A quick story walkthrough and event synopsis of Asylum: chapter one: · 6:33am Feb 21st, 2017
After the last chapter of Asylum came out I started to read it only to find I had forgotten a lot of what had come before and that I wasn’t getting the full experience so I decided I would read each chapter one by one and give a list of events followed by a synopsis/conclusion and maybe give my opinion at the bottom and now I am finally getting around to doing it so without further introduction:
A quick story walkthrough and event synopsis of Asylum: chapter one:
Twilight wakes up and at first thinks she is at home, calling for Spike and trying to go back to sleep but soon realizes she is in a “concrete box” with the only colors being the white and moss-green of the walls and the only features being the bed she is in and a small door with a barred window.
Twilight starts to panic but stops herself by thinking about her friends and family and instead focuses on using her magic to escape.
When Twilight finds her magic in ineffective because it is being sucked in to a “magic blackhole” on her horn she gives in to panic and makes a mess of herself.
During all of this it is pointed out that she is having a hard time thinking clearly, focusing and keeping her emotions under control.
After some time has passed two ponies, first a muscular male earth pony and then a female unicorn nurse. The nurse first greets Twilight but then upon seeing her messy state starts cleaning her with a washcloth.
When Twilight asks who she is the nurse is surprised and upset, then she refuses to answer any questions after telling Twilight “The doctor didn’t want me answering too many questions “ but then gives Twilight her name, Ratchet, and the orderly’s name, Silas
Twilight is given food and water rand reiterates that she doesn’t know how she got to the hospital but the nurse still refuses to answer, instead saying “The doctor said something like this could happen. It’s perfectly normal. You’ve just started out on a new treatment and the first few days are always the roughest. Don’t worry though; we’re going to go see Doctor Rose right after breakfast so he can do his examination and answer your questions. Just be sure to eat all of your oats. Your medication can be a bit hard on an empty stomach, and you wouldn’t want an upset tummy, now would you?”
When Twilight tries to eat her food she is reminded of the magic-sucker and asks how to take it off, when she does the nurse and orderly become tense and seem really for violence. The nurse tells her to stop touching it and she does.
Twilight finishes eating and is lead out of the cell and then out of that section of the building, seeing two other orderlies on her way out.
While on on her way to the doctor Twilight sees a window and looks out through it, almost pressing her face to is and wishing she was “out there” before being told to keep moving by Silas.
Once Twilight arrives at the room of the doctor, marked only by the oak doors and the plate reading “Dr. Valentino Rose, MD”, she is beckoned in after Ratchet knocks and is immediately struck by the multitude of expensive and well organized books. She feels a bit of jealousy at first but it is quickly replaced by longing for home and concern for Spike specifically and her friends in general.
Doctor Rose excuses himself to have a privet conversation with Ratchet and Twilight tries to make small talk with Silas but her is very dry and she doesn’t learn anything.
Rose reenters the room and starts talking to Twilight, asking the same questions as Ratchet.
Twilight begins explaining her feelings to Rose and when he keeps silent she keeps going, getting angrier as she does until she demands to know why she is here, in the hospital.
Rose answers that Twilight suffers from “Severe schizophrenia and grandiose delusions compounded by an obsessive-compulsive personality disorder,” Twilight responds simply with a blink and “what” and Rose follows up with “Twilight, most of your life you’ve been suffering from a number of severe delusions created by acute mental and personality disorders.”
Twilight stays silent for a moment trying to collect herself but then bursts out laughing and asks “Are you trying to tell me that I’m craaaazy?” to which Rose responds negatively saying that “We don’t like to use that term around here, Twilight,” he said uncomfortably. “We don’t want our patients thinking any less of themselves just because of their illnesses. In fact, with the proper therapy and medication, most of our patients can live relatively normal lives.”
Twilight says that she doesn’t believe him and asks what this is really about so she can go home, Rose asks Silas to get some documents from his desk but Twilight is still disbelieving of him and said that whatever he has must be falsified and is not going to convince her she is crazy.
Twilight examines the documents and feels a bit of doubt when she realizes the signatures for her parents on he admittance document are perfect matches.
she expresses to Rose that she thinks the signatures are forgeries and goes on to say “The dates are all wrong. This paper says I’ve been here since just after I took my entrance exams. And that’s just impossible. For argument’s sake I’m going to ignore the fact that, until very recently, I lived disorder-free far away from here. Now, you are saying that I have been here for most of my life but don’t remember any of it because I’m suffering from some retrograde amnesia as a side effect of a treatment. Correct?” and Rose answers “Correct.”
Twilight says that she still does not believe it and that she is leaving but just as she does Rose asks her if she remembers her birthday party after her exam and when Twilight questions how he knows about it he pulls out a picture of taken of her and her family plus Cadence and when it appears just how she remembers it she fully begins to doubt herself.
As she looks closer Twilight starts to find small differences between the photograph and her memory, much to her dismay. Twilight proceeds to have a panic attack and hyper ventilate and is described at feeling cold and disconnected from reality while also vomiting .
The chapter ends with the description that it feels like Twilights’s psyche has suffered a savage causing an existential wound on her soul before revealing that in the picture the words on the lanyard her mother was wearing read “Visitor Identification. Broadhoof Memorial Psychiatric Hospital”
I thought this was a good way to get the reader quickly interested in the story and hungry for the next chapter and I enjoyed the various descriptions of how Twilight felt but some of the more modular paragraphs felt unnecessary, nevertheless those little asides are some of the more characterizing bits of Asylum in my opinion.
If you have anything to add please leave a comment or send me a PM, this was written from about 11PM to 1:30AM so I really started to wear out but the end and might have missed something important.
This is a fresh reminder. Cant wait for a new chapter any thoughts when a new one will be posted?
4434020 I am going to try to complete a another this weekend; I kind of have to do it all in one sitting and then reread the actual text since when I am in transcription mode, where I am just trying to give the most detailed descriptions of events in the fewest words, I don't really get to feel the story as I would if I was just reading it since every other paragraph I am looking back at and writing in my notes.
Do you think I should make any change the style in which I did this? It is best for me to be sure now so I don’t realize later that there is some big change I need to make.
4434535 I think the style is fine maybe add a tl;dr at the end if someone can't read all of it for what ever reason.