At The Edge Of Sanity

by Apollo and Artemis

Prologue 2: An Unexpected Turn of Events

"Are you sure this will work?" Alisa says as we duck under the porch of one of the houses near Central Circle. I turn to her with conviction in my eyes. Or murder. I'm not really sure. I was too focused on my plans of killing Sombra which, again, involved salmon.

"I don't know. I'm just hoping we won't get caught before Sarge rallies the troops." I say as we move silently among the shadows, careful not to catch the attention of any guards. A few minutes later, she speaks up again.

"Aren't you scared?" She asks. I shrug at this.

"No, not really." I say before continuing underneath the houses and towards one of the hedges in Central Circle.

"What? How are you not scared? We're sneaking into the castle of the strongest unicorn in existence!" She whispers to me as we have our backs to the hedge. I peek over the hedge and try to count how many guards there are. A total of 5 guards. Three of them were standing at various points in the Circle and two of them were standing at the main gates. Easy. I pull my head back down to answer Alisa's question.

"I dunno. I guess that I just really want to kill Sombra." I say as I pick up a rock and throw it over the hedge to draw one of the guards away. The guard snapped to attention and growled as he went over to investigate. We quickly dash to another hedge and through to the side of the castle's wall. I feel around the grimy wall and soon I grab onto a grating that was just big enough for us to fit through. We crawl into the drainage pipe and wait for the signal.

I open my bag and I pull out a small syringe filled with clear liquid and Alisa shoots me a curious look.
"What's that?" She asks.

"It's a syringe of pure serotonin. It helps me keep calm." I say before tilting my head to one side. Now, Alisa was pretty into science, so she was concerned when I had a syringe full of serotonin.

"Serotonin? Why would you need-" She says, but stops when she sees me jam the needle into my neck, straight into my jugular vein. While I'm used to injecting myself with drugs that help me keep calm, Alisa wasn't. As I injected the liquid into my bloodstream, Alisa got very dizzy. She looked like she was about to faint. She quickly shook her head to prevent herself from fainting and then she shot me a very shocked look.

"Why did you do that!? Are you insane!?" She says as quietly as possible.

"Bingo." I say before storing the empty syringe in my bag.

"That amount could kill you!" She says.

"Nope. I've done that dozens of times." I say rather proudly as I lean on the side of the pipe, beside Alisa.

"How could you have regularly injected yourself with nearly 50 mL of pure serotonin and not die?" Alisa says, that funny expression of shock still on her face.

"Eh, the Doc gave me what I needed to survive this. Enhanced endorphin factories and increased effect of specific chemicals on my body." I say as I blow a stray strand of my black mane away from my face.

Doc was a nice stallion. He was a genius in pony physiology and I went to him to see if I could get any improvements on myself. He did a great job, so I promised I'd come back so we could have a drink together. But when I came by again, he was corrupted and he tried to kill me. I killed him first though. Tore off his limbs and beat him to death with them. And I believe I was hungry at the time, so I made a lovely bone broth and sucked the marrow out of his bones. What? I love bone marrow. I know its a little unhealthy, but its delicious. If you tasted it before, you'd understand.

I don't exactly remember all the augmentations he made, but among them were the additional lungs and enhanced blood cells. I also remember him giving me another heart as well. Also, since vegetables wouldn't do much to curb my extremely high resultant energy levels, I asked him to replace my vegetable chewing teeth with meat slicing teeth. Worked wonders. Now, I take down wildebeests for sustenance.

It was clear that she was shocked at the that modifications were done to me.
"That's..... Umm..... Wow....." She managed to say and I laugh.

"Yeah, everypony gives the same reaction. It's always funny to see the stupid look on their faces." I laugh and then I hear the battle cries of the troops just outside the Central Circle. I then put on a serious face. "Alright. It's time for the show to begin." I say as I reach into my bag again and pull out another syringe, this time with a yellow liquid.

"Oh, don't tell me you're gonna inject yourself with that!" She says with a look of despair plastered on her face.

"Okay." I tell her as I tilt my head to the side. She recognizes this motion and immediately tries to turn away. "I won't tell you." I say as I jam the needle into my jugular vein and inject the fluid. It was a mixture of Valium and many other aggression enhancers. It was like an anger cocktail. Before the fluid could circulate fully, I look to Alisa.

"Alisa, I want you to stay here and secure the exit. When the guys come, I want you to follow them in the assault." I say to her and she nods.

"But what will you be doing?" She asks.

"Me? I'm gonna be infiltrating. Wish me luck. This will be tough." I say as I move deeper into the pipe and she moves out of the pipe. Before I reach the end of the pipe, I call out to her.
"Alisa!" I call out as I touch the grating on the other side. She turns around to answer.

"What?" She calls out as she exits the pipe.

"Good luck. I hope we see each other after this." I say. I told her this because she stuck with me through thick and thin. She supported me throughout this rebellion and I wanted to find a way to repay her after we kill Sombra. She smiles back at me before answering.

"Don't worry. We'll make it out of this yet!" She says as she closes the grate and moves to meet the others.

As Alisa closed the grating, I felt the drugs kicking in. I felt angrier at Sombra than ever before. My muscles tightened and I looked towards the grating.
"You're not getting between me and Sombra." I say with a loud growl in my voice as I kick the grating open. The force unhinged the grating and caused it to hit the opposite wall with a loud crash. I noticed a lid above me. I climbed the ladder and pushed it open. As soon as I got up, I noticed the ground vibrating with a thousand thundering hooves. The sound alerted all the guards in the area. I soon heard the roars of Corrupted sound through the halls. I smile as I draw my blade slowly. As the blade came out of its sheathe, I recalled the words of the peculiar feline I met in the Madness.

"The Vorpal Blade is swift, keen and always ready for service." The strange cat said to me. That cat was right. This blade was bound to me and it would never leave my side. I look to the far end of the hall and I see a large amount of corrupted soldiers charging down the hallway, weapons drawn and glistening with the blood of recent kills. I laugh maniacally as I brandish my blade and point it at the oncoming horde.

"Strip the flesh! Salt the wounds!" I say as I charge into the fray. I cleave the closest corrupted soldiers in two. The blade held true to its legend. It could really cut through anything. I swing the blade behind me to catch another guard's head. I impale a guard in front of me and I quickly yank it out, a shower of blood issuing from his new wound. Some of it covered my face and body, but I didn't care. A good bloodbath was one of the things that made my role in this rebellion fun.

Those who knew me by reputation knew me as a brilliant tactician and loyal friend. That's only one side of me. Others who knew me personally knew that ever since I returned from the Madness, I was vicious and bloodthirsty. I would often be sent on missions to capture any turncoats and interrogate them. Well, 'interrogate' is a much more pleasant way to put it. I employed plenty of torture methods to get the truth out of those bastards. They typically ranged from spiked whips to electric prods. But if I was feeling extra nasty, I used these huge nails. I jammed them into unimportant parts of the body. Often times, this got the truth out of them. But sometimes, they would stay strong and bite through it. But they had no idea that I attached jump cables to the nails. That was usually the time I flipped the switch on the wall, sending thousands of volts of electricity through their bodies. At this point, they usually fessed up and begged me to flip the switch back. But then, I enjoyed the pain of others, especially my enemies. So, I left them there to be fried by over a hundred thousand volts of electricity.

Those who knew me by watching me on the battlefield described me as having the grace of a ballerina with the viciousness of a dragon. They say I perform a beautiful, yet disturbing dance of death on any battlefield, that me and my sword were one and the same; both working together to unleash genocide on my enemies. I was naturally flattered when Mark came up to me and complimented my moves.

In the hallway, I perform my supposedly famed dance of death. I swing my blade in conjunction with my body, using the momentum to carry me through with another strike. Each swing cleaved a guard in half and spraying gore all over the once pristine castle floors and walls. Another spin of my body and I found that my mane was completely drenched in blood. I was alright with this. As I said before, bloodbaths were normal for me. My mane hung down my face as I steadied myself, the blood causing it to cover my right eye. I ready the blade as I see the next wave of guards arriving. By my guess, all of the guards should now be at the front line, repelling the attack at the gates. This would be the last group of guards. I grin devilishly as I charge forward, blade in hoof, to meet the horde. I swing my blade through the first line, leaving only ravaged corpses in my wake. I quickly swing my blade at the next group, their body parts separating from them like paper links. Then, I hear the crack of gunfire. I have to work fast. I quickly slash through the final guards and race through the hallways.

If I remember correctly, I should be able to make it to the throne room before they reach the gates. I skid to a stop before two large double doors. I buck them down and see a very annoying sight. STAIRS. An entire tower of stairs. I growl lowly as I hear more gunfire. I then proceed up the stairs. After about 5 minutes of running up the massive staircase, I notice how painfully slow I'm moving, despite the fact that I was going 3 steps per bound. Then, I unleash the rage that had been building up for quite a while now.
"BUCK YOU, SOMBRA!!! Why did you have to make so many BUCKING stairs!?!?" I roar out so loudly, I think everypony down at the gates heard me. Then, I pick up the pace. I increase my bounds to 6 steps per bound and thanks to my endorphins pumping like mad, it was pretty easy. Soon, I reach a break. A circular room at the top of the stairs. I run in and I was surprised. The one relic that Sombra was weak to, other than the Vorpal Blade, sat in the middle of the room. It was the Crystal Heart. It sat on a crystal stalagmite with runes on the floor sustaining a containment spell. The room had huge openings on all sides, offering a view of the entire Crystal Empire.

"The hell is this place?" I say and I hear a dark voice come out of nowhere.

"Do you like it, Elcia?" The voice says with a demonic growl. My face scrunches up in anger. I knew that voice.

"Sombra..." I growl back as I draw the Vorpal Blade. I spot a shadow move quickly around the room. I follow it with my eyes, trying to target it for a hit.

"That's no way to talk to somepony who made all this just for you, Elcia." Sombra said and the shadow began to move faster.

"Buck you, Sombra. You never cared!" I say as I whirl to try to follow the shadow, which was now moving faster than I could follow.

"Well, I suppose you would be mad at me for killing your family and friends." He says and my blood begins to boil as I continue to try to follow the shadow. "But it felt oh so good to hear them scream." He says and I grip the sword tighter. He is going to pay! "Do you remember that time Liza was sleeptalking?" He asks.

"How do you know that!?" I say as I see the shadow stops moving and begins to materialize. In front of me, the stallion who ruined the Crystal Empire stood. Sombra stood at the other end of the room with a smug grin on his face.

"She wasn't sleeptalking." He says with a manic grin on his face, his newly acquired fangs showing. I pale as the sword almost falls from my grasp.

"You.... You didn't!" I stutter out and he laughs.

"I did." He says and I depressed the trigger on the hilt. The edge split in half and it was replaced by hundreds of whirling teeth, similar to a chainsaw. He is going to die. Nopony can save him. I will gut him and scatter his innards across the streets and have a bucking festival on them. I scream loudly as I lift the blade and charge at him, the blade roaring as the engine revved.

Time slowed down as I approached him with my blade raised.
I got closer.
Closer to tearing his head off.
And closer.
Closer to gutting him.
And closer.
Closer to tearing him to pieces.
But as if the universe had some sort of grudge on me, a bright flash happened just outside the opening and before I knew it, I was blinded. And after the bright light, there was darkness....

Author's Note:

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