On the way home from a Wonderbolts Airshow, Onyx and his family were killed by a roadside bomb. However, he awakes in a strange laboratory, not alive, but not dead either. He has strange metal machinery grafted onto him, a mechanical heart pumps in his chest, and a silver horn protrudes from the earth pony's head. A mysterious cyborg stallion known only as Blackout informs him that he's now the newest member of a secretive cult with sinister plans for Equestria, and he fully expects Onyx to repay the debt he never asked for.