Jumping At Shadows

Falling, twisting, burning, Jack tumbled through the abyss, overwhelmed by blinding light and sensation. He strained to open his eyes, to get a better look at his surroundings, and was met by nothing but a void filled by every color in the spectrum. Try as he might, he couldn't make sense of the situation. He had encountered some strange things in the past, but this was by far the hardest to explain. There was nothing to do, so he just waited, waited for this wild ride to end, regardless of how that would come about.

Jack fell for what may as well have been an eternity, but eventually his personal purgatory came to a close, and he came to rest on a relatively solid surface, and surprisingly wasn't pancaked upon landing. With some effort, he managed to wrench his eyes open, and found himself lying in a large, atrium style room, that appeared to be composed entirely of solid light, if that makes any sense. Before him stood a tall figure, whose appearance was obscured by yet another blinding light. Ever since being abducted in that alley, Jack had encountered nothing but blinding lights, and it was really starting to wear on what little patience he had.

Despite being completely mundane himself, Jack was no stranger to the existence of magic, having dealt in the seedy underbelly of many communities which often had a few lesser demons or something of the like. Most people simply chose not to believe they existed, it was rather amazing just how they could rationalize somehting like that away.

As for what was happening now, he could only assume that this was some form of "higher being" that had summoned him here to pass judgement for his violent acts. Despite everything, he just couldn't bring himself to feel surprise. Things like this happened on an annoyingly regular basis.

A voice composed of multiple voices, that emanated from every direction, called forth "JACK THE RIPPER, WE HAVE SUMMONED THEE HERE FOR A PURPOSE OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE"

"Yeah, I kinda figured as much" He grumbled "What the hell do you want from me?"

The figure continued on as if he hadn't spoken "YOU HAVE A DIFFICULT TASK AHEAD OF YOU, DARK FORCES HAVE BEEN TRAVELING FROM WORLD TO WORLD KILLING ENTIRE POPULATIONS, AND CONSUMING THEIR SOULS. THEY ARE NOW CONSPIRING TO TARGET YET ANOTHER WORLD. THE INHABITANTS OF THIS WORLD ARE PEACEFUL, AND THUS WE CHARGE YOU WITH THEIR PROTECTION"

Jack was baffled. He took a moment to scoop up his jaw and compose himself, but the best response he could muster was a flat "What?"

"BILLIONS OF INNOCENT LIVES HANG IN THE BALANCE AND IT IS YOUR DUTY TO-"

"Yeah yeah, I got that! What I meant was, WHY ME? What possessed you to make you think that I, of all people, would make a good candidate to protect a bunch of alien hippies? I don't care about innocent lives, what have they ever done for me? I mean, you must have seen my track record, I have a history of letting bystanders get caught in the crossfire, are you just blind?" He roared, practically frothing at the mouth.

"WE HAVE LOOKED OVER EVERY POSSIBLE OUTCOME, AND YOUR'S IS MOST FAVORABLE" It responded flatly.

"Bullshit" He snarled "I refuse to believe that you're doing this for the good of anyone. You just want to jerk me around on a stick for you're own twisted amusement! I thought you brought me here to pass judgement for all my murdering, but it appears I set my expectations a little to high. Instead you brought me for a stupider reason. I didn't think that was even possible!"

If the being had been at all offended by Jack's tirade, it certainly didn't show "WE DO NOT TOY WITH THE LIVES OF MORTALS, WE ONLY INTERVENE WHEN IT IS DEEMED NECESSARY"

"Oh sure, because enlightened entities such as yourself, are above any sort of malice" He replied sarcastically "I'm a murdering nutjob, created by murdering nutjobs, I know ulterior motives when I see them"

"ENOUGH, THE DECISION HAS BEEN MADE. YOU MUST ACCEPT YOUR FATE. DESTINY CANNOT BE OVERTURNED" It boomed, this time with a slight hint of annoyance.

Jack had reached his bullshit limit for the day. "You know what? No. I refuse. Fuck destiny, fuck acceptance, and FUCK YOU!" In a blur of motion, he un-holstered his sidearm and fired. Unfortunately the bullet didn't even make it a full foot from the barrel. It just stopped in midair, just hanging there for a few seconds, before finally being pulled apart atom by atom. It almost appeared as though it had fizzled out of existence.

"VIOLENCE WILL NOT SWAY THE OUTCOME. IF YOU WISH TO RETURN TO YOUR HOME WORLD, THEN YOU WILL COOPERATE" The figure stated bluntly.

Before Jack could respond, the room around him faded away, leaving him to once again fall through the blank chasm. "This shit is really getting old" He grumbled to no one in particular.

The Everfree Forest was the same as it had always been every night since anyone could remember. The crickets chirping, dangerous beasts lurking in the shadows, the moon's watchful gaze hanging above. And yet, something different was about to take place. If anyone had been foolhardy enough to venture into the forest that night, they would have been privy to a truly unusual sight. To the outside observer, it would have appeared as though a man had materialized from a flash of light. It was truly fortunate that no one had been around, because at that moment, the man who had appeared was feeling particularly surly...

"Godlike aliens, man do I fuckin' HATE godlike aliens" Jack muttered as he lay in the thick grass of the forest floor. At least he was pretty sure he was in a forest, he hadn't exactly gotten up to look around, but he could see a thick canopy of leaves overhead. Suddenly, almost as if in response to his complaint, another flash of light appeared, this time above him. As the light subsided, he saw that a large object had appeared above him, and was now falling with the intent to crush him. Swearing heavily, he rolled away just in time to avoid the object, as it landed next to him with a resounding THUNK.

"Eugh, I need a fucking smoke" He groaned, reaching into the left breast pocket of his trench-coat where he kept his cigarettes and lighter. As he retrieved one of his prized cancer sticks, he took note of how many were left. Aside from the one he was currently lighting up, it was a full pack.

"Should be enough to last me a while" He said to himself, not wanting to think about the possibility of running out. Some people might say he had a problem, some people might say he was addicted, and some people could be made to shut their mouths, permanently.

As he lay in the grass blowing smoke rings, Jack decided that it would be pragmatic to take stock of his situation. He was had been stranded in an alien world by some godlike entity that claimed to be benevolent, though he certainly had his doubts about that, with the instructions to help the native inhabitants combat some manner of threat that they supposedly couldn't handle on their own. It was a shitty situation for sure, and he really didn't want to have any part of it, but if he had even the slightest chance of getting home, it was to do as he was told.

For what seemed like the dozenth time, someone thought they could manipulate him toward their own goals, but unlike all those other times, Jack couldn't put a bullet between the eyes of his would be puppet master. It seemed he would have to play his part, and see this through to it's conclusion.

"Enough lazing around" Jack muttered, rising into a sitting position "Time to get moving"

With some effort he managed to stand up, popping the kinks out of his joints and loosening up his muscles. When he finally came to the other side of the abyss, he had been pleased to find that all his injuries had been healed, so moving around was no longer a struggle against his own broken bones. As he got a better look at his surroundings, he noticed something subtlety but fundamentally different about this place.

The colors of the foliage seemed brighter and more vivid, and through the canopy he could see the night sky, where the stars seemed clearer and brighter than ever, the moon appeared to be larger, and the sky itself wasn't the usual pitch black, but rather a deep shade of blue. Most people would have been taken aback by the beauty of this place, but Jack had more urgent things on his mind, namely the large object that had fallen out of thin air and nearly flattened him. It was a heavily reinforced metal trunk, bearing a very expensive looking padlock, and as he looked over it, his eyes widened with recognition.

"My magic murder box!" He shouted, a wicked smile playing out across his features "I'm surprised that god-thing would actually let me have this"

The "magic murder box" as Jack liked to call it, was a sort of portable gun locker that usually resided in the back of his car. It was where he stored every weapon he had collected since his escape five years ago. It was stuffed to the gills with various guns, blades, and explosives, both conventional and experimental. After being dumped in a strange alien world, with little to no instructions on what he needed to do, the magic murder box brought him a small modicum of comfort. Having it here meant that even though he was to fight a battle he had no interest in, he could at least have fun doing it.

The only real issue was that the magic murder box was incredibly heavy, and had no wheels, so he was going to have to drag it.

"Might as well get moving, no sense wasting time" He muttered as he gripped the handle on the side of the trunk. He gave a quick glance around, picked a random direction, and began trudging forward, with his box in tow.

After several hours of uneventful walking, Jack decided to take a break. The forest just seemed to stretch on forever, and for all he knew, he was farther from civilization than when he started. The physical exertion of dragging a heavy metal box through the thick mass of the forest was really starting to take it's toll, and he found himself out of breath and needing a short rest, so he took a seat on the magic murder box, and tried to regain his stamina. For a few minutes he sat there, taking in the sights and sounds of the forest, looking out for any potential threats, when he spotted something through the brush. Tiny pinpricks of light managed to slip between the the thick wall of leaves that surrounded him, catching his attention.

This wasn't the same sort of light as the stars and the moon, it had more of a warm glow to it, like a candle. This was the best lead Jack had found all night, so he gathered himself up, and followed the source of this light.

Eventually the light led him to the edge of the forest. Freed from the the suffocation of the all encompassing canopy, he was able to get a lay of the land. The surrounding area consisted of rolling hills, and in the distance he could see towering mountain ranges, and what appeared to be a castle built precariously into the side of a particularly tall mountain, but the feature that stood out the most was by far the nearby village. Jack could see the lights that lead him to the edge of the forest, emanating from that village, most likely from streetlamps. Additionally he could make out a relatively close road leading there.

"Finally, civilization" He said, with feigned enthusiasm, as he hefted the magic murder box. It seemed as though the aimless wandering phase of his journey was over. Now came the part he had been dreading the most: making contact with the locals. Jack hated people at the best of times, and at this current moment in time he was being forced to do something against his will, which put him in a worse mood than usual. To put it bluntly, he would rather have hot pokers rammed through him repeatedly till he blacked out, than perform any sort of social interaction that didn't involve a killing spree.

As he stepped onto the road and started toward the the village, his thoughts turned toward the people who inhabited this world. He tried to imagine what they where like, how technologically advanced they were, how their government functioned, what sort of species they were. It seemed a very likely possibility that they weren't even human, and if that were the case, just how would they react to the appearance of an alien, especially one as abrasive and ill-mannered as Jack the Ripper. All these imaginings where in vain however, as he kept drawing up blank after blank. There was no evidence to go off of, nothing to reference. He didn't know a single thing about these people, and he would remain ignorant till he actually had an encounter with them.

Suddenly, Jack snapped back to reality. The town was now close enough that he could make out details in the buildings, specifically their thatched roofs and wooden frames.

"Thatched roofs? Don't tell me these people are locked in some kind of medieval stasis. They'll probably think I'm a demon and try to have me stoned" He muttered.

As he entered town, he saw a sign off to the side of the road "Welcome To Ponyville!" it proclaimed. That was enough to give him pause.

"And what the hell kind of a name is Ponyville?" He pondered aloud "Do they raise a lot of horses or something?"

As expected, the streets were empty for the night, but despite this, "Ponyville" had the look of a bustling trade center. The road were lined with various shops and produce stands, as well as the occasional auctioneer platform, but as usual, Jack's attention was focused elsewhere. The candle lamps did a fairly good job of lighting up the street, but there where still large sections of shadow, and it was in these shadows that Jack keen eyes caught a glimpse of movement.

It was a jerky, erratic, excitable kind of movement, that darted from shadow to shadow with inhuman speed. After a few seconds he saw it again, this time out of the corner of his eye, and slightly closer. He got that feeling in the pit of his stomach that he was being watched, actually no, not watched, stalked, by some kind of bestial presence. He carefully lowered his trunk to the ground, before slowly drawing his sidearm, and that's when he saw it.

A pair of glowing white eyes staring at him from the darkness.

They moved forward into the light, revealing the creature they belonged to, a humanoid mass of swirling, pulsating shadow that seemed to twitch heavily every few seconds. It was soon followed by several more of it's kind, till he Jack found himself outnumbered eight to one.

"You folks must be the Ponyville welcome wagon" He deadpanned.

Almost as if in response to his quip, the creature at the head of the pack snapped open it's cavernous maw like a bear-trap, and unleashed an earsplitting screech that tore the calm night asunder.

Never one to waste an opportunity, Jack took this moment of stillness to shoot the creature in the face. The bullet tore through it's skull with ease, causing the shadow's head to shatter like glass, and the shards then dissipated into black mist, and the rest of it's body followed suit.

"These things go down easy" He thought with a smirk "this'll be no time at all"

The rest of the pack charged him en-mass, but were cut down with minimal effort. The creatures were unbelievably fast, but Jack was in his element, running, leaping, dodging, his over-sized handcannon roaring like a wild beast, tearing apart their shadowy forms like paper. Any time they managed to get close, their impotent swipes were deftly avoided and punished with a boot to the chest. They tried to use their superior numbers to their advantage and mob him, but Jack controlled the ebb and flow of battle, using the shadow's lack of coordination to his advantage and tricking them into holding still long enough to receive their daily dose of lead. In the end, Jack dispatched the shadow's without taking so much as a scratch, and needless to say he was feeling back on top.

He could see lights coming on through the windows of various houses, and it appeared the time of his discovery was at hand, so why did he feel like the fight wasn't over? As he turned his head, he saw the answer to his question.

Another shadow creature stood down the road from him, but this one was different. It's form was more coherent and solid, making it look more like a dark silhouette than a beast. It just stood there, staring at him, and as it stared, Jack got a disturbing feeling. Unlike with the other creatures, he didn't feel as though he was being stalked by a feral animal, he felt like he was being observed by a fellow soldier.

After several moment of silence, the shadow raised it's right arm, opened it's hand, and materialized a long, curved sword from the black mist of it's body.

"Feh, didn't anyone ever tell you not to bring a knife to a gun-fight?" Jack grumped, ejecting the empty magazine from his Desert Eagle .50 AE, before slapping in a fresh one.

The shadow responded by drawing it's sword in both hands, and bringing it to bear in position over it's torso. Jack simply smirked and took aim, firing a single shot, which was immediately deflected by the dark blade with impossible speed, almost appearing as though it was warping in and out of reality.

His mood immediately changed from passive boredom, to one of shock and excitement "Oh, that is HARD-CORE!" He shouted, his features stretching into a bloodthirsty grin.

The creature broke into a sprint, leveling it's sword with Jack's head, as he brought his own weapon to bear and opened fire once more.

Princess Twilight Sparkle had spent the majority of the night like anypony who knew her would expect: enthralled in a book. For once it wasn't a text book, but rather a collection of stories about Starswirl the Bearded during his younger years, before he settled down to give council to the royal sisters, Celestia and Luna. Her drooping eyelids were telling her that she should have gone to bed hours ago, but she just couldn't bring herself to put the book down. Starswirl's many exploits were just too interesting, and she probably would have continued to read until dawn, if it hadn't been for a series of explosions and and what sounded like animalistic screeching, echoing outside the library.

"What was that?" She wondered aloud. Whatever it was, it sounded dangerous, and no doubt warranted her attention.

Setting her book aside and stepping up from her reading chair, he bolted for the door, unlatching the lock and pushing it open, exposing herself to the crisp night air. There she saw what must have been the source of the commotion. Two strange creatures that she didn't recognize appeared to be having a stand-off of sorts.

One was a dark, shadowy figure with no distinct features, aside from it's glowing, empty white eyes, wielding a sword equally as dark and shadowy.

The other appeared to be a male with very odd features. He didn't look like any pony Twilight had seen before, with a rather flat face and no fur aside from his thick black mane, which was shaggy and unkempt, and tufts of hair around his mouth and on his chin. His skin was a ghostly pale, and covered in a gruesome network of scar tissue, which was only accentuated by the tattered trenchcoat draped over his his frame, full of rips and tears that exposed more scar tissue. But by far the most distinct feature was his eyes.

Ponies had a wide variety of eye colors, but Twilight had never seen eyes quite like these. The color wasn't really anything special, a vivid red that stuck out in the darkness, but the emotions that they conveyed: hatred, rage, bloodlust; seeing all this, she couldn't help but question just who's side she should be on.

Twilight was snapped back to reality as another explosion rang out. It seemed to emanate from the bulky metal object in the stranger's hand, and a resounding clang was heard as the dark figure moved impossibly fast to deflect some unseen projectile with it's sword.

This got a strangely positive reaction from the stranger, as his lips spread into an eerie grin and he shouted "Oh, that is HARD-CORE!" at the top of his lungs.

The dark figure didn't respond. Instead it charged him, prompting several more explosions from the strange alien weapon, all of which were deflected or dodged. The shadow quickly closed the the distance between them, and knocked the weapon from the stranger's grip, before unleashing a blinding flurry of strikes which sliced his chest to ribbons and spattered blood all over the cobblestone road, before burying the sword up to it's hilt in his midsection with a sickening squelch.

Twilight had never seen such a display of brutality before, and she couldn't help but feel a bit faint, but for reasons she could not explain, the stranger remained upright. He staggered and cried out in pain, but he refused to fall despite bleeding profusely and coughing up ungodly amounts of the vital fluid. He just stood there, continuing to take a beating, attempting to dodge weakly, but it was becoming obvious that he couldn't combat the shadow's blinding speed, and he couldn't keep going all night.

Never one for inaction, Twilight Sparkle's mind went into overdrive, trying to think of a plan. Her brain was going a mile a minute,her heart pounding, her wings fluttering unconsciously. She considered trying to hit the creature with an energy beam, but decided against it, for fear of catching the stranger in the blast radius. She also considered trying to separate the two with her telekinesis, but she didn't want to get too close for fear of gaining the shadow's attention.

The simple fact was, Twilight had never received any formal combat training, and had no idea what to do in a situation like this. The last time she had even been in a real fight was during the changeling's attack in Canterlot, which had ended with she and her friends being captured, while her brother and Princess Cadence had stopped the changelings.

Suddenly her thoughts turned to Princess Luna's coronation gift. That stranger was unarmed but if she could get him a weapon...

There was no time to lose. She charged back into the library and ran straight for her room, retrieving the box hidden under her bed. She unhooking the clasps and opened the lid to reveal a gleaming rapier nestled in the velvet interior. The thing was immaculate, with a gold plated handle and an symbol in the shape of her cutie-mark pressed into the blade. Luna had given it to her with the words "I pray you never have to use this", and it looked as if it was going to save somepony else's life.

As she emerged from the library, Twilight saw that the stranger was in even worse shape than before. His left arm hung completely limp, and he was starting to stumble and lose balance. She had to act now or he would die.

"Hey you!" She shouted, tossing the weapon to him "Catch!"

His head turned as he slumped to his knees, and he saw the incoming sword, snatching it out of the air with his right hand just in time to deflect a downward strike that would have surely finished him. He pulled together all his determination and knocked the dark blade away, disarming the shadow creature, leaving it at his mercy.

"Eat shit and die!" He snarled, and decapitated the creature with a viscous cleaving strike before it could move to stop him. The area around the wound crumbled into black dust, and soon the rest of the creature followed.

Twilight let out a ragged sigh of relief and literally flew over to the stranger as he struggled to stand up.

"Are you okay?" She asked, looking over his wounds.

She seemed genuinely concerned, but Jack couldn't help his snarker instincts. "Yeah I'm fine, just fine" He coughed, stopping to spit up a congealed wad of blood "Got sliced and diced within an inch of my life, but I've had worse nights. Also I believe this is yours" He said, handing back her sword "It's a nice blade, but rapiers aren't my thing"

"Here, let me help you" She said, trying to hold him steady as he clutched his midsection, trying to hold his intestines in "You're really badly injured, I'll get you to the hospital"

That set him off a little. "Oh fuck no, I'm not going to any goddamn hospital!" He growled, startling her.

"But you need to get to a doctor or you'll die!" She insisted

"No, what I need is-" Suddenly his vision, which had become blurry from blood loss, cleared up slightly and he was able to properly see the girl before him, and what he saw set him off the rest of the way.

"Pastel....horse....people" He slowly put the words together, his eye twitching violently.

"Excuse me?" The she questioned slowly.

"Of all the podunk, backwater worlds that THING forces me to protect, I get the one populated with pastel FUCKING horse people?!" He shouted at no one in particular.

"What are you talking about?" Twilight asked, sounding disconcerted and more than a little frightened.

"I'm gonna fucking kill EVERYTHING! I don't even care anymore. My entire life is turning into someone else's punchline! Just end me now and let me keep some semblance of dignity!"

He continued ranting and raving to himself for several minutes, and he hadn't even stopped to breath, so Twilight decided to take matters into her own hands.

"Hey!" She shouted, interrupting his diatribe "You are severely injured, and by my authority as a princess of Equestria, I order you to follow me to the hospital" Those words felt extremely strange coming from her mouth, usually Twilight tried not to bring up her royal status at all, but this was a life or death situation, and she wasn't going to let somepony die as a result of her own inaction.

Unfortunately, this didn't elicit the response she had hoped for. Instead he took it as a challenge. "Oh you order me? I hate to break it to you princess but I don't give a shit if you are royalty, I'm not going to any hospital! So just what the fuck are you gonna do about it?" He said with a sneer.

Twilight had never met anyone so disrespectful. Even now that he knew she was royalty, his demeanor hadn't changed at all. This had to be some kind of misunderstanding, he was just delirious from blood loss, right?

"Very well, you've forced my hand, I'm sorry about this" She said solemnly, a familiar violet aura engulfing her horn.

"What the hell are you-" Jack was unable to finish his question as a crackling beam of energy fired from Twilight's horn, and struck him point blank in the face. The paralytic spell took effect immediately, and he was unconscious before he even hit the ground.

If Twilight felt uncomfortable with using her royal status, then she felt positively wrong knocking somepony unconscious and taking them to the hospital against their will, even if it was for their own good. She didn't even know what this strange creature was or where he came from. Perhaps he was from another world entirely, and now he would most likely have a distrust of ponies due to his experience with her. No matter. For now all that mattered was getting him to a doctor.

The alicorn princess lit up her horn and engulfed the unconscious stranger in an aura of magic, lifting him off the road, before spreading her wings and taking off toward the Ponyville hospital with him in tow.

Hope fully he wouldn't be too upset when he awoke.