Forsaken

by Beware The Carpenter

16 - No One to Play With

“What's brown and sticky?”

Luna's eye's popped open at Shining Armor who seemed to be directing the question to his sister. Twilight fidgeted and then looked at him bewilderingly, “... What?”

“It's a riddle.” he said smiling, “What's brown and sticky?”

“Lots of things... most of them disgusting.”

“Err.” beeped Shining Armor, still smiling, “The correct answer was... a stick!"

Twilight deadpanned and then cracked up laughing, “That's terrible.”

“It was obvious.” Shining Armor protested, “Come on Twily, you're meant to be smart. I thought you would have gotten that one.”

“May I ask;” growled Luna irritably, “What you are doing?”

“Twily's curious about something; telling her not to think about it will just make her want the answer more, and so you need to make her wonder about something else, give her the answer to the other question, and then she can focus on something totally unrelated. Cadance and I figured out when she was a filly that riddles work fairly well for this.” He cleared his throat and looked Twilight in the eye, “What can be cool but never cold, sorry but never guilty, spooked but never scared, sweet but never friendly, and flammable but never burn.”

Twilight pursed her lips and looked down, ears twitching in small circles while Shining Armor waited patiently. Luna was still anxious to escape, but they had made three failed attempts to make a porthole, meaning a chance in tactics was necessary. At the very least, Shining Armor's game was taking the focus off her ward. “Words with double letters.” smiled Twilight triumphantly, gaining an approving nod from her brother.

Luna took a turn, “I am the first in earth, the second in heaven, and at the start of everything. I appear twice in a week but you can only see me once a year although I dwell in the middle of the sea?”

“The letter E.” said Twilight, only after a moment's pause, “You're not meant to give two riddles in a row revolving around their spelling. It's the rules.”

“My apologies.” hissed Luna quietly, unsure what rules the two siblings had placed on each other.

“My turn.” smiled Twilight. “What reflects like a mirror but never shows itself?”

Both Luna and Shining Armor paused, and a few moments passed before Twilight gave a small tap on the ground with her hoof, causing Luna to perk her ears forwards and - “An echo.” Answered Shining Armor a fraction before Luna got it; annoying her to no end. She really had figured that one out on her own.

Shining Armor took another turn. “You pick it. You peel the outside. You cook the inside. You eat the outside and throw away the inside.”

Luna knew this one, and was tempted to give the answer but restrained herself. The point was to distract Twilight from what she'd seen, and this one seemed to have her stumped, “Give me a hint.” she muttered after several long minutes.

“Applejack might get it.” coxed Shining Armor gently, tightening the crease on Twilight's brow, “Or another earth pony.”

Luna smiled, knowing Twilight's mind was now truly distracted and going nowhere. After this riddle Luna would give her one more, and then they would make another effort to escape.

“I give up.” sighed Twilight finally, “What is it?”

“Corn.” answered Luna before Shining Armor had the chance, “You peel the husk, cook the ear inside it, eat the kernels which are the new outside, and throw away the cob which is the new inside.”

“I have one!” shouted Smartypants suddenly at the top of her cotton lungs; shocking the rest of the party as began talking very quickly: “What creature has four legs when quiet but eight legs when noisy; looks white when it's glad, red when it's sad and transparent when scared; acts like a mare when it's lonely, a fox when it's angry, a leech when it's empty, but pretends it's a bee; sleeps through the night yet hides from the sun, won't give its name but is looking for love, throws fish off cliffs, doesn't eat much, enjoys rollerskating, and always stays in it's own sound-proof room where it and it's noisy messes never bother the person living respectfully across the hallwa-?”

Luna decapitated Smartypants.

She hadn't meant to; all she wanted to do was shut the infernal doll up before she finished a riddle that could only have one answer. She didn't even know where the sword had come from, but one had appeared in the grasp of her telekinesis; and before she knew it she had stabbed it through the doll's mouth, cutting out its tongue and sticking out the back of the mane, before flicking through the right cheek. Smartypant's head flipped to the left and hung there, upside down, from the only remaining piece of fabric from her left cheek and uttered.

“...Why Luna...why?”

Realizing the doll could still speak, Luna finished the job; quickly slashing the doll to pieces with a sword that was now wreathed if flame, leaving only a few crumpled crumbs of burnt cotton of what used to be Smartypants.

Then occurred to her: Twilight and Shining Armor were watching... and had heard the doll's riddle. Luna looked up slowly, checked the fabrics of the dream around them; then split her sword into two flaming weapons, of equal size and weight to the original, and swung them towards the unicorn's necks.

…...........................................................................................................

What had he done wrong?

Had he been rude?

Enigma did not think so. He had simply been trying to talk to his babies when The Fat One dropped a book that talked about encoding words inside of vibrations of vocal cords. It all seemed like horribly inefficient nonsense to Enigma, and he threw the book away but it did give him an idea of how he could get a message through by borrowing The Fat One's idiom and throwing his ideas into it, and then feedingwhat came out to his babies.

He tested his idea by taking his babies' thoughts and putting them in the 'out' hole and seeing what came out of the 'in' hole. From the raw ideas he got out, it seemed like his babies were asking each other questions, and so it seemed like the perfect time to ask whether or not he could have his own room on Moon Camp. He passed his question through The Fat One's idiom and gave what came out to his babies, but they did not answer his question. Then The Fat One had cut his head off and lit him on fire.

Enigma sighed, and put The Fat One's Idiom back on her shelf, thinking it must not work as an effective translator.

Now his three babies were playing a completely new game with each other. It seemed like tag. Enigma stood on the sidelines and asked if he could also play. First he offered The Fat One to help catch Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle and hold them down for her to tag them; but she did not answer. Then he offered Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle to help them run away; but they did not invite him to play either.

Author's Note:

Hint: If you read Limits of the Horizon ; you will have seen Luna's 'ward' running around in the background, but probably didn't think he was important.

You now have enough information to recognize him... though I doubt you will.

Comments

[Beware The Carpenter]

Understand Smartypant's riddle, and you will understand the impetus behind Luna's second rebellion.

[Beware The Carpenter]

6933822

Enigma still has Jam on Toast stuck to his mouth from the two pieces you gave him 13 weeks, 5 days, 8 hours and 43 minutes ago. You have time to ask one more question, which must be in 11 words or less.

11 is a prime number.