Something I've seen only a handful of times, albiet never getting far, is that Earth scrambles to create an evacuation mission to save what's left of physical humanity and flee into deep space. Since the setting has hyper nukes, it's more than enough to launch huge hunks of metal towards another star system. Eventually humanity finds a new home, and the purification of Earth fades into myth, and the beings involved are flanderized as saints and monsters in their religion and popular culture. How would such a story play out? I ask because while my setting is based on the premise, the story itself has kind of moved away from TCB

Well, humans after a time will come back to what used to be Earth now Equestria. Don't have many if at all answers but questions to ask.

How much time has passed? 1000 years? Make sense thematically. How have the humans evolved as a people? Are they even recognizable as humans? Has morals shifted for good or ill? Same thing that goes for the ponies.

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Yeah about a few thousand. They've done a better job maintaining New Earth, they're still recognizable as humans for better or worse. They've also grown to see the stars with suspicion (pin it on the HLF if you wish) and fear what else might be out there. Even as society becomes secularized, there's still a taboo regarding old Earth that nobody was willing to break, until now. Maybe a mining syndicate believes it to all be superstition and hopes to resettle Earth, maybe an old rich guy travels to Sol at the end of his life to seek eternal youth, or maybe a rogue state takes their meager fleet and hopes to retake Earth. Ponies I don't expect to be different much, maybe some incremental changes

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Okay. We learned this last time. We absolutely cannot pollute this planet to the point-
*Planet becomes uninhabitable*
Dammit guys!

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That actually makes things easier, you can't make the planet any worse than it is. Or in the case of Mars actually improve things

Will the Earth still be there? Many of the TCB stories I've read have the earth being taken over by Equestrian dimension/space, which would mean as soon as the Earth is full of Equestrian dimensional force that it would pop out of our universe and into theirs.
Planetary marbles anyone?

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In that case it'd be quite the anti climax. Someone is brave or dumb enough to launch an expedition, only to return with reports of there being no Earth at all. Many begin to doubt if they even came to the right system since telescopes would've gotten powerful enough to detect any terrestrial planet by the time it's an issue

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I meant like, they made in uninhabitable. But I suppose if they just wen to Mars then the worst case scenario is making it uninhabitable again.

If you want to be realistic, a few evacuated ships would have to look for a planet they can inhabit already, though. Teraforming a planet without the support of Earth would be impossible.

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That's fair, and the time sink would mean the ability to actually retain lessons learned is uncertain outside of author fiat and historical circumstances. Ideally it's possible to blunder into not running into climate change if say, the equatorial nations of New Earth use solar furnaces to start the industrial revolution

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Most stories have only the Equestrian landmass appearing and a force field of magic that is spreading across the Earth.

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Well, while your story may play by different rules - there is popular site called Atomic Rockets. Covers Project Orion in good detail. Other engines too. But there is kicker: unless your nukes somewhat create hyperdrive (FTL) - "canned monkeys do not ship well" still apply.

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Nowhere did I imply that the ship would be going anywhere fast. Neither did I imply that the colonists would be frozen on a relatively slow moving boat that will take a long ass time to get there either but still. You could still go a lot faster than space ships today if it's only enough to create thrust based artificial gravity

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well, it will be technofantasy, then. Because energy required for constant acceleration tend to grow ..fast. Very fast ... Yes, there are some magical physics (! look for this phrase at those pages. I enjoyed it immersely!) allowing, in very far-reaching theory, to get some energy from vacuum. But there is another problem, stated on those very pages ...current capitalism simply sees no value in actually developing any of it :} :E :} And in course of history (TCB by Chatoyance) there will be enough distractors to keep interest in such development low. Nukes were easy enough - controlled _flying_ engine using same principle not even on engineer's drawing board (if we talk about lifting little city into space, or at least something as big as cruise liner - fallacy in itself, but you definitely don't want to spend years in airliner-sized spaceship .... so, you really, really want some thousands of tonnes ...even not counting radiation shielding at sublight speeds .... )

Anyway, because I actually read whole saga I have a lot of laughs, because ...ponies will be everywhere :} And I like it this way :}

Space shipping relatively easy and fun, spaces SHIPS are ... much harder type of fun :}

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Because energy required for constant acceleration tend to grow ..fast. Very fast ...

Thing is friction doesn't really exist much in space, sure there are interstellar gasses but the effect on the ship will be minimal. If anything I'm more worried about slowing down a massive hunk of metal going really fucking fast once you get up to speed. Getting the math right is really important otherwise you'll be stranded in deep space or you'll over shoot your destination because you don't have enough nukes to slow down.

But there is another problem, stated on those very pages ...current capitalism simply sees no value in actually developing any of it :} :E :} And in course of history (TCB by Chatoyance) there will be enough distractors to keep interest in such development low.

The nature of space flight in TCB is vague, but in real life there's some private interests in space, so worst case scenario there'd be some infrastructure in space by whatever the current year is. If they have space hotels then there would be some facilities to build them that can be converted to build star ships

Nukes were easy enough - controlled _flying_ engine using same principle not even on engineer's drawing board (if we talk about lifting little city into space, or at least something as big as cruise liner - fallacy in itself, but you definitely don't want to spend years in airliner-sized spaceship .... so, you really, really want some thousands of tonnes ...even not counting radiation shielding at sublight speeds .... )

That formatting
Again, people would be cryogenically frozen, meaning if you do have cruise liner sized ships you'd to bring more people and supplies at least. But other than that you wouldn't really perceive cramped conditions more than you really need to.

Anyway, because I actually read whole saga I have a lot of laughs, because ...ponies will be everywhere :} And I like it this way :}

Frightening, because I wanted to have some benefit of the doubt and have the xenophobia being the result of HLF writing the history books after planetfall

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Getting the math right is really important

- exactly my point - I was talking about kinetic energy ..and relativistic phenomenon, where you need more and more energy because from engine's point of view your spaceship will be heavier and heavier as it comes closer to slight speed barrier! But I can't recite much of equation from memory - those pages I linked have them all and plus some! I really think some traditions of hard (-ish) Sci-Fi worth preserving, even in setting with talking interdimensional ponies :}

If they have space hotels

- not exactly hotel, but something bigger than current ISS (from ch. 6 of Going Pony):

Frightening, because I wanted to have some benefit of the doubt and have the xenophobia being the result of HLF writing the history books after planetfall

- well, author can write nearly anything, just I very much like direction set in this group. Space thing done a lot of times, and worlds and universes governed by friendship actually very rare ....

I was referring to this little device and backstory behind it, interleaved with pony saga lately:
https://www.deviantart.com/aealacreatrananda/art/MultiversalMoverTSH-607901349

So, spoilers: ponies already had technology, just it was interfaced with them in ... user friendly way :}

Equestria as Anti-Death Star :}

Thanks for making some waves here, I might not read much of _stories_ now, but I still read ..other things.

Humanity's way into future is .... complex thing, especially considering there is basically no such thing as unified humanity. So, a lot of things and processes to think about. May be exactly as part of writing process.

- exactly my point - I was talking about kinetic energy ..and relativistic phenomenon, where you need more and more energy because from engine's point of view your spaceship will be heavier and heavier as it comes closer to slight speed barrier! But I can't recite much of equation from memory - those pages I linked have them all and plus some! I really think some traditions of hard (-ish) Sci-Fi worth preserving, even in setting with talking interdimensional ponies :}

I know those speeds are close to impossible, that's why we don't need them. It's relatively (imao) easier to just freeze your passengers and take as long as you need, only unfreezing essential personnel for routine maintenance checks. So if need be you could be stuck in a freezer for 5000 years and only perceive like a few weeks tops.

- not exactly hotel, but something bigger than current ISS (from ch. 6 of Going Pony):

I was thinking about that space station, it had to have been constructed somewhere. Even if it's in dirt side factories and launched from Kazakhstan. Depending on how much is left by year 7 you don't have to worry about choosing who to send :v

Humanity's way into future is .... complex thing, especially considering there is basically no such thing as unified humanity. So, a lot of things and processes to think about. May be exactly as part of writing process.

I never went into this idea with that being a thing, what with worldgov fracturing when people found out they were gonna use serum to make slaves out of the colonists and humanity returning to space as a fractured entity

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I can answer this.

First, allow me to describe the issue of using space travel to escape earth in the Bureau stories with this example, an interview with a scientist from the story 'Recombinant 63' which addresses precisely your concern:

"Someone asked why we just don't blast off into space and colonize the moon or mars or whatever. I don't know who said it, but everyone in the room just stared at them. I worry that whoever it was won't be back tomorrow. One thing they made clear was that this was about saving as much of humanity as possible, not just a few dozen, or hundred people who we might be able to ship off to the moon. Man, I feel sorry for that poor jerk suggesting moon colonies."

In order to effectively preserve the human race in space, it would be necessary to lift at least the Minimum Viable Population to prevent inbreeding, genetic drift and eventual extinction. For humans, the safe figure is 40,000 people. There is, currently, no technology capable of accomplishing such a task within seven years (the maximum amount of time to Do Anything before the world ends). Even using a Project Orion styled, nuclear-bomb-and-pusher-plate propelled ship, the task would be impossible. But the two worse problems are that nobody has even come close to cracking the issue of creating a viable bottle ecosystem that could sustain human life for longer than a year. Even if we could magically send 40,000 humans to a radiation-shielded, underground colony on the moon, we could not keep them breathing and eating for longer than a year. Of course, without the earth, the moon would be doomed, so the moon is out to begin with. It would have to be mars.

We have no way to shield any craft from radiation sufficiently to carry an intact human being all the way to mars. Any trip to mars must be a one-way ticket, because any human taking the journey will arrive dying of multiple, untreatable cancers. The will die within six months of landing on mars. Because we have no cure for all the different cancers that exist.

It is really exciting to dream of moon colonies and mars landings, but there is no way known to actually make that happen currently, and no clear path to finding a solution. We can definitely send people briefly to the moon and back. And we could definitely do a suicide run to mars with anyone willing to die shortly after arriving there. But we cannot colonize either place. We don't yet even understand how to figure out how to solve the problems involved. Not yet, anyway.

But there is a worse problem.

In the age of the Bureaus, all resources are beyond their Peak. By that, I mean that the world has gotten to the level where almost everything costs more to extract or process than the benefit gained. The earth is chock-full of resources - metals, chemicals, gasses, and other matter - but there is a limit to how much of those resources are actually accessible. The issue is that the deeper you mine, the more it costs to mine those resources. There is a point at which the cost of the process of acquiring the resources costs more resources than the value and worth of the result obtained. That is true for basically everything in the time period of the Bureaus. Everything that can be obtained economically already has been. Already that is true of many materials right now. The Bureau stories project current times to their logical conclusion in a future sixty to eighty years from now.

There isn't enough - anything - to send anyone into space. We already used it all up, right now. The Bureau age is a time were there is no more gasoline, because no more oil, so what few cars exist run off of alcohol in Sterling Engines. It is an age where radium is so rare it is almost impossible to dig more up - it would cost far beyond what it is worth per unit. It is an age where the oceans are dead, the air is failing, the amazon is a dead desert, and 98% of humanity lives in favelas without any hope of ever having a job. The only thing that keeps everyone fed and watered is nanotechnology... which does, indeed, feed and water all nineteen billion humans.

In that one sense, it is the Golden Age Of Mankind. But only for three more generations. Then the atmosphere becomes effectively unbreathable.

That is why any story about escaping to space is silly at best, and straight up ridiculous at worst. The Bureau stories take place in a future where nobody has changed what they are doing now. Business as usual. And everything is used up, the world is dead, and all plant and animal life is essentially extinct. It is the ultimate culmination of profit-before-anything-else.

Secondly, 'hypernukes' is a misleading term used by the populace to describe QCD weapons, because most people can only comprehend that they go 'boom'. Quantum Chromodynamic Weapons in my stories are devices that ultimately generate 'strangelets', quarks that have the astonishing capacity to convert all other quarks into themselves. A 'strangelet bomb', if used, would, at best, collapse (not explode, as such) a large region (a third of the planet) into a tiny, compact black hole composed entirely of strangelets. At worst, the reaction would run amuck and eat the entire earth, converting it into strangelet quarks, resulting in what is called a 'strangelet star'. They aren't nukes. It's just that most people, even in the future, just don't understand a lot of things.

I worry that whoever it was won't be back tomorrow. One thing they made clear was that this was about saving as much of humanity as possible, not just a few dozen, or hundred people who we might be able to ship off to the moon. Man, I feel sorry for that poor jerk suggesting moon colonies."

Better than nothing, since for all intents and purposes a few hundred people might be as much Humanity anyone could possibly save

In order to effectively preserve the human race in space, it would be necessary to lift at least the Minimum Viable Population to prevent inbreeding, genetic drift and eventual extinction. For humans, the safe figure is 40,000 people. There is, currently, no technology capable of accomplishing such a task within seven years (the maximum amount of time to Do Anything before the world ends). Even using a Project Orion styled, nuclear-bomb-and-pusher-plate propelled ship, the task would be impossible. But the two worse problems are that nobody has even come close to cracking the issue of creating a viable bottle ecosystem that could sustain human life for longer than a year. Even if we could magically send 40,000 humans to a radiation-shielded, underground colony on the moon, we could not keep them breathing and eating for longer than a year. Of course, without the earth, the moon would be doomed, so the moon is out to begin with. It would have to be mars.

Sure people in the future haven't been the best at prioritizing things, but that's now. Humanity has nano machines and strangelet bombs in TCB, so it's pretty likely someone at least designed a solution to these issues long before someone weaponized quantum mechanics. Besides in the OP scenario, people were cryogenically frozen, along with preserved samples of DNA to get things started on another star system. They would've found at least a few viable Earth like planets

Of course, without the earth, the moon would be doomed, so the moon is out to begin with. It would have to be mars.

You did the math for that? I'm legit curious if anyone's ever run simulations because I couldn't find anything online

The Bureau stories take place in a future where nobody has changed what they are doing now. Business as usual.

Or at least nobody changed what they were doing as of the writing of the first story, considering Space X is a thing. But that's an inevitability since most science fiction is just an extrapolation of the present day trends. The future is a fickle beast or something.

But I get the gist, the only way anyone could've gotten is off is before the inflection peak like in Civilization beyond Earth, and those people won't even what the fuck happened on Earth in that case. It'll would nearly 8000 years in the future and they probably wouldn't recognize Sol, and context wise they probably wouldn't consider it worth visiting, oof.

..oh, well. I think just Chatoyance and Terranallias18 prioretise different things.

I, for the record, obviously prefer environment where I, nearly nopony, can have friendly enough social atmosphere to even literally walk (it will be long walk, but not suicide) to nearest friend who might find my ideas interesting and worth spending time implementing. THIS, for me at least, is even more important than any level of magitech presented in those stories ..... I'm not interesting in endless replicating of hierarchical structures of past and present. I want _different_ kind of future, even if imaginable at this time.

Not like you can't make interesting idea with different ponies .. I liked this for example:
Heartmending, Heartmenders, and Headcanon

But even then ... truely friendly social atmosphere, with some really well-developed ways to stabilize things at this level, much above ...hate and everything we know way too well - is much more interesting and important (to think about, and to think about implementing among humans here) compared to tired (by now) space colonisation ideas ...

In regards to blasting off without enough people, you could consider a bunch of "gene banks" of sperm and eggs and the people to baby sit them all. Has it own problem practical terms (maybe in moral lengths as well), but you could always explain that as an explosion of progress after decades of corporate influenced technical stagnation. Because bet their was some big cheese looking for other way to not to go pony. Space travel will be always an interest to the movers and shakers of the world because "greed is good" and there a lot more out there than here. So fear free to have the tech (that was dusted off and put back on the table) to be good enough, but just enough. The first 60 years are going to hellish for the colonists.

Chat is right about Peak Resources. Dead right. More so in real life than a story plot. It works well as a plot though, still this is your story. Which means the tech stuff stuff just has to be believable just enough, but your main focus is on the people. Humans should have two of three factions you should flesh out with more floating around. Ponies should have evolved as well because they had population boom due to transformed humans. Maybe they are less angel like and more aggressive. They did get exposed to new ideas and tech. Also you need to make sure the conflict is believable.

Number one of my opinion: Friendship. News ones, old ones and rediscovered ones for example should be part of your story.

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Maybe they are less angel like and more aggressive

- oh, and just moment I refreshed page THIS come into view;
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/574/transformations/thread/443204/shythulhu-story

Shythulhu.

Basically it is Fluttershy wearing a Cthulhu costume

Kindness Evolved! :} (she still kind, per my canon! Weaponized love is not the same as hate or similar drives, but I have trouble formulating it properly)

To be honest, I think original (~1920x ?) idea about Cthulhu a bit .. paled now, in year 2020 ... We already know humans can be quite insane, and not in pretty ways ... and not like we can close this Book of Reality by just will ..... but well, we still can laugh! And hopefully do good thing or two anyway.

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That's craftsmanship right there, the eyes move to allow expression.

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Which means the tech stuff stuff just has to be believable just enough but your main focus is on the people. Humans should have two of three factions you should flesh out with more floating around.

In regards to what? What political factions Humanity is divided into, a civil war between HLF rebels, PER remnants and WorldGov loyalists in the first 60 years, or in regards to approaching Equestria?

Maybe they are less angel like and more aggressive. They did get exposed to new ideas and tech. Also you need to make sure the conflict is believable.

I was considering the possibility that they somehow overcame the resource scarcity of Earth and went into space first, as they would have a head start while Humanity was experiencing the silent millennia. Maybe they done so by opening portals to other worlds. Of course any conflict would remind me of the back story of Gargantia, where humanity is divided between people who live aboard space stations and those who turned into space squid to survive a ice age. Very similar now that I think of it.

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After thousands of years, those old factions are gone. On a crash course trip to the unknown, there is no room for bickering about those things that don't matter anymore. The colony would have been and currently is the main focus. The new world is hostile and any major fighiting would kill the humans second, Hail Mary chance. Since it's a story about returning back to what Earth became, your main factions should revolve around this. Some examples: Have some who want to know they truth and explore, others who want to conquer and others that rather not poke the ponies. You're going have people who are liberals and want to push what it means to be human, conservatives who want to preserve the best traits of humanity and others in between.

The ponies never had resource scarcity because they never had the means or drive to consume everything in their reach. I guess. Equestria ate a whole planet full of locked resources. Maybe they were just content with the status quo. You add the souls of humans and the race changes over time and you combine magic and science to get something different. Now you have a race that's more curious, prone to grow (outward and inward) and more independent. These are double edge sword. Pony's history would be different because you would have these cycles of conflict and progress as harmony tries to assert itself. When the humans come over to visit, maybe the ponies have their own internal problems again. The current progress is hurting something planet or society wise and now they have these creatures of legend stopping by.

Either way, ponies and humans still share a mixed history, family and heartache.

also, it just occurred to me (not my own original though, just memory from reading those 'monkey' pages) if you opt for robotic Mothership without any human in adult state - this can be very useful plot device in exploring how we develop (or rather fail to develop) next gen of humans.... Because humans do not jump out of their birth canal ready to do stuff (apart from pooping shit out ... if you manage to feed them somehow!) - we learn a lot of stuff from social interactions ..with whom, in this case? This might be saga in itself, and even while I bet there will be very big pressure on Terranallias18 to just skip this problem {..bla-bla-bla-on, humanoid robots, bla-bla-off } and just go directly to new geopolitics and new, shiny, fresh (same old?) history . ..:} I will be not I for not mentioning stuff I see as interesting/important!

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On a crash course trip to the unknown, there is no room for bickering about those things that don't matter anymore. The colony would have been and currently is the main focus. The new world is hostile and any major fighting would kill the humans second, Hail Mary chance.

Oof. That's kind of what happens. You know how in Humanity triumphant WorldGov used the serum to turn the undesirable class into slaves? They tried that shit here and the colonists revolted. A major set back for rebuilding civilization, it's why it took over 2000 years to get back into space. I'm sure someone here would find bemusement in Humanity being afraid of ponies after so long.

. Since it's a story about returning back to what Earth became, your main factions should revolve around this. Some examples: Have some who want to know they truth and explore, others who want to conquer and others that rather not poke the ponies.

Contextually, it was only recently that anyone but the latter group had the means to build star ships. It isn't a hard quarantine but for the longest time there was taboo about not going back to Sol. Because they're afraid unleashing the horse deity on the rest of humanity. So the latter group would need to be a powerful ambitious group who's not afraid of old fairy tales and thinks Celestia is just a metaphor for nuclear war or something. Probably a corpo backed science expedition in order to kill two birds with one stone. Or maybe a rogue state has acquired a gate digging ship and wants to use it to claim Sol for the glory of the People's Democratic Republic of Aritstoztka

You're going have people who are liberals and want to push what it means to be human, conservatives who want to preserve the best traits of humanity and others in between.

I wonder if humanity, up until recently would be afraid of transhumanist stuff because it's associated with conversion. If that's the case maybe it's this exciting new thing that isn't actually as bad as people made it out to be so it's gaining massive strides as of now.

The ponies never had resource scarcity because they never had the means or drive to consume everything in their reach. I guess. Equestria ate a whole planet full of locked resources. Maybe they were just content with the status quo. You add the souls of humans and the race changes over time and you combine magic and science to get something different. Now you have a race that's more curious, prone to grow (outward and inward) and more independent. These are double edge sword. Pony's history would be different because you would have these cycles of conflict and progress as harmony tries to assert itself. When the humans come over to visit, maybe the ponies have their own internal problems again. The current progress is hurting something planet or society wise and now they have these creatures of legend stopping by.

I think the biggest elephant in the room is celestia, how would she feel about this? Would she have tried to find New Earth or would she be content to stay put? Would she be down for advancing civilization albiet in a controlled harmonious matter? And what of these new comers that have arrived over Earth, what would she think of them?

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I'm on the stance that, at least for awhile babies raised by machines will not grow up to be pleasant people. I don't know if the natural order of things will naturally reassert themselves, but unless your caretaker AI behaves like a normal human being (which I've yet to see here, plus WorldGov). Things might be a tad sociopathic.

Does the thread get pushed upwards if I say something?

Anyway, I'm sure at least some of y'all would find bemusement in Humanity being afraid of magical horses. But whether or not that fear is founded depends on how Celestia would react, which I never got an answer too. I'm under the impression that the whole thing was on purpose so she might seek them out? Would be good material for horror stories at the very least

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Does the thread get pushed upwards if I say something?

- yes ....

But whether or not that fear is founded depends on how Celestia would react, which I never got an answer too.

- well, to be honest I think it will be whole .. equenity (?) of ponies who will react to 'Real Humans (R)' departure. And my headcanon there is .. they not OK with humans beating their collective head into stone wall again and again. So, after some time they will try and make something ..supportive.

Humans, on the other hand? I'm not futurologist, but I guess not all of them will be happy about their heaven ripped away from them - after generation or two living 'like (cave) man' {seriously, what is supposed tech level after landing? Thousands of years refer to flight time of frozen humans, or to active history on planetary surface? There also this school of thought looking at possibility to just stay Spacers, without doing expensive interstellar trips just for lulz ...)

Also, I think answer on 'Why not Moon' is simple - without earth's gravitational field Moon itself will ....become planet with unstable orbit? Also, 1/6 of gravity sounds further away from 1g than 1/2.5 on Mars - and due to lack of multigenerational experiments none known about if humans will ever survive at such low G - with quality of live even close to that was in Bureau Era ... : (

Anyway, well-set-up world usually helps - it guides (and sometimes cages?) its own development... So, pay attention to The World.

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well, to be honest I think it will be whole .. equenity (?) of ponies who will react to 'Real Humans (R)' departure. And my headcanon there is .. they not OK with humans beating their collective head into stone wall again and again. So, after some time they will try and make something ..supportive.

What do you mean by this? It sounds ominous

Anyway, well-set-up world usually helps - it guides (and sometimes cages?) its own development... So, pay attention to The World.

I have. Been coming up with a list of nations abd trying to imagine how they'd interact with one another outside of Eurocentrism.

Also it's kind of funny how Chat has only popped in once. I don't know if she's actually busy with anything in real life but she doesn't strike me as having an essential job

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What do you mean by this? It sounds ominous

- I dunno, up to creating whole _habitable_ for humans planet out of the void ...

By World in this sentence I mean planet itself, star system, biology (or absence of it, but then how planet get oxygen in atmosphere in the first place).

Life is most essential job, I think ....

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If they could do that they'd have done it Earth.

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In this setting Equestria was MUCH smaller population-wise, compared to even early earth human history. So, before they can't - after - they can (also, something to think about - even if you lift 40 000 humans away from this star - not sure if you will find enough of them capable of doing non-trivial research/repair ..On Earth even with just 2% out of say 300 millions (ex-USA) you had 6 Millions of humans to choice from ...not counting those living 'outside'... and lifting 6 millions of humans up there is .... scaled-up task!)

anyway, try to build realistic scenario for interstellar travel, and count how many times you must call magical space ponies - for fixing (putting in slow time) your computer systems, for example ... Because I'm not sure anything at Earth + 80 years (with some crashes on the way) will be rated for 5000+ years of even just waiting for specific event (let alone actively monitoring conditions inside and outside ships) . Space technology tend to be important, if w/o it you will just fly past your star and become fastest collective coffin in history of humanity ....

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Very little as long as you have the spare parts to keep the machines going. Maybe collect materials from interstellar planets (those exist).

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Devil as always in details - for fixing hibernation machinery (say) you need something functional. If this something broke .... or do the wrong move .... also, amount and assortement of details tend to be huge. No, HUGE. And manufacturing them on-board ...Well, even stationary nano-factory (for food) exist - it doesn't mean you can strap one to spaceship and it will work just fine. Precision machines tend to be picky about what you feed to them .....

But there is some humor in situation:
"Every rocket is bad ass by definition!" (don't believe me? try to stand at tail end of working one ...evil laughter!).

Anyway, situation in such autonomous by definition and desire colony will be quite different from city-based Earth. You can't just thrown away humans, because you have relatively little of them. And something like health issues from thawing in just percent of ship's population will be (too?) rich source for human friendship stories ..or fails ....

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Thing is that the WorldGov elites would try to rule the New Earth and it's colonists. And it's possible that after everything Humanity has been through, if they try to push for a return to status quo then things will get violent. At least that's the in universe justification as to why Humanity took so long.

I don't have much to say, I just want this to be the theme song for the voyage, because there's something extremely melancholic about recorded Human history being frozen for far longer than it had even existed up to that point. As the ship hurdles through the frozen darkness of interstellar space, humanity is silent, still, and stagnant. This was the reality of the Silent Aeon, a long expanse of nothing.

I've no idea if people will see this, but would it be cynical or pragmatic if a mega corporation or an alliance of them realized Earth was fucked and began an evacuation effort before Equestria showed up, but only focused on saving it's employees and the most loyal customers after the rich are secured?

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It would be utterly cynical, ruthless, evil and deeply immoral. So, such behavior would fit an alliance of megacorporations perfectly!

Of course, as I mentioned earlier, every last one of them would be dead within a year - of cancer from radiation, and lack of oxygen. Also, since all available resources are mostly gone, there could not be a large enough population of such evacuees to provide a stable genetic population - and frozen sperm and eggs would be rapidly destroyed by cosmic rays.

It would be a hilariously dark adventure though. Hundreds of elite and their servants dying slowly in a tin can with slowly failing... pretty much everything. I have actually considered writing that story, several times. It would be super dark, though.

7340817
If you're already going through the trouble of finding a planet, selecting colonists from your employee base, building the ships and preparing the equipment to settle a planet, I'm pretty sure they'd be well prepared for space radiation. I know you're not exactly an expert on ship design but all they need to do is slap a thicc layer of armor to protect the ship's occupants from radiation. Also, it wouldn't just be the elite and servants, just every one who's been given a paycheck by the company, office workers, factory workers, janitors, truck drivers etc.

Also, I intend the divergence point to be prior to the inflection point, as someone suggested awhile back

Edit: I've been told that there actually isn't much radiation in interstellar space, being far from stars why would there be

7340894
You... truly do not know anything about space. Before you write, you must always research. If you fail to do your research, your story will be full of holes that people will pick apart and use to mock you with. Always research your subject before you write!

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/The_radiation_showstopper_for_Mars_exploration

https://duquark.com/2019/05/20/radiation-shielding-the-astronomical-problem-of-protecting-astronauts-on-mars/

https://www.space.com/space-radiation-damage-mars-astronauts-brains.html

https://www.space.com/5190-space-radiation-deadly-mars-mission.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_threat_from_cosmic_rays

7341285
Was talking about interstellar space, and the way you replied implies that they would go into space without considering radiation at all. Also, here's a article by NASA about how they would protect astronauts against radiation, something that would long since been resolved by the year of your story
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/real-martians-how-to-protect-astronauts-from-space-radiation-on-mars
NASA knows about this, and has considered using water and polyethylene to shield the crew. Future humanity (assuming the plan was prepared before Equestria's arrival) would darn well know about it. But go off I guess