This story is a sequel to Black Queen, Red King

Once, many years ago now it seems, I was like you. Quiet. Normal. Mundane. Ordinary. Human. But that was a long time ago. Now, I am Changed. I am Connected. I am different. I am a Gatekeeper. And I have a destiny to fulfill.

Something is coming. I can feel it deep in my bones, and hear it in the whispers of the Void. Great and Terrible and Hungry, it comes, and nothing shall stand in its way. It will consume us all.

But I am a Gatekeeper, and I am not powerless. I have been given many gifts, and with them I have founded an empire, and one day soon all the world shall know my name. One day soon, my power will will extend to the corners of the earth. One day soon, I shall become as a god among mortals.

And it will not be enough. My power will never be enough, and I cannot face what is to come alone. I must seek out those that are like me, those with power, those whose souls span to worlds beyond our own, those who Keep their own Gates. Only together will we stand a chance, only together will we survive. Only together, will we live.

It began with a dream, and will end with a nightmare. Let That Which Hungers come from beyond the veil, for I shall stand ready for it. I am the Prince of Darkness, Keeper of the Gate of Shadows. I am a Gatekeeper, and I fear no evil.

They say that the end of one thing, is only the beginning of something else.

Three friends have lost everything they hold dear, and their lives have been forever altered. Lost, and with no where else to turn, they set out, plunging head-first into the great unknown. Their journey will take them near and far, across great plains and soaring skies, over hills and valleys, through dungeons deep and caverns old. They shall venture across all Equestria and beyond in their unceasing quest to find what has been lost to them, and do what must be done.

But they shall not be alone. Beings both strange and ancient have begun to stir, and the golden age of peace and harmony Equestria has known for the last thousand years may be coming to an end. Pieces of an immortal game older than time itself have begun to move, and the stakes may be the fate of Equestria itself.

They say that the end of one thing, is only the beginning of something else. When one chapter of your life ends, another begins. Who knows what will be written there?

And in The Final Age, Harmony shall be all but lost, as all the world's creatures are united and divided in fang and claw, in banners and blood. The Great War shall rage across all the world, in the Lands That Are Known, from The Hallowed Rift to Anger's Deep, from Peregrine Vale to Evo's Wilds, and even the vast, unmapped and untamed wilds that no creature blessed with the gift of Tongues has ever yet set hoof nor claw upon shall play host to great battles and unceasing bloodshed.

The Great War shall rage across the world for years uncounted, and in the end not even The Holy Land, seated in The Throne Of The World, ruled and protected by The Last Children Of Alicornia shall be spared. Not even their mastery of the world's mana will be enough to save them, and so shall The Sun weep tears of red for her lost children as The Promised Land Of All Ponykind bathes in the blood of its sons and its daughters.

Thus, when all hope is lost, and the vast armies march upon The Heart Of The World itself, shall The Last Children Of Alicornia seek desperate aid, and turn to the Stars.

And so shall The Final Gift Of The Gods be given unto the world, and from beyond the dark Void, so shall He come. With His coming, so shall end the Great War, and with it the Final Age - one way or another.

All this and more shall come to pass, for so I have borne witness in vivid, agonizing detail. All that remains to be seen, is whether the Eldrich beast shall be at last our salvation... or our final damnation.

The End of Days,
The lost prophecy of StarSwirl the Bearded, Keeper of the All-Seeing Eye.

The supernatural: Ghosts, zombies, werewolves, spirits... vampires...

Twilight Sparkle always thought that the supernatural was just a bunch of superstitious nonsense, just some scary stories to tell around a campfire. She couldn't have been more wrong.

After an occult ritual gone horribly right, Twilight finds herself among the ranks of these so called 'myths', whether she likes it or not. Due to the same force that changed her, dark shadows have begun to spread across Equestria, bringing to life these ancient fairy tales. And Twilight might just be the only one that can stop them...

For better or for worse, Twilight has been changed. Will she embrace this dark gift and become the hero Equestria needs, or will she eventually succumb to temptation and become the very thing she fights?

Balance. It's such a simple thing. But it's always the little things that are the most important.

All across the rampant Multiveres and alternate realities, there is a precariously maintained balance between the forces of Good and Evil, Chaos and Order, Yin and Yang, yada yada blah blah blah. That's not the important part. The important part is us, The G.E.A.

The Genesis Equilibrium Agency (that's us) are the ones charged with making sure that balance actually stays in balance, and never leans to far to one side or the other. We're the things that go bump in the night, so that when you wake up everything's alright. Don't worry if you've never heard of us; if we've done our job right, you won't know we've done anything at all.

But this story isn't really about The G.E.A. either, it's about me. I'm Special Agent Victor Umbra. And this is the story of my time in Equestria.

Now pre-read by the always awesome and ever-amazing Glassed!

WARNING: May contain offensive language. Coverart drawn by me.
(Current tags non-inclusive. Will add more as story progresses.)

Everyone dies. We all know this, it is a simple and inescapable fact. Whether we want to or not, we are all going to die some day.

Everyone dies. But does everyone truly live?

They say that just before you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes. Is it worth watching?

(Originally a February Write Off entry. Has since been revised.)
{CURRENTLY UNDER MAJOR RECONSTRUCTION}