The stallion lay silently on the hospital bed, the silence broken by his weak breathing and the sound of the heart monitor. Nearby, Dr. Stable checked over a clipboard while Nurse Tenderheart checked the machines that were keeping him alive.
“His vital signs are very weak, but they’ve finally stabilised,” she said.
“Very good,” muttered Stable as he read through the patient’s notes. “It’s a pity we had to sedate him a second time; there are risks to a stallion in his condition.”
“I’m aware of that,” replied Tenderheart. “But he attacked the nurse as soon as he came round; I had to take a leaf out of Red’s book for this one I’m afraid.”
“So I heard,” said Nurse Redheart as she entered. “How is he?”
“In need of care,” replied Stable as he handed Redheart the clipboard. “Severe dehydration and malnourishment are just the tip of the iceberg.”
“Any luck on finding out who he is?” asked Tenderheart.
Redheart shook her head.
“I’m afraid not; he had no identification of any kind and he doesn’t match anypony in either the hospital or town records.”
“Mmmmm…” mused Stable, scratching his chin as he thought. “Contact the local guard station and see if they know anything. In the meantime his treatment is to proceed, but I want him monitored closely. He may die if we are not careful.”
“Understood,” replied Redheart.
“Never a dull day in Ponyville,” said Tenderheart.
“Sometimes I wish there were,” muttered Dr Stable.
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It had been a few days since Reiver had told Apple Bloom about his true identity, furthermore, since the Cutie Mark Crusaders had finished their punishments, she had invited Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle over so he could tell them as well, Bedlam had even put in an appearance to help drive the point home. Right now the two fillies were sitting in front of him with looks equal parts confusion and astonishment. In contrast to her friends, Apple Bloom was sitting to one side with a slightly smug grin on her face.
“Ya’ll believe me now?” she said, still smug.
“Wow…” said Scootaloo, starting at Reiver dumbfounded. “Well…you were right about there being something strange about him…but technically he’s not a monster so you’re also still wrong.”
“What! Was not!”
“You thought he was a monster, but he’s an alien.”
“He says that he’s meant to look like a shaved bear, that’s close to a monster?” replied Apple Bloom incredulously.
“Bears aren’t monsters; just look at Harry.”
“Mean bears can be monsters!”
“No, they can’t!”
“Yes, they can!”
“Can we argue semantics later?” Reiver forcefully interrupted. “Right now, you three are the only ones who know about me and Bedlam. Cheerilee is going to teach me to read, but I can’t be expected to wait while there may be a way for me to get home in the pages of this book.” He finished by producing the library book Apple Bloom had gotten him on his first day on the farm.
“Yeah,” said Bedlam from his position on the wall, “I would quite like to know what the heck I’m supposed to be as well.” He paused as his attention was drawn to something behind the fillies. “Uh, is she alright?”
Looking up, all present realised that Sweetie Belle was still sitting with a dumbfounded expression. Moving to her side, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom each waved a hoof in front of her face.
“Is this normal?” Bedlam whispered to Revier.
“You know as much as I do,” he hissed back. “Is she alright?” he asked the other Crusaders.
“I don’t know,” replied Apple Bloom. “I think she’s in some kinda shock.”
“Well I have that effect on ponies,” replied Bedlam, nonchalantly polishing a hoof. The others just gave him some odd looks, with Apple Bloom looking at Reiver for an explanation, but all he could do was shrug his shoulders.
“Maybe we should try cold water?” he suggested.
“I might have an idea,” said Scootaloo. “But she’s not going to like it.” Slipping up beside her stunned friend she reached a hoof up and flicked the tip of the unicorn’s horn.
The effect was instantaneous as purple sparks erupted from Sweetie Belles horn, bringing the white unicorn out of her trance with a startled yelp.
“Ow! What the hay Scootaloo?” she snapped.
“Sorry, but you were starting to worry us.”
“I was?” she replied, confused.
“Yeah,” replied Scootaloo. “After that guy appeared you just sorta…stopped,” she said, gesturing to Bedlam.
“…sorry, it’s just a little hard to take all this in at once,” replied Sweetie Belle.
“I’d say you’re all doing better than most given the circumstances,” replied Bedlam, a little huffed he had just been called ‘that guy.’
“I agree,” said Reiver, “I’d half expected at least one of you to run off screaming by now.”
“Yeah, well, we’re made of tough stuff,” replied Scootaloo, proudly puffing out her chest.
“Indeed,” replied Bedlam with a snicker. “How else would you survive getting covered with tree sap on a daily basis?”
“Hey!” she snapped.
“Please don’t antagonise anypony, Bedlam,” groaned Reiver as he facehoofed.
“You’re no fun,” he replied, pouting and sticking his tongue out.
“Moving on,” said Reiver, “Apple Bloom has said she’ll help, but we need more than just her if this is going to work. So I have to ask, are you two willing to get involved with this?”
The three fillies looked at each other as if they were deep in thought, and then smiles slowly spread across their faces until they couldn’t contain themselves.
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS ALIEN INVESTIGATORS!”
Reiver saw stars, while Bedlam was blown into a cloud of colour so intense it looked like somepony had just spilled an entire paint shop onto the wall. Taking a moment to clear his hearing, Reiver and the Crusaders watched as the mass of colours rapidly sorted itself back into the strange creature.
“Do you mind?” snapped Bedlam, “It’s hard enough coalescing from nothing; I don’t have enough practice sorting myself out when I’m whole.”
“Clearly,” replied Reiver, while stifling a snicker.
“Yeah,” said Scootaloo while she and the Crusaders stifled their own snickers.
“Okay, what’s funny?” asked Bedlam, knowing he was going to regret the answer.
“I think you need some more practice,” giggled Apple Bloom.
It took Bedlam a second to contemplate the meaning of her words, as he ran a hoof through his ample mane…wait a second.
Removing the hoof he took a moment to look himself over and realised his mane was indeed significantly longer…and thicker. He also appeared to have gotten thinner, and then the penny dropped.
“Oh good gravy,” he sighed in exasperation. In his haste to reform, the strange being had accidentally turned himself into a filly.
Reiver and the Crusaders couldn’t help themselves anymore and burst into fits of laughter, tears streaming down their cheeks while Bedlam swirled his colours once more and managed to restore himself.
“Yeah, yeah, that’s it, laugh it up.” He muttered sourly as the group tried to compose themselves.
“Sorry Bedlam,” giggled Sweetie Belle. “But you have to admit it was kinda funny.”
Bedlam pouted as the other ponies continued to laugh, eventually the laughter proved infectious and a smile graced his features.
“Heh…okay, maybe it was a little funny,” he admitted. “I didn’t even know I could do that.”
“Neither did we,” said Reiver. “Maybe it’s got something to do with what you are,” he theorised.
“Possibly,” mused Bedlam. “But what’s our next move?”
“Reiver said you showed up after he looked in a mirror,” said Sweetie Belle. “So maybe that’s a clue.”
“It’s not a lot to go on, but it is a start,” said Revier. “Any idea where we could find info on strange creatures?”
“The Library has a section on wildlife,” suggested Apple Bloom. “We’ve used before for school projects.”
“Good idea,” replied Reiver. “But I’m not going to be much help, at least not until I can read Equestrian AND leave the house.”
“Well, how about we look for you?” suggested Sweetie Belle. “If you can tell us what you want to know, then we can bring it back here instead.”
After retrieving some pens and paper, Reiver and Bedlam explained what they needed. Having never seen any ‘real’ magic before, books about basic spells and magic theory were at the top. Second, were books on magical creatures, if anything remotely similar to Bedlam existed then it might have been recorded. The final items were books on travel and teleportation. He had told them what he remembered before waking up in the Everfree Forest and hoped a reference could be found somewhere. He also gave them the travel book to return as, despite his confidence that it could be useful, he wanted to keep Twilight away for as long as possible, it was a bloody miracle she hadn’t found the missing box yet.
“Okay Cutie Mark Crusaders!” declared Apple Bloom as she rolled up the list. “We have a stranded alien who wants to get home and a strange creature with no idea what he is. Are we going to leave them helpless?”
“No way!” chorused the other fillies.
“Then we, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, declare that we shall leave no stone unturned, no lead unfollowed, no meal uneaten, until we have succeeded in our quest!”
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS ALIEN INVESTIGATORS ARE GO!”
With a speed that would make Rainbow Dash proud, the three Crusaders galloped out the door in a multi-coloured blur.
“They certainly are enthusiastic,” said Bedlam, removing his hooves from his ears.
“It’s something else to experience that enthusiasm up close,” replied Reiver. “Why do I feel like we just unleashed something that should have remained leashed?”
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The three fillies made quick time across Ponyville; Scootaloo could pull them faster than any of them could gallop. En-route they talked excitedly about the possibility of getting alien-related Cutie Marks.
“I think it would be cool having an alien for a cutie mark,” said Apple bloom.
“Yeah, but what if it looked like Reiver, y’know, when he wasn’t a pony?” replied Scootaloo as she sped around a corner towards the library. “Who’d want a shaved bear on their flank for the rest of their life? I want a ray gun or a spaceship like in Spike’s comics, I could be all, ‘Pew! Pew!’ Take that evil alien!” she pretended to enthusiastically blast some hostile aliens to dust with her imaginary weapon.
“Well, I’d like to talk to them,” said Sweetie Belle. “Imagine how fun it would be to talk to a real alien?”
“Uh…didn’t we just do that?” replied Scootaloo.
“No, I mean, yeah, but…he looks like a pony. I’d like to see a strange alien. Maybe with pointy ears or a blue coat, or how about really big eyes that sparkle like stars; it would be sooo cute. ”
“Maybe Reiver can help us,” replied Apple Bloom enthusiastically. “He might be able to help us meet some aliens; maybe we could be ambassadors for all ponykind.”
With an equally enthusiastic agreement from her friends, the three fillies skidded to a stop outside Golden Oaks. Dismounting, Apple Bloom knocked on the library door and it was answered promptly by Spike.
“Hi girls,” he greeted happily.
“Hi Spike,” replied Apple Bloom. “How ya’ll doing?”
“Not bad, it’s kinda quiet here with Twilight’s out checking her gadgets.”
“Gadgets?” said Scootaloo.
“Oh yeah, she’s investigating that strange weather drifting in from the Everfree Forest. She thinks it might be something to do with a build-up of magic and some kinda planetary alignment.”
“Uh…is that a bad thing?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“…honestly, we don’t know. Right now all it seems to be doing is make things colder. Anyway…how did that teleportation cutie mark work out?”
“Teleportation?” said Sweetie Belle, confused. Then she caught the look from Apple Bloom. “Oh, THAT teleportation...it uh didn’t work.”
“We think it might be because we didn’t understand something from the book,” replied Apple Bloom. “We were gonna do some more research before trying again.”
“Okay…when you say didn’t work; you didn’t unleash some monster from the fifth dimension and now need to send it back?” asked Spike, nervously.
“No of course not, it just…didn’t work that all,” replied Scootaloo.
Spike, slightly relieved they didn’t end the world, but concerned that they were still trying to break the fabric of reality, escorted them into the library, leading them to its impressive collection of magic books.
“This is it,” he said. “Take a look and see what you find, but please, don’t destroy reality until Twilight gets back.”
“Psh, like we would do anything like that,” said Scootaloo.
Spike gave her a deadpan look.
“I’m serious; if you get sucked into a parallel universe your sisters will kill me. Now, I’ve got some things to do, but please come and get me before you try anything,” pleaded the dragon.
“You have our word Spike,” said Apple Bloom. “We won’t try teleporting unless you’re present.”
“Thanks girls,” he sighed in relief. “If you need me, I’ll be upstairs.”
With that, the young drake turned and ascended the stairs, closing the door behind him.
“Okay, where do we start?” asked Sweetie Belle.
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After a few minutes, the three fillies gathered their findings in the library’s lounge; Apple Bloom had managed to find a text on basic teleportation while Sweetie Belle had been to the children’s section and found some kids spell books. Meanwhile Scootaloo had been through the Wildlife books and brought back a few texts on strange and magical creatures. Seating themselves around a table, the three fillies had started looking through their selections when Spike returned with a tray of cookies.
“You want some?” he asked, setting down the tray. “Twilight doesn’t know I figured out where she hides these.”
“Thanks Spike,” said Scootaloo, helping herself to a cookie. “We were getting kinda hungry.”
“Yeah, thanks a lot,” said Apple Bloom.
“Glad to be of service,” he replied with a bow, causing the three fillies to giggle. “It looks like you three have been really busy.”
“It’s just a little…preparation so nothing bad happens,” said Sweetie Belle.
“Heh...now there’s a sentence nopony’s ever going to hear again,” muttered the dragon, taking a seat next to Scootaloo he looked over the books on animals she had acquired.
“If you’re going to be testing this on animals, I’d think about Fluttershy’s reaction, it took a lot of persuasion to let Twilight use her animal friends when she performed for the Saddle Arabians.”
“Mmmgm”replied Scootaloo, through a mouthful of cookie.
“Uh…what she meant to say was, when you said about strange creatures, we decided to prepare for that too,” lied Apple Bloom. “We might even get cutie marks for discovering a new animal.”
“…Do you mind if I help?” he asked, silently wondering what was taking Twilight so long.
Let him help, he does work with Twilight.
The text hadn’t been there a second ago, in fact, the page she had been looking at was previously covered with words, now it only had a single sentence. Looking up she saw confused looks on her friends faces and realised that they must have similar messages in their own books.
“Sure thing Spike,” she said. “Grab a book and help the girls, I’ll be back in a second.”
Getting up, she trotted to a more private corner of the library and opened book.
“Bedlam?” she whispered tentatively.
The text slowly faded into view.
Yes, it’s me. I tried appearing but it was too difficult, all I managed to alter was the writing on a street sign…probably should have fixed that before coming here, hang on.
Apple Bloom watched in astonishment as the text faded and thousands of unused letters seemed to glide across the page and retake their original positions. She rubbed her eyes and shook the book a few times just to make sure she hadn’t been hallucinating, and then the text started moving again.
There were go, hopefully nopony fell into that hole while I was gone.
“So…are you here, or are you still at the farm?”
A bit of both, I’m with Reiver right now, Cheerilee’s here too by the way. She’s doing quite well teaching him to read, he’s managed to get some of the basics already.
“Miss Cheerilee’s an awesome teacher,” she replied with a hint of pride. “But how can you be there and here?”
I…have no idea…it’s like I’m dreaming. I can ‘see’ you, but it’s like you’re just out of reach.
“Apple Bloom?” Spike appeared just over the top of the book, causing her to suddenly slam it shut.
“Yeah Spike,” she replied, a little flustered.
“Uh…were you talking to a book?” he asked.
“Nope, I was just…reading out loud, it helps me think.”
“Alright, I was just getting some drinks, did you want any?”
“Some apple juice would be great Spike, thanks.”
“No problem, back in a minute.”
As the young dragon left, Apple Bloom re-opened the book to find the text had smudged, like somepony had run a cloth over wet ink. A set of shaky letters formed out of the mass.
That hurt!
“Sorry” she hissed.
…never mind. I’ll fix this mess, you help your friends. When I’m done I’ll go back to Reiver. Good luck.
Gently closing the book this time, Apple Bloom re-joined her friends just as Spike returned with a platter of drinks. Sitting down by the group, she selected another book and the research began in earnest.
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“We got everything, Scoots?” asked Apple Bloom as she packed her own saddlebags.
“I think so, A.B.,” she replied, packing a few books into her saddlebags. “This should help a lot.”
“Just don’t destroy the world in the process,” said Spike as he stretched a few kinks out of his spine. “I really don’t want to have to explain that one to Twilight.”
“Don’t worry, Spike,” said Sweetie Belle. “You can count on us.”
“That’s what I’m worried about,” he muttered.
The study session had gone well for the small group; with Spike’s help they had managed to make some notes on magic and magical travel, and had even made a few notes on some creatures similar to Bedlam. Having returned the travel magic book, and checked out a few new ones, the three were preparing to return to Sweet Apple Acres with their findings. As they were leaving, the door opened to reveal Twilight Sparkle.
“Hi, girls!” she said brightly.
“Hi, Twilight! Bye, Twilight!” the three fillies chorused as they passed, closing the door behind them.
“They were certainly in a hurry; I wonder what they’re up to?”
“Something about teleportation cutie marks,” replied Spike as he quickly cleaned up the trays and cookie crumbs.
“…I think I’d better warn Applejack and Rarity before this gets out of hoof.”
“No argument from me. So, find what you were looking for?
“I think so, Spike, “replied Twilight. “I won’t know for sure until I analyse this properly, but the data suggests a link between the magical build up and the current position of the planets. I’m going to send a letter to Princess Luna to see if she can help.”
Helping her assistant to clean up, Twilight spotted the book Apple Bloom had been using to talk to Bedlam and pulled it over with her magic. Lifting it to eye level she checked it for scuffs and marks before re-shelving it and heading upstairs to analyse her data. Had she remained for a moment longer, the unicorn might have noticed the ink slowly oozing from between the pages.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Back at Sweet Apple Acres, the Cutie Mark Crusaders arrived to find they had missed Cheerilee by a few minutes. However, the slight disappointment at not seeing their favourite teacher was quickly forgotten when they started showing Reiver their findings.
“This is interesting stuff, what little of it I can read at least,” said Reiver as he looked over their notes.
“I know,” replied Bedlam reading from his position on the wall. “I wish I could have been a bit more helpful.”
“Don’t worry about it,” replied Apple Bloom. “Spike was a big help. There’s got to be something useful in there.”
“Oo, oo, I found something,” said Sweetie belle eagerly, flipping through one of the books. “Here it is, I think you might be one of these.” She finished by showing Bedlam a page with a crude drawing at the top.
“You think I’m a…business pony?”
“It’s a Slenderpony,” she replied. “They make ponies see things to drive them crazy, then they feast on their souls.”
“Well you got the driving crazy part,” muttered Reiver. “But Bedlam looks nothing like that.”
“I have a face for one thing,” he replied.
“But do you eat pony’s souls?
“Uuh, no.”
“How can you be sure?” asked Scootaloo.
“I just know, okay.”
“Alright, we can check that one off,” said Sweetie Belle.
“I’ve got one,” said Apple Bloom as she flipped through another book. “Maybe he’s a kind of changeling.”
Reiver tensed slightly as Apple Bloom showed them the image of the insectoid shapeshifters.
“Ewww, I remember them,” said Scootaloo, grossed out at the sight.
“But they’re 3D, and I’m not” replied Bedlam from his perch. “Although it says here they once infiltrated an art gallery by impersonating the sculptures. Wonder how they went to the bathroom without anyone noticing.”
“Maybe they left a sign on the podium,” said Revier, shrugging his shoulders.
“Okay, so not a Changeling,” replied Apple Bloom.
“I’ve got something,” said Scootaloo as she looked through her notes. “Maybe he’s from a parallel dimension that can only be entered through mirrors. He appeared in the bathroom mirror after all.”
“And continues to do so,” sighed Reiver in exasperation.
“What? How was I to know that you were in there? Although, your reaction was priceless,” Bedlam snickered, bursting into giggles.
“Applejack had to fish me out of the bowl!” replied Revier, blushing as he remembered the embarrassment of that encounter.
“I tell you girls, I’d never heard a guy squeal like a filly before that,” continued Bedlam as his giggles evolved into full blown laughter. Try as they might the Crusaders couldn’t keep their own reactions under control and ended up laughing along with the strange creature, while Reiver blushed beet red.
“Are you all quite finished?” he huffed.
“Sorry, mate,” said Bedlam. “But you do have to admit that it was pretty funny.”
“Maybe for those of us that didn’t have to explain to Applejack how he fell into a toilet,” he huffed.
As the laughter died down, the ponies ran through their research and suggested a few more possibilities for Bedlam’s origin. By the end all that they had discovered was that he was not a ghost, goblin, ghoul or indeed any other horrific creature. It was then that Bedlam posed a question.
“Did you just look up evil creatures?”
“I did,” said Apple Bloom. “But I thought Scootaloo was looking at other critters.”
“Not me,” replied Scootaloo. “Sweetie Belle?”
“Um…,”
The silence was so thick you could have cut it with a knife.
“So you all just assumed I was some sort of daemon from the depths of Tartarus?” he snapped.
“Sorry Bedlam,” said Apple Bloom. “We didn’t really know what to look for.”
“Regardless, the up-side is they’ve helped us narrow down the possibilities,” replied Reiver. “I’m sure they didn’t mean anything by it.”
“…fine,” replied Bedlam. “But they better look at nice creatures this time. I don’t want to find I’m related to some ancient dark lord or something.”
“Don’t worry,” replied Sweetie Belle enthusiastically. “We’ll go back to the Library and have another look.”
“But that’s probably going to have to wait until tomorrow,” interrupted Scootaloo, pointing out the window. “The Sun’s starting to go down and I don’t want to get into trouble with my parents again.”
“Yeah, me too,” replied Sweetie Belle as she gathered up her things.
“Reiver,” said Apple Bloom. “If ya’ll don’t mind I’d like ta keep looking for a mite longer.”
“Okay,” he replied. “I’m up for a little late night research.”
“You’ll have to do it without me I’m afraid,” said Bedlam with a yawn. “I’m going to retire for the night, I think I’ve wore myself out manifesting for this long. I’ll catch you two tomorrow.” He finished by disappearing into a swirl of colour.
“Where do you think he goes?” asked Scootaloo.
“Dunno,” replied Reiver. “I guess wherever unknown cosmic beings go to relax.”
Heading downstairs, the group of foals passed Granny Smith, who was napping in her rocking chair. Taking care not to wake the elderly mare, Reiver and Apple Bloom said goodbye to their friends.
“Thanks for the help today,” said Reiver, hoof bumping with Scootaloo.
“It was no problem.” she replied. “If you need our help again just let say so. The Cutie Mark Crusaders never abandon a member.”
“So…you still want me to be a crusader?”
The three fillies looked at one another, and then nodded in affirmation.
“Yer a friend, Reiver,” replied Apple Bloom. “Even if we got off on the wrong hoof, the Cutie Mark Crusaders would love ta have ya on board.”
Reiver looked at the three sets of pleading eyes and knew he wasn’t going to win this battle, the combined adorableness was just too much.
“Fine,” he replied. “But I’m not skydiving anytime soon okay. I’ve heard what you three get up to remember.”
“Yeah, yeah we know,” replied Scootaloo. “Besides, skydiving is so last week, we’re going for tiger taming next.”
“…I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?”
“Nah, you’re going to love it!” she replied enthusiastically. “Anyway, we gotta go before our parents get worried, see ya later!”
With a wave, the two fillies left and Apple Bloom closed the door, sitting in the silence broken only by Granny Smith snoring softly, and she turned to Reiver.
“If I know my family, Applejack and Big Macintosh will be out there until dark, let’s get back upstairs and see what we can find.”
“My thoughts exactly,” replied Reiver, and the two trotted back upstairs for a long night of research.