"Anthropological reflection: The details concerrning they who would be the neutral denizens of the Dark Side as provided by he would be Lieutenant Warhol are quite astounding. It would appear that these lost equines have lived in the shadow of obscurity for multiple centuries. They predate they who would be Bloodwings and it is the suspicion of she who would be Commander Gwen that they might be as old if not older than they who would be armies of the three-sided war.
"Keen observations: 'Neutral' is indeed the best way to describe these ponies. Upon meeting they who would be the Verdestonian Expedition, the lost equines displayed nothing short of emotional indifference. It has been said that they refused to look at the agents of she who would be Commander Gwen in the eye, constantly speaking to the earth and the shadows around them—not even registering the presence of each other. According to he who would be Lieutenant Warhol, there is no member of the lost tribes over the age of thirty. Many of them are malnourished and they evidently endure an existence of much pain, struggle, and suffering. She who would be Commander Gwen graciously offered a portion of the expedition's supplies to the ill-fated equines, but they refused her gift. They didn't even acknowledge the gesture at all. When asked about their habitat or cultural proclivities, every answer given is taciturn and obscure. They excel at evading answers and appear to thrive on diminishing their own sense of identity or individualistic ego.
"Current hypothesis: It is the prevailing theory of she who would be Commander Gwen that these recently-discovered equines are the distant descendants of ponies who were taken over to the Dark Side against their will. In other words, these ponies originated on the Light Side just like they who would be the Verdestonian Expedition. The question—then—is who imprisoned them and brought them over in the first place? It is highly doubtful that the blame can be placed on they who would be Bloodwings, for the sarosian migration happened within the last few hundred years and these lost ponies and their total and complete disentigration of culture suggests a far longer imprisonment. It is thus the current hypothesis that one of the other two militant factions of the war here on the Dark Side is responsible for the mass exodus that brought these pitiable victims over.
"Personal reflection: I who would be Chief Engineer Ranort of that which would be called Darkreach deeply empathizes with these ponies. Their lack of identity makes it difficult to describe them, and I who would be Chief Engineer Ranort greatly suspects that they have been long bereft of any insight into the liberating spirit of technological progress. And yet they distance themselves from any sort of prevailing ego—a curious coincidence that makes me pine for the days of dwelling in that which would be called Ring City, communing with those who would be called Cylindrimanian neighbors. I who would be called Chief Engineer Ranort would very much like to leave the confines of that which would be called Darkreach and meet them in person, but—alas—my duty prevents me from doing so. It is with meager hope that I who would be Chief Engineer Ranort look forward to the command decisions of she who would be Commander Gwen and how they might involve future relations with these ponies—as least in regards to assisting that which would be the Verdestonian Expedition in making a heroic attempt to access the Midnight Armory."
"His next two entrries go on to descrribe morre details concerrning he who would be Lieute—" Kepler caught himself. He cleared his throat. "A thousand parrdons, frriends. Chief Ranorrt descrribes Lieutenant Warrhol's morre detailed obserrvations concerrning the indigenous equines. It would seem that everry pony local to the Darrk Side prractices a cerrtain sense of... emotional detachment. They exprress neutrral feelings and possess currious speech patterrns. For instance, they don't use prroperr nouns. None of them even adopts a name!"
Logan scratched his scruffy chin and looked across the HQ. "No wonder it was so damn difficult to determine where they lived."
"They arre always mobile, it would seem," Kepler added. "Warrhol and Gwen firrst rran into them while the locals werre galloping thrrough the wilderrness, hunting varrious sorrts of beastly, chaotic game. It would appearr as though they employed tools indicative of a prre-industrrial civlization: spearrs, slingshots, bows and arrrows..."
"True survivalists to the core." Ariel gulped. "Just how long have they been living like this?"
"An even better question," Flynn suggested. "Are they still around today?"
Kepler folded his forelimbs and sighed. "I'm afrraid I haven't gotten to any entrries that explain the fate of these equines." He raised an eyebrow. "Orr the fate of the Darrkreach colonists, forr that matterr."
"How much of the data crystals are left?" Ariel asked.
"Ach!" Kepler shrugged. "Farr morre than can be counted, my frriend!" He smiled calmly. "I am both dismayed and rrelieved! I desirre morre and morre knowledge, but I know that we cannot stay herre in Darrkrreach forrever."
"Well, if worse comes to worst, you can bring the talking briefcase and the crystals with us, right?" Rainbow Dash suggested.
"By all means! Although I would rregrret being so tied up durring the jourrney prroperr!"
"Don't fret, Kepler," Rainbow Dash said. "I'm sure we'll find the downtime for you to continue your research." She sighed, glancing around the room. "Somehow... there's always downtime."
"Does that mean we're pulling out soon?" Logan suggested. "Because I'm almost done setting up an arsenal."
"Not... quite yet," Rainbow Dash said. "I've got Flynn working on a couple of projects still..."
Flynn clenched his jaw shut. He avoided Rainbow's gaze.
"Aaaaaaaand..." Rainbow's eyes lingered on him. "...I want to reconsider some of the options we have at the moment." She looked in Wildcard's direction. "I also wanted him rested up and fixed up."
Wildcard signaled with his good talons to protest—
"I mean it!" Rainbow pointed, frowning. "I want you in one piece. When it's time to pack it up and take this crazy show on the road, we're going to need our ace in the hole. We may just never know what we're going to face and how badly we'll need to put our last Desperado into ass-kicking mode."
"Pffft..." Logan folded his forelimbs with a pout. "You want a fighting edge? I'm standing right here, y'know."
"Good point." Rainbow Dash nodded. She made for the nearest stairwell. "When the time comes, we'll toss your axe into Wildcard's hands."
Ariel laughed.
Flynn managed a slight grin.
"Keep it up, Keps... the rest of you guys." And Rainbow ducked out of the room entirely.
As she navigated the stairs of Darkreach alone, Twilight and Fluttershy hovered in her peripheral.
"An entire civilization of lost ponies?" Twilight stammered. "I... I can't believe I never even suspected it!"
"Still..." Rainbow's nostrils flared. "...they don't exactly sound very epic."
"They've been living on the Dark Side for centuries... surviving on the go..." Fluttershy sniffled. "Those poor... poor ponies. It's enough having to deal with the craziness of the Dark Side for a few weeks... much less countless lifetimes."
Rainbow stumbled to a stop, blinking. "Is that how long we've been here?" she muttered. "A 'few weeks?'"
Twilight ignored her. "Maybe Chief Engineer Ranort was wrong. Maybe the Dark Vigil did bring them here."
"Ya really reckon so?" Applejack hovered into view. "From what we've seen of the sarosians, them batfolk seem awfully zoophonic."
"It's xenophobic, darling," Rarity purred, floating closer. "And I happen to agree. Considering all that the Lunar Remnants have been through, it doesn't seem quite like them to take prisoners of the same Equestrian races who cast them out."
"There's certainly no record in the royal archives of the sarosians taking prisoners—before or after their exodus," Twilight Sparkle said. "At least not from what I've read."
"Then if the sarosians aren't responsible for the local equine populace, who is?" Fluttershy asked.
"The Night Shard?" Pinkie Pie suggested.
"Pinkie, we dun know a single dang thang about them Night Sharders," Applejack said.
"I know! But they already seem so mysterious and spooooky! Isn't abduction a total 'spook' thing?"
"The answer's obvious, guys," Rainbow said.
"It is?" Rarity looked over.
Rainbow nodded somberly. "It's the changelings. Tchern's and Chrysalis' hives."
Fluttershy grimaced. "Oh. Oh no..."
"Abducting ponies and taking their place...?" Rainbow gestured. "It's Changelingism 101. And considering the fact that Tchern and Chrysalis were both once ancient alicorns who mutated deep in the mountains of Equestria..."
"They would have needed 'fuel' for the exodus that they made," Twilight Sparkle thought aloud. "Both in terms of sustenance and... emotion." She gulped. "They must have abducted hundreds... thousands of ponies between Equestria and the plane's edge."
"It makes sense that they would have brought them over to the Dark Side," Rainbow said. "This place is a virtual wasteland of chaos. Until the hives found a way to settle, they would have needed 'food' to sustain them... like animals storing for a long winter."
"Goddess..." Fluttershy whimpered. "Then... then that means these ponies—"
"Are the remnants of those who escaped," Applejack said.
"Or worse," Rainbow said.
"How?" Pinkie grimaced. "How could it possibly be worse?"
Rainbow shrugged. "The changelings could have... let the poor motals go. Kept track of them at a distance. Allowed them to hide away, settle, repopulate..." She produced a shuddering sigh. "...then later 'harvested' them en masse when the opportunity served."
"Good heavens..." Rarity shook all over. "What kind of a Hell have we stumbled into?!"
"Remember, Dashie knows the changelings best." Pinkie's ears drooped sadly. "Poor, poor ponies. They could really use a party."
"They could really use a pick-me-up for sure!" Applejack stammered. "If Rainbow's idea is true and they were really brought over here like livestock, then no wonder this Ranort fella describes them as bein' unemotional."
"They've been preyed upon for generations by carniverous empaths," Twilight said. "That takes a certain degree of tenacity that... no civilization on the Light Side could conceivably compare to."
"Well, maybe there's hope then," Rainbow said.
"Hope?" Fluttershy blinked. "Hope for what?"
"They could still be alive," Rainbow stated. "Even after all these centuries... following Darkreach's abandonment and everything. And if they're alive... and if we can run into them..." She trotted the rest of the way down the stairwell. "...then maybe they can give us some much-needed answers."
The first time we meet the neutral ponies is going to go like this:
"Hi, can we get some supplies? We need some food-"
"CHANGELINGS!!" (hoof pointing at Rainbow and company)
"What? No, we're-"
"CHANGELINGS!!!"
A mob assembles with torches and pitchforks, Rainbow tries to talk everyone down, Big Show starts insulting the mob, their mothers, and their grandmothers, and then all Seraphimus breaks loose.
Then we spend the next dozen chapters trying to save everyone from a maniacally shrieking Seraphimus.
8360189
I doubt they would be able or willing to form a mob. These Ponies seem to have survived by making themselves apathetic. That also means that they have no drive to build or better them selves.
If I had to guess, I'd say that they live simple lives as nomadic hunter gatherers, travailing from one place to another. If Rainbow Dash and crew tried to make contact, the ponies would ether ignore them and slip away, or be obtuse at best.
I was thinking for a while there they might be cattle for the night shard - souls to harvest for whatever they use those for. This makes sense, though.
8356958
"Right. One... two... five!"
"Three, sir!"
"Three!"
Okay, this just got a hell of a lot more grimdark O_O
8360289
I wonder if these 'Natives' are unemotional so there is nothing for changelings to feed on, or that was the effect of being fed on so much.
Intriguing. And highly disturbing.
So out of curiosity how long did you guys take to read Ynanhluutr and Utaan? I come from Yaerfaerda chapter 180 :)
8360265
I'd bet that apathy was a developed behavior over centuries to prevent themselves from being harvested. No emotion = no food for changelings. Same with naming and identity. It'd be difficult to develop some sort of emotional attatchment to another if you can't very well associate or identify with them.
God, what a horrible way to have lived for centuries. I'd feel so much more bad for these ponies if they could even still feel bad for themselves. That might even be a blessing for them at this point.....
Damn, that is a hell of a bombshell to drop. I can't imagine what it would be like to live like that, or even if I could.
Im now thinking of Flyn making some spare crystal pulsejets, so that Dash can take one, pull the pop valve off the front, then accelerate way up, before coming down, at distance, and at high speed.
So the what was before a subsonic pulsejet engine, transitions in operational mode, to a rapidly accelerating scramjet.
As Discord would say as a hypersonic magically overloading crystal impacts explosively on its target.
:Discord:STRIKE. :Discord:
All those Lost. Maud lin.
Oh man, they're like the Pirahã
Huh....
emotional detachment... I don't think they were set loose to harvest later, I think they might be the 'husks' of the ponies the changelings sucked dry.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
Dear ):(,
I ain't lettin' this one go, sugarcube!
Darn tootin'
Take it away, Twi!
Sentence breakdown time!
Now, please describe the texture of their magical fur!
8360473
Buddy, once you reach those depths, you won't fall in.
You'll leap in.
8360321
Over a year. Dailies are a commitment.
8360321
I dunno, how long did it take to get all posted? I've been on this train a long time. Skirts is a machine to still be posting this.
I hope he likes writing this and isn't just doing it for commitment.
Well, that's pretty grim. And the impression their behavior gives to me is that, rather than ponies who have already been "sucked dry" by changelings, their behavior is more of a defense mechanism, learned from long centuries of dealing with changelings. Detaching themselves emotionally, eschewing the use of names, de-emphasizing personal identity altogether, avoiding eye contact, speaking in indirect ways, etc. all seem like effective--if not ideal--ways of dealing with emotional parasites who will exploit your attachments. And if this behavior also manifests itself as a lack of empathy and cooperation within their culture, it might also explain why they don't live very long. Nomadic cultures tend to be very communal.
I'd say I hoped Rainbow can do something to help them, but even if the changelings are defeated altogether, it would likely take a long, long time for such patterns to unweave from their collective consciousness.
It makes sense given the way that they acted towards the expedition, being emotionless likely kept the Changelings away. Not keeping names and being vague about things makes it harder for the changelings to infiltrate.
Right, it's official. Tchern must die.
Hmm. If you got no feels, a changeling gets no meals.
Those might as well be the changelings that infiltrated Darkreach themselves.
Seems I'm not the only one who figured the apathy may be a defense against changelings. Can't have your emotions stolen if you have none, after all.
Like the humans of Nosgoth. They need a good rebellion.
"Until every leech is dead."
8360329 Indeed. It's notable they're not just without emotion but also utterly disassociated from each other. They form no social bonds changelings could capitalize on.
8360722 I suppose the only effective way would be to dissolve their culture altogether - take their foals to grow up among groups of other civilizations and be socialized by them instead.
I personally bet my money not on the changelings, but the Night Shard. The info about the age of these ponies (not older than thirty), as well as their emotional detachment, reminds of a mixture of Well's Eloi and the population in the domes from the movie "Logan's Run". I assume the Night Shard hunts them (reference to the hunting grounds mentioned in the opening chapters?) to steal their souls. And they only take those who are 30+ to keep the general population sustainable.
Edit: And their behaviour is similar to that of the crystal ponies under the curse of Sombra in S3E01/02.
Alternatively, they could be the ultimate kettle for everyone. The changelings take their emotions, the sarosians consume their flesh and the Night Shard steals their souls.
Either way, these neutrals have a horrible fate.
So Tcherns brood are basically the Wraith from Stargate Atlantis. Let your food breed up to a large enough population, then cull them down in the harvest.
Makes sense for them to practice emotional detachment. Changelings can't feed on a lack of emotion.
dashie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw8522-chrysalis_insufficient_amounts_of_love_by_ZuTheSkunk.png
8361199
That's a chilling thought. The crystal shoggoth-pones from earlier chapter are the officers/enforcers of Sombra's ancient rein when he got butt-banished to the dark side:
Transcript of S3E01
"Turned to shadow" isn't hard to AU into "banished to the dark side of the plane"
I'm gonna have to invoke Mister AFC to fact-check on any in-story citations of the Crystal Empire (I may do some searching to old chapters myself).
8360329, 8360474, 8360722,
While everything are changeling plots, I have to wonder from a philosophical harmony or balance to the "neutral ponies" of the region.
8360428, durandana, you may have something here.
They had not expressed a significant history or identities when questioned by the expeditionaries. One cannot have one's own history and identity twisted (looking at you Discord) if there isn't anything beyond an existential grasp in the present. I exist; we exist. I experience, we experience. No history means that no history can be warped/inverted by Chaos.
I guess we'll be waiting for further insights of parts 9+ of the Darkreach Chronicles.
8361391
From what I have gathered, it's almost certain that the Night Shard consists of crystal ponies, who serve Sombra. An indicator can be found in chapter 2:
Crystalline lips is the key phrase. And possible hints about Sombra in the same chapter:
We cannot say what the banishment did to him, but he appears to be still active, or at least alive.
Wow, that description by Ranort.
8361384
Can't have your emotions drained if you don't have any.
rollsafe.jpg
8360321
To read those two? Around two, maybe three days
To read the whole thing? Just under two weeks, pulling all-nighter after all-nighter
8360321
Half a year for the whole set (From Austraeoh Chapter 1 up to Utaan Chapter 285), 20 days for Yaerfaerda and 47 days for Utaan. I did not count the chapters after the great hiatus.
8361885
Are you a machine? I mean, the story is good, but damn...
8362005
Nope, just steadfast dedication :D
I really hope that's not the case. But if it is then they'd probably find the changelings faster which might not be the best thing to do....
8360321
about on and off for about half a year, caught up mid-Ynanhluutr
My mind immediately went to the love-cattle from Pony POV, but that actually could explain the lack of emotion.
I honestly didn't think about the changelings. It makes the most sense, unfortunately. I hope that the ponies aren't as . . . distant and detached as Ranort described because that will both be sad and difficult to deal with.
8360306
Natural selection. When the changelings hunt them, the more emotional ones get taken first. The ones who don't make emotional connections with other ponies, well, they survive long enough to unemotionally reproduce. They may actually be incapable of emotion by now.
Well this is horrifying. :(
Now there's an interesting little bit there. Emotionless ponies that are survivors of 'livestock' brought over by the changelings? Seems evolution (or something similar) has been at work there. Emotionless, robotic ponies would make a very poor food source for a race that feeds on emotions. It's probably what's kept them alive and safe from the changelings for so long... assuming they're even still out there.
Whooo damn. So the Changelings went full Stargate Wraith on ponies?
Ooh now this is fascinating. A group of ponies that evolved to be emotionless so that they wouldn't get preyed upon by changelings? Neato.
And yet again we seem to have immortals (in this case Tchern) who don't consider the long term consequences of their actions. What they did here sounds like overfarming a field, eventually it produces less and less until one day it stops producing. Then the soil all blows away when the winds (hard times) come. If the Changelings had nurtured and sheltered and protected those ponies, they likely would have loved and cherished the bug ponies right back, and properly nurtured love is not a finite resource, giving the Changelings more strength, allowing more ponies to grow and love them, and so on in a positive feedback loop. Instead they ate the seed corn by draining the ponies that they brought with them (meaning they likely already feel down and pining for loved ones still back home) of any emotions that they had, and likely screwed themselves in the process. When one grows depressed, like what seems to have happened here, they just stop caring about anything, meaning no emotions to feed off of.
10/18/2017
00:02 UTC
I'm amazed at all the concepts you're introducing for the dark side and how they're all clicking together. Keep that up!
That’s terrifying and dark af.
So Trinary War - 3 factions being Tchern, bat horses, and dark shard right? Wtf about endrax and the brood? Just not major enough, or gone before the war really kicked off?
10208852
At least as far as we know, Endrax is out of the picture - that’s what chapters 1-2 were about.
Back in the day, Endrax and her brood had been guarding the armory like forever. But ~1000 years ago when the Lunar Exodus happened, the Dark Vigil came over and joined the fight. Sometime after that, the sarosians (specifically Vy’lyssa, whose memories we saw in ch.1) used their crazy runestuff to kill all of Endrax’s broodlings in one fell swoop. Rather than continue to go it alone, Endrax wrapped herself around the armory and impaled her head on the top of it, basically sealing it up with her big invulnerable Divine corpse.
All that said, there’s been a few mentions of “fragments of Endrax,” and so far we have no idea what those do. So I’m not quite ruling out the possibility of Divine intervention somewhere down the line. But she’s definitely not a part of the war, except as a big fleshy wall.
So either these Dark Side ponies are all so afraid if the changelings that they've long since learned to control emotions....
...or they're the descendents of ponies who were drained and don't have emotions at all because of what the changelings did.
Either way.....BRRRR.