//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Where You Began... // Story: Rag Doll // by No one is home //------------------------------// Ms. Locket suddenly froze in place, eyes locked unblinking on her velveteen tormentor.  Two words erupted from her throat in a near mindless, terrified scream, “JINX DOLL!” And the sky exploded in a rainbow.  A violet aura enveloped Ragdoll, hurling him into the shelves behind the counter.  “Charlie!” Gloomy shouted in a panic. “What just happened?!?!”  The panicked mare pranced in place to the frightened beep-boop noises of her peers, who were suddenly pointing and spasming at her in fear.  “I didn’t… I don’t know… I didn’t mean to!” “I told you not to hurt him again, Locket,” Gloomy Sonnet growled, lowering her suddenly glowing horn dangerously, “I warned you.” “Calm down Gloomy.” A course, accented voice rose from the shelf as a cider soaked Ragdoll rose on noodly fluff filled limbs.  “I’m fine, I prolly had that coming…”  Was his voice slurred? “Did you know I can absorb alcohol through my fluff?  ‘Cause I didn’t!” “Charlie, you’re alive?”  Gloomy stammered in surprise.  “Are you actually, really alive?  Do you know what this means?” “I could have gotten drunk this whole time?” Ragdoll cocked his head unsteadily to the side.  “That would have really been good to know way earlier.  Like that time you decided it was a good idea to use me to practice kissing… Do you even know how awkward and embarrassing that was for me???” “I think I can guess…” Gloomy shrank back, her ears laid flat in mortification. “Oohhh… yeah, my bad, should not have said that out loud.”  Ragdoll cringed timidly.  “Gonna have to get used to the difference between talking and thinking again…” “It’s a cursed jinx doll!”  Silver locket screamed a second time. “Everypony heard you the first time, thunder-flank,” the doll replied caustically, “I’m rolling my eyes, by the way.  I know it’s hard to tell, because button eyes, but I am totally rolling my eyes.” “Wait, ‘thunder-flank?”  The snooty mare’s fear was instantly replaced with righteous ire. “ I KNOW you are not implying that I’m fat!” “You’re ignorance is noted,” the doll replied with a dramatic wave of his noodly arm, as he swayed uncertainly on three legs, “Although, I guess you’re kinda right.  I’m not implying it, I’m sayin’ it outright.” “You imputant little…” Silver Locket began her tirade, on to be cut off quite rudely. “Do you believe in magic, yet?” Ragdoll’s face kept its passive smile, but his voice sneered.  “Cause I done told you once I was gonna make you believe.  I don’t feel like you believe yet?  Maybe I gotta put a jink on you!” “That’s jinx, Charlie!” Gloomy corrected her inebriated friend. “Ooooo, there’s two of em’, that’s even worse,” the doll chuckled darkly. “It’s okay, everypony, he can’t jinx you!”  The young, grey, would be assistant manager insisted. “She is a witch pony and I am her nefarious talking Jinx Doll,” RagDoll countered, “I’m 100% sure she can magic her horn to be super stabby now, because I HAVE A TYPE!”  The plush pony walked forward on his noodly legs until he disappeared from the shelf with a small noise of impact.  “I’m okay, I went limp and ragdolled…” The doll’s voice emerged from the floor behind the counter. “Actually panic is an acceptable reaction,” The dolls unchanging smile seemed to twist into a smirk as he climbed onto the snack bar, “Especially if you are Miss brain needle.  I may not have actual brain meats but that hurt.  The one thing I was still allowed to feel was pain.  That fat flanked bully used me to inflict pain on Gloomy by jabbing a needle into my head!”  The doll’s fury leveled on the silver mare.  “So tell me again how that’s not a jinx doll?  Way I see it, I owe you a good jinxin’.” -=-=-=-=- “You’re, scaring me!”  The words hit like a brick because I recognized them as my own.  I wasn’t talking to a grey mare, anymore, I was… one of the things I used to be.  I was a dirt colored pony.  I was a cyan maned changeling.  I was a blue skinned human, I was a twisted mutant, I was a rag doll.  I was nothing but words.  I was a madman.  And there was no message to explain this, anywhere to be found.  I was in the hooves of a pink earth filly with a smile like a shark. “Go find some secret angel,” the tears in her eyes broke my heart, “That talks freedom.  And give that to her.” “If that’s what they want…” I had no voice anymore.  The magic was fading as the pink filly dissolved in a burst of green flame into an insectile horror that should have terrified me, instead it was like a last comforting thought. As the filly cast me on the pile with her last parting words, “Guardian angel… if you were wiser you would get out…”