//------------------------------//
// Chapter 33: Open Heart 
// Story: The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse: The Equestrian Adventure 
// by wingdingaling 
//------------------------------//







	Chapter 33

Open Heart


Much of the kingdom of Blaiddru was not what it seemed. Many of the villages were relatively new, compared to the ancient ruins that dotted the landscape. But the ruins that were seen were only a small portion.
Over the thousands of years of the kingdom’s history, erosions, wars and disasters had buried much of what once was above its own ground.
Every creature in the kingdom knew of them. From the ffwyns living in the woods, to the gwylls who resided in the graveyards, to the corniog unau far in the mountains, all had used the ruins in some part of their lives.
For the theows of a certain village, the ruins beneath them had been reverted to irrigation and plumbing. In the dark passageways that once housed those living in the kingdom, water flowed to every home and business. Now, it carried something more.
The water changed somehow. As if it were no longer the life-sustaining liquid that flowed through the channels. With the change, something moved hurriedly along its surface. Within it, it carried five shapes. Four of them were dropped into the stream. The fifth was carried away.
Spike lifted his head from the water and breathed deeply. It felt like eternity since he was engulfed by that living substance, and he held his breath ever since. Now, he was free to breathe the air and see where he was.
It was almost pitch black in the cold, stone corridor he was in. The only light came from tiny panels on the ceiling above. Whatever they were, Spike couldn’t tell. They were not oil, or fireflies, or electricity, or anything he knew. As far as he could tell, they were making light within themselves, casting their glow on the world around him. Whether by natural or magical means, they revealed three other shapes lying in the watery passage. One of which started to move.
Nearby, Taffy lifted her head from the water and looked around herself.
Spike cautiously backed away from her. He bumped into Pluto’s side, rousing the hound dog. Pluto nervously watched the tinker, ready to buck Spike onto his back and run away.
“Caru? Caru!? Ble wyt ti!?” Taffy called.
At that moment, Taffy shouted loudly and started pawing at her head again. She threw her body to the ground, and rubbed her half-submerged head against the stone floor.
Half of Spike wanted to run. But, the other half knew that something was terribly wrong with Taffy. In the dim light, he could see something extruding from her ear. From what he could tell, it was the very same substance that attacked them all.
Not knowing what he could possibly do, the dragon ran to Taffy’s aid. He started by taking hold of the substance in her ear, and pinching the globules within it.
Taffy stopped shouting, and the substance in her ear started draining out.
Pluto took the substance in his teeth, and pulled it out all of the way, revealing it to be at least the size of an apple.
Spike finished it off by blowing his flames at it.
The globules inside the substance fizzled out, and the entire thing melted away.
Taffy breathed heavily, and stared into nothingness.
“Diolch...Diolch iawn, bach draig…” she said.
Whatever had come over Taffy, it had gone. In the silence that followed, the sound of chattering gears was heard. Taffy looked to its source, and saw the form of a small, tin theow twitching in the water.
“M-M-M-Mamma-a-a…” Caru stuttered, as she tried to get up.
Taffy shuddered and ran to Caru’s side.
Spike winced when he saw the tinker pick up the doll by her neck with her mouth and carry her over to a dry walkway. In the dim light, he could see something was very wrong with Caru. One of her legs bent in the wrong direction, and her head hung loosely on her neck.
Both the dragon and the hound dog hurried over to investigate the matter.
As Caru stuttered, Taffy set to work fixing the doll. First, she removed the tools that folded out from Caru’s legs. Once she had what she needed, she applied each tool to where it was needed.
Spike was impressed as he watched. Taffy worked with such tact and precision, and her cloven hooves seemed even more dexterous than any appendage a pony had. More still, in spite of the visible fear and worry on her face, Taffy worked with a heart that would have been the envy of any artist or scholar.
The tinker quickly placed Caru’s disjointed leg back into place, tightened her screws, reset her neck in its socket, and reattached all of the connecting hinges.
Lastly, Taffy opened up the panel on Caru’s side. Nothing was terribly displaced there, but the cylinder Spike had placed inside of her had been jolted loose. Quickly and carefully as she could, Taffy reset the cylinder back into its slot, and tightened it securely. Once she was done, she replaced the tools on Caru’s leg, and folded them back into her form.
The panel on Caru’s side closed on its own, and she looked up to face Taffy.
<“Mommy?”>* Caru said.
[*Translated from theow]
<“Caru! Darling, I’m so happy you’re not hurt!”> Taffy said, tightly embracing the doll.
<“Mommy, where are we?”> Caru wondered, as she looked around.
Taffy saw the fear in Caru’s life-like eyes, and dreaded the thought of worrying her further. But, she didn’t want to keep the urgency of their situation hidden. After taking a moment to calm her nerves, Taffy conveyed what she needed to.
<“We’re somewhere very bad right now,”> the tinker said. She knew they had to leave that horrible place as soon as possible, but she had to ask Caru an important question. <“How did you start moving again? Who brought your core back to you? Was it them?”>
Spike was taken slightly aback when Taffy pointed her hoof at him and Pluto. Almost like they were being accused of something.
<“I think so. When I woke up, I saw them both in your workshop,”> Caru answered.
Taffy looked warily at the dog and the dragon. If they knew the nature of Caru’s life, staying with them could easily have been a liability. Still, the youthful dragon and half-witted hound dog hardly looked like a threat. She had to be sure.
<“Can you trust them? Do you think they would steal anything out of you?”> the tinker asked.
<“I can trust them. They only wanted to play with me,”> Caru answered. <“Mommy, why would they steal from me?”>
Once more, Taffy wished she didn’t have to tell her daughter the terrible truth. Still, she needed Caru to understand the full urgency of what was happening.
<“Caru,”> Taffy began, taking moment to settle her nerves, <“Do you remember when I took the job to fix the gears beneath the clock tower?”>
<“Yes,”> the doll answered.
<“Okay…”> The memory of what Taffy was about to convey sent waves of fear through her. Her breath shuddered a moment, before she continued speaking. <“When I was under the clock tower, I found something. There is something down here that wants to get us.”>
Taffy’s heart wavered when she saw the fear in Caru’s eyes.
Spike too saw all the fear in the doll’s uncannily lifelike face. For a toy, he felt himself empathizing with her, and wanted to lend her his comfort and support. Though, he wasn’t sure for what.
Before she continued, Taffy watched for a moment as Spike slowly approached Caru. Once he was close enough, Caru leaned slightly closer to him. Pluto joined next, taking his place behind the two children. Seeing her daughter with her new friends made Taffy realize then that she had to get them all out of there as quickly as possible.
The hallway lit up when all of a sudden electricity crackled above them. For a moment, they were all illuminated, then the hall around them darkened as the voltage coursed through the wires that hung from above.
<“Mommy, what was that?”> Caru asked.
<“It was how I found my way to that creature’s lair. If we follow the direction it came from, we should get to the base of the clock tower,”> Taffy answered.
She didn’t want to waste any more time on the matter. The tinker gently nudged her young company forward, hoping to find the exit.
Even though he didn’t understand the theows, Spike had a feeling he knew what was happening. And he knew that he couldn’t leave yet.
“Wait! We can’t go without Minnie!” Spike said.
Next to the dragon, Pluto nodded.
The theows stopped to look at Spike. Caru looked up at her mother.
<“Mommy, Spike came here with his mommy. But, she isn’t here now. Where is she?”> the doll wondered.
Taffy didn’t answer. She had only vague, hazy visions from when she was under the control of the beast that dwelt beneath the village. In the darkest reaches of her mind, she recalled a creature unlike any she had seen in Blaiddru getting consumed by it. She knew the truth, but didn’t dare to tell it to the children. Minnie was lost.



Minnie was pulled through the unfathomable depths of the ruins by the strange substance. She was tossed about, endlessly falling in all directions.
The mouse held her breath, afraid to find out what would happen if she allowed this substance to enter her body. Her face began turning blue, and she began to wonder how much longer she could hold out.
In an instant, she landed hard on a seat of some kind, and the substance around her melted away from around her. Minnie barely had time to perceive what was happening.
Quicker than she could think, the substance’s tendrils took hold of her wrists and ankles, and fastened metal restraints around them.
“What is this!? What’s going on!?” Minnie shouted, as two more restraints were fastened around her waist and her neck.
The mouse struggled against the restraints, as the substance poured itself away through a grate in the floor.
It soon became clear that she would not be able to break free of her restraints. Instead, Minnie looked around the room.
It was dimly lit, and full of mechanical contraptions. Tables were laid out with flasks full of bubbling liquid of all colors, and other, smaller pieces of machinery. A large console was lit up with blank monitors, buttons and lights. Just around the side of the chair she was strapped to, Minnie could see the edge of a gigantic switch attached to a machine.
To her, this machine seemed somehow alive. Like every one of its lights was an eye staring at her. Other than that, there seemed to be no living soul in the room.
Somewhere nearby, Minnie could hear steps rushing toward her. As the steps grew closer, she could hear a voice accompanying it.
“She’s here! She’s here! She’s here! SHE’S HERE!”
Before Minnie could wonder who it was, a door somewhere to her side burst open. She wanted to see who had entered, but the restraint around her neck kept her from leaning.
In the dim light of the room, Minnie saw a half-hidden silhouette screech to a halt in front of her. In its hand, it held what seemed to be a large box with a handle on it. Rather than crouch down to place the box on the floor, Minnie swore she saw the dark figure stretch her arm all the way down to the floor.
“Okay! Tools: check! Specimen: check! Functioning machine:...I’m sure it’ll be fine this time,” the figure said.
“What are you talking about!? What am I doing here!? Let me off this chair!!” Minnie shouted.
“What? Oh! I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I just had to get a few extra tools, just in case this hunk of junk gets a little buggy during your procedure,” the dark figure said.
The machine sputtered and wheezed loudly, before silencing.
“What procedure!? Who are you!?” Minnie said.
“What do you mean, who am I? I’m your hostess of course. Pleased to meet you,” the figure said, offering her hand as though she expected Minnie to kiss it.
Instead, Minnie chomped at the fingers before her.
The dark figure retracted her hand, just beyond the reach of Minnie’s teeth.
“Wait, I know what you meant. Sorry, but I need to save power around here, so I keep the lights off most of the time. But, far be it from me to not do you the courtesy of letting us see each other clearly,” the dark figure said.
Minnie watched as the figure’s arm seemed to stretch across the room, into the shadows beyond.
“Let me see...Which one of those was the light switch?” the dark figure said. Suddenly, she jumped into the air, and her arms and legs began flailing violently as electricity coursed through her. In the next instance, she landed back on the ground. “That’s the one.”
With a loud click, light bulbs illuminated the room from lamps hanging by metal fixtures. Now, Minnie could see in full the diabolical machinery and formulas around her. Strangest of all was the once dark figure.
What seemed to be a rubbery form appeared to be confirmed. As far as Minnie could tell, the figure was wearing black rubber gloves that reached up to her shoulders, and black rubber boots that disappeared past the hemline of her white lab coat. However, a look to the figure’s chest under the lab coat showed that it too was covered in black rubber. From what she could infer, this figure was simply wearing a black, rubber suit that covered her from her neck to her toes. All but her head.
The headpiece of the suit was made of some sort of clear, acrylic material, and was filled with the very same translucent substance that attacked her and her friends earlier. The only major difference was the large, greenish-blue globule within, which had many shivering hairline appendages reaching off from it. One look, and Minnie knew what she was looking at.
“You’re an ama--An umma--” the mouse stammered over her rapidly beating heart.
“Umma-Umma-Amoeba?” the figure finished for Minnie. “I know, it must seem pretty weird to see an amoeba as big as me. I must be at least forty-five trillion to the billionth power times bigger than most of the others. But, that’s just one of the benefits of science.”
The doctor stretched an arm across the room to reach into a cabinet. From there, she grabbed an otoscope.
“Speaking of science: let’s get a look at those peepers, honey,” the doctor said, as she forced Minnie’s eyes open.
Minnie shook her head back and forth, trying to keep the light out of her eyes.
“What’s wrong with you? You can trust me. I’m a doctor. See?” the doctor said, as she retrieved a framed paper off the wall.
It looked like an official degree, but the name of who it was honoring was made up of cut and pasted letters from a magazine.
“You’re not a doctor! You’re crazy!” Minnie said.
“Twice wrong there, squeaky,” the doctor said, as she tossed the degree over her shoulder, letting it shatter somewhere on the floor. She quickly shined the light of her otoscope into both of Minnie’s eyes. “Okay. Both pupils dilate and contract. That’s a good sign of proper brain function. We’ll have to fix that later.”
Those words spiked Minnie’s fears, and made her struggle harder against her restraints.
“Now, stop that,” the doctor said, as she slapped Minnie’s hand. “That chair you’re sitting in is just about the only thing that works in this place. I can’t have you loosening those restraints from their base.”
An idea came to Minnie. If she could do anything to loosen her restraints, she was going to figure it out. But, she barely had time to think when the amoeba slapped an oversized electrode to her chest.
“There you go. One ticker-taker, primed and ready,” the doctor said.
Minnie paused. She looked at the electrode on her chest, and then to the doctor.
“What are you going to do to me?” the mouse asked.
“You mean you’ve never seen a heart extractor before?” the amoeba said, as if she actually couldn’t believe what Minnie said.
“Heart extractor!!?” Minnie shouted.
“It’s just what it sounds like, so I shouldn’t have to explain the whole thing. Time’s wasting, and I got a deadline to meet for these experiments.”
The doctor quickly rushed away to the machine console.
Minnie had no idea what was going on. She had been taken out of one horrifying situation, and dropped into another. She tried to see what the doctor was doing, only to be held fast to the chair.
The amoeba stretched her arms all across the console, turning knobs, flipping switches and activating monitors. Once everything was set up, she stepped before one final, large switch. She took one last look at Minnie, who still struggled against her restraints. With the giddiness of a schoolgirl, the amoeba flipped the switch.



Lightning flashed above the village, as the machine worked its diabolical hand. The clocktower pulled electricity from the air, and the reworked internal structure powered the evil beneath it. The rapidly grinding gears all rumbled loudly, creating a cacophony of thunder that echoed far and wide.
In the ruins below, Taffy stopped the children and Pluto from advancing on, and lowered them all to the ground as the thunderous noise reached them.
“What was that!?” Spike said.
Pluto was never good with loud noises. Thunder especially got the better of him, and he quickly dunked his head beneath the water to escape the noise.
Taffy listened for a moment, and looked forward. The sound of thunder was coming from somewhere ahead. Above them all, the wires shot to electrical life. The crackling current jolted and shivered above them all, illuminating the hall with a flashing glow.
Caru huddled closer to her mother.
Spike hid beneath the water with Pluto.
The voltage showed no signs of letting up. All the better for Taffy to follow its current to the exit.
<“Get up. We need to keep going,”> Taffy said, as she prodded Pluto forward.
Pluto refused to take his head from above the water. Until his face started turning blue from holding his breath. In an instant, he lifted his head with a loud splash, and inhaled deeply.
Caru had a much easier time nudging Spike to his feet.
“Are we getting close to Minnie?” Spike asked.
Caru looked at Spike, puzzlement clear in her lifelike eyes.
“Caru, does your mamma know where Minnie is?” the dragon asked.
Even though language separated the two, Caru could tell full well the nature of Spike’s distress. She looked to speak to Taffy.
<“Are we going to go find Spike’s mommy?”> the doll asked.
Taffy paused for a moment. She had to think of a way to explain the situation in a way that her daughter would understand. After a moment, she said the first thing that came to her mind.
<“We can’t go looking for her just now,”> Taffy answered.
<“But, Spike’s mommy is gone. We have to find her. Where is she?>
<“I don’t know. But, we can’t stay down here longer than we need to,”> the tinker said.
<“But, we need to help Spike’s mommy,”> Caru insisted.
<“Caru!”> Taffy snapped, silencing her daughter. Once she saw the stunned silence on Caru’s face, she calmed herself. <“I’m going to find her. I don’t even know if she’ll even be herself when I do. But, first I have to get you and your friends out of here.”>
<“But, mommy--”>
<“No! I’m going to take you to the surface. When you get there, go to the next village to get help. Do you understand?>
<“But--”>
<“Do you understand?”>
Her mother’s curt tone worried Caru. Too stunned to say anything more, she simply nodded in response.
<“Good. Now, listen: When you all get to the exit, I’m going to stay behind to look for Spike’s mommy. I’m counting on you to get help. I’ll try to catch you all up. Okay?”>
Caru nodded again.
<“Good. Now, follow me. The exit’s this way,”> Taffy said.
Truthfully, Taffy wasn’t entirely sure if the exit was down the path she was taking. But, she had escaped once by following the wires to their source. Before they even took five steps down the hall, something that appeared at the end of the hall made them all pause.
In the flashing light of the electricity, Taffy and her charges saw another theow turn the corner at the end of the hall. In the flashing light, his yellow eyes shone like beacons against his grey coat.
“Pike!” Taffy called. In the back of her mind, she hoped he would help them.
The other theow didn’t move for a moment. Then, he took a step forward. A slow, deliberate, predatory step.
Taffy turned her body to the side, protecting the children as she slowly backed away..
Spike warily kept his eyes on Pike, and took hold of Pluto’s collar. At any moment, he was ready to jump onto the hound dog’s back.
Pike continued to walk toward his prey.
Taffy looked for a way to escape. There was a hallway to her left. The only ways to run were ahead, where Pike awaited; backwards, where the lair of the beast was; or to the side, where getting lost was the greatest probability. Taking the lesser of the evils at hoof, Taffy glanced to her daughter.
When their eyes met, Caru saw her mother glance to the hallway to their left. Taking her hint, the doll started rotating her tin legs to that direction.
Over the sound of crackling electricity, Pike’s guttural growl was heard.
They all spurred to action. Taffy and Caru quickly ran down the dark hallway, splashing their hooves loudly with every step.
Pluto scrambled after them, as Spike quickly climbed onto the hound dog’s back.
Through the dark halls they ran, unsure of where they were going. The only certain thing was they couldn’t go back. Not when Pike was in hot pursuit.
The hallways twisted back and forth on their sides, a consequence of the erosion that buried the ruins. Both quarry and prey had to adjust their footing as they ran.
Spike held tightly to Pluto’s collar, bouncing up and down like a polo player as the hound dog darted through the winding hall. Between the bouncing, and Pluto’s rapidly changing footing, the dragon was spun around on the back of his mount.
Turned around, Spike could see that Pike was closer than ever behind them. The theow bared his fangs, as Pluto’s tail waggled not two inches from his face.
Pike opened his jaws.
Spike pulled Pluto’s tail from danger, just as the theow’s jaws snapped down.
Pluto ran into the next room, and suddenly found himself sliding in one direction.
The entire room slanted downward, causing the hound dog and dragon to go careening down the watery slope.
The cloven hooves of the theows prevented them from sliding. Instead, they hopped down the slope with their canine gait.
Caru twisted her head around, and saw her friend sliding toward her. It was too late for her to move when Pluto bumped into her, and bucked her into the air.
Spike caught Caru by her mechanical tail, and placed her on Pluto’s back behind him. At the same time, he unwittingly detached Caru’s tail from her body.
Pluto’s eyes widened as they slid closer to the wall at the other end. Not only that, but all of the broken furniture in the room seemed to land in a way that all of its splintered, water-worn edges pointed right at them.
Spike shouted loudly and did the one thing he could think at the moment. He leaned over Pluto’s side and jammed the tip of Caru’s metal tail into the stone floor.
The momentum pivoted Pluto to the right, and sent him through a door to safety.
Pike pounced for Taffy, threatening to send them both tumbling toward the broken wood.
The tinker nimbly jumped through the doorway, just as Pike sailed past her.
Before he could impale himself on the broken wood, Pike grabbed the slanted edge of the door frame, and crawled through.
Their pursuer had been slowed down, but that was no comfort. The next hallway had dry floors with a long red rug on it. As they ran down it, the hall twisted itself until it leveled out.
The sudden level of footing made Pluto trip, and fall into Taffy. All four of them rolled just beneath a swing of the butcher’s cleaver, which embedded into the stone wall.
When they stopped rolling, they were all able to see their new opponent, who growled after missing them.
Spike’s mind went to how Taffy only returned to normal after he removed that substance from her ear. If there was a way to get that close to Pike or the butcher, he thought he may have a chance to end the peril they were in. But, not when the butcher was pulling his cleaver from the wall, and Pike was running toward them.
Thinking quickly, Spike put Caru’s tail down and cracked the rug at their opponents.
The rug arched violently, and shot toward the two theows. Both were thrown into the air, and wrapped up into the billowing curls of the rug.
“Diolch, Spike,” Caru said, as she reattached her tail to her body.
They all continued to run away.
Taffy tried to orient herself as to where they were. She had not been that way when she was escaping the last time, and thought that only now they were more lost within the ruins. There was no electric current to guide her there, and she began to feel as if they would never escape.
In the next room they entered, Taffy yelped when she saw the only exit was blocked by the florist, who brandished her shears in her fangs.
With a swing of her head, the florist threateningly snipped her shears at her prey.
Going backward was no option. A way past the florist was needed to be found.
Caru had seen what Spike was able to do with her tail, and thought he could use something to get past the theow with the shears.
“Yma!” Caru said, as she gave Spike a screwdriver from her leg.
Taking apart the shears would have been a good idea, but not a feasible one. Not when the florist was rushing them with her shears open.
In a futile effort to defend himself, Spike held up his claws before himself. To his, and his friends’ surprise, he held the screwdriver so that it wedged the shears open.
Before the florist could try to attack again, Taffy pushed her over, and led her young charges onward.
Deeper they went into the ruins, the danger mounting by the moment, and the hope of escape dwindling.



Minnie jumped in her seat as an electric current coursed through her. It wasn’t the shock that got to her, so much as the feeling on her chest. Something was being taken from her. Something that made her uniquely herself. And she could feel it slipping away.
The doctor looked at the monitors on her console. Minnie’s outline and all of her vitals showed positive. The nature of the magic within her shone like a beam of light. Next, the image of Minnie’s brain appeared.
“Yes…” the amoeba said, gripping her console.
All the important areas lit up.
“Yes…” she said, tightening her grip.
A light appeared on the image’s chest.
“YE--Steady. Don’t get your hopes up. Not yet,” the amoeba said, restraining herself.
The light on the image’s chest glowed brighter, and stopped.
“Oh no! Nononono! This ride’s not stopping now!”
Quick as she could, she removed the casing from her machine and gathered the tools she needed. Her suit opened up, and the amoeba extended her pseudopods to collect the tools and apply them to where they were needed.
The part of her with the green, shivering globule stayed to watch the monitor, while the rest of her body went hard to work to keep the machine running.
Minnie didn’t know how much more she could take. She had grown lightheaded since the process started, and wondered how much longer it would be until she passed out.
“That’s it! Keep it coming, honey!” the doctor said, as the machine powered forward.
In a nearby vessel,a certain starlit magic began to gather. A small, threadbare trace was appearing, and it sent waves of joy through the doctor. Until it started to fade.
“NO! NOT WHEN WE’RE THIS CLOSE!!” she shouted.
Her machine seemed to disagree with her, when all of a sudden, its gears started swallowing up the amoeba’s arms.
“Eh?” was all the doctor had time to say, before she was suddenly pulled out of her suit like a spool of thread.
She screamed and hollered as her amorphous form went spinning through the moving parts of her machine. And it became worse when she contacted the electrical parts.
Once again, voltage went coursing through her, as the current was intercepted from Minnie, who was relieved to stop being shocked.
There was another explosion inside the machine, and cytoplasm went splashing everywhere.
Minnie tried not to scream, when she felt it splash over her face. Instead of dripping off, it simply stayed there.
The plasm on her face peeled itself off, revealing it to hold the nucleus within.
“Oh! Pardon me,” the doctor said, before sliding off of Minnie’s face to her lap, then jumping to the floor.
Minnie watched as all of the plasm in the room started to wiggle toward the empty suit on the floor. With some difficulty, it was able to wriggle its way in, and fill the suit. It started with the plasm filling the arms of the suit. Once the arms were operable, they facilitated helping the rest of the amoeba back inside.
Finally, the suit was able to stand up straight, and the nucleus was placed inside. The front of the suit closed, and the nucleus drifted up into the clear headpiece.
“Rgh! I hate when that happens!” the doctor said, as she straightened out her lab coat. With a frustrated sigh, she looked over to the vessel, which once held magic within it. “Looks like we’re going to have a little bit of a setback. At this rate, I’ll never copy anyone’s magic!!”
Minnie’s foggy brain lit up at those words. Whoever this doctor was, whatever she was planning to do with extracted magic, the mouse now knew how truly mad she was.
“You can’t…” Minnie exhaled.
“What’s that?” the amoeba asked.
“You can’t copy other’s magic...It’s what makes us all unique...And you can never duplicate it...You can only make it a shade similar, but that's it...You’ll never succeed...So just let me go…” Minnie said.
It may have been her lightheadedness, but Minnie felt as if the amoeba stopped talking and stared her down for several minutes. There was no telling what the amoeba would do next. Somewhere inside herself, the mouse hoped that she would come to her senses and back down, before one of them ended up like The Massster.
She thought she may have succeeded when the doctor started undoing her restraints.
“Nothing doing, honey,” the doctor said, as she lifted Minnie from her seat. “If there’s a heart that I can copy, it’s yours. And if I can find a way to make all the magic in the kingdom like that? Oh, the boss is going to be so happy with me.”
“But, you can’t make everyone’s magic the same...It’s what makes each person special,” Minnie tried to reason.
“Sorry, but my boss wants all magic to be his own. All I need from you is a template of your heart. But, this stupid machine doesn’t want to cooperate with me,” the doctor said.
The machine wheezed out a puff of smoke.
“It’ll be fine. All you need is just a little bit of fixing up, and I know we’ll get it next time,” the doctor said to her machine, before she addressed Minnie. “As for you, I need to make sure you don’t go anywhere, until I’m ready for your services again.”
“What?” Minnie said.
“Have you ever wondered how dirty laundry feels?” the doctor asked.
“What!?” Minnie repeated.
The answer she got was being carried across the room by the doctor’s stretching arms, until she was dropped down a chute to the deepest parts of the ruins.
The doctor knew she was closer to success. In a few short minutes, she was going to find a way to alter the magic Yen Sid drained. And the world would be under his rule.