History Headscratchers / FalloutEquestria

** Actually it was one of the CMC's that made the recording of the access code, but yeah, they sent it to Sweetie Belle who was the Overmare at the time. Then she must of either forgot about it or just left it there. Does seem kinda weird that they'd pass the same Pipbuck down that many generations though.

* Going back to the Stables, specifically Stable One, Scootaloo designed it so that the door wouldn't open until all the residents of the Stable,(or at least the Mane Six and the Princesses as stated above), were dead. In the fic, we find out that [[spoiler: neither Celestia or Luna made it into Stable One, nor did any of the Mane Six.]] But couldn't the Princesses, Twilight or Rarity just teleport beyond the Stable door? It's doubtful Scootaloo would have been able to get the [[spoiler:Ministry of Arcane Sciences]] to put a bypass spell over the door.

*** This all seems very unlikely. There's no reason to think [=PipBucks=] are handed down. Seems like they're issued by the Stable. Maybe the file itself was passed down, instead of the hardware, but then what would make Velvet Remedy sit on the code for years before she finally left? Audio recordings can exist separate from [=PipBucks=], and I think can be downloaded onto them, so maybe the recording... I don't know... fell behind a table in the family's quarters or something.
*** Why is it unlikely that PipBucks are handed down? Fallout lore states that Pipboys are removed from the deceased, inspected for damage, repaired if necessary and handed down to younger members of the Vault; there's no reason to think that most of this doesn't also apply to the Pip Bucks in the Stable system, given that they have no means to manufacture more.
*** Re-reading chapter 14, it was Apple Bloom who made the access code "[=CMC3BFF=]"

*** In Fallout 3, during the Lone Wanderer's birthday, the radio broadcast says that proper maintenance of PipBoys will ensure they can be there for the use of future Vault citizens.

* Could somepony explain to me what the big deal is about [[spoiler:Littlepip being in the SPP]]? If I recall the situation well enough, [[spoiler:the special cloud cover rearrangment]] only needs to last a year. And she needs to get out [[spoiler:to activate the Gardens of Equestria]] spell anyway. Yeah, [[spoiler:she promised to stay with Celestia]], but surely there's a way to make proper arrangments.
** Actually the plan was to keep the clouds clear permantly, and they estimated that the pegasi would have only a year before their food supply runs out; which is why the [[spoiler:Gardens of Equestria]] needs to be cast within that timeframe. [=LittlePip=] doesn't have to be the one to cast it, and [[spoiler:once hooked up to the SPP she can't leave.]]
*** But the whole thing about the cloud cover in the first place was because the Pegusi left the factories on. Can't they just turn them off, or barring that blow a few up? [[spoiler:And what do you mean [=LittlePip=] doesn't have to help cast the [=GoE=]? Isn't she the Twilight of the group? The galvanizing Spark of Friendship?]]
*** That would still allow the pegasi to maintain the clouds themselves. [[spoiler:The SPP allows [=LittlePip=] to remove massive amounts of clouds at once, preventing the Enclave from fixing the clouds before any pegasi muggles see the surface. And Spike mentioned that she was ''a'' spark, not ''the'' spark. Anything that gets the Element Bearers to realize their purpose/friendship would suffice as a spark. Once all 6 are found even Spike can activate the Gardens machine.]]
*** This fanfic postulates that "the Spark" and the Element of Magic are not the same. "The Spark" is the thing which reveals who the Elements are. Twilight Sparkle was the bearer of the Element of Magic, her epiphany about her friends was The Spark, revealing to her that her friends were the proper Bearers and that the spirits of those virtues rested inside them. Remember how Nightmare Moon said "The spark didn't work!"? She was as confused as Twilight. But Celestia and Luna found the Elements of Harmony and used them before. If the spark had always been an epiphany about friendship, or even always been connected to the Element of Magic, then Nightmare Moon should have known better. To explain this apparent inconsistency, [[spoiler: Fallout: Equestria explains that The Spark always changes, manifesting differently each time. (As Twilight told Nightmare Moon, her epiphany was "a different kind of spark" than what had happened before.) As such, this time around, Littlepip was the new "Spark", revealing four of the Elements and initiating the call to action which would help identify the other two. But she wasn't actually a Bearer of one of the Elements, and thus she wasn't needed to actually activate them.]]
*** About Seven Seasons later, and the show actually ended up giving material that can adress this.[[spoiler: The precursors of the Elements of Harmony, the Pillars of Equestria, were brought together by Stygian. Stygian wasn't a Pillar like the others and wasn't needed for them to use their powers, he was just the spark that united them, just like how Littlepip wasn't an Element Bearer, but the spark that caused the unification of the new elements.]]

*** [[spoiler:Celestia]] sat in that room for 200 years unable to do anything because Rainbow didn't trust robots, and [[spoiler:Celestia]] already uploaded her "brain" into the system, effectively making her an AI. Pip does take breaks with Homage, the helmet can be taken off, but the main reason Pip stays connected all the time is because her body was so damaged from being shot at, radiation, Pink Cloud, etc. that her lifespan was effectively shortened. The SPP kept her body in stasis, and sort of fixed the lifespan problem.
*** It is stated in either the afterword or the epilogue that [[spoiler: fixing the Maneframe and reconnecting it to the weather control systems would involve deactivating it and tearing it apart to get at the problem. In doing that, Celestia would be KilledOffForReal this time, so they decided to leave the system as-is. Littlepip]] stays in the Single Pegasus Project full-time to keep the weather docile and under control, which is what the pegasi did before the war, and to keep the injuries she's accrued over the course of the story from killing her. (She ''does'' exit out of the hub for smexytime with Homage on her birthdays, though, so it's not all bad)
*** I thought her lifespan was dramatically lengthened due to [[spoiler:the taint making her part alicorn]].

*** It seems odd that ponies evolved to create souls which are capable of making objects invincible, but don't do it to the ponies in question. Did they originally evolve invincibility, but lose it through some kind of mutation? Also, Elder Cottage Cheese would have no interest in uploading himself if he could just skip the mainframe and bind his soul directly to himself. Since souls seem to be able to project emotion onto people that are simply nearby the object the soul is bonded to, they would clearly allow the user to think normally.

*** This could explain how some of the ponies knew the result of uploading a pony, but not all of the ponies who knew that had access to that information. Also, unless it was specifically designed to hold souls, that wouldn't explain why it was capable of interfacing with them correctly. It's not as if this is even an obvious way for it to fail. Emotions are conceptually easy to understand, and are one of the few well-understood things about the brain. Emotions connect pretty much the whole brain, meaning that tracking the connections between neurons is unimportant for them. Small errors would just change people's temperament somewhat, and would be comparable to a drug. Compare this to an error in wiring, which would be comparable to a stroke.
* Third, souls and consciousness are only associated in the sense that the fic implies that the two are incomplete without the other. Consciousness and intelligence without soul might be considered little more than advanced AI, while soul without consciousness is just a stream of unthinking emotion.

* Why are the uploads assumed to be imperfect? There doesn't seem to be any given examples of them testing it. It may have been obvious to the ponies designing it, which would explain how Rainbow Dash knew, but not the later ponies. Also, they're assumed to not be the same as the pony being uploaded, which is a deep philosophical question.

*** Again, several of the ponies talking about it did not know how it was designed. Few if any knew much about souls either. Remember, the only authority on them was the black book, which few ponies actually read. Consciousness is a deep philosophical concept, and it's unlikely the ponies would all agree on how it works, at least without knowing that the uploads are totally lacking in emotion.

*** Use a memory alteration spell for epic TrickedOutTime. Just because you remember spending your whole life in a post-apocalyptic wasteland doesn't mean that you actually did.
*** As of season 5... Yeah. Now we know that a time travel spell, with some rewriting, could use a powerful enough magic source to bypass the stable time loop requirement. Like the Tree of Harmony, the power source of the Elements. Or, say, a time travel megaspell. Although I suppose one could claim that since the stable time loop that gave Twilight the knowledge of Time Travel spells or that they're in the Starswirl the Bearded wing didn't happen, Twilight simply didn't know they existed. But this isn't a valid excuse either as Celestia and Luna would certainly know that and even if Celestia hid their existance, Luna would certainly permit their use.

* Going back to the Stables, specifically Stable One, Scootaloo designed it so that the door wouldn't open until all the resdients of the Stable,(or at least the Mane Six and the Princesses as stated above), were dead. In the fic, we find out that [[spoiler: neither Celestia or Luna made it into Stable One, nor did any of the Mane Six.]] But couldn't the Princesses, Twilight or Rarity just teleport beyond the Stable door? Its doubt Scootaloo would have been able to get the [[spoiler:Ministry of Arcane Sciences]] to put a bypass spell over the door.

* During the exploration of Stable 24, while Littlepip is fuming at the "Stallion in the Moon" historical revision, Calamity mentions that he remembers his mother told him the story of The Mare in the Moon. Later, we learn [[spoiler:his mother died due to complications from childbirth, so who told him the story? Or was she just severely weakened and ill because of said complications, yet lived long enough for her to tell him the story because of said complications?]] This is something [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse Kkat has acknowledged was a contradiction that could have been addressed within the story but simply wasn't, but there's still no answer given.]]

*** Re-reading chapter 14 I realize it was Apple Bloom who made the access code "[=CMC3BFF=]"

* Why are people asking questions in the middle of the page? Aren't you supposed to put the new ones at the bottom?

** Second, "uploading" souls onto computers were only done with the Crusader Mainframes, of which there were only three in existence, and were specifically designed to house consciousness.

* During the exploration of Stable 24, while Littlepip is fuming at the "Stallion in the Moon" historical revision, Calamity mentions that he remembers his mother told him the story of The Mare in the Moon. Later, we learn [[spoiler:his mother died due to complications from childbirth, so who told him the story? Or was she just severely weakened and ill because of said complications, yet lived long enough for her to tell him the story because of said complications?]]

*** Use a memory alteration spell for epic TrickedOutTime. Just because you remember spending your whole life in a post-apocalyptic wasteland doesn't mean that you actually did.

** Elaborating on the whole "not black-and-white" thing. This was a town that [[Spoiler: showed them hospitality, that they saved from bandits, that they killed inexperienced Steel Rangers to get water talismens for. To find out that they were cannibals wasn't just another "they're bad and must die" moment. It was a crashing feeling of utter betrayl and horror over all that both the Arbu pony's did and what they did for them. This wasn't a cold and calculated "Okay, they need to pay, and here's how we'll do it." This was heat-of-the-moment "YOU BASTARDS AAAARRRGGGGGHHHH!!!" And yes, as someone said, Littlepip slaughter the town in front of the children (and Littlepip even slaughtered one barely-got-her-cutie-mark child in her blind rage), which led to them fearing her, which led to that one child being killed in Friendship City because she tried to run away from Littlepip.]]

** The citizens were murderers and Equestria was better off with them dead. This was not established with certainty until after they were killed. Also, they were killed in front of the children, which was not necessary.
** Elaborating on the whole "not black-and-white" thing. This was a town that showed them hospitality, that they saved from bandits, that they killed inexperienced Steel Rangers to get water talismens for. To find out that they were cannibals wasn't just another "they're bad and must die" moment. It was a crashing feeling of utter betrayl and horror over all that both the Arbu pony's did and what they did for them. This wasn't a cold and calculated "Okay, they need to pay, and here's how we'll do it." This was heat-of-the-moment "YOU BASTARDS AAAARRRGGGGGHHHH!!!" And yes, as someone said, Littlepip slaughter the town in front of the children (and Littlepip even slaughtered one barely-got-her-cutie-mark child in her blind rage), which led to them fearing her, which led to that one child being killed in Friendship City because she tried to run away from Littlepip.

** Stable 2 is not shown to function in the same way as Vault 101 where, even though you were given your Pipboy at age 10, you still received six years of general education before taking your G.O.A.T. Instead, in Stable 2, a pony gains her PipBuck when she discovers her "special talent" and thus gains her cutie mark; this even simultaneously marks her career assignment, the end of general education and the beginning of her apprenticeship. With only a few short years of general education, such schooling would have stressed the basics such as reading, writing, arithmetic and the skills and knowledge needed to live in the stable. If history was taught at all, it would likely have focused on inner-stable history. Any pony seeking to broaden their knowledge and education would likely do so through reading -- clearly, books were available. Velvet Remedy's apprenticeship would have included pre-apocalypse music, and her personal studies at least ranged to learning about medical history. Littlepip, on the other hoof, preferred technical manuals, as seen by her choice of book to take with her when she left.

** Indeed, Calamity articulates this pretty well (barring his dialect and questionable grammar), saying that he can't easily justify what the party did. The only reason he's able to forgive LittlePip and himself is by insisting that she's still a good pony and that she reacted the way she did because she hasn't experienced the wasteland long enough to become jaded with it the way he has. As for the foals? LittlePip forgot what Dr. Helpinghooves told her earlier in the story, in regards to her mother's alcoholism [[spoiler:making LittlePip's Mint-Al addiction easier]], that nopony's destiny is necessarily determined by their cutie mark; she outright [[spoiler:slaughtered one who just gained their mark]]. Even Steelhooves, who sided with her actions, acknowledges that she acted rashly and emotionally, and that it'd backfire on her.

** Add in that what Time Travel we've seen implies all time travel in Equestria's universe of of the StableTimeLoop type, having a time spell wouldn't be able to alter anything.

** Elaborating on the whole "note black-and-white" thing. This was a town that showed them hospitality, that they saved from bandits, that they killed inexperienced Steel Rangers to get water talismens for. To find out that they were cannibals wasn't just another "they're bad and must die" moment. It was a crashing feeling of utter betrayl and horror over all that both the Arbu pony's did and what they did for them. This wasn't a cold and calculated "Okay, they need to pay, and here's how we'll do it." This was heat-of-the-moment "YOU BASTARDS AAAARRRGGGGGHHHH!!!" And yes, as someone said, Littlepip slaughter the town in front of the children (and Littlepip even slaughtered one barely-got-her-cutie-mark child in her blind rage), which led to them fearing her, which led to that one child being killed in Friendship Citybecause she tried to run away from Littlepip.