Re: [Fallout Equestria] Setting discussions

[Harmony Ltd.]

I'm just not sure if what we've seen from donkeys in the show until now confirms it or not.

Maybe I should rewatch "A Friend In Deed". It's been so long.

[O. Hinds]

So, we can probably say a bit more on the potential NCR/Alliance space race now.

The NCR will probably be starting from more or less scratch; maybe they'll be able to find some plans or part factories somewhere, but the heart of Equestria's space program has just gone boom. They might also have the rocket Blackjack took (which, without proper ground facilities and a supply of new boosters, would be useful mainly for reverse engineering) and/or the ESS-A1… but, while the ESS-A1 would indeed be extremely useful, given what's currently going on in PH, I estimate the probability of the NCR getting its hooves on it as low.

The Alliance, as a reminder, has if anything even less extant hardware to salvage, but they do have in Profectum intact plans for the whole of the Pax Roamana's space program; combined with their industrial base, that probably means a head start.

As to the space race taking place… I'm not sure. The current events in PH are big, important, and in space, but they're also unlikely to happen again. Do you think that they'd be by themselves motivation to get back up there?

[Harmony Ltd.]

I suppose, yes.

It was always going to be a while before the NCR managed to even get to technological and general power parity with the Alliance, even less getting ahead of the race.

[O. Hinds]

Aye. Though even just the ESS-A1 by itself, if the NCR manages to get it, might, at least initially, put the NCR ahead even if the Alliance had spaceplanes flying and in production. As stated in the chapter, it's a sturdy ship that can land pretty much anywhere flat that it won't sink into, and it can keep flying as long as the reactor is producing enough power. It's an entire orbit access infrastructure by itself; the NCR would only have to supply pilots and payloads… those both of those, admittedly, would probably be nontrivial. But given the number of ifs in the chains of events leading to the NCR getting it (if it doesn't get blown up on the moon and if it comes back from the moon and if it isn't shot down and if it doesn't crash land and if it isn't blown up between the landing and the end of the story and if it ends the story in the possession of something that would allow the NCR to acquire it and if they manage to do that)… I doubt that that's going to happen.

So the Alliance has the lead in space, then. The first step would likely be expanding the ARCANN system with communication satellites, giving it a global reach and allowing the more vulnerable and expensive-to-maintain aerostats currently used to be retired. Second reconnaissance and surveying, third orbital weapons (both orbit-ground and orbit-orbit). That sound reasonable?
Of course, this presupposes that the Kessler Syndrome caused by the end of the war isn't too severe; if it is, the first step is probably a cleanup operation.

I'm also thinking that the Alliance spaceport could be near Port Maple. While the Miliozi would prefer it be near Masozi, there are enough solid arguments for Port Maple that I think they could be swayed.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Just a parenthese, but the reason why I haven't been active much here these last few weeks (month?), apart from school stuff, is that as we are nearing the end of PH, I'm waiting for things to settle, before trying to get a somewhat definitive basis on which to finally build this setting.

Hopefully, by next March-April this should be.

[O. Hinds]

Quite understandable.

[Harmony Ltd.]

This doesn't mean that I'm not going to do anything in the meanwhile, just that the juice isn't quite flowing as it used to.

[O. Hinds]

No problem.

[O. Hinds]

A small note regarding the space programs: the orbital weapons satellites which may or may not be operational are yet another reason to get back up there. (I was just reminded of them by the Icy Shake's latest batch of commentary and error spotting.) Actually, if the signal from the moon looking for EC-1101 (which I was also reminded) wasn't only hitting Equestria (which seems likely), or even if it was only hitting Equestria but was detected by a Vetribus overflight, the Alliance might have begun making plans to get back into space during PH, pre-SR, before they even knew about Project Horizons, the Eater of Souls, and the like.

Oh, yes, and I assume that the end of PH will also bring more work on your timely of the Bitter War and the fall of the GPE?

[Harmony Ltd.]

Probably, yes. That's why I'm holding off for now, among other things.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Can't remember:

Is there still (?) naturally passing seasons on Equus after the days of fire?

[O. Hinds]

They were, as I recall, briefly mentioned in the original FoE...
Ah, here it is:

“Okay, here’s another one.  This is the story about Twilight Sparkle’s first Winter Wrap-Up.”

“What’s a Winter Wrap-Up?”  Calamity asked, opening the Sparkle~Cola I had passed to him.  Carrot-flavored liquid erupted in his face.  He shot me a look.

“Oh, come on,” I chortled.  “I owed you that for the Ministry of Awesome!”

He glowered, then chuckled.  Velvet Remedy floated him a cloth to wipe his face.

Spike watched us with amusement, waiting for Calamity to dry himself before answering.  “Well, that’s when the ponies of Ponyville would clean up the winter so that spring could start properly.”  As he looked at us, I could see it dawning on him that none of us had the slightest clue what he was talking about.  Two of us were from Stables and had never experienced a winter.  Calamity had been an outcast long enough to have been through a few, but only wild winters that wrapped themselves up on their own.  The pegasi had long stopped aiding the passing of the seasons.

As far as I remember, that was all we got.


On another note, while I was searching for that, I found something I had quite forgotten.  I don't think we ever found out what happened to Red Eye's cyberdog, Winter…

[Harmony Ltd.]

Thanks for the answer.

As for that Winter dog, I don't even remember this character (at this point I think it's been 3 years since I read FoE). Did it play any role in the story?

[O. Hinds]

Not much of one, as far as I recall. It did chase LittlePip onto that rooftop in Fillydelphia.

[Epsilon]

Fillydelphia was the last that we ever saw of him.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Chances are it died there, during the period of chaos / self-destruction of the city.

OR, either Rose Eye or some other emigrating Red-Eye-brand warlords took it with them.


Interesting point: due to the general life-prolonging effects of cybernetics, the dog may still be alive and kicking 30 years later.

[O. Hinds]

With Stern dead, I'd say that Winter pretty much has to be either dead (or buried under rubble but still functional or something), with Rose Eye, or with Protege if we're using him. It seems to be that Red Eye would have taken steps to make sure his loyal companion didn't follow someone who was just a better bandit out for caps. And yes, I'd expect that, if Winter survived Fillydelphia, they'd still be alive. Though I suppose that they could have been killed in the meantime.

On a point that brings up that I think somehow we've missed covering before, what, if anything, are we doing with Protege? And are we including some version of Murky, or the others from the story? Basically, do they fall within the broad strokes, or are they washed out, and if they do exist in this universe, what are they doing? Or were they doing, if they're dead. I of course stopped reading MN7 a bit ago, so I don't know how close the ending is or what might be in it. Thoughts?

[Harmony Ltd.]

I didn't go farther than Ch. 7 of MN7, so I guess in my view Murky & co are not a part of this "canon"?

Though I guess if there's interesting ideas in that story we could use, we couod integrate them as broad strokes?

Is there any interesting ideas in MN7 we could exploit in particular?

[O. Hinds]

Eh... not sure.  It gives some nice details for Fillydelphia and Red Eye's operations...  I'm not sure how much is there that would actually be really useful to us here, though, now that I think of it. Back when I was reading, I was thinking that it we might get some good ideas from the story's canon ending, but that was before it got so... well, in my view, at least, ridiculous.

[Harmony Ltd.]

So, I know I should wait until the end of PH to start thinking back on things, and especially in that area, but I'm bored, so...

I note that there is a big area of space around Stalliongrad with pretty much nothing.


We established earlier that the region was, pre-war, one vast fertile plain, with Stalliongrad in the center of it, its influence spreading across the region as the region's capitol. We also hinted to the idea that the place has historically and still was before the war in majority populated by Eath Ponies.

I was thinking the area might be akin to the Ukraine, in that it's (one of?) Equestria's breadbasket, and that the underground of the region is (was?) rich in resources useful for the industrialization of Equestria: coal near the border with the highlands, iron and other metals throughout the country, some rich gem deposits here and there. This would have explained Stalliongrad's status as a major manufacturing center during the war, how the area got so rich, so populated, and thus why a disproportionate amount of the Equestrian Armed forces was composed of Stalliongraders (20 to 25%), and further the impetus Stalliongrad got to automate its industry as it did.

There is an explanation as to why Stalliongrad and its region didn't get repopulated after the Days of Fire, in the sheer intensity of the balefire bombardment the city and its surrounding countryside was subjected to (Stalliongrad reduced to dozens of glowing balefire craters, and the various mines and industries scattered through the country being targeted by smaller warheads); rendering the place inhospitable to all but ghouls and later alicorns.

Still, the Gardens of Equestria should have cleaned the land of radiation, taint, and possibly chemical pollution (was that a feature of the GoEs?). Leaving an area that was historically fertile free to once again be settled.


Any power occupying it nowadays would have moved in in the interval, and thus wouldn't have that much of a hold on the area. It's also in reach of a number of other powers' sphere of influence: neo-Hoofington (by which I mean whatever happen to the place), the New Enclave, Draconia (more farmland and gem deposits), the Remnants, and probably a few others.

And in the middle of it, without people's knowledge, there's the equivalent of an STC, giving anyone seizing it the tools to launch themselves in a war of conquest again the whole world and win.


So, how do we go from there?

A suggestion could be that someone already took control of it, maybe some kind of Courier, and decided to keep it a secret.

Maybe they try to continue to keep the Stalliongrad Complex hidden, with the intent of revealing its existence if and only it were to be absolutely necessary for the survival of the world?

And with someone already in control of the complex, it would not be an easy matter to seize it by force. Other powers, if they became aware of it, and of its potential, would be forced to negotiate if they wanted things from it; as attacking it frontally would be suicidal given what it could -do- if unleashed to its full potential (it could probably outproduce the Alliance in the span of a few weeks, if not just right away, and continue geometrically from there).


And a new (shadow) power is always interesting to discuss. And it would leave us free to think about how the other powers struggle among each others on the surface trying to reclaim the area (which would essentially be free of any infrastructure).

[Harmony Ltd.]

And we STILL need to work on Trottingham and its place in the NCR, given its relative geographical isolation with the rest of the NCR and its reliance on sealanes and air-traffic to link it to the rest of the NCR.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Also, is there stated somewhere how deep underground the effect of the Gardens of Equestria reaches? Because the Complex is quite deep, and radiation has had two centuries to seep in through the cracks left by the intense balefire bombardment on the local geology.

[O. Hinds]

re Stalliongrad:
Interesting.

And in the middle of it, without people's knowledge, there's the equivalent of an STC, giving anyone seizing it the tools to launch themselves in a war of conquest again the whole world and win.

Well, a massive and replenishing robot army isn't much good if you order it to the wrong place and then enemy special opts teams or spies sneak into your factories and plant balefire bombs; it wouldn't guarantee victory.  But it is still a potentially overwhelming advantage at this point, yes.

A suggestion could be that someone already took control of it, maybe some kind of Courier, and decided to keep it a secret.

It seems like it has potential, but I'm afraid that I don't have any more specific ideas at the moment.  I'm quite busy this weekend and expect to be for the early part of the coming week, sorry.

And a new (shadow) power is always interesting to discuss. And it would leave us free to think about how the other powers struggle among each others on the surface trying to reclaim the area (which would essentially be free of any infrastructure).

Well, the Alliance already has considerable experience in this sort of thing from its operations in Zebrica, so there's that in their favor (or the favor of whoever they're backing, rather).

And we STILL need to work on Trottingham and its place in the NCR, given its relative geographical isolation with the rest of the NCR and its reliance on sealanes and air-traffic to link it to the rest of the NCR.

Ah, yes.

Also, is there stated somewhere how deep underground the effect of the Gardens of Equestria reaches?

I'm pretty sure it wasn't.

Again, sorry for not doing more right now, but much of my time at the moment is being occupied by moving.

[Harmony Ltd.]

No problem.

Meanwhile, as I was bored, I wrote a thing on Geneighva in the Wasteland Companion:

Minor Factions - Geneighva:

The only things news, compared to what has been said already, is:
- numbers (pre- and post-balefire)
- explicitly naming the underground complex of interconnected stables "Stable-City"
- elaborating on Geneighva's isolationism and on why it didn't take advantage of its position to carve itself an Empire in the wastes early on: hinting to the fact they were happy enough with what they had and didn't want to risk losing it, and thus adopted a low profile.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Though I'll probably end up rewritting this, as it's a bit to long compared to the rest of the minor factions description.

Edit: simply moved it to "places of interest - Noble republic of Geneighva - Geneighva". This seems more appropriate and in keeping with what was previously written.

[SilentCarto]

Also, is there stated somewhere how deep underground the effect of the Gardens of Equestria reaches? Because the Complex is quite deep, and radiation has had two centuries to seep in through the cracks left by the intense balefire bombardment on the local geology.

There's some indirect evidence in that radioactive materials and water had to be shipped into Equestria to run the rad-engines and support ghoul biology. If there'd been any radiation left from nuking Maripony (again!), they wouldn't need to go so far afield, so Gardens must have worked at least that far down.

I also have to assume that Twilight would have made sure Gardens would destroy any Taint that seeped into groundwater supplies, so I'd suppose the effect reached at least a couple thousand feet down to cleanse any aquifers. I'm not familiar with the "Complex" you're talking about, but I'd think it would have to be at least half a mile down to get beyond the range of Gardens.

[Harmony Ltd.]

If you've played Portal 2, you'll be familiar with the general depth of the Complex. :D

Thanks for the answer, that's what I thought as well. Just needed confirmation.

[O. Hinds]

One thing: Stable-Tec's headquarters were in Fillydelphia, I think (Does not LittlePip in fact visit them?), not Manehattan.

[SilentCarto]

One thing: Stable-Tec's headquarters were in Fillydelphia, I think (Does not LittlePip in fact visit them?), not Manehattan.

Correct. That was the location of Stable 0, where Apple Bloom died.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Thank you, I wasn't sure.

Do you confirm the R&D headquarter was in Hoofington?

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