//------------------------------// // Chapter 14: Put to Rest // Story: One's Past is Another's Future // by Masked_Frenchman //------------------------------// Chapter 14: Put to Rest The next morning, Edman, Twilight, Random, and Neon flew down the halls of the castle, turning around corners sharply, looking around for the prison. “Are you sure about this? I mean what if it doesn’t work out exactly as planned?” Random called out from behind Edman. He turned back smiling, flying backwards. “Then we will die and the whole city will be forever enslaved by our foe and soon the world will follow,” he explained bluntly and turned back around, wearing a smile on his face the whole time. Random glared back at him. “Thanks for being so optimistic about it. I feel so much better about all of this,” he replied sarcastically. Edman chuckled to himself. “How is it you are so happy about all of this?” Twilight asked questioning his motives. “I have always wanted to fight Sombra since the day I learned about him. His very being fascinates me. I wish to do a very complexe autopsy on him” Edman explained with a crazied smile forming on his face. Random looked at him from the back. “What is an autopsy?” he asked with a confused look on his face. Edman turned to face him with his crazied smile on his face. “I want to tear his insides out and find out what makes him tick,” he explained, looking like a mad man. Random stared at him with fear as he gulped. Edman turned back to face the front, seeing a group of guards. They landed near by as they raised their spears. Once they saw Twilight they lowered their weapons. “Princess Twilight? What is going on here?!” one of the guards asked confused and concerned. “Where are the rest of-” Twilight started. Edman took a step past her, looking at the guards with a cold stare. “Edman, what are you-” she started. Edman kept his stare as he lifted one of his wings and beheaded one of the guards, his body falling lifelessly to the floor. The other four stepped back at the sudden attack. Twilight’s jaw dropped in horror as  Edman stood there, a splash of blood on his wing. “Edman, why would-” once again, she started. “They found out, kill them!” another guard announced as they charged at them. Neon shook off the shock and flew straight at one of them, slamming him right into the wall, making a small crack in it. Random took flight and had one of them chase after him. Edman smiled sinisterly as he and a guard raised their weapons and clashed together. Twilight was frozen in shock as the remaining guard charged after her, spear raised aiming at her neck. Neon saw this and flew over to her. “Snap out of it!”  he shouted in a panic. Right as Twilight did and looked over, the spear tip as inches away from penetrating her throat. Neon tackled him just in time and sent him flying towards the other side of the room, quickly recovering and standing firm and ready while the other guard did the same. Twilight recovered and aimed her horn towards the guard Neon left. As he was getting up she had the stone around him clamp over him, immobilizing him and keeping him in place. Random was trying to find a way to fight off his attacker.  “Surrender now and you will be captured unharmed!” The guard offered. Random ignored his demands as he looked around his environment for something he could use to his advantage. ‘This guy is not letting up. Maybe I can use the curtains or something? Maybe if I were to-” he started thinking. The guard caught up with him and grabbed his back hooves, throwing him down to the floor. After a hard landing, the guard got on top of Random, pinning him to the ground. “Get. . . . off. . . of. . . . . me!” Random grunted, trying to break free from the guards grip on him. He simply held him there, expressionless as he held him in place. “We could have done things differently. If only you stopped resisting so much, your friends-” he started. A beam of magic hit him from the side and launched him into the wall, knocking him out. Random turned to see Twilight’s horn faintly glowing and Neon rushing over to him. “Are you ok there buddy?” he asked concerned. Random chuckled, smiling up at him. “I’m good, thanks,” he replied. “Now why did you attack the guard?! There is no way you can tell the difference between the traitors and the real guards!” Twilight declared enraged, glaring down at Edman. He looked to her, his goggles scanning around in the lenses. “Their eletrical outputs were off. My Scouter indicated that their brain wave activities were producing negatory neutrons and electrons once we approached,” he explained calmly with a smirk on his face. Twilight raised a confused eyebrow at him while Neon stared at him with a highly confused look while Random went to a corner, huddled up in a fetal position rocking back and forth slowly. “Translations?” Neon asked confused. Edman gave out an annoyed sigh as he rolled his eyes. “My Scouter told me they were thinking aggressive towards us,” he explained slowly. Neon nodded as he understood and Random came back from the corner. “Wait a second, your goggles can read minds?” he asked excited. “Well, to an extent. I can not tell you exactly what they are thinking, just the type of thought,” Edman further explained. “Cool, ok, do me next then. What am I thinking?” Random asked confidently as he squeezed his eyes shut. Edman rolled his eyes again as he looked at him carefully. The Scouter scanning his body. After a moment, it flashed purple. “You pervert!” Edman whispered as he walked away annoyed. Random stood there with his eyes wide up, unable to move. “IF you guys are done, we still have to look for Princess Cadence and stop this invasion!” Twilight exclaimed annoyed. “Haze said something about a royal pain in the dungeon, right? We should check there to see if he might have been talking about her,” Edman explained. Neon, Random, and Twilight nodded their head as they rushed over, following Twilight to the dungeons. Haze sat in a corner of a pillar in the room, smiling to himself as he looked at a dark gold pocket watch and over at Neon and the others flying away. “Tell me, good sir. What would you do if you miss the portal? You have two nights left, do you think you can wait another thirty moons for the next one? What does this world even mean to you? I think I should take care of this situation at hoof before it get’s a little too annoying,”  he explained sinisterly. He closed the pocket watch and placed it in a pocket in his cloak. He stood up and disappeared into the shadows, snickering to himself. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * “Do you think this is it?” Random asked curiously, staring down a dark flight of stairs. Neon stared at a sign above the stairway entrance. “Well, this sign that ‘ever so happens’ to be above it ‘happens’ to say that this ‘happens’ to be the entrance to the dungeon, that we ‘happen’ to be looking for,” Neon explained sarcastically. Random turned around and walked next to him to look at the sign and the turned to Neon. “Do you think so?” he asked innocently. Neon stared at him blankly as he walked up to the wall and slammed his face into it repetitively. Edman looked at him confused. “Does he do that often?” he asked concerned. Twilight face hoofed herself. “He does sometimes, but hasn’t done it in over a week now. A new record!” Random explained in a cheer. Edman face hoofed himself as well. “I can see that one day you will be the death of him,” he whispered to himself mostly. He looked down the stairs and took the first step. “Come on, we have to go check to see if she is down here. My Scouter reads a strong magic level from-” Edman started. His Scouter turned red and made a quiet beeping sound which made him freeze in his tracks. “Edman, what is that?” Twilight asked. Edman slowly turned to her and ran back up. “Everyone, get out of here, look for Princess Cadence and get out of here!” he ordered as he looked down the hallway. “What’s wrong?” Random asked worried. Edman turned to him sharply, rage building in his eyes. “JUST RUN!!” He screamed as he bolted down the hallway, taking flight. Random and Twilight did as he ordered and started running down the stairs. Neon stood there for a brief moment, questioning it but then followed suit. “What do you think is wrong?” Twilight asked, running carefully down the flight of stairs into the dungeon. “I have seen that kind of look before, and it is not a good sign,” Random explained, frowning at a distant memory from the human world. “Do you think he is gonna be ok?” Twilight asked concerned. Neon chuckled at the question. “He will be fine, men like him, don’t go down very easily,” he answered cheerfully. “Men?” Twilight asked back confused. Neon gave an annoyed grunt. “You know what I mean!” he yelled back, Random laughing at them. “You guys are a riot sometimes, you know that?” he replied hysterically. * * * * * * * * * * * * Edman flew down the hallway and stopped after a sharp turn, scanning the room. “I detected it here, now if I can just pinpoint the exact-” he started. He felt a sudden magical force slam into him from behind and launched him into the floor. “So, you decided to come alone? Such a foolish choice to make,” A dark, sinister voice spoke out from behind him. Edman slowly got up, brushing himself off and turned to his attacker who stood in front of him in mist, Sombra. “King Sombra, we finally meet at least, I have been a small fan of your work. I have always wanted to meet you in person,” Edman explained cheerfully. Sombra chuckled darkly at that. “Is that so? Now tell me, why is that?” he asked curiously. Edman smiled cheerfully. “I have always wanted, ever since I first heard about your legend, to tear your insides out!” he explained as he jumped up, slashing at him with his metal wings. Sombra easily dodged this and retaliated with a swift kick to the chest, knocking him onto his back. Edman slowly got back up as Sombra picked him right off the ground, chucking him across the room like a rag doll. “Such foolish attempts of resistance. I was starting to believe that you were smart, but I guess I was wrong,” said Sombra as he laughed at Edman. “No, you were right,” he whispered, getting back on all four hooves. Sombra watched him with a confident smirk on his face as Edman got back up and steadied himself. “I am always three moves ahead,” he continued. He looked up at Sombra with a big smile on his face, beaming at him from across the room. His Scouter scanned the room within seconds and snickered to himself. Sombra’s smile faded away and was replaced with annoyance. “What are you snickering about?” he asked irritated. Edman’s horn started to glow orange. “Set seven, engage!” he cried out as four circles appeared around Sombra around forty feet away from him, boxing him in. In each circle, a sentry pony appeared. Their eyes lighting up in crimson red and stared Sombra down with their emotionless stare. He looked at them all and started laughing. “You are such a pathetic fool! Do you honestly think they can do anything to me? I can not be harmed by magic nor physical attacks. Such a sad attempt at intimidating,” Sombra commented, snickering at Edman’s sentry bots. Edman smiled at him, chuckling to himself. “You are right, oh so very right, that is why-” the sentry bots opened up their backs and raised up a pair of laser cannons, smaller than the ones before. “- I won’t use either of them!” The lasers warmed up, taking aim at Sombra, who stood there, laughing loudly at the sentry bots. Edman stood by, staring Sombra down with a stern look and a smile burned onto his face as his horn continued to glow orange, his smile turned more sinister and crazied as he kept his eyes on Sombra. “I just can’t wait to get a sample from your remains! All the new testings and experimentations that I could do with just one sample!” he stated excitedly. with a gleam from his eyes the sentry bots fired off their lasers, firing in rapid fire motions, the lasers passed right through Sombra, doing no damage to his form as it rebuilt right after impact. “You are indeed quite an idiot. I actually thought that-” he stopped as he looked at the crazied smile of Edman’s as he grew wider and darker, sending a shiver down his spine. Edman’s scouter observed him, little circles moving rapidly in his vision, all different colors as numbers filled the screen faster than he could see. The sentries weapons made a more eletronic firing sound as the red lasers became slower and changed color to light blue. At the instant the shots went through his vapour form, this time to mist not rebuilding as the new attacks sliced through him. “What is the meaning of this?!” he asked in panic. Edman chuckled at this new sense of fear. “Magical attacks will do nothing due to your high resistance to it. Physical attacks do nothing due to the fact that you have a mist form, but what happens when I were to use an attack that vaporizes mist? The answer, plasma! There for, your regeneration means nothing, when there is nothing to regenerate!” The barrage of plasma continued to cover him, making his form smaller as he tried to block the incoming attacks, failing miserably. After a moment longer he retreated away, trying to find cover. Edman raised his wings and took flight, his sentry bots firing off jet packs in their hooves and following the target. “Impossible, I must get out of here!” Sombra declared as he fled down the hallways of the castle, the sentry bots right on his tail, along with Edman. He searched for a means of escape, but with every move he makes, they were right on him, continuing their constant fire of hot plasma. Edman laughed menacingly at his attempts of retreat. “Do not bother, Sombra! Make this easier for me, let me gather a small sample of your blood, let me dissect you and remove your internal organs! I want to see how you function!” He shouted out at him, a small bit of drool left his mouth as he stared at Sombra with a look of insanity, laughing as he gave chase. Sombra turned to a wrong corner and found a dead end. Edman and the sentry bots touched down, surrounding him. Sombra took a defensive position as the sentry bots cooled down their weapons, keeping their aim on him. “Now don’t do anything stupid, if I vaporize your entire body, I have nothing to rip apart and learn from! I promise it will only hurt the first hour or so“ he stated, he laughed again, a high pitched, crazied laugh as his eyes were lost of humanity, he heard some hoof steps coming up behind him, heavy. “We are here to assist in his capture, do you require assistance?” Said a professional and husky voice. Edman could tell it was the guards coming to help him. “No, that is not needed. I have him, he is mine!” Edman declared, keeping his psychopathic stare locked on Sombra, who snarled back at him. He took a step forward towards Sombra and felt a heavy thud on the back of his head, knocking him out. His vision faded away as he fell unconscious. Sombra looked at the guards confused who then bowed in return. “King Sombra, Lord Haze ordered us to assist you if needed, we spotted you and-” the guards started. “Enough! I understand, now get up, NOW!” Sombra barked back. The small group jumped to their hooves and stood at attention. Sombra shook off the fear and walked on over to Edman, his sentry bots now unpowered for the lack of control from their controler. “Such useful toys of his, lock him up in the dungeons, I will deal with him personally later” Sombra ordered sternly. The guards nodded and rushed over to grab Edman, dragging him off. SOmbra looked at the sentry bots and with a rush of magic, he sent a powerful shock wave at one of them. It launched backwards and slammed onto the wall, breaking into pieces. Sombra frowned at this. “I was chased off by these weak pieces of machinery? I can’t believe it!” Glances back at Edman with anger building in his eyes. “I hope you awaken soon, for I wish to repay you for your little chase, in full force!” he declared. He watched as Edman was dragged off and went back into the corridors of the castle, disappearing into the darkness. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Neon, Twilight, and Random rushed down into the dungeons, following the twisting corridors and found a pair of crystal guards, they seemed to be in a panic. Twilight stepped forward as they turned to here. “Princess Twilight, what in Celestia’s name is going on?! Two of our fellow guards attacked us, almost killing us!” the guards explained in a panic. Twilight thought carefully before speaking, wanting to explain what is happening but to not startle the already scared guards. “Sombra has come back, this time he has help. A unicorn that appears to be a pony of dark magic is causing panic alongside of him, turning some of our fellow guardsmen against one another. Is Princess Cadence down here?” she asked, looking over at them sternly. They looked at each other confused and then back at her. “Why no, she is in her bed chambers last we knew. We never heard of her attending to her royal duties” they explained, trying to calm down, they heard heavy hoofsteps coming from behind them, Neon, Random, and Twilight all hide to see the incomers. A group of five unicorn guards came in, levitating two of their fellow guardsmen when the two previous guards held spears at them. “WHO DO YOU SERVE?!?!” Shouted the other guard. One of the guards grabbed his spear with his magic and tossed it aside in anger. “Now is not the time for that, grunt! We have injured who need medical attention, where is the jailer?! He should have some medical experience!“ Ordered the unicorn, the trio came out of their hiding spots and went up to them, Twilight’s horn glowing. “Their injuries are not grave, they will make it, but we need to patch them up soon” Twilight instructed, she ripped up some cloth from a banner on the wall, wrapping them up carefully, after she was done she looked up at the unicorn group. “What happened”? “We were ambushed by our fellow soldiers. We were heading to Princess Cadence’s private chambers to insure her safety, that’s when they met up with us. At the time we had twelve and they attacked us from behind. We thought they were with us, but they were against us. After we fought them off, we rushed here to regroup with someone and to patch up” The guard explained. Twilight listened carefully and turned to the previous two guards. “OK, you two, we need to scout around here, see if we can-” she started. The flat end of a battle ax hit her in the back of the head, knocking her to the side of the room. The unicorn lifted the ax with a sinister smile. The previous two guards tried to draw out their weapons but were killed by the others, spears launched into their chests. Random and Neon tried to make a run for it but were stopped before they could take a step. “What about these two?” one of the unicorn guards asked. “Lord Haze said he wants them captured, alive. knock them out and throw them into one of the cells, and cover Princess Twilight’s horn, no need for her to use magic” The bigger unicorn ordered. They nodded and slammed their weapons against the back sides of their heads. They were thrown into separate prison cells. After locking them in, they left the room, leaving the dead guards bleeding all over the floors. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Out in the hallways near Princess Cadence’s bed chambers, Haze was looking out the windows, crystal ponies trying to tame the fires that he made for them, chuckling to himself. “I may have gone a tad bit too far for them, oh well. It was still fun” he said to himself. As he watched the outside a spear landed close to his head, impaling the wall. Without flinching he slowly turned his head away from the window to see a group of nine unicorns heading for him, they looked enraged. “Haze! We know you captured Princess Cadence, we will kill you for your actions!” He declared, arming up another spear with his magic. Haze chuckled at this. “Oh my, why would you think that I would ever do such-” “Can it! You can’t talk yourself out of this one, we will kill you, and you can’t do a thing about it!” The guard interrupted. Haze stared at him annoyed and then sighed, he waved his horn and bit out the candles around them, dimming the room but was still able to be seen. “Very well, you wish to combat against me, then come at me with everything you got!” he demanded with a smirk on his face. He turned into mist and charged at them, coming up and punching one in the face and kicking the one behind him. They ganged up on him with weapons drawn, slashing out for him. Haze toyed with them as he playfully dodged them and made a few punches now and then. A sword came down and slashed across his chest, making it bleed. “Ow, what the?! This isn’t possible!” Haze declared in a panic. Seeing the weakness they continued the assault. Haze was panicked as he grabbed a hold of one of their spears and impaling the guard behind him. He lifted off from the now dead guard and kicked one in the face, swing across at another’s throat, spilling out his blood onto the floor. Another guard stabbed him in the side and another in his chest, he held onto them and fell onto the floor, bleeding out. The head guard smiled down and stuck down at his chest with his sword, smiling with satisfaction. “Good work gentlecolts. We got him. Now we need to find a way to fight Sombra off and then the Crystal Empire will be safe at last!” With a motivated cry of hope, they started moving out, leaving Haze’s dead body on the ground bleeding out. As they walked away his body shimmered and turned into one of their guards. As the head unicorn lead his troops they all faded away from his vision, he panicked as the room was filled with darkness and no sound could be heard. He drew his sword back out and a spear as he scanned the darkness. “Where are you? Who’s there? SHOW YOURSELF! “He demanded in fear and anger. Snickering could be heard from the darkness as he felt someone grab his shoulder. Upon reflex he reached around and made a slash for the source, seeing nothing there. He suddenly saw six copies of Haze staring at him, all wielding a sword and darting at him. He panicked and charged at them, swinging his sword and spear wildly, trying to cut them all down in a panic. They all put up a brutal fight but after a few minutes, he slayed the last one. Blood all over his armour, mane and face, he stared at the dead bodies of all the Haze copies, he observed around as the darkness receded and he could now see the room. “You tricky bastard! I got you this time, all of you!” He looked up in a sigh of relief, closing his eyes as he felt the blood of his foe run down his body. When he looked back down and opened his eyes he no longer saw the bodies of Haze, but his comrades. Their bodies showed betrayal as their blood flowed across the room, he dropped his weapons and took a step back in fear and shock. “Good job, I couldn’t have done it without you! “called over a voice from above. The last guard looked up and saw Haze staring down at him with a deviant smile. “I mean really, butchering your very own troops like that, your friends even, that was priceless sight to see” He explained as he gave a polite nod down at him. The guard looked back down at himself, the blood slowly trailing down his armour and dripping off his face, still warm. “This. . . . this blood. . . . . is not yours. . . . . but that of my comrades?!” he thought outloud. His eyes in shock and trauma he fell to his knees and screamed in fury into the skies. Haze chuckled and jumped down in front of the window. “Come on, you can still avenge them, here. Give me your best shot, and I will stand right here for you. Free shot” he offered playfully. The guard picked up his sword and spear and charged with everything he had, he launched himself at Haze and swung with everything he had. As he reached him he swung down at him, passing right through him and fell out of the window, falling twelve stories and landing on the ground. Haze looked down at him and laughed. “Have a nice trip, see you next fall. Oh I crack myself up sometimes!” he said to himself, slapping his knee as he laughed. He walked down the hallways as his cheerful smile turned serious. “These games are fun, but it is time I tied up some loose ends, Sombra is weaker than I thought he is, getting chased off by a crazy scientist like that. I don’t need him anymore. Time to step it up a notch and get into the real game!” his eyes turned from black to purple as he smirked to himself, placing a hoof on the wall which lit up in a column of runes towards the ceiling. A circle of runes surrounded himself, matching the same color and style as the wall as he snickered. “Activate spell trap, End Game!”