BEDLAM III: Quiet on the Set

by Gormless Wheaton

Chapter 13

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I glared back at the plaza once we were at the very edge of the Citadel. That fucking brat. I let out a grumbling sigh and looked down at Jury and Tempest, neither of whom had left my side since we started our exodus. Twilight, meanwhile, was also close at hand and leading us on.

"So, since you told Tempest you'd made contact with him, something he confirmed, I was hoping you might have some idea about how to handle this," she groused, casting a suspicious leer my way. Just ahead, Lace came jogging towards us from around one of the cliffs surrounding the Citadel.

"My hovering carriage is still undisturbed, so we have our way off this accursed place," she declared. "My maids are preparing for our departure as we speak."

I humphed and nodded at her. "You said you destroyed his Crystal Mind, right?"

"Perhaps not entirely, but it was certainly damaged by my explosives," she replied as we began walking as one group. I grunted and folded my arms before looking at Twilight.

"Lucky us, then. Transferring energy from one world to another is damned easy. You just need a massive amount of energy to keep the flow going, kinda like carving your way through a rapidly regenerating jungle," I smirked. "Matter is a whole other beast, as I'm sure you know."

"In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he had to assemble the body's he's using here, remotely," I added after a moment. "Whatever system he's using to project his mind to our side has probably been running hot nonstop over there."

"Whats that got to do with the Crystal Mind?" Flurry pressed as she fluttered up next to me, to Tempest's visible annoyance.

"Simple. To transport material, he'll need two massive power sources to be in perfect sync between both worlds and then those same sources will need to act as gates he has to physically pull or push material through," I chortled and glanced back at the Citadel as it vanished around the corner. "The Crystal Mind is the ideal tool since it's not only a massive magic battery, but it's smart enough to cast spells like that at the same time." My smile vanished with a yelp when Jury snorted and jabbed me with her horn.

"Why didn't you tell me about any of this?!" She barked, causing me to flinch. "You were talking with this maniac for who knows how long and getting tooltips from him?!" I stammered and was magically yanked down to her eye level.

"How much of our stuff is his?" She hissed. I hesitated and slowly raised a hand.

"Not- Not nearly as much as you think," I quietly replied. She held her angry glare, urging me to elaborate. "The Free-thinkers were the main thing, but I realized pretty quick how little I wanted to do with the guy."

I grumbled with a shrug. "I was going to tell you, but.. Well, it reached a point where I realized how cracked the guy is, and I thought it best just to cut all contact," I groaned and winced. "At least, unless something serious came up."

She narrowed her eyes, but her face softened. "How bad did you know he was?" I felt her magical grip release and I rolled back to a sitting position, where I huffed and rubbed my head.

"He never said anything overt, but when you ramble endlessly about 'how pointless all paths seem in the face of omniscient Harmony,' I dunno," I shrugged. "Seems pretty obvious to me you might take the tools of death I knew he had and do something stupid."

I smirked despite myself with a laugh. "And his capacity for stupidity is vast." The girls all shared a look before Twilight frowned.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I sighed and pushed to my feet. "The guy does bad things and people get mad at him," I couldn't help but snicker, and shake my head. "And he's SO bewildered by that, that he decides GOD must be behind it." I laughed in earnest this time. Twilight recoiled and I leaned towards her.

"You said he laid a lot of what he went through out for you, yeah? Like what Celestia did?" I tilted my head and she slowly nodded. I snorted. "Did he mention why she did that?" She blinked and frowned, giving me my answer.

"Well, he told me," I heaved a laugh and gestured in the Citadel's direction. "See, he, like me, got fucked over by Equestrian society and bureaucrat types not trusting him with all the magic machinery."

I snickered darkly and raised an eyebrow. "But I at least never stabbed Rainbow in the wing joint over it," I continued. She recoiled with a gasp and I nodded. "Yep! She delivered him the notice of 'cease and desist until further notice' and he jabbed her with a kitchen knife."

The whole group, save Tempest and Lace flinched at my words, and I let out a humming sigh. "I feel for the guy to some extent, but let's not mince words," I shook my head and glared back the way we came. "Guy was already further off the deep end than I was by the time he popped up in Ponyland."

"I suppose this once, I can grant you that," came another voice. I frowned and scowled at Lace, who looked just as surprised as everyone else.

"What the fuck good are your cow ninjas?" I griped, causing her to flinch and scowl back at me. I rolled my eyes and leaned over to wave at Celestia. "Hey-" I paused.

She, Luna, Ember, and the rest of Twilight's friends were all pretty banged up, with the smaller ponies wearing patchy bandages. But Celestia herself was the most shocking, and not for the deep purple ring around her eye. I strode passed Lace toward her, causing the smaller ponies and her sister to weakly take defensive poses. I approached, undaunted, and was able to brush passed them unmolested. The only one who gave me pause for even a moment was Ember, but she made no move against me.

Standing before her, I looked Celestia up and down. "Did he do that?" I whispered, my eyes locked on her jagged horn stump. She blinked and hummed, at which I huffed and glanced back at Tempest, who shared a glare with me. As we did so, Twilight came trotting forward, followed by a reluctant and anxious-looking Flurry.

"What are you all still doing here?" Twilight asked as she pushed passed me.

"What, you think we could just leave you with that freak?" Ember replied with a snort, reaching down and ruffling her mane.

"Yeah! And no way we were gonna let Flurry stick with those two," Rainbow added and jabbed a hoof at Tempest and Jury, who scowled in response.

"We, mm," Fluttershy, who had a slightly red bandage tightly wrapped around her leg winced and curled said leg to her chest before speaking again. "We might not have any idea how to stop that monster, but we can't just abandon you two."

"You guys," Twilight murmured with a sad smile. I scoffed and pushed back to where Jury and Tempest were, drawing an annoyed glare from them.

"How very touching!" I snorted, bringing a hand to my chest. "Almost makes a man want to cast aside the plan he had cooking for his doppelganger, just to give you ladies a chance to really show how friendship wins in the end!"

Rarity grunted and rubbed her bandaged side before retorting. "Well! Glad to see you haven't changed at all!" She humphed and turned to Twilight. "Celestia had mentioned the idea of releasing him, but just hearing him is enough to make me question if you and she haven't gone looney!"

I barked a bitter laugh and glared at her with a grin. "Maybe they have! Then again, I'm still not entirely convinced any of this is real, so maybe I'm the crazy one." She recoiled while the rest gave me a bewildered look.

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked with a frown. Jury and Tempest looked up at me with concern. I rolled my eyes.

"I mean that lovely dream you've left me locked in for the past three years has me questioning if I'm not just going to find myself floating in a void in a few minutes before it all starts over," I spat. The girls all shared a look, while Twilight just stared at me with her jaw hanging. Celestia, meanwhile, blinked and gave me a concerned look, while Luna..

"Excuse you?" Luna hissed with a venomous tone.

"You heard me," I chortled, looking her up and down. "Wouldn't be surprised if you had a lot to do with it." Despite her obvious fatigue, my words had set a fire in her eyes, seemingly reinvigorating her.

"How dare you," she hissed again and took a stomp towards me. Tempest moved forward between us, while Jury looked at the princesses in contempt.

"Eddy, you shouldn't have been able to dream at all," Twilight suddenly said, causing me to raise an eyebrow at her. She looked me up and down. "And if Luna had done something like that, I would have known. I checked you every chance I had to make sure you weren't awake in there." Luna recoiled and glared at Twilight, but the latter didn't notice. Her eyes were fixed on me with concern. I frowned at her words but shook my head.

"Whatever, it doesn't matter," I waved my hand and then pointed at Lace. "That one has an air carriage we need to us." My hand traced to Twilight.

"And that one can catch you up on just how bad things are," I smirked at their reluctant and confused reactions. "Trust me. For once, you'll be glad I'm out and about." Ember growled, at which Tempest crackled her horn, but Celestia held up a wing.

"As I feared, things seem to have escalated," she sighed and raised an eyebrow at me. "Though, I expect you already have some scheme prepared."

"Sure do!" I laughed and began striding in the direction of Lace's hover craft. "In a bunker on the coast." I smirked at Jury, who frowned in response.

"Bunker on the coast?" She murmured the phrase a few times before gasping. "Oh! Y'know? I was actually just thinking about that a few days ago!"

"Really?" I asked as she and I made our way to the ship.

"Yep! I was thinking of making a bomb with the stuff!" She chirped, causing me to hesitate. She blinked and tilted her head. "What?"

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Comments

[SleeplessChatter]

I see you countered a couple bits in my rambly comment, though I suspect you didn't need my rambling for most of them. I do like Luna's reaction to both the accusation and that Twilight was checking for that. I suspected and delight in the confirmation that Twilight was checking on him. That his dream state was undetectable is most interesting. Leaves open who could have done it, though I have two suspects in mind.

Bedlam's reaction to Celestia's horn is delightful and another separator between him and Bedford, as well as his hesitation to Jury's little admission at the end. Next chapter should be fun as I suspect they're gonna have a little chat about that on the way to this bunker.