//------------------------------// // Chapter 60 - Abuse of Power // Story: The Pony Dreadfuls // by No one is home //------------------------------// “OFF WITH HER HEAD!” Thirteen swung her knife in a powerful arc, prompting Scarlet Hearts to gasp out loud. As the blade connected, Thirteen grinned in inane glee, her smile quickly turning to a scowl as the pale mare suddenly wasn’t there. “Seven impossible things.” Scarlet Hearts laughed absently as the burly unicorn orderlies seized Pinkie Thirteen in their firm telekinetic grasp as the poor pony-worm struggled helplessly. “Dear, sweet Alice, it’s time to admit you’ve met your match. Is it really so hard a life for you? Do you remember when I found you? Starving? Alone? Not a real friend in the world, desperately jumping in any looking glass to try and find a way home? I took you in. I gave you a place to sleep. I only asked one little thing. Never tell. Such a small favor. Come out of the mirror. You still have a place here… for now.” “I’d rather die than be a pawn in your game!” The white filly spat though the reflection in the dirty silver pot. “You’re a fool! No power is ever going to fill the void in your heart, Red Queen!” “Such silly little names.” The headmistress chuckled. “It’s not too late. Dorothy misses you. You wouldn’t want to end up like poor Jack?” “Don’t even speak his name, bitch!” Alice spewed venom through the mirror. “We all choose our own path.” Scarlet’s cheerful quip was interrupted by an unwelcome flash of words. // That we do. What did you want again? You said the cost didn’t matter. “Take the outgrown changeling larvae to surgery, and page Doctor Westwitch. It’s time we set an example.” The orderlies shuddered visibly at the headmistress words. -=-=-=-=- “Charlie, please, we have to get out of here!” Diane clung desperately to the pegasus colt as she sobbed. “This is fucked up,” the blue colt laughed, “This is just the way it would happen. No mind, no future, just a stupid ball of feels.” “I need you.” Diane begged, tears rolling down her face like scars on her chitin. “No, you don’t. No-one needs me.” The colt grinned mirthlessly. “No one needs me.” “Charlie! Snap out of it!” The changeling sobbed. “Why do you keep calling me that?” The colt asked calmly. “No one calls me by my middle name.” “You’re Charlie!” Dian insisted helplessly. “You’re Charlie and I’m Diane? Don’t you remember?” “I’m not who you… I’m not him.” The colt exhaled a defeated sigh. “Charlie… he is… was… he was a fictional character… he was someone I made up. A smoke screen for my own insecurities. At least that’s what I thought… I just thought I was writing stories…” “Charlie! You’re not making any sense.” Diane shook her head as violently as his restraints would allow. “Diane, Don’t blink.” A distant, tiny, female voice emerged from behind the changeling’s moistened orbs. “Alice?!?!” Diane exclaimed as the tiny cream colored filly tumbled out of the reflection in her eyes and scrambled up her mane. “Scarlet Hearts has Thirteen and she taking her to Westwitch!” Alice explained as she struggled to perch on the changeling’s head and remove the rings from her horns. “No! Alice! I… I betrayed her. I didn’t want to!” Diane cried quietly. “It’s not your fault.” The tiny filly reassured her friend. “So long as she’s wearing the crown, she can do almost anything. But she’s used up her seven impossible things, and she’s going to the surgery theater to gloat. That means she still hasn’t eaten. This is our chance! We’ll never catch her this weak again! Who is he?” Diane dissolved into a heap of inconsolable sobs, leaving the former human to answer for himself. “I was a human until about an hour ago… I was riding in a bus. I was on my way to upstate new york. It doesn’t matter who I am.” “I thought she could bring him back, Alice!” Diane pleaded. “She said she wouldn’t hurt Thirteen, and she was going to lock me away anyway!” “It’s not your fault.” The colt inched over through his restraints to nuzzle the distraught filly. “Huggles and snuggles. She’s a bad person… or pony. You’re just a little girl. It’s not your fault she lied to you.” “Whoever you are, can you give me a hoof with these restraints?” Alice replied sharply. “I think… yeah.” The colt leaned into the young changeling and grabbed the nearest ring in his mouth, drawing a blush from the filly. “I’m not trying to get fresh with you, but this is going to be awkward… there’s one down… dammit… sorry, tiny pony-girl, didn’t mean to to knock you off your perch… and two! You’re magic is loose.” Diane’s muzzle and straight jacket unfastened and slid free in the grasp of her telepathy. “You’re next, Charlie! Hold still, I don’t want to strain your wings pulling it off.” “Gotcha... Also, not Charlie. Please don’t call me Charlie, because that is NOT my name.” The pegasus colt sighed. “We’re going to need help.” Alice resumed her perch in Diane’s mane. “Dorothy's on lockdown while Westwitch is working. If we can bust her out we have a chance.” “What about Nimble?” Diane asked nervously. “I’d rather leave Jack where he is.” Alice responded grimly. “We need all the help we can get.” Diane argued. “And nopony has better reason to hate Scarlet Hearts than him.” “He’s not gonna stop. If he gets out he’s not going to stop until he pulls this whole place down on all our heads.” Alice intoned darkly. “He’s as bad as she is, Diane. Trust me. We should stick to Dorothy, I can trust her. What about your little friend. Can he fight?” “Again, I was just a bipe and hour ago, I’m doing good to walk straight.” The colt rolled his eyes in irritation. “Besides, We’re still locked in a padded room, with or without the pony straight jackets.” “I’ve got this.” Diane grinned. “Do you still love me Charlie?” “Look, I’m really sorry but I’m not… gah!” The colt was suddenly interrupted as Diane’s serpentine tail lashed out, striking him in the breast, injecting it’ venom. “That was a rhetorical question, silly.” The mutated changeling giggled demurely. “Of course you love me, because I said so.”