trying to blend in. She deleted all of those folders and went to her filing cabinet. Shifting through the folders, she picked up a disk labeled ‘Synchros’, went back to her computer, and inserted the disk to run the software. The loading bar moved slowly across the screen and she turned to face Circuit.

She felt terrible for putting her son in this position; to be The Commander’s tool, as he put it. But without the freedom or ability to have foals of her own, this was the only way to ever come close to having children. The computer blinked ‘75% completed’. Motherboard sighed, “Don’t think I ever wanted this for you, Circuit. Please don’t blame me. I really am so sorry.” Tears were welling up in her eyes and she hugged her cold son, expecting a hug back but received nothing. “I do love you with all my heart.”

The computer had finished installing the software and disk was ejected. Motherboard wiped away her tears and made her way back to her desk, “And now I have a way to protect and be with you at all times.”

At her desk, there was a small drawer. She pulled it open, revealing a silver collar-style necklace with a brown gem in the center. The gem was pony-made of micro-level machinery, similar to Circuit’s. It was very shiny against his gray coat as Motherboard put it around Circuit’s neck. There was a clicking sound as she set in place and the gem glowed before dimming back down.

Motherboard heard a faint ding from the elevator which meant that The Commander would be coming any second. Motherboard quickly shut down her terminal, closed her desk, and turned to the door to welcome The Commander.

“Morning, Motherboard.”, The Commander gruffed. He didn’t seem to have the best of nights himself. His mane was more disheveled than usual and there was dried blood he had forgotten to wipe off in the corner of his lips. He was coughing terribly, with no indication that he was getting better.

“Good morning, Sir. I have finished all of the checks and he..”, Motherboard caught herself, forcing it out, “-it is ready for transport.”

“Excellent.” The Commander walked around Circuit, giving him a good look. “Very nice, Motherboard. I dare say he almost looks like a regular pony.”

He is...

“But”, The Commander questioned, “What is this little piece of jewelry around his neck? We don’t need it to be some of sort of fashion pony.”

“It is not merely decoration, Sir. It simply another monitoring module to assist with the-”

“Ok, I get it.”, The Commander interrupted, “I will get a team together to wheel it to Mission Control.”

Motherboard shook her head, “That won’t be necessary, Sir. I will take of care that. I have been with this project too close not to handle this with my own hooves.”

“All right. Get it done. I will see you there.” And with that, The Commander left the room, giving Motherboard an opportunity to breathe.

And Celestia be damned if I am going to let anypony else handle my son!

Taking a deep breath with a determined look on her face, Motherboard levitated Circuit carefully onto a dolly and wheeled him to the elevator, down to Mission Control. In Mission Control, there were monitors all around the walls, with ponies at different terminals. They were discussing all of the different graphs and charts on their monitors, making sure the transport sequence went perfectly. At the center of the room, in front of The Commander, was a huge map of Equestria.

When the elevator doors opened, the sea of ponies parted, letting her through, and she placed Circuit on a bright white platform. Huge circles descended from above, around Circuit, scanning him. Once those checks were complete, Motherboard took her position below The Commander’s chair, at her terminal, and sat waiting for his command.

“Is everything ready?”, The Commander asked

“Yes, Sir. Everything is in place and awaiting your orders. The remote activation system has been tested and it will start only moments after successful transport.”, Motherboard replied.

The Commander nodded, “Good. On my mark...”

“Everypony at the ready.” ordered Motherboard

“Now....”

Be safe, Circuit

“ENGAGE!”

Author's Note

It takes a lot to give you guys perfection or the closest I can come to it. Enjoy.