The Escape of The 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.