//------------------------------//
// Purge 
// Story: Before Time Began to Flow 
// by Humanity 
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Where did the world begin? When did the cogs of time begin to turn? I have no way of knowing, even as I was there at the very beginning. When was the moment I gained a sense of being? How long had life existed before I became aware of the world? Regardless of my origins and what I was before, my memories still trace back to the very moment where I became aware. And it was then that I could comprehend what I was seeing. A world of shadows and demons without a single glimmer of light. Feral beasts of utter savagery that preyed upon each other. A bleak and blighted world locked in limbo. 

My eyes were well adjusted for the perpetual darkness that engulfed the world. And to those who reside in the modern world of today, they would be haunted by what I witnessed. There was no warmth. No glimmers of light. No intelligence anywhere. The only other life aside from myself were foul feral beasts of countless sizes and shapes. Some small, some larger, some gargantuan. And yet, I felt no fear for these many beasts no matter where I wandered. And where they would prey upon each other, they would constantly keep their distance from me. As if they could sense something about me that made me a greater threat than they were.

Having little knowledge of the world and even less of myself, I did what any nameless vagabond would have done. I wandered. I felt no sense of danger from the many beasts that plagued the world. They always minded their distance, as if they feared me. I know not how many years or even centuries passed while I wandered from one corner of the world to the next. The concept of time had not yet come to be. There was no means to track the passing of the years. Time was more or less at a standstill, thus this era with no beginning or end came to be known as the "Era Before Time Began to Flow". 

While I wandered this world without a name, I became slowly more and more aware of a nameless ability within me that I only first demonstrated when I was ambushed by a famished beast of the shadows that was apparently desperate enough to hunt a being out of its league. In defense, I thrust my arm out towards it only for a wave of blackness to be launched from my hand and blow the beast away. The hapless hunter fled, leaving me perplexed as to what I had done. The longer I experimented with this ability, the more I grew to grasp it. In time, this latent ability would come to be called "magic". 

My magic was tied to forces of sheer blackness. Able to condense the shadows into solid mass of great density. Once perfected enough, I used it to craft armor for my body to shield myself from further attack. As I became more in tune with the magic I possessed, it was only then that I began to comprehend why all but the most desperate of beasts wanted nothing to do with me. I possessed power far beyond anything that they contained within their beastly forms. They could sense it. And as I began to master the magic within me, I became more aware of a certain...presence that filled the world. A constant presence that was everywhere I looked. Within the earth I tread as well as the air itself. The darkness that plagued and shrouded the world. The shadows that corrupted everything in the world but myself. It was...alive. 

The more I wandered, the more I became aware of this omnipresent entity. It was everywhere in this world of darkness with its influence having sunk its roots into everything it touched and I was the only being on the face of the planet who remained free of its corruption. Or was it that the reason I was free of its corruption was...because I was simply too powerful to be contained? I had become fully aware of the might that coursed through my body. This magical force of similar dark properties with vast versatility. It was a power unlike any other. But if this corrupting miasma could not claim me, could I control it instead?

I began to wonder what would happen if I could contain this corruption. Corral it and shackle it. What would happen to the world if it became separated from it? For the first time, I felt a sense of ambition take hold. Once more, I wandered. Searching for a means to contain the corruption that plagued the world. In time, I was hunted and attacked by yet another dark beast. Once more, I unleashed the power within my hands upon it. This time, it did not rise again. 

The beast's body was consumed by the same miasma that flooded every corner of the world. Perhaps it would contain the formless evils that held the world in limbo. I removed the beast's pelt, tanning it until I had formed a soft hollow pouch worn upon my chest from a thread crafted from the beast's sinew around my neck. And thus, once I stood upon the top of the nearest hill I could find, I wove my magic in an attempt to capture the evils that flooded the world.

With a pull of the pouch's string, it opened. I held my hands out, beckoning to the darkness as I worked the magic within my hands. I could feel and see it. The shadows around me squirmed and writhed. And then...it happened. Almost within the form of a gaseous dark fog, the miasma that plagued the world gravitated towards me and was drawn into the pouch. I feared it would burst, and yet more and more of the miasma flooded into it without the pouch ever expanding to accommodate its presence. It felt tedious remaining still as every last trace of the vile miasma was drawn into its new prison from every corner of the planet. How much time passed while I stood there? Hours? Days? Years? In time, the last traces of this dark force was drawn into the pouch. I promptly sealed its opening with a pull of the string and only then did I marvel at the world around me now that it had been purged of all forms of evil and corruption. 

The world remained dark, yet not twisted. And above me... The deep blue night sky littered with tiny beacons that shed miniscule amounts of light upon the world around me. The world felt as if it had truly come to life. It was not a world fraught with danger, but merely a world beginning to take its first steps.

As I pondered my surroundings, I detected movement. It was likely coming from a number of beasts nearby that I had seen during my approach to the hill. But when they emerged from hiding and beheld me, I could see that they were no longer the hideous vile monstrosities that prowled the world. Their large intelligent eyes conveyed emotions that one would never see in beasts. They showed subtle differences, mainly the colors of their eyes and bodies. I was perplexed, left wondering if these beings were merely the creatures that wandered the world only with all traces of the miasma extracted from their bodies and souls. They approached me and spoke, not knowing who they were or who I was. As if they had only just been born.

They were equine in form... They claimed that they felt comfortable referring to themselves as ponies. And thus the name stuck. They gazed up at me while I towered over them. I felt a sense of power over these tiny creatures as they seemed to come under my care. They were wary of the darkness around them and whatever may lurk out there. They turned to me for guidance. Having allowed the world to come to life, I accepted their pleas for leadership and began to extend my guidance across the globe while keeping the world's old evils securely bound to me at all times. The name I had chosen for myself long ago became of secondary importance to my people as I soon found myself being referred to by a title that would remain long after my fall from power eons into the future. 

The Lord of Midnight.