Broad Daylight: Mad Science Institute, League, Association and Cartel · 5:48am Jan 10th, 2022
Mad Science Institute:
Leader: Unknown
Headquarters: The Far Reaches
Area of specialization: The supernatural
The art of mad science dates back to antiquity, but the creation of micro-portals in the 13th century made it a far more viable area of expertise, ‘dives’ going from near-certain death to an unlikely accident. With the help of the witch Spatial Tear, who intended to sow chaos, mad scientists quickly became common.
Early on, mad science did produce many disastrous results. Ponies were unaware that each dive caused increasingly psychopathic results and a great number of monstrosities were created during this time.
Most devastating were the mad scientists employed by the Toxco Corporation, who developed the super-reactors and other technology design to be subtle weapons aimed at destroying the environment.
After the war with Toxco and the death of Spatial Tear, President Flash Blade passed sweeping environmental reforms. These included prohibitions on a large array of technologies perceived as dangerous or environmentally unfriendly and heavily regulated the use of mad science.
In response to this ban, nearly all of the prominent mad scientists of the time fled to the northernmost part of Equestria known as the far reaches to form the Mad Science Institute or MSI.
Even after multiple schisms, MSI remains the most advanced and feared of the four main organizations, having access to the most powerful technology on the planet. Though mad science is now a much more refined art, MSI has increasingly embraced its status as a criminal organization.
Their primary area of focus is studying the four sources – super radiation, witchcraft, the outer realm, and ghosts in that order of priority. The extent to which they’ve unlocked the secrets of the supernatural remains shrouded in mystery.
Mad Science League:
Leader: A shocking spoiler.
Headquarters: Northern Everfree
Area of expertise: Robotics
Initial attempts to use mad science to create artificial general intelligence resulted in first-generation persona cores (the brains of robots). The major flaw with these robotics cores was that the resulting robot could feel nothing but anger and aggression. All early attempts at robotics produced only violent killing machines that could not be reasoned with. Robots still have this reputation today.
This led to a number of fatal incidents and prompted Equestria to ban most robotics research. The Mad Science Institute, responsible for these incidents, slowly soured on the idea of AGI as their repeated failures became only deadlier. Eventually, they began to fear that even successful artificial intelligence would be overly dangerous and they too banned robotic development from their own institute.
Several mad scientists, unable to accept this ban, defected from the Mad Science Institute to form the Mad Science League. They were forced out into the Everfree where they continued to develop persona cores and create ever more advanced robots.
Modern persona cores are much less dangerous, with the resulting robot capable of feeling any emotion but sorrow and possessing a great deal of loyalty and affection towards their creator. Despite these improvements, nearly every other faction still views robots are unhinged and incredibly dangerous. The Mad Science League remains the largest organization willing to experiment with machine intelligence.
Mad Science Association
Leader: Blueblood
Headquarters: Southern Everfree
Area of Specialization: Golems
Not long after the Mad Science Institute broke off, a second schism occurred. Arguments about whether or not golems were really any different from robots continued for about a decade afterwards. Eventually, after a particularly intelligent golem was created, MSI decided to ban the creation of golems as well.
The more posh Mad Science Institute refused to take this second round of refuges in, seeing golems are more uncouth than robots. The Mad Science Association formed, and they maintain a moderately unfriendly rivalry towards the Mad Science League ever since.
Though they’re considered to be the weakest of the four main mad science groups, they are still held up as one of the four big ones. That’s better than nothing.
Mad Science Cartel:
Leader: Unknown.
Headquarters: Unknown.
Area of specialization: Giant monsters and mutants
The Mad Science Cartel is the only major mad science organization not splintered from MSI. Instead, they splintered off from the Bloodstorm Cartel after Bloodstorm died and the cartel broke off into dozens of smaller organizations.
MSC are feared for their ability to turn already dangerous monsters into far more dangerous mutant. They can create chimeras of multiple species as well as colossal versions of normal animals. Often, the monsters they create are too much for them to control and they simply allow it to escape.
During their time as part of the Bloodstorm Cartel, they created many of the huge sea monsters that still roam the ocean. While they were once under control and part of Bloodstorm’s navy, they’ve long since gone rogue and ravage the ocean to this day.
The modern Bloodstorm Cartel, though MSC is not under their control, still has access to the technology to create chimeras. Indeed, a number of Screwball’s elite have been turned into chimeras.
Some mad scientists worry that continued splinterings and schisms will exhaust synonyms for "group" faster than language can produce them. A few fear they have already passed "peak name."
One guy said they don't have to follow the "Mad Science (Organization)" naming convention, but there's mad, and then there's just crazy.
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Eventually it will become nomen-logically impossible to form any new mad science groups. Then we'll all have no choice but to get along.
Shouldn't that be MSL instead of MSI in this paragraph?