Last lore (Friendly Island, and Orthrus)

Specter Armor. An all environmental smart suit, with densely woven polymer fabric, and hard polymer armor plates, it may not be power armor, but it's the next best thing. Many of the technical advancements that went into the construction of power armor, went into the specter armor, giving the pony an on-board VI capable of applying medical treatment, and analyzing the users mental state. The armor itself is reinforced with a shield spell talismans and repair talismans. The helmet is built with advance censoring equipment, allowing the user to see in the dark, heat, and magic. Orthrus only ever makes the armor for the specters, with only a few in reserve, so the armor is incredibly rare, and only ever seen on a specter.

- Friendly Island, and Orthrus

Among the populated islands, Friendly Island has always been the poorest, and lest friendly. Lacking the necessary usable land settlements have always remained small on the island, and the pineapple plantations could never get to the size as they were on other islands. Because of that, the island was often used for quarantining the sick whenever a plague would break out, and many of the residents are descendants of the ponies exiled do too sickness.

In wartime, the Island was mostly ignored, with the exception of the M.o.P. whom built a small outpost on the island. The M.W.T. had also built a raider station on the island, of which acted as a backup for their other station, and only had a skeleton crew to work it.

Stable-Tec originally only used the island to build a tunnel from the Valley Island, to the Gathering Island, but soon shat the potential of the untapped land. Hiring the mostly jobless population, Stable-Tec preceded to build a mega stable on the island, dubbed the R&D Stable, transferring much of their projects and research to the stable. At the same time, under orders from president Applebloom, the two underground stations that connected Friendly Island to the rest of the metro, were secretly converted into emergency stables themselves. Inspired how the metro connected the island, the president wanted to connect the stables together, no matter how far apart they were. She had also planned to oversee this endeavor herself, reserving herself as the Stables Overmare.

Sadly Appleblooms plans never came to be. In the short time before the war came to its end, the R&D Stable as attacked by Thorn Roseland, an admiral in the equestrian navy, war hero, and unknown to most, phocopath. The R&D security team were able to drive Thorn back, and seal the table, but the damaged done was irreversible, and the R&D Stable was not even able to open their door for years after, only learning about the end of the war far too late.

Connecting with the two stable-stations, the R&D staff found both stations just struggling to hold on, having taken in as many ponies as they could, taking their resources to its limit. For the Stable-Stations, the arrival of the R&D Stable was like as if the princesses has answered their prayers, keeping their situation from turning into a tragedy. With supply’s from the R&D stable, both stable-stations were able properly care for its population, reorganize, and later move out into the metro. Among the many survivors were navy ponies who had been left abandoned by their admiral, and had become the main security force for the stable-stations, helping maintain order. Not wanting to undergo another conflict, the former navy ponies were simply absorbed into the R&D’s surety team, and given the jobs they already had.

When Stable-Tec moved out into the rest of the metro, they were met with both good surprises, and horrendous surprises. The Gathering Island proved to be highly hostile, though finding plenty of friendly who ran to Stable-Tec for safety, the rest were paranoid and highly territorial. The Valley Island was far more hospitable, with the remnants of the government having managed to maintain order. To Stable-Tec’s delight, Pineapple Island was mostly intact, and practically waiting for them to show up. Unfortunately, Stable-Tec’s rival Solaris survived, locking off the big island to them.

In this time, the damage to the R&D stable began to get worse, forcing the complete abandonment of the stable, and it to be sealed up. The loss of the stable was a huge hit to Stable-Tec, and though they still had the stable-stations, they couldn’t hold nearly the same amount of ponies as the R&D stable did. Also plenty of supply’s was left behind, though they got the more important stuff out, it was still considered a major loss. This force Stable-Tec to double down on their helping of the metro, and increasing the livable space along it.

For Stable-Tec, every win was met with a loss, as the environment in the metro slowly became worse, and the surface remained toxic. As time went on, every win was met with two losses, and later three. Their attempt to save all the ponies of the metro soon became too taxing to them, and Stable-Tec began to withdraw. Refocusing their efforts on solving one problem at a time, Stable-Tec once more earned their importance during the lost generation crises. The Toxins from the surface began causing a wide variety of birth defects, and most foals died soon after being born. Putting all their efforts into solving this problem, Stable-Tec found the solution in genetic modification, counteracting the damage the toxins did in the womb, by modifying the unborn foal’s genes while it was still in the womb.

With the first generation of mirage ponies being born, Stable-Tec found themselves the target of hate, and suspicion. Attempting to gain the public’s trust, or at least get them to not shoot at them, Stable-Tec underwent a large image change. Strengthening their security, holding and maintaining tunnel’s, and offering the gene therapy to any pregnant mare who wanted it, the name that stuck was Orthrus. It started as a simple joke, as the rest of the metro ponies called Stable-Tec staff Orthrus ponies, due to an orthrus being on their promotion posters supporting the gene therapy. As time went on, the Stable-Tec staff simply adopted the name, which later Stable-Tec itself taking a liking to the name, renamed themselves to it, and taking on the persona of the guard dogs of the metro.

As time went on, and the Mirage pony population began to outnumber the rest of the ponies, Orthrus had solidified its role in the metro. Having a hooves off approach to stations under its control, they focused more on maintaining the metro, and keeping any flare up’s of violence contained to where they start. Orthrus has territory on each island, often being neutral territory for other factions to meet and negotiate politics.

Orthrus still finds itself the target of violence, and to counter the threats that flare up, Orthrus focused on the training of highly skilled and independent solders. Known as Specters, they answer directly to the Orthrus council, allowing them to swiftly analyze threats and remove them. Normaly working in the shadows, the specters were known to have important roles in the war with Solaris, using subterfuge as their main wepon, and getting many of the enemy troops to simply surrender. They were also involved in the extermination of the fascist gangs, in assassinating their leaders, and getting the Orphic Kingdome to crack down on their radical elements. They are known to have the most advanced tech in the metro, and move like ghosts, sometimes a peaceful muse helping keep the peace, other times a merciless reaper who finds what is hostile, and eliminates it.

In current times most ponies in the metro only see Orthrus as tax collectors, and maintenance workers. They neither like them, nor hat them, simply seeing them as a necessity from an older time. Orthrus itself gathers its strength, and keeps below the radar, waiting for the time when the Marewaii Islands can rejoin the world.