//------------------------------// // Chapter 12 // Story: BEDLAM II: Heart of Glass // by Gormless Wheaton //------------------------------// I blinked the flashing lights out of my eyes as Starlight teleported us again without warning. As she and the guardmare, Sugar Plum apparently, peeked down either end of the moonlit Canterlot alley we were now hiding in, I gnawed at the gag they had on me. "Stop it!" Sugar quietly and desperately demanded. "We have to be quiet!" I tilted my head to glare at her, which caused her to wilt. "We have a clear path to the end of the block," Starlight declared. "Three more and I should be able to get us over the castle wall and into the garden." She looked back and met my glare with a smirk. "Might want to close your eyes, Eddy. Since you seem to be struggling a bit," she chirped, causing me to growl. As we popped from place to place, I did as she suggested for the most part, but when we wound up sitting in one spot for a little too long I craned my head up to peek at the pair. Starlight and Sugar were anxiously peering around a dumpster we were nestled behind at a pair of guards and a hulking patrol golem standing at the end of the alley. One of the guards handed the other a sack of coins before he skipped inside what must've been a coffee shop or something. I raised an eyebrow and glanced between the guard and my captors before curling my legs up and kicking the dumpster as hard as I could. Starlight and Sugar jumped before the former pinned me against the wall with her magic. [Scanning,] the patrol golem declared with a whir, causing the pair of mares to freeze. I smirked at them as best I could. "Stand down, probably just a rat or something," the guard declared. I grumbled while my captors sighed quietly. "I'll take a peek." My smirk returned while they tensed up. An artificial light clicked on and after just a moment or two, the guard appeared around the dumpster and flashed his light at us with an unimpressed stare. He looked at Starlight and Sugar, who met his gaze with abject horror, and then at me. Staring at me for a moment, he hummed and spit on the ground before turning back. "Yeah, just a rat. No biggie." I roared through my gag and thrashed as best I could to no avail. I was dumped onto the grass of the castle garden as Sugar scanned the area. Starlight glared into my eyes. "No more funny business or I'm knocking you out again." I snorted as she withdrew and peeked around the hedge we were up against. After just a second, she recoiled with a yelp only to be yanked back around the hedge by magic. "Starlight?!" I paused at the sound of Twilight's voice. "The princess!" Sugar squealed before galloping forward and nearly crashing to Twilight as she came trotting around the hedge with Starlight held in her magic. "What the heck is-" She recoiled and stared wide-eyed at me. The sight caused her to drop Starlight, and her eye twitched. When she spoke again, she did so with a hauntingly even and low tone. "Hello, Bedlam." I swallowed hard. "Princess Twilight!" Sugar cried. "We took Bedlam hostage!" "I can see that," she replied with that same unnerving tone and her eyes locked firmly on me. Starlight rolled to her hooves and stood beside Twilight. "I figured we'd have to sneak him inside, but what the heck were you doing out here?" "I was at one of the fountains, contemplating the future," her eyes scanned me briefly. "Where are all his tools? Where's Tempest or Jury?" "We ditched Tempest a day or so ago, and he was missing all his stuff when we caught him," Starlight explained before pulling Twilight's attention to her with a hoof. "And Twilight. We caught him. We've got the advantage we've desperately needed!" "Why was he missing all his things?" Twilight asked with a frown before looking at me again. I met her eyes with as desperate a look as I could manage, which caused her to narrow her eyes. "Alright, first off, let's get him inside." Once we were safely in her private chambers, Twilight leered at me from the sofa the three mares shared as Starlight caught her up. Apparently, she'd been stalking between my outposts in the Equestrian region. Almost all of the fringe or border guards were traitors it turned out. All of this news only served to make me angrier, and I seethed through my gag and struggled against my bonds. "So, like I said two years ago, there's plenty of ponies willing to risk a heck of a lot to fight him, Twilight," Starlight declared pointing a hoof at Sugar. "And now that we've taken him hostage, we absolutely can't just sit around! We HAVE to fight back!" Twilight hummed with a frown. "Taking him hostage might not be the advantage you think it is," she declared. "His marefriends are just as dangerous, and there's no telling what they'd do to get him back." Starlight groaned, and Twilight tapped the collar on her neck. "Not to mention, so long as Cadance and I have these, Jury-rig can just kill us with a word," she fixed me with a severe glare while Starlight hung her head. After a moment though, Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Then again, there's a couple of spells we could use to get him to remove it now that we've got him alone and defenseless." My eyes widened as Starlight gasped and fixed me with a malicious grin. Before anything could come of that, however, there was a banging on the door, followed by a droning voice. [Administrator, you have a call from the Citadel. Priority 1. Entry will be forcibly attained in twenty seconds.] Twilight gasped and lit up her horn. In a flash, I found myself with Starlight and Sugar, tucked under her bed in a tight pile. As we struggled, I blinked and realized Starlight's horn was stuck in my gag. "Coming!" Twilight called as she trotted to her door and opened it. The reporting golem came clanking in, and I heard the sound of a projector light up. "Hello, Jury-" She cut herself off with a gasp. [Hello, duplicate,] I froze at the sound of KS 6's voice. "How are you- What- When did- What?" [Cute collar you've got on.] My eyes widened. Twisting my neck, I managed to use Starlight's horn to rip the gag off. "Hey!" She cried as I sucked in a breath. "BEHAVIOR RESTRAINT T RELEASE LOCK, PASSWORD SEVEN EIGHT N V Q B NINE!" I screamed. I heard Twilight yelp followed by a hiss and a heavy thud as the collar fell to the ground. [Eddy?] KS 6 murmured. "Eddy?" Twilight gasped. KS 6 groaned. [Whatever. Kill her.] The golem groaned and I heard Twilight cry out before her magic went off. I was violently hurled to the side as Starlight magically launched herself out from our hiding place to help Twilight. As sounds of magical combat filled the room, I let out a heavy sigh. "Well, shit."