Under the bleak sky of a post-industrial Canterlot, a young mare named Neverwas ekes out a living through her knack for hacking computers. Her day-to-day existence is turned on its head, however, when she becomes entangled in a hidden war between the megacorporations vying for control of the city, and perhaps, the whole world.
Long ago, something happened to transmogrify the land of Equestria from an age of sunshine and rainbows into a cybernetic nightmare. Whether or not Neverwas wants to uncover the hidden secrets of her world, she'll soon do so.
. . .
This is a rewrite of my old story Obsolescence. Trust me when I say that although the changes are substantial, I hope I have been able to preserve what readers liked about the story's first incarnation.
The 'Gore' tag is for sci-fi action and violence.
Thanks so much to TheOmegaRidley for his amazing artwork!
Also, thanks to my amazing editors, Chapter 13 and Typoglyphic. They have been invaluable for help with grammar, structure, brainstorming, and creative contributions.
Thanks to Crystal Static for being so encouraging towards this project.
Finally, thank you for reading!
This fic has potential
,continue please 
)
(I need more to say more
Very good start! I'll be keeping an eye on this one
Didn't this story used to be longer?
7941005
this a total ground up rewrite of the original story. I read the original and was sad when it was cancelled. hopefully this will outshine the original and add to the lore of this Post Crash Cyberpunk equestria.
It's good, and I'm not saying so because I'm biased.
~ Chapter: 13
This sounds like Netrunner. HECK YA
wait... is this like Shadowrun? cause if so, then I'm definately reading this.
Oh yes. I love this sort of sci-fi. And with ponies? Booyah.
I've missed Obsolescence. Glad to see it back!
this story is extremely high on potential, I am without words
The start of this chapter reminded me of reading the start of Neuromancer, and I am liking what I read so far~
The premise to this story is a good one, and it's got a good start to it. I'm not much of a critic, sad to say, but I'll be looking forward to further chapters.
Going to read this, but since I just stumbled across it, I do have to say this first: I was really hoping to see a Crossover tag for this and Shadowrun, but other than that, I'm excited to delve into this
Good start to an awesome story, but I have an unanswered question...
HOW DID THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY BECOME GODDESSES?! AND DOES THAT MEAN ACTUAL DEITIES, OR MERELY BEINGS WITH THE POWER OF DEITIES?!
I'm sure the answers are coming in a later chapter, but i am just excited to see where this goes!
Anyone else getting some Snow Crash vibes from this fic? Mostly the setting, dystopian cyberpunk with megacorporations pretty much controlling the world and all. Plus the depiction of the Net.
Definitely gotta keep track of this one, I think.
Holy. Crab. It lives.
HALLELUJA!!!
Ah, good to have this back. And things are off to a galloping start....
Oh oh! Is this another cyberpunk fic to scratch my itch?
Quite nice to see you back in action with this.
~Skeeter The Lurker
I am certainly excited to see this story return (Insert joke here about "restoring from backup")
Significant Other made an interesting observation (since he works IT at $WORK) that as dystopian and oppressive and grimy as cyberpunk stories are, they usually are quite optimistic when it comes to computers. Just look at Tilt/Neverwas: sure the tech is outdated, stolen, and cobbled together, but everything on the whole just plain works. No botched firmware, no burning batteries, no driver confilcts, no DLL hell, no forced updates, no DRM, no Cloud outages, no malvertising, no Cryptolocker ransomware, no DDoS botnets from your lamps and refrigerators, no forgotten passwords, no spam...
this is really amazing so far and I can't wait to read more! Keep it up!
Please...
Please don't stop writing this.
This is absolutely amazing and I can not wait wait for more!
I see someone's read Ready Player One.
There are three things that tickle my beard, them being pirates, vampires, and cyberpunk. I'm a huge cyberpunk buff myself and Shadowrun is how I roll. It's always good to see another story in a somewhat similar vein. I've actually had the other one on my read later list, but that list has over 900 stories in it, so that one takes a while to go through.
Seeing the dark, dank Canterlot right off the bat really sets a good mood. I may be looking into things a little too much, but I think I see some Bladerunner inspiration via the Japanese imagery with a dash of Akira. Equestria has such an emphasis on magic that i like seeing it when technology comes up.
Before I read it, what is the Dark and Gore tag for ?
And how bad is it ?
7947244
The Dark and Gore tags are for sci-fi action and violence. I'm trying to keep this story at the sort of rating you might expect from a sci-fi action film. If you're fine with the sorts of films that helped inspire this work, such as Blade Runner, then I hope you will be able to enjoy this story as well.
(Also, if anyone is curious, many of the above mentioned speculations regarding the works that helped inspire this story are spot-on. I'm reading Snow Crash right now, Johnny Mnemonic is one of my favorite short stories of all time, I love the director's cut of Blade Runner, and the list goes on and on.)
7943920
Dark, heady cyberpunk goodness that establishes our character and the world she is in perfectly. I see Shadowrun and maybe some Neuromancer influences as well.
7944042, Cryptoware sounds like something straight out of a cyberpunk novel to me.
This is definitely something I'm gonna keep an eye on...
I get so little cyberpunk here these days, you're like a breath of fresh air. Please don't let this be a one time thing with no updates for a year plus....
If you end up needing a proof reader or editor at all I'd be more than happy to help.
I sure as hoot hope this gets completed! ^^ It is GREAT so far!
Grim and gritty isn't my usual taste, but this looks amazing on all levels. Eagerly looking forward to whatever you have in store for poor Full Tilt.
Yeah... I'm going to need more of this story.
Ohhhohohohoohoohho!!! I was going througn my faves list and found the old one!! I want moar!!!!
Soooooooo........Who else was hoping for a certain chaotic serpent to appear? Show of hands, no lying.
*Raises hand*
**Waits for rest of comments**
Hoo boy, looks like the mystery deepens...
8078850 *raises hand as well*
So, theory crafting time!
The Crash was a "crash" of magic, a time when all magic vanished, just for an instant. The reason/cause for this is unknown, but the Crash seems to have wreaked havoc on various computer systems, and the are still rebuilding to this day, even though the actual event was decades ago.
Full Tilt seems to be connected to this Crash somehow, and abilities were mentioned. What kind of abilities does Full Tilt have related to the Crash?
The Goddesses. Last chapter Applejack was stated to be the Goddess of the Harvest, Pinkie was the Goddess of Laughter, Rainbow was the Goddess of Loyalty, and Twilight was the ArchGoddess of Magic.
This Goddess system is tiered, so would Celestia and Luna be the ArchGoddess of the Sun and Moon?
Would Discord be the ArchGod of Chaos? Or simply a God?
Does the Tree of Harmony fit anywhere?
More questions, and no answers. You probably need a "Mystery" tag on this story.
8078850 *raises hand*
Yeesh...stuff went to hell for her in an awful hurry after that meeting...
My guess is that Discord is ib that big box in the center.
8078987
my theory is that the current CEOs of the Big Four are descendants of the Mane 6; because pay close attention to the one thing Everlast says when Full Tilt realises Everlast is a Germaphobe:
something tells me that Everlast is either one of Pinkie Pie's descendants, or is related in some fashion to Pinkie Pie. but seeing as how her Mental MIL is on (Malfunction Indicator Lamp; more commonly referred as the Check Engine Light in a car) with how she talks to Full Tilt, there might be some Discord mixed in there as well.
Hmm... hard to imagine how anything is going to top this Unreal experience....
Then again, Millennium Wake (just remembered you wrote that too
) also started with the Pinkie analogue and that worked out fine.
Okay, you KNOW Discord is holed up in that box.
8078850
(Raises hand)
I immediately like Everlast. I'm a sucker for characters who babble in brooks of consciousness. The brief magical apocalypse is also quite intriguing. I can see how Full Tilt's own apparent disenchantment might hold the key.
Meanwhile, the Icarus ship seems grossly inefficient. And I feel I should note that those are laser sights. Still, very cool chapter. Looking forward to more.
8078850
Not so much hoping as half-expecting.
*Holds spatula sideways*
THE FUQ
Yep, I'm interested. Can't wait for more!
The Crash is an intresting concept. It might debunk Luna and Celestia's way of conrolling the sun and moon - they might use spells to move them to controll society and create civilisation. When the crash broke their controll; let's just say pitchforks are effective against alicorns...
Discord died from the crush, I think. His body was propably kept alive by his magic itself. The magic his body would relise afterwards is maybe the reason behind the pollution and some of the more unussual tech.
8079362 She might come from Pinkie and Rairty. She's afraid of filth, a fancy talk and some sort of hedonist. That's assuming she is real and not Discord under disguise.
I also belive the old faith of Discord, Luna and Celestia isn't there anymore. But we might see monotheistic beliefs of them as having one god quickly leads to strong foundations and durability of said religion.
Another great chapter! ^^ When I saw a new chapter of this was up I. Just. Gasped! And totally didn't go silly with excitement.
really imaginative stuff love it, looking forward to more.
I hope to see more of this story again, I did like the previous incarnation of this story