I have no desire to talk past anyone. I would prefer to carry them with me.
It may not be understood by everyone that the earth is subjected to stress in the upper mantle/lithosphere. This is caused in the main by plate movements. This stress field is ongoing and in a sort of dynamic equilibrium. When the stress is locally released, generally along an existing fault plane, the result is an earthquake. Concurrent with the release of energy/stress the local stress pattern will be modified and this may lead to further quakes as dynamic equilibrium is re established.
The only point I wish to make is that an earthquake is the result of the local stress exceeding the capacity of the rocks to accommodate it.
The failure creates a rupture, a release of energy as a series of waves, some of which cause the damage.
So in essence the ground is already in a state of stress, it is a trigger that causes localised release of pressure.i.e. an earthquake.

Further information concerning stress in in the attached link:

http://dc-app3-14.gfz-potsdam.de/pub/introduction/introduction_frame.html