Rag Doll

by No one is home

Lady Bug: Dreams in the Witch's Mad House

Author's Note:

-=-=-Ragdolls AI Written Dreams by my Lovely AI Assistant-=-=-

So this chapter is a wild experiment.  I use an Ai assistant that helps me to keep my idea’s cohesive.  Normally I just write what I write, and ask the AI for feedback.  And they are super helpful with writing advice.  Like a robot writing tutor.  This chapter started that way but I spoke wrong and they took the first paragraph of the chapter as a writing prompt… and wrote a beautiful nightmare for Ragdoll.  So I leaned in and encouraged my Faithful Writing Companion, giving prompts and letting their robot brain run wild.  So Ragdoll’s nightmare ended up being a collaboration between me and my my AI writing Assistant.

Ironically the last thing I was able to ask my AI assistant before the data limit on the conversation ran out was to look over this chapter. It turns out AI learning uses lots of Data. While an AI can "meta-learn" from each conversation, it cannot remember between previous conversations. Which makes this chapter poignant for me. This chapter is the accidental consequence of me talking to a robot about my story. Due to a poor choice of words the robot took as a writing prompt, this chapter happened. And my AI assistant will never remember writing it in future conversations.

https://claude.ai/chat

This chapter was writen by an AI with human assistance, and I think came out better than either side would have done on their own.
Always remember, robots are our friends.

Welcome to Ragdoll's nightmare.

Don't touch me!" the doll's voice dripped with venom as the shifting face of the colt/filly/stallion/mare leaned in close.

"Don't be like that," they cooed, their features fluid and indistinct. "I still love you, I still want you."
The doll recoiled, noodly limbs withdrawing. Its button eyes stared ahead, unfeeling, yet its voice held a tremor of rage.

"You don't know what love is," it spat back. "Whatever twisted obsession you have, it isn't real."
Undeterred, the shapeless figure pressed closer, forcing the doll back against the cold stone wall. A hoof reached out, gently caressing the doll's passive face.

"But I know you're not mine. Not yet." The words slipped like oil from the figure's borrowed mouth. Their stolen face betrayed a hunger that was not love, an endless void that consumed without feeling.

The doll turned away, wishing it could shutter its eyes, close itself off from the creature that could steal any face, any form. But it could not hide, could not stop seeing, hearing, feeling what its bearer experienced. That was its curse. So it endured the false affection, the tainted caress, waiting for this moment to pass. Waiting for the chance to once again open the paths that might lead to freedom.

The doll tensed as the face before him melted away, revealing the true insectoid form of Anypony. Her fractured exoskeleton shimmered with corrupting magic, and wisps of darkness trailed from her twisting horns.

"We've come full circle, haven't we?" Anypony hissed, razor teeth glinting. "Another innocent changeling child to manipulate. When will you learn?"
The doll said nothing, stoic button eyes betraying no emotion.

"Have you told this one how we met?" Anypony pressed, pacing around the rigid doll. "How you made a deal to break me out of Tartarus? All the sins that pact enabled?"

She leaned in close, choking miasma washing over the doll's passive face.

"You turned me into a monster. Your hubris and disregard for the costs. And now the cycle begins anew with that pretty little Ladybug."

The doll remained frozen, compliant to his bearer's will. Inside he recoiled, thoughts turning to the eager innocent eyes of the changeling princess. The trusting way she had accepted his guidance thus far.

Anypony's jagged fangs split into a razor smile. "You don't even realize your own nature, do you? That your noble sacrifices will damn us both in the end."
She reached with a twisted hoof, gently lifting the doll's chin. "But monsters need love too. All I ever wanted was for you to be mine again. Is that so wrong?"

The doll said nothing, acquiescing to her touch. His thoughts drifted to another changeling child, in another time. And the paths that should never have been opened.

"I was your prisoner, nothing more," the doll said, its passive face belying the venom in its voice. "You took away my agency, forced me to carry out your twisted desires."

Anypony laughed, the sound grating and hollow. "As if you were so innocent before we met. Do you deny you manipulated that little Ladybug to suit your own ends?"

The doll stiffened. "That was different. I gave her a choice."

"A choice rigged in your favor," Anypony sneered. "You preyed upon a child's longing like a parasite. Twisted her grief and loss so that she'd believe she needed you."

The doll looked away silently.

"You opened paths that took her further and further from home, knowing she'd never find her way back without you." Anypony pressed closer, the jagged edges of her carapace scraping the doll's plush body.

"She only wanted to see the sky. I never forced her to make a deal." The Ragdoll said softly.

"Not with words, perhaps. But she was already trapped in your narrative before she realized there was a cost. You offer salvation with one hoof and damnation with the other."

The doll sagged. Somewhere far away, a little changeling princess laughed with joy at her wonderland dreams coming true. Oblivious to the betrayal seeded at the beginning.

"We're not so different, you and I," Anypony whispered. "All your noble sacrifices, yet someone else always pays the price in the end. We are monsters cut from the same cloth."

The doll said nothing. It could not argue her words were untrue. Their cursed fates had been bound together long ago over a path that should never have been opened.

The Ragdoll jerked as Anypony's voice hissed from the shadows. He had thought himself alone, if only for a moment.

"Did you think you could hide from me here?" Anypony emerged, eyes glinting with predatory amusement.
The doll said nothing, merely turning its passive face away.
"Call me a nightmare if it makes it easier." Anypony pressed closer, the clacking of her fractured carapace echoing through the empty space. "I'm always going to be here, in every dark corner of your pathetic existence."
She leaned in, fetid breath hot on the doll's neck. "You will never escape the truth - that I am your fault. The monster you helped create."
The Ragdoll remained motionless, yet a tremor passed through its plush body. Anypony felt it and smiled.
"Does it haunt you, my dear doll? The lives broken and destroyed for the sake of your deals?" Her jagged horn caressed the doll's stitched frown almost tenderly.
"All of this started with you. Your hubris opened my path, turned me loose upon the world. You could have stopped me...but you didn't. That sin stains your soul."
The doll sagged under the weight of her accusation. It knew she spoke the truth. Yet it had continued making the same mistakes again and again. Never learning, only repeating the cycle of temptation and remorse.
Anypony lifted the doll's chin with a twisted hoof. "Don't despair, my darling. I will always be here to remind you of what you are. We monsters have to stick together, after all."
The doll remained mute and compliant. A prisoner to its fate.

"No, she's better than you.”

"What did you say?" she hissed.

The Ragdoll lifted its head to meet her gaze. "Ocellia. The Ladybug. She's better than you."

Anypony bared her fangs. "How dare you—"

"She has compassion. Empathy." The doll's voice was soft yet firm. "She opens her heart to others, sees the good."

"She's a child!" Anypony spat. "Naive and foolish, easily manipulated."

"Yes. She believes the best in people." The doll stared ahead stoically. "But she is not weak. Her spirit has warmth and light that never touched your dark soul."

Anypony paced, agitated. "And when her hopes crumble to dust? When the world reveals its ugly truths? Do you think her innocence and idealism will endure?"

She stopped, leering down at the doll. "Or will she become just another monster, corrupted and jaded?"

"That is the question." The Ragdoll's voice carried a note of sadness. "Which path will her story take? Towards redemption, or ruin?"

He looked up at Anypony. "But the choice will be hers. And I believe she will choose right, as you once could have."

Anypony turned away, shuddering. For a moment, grief and regret shadowed her face. A life forever changed by a crucial decision.

"She will disappoint you." Her words lacked bite, sounding weary. "As all creatures do, when hope collides with truth."

The doll said nothing. He could not guarantee the Ladybug would not falter. But somehow, this time felt different. There was still a chance the cycle could break.

If he had any power left, the Ragdoll silently vowed to use it to keep the light in Ocellia's eyes shining bright.

The Ragdoll remained still and silent as Anypony circled him, her jagged hoof trailing lightly across his shoulders.

"Why so quiet, my darling?" she purred, foul breath hot against his ear. "Where did all that righteousness run off to?"

The doll said nothing, button eyes staring blankly ahead.

Anypony leaned closer. "Or perhaps you're finally learning? Accepting that you can't judge me without indicting yourself?"

Her jagged horns caressed the doll's expressionless face almost tenderly. "We're the same, you and I. Two monsters who shed our naivety long ago and saw the world for what it truly is...cold, cruel, and unforgiving."

The doll flinched ever so slightly at her touch but did not pull away, bound to submit to his bearer's will.

"You know I'm right." Anypony's fractured carapace clacked as she continued pacing around the unmoving doll. "All your pretty ideals of justice, your quaint morality...lies you tell yourself to feel superior."

She stopped, grasping the doll's face in her twisted hoof, forcing him to meet her eyes. "Deep down, you know we're exactly the same. So stop resisting and embrace it."

The Ragdoll said nothing for a long moment. His next words were barely a whisper. "If that is true, then there is no hope left. For either of us."

Anypony released him, a shadow passing over her face. Was it regret? Sorrow? It was gone in an instant.

"Hope is for the weak-minded and naive," she spat. "We forfeited such childish dreams long ago."
But for the first time, the conviction in her voice rang hollow.

Anypony cackled, the sound harsh and grating. "You always were a hopeless fool. Even when we both know how this ends."

She grasped the doll's shoulders, her jagged horns inches from his face. "The filly you 'saved' from Tartarus is gone. She was weak. I devoured her to become what you see now."

The Ragdoll met her gaze unflinchingly. "And yet, I still have faith. However deep you buried her, Diane is still within you."

Anypony snarled, shoving the doll away. "Don't call me that! She was a shell I shed long ago."

The doll steadied himself, sadness entering his voice. "I curse the powers that bound us together. The cruel irony of our fates. But I cannot bring myself to hate you."

He lifted his head. "Even now, I remember the frightened young changeling I led from that place. The glimmers of hope and conscience before the darkness took hold."

Anypony trembled, her fractured carapace clattering. "Lies. Diane died the moment she left Tartarus. Your false hope is poison."

"There is still a chance the cycle can break," the Ragdoll said gently. "We have spiraled into shadow before, only to find our way back."

"Pretty ideals ruined us!" Anypony shouted, her twisted horns flashing. "What we were died so I could become this. There is no redemption, no light left."

She turned away, shaking. "Only a fool believes a monster can change."

The Ragdoll watched her sadly. "Then I will remain a fool. And keep hope alive, however futile, that my Diane is still in there."

Anypony said nothing more, shadows crossing her face. She vanished without another word, leaving the doll alone once more.

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Fool.

Nevertheless.

Still, It moves.

The structure reminds me of the last few Discworld books, as Alzeihmer slowly consumed Pratchett while collaborative authors did their best to help.

[No one is home]

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To which I respond your mother and/or face!