The Crystal Institute

Research, Development of Newtypes in Equesria
The Crystal Institute: a programme instituted during the long war between the United Equestrian Federation and the Empire of Zeon. Where Zeon took the path of genetic modification to make better soldiers, Equestria experimented with a wider array of means to force the next step in pony evolution; chemicals and eugenics. A programme of selective breeding, cybernetic enhancement, and drug regimes created successive generations of potent fighters, often at the cost of the subjects sanity. Star Streak was one of few of the final generation to survive the war's brutal end. With defeat looming, Equestria threw those who had sufficient training into the fray, a collection of teenaged ponies, in a last ditch effort to inflict enough casualties to convince Zeon that the invasion of Equestria's core worlds would be too costly. They failed, few survived, though they were the lucky ones. In an attempt to cover up their crimes, the ponies running the Crystal Institute terminated all subjects still in their 'care' before Zeonic troops could land.

The handful that had survived being thrown at the Zeonic forces were by and large incapable of adapting to normal life, with most inevitably ending up in prison as the violent, drug fuelled rages that had been instituted at a young age put them at odds with civil society. The government of Equestria that rose in the wake of their defeat sought simply to bury the problem, since the citizenry and indeed the conquering Zeonic forces had been led to believe that all of the subjects had been terminated at the Institute itself or in battle. Former subjects of the institute were simply pushed aside, sequestered in mental institutions and prisons