The Escape of The Darkness

Chapters

Chapter 1: Arrival in Darkness
Chapter 3: Conversation in Darkness
Chapter 4: Ceremony and Strife in Darkness
Chapter 5: Rage in Darkness
Interim: Hunted in Light
Chapter 6: Preparations in Darkness
Chapter 7: Clash in Darkness
Interim: Planning In Light
Chapter 8: Return in Darkness
Prologue: Stranded in Darkness
Chapter 2: Slaughter in Darkness
Interim: Watched from Light

Chapter 1: Arrival in Darkness

15 Minutes earlier than the Prologue...

"Cadance!", Twilight Sparkle exclaimed as she hugged her former foal-sitter tightly right after she proved she wasn't a changeling or Chrysalis trying to dupe her again.

"Twilight, We need to get out of here and stop that heartless......Bitch! before its too late!" Cadance said hurriedly as she started to run towards the large exit. Twilight wondered what could have caused the normally sweet and loving mare to curse, but then realized that by her appearance, she could have been down there in that cave for days and the changeling queen could have done who knows what to her while she was down there.

However, their running was stopped when three odd looking ponies dressed up as bridesmaids blocked their way with a noticeable green glow in their eyes. " Going somewhere?"

one said, with a hint of confident malice in her voice.

"Yes, we need to get to the--" Twilight started to say hurriedly, thinking they were ponies before Cadance interrupted her sharply.

"Twilight get away from them, they're changelings in disguise!" Cadance said while charging up her magic and getting herself into a fighting stance. Twilight was confused for a moment before turning to find that the "bridesmaids" were wreathed in a green fire for a split-second before transforming into what looked like a pony but with insectoid qualities such as a black carapace and bug-like wings, alongside bright green eyes. All three of them had malicious grins with a subtle note of blood lust or hate.

"You will never stop the queen's plans pony scum, Equestria will be ours!" one said with a raspy hiss of a voice and all three charged at Twilight and Cadance with a shrill battle-cry....

Only to be gripped in the glow of Cadance's magic and thrown extremely hard, almost overkill, against a wall , their chitin breaking, organs turning to a very fine jelly, and bones shattering into a thousand tiny shards as crystal rained down. The display had Twilight's jaw working dumbly for a few seconds before her innocent mind could process what her once best friend and foalsitter had just done.

"Ca-Cadance, y-you, ki-killed them!" Twilight stuttered out in pure shock, still staring at the gore sliding down a large crystal wall, their broken bodies just now reaching the floor, Twilight was sure if she did not have more pressing matters, like the safety of her brother, she would have thrown up and curled into a shivering wreck of a mare.

"Twilight", began Cadance, moving face to face with Twilight, "Changelings are like insects, they are basically mindless drones without free will given orders by the queen, and if I hadn't done that they would have killed you and me" She said assertively but also with a tinge of remorse.

"Oh, o-okay Cadance, I guess if you-" Twilight started, "No Time!, we need to keep moving" Cadance said with anxious worry and started for the exit again.

Twilight decided her emotions and her constitution would have to wait. Although as she turned and started after Cadance, she picked up a slight smell of something. She couldn't quite place what it was but in her limited time she thought,

'Is that.... smoke', she paid it no mind however, and started to run faster, not knowing the light- level in the room decrease ever so slightly.

The trip through the portal, tear in the fabric of reality, or whatever the hell it was turned out to be a quite uneventful stroll. Even though the inside, as Jackie put it, looked like a cross between a psychedelic drug trip and the burning fires of the unholy abyss. It was nothing though compared to where he had gone the first time he had died, Jackie still had nightmares about that godforsaken World War I shithole.

'At least I learned a valuable lesson' He thought ' don't kill yourself without a good reason or know where your going' '....'what a fucked up lesson'

As Jackie was lost in the depths of his memories, Darkling jerked his head sharply to the right. And just as he was about to retaliate, he saw a tear just like the one he had walked through several yards in front of him. Jackie then did something he hadn't done in two and a half years, he smiled (even though it was just a small smirk). Although that smirk was wiped away completely as the darkness cut in with its deep voice.

"THIS WILL HURT VESSEL, BE PREPARED"

"Wait, what do you mean 'hurt'?" Jackie asked slightly concerned, the experience with the iron maiden had made him slightly more afraid of extreme pain, and being roasted alive,'sadistic cripple bastard, fuck you Victor' he thought.

Jackie's mental ingress was interrupted by a severe burning sensation that felt like fire and electricity at the same time. Although not as bad as the brotherhood's ministrations, it still hurt like a motherfucker. Jackie was forced to endure it, gritting his teeth in anguish and falling to the floor before it stopped a minute or two later. Jackie then slowly stood up, now realizing that he was on solid ground once more.

"WE HAVE ARRIVED" The Darkness said in triumph at its' accomplishment.

Jackie however, was far to busy and/or nauseous to notice its words. He slowly rose up to his feet and his vision started to clear up from its pain induced haze. He realized he was inside what appeared to be a massive cavern of some sort. The whole thing was formed out of some sort of lime green crystal that had a very reflective surface, although he noticed the light in the room start to dim slightly.

"Huh, I guess that still happens" Jackie stated in mild realization. Ever since that fateful night, Jackie noted that no matter how much light there was, the room he was in always seemed to get a shade darker.

"CONFLICT,SADNESS,AND FEAR CLOSE!" The Darkness said, seemingly happy at this, "INVESTIGATE"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, remember, I'M calling the shots here , but if there's fighting nearby then I'LL check it out when I feel like it." Jackie shot back, irritated.

"If you lot are gonna stop acting loik an old married couple this century, then maybe you'd realize that I can do it for both of ya, remember that you can see through my eyes.' Darkling said, garnering both their attention.

"An heres the best part, I think you can switch between my vision an yours at will so you aren't immobile." He stated.

"Um..okay so just go scout ahead then" Jackie replied as the imp scurried away, he could have sworn he said 'yeah no shit' but paid it no mind.

Jackie, looking at the Darkling leaving his view (and noticing that creepy cat-skin hat of his was gone for some reason), he decided to take a minute and rest on a fallen crystal like a bench in the park.

"Hey, you know I just realized something" Jackie said quickly before digging into his holsters in his suit. He pulled out two intricately decorated Colt M1911's with a grin, he had received them over 2 years ago from a dying friend after the botched hit job. He checked the clips but to his dismay, they were empty and he had no extra bullets left nor any knowledge to make or acquire more.

"PERHAPS I CAN HELP" The Darkness said, "I WAS GAINING POWER IN THAT DARK PLACE"

"What do you mea-" Jackie said before realizing what it meant " Constant gun channeling?" Jackie asked inquisitively. "CONSTANT BUT ONLY A LITTLE MORE POWERFUL THAN A SIMPLE GUNSHOT".

Suddenly, the voice of Darkling rang in his head, "um..monkey, you're gonna want to see this" He said, sounding like he saw something incredible but also extremely silly at the same time.

Jackie then concentrated and assumed semi-control of the imp's body to see what he saw. And what he saw next made his jaw nearly dislocate. "PONIES and, what the hell are those?"

Drone Praefector* 135245 was in all fairness, a little bored from his duty. He and 30 others of his brood(who shared his sentiments) had been assigned with guarding the passageway from the throne room to the main entrance, which also connected to the hall to the dungeons. He and his kin had not seen much, only one fanatical guard that had charged their ranks... and had promptly been dismembered beyond recognition. However, his(and all changelings) ability to taste the air like a snake's tongue picked up something, something...dark.

He nodded to and gave a pheremonal command to drone Soldier 23543 to investigate it, thinking it was a unicorn using some sort of shadow magic, or maybe that it was a false alarm. That train of thought ended when drone 23543's decapitated head and battered body came sailing out from the door that led to the dungeon area. He and the rest of his brood immediately formed into a loose phalanx to guard against any attack that this pony would try to do next.

However, the creature that walked out from the door was definitely NOT a pony. It walked on two legs and stood at six and a half feet tall, towering over the changelings by a good 4 and a half feet. Its appendages ended in hands, like those of dragons, except ending in claws, its fingers just ended in pointed stubs. It had a messy black patch of hair on its head, speckled here and there by green blood.

Then something happened that made them all shrink back in utter horror. the light from the windows became nonexistent and the room filled with a kind of purplish mist. To their shock, two black, snake- headed demons emerged from its backside, as well as a few smaller tendrils. The two parties locked eyes with each other before the creature, smiling, grabbed one of the drones with its left snake and proceed to rip its whole spinal assembly, skull and all, through the unfortunate's rectum. Suddenly a black shield of some sort appeared and the creature through it at the changelings, exploding as it cleaved through 3/4s of their number. The survivors shakily turned back in horror to see the creature laugh a little before pulling to metal L-shaped objects from its suit and shred all but 135245 to pieces with loud explosions of purplish light, one destroying a gold flecked bust of some noble.

The last thing he saw/heard before he was grabbed, thrown into the air and cut in half was the creature smirking and saying "Now THAT'S how you do pest con--aw shit I got blood on my su--SQUELCH!"

2 minutes earlier...

"You'll never get away with this!", Cadance said with slight exasperation, standing securely fastened to the floor, a few inches away from a now clear-headed Shining Armor.

"FOOL!" Chrysalis shot back, "I already have" she said malignantly before looking at the throne room before her.

The six bearers of the elements of harmony were securely fastened to the ground by an insectoid secretion, they were all beaten and bloody, Rainbow Dash, for example, had a large gash on her side just under her wing from when they were pony-handled away and imprisoned after their attempt to reach the elements. She looked up and saw Both princesses cocooned on the ceiling (Luna had been found sound asleep, apparently she was semi-nocturnal), desperately trying to move or use magic to escape.

"Oh don't bother, those cocoons are magic proof and anyway--" Chrysalis started

A loud boom followed by a series of shorter booms cut her of from her proclamation. Then she could hear the distinct sound of heavy hoof-falls

getting steadily closer, almost menacingly slow, until they reached the door. A split-second later, a strange and grotesque-looking, impish creature dropped from the ceiling and tore the locking mechanism(as well as changeling excretions) off of the door and turned and spoke to the occupants of the room in a Trottingham-esque accent.

"All you buggy things are gonna die fuckin' horribly" it said and then opened the door.

There on the other side was the most terrifying looking biped Chrysalis had ever seen, and it didn't help that two demon snakes were coming out of its back. The light became virtually nonexistent and the glowing eyes of the creature(or creatures) focused on Chrysalis.

He then spoke one word with a dark and terrifying voice

"Hello"

*Changeling leader class

Chapter 3: Conversation in Darkness

After Shining and Cadance had combined their love energies and repulsed the changelings from Canterlot with a powerful spell, Twilight and the rest of the girls had immediately rushed to embrace each other while guards sealed their wounds with healing magic, their ordeal finally coming to a close. Tearing up, they all shared a group hug before backing off to talk with each other.

"Oh girls, this has been a nightmare, are you alright!" Twilight said in concern for her friends.

"I'm pretty good, but I still have a headache from when those jerks beat me up, and I've gotten cut up worse before" Rainbow said, rubbing her sore head with a hoof.

"A'm fine Twilight, I jus' have a few cuts and bruises, nothing that nopony's gotten before, an besides I got scraped up apple bucking more than a few times," Applejack said sincerely, smiling at Twilight.

"I'm on the same page as Applejack" Rarity said, "even a refined lady gets hurt a few times, but I know how to handle myself

"I'm okay too!" Pinkie added with a happy smile "those big meanies didn't hurt me too much either, its just good knowing that you're all okay"

"I'm Fine" Fluttershy added shyly.

The six of them then turned too see several royal guards rapidly cutting down both princesses from their cocoons. First Celestia, then Luna flew down to the floor and quickly got their bearings after being upside down for so long (basically all your blood rushes to your head). However, everypony in the room quickly looked toward their tall, dark savior standing several feet away from the group. The princesses then tentatively stepped forward and whispered to each other before Celestia asked "Who are you?" in an apprehensive tone.

"Jackie Estacado" He replied.

Then, a voice that made Nightmare Moon's seem like the laugh of a carefree filly emerged from seemingly nowhere and everywhere at the same time "MY VESSEL"

Jackie observed as the equines stepped backwards, the guards slightly raising their weapons However he could see that they (and everyone else) were trembling. The two royals then shakily stepped forward.

"Wh-what was t-that" the blue one said, her voice shaking as much as she was.

"You know all that crazy dark shit I used to kill these big bugs-" he started

"C-changelings" the white royal said

"Changelings, whatever, well I could use those powers because I am the current inheritor of-"

"THE DARKNESS!, THE INCARNATION OF ALL EVIL!!" The darkness screamed in in a dramatic proclamation of all its' twisted powers.

If the ponies were terrified before, now they were scared shitless.

"....Yeah, what he said" Jackie said, "But don't worry, THE DARKNESS, listens to ME now, remember" Jackie added forcefully, and slightly mockingly when he said 'THE DARKNESS'.

The Darkness then said "YOU WILL DO MY BIDDING!"

"Without ME to do your 'bidding', your just a snake in a cage, so fuck no!" Jackie said "And remember, you don't have her, or anything to hold over me like last time" Jackie said coldly with his voice wavering slightly

Then a dam that had been holding back years of frustration and anguish towards not only towards the Darkness, but of his entire life cracked and finally burst in a flood of emotions.

Jackie then angrily screamed "You have done the impossible!, you have managed to make my life even more of a living HELL than it already was!" Jackie ranted towards a tendril of the darkness that was now emerging and snarling towards Jackie.

"MY CHILDHOOD WAS SHIT, MY OWN FATHER CONTEMPLATED KILLING ME TO TRY AND STOP YOU! "MY YEARS BUSTING SKULLS FOR PAULIE, GOT REPAID BY MY OWN UNCLE TRYING TO BLOW ME THE FUCK UP!" Jackie raged as the ponies started to back away in fear.

"AND THEN YOU" He added, his voice dripping with venom "You came along and managed to take away the only person that gave my life meaning!" Jackie then stopped ranting and cooled down depressingly , "and when I fought to save her soul, my hands stained with the blood of hundreds, I only held her for a moment before the angelus possessing her dumped me in hell."

Jackie then slumped down a wall and said "And now I'll never see her again" he added.

He wanted to cry, he wanted to desperately, but he had no tears to shed. He put one hand on his forehead and just wanted to stay like that forever. "Now to top it off, I'm now in a world too innocent for the likes of me". He wanted to close his eyes and wake up, wake up from this nightmare he didn't want to believe was reality anymore. The Darkness went completely silent and receded as he buried it like Johnny Powell had taught him to do. However, he then noticed someone or something in front of him, and then looked down.

As Jackie ranted to the 'Darkness', Twilight was slowly standing up from her cowering to take a real look at the human. She looked into his eyes and saw something familiar, it was the look of utter loneliness. Before she had discovered the magic of friendship, Twilight had always felt a hole in her heart, a hole that she did not know what to fill with. After she had the girl's friendship, she felt the hole replaced by warmth. She saw a cold and black hole much larger than her own used to be, that looked as it had never been filled in, even slightly.

She then saw he had slumped down a wall and was whispering to himself in a tone of despair. Twilight then knew what she had to do. She, slowly at first, started over to where he was, everypony looking at her in shock.

"Wait, Twilight" Celestia said in a hushed tone "You don't know what he or that thing will do" She said, looking fearful for her student's well-being.

"Princess please trust me, I know what I'm doing" Twilight said assertively.

"Very well" Celestia said, "But I will be prepared if he does anything" She said, charging her magic.

Twilight then continued forward and stopped in front of Jackie, waiting for him to notice her. After a minute, he did and locked eyes with her

"You're not evil are you" Twilight said, Jackie continuing to stare, "You only had one real friend all you're life", she continued "Believe it or not, I used to be like you" She said, her friend's features softening, and becoming less fearful.

"Is that so" Jackie deadpanned, looking unsure

"Did you ever see the love of your life have her brains splattered across a window while you stood there helpless to do anything" Jackie said coldly "Or having the most evil thing in all of creation use you like a meat puppet to slaughter countless people?" "Oh, or have you ever been transported to a place that looked like a five year old drew it in a coloring book?" Jackie said, retaining his cold demeanor.

Twilight was speechless for a second before processing what he had just said. More suffering was contained within him than all of Equestria combined. However, she had several unpleasant brushes with evil before.

"No, but we were pursued by a malicious shadow demon through a deadly forest who constantly pushed us to our limits, nearly killing us several times" She said (Luna's ears drooping at this)."And me and my friends had our personalities completely reversed, and our minds fucked with by a mad chaos god, so don't you think your the only one who's gone through hard times, so just grow a pair an- !" Twilight covered her mouth with a hoof, everypony looking at her with their jaws hitting the floor.

"I'm sor-sorry, Its just th-", she stuttered out before Jackie raised his hand to stop her. He held it their and stayed motionless before,

"You know what, you're right" He said with a tone of acceptance

"I am!?" Twilight said

Jackie huffed and said "I've been sulking in my own self-pity for years, but never once have I considered that other people can go through shit like I did", he said "I've been dwelling on that same old shit that I should have gotten over years ago".

"Just like my father" he mumbled

"By the way, whats your name?" Jackie asked

"Twilight Sparkle, pleased to make your acquaintance" she said, extending a hoof

"Jackie Estacado, same thing here" he said, shaking it and and standing up.

The girls then started to walk towards Jackie before stopping.

"Go on girls, he won't bite" Twilight said, the girls gradually brightening, started to introduce themselves

"Pleased ta meetcha mister Estacado, mah names Applejack" she said, tipping her hat towards him, holding a wary tone

"I'm Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in all of Equestria!" Dash added in a boisterous tone while hovering a few feet of the ground

"Equestria?" Jackie said quietly, then shrugged his soldiers and put his hands in his pockets

"My name is Rarity, and I must say, that suit looks simply exquisite" Rarity said in her lady like tone.

"Um..thanks" Jackie said

"HI, I"M Pinkie Pie" Pinkie said, doing her thing (Celestia knows how) and appearing a few inches away from Jackie's face

Jackie jerked back a little before regaining his composure, he turned and looked at Twilight , and before he could ask, she said "Don't ask' with an exasperated sigh.

Jackie then turned towards Fluttershy, who was hiding behind her mane. She squeaked slightly, before getting up the courage to say, barely audible, "I'm Fluttershy".

Shining, Cadance, and the princesses both walked forward next. Shining smiling said,

"My name is Shining Armor, and this is my wife-to-be, Princess Cadance

"Hello, and thank you for saving not only our wedding, but all of Equestria" Cadance happily added

"Wait, you two were getting married today?" Jackie asked, slightly surprised

"Yes" Shining said "Queen Chrysalis, the one you fought, impersonated Cadance and tried to take over the capital, after feeding off my love for Cadance, brainwashing me, and taking out the magical barrier I had placed around the city"

"Feeding off of..love?" Jackie asked inquisitively

"Yes, Changelings feed off of positive feelings and emotions for power and nourishment" added Celestia

"I am Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria along with my sister, Princess Luna"

"Hello and thank you for saving us good sir", Luna

Princess Celestia then motioned for everyone to back away slightly. She walked slowly up to Jackie and whispered into his ear

"I may see you are a decent person at heart but I do not trust 'The Darkness" She said "You may have saved us, but so help me, if you harm one of my subjects, I will kill you." She said coldly.

"Well, It was nice to meet you too , and your welcome" added Jackie, smirking mockingly " So, what happens now?" Jackie asked

Luna then whispered something to Celestia before she turned to face Jackie.

"Well, since you don't have any place to stay I'm assuming, after we're done restarting the ceremonies, you can have a temporary room at the castle, its down the hall, first hallway, second door on the right." She added

"Thanks, that means a lot" Jackie added

"Hold on a second" Shining interjected, he turned and Cadance then nodded back to him "If I may mister Estacado, Me and my fiance would be delighted if you would be our guest of honor" He said

"Really?, are you sure" Jackie asked

"Listen, not only did you save all of Canterlot (Jackie holding back a chuckle at this), " you also saved my fiance and my little sister" Shining said, hugging Twilight and messing up her mane playfully. "I couldn't not invite you"

Jackie then relaxed and leaned against a wall for a much needed break. He then turned to the sound of the throne room door opening (revealing to the person coming in the now clean room) and a small purple lizard thing come running in with a cry of "Twilight!". Before Twilight ran to embrace him.

"Spike!, you're okay, I was so worried about you" Twilight said breaking from the hug

" Oh I was okay, I was actually hiding in a kitchen pantryyyyy" His voice trailing off as he caught sight of Jackie for the first time.

"Sup" Jackie said, waving slightly to him

"Uh Twilight", he said "Who's that" Spike staring at Jackie unblinkingly.

" Spike, I would like to introduce you to mister Jackie Estacado, he's the one who saved all of us from the changelings"

Jackie then walked up and knelled down to Spike, who then said

"You saved everypony?" with wide eyes

"Yep, murdered the hell outta those bugs" Jackie said confidently while chuckling

" Cool!, and thanks" Spike said while reaching up and shaking hands with Jackie "My names' Spike, Spike the dragon" he said

"Dragon?" Jackie asked questioningly

"Well..baby dragon" Spike said smiling

"Fair enough" Jackie said

Jackie then turned to look over at Twilight who was saying,

"Well everypony, looks like we have a wedding to re-plan" She said as her friends cheered and rushed off to do their assigned task, the princesses leaving too.

Jackie then noticed Shining and Cadance hugging, before Cadance left to prepare herself.

"Hey, Shining" Jackie said while Shining answered warily with "What?"

"Can I talk to you for a sec, I just want to tell you something" Jackie said as Shining walked over to him

"Do you love her?" Jackie said at the slowly vanishing form of Cadance

"More than anything else in the world" Shining replied assuredly, also looking at her.

"Some advice, treasure your time together and don't keep secrets, I learned that lesson the hard way when I lost Jenny" he said sadly

"Don't worry, I'll be the best husband she could ever have" Shining said "Thanks for everything, and see you at the ceremony, it'll probably be in an hour or two" He said, starting to walk away "oh and if you hurt anyone I love, I'll turn you inside out with my magic" he added with a cold smile

'Yeah thank you too' Jackie thought as he watched him go.

Jackie then decided to check out the room the princess had given him. He remembered the directions and followed them to an impressive-looking door. He then opened the door and saw that the room was, if not more, as fancy as his one at the penthouse. After cleaning up in the bathroom (which was a little small) Jackie then practically fell into bed. He set the nearby alarm clock to wake him up in a little bit under an hour, as to not miss his place as the 'guest of honor'.

'Heh, from ripping throats out, to attending a magical pony wedding, I've got a fucked up life' Jackie thought before getting comfortable.

Gradually, Jackie dozed off into unconsciousness and fell into a deep sleep. However, he didn't feel like he was asleep, as if he was floating in ink. Suddenly.Jackie found himself in the same kind of surreal nightmare mirror he had found himself in after being beaten up while nailed to that cross 'again, Victor, fuck you' Jackie thought.

Instead of the darkness manifesting as its two tendrils however, it looked like an amorphous mass of dark essence, constantly churning around in a chaotic fashion with two red eyes. Then the darkness talked in a surprisingly normal, but still dark voice,

"We need to talk, host"

Note: I know this is a story about the darkness, but I don't want to make it super-violent 100% of the time, there needs to be some development between the characters and some general plot besides murder. And besides, Jackie may be the bearer of the darkness, but he's still a human being.

Chapter 4: Ceremony and Strife in Darkness

"Well what the fuck do you want?" Jackie said in an annoyed tone, glaring at the Darkness.

"I am weakening" the Darkness said, a hint of concern in its voice "Slowly" he added.

"And why the hell should I care?" Jackie said venomously "In fact I don't".

"Because the Angelus has sent a Seraph to slay us" the darkness said through a gritted, angry voice.

"Wait!, you said in your little spiel that the Angelus didn't know what you had planned" Jackie said "And what the hell is a 'seraph' anyway?" he added.

"ONE, I assumed the Angelus did not plan for this" The Darkness said "and TWO, a seraph is to the Angelus, what darklings are to me" He said in an aggravated tone.

"And if I weaken, then we will BOTH die when it crosses the void!"

"How are you weakening anyway, you got real fuckin' excited right before we came here" Jackie asked questioningly.

"Again, I made an assumption".

"I may feed off of death and fear, but i also feed off of suffering, and this world currently has zero to none!" The Darkness said.

"I need to feed off of all kinds of evil, like humans need to eat many kinds of food" The Darkness explained "however, one or two good meals will sate my hunger if I have to, how you say, tighten my belt for a while".

"Well I guess I'll be on the lookout then" Jackie said, rolling his eyes.

"Beware the Seraphs too, for what they lack in subtlety, they make up for in raw power" the Darkness warned.

"If I could defeat an entire mafia, and hundreds of mad, heavily armed, dark essence-powered shock troops, then I'm sure I can handle myself against some angel thing" Jackie said.

"See that you do"the Darkness grumbled before receding back into the depths of Jackie's mind. The nightmare mirror realm then dispersed into blackness once more. Jackie then decided to continue his nap....until a harsh beeping noise awoke him. 'Here and there, alarm clocks still suck' he thought, as he turned the beeper off and got out of the bed. He then put his suit (which to his surprise was fully repaired and cleaned with a note that read 'thank you') back on before making his way back to the throne room, which he could hear bustling with activity. 'Showtime' he thought playfully.

Everypony was gathered in the now completely repaired and prepared throne room for the ceremony, waiting for it to begin after the confusion had finally passed. All of the invited guests, from the nobility to humble residents of Ponyville, lined the walkway from the main door to the throne, a red carpet in the middle. Shining Armor stood at the altar, waiting for his bride.

Princess Celestia stood right outside of the room with the great door closed, her sister having gone back to sleep. Due to her magical ability, she could pick up the conversations of the guests quite well, even if they were a little jumbled. Most were about the invasion that had been beaten back not more than an hour and a half ago. However, Celestia noticed that another large portion of the small-talk was directed towards Jackie.

"Taller than Celestia!"

"Dark Magic!"

"200 Changelings!" were some of the tidbits she could pick out from the sea of voices.

There was apparently a good knowledge among the populace that some 'strange creature' had slaughtered over 200 changelings with dark magic and saved the Princesses, as well as the Element Bearers and the couple to be wed. Celestia was nervous about how her subjects would react to Jackie, ponies had descended from prey animals and were usually a little bit timid towards anything new or threatening. 'Will they welcome him, or will they run and scream like fiasco with the animals?' She thought, patiently waiting for Jackie to arrive.

Suddenly, she could see the unmistakable silhouette of the human walking down the hallway after turning a corner from the guest suites. Even with her power, this being still unnerved her, besides the evident position of Darkness-bearer,he gave off a subtle yet terrifying aura of gloom and darkness. He walked closer to Celestia before stopping a few feet in front of her.

"Hello Celestia" He said, shaking her now outstretched hoof firmly.

"I trust you had a pleasant rest" she said nicely, smiling .

"Yeah, comfortable bed" he said "Hey, do you know who fixed up my suit?" Jackie asked.

"Oh yes, I do believe Rarity insisted she repair your attire as thanks for what you did" Celestia said.

"Really? well tell her thanks then, she did a pretty good job" Jackie said genuinely.

"Yes, she is a very well known fashion designer, a simple repair is foalsplay for her" Celestia said in confidence of Rarity's abilities.

"Okay, let us go inside" She said, gesturing with a wing "You can introduce yourself before we start the ceremony, but they will probably be frightened by you" She said before turning to open the door.

Celestia then used her magic to open the door, pushing it open all the way. The assembled ponies looked towards the door and saw Celestia first. Initially, many greeted her with smiles and casual hellos, but this ended the moment they saw Jackie walking behind her. The ponies went wide-eyed and deathly silent, gaping and staring at him. Jackie, and the rest of those who had met him before, all wearing nervous or sheepish expressions. As they finally reached the altar, they both turned around and faced the dead silent crowd.

"My little ponies, I assume you have heard rumors of a creature saving us from the changelings, this" She said, gesturing to Jackie "Is Jackie Estacado, and you may ask him some questions before we begin"Celestia finished.

Jackie tentatively started to step forward and cleared his throat before saying.

"Hello, and as your princess said, my name is Jackie Estacado" he said "any questions?" he then asked.

Almost immediately, dozens of hooves shot up into the air. The ponies spoke rapidly and incomprehensibly, clamoring for attention before Celestia quieted them down.

"Alright, you" Jackie said.

"What are you?" a pony asked curiously.

"As in species?, I'm a human" Jackie answered.

"Where are you from?" asked another.

"A place really far away from here" Jackie said

"Why did you save the princesses?" another asked, drawing Celestia's gaze towards Jackie.

"Because when I saw those bugs compared to them, and with how they acted, I knew I had to do something I mean, I couldn't just let them die" he said, Celestia smiling at this.

"Is it true you used some kind of horrible dark magic to kill those changelings?" an older unicorn in a mage-like getup asked.

"Yes indeed!" a noble exclaimed "They said that all of the corpses were dismembered in some way, not a single one intact!".

"Well yes and no, I have powers, but its not magic".

"What do you mean?" one said.

"I'd rather not-" he tried to say before he was interrupted.

"Yeah! what do you mean" said another noble.

"My little ponies I think that is enough questions for now, we have a wedding to attend to" Celestia said, quieting the crowd, "And Mr. Estacado has been invited to be the guest of honor" she added.

Many ponies were surprised by this, murmuring to each other. Suddenly, wedding music started to play and the ceremony began. Followed by three small flower fillies, Princess Cadance emerged from the doorway, bouquet in hoof, and making her way to the altar. Jackie then leaned over towards an anxious Shining before saying "Good luck pal" before backing away.

The ceremony itself was very short and heartfelt, with the couple exchanging vows. Soon came the 'I dos" before the rings were placed (on their horns?) and they shared a kiss. The crowd cheered wildly and filed out after the newlyweds towards the reception. Celestia nudged Jackie slightly before nodding her head towards the door and saying "You are the guest of honor, aren't you?". Jackie then quickly exited towards the door, catching sight of the happy bride and groom, but before he made it completely out, the Darkness interjected "THIS INNOCENCE IS SICKENING", to which Jackie replied

"Shut up you", and continued onward

The reception was a very heartwarming affair, ponies danced and ate in a jovial mood. Twilight had also begun a very good musical number, while Rainbow Dash did a sonic rainboom (To which Jackie's jaw nearly unhinged). Most ponies tended to avoid Jackie, murmuring to each other in curiosity or timidness. A few brave souls got up the courage to make small talk with him, a very nice guy named Fancy Pants and his wife, a peculiar mint green unicorn (who's eyes were creepily fixated on Jackie's hands) and her girlfriend, or marefriend as it was, who dragged her away a minute later. By this time, the sun was setting and the sky darkening.

However, Jackie's improving mood was dampened exponentially with the next arrival (while he was looking at his locket with Jenny's picture in it, reminiscing). A white unicorn that held himself so high, Jackie was sure his spine curved in an upward angle. Everything about him either read snob....... or douche bag in some way or another. He cantered up to Jackie and said,

"So you are the one who saved my aunts, if I'm not mistaken" he said "My name is Prince Blueblood" 'Blueblood' said in a highbrow tone.

"Yeah that was me" Jackie said in an even tone, masking his annoyance. He could feel even the Darkness becoming irritated with his attitude.

He appeared to ponder this before saying "So are you the one who destroyed my bust?" he said in a slightly forceful tone "It was found shattered into pieces, and it cost several thousand bits to make"

"Tough break buddy, but I was kinda in the middle of killing changelings at the time, so I couldn't be super careful where I was aiming" Jackie said, in a blatantly irritated tone. "Now piss off, your killing my mood"

"How dare you!" he said in shock "I am a prince of Equestria and I demand to be tr-" he tried to say before the locket Jackie had been holding slipped out from his hand and skidded towards Blueblood. Jackie started forward, but the prince got to it first.

He picked it up with his magic and looked at the picture before scoffing "Who's this? some cheap whore you have a fancy for" he said, chuckling.

However, the next time he looked up, he nearly wet himself. Staring face to face with him was an unbelievably angry Jackie Estacado, making it even more scary was the fact that it was a subtle, yet white-hot rage that burned like a slow flame. He slowly plucked the locket out of Blueblood's magic, who was starting to tremble. Jackie pocketed the locket before returning his gaze towards the prince, grabbing his throat.

"Listen here and listen good" he said in an extremely low and menacing tone "The only reason I do not flay you alive,break off your horn and shove it up your ass, tie you to a post, and set you on fire is that I find you below me" he said to the now whimpering Prince.

"Your are a worthless piece of shit that barely warrants this time right now" Jackie hissed "And so help me, if you ever, EVER, insult Jenny again" he said before coming even closer.

"I WILL REND YOUR BODY ASUNDER AND DEVOUR YOUR SOUL" he said with the voice of the Darkness (Who was more than happy to scare the little prick) "Now get the fuck out of here, I don't make idle threats".

Blueblood ran so fast, Jackie swore he left a cartoon-style dust outline. The other ponies didn't seem to notice this exchange besides Blueblood running away. Jackie gradually calmed down and his mood started to improve again.

"THAT WAS FUCKING FUNNY!" the Darkness giggled madly.

"Why are you acting like this?, you usually just used one liner threats back home." Jackie asked.

The Darkness pondered before saying "I FEEL DIFFERENT IN THIS WORLD, ALMOST LIKE A SMALL CHILD IN A CANDY STORE, THIS IS AN UNSPOILED WORLD TO FEAST UPON, TO REAP AND DESTROY!" he proclaimed "HOWEVER,THESE PONIES ARE LIKE WORTHLESS CATTLE TO ME, NOT WORTH THE EFFORT TO KILL" the Darkness said in annoyance.

"I have wanted to do that for ages" Said a chuckling voice behind Jackie.

He wheeled around to find Princess Luna smiling at him, continuing to chuckle at Blueblood's misfortune. Unlike Princess Celestia, Luna seemed younger and less formal than her sister. She stooped chuckling and turned to Jackie.

"I do not believe we have been properly acquainted yet, I am Luna, Princess of the Night" she said.

"Yeah, hello its nice to meet you, also why 'princess of the night'?" Jackie asked.

"Well I raise the moon and the stars, just as my sister raises the sun" She said matter-of-factly.

Jackie's eyes opened wide upon hearing this "Wait you and your sister control night and day!?" Jackie exclaimed, dumbfounded.

"Yes, ever since our birth over 2,000 years ago we have maintained the night/day cycle of the planet" Luna said.

"Wait, two thous-, you know what never mind" Jackie said "Oh and by the way, whats with those pictures on your butts?" he asked curiously.

"You mean our cutie marks?" Luna asked (Jackie mentally WTF'ing) "They are a representation of our special talents, when a young pony discovers his/her special talent, it magically appears" Luna explained.

"Got it" said a very exasperated Jackie.

"Uh, mister Estacado?" Luna asked "If I may, I would like to inquire about this 'Darkness' that made its' presence known earlier" She said.

"As would I" Celestia said, walking over towards the pair.

Jackie sighed before nodding his head "fair's fair I suppose" he said before clearing his throat.

"Okay, as you can guess, this is gonna be a VERY dark story." Jackie said. (Darkness 2 intro scene).

About 20 minutes (and near dislocation of equine jawbones) later, the princesses had learned the history behind the Darkness and himself. They both listened to his story (still unbelieving the amount of bloodshed) with wide eyes as he concluded.

"And thats basically how I got here" Jackie simply stated, leaving both monarchs stunned.

"That was the most horrifying story I have ever heard", Luna said, her statement mirroring both their feelings.

Before they could speak further, a small clamor arose. The newlyweds were saying their goodbyes and were climbing into a carriage, Jackie waving a bit himself. The party was winding down and the guests were leaving. He turned back to the now composed princesses, and the six from before.

"Well, again thank you Jackie" Celestia said " without you, our kingdom would have been destroyed and seen my little ponies enslaved" she thanked.

"Yes, thank you" Luna added, both princesses curtsying slightly.

Before Jackie could offer a rebuttal, a very panicked looking royal guard rushed forward. He whispered something into Celestia's ear rapidly before hurrying away. Celestia's eyes looked like they had about a second to go before they popped out of her skull.

"Jackie, girls, come here!" She said, extremely frightened.

'Whats wrong!?" Jackie said, concerned

"What!, what is it princess!?" Twilight asked in a panic.

"Sister, whats going on!?" Luna exclaimed

Celestia paced and looked very anxiously towards the horizon, then back to them, before saying,

"Ponyville is under attack"

Chapter 5: Rage in Darkness

Big Macintosh was, for all intents and purposes, scared out of his fucking mind. Before they had come, the local guard detachment was dealing with a small scouting party of changelings that had flown down from Canterlot during the invasion, attempting to take the town (unsuccessfully).

After they were either dead or repulsed with a wave of bright magic (which scared the crap out of him) the townsponies had shared a cheer and gone back to the routine of their lives, thinking the worst was over. However, this was an extremely short-lived moment of peace.

Just after the sun had gone down, a commotion had been noticed outside the town and some had gone to investigate, thinking it to be more changelings. But what they DIDN'T expect was a horde of diamond dogs (about a hundred or more strong) come rampaging into the town with reckless abandon.

The meager guard forces were quickly killed and the town left defenseless. Fires were burning and buildings had suffered damage in the sudden and brutal raid. A lot of the residents not hiding had taken up arms against the invaders, trying to protect their livelihoods, homes, and families, however most were severely outmatched.

Big Macintosh was in the thick of it with several others, the dogs were aiming to wound or stun instead of kill in order to take slaves for their mines. Big Mac was definitely not going down without taking a few of the mutts with him.

Years of farm work and an above average physique made him into a very capable brawler if the situation arose (like now). He bucked a dog's face into a hundred pieces, before turning and cracking a few ribs in one that was sneaking up behind him. His luck ran out when a burly dog clubbed him upside the head, stunning him and making his balance nonexistent.

The dog cracked a malicious grin and laughed at his new captive. He turned the still-dazed Mac over before saying "Pony not so tough now are you?, Pony will make good mule for-" he nearly finished before his head exploded in a shower of bone and gray matter, the body falling over. Big Mac just stared at the bleeding stump unmoving, his mind finally restarting and assessing his surroundings. He looked behind him and saw the most terrifying sight he had ever seen.

A large, bipedal creature was bringing swift death to the gaggle of dogs near the town hall. His body was covered in a dark chitinous armor that covered everything below mouth level. From it's back came two demon snakes that were ripping into dogs left and right.

In his hands (which he had learned about from Iron Will) were two L-shaped objects that were exploding with eerie light, blowing chunks out of dogs. Near it, a small imp was also tearing into fur and flesh, it appeared in a flash and taunted a dog who immediately came after it, then teleported onto its back and snapped its head upward and severed the dog's spine. The dogs fled soon afterward, although the town was still not clear (he soon noticed he was the only one left not captured).

The creature looked at the dogs fleeing and said with a scowl,

"Time to put these mutts down" and started off.

10 Minutes Earlier.....

The girls, Jackie, and several royal guardsponies were being flown in a large transport bus towards Ponyville. Celestia had quickly explained that a severely wounded pegasus guard from the Ponyville garrison had arrived and informed the guard of a diamond dog raid.

The princess quickly assembled an 80 count force of guards (the rest were either wounded or rooting out changelings that were underground at the time of the pulse.) and sent them along with the elements and Jackie to save the town, as she would be busy with restoring order.

"I-I just, our homes and our friends are, are being-!" Twilight stuttered in shock, turning to her friends.

The girls had very similar sentiments in the matter. Rainbow and AJ were both respectively looking angry, and scared (RD at the dogs and AJ for the safety of her family). The rest all looked hopelessly worried and/or sad, for example, Pinkie's mane had all but gone vertical to her head out of her despair. Twilight then noticed a kneeling Jackie come down to her level before giving her a reassuring smile.

"Hey kid, don't worry, I ain't gonna let anything happen to your friends", he said "By the way?, what are 'diamond dogs' anyway".

Twilight collected herself before answering "They are canines as you can guess, and they are bipedal and are about your chest in height, some bigger", She said "They are very greedy and hoard gems as much as possible, they even partake in raids such as this one for plunder and slaves to work in their horrible mines" Twilight finished.

Jackie looked slightly shocked, then pissed "Slavery" he said with a hiss.

"And thats not the worst part" Twilight said anxiously "They like to take young ponies so they can beat obedience into them so they won't try to escape" she said with abhorrence.

Jackie's eyes burned with righteous anger "So these bastards kidnap little kids, shove them into a hole, and work them to death!?" Jackie raged. He turned to a bumping noise to find they had landed next to the town, fighting and destruction clearly visible. In a street, he saw a large canine grab a screaming colt, before shoving him into a cage.

Jackie then became the angriest he had been since he had come here. In his mafia, kids were off-limits for drugs and any violence, they couldn't fight back, and pedophiles were regularly killed if word got out. He ignited the powers of the Darkness, terrifying the guards, and stormed off. He reached the aforementioned dog, grabbed him, and slammed him down, crushing his torso. Jackie then broke the lock on the cage and the scared colt ran towards the now assembling guard.

"You guys pick off any stragglers and help the ponies, then follow me" he said to the stunned guard "I'm gonna slaughter these animals" Jackie finished darkly.

AJ and the rest were following the trail of carnage that Jackie had blazed through to the town center. Broken corpses of dogs were scattered everywhere, most not in one piece. Several almost made the group, and even the guards, vomit from the sheer amount of carnage. Suddenly, behind an advancing Jackie, an unmistakable red farm pony was rising to his hooves.

"Mac!" Applejack exclaimed, and ran forward to embrace her big brother. "Are yall' right?" she asked quickly.

He looked around at the carnage and said his trademark "Eyyup" with an assuring smile, he then looked towards Jackie "What is that?" he asked.

"He's a friend don't worry, we'll explain later" AJ replied

The rest of the guards began to fan out around the square, putting wounded dogs out of their misery. A burly guard with a slightly more ornate helmet approached Big Mac and looked him over before saying, "What are we facing here?" in a curt tone.

To which he replied, "A whole bunch of dogs".

That is when they heard the screaming .

Jackie was storming towards the area where all of the dogs were retreating to. A rage burned within his heart after finding the body of a female guard from the local garrison raped and half-eaten inside of a destroyed restaurant (along with several now viciously slaughtered mutts). Every dog he met either died horribly or ran so fast they cracked the cobblestone under their feet.

"THIS NIGHT IS...EMPOWERING" the Darkness said

"What do you mean?" Jackie asked inquisitively.

"I FEEL ENERGY COURSING THROUGH ME FROM THIS DARK, LIKE STATIC ELECTRICITY, I FEEL LIKE I COULD SUMMON A MILLION DARKLINGS TO MY SIDE AND NOT BREAK A SWEAT!" He said confidently.

Their conversation was interrupted when they noticed they had left the confines of the town. Jackie sent Darkling ahead to scout the area, several signs of movement were visible. Drag marks and footprints dotted the ground in a chaotic fashion, all moving out of the town. He could hear close signs of movement and voices from dogs, as well as screams from helpless pony captives.

"Monkey, I found e'm" Darkling said "and there's' a whole lot of the mutts"

Jackie closed his eyes and projected himself into the imp's vision. What looked like a makeshift camp put together quite recently, was sprawled haphazardly across a large field. As Darkling had said, there were over three hundred dogs gathered around, doing whatever their jobs were. What caught Jackie's eyes were the slave pens set up near where he was, and a certain large dog beating a pony mercilessly.

Slave master Rawhide was, if anything, very angry at his current predicament. After those bug things had attacked, he and the other dogs thought the ponies would be to tied up and busy to notice a raid. They only expected a few stubborn ponies and a small number of guards However, what they didn't expect was a huge creature tear through 30 dogs like they were soggy paper, forcing them to withdraw.

He was currently guarding the slave pens, which to his delight held many captives. 'Maybe raid not such waste of time', Rawhide thought hopefully, making his rounds. His thoughts were interrupted by a gray pegasus pony and a smaller unicorn trying to escape after her bindings tying her wings had broken (he left a mental note to teach knot tying later) . He angrily stomped over and grabbed the now terrified ponies before throwing them on the ground. The other ponies looked on in fear, but dared not say a word.

He brought his trusty club to bear and started to work the disobedient slave over. She screamed and cried, and finally he thought she had had enough. However, she wasn't the only escapee and he turned towards the small filly. The one he was beating before screamed and cried (probably her mother) for him to stop, but he didn't care.Just as he was about to bring the club down, someone tapped him on the shoulder.

As he was turning, preparing to yell at the dog for interrupting him, he came face to face with something else. The creature (who had a sadistic grin) was slightly taller than himself, only by a few inches, but this wasn't what surprised Rawhide. What did surprise him were the dozens of small dark imps and two demon snakes snarling at him.

His thoughts were interrupted when his decapitated head rolled from his shoulders, still bearing a surprised expression.

All the dogs turned and went wide eyed at what had just happened, the ponies no exception. He busted the locks off of the pens (the ponies running for their lives) then spoke towards the dogs in a sick tone,

"Goodbye"

Open in new tab to start the soundtrack to the massacre

The dogs charged forward, some nearly trampling the others. The two parties stared off, the dogs with an air of apprehension, Jackie with blood lust. Then it began.

Jackie immediately brought his guns to bear, firing quickly into the mob now charging at him. Large holes were blown into flesh,and limbs from now-exploded stumps went flying overhead, still raining blood from now severed arteries. Again and again he fired, but the shots barely affected some of the larger dogs in armor that were providing cover for the smaller ones. Jackie then cast a stinging swarm at the mob to distract them while he moved in closer. The flies killed some dogs like a swarm of locusts, getting into every cavity and turning insides to mush and leaving them empty sacks of skin.

Then his miniature 'army of darkness' led by Darkling charged forward with him. Slasher darklings cut and clawed at the horde with reckless and hilarious methods of killing. Mini-gunners mowed down several individual squads trying to go forward, turning them into Swiss cheese. And finally, kamikaze darklings blew up random portions of the line, guts and gore flying everywhere. Jackie then joined the battle (slaughter) himself, working his trademark skills, aka murder and dismemberment. The two heads, eager for a fight, put up far more of a fight than last time, showing unimaginable brutality to their victims, the blood coating Jackie's form like red paint.

Suddenly, a hundred more dogs burst from the ground, all in heavy (yet crude) armor of some type. They were still of no aid to the rest, as a carefully placed black hole took out half their numbers in a dark flash of shattered remains. Jackie, however was getting quite bored and was annoyed that every so often, a few more dogs would pop up.... he needed to finish this shit.

"Hey, do you have anything that can take out these assholes quickly?" Jackie asked the Darkness. "YES, I CAN SEND YOU INTO SOMETHING I CREATED CALLED 'BERSERK MODE' I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO TRY" he said, "YOU WILL BECOME DEATH INCARNATE!" the Darkness exclaimed (while they are talking, they are still horribly murdering dogs by the dozen).

Jackie thought, (quickened by 200 more dogs arriving) agreed and holstered his weapons. At first, he didn't feel any different then he normally did. Then suddenly, he felt a burning sensation that quickly overtook him like a raging inferno. His body was completely covered with dark armor and highlighted with glowing red. All he saw was death, all he was is death, all he wants to do is bring,

"DEATH!", the voice that Jackie uttered sounded like a thousand angry war gods crying for blood and murder, and he delivered to the best of his abilities.

He charged forward and slammed into the dogs, killing some from the sheer force of impact. He ripped and tore with clawed talons, all the while screaming like a crazed lunatic. The very ground turned bright red upon the slaughter. Untold pain and destruction filled the air (not to mention screams), and the powers of the Darkness were unleashed in full. Finally, every single dog was nothing more than pasty giblets strewn around a lake of blood and bone. The rage slowly subsided and the darklings and the Darkness dissipated into the ether.

" NOW THAT WAS A GOOD MEAL" The Darkness chuckled

Interim: Hunted in Light

A small clearing deep within the mountains of the Griffon kingdom, far to the north of Equestria at rest during the night. Crickets chirp and nocturnal animals prowl about. A sense of stillness and calm fills the cool night air. This is not to last however, as an unnatural light starts to crackle into existence.

An orb of blinding white light appears in a flash and begins to glow brighter and spark louder. Animals run in fear and the grass ignites from the sheer heat. Finally, a winged figure emerges from the rip in space and the light fades to the black once more.

The seraph looks toward the horizon and feels the unmistakable presence of the Darkness, and scowls.

"I am coming for you"

Chapter 6: Preparations in Darkness

Dawn was breaking over the town of Ponyville, although the usual warmth and light were replaced with fear and sadness. Although there was only minor damage to structures, easily repairable within a week or two, the psychological toll was even worse. Ponies were huddled together, crying and surveying the damage to their homes, some looked like they were just hollow shells mindlessly shuffling about. The girls stood in the town square alongside the guard regiment sent to aid the besieged town. Several dozen coffins were nearby, the slaughtered Ponyville contingent, luckily the dogs fought to capture and not kill, otherwise it would have been a bloodbath.

The returning residents from the wedding were consoling their loved ones, with supportive smiles and calming words. The girls were disheveled, but for the most part okay. Royal repair crews had been dispatched and were due to arrive any second now. Pinkie was already planning a 'We're all okay!'. However, one major detail was overlooked.

"Where is Jackie?" Twilight said. The aforementioned savior of the town was still not back yet. The girls all shrugged, they had not seen hide nor hair of him since the *shudder* screaming had stopped.

"Y-you mean that large thing that k-killed those dogs?" Mayor Mare nervously asked from behind Twilight.

"Yes, he's a friend of ours" Twilight replied, "He also saved us from the change-"

Before she could finish, a scream rang out across the town. The girls rapidly turned their heads toward the source of the disturbance. Walking into town was the large form of one Jackie Estacado. Ponies were running inside and screaming, Lily was doing her usual horror spiel and in a few seconds, everypony besides the girls and the mayor was bolted inside their homes. Jackie stood there dumbstruck, before continuing on towards the small group.

"Well thats a nice hello"

Jackie walked over to the girls before stopping "Well, uh, hi" Jackie said.

The girls were extremely nervous, even more so after being forced to hear the death cries of hundreds of slaughtered dogs.

"H-hello J-jackie" Twilight said.

Jackie looked around the town before saying "I don't blame them for running" he said "Who are you by the way?" Jackie then asked to Mayor Mare.

"Uh, w-well my name is Mayor Mare, but you can call me Mayor for short" Mayor said nervously.

"Look, I'm not gonna hurt you, and I have no plans to do so later".

'THAT MAKES ONE OF US'.

'Shut up' Jackie thought back, "Believe me, if I actually wanted to kill any of you, you would all be dead in minutes, and wow that came out wrong" Jackie finished sheepishly.

Mayor Mare was shaking slightly but recollected herself, "Well thanks for being honest" she said, nervously laughing", "I will arrange a town meeting to calm down the populace, oh and Jackie", she said, "Thank you for saving the town" she said smiling.

"I'm sure the honor was all his, right mister Estacado?" a heavenly voice called out. They all turned to see Celestia flanked by several guards. The girls bowed, but were not paid any attention, Celestia walked right up to Jackie.

"Jackie, you and I need to get back to Canterlot, we need to discuss some important business" Celestia said almost to cheerfully

Jackie could tell when someone was covering up worry with fake cheer so he agreed. He said bye to the girls and walked with Celestia towards a waiting carriage. Once inside, the sun princess dropped her act and looked towards Jackie.

"I need your help" she said despondently "The changelings are back, and they are angry"

"They are regrouping and are mobilizing a large force to invade Equestria on a larger scale".

"So what do you need me to do?" Jackie asked

"I have seen what you can do, the powers of this Darkness are like nothing I have ever seen before" Celestia replied "Jackie, if you would accept, I would like to contract your services"

"What, like a merc or something?" Jackie said

"Yes, I will provide you with a home , money, and other things in return, I do owe you that much after all." Celestia then looked hopefully towards Jackie.

Jackie thought for a moment, killing things and getting money for it was a pretty good deal in of itself "I'll do it" Jackie replied certainly. Celestia then got a relieved look on her face. "Thank you, we should arrive soon"

True to her word, they arrived at the landing pad that they had used last night. Celestia then led Jackie towards what looked like a few military barracks. Several hundred guards were in a yard, training furiously for some military operation. They all stood at attention when the princess walked into the yard, and it did not waver when Jackie came into view. The guard were lined up when the princess started speaking.

"Ponies of the Royal Guard, as you know, we face the threat of the changelings once more" Celestia said, "They have come in far greater numbers, but we have an advantage", Celestia then turned towards Jackie, "Jackie Estacado, as most of you know, saved us from the changelings once before, and has agreed to do so again" Celestia then finished with their deployment orders, they were to go under the command of Steel Rain, an experienced lieutenant, towards the southern badlands to face the swarm. They all saluted and marched into several transports.

Hours later...

Jackie sat next to the lieutenant, a brown pony with a blue mane and an arrow for a cutie mark, he finally spoke up. "So your this overpowered demon the guards have been yammering on about, eh?" Steel asked apprehensively.

"Demon,sorta no, overpowered, well maybe" Jackie said jokingly "I'm not complaining".

"Neither am I, you really slaughtered those bugs back there" Steel said "Really saved our flanks too".

"Yeah, but now I get to go full out, I've been able to just go fucking crazy lately, and its something I wanna test out".

Their conversation was interrupted by a holler from one of their guards. Outside the window was a landscape of black. The changelings had them outnumbered at least three to one by Jackie's best estimate. However, his attention was focused on a certain point within the swarm. A glowing horn and the unmistakable figure of queen Chrysalis. Jackie then sprouted a sick grin.

"I am a man of my word bug"

Chapter 7: Clash in Darkness

If one were to look upon the badlands valley, they would see nothing but piles of dark rocks and a large green lake. However, that lake was not just some algae-infested water, it was green blood, and those 'rocks' were changeling corpses. Jackie Estacado stood on top of a small hill of a sort, made of insectoid flesh and bone. He then turned his attention towards the trembling form at his feet.

25 minutes earlier....

The two armies faced off across the rocky plain. On one side was the hopelessly outnumbered royal guard. And on the other was the swarm of the changelings. Jackie's previous estimates were blown out of the water as the swarm's numbers doubled, then tripled. It looked less like an army and more like a cloud of angry, buzzing tar. Jackie then walked out of the formation of guards and towards the swarm. He walked until he was halfway between the two forces.

"Chrysalis, show yourself" he said, looking towards the swarm.

The cloud of chitin parted to reveal the unmistakable form of queen Chrysalis. She smirked arrogantly before speaking.

"Well well well, what do we have here?" Chrysalis said smugly, "Looks like Celestia is starting to slip in her old age, only two hundred guards, even plus you they can't win!" She mocked as she started laughing.

"If I seem to remember correctly, I was the one who tore through your guards like they were soggy fucking paper you overgrown dung beetle" Jackie retorted

Chrysalis stopped laughing and glared angrily at the human "True, but can you take on my entire hive?" Chrysalis said as the aforementioned swarm started to buzz angrily.

"HE CAN"T, BUT I CAN!" The Darkness raged towards Chrysalis, who jumped back in fright.

Then something happened that no one in Equestria could conjure up with their worst nightmares. The sickly black chitin covering Jackie was now writhing and convulsing. The darkness tendrils now appeared more demonic and terrifying. A torrent of dark essence then whirled around Jackie, covering him and growing larger. It soon rose fifteen feet into the air where it slowly started to form into a giant bipedal shape. What appeared next was nothing short of an abomination. It looked like a giant version of Jackie, except its face. In place of a normal face was a demonic visage of carnage. Dozens of razor sharp teeth lined its maw, and its eyes glowed an unholy red. It then charged forward into the swarm with an earth shaking roar.

At his now normal feet, Chrysalis was curled into a fetal position and shaking with terror. Her eyes were darting all over the place and she was mumbling a string of incoherent words. Jackie had driven more than a few unlucky people insane over the years, The Darkness being The Darkness, it tended to do that. *BLAM* a single gunshot rang out as Jackie put the mentally destroyed insect out of her misery. It had begun to rain, droplets bathing the already blood gorged earth.

"THIS IS WHAT I HUNGER FOR!" The Darkness said in triumph.

"Yeah, it was kinda great to finally kill this bitch" Jackie said as he looked toward the guard contingent.

Which was nowhere in sight, with the transports gone. Jackie sighed, he had ordered the guard to retreat, he knew that if he went all out, he could kill them as well in his blind fury. He knew the way back, but it was about fifty miles to the nearest village. He then hopped off of the pile of corpses and started back towards the lands of Equestria. But before he could take more than a few steps, he heard a slow and mocking clapping from behind. He whirled around with guns drawn to see an odd, hooded being.

He was bipedal and seven feet tall, with a normal looking face and had a golden spear, and large angelic wings. That last quality gave a sudden realization to Jackie as he got into a fighting stance.

"So I guess your that Seraph thing?" Jackie asked as he sized him up "Took you long enough"

The robed figure chuckled before jumping down from the rock he was perched on. "Ah, Jackie Estacado, bearer of the Darkness and the eternal thorn in my master's side".

Jackie sighed "You're here to try to kill me right?"

"No" he said certainly "I, Melphius of the light, shall destroy you, abomination" the seraph growled as his spear lighted up. He readied himself and flared his wings. The Darkness then armored Jackie up and readied his powers. They stared off for several seconds before the seraph made the first move. He charged forward with a yell, dodging and weaving around Jackie's gunfire. The slash arm then went for his legs, trying to knock him off balance, but he simply flew into the air and dive bombed Jackie. He collided with Jackie and they both started to struggle. Part of the spear caught in the grab arm touched Jackie on the chest and singed off the dark chitin there.

Jackie gathered his strength and knocked him backwards, however, he quickly recovered. Suddenly, Jackie's arm began to become encircled with dark essence and a black bladed sword with dark purple runes formed in front of him and hovered there. "Cool" Jackie said as he inspected the blade, putting his gun away and equipping the sword to his right hand.

"Nocturne" Melphius bristled as he stepped backwards into a stance.

"YESSSS, YOU FEAR THIS ANGRY BLADE, DO YOU NOT?" The Darkness hissed "MANY OF YOUR PATHETIC KIN HAVE BEEN LAID LOW WITH THIS OVER THE EONS"

"Why the fuck didn't you tell me you had this before?" Jackie said as he practiced a few swings with the dark weapon.

"HUMANS DO NOT REALLY MERIT THE USE OF ELDRITCH RUNEBLADES" The Darkness retorted irritatedly.

Jackie swore he could feel the blade vibrate with bloodlust, eager to destroy the creature of light in front of him. Jackie had never used a sword in his life, but he suddenly felt the experience of ages past, as if all of the bearer's past swordsmanship was now his. He smirked and did something he always wanted to do, he raised his left hand and motioned for the seraph to 'bring it on'.

The angelic creature roared and then shot forward in a blast of light, nearly blinding Jackie. The seraph then brought its spear down, intending to cleave Jackie in twain. But with lightning-fast reflexes, the blade now known as Nocturne shot up and clashed with the spear blade. The two weapons of opposite forces were sparking with energy, trying to push away from each other like positive and negative magnets. Jackie then forced the spear up, knocking the seraph off balance and slashed at him. Even though Melphius recovered, several cuts were made to his chest. Clutching his wounds, the seraph then pointed his spear at Jackie, firing bolts of pure light at him. Jackie dodged most, the few that hit however, nearly pierced his armor.

Jackie responded by charging forward, firing his gun. The shots were deflected with the precision of the seraph's spear, but left him vulnerable. Jackie then stabbed him through the shoulder before being shoved back. Melphius hissed in pain, the burning dark essence cauterizing his flesh. Jackie could see he was growing nervous, being up against the literal manifestation of all evil should be terrifying for any being. They both charged forward with shots of dark and light essence being exchanged by both sides.

Their weapons clashed at breakneck pace, both sides trying to get the upper hand. However, it was a losing battle for Melphius, not even he was a match for the Darkness itself. 'No!, this bearer was just some criminal scum, how can I lose!?' the seraph thought as he was further wounded. All of the damage from Melphius's spear was being healed faster than he could inflict it. Then Jackie stumbled the seraph and knee slammed him in the face, before slicing through his wings.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed in torment as his wings fell lifelessly to the ground. Jackie backed up as he fell to his knees, blood gushing from the stumps.

"Y-you, I have trained for centuries, how could you-AAAGH!" Melphius said as Jackie rammed his sword through his chest, knocking him down onto his back.

"YOU HAVE TRAINED FOR CENTURIES, I SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME" The Darkness hissed

"Lets skip the bullshit 'how could you have beaten me!?' monologue, okay" Jackie said mockingly "Wow, that was pathetic, Victor put up more of a fight than you"

The seraph glared maliciously at Jackie "I still have one more trick up my sleeves". Suddenly, while still impaled, he rose up and grabbed Jackie in a bear-strength hold, completely ignoring the pain. "I may die now, but I will TAKE YOU WITH ME!" he screamed as he began to glow.

"He did what!?" Celestia exclaimed at the captain.

"Yes, he told us to leave quite certainly, he said we would be caught in the crossfire".

Celestia was worried, but unsure what to make of this. She had seen his powers unleashed at the wedding, and she knew in her head that that was not the full extent of his powers, even so, facing the entire swarm by himself, it seemed like he had gone mad. However, her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden surge of magical feeling. Being so old, she was able to sense disturbances in the magical fields of the planet, and currently, it was screaming in pain. A bubble of light magic that seemed hotter than the sun began to grow on the astral plane. It grew to a concerning level, before suddenly collapsing in on itself.

Celestia looked quizzically towards the horizon, wondering what could have made such an impact. The earth-shaking explosion that came two seconds later was a probable cause. A massive dome of pure light rose up into the sky, before detonating and exploding, forming a mushroom cloud a few seconds later. It hurt to look at, even for the ruler of the sun herself. Then Celestia realized something terrible that made her eyes go wide with shock. The direction it came from, was the Badlands.

"JACKIE, COME TO THE DARK"

Interim: Planning In Light

The Angelus sighed as she watched her servant activate his self-destruct spell. While destroying his physical body, it would only be a slight hindrance to the Darkness. "I knew that boastful fool would fail" the Angelus sighed. She then weighed her options, before an idea popped into her head.

"Why not fight darkness, with darkness?"

Deep in a dark abyss, the souls of countless sinners burned for all eternity. However, there was one soul in particular that stood out from the rest. Standing on a burning platform of brimstone, was a man, however, this was no ordinary man.

"The Crippled Man"

Chapter 8: Return in Darkness

"Jackie, why didn't you save me?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't know, I wasn't fast enough!"

"It hurts me, Jackie"

"I'm sorry, please forgive me!"

Suddenly, Jenny dissipated into the blackness. Jackie started to run after her, but fell into a deep pit.

"NO!"

JACKIE

The first thing he felt was a sheer, bone chillingly cold wind. He was lying down on what he could tell was a hard rock floor. "And that was the....fourth time I died?" Jackie wondered to himself as he got to his feet, feeling slightly ill. Jackie then made his way over to the entrance and peered outside to get his bearings. He was in some sort of frozen tundra that seemed to stretch on for miles and miles in all directions. All he could see was snow laden gales and a heavily overcast sky. The only thing of note was a light in the distance that seemed to be flickering brightly every minute or two. Seeing as that was his only hope of finding civilization, Jackie began to trudge through the thick snow, a difficult task for someone currently wearing Italian loafers.

He slowly plodded and plodded through the snowy desert, clutching his body to keep warm. Snowdrifts the size of small houses rose up around him, making his progress even more difficult. If it were not for the inhuman resistance to damage his birthright granted him, he would have already gotten frostbite. On and on he walked, soon the light became clearer, and his eyes opened wide.

A massive crystal city rose up out of the wasteland, seemingly as if some trickster god had picked it up and dropped it there for a hilarious prank on its' inhabitants. Everything was pure crystal, a central tower glowing like a second sun. A massive dome of energies surrounded it, and it looked like spring inside. It would be a vision of paradise if it wasn't for one distinguishing feature.

A black cloud surrounded the city like a besieging army, constantly billowing and swirling around. Jackie could now see that several crystal buildings inside the city were black and gnarled like they had been corrupted somehow. Suddenly, a dark shape rose up out of the miasma, cackling menacingly. It was about fifty feet tall, with a spiked red horn and ominously glowing eyes. A vaguely famili-

"HE DARES USE MY POWER!?"

"AHHHH!, what the fuck!?" Jackie yelled as he clamped his hands over his ears, "What the hell is your problem!?" He said as he berated the Darkness.

"THIS INSOLENT CUR IS USING MY ESSENCE, MY ESSENCE!"

Jackie recomposed himself and retorted "Slow the hell down and freaking explain!"

The Darkness growled, "WHEN YOUR FORM WAS SHATTERED, SOME OF THE DARK ESSENCE WITHIN COULD NOT BE RETRIEVED, AND LIKE PANDORA'S BOX, A LARGE AMOUNT OF IT PULSED OUTWARDS, SOME OF IT WAS APPARENTLY DRAWN TO THIS STRIPLING"

Before Jackie could reply, the unknown shadow rammed into the shield once again. This time however, it fizzled out of existence, exposing the city, the sky turning an ominous hue of orange. It growled as it entered into the earth, black and jagged crystals forming in its dark wake. Jackie could now see that there were ponies inside, and amid the screaming mass, his eyes widened as he recognized a certain few.

Shining Armor could see Spike running down the black crystal, clutching the glowing heart in his claws. Sombra was getting closer and closer, moving through the earth, and then leaping into the air. He looked to Cadence and they locked eyes, both giving a small nod. Shining then picked her up and turned towards the rapidly approaching dark king. Cadence spread her large pink and purple wings wings, and he threw her with all of his might. She soared quickly through the air, intent on getting the heart.

However, any of their hopes were instantly crushed by Sombra. He lashed out with a tendril of darkness from his horn, wresting away the heart from a terrified Spike. Sombra then quickly descended in front of the tower, quickly getting out of range of Cadence.

"HAHAHAH! the heart is mine once more" Sombra cackled as the ponies stared at him with shock and fear. The dark king threw the crystal heart on a nearby patch of grass, creating a cage of black crystal.

"No" Cadence whimpered as she descended in front the crowd.

"My black reign of fear will begin anew, crystal princess!" He said as his eyes began to luminescence "With my new found power, I shall enslave the whole WORLD! HHAAHAHA" He laughed as a dark cloud began to overtake everything. But just at the cusp of victory, a single voice rang out.

"Big talk coming from a fuckfaced egomaniac like you!"

"Who dares!?" Sombra said as he turned around. In the black mist, a tall and bipedal figure could be made out. Shining couldn't believe who it was as the being stepped into view.

The familiar being then spoke again "I do"

It all went dead silent, not a single movement from any living being. Jackie walked forwards before stopping, spurring all the ponies except the elements and the black one to back away in fear. The shadow pony was staring slack jawed at Jackie, but quickly gathered himself.

"What are you"? He hissed as he got into a ready stance, pawing at the ground.

Before Jackie could answer, a tendril burst from his back, growling in anger. "YOU DARE USE MY POWERS!?"

He backpedaled slightly, but reaffirmed his footing "W-what do you mean, what in tartarus a-are you?". His voice faltered slightly, "Do you mean the dark magic that awakened me?"

"THE POWER YOU NOW WIELD IS NOT YOUR OWN YOU WHELP, RETURN IT TO ME AND I WILL THINK ABOUT LETTING YOU LIVE"

Apparently, that struck a nerve with the pony, and he growled in anger as his eyes lit up. "I am King Sombra, ruler of this realm and lord of shadow, DIE you insolent abomination!". Sombra then gathered black energy on his horn and fired, the beam searing through the air towards Jackie. But just before it hit him, the beam slowed and was sucked into the tendril's mouth.

"KILL!" The Darkness screamed, Sombra looking on in shock.

There was too much light for the armor, but Jackie could survive without it. The other tendril appeared, both growling and snapping while Jackie reached into his suit, intent on pulling out his guns. Jackie paled when all could feel was empty space where they should be. Suddenly, Jackie was thrown back several feet, a large gash being torn in his chest. With his wound already healing, he got up to see a jagged crystal, blood dripping from the tip. Sombra was laughing, "Couldn't absorb that one could yo-?".

This time, it was Sombra's turn to be blown back, tumbling head over hoof into a wall and dissipating into shadow, the grab tendril retracting back towards its owner. Sombra re-solidified himself and growled, sending a rain of dark crystal pellets from his horn towards Jackie. He dodged and scurried around them, slashing and throwing random debris at Sombra again and again.

The corrupted unicorn just reformed his essence each time he was hit, taunting Jackie. Crystal shards still flew towards Jackie constantly, giving him dozens of cuts all across his body with some embedding themselves. "Fuck, you're more annoying than Bragg!" He yelled as he dived behind a wall for cover.

"GET CLOSE TO HIM, I WILL TAKE IT BACK" The Darkness said.

Jackie peeked around the corner before jerking away from a hail of crystals. "You better know what the hell you're doing!" He yelled as he took off towards Sombra

Jackie then bobbed and weaved to try to throw off his aim. More and more cuts soon adorned his body, but he was still getting closer. He tried to tackle Sombra, but ended up falling right through his body.

"What was that supposed to do?" Sombra jeered as he hovered over Jackie.

"THIS"

Sombra noticed that several small streams of his shadow were flowing into the mouths of both tendrils. The small few then became a torrent, the dark monarch crying out in pain as his power was sucked away. He tried to run, pawing frantically at the ground as he was consumed, both tendrils now clamped on to him. Sombra screamed for a final time before his soul was consumed by the Darkness, leaving nothing behind. Jackie then began to feel extremely ill, he started coughing violently, tremors going through his body as he felt hot and cold at the same time. The last thing he saw before passing out was a blur of pastel rushing towards him.

In a dark cave in the scorched south, a black portal opened, and out stepped a man. He was soon joined by his brothers.

Jackie gradually came to, thankfully feeling a soft mattress below him instead of hard rock. He was in a hospital bed from what he could tell, that also seemed a bit short for him, his legs past his knees dangled over the edge. The girls, the two newlyweds, and the diarchs were all present, all of them were staring at him with shock and disbelief, except for one. Princess Celestia stared at him with a neutral expression showing barely any emotions. The two parties stared at one another for what felt like hours.

"I found your ashes" She said plainly, breaking the silence.

Jackie sighed, and after a long pause "Its not the first time I died".

The ponies gasped, the two rulers especially.

"Let me tell you the whole story" Jackie started "The night of my 21st birthday, that's the first time I died"

The man and his brothers exited the cave and felt its presence. They reveled in it, and rejoiced in whats was soon to come.

The ponies stood open mouthed and in tears, simply trying to take in everything Jackie had said. "Oh and by the way, where am I"

"Y-you are in Canterlot, Sombra injected enough poison crystals into your blood to kill a manticore, so we took you here to....." Celestia trailed off. Jackie got up and stretched his muscles a bit, breathing deeply.

"I'm gonna go for a walk" Jackie said almost cheerfully, jerking his thumb towards the door. He walked out, leaving the still stunned ponies behind, and closed it behind him, his footsteps gradually fading.

"Sister" Luna asked, turning towards Celestia "Do we have an immortal demi-god harboring the sum of all his world's evil roaming around Canterlot"?

Celestia looked towards her sister, but before she answered, a look of a horrific epiphany came across her face "The Darkness is pure chaos, the statue garden!" She said as the rest of them gasped in realization.

"Discord!"

With nothing trying to rip him limb from limb for the past five minutes, Jackie just decided to take a fucking break. He walked out a door and came upon a large and well trimmed garden. A large hedge maze sat in one area, while a statue garden was nearby. One statue near the back in particular seemed to catch his eye, and he decided to take a closer look. It appeared to be some kind of taxidermist's joke, it looked like a dozen animals jumbled together in a random way, and it looked like it was screaming in horror. Something felt...off about it, like it wasn't really a statue, he also felt a familiar pull like those darkness relics had given him. Jackie reached out and touched it, just as a panicked voice rang through the air.

"Jackie, wait!"

"What?" Jackie turned around and asked in confusion.

The statue exploded, sending shards of stone everywhere. Jackie then turned back around and came face to face with one of the weirdest things he had ever seen.

"Hello". It said cheerfully as a small pink cloud suddenly poofed into existence and deposited what appeared to be-

"Chocolate Milk?"

Prologue: Stranded in Darkness

He had long run out of air, but he still screamed. even after his throat had bled, he still swore and cursed his fate with unbridled rage, poor Jackie Estacado, cast adrift in the sea of fate with no way to control his destiny, stranded in hell or someplace a lot like it.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Jackie screamed."It wasn't supposed to end like this, not like this god damn it!" He screamed in agony.

"YOUR FAULT, DID NOT PROTECT THE DARKNESS!" The Darkness screamed back in its ethereal rage.

"The fuck it is,that bitch sold us BOTH up the river, you were tricked just like me you sonofabitch!" Jackie screamed in retaliation. The darkness went silent at this, but Jackie could definitely hear it rambling angrily in frustration at its seemingly permanent captivity.

It had been a mere hour since He was marooned by the angelus and left to rot forever, to imprison not only him, but the darkness forever within the planes of hell. 'At least, at least Jenny's happy' He thought to himself 'She's finally free, finally free of this thing'. Jackie then remembered everything from the day of his twenty-first birthday to right now. Nearly being killed by his uncle Frankie's hit squads, slaughtering them inside of a cemetery, unraveling his operation, Jenny....dying in front of him,putting a bullet in his head, REVENGE, putting a bullet in Frankie's fat head, those brotherhood fucks, and finally being trapped here by the angelus for all of eternity.' Why, all I ever do is hurt the ones I love' Jackie thought to himself gloomily.

"Nothing EVER goes right for me, first Jenny, then Aunt Sarah, and now in the end, I don't have SHIT to show for it, I don't even know if Jenny is even in control of her own body or even happy!".

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!" The Darkness laughed, obviously excited about something.

Suddenly, Jackie felt like he had a small headache, but soon it was replaced by the voice of the Darkness "THE ANGELUS IS BLIND!, NEVER PLANS BEYOND OBVIOUS RESULTS, WE HAD PREPARED IF OUR VESSEL WAS IMPRISONED!" The Darkness proclaimed in triumph.

"The fuck you talkin' about?" Jackie questioned angrily.

"SEALED OFF FROM THAT WORLD, MOVE INTO ANOTHER!" The Darkness proclaimed back slightly irritated. "So basically, since we can never go back to that world we, just" Jackie paused, feeling very dismissive of Its' claims,

"Hop into a new world?".

"NOT EXACTLY, CURRENTS OF THE VOID AND A SPARK OF POWER FOR ME TO FEAST ON MUST BE ALIGNED TO BREAK US FREE" It said.

"Well how long will that take to fuckin' happen" Jackie replied back, angrily.

"UNKNOWN, MAYBE A WEEK, MONTH, CENTURY, OR PERHAPS NEVER, LIKE AN ECLIPSE, RIGHT CONDITIONS MUST COME TOGETHER!" The Darkness hissed back.

"So thats it, one chance to get out of this shithole and it may never happen."

Suddenly, as if God, or perhaps Satan in this instance, had granted their wish, a buzzing/tearing sound occurred behind them, accompanying a flash of light. Jackie whipped around, fully expecting to have to fight off another one of the horrors that were lurking in here, while they were as strong as Styrofoam, they were still annoying as fuck, as Jackie said several times. But instead of some shambling horror, there was what looked like a brightly glowing tear in thin air, hovering about fifteen feet in front of them, pulsing with a rainbow of colors. "YES, THE DARKNESS CAN, ESCAPE?" The Darkness said somewhat confused-sounding at the end.

"What's the problem now" Jackie stated, somewhat exasperated.

Shortly thereafter, The Darkness unleashed the most bloodcurdling, heart- stopping laugh Jackie had ever heard it utter, the hardened mob boss was seriously considering checking his pants later. "SUCH PURITY,SUCH UNSPOILED INNOCENCE!" The Darkness cackled gleefully. "Uh...okay then" Jackie replied nervously, "that is GOOD right?". " YES,GO HOST, FEED ME THEIR EQUINE HEARTS". "No, I'm done killing for you you bastard!" Jackie replied incensed, "you have absolutely jack SHIT to hold over me, so here's whats gonna happen, we go to this new world and we do what I want when we get there.

The Darkness seemed like it was about to unleash a tirade of apocalyptic proportions unto him, until it realized Jackie was right, the darkness had to rely on a host in order to carry out its bidding, and an uncooperative host was a problem as it had learned. As much as it pained it to accept this, it had to agree to get out of here. "VERY WELL" the Darkness replied somewhat defeated. "See, that wasn't so hard.. Waugh!" Jackie screamed in surprise as something landed on his head.

"Oi, e'llo monkey!" an impish voice called out. "You!, how the hell are you here, you said you would die permanently in the asylum world!" Jackie said in shock. "I lied" Darkling said matter-of-factly as he hopped onto the ground. "The darkness had me lie to deny me from helping you, but because I kind of saved you from the brotherhood and helped you BOTH a lot over that whole ugly mess,he just made me PRTEND to die. "Um...well the more the merrier I guess?" Jackie said unsure. Suddenly the portal began to close "OH SHIT", and as he and Darkling ran into the rip, and as the darkness widened it with it's dark powers, he pondered something. "Equine hearts, like, ponies or something?"

Far away in another world, another, slightly less dark figure's plans were already in motion. After months of scheming, and infiltration, a perfect trap was set in motion, a trap which will ensure her complete and total victory. 'This day will be just perfect' Chrysalis thought to herself as she readied to take to the altar.

Chapter 2: Slaughter in Darkness

As Jackie was walking up and out of the crystal caves, he had his left eye fixed on the vision of what Darkling was seeing, and what he was seeing was starting to make him think he was hallucinating...or high out of his mind.

"I mean seriously, freakin' PONIES for Christ's sake!" he exclaimed in disbelief at his situation.

Sure enough, Several pastel colored miniature ponies were fastened to the floor by what looked like some sort of resin. However, what caught Jackie's eye the most were the bug-pony things holding them as apparent prisoners. The ponies looked like they had come out of some little girl's cartoon show, with slightly over sized eyes and some had wings or horns, and from what he could see from the imp's vantage was that there were two significantly larger ponies cocooned on the ceiling that were dressed in fancy jewelry and had both wings and horns.

'Must be some kinda royalty' Jackie thought to himself as he started to emerge into what seemed like a medieval dungeon of some sort.

The insect ponies on the other hand were vastly different, looking like four-legged beetles or flies. Jackie immediately noticed a much more slender and authoritative looking insect-pony that he immediately assumed was the leader of them all, barking orders and taunting his/her captives.

While Jackie was thinking to himself,The Darkness on the other hand, was giggling and chattering to itself like a kid going to bed on Christmas Eve "SO MUCH INNOCENCE, WE WILL FEAST UPON IT!!" It exclaimed excitedly.

Just as Jackie was about to reprimand the darkness for forgetting who was in charge, he saw something through the Darkling's vision that made his blood boil . One of the ponies on the floor, a rainbow- maned pegasus, from what he could see, was shouting in a tone of defiance and anger at the bug leader.He/She apparently didn't like what she was saying, so she nodded her head at a few drones towards the cyan pony. The bugs then viciously pounded on her until she apparently lost consciousness, the other ponies screaming in terror, concerned for her life.

Now if you know Jackie Estacado, then you know he hates many people with a passion. One of these are bullies and those who prey on the weaker out of arrogant spite. Ever since his horrible bully and pain filled childhood at the orphanage (save for meeting Jenny), he has beat the living shit out of anyone who tries to bully his friends. Most notably breaking every tooth in some prick's mouth for shoving Jenny(He had to eat all his food with a straw for the rest of his life).

After the beating had stopped, the bug leader then proceed to do what Jackie described as, the most stereotypical evil villain monologue he had ever seen. Jackie then looked at the beaten and battered ponies cowering on the floor when two caught his eye. A pink horn/wing pony was cuddling up next to a male looking white unicorn, and the two seemed like they were together romantically, the white one whispering words of confidence. It reminded him of Him and Jenny, except this guy was actually doing something to protect the one he loved from harm, and he wouldn't let what happened to him, happen to these two. Jackie then decided immediately what he would do

" Those fucking bugs are gonna die"

"Hello"

Every living soul within the large throne room was looking at Jackie with an expression revealing some degree of fear, shock, or both. Jackie then had the Darkness use its' essence to block out all of the light from the windows like it had done when he slaughtered those guards in the hall, the aforementioned massacre clearly visible from behind the doorway. Jackie then took a few casual steps forward before stopping and locking eyes with the bug leader.

"Wh-wh-what a-are y-you, WHO are you! " the bug managed to stutter out (turning out to be female) after a few seconds, regaining composure slightly.

"Jackie Estacado" He stated, bringing his guns out of his holsters and readying himself. " Human, mostly,and the last thing you're gonna see before I dismember you piece by piece you overgrown dung beetle." He added, readying the powers of the darkness.

"You dare threaten ME!" the insect shouted, "CHANGELINGS bring me this monster's head, MAKE.HIM.SUFFER!" She screamed in rage at his words.

Over two hundred changelings then swarmed at Jackie, thirsty for blood and eager to kill for their queen's honor. But what they didn't expect was 'Jackie' being covered from head to toe almost completely by a dark, organic-looking armor that seemed as if it were made of muscle and dark energies, and a swarm of glowing green flies spat out by the demon heads meeting the changeling's charge head-on. They screamed as the flies burrowed, bit, and clawed at every exposed surface and orifice on their bodies before they dissipated, and then saw a sight that chilled their blood lust by a wide margin. Jackie had picked a random drone and grabbed it with the left head, coiled the right around its' body and burst through its chest like some sort of parasitic monster being born. To the changeling's horror, it appeared to heal minor scrapes and burns that were already present on its exposed face when it had arrived, the now VERY intimidating looking creature then said "Now, it gets fun"

Then the real slaughter began, they resumed their charge haphazardly but were forced to weave and bob as the two metal objects it was holding exploded over and over, bursting with a purple light, and blew apart changelings two or more at a time. At the same time, the right head was slicing through the changelings left and right, blood and organs being thrown around everywhere, and in between was feasting on their hearts and growing blades for a few seconds to tear through a few more. The left head was grabbing anything around it (chairs, bricks, and changelings) and throwing it at the swarm,which then promptly exploded in a shower of debris or gore, taking several changelings with it. The imp from before was also aiding "Jackie" as it had called itself, ripping into changelings with reckless abandon, laughing as it tore one's throat out, then urinated on its' fallen corpse. The changelings couldn't lay a single blow on it, as any that got near were either blown, sliced, or bashed apart. Suddenly, one sliced changeling glowed darkly for a second before a dark red and pulsating heart dropped from its body cavity, a swirling dark mist surrounding it, at which the creature smirked at and picked up with one snake head.

'What is that'? Chrysalis thought, calling in 50 more drones to aid in the fight that she was quickly losing

"I love these things" Jackie said, smiling maliciously, gripping the black- hole heart. "Alright, just the drones, no one else" Jackie said to the darkness while pumping black energy into the heart.

"WHY, THEY SHOULD ALL DIE!" The darkness said, slightly irritated.

"Because I wanna look this bitch in the eyes before I kill her"

To say that the ponies in the room were afraid would have been the most epic understatement in the history of the entire multiverse. Every single one of them was watching either pale with terror, or vomiting off to the side. Twilight being in the latter category (thankfully not much). She had been afraid before, being at the mercy of the changelings, and seeing Rainbow Dash (who had awoken shortly after the slaughter began) brutally beaten into unconsciousness by a group of drones had only made it worse, now this thing had appeared out of nowhere.

'What in tartarus IS that thing' She thought panicked and sickened, she had heard it call himself "Jackie", and a "Human", but gave no explanation as to why he had that twisted magic, and those two demon snakes protruding from his back tearing into changeling carapace. The human was slaughtering every changeling that swarmed at it,blood and ichor raining down all around(and on) the frightened ponies, the creature was an absolute whirlwind of death. The way it and that imp thing were killing, it seemed as if it was a game, or a hobby to them, the creature for example laughing when he used the right snake to reach down a changeling's throat and tear it out violently, then blow apart two more simultaneously with his L-shaped weapons.

She then turned to her friends, Rainbow Dash was watching in morbid fascination, her eyes unblinking and her jaw slack in disgust, terror, and awe, a mirror of Twilight's own expression. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity were all semi- looking, shutting their eyes when he did something particularly ghoulish and messy, tears staining all three's faces. Cadance and Shining were on the same page as Dash and Twilight, Shining somehow becoming even whiter at the grisly spectacle, while Cadance huddled next to him for comfort and emotional stability. Fluttershy was taking it the worst of all, she was curled tightly into a ball , burrowing into her pink mane, and if Twilight didn't know better, from her shaking it looked like she was having a violent seizure.

Then she noticed a recently killed changeling had dropped something from its bisected carcass. It looked like a heart, except it was glowing red and a foul black mist permeated it, it gave off an unnatural aura that repulsed everypony in the room. Jackie became very excited when he noticed it, smirking deviously as one of the demon-snakes picked it up. Then something happened that no one in the room could have ever expected, or will ever forget.

"I love these things" it said, admiring the cursed heart while simultaneously ripping a changeling in half.

Chrysalis was getting scared, what was this thing that had this living death machine so happy?She got her answer a few moments later when the thing yelled "Catch" and tossed the red heart toward the swarm with one snake. When the heart landed, it exploded in a burst of foul energy and a yawning black abyss opened up in its place. Every single drone was sucked kicking and screaming into the abyss, their bodies vanishing into the blackness and spinning as if in a washing machine. After every single one had passed through, the portal collapsed on itself and a massive explosion of gore and bone shot out across the entire room.

The creature then cleaned the blood off of its two weapons then dismissed its dark armor to reveal its form. It then walked slowly, SLOWLY towards Chrysalis. She was frozen in utter terror, not five minutes ago, she was on the verge of victory, taking Equestria and feeding off of its love, then this,this THING, slaughtered over two hundred of her personal guardians, crack troops specifically bred to defend the queen. The creature then came face to face with her, a look of contempt and malice on its face, while the imp dissipated in a flash of dark purple smoke, chuckling.

It looked her in the eyes and said "I'm a man of my word bug" in a dark and slightly sadistic voice while bringing the snakes to bear

Suddenly, a growing sphere of light began to take shape to their right and they both turned to face it. The pink and white ponies whom he had seen together were somehow combining their powers (apparently the had magic or something) and were rising into the air. A few seconds later, a wave of energy pulsed outwards from them and made the bug queen go flying out through the balcony at an extremely fast speed, screaming.

"Whoa!" Jackie said as he stumbled backwards from the pulse, now noticing a mass of other changelings doing the same thing as the queen, the darkness retracting into him from the sheer amount of light.

The other ponies' bindings broke away and they all huddled together after a second or two and started to console each other, crying and hugging as they said words of comfort. Twenty five or so white coated ponies in Roman-esque armor then burst into the room, the pegasi ones flying up and cutting the two cocooned ponies still on the ceiling, while the rest attended to the others that had just broken free. The two larger ponies, after flying down to the ground,then immediately (alongside everyone else)turned to face Jackie, eyes full of fear .

The large white pony and the dark blue one had a good height above the others, but Jackie had a good 2 feet over the largest one in turn. The white one had large angelic wings, a large horn, and a flowing ethereal mane with a spectrum of pink, green, and blue mixed in. The smaller blue one had smaller, but generally the same features, save for the sparkling blue mane. On the white's flank was a picture of the sun, while the blue had an inky spot and a crescent moon.

Both of them looked at each other with looks of worry and whispered to each other before the big one addressed Jackie "Who are you?" she said nervously

"Jackie Estacado", he said looking around at the broken bodies littering the room before a dark voice reared its ugly head for all to hear, "MY VESSEL".

Interim: Watched from Light

High above, in a realm of pure light, a being was watching events unfold

"Did you really think I didn't plan for this?, did you think I was that stupid?" The angelus said

"Or that I wasn't watching your little escape? She said in an irritated tone

The angelus proceeded to rise from her throne of light, and walk towards a glowing orb. Within the orb showed the host talking with pastel-colored equines, evidently ranting to the darkness. She ran a hand over the orb slowly before saying,

"While I cannot leave this world so soon, I have other proxies that I can send to destroy you"

"Melphius!" she called, as a hooded and angel-like being appeared in a flash of light "Dispose of him"

"Yes my mistress" Melphius said in a calm tone, disappearing the same way he had appeared.

The angelus then turned and sat back down on her throne, pondering her options should he fail. She then cracked a smile before saying

"Always one step ahead for you" she said,chuckling "but always two for me"

Note: short tidbit I wanted to include before the new year