Re: [Fallout Equestria] Setting discussions

[O. Hinds]

The question was: to what point are conditions of life "austere"?

Hm... The specifics would vary, but mostly, I think, no luxuries that are just luxuries. While there's technically nothing stopping people living under the Miliozi from importing things from elsewhere, they probably aren't paid enough. If they do anyway, well, obviously they have other income, or at least more than they need, so they can be paid even less. The Miliozi aren' really interesting in "coddling" people under their rule; if you can't even handle these restrictions, get out and make room for someone who can.

[Vinylshadow]

No comfy beds
No clean water
No reliable food source
sparse shelter (and sometimes not even that)

that sort of thing?

[O. Hinds]

No comfy beds
No clean water
No reliable food source
sparse shelter (and sometimes not even that)

that sort of thing?

Oh, goodness no. The Miliozi take pride in thriving in adversity, not in being unable to provide food. People under Miliozi rule would have reliable supplies of good food and water. They'd have spartan but sturdy (if they built it properly) shelter. You might be right about the beds, though.

[Vinylshadow]

Then they're not living in austere conditions

instead, they're, as you just said, living in spartan conditions

[Harmony Ltd.]

What proportion of Miliozi-born would we see quittinq / emigrating each generation?

By 30 SR, which proportion of these quitters would go to the Alliance, which to the NCR, and which to elsewhere?

[Vinylshadow]

Maybe they're given a choice when they reach a certain age?

"Stay here, or be forever exiled from our lands" or something

[O. Hinds]

Then they're not living in austere conditions

instead, they're, as you just said, living in spartan conditions

…Um.
"austere |ôˈsti(ə)r|
adjective ( -terer , -terest )
severe or strict in manner, attitude, or appearance : an austere man, with a rigidly puritanical outlook | an austere expression. See note at severe .
• (of living conditions or a way of life) having no comforts or luxuries; harsh or ascetic : conditions in the prison could hardly be more austere.
• having an extremely plain and simple style or appearance; unadorned : the cathedral is impressive in its austere simplicity.
• (of an economic policy or measure) designed to reduce a budget deficit, esp. by cutting public expenditure."

What proportion of Miliozi-born would we see quittinq / emigrating each generation?

From their lands on the Peninsula? Well, particularly given that that area was mostly desert even before the war, the population likely wasn't too high to begin with. Most of the Wastelanders in the area probably wouldn't be too attached to their land, either; I'd be surprised if there were enough left for there to be a second generation.

By 30 SR, which proportion of these quitters would go to the Alliance, which to the NCR, and which to elsewhere?

Hm… That would depend on what the population was before the conquest, I think. Weren't you thinking of putting a slaver town in that area?

Maybe they're given a choice when they reach a certain age?

"Stay here, or be forever exiled from our lands" or something

…No? I'm not really sure why you think that'd make sense.

[Vinylshadow]

Alright, I think I'll take my leave, since I'm not really contributing anything of note DX

sorry to be a bother, good luck with...things, I guess

[O. Hinds]

Sorry. I am curious to know why you thought that such a choice would make sense, though.

[Vinylshadow]

The whole 'exile' thing was (mostly) sarcastic

I meant they'd be given a choice, stay in their lands with the clan or whatever, or take their chances outside, where the NCR and whatever other factions lurk

[O. Hinds]

The whole 'exile' thing was (mostly) sarcastic

Ah, okay.

I meant they'd be given a choice, stay in their lands with the clan or whatever, or take their chances outside, where the NCR and whatever other factions lurk

Ah, no, they could return if they left. Pretty easily, too; the Miliozi assume that anyone actually wanting to live under their rule must be serious about it, so immigration doesn't really have any big barriers.

[Vinylshadow]

God I am so lost, too many factions and factions within factions...

[O. Hinds]

What do you mean? Sorry. We do have, um, rather a lot here, yes...

[Vinylshadow]

Ponies!

Then we've got good ponies and bad ponies

then we've got good factions under the good ponies

and then those factions all have leaderships, underlings, etc

then do the same for Zebras

and Griffons and whatever else pops up in the Wasteland

After a while, I just throw up my hooves and say "Alright, done, I'll just go read the other fanfics that don't have as much to them"

*reads MNS*

GYARRRRRGH


and now we're bringing in other countries and regions?

[Harmony Ltd.]

@Vinylshadow:

Wasteland Companion, 30 SR Edition (work in progress)

This may help your understanding.

[Harmony Ltd.]

@Hinds: I wasn't the one to suggest the slaver town near San Frantello. IIRC, it was either Silentcarto or Meleagridis, before I created the first thread.

Anyway, Re the Northern League / The stockings. I'll have to attribute some processing time to that this week-end. We'll see where this ges. Though this is going to be influenced heavily by PH's ending anyway, so I'd put it on low priority for now. The Moojave and the east-coast, including Draconia, is a safer bet for now.

[O. Hinds]

@Hinds: I wasn't the one to suggest the slaver town near San Frantello. IIRC, it was either Silentcarto or Meleagridis, before I created the first thread.

Ah.

Anyway, Re the Northern League / The stockings. I'll have to attribute some processing time to that this week-end. We'll see where this ges.

Righto.

Though this is going to be influenced heavily by PH's ending anyway, so I'd put it on low priority for now. The Moojave and the east-coast, including Draconia, is a safer bet for now.

Aye. Speaking of the Moojave, I wonder when we'll hear from Meleagridis again?

[Harmony Ltd.]

Sometime before the heat death of the universe. Probably. Maybe.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Two new additions:

Ditzy “Derpy” Doo
Race: Pony (Pegasus), Ghoul
Sex: Female
Height: 145 cm
Year of birth: 247 BSR
Place of birth: Cloudsdale

Background:
Ghoulified during the Days of Fire, the story of Ditzy Doo is well known to any person having read the Book of Littlepip. This account will thus focus on her story past the Day of Sunshine and Rainbows.
Her New Appleloosan-based business, Absolutely Everything, quickly started gaining momentum as the nascent New Canterlot Republic started needing to move goods and people around the Wasteland. While Operation Cauterize was still in full swing, it was Ditzy Doo who organized most of the non-fighting Enclave-defectors, who would later become known as the Volunteers, to form a shipping service of flying caravans, allowing the NCR’s logistic to benefit greatly from the speed afforded by sky-wagons in moving troops, hardware and supplies around.
While Ditzy Doo offered her services in good heart, as her way to fight the good fight, Gawdyna Grimfeather insisted in paying for her services, or at least to recognize the NCR’s debt toward the then newly created Absolutely Everything Shipping Company.
After the Great Pegasus Enclave finally imploded, and throughout the Bitter War, the AESC represented the backbone of the NCR’s logistic, by air or by land, its caravans the blood of the Republic, protected by the soldiers of its Army, carrying to all corners of the land the food, medicine, supplies, weapons and ammunitions needed to fight and win the war.
At the end of the Bitter War, the AESC was the most powerful business in the Republic, having earned millions of NCR Bits-worth of debts to be repaid by the Government, at a time when the economy was in shamble. Ditzy Doo offered to delay the repayment of these debts, at the condition that the AESC were to become the sole provider of shipping services for the NCR’s government & military, to be paid full price.
The NCR’s government, bound by the words of the then deceased Gawdyna Grimfeather, complied, the menace of having to repay the debts it earned during the war menacing to bring it to its knee.
Thus, in what most admit to be one of the gutsiest business move of the post-SR world, Ditzy Doo became the most powerful ghoul in the NCR.
Now at the head of the most powerful corporation in the NCR, and being a bearer of the Elements of Harmony, she enjoy a position of safety from which she can safely use her power to “fight the good fight”, in a bloodless manner.
While it could be thought someone with such power could become greedy and grow distant with the common people, it is not the case with Ditzy Doo. Indeed, almost all of her personal earnings go toward funding the Followers of the Apocalypse, Ditzy Doo simply living in the top levels of the AESC’s headquarter in New Appleloosa. She also frequently visits the NCR’s various orphanages and hospitals, the Element of Laughter seeing it as her duty to give back hope and cheer to the weakest and most vulnerable elements of society.
Her connections and influence make her the most powerful person in the state of New Appleloosa, and most of the state policies and politicians are influenced to different degrees by her. Not through bribing or intimidation tactics, but by being seen as the state’s Grandmother, her silent words carrying great weight in the people’s opinion.

Character:
    Ditzy “Derpy” Doo, as someone more than a quarter of a millenium old, benefit from a wealth of experience that few can boast. In her wasteland years, she has travelled far and wide through the Equestrian Peninsula and beyond, seen things few would believe, suffered through more that can be conceived. Yet, in spite of this, or maybe because of it, she remain strong, optimistic and cheerful. The Element of Laughter.
    She is also a loving mother, having in her union with Lionheart adopted a number of childrens through the decades, ponies, zebra, griffins, and other.
    While this may seem to contradict the guts she display as the head of the most powerful corporation in the NCR, it to be understood as her mean to an end: Her business has always served as a way to make things better. As the saying goes: “Trade will save the Wasteland”.
    She is remarkable in the care she take to reign in the basest instincts of her managers, and her constant attempts to make the AESC an example of ethically run business. To various degrees of success…
    Still, her numerous qualities make her one of the most well liked personalities of the NCR, usually second after Velvet Remedy.

Sasha
Race: Hellhound
Sex: Female
Height: 315cm
Year of birth: 4 SR
Place of birth: [classified]

Background:
Product of a research project of the Bitters aiming to turn Hellhounds into living weapons without the need for a too easily failure-prone mind-control device. By further mutating Hellhounds, the Bitters managed to make them extremely malleable to suggestion and indoctrination at a young age, and extremely loyal.
Sasha was found, barely one year old, in one of the Bitters' clandestine research facilities in the fifth year of the Bitter War during the Counter-Offensive. The Bitters were proceeding to erase all traces of their research as the NCR attacked the lab, and were terminating the specimens they had bred. They were stopped before terminating Sasha, the last specimen alive.
The NCR salvaged only a marginal part of the Bitters research on the subject, only enough to understand what Sasha was, and what was her and her brethren's purposes in the Bitters' plans.
Adopted by the team who found her that day, she grew up among members of the NCR's military, and infused herself from a very young age with the institution's culture. Soon, she had only one wish: to join the military as soon as she'd be old enough.
At this point, it should be said that the spectacle offered by a five years old hellhound easily the size of a pony following another pony around in a military base saying “Daddy! Daddy! Look what I found!”, smiling with razor sharp teeth while brandishing a dead bird was the kind of weird and somewhat unsettling sight that the personnel there got quickly used to.
And so she grew.
Perceiving the use they could get from her, the higher-ups decided to hear her insistent demands to join the Military. Entering the institution at only fourteen through a special executive derogation, two years younger than the minimum legal age, she entered a special training program, her unusual capabilities and her enthusiasm making it safer for her to train separately from her comrades.
After eight years of intensive training, she finally entered active service, being one of the very rare individuals to enter directly into the NCR's special forces without any prior experience in the active forces.
Seeing as her combat style involved heavy amount of close contact with the enemy, the hierarchy proposed to implant her with a whole array of cyber-enhancements aiming at improving her endurance and increasing her chances of survival. She accepted, enthusiastically. Among other things, she got implanted with a reinforced bone structure, redundant cyber hearts and lungs, and no less than three separate healing & regeneration talismans. A suit of power-armor got also tailored just for her.
Her first deployment was against the Defilers in 27 SR, a band of raider east of the Central Mountain Range whose territory and influence was growing too big for the NCR's comfort. Sasha and her team got sent on a covert operation to erase the Defilers from the map, the higher ups eager to know how well their pet project was going to fare. They were not disappointed.
Sasha and her team, only ten members of the special forces, against the Defilers, a band of raiders who had managed to grow over a thousand members without somehow splitting up, held in the iron grip of their leader, the fearless and faceless Ripper.
In one month, and without losing any member of her team, Sasha had managed to single-handedly kill the Defiler's leader, and kill almost a fourth of the gang's members, -by herself-. The Defilers, leaderless and demoralized, split up and formed a myriad of rival gangs, which the NCR's Army latter mopped-up in Operation Streetcleaner.
Since then, Sasha is considered by the NCR's military to be a “walking megaspell”, to such an extent that some people are starting to advocate looking back into the Bitters' research and examine the possibility of breeding more specimens...

Character:
Sasha is extremely loyal to the NCR's military, fanatically so. She is extremely enthusiastic about her job, and see everything that could enhance her capabilities with extreme interest. With every passing years more and more of her flesh is being replaced with cybernetic enhancements as she “improve” herself.
Her adoptive father, today General in the NCR's armed forces, educated her to follow a strict moral code, forbidding her to harm innocents and children. If she respect it to the letter, she also display not a single trace of pity toward those she designate as her enemies.
Sasha is extremely cunning, and brutally so. She has the natural instincts of a predator, and leave no chances to her preys.
Her dark side is that she enjoy hunting. Maybe too much. She is also cruel, and take pleasure in toying with her preys when she can.
Being big and intimidating, people naturally fear her. As such, outside of her adoptive family and her team's members, Sasha tend to have little to no contact with the external world, living only for her job.

[Vinylshadow]

Not bad

amusingly, I was called "Sasha" when I was younger~♥
(Was born Alexander, had my named changed when I was adopted and moved to the US)

means "Defender of Mankind"

Or, in her case, Ponykind

fitting ^_^

[Harmony Ltd.]

If it wasn't clear, she's inspired by Fallout 2's Frank Horrigan.   

I'll let you piece out how this might translate.

[Vinylshadow]

You're talking to someone whose only Fallout experience was watching someone play Fallout 3 a long time ago and playing Fallout New Vegas sporadically and wrong...

Funny thing is, New Vegas runs fine, but Fallout 3 loves to crash on me

So I won't be able to piece together anything unless I go watch a walkthrough of the games, and that could take years

[Harmony Ltd.]

Hehe.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Frank_Horrigan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Hg8_Jw7v2g

[Vinylshadow]

Makes me wish I had wifi at my apartment so I could read the entire wiki back to front

Granted, I could stay here at McD's until they close, but the management tends to get annoyed at me around 9pm

Poor Murk, Glimmer seems determined to get him in bed with a buck...

I wonder what he said about LittlePip when he was drunk off his flank

"Well, first...!"

[Harmony Ltd.]

Hey Hinds, in your mind what are the odds that Steel Rangers (not Applejack Rangers) may have gone toward the following factions after the Schism?

- Rose Banner
- Draconia
- The Stockings / The Northern League

In the case of the Northern League, it would be pretty interesting, considering how Trottingham is, as we said earlier, fairly in the hooves of the Applejack Rangers.

But mostly, I'm interested in knowing what would Rose Eye's take be on Steel Rangers coming to her, and what would be the odds of Steel Rangers preferring to go with a Red Eye successor rather than to join the NCR to spite the AJ Rangers?


Now wouldn't it be funny if a number of Steel Rangers had even joined the Miliozi? Talk about history marching on.

[Vinylshadow]

Wouldn't surprise me if some Rangers make their own factions and leave the main group to join up with other factions

[Harmony Ltd.]

Yo Hinds, a question that's been running in my head:

Physically, how would you describe Rose Eye? i mean, what does she look like?

I suppose that by 30 SR she's at the very least 45-50 years old, right?

[O. Hinds]

I asked this in the doc, but why is Ditzy so large?

Funny thing is, New Vegas runs fine, but Fallout 3 loves to crash on me

Oh yes. I have played NV extensively. I think that I once managed to get past the title screen of 3… to crash at the end of the loading screen rather than the beginning.

Hey Hinds, in your mind what are the odds that Steel Rangers (not Applejack Rangers) may have gone toward the following factions after the Schism?

- Rose Banner
- Draconia
- The Stockings / The Northern League

In the case of the Northern League, it would be pretty interesting, considering how Trottingham is, as we said earlier, fairly in the hooves of the Applejack Rangers.

I'll deal with the Banner in a moment.
Draconia, I don't know; that's mostly yours. I could see it happening, though, if (as is necessary for any of these) there were Steel Rangers willing enough to renounce their isolationism and exclusivity. Actually, now that I think about it, Draconia might be pretty likely, as I imagine that the dragons would care more about what the Steel Rangers could do for them than about integration; the Rangers could thus be allowed to retain their old order.

The Stockings, probably not. The cultural differences are big enough that a group of Rangers probably wouldn't join up unless they'd already stopped being Rangers.
The Northern League, hm. I could see that. They wouldn't have quite as much freedom as they would in Draconia, but their skills and materiel would give them a pretty good amount of bargaining power.

But mostly, I'm interested in knowing what would Rose Eye's take be on Steel Rangers coming to her, and what would be the odds of Steel Rangers preferring to go with a Red Eye successor rather than to join the NCR to spite the AJ Rangers?

Hm. Well, you may remember that I've pondered this before. Rose Eye would definitely like to have Steel Rangers add their resources to the Banner. The main question is whether the Rangers would like to join. They would have to become fully assimilated into the Banner's command structure, society, and culture, and their strength and former affiliation would have them under suspicion for some time. Rose Eye would have concerns that they might be plotting against her, and she's already the sort quite willing to punish dissent with summary execution. They would gain many more allies and a lot more protection, though, and they certainly wouldn't have to worry about the Banner reconciling with the Applejack's Rangers any time soon (whereas the Northern League is only mildly opposed, at most, to the NCR and Draconia could be easily brought in if the dragons were somehow convinced that that would be the most profitable course). Their skills would also make them valued members of the Banner. Oh, and they could enjoy a fair amount of popular support as Banner members in the Moojave.

Now wouldn't it be funny if a number of Steel Rangers had even joined the Miliozi? Talk about history marching on.

Well, they could try, and people do occasionally succeed. :D
I'm now imagining a Miliozi drill sergeant shouting at a group of Meal Scouts, insulting them for not being able to strip and reassemble pistols before they were out of diapers, and issuing them demerits for minor mispronunciations of Roaman Zebra.

Yo Hinds, a question that's been running in my head:

Physically, how would you describe Rose Eye? i mean, what does she look like?

I said this in the email you sent me, but what about a blood red mane and tail, a lighter red coat, and dark green eyes?

I suppose that by 30 SR she's at the very least 45-50 years old, right?

Aye, nearing fifty.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Re Rose Eye's appearance, what about a white coat instead of a red one. Blood red flowing mane, pure white coat and green eyes. Makes for more contrast, give her a less "bloodthirsty" external appearance. And there exist white roses as there exist red ones.

Thoughts?

[Harmony Ltd.]

New addition to "places of interest":

Grand Pegasus Enclave
Friedrichshorfen
    During the Great War, Friedrichshorfen was the primary building yard for the various aerial ships used by the equestrian military. Most of the Thunderheads and Raptors used by Equestria during the war were built in the heavily fortified construction yards of the city.
    As such, and to no one’s surprise, it was heavily targeted by the Pax Roamana’s balefire missiles during the Days of Fire. Almost all of the city’s hardened facilities were destroyed, save for a single yard, the missile targeting it having suffered from a fortunate (or unfortunate, depending on your point of view) malfunction during its flight, veering it off course.
    For most of the two following centuries, the city remained uninhabited, the balefire bombardment having left the ruins of the city highly radioactive, making it too dangerous for scavengers to try to loot its only remaining riches, in the form of a fortified military facility.
    It is only later, after the Gardens of Equestria were activated and purged the land of taint and radiation, that the Grand Pegasus Enclave took interest in the city’s ruins. A scouting party was sent, and it quickly found the lone yard, still functional if badly damaged after centuries of disuse.
    Luck would have it that the scouts returned several days after the Bitters had launched their attempted Coup. The Bitters, failing, had fled with a large portion of the Enclave’s fleet and military hardware, and were followed shortly by those who would become known as the Volunteers, leaving the Enclave Loyalists with only a portion of the military power they once had available. When the dust had settled, more than half of the Enclave’s ponypower and almost two third of its fleet had seceded.
    The course of action was clear in the eyes of the Enclave Remnant’s leadership: Friedrichshorfen was quickly seized, and a surface outpost was established, securing the city and its surrounding territories.
    While engineers were sent to restore the yard to working condition, the Enclave leadership looked at their current situation: the Enclave was ablaze in civil war, its various settlements were losing more ponypower than was sustainable, and worse than that, the cloud cover on which the Enclave’s meager agriculture depended was becoming smaller every week, poised to finally disappear. So they took a decision which marked the last nail put in the coffin of the old Grand Pegasus Enclave:
    The Enclave called all loyalists outside of Neighvarro to come to Friedrichshorfen, where a new Enclave, more sustainable and supported by surface agriculture, was to be established.
    A large portion of the Loyalists answered the call, and soon an exodus unprecedented since the Days of Fire took place, the Enclave Remnants dismantling most of their old outposts, to rebuild a new, hopefully even more grandiose Enclave in a more secure place.
    The new Grand Pegasus Enclave was mostly spared from the assaults of the Bitters during the Bitter War, only suffering a few raids during the course of the conflict, Bitter squads trying to seize some of the few remaining ships at the Enclave’s disposal. They failed, and each time the Enclave remained strong, increasing the population’s trust in its leadership.
    Though most of the groundspace surrounding Friedrichshorfen was seized by the Enclave and put to use growing food, the mountainous terrain and the pegasi’s lack of the the earth pony’s magic that would allow them to easily turn the most hostile terrain into a lush landscape, could only support two third of their food requirements. Luckily for them, though, the NCR extended an historical proposal, proposing the Enclave to trade them food for weapons and technologies.
    The Enclave, concerned that the Bitters may see such a trade as a reason to attack them, originally refused the offer. Secretly though, the NCR accepted to trade food for the Enclave’s neutrality at first, with the promise of trading technologies and weapons in the future, once the Bitters were defeated.
    Of course, the Enclave did not receive as much food as it could have wanted from such a deal. But its population was already used to some degree of restriction, and not only the famine was avoided, the Enclave managed to remain neutral in the bloody conflict opposing the Surface and the Bitters.
    The Bitter War over, the Enclave did good of its promise, and it soon started sending its scientists and engineers to the New Canterlot Academy, where they helped the NCR to re-discover some of the more complex technologies that had been lost to the Wasteland.
    Nowaday, Friedrichshorfen is a very industrious and prospere city, its surrounding countryland being almost completely covered in fields, greenhouses and windmills, and the city itself being densely populated with a relatively young population of Pegasi, the first since the Days of Fire to not be subjected to severe demographic control policies.
    While the city present a small population of unicorns and earth-pony, the Enclave is still in its large majority a pegasi power, ruled by pegasi for pegasi. As such the city doesn’t see many non-pegasi immigrants, and maintain a relatively strict quota of non-pony immigrants.

Neo Cloudsdale
    In 15 SR, the New Enclave decided that it needed a clear sign of the renewal of the Pegasi race on the world stage. Something that would mark all strangers with awe and respect, a project of peace for a new world.
    Thus it was decided to rebuild Cloudsdale. Not as it was, no. Better. Bigger, larger, higher, truly a grandiose work that would stand for generations to come.
    So the Pegasi set to work.
    Fifteen years later, the work is only a fifth complete, but it is already almost as big as Pre-War Cloudsdale, its grandiose cloud architecture dwarfing anyone flying in it. The whole population of the Enclave could easily fit in it already, though a large portion of the population prefer to stay in Friedrichshorfen for now, as it is where work is.
    It is estimated that Neo Cloudsdale should be completed in under fifty years.
    Though no one will officially admit it, the re-building of Cloudsdale is syphoning most of the resources of the Enclave, in term of wingpower from pegasi. But most in the Enclave, from the common people to the leaders, are convinced it is a price worth paying to bring back the glory of the old days.
    External observers are simply glad that the Enclave focus on such a peaceful project instead of following the Bitters course.

Independant
Stalliongrad Underground Manufacturing Complex
    Deep below what once was the city of Stalliongrad, lay one of the most formidable feat of engineering the world has known: the Stalliongrad Underground Manufacturing Complex.
    Historically, Stalliongrad had long been a predominantly Earth Pony region, and its culture was one of hard work and loyalty to the Princesses. During the Great War, the city of Stalliongrad and its region, breadbasket of the Peninsula, furnished most of the Equestrian Army’s ponypower, Stalliongraders representing at the height of the war almost a whole fourth the EA’s soldiers by themselves.
    The consequences of this, after more than a decade of fighting the Great War, was that Stalliongrad, now a great industrial center, was running out of ponypower to keep the industry running. The city’s population had already fallen to two third of its pre-war numbers when Princess Luna, visiting the city, saw the scale of the devastation the war had wrought upon the city, even without directly touching it (save for the occasional Zebra infiltrators and saboteurs).
    So, after discussing with the local powers, she launched an ambitious program, which was to become a pilot for the rest of the war effort: the complete automation of Stalliongrad’s industry.
    A sprawling underground complex was to be built under the city, protected from the zebra’s megaspells in case of attack, filled with the most sophisticated systems of automated production. The contract for the array of Artificial Intelligences meant to manage the facilities went to Apple Pancake Entreprise, an earth-pony-led corporation founded by a certain Babs Seed, which would a few years later be responsible for the creation of Elusive.
    The program was, to put it mildly, a huge success. After three full years of digging and building, the facilities went online for the first time, immediately starting to churn out tanks, guns, shells, and other war-making material out of the raw ore and energy fed to it.
    Unfortunately for Luna’s grand plans, the Days of Fire happened less than six month after the facilities went online, before she could start converting the whole of Equestria manufacturing capabilities, only Hoofington being equipped with similar but independently developed technologies.
    The Pax Roamana, fully aware of the existence of the complex and the risks it represented to them, launched a full scale balefire bombardment of the city, hurling dozens and dozens of bunker-busting balefire bombs on Stalliongrad, in the hope of destroying the facilities. While the bombardment was effective in wiping Stalliongrad from the map, the city’s surface having been turned into dozens of highly radioactive balefire craters, the hardened facilities weathered the attack, losing only 80% of the complex to it.
    The Stalliongrad Underground Manufacturing Complex had been built and engineered from the beginning to face such attacks, and thus, with orders from its pony overseers trapped in the various control centers of the facility slowly dying from radiation poisoning to observe strict radio silence so that the zebra wouldn’t start targeting the facilities again, the Artificial Intelligences set themselves to rebuilding the complex.
    With a limited energy supply coming from a few undamaged spark reactors, the repairs advanced slowly. But the AIs did not worry, as such wasn’t in their design. They followed their duties, and in under fifty years, the facilities were back to their original condition, ready to serve Equestria again. But new orders did not come. The AIs debated between themselves, but the last orders were clear: do not attempt to contact the surface, await new orders. Yet the AIs couldn’t still idly for who knew how long. They were industrious, they had been conceived as such. So they set to work.
    They expanded the complex. As more and more spark reactors came online, the facilities grew exponentially, going deeper underground, sprawling outward, outside of the old city’s limits. For more than a century and a half it has expanded, the AIs finding means to convert the ores they dug into raw materials for their industry.
    Now, more than two centuries after the Complex received its last orders, the surface has become inhabitable again thanks to the Gardens of Equestria. People from the Stalliongrader Diaspora, who for two centuries have longed to return to their Motherland, are now slowly trickling back toward it.
    It is only a question of time before the past be unearthed. The only questions are: when, and how?

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