Apple Bloom watched with wide eyes as Bedlam threw back his head and cackled madly, his body rippled as it continued to shift between shapes, colours and creatures.
"Oh, the power!" he cried to the heavens. "The sheer unadulterated, POWER!"
Lightening shot from his eyeballs into the sky.
"Haha! That was a good one!" he laughed. "Oh, let me try something."
His body rippled and filled out, his coat turning purple while a golden, bejewelled gauntlet appeared on his hoof.
"I am inevitable," he spoke, voice now deep and gravelly before he crumbled to dust a moment later, only to reform like a clay doll.
He laughed and danced manically in a circle, rainbows and bubbles trailing behind him, while Apple Bloom could only stare in horrified shock.
"Apple Bloom!"
Her head snapped to the left, where her sister was galloping towards them, the farm pony's gaze rapidly moving between herself, Bedlam, and Reiver.
"What's going on here? What is that thing and why does it look like Reiver?"
"I'm sorry Applejack," she sobbed. "He didn't want us to tell you."
"Tell me what?" she questioned, but the filly was already racing to Reivers crumpled body.
"Reiver?" she trembled, pressing an ear to the colt's chest. "Come on, please be okay."
She tried to calm down and listen, and was rewarded with a faint heartbeat. However it didn't ease her fears as she tried to pull him away fromBedlam, who was warping the sky into a checkerboard pattern.
Applejack quickly joined her, managing to get her nose under the colt's body and lifting him up onto her back. The pair quickly retreated from Bedlam as he continued to revel in his newfound power, summoning a lemonade stormcloud made of cotton candy that he lay under with his mouth, now several sizes too large, open.
Once they made it to what they hoped was a safe distance, Applejack looked back at Reiver while Apple Bloom anxiously tried to wake him up.
"Is he alright?" questioned the farm pony.
"No, no he’s not" cried Apple bloom. “If we don't do something fast then he's going to die."
"What!?" exclaimed Applejack.
"I'm sorry, but he didn't want to tell anyone so we kept it a secret from-"
"We?" interrupted Applejack.
"Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo..." she remorsefully confessed.
"What in the hootenanny is going on here?"
The pair were interrupted by a sudden declaration from Granny Smith, who was rapidly hobbling their way alongside Big Macintosh, the stallion staring in confused awe at Bedlam.
However his attention soon fell on the colt draped over Applejack,
"What happened to Reiver?" he questioned worriedly.
"I don't know," fretted Applejack, setting the colt down. “But apparently Apple Bloom and her friends do.”
"He didn't want to tell anyone,” sobbed the filly. “They just wanted to be safe, we didn't have time to help before the storm hit, it's just all...gone wrong."
"What's gone wrong?" asked her sister. "Please Apple Bloom, tell us what's happening here."
So she did, Apple Bloom went through everything as fast as she could, from Reivers true identity to Bedlam's appearance, right down to what Discord had revealed.
All three looked at her with expressions ranging from grim to concerned, although she was glad none showed disbelief, that would be hard given that Bedlam was right across from them, rapidly changing his colour and species.
“So if we don’t stop that, Bedlam feller, then Reiver’s going to die,” stated Applejack.
The filly nodded, head down.
“Alright, let's think of a plan to-”
A sudden burst of light interrupted any further conversation, as Discord, Princess Luna, Twilight and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders now stood before them. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle immediately ran to their fellow crusader and wrapped her in a hug.
“We saw the explosion from town, “ sobbed Sweetie Belle.
“We thought you might have been…” Scootaloo couldn’t even finish her sentence as she hugged her friend even tighter.
“I’m alright girls,” comforted Apple Bloom. “But Reiver’s hurt real bad.”
At the sight of his unconscious body, the fillies immediately ran to the colt's side, while Luna and Twilight took one look at Bedlam as he rendered the sky asunder to reveal fizzing static.
"Are we too late?" questioned Twilight.
"No, although time is ticking," replied the Spirit of Chaos, spinning his claw on an oversized wristwatch.
"Uh...Twilight…” cautiously interrupted Applejack
The unicorn turned to her friend and immediately pulled her into a hug.
"I’m so glad you’re alright,” she sniffed in relief. “Applejack, there's something you need to know-"
"-about Reiver, I got the short version from Apple Bloom,” finished the farm pony. “It's going to take a bit for me to wrap my head around and we are all going to have a serious talk after all this."
"Indeed honest Applejack, though I feel we have more pressing concerns,” interjected Luna, directing their attention to Bedlam, who pulled a rubber chicken, a scroll and a rusted bell out of a black hole and tossed them aside.
"Great, I’ll have to put those back or there's going to be a few problems," grumbled Discord, scooping the items into a bag while a copy of himself flipped through some papers labelled 'MLP SCRIPT'.
"Any idea how to stop him?" asked Applejack.
"He's drunk on power,” answered the Draconequis. “If we leave him alone he'll burn through Reivers' magic in minutes."
"It took all of us to beat you the first time," reasoned Twilight. "We need to get the girls."
"Good idea!" replied Discord, snapping his fingers.
However, this only brought Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo to his side.
"Uh...Discord those aren't the right girls," queried Twilight. "No offense," she added hastily as the Cutie Mark Crusaders glared at her..
"On the contrary my dear," countered Discord, pressing the three fillies together with two oversized foam hands. "These are the exact girls we need."
"But...how can we help?" spoke up Apple Bloom.
"Well, it's like this.” Discord conjured a jigsaw of Reiver.
“Just as I was made from Q, Bedlam is made from Reiver,” he stated, removing a piece from the Reiver puzzle and conjuring a Bedlam puzzle around it, but it was missing a piece.
“Bedlam has Reivers memories, his morals, likes and dislikes, all the things that made Reiver who he is. However-”
The draconequis produce the missing piece and slotted it into place.
“He also has his own experiences, things that make him an independent being, it’s this we can use.”
“...what do you mean?” asked Twilight. “Can’t we just use the Elements of Harmony to restore Reiver?”
“I suppose…” mused Discord, a pair of thick glasses adorning his face.. “The fight will be over in an instant, Bedlam is filled with chaos after all so it could save Reiver by trapping him in stone. Then again, the magic creates a ;ink with Reiver, so there's a chance they might both end up as lawn ornaments."
"The elements wouldn't do that!" protested Twilight.
"No?" gloated Discord, removing the glasses. " Can you, my dear Twilight, be absolutely sure?”
She fell silent, and Discord smirked in satisfaction.
"Thought so. You see, when I first emerged I lacked something that may have saved Q and made me better. Something, or rather somepony, I have now.”
He conjured a plushie of Fluttershy and gave the toy a tight hug, the plush releasing a quiet ‘Yay’..
"We know what having a friend did to me, therefore what we need is to appeal to Bedlam through something both he and Reiver share, their friends."
Twilight looked at the CMC.
"We'd be willing to give it a try Twilight,” said Apple Bloom
"We all would," piped up Sweetie Belle.
"Yeah!" finished Scootaloo.
The unicorn couldn't help but smile at their courage, as she turned to Applejack.
“His argument is good, but Apple Bloom is your sister.”
The farm pony looked over at Reiver as he lay on the grass, his chest slowly rising and falling as his very life drained away to feed Bedlam's power. She felt a hoof touch her leg and found it belonged to Apple Bloom.
“We can do this Applejack, please, we can help him.”
The filly’s eyes shone with determination, the same determination she got whenever her friends needed her.
“Alright Discord,” said Applejack. “Lets try it your way first, but if anything happens to them-”
"I’ll be the first to feel your powerful hooves on my posterior, I get it,” interrupted the Spirit of Chaos,‘“With that out of the way, I'll go get his attention."
Snapping his claws, the draconequis disappeared in a flash of light, before bursting back into existence next to Bedlam, who was wearing a set of sunglasses.
“Saw you coming,” he stated.
"On the ball, I like that. Having fun?"
Bedlam removed his shades, revealing his newly minted, red and yellow eyes.
"So much fun," he replied with a grin that was just a bit too wide. "It all makes so much sense, reality is an illusion and the universe is a hologram, time is dead and existence has no meaning...although, I don't understand why my eyes look like yours."
"Probably left a bit of magic in you from earlier," theorised Discord. "You are basically raw until fully cooked."
"It's amazing, I can do anything," he replied. "BE anything..."
Bedlam turned into a pony shaped sponge and squished around on his hooves. He then morphed through several forms and shapes, a pony, a changeling, a manticore, a cockatrice and even a chimera before shifting into his normal body. He conjured lightning in a bottle, a storm in a teacup, he made it rain, plush cats and dogs, while turning the grass polka dots.
"All this power, is this what god feels like?."
"Hmmm, couldn't tell you,” stated Discord. “We are Spirits, powerful ones, but not gods. Our power comes at a cost."
Discord gestured behind him to Reivers body, now laid out and surrounded by the Apples and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Bedlam froze at the sight of his former host, his previous energy vanishing as his runaway thoughts screeched to a halt.
"I...I have this power, I can just make him better again."
"I'm afraid that's not how it works," replied Discord, almost sadly. "Either the host dies and we live, or we die and they live. The reaper comes for everyone eventually I'm afraid, although, at least he's nice about it."
"No!" retorted the entity.. "I refuse to accept that! I can save him! Save us both!”
"Bedlam..." interrupted a quiet voice. He turned to face the speaker, Apple Bloom.
"Do...you remember when I first saw you?" she said. "I didn't trust Reiver at the time, and then you appeared, I nearly screamed."
"I...I remember,” he stammered. “I didn't know what I was then...I was lost."
"It didn't look like it, you were pretty confident."
"I had been talking with Reiver before...before you found out. I had a mind, mostly made from his."
"Then, you met us," continued Scootaloo.
"Yes, you three were so loud you blew me across that wall like paint."
"Then you reformed," giggled Sweetie Belle. "But you were a filly."
"I thought you forgot about that," mumbled Bedlam, grumpily folding his forehooves.
"You have to admit, it was a little funny."
"I suppose..." he huffed, then smirked.
"If I recall, you were so in awe that Scootaloo had to flick your horn to get your attention."
Sweetie Belle immediately blushed, while Scootaloo threw her head back with a bark of laughter.
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," she laughed "I've never seen her like that with anything, except maybe Button Mash."
The unicorn filly blushed harder.
"I remember teasing you about tree sap," muttered the entity. "Reiver told me not to antagonise you..."
He looked over at the colts prone form, he could feel it, the connection they shared. If he focused hard enough he could even see it, it looked like a river of magic that flowed between them, and it was slowly drying up. The entity disappeared in a flash and pop, only to reappear by the colt's side.
"I remember when I appeared in that bathroom mirror, I wasn't aware enough to realise I was my own creature..."
Reiver had been so thin, on the verge of death. But now he was getting better, he could hold down a meal and had put on enough weight so he no longer looked like a walking skeleton.
"He certainly gave us all a run for our money when Winona found him," stated Applejack, coming up beside him.
"I remember...I think..." he muttered. "I couldn't really see anything, it was more like, feeling his panic, he didn't want to be caught or locked away."
"And I was as good as my word," replied the farm pony.
"You were, and so was Twilight."
He looked up at the unicorn, who was watching the exchange with interest.
"You were all good to him."
"We were more than that," interjected Big Macintosh. "We were his friends."
"And yours," finished Apple Bloom.
Bedlam looked back down at Reiver, then back up at the Apples and Cutie Mark Crusaders, he felt the magic fade a little more.
"He never had friends," he muttered. "All that moving, all that change, until he came here he was all, folded in on himself, alone for so long. You girls...really did something to him."
He looked around at all the ponies that had changed Reiver, made him more confident. He was still a work in progress, but...the entity took a deep breath as he reached his decision.
"He deserves a chance to live."
Bedlam lifted a hoof and laid it on Reivers chest, using the connection he reached into his newfound power to find Reiver magic. His body glowing softly as he pushed it back into the colt's body.
The colts breathing steadied and Twilight checked his pulse, it had gotten stronger. Bedlam's face scrunched up in concentration as he searched for more of the colt's magic to channel into his body. Gritting his teeth, the entity tried to focus inward as his glow flickered.
"I...can't…” he stuttered. “Somethings wrong."
"What's going on?" Apple Bloom urgently asked.
Discord pulled out another tricorder and ran it over the pair.
"I was afraid of this..."
"Afraid of what? What ain't you told us?" demanded Applejack.
"Reivers magic has gotten all mixed up with the Wild Magic, we’re losing it."
"He's right," confirmed Twilight, her horn aglow with power. "Reivers magic is fading, it's getting harder to distinguish between it and the Wild Magic."
"Then do something about it Twi!" exclaimed Applejack.
"I'm trying," replied the unicorn, the glow on her horn intensifying.
"Let me aid thee brave Twilight," stated Luna, her own horn now lighting as she lent her power to Twilight and Bedlam as they fought to save Reivers life.
But it still wasn't enough and the colts pulse began to fail once more.
"We're losing him!" exclaimed the unicorn.
"Can't you do something?" pleaded Apple Bloom to Discord, who was watching the ordeal.
"Me? I'm afraid, despite being an all powerful spirit of chaos, I can't do a thing,” He raised a claw to point at Bedlam. “But he can."
Bedlam gritted his teeth as he listened. Discord was right, there was something he could do, something drastic.
"Girls," he looked directly at the Cutie Mark Crusaders, a sad smile on his face. "I'm glad I got to meet you, it felt nice to have friends."
Then he forced all the magic he could into Reivers body in an explosion of light and colour that sent the surrounding ponies staggering backwards, though Discord simply put on some sunglasses.
"Bedlam!” cried Apple Bloom, but there was nothing but silence.
A pained groan had her head whip around so fast she nearly lost her bow, Reiver was struggling to his hooves, confused, tired, but very much alive.
She immediately tackled him into a tight hug and he went down with a surprised yelp.
"I thought you...you..."
Reiver froze as reality caught up with him, the storm, the pain, he remembered voices, a warm feeling and Bedlam's final words before his body was filled with renewed energy. Tears welled up in his eyes at the realisation of what had just happened and he buried his face in the filly’s shoulder.
"...hey." he sniffled. “I’m okay…”
"Reiver!"
Another two sets of hooves wrapped around them, as Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo had joined the hug, then more hooves as Applejack, Big Mac and even Granny Smith joined the group hug.
“Welcome back partner,” sniffed Applejack, as her own emotions bubbled up to the surface.
“Are you feeling alright?” asked Big Mac.”
“A little tired, sore, I feel like I got hit by a truck.”
"Urgh...you aren’t the only one."
At the sound of another voice, they all startled and looked to its source.
Lying on the ground was a creature. It had a serpentine body, the head of a griffon and long curled horns like a ram. Its front legs were a mix of a crows claw and dragon's talon, while its legs were hoofed and resembled those of a draft horse, a long, thin, feline tail swished and flicked as it rolled over and sat up, looking at the group of ponies as they stared back.
"What?" it said.
"B...Bedlam?" stuttered Reiver in shock.
"Apparently," he replied, studying his new form. "I thought that was supposed to kill me."
"It was about a fifty fifty chance," interjected Discord, helping the new draconequis to his feet. "So glad you survived though."
“Umm, thanks?” he replied, unsure if he should be grateful or not.
The ponies just watched, dumbfounded that there were now two spirits of chaos.
“This is going to be even more of a headache, isn't it?” rhetorically stated Twilight.
“Indeed,” confirmed Luna.
“Let’s worry about that later,” interrupted Applejack. “Right now, I think we could all use an explanation.
She looked down at Reiver, who guiltily rubbed the back of his neck.
“Yeah, this has been a long time coming.”