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// 49: Perchance to dream 
// Story: One Way 
// by jroddie 
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Chapter 49

“You don’t want to do this, Slim.” I struggled to say, trying to get my hooves on the ground for leverage. Slim cocked his head and looked unusually puzzled.
“Now, if Ah warn’t wantin’ to do this, why would Ah be doin’ it?” Slim asked. I frowned at his logic. He moved across ponyville, spreading disorder where he went. He crossed over to one of the fountains, going over to sit down. He slumped himself and leaned against the lip of the fountain. He let me go and sighed.
“Sit a minute, five.” Slim said, patting the ground next to him. I tried to run away, but Slim grabbed me again and planted me to the fountain. I looked over my shoulder to see writhing vines tethering me to the fountain. I sighed.
“What do you want, Slim?” I groaned. Slim tilted his head for a moment and pouted.
“Ah want a lot a things, five. A whole buncha things. But, there’s jes one thing that you’n Ah might want.” Slim said. I opened my mouth to say something, but Slim just shusshed me. “You want th’Gelics to leave, dontcha?”
“Let me go before I kill you.”
“Ah’ll be takin’ that as a ‘firmative. Now, Ah’m feelin’ a tinge gen-rous, So Ah’ll make yeh a deal.” Slim said. Ponies were still dashing across the square, trying to get away. Slim looked around for a moment, eyeing the scene with extreme indifference.
“I don’t think I’ll make a deal with you.” I said. Slim closed his eyes and sighed. He raised a hoof to his forehead and rubbed it
“Ah hate talkin’ to y’all mortals when Ah’m hungry.” He grumbled. I cringed a little when he said that. Slim noticed me and hit me with one of his hooves. The blow landed on my shoulder, cracking something there. I gasped in pain, feeling the snapped bone and the digging of the ragged end into my flesh. I reached up with my hoof to cradle the injured appendage. 
“Shut up.” Slim said sternly. “We all gots t’eat somethin’. Y’jes don’t like what we eat. I’ve been lookin’ at that mare over there.” Slim bragged, pointing to a wheeled vendor cart near the fountain. There was a set of beige hooves hiding under the cart that had various flowers and plants hanging from it. I turned back to look at Slim. He was licking his lips, staring single-mindedly at the cart.
“Don’t you dare.” I warned, mustering the electricity I might need. Slim sneered.
“Or what? What’re you going to do ‘bout it? Nothin’. Y’ Cain’t do nothin’ t’me, Five. Not even if y’ tried.”
“Don’t test me, Slim. I’ll summon Evangeline if I have to.” I said. Slim smiled.
“She ain’t no match for me neither. Y’saw us in the forest. Ah kin mess with her all day long, if Ah needs ta. Besides, y’don wan’t ponyville to turn inta some kinda battleground. Y’don want another Cloudsdale.” Slim flawlessly reasoned, and then turned back to the cart.
“Spitfire said that you wouldn’t show up.” I said. Slim burst out laughing. 
“Big ol’ bossman likes t’ think that he’s in charge a me. He ain’t. Nopony is. ‘Specially not him. He couldn’t possess his way outta a paper bag. He jes’ got good with politics is all. Ain’t nothin’ special.”
“He has to be powerful or else he wouldn’t be in charge.”
“Didn’t I jes’ tell ya he warn’t in charge? He jes’ likes to think that he is. We like t’play along. Now, are ya gonna be wantin’ t’hear what I has t’say?”
“I don’t make deals with the likes of you.” I said coldly. Slim prodded my broken shoulder, making me scream. I clenched my teeth, trying to keep from screaming too much. Slim grabbed me under my chin and forced me to look up at him. He was snarling, his teeth bared and his snout crinkled.
“Ah am goin t’eat that pony under that cart. Y’caint stop me. Y’know that, Ah know that. Now this is how it’s goin’ t’happen. Y’re goin t’ look that pony right in th’ eyes as Ah eat her. Your guilty face is goin’ t’be th’ last thing she’s gonna see.”
“I won’t let you do that.” I threatened thorugh my tears. Slim smiled again. 
“We been over this, Five. Ain’t nothin you kin do. Ah’m goin t’eat her, you git a good look, you do nothin’, n’ Ah’ll take all th’Gelics Ah kin muster and leave. We’ll roll on out a Equestria. But you got to watch me eat that mare over yonder. Else we ain’t got no deal.”
“You said that Angelics don’t have centralized leadership. You can’t take them all.” I spat out through my pain. Slim frowned. 
“Yer right. Ah cain’t take em’ all. But Ah can take the majority. Th’rest will just be a disorganized mess. They’ll be easy to mop up.” Slim said. His logic, however twisted and depraved it may be, was sound. The death of one pony to save hundreds, if not thousands. I hated how the deal played to my sympathies, but cost the life of the single mare. I couldn’t do it. Not because it was a bad deal. Not because it wasn’t helpful. But it was the mare. She would never benefit from the peace that the deal would help usher in. It was a great deal, but she would never had agreed to it. I couldn’t just let her die. I might win the war against Angelics, but I would never win the war against my own self if I let her die. Her face would be all that I would see when I closed my eyes. The great martyr to the cause she knew nothing about.
“I can’t do this, Slim.” I whispered, my tears hot on my cheeks. Slim smiled, releasing my chin and letting me sprawl out on the ground. He reached up with one of his hooves to adjust his jet black stetson. 
“Sorry ‘bout that, Five. Terrible shame. Coulda saved a lotta ponies. Too bad.” He remarked. He turned away from me and walked over to the cart with the flowers.
“Slim!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. He looked back at me without moving his body away from the cart. “You said you wouldn’t eat her!” I screamed.  Slim spread his square teeth in a ghastly grimace. I shuddered.
“Ah never said that. Besides, Five,” Slim said as he turned back to the cart. “Ah’m hungry.” Slim said. My heart sank. The mare was going to die anyways. There was nothing that I could do to prevent it. Slim was offering me an out, making me think that I had a choice.
“NO!  YOU CAN’T DO IT! WE HAD A DEAL!” I screamed, straining against the vines that tethered me to the fountain. Slim tilted his head back and laughed. I strained against the fountain even harder. “NO! YOU CAN’T DO IT! I WON’T LET YOU!” I screamed even louder, a tingle of magical energy suffusing my voice. I got an idea and flooded my body with raw energy from the Flow. My body crackled and zapped with the full feeling of near limitless power. I dug my hooves into the ground and pulled forward as hard as I could. I could hear the crack of masonry behind me, which only made me pull harder. I was pulling up the paving stones in front of me, so I lifted up my hooves and dug in again. I snarled in rage as Slim turned back to look at me. He looked surprised. He turned his body back to me. I screamed again, and he clutched his ears with his forehooves. There was blood running down his forelegs as they clutched his ears. I smiled grimly and pulled away from the vines. They kept hold of me. I pulled even harder. Slim grinned again, his teeth brilliant white triangles against the red of his mouth. He opened his mouth wide. His tongue stuck out of his mouth a little bit, pointed and red. I gritted my teeth and pulled against the fountain even harder. There was a moment when Slim blurred, like a car would blur in a picture. 
“Uh.” I moaned out, feeling sharp, cold pain. I stopped digging. I stopped pulling. I looked down. There was a long, fleshy red tube sticking out of my chest. I followed it away from me. The perfectly straight tube led right to Slim’s mouth. There was a quiet snick as the cold ran away from my chest. Slim’s tube ran back into his mouth, and he licked his chops with it, leaving his muzzle smeared with my blood. I reached up with shaking hooves to my chest. I looked down at them. They were absolutely smothered in blood. I fell down, my face falling right on the broken cobblestones under me. I could hear the faint splash as my blood poured out onto the street, pooling. I could see the edge of the pool as it spread slowly, my vitality running through the streets like water would run through a sieve. I slowly watched the world around me grow much darker. I grew cold again. So, so cold. So deathly cold. I closed my eyes, not even thinking the obvious thought.

I’m dying.