Rag Doll

by No one is home

Prologue: Living in the movies...

-> “Where would you rather be?”

“Anywhere but here,” I fairly snarled, “You know that!”

-> “And when, exactly, will the time be right?”

“I’m not gonna finish Rush lyrics for you… on purpose,” I grumbled as my rage cooled. I know your game, I’ve played it from all sides, already. You don’t care where I wanna go, you want to know what I want. I want a fresh start. I don’t care what it costs. That’s your fave stake in this game right?!?! Let’s play.”

The world became darkness because my eyes were buttons. The world became silence because my ears were mere folds of cloth. But my velveteen plushy flesh could still feel the world around it.

How long was I like that? How long did I scream? I don’t know. I can’t know. The next thing I knew besides the various surfaces my clothe-flesh laid against was when hearing suddenly returned. But not my hearing.

“It stopped…” I heard a young female voice speak in my own head. “The screaming stopped.”

I screamed for help, but unlike the female voice, my voice came from a short distance away. And I crossed into her field of vision for the first time and saw myself. I wish I could say I didn’t scream...

From the moment she found me, she was quite literally the center of my world. I could only see through her eyes, and only when she was looking at me. I could only hear through her ears, and only when she was listening to me. My only agency was to be where she chose to carry me. We would learn to work together. I had to, but she chose to. This was my “fresh start”. I started as a broken toy, useless until some pony child saw me as having value.

=-=-=-=-=

“My darkest hour comes before the dawn,” The grey unicorn filly droned tonelessly, “Before the light of the spawn. And brand new day where we’ve still lost our way. And our our fates are already drawn.”

The dirt collared earth pony doll gazed on the performance with expressionless button eyes. The filly flashed an uncomfortable smile, “I’m glad you like it Charlie. But I could never perform on stage… I can’t even sing. Yeah, I know you want to make me feel better, but my parents named me right. I’m Gloomy, I’m weird, and my best friend is an old earth pony doll of all things.”

The filly sighed and shook her head, “No, Charlie, I’m not gonna unicycle you a horn. I know how much it hurts when I have to sew you up… and I know your only saying that to try to help me fit in. But here’s the thing, Charlie, I don’t even need to fit in, and neither do you!”

-=-=-=-=-

Gloomy Sonnet was my eyes, my ears, and my mobility. From the outset I had no choice but to be her friend. My existential being depended on it. I never had a choice. But I came to realize it wasn’t my choices that really mattered. Because she did have a choice, and she chose to be my friend. She chose to have faith in a broken toy. Maybe the most important choice I could make was to be worthy of that faith.

=-=-=-=-=

“Now there’s nothing wrong with having an imaginary earth pony friend, dear,” Gloomy Sonnet’s well meaning aunt droned on, “I used to imagine being friends with a silly earth pony when I was your age. It’s very kind of you to want to help the poor simpletons.”

“Charlie’s not silly!” Little Gloomy argued. “And he’s not stupid either! He just talks like an uneducated farmpony, but he’s really smart! Shush Charlie, you know how you talk!”

“Well, maybe he was a unicorn and his horn got broke,” The aunt reasoned, hoping to placate the little filly, “He is a very old little rag doll…”

-=-=-=-=-

How long had I laid there, were-ever “there” was, the cold, dark, silent place? I learned about the world and my place in it through the eyes and ears of a sad unicorn child. And if I’m honest, sometimes misery does love company.

My place was to listen. I was alone in a void, but she was alone in a crowd. I lived in a world where no one could hear me, but she lived in a world where no one listened. So I listened to her.

There were nights she would nearly squeeze out my fluff, crying. And I would cry with her. And I would reassure her that it wasn’t weak to cry, even as her tears fell on me like a soothing rain. The last sense my velvetine flesh would allow me… that and pain...

=-=-=-=-=

“It’s a piece of junk,” the bully, Silver Locket sneered, as her coherts held back the frightened filly, “If you insist on playing with dolls, they should at least be a proper unicorn.”

The wicked filly shoved a sewing pin rudely into the rag doll’s head.

“CAN’T YOU HEAR HIM SCREAMING?!?!” Gloomy broke free in a burst of panic, leaving a crimson scar across the bully’s cheek. She gently removed the offending pin from her friend's head, and whispered softly, “I won’t let them hurt you again…”

“You little psycho!” The bully roared, “When my father hears…”

“Hears what, Locket?” A gruff, male, adult voice boomed out of nowhere. “When he hears how you were bullying a younger filly and torturing her doll of all things?”

“M-Mr. Alphabittle…” The color drained from the bully’s face. “I… I mean I was just…”

“Getting your friends banned from the arcade for two weeks?” The old greybeard gruffed. “Mission accomplished.” He turned his massive horned head on the bully’s young minions. “Bad unicorns don’t get to play games. Remember that.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Alphabittle,” the little grey filly stammered, “I didn’t mean to make a fuss.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, little filly,” the elder stallion smiled kindly, “The big stand up for the small. That’s how it’s meant to be. You did good today.”

Comments

[David Silver]

And lo a story begins. A few typos spotted(and reported on ye Discord). But what dynamic will they have is the real question. Besides filly and unspeaking doll.

[Scorch234]

Love this story

[White seal]

I liked the proloque, we didn't really get to know main character and his backstory tho, but besides that it's good concept and good story so far

[No one is home]

11012024
Don't worry, we'll get to know the pair more as the story goes.