Equus: The Lurking Darkness

An Essay About Pony Culture, By F. Reach

At this Reach smiled, if the version of him of six months ago saw him writing about himself with the name the locals call him, he would faint; but things were different now.

In this essay, I aim to clarify many of the common misconceptions about the species and many of its subspecies, although some of those cultures have an isolationist attitude toward the rest of the world, making it hard to understand how they truly operate and behave.

Reach stopped again trying to remember the scientific name of the species, only to remember that, because of the over reliance on magic of that culture, science never developed enough to earn this kind of categorization.

First of all, Ponykind history is full of misconceptions, lies and deception, something that only an outsider could understand and see, I will touch on said subject a little far ahead in this text.

Ponies (Equus Sapiens) as they like being called are anthropomorphic horses that can have all sort of color in their fur (coat), and mane (Hair and tail); they also possess something generally called "Destiny Brand" or "Cutie Mark". This particularly special "mark" shows itself in the shoulder of an individual and can't be hidden by any means beside clothes or other material – anything in the flesh (fur) that obscure the mark – like a tattoo – is just ignored by it and, by some unknown magical means, become a second-plane image.

That being said, it was noted by Hippocrates (a famous hippogriff doctor of ancient times) that when the member where the mark resides is removed, it just changes place and retains all its prior properties.

Reach's put a hand in his cheek, questioning himself about what he was writing, but he remembered that it was only the first draft and that no one in Equestria knew how to read English.

“So, why not make some comparisons with humans?” And smiled.

Physically speaking, the ponies are bipedal creatures that have a straight center of gravity, having two arms and two legs, the same as humans, but having Digigrade hooves instead of plantigrade feet (As humans do).

The faces of the ponies are the perfect mixture of horse and human, with the eyes being bigger than that of a human, probably an adaptation to show more emotion - something helped by other physical clues like posture, ears flicking and even wings in the subspecies that have it; most of those were clearly unconscious. Interesting, it does not fall into the uncanny valley

Reach was about starting writing about some points in the story and the social structure of Equestria, but he felt compelled to write something about a truth no one in that world should know.

Note A: This world is indeed the same as the show that I saw while on earth, but... It is different. More dangerous. The colors are brighter and the dark more frightening. I really want to know what the hell is going on or even why I am here... but anyway, let's continue.

Generally speaking, ponykind have a great affinity to the magic of this world, I would even say it is essential to their way of life. The problems with this arrangement is that those with greater affinity to magic have way more opportunities and status than those with less.

This can be easily verified by just looking at the majority of nobles families, the great majority made of Unicorns. But, let leave the discussion about the subspecies for later.

The history of the kingdom known as Equestria is, as I already stated, foggy at best and full of lies at worse. In all the history books I read, it is claimed that the three great tribes of ponies (Earth Ponies, Unicorn and Pegasus) accepted their difference and became a unity when faced with a magical blizzard, but I can't believe it.

Of all the books I read on the theme, only one, written by an ancient Minotaur, spoke of something called "The unification war"; when the princess Celestia and Luna fought, with the help of some of the greater leaders of its time, to subjugate all the region under their rule and to quell any and all rebellion. Of course, this book is extremely rare and would be called blasphemy by any pony who lives under Celestia's wings.

It was during the unification wars when a group known as "the pillars" appeared, they were the heroes of their times, and without them, it would be impossible for the land to be under one banner.

Another great notable war that was down plaid in the stories books was "The Crystal War" were the King of the eponymous crystal Kingdom, a strange unicorn known as Sombra and his armies of a variation of ponies called, creatively, "crystal ponies" tried to annex part of the Equestrian Kingdom.

Unfortunately for them, the princesses answer was quick and brutal, so brutal that, after some years of fighting, the entirety of the Crystal Kingdom disappeared. Whether it was destroyed by the princesses or not is a guess I'm not comfortable doing. Even so, looking at the maps, it seems that the King tried to do it to get more farmland as the weather of the place where the empire resided was extremely cold. Well, this is just my opinion.

Anyway, some legends said that the king made some evil pact to save his citizen, others believe that everything was just a beautiful cover-up. What is certain is that there are still a few pockets of crystal ponies in the far north; and it is said that they hate princess Celestia for her part in the downfall of their empire. A subspecies that has held a grudge for so much time deserves, at least, respect on my part.

And because of those few groups that reside in the north, the crystal ponies are considered a rare subspecies in Equestria.

The last great conflict Equestria faced was the civil war led by princess Luna. The majority of books talking about the topic of this civil war were confiscated, but some journals of the combatants remained.

For what I gathered, it can be assumed that Luna, aided in bulk by another unusual subspecies of ponies, the Thestrals (Bat ponies) and some noble, started a war for some unknown reason; but I know.

It was because the princess in question was possessed by some dark force, and this force manipulated her and all her followers.

Anyway, it is as clear as water that this is the reason why a great part of the population has a bias against the Thestals, whom they call pejoratively "bat ponies". Another factor to take is that, even so many centuries after the banishment of Luna, they are still incredibly loyal to her.

For this reason they always keep to themselves, watching from their land in Hollow Shade the going on of Equestria – This is not a rule, even I have already seen some lone Thestrals walking here in Baltimare, but they are the exception, not the rule.

That's why I, after finishing my research on the three great tribes, plan to go to Hollow Shade to know more about them.

Reach smiled, It was a dream of him to leave Baltimare and know another place and Hollow shade really looked like a lovely place to him, at least he hoped Violet Alloy would love there. After contemplating the destination of his travel, he refocused on his writing.

The last uncommon subspecies I want to speak of is the Zebras from the West continent; a group of mysterious and isolationist ponies that, by the writing of many authors, are practitioners of shamanism and the holders of many secrets. Maybe one day I will have the pleasure to go there and unveil them."

After finishing the last line, Reach yawned. He didn't know how much time he had spent writing, but it was far more than he expected.

So, he just rose up and walked to his bed on the second floor. He knew the next day would be fantastic, after all, who doesn't like to spend a day on the farm?