//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: BEDLAM III: Quiet on the Set // by Gormless Wheaton //------------------------------// "Get the wounded passed the gate!" Gallus roared as the guards and yaks hauled those who couldn't stand out of the Citadel's main entrance, including Starlight, Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity. "Don't run too far!" Bedford cackled as he slowly walked after us. "The wounded ranks are still growing!" I grit my teeth and blasted a spell at him. Just like the last three, it had no effect. I glared at the golem as he approached. His metal frame wasn't even scratched or smoking. "What the heck is goin' on?" Applejack panted as she gazed at the metal monster. "Fella's just ignoring everything-" "Look out!" Pinkie squealed, being the only one who could sense what was about to happen. I threw a shield up which narrowly caught the little metal pellets aimed at Applejack. We all winced as his compact powder weapon popped again. Pinkie shoved Applejack. "Complain about this cheater later! Keep running!" I cast another glare Bedford's way before we hurried along after the soldiers. As we ran under the skylight, the sun was brightly shining down on us, confirming that Celestia had finished her spell to clear the cloud cover above the island. I smirked at the sight as we passed through the gate and onto the exterior plaza where a weary-looking Luna and Ember were waiting. "Quickly, to the ship," she huffed at Applejack and Pinkie, before holding a wing to me. "Where is Flurry Heart." I frowned and glanced back. "I don't know. She disappeared with Tempest and Jury-rig once the fight started, just like Tirek and Chrysalis," I replied and looked up at the sky, shielding my eyes with a wing. "Once the ship takes off, whether what Celestia's about to do works or not, I'm going to come back to find her." "Guy just laughed off my dragon fire," Ember growled, her attention shifting from the door to the sky. "Dunno how he'll react to that though." "All due respect, Dragon Lord," Luna replied, turning her gaze skyward as well. "But the sun is a bit more than fire." Clank. Clank. Clank. Clank. I shivered and slowly looked back inside. He was still taking his time pursuing us. Still smiling. Still playing around. I scowled. "Let's see you laugh this one off," I thought before we ran. We made it to the far end of the plaza before turning back. He emerged from the Citadel, and looked up at the sky, though his pace didn't slow by any noticeable degree. I smirked and looked up. Celestia had cleared the clouds and pulled the sun just a little closer than usual. I'd seen her do this only once before, back when we captured Bedlam and defeated KS 6. The closer the sun was, the quicker she could call down its power as well as the easier she could manipulate that power. The technique let her do all kinds of scary things, from melting entire cities to finely shredding Bedlam's war suit without seriously injuring the human inside. Glancing back at Bedford, I couldn't help but snort a laugh. He'd paused and was focusing on the sun, as well as the faint form of Celestia as she circled above, gathering power for her spell, and- I blinked and then recoiled with a yelp. The entire center of the plaza was enveloped in a light that was too bright and too hot to look at. I worked a spell in front of us which dimmed the light enough for us to squint and look forward. That was when I saw her. She was spiraling down the length of the column of light with one wing tracing its edge and steadily setting it spinning. The column began to grow narrow, turning into more of a fiery drill, focusing all its power on a single point. And that point was Bedford. When Celestia finally touched down, she pulled her wing across her chest and then snapped it out. All at once the fiery drill bulged and then expanded back upwards. The entire plaza was scrubbed clean of masonry, leaving behind a layer of dust or sand that rapidly rolled away to the very edge of the plaza. After a few more moments, the column warbled and then shrunk back towards the sun, leaving behind a smoldering- "Inconceivable," Luna squeaked. My jaw dropped at the sight of Bedford, standing with his hands on his hips in the middle of the cloud of black smoke rising off the spot he was standing on. He wasn't even scratched or glowing from the heat. Celestia recoiled, but he was faster and grabbed her by the horn. Pulling her closer he brought his other fist back and- "NO!" Luna and I screamed in unison. There was a crack and a bang as his fist suddenly snapped forward. Celestia was sent sprawling off to the side. Bedford turned towards us with a smile and tapped his head with her horn before winking. As we looked at him in horror, he resumed his pursuit, completely ignoring Celestia. His attention was solely on me. I jolted and then screamed. I couldn't believe how stupid I was not to realize it. "Get Celestia to the ship and go," I heaved, taking a few steps forward. "What?" Ember asked. "What about you?" "Twilight?" Luna murmured in a weak, uneasy voice. "I'm the one he's after," I said before beating my wings and flying directly over him. Sure enough, he stopped and tracked me through the air before turning and following me back to the Citadel. I watched him toss aside Celestia's horn and grit my teeth. I glanced back at the plaza just before passing into the Citadel and saw Luna and Ember collecting Celestia, who staggered to her hooves with a dazed look. Seeing her reach up and touch the base of her broken horn made me clench my eyes shut, and I forced myself to look away just as I slipped inside. I landed on top of the raised platform and turned back to make sure he was still following me. "Peekaboo," he chirped from right behind me. I gasped and instinctively teleported away just as he reached out to grab me. I stumbled upon reappearing and looked at him in shock. "Didn't see that coming, did you?" "You really are just playing around," I groused. "More or less," he chortled. "'Course, when I've already got the winning hand, I can afford to be a little silly, y'know?" [Sure do,] came a familiar voice and giggle from just behind me. "Holy smokes," Flurry whispered as she, Tempest, and Jury stared down at the plaza from a high balcony. "I knew Great Aunt Celestia was strong, but wow." "Uh-huh," her two companions meekly replied, looking down at the flash-fried plaza with wide, terrified eyes. The two shared a look before Flurry yelped. "No way! He's alive?!" "What?" Jury squawked before rearing upon the balcony ledge and glaring down at the battle below. "Unbelievable." Tempest whistled as Bedford emerged unscathed and grabbed Celestia. "Makes a girl wonder what the heck he's made out of," she chortled before gasping and recoiling. "He- Her horn." Her face twisted in a venomous snarl and her horn crackled. "That miserable..." Jury swept around and brought her hoof to Tempest's chest. "Let's not lose focus," she said. "We need to hurry and find Eddy." Tempest glared down at the plaza for a few moments longer before pulling away with a grunt. Flurry meanwhile continued to watch with her ears pressed back. "What's Aunty Twily doing?" She murmured. "Who cares? Let's move," Tempest spat. Flurry frowned and then gasped when she saw Twilight rush inside, pursued by Bedford. "She's going to fight him alone?! Is she crazy?!" She turned around to face her companions. "We have to help her!" The pair paused and shared an incredulous look before glaring at her. "She'll be fine," Tempest replied. "But even if she won't be, what do you think we can do?" Flurry recoiled and her eyes darted around in thought. "Celestia just nailed him with what looked like everything she had, he outright ignored all of your aunt's spells, and it's a safe bet he's just as smart as our Bedlam," Tempest added, shaking her head with a snort. "So the best way to help your aunt is to find our Bedlam, and help him get the Citadel under our control." Flurry scowled and raised a hoof. "B-but!" Jury shrugged and turned to head inside. "I guess you don't want to help him much after all, huh?" Flurry paused and stared at her with wide eyes before looking at Tempest. The partially-mechanical unicorn pursed her lips with a hum before shrugging as well and following after Jury-rig. Flurry's jaw hung slightly for a moment before she bit her lip and looked over her shoulder at the plaza. Her great-aunts were slowly making their way up the road away from the Citadel, both of them visibly worn out even from this distance. After watching them for a moment, she sniffled and grunted before galloping off after the two villains. I shivered from the ache in my neck and slowly opened my eyes, immediately regretting the decision as I was met with KS 6's own gaze. [Mornin' Sunshine~,] she purred. I groaned and tried to sit up, only to discover I was strapped to a table. I tried to work my magic, but the flow stopped just at the base of my horn, a sure sign they'd put a magic inhibitor on me. "Kinda shocked you didn't just kill me," I murmured. The golem giggled and shook her head. [Nah, Mr. Bedford needs you alive so you can tell him where you hid the bell.] I jumped as best I could when the villain in question suddenly leaned into view all at once. "And, Baby? You are most certainly gonna tell me," he said with a grin. I looked him up and down. He was wearing a weird, metal replica of the outfit Eddy always wore. "How do you keep doing that?" I muttered, causing him to raise an eyebrow. "Popping in and out like that?" He hummed and held a finger to his lips. "Uh-huh, tryin' to pry at my secrets in the hopes of figuring out how my powers work for the inevitable rematch, right?" He chortled as I scowled, then shook his head before raising his arm, which clicked and spread open. "Well, the fun thing is, the Phase Distorter I equipped this body with is only one of my tricks, so there's really no harm in telling you." Inside his forearm was a flat gem set in a bronze rune-decorated disk. The gem spun briefly before his arm closed up. "That little beauty is the Phase Distorter," his left eye flashed red and a projection appeared on the table in front of me. It was of a sphere out of which more spheres flowed in a neverending line. "When it switches on it lets me tamper with my personal timeline." One of the spheres suddenly jumped out of order and leaped to the front of the line. "I can effectively remove the space in between now and then, or drag then straight to myself," he leaned closer as he cut the projection. "Has the lovely effect of letting me skip over the parts in time where I woulda gotten hurt, y'know?" I stared wide-eyed at him. "How in the world did you-" He laughed and shrugged. "Pretty damn easy to find the time and resources to make shit like that happen when you've got a world of mechanical slaves to help you out, y'know?" I blinked and he hummed with a smile. "Right, we never got that far, did we?" He rested his chin on his hand. "Let's see, I told you I made myself an animunculus, but that was about it, right?" I didn't respond but he nodded. "Let's start with the why. I changed myself to avoid being killed or worse." "The Celestia I'm familiar with was much less kind or forgiving with guys like me, y'see," he explained, casting a projection on the table. It was of Celestia, but with a more severe expression and in armor. "Most non-ponies who fuck up only get one more chance. With a warning." The projection changed strangely, but I gasped when I realized it was from his point of view. She was pulling his arm off at the shoulder. "So when I continued to fuck up after that, I knew I was fucked," the projection displayed Celestia on the other side of a glass screen, burning a hole through it. I recognized Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer at her sides, the latter of whom was an alicorn. The projection changed again and there was now what looked like a small version of the transformer pressed in his chest. "So, I took a few extreme measures to avoid dying. I had too much work to do, y'see." The projection shifted again. He was looking up at a furious Celestia who was pulling apart his mechanical body with her magic. He nodded at me. "Seems pretty fatal, right? But here's the trick," the projection shifted as he chuckled. We were now watching Celestia rip his body apart from the corner of the room. "My mind was now part of my system and I could just leap from body to body with no issue." He laughed and bumped KS 6's hoof with his fist. "Once I was free of my mortal flesh, it made my work way easier. I made lots of advancements in record time since I could now directly and manually control all my machines," he smirked and the projection cut for a moment. "It made our rematch after a year way more.. Beneficial." The projection came back on and I gagged and clenched my eyes at what he showed. I shuddered as he laughed and slowly opened my eyes. He'd cut the projection and was smiling at me. "Gotta admit, I think I'm seeing some of why he liked you so much," he purred. I recoiled as much as possible as he reached out and gently petted the side of my face. "Watching you squirm as I lay all this out is just rich." I scowled and he snorted. "So, yeah, once that went down, toppling the rest of Ponykind wasn't anything special," he rapidly flashed images of himself rampaging across his version of Equestria. I clenched my eyes shut again as too many of the images flashing by were... Just awful. "That was also around the time I realized that instead of just enslaving fleshy things to build my machines, I could just start making fleshy things into my machines." I looked up at him and he smirked. "Which of course, made toppling the planet easier too," more horrible images flashed by. "It only took ten years, and the entire world was safely mechanized and a part of me." He glowered as the images stopped, lingering on a view of an entire planet from space. "And that's when I hit my snag." The projection cut and he brought his hand to his forehead with a sigh. He was quiet for a minute or two, before looking me in the eyes again. "I had my world's chaos magic, but that wasn't nearly enough to do what I wanted," he grit his teeth with a grunt. "And by the time I had the whole planet, I knew my theory on the universe and everything beyond was true." I shivered as his hand was suddenly and gently petting my mane. "I could feel the universe straining against me. Trying desperately to fix what I'd done," his eyes wandered as he gave a weary smile. "But it didn't have anyone left to use." His eyes snapped back to me. "That's when I met him," a new projection popped up. This time of a screen full of text. "Or rather, when he met me." I blinked and squinted to try and read the text. [>Did it work?] [>Who is this?] [>Holy shit, it worked!] [>I will fucking kill you.] [>Right, sorry. My name is Edward Bedlam, the greatest thaumaturgic mind in this or any universe. Who am I speaking to?] [>Edward Bedford. The real greatest thaumaturgic mind in this or any universe.] "Ah, damn it, Eddy," I grunted. "Yeah, he's a real charmer!" Bedford chortled. "But he gave me hope." More text flew by as the two spent what seemed like a few weeks or maybe months chatting, growing progressively annoyed with each other and sharing evil ideas. "You taught him how to make the Free Thinkers?" I growled. "Yep! And in exchange, he shared his idea for self-repairing machines using nano-tech!" Bedford laughed darkly. "But to be honest, I was way more interested in how the hell he managed to communicate with me." The projection cut and he leaned forward with a grim expression. "But he wasn't feeling very generous. Or maybe he was just suspicious of me, who knows." He sighed and stood up straight, drumming his hand on the table. "Once I learned he had his own bell full of chaos magic, I knew I had to find a way over her to nab it," he hummed and smiled at me. "And three years ago, you all created the perfect opening for me to do so." I shuddered as he petted me again. "You locked him in stone, so he wasn't around to keep an eye out for me prying at his systems. I even managed to save and reprogram his rogue little ai here!" He laughed and nudged KS 6 before rolling his head back and forth with a hum. "'Course, I dunno if he even really knew that's what I was trying to do, but oh well." He crouched and cupped my face with his hands. "I'm here now, and you've got my bell," he smiled. "So I can finally do what I've been gunning for this whole time." "Huh?" I squeaked, regretting it as soon as I saw his smile. "Your pink friend was pretty spot on, like I said," he took a heavy breath. "Music, song, and all that shit is pretty integral to this whole slice of the meta cosmos. Wanna know why?" My eyes twitched as he leaned closer. "Because, in the end, when we peel back all the layers, what we discover about Harmony is not only that it's sentient, but it's got designs all its own for us all," he suddenly shot back and held his hands up. "It's like a stage play or a musical. One song. One verse. Uni-verse. Alternate takes on that song? Multiple verses. Multi-verse. Feel me?" His expression fell and he took a rumbling breath. "Now here's where we get to my frustration," he cracked his neck. "BECAUSE it's all part of Harmony's script, there are certain core elements that remain the same." He gestured with his hands. "A is A, B is B," he scowled. "And no matter how many permutations and alterations of the infinite meta cosmos you dig through, Edward Bedford is Edward Bedford. Even if 'accidents happen' and those elements get swapped around, nothing of consequence really happens." He snorted and waved a hand at me. "It's like cutie-marks, y'know? Predestined. Scripted. Even the alternate you had a place in that script, though her special talent was in bookkeeping I think," he shrugged. "Still you. Still on script. No real change that has any meaning, since any change is predicted by Harmony." I blinked as I processed his rambling. Some of it made sense, but his.. tone made it hard to focus. He was so.. Bitter. "What I find most absurd about it all is what happens when you try to live a little against the grain, though," he said after a moment. His eyes locked with mine. "I know of five other Edward Bedfords in the multiverse, not counting myself or your boy." He leaned in. "Know how many are happy, healthy, successful, or alive even? Just one," his expression was even. "The one who stayed on script and played nice. The one who lived the happy little pony way of life, just like Harmony wanted." His head tilted at a ninety-degree angle. "The others? Well! Two of them got caught in an explosion, one got eaten by a dragon, one got magical cancer and is on his deathbed," he chortled and slapped himself. "I had to mechanize myself to not die, and your boy got turned to stone." "Because we tried to live a little," he hissed. "Because we saw the happy little pony life and said it was bullshit." He barked a laugh. "For Christ's sake! YOUR Edward actually tried to improve this place! But he did it the human way, didn't he?" He growled. "And for that, Harmony tells him to go fuck himself, letting or making all sorts of coincidence and contrivance come about to do him in in the end." He leaned on the table and drummed it with his fingers. "I was never a religious man back home. Way back home, I mean. So when I started to realize how this dream of Harmony's was set up, it really shook me," he looked into my eyes again. With fear for the first time. "I mean hell, this is about as close a thing to God as I've ever seen. Everything that happens or could happen is predicted and manipulated. No action or choice really matters. All for some unknown, allegedly positive purpose." He went silent for a minute or two, allowing me to digest everything he'd said. "But you know? Most folk, those less provocative and fascinating for instance, might see the face of God and flinch," he smiled at me. "I've seen the face of God and decided to take a swing." "Huh?" I murmured and grunted when he cupped my face again. "That's why I need your bell. The chaos magic inside it," he hissed with a grin. "Discord could never make himself stronger than Harmony, even with his practically infinite power." He laughed hard. "But infinity times infinity? Condensed to a single point? Oh hoh hoh! That might have some surprising results." I blinked and whimpered at that last point. "C-condensing magic like that would-" "Explode due to effectively creating its own unstable magical atmosphere? You betcha. Explode hard," he snickered and I winced as he squeezed my face. "Explode everywhere. In every direction, and keep exploding. And exploding. And exploding until everything that is, everything that was, and everything that COULD POSSIBLY BE." He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Is dead. And the whole of Harmony's shitty little stage play is wiped out," I looked at him in terror as he raised one finger. "Because if choice has no meaning since all choice is just a part of some grand musical production for the entertainment of God?" "I prefer silence. Now!" He released me and cracked his neck. "You've got the key to my plan hidden somewhere." He raised his hands which crackled with energy that danced along the table and made me wince. "And I'm going to pry that somewhere out of you," he laughed grimly. "You might be immortal, but that just means I can get really wild here." I whimpered and struggled against my bonds as KS 6 and he laughed. His hands slowly reached out for me, lightning leaping from his fingertips as they did when suddenly an explosion rocked the room and the lights cut off. "Son of a bitch, someone's fucking with the Mind," he spat. His eyes lit up, providing light which he scanned the room with. "6, you watch her, I'll be right back." He stomped out of the room, but the second he crossed the threshold he was clotheslined and then blasted away. "Grab her!" Tirek roared as he dove into the room and tackled KS 6. Chrysalis flew in and ripped me free of my bonds before rushing back for the door. She stopped short and dropped me as Bedford was on his feet and blocking the way. "Hey now-" She cut him off by tackling him to the ground. Or at least she tried to. Instead, she was pinned to the ground when he suddenly appeared behind her. I gasped and looked between her and Tirek. "RUN FOR IT, YOU IDIOT!" She screamed. "He's insane!" "Hurtful, but probably true!" Bedford cackled as I galloped out of the room.