"Flurry, get this inhibitor off me!" I yelled.
"Don't do that!" Jury and Tempest screamed in unison.
[What they said!] One of the 6 duplicates cackled after us.
"I don't wanna die!" Flurry wailed angrily before spinning and firing a beam at the horde. Luckily, while the duplicates were theoretically just as dangerous, they weren't as sturdy as the original. Thus, when Flurry's magic struck one of them, it blew off a portion of the golem's chassis before the entire thing collapsed.
Unluckily, the horde only seemed to be growing with every intersection or corner we passed. The fallen duplicate was quickly trampled by the rest, one of whom lowered her horn to take a shot at us before being kicked in the jaw.
[Don't shoot, idiot! You might hit Eddy!] One screamed.
[Sorry! I wasn't thinking!] The other replied.
[Drop him, you skanks!] A third added. Disregarding that last one, we all looked at Tempest who blinked before leering back at the petrified Eddy she was carrying behind us.
"Neat," Jury squeaked. "Thanks, Eddy."
"Hey! Aunty Twiliy's the one who petrified him! Give her some credit!" Flurry said, drawing a glare from the rest of us. She wilted slightly before focusing forward, aiming her light, and then screaming. I looked ahead to see more duplicates scrambling towards us. We all slid to a stop and my attention darted between the two hordes, who were slowly stalking towards us, giggling and tossing jeers the entire time.
"Damn it," Tempest hissed, straining as she levitated the petrified Eddy around as cover. Suddenly, I was thrown off balance by Flurry. Before I could do anything more than cry out, she clamped her teeth on my horn and ripped the inhibitor off.
"Aunty! Do something!" She cried after spitting it out. Tempest and Jury shot a glare my way but made no complaint. With a nod and a crack of my neck, I lit up my horn, focusing on the plaza outside and the mental image of all of us on it.
Then another explosion echoed from somewhere further inside and the duplicates began twitching.
[The Crystal Mind!] One yelled and looked back the way we'd come running before she stumbled over with an angry scream.
"What happened?" Flurry gasped as most of the duplicates shuddered and fell to the ground.
"No time," I replied and unleashed my spell.
The sun was still partially visible through the clouds, even though they'd begun to roll back over the island, casting the plaza in its warm light as we reappeared. Jury and Flurry stumbled and sat down to catch their breath, while Tempest gently set down Eddy's statue and leered suspiciously at me. However, my attention was firmly on the jagged white horn right at my hooves.
"So, uh, what now?" I blinked and turned to Jury, who had scurried behind Tempest and was looking anxiously at me. Flurry, meanwhile, crept up and sat down next to me with an ashamed expression. I hummed a sigh and shook my head.
"That doppelganger's more of a problem than I would have ever expected," I replied and fixed the pair of villains with a critical stare. "He's hunting for this world's version of Grogar's Bell so he can use the chaos magic in it to.." I grimaced and looked away. I clenched my eyes trying to wrap my head around the idea of what he was trying to achieve.
"So he can do what?" Tempest pressed. I looked wearily at her for a moment before grunting.
"He wants to trigger an arcane explosion of an unfathomable scale," I replied. Tempest furrowed her brow, and Flurry tilted her head. Jury meanwhile jolted and her ears snapped up.
"With chaos magic?"
I nodded. "Ours and the source from his version of Equestria condensed to a single point." Her ears pressed against her skull.
"Wha?"
"Yep," I grumbled. She blinked and narrowed her eyes as if in thought. Then she shook her head and nudged Tempest, who was looking back at her.
"If he does that it could, uh," she scrunched her muzzle for a second and cleared her throat. "It'll blow up the whole planet, and.. Literally everything else." Tempest recoiled and looked at me.
"The whole multiverse. Everything," I sighed. Flurry squeaked and hugged the ground in shock.
"Huh," Tempest replied and blinked. Then she smirked and shook her head. "Guess Eddy was right."
I looked at Jury before we both turned to Tempest, who laughed and looked at his statue. "He is an asshole."
"Huh?" Jury griped, shooting Tempest an incredulous glare. "What's that even mean? He knew about that guy?"
Tempest nodded and shrugged. "He mentioned it once," she pursed her lips with a hum. "And I think the other Eddy also said he'd shared stuff with him, didn't he?" Jury recoiled and her eyes darted around in thought.
"He never mentioned this to me!" She huffed. "Since when?" Tempest shrugged again and I furrowed my brow in thought.
"The other Eddy mentioned they'd talked a lot, actually," I murmured, stepping closer to the statue. "I wonder how much of this scheme Eddy was aware of?"
"Well, let him out, and let's ask him," Tempest offered, causing me to jolt and glare at her. She shrugged again. "Sounds like that metal freak is pretty dangerous. Maybe we need Eddy's help to deal with it?" She smirked but I held my scowl.
"So long as we keep the bell from him, it's nothing we can't handle."
"Don't be so sure," another voice came from just behind the statue. I jumped and flew back as a bruised and tired-looking female minotaur in a torn-up black jumpsuit emerged. Jury screamed and galloped a few feet away while Tempest cracked her neck and lit up her horn. The minotaur raised a hand. "Peace. I believe for once we are earnestly on the same side."
She smirked. "And besides," she purred just before Jury and Flurry screamed. Turning, I saw that seven more minotaurs had appeared and were standing with knives drawn, ready to pounce. "If I wished to do you harm, I could do so."
"Doubtful," Tempest spat before groaning. "But go ahead. What's got you feeling cooperative."
"Who is this?" I asked as Flurry and Jury huddled between Tempest and me.
"I am Silver Lace, of Minos," the minotaur replied with a bow. "While my former husband was considered Bedlam's operative in Minos, it was I who handled the technical and strategic affairs in the region." She smiled.
"She also plotted to kill Eddy every chance she got!" Jury hissed, causing Silver Lace to giggle.
"Which again, should make you consider how grave the situation is, if I do not simply have one of my maids obliterate him while he is so vulnerable," she said with a smirk and a small nod towards the statue. Jury wilted and whimpered but Tempest humphed.
"Right. So, elaborate."
Silver nodded. "While attempting to take command of the new Crystal Mind, I discovered many of our enemy's memories. Mainly, they were scenes of his forces back on his world," she explained and gestured to the plaza. "Vast numbers of animunculi that he claimed were on standby unless he needed to use them against us."
She grimaced with a grunt. "As well as one other thing he seemed especially proud of. It was-" I gasped at her description while Tempest scowled and Jury held a hoof to her mouth. Flurry stumbled slightly and then leaned against me for support.
"Oh boy," Tempest finally huffed. "And all that's just.. waiting on the sidelines?"
"He claimed as much," Silver replied holding her chin. "I cannot say how he managed to transport himself here, so I also cannot say how he would transport his forces here."
She nodded. "Which is to say, I cannot deny his ability to bring them all here at once."
"That's right!" I cried. "He never explained how he even popped up here! If it was a portal or a spell or what!"
"And I believe only one creature might know for certain," Silver added. I paused and looked up at her. Her expression was serene and unreadable. Meanwhile, Jury and Tempest leered at me with frustration and expectation. I frowned and looked at the statue then at Flurry. She was still recovering from what Lace said she saw but blinked and looked at me with terror in her eyes.
"Aunty? Are we going to be okay?" I flinched slightly before smiling.
"We're going to do our best, Flurry," I pulled her into a hug. "That's all we've ever done." She hugged me tight with a sniffle before I pulled away and took a breath. I turned to face the statue.
"Eddy, what's wrong?" The purple dream monster begged.
"Shut UP!" I screamed, still with my hands clamped on my head. "You're not REAL. NONE of this is real!"
"whAT aRe youu TAlkkin g abOut?" It warbled as the dream began to wash away.
"I need to wake up," I huffed. "I NEED to wake up." I strained and panted.
"I NEED TO WAKE UP," I heaved before gasping, falling forward, and hitting my face. I let out a hearty grumble. That was new.
"Is he dead?" I shivered. And THAT was Lace. I scrambled to a sitting position and then back from where I'd fallen. Panting and blinking, I scanned the scene before me before furrowing my brow.
Sure enough, Lace was here, looming over where I'd just been. But so was Twilight, her niece, Tempest, and Jury, as well as Lace's assassins. I panted and scanned the area. It was the plaza of my Citadel. Leaning forward with a grunt, I met Twilight's concerned eyes.
"Hey, Eddy," she muttered. I scowled.
"Are you real?"
She flinched. "Huh?" Scanning the ground again, I noticed bulky chunks of rock lying around where I'd fallen initially. They looked like fragments of a shell, and one of them looked like a cast of my face. I let out a sigh of relief, before slowly pushing to my feet. Standing at my full height, I leered down at Twilight with a smirk.
"Has it been five hundred years already?" I chortled at her frown and leaned forward at her. "Cause I'm not feeling too reformed."