A dozen pieces of jam on toast hovered around Luna. Some followed placidly, keeping a polite distance. Others flapped like mutant butterflies and landed gently on her back. Those remaining, which unfortunately happened to be most of them, battered up and down her sides, smearing her up and down with jam that never ran out.
One of them touched a sensitive spot on her shoulder, triggering a reflex she couldn't control as her right wing shot forwards, bashing the infernal toast away from her. Like every other time she had struck the jam since it appeared, there was exactly a three second delay, and then another piece of toast spattered against the left side of her face with twice the force of her right wing. Her eyelids didn't seem to exist on this plane, meaning she had jam in her eye. Fortunately it didn't hurt or impede her vision. Bewilderingly, her eye could taste the jam.
Luna hated the taste of jam.
The piece of toast she'd battered away returned unharmed and resumed hovering over her, while two more pieces nibbled at her heels. Despite this; Luna was in a surprisingly good mood.
To start with; for the first time since getting lost in Enigma's mind, she seemed to have all her body parts in one place, and in the right order. Until recently she had been physically abstract; often noticing her hind legs were running ahead of her, even though she was walking forwards, while her torso felt as though it was in a different century from her head and her teeth rolled along beside her, arguing with each other about which one of her nostrils they liked best.
Their arguments always began peacefully at first, until they grew fists and began boxing each other until a particularly ruthless band of molars agreed that the left nostril was superior, and beat her other teeth into submission. The battle won, all her remaining teeth jumped back into her mouth with a shout of triumph, only to jump out a few moments later and start the war all over again.
This drama repeated about three or four times until Luna finally started paying serious attention to Smartypants who'd been following her around. The more Luna chased her, the more Smartypants seemed to be leading her somewhere until finally, the laws of natural physics began restoring themselves, and she caught sight of Armor and Twilight on the horizon. They were not the rescue party that Luna was expecting, but they would be adequate.
Luna had not enjoyed being in Enigma's mind, she had not found what she came looking for, and yet she wasn't entire certain she regretted being here. Some of the things she'd seen here she would surely spend the rest of her life contemplating, and yet failing to understand. Others she was already doing her best to forget. Either way, she was quite ready to leave.
A piece of toast slapped her across the face.
Armor and Twilight's dreams were still separate, though close enough to overlap, so the power of their subconsciousness held Enigma's at a two to one advantage, meaning their dreams would be almost normal. When Luna had joined them, three quarters of the astral plane around them would be be comprised of of consciousnesses that Luna could understand, and then, so long as the three of them could remain focused, she should be able to create a way for all three of them to escape.
As Luna made another lunge forwards, her eye stopped tasting the jam and it began to sting painfully; causing Luna to smile broadly. Now that she could see where she was going, she didn't need Smartypants anymore and had sent her on ahead to fetch Shining Armor; while she herself would collect Twilight. Several pieces of toast bit her on the wing, but Luna shook them off, grit her teeth, and soldiered on.
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Enigma followed 3.46 ideas behind The Fat One as she bumped and bumbled her way down his memory lane. 1 more time he asked her if she would bring him some jam on toast when she was gone, and 1 more time she completely ignored him, making Enigma sad and a little angry.
The Fat One wobbled as she jumped 18.47 ideas closer to Twilight Sparkle, and as she did so another book fell out of her bookshelf and landed on the floor in front of Enigma. Books were weird. Until now Enigma had always kept the things he knew inside his ideas, and only used the bookshelf that Cognastruct had put in his room as a place to exile naughty bacteria and watch them die of starvation after counting them. Now however, ever since he'd gotten pregnant with Twilight Sparkle; The Fat One's ideas started showing up in books, which then fell off the bookshelf she was carrying around on her back.
Enigma picked up the latest escapee and read it.
Did you know that there was a forest that was bigger on the inside than the outside?
Enigma wasn't sure what a forest was, but anything that used inter-dimensional widening sounded like it would be fun. Maybe one day after he left Alkzum he would take a vacation there, and visit The Glass Man who lived in the middle. Enigma could lift the Glass Man 3,643.15 feet in the air, smash him on a big rock, and then put him back together again.
That would be fun.
Enigma tried to give the book back to The Fat One, but she didn't take it. Another book just like it was already growing out of The Fat One's bookshelf; meaning she didn't need this one back. Enigma wondered what to do with the book he was holding, and then put it in the pile with the others.
So far he had collected 31 books that no one wanted back. 16 of them were dropped by The Fat One, 6 of them fell out of Shining Armor and 9 more were dropped by Twilight Sparkle. His favorite 1 was dropped by Twilight Sparkle which had 5 chapters telling him about 5 people she'd become friends with. That book was heartwarming, but Enigma wondered why none of Twilight Sparkle's 5 friends had never come to visit him.
He would especially like to meet Pinkie Pi.
She sounded like fun.
Even if he never met them however, Enigma was encouraged by what her choice of friends showed about maturity of Twilight Sparkle. It warmed his heart with pride knowing she wasn't racist and willing to make friends with people who weren't the same species as she was. Until now, Enigma had thought he was the only one who made friends with circles.
Another book fell off The Fat One's bookshelf. It only took Enigma 16.83 seconds to read it, but when he looked up he realized The Fat One had already moved 22.46 ideas ahead of him, that was fast. He jump ahead of her and offered her the book back, but she didn't take it. Enigma decided to add it to the pile, then realized that the other 31 books he collected weren't in a pile anymore. They were on a bookshelf.
Enigma stared at the bookshelf that had appeared on top of his back, and watched it write his name on itself and then start grabbing the ideas off the ground and putting them into new books. It was creepy. Enigma wondered if he should stop this madness now before it went any further and then decided to ask for jam on toast again.