BEDLAM II: Heart of Glass

by Gormless Wheaton

Chapter 17

---

It was sort of nostalgic. On the run, pursued by Equestria's best, hurt and confused, and tinkering with machinery on the throne in the Castle of Two Sisters. Granted, I was technically tinkering with Tempest's damaged leg while she laid on her back on my lap, and I was also pursued by my own machines, but it still called back memories. Lots of memories.

"Diamond Tiara," I murmured as I struggled to twist a bolt with my fingers.

"What?"

"Nothing," I replied with a sigh. "Are your sensors still functioning?"

She blinked and focused. Her gemstone eye crackled and buzzed but lit up as normal. "A little fuzzy, but yes."

"Keep an eye out for the ship or any golems."

"Already on it," she quipped with a smirk. I nodded and continued patching her up as best I could. The invasion force from Canterlot had proved at least partially beneficial, as it kept Twilight's friends off our backs allowing us to escape. There was no sign of the hovercraft that was supposed to be waiting, but it might have been en route.

The alternative, that it had been intercepted, was a reality I refused to ponder for the time being. I was instead preoccupied with the uncertain reality that the invaders were overtaking Ponyville and had already fallen upon Twilight and company.

And KS 6 hadn't exactly kept her intentions for her a secret. My only comfort was the knowledge that she and all her friends were in the same location, and smashing my golems, whether piloted by me or KS 6, should be second nature to them by now.

I smirked at the thought, which Tempest didn't fail to notice. "I'm assuming that face means you have an idea how exactly are we going to handle this?" I met her eyes and hummed. Pausing in my work, I rubbed my chin in thought. The past few hours, I'd mainly been looking to contact Jury, but seeing as that was reasonably already handled, I could devote my brain-power to the problem at hand.

"Disrupting wand. Class two or better," I murmured. "If we stabbed her in the heart with one, it might scramble her mind long enough for us to purge her from everything, if it doesn't kill her outright."

"That still requires we get close enough to stab her."

"And that's the trick, isn't it?" I let out a heavy and angry sigh and clicked my teeth. Memories continued to pulse through my mind, so I hummed and pondered how things used to be. This proved useful as, after a moment, a thought occurred. "If we can get any nearby administrators to march their animunculi on the old Citadel, we could erect some of those old signal towers we used to use. Wouldn't take long to hack them so they refuse any signals from the satellites, and we can lock them to my or Jury's registration."

Tempest hummed and nodded. "Sure, but what's stopping her from using the satellites ahead of time to infect the golems before we get the towers set up?" I frowned and leaned back. I tapped her metal leg in thought before grimacing.

"Wouldn't be too hard to just send the whole system on standby for a while, I guess."

Tempest recoiled. "Shut down all the satellites?" She looked off to the side in consideration of my suggestion. "That'd effectively cut all of our territories off from one another."

"Better than giving KS 6 any room to run," I retorted. Tempest grimaced and sighed.

"Very true," she continued to stare off while I resumed patching her leg. "It feels like everything's coming undone around us, Ed."

"No kidding," I scoffed. "Kinda meshes with something a local pony spat at me earlier, though."

She nestled her head onto my free hand and I began massaging her ear. "What was that?"

"Some nonsense about the world's harmonic magic something-or-other getting pissed at me because of the machines," I explained. "Adds up with my theory on magic technically being a living thing, which is why it responds to intent and all that shit."

I sighed and met her eyes as she looked back at me. "I think she was implying harmony itself wants me gone," I said, drawing a sad frown from her, which I countered with a smirk. "I have a different theory, though."

She smiled at that, so I continued. "Harmony's upset with me, sure, but not because of the machines," I explained, gesturing with my hand. "It's upset I've been negligent with the populace. I haven't been putting enough effort towards the quality of life of the average citizen."

"All our censuses have been on health and food and the like, but the happiness of the average citizen was never a factor!" I chortled. "I assumed it was a given."

I nodded at her. "So! We'll just have to add that to the list, and start running some polls, won't we? Figure out what the people feel they really need." She tilted her head and giggled.

"I guess we will," she looked off toward the entrance with a smile. "I think the ship is here."

---

I leered back towards Ponyville as I steered the hovercraft. While most of the town seemed unchanged, Sweet Apple Acres seemed to be at least partially on fire. Occasionally, a teal or violet beam of magic flashed through the air, confirming at least somewhat that Twilight and Starlight were still active. Humming, I nudged the free-thinking golem beside Tempest.

"You came from the Citadel, correct?"

[Yes sir,] it replied.

"What's the situation? Any escalations after Tempest made contact?"

[The Administrator was complaining of repeated assaults upon the Crystal Mind, as well as needing to place many animunculi on standby until you returned.] Tempest and I shared a look before turning back to the golem.

"Have any of them been behaving aberrantly?" I pressed.

[The Administrator was afraid of that, but to my knowledge, no,] it replied. [The enemy that has been hacking our systems has yet to wrestle the Citadel's local control node away from the Administrator.]

I huffed and focused forward. "That's something, at least." An explosion echoed through the air, briefly drawing my attention back to the town. I smirked at the sight of a purple, sparkling mushroom cloud rising, sending little black dots that were probably ruined animunculi through the air.

"I think our Equestrian branch can manage to rein in the local defects," I nodded at Tempest. "Giving us a chance to focus on our own defenses."

She hummed at the steadily fading cloud behind us. "Plus, KS 6 might just focus all her attention on Twilight," she said with a smirk aimed my way. "Also to our advantage." I chortled and increased our speed, leaving behind the Everfree and Ponyville.

---

Comments

[SleeplessChatter]

On the one hand, credit to him for realizing he was an idiot for not polling specifically for happiness vs everything else. On the other, I'm not sure he's picked up on the fact that everyone not in his inner circle is very likely lying to keep him from burning down the neighborhood. Or he and Tempest are sharing a giggle at him planning to imprison people who aren't happy, but not really getting that vibe from this and previous few chapters?

Also, nice to see he picked up on who the pony was earlier.

...I'm kinda hopeful he maintains some form of control after the current crisis is over just so I can see what he does with his most recent revelations. Find out just how much he really plans to follow this idea of creating and maintaining a better world while being a jerk.