ATLAS

ATLASDistrict Hex-Twenty: Ponyville

I remember when I could see the sun just by standing near my window... Now all the buildings block the view. My treehouse consists of a barely-living tree, and since the sunlight never reaches it, it’s almost always cold.

I guess I should talk about how much the old Ponyville has changed, huh? Well... I miss the smell of books. Now all it takes for me to earn credits is to dictate things into my holopad and sell my recordings about magical and technological study.

Sweet Apple Acres went bankrupt soon after we started to massively grow genetically-engineered fruits. Luckily, the Apple Family had enough resources left to finance Apple Bloom’s studies. She would then lead the creation of “Apple Industries,” now the leading corporation in technological advancements for humans and earth ponies. As for Applejack... She and what’s left of her family now live in a house ten times the size of mine, and still enjoy harvesting apples. I should also note that Big Macintosh was married to a short-lived, bipedal insectoid, (AKA Gektar), namely “Stars”... It was sad to see her go.

SugarCube Corner is now a factory. They’re one of the biggest suppliers of, well, sugar-induced food from all around the globe. For the last five years Pinkie Pie has spent her life basically trying to welcome every new citizen on the sector. There are at least two per day... We still don’t have the heart to acknowledge that the recent years have gotten to her.

Fluttershy... she’s deep into what remains of the Everfree forest, which is consistently getting smaller. The new, imposed urban life just wasn’t made for her. She lives near Zecora now, spending her days trying to save as much trees and animals she can, and even has invested onto “GoldenTalon Enterprises”, a company not very well known for its attitude towards humans.

I wish I could go back in time. Now the whole concept of doing so is banned, burned, and worthy of execution on sight. Anyways...

I remember Rarity’s face when all these new opportunities showed up, thinking it was finally her time to shine. And I also remember her face three years later, when she finally realized that her dreams were never to be true. Some images just never go away. Maybe it was the fact that Royalty was practically dissolved, meaning that fashion changed dramatically. She never quite got used to the new “modern” clothing.

I guess something good had to happen to one of us. Rainbow Dash volunteered to be the first pony to have a cybernetic replacement for a limb. No anesthetics, of course. We didn’t have the knowledge for that. Luckily, everything turned out fine, but the searing pain left her somewhat afraid of the scalpel. The only way for her to fly as fast, or even faster, than before would be to have her other wing replaced. But of course, she doesn’t want to, for obvious reasons.

And here we are now, just making the best we can out of our lives... Or whatever’s left of that.