It is commonly known, the great stories of the Elements of Harmony. It's taught in every school's history class, has been the subject of countless movies, video games, and books. It was a grand time, not as well understood nowadays despite how well documented it is. A time where six mares would come to become Equestria's greatest heroes. The time they lived in was much different, no computers, ponies had to send messages manually usually through Pegasus couriers as opposed to the instant messaging capabilities of today. Transport was usually though pulled, engine-less wagons or large rather slow steam trains. Fighting happened mainly with magic and steal, without guns as is common today.
The main threats to Equestria were often beings from outside it, whether they be Nightmare moon, Discord, among some others. You could easily tell who was bad and who was good, a simpler time it was.
Things changed suddenly, many a genius, visionary, or simply inventive pony started changing the world. In a wondrous and unpredictable time inventions came and started taking off. One pony put a steam engine creation into a carriage and made the first autocarriage, which would become refined and a major source of transportation. Many more machines would come about in the decades of what would become known as the 'industrial age' where factories and high scale production would lead to the growth of cities far beyond what was possible. The first flying machines would be created, which eventually would lead winged species to lose their monopoly on flight.
Cities grew, ponies could get around a lot faster. Electricity would soon he harnessed, generated via various means, and would lead to artificial lights being invented and widespread. Homes would change, being full of amenities such as cooking stoves, aforementioned lights, running water pipes, among other things. The time was mostly peaceful, with Equestria's society celebrating the era's inventions but in time coming to know them as commonplace. Even other places beyond Equestria would soon grow to receive their own industrial revolutions as well. The future looked bright, fancy and advanced with lots of new gadgets.
In what is now known as 'retrofuturism' ponies of that age imagined all kinds of ways the future could be. All of which were optimistic in predicting a future with even more useful gadgets and inventions while society continued to flourish with nearly not a blemish. Unfortunately it was not to remain peaceful, the radical changes would start as soon nations rose against nation and the largest war in known history came. Weapons advanced tenfold in that Era, with guns ranging from firing rapidly to having the power to obliterate a pony in a single shot. From this time things changed, societal order was maintained through governmental propaganda and police forces.
Soon crime would begin to rise, with the first criminal organizations taking form and the first inklings of the modern 'criminal underground' came into existence. Society would never be the same again as gradually, technology would continue to advance and progress while old morals and standards began to melt away. In the later industrial century subcultures would begin to form, and music genres inspired by that. Rebellious cultures who challenged the social order and old morals sprang up, all the while crime began to slowly creep it's way beneath the belly of society. By this time the occasional robbery and even murder was a visible symptom of society's changing in ways not so Utopian.
At the late parts of the industrial century came an invention which would change things forever. A sort of child to the earlier television, the computer opened up a world of possibilities. Then would come the beginning of the cyber era, as computers would connect to other computers through magical signals. The new era opened like a door into a whole new dimension, as mass long distance communication quickly became more and more a matter done without paper nor couriers but through the invisible aura of magical signals melded together into what would become known as the Internal Network, shortened as InterNet.
Communication had no distance thanks to the InterNet, and all society took advantage of it. Businesses made 'websites' to promote and tell of their products, ponies made letters through typing keys rather than through quill and ink and sent through the InterNet to the recipient in a matter of seconds no matter how far. Entertainment forms such as games, movies, and others soon could be accessed through the computer. As other technologies such as transportation advanced, computers would be integrated into those as well. Factories would eventually be run on automated robots maintained merely by engineers and ponies behind screens.
Cities would swell to colossal size as the population grew a thousandfold, sprawling like massive forests of steel, glass, and concrete. As cities grew so did crime, and the need for better methods of combating it. Thus complex and wide systems of surveillance combined with increasingly militaristic police forces would become the norm. Cameras were everywhere, keeping all but few areas outside under surveillance. The Lawless Underground only grew and advanced further itself however, adapting to these new changes. Soon one of the most prized abilities among the underground was that of the Hacker, a master of the codes within computers big and small and throughout the complex matrix of information that was the Internal Network. Hackers could do many things in a world run and operated heavily on computers.
They say the trinity of tech is metal, magic, and coding.
Through computers and the dying industry of television the governments of the world, even the princesses themselves, would maintain the system of propaganda to hide from the common citizen many of the disturbing and dark realities that existed, like a shielding veil protecting from the darkness. The threat was no longer some powerful being bent on conquering, and the many descendants of the elements capable of using the elements couldn't just friendship-blast away this problem. The criminal underground was a shadowy, partially hidden, and sprawling reality of the world. Society would thus be divided into two groups, those under law and the veil of propaganda, and those awoke to the true nature of the world who live beyond the veil.
The computer would once again infuse with it's surrounding technologies as the Crystal empire, by then one of the largest megacities of the modern time, developed the Central City System, which allowed a computer system to run surveillance cameras, direct the flow of Autocarriage traffic, monitor local InterNet activity, among many other things. It was quickly adopted by other cities around the world as an easier method of managing them, the positives were quick to be found and embraced. However the door opened to the power the lawless hackers now was more of a castle gate. Even with the security measures, one unfortunate truth remained...
You can never use the InterNet, and be 100% safe from hackers.
As the world shifted and transformed, one force came in existence in the last years of the industrial age, and would exploit the power of the Cyber age to become some of the most powerful entities of their time. Corporations, soon to grow into worldwide megacorporations, exploiting the opportunity that was the age of frequent advancement to grow large in size and wealth. Some of the brightest minds were employed by them, making the corporations top sources of the best gadgets of the era. Whether they be virtual reality game systems, the best quality computers, the most convenient yet advanced portable computers, even weapons would be developed by these large and powerful businesses. The would become the wealthiest entities in the world, wealthier than those politically in power. Even the princesses lacked the wealth carried by groups like Crystal Corp alone. The power of propaganda was also a tool not restricted to those in political power, as the power of advertisement would be made effective use of by these powers atop large monoliths of steel and concrete.
The current element bearers sit mostly as government officials and figureheads, for though faith in friendship got their ancestors far, the magic of friendship was not capable of zapping away the often morally grey groups of ponies which could threaten the social order. Thus the system of propaganda, police forces, and surveillance remained their proxies to protect their civil citizens from a world and reality they could not defeat. All the while the underground exists, thrives, carrying it's own factions and cultures and having plenty of wars fought with assassinations and gunfights with suppressed guns. Being of the shadow that lies under the great monolith that is the age of technology, a monolith built on the creations of many a bright mind and savvy businesspony. All the while those who kept the order were tasked with keeping the veil maintained that hides the shadow. Morality was once black and white, t'was a simpler time back then. Now like the great skyscrapers that line the horizons, morality lies in a dozen shades of grey.