Forsaken

by Beware The Carpenter

15 - The Fat One Tells Lies

“What was that!?” snarled Twilight, standing in front of Luna, blocking her path.

Luna cocked a casual ear and smiled innocently at the little unicorn, “What was what?”

“That-that thing! The one that chased us on the moon!”

“That.” said Luna firmly, “Is a personal matter. One which I am not motivated to discuss.”

“Not motivated!?”

“Yes.” Answered Luna calmly, “You can go back to the moon if you wish, but you would do so alone, and there will be nothing there except what your subconscious mind imagines.”

Twilight's ears pulled fearfully, but her angry glare never left Luna, who looked to Shining Armor for help, but even he seemed hesitant. Celestia had explained the critical difference between Shining Armor and his sister was that if he was ordered to guard a book of black magic for a week, it would remain unopened, whereas Twilight might last fifteen minutes before deciding to read 'just one page'. He could be relied upon to follow orders, which was why he had considerably higher security clearance than his impetuous little sister; but this was not the same as being stupid. “What threat level does that entity pose to us, or Equestria?”

“None.” assured Luna, “Except for the power you give it to hurt you. It is like anger: the more you dwell on it the more powerful it grows. Such things are best left ignored.”

“Now that it's here... could it hurt Enigma?”

“The chances of it already having infected your brother's mind is small, but grow larger every moment we waste; which is why I wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. Imagine yourselves in your physical states. Now imagine a doorway that separates you from yourself.” Shining Armor closed his eyes, trying to focus and using an exorbitant amount of mental will. Twilight closed her eyes, and then her eyelids fidgeted.

Group invasions of a single dream were difficult, because everyone needed to mutually focus in order for anyone to escape. It only took one wandering mind to keep everyone there, and Twilight's mind was a wanderer. After three minutes she had shifted her weight eight times, scratched an itch, rotated her ears, and licked one side of her mouth before finally sighing in defeat and opening her eyes. “I'm sorry.” she whispered, “I just can't focus.”

“You have to Twily.”

“I know, and I've been trying.” whimpered Twilight, “I just can't make myself forget what I saw. There has to something you can tell me without... Luna are you crying?”

“No.” Luna shook her head, quickly turning one side of it away and wiping the tear away with a stroke from her wing. “What you saw.” she whispered reluctantly; “Was a shadow of my past: the jealousy and anger that drove me to become Nightmare Moon. It is... very painful for me to talk about... that's all I can say.”

Twilight nodded understandingly, seeing a reasonable answer that explained the chase on the moon, and which Luna would prefer not to talk about. For a moment it looked like she would actually try to comfort Luna through some trivial words or display of emotion, but a swift gesture from Luna brought her mind back to the task of escape. Twilight closed her eyes, and actually began focusing the way she'd been told, and Luna smiled to herself as the three ponies thought in near-unison, and a porthole began forming.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

The Fat One had lied.

Enigma knew that.

But that didn't make her any different from either of the other two, because all three of them lied to each other, and themselves constantly. They were just like Brace Wits and Congnastruct who had lied to Enigma since the day they met him, telling a total of 248,127 lies over a period of 7 years, 18 weeks, 4 days, 9 hours and 23 minutes; making an average of just over 3.85 lies per hour. The lies were endless, and Enigma would often need to count pi just to cheer himself back up after a particularly hurtful one.

6 days 8 hours 18 minutes ago at dinner, Brace Wit had told him that everyone had 427 grains of rice for dinner. That was a lie. Cognastruct's plate only had 426 grains on it, but Enigma hadn't said anything because if Congnastruct hadn't seemed to notice yet; and if he realized he'd been shorted, it might make him and Brace Wits fight. Enigma did not want that.

9 weeks, 4 days, 13 hours, 44 minutes ago Shining Armor had visited him for 1 hour and 59 minutes and then told him that he needed to go away, but would return to visit him again in 4 weeks, 2 days and 1 minute. That was a lie. Shining Armor returned 4 weeks, 2 days, 3 minutes and 39 seconds later. 2 minutes and 39 seconds late.

2 days 4 hours and 11 minutes ago, Cognastruct had told him very sadly that both his parents were now dead because they had had a wild party with their friends. He said everyone started stacking numbers on top of each other to see how high they could go. Up and up the tower went until someone was silly and knocked the tower over; making it collapse on everyone in the room and lighting them on fire. That was a lie. Enigma knew that his mommy and daddy had been very naughty. That’s why The Weeping Child came and gobbled them up.

Gobble. Gobble. Gobble.

He wasn’t meant to tell anybody about that though; it was a secret.

Not that anyone would listen to him if he told them anyway.

7 hours, 45 minutes ago, Twilight Sparkle had told him for the 243rd time that he lived in a cube. That was a lie. Enigma's room averaged 40 feet and 0.16 of an inch measured left to right, 39 feet and 11.92 inches backwards to forwards, and 40 feet and 0.05 of an inch measured up and down. The corners were even worse liars than the walls. There were only three right angles in the entire room, and they all sat together in the north-east corner; as far away as they could get from the imposter angles, which was why Enigma spent 316.74% more time there than he did with any of the other corners.

So many lies.

Enigma used to wonder if his room was meant to be a cube, and everyone else thought it was because that's what they'd been told and they had never bothered to check. Or maybe it used to be a cube and had since broken before he lived there. He'd told Brace Wits and Cognastruct 687 times that his room was not a cube, thinking maybe they would send someone to fix it, but no one ever came. Now Enigma thought this might be some kind of test and they would only let him out if he would say his room was a cube, showing he would deny his own senses and believe a lie if it was told to him frequently enough; but Enigma would not say what he knew was not true.

Besides; he liked it here.

It was warm and cozy, and there were always bacteria to count, and circles to talk to and things to think about; and despite their endless, lies, he was quite fond of Brace Wits and Cognastruct. There was somewhere however where he would prefer to live; a place he had just read about in one of The Fat One's books about a place called Moon Camp.

They said that on Moon Camp You didn’t need to eat or sleep or any of those annoying things, but could still imagine food if you wanted it; and the bacteria inside you stopped growing and dying meaning you could finally get an accurate headcount and name each one of them individually. On Moon Camp no one ever bugged you. No one ever came to steal bits of your hair when you were distracted; and you could just sit back and think about things all the time.

It sounded wonderful.

Enigma had thought about asking The Fat One if he could go live there for a while, maybe forever, or until the world needed him. He hadn't asked her yet however because he wasn't sure if that would be the best move for him; because he didn't have enough information to make an informed decision. Would he be able to get his own room; or would he need to share one with the guy who already lived up there?

That would not be fun.

That would be like sharing a room with a very noisy spider who would leave his noises all over the place and then it would be too noisy. ‘Boom! Bang! Ratta-tat-tat! Ratta-tat-tat! Boom! Bang! Ratta-tat-tat! Ratta-tat-tat! Bang-bang-boom-boom-ratta-boom-bang!’ Too Noisy!

It wouldn't always be like that though. The Very Noisy Spider was scheduled to leave in just 10 weeks, 2 days, 6 hours and 31 minutes; so if there was only one room, he could still ask The Fat One to send him to moon camp after The Very Noisy Spider was gone, and when someone had cleaned it.

Enigma needed to ask if he could have his own room on Moon Camp. If that answer was no, the he would need to ask if he could have Moon Camp after The Very Noisy Spider was gone. Those were two very important question Enigma needed to ask The Fat One before she went away. He supposed this meant he would need to keep his 3 babies from leaving until he came up with a way to ask his questions politely.