//------------------------------// // Chapter 24: There She Is... // Story: Rag Doll // by No one is home //------------------------------// -=-??? Days Before-=- I gotta admit, the view is great from up here.  Zephyr Heights stretches below us, and beyond that the rest of Equestria all the way to horizon.  I can’t resist a semi-arrogant smirk,  “But we made it, girls.  We made it up the mountain!” “Is this where we live now?  This is pretty swank.  A little too brightly lit, but pretty swank.”  I don’t have the heart to tell OC this is a pretty cheap hotel.  “Where’s my room?  Ooo, is this my room?” “Actually, OC, that’s a closet.”  I can’t help but chuckle.  “And this is a hotel.  It’s temporary, I’m sure Gloomy has Pegasoft hooking up with something way… uh, you okay girl.” My girl is just standing there clopping a rhythm with a thousand yard stare.  What’s more, her horn is glowing.  Wait… her eyes are glowing too.  Well, that’s new.  I’m a little worried until she starts chanting in a hollow tone.  Now I’m terrified.  “When my doll goes falling up the stairs, he’ll meet a mare who won’t be there.  I’ll see her there again one day.  I hope the mare will go away!” “Um, Uncle?” Okay it’s not just me that’s freaked out right now. “I think something might be wrong with Miss Gloomy…” There’s just something… off about the sound of her hooves.  Like an echo coming from the wrong direction.  Almost like she’s teaching herself each beat just before she stomps the rhythm.  It’s like a distorted echo of a drum playing underwater. “It’s okay, OC, she’s probably just really in the groove and…”  I can only look the self proclaimed ‘Crowned Princess of Cuddlemuffins’ straight in the eye and lie to her face a limited number of times.  “I am one hundred percent that everything is gonna work out.” I have not reached that limit yet.  Unfortunately it seems like OC is only geared to put up with so much of my bullshit.  “Stop lying to me, Uncle!  She is clearly not alright!  You can’t tell me that’s normal!” “Yes I can.”  Okay, at this point I am committed to this lie.  “Last week we tried to roll two eldritch entities, this week Gloomy’s channeling bizarre eldritch energy into a sick freestyle beat-poet rhythm.  Given all the shoggoth in the sewers, is this even really that surprising?” “Okay, I guess”  I have successfully distracted OC from my marefriend casually unraveling the edges of reality.  My lying ways are justified.  “Should we do anything?” “Naw, we gotta let this play out.”  I break character and tell her the truth. “You do not wanna disturb her mid jinx.” “Um… should we just wait here?”  OC is great about asking the questions that matter.  “I mean, because this is kinda awkward…” “Well, there’s a smoothie cart downstairs on the sidewalk…”  It’s not that I’m not concerned, but I can be concerned while dunking my head in a delightful frozen beverage.  Honestly I could use something stronger, but I’m not comfortable having OC buy me booze. -=-=-=-=- “Wait,” the pegasus running the smoothie cart asked in confusion, while onlookers filmed the exchange on their cell phones, “How come she can actually drink the smoothie, and you just kinda dunk your head in it?  Do you drink via osmosis or something?” “A fine question my good sir.  You see, my companion is actually from a village of magical misfit toys.  So they eat and drink like normal ponies.”  The Rag Doll explained.  “I, on the other hoof, am a magical animated construct.  I don’t actually eat, drink, or breathe.  But I can taste things that absorb into my fluff.  Great smoothie by the way.” “Actually my kingdom has been in contact with you guys for years.  We just use anonymous social media accounts.”  Ocellia enthusiastically waved her plushy fore limbs as she conversed with the pegasi filming.  “I’m the first to take the journey to the surface in generations.  I never would have made it without my Uncle Rag Doll!  Oh, and somepony should really look into the oobleck problem in the sewers.” “I told you OC, those were shoggoth, not oobleck!” Ragdoll flailed his noodly arms in protest.   “Oobleck don’t have faces, and that was clearly some smiling ooze.  Thus Shoggoth!”   -=-=-=-=- If there is one thing I learned from this life it was how to recognize prey.  That little bug is carrying my doll.  Charlie is mine.  Mine!  This little insect has been crawling around with what’s mine!  I could put an end to this any time I want to.  The others may be afraid of her.  But honestly I only see a tiny little bug, that’s grown weak, buried in the comforting shadows of the world I built for them.  I actually feel for the little princess. I feel contempt, that this is what my Shadow Hive has been reduced to.  They are…literally smaller.  I feel shame, I know this is my fault.  I hid them.  I buried them so they could survive.  I have no right to judge her.  But I still do.  She calls the Ragdoll her uncle.  I had an Uncle once.  I wonder how seh will cope with beloved uncle being taken away?  I was exactly what you are, little bug.  I was small.  I was innocent… ish…  a long time ago.  I’ve already been you at the end of the world.  I’m watching it because I enjoy the show. How do you think this would end, little bug?  Did you think, all this time that I wouldn’t find out about you? -=-=-=-=- “Do you think I can’t see you?”  It hurts that I have to ask. It hurts that she would even try to hide.  It hurts worse that she got away with it for this long. “Thank you for buying a smoothie.”  And it ends exactly that awkwardly.  I could take anything, everything.  Any sling, any arrow…  but there she is.  And I wonder how long has she been watching? I thought after all this time, I was ready for anything.  Then there she is.  And she sneaks in and walks away without a word of acknowledgement.  I want to scream, but I don’t want to frighten OC.  She’s making friends.  In the end, we were just buying smoothies and hanging out on the sidewalk while Gloomy worked out her things.