The Black Days - An Equestrian Tale

by HeWhoFollows

Prologue

"As our kine declines, attempting to rise again in vain, a darkness will rise to be all life's bane."
Chornologius, the earliest Seer

There is darkness in all light. The darkness in the land of law and order of Equestria has been long forgotten. Centuries have passed since the sight of the wandering dead in their crumbling catacombs, the hunting beasts of their deep caverns and tunnels, and the mechanical gaurdians of bygone races. Even roaming the places where such can be found, they are gone. It is a time of peace since the fall of Discord. Exploration and learning have been expanding. Even the beasts of the Everfree have laxed, permitting some exploration of it's reknowned expanses.

But none are aware that the fall of the dark beings is thanks to the awakening of a greater evil. A thing that corrupts all it touches, that claims all, living or dead, organic or synthetic, animate or inanimate. And as the darkness stirs and begins to rise, a race that has been eternally linked to it will fall, leaving only one of their kin amongst the living. The last of the Darkenrarg is hidden, but even he will be forced to surface in order to save the world from eternal corruption. But he cannot do it alone. To succeed, he must gain the aid and trust of the heroes whom defeated Discord, and the greatest beasts of myth and legend amongst his kind – in the sea, desert, forest, sky, caverns, time, and space, and face himself during the journey. But if he fails the final test, the one that will prove he is the hero that will grant victory, the darkness will take the world as its own for eternity. And he will find that even the darkness has its own tricks that will turn the very land against him. Impossible, you may say? Oh, but my dear friend...Equestria is just the place for making the impossible possible.