Boundary Point

GRS~236

HRM/6222

1116111|SC|NOM|IE

RD11226

312-HRM-FA-ORA

DYRE|1116111|SC|NOM|IE

BY HER DIVINE LIGHT

FABLETWISTS, THIS PORTENDS

The following story is translated from Gutsy Repository Scroll 236. It stands in direct contradiction to dogma and the Authority of Her Royal Majesty. Story is false, made-up. Entertaining as truth will be treated as BLASHPHEMY. Careful, only rank of Sister Superior or greater may read. This is your only warning! Heretical content after this partition. If you find yourself reflecting on it, report. If belief contradiction discovered, report. To withhold an inaccurate self-report is SACRILIGE. Again, this is your final warning! If you are not authorized, do not continue reading! Divine observance spell in effect. She will know. Careful. The following document is for official purposes only. Failure to report internal impious dialogue is a crime of BLASHPHEMY. Why are you nervous? Was it you? She knows. WARNING: Do not read next statement. This line is for high officials only. Gaze. Cease. Gaze. Cease. After forty-eight hours you will write a report on your internal thoughts and submit for reflection. Only Mother Superiors or higher may annotate the story under Commentate Policy. Only an Archabbess, Episcopa, High Matron, or Her Royal Majesty may edit or remove previous annotations. Punishment for reading story without authorization guarantees sentencing to Tartus Above and Tartarus Below or worse. This is your final only warning! You did it. She knows. You were cautioned. Why did you read?

FABLETWISTS, THIS PORTENDS

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FIRST WARNING UPDATE(1001-01-16):

ANNOTATE ASSOCIATED DOCUMENTS WITH COPPER BASED INK (REVERSE MYTHRILL BOUND) ONLY

OR

NOT AT ALL

TRANSCRIPTION OF DOCUMENT BEYOND ORAL TRANSMISSION IS VERBOTEN

NO COPYING PERMITTED

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SECOND WARNING UPDATE(supp.):

THIS IS A GRADE DYRE DOCUMENT

READ INCANTATA IN FULL BEFORE PROCEEDING

Veil of night, whispers of the void

In the silent abyss, where light is destroyed

Bind the shadows, halt the relentless tide.

In the grasp of the cosmos, let the lost be tied.

Ethereal chains, woven by silent Aspects of Discord

Five of Neck, One of Crown. Two hidden, never to be found.

Encircle, ensnare, in your cold embrace, conflate.

By the decree of spiked whispers and starlight bold

Seal the nameless in your shimmering hold.

Custodial Preface Notes:

(207-12-01)(MS)(I.S) Document submitted for destruction, however due to Her Royal Majesty’s Proclamation 2226, it has been retained due to the fact that it may be a genizah. On tertiary pass, realized what was going on. Attaching Monitum Sheet and Custodial Preface Notes to the front for the protection of all Ponies. Sent to the Sealed Collection, though if it were up to me, I would submit this to Upper Tartarus' Vault just to be safe. I have passed along the request for review to Her Royal Majesty, but given the workload she is under, I doubt she will ever see this.

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(4

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(575-07-21)(MS)(M.R) Document Reevaluated. Danger it presents is minimal. Probably just a fae tale our ancestors told themselves at night. Submitting for de-escalation to the Selenic Committee.

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ie.

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(832-03-10)(AA)(A.R) Document recovered during a sweep of one of Luna’s lost strongholds from during the rebellion. Apparently, this plus many others were hidden away in a sealed room. Can’t believe that this was the kind of tale that kept my predecessors up at night. Though I am confused, why did M.R send this to the Selenic Committee hundreds of years after they were dissolved? Well, I’m de-escalating this document and moving it to fictional works. Keeping the Monitum Sheet on for posterity.

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(997-09-06)(SC-36)(T.S) Reading Authorization: 996-07-21-SC-36. Cute Monitum Sheet. But just to update, a Student of Celestia’s has authorization above that of High Matron, at least for now, and we are permitted to read and annotate fictional documents from Celestia’s personal collection. That said, I’m a bit confused? There’s not much as to WHY this document was considered dangerous at all. It couldn’t be because the Unneb. While they were considered mythical for many centuries, we now know that they are very real and do a very important job. Also, I'm a bit surprised at all the redaction in the custodial notes, but whatever. My best guess is that since it documents the story of the Element of Kindness stealing celestial fire, it makes sense as to why early Mother Superiors would look at this document with a tinge of fear. But rest assured, the story is tame compared to the others I’ve read these last few weeks. So, given the mild nature of this story, I will submit this for consideration in Prancing Puddle’s Ancient Stories Compendium, though probably edited down, and most definitely with those weird last few lines changed. I'll reread of I get the time later, but for now, a thousand stories down… a thousand more to go…

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(1001-01-16)(HRM)(L) Document was submitted to Prancing Puddle (P.P) by T.S as per her addendum. However, thanks to P.P’s sharp eye, it was sent to me as part of my reacclimating duties. She’s been sworn to secrecy on the matter, and seeing as how professional she is, I'm inclined to respect it. Given that T.S only had a passing interest, no need to swear her to secrecy when it would be best to let this account simply get lost in the archives of her mind given her neurotic nature. And everyone else who has read this before, given its nature is probably long dead now, so that takes care of that. However, what on my blue moon between 207 and 832 was removed? Also, something is wrong with that last part, it seems familiar, but I just can’t remember why. Great, another mystery to keep me up during the morning. Reintroducing to the Sealed Collection.

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(supp.)(HRM)(L) Funny how using the little filly’s room can help jog one’s ancient memory. This story MAY be under the effects of Nomenclative magic from when THAT BIRD ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ and nearly got itself killed if not for two of the Elements taking pity on that stupid thing. It took me some time to realize something was wrong with T.S’s notes and that’s when I caught it. With apologies to T.S, I slightly edited her note with a single quill stroke so that it could be understood by others properly via the stories’ method of neutralizing the nomenclative effects. Seems while the effects have tapered off over the centuries, older documents might still have vestiges of its power left and can infect adjacent documents. Though if that’s the case, does that last line might mean that

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Its not the only thing in there, but it’s enough to earn this a one-way trip to DYRE classification. Good Job I.S for seeing this story for what it is. I’ll see if I can’t get my sister to have you Glorified. Least I can do for you. Will be submitting an order to accrue all documents that have been confirmed to be near this scroll and evaluate for transmission. Though if it were truly that bad, we would have seen its effects early on in the scroll's introduction to various other collections it’s been a part of. So, I expect any damage it may have caused to be minimal. Returning to the Sealed Collection, keeping its old identifier and adding containment Grade: DYRE.

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The Element of Kindness, the Phoenix, the Unneb, and the Antithesis

Invocation: Speak through me, Pēgē. By your divine voice, lend me your grace and let us weave a tale of fire and shadow. Of that Element, kind in all ways. The one who touched the Sun, and nearly burnt the globe to ash.

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Once upon a time, when Equus was new, each of the Elements of Harmony arose and claimed their respective domains.

The Element of Kindness claimed the forests, and the plains, and the bodies of water that the land encircled. And to her, the animals came. She cared for each of them like a parent to a new-born foal, ensuring they would want for not. Under her guidance and protection, her domain flourished and grew vibrant.

But soon she discovered that some of her charge would fall into the Long Sleep, never to awaken. And eventually, they would fade into dust… So, she went out and consulted the spirits, and the aspects, but no answer could be found. She then talked to the Gryphons and Dragons, but they could offer no answer either. She even found the elusive Kirin, whose only answer was silence.

Finally, she consulted her fellow Elements. Honesty, Laughter, and Generosity were curious to know the answer as well since their own domains were affected by symptoms like the Long Sleep. Honesty would discover on occasion a tree she nurtured would never bare fruit or leaves again. Generosity's most elegant fabrics over time would eventually dull and fray. And Laughter's food, like Kindness' cohort, would fade into dust given enough time. The only Element who was apathetic to Kindness' quest was Loyalty, who told her winged sister that true fidelity is endless like the blue skies she flew.

Soon, Kindness met with the Element of Magic, the most erudite of all the Elements. She consoled the Element of Kindness. She explained that all things must return from whence they came, even the sun, and that this was the natural order of things. Not even her tomes and scrolls were forever, and that it was no fault of Kindness when her subjects fell into the Long Sleep.

But the Element of Kindness was not unobservant, for she, like all, saw the sun fade, and rise reborn each morning. Gathering herself, she soon devised a plan. She would seize fire from the sun and see if it did not possess the capacity to awaken her poor subjects.

But to do this, she would need to soar higher than any other creature in existence, and her wings were weak. Thus, she approached the Viridian Court and kindly asked the aspect Wind to help her, offering the aspect a humble dance. The Wind, always looking to be helpful back then, agreed to assist her. And so, the Element of Kindness took off, and the wind carried her high into the sky. Past the treetops and past the Domain of Loyalty, she soared past all things profane. As she flew, only one creature called out to her, a Magpie. A Magpie simply said, "Trust me, I wouldn't…" before the wind swept the Element of Kindness away and towards the sun.

She soared, and she soared, and she soared until she made it. Beyond the realm of Equus now, she could even touch the blue color of the sky itself, and scraped it with the tips of her wings, taking some of its blue with her. Then, finally, she reached it: the blazing sun in all its luminous glory! Its fires raged and its heat blistered as it spewed out whips of great incandescent light. The Element of Kindness who felt the flames could barely get close, but she did. She plucked a feather from her very own wing, and stuck it into the great celestial blaze, capturing ethereal fire. But she was so close that her mane and fur were scorched by the lashing heat of the sun! With her prize gathered, she let gravity take hold and soon; she descended back on Equus with her burning feather. Landing, she discovered that, except for a few splotches of deep dark blue she had gained from touching the sky, her coat and mane were now charred ashen black nearly everywhere with the sole exception of her mark.

And so, she laid her blazing feather upon a nest of a Magpie who had fallen asleep, and who had not woken up in weeks. The otherworldly flame blazed and roared, and so intense it was, that it incinerated the creatures, turning them to dust and ash on the spot. Watching this, the Element of Kindness wept at her failure all day and all night. Her plan had failed, and now she bore scars from her grand effort. However, as she wept, when the sun rose the next morning, something miraculous occurred. To her great surprise, the pile of ash and dust that remained erupted into flame! And from the fire, the creatures she thought had been destroyed not only had returned, but they had also awakened!

Behold! The Phoenix! Praise thou, who triumphs over Alastoria! Their forms aflame! Their gold and ruby feathers as radiant as the dawn itself! Their song, the most entrancing of the land! Even the Sirens envy the power and sovereignty of the songs of the Phoenix!

And so, they took off in front of the Element of Kindness, glowing like dancing embers on the horizon. Their golden flames, sparks of the Sun on Equus itself, gleamed in the sky. The Element of Kindness shouted with joy. She had found a solution. But such a grand endeavor exhausted her. So she retired to gather her strength once more, for there were others under her domain that had fallen into the long sleep who needed to be awakened as well.

But as she rested, the Phoenix soon spread. With their fiery rebirth preventing the effects of the long sleep, and their desire to copulate unabated, more and more birds of fire arose! Soon a great wildfire of Phoenixes blazed across Equus! A grand firestorm of these flying, flaring birds subsumed the forests and the plains, boiling even the bodies of water across this world.

When the Element of Kindness awoke, she despaired, as she saw that soon, all of Equus would be burnt to cinder. Flying with what strength she could, she once again asked the Element of Magic for help, and they scoured all the unburnt tomes of Equus until coming across a ritual. One to call forth The Spirit of Darkness. The Antithesis. One who might possess the power they seek.

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So preparations were made, and the ritual performed.

At a pond, on the dusk of a full moon, Kindness and Magic made their offering:

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The nod of a head from both to show respect,

a lie weaved to protect,

a pot of boiling water,

a coin of the smallest value,

a bowl of seeds and a bowl of ash, mixed.

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The Offering has been Accepted.

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Sacred darkness come forth! From the depths of the celestial abyss, from the very shadows of existence itself, arise now! O’Antithesis! We submit ourselves to your authority! For it was your proof of imperfection and defense of mortal kind that our creator elevated you from an afterthought to an equal!

From the shadows on the ground, the dark spirit burst forward. Darkness itself flowed from it discordantly and dripped from it like a shroud. Then, an eye formed, gyrating around… and stopped, staring at a Magpie in the trees. Then, it bellowed to the Elements, shaking the very ground itself: "Who calls me from my slumber in the abyss? You two? And only a shallow bow of the head each? And only one knee each? Be thankful the Originator is not present before you. She would not tolerate such disrespect."

Both Elements collapsed on the ground, and prostrated themselves before the Antithesis. Both of them trembled as terror shook them to their core. Both averted their eyes instinctually from the creature, and the Element of Magic began to speak, “Sir, we are two of the Elements of Harmony, Kindness and Magic, we-”

“I know, calm yourselves and stand up,” the Antithesis said. “I am merely grumpy from being awoken from my sleep. If I wanted you both undone, then this is where the story would end. Now, who seeks an audience with me?”

Slowly the two picked themselves up, and the two looked at each other. The Element of Kindness stepped forward and shouted, "Me. I have doomed our world to a fiery Tartarus! We need help!"

The spirit twisted what might be its head at the Element and said, "And what would you give me in exchange?"

"Anything!" the Element of Kindness cried.

"Anything?" the Spirit of Darkness said.

"Anything..." the Element of Kindness replied.

"In exchange for what I must sacrifice, I demand all of Nature's Kindness. From this day forward, it will be mine and no one else's. It will know no kindness ever again. Only survival of the fittest. This, I demand."

And so the Element gathered all of Nature's Kindness and relinquished it to the Dark Spirit. The Dark Spirit took the bounty and lifted it on high. But the wind blew ever so subtly, nabbing a few grains of Nature's Kindness, before The Dark Spirit tucked the rest into a bag. The few grains that the wind did catch, became scattered, letting discord decide where they fall.

Then the Dark Spirit took out a single, long hair from within its dark cloak. Pulled from the brush used to make existence, the Dark Spirit poked it atop the Element of Kindness' ashen black coat. And then it extracted the scorching blackness and deep blues from the fur and mane of the Element, restoring her to her former colors. And from this hair, dripped the first two Unneb. Both creatures kicked and raged until they stood up. They turned to the Element of Kindness and bellowed at her in a deep, guttural voice before dashing into the burning woods.

And so the Unneb did their work. The Dark Spirit made them cunning and aggressive. They worked together to prey on the Phoenix that covered the land. And from those two, they multiplied, and soon the blaze of birds ceased, and Equus was saved from a scorching end.

And so days turned into weeks turned into months. However, as the world was once more restored, the Element of Kindness saw that her once loving kind fauna were now detached and cruel. When she called on the rabbits to come out and graze, a cunning a Magpie used the trust she had built with them to snatch one and sneak off with it into the woods. The Element of Kindness pursued, only to find a Magpie feasting on the rabbit's sleeping body.

Remembering the ritual, she once again performed it. And once again, called forth The Dark Spirit by herself.

“Again!” the Antithesis made the ground rumble. “Why have I been roused?” its form became warped, twisted and violent. Once more, it formed an eye and swiveled, glaring at a tree where it saw a Magpie, staring back. The Antithesis said to a Magpie, “I see you…”, each word a shard of glass grinding againststone.

"Please!" she begged. "I need the kindness you took back!"

The being twisted with what could only be called a face back at the pony that summoned it, "Kindness has its price Element," the Dark Spirit said. "Now without the constant kindness of others, the creatures of the world now have to develop on their own. No more can they lead dull lives of being fed solely by you. They can now support themselves; they flourish in every corner of the globe! If I give back Nature's Kindness in full, Trillions of creatures would come to you for food. Can you feed them all?"

And so, The Element of Kindness cursed the Dark Spirit, claiming that because of it, everything born on this world would only know cruel and unusual pain followed by the long sleep.

The Dark Spirit bellowed, silencing the Element, "What Arrogance! If I wanted to make this place truly twisted, I would have demanded the kindness of all sapient kind! Imagine a world where all things that could love and care were cruel and only out for themselves and watch as your precious Nature paid the price for it. And I did not take all the Kindness from Nature. I let the wind itself pilfer just enough so that some creatures who find it within themselves may return to your home and be cared for… Yes…” the Dark Spirit looked up at the sky as the clouds froze, “Did you think I would not notice?"

The Dark Spirit once again took out the brush hair he had used to create the Unneb, "For your impudence, I will not take the sky from you. But the wind that helped you to steal celestial fire and who stole from me on your behalf, however? From this point forward," the Dark Spirit slashed the air with his thread, "It will forevermore remain a stranger to you!" Then, in a dark flash, the Antithesis slashed the Element of Kindness’s wings with the hair, “And to you, I take the strength to soar. While you may still fly under your own power, you will never be the equal to even the most milquetoast flyer, and will always find the ground more accommodating...”

The shadows churned around the Dark Spirit, slowly reclaiming it. The Element of Kindness cried at the creature to not retreat and cursed at it again. But it said only one last thing: “I will leave you with one piece of advice: Let me sleep. Summon me again at your own peril. What I have taken from you is nothing to what I can strip from you forever.” And as darkness nearly finished reclaiming the Antithesis, its eye twisted to a Magpie and said to it, its voice crawling like embers consuming parchment, “They might acknowledge your existence in their minds, some may even SEE you but… Nice try… but you’ll have to plead to laughter and magic if you are to get out of your situation. Oh, don’t look at me like I am the villain here. You did this to yourself. The sharper ones already know what’s going on…Oh ho… Such arrogance. I can promise you, after this, we won’t meet again…”