Author's Note

So here begins my more mature vision of Equestria, hope you all like it. This is a huge departure from my typical style, but hopefully it finds a base that appreciates it. This story is going to be brutal (all those red tags) so you've been warned. On to chapter one...

Reminiscing

"How are they performing?" Twilight asked, pushing the glasses on the bridge of her nose up with a shaky hoof. The alicorn looked terrible, her mane frazzled and sticking up in various spots. Permanent black bags were planted beneath both her eyes, I'd bet because of the countless hours of sleep she'd lost over the past few years.

"They're a little... stiff," I stretched my wings out, shifting and moving them slowly before flapping them hard. The loud steely clangs of the sharp metal sheets that covered my appendages knocking against each other made me wince. "and a little noisy." I wasn't about to complain about something so insignificant though. Twilight had given me the greatest gift I could ever ask for, some annoying sounds wouldn't be a problem.

The three years I couldn't fly had to have been the worst of my life, all because a single filly was dumb enough to make the worst decision of her's...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Cozy Glow...

That stupid idiot.

I don't know what she was expecting to happen when she tried to get rid of the magic in Equestria, but she'd done it. Like a stupid naive foal, she took everything from us. We'd gradually lost all the magic in a few days, every last drop of it gone, just like that, sent to another reality that none of us could ever reach.

With no magic we were lost... Was that why we called what happened "The Loss"? Probably not, more likely because we lost the magic. Yeah, that made a lot more sense.

Anyway, In a matter of days earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi became equals in the ability department. I couldn't help but think the old crazy Starlight would've gotten a kick out of our new world. Earth ponies had become the most... profitable race. Since they didn't have magic before the disaster, they were the least affected by the Loss and still had their absurd physical traits. Not much had changed magic-wise for Aj or Pinks, the lucky mares. I was really happy for them, but honestly... I'm ashamed to say I was more than a little jealous, even if they didn't have it so great themselves.

When your whole life is spent tending a farm that relies on the sun and weather to thrive, you kind of lose your purpose when those things go away. Losing their way of life hit Granny Smith particularly hard. It'd been decades that she'd had that life and she was forced to leave it all behind at the drop of a bit. Needless to say, It made her physically ill.

She never recovered. The Apples were fighters though, and each of them pushed through the pain and were very productive when Ponyville needed them most. Before the Loss, Equestria owed them a debt of gratitude. That remained true even after the catastrophe.

While she may not have been affected immediately, eventually Pinkie... Pinks lost her smile. Seeing so many friends die, so much pain and suffering, will do that to any creature. The bubbly party pony that once cheered up an entire town no longer existed. I missed her so much.

Unicorns and Pegasi like me had our lives stolen from us. My friends and I were understandably devastated along with the all the other creatures of the world. Rare couldn't even make clothes like she'd used to. Don't get me wrong, she could still sew and whatnot, (using a very careful mouth,) but the loss of her magic slowed her ability to create to a crawl.

All of her boutiques suffered for it, every one of them shutting it's doors within weeks of the Loss, but I guess that could've also been chalked up to ponies just not being interested in fancy clothes and the like anymore. With the magical abilities we'd relied on for so long suddenly gone, what had once been pleasant luxuries quickly became pointless drains.

Flutters didn't seem to mind losing the ability to fly too much, not being much of a flier in the first place, but... she took the loss of her ability to communicate with her little (and big) animal friends horribly. With no way for them to understand one an
other came confusion which slowly degraded into mistrust... Eventually, the critters up and abandoned her. We all felt for the poor mare, but there wasn't exactly much any of us could do. I mean, we were going through our own crap at the time too.

Starlight was completely inconsolable at first, having blamed herself for everything that'd happened. She said it was all her fault cause she'd gotten tricked by Cozy, but to be completely fair, we'd all been duped by that little brat.

We all knew she was being way too hard on herself so thankfully, after a while, the seven of us (along with Trixie, though I'll never understand how anyone could be around that mare for more than five minutes,) were able to get through to her. She'd long proven she was one of us and we'd never let her hold such a stupid grudge against herself.

When the gravity of the situation finally hit me, really registered in my mind, I... I'm a little ashamed to admit I seriously considered killing myself. If I couldn't fly what was the point of even being alive? It's a good thing my friends have always been so amazing cause I knew that even if I couldn't soar through the sky ever again, I'd always have them to lean on. They were more than enough reason to live for. I needed them... and they needed me.

Twilight... Twilight went a little crazy. Okay, maybe not just a little. She'd already been... weird before the Loss. I mean, all her life she'd been obsessed with two things, books and magic. She'd been the princess of one of those for crying out loud, losing that title should've destroyed her, but that brain of her's would never let her be a failure. For the sake of us all she'd...

When the magic completely left us it had been late into Luna's night, locking all of Equestria in a state of perpetual darkness. Celestia and Luna were confident we'd succeed at stopping Cozy, so naturally they'd kept the day and night cycle going... Proooobably a really big mistake in hindsight.

With the princesses unable to move the sun or the moon any longer there was no one to do the job. The reality that we'd all be trapped in an endless darkness was too much for a lot of the creatures of Equestria to handle.

The first sign things were quickly going down a dark path were the riots that started in a bunch of the cities. It really was sad, seeing how fast everything our kinds had built fell apart, how fast everyone turned against each other... even against the princesses themselves. I guess they thought someone had to be blamed and the sisters were the easiest targets.

With no magic Celestia and Luna were just two oversized earth ponies with sharp horns and larger than average wings. Anyone with half a brain would've abandoned them as soon as the Royal Guard had forsaken them. It's a good thing Twilight had lost it or the two of them probably would've ended up dead. Somehow we'd managed to get them out of Canterlot safely through some underground caves Chrysalis had trapped Twilight and Cadance in a long time ago.

Thankfully, Ponyville had always been the heart of Equestria, not even something as horrible as the Loss could break up our big family. None of the ponies in our town lost it and if anyone came close we helped each other to get through the fear. With Twilight as our leader we were able to protect ourselves and the princesse-... Celestia and Luna. It's not like they were princesses anymore, no point in calling them that.

It was hard hiding them at first, but once the truth came out most Equestrian's just seemed to forgot about them anyway. Cozy had been caught right after the Loss and was trapped in Canterlot's dungeons when the riots began. When it became public knowledge that she'd been the one to cost our world it's magic there was no way to stop the mobs from getting to her. There wasn't much left of the filly when the masses were done with her. There wasn't even enough left of her body worth burying.

Such an idiot.

With Equestria thrown into a chaotic mess we knew we had to do something, but we had very few options. Groups started cropping up left and right, pretty much starting out as little gangs that quickly grew way out of control. They started taking over cities, claiming territory, and killing anyone dumb enough to trespass on their turf.

It was all so stupid. There were so many more important problems that needed fixing and most creatures were out there killing each other instead of helping. Can you believe that? With no way to make the sun rise we couldn't even grow food. I can't imagine what happened up north.

With no way to travel to the Crystal Empire and no real way to get messages up that far north, we had no way of knowing if they were alright. It was way too dangerous to go by train and hoofing it would take weeks, if not months and could be just as treacherous railway. Twilight was confident her brother and sister could handle things, but without the magic of the Crystal Heart to protect them the weather had probably...

I didn't want to think about it, like I said, we had enough to worry about down in Pomyville.

When the first group of raiders attacked our home it was easy to see just how vulnerable we were. It was bad, really bad. The ponies of Ponyville were accustomed to disasters, but not other ponies trying to murder them.

We lost more than just property that day... or should I say night?

Whatever.

I remember Twilight taking that tragedy particularly poorly. Don't get me wrong, we were all devastated, but Twilight... changed that day. Since she could no longer rely on her magic to get things done she turned completely to science.

With her and Starlight working literally round the clock the level of our tech increased exceptionally fast. They were way too smart. (So smart we started referring to them as the Lights... get it? Cause their names both... a-anyway...) There was so much work to do. We had to protect ourselves... had to protect all of Ponyville. It's crazy what a town of ponies could do when they were pressed and they all worked together.

We did a lot of building back then, but I guess that hasn't changed much. Aj's always somewhere building something around the city. That was the job she'd taken up for the city's well-being. With Sweet Apple Acres pretty much useless without sun or rain, Aj became head of construction for all of Ponyville.

Thank all that was good for the Everfree Forest. It had become less dangerous than the rest of Equestria and the deeper we went in, the more resources we were able to scavenge. After we built the powerplant, the refinery, the wal...

Look I'm gonna level with ya, I don't really know all the details. It was never my job to do any of that technical crap anyway, I just helped wherever I was needed. If I had to get anything done or get somewhere specific I just asked Twilight, Starlight, or Rarity to point the way or help me get there.

Anyway, Ponyville grew like crazy. It basically became the only sane place left in all of Equestria. Even though Twilight ran a really tight ship, she let anyone who passed a rigorous screening process live in the city.

Since we couldn't expand outward due to a lack of land and the threat of murderous gangs, we were forced to build upwards. Little homes and small buildings were replaced with apartments and skyscrapers. It was super convenient and we were able to build even faster with so many new citizens joining us.

When Ponyville started getting really large bands of troublemakers started attacking us more often. Because Canterlot had fallen so quickly and the castle was immediately ransacked, most of the weapons the Royal Guard had stored away were already being used by the roving gangs. It's not easy to fight against real weapons when all you have is some farming tools and everyday items like brooms.

We'd been so preoccupied with creating that we'd completely slacked it on the destroying side of things. Twilight put an end to that deficiency real fast when a crazy changeling almost killed Celestia. It hadn't been able to transform, it was just a rogue changeling spouting crap about this never happening if Chrysalis had taken over.

I honestly thought all the changelings were dead. Didn't they use magic to feed? Guess nature had taken some mercy on them. Luckily, we hadn't run into Chrysalis again. That bug queen and her hive were a serious menace.

Anyway, back to the topic at hoof. What started out as crude weapons like iron swords and crappy shields quickly changed into... The Lights getting creative. With the old magic they used to utilize and study as a base for ideas, they started thinking up some seriously insane stuff.

Things like swords and crossbows were a normal part of war a long time ago, but our nerdy overlords (Twilight and Starlight, obviously) pushed things to the next level... or maybe more like twenty or thirty levels.

It started with weapons they'd called guns. Much like crossbows, they could be used to shoot at a creature from a safe distance. Unlike arrows fired from a bow, the things guns fired could rip a creature to pieces. As they developed newer models over time, they could be used over greater distances and deal even more damage.

Ponyville initially had a monopoly on the tech, but as time passed we began encountering raiders with less effective versions of the stuff the eggheads had invented. Someone out there was trying to emulate the inventions, but they were moving at a snail's pace while Twilight and Starlight were already on to the next thing.

They called them augmentations. Those got out of hoof super fast too. By performing some pretty invasive surgery, they claimed to be able to... improve any creature, be they unicorn, pegasus, earth pony, or anything else. They kept their ideas in the family at first, not making anything public knowledge.

We were all a little skeptical, but when they said it could help me fly again I volunteered without question. I'd give anything to get back into the sky, even be a guinea pig for their science experiments. The surgery wasn't that bad... Who am I kidding? The first time was terrible. If I had to imagine what being dissected felt like, it had to be less painful than what they had done to me.

Twilight and Starlight had come up with some seriously brutal machines to help them out. They had to get into my wings and withers... like into into, so there was a lot of cutting involved. The machines did most of the work. Twilight had given me a heavy sedative, but it didn't really do much. I could feel every wire and cable being shoved inside my body. Machines didn't care if you were screaming in agony, I guess. It definitely wasn't a pleasant experience.

Recovery took a few weeks of complete inactivity and a lot of painkillers, (those things are amazing,) but once I was back to normal I was able to do a test run. Moving my wings felt really... weird at first, like they weren't mine. They were so much stronger, I was sure I could break boulders with them if I tried hard enough. Flapping them even once pushed me up into the air several meters, a far cry from my old wings.

I really pissed Twilight off that night. I spent hours in the sky, completely ignoring her shouts from the balcony of the castle. I never wanted to land. What's even crazier is I hadn't gotten tired. I willed the... er, my wings to move, but it didn't take any effort. I even accelerated to speeds that almost created a rainboom without breaking a sweat.

Twilight's annoyed face had quickly shifted to a smile when I finally landed in front of her. I cried... (I'm not too proud to admit it, but if you tell anyone I'll find out where you live and pay ya a visit.) With a confirmed success, Twilight and Starlight moved on to the others... or at least those who were willing. Flutters and Pinks refused to get any work done outright, said it was "unnatural".

They were probably right, but I didn't care, I could fly again. Plus, it didn't make much of a difference if they got enhanced. Neither of them were fighters in the first place and they were accommodated to anyway.

That's where Rare came in. She had no reason to continue making her fancy clothes any lomger so she started making... accessories, with the help of the Lights, of course. If ponies didn't want to get augmented they were given... external devices that could usually perform similar tasks.

But anyway, me, Aj, and Rarity didn't have any qualms about getting modified. Even Celestia and Luna had volunteered. Aj got her legs augmented and could buck... well, pretty much anything now. She'd always been really strong before, but after her augments she could reduce buildings to rubble with little to no effort. It was really beneficial for the construction work she was constantly doing... and the fighting on the rare occasions when I needed some backup.

Not only did she have absurd strength, she could also move like lightning. She was pretty agile and could jump like a... well, I guess like she was always on Equestria's best trampoline. It was easy to see she didn't regret her decision.

Rare got a measure of her magic back too... in a way. While she couldn't lift and move anything she wanted like before, she could move most things with any metal in them. Twilight said the chips they'd implanted in her horn could do something with magnetic waves and that is how she could mess with metal and build all those crazy doohickeys. It was all Greek to me, but it just meant Rare surrounded herself with different kinds of metals. She was much happier too, I think.

Twilight surprised us all when she said she wouldn't be getting any work done. At first it really did seem like the mare was just using us to do some wild experiments, but when she explained her reasoning we all understood. What she'd called cybernetics hadn't exactly been tested.

The pair had theories and ideas, but there wasn't any concrete long term evidence of the effects the tech would have on a pony. If something went terribly wrong, Twilight couldn't fix things if she were crippled by her own augments. She was our safeguard and we loved her for it.

Starlight got the craziest enhancement I think, being Twilight's right hand mare and all. Since she never left her best friend's side, she wanted something she could use to protect the alicorn from the dangers of the new world. The cybernetics she got implanted in her horn could mess with any other thing that functioned on similar tech.

I think they called it hacking. In a couple seconds Starlight could destroy or take control of anyone's tech. We tested that out on my wings. Needless to say, I basically turned into her toy. She could completely control my wings and they're basically ninety percent of my body now, so I couldn't resist at all.

It was good to know Twilight was in such capable hooves. Come to think of it, Starlight and Twilight were never away from each other much anymore... I think they were even sleeping in the same room. Pretty sure there was something going on there... eh, none of my business.

The last to get augmented were the two sister's, but the Lights ran into a problem. Alicorns are... weird. Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Twilight are all pretty different. While it's safe to say ponies don't really differ too much from each other, the same probably shouldn't be assumed about alicorns.

Twilight was especially scared of experimenting on her mentor. Luna was having none of that, the dark alicorn had always felt she was a protector of Equestria and it's ponies. With no magic she'd said she was useless.

She'd said If the cybernetics could give her a way to protect her friends she'd gladly go through Tartarus to get them. Twilight and Starlight started out small, a simple wing implant. While Luna's wings were larger than a normal Pegasus, her body was bigger too.

The initial tests were all failures. If they showed anything it was that getting the younger sister airborne was gonna be difficult, if not impossible. It also pretty much removed that option completely for Celestia. She was HUGE. Even with cybernetics Twilight said it'd be impossible to get her off the ground.

Much like Flutters, it didn't seem to bother the alabaster alicorn too much. While she did regret it initially, she'd already gotten used to the loss of her magic, plus she hadn't flown much before the Loss anyway, so it wouldn't greatly affect her like most pegasi.

After a couple months of work they were able to get Luna airborne, but her other enhancements were severely limited due to the threshold for weight her body could contain. They'd made her wings as light as possible, but the tech just wasn't there yet.

Celestia... Celestia got turned into a tank. They threw every kind of weapon into her large frame that she could withstand. From experience I've personally seen bullets, grenades, and even missiles come from somewhere within the alicorns body. I wasn't sure what her full list of abilities were, but she was particularly scary. Real glad she's on our side.

In only five years, the Lights had managed to build a full functioning super city. We didn't need much of anything else. The only crappy thing we still lacked was decent grub. They'd made some artificial paste stuff that kept us all healthy and living, but man, it tasted like hot garbage.

We still got actual food from the Everfree once in a while, even though it wasn't high on our list of priorities. For some reason stuff still grew like normal there, as if the Loss had never crossed it's boundaries. It was obvious that forest would never be normal, no matter what condition Equestria was in...

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"That should go away as you get used to them," Starlight explained, looking down at the clipboard she was holding. "We got the defensive capabilities up to your requested parameters, but we don't have material strong enough to keep you aerial and protect you from rounds and explosions..." she looked me in the eye, prodding my wing gently. "At least not without it being a little cumbersome."

"We'll get it right, I swear," Twilight sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "We just need to work a little harder and some more ti-"

"Twilight..." I laid a hoof on the shoulder of the lavender alicorn sitting before me. She looked so tired, it made me feel awful. She'd been through so much and was still pushing herself so hard. I tried to smile as best I could, the gesture not something I did much anymore. "They're great, don't worry about it."

"I have to..." Twilight's eyes grew a bit crazed, not seeing me anymore. "I can't lose you girls, I..." I removed my hoof, looking at Starlight hopefully. She was the only one that could help Twilight when she got like this.

"Twi," the lilac unicorn got her attention with a hoof where mine had been seconds ago. "how bout we take a break, get a little rest?" The raised eyebrow on Starlight's face combined with her smirk suggested a whole lot more than just simple rest.

Yep, definitely something going on there.

"S-sure," Twilight let out the breath she'd been holding in. "That sounds nice." A loud crackle of static that only I
and those on the same frequency could hear rang out in my ear.

"Dash, come in Dash. Over." The hardened voice in my head still had a habit of throwing me off whenever I heard it. The Lights had developed a pretty complex communications system for all of us. Those of us who were fine with being augmented had implants installed inside our heads.

"This is Dash, I read you, Fluttershy. Over," I responded. Flutters and Pinks used walkie talkies that they carried around to speak with us, a lot less convenient, but hey, whatever worked. Twilight and Starlight both looked at me with the concern of true friends.

"Dash, we've got a small group of raiders coming towards the north gate," she didn't sound worried. She shouldn't be. I could get out there in seconds and unless there was more than fifty I'd be fine. "They look... weird, Dash..." I waited. "Er, over."

"How many are we talking here, Fluttershy? Over." I just needed quantity, I couldn't care less about anything else.

"I see five, but they-"

"Roger that Fluttershy, moving out. Over and out!" I cut the feed, getting up and trotting to the doors of the lab. They opened in the middle, sliding outwards. "I got some troublemakers to take care of ladies," I said glancing over my shoulder as I left the room.

"Be careful out there, Rainbow," Twilight's concern hadn't waned a bit.

"Always, Twilight," I grinned. "Make sure you get her that rest, Starlight," I winked mischievously at the lilac unicorn causing Twilight's complexion to turn a deep shade of red.

"For sure, Dash," Starlight winked back, stepping closer to Twilight. "Take care of yourself."

"With these babies," I flared my wings, staring up at the slick metal that coated my appendages. "I don't think I'll have too much to worry about."

Oh, how wrong I was...