• Published 19th May 2013
  • 2,744 Views, 241 Comments

Frequencies: To End The Signal - Lord Destrustor



Spike leaves Ponyville on a quest to shut down the nefarious Signal and free the unicorns from its maddening influence. Sequel to "The Signal".

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8: Archives

To: Dagothurial, Smaugaestus.

Great news today, esteemed colleagues! I have received the Drakelord’s approval for my project, and have chosen both of you to participate in this endeavor.

If you are wondering why I am addressing this correspondence to a plurality, it is for the simple reason that I have devised a contraption whose effects modify this stream in a few significant ways; the first being that it allows the sending of correspondence to up to two separate recipients at once, an effect that I strongly encourage you both to familiarize yourselves with at the earliest convenience. Secondly, the device also produces a copy of whatever written words were sent. As such, from now on, all correspondence between members of the project is to be sent via this very flux stream, so that it may be automatically archived for clarity’s sake. If any of you have any questions about the exact mechanics or reasons of this rule, I will be happy to explain further.

The second point I would like to make is the introduction of another rule of communication between us, the standardization of our correspondence; all correspondence between members of the project is to follow the format of this very letter. Names of the recipient(s) as the header line, body of text arranged as sender pleases, signature (dated) as closing line. Any post-scriptum should be sent as a separate message. All this, again, for better clarity and archival.

Thirdly, I would like to request both of you to visit my lair within the next few days, as there are things I must give you that are impossible to send via mail, and a proper face-to-face conversation would also allow me to divulge the pointed specifics of the project in a much more forthright manner.

Lastly, as project lead, I wish to simply congratulate you both on your impressive credentials. I truly feel that your combined sets of skills will bring this project to fruition.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, twelfth season, twenty-third day.



To: Smaugaestus.

I know how off-putting Dagothurial can be at times, but I assure you this project wouldn’t be possible without his particular dispositions and capacities. I wouldn’t include him in this if it wasn’t absolutely crucial.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, twelfth season, twenty-third day.



To: Dagothurial.

Look, I am aware of your obvious disdain for Smaugaestus. I don’t know the reasons, nor do I care to, but please try to work with him. His knowledge is as important to this project as my own, and I would like for you to at least respect his usefulness.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, twelfth season, twenty-third day.



To: Ahrkalzahn

He is pathetic. Do not belittle yourself by equating your value to his. Though I commend you for avoiding the obvious blunder of putting me in your own place within your argument. I would not have taken kindly to being considered an equal to him.

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist at Red Mountain.
57/12/23



To: Ahrkalzahn

So, what are we looking for exactly? Any particular section we should scry or what? I’ve finally set up something close to a stable testing environment, and bribed a few diamond dogs to fetch me some subjects, so I’m ready to go.

-Smaugaestus, red, inferiorist biologist at the Withered Heath.
Earze 57, thirteenth season, day 13



To: Smaugaestus.

Anything, really. Any activity you can record will help the project progress, if only to provide a baseline. With how little we have at the moment even background activity would be a great improvement. Try exposing them to new stimuli once in a while, see if that changes the readings in any obvious way.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, thirteenth season, thirteenth day.



To: Ahrkalzahn

Here are the latest brainscryes. I have noticed extreme physical pain to produce strikingly similar patterns in all test subjects, as you shall no doubt see for yourself. More subdued stimuli seem to have a more variable effect. Perhaps something to consider. I will attempt to provoke and observe other likewise extreme stimuli.

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist at Red Mountain.
57/ 13/ 34



To: Ahrkalzahn

Here’s what I’ve come up with as of yet. I tried to keep things shaken up at all times, to maximize the range of recorded data and avoid a routine. There’s also this bundle I got from recording this one mare for three days straight while she went about her routine, in case a full background noise sample was ever necessary. I labeled the crystals as they were filled, the things she did written on the crystals she did them on. I could do it again for other age groups or males if you think it’ll help, but I’ll need a whole lot more crystals to do it.

-Smaugaestus, red, Inferiorist Biologist at the Withered Heath
Earze 57, thirteenth season, day 40



To: Smaugaestus.

That is quite a bundle, actually. You’re going to blow through them faster than I can extract and carve them at this rate. On the other hand, that is actually some interestingly valuable data. I’ll see what I can do to send you bigger crystals so you can keep gathering info on the different age/genders. Next time though, I think shorter samples from each variation would be sufficient; I could probably extrapolate the full spectrum by comparing them to that mare’s baseline. Six to ten hour excerpts should suffice.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, thirteenth season, forty-first day.



To: Smaugaestus, Dagothurial.

Astounding breakthrough this week! I have been able to induce a feeling of hunger in one of my test subjects, using nothing but the scryes provided by Smaugaestus and a modified sound emitter. The effect was extremely subtle, a mere fifty percent increase in feeding frequency while the emission was active, but I believe this is the first step towards concrete progress at last.

The most obvious flaw is that the effect only lasts as long as the emitter is active, I believe. I will have to perform some more tests in order to verify this fully, but in the meantime I am wondering whether or not it would be possible to make the effect more durable. Stimulating the learning centers of the brain, maybe? What do you think, Smaugaestus?

On another note, I may have come up with a name (or perhaps, codename) for our project: Ethereal Overlord. Tell me what you think.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, thirteenth season, sixtieth day


To: Ahrkalzahn

Do as you wish. The name matters not one iota to me.

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist at Red Mountain.
57/ 13/ 60



To: Ahrkalzahn

Good question, I guess it would be possible to make the effects of the emitter a learned behavior, like a trick taught to a pet, but I’ll need to do some pretty advanced testing for that. I’ll get to it on the double.

Also, I think the name is pretty good. It’s both ominous and completely cryptic.


-Smaugaestus, red, Inferiorist Biologist at the Withered Heath
Earze 57, thirteenth season, day 60



To: Ahrkalzahn

Could you perhaps work on the possibility of providing me with one such emitter? It could open up several new avenues of testing.

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist at Red Mountain.
57/ 13/ 60



To: Dagothurial, Smaugaestus.

Of course! Here are the basic schematics. I trust the two of you can build your own without too much problems, although I suspect the design is likely to change as we learn more and have to adjust our methods accordingly. Take it as a loose framework of things to come.

Let me know of any interesting discoveries you come across.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, Thirteenth season, sixtieth day.



To: Ahrkalzahn

This technology is simply delightful! Any state of mind can be reproduced, it seems. Disgust, terror, despair; I have been able to induce these emotions in nearly all of my test subjects regardless of any other circumstances. I have brought lovers to despise each other at the flick of a switch. They were so utterly confused by their own behavior!

Included here is the one I am most pleased with: Obedience.

Breaking a pony’s will was both disappointingly trivial as well as thoroughly enjoyable; the only difficulty lay in capturing the exact mental process of choosing to obey my commands. I do believe it was a great step forward, would you not agree?

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist at Red Mountain.
57/ 13/ 71



To: Dagothurial.

Would you mind sending me all of your test results instead of merely the one you find most interesting? I’m looking for the most comprehensive data set. Send me everything.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, Thirteenth season, seventy-first day.



To: Ahrkalzahn

Oh, yes. How foolish of me, I was swept up in my excitement. Here they are.

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist at Red Mountain.
57/ 13/ 71



To: Ahrkalzahn

I’ve been pretty busy with the persistence experiments so I haven’t had much time to look into taking more samples. I left my test subjects alone for the most part, and when I came to check on them, there was this one completely catatonic pegasus. I guess she lost all hope or something, probably severe depression. I figured you’d want to have a look at her mental state.

As for the persistence of information, I’m pretty sure we’d need a way to specifically target the learning centers of the brain to have any sort of lasting effect; the most I’ve been able to do at the moment is “teach” them to expect a certain behavior of themselves under familiarly repeating circumstances. I got this mare to cry when I rang a certain bell even when I randomly didn’t send her the “crying” broadcast.

I think there are a few more things I could try, but making the effects even semi-permanent is probably going to have to wait.

-Smaugaestus, red, Inferiorist Biologist at the Withered Heath
Earze 57, thirteenth season, day 78



To: Smaugaestus.

Well that’s a shame. I suppose we’ll have to concentrate on the ones with the most useful immediate effect, at least until we find a way to break the scryes and the behavior within down into their most basic components. I suppose I’ll get to that next.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, thirteenth season, seventy-eighth day.



To: Dagothurial.

Both Smaugaestus and I are too busy working on our parts of the project to do much live testing, so I need to ask you to do most of it yourself for now. Here are some things I’d like you to check out, possibly more than one at a time.

7A12: Obedience (possibly cleaned of hesitation)

8V03: Apathy (One catatonic subject in a state of severe depression, minus what you identified as despair in a previous test)

8V04: Despair

Let me know what comes of this.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, thirteenth season, eighty-first day.



To: Ahrkalzahn

When have I ever made it seem likely that I would enjoy being treated as a mere laboratory assistant?

7A12 works exactly as advertised: affected subjects immediately obey any direct order, up to and including actions causing harm to self and/or others. Subjects are only capable of refusing orders when the expected actions are physically or mentally impossible for subjects, I.E. earth ponies being asked to fly, or a subject being asked to recite a book they have never read. Orders must be carefully constructed to avoid being overly vague or confusing as the affected subjects may seek to obey in the manner most beneficial or least harmful to them, according to their own interpretation of the commands.

8V03 induces a nearly catatonic lethargy. Affected subjects seem incapable of acting on any impulse they might wish to execute. They remain conscious and aware, occasionally mustering up the drive to speak, although most seem incapable of such effort. Affected subjects will not physically act or react to anything, up to and including violence and unbearable discomfort. Subjects standing when the effect takes place simply let themselves fall to the floor. Affected subjects, when capable, express great distress while under the effects of 8V03, usually likening it to being “paralyzed”.

8V04 causes, as expected, an overwhelming sense of dread, despair, fatalism and defeat in all affected subjects. Disposition shift is instantaneous, often causing an abrupt change in occupational choice; entertaining activities are either abandoned immediately in favor of more subdued and passive activities, or continued with an increased but ultimately short-lived vigor. All test subjects eventually retreated to a corner of testing room to curl up, weep, or stare blankly ahead. Two of the ten subjects showed signs of retaining parts of the effect for a few hours after the end of the testing period, most likely out of awareness of being experimented upon. While not uncommon in and of itself after tests, this lasting behavior was observably more pronounced with 8V04.

7A12 plus 8V03:

Interestingly enough, subjects were able to use the contradictory nature of both compulsions to their advantage. Subjects were seen surrendering to apathy in order to act in a deliberately clumsy, slow and reluctant manner when given a harmful command, while a positive demand saw more effort on their part. The more interesting result to be distilled from this test is that 7A12 is more “powerful” or imperative than 8V03: subjects never failed to at least attempt, while their apathy was usually disregarded despite the overwhelming power it wields on its own.

Of note is the fact that all subjects exposed to both compulsions at once immediately complained of headaches.

7A12 plus 8V04:

Same as 7A12 alone, although with much less enthusiasm and decisiveness.

8V03 plus 8V04:

Subjects immediately show signs of deep, chronic depression. Threats of bodily harm are welcomed or accepted with indifference, conversations show death to be a desirable outcome, and nearly all acts of self-preservation become extremely reluctant. Only extreme discomfort or harm can cause subjects to react in a manner conducive to their continued existence. If left alone, subjects would let themselves wither and perish.

Of note is the fact that this combination still allows subjects to act if they are convinced of such; the lethargy of 8V03 is once again rendered less powerful than it usually is on its own.

I suspect that 8V03 is not the incapacity to act but rather the decision to not act, a deeply passive effect in itself. Any outside prompt to act is thus easily capable of overcoming the compulsion; if the action is not borne of a decision to act, the decision to not act is disregarded entirely. 8V03 is not a negative, it is merely an enforced neutrality, easily swayed.

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist at Red Mountain.
57/ 13/ 89



To: Dagothurial.

For somedrake so eager to complain, you sure seem to have fun at what you do.

Interesting results, I must admit. I’ll have to take a closer look at 8V03.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, thirteenth season, eighty-ninth day.



To: Dagothurial, Smaugaestus.

Here are some upgraded schematics for the testing emitters, I figured they could use an overhaul. The new model should be at least half as resource-intensive, and possibly twice as stable. Some of those changes could also apply to the scrying devices, so I suggest you take a look at them as well. Oh, I just thought of something that might prove problematic. I’ll have to perform some verifications.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, fourteenth season, second day.



To: Ahrkalzahn

Urgh, that was an ordeal.

I finally managed to get this experiment working, and I think you’ll be very pleased with the results.

I gathered a bunch of my test subjects together in the same room, and had one of them teach something new to the others. I recorded every single one of them both individually and as an averaged whole. Even I can notice that every single sample has an obvious shared pattern, so you shouldn’t have much trouble filtering it out of the chaff.

I think I found the “learn” compulsion.

Just to be safe, I executed the experiment four times with different teachers, each one teaching something from a different skill; a motor skill (a single dance move), a mathematic concept, a language ability, and a short melody. This should cover most types of learning, I think.

I need a nap. This better be worth it.

-Smaugaestus, red, Inferiorist Biologist at the Withered Heath
Earze 57, fourteenth season, day 8



To: Smaugaestus.

Even at a glance, I can tell that this might be the biggest breakthrough yet. This is astonishing! Excellent work, good sir!

I suppose you’ll need to replenish your supply of blank crystals after such an abundant delivery; you are eating through them at an impressive rate. Good thing I’ve put my idle test subjects to work in my mine!

I will definitely have to study these more closely as soon as I find the time to do so.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, fourteenth season, eighth day.



To: Dagothurial, Smaugaestus.

I think it is high time we discussed a problem here. Two problems, in fact.

First of all, I’ve just read through the project’s archives and haven’t found a single instance of either of you addressing a message to the other one. Did you both forget the other’s existence or something? Need I remind you that this is a group project? A team effort? Communication is key here, I shouldn’t have to expect it to be a new concept; I shouldn’t need to say this.

Unless you’ve been sending each other messages via another flux stream behind my back, which is another problem entirely…

The second matter I need to mention is that I have run some range tests with our current emitters as part of determining their overall improvements over the previous model. The problem is that it has only then occurred to me to run the math for just how many we’d need to ensure a full coverage of all of Equestria; which turns out to amount to just short of five hundred, four hundred and fifty at the barest minimum if we optimize the placement to the point where some of them would have to be placed in the middle of their cities. This is ridiculous. Even if we could somehow distribute them all without being seen, there is no way we could mass-produce so many of them in any acceptable amount of time; and even if we did manage to build so many, we could never monitor and maintain them all properly, especially not if we were to do so covertly. We need a way to ensure a better coverage, and there’s only so much I can do to extend the range with current technology.

Any ideas?

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw, team leader on project Ethereal Overlord.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, fourteenth season, tenth day.



To: Ahrkalzahn

Could we not use the obedience compulsion to create infiltrators for the purpose of building the emitters?

As for your first “problem”, I see no problem here. I have nothing to say to that simpleton.

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist at Red Mountain.
57/ 14/ 10



To: Ahrkalzahn, Dagothurial

There. Happy now, Ark?

I think I may just have a hunch for the range thing. I’ll need to run a few tests to be sure. I’ll get you back on it.

-Smaugaestus, red, Inferiorist Biologist at the Withered Heath
Earze 57, fourteenth season, day 10



To: Dagothurial.

Infiltrators? I think you overestimate how far along I am at making these compulsions permanent. Even if it was something we had already achieved, we would still need a prohibitively extensive set of rules and commands, or constant, direct supervision in order to pre-emptively avoid any exploitation of loopholes. The latter is obviously not an option considering we are expected to take the nation covertly, and the former would still be unacceptably likely to fail and/or attract attention. We only have one try; we need to make it absolutely infallible.

Besides, I’d still need to personally carve every single rune of every single crystal because this is shaping up to require increasingly complex runework and I’m the only one here who can do this with any sort of reliability. This is what I meant when I said it would be nigh-impossible to produce so many emitters; there’s only so much carving I can do in a day.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, fourteenth season, tenth day.



To: Ahrkalzahn

Speaking of loopholes, I would be willing to test ponies’ ability to exploit them. Could you provide me with a simple command such as “choose right” or somesuch?

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist at Red Mountain.
57/ 14/ 10



To: Dagothurial.

What a coincidence! I was just recently working on compulsion permanence with exactly what you seem to be asking for: 13B01, “never choose left”. It makes them avoid picking any option presented to their left.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, fourteenth season, tenth day.



To: Ahrkalzahn

Testing log for 13B01, “Never choose left option”

Test 1: Subject 14 was introduced to a series of rooms, all of which were connected in a loop. Facing clockwise, the looped path lay within the right-most doors, while the third and fourth doors of each room led to the outside of testing area and a simple reward of food. Compulsion 13B01 was activated and subject 14 was asked to leave testing area.

Subject 14 executed one full loop before growing worried, realizing its own inability to leave by itself. Subject 14 executed another loop before sitting down for a moment, obviously disturbed. Subject 14 then rose up, turned around so as to face the loop counter-clockwise, and managed to successfully leave, as the exit doors were by then the right-most option.

Test 2: Subject 20 was introduced to a simple room, containing two bowls side by side. The bowl on subject 20’s left upon entry contained fresh food, other bowl was bare. Compulsion 13B01 was activated and Subject 20 was not given any instructions.

Subject 20 attempted to consume the offered food, predictably failing to accomplish the task. Subject 20’s head would continuously deviate towards right-most bowl, much to subject’s dismay. Subject eventually began circling the bowls in confusion, at which point it was able to consume the food.

Test 3: Subject 14 was introduced to a room in which compulsion 13B01 was active. The room was bare save for a shelf at the far end. On the shelf were six bowls, each except the left-most one containing a stone. Left-most bowl contained food.

Subject 14 was left in that room for some time, largely enough for him to grow hungry. Subject 14 tried, and failed, to consume the food. Subject 14 waited for nearly an hour before trying once more. Subject 14 continued in its sporadic attempts for three more hours before growing angry. In its fury, subject 14 eventually swept the bowls from the shelf. Once all five non-food bowls were on the ground and out of sight, Subject 14 was able to feed.

Test 4: Two bowls were affixed to a wall so as to be impossible to detach by ponies of average strength. Subject 22 was introduced to the room in which the bowls could be found. Subject 22’s hooves were loosely chained to a rail on the ground, confining them to a vertically-limited area. Compulsion 13B01 was also introduced to the room. The left bowl contained fresh fruits, the right bowl contained weeks-old rotting fruits.

Subject 22 was left in the testing room long enough to grow hungry, at which point it attempted and failed to feed. Subject 22 tried again a short time later, and numerous additional times over the next two days. As Subject 22’s hooves were restricted, and both the bowls as well as their contents were impossible to move otherwise, Subject 22 eventually fell in a state of apathy for nearly another day. Subject 22 remained thus immobile for eight hours before suddenly rising to its hooves and decisively consuming the entire contents of the right-most bowl. Subject 22 waited for a few minutes before regurgitating the rotten fruits in a corner of the room. Subject then returned to the bowls and once more attempted to feed, failing until right-most bowl was removed from the room.

Conclusions: These tests show that while the compulsions are irresistible when the given parameters are sufficiently restrictive to prevent loose interpretations, said parameters can still be modified as long as doing so does not go against the compulsion.

As such, it is possible to exploit loopholes within the compulsions.

Whatever we use will have to be either restrictive and comprehensive enough to eliminate any possible interpretation except the one we impose, or vague enough that any possible interpretation still falls within acceptable possibilities suiting our needs. Any grey area within the boundaries of our commands will inevitably be exploited, as the ponies can be quite crafty when they truly need to.

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist at Red Mountain.
57/ 14/ 21



To: Dagothurial.

Hm, yes. Well, I’ll think about that. Outstandingly rigorous work, as always.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, fourteenth season, twenty-first day.



To: Ahrkalzahn, Dagothurial

Oh lord, guys. I think I just found something big. Really big.

I set up this huge, tedious experiment where I put an emitter on a rail and gradually drove it further from a unicorn, while sweeping through different frequencies to see if it made any kind of range difference. Come to think of it I should have just thought to ask you, Ark, since you’re the expert on this in the first place, but it might just be a good thing that I didn’t.
Because I found one particular frequency that just somehow managed to affect the unicorn for miles. Even when I decreased the emitter’s power, that frequency is effective up to 200 to 500 times the normal range. This is insane but I think I just found the natural resonance frequency of unicorn horns. They are incredibly more receptive to it than to any other.

It makes sense, considering the horns are basically optimized conduits in the first place, for their little magic.

I even put a mixed group in a room and used an under-powered emitter to test it, and it’s even possible to instantly affect unicorns without the non-unicorns even noticing the compulsion activating. This might prove useful, although the transmission seems to lose potency and even its most basic functions when I kept it locked to that particular, precise frequency.

The unicorns could still notice it, though.

-Smaugaestus, red, Inferiorist Biologist at the Withered Heath
Earze 57, fourteenth season, day 22



To: Smaugaestus

By the Fang of Haynekhtnamet! And here I believed we would never fail spectacularly enough! I now see how wrong I was, dear colleague! A way to limit ourselves to only a third of our target population while also nullifying any desired effect is exactly what we needed! Thank you!

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist at Red Mountain.
57/ 14/ 22



To: Smaugaestus, Dagothurial.

I was at my forge when I got Smaugaestus’ message, and lost it in the crucible. Who thinks the archive was a useless idea now?

Dagothurial, that was completely uncalled for. Losing two thirds of our targets is a problem that can be worked around much more easily than having no reasonable way to reach these targets in the first place. Please keep interactions between members of the project to a minimum of civility. You aren’t a minotaur, are you?

As for Smaugaestus’ discovery, this might be an incredible breakthrough. While I could have indeed confirmed that the maximal effective range does not normally change with the frequency, I never would have guessed that finding the natural resonance of their horns could bypass the distance/power degradation. This opens up so many new possibilities.

I will still need to run the math for the coverage radii, and find a way to convey the full information while locked to a single frequency like that. I think it might work if we switched to amplitude modulation for the data transmission, but that would require changing the entire emitter design though.

This might take a while, and it’ll pretty much have to be entirely up to me. Tell you what, why don’t you two take a break while I work this all out? I’ll contact you once I’ve dealt with all that research and experimentation you’ve provided me with. There’ll be much testing to do if all those new avenues of research open up to actual usable progress.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, fourteenth season, twenty-second day.



To: Dagothurial, Ahrkalzahn

It can be extremely useful! Let’s say we inflict them with the apathy compulsion: Equestria instantly loses an entire third of its workforce. This workforce has to be replaced, at least in part, drawing resources away from the rest of the important industries. Earth ponies and pegasi have to replace unicorns in the crucial duties they performed, leaving less of these to grow crops and manage the weather. They also need to divert even more of their workers to care for the unicorns, lowering their production capacities even more. While yes, the unicorns would require a lot less food in that state, they would still need to eat and drink, making them a huge burden on a society that has already lost one in three of its workers. Their consumption needs would be reduced, but never as dramatically as their ability to fill those needs.

Just like that, Equestria becomes a slowly starving and weakened nation, at least until the unicorns are purged with old age. That’s at least three to five earze where Equestria is critically weakened and vulnerable to absolutely everything, and that’s not counting what the apathy could do to the princess. If it makes her unable to raise or lower the sun, the ponies would all die within a season or two.

And you say that it’s useless?

Ark: Okay, I don’t see what else I could do right now either. I guess I’ll wait for your next letter. I think I’ll just find a nice place to sleep for a while.

-Smaugaestus, red, Inferiorist Biologist at the Withered Heath
Earze 57, fourteenth season, day 22



To: Smaugaestus, Dagothurial.

So it has been some time now, it seems. Time I’ve spent relentlessly analyzing, designing and splicing brainscryes together in never-before-seen ways.

It’s time to get back to work.

The learning data Smaugaestus sent me is still being dissected, but in the meantime I’ve finalized the new designs for the emitters, and the prototype is working splendidly. I’ve also made progress in the process of adapting all our existing compulsions in a format that these new emitters can broadcast.

So here are the plans for the new emitters, as well as some well-researched compulsions to test if they still function as well as they did before.

Additionally, here is an entirely new compulsion I’ve extracted from the gathered scryes: 6P32 Aggression.

Do note that the new emitters will only work on unicorns and that the new crystal format isn’t compatible with the old emitters; you’ll want to get rid of those or store them somewhere at your convenience. We don’t need them anymore.
On a bit of good news, quite fortunate in fact, I’ve run the calculations and found that this new model and its increased range of effect could easily blanket all of Equestria with a single emitter. It would need to be enormous, would push my design to its absolute limit and would need to be placed dead-center in the middle of Canterlot, but it could still be done. As it is, we could certainly achieve the same result with as little as three of those strategically placed on the outskirts of the kingdom so that their covered area came to overlap around the capital. It would be absolutely perfect for security, stealth and maintenance reasons.

Let me know how everything turns out once you’re done upgrading.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, fifteenth season, seventh day.



To: Ahrkalzahn

The old compulsions function just as well as they did before, and the new one, 6P32, is quite interesting.

Preliminary tests show that it seems to fill them with unfathomable rage, causing them to lash out at everything in sight in any way they can. They also show great distress and regret for their actions.

It seems they only attack things that they do not see as mere objects. For example, one of my captives had grown to cherish a small piece of cloth found in her cell. 6P32 made her destroy it while none else paid it any mind.

Of note is that affected unicorns tend to attack each other as well, which I see as a potential detriment to the strategic value of this compulsion.

-Dagothurial, ashen, behavioral psychologist at Red Mountain.
57/ 15/ 14



To: Ahrkalzahn

Is it fine if I recycled the old emitters for the new ones? Some parts looked identical in both designs so I figured… Anyway, that quartz timer was a pain.

Unless I screwed something up with the recycling, the new emitters seem to work just fine and the compulsions are just as they were before.

That new one sure is violent though.

Is it just me or did the night kinda linger a bit too much this morning?

-Smaugaestus, red, Inferiorist Biologist at the Withered Heath
Earze 57, fifteenth season, day 18



To: Dagothurial, Smaugaestus.

Gentledrakes, this is it.

I have finally isolated the precise sequence to stimulate a pony brain’s ability to learn, and, weaving both it and a standard compulsion into a single emitter crystal, gave said compulsion a dose of permanence.

The compulsions can be learned, letting their effects linger even after the emitter is turned off.

It seems to need some time to take hold, but once settled remains for an as-of-yet impossible to determine amount of time. My first successful test is still being affected by a compulsion it hasn’t been exposed to for six days.

As a sample, here’s one such permanent compulsion that I’m confident will be of some use: 7A12P, which I’ve tentatively dubbed “enslavement”. I would have liked to think of a name without such a harsh connotation, but it really is the best word to describe its effect. It makes the affected pony unable to resist any spoken order.

As an added achievement, I have been relentlessly dismantling every single scrying crystal you both sent me, to the point of near obsession I must admit, and have copied, catalogued and tested every little tonal shift in the recorded brainwaves.

This has been an extremely long and tedious process, one that is still ongoing every single day.

Nevertheless, I have thus begun to build an extensive library of extremely short and precise thought patterns, a vocabulary of sorts. I am confident that I can use this vocabulary to assemble thought patterns that haven’t been strictly recorded yet. I can create new, abstract compulsions with increasing variety, and will slowly unlock the capacity to create more as I continue to dissect the available data.

Ask me about new things you would like to see, and I’ll try to assemble it.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, fifteenth season, twenty-seventh day.



To: Ahrkalzahn

Both of those are fantastic news, and I heartily applaud you! I have already put 7A12P to work and the results are both hilarious and deeply satisfying.

Although when you mentioned that they needed time to take hold, I did not expect them to be utterly ineffective before doing so; the time between activating the emitter and the moment the compulsion becomes permanent seems completely devoid of any noticeable effect. Furthermore, I have noticed this delay to be variable for each individual test subject. This might be worth investigating.

If you are so inclined, I would like to request a few of those home-made compulsions. I believe something such as “never eat”, “walk backwards”, and perhaps “seek darkness” would be interesting to test.

-Dagothurial, ashen, behavioral psychologist at Red Mountain.
57/ 15/ 27



To: Dagothurial.

I don’t really see what kind of useful information you expect to get out of those, and I’m fairly certain that the second one is still beyond my capacities for now, but I suppose I could oblige.

As for the delay, I suspect it comes from the new format and the way their brains decode it. It is now less of an instantaneous imprint and more a sort of sculpting. My method of merging the different compulsion patterns makes them ineffective until they are fully integrated; the information is transmitted in random packets of unrecognizable points until the whole transmission can be assembled, whereas it used to be simply displayed directly. The first compulsions were crude strokes of solid-color paint while the new ones are more complex images that must be complete in order to be interpreted, if you wish to see it that way.

It would be a good idea to test the delay itself though, to see how it could affect things.

I’ll probably get Smaugaestus on it.

P.S.; The compulsions you asked for will hopefully be ready in three days. I’ll simply send them without a letter of context unless I have things to tell you. I might not have the second one though.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, fifteenth season, twenty-eighth day.




To: Ahrkalzahn, Smaugaestus

Interview with subject 181, male unicorn of average age under the effects of compulsion 22B03P, dubbed “never eat”. Transcribed in equestrian to retain faithfulness to original conversation.

Dagothurial (entering room): Hello, One-eighty-one.
181: (does not answer)
Dagothurial: Are you hungry, One-eighty-one?
181 (defiant undertone): What do you think?
Dagothurial: Then why not eat, One-eighty-one? (Note: subject 181 is currently surrounded by its approximate weight in fresh produce)
181 (shouting): You know exactly why, you bastard!
Dagothurial (eating half of a melon, offering the rest to subject 181): Are you certain you do not want to eat some, One-eighty-one?
181 (beginning to cry): Why are you doing this to me? What did I ever do to you? Please, I’m so hungry! I haven’t eaten in four days! Why are-
Dagothurial (interrupting 181): You must not be as famished as you claim if you so vehemently refuse to eat.
181 (crying and shouting): I can’t! I can’t and you know it! You’ve watched me try didn’t you, you sick bastard? But you messed around in my head to make sure I didn’t! You did this to me! Stop playing dumb and pretending it’s my fault!
181 (limps to the floor, crying more abundantly): Why are you doing this to me? Why?
(181 sobs for a moment)
181 (still weeping): Please… Please fix me, please let me go… I’ll do anything you want! Please, I’m begging you! I-I… I don’t want to die, please…
Dagothurial: It is quite simple, really: eat one bite, just one, and I will release you. You need only do that which you claim to desire most at this moment. What say you? Do we have an agreement?
(Test subject 181 begins to whimper and babble incoherently while crying uncontrollably, refusing to answer any further questions. No more useful answers could be coerced from it except for incessant pleas for its life over the next few days. Subject was found dead on the morning of the twelfth day since exposure to 22B03P, its mouth mere inches from a fresh apple.)

Of note is the fact that subject could still drink, and attempted to incorporate tangible sustenance in its water. Predictably, as soon as the liquid contained enough crushed nutrients to be considered proper food, subject found itself unable to consume it.

-Dagothurial, ashen, behavioral psychologist at Red Mountain.
57/ 15/ 44



To: Dagothurial.

Look, I appreciate your enthusiasm and everything, but we don’t actually need to be informed of every little gruesome detail of your experiments. The formal, straight results are enough.

Besides that, could you perhaps ease up on the ‘killing test subjects’ part? I’m sure it’s very convenient that your minotaur friends are more than happy to provide you with anything you pay for, but the fact remains that if the entire unicorn population of Minaeth were to vanish overnight the Equestrian authorities would come snooping around. We are trying to be stealthy with this, and causing a diplomatic incident on top of being exposed would be counter-productive to that.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, fifteenth season, forty-fourth day.



To: Ahrkalzahn

And how were I to go about letting 181 live? I certainly was not about to start spoon-feeding it for the rest of its miserable life, and the permanent compulsion cannot exactly be turned off on a whim, can it?

At least I only used it on two subjects instead of the usual ten.

If you so abhor the idea of wasting test subjects, perhaps you could begin working on a way to recycle them besides “stew”, as the very concept of permanent compulsions tends to render them fairly unsuitable for reuse.

-Dagothurial, ashen, behavioral psychologist at Red Mountain.
57/ 15/ 44


To: Dagothurial.

I’ll try to find a way to erase the compulsions, but I doubt it’ll lead anywhere; brains don’t usually have a dedicated way of forgetting information that we could scry. I don’t think that we could order them to forget, and the only other option I can think of right now is to brute-force counter the imprinted compulsions with their polar opposite, and I’m not even sure about that.

But seriously, you used ten ponies on every single test you performed? Can’t you be just a tad less excessive?

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, fifteenth season, forty-fourth day.




To: Dagothurial, Smaugaestus.

I think it is time to discuss exactly what our end goal is right now. We’ve made enough progress with the technology that I feel we can actually plan what it is we intend to do with it.

It will probably be easier to do this in person. Meet me at my lair.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, fifteenth season, fifty-third day.




To: Ahrkalzahn.

Let it be recorded that the members of project Ethereal Overlord have agreed upon the following course of action: Fracture.

Fracture will consist of a compulsion aiming to methodically turn the unicorns of Equestria hostile to the other present factions, in a way that will neutralize the nation’s political, military, and governing forces and render them unable to oppose a covert takeover. This will be done and executed in secret, never to be announced or revealed to anyone outside of the current Drakelord and the following personages:

-Ahrkalzahn the Gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist,

-Dagothurial the Ashen, Behavioral Psychologist,

-Smaugaestus the Red, Inferiorist Biologist.

This contract and the signatures upon it constitute an oath, never to be broken under penalty of traditional disfigurement and scarification as a traitor to Draconia, as well as the eternal shame such consequences bring to one’s color.

All present in agreement on this sixty-sixth day of the fifteenth season of Drakelord Baphomet’s fifty-seventh earze of rule.
-----------------



To: Ahrkalzahn

Now that those formalities are dealt with and I have finally made it back to my own lair, there is one thing I feel we need to test properly.

Could you fabricate for me, a compulsion that amounts to ‘an intense phobia of the color blue’?

-Dagothurial, ashen, behavioral psychologist at Red Mountain.
57/ 15/ 72



To: Dagothurial.

I don’t quite see where you’re going with that, but I found it rather easy, actually. I’m not even sure if I should really send you the permanent version as well, but I trust you won’t go overboard this time, right?

64F2

64F2P

Try not to make me regret this.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, fifteenth season, seventy-third day.



To: Smaugaestus.

Anything to report or are you simply taking a nap?

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, fifteenth season, seventy-fourth day.



To: Ahrkalzahn

Urgh! You could’ve warned us that those emitters were unstable! I dropped some ruby crumbs on one, and the generator literally exploded!

It broke two other emitters I had in storage nearby, killed a test subject, and nearly tore off one of my talons!

Why didn’t you design some kind of protective casing around that thing?

I haven’t been able to get much done, on account of having to rebuild a bunch of complicated machines while wounded.

Other than that, I’ve been trying a bunch of delicate experiments, none of them working as well as I’d hoped. I may have something to report once I’ve had any success, or if I can be certain to get nothing out of it.

-Smaugaestus, red, Inferiorist Biologist at the Withered Heath
Earze 57, fifteenth season, day 74



To: Smaugaestus.

It’s a quartz piezoelectric runefriction hybrid generator! Of course it’s unstable! How about you stop eating near sensitive equipment instead of asking me to child-proof my inventions?

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, fifteenth season, seventy-fourth day.



To: Ahrkalzahn, Smaugaestus

Testing log for 64F2(P), “cyanophobia” (irrational fear of the color blue)

Test 1: Subject was exposed to 64F2P prior to being introduced to the testing room. Testing room consisted of three connected corridors, two (2) of which were painted white, the last one painted blue. Subject was placed in the center of the intersection, and a large blue ball was rolled towards it through one of the white corridors.

Result: Subject immediately fled through the remaining white corridor.

Test 2: Same as test one, with the addition of several sharp blades at random angles through the walls, ceilings and floor of one of the white corridors. Ignited gas nozzles, jets of steam, spikes, caltrops, barbed wire and several dozen pounds of broken glass were also strewn along the length of said corridor. A large blue ball was once again rolled towards subject, introduced at the meeting point of the three corridors.

Result: (Gruesome little details omitted as per team leader’s request) Subject expired after attempting to flee through trapped corridor.

Test 3: Subject was exposed to 64F2P and left in testing room. Soon thereafter, a blue filter was placed around sole light source of the room, well out of reach of subject.

Result: Subject suffered severe mental breakdown, becoming irrational and incoherent within seconds. Subject quickly came to harm itself in its unsuccessful attempts to flee testing room. Subject eventually settled with cowering in a corner of the testing room with its eyes closed.

Test 4: Subject exposed to 64F2P as well as 7A12P, prior to being introduced to an entirely blue room. Subject attempted to flee through open door until told to stop and ordered to remain in testing room.

Result: Subject stood still, wracked with increasingly violent spasms until self-inflicted damage to teeth became apparent through the foam building around subject’s mouth. Subject then collapsed, apparently suffering from a seizure, and expired before any further actions could be taken.

Of note: dissection of subject showed cause of death to be a ruptured aneurysm; test results may be skewed by subject’s medical history. (This is why I would rather use more than one test subject)

Test 5: Subject 189, whose coat, eyes, mane and tail were all variations of the color blue, was introduced to an entirely mirrored room and exposed to 64F2P. A knife was provided.

Result: (Subject died from severe blood loss approximately five minutes into test)

Conclusions: Compulsions seem imperative enough to push exposed ponies to outright suicide.

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist at Red Mountain.
57/ 15/ 80



To: Dagothurial.

By Gorynych! What have I told you about killing test subjects? And what in the name of Zirnitra’s bloated testicles did you expect to gain from these tests? We already knew the compulsions could kill them!

What is wrong with you?

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, fifteenth season, eightieth day.



To: Ahrkalzahn

For your information, my tests have only yielded 38 casualties yet, vastly outweighed by the 56 rendered utterly unusable by the permanent compulsions.

Furthermore, while we did indeed know of the lethal nature of the compulsions, they had yet to be proven to cause the subjects to willingly off themselves. Previous fatal tests had only shown to prevent a pony from escaping a dangerous situation despite its best efforts, while this has shown that we can make them actively seek their end, no matter how much they object to it.

As for what we gain from this, need I remind you that the instinct of survival is one of the most powerful imperative a creature can possess? If our compulsions cannot defeat it, they are not infallible.

I was merely testing the strength of our work. We needed certainty of this.

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist at Red Mountain.
57/ 15/ 80



To: Smaugaestus, Dagothurial.

So. As we’ve already discussed, the aggression compulsion, 6P32, is much too directionless to be of any real use. If used as is, only population centers of high unicorn density would be affected with any sort of significance, and most of the affected unicorns would count among the casualties.

This is not what we need. To be of any use to us, the compulsion needs to be refined. We need some sort of targeting, a way to make the unicorns seek out and destroy exactly what we want them to, or at least to avoid doing the same to each other.

What are your thoughts or suggestions on this?

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, fifteenth season, eighty-eighth day.



To: Ahrkalzahn, Smaugaestus

I feel the need to point out that it would be best if we also gave them a weapon of sorts: ponies are not, by design, killers, which greatly reduces their effectiveness as weapons. Just the ability to fly puts half of their possible victims out of reach, and the other half is usually both stronger and more resilient than them. A physical confrontation the likes of which is caused by 6P32 would be a losing battle by design. We need to use their only real advantage to ours.

Furthermore, would it not be possible to also imprint them with another compulsion to override their aggression towards other unicorns?

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist at Red Mountain.
57/ 15/ 88




To: Dagothurial, Smaugaestus.

That would help, yes, but they would still need to recognize each other with a hundred percent accuracy: else anyone with a sufficiently convincing disguise would be safe from them. I don’t think the way we give them to identify targets should be based on visual input, or any other stimuli they could reproduce, for that matter.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, fifteenth season, eighty-eighth day.



To: Ahrkalzahn, Dagothurial

I may have something for that…

The things I’ve been working on this past season are pretty horrible in hindsight, but I think it could be useful in this case.
I’ve taken my unusable test subjects and subject performed oper gradually lobotomized them. It was extremely hard and failed so many times, but I eventually managed to get a perfectly clean recording of nothing but the body’s autonomous functions.

Here it is, I really hope this wasn’t for nothing.

The best way to make them select their targets should probably be some sort of instinct. The rational mind is too easy to fool and manipulate.

Do what you do with it I guess. Do you mind if I take a break from the project for a few weeks? I’m just not really feeling it lately.

-Smaugaestus, red, Inferiorist Biologist at the Withered Heath
Earze 57, season fifteen, day 89



To: Smaugaestus.

Go ahead, I’ll have this new little nugget to dissect in the meantime. This might actually prove useful, the interesting parts of the background noise cleared of all the chaff. I was not looking forward to tackling this the old-fashioned way.


-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, fifteenth season, eighty-ninth day.



To: Dagothurial

Hey Dag, do you ever wonder if we’re doing the right thing? I mean, genocide, really? Aren’t we going a little too far? They look so harmless in their little cities and I’m starting to wonder if it’s really worth it. Sure they’re sitting on some of the most insane gem deposits in the world, but I just don’t know…

Don’t tell Ark I said that.

-Smaugaestus, red, Inferiorist Biologist at the Skyward Quill
Earze 57, season sixteen, day 8



To: Smaugaestus

If you wish to send private messages you could at least think to use another flux stream, you dunce.

Furthermore, just because I am a professional psychologist does not mean I want to be your therapist; there are fees associated with that. I do not care about your pathetic little doubts and issues, and your weak personal views and philosophies should not get in the way of your duties. You knew what you were getting into when this began. Need I remind you of the oath we both took just a little over a month ago or should I just sharpen my claws right now?

P.S. We are not friends. Refrain from using your idiotic little nicknames when addressing me from now on.

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist at Red Mountain.
57/ 16/ 8



To: Smaugaestus

No, I did not also forget to use a different stream; I merely followed the rules set forth by Ahrkalzahn.

Something you should consider doing more willingly than through mere accidents.

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist at Red Mountain.
57/ 16/ 8



To: Smaugaestus.

What is this I see about a “Skyward Quill”? I’ve never heard of such a place. Where the hell are you, and what are you doing there? And I told you to send everything through the archived stream, no exceptions!

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, sixteenth season, tenth day.



To: Ahrkalzahn

In Equestria. Don’t panic. I was just visiting my green cousin who lives in a forest nearby. I settled in a cave on a steep peak not far from there and I just decided to call it that. It’s nothing really.

I’m coming back anyway; some ponies found me out and got curious and everything. Blegh, can’t even catch a wink around there. Before you freak out, just know that I didn’t have any of my research equipment with me so as far as they know I’m just some random dragon who tried to take a nap near their little town.

The project isn’t compromised. Your stupid mandatory archive is the biggest security risk here, I say.

-Smaugaestus, red, Inferiorist Biologist in transit
Earze 57, season sixteen, day 10




To: Smaugaestus.

Oh please, only a dragon could ever get in my lair, I made sure of that. Besides, I chose that spot because there were no ponies around to randomly disturb my reading. No one who cares about this except us even knows where I live.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, sixteenth season, tenth day.



To: Ahrkalzahn

Oh hey, I think I know what we could do to keep the affected unicorns from murdering each other. Did you analyse the core body functions recording I sent you? If so, do you think you could make them produce hormones and/or pheromones at will? Because that could be the key to it. Maybe invent some kind of pacifying pheromone or something for them to secrete to each other.

-Smaugaestus, red, Inferiorist Biologist at the Withered Heath
Earze 57, season sixteen, day 13



To: Smaugaestus, Dagothurial.

Smaugaestus: Or just about any random pheromone they don’t normally secrete under any circumstance, and a matching compulsion to recognize that scent as a signal to hold their attacks. Yes… that would be worthy of dedicated research.

Dagothurial: About the weapon thing, are any of your unicorns particularly gifted with magic? You could probably order them to work on some sort of spell like I did mine. I asked them to come up with something specifically deadly to basically everything but dragons.

They’re not making much progress, maybe it would be best to put more heads to the problem. Smaugaestus, you should do the same too.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, sixteenth season, thirteenth day.



To: Smaugaestus.

Hey, I think I finally did it. This crystal contains the formula for a hormone I made them secrete. I’m pretty sure it’s something their bodies would never produce normally, but it’d be best if you could synthetize a large quantity of it and slather it on a few of them to see if it actually has an effect. I hope it’s something their brains don’t associate with anything yet, but it would be fine if it does have an effect, as long as it’s sufficiently benign.

Also: 4X3P, the compulsion itself.

Scry them up to make sure to know if their brains even register it at all.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, sixteenth season, thirtieth day.



To: Ahrkalzahn

As far as I’ve been able to verify, that pheromone is entirely foreign to them. The brainscryes seem to indicate that they pick it up clearly enough, but they attribute nothing to it. Should be good.

-Smaugaestus, red, Inferiorist Biologist at the Withered Heath
Earze 57, season sixteen, day 43



To: Smaugaestus, Dagothurial.

Ah, perfect. It should actually be fairly trivial to craft a compulsion to override their desire to kill anyone who produces that hormone.

Dagothurial: Any progress on that weapon spell?

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, sixteenth season, forty-fourth day.



To: Ahrkalzahn, Smaugaestus

No. These worthless imbeciles could not invent their way out of a river.

On the subject of pheromones, have you thought of the children? Has either of you bothered to verify if the compulsions could affect infants, either pre- or post-birth? It would be a shame to lose potential agents due to mere age differences.

Besides, what if the unicorns currently alive in Equestria are in insufficient numbers to accomplish what we want them to? We will need the future generations, or a way to bolster their ranks in some capacity.

This needs to be addressed at some point.

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist at Red Mountain
57/ 16/ 44



To: Dagothurial.

Yes, you raise some very valid points. I think I have an idea about those.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, sixteenth season, forty-fourth day.



To: Dagothurial, Smaugaestus.

The nerve! I can’t believe this just happened!

It seems my oh-so-faithful buffalo worshippers suddenly decided to make peace with the ponies, and won’t be abducting test subjects for me anymore. What a travesty!

They even had the cowardice to try to placate me with a chest full of gems! Ha!

Oh well, I don’t need as many guinea pigs anymore, so I humored them; I only squished one to make an example and let the rest flee. I suppose I could simply borrow some of yours if need be, and I’m confident I still have enough to simply make them breed if I feel especially patient.

Breeding. Huh.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, sixteenth season, fifty-second day.




To: Dagothurial, Smaugaestus.

Oh this is so disgusting. So hilariously depraved. I made them interpret that hormone to act not only as an attack deterrent, but also as a generalized aphrodisiac.

They’re going at it every chance they get.

If we include this in the final compulsion it should solve the preservation problem. It won’t matter if some of them die, they’ll just make more as fast as biologically possible.

And no, Dagothurial, I’m not about to send that one to you. I shudder to think about what you would do with this.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, sixteenth season, sixty-first day.



To: Ahrkalzahn

Oh, please. This is very nearly insulting.

Additionally, for the multiplication to function properly, I suggest we should avoid taking any chances at all, and make a secondary override to prevent them from harming unicorn foals. They should be protected at least for as long as it takes them to become affected.

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist at Red Mountain
57/ 16/ 61



To: Ahrkalzahn, Dagothurial

So, do either of you plan on joining up with the migration this earze?

-Smaugaestus, red, Inferiorist Biologist at the Withered Heath
Earze 57, season sixteen, day 73



To: Smaugaestus

I have not partaken in this exercise in frivolity the last seven times, why would I return to it now?

I am not about to grovel at the feet of the unmated hags like some desperate degenerate.

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist at Red Mountain
57/ 16/ 73



To: Smaugaestus.

I am fine at home. The northern brooding grounds can wait for another time.

One where we don’t have better things to do.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, sixteenth season, seventy-third day.



To: Ahrkalzahn

Sheesh, fine.

By the way, when are we going to have something to do? I’m all for taking naps and everything, but I feel like I’m wasting lots of time sitting here and waiting for either letters from you or some big magic discovery from brainwashed unicorns.

-Smaugaestus, red, Inferiorist Biologist at the Withered Heath
Earze 57, season sixteen, day 73



To: Smaugaestus, Dagothurial.

Well I am also waiting on my unicorns to produce something, but in the meantime I’ve started planning the runemaps I’ll have to use to bind the compulsions together, and it looks insanely extensive.

We’ll have to go with the largest emitters I can design before they start losing potency from thermoelectric entropy, just from of the sheer size of the final emitter crystal. There is a limit to how small I can make my runes.

To that end, I suggest you both start looking for appropriately large quartz blocks for the generators.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, sixteenth season, seventy-third day.



To: Dagothurial, Smaugaestus.

Wonderful. Simply wonderful. The most confusing riddles always have the simplest answers don’t they?

I have our weapon.

I suggested many paths of research for my unicorns, and the one I had the least faith in just recently proved to be the key, despite its utter failure.

I asked them to attempt to shoot out a burst of draconic magic.

This may seem foolish, as they obviously don’t have an ounce of our blood to create that magic. However, I theorized that it might be possible for them to convert their energies into something akin to ours, and project that at their foes; I was hoping being infused with more of our natural magic would be far from harmful to us while still being a relatively dangerous condensed beam of pure magic to everything else.

It didn’t work as intended: their unicorn magic seems to view the converted dragon magic as a foreign intruder, and actually coagulates around it somehow. This has the peculiar effect of creating a growing chunk of a strange crystalline material at the tip of their horns. After a while, the structure seems to reach a threshold where the opposing forces within can no longer support their own struggle, causing the whole mass to violently explode into a hail of high-velocity shrapnel.

The amazingly good news is that this crystal shrapnel is perfectly harmless to dragons. It seems the magic in our veins instantly overpowers the unconverted unicorn magic, softening the shards to a rubber-like consistency. Against anything else, though, they are incredibly dangerous; I’ve seen them slice through stone and puncture steel sheets. This is exactly what we needed.

Now that I look at this, I think we have everything we need to complete project Ethereal Overlord. Meet me at my lair so we can hammer out the final draft and map out where you’ll need to build your emitters.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, seventeenth season, ninth day.



To: Ahrkalzahn, Smaugaestus

Oh, I forgot to mention yesterday; we should strive to let the affected unicorns remain fully aware and conscious of their actions. Striking a wild, feral animal in self-defense is easy; striking a terrified loved one begging for help is another matter entirely.

The psychological horror of such will make at least some of their potential victims hesitate enough to hopefully erase the ‘potential’ descriptor.

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist in transit
57/ 17/ 17



To: Dagothurial

Wow, I hope you do realize how much of an absolutely disgusting slimeball you are.

-Smaugaestus, red, Inferiorist Biologist at the Withered Heath
Earze 57, season seventeen, day 17



To: Smaugaestus

And I hope you do realize that it is only out of professional courtesy to Ahrkalzahn that I have refrained from crushing your spine to dust until now.

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist in transit
57/ 17/ 17



To: Dagothurial, Smaugaestus.

Can either of you remind me again when exactly I became the broodherd for two bickering hatchlings?

Dagothurial: You have a point. I’ll see what I can do.

Now both of you focus on establishing your new lairs and building the emitters while I work on carving those crystals. Remember: it must have at least a fair view of the sky so the emission isn’t blocked, it should be somewhere remote and difficult to access for ponies, and it should be no more than twenty kilometers away from the ideal locations we measured.

Let me know when you’re done, I’ll summon you when the crystals are done. You’ll have to come pick them up in person as they will be extremely delicate and I don’t want to risk sending them via flame.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial's Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, seventeenth season, seventeenth day.



To: Ahrkalzahn

I’m done. A bit cold around here but whatever.

-Smaugaestus, red, Inferiorist Biologist at the Cardinal’s Tooth
Earze 57, season seventeen, day 54



To: Ahrkalzahn

I have completed my new lair and am waiting for the crystal.

-Dagothurial, ashen, Behavioral Psychologist at the Dreamer’s Cleft
57/ 17/ 64



To: Drakelord Baphomet; Maw of Gleaming Mercury; Quicksilver King of drakes; greatest lord and ruler of Draconia.

My lord, Project Ethereal Overlord is nearly ready; we are merely waiting for your approval.

The final expected effects of the project are as follows:

Short term:

-Nearly immediate destabilization of all but the most recluse and rural equestrian communities;

-Initial death toll of thirty-five to forty-six percent of the total equestrian populace within the first week;

-Complete dissolution of governing associations at the onset of activation;

-Immediate crippling of all sectors of industry, commerce and communication, as well as most armed and first-response groups.

Long term:

-Complete and widespread societal collapse across all layers of hierarchy;

-Widespread extinction of most forms of life within Equestria;

-Possible military intervention from neighboring lands, failure likely, complete mutual destruction worst case scenario;

-Slow proliferation of agents inimical to all life but themselves and dragons;

-Total annihilation of any possible resistance to annexation by dragon agents.

Within two to five earze, Equestria and its abundant resources will be available to claim in total impunity, with nary a single drop of dragon blood spilled before, during, or after the conquest.

While Project Ethereal Overlord seeks to target unicorns specifically, it is possible that it will also affect the princess, rendering her unable to control the celestial bodies any longer. This has been deemed an acceptable risk, as there is always a possibility that she could be returned to her normal state once our goals have been reached. The full extent of how much of an effect this may have on her is unknown, as there was no possible way to covertly acquire an alicorn for testing purposes. As such, the princess has been excised from our predictions entirely, her possible influence deemed negligible.

I, on behalf of the rest of the team, eagerly await your review and approval.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial’s Claw.
Fifty-seventh Earze of your high reign, seventeenth season, eighty-fifth day.



To: Dagothurial, Smaugaestus.

I’ve finally completed all three crystals for compound compulsion 6P32/15B02.21B03-4X3.33A26.5S21-11B11/8AP45-3S10-PPP, “fracture”. Come pick them up immediately. I’ll tell you when to activate them.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial’s Claw.
Fifty-seventh Earze of Baphomet’s reign, seventeenth season, eighty-fifth day.



To: Ahrkalzahn.

Your Proposal Holds Promise. I Approve. Deploy Whenever Ready.

As Written Here On This Fifty-Seventh Earze Of My Rule, Seventeenth Season, Eighty-Seventh Day, At The Impregnable Iron Castle Ahzi Dahaka; The Three-Pronged Fortress.

----<>----Drakelord Baphomet, In Mercury Clad.----<>----



To: Dagothurial, Smaugaestus.

Activate the emitters tonight at midnight.

-Ahrkalzahn, gold, Master Runecarver and Harmonics Synthesist at the Sundial’s Claw.
Fifty-seventh earze of Baphomet’s reign, eighteenth season, fourth day.



To: Ahrkalzahn

Done. Now I’m going to get some sleep, if anyone minds. Wake me up if something comes up.

-Smaugaestus, red, Inferiorist Biologist at the Cardinal’s Tooth
Earze 57, season eighteen, day 5




To: Ahrkalzahn.

I Have Heard Good News Of Your Project’s Effects. It Seems The Kind Of Success I Would Celebrate In Person. Please Come And Enjoy A Friendly Stay At My Demesne. We Shall Hunt In Honor Of Your Ongoing Triumph.

As Written Here On This Fifty-Seventh Earze Of My Rule, Nineteenth Season, Twenty-Second Day, At The Impregnable Iron Castle Ahzi Dahaka; The Three-Pronged Fortress.
----<>----Drakelord Baphomet, In Mercury Clad.----<>----

Author's Note:

Wow, that actually took way more words than I thought it would. Although, to be fair, at least 920 of those are Ahrkalzahn's signature alone, and the other two take probably just as many together.

So, the cat's out of the bag now, isn't it? *takes out bullshit umbrella in preparation of the upcoming rain of outrage*

Also, you may or may not have noticed, but every single dragon name in this chapter is in some way a reference to something. This also applies to the four names briefly mentioned in the previous chapter. The references range from "most High-schoolers should be familiar with it" to "I don't even think google can help you" levels of obscurity. At least one is so tangential and far-fetched that I'm not even sure it actually qualifies as a proper reference, and at least one other actually references someone else's reference to its most obvious source.
So, have fun with that! >>> /11 distinct references(unless I counted it wrong)

Final also: "Earze" is a completely made-up word. Dragons have a different set of time units, and this is one unique to them. For reference, Spike is about one earze old.