[GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion

Or the Zebras where there longer than the ponies where? Or what little medical care the captors provided went to the ponies first and rarely if ever got to the zebras so while the ponies could still hear, zebras just has to suffer from hearing loss.

Post from the past.

I'm catching up here, and I'm only at page 5 of the current iteration of this thread, but there's something I ant to say before I forget.

Regarding the question of Mare-Do-Well's secret identity and some possible editing work (with my luck the subject has already been dealt with and forgotten, but to hell with such considerations) :

Spoiler:

SilentCarto wrote:Goliath's mom has a huge, messy scar on her stomach. Implication being that the "joke" was to make Goliath grow huge in utero.

Urgh.
I never picked up on that and just accepted Blackjack's assumption that it was probably a landmine or other unnamed wasteland injury. But yeah, that's killing joke's style. "Woo, look at the size of my belly, will ya? This li'l foal is gonna be huge!"

Still - same argument as with Jokeblue. Goliath was already in utero at the time, and the direct target of the joke. Glory's theoretical Dash-baby was neither, so I don't think we can draw any conclusions from either case.

Not saying you're wrong, I pretty much expect the foal, if it exists, to have a rainbow mane.

FeatherDust wrote:

SilentCarto wrote:Goliath's mom has a huge, messy scar on her stomach. Implication being that the "joke" was to make Goliath grow huge in utero.

Urgh.
I never picked up on that and just accepted Blackjack's assumption that it was probably a landmine or other unnamed wasteland injury.  But yeah, that's killing joke's style.  "Woo, look at the size of my belly, will ya? This li'l foal is gonna be huge!"

Still - same argument as with Jokeblue. Goliath was already in utero at the time, and the direct target of the joke. Glory's theoretical Dash-baby was neither, so I don't think we can draw any conclusions from either case.

Not saying you're wrong, I pretty much expect the foal, if it exists, to have a rainbow mane.

You're kinda optimistic. To be honest, I kinda expect it to be stillborn. It'd be incredibly tragic, but it would be one of the most powerful way of convincing Blackjack that she can't save everybody.

It's sort of like how the greatest Superman movie would be one in which he comes to terms with the fact that people will die regardless of how hard he tries to save them all.

swicked wrote:

Scienza wrote:It's sort of like how the greatest Superman movie would be one in which he comes to terms with the fact that people will die regardless of how hard he tries to save them all.

Err... no.
Not really.
Every alternate universe where superman loses someone results in his becoming the tyrannical dictator of earth.
In the justice league animated series, they lost the flash. In Injustice: Gods Among Us, it's Lois.
This scenario has been explored many times (I only named the two I knew off the top of my head).
Part of who superman is is this dormant sort of evil. The fact that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The kryptonians were galaxy conquerors. They committed massive war crimes and terrible genocide due to their power, both physical and technological.
Superman may not have grown up with that culture, but he does battle the natural aggression bred into his people by generations of dominance.

Superman is actually pretty weak willed, which is why most magic users or mind-controlling villains can dominate him so easily. It's his real weakness, not that kryptonite he can seemingly just decide to ignore at times.

So yeah, he cannot deal with true loss. He can mourn the death when it isn't too personal, but truly losing someone important breaks him.

It's one of the best ways batman mirrors superman. When batman's parents were killed, a hero was brought into the world. If superman's parents (or someone of equivalent emotional value) were killed, a hero would be taken back out.

It's less about him losing something important, which always drives him kinda completely nuts, and more about him realizing that he isn't perfect. Everybody dies, regardless of whether he swoops in to save the day or not.

swicked wrote:...and I am curious how they managed to laugh at the Remnant, which was punishable by death, and proceed to not only avoid dying but to have one of their own married to the Legate.
Then, you know, they continued to survive until Sekashi and Majina joined their number, then dye some period after that when they had gone deaf from the machines (because, I guess, zebra have more sensitive hearing than ponies, as the other slaves were decidedly NOT deaf).
Some kinda weird order of events, here.

I'm not sure that the stories are mutually exclusive. Most likely, the Zencori laughed, the Remnant made an example of their leaders, and the rest 'bowed and quivered', as she said. You seem to think that Sekashi marrying Vitiosus involved her falling in love with him -- I wouldn't be shocked to find that she was merely chosen to be his wife as part of the spoils of war.

I could be wrong but I could have sworn that every now and then in the main continuity Superman goes a bit crazy and tries to be a 24/7 hero, only to crash and burn and everybody has to remind him that even he needs to take a break.

And remember, Superman can hear everything. So at any time when he's Clark Kent, unless it shows him running off to change into Superman, he's ignoring cries for help until something he considers major pop ups.

swicked wrote:

SilentCarto wrote:I'm not sure that the stories are mutually exclusive. Most likely, the Zencori laughed, the Remnant made an example of their leaders, and the rest 'bowed and quivered', as she said. You seem to think that Sekashi marrying Vitiosus involved her falling in love with him -- I wouldn't be shocked to find that she was merely chosen to be his wife as part of the spoils of war.

...why not a mistress, then? Why a wife? It's very odd, to me. I didn't think they were in love, obviously.
I particularly find it odd that he'd give the son of such a mate a position of command. He had to of had offspring from much better wives.

I suppose it might have been a political move of some kind. Perhaps he took a wife from every tribe? Or it was designed to bind them to him more, as well as exert very public dominance under the pretense of unity. In any case, if Lancer proved himself to be such a goody-two-hooves to his dad, it makes some sense he'd get important jobs (though... I wonder, how in command IS Lancer, anyway? I don't have much info in my head, but IIRC he was mostly just... like, assassinating dudes, wasn't he? He had a team and stuff, but he wasn't like zebra-in-chief until daddy showed up, was he?). Still, you're right that there are some gaps in that story left unfilled as of yet.

Ch. 59 wrote:“Why did your father order you to kill them?  What did your mother do?” I asked quietly.

   “I…” he opened his mouth, then closed it and thought a moment.  “I cannot say for certain anymore.  Since that duel, nothing is certain.  We were told that they were cowards who spread falsehood and lies.  But now… now I cannot recall Mother saying anything about Father before she fled.  His other wives said nothing, but simply agreed with his claim.”

   “Other wives?” I asked with a grin.

   “Yes,” he said baldly.  “Is that a problem?”

   “No.  It’s just…” I couldn’t help myself, “How many wives?”

   “Eleven, now,” he answered.

   “Wow,” I murred.  “Wonder how he finds time to sleep.”

   He shook his head.  “Father is a great warrior.  He has slain dragons with his bare hooves.  Conjugal duties are hardly taxing.”

And about superheroes, often the writing for them swings towards and away from realism often, which is a problem because the more absurdly powerful ones tend to break down when faced against an entire planet full of people they can't save. (Batman protects just one city, and only partially. Speaking of which, it's funny, but I kinda consider the whole 'really big cities end up with 1-5 superheroes' to actually be pretty damn plausible relative to all the other stuff. Not so much the 2 dozen supervillains to one superhero ratio though.) Also, Superman's real weakness is how much people like turning him evil, hence the many ways of doing so.

Blackjack has that problem big time.  She's an atoner, but she does so horribly.  She wants to save everypony, and she can't.  This is why Thunderhead is so important.  For her, it's a reenactment of the last war.  Two sides at odds, civilization at stake... only she's helpless as one by one the ponies who can stop it die.  Death is inevitable.  Even if Superman were to childproof the world, people would still dying of natural causes.  And if he stopped that, they'd stop being people and become objects.

Speaking of futile inevitability... I still can't find work.  I've toyed around with 62 and I'm on page 20.  We'll see if I can get enough done to warrant a brushing this weekend.  I hope so... I'm just so distracted with money problems.  And I feel absolutely guilty begging.  I have enough to pay my bills this month, but I don't want to live off the generosity of ponies.

Somber wrote:but I don't want to live off the generosity of ponies.

Well, try with humans, then.  


But yeah, sucks to be jobless. Hope you'll find something soon. They say an hungry writer has more imagination, but I'm not sure it's really sustainable on the long term.

swicked wrote:

SilentCarto wrote:I wouldn't be shocked to find that she was merely chosen to be his wife as part of the spoils of war.

...why not a mistress, then? Why a wife? It's very odd, to me. I didn't think they were in love, obviously.
I particularly find it odd that he'd give the son of such a mate a position of command. He had to of had offspring from much better wives.

Not spoils, but rather a symbolic welcoming back of the strays. By wedding a leader or daughter of a leader, for example, he would show that the aggression is over, we're all friends again. And it fits his apparent desire to have a wife from each clan.

Lancer's position had little to do with his mother. He's his father's son, and doing as he's told. Anyway to be fair we have no real indication that Sekashi was anything but a dutiful wife until she learned some horrible secret. She may have been a mere teenager when the actual attacks on the Zencori happened.

Somber wrote:Blackjack has that problem big time.  She's an atoner, but she does so horribly.  She wants to save everypony, and she can't.  This is why Thunderhead is so important.  For her, it's a reenactment of the last war.  Two sides at odds, civilization at stake... only she's helpless as one by one the ponies who can stop it die.  Death is inevitable.  Even if Superman were to childproof the world, people would still dying of natural causes.  And if he stopped that, they'd stop being people and become objects.

Speaking of futile inevitability... I still can't find work.  I've toyed around with 62 and I'm on page 20.  We'll see if I can get enough done to warrant a brushing this weekend.  I hope so... I'm just so distracted with money problems.  And I feel absolutely guilty begging.  I have enough to pay my bills this month, but I don't want to live off the generosity of ponies.

Eh? We're not taking care of the MDW stuff first?

Good luck with your non-pony problems, Somber!

This is slightly off topic, but sweet mother of god:

Scienza wrote:It's less about him losing something important, which always drives him kinda completely nuts, and more about him realizing that he isn't perfect. Everybody dies, regardless of whether he swoops in to save the day or not.

Somber wrote:Blackjack has that problem big time.  She's an atoner, but she does so horribly.  She wants to save everypony, and she can't.  This is why Thunderhead is so important.  For her, it's a reenactment of the last war.  Two sides at odds, civilization at stake... only she's helpless as one by one the ponies who can stop it die.  Death is inevitable.  Even if Superman were to childproof the world, people would still dying of natural causes.  And if he stopped that, they'd stop being people and become objects.

Well, I'd say the people Superman does swoop in to save are probably quite grateful for not dying that particular day. The inevitability of death is never an excuse for someone who has the power to save others to not exercise that power to the best of their ability to save as many lives as they can. Not being able to save everyone in the world isn't a free pass to not try to save anyone, especially if one happens to have abilities that would facilitate making saving lives more plausible than being someone without such ability. That's the core of being a hero, taking responsibility to use ones ability to save lives. That also means accepting that one can fail, true. But accepting one's failures is not an excuse to stop caring about failing and to never strive to keep one's future failures to a minimum.

Somber wrote:Blackjack has that problem big time.  She's an atoner, but she does so horribly.  She wants to save everypony, and she can't.  This is why Thunderhead is so important.  For her, it's a reenactment of the last war.  Two sides at odds, civilization at stake... only she's helpless as one by one the ponies who can stop it die.  Death is inevitable.  Even if Superman were to childproof the world, people would still dying of natural causes.  And if he stopped that, they'd stop being people and become objects.

Speaking of futile inevitability... I still can't find work.  I've toyed around with 62 and I'm on page 20.  We'll see if I can get enough done to warrant a brushing this weekend.  I hope so... I'm just so distracted with money problems.  And I feel absolutely guilty begging.  I have enough to pay my bills this month, but I don't want to live off the generosity of ponies.

Good luck with your Real Life problems. If you really don't want it to feel like us being generous, we could call it a patronage system. Sorry, been playing Civ 5 for a bit.  But seriously, don't hesitate to ask for help.

swicked wrote:...why not a mistress, then? Why a wife? It's very odd, to me. I didn't think they were in love, obviously.
I particularly find it odd that he'd give the son of such a mate a position of command. He had to of had offspring from much better wives.

If she's supposed to be a trophy, then 'wife' (or 'concubine') makes far more sense. It communicates that he possesses her whole tribe; she, and they, are his to do with as he chooses. A mistress wouldn't be formally attached to him, but marriage binds her in an implicitly irrevocable way.

Who mothered Lancer is pretty much irrelevant in that context. He's Vitiosus' son by a wife who is effectively a slave. But Cobalt is right, we don't really see Lancer being in command -- he was sent to kill his own mother, probably to test his loyalty in light of her betrayal, and while being the Legate's son gives him a certain amount of clout, he doesn't seem particularly favored.

Re: Begging
Some of us wish to bring money to you. Some of us just need a reminder. Please don't feel guilty about that.

Re: Sekashi
She was loyal at first, right? Was she just a wife, or also a soldier in employ? We know she is more skilled than she seems. Wasn't one of her stories about a silly zebra who killed for a Legate until she was foolish enough to look to the stars for guidance? Her first story, then, about the laughing tribe might be about the Zencori tribe and not her specifically. A little white lie that was technically true.
There are ten and one tribes, right? If Viti has 11 wives, that would be a representative from each.

swicked wrote:Working on a PH thing. Kinda. Finally got some inspiration for it but, three pages in, not sure about the format. Would anyone here be willing to give it a read?

Would anyone not? Especially with Sekashi involved.

SilentCarto wrote:No. It did insulate her reproductive organs against the worst of the taint effects, but it's still functional as far as we know. Though we don't know much. The last mention I can find was in chapter 44.

Triage had said that my reproductive parts had managed to stay functional, but that was before the Celestia and my cyberization.  The Professor hadn’t mentioned anything about them, but there were a lot of things she hadn’t mentioned.

That's still pretty vague. It doesn't confirm the possibility, but rather makes it available.

SilentCarto wrote:

Meleagridis wrote:While we know it’s the Hippocratic cloning tree… that doesn’t mean it’s NOT Fluttertree. Except that happened during the war, and blanks were being produced before then. Was the Hippocratic tree described in any unusual colours?

Well... yes, but not yellow and pink.

Like the fusion megaspell chamber, it was a large round room, but it held a strange piece of equipment that resembled a large tree of metal, the golden bark spattered with old blood and filth.  Fat white nodules hung from the branches like swollen fruit.

It's not "golden" like golden yellow, it's "golden" like made of gold.

Eurgh. It's made of metal, though? Doesn't that mean the tree at the University can't be a clipping of the Hippocratic tree? Because that raises a couple questions.

Carto wrote:That's my headcanon. I tend to give Celestia the "softer", more social elements of Laughter, Generosity, and Kindness, while Luna had the more abrasive, personal elements of Loyalty, Honesty, and Magic.

(I know this was forever ago and only slightly on topic but I'm overly opinionated today I'm sorry)
If we're using Luna Eclipsed Luna here, does she really radiate an element of making interpersonal connections and rational leadership skills?

I'm really sorry things are still going badly for you, Somber... I hope you'll be able to find something soon. *hugs you gently*

Have you tried getting seasonal work at one of the retail chains, Somber?  I know places like Wal-Mart are hiring  a lot of people for the Thanksgiving/Christmas season.

Technowolf wrote:Have you tried getting seasonal work at one of the retail chains, Somber?  I know places like Wal-Mart are hiring  a lot of people for the Thanksgiving/Christmas season.

The only problem is that they also let a lot of people go after the season is over and extra work isn't needed, so it's probably a temporary solution. Still, it might help tide him over the next few months. Either way, I wish you the best of luck, Somber.

SilentCarto wrote:But Cobalt is right, we don't really see Lancer being in command -- he was sent to kill his own mother, probably to test his loyalty in light of her betrayal, and while being the Legate's son gives him a certain amount of clout, he doesn't seem particularly favored.

That's an interesting point.  What missions have we seen Lancer on?

• The assassination of his mother and all the zebras following her on charges of treason. (And you're right, this does have a "loyalty test"  flavor to it, doesn't it?)
  
• Searching the ruins of a museum for meteors that were stolen two hundred years ago.
  
• Another wild goose chase, this time to Yellow River, which is a (potentially) bio-contaminated area claimed by the Enclave, looking for the Phoenix Talisman on the basis of some two-century old info.
  
• Leading cyberzebras and snipers against the Enclave at the Satellite Tracking Station to attempt to recover the missiles there.
  

Really, only the last one sounds at all like he's in any kind of favor, and even there he's up against nearly impossible odds and leading Coyotls. He's in charge of squads, yes, but always doing the really icky jobs, it seems like.

Meleagridis wrote:She was loyal at first, right? Was she just a wife, or also a soldier in employ? We know she is more skilled than she seems. Wasn't one of her stories about a silly zebra who killed for a Legate until she was foolish enough to look to the stars for guidance?

Yes. Sekashi caught the legate's eye through her skill in combat and infiltration. If you read her second funny story about why Lancer shot them, she claims it was because her tribe laughed at the Legate, but it's clear later that she was lying (or obfuscating by telling a different story) - not that the "tribe that laughed" didn't happen, but it doesn't seem related to Lancer's attack, which was all about her learning a terrible secret.

There are ten and one tribes, right? If Viti has 11 wives, that would be a representative from each.

The tribes are Twelve and One. And Vitiosus has eleven wives now, believing Sakashi is dead. So he had twelve wives, one presumably from each tribe, so that means the One is....

Somber wrote:Blackjack has that problem big time.  She's an atoner, but she does so horribly.  She wants to save everypony, and she can't.  This is why Thunderhead is so important.  For her, it's a reenactment of the last war.  Two sides at odds, civilization at stake... only she's helpless as one by one the ponies who can stop it die.  Death is inevitable.  Even if Superman were to childproof the world, people would still dying of natural causes.  And if he stopped that, they'd stop being people and become objects.

Looking back so far in how the story has progressed, I'd agree with you. Though, the ultimate question she faces is how Blackjack atones for it, correct?

Thinking back on everything Blackjack has done, as well as Goldenblood and a few other characters, I feel like I'm beginning to understand the message in PH. I could be wrong on this, but I believe that the message that you're trying to show is this: Sacrifice is not always the best virtue, nor is it the solution to everything.

Look at the shit that Godenblood did. He believed that somehow that whatever sacrifices he was making would somehow make Equestria survive the war ... 200 years later, and it appeared his intentions failed. Simply making sacrifices didn't do it's justice, and I believe Goldenblood failed to realize this in the end.

Fast forward to Blackjack, and she's slowly beginning to realize that sacrificing herself constantly isn't giving her the atonement she's trying to achieve. Kind of like the story that Sekashi told BJ a few chapters ago, that if she continued on with thinking that her virtue was sacrifice, all she would be leaving are friends who relied on her to keep her stable, and without her, then they wouldn't have anything left.

But one question does come out of this: Why was it alright for Lacunae to sacrifice herself? And Littlepip as well? When is sacrifice a good thing, and when is it not?

Meleagridis wrote:Eurgh. It's made of metal, though? Doesn't that mean the tree at the University can't be a clipping of the Hippocratic tree? Because that raises a couple questions.

Meleagridis wrote:

SilentCarto wrote:That's my headcanon. I tend to give Celestia the "softer", more social elements of Laughter, Generosity, and Kindness, while Luna had the more abrasive, personal elements of Loyalty, Honesty, and Magic.

If we're using Luna Eclipsed Luna here, does she really radiate an element of making interpersonal connections and rational leadership skills?

Two points. First, tell me that "Lesson Zero" Twilight displays rational leadership skills. She doesn't, but we know from the other episodes that it's not indicative of her usual persona -- Twi just had a bad day. Well, that bad day is Luna's last two years. She's a fish out of water. Look how shocked she is that the Ponyvillians don't react by kissing her hoof and cheering! She started out quite confident and leaderly, and she only got off balance when people reacted in a counterintuitive (to her) way. Her appearance in Sleepless in Ponyville is probably more indicative of her abilities as a leader.

Second, we're seeing Luna on the wrong side of Nightmare Moon. She slid a long way from someone we could see using any of the Elements, underwent a complete change of personality, and possibly got possessed. Luna now is probably not representative of Luna as of Discord's defeat.

That said, even so, she might actually show more leadership than Celestia! Celestia appears to lead by example and teaching. She doesn't want to tell you the answers so much as provide the tools and guide you to arrive at the answer yourself. (For example, look at how she handled Nightmare Moon's upcoming escape.) To put that another way, Luna says, "This way!" while Celestia says, "How do you think you should find the right way?"

Now, certainly, Celestia is a wise and capable leader -- she did wield the Element of Magic at least once and kept Equestria strong and healthy for a millenium, after all. But the glimpses we get of her puckish sense of humor and the joy she seems to take in teaching rather than ruling seem to suggest that she only leads as much as she has to.

Personally, in my headcanon, there is a third Princess.  Celestia's older sister, Princess Terra.  She was born an earth pony in the age of Discord, the Celestia was born a unicorn, and lastly Luna was born a pegasus.  Their parents were a unicorn princess and pegasus prince who fled the strife that Discord sowed.  When Discord learned of the three siblings, he manipulated angry mobs to attack their cottage and burn it to the ground, but the three children escaped.

The three grew up, overcoming adversity and anxiety that all siblings are wont to go through.  Terra had to get over her jealousy of her siblings.  Celestia had to overcome her vanity and 'specialness'.  Luna had to mature.  All of them were united in their drive to overthrow Discord and bring joy back to their people.

Terra embodied Loyalty and Honesty.  She stuck with her siblings, even when they upset her and she never strayed from the truth once she was able to admit her jealousy.  Celestia embodied Magic and Laughter.  She not only unified the pony people, but she had hope and optimism that it could even be done and laughed in the face of adversity.  Luna had Generosity and Kindness.  She wanted to share beauty and more than anypony, bring an end to the pain.  She helped keep Terra and Celestia from becoming just as bad as Discord.

The three sisters were the first elements of Harmony.  And together, they defeated Discord.  And then, their Harmony started to strain.  Not all at once, but little by little.  Terra did not want to rule anypony.  She believed ponies did fine on their own and didn't need a tyrant ruling them.  Celestia believed in a strong central government to prevent a monster like Discord from rising again.  Luna just wanted them to stop fighting.  But for a while it was good, particularly for Celestia, who as originally a unicorn, loved the pomp and ceremony that came with being a princess.  But for her siblings, rule did little for their of them.  Terra felt increasingly insulted and Luna increasingly neglected.

So finally, one evening, Terra and Celestia had a fight and that was the last straw for Terra.  She left, and asked if Luna wanted to come with her.  Luna was torn, and finally decided to stay with Celestia so she could be a Princess.  So Terra went back to their cottage.  Only as the second princess, things didn't get better.  Celestia did everything, and so all Luna did was follow in her shadow.  The few things she was allowed to give ponykind, dreams and stars, were rarely acknowledged or appreciated.  And she was terribly lonely.  Celestia, for her part, was busy with running Equestria without the strength of her elder sister.  She failed to notice just what was happening.

Luna had a plan for an amazing night spectacle.  A festival of the moon.  She spent months planning it, and it was amazing.  Shooting stars!  The constellations came alive!  The auroras played!  And everypony who saw it was amazed... and thanked Celestia for the wonderful show.  And thus the seed was sown.  Eventually, Luna would become Nightmare Moon and try to overthrow Celestia.

Celestia went to Terra to ask for help.  Terra refused.  This had been her point all along, and Celestia was getting exactly what she deserved.  Go ahead and try and neglect Luna now.  But with time, Terra saw that the fight between the sisters was hurting everypony, even the land itself.  And so, when Luna besieged the castle of the pony sisters, Terra came and helped defend the city long enough for the people to flee to safety, then confronted Luna and Celestia.  Together, they managed to get through, and Luna had a moment of lucidity.  The three banished Luna to the moon so that she could sleep, and dream, and hopefully heal.

And thus the elements of harmony broke in two.  Terra quietly left the castle, heartbroken that she'd betrayed and failed her littlest sister.  Celestia covered her pain better, but was still hurt by her failure.  She never became as absolute a ruler as she had before the banishment, and learned to yield rather than break others.  And Luna would sleep, the nightmare would weaken, until a thousand years later she'd be confronted by a unicorn again... and instead of simply killing her, would toy with her until she was defeated.

But that's just my headcanon...

So, in your pretty awesome headcanon, if FE was added, what would've become of Terra during those 1000 years, the war and beyond.

During the 1000 years, she watched over Tartarus and kept out of pony lives.  She and Celestia were still estranged, which is why Celestia could not use the elements to stop Discord herself.

During the run up to the war, she would have actively been pressing for peace however possible.  Once Celestia abdicated, Terra would NOT take the throne.  She's convinced that monarchies don't help anypony.

She would have tried to get Luna not to make the same mistakes Celestia did when she rose to power, tried to get her to achieve a cease fire, and even urged her to resign to make way for some new government system that's more democratic as a sign to the zebras that she was not a tyrant bent on their destruction.  Earth ponies are very big on democracy, given they outnumber the other two.

Of course, when it was clear that Luna was going to repeat Celestia's mistakes, Terra would have contacted Scootaloo and Stable Tec to construct the biggest stable in all of Equestria.  One that could house tens of thousands of ponies.  Terra would have waited till after the radiation diminished before working to terraform the surface back to a livable environment.

KKat's take on the Crystal Empire and FoE: http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/230893/crystal-empire-blues-part-1

Well, we should all brace to have our headcanons shattered -- it sounds like the creation of the Elements of Harmony is directly involved with the season 4 opener.