The Pink Asylum
“Seriously? Again? What is she babbling about now, Shimmer?” One attending says to another with a look of annoyance on his face.
“Just tune it out, Blank, she does it so much I’ve gotten used to it. You should learn to do the same,” Shimmer replies with a roll of her eyes.
“Honestly, it sounds like she is talking to someone. It is so unnerving. How long did it take for you to get used to it?” Blank asks.
“Oh, a few months. You’ve only been working here for about a week, so it’ll take some time for you to adjust. Just don’t let the crazies get to you, and you’ll be fine,” Shimmer says with a light smile.
“Is…is she telling a story?” Blank questions with a look of curiosity on his face.
“Sounds like it. But honestly, if you’re locked in a room with nothing to do for months, I’m sure you’d start acting similarly.” Shimmer answers rather matter-o-factly.
“Months? But aren’t they only supposed to be put in those rooms for a few days at most?” Blank asks, concern oozing from his words.
“For everypony else, yea. But for this one…Honestly, it is the only place we can keep her. We tried treating her like a normal patient when she got here, but there were…incidents,” Shimmer says as her face becomes stoic.
“I-incidents?” Blank asks nervously, tapping a hoof on the tile floor.
“When she was first brought in, she acted normally,” Shimmer sighs, “But little did we know what she was capable of. I mean, we read the reports, saw the newspapers, but we thought she had been subdued into accepting her fate here.”
Blank swallows loudly as Shimmer pauses and asks, “What happened?”
“At first, nothing. But a week or so after she was admitted, she had an altercation with another patient. Seemingly unprovoked, she started beating the poor stallion. It took three staff to pull her off, and by that time she had done a number on him and he had to be rushed to the medical ward. She was put in the same room she is now for a few days to calm down,” Shimmer states solemnly.
“Is the other patient ok now?” Blank asks with concern.
“Thankfully yes. But things got worse from then on. She began seeing our former psychiatrist. At first things were going well, she seemed to be opening up to him and doing better. But we realized after the incident it was all a ruse. He began recommending private sessions with her, at her request, saying that without other staff around she could open up more. They seemed to be working, on the surface, and she appeared to behave like a normal pony again. The doctor always recorded his sessions, so it wasn’t until after he quit and was later checked into a different hospital, that we discovered what occurred,” Shimmer bites her lip as she says this.
“What did she do?” Blank asks as worry creeps across his face.
“It isn’t what she did, it is what she said. She slowly began to turn things around, getting inside of his head. In just a few sessions she managed to switch the relationship to where she was acting as the doctor and he was acting as the patient. But somehow this never showed outside of their sessions. Towards the end, she began to recommend suicide to him. A few days before he quit, the once prestigious doctor began acting like a nervous wreck and then quit. We didn’t hear about him again till we heard of his admission to the other hospital. I’m just glad he is still alive,” Shimmer says with a grim smile.
“That is why we have our rules when dealing with her,” Shimmer explains, “One: Do not engage her in unnecessary conversation. Two: Do not allow any sharp objects near her, even if they are on you. Three: Do get close to her without reason. Four: Do not open her door except for scheduled bathroom breaks and to give her food and medication and Five: Under no circumstance is she to be moved or interacted with by less than four staff members, two of which must be security personnel.”
“I understand the first few rules, but the last two seem a bit overkill. Were there more incidents?” Blank asks hesitantly.
Shimmer’s face turns slightly pale as she says, “Yes, two other incidents. We don’t like to talk about them as much. If you want to know, you can look in her files. But listen Blank, stay as far away from her as you can. Learn to ignore her. She might act sweet and kind, but she is a monster. I wasn’t sure if evil actually existed until I met her,” Shimmer says as she looks towards the door to the patient’s room, before walking off down the hallway.
Blank looks after her as she goes, thinking about her words. His ears perk up as he catches another loud string of speech from the patient’s room. He shakes his head as he mumbles, “Celestia, she really never shuts up, does she? How can Shimmer ignore that racket?”
==========~=^.^=~==========
“But Pinkie! Surely you want to get out of here and go home?” A pink mare bound in a straightjacket and sitting in a padded room says. Her pink mane and tail are completely straight. “I can get us out, if you want. You just have to let me,” she says to no one.
Her mane and tail puff up as she says, “No! Just stop it. I want to stay here for the rest of my life. It’s what I deserve, what YOU deserve.” She falls over on the floor as tears begin to flow from her right eye. “You killed them, all of my friends! You even tried to kill more ponies!”
The left side of her mouth forms a smile. “They didn’t understand us, Pinkie. They kept taking us for granted. We were always happy and optimistic, and none of them thought that was weird? You can’t tell me you don’t think they were self-centered,” she says as her hair falls flat again. “You know how hard it is for us to show our sadness to others. If they were true friends, they would have noticed something was wrong. But they used us,” she says as her tears dry up.
Her hair slowly poofs up again as she shouts, “You’re wrong! Being happy around them, making them happy, that made me happy! They were my friends, there is no us! You are the one who is trying to use me! If I hadn’t snapped out of it and stabbed myself, you would have continued to use me! But I stopped you, and now you are trapped here with me!”
As her hair falls again, she says, “You’re the one who is wrong. Why do you think I exist? You know we are the same pony. I’m just trying to help you. Anyone who gets in my way, I’ll kill.” A toothy smile spreads across her muzzle. She sits up again and stares at the door to her room. “It is almost time for our next visit, you should decide to let me help you before then. We can escape,” she explains.
“Absolutely not!” She screams as her mane rises up again. “You’re evil, Pinkamena! I’ll never let you win. You are nothing but…” she stops abruptly for a moment.
Without skipping a beat, her mane falls before it can poof up entirely and she says, “No! You will let me help you! Don’t forget which of us has the most control, Pinkie.” Her voice drips with venom as she continues, “I can make as many attempts as I want to escape, but you have enough control to stop me long enough for them to subdue me. Each time, you’ve stopped me. It is only because I want to talk to you that I’m letting you do so now.”
She stands up on her rear legs and starts pacing around her room. “You are just being stubborn. It is only a matter of time before I can stop you from interfering with me. Why not just let me help? We’ll escape, go back to Ponyville, deal with the others who used us, and live happily, ever, after.”
Suddenly, she falls back to the ground as her mane puffs up again. “No! You keep asking me, every hour of every day, and I keep telling you no,” she says, “I will NEVER help you. Not if you plan to hurt more ponies.”
Her mane falls flat again and her muzzle twists into a smile, “Ok.” The jingling of keys outside her door draws her attention. “I suppose that’s all for now, Pinkie,” she says as her mane puffs up as the door slowly swings open.
==========~=^.^=~==========
Blank moves his hoof through the patient files till he finds the one marked ‘Pinkie Pie’. He pulls it out and shuts the cabinet as he goes to sit down at the desk in the room. Opening the file, he skims through it. It notes her admittance, treatments, the incidents Shimmer spoke of, and finally, the last two incidents and the list of rules that Shimmer told him. He starts reading the two incidents.
Incident #3
Patient: Pinkie Pie
Category: Assault Resulting in Serious Injury
Unlike the previous two events, the patient seemed to have malicious intent. From the interview with her she stated, “She was in my way, I wanted her to die.” Recall from Incident #1, the patient stated she simply wanted to assert dominance. Recall from Incident #2, the patient stated she thought they were playing psychologist.
The victim, one of our staff, was attempting to get her to go back to her bed as it was after hours. The patient then leapt at the victim and began beating her. The ensuing struggle made it through a few rooms before they ended up the rec room, where the patient broke the leg off of a chair and began beating the victim with it.
Almost immediately after, security staff intervened and pulled her off the victim. The security personnel stated, “The patient was standing over the victim with the chair leg raised over her head with her free hoof holding the hoof the chair leg was in.” It is assumed that the patient was intending to finish the victim off with a final attack using all her strength. Thankfully, the security staff stopped her, sedated her, and strapped her down to her bed.
The patient was covered in the victim’s blood and her mane was slicked straight with blood. She seemed to have sustained no injuries in the altercation.
The victim was rushed to medical where she was treated for massive blood loss and multiple broken bones. She made a slow recovery, but will no longer have the use of her rear legs. Needless to say, she is no longer a member of our staff due to her traumatic experience. Compensation has been provided.
As a result of this incident, action has been taken against the patient. Her medication has been increased and she is now confined to one of our padded rooms. They are not meant for long-term use, but due to her continual violent action, it has been deemed necessary. In addition, she is to wear a straightjacket at all times, aside from when she is being bathed.
“Celestia…” Blank mutters. He looks at the date of the incident and realizes Shimmer started working at the hospital shortly after. “She must have been a replacement for the victim,” he says, “Wait, does that mean…” he trails off as he flips to the next incident.
Incident #4
Patient: Pinkie Pie
Category: Assault Resulting in Death
The patient is once again the center of another incident. Despite our new methods of dealing with her, she has attacked another staff member. Unfortunately, the victim did not survive this time. The patient’s reason this time was, “I wanted to leave, they said no.”
As the patient was being escorted to the restroom, she suddenly head-butted the victim who was leading her. Still in her straightjacket, the patient began bashing her head against the victim’s, who had fallen to the floor. The patient got on top of the victim and continued her assault, then began using her teeth.
By the time security staff had arrived, about a minute after the assault began, the patient had torn off chunks of the victim’s face and torn out their throat. The victim was dead before the staff arrived. Compensation has been paid to their next of kin.
The patient was pulled off the victim and cleaned of the blood covering her coat and mane. It had again fallen flat due to the weight of the blood soaking it. After being cleaned, the patient was put back into a new straightjacket and returned to her room.
New rules and procedures have been enacted to ensure such events do not take place again. See the follow page in the file for the regulations regarding the patient’s handling.
“My word…” Blank says as he stares at the paper, his hoof shaking. His eyes move to the date of the incident. It was shortly before he was hired. “Shit, that’s why I was hired?” he mutters, swallowing hard.
He looks up from the paper and out of the office window. As he does so, a group of staff members, including two security personnel, walk by. They are escorting a pink mare with a puffy mane, wearing a straightjacket.
As he stares at them walking past the window, the mare looks over to him. Her eyes are forlorn, seemingly filled with melancholy. He stares into her eyes when suddenly they change, becoming filled with life. A playful look crosses her face as her muzzle forms a smile. Her mane falls slightly before it rights itself and her face goes back to how it was. One of the security staff behind her pushes her and she stumbles forward, returning her eyes to look ahead.
“What in Tartarus…” Blank mutters under his breath, his eyes wide in shock.
==========~=^.^=~==========
“Ugh…” Blank groans as he stretches. “Overnight shifts are a pain, I’m so tired,” he says to Shimmer who is standing next to him in the rec room. Patients are enjoying their free time under their supervision.
“True,” Shimmer replies, “But, we do get paid more for them.” She flashes him a smile before returning her attention to the patients in the room.
“Yea, I suppose,” Blank responds. It has been a few days since he read about the patient named Pinkie Pie. Thankfully, he hasn’t had to interact with her in his time with the hospital. It seems that only senior staff are assigned to deal with her.
“Hey, I’m going to go to the restroom quick. I’ll be right back, Shimmer,” Blank tells her. He turns to leave the rec room.
“Gotcha, I’ll hold things down here. Hurry back!” Shimmer calls after him, waving a hoof.
Blank leaves the rec room and heads towards the restroom that is down the hall. As he reaches the door, he sees a sign that reads, ‘cleaning is progress’ on the door. “Ugh, of course. Now I have to go to the other one,” he mutters.
It isn’t that Blank has to use it that badly, he just dislikes going down the hallway he has to in order to get to the other restroom. The hallway that leads past Pinkie’s room. After going through a few halls, he reaches the intersection to the hallway in question.
As soon as he nears the corner to it, he notices it looks dark, like lights are not turned on in it. Turning to look down it, he sees that most of the lights are off, a few are flickering, and fewer are actually on. Shaking his head, thinking that someone just turned the lights off, he flips the switches.
Of the four switches that control the hallway’s lights, only one appears to be working. It turns off the lights that are on. However, the other switches appear to do nothing at all. Letting out a sigh and a complaint about the janitors, Blank continues to walk down the hallway.
As gets about halfway down the hall, he notices the smell of iron. Knowing that Pinkie’s room is just a few doors down, he hesitates for a moment. ‘Did she do something again?’ he thinks. ‘I hope no one got seriously injured’.
After a few more steps, his hoof lands in something wet and he slips, landing on his side. The entirety of his right side becomes wet and sticky, and the smell of iron assaults his nostrils even worse than before. “ugh, what in the…” Blank begins as he struggles to his hooves.
He raises one in front of his face, which goes pale as he sees his hoof covered in red. He swallows and looks down at the ground. He hadn’t noticed before, but now that his eyes have adjusted to the dark light of the hallway, he can see streaks of red covering the floor, as though something was dragged.
There are four sources that have streaks leading to a single, open door. Between the sources he sees red hoofprints. His heart begins to beat faster, his eyes become pinpricks, and his breathing becomes ragged.
Hesitantly, he moves towards the open door as he realizes it is Pinkie’s door. The padding on the interior side of the door has turned pink due to the red substance. He stands along the wall and takes a deep breath as he peaks around the doorway and into the room.
Instantly, his breathing stops and his mouth hangs open. Before his eyes are four dismembered bodies. Two appear to be security staff, the other two hospital staff. The room itself is covered in splashes of blood. Walls, ceiling, floor, there isn’t a surface that has been spared. It has turned the room from a pure white and a pink and red abomination.
But the most horrifying detail is the mare sitting in the middle of the room, straight jacket in tatters, covered in blood, with her mane flat. Her back is turned to him and she doesn’t seem to notice he is there. She raises a hoof and he notices a butcher knife in it. She slams it down into one of the corpses and it makes a squelching sound.
It makes Blank almost retch as she pulls the blade back out and slams it down again. Her other hoof pulls back, revealing a chef’s knife, which then then stabs into the corpse. Blank can barely contain himself at the scene before him, but he can’t look away and he can’t move.
For a few moments she continues mutilating the corpse before she says, “They should have just LET US GO! They wouldn’t have had to die, not that I mind killing them or anything. But see? I told you Pinkie! I TOLD YOU! I told you I would gain control soon. Though, I suppose I did trick you. I did say I wouldn’t harm anyone if you let me get us out of here.”
Talking to herself, she laughs maniacally. “To think that’s all it took to weaken your control! You were always weak to wanting to help others. I just had to give you an excuse. Now I can leave here and kill them all, all of the ones who used us!” she says loudly. Another bout of laughter follows.
Once her laughter stops, she sits still for a few moments. Then, slowly, she turns her head to stare at Blank. Locking her eyes onto his, she tilts her head quizzically. For what feels like eons, Blank stares into her eyes, neither of them moving or saying anything.
Suddenly, her muzzle shifts into a grin as she says, “Well, looks like I’ve got someone else to kill now!” This snaps Blank out of his daze and he begins breathing rapidly, eyes darting around the room. Pinkie raises to her rear hooves, the knives grasped in her forehooves. She turns towards him and at that moment Blank bolts from the doorway and back the way he came.
“I love it when they run,” Pinkie says, walking out of the room in pursuit of Blank. Blank makes it back to the hallway intersection as Pinkie steps through doorway. For a moment, he looks back at her and their eyes meet. She smiles once again and begins walking towards him.
Waiting no longer, Blank continues to run through the empty halls before reaching another intersection. Looking back, he doesn’t see Pinkie. Forcing himself to breath, he takes a deep breath and thinks about where he is at. Recalling where the security office is at, he begins running towards it.
He doesn’t know if Pinkie is still after him, or if she gave up, but he keeps running. “If I cut through the kitchen, I’ll get there faster,” he says to himself. His hooves pound the tiled floor as he approaches the door to the kitchen and flings it open.
“Quick! You all have…to…” the words die in his throat as he takes in the room. The kitchen staff are all dead, some simply stabbed to death but a few have been flayed open. Blank begins walking through the room, avoiding the blood and bodies.
He walks past a boiling pot and makes the mistake of looking inside of it. Bloody meat, presumably from one of the flayed ponies. Blank raises a hoof to his mouth as bile rises in his throat. He contains himself until he makes his way across the room to the garbage can, where he empties the contents of his stomach.
“How,” he pants. “How can one mare do this? Shit, this is where she got the knives from. But, how did she get here in the first place?” He asks no one in particular.
Suddenly, the door he entered through flies open and Pinkie enters declaring, “It’s a secreeeeet!” The smile she was wearing is still on her face and doesn’t show any signs of going away. She walks slowly towards Blank, who is already opening the door on his side of the room and rushing through it.
“There’s no way!” Blank screams, “I thought I lost her! Was she walking the whole time? What is going on!?” His eyes dart around as he runs through the halls. He can’t hear anything over the drumming of his hooves and he has seen nopony else.
Within a few minutes, he reaches the security office and bursts through the door. “Listen, Pinkie, she!” he takes a deep breath before saying, “she’s killing ponies!” But his words reach no one. His jaw falls open as he looks upon the carnage of the security office. It was so many times worse than the kitchen and her room.
“No…no…” Blank stammers as his tired legs tremble. “Is…is everyone dead besides Shimmer, the other patients, and me?” he asks, falling to his haunches.
“Hm, maybe?” Pinkie’s voice says. A chill runs up Blank’s spine as he spins around to look at the door he’d just come through. Nothing. “No silly, over here,” she calls out again. Slowly, Blank turns back around.
As he does so, he notices Pinkie sitting at one of the desks with her rear hooves resting on it. “It took you long enough to get here, you know?” The smile on her lips never faltering.
‘Wait, what?’ Blank is at a loss. ‘Did she get here before me? No…did she do this before I saw her last, or after?’ he asks himself. He wasn’t sure what was going on at all anymore. It didn’t seem to make sense.
He blinks and she is suddenly standing above him. “Well?” Pinkie says, “Run!” Not skipping a beat, Blank bolts out the door.
==========~=^.^=~==========
“Geez, Blank sure is taking his sweet time…” Shimmer mutters. Blank has been gone for quite a while, but luckily none of the patients are acting up. If anything, it has been quite a boring shift.
As Shimmer looks around the room, the lights in one of the hallways go out. “Hu? That’s odd,” she says. She straightens up from leaning against the wall and starts walking towards the hallway, but stops when she hears hoof beats.
Moments later, a terrified looking Blank appears from the hallway, stopping right as he emerges into the light. His eyes dart around for a moment before they fall on Shimmer. “Shimmer! Quick! RUN!” he calls out. Shimmer only looks at him with concern. “Don’t just stand there, ru--“ Blank tries to warn her again, but is cut off as a knife flies through this throat.
Blank’s eyes go wide and a hoof moves up to his neck, touching the knife. Seconds later, a bloody hoof grasping a cleaver emerges from the darkness and embeds the cleaver into Blank’s back, forcing him to fall to the ground.
“Blank!” Shimmer calls out as Blank’s body thumps to the ground. By now, most of the patients are staring at Blank as well, but a few are still going about their business as though nothing is happening. Another hoof emerges from the darkness and joins the other one in grabbing Blank’s rear legs and dragging him back into the darkness.
Blank struggles meekly till he disappears back into the darkness. Frozen with fear, Shimmer can only stare into the darkness. After a few moments, a smiling muzzle appears, followed by the head and body of Pinkie Pie. “N-No…” Shimmer stammers, her eyes going wide and her body shaking violently.
Suddenly, Pinkie lifts her hoof holding the cleaver behind her head and flings it towards Shimmer. Shimmer can only gasp as the cleaver flies through the air and imbeds itself in the center of her head. Her body goes limp and falls to the ground.
After a few silent seconds, the patients that were watching begin screaming and running towards the other exit. The smiling Pinkie only strolls over to Shimmer’s body and retrieves her cleaver. She looks around the room at the remaining patients who are in their own little worlds.
“I think all of us could become great friends,” she says to them, eliciting no reaction from any of them. “But first, I have some rats to hunt.”