Unfathomable Horror

Luna’s face was like stone, unemotional and chiselled. Her unblinking cyan eyes were glued to the stallion. He had been washed, trimmed, and put into rehabilitation, but nothing could fully erase the look in his eyes. Luna kept hers open for the purposes of observing the broken stallion, yet the stallion’s were kept open out of the fear of what he would potentially see behind them. He was huddled up on the corner of his bed with his back to the wall. Rather than stare at her, his eyes were focused at nothing in the dimmest corner of his room. The window-curtains had been torn down. The room also contained a few more lanterns than was necessary, their candles all but depleted. Amongst the ocean of other conditions he was diagnosed with, nyctophobia was one of them. She had been working on tackling each of his fears, one by one, over the recent weeks. She had seen enough of his mind that she couldn’t help but see an open book in place of a pony. She knew him almost as much as she knew herself, and from the events that passed during her first encounter with him, their similarities did not end at their preference for isolation.

“Whip Smart,” she probed softly, her firm features cracking into something more gentle when she spoke his name.

His eyes snapped to her, his tired and overworked oculars registering her appearance for the first time. She saw fear flash within them before familiarity took its place, a tired smile coming to the stallion’s face. “Hello, Princess.”

“Thou art looking a lot better than the last time We saw thee,” Luna remarked, a soft smile coming to her face. “Thy gauntness has lessened significantly.”

“I’ve been eating better, and I’ve been better at keeping it down,” he replied sheepishly, leaning his head back against the wall.

“And thou hast gained back thy humour,” she added, her smile persisting for a little while before it shrank into something more befitting her next question. “Tell Us, dost thy mind still… speak to thee?”

“The whispers?” Whip asked quietly, his eyes averting to stare at nothing.

I don’t know how he kept me trapped for so long.

Just below her right eye, Luna felt a twitch. She ignored it before continuing, “Art thou spared from them now?”

His constitution hides a competent mind…

“No… No, nothing but my own thoughts,” he answered, the smile he wore before returning as he continued to stare off at nothing.

But I would have broken free eventually…

“And what do your thoughts say?” Luna probed, her brow knitting in concern, trying to ignore her own.

Whip’s smile remained as he looked at Luna. She saw sincerity in his gaze. Life. He spoke softly, “That they’re grateful. Thank you, Princess.”

His gratitude makes you happy. But so does his improving condition.

Luna’s lips split in a relieved grin to prevent the grimace that almost took its place, taking a centring breath. “That makes Us happy to hear.”

“Will you visit again, tomorrow?” Whip was quick to ask, lines forming on his forehead.

“We promise. It will be lengthier also,” she assured, coming down from the chair she sat on to stand.

Does that make you a good mare?

Whip sniffled, giving her a few grateful nods. “I would like that very much.”

Luna kept the memory of his smile framed in her head, giving the damaged pony a respectful nod as she turned towards the door. She only made it a couple of steps before his voice sounded out again.

“Do you hear them?”

Luna stopped just before pressing her hoof down on the handle, her limb settling on it before she replied, “No.”

That’s a lie.

“That’s a lie,” Whip stated, his voice level.

Even a madstallion can tell that.

“We are sorry,” she replied, pushing down.

“Me too.”

Luna left the stallion, walking out into the hall of the asylum, closing the door behind her. She maintained a stoic expression, unresponsive to the glances directed at her as she made her way to the exit. Surprise was no longer on the faces of those she passed, although her appearance still managed to turn heads.

She walked out of the front doors into daylight. Nopony was around. She looked up at the clear sky, basking her face in the warmth of sunlight and taking a deep breath, inhaling pollen and clean air. For that moment, she pretended she was alone, the corner of her lip curling slightly, just enjoying the heat.

“Your emotions are a stew,” Cosmos observed from inside her head, the voice maintaining a deep feminine tone. “Anger lies in bed with calm. Melancholy consorts with joy. Hate dances with apathy. They’re scattershot. They’re directed at yourself, Whip Smarts, even me. Why?”

“Thou broke a stallion’s mind and spirit. Thou… forced thyself upon Us in his mind. Thou art guilty of crimes that We cannot forgive…” Luna spoke aloud, quiet and calm, even if it wasn’t strictly necessary to do so.

“And you don’t know who to ascribe blame to for those deeds. Do you blame Whip Smart for summoning me, or yourself for not doing more?” she asked rhetorically, although Luna could hear no actual interest behind the words. “However, you’re holding something back. Something elusive, even to me.”

Luna inhaled another lungful of the spring air before replying, “‘Tis our intrigue. Thou hath not wrecked Our mind as We expected thee.”

“When you traded one vessel for another, I was still in the throes of rapture. It was that brief flicker of euphoria afforded to you mortals that stayed with me. I devoted that instance to combing over every memory in your life. From the vague shape of your progenitor, the first movement of the moon, all the way to the tryst with Nightmare. From Whip Smart, I learnt the definition and meaning of fascination through his experiences. From that, I absorbed all I could from yours.”

“And what did you learn?” she asked, opening her eyes, her gaze naturally drawn to a nearby bed of flowers – magenta tulips.

“That the blink of a mortal life is as fascinating and wrought with variety and experience as hundreds of centillions of years of my own existence. I have torn holes to other realities, fought in battle with entities far more terrifying and incomprehensible than even I. Our clashes have birthed stars and snuffed out the lights of others. Through my efforts I found only apathy, yet through yours you have found satisfaction. The bonds you form are weaved with strings immaterial to even my eyes. Friendship and love. Concepts that were merely words amongst countless others in the last vessel’s head have pronounced themselves to me through analysis of yours. A hug with your sibling inspires the emotion I had until now been unable to define. Joy. These are but memories; the remembrance of a feeling comes nowhere close to the intensity of living through it. They drive you and the rest of your kind. I want you to show these feelings to me so that I may experience them.”

“If it will keep thee from breaking free of Our mind and wrecking havoc upon the world, We will,” Luna acquiesced, looking away from the tulips and walking down the path towards the gate. “One thing confuses Us.”

“What?”

“Shouldn’t these things be insignificant to thee?” she inquired. “What art emotions to something like thee, something so old and powerful?”

“You might be right, and in truth, the answer eludes me also. Sharing the mind of a moral might have given us perspective, or I was simply brought to your world in the right place at the right time. Or, just as you can weave the dreams of ponies, we both exist in the dream of something larger than us both,” Cosmos hypothesised.

Luna cocked an eyebrow as she walked, smirking. “We find your speculation too implausible.”

“That’s what a mind like yours would think,” Cosmos retorted. “Your thoughts do not speculate on the meaning of much. You try to discern the meanings of poetry, of novels, but not of the world around you. Is this blissful ignorance? You know, I can also see that you’re thinking of ways to get rid of me.”

“We know,” she casually confirmed, coming closer to the gate.

Cosmos was silent after the confirmation and, after the short pause, she spoke up again, “There’s another concept I’ve become acquainted with: luck. It’s a phenomenon, superstition, that inexplicably will lead you to either a desired outcome or a disastrous situation.”

“And why art thou explaining this to Us?” Luna asked, passing the threshold of the asylum, her hooves trading gravel for pavement.

“Because it’s apparently customary to wish others good luck in the face of such a daunting task. You are surprisingly innocent despite your long life,” she said bluntly.

Luna rolled her eyes, her hooves carrying her rightwards. “And thy naivety surprises Us too. There is nothing truer than the lessons We learned from the numerous villains of this world. They always underestimate their opponent.”

“That’s what you learnt? Would you like to listen to my thoughts? I have a few pointed words to say about that Discord creature...”

“No. You irritate Us enough without bringing him up,” Luna sighed, dreading the possibility of the two ever meeting.

“Hmm. You could go masturbate to relieve that irritation. That was fun to observe, even If it was just a memory. The moaning, the pants, the sound of the phallus-”

“No,” Luna shot down, clenching her jaw at the thought. Cosmos had access to every memory in her head, plain and exceptional.

“It’s a very quick and easy way to release the chemicals of norepinephrine, serotonin, oxytocin, vasopressin. It would certainly help quell your feelings of stress and irritation and even aid you in sleeping – which I believe constitutes the majority of your job. Frankly, I fail to understand why you aren’t doing it all the time.”

“We do not spend most of our time sleeping,” Luna rebuked with a scowl, becoming flustered before she continued, “and We will not do something so lewd in front of thee.”

“Odd. I’ve already seen what you have shown me? Very well – you shall indulge me during your sleep,” Cosmos proclaimed, her otherwise monotone voice leaking with eagerness.

“As I have done every night,” Luna complained drily, her face beginning to turn crimson.

“If you’re worried I distract from your sleeping, you should know that I don’t take up more than three quarters of one hour each time we have sex.”

“Then thou musn’t accompany Us afterwards!” Luna barked, unfurling her wings. “Ponies mistake thee for nightmares.”

“And if you stopped fleeing into the minds of others, I wouldn’t have to follow you. Besides, it gets awfully boring in there sometimes...”

Luna continued to argue with Cosmos as she took off into the sky. They traded words for hours, both out loud and within the sanctity of Luna’s mind. Their voices kept at it until night came, their words fading into pleasured moans...