//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 - Labor of Love // Story: Rag Doll // by No one is home //------------------------------// Only days ago… -=-=-=-=- “Mr. Alphabittle,” a cyan unicorn filly yelled across the Tea Room, “The Fortune Telling machine isn’t working! Tell Ragdoll to get back to work, I need his jinx powers!” “I’m standing right here, Blue Skies!” Ragdoll shouted back, “I’ll be there in a minute!” “Ragdoll doesn’t have eerie jinx powers,” Alphabittle chided the filly. “Yes he does!” The filly argued impetuously. “She’s right, I totally have eerie powers, boss.” The doll nodded his head. “This is serious!”  The little blue unicorned stomped hoof.  “I need a bottle of Bitter Ale!” “We don’t sell that drink to little fillies.” Alphabitle raised a heavy eyebrow. “I don’t make those kinda deals with little fillies.” Ragdoll nodded enthusiastically, his expression always an unchanging happy smile. The little blue unicorn took a heavy draw from her inhaler. “I just want to be a unicorn that can breathe.  Dr. Feelgood says he has a medicine that can turn me into a unicorn that can breathe.  But he needs a grown-up to test it first.  I know it’s a terrible thing to ask, but can you Jinx a grown-up into testing my medicine?” “Pour a shot glass of bitter ale that I can dunk my head in.”  The massive unicorn shuffled, the always asked for things.  “It’s actually part of the process, boss, she has to give me the ale to make the deal.  She has to carry it to me.” “Are we going to do this?” Alphabittle questioned. “We are.” Gloomy nodded with a subtle clop of her drums. The filly took the tiny glass carefully in her magic.  Carrying it across the room without spilling a drop.  She sat the shot glass down and opened the door. Almost fearfully, aware of the gravity of what she wanted, sat the glass down in front of the jinx doll and nearly slammed the door closed. “We try to be nice, but there’s always a price.” Gloomy chanted while working her drums. “This one’s on me.” Ragdoll nodded his head, smiling as always. “Nothing is free,” Gloomy replied with a tap of her drums. “Give her a bottle of medicine.” Ragdoll  slammed his face into the ale, and flailed his limbs, and reality scattered into words. C:/ You Asked for this… R:/ There will be a price… You know what I’ll pay, Anything… and reality agreed. “Don’t worry, little filly,”  the ragdoll nodded gravely, a spot of foam from the bitter ale he had dunked is head into rolling down one button eye.  “Your medicine will get tested.” -=-=-=-=- The last thing I saw was the doctors office.  The last thing I heard was Gloomy scream.  It worked. C:/ I’m Impressed.  Color me impressed.  But you knew what you were doing. “There’s gonna be a price,” the doll replied with an imagined spit. C:/ Don’t be like that.  She’ll look for you, or she won’t.  She’ll find you again… or she won’t.  But you’ve done good.  I believe in rewarding good.  Where do you want to go? “Then just send me back!”  Ragdoll raged. C:/ No-can-do-oh… do you even know where ‘back’ is anymore?  Which life do you want to go back to?  The human family you destroyed, or the pony family… well suffice to say ‘back’ isn’t a place anymore.  Do you even know who you are?  Right now? “I’m… me?” The Ragdoll replied. C:/ This is my fault.  I cooked you too long.  You can’t tell the difference between what you wrote and what actually happened anymore, can you?  I’ll make it easy for you.  Where and when do you actually want to go back too? “I want to go back to Gloomy!”  Ragdoll screamed. C:/ See, that’s a “who”, I specifically offered a where and when.  But I will allow it.  Because I am NOT the mean Text!  The path is open to get back to your gray-scale waifu.  But since you didn’t specify where and when, I get to choose where and when your path starts.  You’ve already agreed to pay anything, and even dared me to “Do as you will.”  Always remember, whatever happens next, you asked for this. A rhythm reached impossible into the space between the words, and a monotone chanting penetrated that space, “Am I fooling you?  Do you fall for it all or do you just see right through?  Are you as cool as you believe?” “Are you playing hard?” The voice took on an accusing tone “Are you waiting just to quietly clock my card?  Are you waiting for a moment to leave?” C:/ This is just sad.  You are making me sad. “I don’t know how I bent,” The gray voice addressed the words directly, “What you said, to what I believed you meant.” C:/ You don’t know anything at all. “I’m standing in the push and shove,” Ragdolls gravelly voice answered, “And I’m just within the rescue of a labor of your love.” C:/ You can’t do anything but fall! “Why do I feel like I can never find you?” Gloomy Sonnet walked between the words like a filly walking in between the rain. “Why do I feel like I’m the only survivor?” Ragdoll reached out with a noodly arm. “Why am I thinking of,”  Gloomy tapped the rhythm faithfully with her hooves as she chanted, “You and me and the labor of love…” C:/ One chance, one shot… that’s all anypony ever got. The text took control of the narrative. C:/ New born, still warm, naked in the rush hour dancing in his gutter. The cruel lyric played against the sea of words the made up the whole wide world.  Ragdoll unwound into his component threads of fluff, blowing away on the wind to be reassembled elsewhere.  Gloomy collapsed into a sobbing heap. C:/ And if you want to call him, find him… He’ll be far from the bars, and guitars, and everypony. “Why?”  Gloomy sobbed, “Why are you doing this?” C:/  I’m equally sorry you had to experience that and am impressed that you did.  This was always going to be the price.