Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria.....

For centuries, technological progression had been shunned in favor of magic. After all, why waste time and resources on something that may not even work? As such, the technological level of Equestria—and the planet Equis as a whole—had remained at about the same level for far longer than it should have.

It took the stubborn determination of a single pony over four decades ago to set in motion a chain of events that would change the world as we know it forever.

That pony was Divergent Bit, inventor of the world's first arcane reactor.

At its core, the function of the arcane reactor was simple. It took magical energy from the Field that encompassed the planet, converted it to energy usable by machines, then returned it to the Field once more. This in turn brought about the creation of arcanotech, and the advent of a new era of worldwide prosperity.

For the next forty years technological progress exploded at an unprecedented rate, bringing Equestria from the age of wooden carts and steam engines to a level only dreamed of in science fiction.

As Equestria's wealth and power grew, so did that of neighboring nations, for the Princesses were adamant in sharing their newfound power with others for the benefit of all. Fresh minds brought new ideas, which only increased the speed of progress. Neighboring nations which had once found themselves fighting over resources now found themselves setting aside weapons and taking up pens and quills to broker trade agreements, for each had resources useful for each other's technological progress.

Detractors of arcanotech loudly decried it as a means for nations to build horribly destructive machines of war, which would bring about the end of all life on Equis. While it was understood that some research did indeed go towards weapons of war, the number of conflicts across the globe dropped dramatically as the progress of arcanotech spread further and further.

The future was looking promising, and the collective quality of life across the planet was higher than it had ever been. There were even talks of beginning extra-planetary exploration.

Then everything went wrong.

They came without warning or preamble; aetheric maelstroms of horrific proportions roared to life across the planet, darkening the skies as the largest arcane disaster in the planet's history descended upon the inhabitants of Equis.

The Cataclysm had begun.

Entire cities and mountains underwent what was later referred to as "displacement," vanishing in the blink of an eye. Some were never seen again, others reappeared somewhere else on the planet, most often in a space already occupied by something else, causing the two to fuse together in a process that came to be known as "fluxing." Lake-sized portions of the ocean suddenly decided to make their home inland, dumping thousands of gallons of seawater across the land.

The Princesses and their mages assisted arcanotech engineers in distributing and erecting aether shields to cover towns and cities across Equestria, and transmitted the knowledge to as much of the world as they could reach in the hopes that others would be saved.

Eventually the Cataclysm died down, the megastorms grinding to a halt, and the aetheric maelstroms dissipating back into the fabric of the Field. Yet the damage had been done, and done a thousand times over. Equestria was nearly unrecognizable, as was Equis as a whole. Not only had the face of the planet been forcibly reshaped, it was now littered with dangerous anomalies, and often ravaged by aether storms from the destabilized environment.

With their former way of life effectively shattered, the ponies of Equestria were forced to adapt to survive. Many flocked to the cities that survived, but others ventured out into the Fractured Lands of former Equestria, their fate unknown.

These are their stories.

Author's Note

Reworked as of 2-20-20.