An Abridged History of Steamquestria

by josh_the_changeling

Rating: teen
Tags: Princess Celestia, Alternate Universe, Human, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 4815

A simple, fan history of the Steamquestria world.

On the back of the pamphlet: "Greetings and welcome to your new life in Equestria! As a previous member of the Third World you may find yourself rather confused by a number of topics discussed by our citizens and these short books are to educate you in some of the more basic topics. This section, history, will inform you of the basics behind our industry, rivals and the conflicts. While you might find the contents intimidating, please understand that this simply informs about our past, and today Equestria is a gleaming nation of opportunity and scientific advancement."

This fic is based on the Steamquestria Tumblr, this fic is but a fan interpretation of potential backstory and is not to be taken as in canon to the Tumblr's lore.

Published 2015-06-19 14:10:02 UTC
Last updated 2015-06-19 14:10:02 UTC

History is Fun!

The history of robotics starts from a rather unorthodox time, back when blades were the weapon of choice, the essence of magic was still strong and Equestria was more a backwater state then any kind of world player. It was here that an unknown inventor studied the creatures known as golems, mostly in an attempt to discover some kind of exploitable weakness to the creatures often known to tear apart anyone they came across. It was in his work that the inventor tried a new innovation. For a long time, people have known about golem cores, small crystals that kept the creatures together. They were often sought after for medical reasons as they could be ground into pills to help with stress and depression, though many didn’t think much of them until this scientist who would remain unknown in the pages of history attempted to simply recreate the golem from the ground up using metallic parts. The original experiment went horribly wrong with the newly reconstructed golem going in a rampage before escaping into the wild, although the second experiment went far better. Instead of simply throwing the stone into a pile of metal, he fitted the parts together to form a solid body which would limit the golem’s movement just like the autonomy of a human body.

It took a further three years to perfect the craft before this person discovered the art of programming. Basically one could create a simplistic code before sketching it into the stone itself, outlying guidelines and rules although since programming was limited to the surface area of the stone larger crystals were needed to achieve higher levels of programming.

The final breakthrough came in the attempt to cultivate the crystal, to grow it manually. Since we assume this person had very little finances he attempted to do this in a barn stationed in the countryside and the resulting gem was something he could not have fathomed in a million years. The crystal somehow became charged with a simple emotional element, in this case honestly that to his shock allowed the construct it inhabited to think for itself like a living breathing human being. It is unknown how this occurs though it seems you can still program these crystals much like the originals.

Now this is when history gets a little blurry…You see the reason we do not know this man’s name is because he approached what is now known as the Canterlot Conglomerate to sell his knowledge and prototypes. According to some sources the original company the Conglomerate spawned from, a siege weapon producer of all things, took all his research by force when they couldn’t reach terms forcing this man to take what he could and make a run for the wilds never to be seen again at which point his name was stricken from history to cover up the deed. According to the Conglomerate he DID agree to the terms but then attempted to sell what he knew to other rival companies breaking his contract and while attempting to take what was rightfully theirs this man burned down his lab with him inside. The reason they claim he has remained namely is because he never committed a crime, never had researched credited, lived in a small village on the border and isolated himself from what little people lived there anyway. The only reason we even know about this man was because of first-hand accounts from neighbours.

It wasn’t long before these crystals became the focus of the Equestria economy. Further research led to the discover that cultivating the crystal in different environments led to different “Elements” that became the base for the machines personality and over time Loyalty, Laughter, Generosity and Kindness were all added. Frustrating for many however was the simple fact cultivating these elements were extremely difficult. Honest must only be touched by the light of dawn and dusk, loyalty must be groan miles in the air, Kindness must be groan isolated by any man made machinery etc. etc. Failing to do this simply grew the traditional “grey” crystal that gave machines only raw bestial desires. These crystals were also discovered to have energy saving properties and could be used as batteries leading to the construction of planes, blimps, electric trains, electricity in general, the motor car and the radio all power by a single crystal that even the smallest could last days before needing a recharge. The power itself comes from solar panels linked directly to bolder size “Sun Crystals” which are then connected to rechargers all over Equestria.

With this industry at its back Equestria soon found itself the richest and one of the most powerful countries in the world rivalled only by the United States of Saddle Arabia and the Griffin Red Empire. Both these factions kept up once they got reverse engineer this technology though their opinions on what kind of crystals to use differ. Equestria used almost exclusively elemental crystals for its robots only using the greys as batteries, while Saddle Arabia used a mix of both having those with elements command a number of Grey drones. The Red Empire on the other hand went away with elements all together using exclusively greys which better suited their larger, heavily armoured blocky designs.

Equestria military machines are pretty much their civilian machines, human like robots given uniforms and auto-muskets before pointed at the enemy though they make up for it with a large array of weapons and simplistic but adaptable varieties. Besides the civilian model special military machines mimic the shape of their civilian counterparts but have thicker torso armour, shoulder pads and usually a built in helm only having two bullet proof glass slits to see out of protecting the machines vital head, where their crystal is often installed. Shells are hunchbacked heavy weapon specialists that have even thicker armour then the military model carrying oversized Gatling guns, flamethrowers and grenade launchers into battle making them perfect for support or going toe to toe with larger robot models in hand to hand combat. Streakers are simply models with “Wing Packs” installed using rocket boosters to go airborne and engage airships and planes. The Equestrian strategy is one of either defence or direct infantry assaults either turtling up in easy to defend areas for the enemy to throw themselves against the walls over and over till they run out of fighters or to use small but specialized infantry squads to perform a number of laid out objectives working together to take out often larger and more terrifying foes.

The United States of Saddle Arabia began its life as a number of colonies settled by sailor who became lost at sea, although as they grew they began to come across the natives. While primitive they were expert hunters, gatherers and surprising to the colonists decent fighters to able to blend into the environment in seconds. While some villages had friendly relationships with these people others found them a major obstacle preventing expansion and growth. This spilled over in a number of conflicts which usually cost the natives, which the colonists began to call “Zebra” as a joke to how unarmoured and easy they went down with a musket shot, dearly. Despite the colonists being vastly outnumbered the fact was the natives did not build defensive fortifications so they had no safe place to retreat to in times of emergency. The colonists used this to fight a slow war of attrition.

Eventually this ended with the Massacre of Jacob’s Point where natives snuck into a fort on supply carriages and threw open the gates ending in the slaughter of the occupants. Now with their own fort, the colonists were willing to sit down and negotiate. These negotiations did not go well for rather strange reasons. Basically the chieftains and the leaders of the towns and villages didn’t ACTUALLY meet up to discuss what each wanted beforehand so both groups ended up fighting amongst themselves. This lead to what is called the Splitting, where terms were not just met between the two people, but each and every faction within. Borders were drawn up and each player would be in charge of that area creating thirty states each to be govern independently. Other agreements were that Jacob’s Point would become neutral ground but would be manned exclusively by Natives and that technology would be shared, although the colonists quickly got around this by giving out old out of date weaponry and equipment.

The States lasted a surprisingly fifty years with minor conflicts spilling over but otherwise the land was mostly peaceful until one state, the State of New Stalliongrad conquered its neighbour the Native Confederacy. From there the states senate of twelve member decided to absorb the land and armed forced before invading a second state, the United Lands of Mt Jagger. While this would cause much alarm negotiators soon approached many of the larger powers offering them an opportunity to use the confusion to invade long time rivals and arch-enemies leading to a sudden nation wide war. When the smoke cleared ten years later only the State of New Stalliongrad was left having forcefully taken over and declared themselves rulers. Despite this they knew the population was ready to revolt from such forceful change and as such they began appeasement. They named the new nation the United States of Saddle Arabia (the name the natives gave to the continent) and began building roads, hospitals and infrastructure finishing with programs to better meld the natives and the colonists into a single people. Natives at the moment call themselves as such since they never thought of themselves as a single people and being called this just stuck. They consider being called Zebra an offensive slang.

Natives are often lower in class then the white population although many have achieved high office and for the first time ever a native even holds office in the Senate. Usually the people running each state select a leader to represent themselves in the Senate were nationwide decisions are made leading to a diverse leadership although they often bog themselves down in infighting.

Their machines are more focused on exotic abilities. Spider mines for example are but landmines on legs often skittering towards armoured machine before slamming themselves onto the hull and detonating, although they are known to use their forelegs to tear apart human sized foes. Gins are large machines built to switch before lanky but fast reacting mechs with decent anti-infantry weapons to fast flying fighters capable of taking on other airborne units one on one. Gluttons are obese looking machines that waddle across the battlefield exposing their pulse creating bellies to fry machinery although their not often use since the process often disables themselves too. Their weapons often fire rounds tipped with crystal shard added elemental effects frying robots with electric rounds, burning away armour with fire or freezing over wounds with ice. Most of their armour and robotics have a strong Arabian design made of gold look alike and smooth round struts. Their tactics usually change from general to general adapting to whatever machine they have at their disposal.

The Griffin Red Empire originally began its life as simply the Griffin Empire. A monarch based government the Empire had stood for hundreds of years previously although often their rulers were quite self-centred considering whatever the Emperor wanted, they got. Things began to go south however when as time went on the peasant population began to vastly outnumber the serving military and after a failed force conscription Emperor Joseph installed a new law only allowing the acquisition of children to those serving in the military. Of cause, this had massive negative feedback which got worse when rioters at Goscrow were attacked by the local military garrison. Revolution officially began when one Elizabeth Stormwing (we’re pretty sure that’s not her real name but that’s what history remembers her as) lead a peasant uprising in the northern farmland. Since weapons had been confiscated early in the chaos many of the new revolutionaries had to use whatever was on hand, and Elizabeth’s iconic Sickle and Hatched would become symbols of what was to come. Long story short, this all lead to a civil war that went back and forth for two years until the Capital was captured on Heartwarmings Eve by a surprise attack, using a snowstorm as cover. Elizabeth herself took the head of the Emperor before declaring herself Empress and that this would be a new red empire, after the blood that had been spilled that night. Elizabeth herself began a mass militarization of the country boosting recruits by given better base benefits instead of simply using force and the economy took a massive increase when factories were open to produce wave after wave of war machines. Twenty years later the Griffin Red Empire had the largest army in the world, with the most heavy armour and siege machinery.

Their robots take on a more blocky, diesel punk design focusing on raw firepower and defence over speed and neat tricks. The Hammer is their main heavy battle robot simply a rectangular metal block with a set of chicken legs for support, slits on its side for infantry to fire from while they get transported across the battlefield with a larger Stonebreaker cannon up from along with a Pittle sub-Gatling gun for infantry suppression. Spidertanks are large eight legged monstrosities specializing in speed and mobility then armour, often leaping onto armour before ripping it apart like an animal baring down on its prey. Equipped with twin linked Gatling guns under the head, it can sprint across the battlefield ripping apart anything it comes across, though it can’t take much damage once cornered. Probably the crowning achievement of the Empires military technology is the world’s first super-heavy tank, the Siegebreaker Mk 2. The original was more of an oversized cannon strapped onto a pair of legs, THIS version on the other hand has the thickest armour of any vehicle in the world, standing two stories tall and as wide as three houses. Brimming with two Battlecannons, twin linked Gatling gun, smoke grenade launcher and two side mounted weapon platforms equipped with eight sub-Gatling guns and two heavy flamethrowers finished up with one Palace Busting super cannon.

Probably the most interesting of the Empire’s creations is the Changeling Mk 1. A skeletal design, these basic machines move at lightning speed and can think on their feet thanks to an elemental core, being one of the few equipped with one in the whole Empire. The most interesting aspect however is their ability to use magnetic fields in order to disassemble machines on touch before having its parts attach and install themselves onto the Changelings body. Through this they often “grow” armour, weapons, new abilities and can even mimic other machines making perfect spies. Just two hundred changelings were ever made, with fifty lost in battle. The others went missing with the Mk 2 prototype who apparently was given faulty programming become rouge, slaughtering its guards and making off for the wild. It is unknown why but the Mk 1s followed though only the Empire actually knows what the Mk 2 was designed for so it’s unknown if the machine someone directly controlled the Mk 1w or they too were somehow freed from their programming.

All three factions suddenly found their armed forces quipped with the most advance weapons anyone had ever seen. The simple idea of a rapid fire musket, let alone tanks, planes, blimps, artillery and robot fighters was considered nothing more than foul sorcery before and yet here it was, common place. Many felt that this made their armies invincible with this new technology and were much more aggressive in their diplomatic nature. This eventually spilled over when Equestria began settling what the south-west region of the country is now. The colony of Appleloosa was established to mine a deep underground catch of natural crystals setting up in what is basically otherwise useless dessert. This unease Saddle Arabia since the countries had always been separated by the dessert to the west and a mountain range to the east. Establishing a foothold there allowed Equestria to launch an attack straight though into their territory with little resistance. This lead to many arguments mostly from Saddle Arabia’s unease at the situations while Equestria’s leaders felt Saddle Arabia was just venting steam, unwilling to back up their threats.

A few skirmishes eventually broke out on the border from a few scout teams figuring Equestria wouldn’t notice a few missing patrolling bots. They were wrong and both armies soon mobilized. The opening conflict was fought exclusively by robots focused in the dessert region, mostly because both sides figured this area would be the exclusive zone of combat. Things changed for the worst when a human regiment was deployed to help evacuate colonists as Saddle Arabia at the time was making ground. Since this regiment was not considered a risk, a rather sizable hole was left in the Saddle Arabian lines focusing on targeting Equestrian robots which the regiment, under orders from their commander, took this opportunity to abandon the colonists to make the journey (which they did accomplish) and advance over the Saddle Arabian border to attack supply depots and recharge stations. All attempts at playing this off as a simple hit and run attack ended when the Saddle Arabian lines reformed cutting off the regiment, leading to them lashing out at undefended targets destroying outposts, mines and factories in the area using guerrilla tactics.

With communication cut off and the Arabian machines slowed Equestrian Generals decided in a panic to push the advantage piecing weak points and marching past the borders to support this regiment even calling up more human infantry. This spilled over when Saddle Arabia did the same positive this was an invasion force. With Equestria’s army rushing though the dessert, Arabia used this as an opportunity to begin an airborne counter invasion to the east. Many Equestria cities and village found themselves under attack from war blimp bombers and fighter craft followed by infantry, the Arabian forces causes as much destruction and chaos as they could before Equestrian forces pulled from the front confronted them just outside Canterlot prevented the loss of the capital. While Saddle Arabia was stalled the Equestrian army on both fronts were on the retreat suffering from a two front war. Although victory seemed a slow certainty for Saddle Arabia, the Griffin Empire decided to use this opportunity to take both nations in one swoop.

The plan was to pretty much do what Saddle Arabia had done, swoop in from the undefended east coast and destroy any strategic assets they came across before heading straight for the capital. Despite this Saddle Arabia discovered the invasion attempted only shortly before they arrived and, desperate to finish of Equestria, instead decided setup a defensive line across the east coast including pillboxes, mines, barbwire and coastal cannons. Underestimating the Griffin numbers however, the invading force did overrun the line although it did cost a sizable amount of their forces. Soon the tides had been turned for Arabia with all forces being recalled from Equestria safe in the knowledge that their old foes had too little a force to push the advantage and instead could focus on the Empire. Unfortunately they did not fare as well as hopped, suffer two massive defeats at the Battle of South Sands and the Slaughter of Farbank before adapting to a fighting retreat, slowly falling back while making the Griffins bleed for every inch of ground taken although it was mostly a war of attrition from both sides.

It was not long till most of Saddle Arabia was ruins, the capital had been bombed into a crater but the war continued after the Senate relocated to a position far west. After a failed counter attack The Griffins shattered the army splitting their own to isolate Arabian faction forcing the army to fight as five independent groups instead of a unified effort which would have spelled certain defeat if not for Equestria. Certain the Griffin Empire would turn their might against them soon enough, they decided to take what little forces they had left and attack from the rear. Certain the Equestrians would retreat and lick their wounds, Griffin command did not expect any kind of offensive operation and as such set up their HQ to the north furthest away from the Arabian forces meaning it was the first hit by the advance. Most officers were killed or captured, leaving the Griffins leaderless. Deciding to focus of supply bases and communication, the Equestrians isolated many Griffin squadrons leading to panic and a massive drop in moral, many retreating back to the east coast afraid Saddle Arabia had unleashed some kind of new EMP device which they were rumoured to be working on. Ultimately Saddle Arabia and Equestria signed a cease fire and attacked the unprepared griffin forces from two sides, the north and south pushing many who had hoped to get into contact with the fleet onto the beaches where even though they vastly outnumbered the attackers the sandy shores ran red with blood with little to no cover and with the sea to their back. While the retreat back was more complicated than that with many griffin troops holding their ground or organizing a fighting retreat in a nutshell the war really did end there with Saddle Arabia in ruins, Equestria vastly weakened and almost the entire Griffin Empire Army destroyed.

In the aftermath of the war Equestria struggled to rebuild with a small civil uprising against its current leaders many blaming the war on them which was partly correct considering they offered little interest in peace until the enemy was knocking on their door and their push for a larger, more advanced army was taken as a challenge for the United States of Saddle Arabia to match if not flat out surpass it. What really pushed people over the edge was the poor treatment of Civilian class robots discovered in length after the war. While many of these machines were built to be sent straight to the battlefield some were donated by concerned higher class civilians who had a large number as staff and others flat out decided to leave their human masters behind and join the army believing that it was their duty to protect all the human friends and family they had no matter the cost and if that meant going to war so be it. Sadly, both Saddle Arabia and the Griffin Empire were able to throw grey crystal robots at the Equestria forces with little care or strategy so Equestrian Generals were pushed to do the same, many machines finding themselves used as little more than meat shields, sent into the grinder so they can absorb fire meant for human soldiers. Considering most of Equestria considered these machines as family it’s understandable why they were furious and with the support of a social crusader known as Celestia, the old leaders were overthrown and replaced with ones more bent on changing the Prideful and militaristic nature of the country into one of learning and open minded understanding.

This began with giving certain rights to machines, a first in the world even if they weren’t all that great more accurately they seemed more in the line of pet rights then human rights but still, it was a step in the right direction. Next they offered a buyback of most Equestrian weaponry they themselves taking Auto-muskets and Gatling guns away from Royal Guards and replacing them with force pikes and less fatal means of defence. These weapons were then locked in a series of vaults all over equestrian which were surprisingly hard to break into, often guarded and had security measure many considered too extreme even for guarding the nation’s arsenal. Finally, funding was given to universities and research institutes to kick start a new age of learning for the Equestrian people though this choice is somewhat controversial as most of the south had yet to recover when this policy was introduced, and to this day it has yet to regain its former might.

The United States of Saddle Arabia suffered the worse with their capital moving to Arbon on the west coast, the only location with cities completely intact. Most of the nation was in ruins but in this dark period there was opportunity. The States were allowed to keep a small, unorganized militia force which was sometimes sent to the front in conflicts to perform acts of bravery the State could flaunt over the others and New Stalliongrad, who now had by far the largest, was no different. Wiped out when the Griffin Empire invaded after the war many states saw this as an opportunity to wrestle control away from state especially since the national army was in no position to offer true resistance. The conflict only lasted a few weeks and wasn’t so much a civil war as much as a civil skirmish. There just wasn’t enough people TO fight in big battles. Eventually a number of cease fire treaties were signed which over time becomes long term and then full peace treaties as many leaders, especially those who soon took over from the tired and battered senators who fought in the war itself, decided peace was the only option less they watched as what little structure they had crumbled into infighting.

From there Saddle Arabia focused solely on rebuilding, a monstrous effort that would take decades. In fact, to this day twenty two percent of the country is still rumble, yet to be repaired. This have gotten a bit trickier now however since Arabia got back on their feet. Since the United States had spent so much time with New Stalliongrad in charge most feel it’s time another house takes charge, though anyone who does so is simply ganged up on by the others leaving an uneasy equal standing. Instead, many States hope to gain control by making examples. Many feel ashamed of how far their nation and fallen and the idea of a state somehow bringing them back to their former glory brings great hope, accomplishing this then would allow the house to swoop into a higher position. As such over the past five years Saddle Arabia has had a huge boost to their spy network dedicated to watching their fellow states AND nations looking for any opportunity to obtain the power, influence or financial boost they need to become the paragons of the nation.

Finally, the Griffin Red Empire suffered very little during the war mostly because it was overseas, although their army was almost entirely destroyed. Due to the distance between lands the Empire generals chose to send everyone they had in a single attack hoping to use the advantage of numbers to collapse Saddle Arabia in weeks, although they eventually slowed drastically due to supply issues. To put it simply, the Empire had no one left to fight with without risking anarchy. On top of that the government did not have the shaky foundations although such a disaster shook things up a little. The people in charge of the invasion were executed, High General Joseph Redwing himself by the Empress’s own hands along with a small purge using the execution as a smoke screen to remove high level leaders who might use this defeat to their advantage.

When everything settled nothing has changed and now pretty much have an army even larger than they did at the start of the war. They are afraid both nations will unite to fight back against any attack however and despite their large army they don’t quite have THAT big a force yet. Still, the diplomacy of the two are shaky at best and their army is always growing bigger and bigger behind the borders. Celestia often acts as a diplomat for Equestria attempting to make friends with Arabian states but even she has a very spiteful relationship with the Empire’s empress, both seeing the others way of doing things as cowardly and pathetic.

All up there is a lot of tension in the world today but also great hope. Equestria will soon complete both its recovery efforts and is becoming a gleaming gem of knowledge, focused on teaching without ever worrying about conflict and war. The United States of Saddle Arabia wish to become a phoenix, rising from the ashes as once again a united, great nation for all its citizens to be proud of and the Griffin Empire hopes to one day achieve total peace under a single red banner. All these could easily be achieved together, but while individuals can truly understand the magic of friendship, the mob cannot and all three view their rivals as obstacles instead of potential allies.