//------------------------------// // 2 - Home Sweet Home // Story: Forsaken // by Beware The Carpenter //------------------------------// As Twilight counted down from two hundred, the train slowed and stopped. The sun had returned, barring before her the bleak reality of the Alkzum Asylum; hanging off the east side of the Canterhorn and away from Canterlot’s innocent eyes. Seconds after stepping off the platform she was met by a pair of guards Brisk Blink and Barricade. They knew who she was, and that she was coming; but Barricade still scanned her for illusions and took a DNA sample to confirm she wasn’t using a metamorphic spell, while Brisk Blink searched her bags. Another pair of guards watched her from a distance, weapons ready, and for every guard Twilight saw, she knew five more watching her unnoticed. As the inspection came to a close, the front gate opened and two doctors, a stallion and mare, came running down the stairs to meet her. The mare, Brace Wit; was white with a pink and green striped mane that made her resemble a younger version of Twilight’s late mother; possessing every bit of Starknight’s tenacity for research, but coupled with a mother’s tenderness which Starknight had never learned. The stallion, Cognastruct; was a golden stallion with a deep blue mane and a deeper sense of empathy and even deeper patience. Both were unicorns in their mid-thirtys who’d married right out of college, both completing degrees in advanced psychology, and brought together by their love for difficult cases. For all intents and purposes, they’d been Enigma’s parents for the last seven years and, apart from Celestia, had the final say about what he was exposed to. Although actual progress in Enigma’s development had been slow; Twilight knew that it wasn’t for lack of their effort, and nor had it dampened their hopes of one day developing Enigma into a functional member of society. Both were well aware that if they could ever truly understand how Engima was utilizing magic, it would change life in Equestria forever, and although both of them worked tirelessly towards this goal, Enigma was more than just a research project to them, he was their son. When they first took Enigma’s case; they’d lived in the small but well planned living quarters next to Enigma’s cell, so they could be on call at any point of the day or night; but after their daughter Aureola was born, that needed to change. No matter anyone’s best efforts, Alkzum Asylum was no place to raise a child, if any other option was given, and so they now lived in a flat in Canterlot, with only special cases like this requiring leaving Aureola with Brace Wit's sister Nebula. “Thank you for coming Twilight.” Breathed Brace Wits, embracing Twilight warmly with a smile fake enough to shatter any hope Twilight had fostered that the letter had exaggerated Enigma’s condition. “What’s happened since this morning?” “One hour after breakfast, he began teleporting frantically around his room,” Informed Cognastruct, “Sometimes two or three times per second. After an hour, he stopped as quickly as he began and hasn’t so much as twitched since then.” Twilight nodded worryingly, as she followed them back up the steps and into the asylum. They passed three flights of stairs, each telling a dozen stories of lunacy, bloodlust, and despair as the most dangerous of the criminally insane, who’d avoided the death penalty, were kept under twenty-four hour surveillance. Twilight avoided looking down the dangerous alleyways and followed Brace Wits and Cognastruct deeper into the asylum to where the special cases were held. Enigma wasn’t a criminal. He was an eleven year old child. He wasn’t violent or manipulative or hateful; he was just dangerous because what he could do and what he didn’t understand. Usually, when a unicorn foal couldn’t control their power, they were horn locked and given special therapies until they’d stabilized, with only the most extreme cases requiring horn castration; but with Enigma this was never an option. He was always sensitive about anyone touching his horn, and teleported either them or himself away if anyone tried. If someone ever did manage to slip a hornlock onto him as a child, he stopped breathing and began thrashing about as if he was in unbearable pain. At first everyone thought he might just throwing a temper tantrum, like any four year old who doesn’t get their way, but the second time Enigma encountered a hornlock, it was left on until he’d passed out, and couldn’t be resuscitated until after it was removed. The last time Enigma saw a hornlock, the doctor who’d been holding it died. No medical reason was revealed by the autopsy. The three unicorns passed another steel gate and stopped outside a cell which, by rumor, had been constructed as a contingency plan to contain Nightmare Moon in case The Elements of Harmony failed. Three suits of armor, custom forged from pure tylithium sat waiting patiently for them. Twilight instinctively tried to pick her armor up with her magic, only to watch her telekinesis slide harmlessly off the dull gray metal without even making it rattle. Twilight let out a small grunt of frustration, and then followed Cognastruct and Brace Wit’s lead in wriggling into her armor using only her mouth and hooves for leverage. It took her nearly three times longer for her to fasten all the straps and buckles then it did Cognastruct and Brace Wits, who slid into their suits with the practiced ease of daily routine; but she caught up that time when it came to applying protective buffs. For virtually every other magical creature Twilight knew of; magic needed to be applied to an entire person or object to be utilized. A select few wielders, like herself, could be vaguely selective; like in turning a page without moving a whole book or only moving a few branches of a tree. Enigma however, could be infinitely selective in what he took. If a normal child wanted an adult’s attention, they might grab a clump of mane, or a hoof, or a wing and try to pull the adult to where they wanted them. Enigma wasn’t any different except there was a small chance that he might grab a portion of someone’s left lung carotid artery, start pulling, and accidentally rip someone in half, trying to get their attention. There were three main theories about how Enigma utilized magic and between Twilight, Shining Armor, and a professor at the school for gifted unicorns, they’d compiled a list of seventeen protective spells which, combined, should theoretically solidify someone into a single object which Enigma couldn’t disassemble. He’d still be able to move Twilight with normal telekinesis, but with her body covered from her head to cutie-mark in tylithium armor, his grip would be weak enough that she could break free if she needed to. Twilight didn’t know, and dreaded to think, what would happen if Enigma ever actually wanted to hurt someone but, so far, no one in his cell had been hurt while using tylithium armor and the mandatory list of spells. When everyone was ready, Cognastruct took a key to a tylithium door; and opened it to a long, narrow, tylithium plated hallway, and they advanced single-file until they came to a second door. This door opened inwards into Enigma’s cell, and so although he couldn’t get out, sometimes he made a shield in front of the door, blocking anyone else from coming in. He’d done this last night; after appearing to fall into a shallow sleep, Cognastruct and Brace Wits had retired to their own room to lay down, and then heard him screaming through half-inch walls of tylithium, and three feet walls of concrete which separated them. They’d tried to rush in, to comfort him; but the door was blocked, meaning there was nothing they could do except stand, listening to him scream in agony and watch five sets of instruments indicate the internal temperature of the cell reach more than three thousand degrees. It was three hours before the yelling stopped, and another two before he let anyone in. Every item in the room had been burnt to ashes, except for Enigma who sat, alone and unharmed in the middle of his devastation; weeping softly as blood leaked down from one nostril. The key clicked into its locking mechanism, and Twilight held her breath, hoping for one selfish moment that the gate would remain closed, but the door swung smoothly open.