The Escape of The 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