BEDLAM Minus One

We'd spent a few days getting all the books in the castle organized in our new library once Jury moved in. It was an excellent first step and made research quick and easy.

Usually.

"Where is it?" I huffed as I dashed from one stack of books to another. Today, however, I was stuck digging through our collection to find something I'd seen and discarded somewhere in the room weeks ago. "Where is it?" I jabbed my finger against the spines of the stack before me and quickly traced it down, rapidly scanning the titles of each book. I grunted and shoved the pile over before running to one of our bookshelves. Before I reached the shelf, Jury jumped in front of me.

"Is this it?" She asked, holding a thin book up to me with her magic. I frowned and leaned in to read the title before laughing.

"Yes!" I roared in triumph, snatched the book, and raced to the table I'd left my other research material on. "The old castle visitor log!" I dove into my chair and slammed the book down before studying its contents. Jury reared up on the table beside me and leaned over to see what the book said. I very rapidly confirmed what I'd suspected and I let out a bitter hum.

"Why're you wanting to read Celestia's list of visitors?" She asked, furrowing her brow as we scanned the list of names. I nodded and turned a few pages towards the back of the book.

"Because," I began, pausing to press my finger into a page matching the date I was looking for. I narrowed my eyes as I found him. "Starswirl and company arrived on this day to declare their hunt for the Pony of Shadows."

"So?"

"So!" I flipped back a few pages in the log, quickly finding the point I had in mind. "Every visit from the so-called Pillars of Equestria after this point lists all of their names." I tapped the page and then traced my finger to an earlier entry.

"And yet, every visit from before this point lists an extra name," I added, holding the book to Jury. She tilted her head as she read the entry.

"Stygian? I've never read about him," she declared.

"I don't think anyone has, he's not in any history books I remember reading at Twilight's," I replied, setting the ledger aside and reaching for another book I'd found earlier. "But while I was digging for more information on the Pony of Shadows, I started coming across his name."

"Right, you were saying we might be able to use the power of darkness for something after you first read about it," Jury hummed with a small frown before perking up. "Oh! Speaking of magic, I've got a new design for a portable shield!"

"Later, Jury," I said, holding up the book I'd grabbed. It was a floppy, dark blue little thing. "Look here. One of Luna's old journals from the years around when the Pony of Shadows first appeared. I figured if anyone would have an idea about where that monster came from, it'd be one of the sisters." I explained, flipping through before finding and showing Jury what I'd read earlier.

"Look," I demanded. She squinted as her eyes scanned the old text.

"Uh, older Equestrian's kind of hard to read."

"You're telling me, but I kind of get the gist," I laughed before holding my finger against a specific line. "This clearly says Starswirl, for instance. What else do you see?" Jury adopted a wide frown and raised her eyebrows as she attempted to read the alicorn's old script.

"Yea, und der tuu, uhm, unicarns?" She sighed and tilted her head. "Whoo ar-, uh, areeved wi he und-"

"Three unicorns, Jury," I interjected, pulling the book back and holding up three fingers. "Three. 'And the two unicorns who arrived with him,' effectively is what she wrote." Jury sighed hard and shook her head before blinking in realization.

"Wait, I thought Starswirl and Mistmane were the only unicorns in that group?"

"Exactly my thoughts," I replied setting Luna's journal aside and grabbing another. It was firmer and bore a white cover. "Celestia's journal is less matter-of-fact and, therefore, more telling." I quickly found and presented a passage. Jury glanced at it before fixing me with an annoyed expression.

"Her horn-writing is just as hard to read though," she grumbled. I rolled my eyes and read the passage myself.

"She mentions each of Starswirl's companions by name, including our mysterious third unicorn," I explained, finding and presenting a certain name to her. "Stygian. And all prior entries about the Pillars mention him as well." She nodded slowly before looking up at me.

"So?"

"So, I asked myself, what happened to Stygian?" I flipped through the journal as I spoke. "Was he killed when this shadowy monster first popped up?" Jury tilted her head expectantly as I searched.

"Just a few months before the Pony of Shadows ever appeared, I noticed a few things," I added before nodding once I found the pages I was looking for. I held each page with my fingers so I could quickly flip between them and show Jury. "Here, Celestia noted a private talk she had with Stygian, who was inquiring about the process by which one might duplicate magic items. Here, Starswirl apparently visited alone, speaking with the sisters about Stygian's exile on accusations of thievery, since he allegedly tried to steal some magical artifacts from him." Holding the book to her, I reached over with my other hand and grabbed Luna's journal. With a little difficulty, I presented a relevant page to Jury.

"And here, Luna recounts that the Pillars believe and spread the story that Stygian was simply hungry for power," I explained. Again with some effort, I roughly flipped Celestia's journal a few pages. "But! Celestia suspected his actions were born out of a feeling of inadequacy, rather than malice." Jury's eyes darted between the two books before she narrowed her eyes and raised her eyebrows.

"Okay?" She hesitantly pressed. I dropped both books and grabbed another white-covered journal.

"This is the last entry in Celestia's most recent journal just before she left for Canterlot," I explained, turning to the very last written page. Notably, more than half of the book was still blank. "She very briefly muses on Nightmare Moon, wondering if the dark power that took hold over her sister was at all related to the power of darkness that birthed the Pony of Shadows." I showed Jury, who rubbed her chin in response.

"As Starswirl and company had long vanished along with the monster, there was no one who'd know for sure," I added with a shrug before closing the book and tapping its spine against the table. "But that does have me thinking."

"About what?" She asked. I tapped the book a few more times before turning to her.

"You know about the magic of music, right?" I asked, continuing when she nodded. "That's an example of magic that happens in response to emotions. Positive ones, usually." I paused and looked off to the side.

"What if the inverse is true? What if when ponies are full of anger, misery, or anything else like that, some kind of magic boils up in response to those emotions?" I finally asked, still looking off in thought.

"I think dark magic works like that," she replied. I turned back to her and snapped my fingers.

"Exactly, and with that in mind," I hesitated and held my pointing finger at her. I felt my expression sour as certain thoughts came bubbling up again. "Who's to say this Pony of Shadows wasn't just another ordinary pony who, upon being exiled for the terrible crime of feeling like he was a burden on his friends due to his lack of power, was swept up by some fashion of potent dark magic?" I looked off to the side and slowly reclined in my seat.

"Eddy?"

"Bedlam," I spat.

"Sorry! Uh, Bedlam?"

"Yes?" I demanded. Jury didn't answer until I finally turned to glare at her.

"You okay?" She asked with her ears back.

"Yep," I curtly replied, leaning forward with a smile and patting her on the shoulder. "So! What about this shield of yours?"

Starlight frowned as she scanned the dockside warehouse through her binoculars. From the alleyway she was peering out of she could only see one entrance, but after spending the day scoping the place out, she knew that was the entrance the mob was using. The honest laboring ponies and minotaurs, who had left around sundown, operated out of the big sliding door on the dockside, while much better-off and shifty-looking sorts crept in and out of the door she was surveying. And always in groups of three, no less, which her unwilling informants back in town had said was a calling card for the city's criminals. Three ponies who knew each other by name and each fulfilled a specific role in the trio for the mob.

And none of whom knew every detail about their operations. For instance, Jumble had been his group's leader and received orders from higher up the chain, while Clatter made deliveries between groups and Chip handled the hard, physically demanding work.

As a result, Clatter knew to pick up payments from this warehouse, while only Jumble knew for sure that the warehouse was also where Manehattan's mob boss was hiding out. But none of the three knew who the kingpin of the entire operation across Equestria was, or had any solid ideas who Bedlam was for that matter.

But Piece 'o Work, the unicorn giving Jumble orders, just might have something concrete. At least, that was Starlight's thinking, and as the last bit of movement she'd seen was a set of three ponies entering the building several minutes ago, it seemed like the ideal time to test her thoughts.

"Just gotta get in there," she whispered.

"And do what exactly?" Came a voice behind her that made her jump out of her skin. She whirled around and fired a beam of magic at the source, which drew several cries of surprise and a warbling drone as her beam struck something. She blinked and recoiled when she saw a magical shield that rippled as the last of her spell dispersed, protecting Twilight and the rest of the girls from her attack. Twilight was the only one unperturbed by Starlight's action, but still fixed her with a slightly critical look.

"Aw, jeez! Sorry!" Starlight gasped. She looked the group up and down as Twilight let her shield down. "What the heck are you all doing here?"

"We're digging into a lead about this crime wave and whoever this Bedlam character is," Twilight explained. "What about you?"

"The same, pretty much," Starlight replied, looking back over her shoulder at the warehouse. "I found some mob ponies and managed to pry that this warehouse is where Manehattan's thugs are keeping the potions that have been causing so many problems." Starlight turned her full attention toward the building as the girls moved forward to get a better look at it. After a moment, Starlight frowned and looked at Twilight.

"But hold on, why are you here in this spot specifically?"

"We were skulking around Manehattan-"

"Sleuthing around Manehattan, Darling," Rarity interjected, rubbing her chin as she scanned the building. "Skulking makes us sound like a herd of low lives." Twilight nodded with a quiet grunt.

"Right, we were sleuthing around Manehattan all night to see if we could spot anypony doing anything weird," she continued and pointed a hoof skyward. "Then Rainbow saw that." Starlight looked above and blinked when she noticed a small, slow-moving dot silhouetted against the moon. She brought her binoculars up and saw it was some weird contraption with four propellors and a big metal claw perfectly centered between them.

"What the heck is that?" She muttered.

"Dunno, but I saw it dump a little crate on top of a big apartment building before it raced off this way," Rainbow replied, scowling at the machine. "Think it might have something to do with how these guys are giving out those lame potions?"

"Maybe," Starlight said watching it slowly drift over the warehouse and slowly descend out of view. She dropped her binoculars and turned to the group. "Guess we should take a closer look, huh?"

"Right!" Twilight's friends said in unison.

"Oooh, this is exciting!" Pinkie squealed as she began bouncing toward the warehouse. "This is just like all those police dramas on the radio!"

"Certainly is an interesting change of pace from the usual dastardly schemes we have to handle," Rarity hummed as everyone filed out after Pinkie. Just before Starlight could follow, she was pulled back by Twilight's magic. She shot the alicorn a confused look only to wilt slightly when she met her sour expression.

"You stormed off after refusing to help deal with this situation," Twilight declared, jabbing a hoof at Starlight. "What are you really doing out here?" Starlight recoiled briefly before collecting herself and scowling.

"I'm hoping to find something that proves somepony is framing Eddy," she firmly replied. The two held their hostile expressions before Twilight sighed and smiled.

"Me too," she said with a nod. Starlight blinked before smiling back. The two shared a brief hug before dashing forward to follow their friends.

The crossing from their hiding place to the warehouse was simple, but now that they stood beside the building they were faced with their first challenge.

"How we gon' get inside?" Applejack whispered, adjusting her hat as she scanned the structure. "Figure they'll be watching that door and the big gate."

"We also don't know for sure if this place has anything to do with everything that's been happening," Twilight said, bristling her wings and turning to the group. "Or at the very least, we don't have any evidence of that being the case. So, I don't think it would be wise to just break in." The rest nodded slowly before Rainbow looked off toward the docks and flinched.

"Well, I guess somepony should've told that to Pinkie," she huffed, pointing in the direction she was looking. Twilight's ears shot back and she turned to see Pinkie bouncing toward the door.

"Pinkie!" She whisper-screamed all too late as the pink mare reared up and began rhythmically knocking on the door with both forehooves. Before anyone could intervene, the door swung open.

"Who the heck are you?" A thoroughly annoyed voice spat. Pinkie adopted a low stance with a sneer.

"I'm the loose cannon cop on the edge!" She snarled. "Who doesn't play by the rules!"

"Wha-" Was all the voice could get out before she dove in and tackled the voice's owner. The sounds of a violent scuffle began out from the door as the group stared in unified horror.

"Oh, dear Celestia, Pinkie's assaulting somepony," Twilight squeaked.

"What radio dramas has she been listening to?" Starlight huffed.

"Come on!" Twilight cried, snapping her wings out and propelling herself after Pinkie. The group galloped forward and swept through the door where they found vast stacks of crates and loading equipment filling the place. The crates were arranged neatly allowing easy passage through the warehouse from the door to the loading gate and then to the opposite wall, where a simple kitchen and dining area were set up under a flight of stairs leading to a long overhanging windowed structure. Lights were visible in the structure, but its curtains were closed.

Meanwhile, Pinkie was rolling in the middle of the floor away from a trio of furious stallions, two unicorns and an earth pony, who were charging after her. The unicorns each had a long knife in their magic, while the earth pony had extra thick iron shoes which left cracks in the concrete beneath him as he stomped after Pinkie.

"Wheee!" Pinkie squealed as she tumbled.

"Get back here!" The earth pony roared.

"There's more of 'em!" One of the unicorns yelled, sliding to a halt and swinging his knife toward Twilight and the rest. "Who snitched?!"

"Wasn't me!" The other unicorn screamed, turning away from the group and looking toward the overhanging chamber. "Piece! We got problems!"

"Wait a second!" Twilight yelled as the trio shot a unified glare her way. "This is all-" The earth pony gawped and jabbed a hoof at her.

"That's a danged princess!" He whipped around and snarled at his companions. "One of you idiots led the law right to us!" A knife was jabbed at him as the unicorn nearest him snarled back.

"Wasn't me, you clumsy rat!" He hissed, looking the earth pony up and down. "Them heavy shoes make enough noise she probably heard you stomping all the way in Canterlot!"

"Why you-"

"Are we still fighting?" Pinkie asked, lying on her back with her head tilted. The door to the upper chamber suddenly clicked open and all eyes shot up to see a thin, dark blue pegasus with piercing emerald eyes fixed in a judgemental leer slowly emerge and begin a controlled descent down the stairs. Twilight blinked and tilted her head when she noticed a strange amulet with a bunch of gems on it hanging from his neck. It was hard to tell from across the room, but she was pretty certain she could see little glowing divets, as you'd normally see in gem runes.

"Can I help you ladies?" The pegasus hummed once he was level with them and beginning to approach. Twilight shot her hooves up and waved them.

"Sorry! Sorry!" She pleaded. "Please, this is just a misunderstanding! Our friend was just-"

"Piece, she's one of the alicorns!" The earth pony yelled. "They're on to us!" The pegaus adopted a purse-lipped frown and tilted his head.

"On to what?" He asked, shaking his head. "We haven't done anything illegal, to my knowledge." He shot a smug smile at Twilight, but the earth pony furrowed his brow.

"Have you been drinking?" He huffed. "This is the shipping hub for all of Manehattan's mob connections!" Silence gripped the whole warehouse and all eyes fell on the earth pony, who maintained his bewildered stare leveled at Piece who responded with a weary, incredulous glare.

"Aha, wow," Starlight huffed. Piece sighed hard and sat down before holding his amulet with one hoof, hoving his other hoof over it as he scanned the gems.

"Alright, what did the boss say, again?" He murmured and began slowly tapping the gems, seemingly in a sequence. "This one, that one, that one, then.. You." He firmly poked the lowest-facing gem and nodded.

"Sorry 'bout that, but I'm still not an expert on operating," he laughed and shrugged at the girls. "Nopony's been stupid enough to try robbing us, so I haven't had a chance to make this thing do any fighting." The girls recoiled and shared a look.

"Make.. what do any fighting?" Fluttershy asked with a quaver. Piece responded with a venomous smile as a clatter came from the upper office.

Clank clank clank

All eyes were drawn back to the office, where now a tall, thin, bipedal metal thing with two arms that ended in long rectangular boxes emerged. The thing had a long, thin head that had a thick gem-covered metal band wrapped around it. The band slowly spun, and each of the gems slowly lit up as they arrived at the 'face' of the thing's head. It rapidly stomped down the stairs and then made its way to just behind Piece, who smirked and held up the talisman.

"What in the world is that thing?" Rarity gasped.

"The fruits of our most recent business arrangement," Piece chortled.

"Uh, Twilight?" Rainbow murmured, slowly turning to the alicorn. "Do you have any idea-" She paused at the sight of both Twilight and Starlight, staring at the metal thing with a unified, shocked expression.

"Alright, listen to me!" Piece demanded, tapping a gem on the amulet. The thing bent its head slightly and focused on the pegasus. "You see these mares?" The thing tilted its head and then stomped its foot.

"Good~," Piece purred before laughing and turning back to the girls. "Kill 'em." The thing stomped its foot again and raised both of its arms. The boxes hissed and slowly expanded, revealing a set of glowing gem-lined tubes. At the back of each tube was a larger blue gem that began to spark with energy that fed along the gem lines. With the exception of Twilight and Starlight, the girls all recoiled in fear as the machine made a whining buzzing noise and the light from its arms began to intensify.

Piece smirked as the light cast him into what he believed was a positively menacing silhouette.

VREEEN

And then he blinked, as a pair of beams, one lavender and one turquoise, screamed passed either side of his head and seemingly up the machine's arms. The light intensified even more as the machine squealed and flopped back. Piece slowly looked back over his shoulder just in time to see the machine rattle and then explode in a burst of magic that was contained in a two-layered bubble that matched the colors of the two beams.

Looking forward again, he saw Twilight and Starlight glaring death his way with both of their horns lit up. For just a moment he looked at the trio of thugs he was working with. The two unicorns were holding each other in terror while the earth pony's face had gone white. Piece was then yanked forward and driven to the ground by the mare's combined magic. Twilight and Starlight loomed over him causing him to whimper.

"Where. Did. You. Get. That?" They rumbled in unison.