The big ugly crack through my helmet ruined a lot of my suit's sensors, but tracking magic wasn't as big a deal when the alicorns were right in front of me. With a shudder, I was propelled forward at speeds neither was fully prepared for and leaped to drop-kick them. Luna was able to avoid my attack, but Celestia took the kick square to the chest.
With a wheezing grunt, she went sailing across the plain and into a pile of ruined golems, where I sprung up in a burst of balloons and streamers. I caught her with my arms outstretched and squeezed her with a hug before unloading a super-charged lightning spell on her.
"AHHH!" She screamed as I pumped all of my suit's spell power into her. Considering it was based on Twilight Sparkle's magic power, this was a considerable amount. Luna came speeding toward me, but as she locked eyes with the glowing eyes of my helmet, she hesitated and tumbled off course. If the helmet wasn't cracked, that might've kept her pinned for more than a few seconds. Instead, she rolled to her hooves and charged again.
Dropping Celestia's unresponsive form, I swept a clenched fist back to the pile of destroyed animunculi behind me and weaved a simple spell through them, grabbing hold of all the gems and gem fragments still inside them. Opening my hand, a six-foot diameter hole was blown into the pile as all the gem debris I'd seized smashed together, shattering on impact and forming a cloud of glass fragments. Luna squawked, slid to a stop, and rushed to conjure a shield as I swung my arm at her, hurling the cloud as I did.
She narrowly managed to encase herself in a bubble before the cloud arrived, aimed right at where her eyes had been. With a flick of my wrist, I set the cloud swirling and scraping across the surface of her shield. She was forced to brace and hold her shield up, and Celestia was still recovering, giving me a chance to survey the field.
Twilight's balloon had been shot down and was now a smoldering wreck near the Citadel, creating a billowing tower of smoke that rose from within the complex walls. The golems that had been buzzing through the air had retreated inside the main tower, where several explosions had erupted shortly after the balloon's destruction. I couldn't scan for magic with my damaged helmet, but I had a solid feeling they were still managing.
Back on this end of things, the hippogriffs had almost immediately routed and fled, either out of fear, or hope Cozy and I were finally beaten. Looking back at where I'd left her, Jury, and Sandy, I couldn't exactly blame them for that assumption.
Jury and Cozy had been nailed with a petrification spell the second my initial attack faded, and Sandy I'd personally frozen in a block of ice. That was payback, not just for her treason, but for what she managed to do to Tempest who lay next to her, also petrified but with most of her mechanical parts ruined thanks to a disrupting wand Sandy stabbed her with.
Gritting my teeth with a snarl, I hit a sequence in my glove and began charging a beam in my palm. Reaching down, I pulled Celestia up by the mane and leveled my palm with her face.
"Shoulda stayed in hiding," I declared. "That way, give or take a few more years, I might've forgotten how much I hated you." She winced and closed her eyes. Right as the beam was ready, I heard a pop behind me and swung my hand around, firing the spell at Luna and catching her square in the face. As she flopped back, smoking and spasming, I clenched my fist and swung it at Celestia, who caught it with her hooves.
With a grunt, she set her hind legs and then rolled, managing to swing me over her shoulder and slam me to the ground. As I still had a grip on her mane, I yanked and threw her down as well. She wheezed on impact, and I heaved her up again and began peppering her with smaller, weaker beams from my free hand like a swarm of bees.
She cried out before curling up and closing her wings around her, giving me more leverage to hurl her at her sister. My suit shuddered again and I was pulled to my feet. Holding a hand to the still lingering cloud of gem dust, I clenched my fist and it came streaming towards me, forming a six-foot-long club. Taking it with both hands and charging it with magic, I leaped towards the still-reeling alicorns and brought it down with all my might and weight.
Despite my suit's size and mass, the explosion it created still sent me flying head over heels. When I finally hit the ground, I slid for a few more feet and then let out a shout of pain. The damage to my helmet must've kept it from warning me that the protective spells and shit were failing. It felt like I'd cracked my shoulder, and I started struggling to hold in breath.
"Really hope that's not a torn lung," I wheezed. A second explosion took my mind off my injury, and I looked over to see the Citadel lit up like a Christmas display. Before I could even pause to consider the ramifications, my mouth went dry and my lips began to chap. In fact, it felt like the air had just had all the moisture sucked right out and the temperature had just shot up by a dozen degrees at least.
With an effort, I sat up and discovered that a broken shoulder was the least of my concerns. Celestia was on her hooves again, and her mane and tail were on fire. Her eyes shimmered and with a crack of her neck, she spit a bloody tooth out.
I blanched and slowly held up a hand. "Time out?"
"Time's up." Her wings spread and then snapped her into the air, leaving behind a crackling cloud of dust. Tracking her into the air and struggling to get to my feet, I blinked when I realized the sun was much larger than usual. In fact, it was taking up most of the sky by this point.
"Oh fuck?" I whimpered. A small, alicorn-shaped dot was visible in the air between me and the sun and after a moment, that dot was surrounded by a spinning circle on the surface of the fiery ball of death.
"Jesus?" I whimpered again. The ring suddenly shot down towards me, forming a spike that lingered for a moment. Then, at speeds I couldn't track, it...
Well, it arrived.
All I really saw was a white, conical column speared into the chest of my suit, and I could feel the heat on my bare skin. As I struggled to react, the cone bulged and then snapped out, melting the chest of my armor, my shirt, and the face of my helmet clean off and singing my chest and facial hair off all at once. The column rolled into itself and retracted, and as soon as it did, I was blasted in the chest with a spell that rolled down my limbs and caused the suit to break apart around me.
After tumbling back and letting out a dazed groan, I faintly saw Luna form above me from a star-filled shadow. At least, I thought it was Luna. Her coat had turned black and her eyes were colder than usual.
"What?" I choked.
"You may have held our stolen power, but your focus was always on machinery," she said evenly. "Such rigid confines could never awaken its true potential." I blinked and recoiled as Celestia was suddenly right beside her.
"Indeed, your rigid mindset has hindered you in more ways than you could imagine," she added as her mane returned to its normal state and the pair took a breath. "But the time for you to learn is passed. You must be stopped so that the world may heal."
Luna snorted and held her wings to my head. "Another time, perhaps. Sleep."
I groaned and rolled for a moment before everything that had just transpired came crashing into my mind. Once it did, I shot to a sitting position with a gasp. As soon as I was up, I recoiled and nearly fell back over.
"Oh," I quietly said and forced an anxious smile. "Hey." Standing in front of me were the Elements of Harmony, Starlight Glimmer, Sandy, and the Alicorn Sisters, all sharing looks of contempt. Looking around, I saw we were still near the camp we'd set up upon arriving, and my petrified companions were standing nearby.
I grimaced and sighed before glaring at Celestia. "Surprised you didn't just kill me."
"If we wanted to simply kill you, Luna or I could have done so during our battle," Celestia replied, her expression softening as she spoke. "Death in and of itself achieves very little, especially when there are other means to thwart you from which good may be achieved."
"A stone statue which those you harmed may look upon and mock, for instance," Luna added with a snort.
"Says you," I grumbled, rubbing the stinging patch on my chest. "I think KS 6 would disagree on the efficacy of murder. Speaking of."
I looked Twilight and company up and down. "What happened with her?" I cast a glance towards the Citadel in the distance. Smoke continued to rise out of it, but it seemed less lively than before. There still seemed to be animuculi flying around, however.
"We nailed your dumb robot with friendship, duh?" Rainbow replied with a huff. I rolled my eyes and gave her an incredulous glare.
"That didn't exactly kill her the first time, now, did it?" I spat. Twilight shook her head and stepped between me and Rainbow.
"We can scrub your system to make sure she stays down later, we've got a major problem on our hooves!" She said, her face morphing to express deep concern like when they approached me in Tartarus all those years ago. I raised an eyebrow and she continued.
"Those golems flying around the Citadel were ponies!" She declared, causing me to flinch.
"What?" I murmured.
"She must've started dragging ponies from Canterlot here after we escaped," Starlight replied. "We caught her as she was about to use the machine on a bunch of foals!" I clenched my teeth and held my hand to my head.
"She shouldn't have been able to activate the transformer without the bell," I muttered before fixing Twilight with a glare. "Discord's magic was the linchpin of the entire process." Looking past her, I saw Sandy still holding Grogar's bell and I dragged my hand down my face.
"I don't know how she managed it either, but there are still lots of ponies over there that are stuck like that," Twilight said with a painful wince. "Besides those we.." I frowned and looked at her friends, all of whom looked away with guilty and miserable faces. Fluttershy clenched her eyes and sniffled before Pinkie put a leg around her shoulder.
"Fucking hell," I muttered. A painful silence fell upon us before Celestia stepped closer and knelt to look me in the eyes.
"At this point, the majority of your life has been spent in evil, but there has always been a kernel of goodness within you," she began. "You have sowed injustice and grace in tandem. Many creatures have come to benefit from your machinery, especially those who previously might never have walked again. For this reason only, do I even dare ask, Edward Bedford. For the reason I believe some part of you desires to do good for other creatures."
Her expression was severe but warm. Inviting. Hopeful. "Can you reverse this?" I looked into her eyes for a few moments before scanning the rest of the group. A similar hope was in all of their faces. I took a shallow breath and rubbed my chest. The mild stinging was as clear a sign as any that this was it. My suit was trashed, my army ruined, my satellites down, and my bell plundered.
I wasn't coming back from this.
I narrowed my eyes in thought. I could leave them hanging. Really drive the point home that this is what happens when you fuck with me. Maybe even use this to get them to swear loyalty to me? But was their word worth anything? I looked back at Celestia, who was tilting her head towards me, the warmth and hope in her face steadily melting.
I winced in realization, as I think I grasped what her face was really saying. This wasn't a 'we really need your help' situation. This was a 'last chance to do something right' situation.
Humming, I took a breath and looked off to the side where Jury and Tempest were. Pondering them for a moment, I nodded.
"I can try. It's technically my invention, after all," I finally declared. A collective sigh of relief came from the group. "But on one condition." And just like that the sighs turned to groans and cries of outrage. Celestia furrowed her brow but otherwise didn't react.
"You've gotta be kidding!" Rainbow screamed stomping forward and jabbing a hoof at me. "It's your fault all this happened! If you hadn't made that dumb robot or that stupid transforming thing, NONE OF THIS would have even happened!"
Pinkie stomped her hoof at me. "Yeah! Where do you get off?"
"What even is it?" Starlight spat with an angry chortle. "You want us to just hand Equestria back to you?"
"Let them go," I said, jabbing my thumb at Tempest and Jury. Everyone besides Twilight and Celestia recoiled in shock, and I shrugged. "They're all I've got left." They all shared a few anxious glances before Sandy frowned and turned to the princesses.
"We can't do that," she declared. "Jury's can just use all his resources to keep causing trouble. And Tempest is, well, Tempest." I hung my head with a growl.
"You treacherous little-"
"Alright." I blinked and looked up to see Twilight with a firm expression. "We'll let them go for now. But if they start causing trouble, then that's on them."
She looked me up and down and nodded. "Deal?" I stared at her for a moment before slowly nodding as well.
"Deal."
The combined might of all the ponies present made forcing our way into the Citadel a breeze. From there, Twilight guided us to where the transformer was located, and what a sight it was.
She'd scaled up the design, and it now had the shape of an oversized microscope, with a glowing gemstone-tipped apparatus overhanging a metal, gem-studded table on which subjects would be restrained. Tangled-up wires connected the machine to a nearby set of consoles, which I presumed were the controls for the entire thing, and at the far end of the room sat a huge cage with its bars smashed open. That was where Twilight and friends had found some kidnapped and unturned ponies who claimed to be taken from Canterlot. Said ponies had been escorted safely out of the complex while I was unconscious. To my immense, but silent concern, I saw no sign of KS 6's body.
"Alright, lemme take a look," I muttered and approached the console. Twilight and the rest followed behind, watching over my shoulder or around me cautiously. I blinked as I looked at the screen. It looked like someone had been chatting, but the conversation had been partially scrubbed.
The remaining entries included queries on the transfer of magic across time and space, clarifying questions on seemingly the transformer itself, and..
The entire log vanished at once.
"What was that?" Twilight asked as I narrowed my eyes. The screen pinged and a single new message was displayed.
[> ;)]
My jaw hung for a moment before I scowled. "Nothing," I spat before accessing the console. "Now, let's see what we can do."
It was kind of nostalgic. Based on the view through the window, this was the same cell I'd been held in all those years ago. Only this time, it wasn't a precautionary measure while they figured out if they could trust me or not.
It was a matter of course while they decided what to do with me.
Through my window, I could see pegasi guards carefully detaching the screens from the towers of the castle as part of an effort to scan every last inch of Equestria's systems for any sign of KS 6. If my situation wasn't so dire, the sight of those pegasi, some of whom had spent hours stuck as machines just two weeks ago, might've warmed my heart.
Instead, the only thing that brought me comfort was knowing the Jury and Tempest had escaped. If they managed to get the ship back to the Citadel or not, if they manage to reactivate the satellites or not, if they manage to seize the reins of the empire again or not, I couldn't fathom. If I was lucky, all these things would come true and, in a few months, I'd see them again.
For now, it was enough to know they were free. If everything else fell through, this was one plan that I could say led to the exact result I wanted. And that was my one comfort in this cell. Hell, I wasn't even convinced my rogue little creation was really dead. But that was about to no longer be my problem.
The door to the dungeon creaked open and I heard hooves clacking on the floor towards my cell. Looking up, I saw Twilight standing at my bars with a somber, even expression.
"Well?" I huffed. Her ear twitched and she nodded.
"Once we've liberated your other territories, we're probably going to hold another discussion so all the creatures you've hurt get a say, but for now at least we've made a decision," she said, her face growing more severe. "Like Celestia said, and like plenty of creatures can testify, you've done some good for everypony."
She hung her head with a dark leer. "But the bad outweighs the good. And by a lot."
"No shit?" I huffed and shook my head before looking away. "How long?" For a few moments, quiet held the cell and I found myself staring through the window again. Then she spoke.
"There've been a few kirin babies born in the last year who managed to say their first words," she said, drawing my attention back. "So it seems like the curse you placed on them will die out in a generation or so."
I scowled and shook my head with a shrug. "So?"
"So, as a baseline, your sentence is until there are no more kirin stuck with your curse," she declared. "And the Kirin Grove has completely regrown." I looked her in the eyes for a moment. After just a few seconds, the weight of her answer began to settle in.
"That's.." I rubbed my chin with an uneasy sigh and my eyes slowly traced the floor. "A long while."
"At a generous estimate, over five hundred years," she replied causing me to shiver. "But you were very thorough, so it'll probably be way longer." My mouth hung loose in my hand and I stared at the floor.
"By the time the spell ends, nopony may even remember all the bad things you did," she added. "Then, we can see about giving you the chance to do more good than bad."
I blinked and looked up at her to see she was looking off to the side. "That's my hope, anyway." Again, the dungeon was quiet. My eyes darted at nothing in particular and I slunk back against the wall of my cell.
"What's it like?" I quietly asked.
"It's not like anything," she replied just as quietly. "It's modeled after what a cockatrice does. So, it'll put you to sleep for the whole time."
"I remember Discord mentioning being awake the whole time," I said with a grumble. Twilight shook her head with a sigh.
"That's because he's Discord. Ordinary criminals put through the spell don't-"
"Has it ever been done on a human, though?" She paused at my question. Furrowing her brow, she fixed me with a frown.
"There are ways to make sure you're asleep."
I raised an eyebrow with a weak smile. "And if I'm not?" She grumbled and closed her eyes.
"I'll figure something out. I wouldn't leave you like that, Eddy."
"How do I know that for sure?" She opened her eyes and gave me a sad, but frustrated glare. We stared at each other for a few moments before she responded.
"Because we used to be friends, and you're the one who tried to ruin that. Not me," she turned and trotted away, leaving me alone. I sat with my hands folded and my legs splayed out before me. Again, I scanned the floor and clenched my eyes.
"Yeah," I choked out, bringing my hand to my eyes and slumping down. "I guess we were."
BEDLAM II