The Escape of The 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"