//------------------------------//
// Who's The Crazy One? 
// Story: Patients (Part 1) 
// by DubstepIsAmazing 
//------------------------------//

A gentle breeze tickled Cadance's feathers as she slept peacefully. The initial shock of Diamond Tiara's sudden unconsciousness had startled her so much that shortly after she and Discord left the asylum, she fainted. She could only assume that Discord had teleported the three of them to the hospital and that she was laying either in the waiting room or in a nearby hotel. 

As the soft breeze continued, Cadance's eyes slowly opened and she gasped. She was staring at a ceiling made of stars! All different colors and changing, they turned the environment into an astral paradise. When she saw them, she was not only shocked, but she was also strangely calm. The quiet was something that she could get used to, especially with her having to take care of Flurry Heart with Shining Armor most of the time. 

Looking to her left and her right, the universe she was in only seemed to spread to the entire area. As she looked around in awe, a small, but bright, circular object floated past her face. Catching it with her hoof, she realized that she was holding an entire galaxy in it! A small smile crept across her face while she imagined the many lives that lived in that universe. She felt more powerful than Celestia and Luna combined while also remaining the calmest she's ever been in the last couple of days.

Letting the world go, she laid back down and watched the different worlds carelessly drift across the heavenly plane. She placed her hooves behind her head and sighed.

"This is amazing. I don't know where I am, but this is amazing," she muttered, closing her eyes, "If this is a hospital, this is getting a five-star recommendation from me."

"I'm so glad you approve."

She heard the sound of a light switch click and just like that, her galaxy was replaced with the setting of a normal bedroom. Or an abnormal one. As Discord looked at her with a wide grin, she noticed that her room was in fact the oddest one she's ever been in. 

"What the hay..." she muttered as she prepared to climb out of bed, "Discord, where in the woOOOOOOORLD--"

Discord stifled his laughter as Cadance fell three feet to the floor. 

"You're not in your world, to answer your question," he replied, "Well, actually, technically we are, but we're in a different dimension."

Grabbing her head with her hooves, Cadance groaned as her head was assaulted with a newfound headache from the fall. Discord's smile was still going strong as she raised her head to look at him. Before she did, she took note of the floor pattern, and was confident that it was one of the ugliest she'd ever seen. The entire carpet was a large picture of Discord, with every detail accentuated. His crinkly gray eyebrows had every hair in the highest quality. His mouth was in a wide grin, but she noticed a huge load of plaque and tartar buildup on his teeth, along with a cavity on almost every tooth. In addition, his chin was littered with crumbs of different foods. His claws were uncut and his pony hoof unpolished. Cadance's hooves flew to her mouth to keep her from throwing up.

"Like it? I consider that picture to be one of my best from ten years ago; especially since I have absolutely no experience in photography," he said, proudly.

With a disgusted frown, Cadance shook her head frantically. 

"No...no, not at all. I'll have to tell Photo Finish about you," she answered bluntly, "I bet she can--"

"This picture was TEN YEARS AGO, Princess," he answered snootily, "Of course I've gone to Photo Finish since then!  Ever since then, I've been taking pictures of less...repulsive things."

Rolling her eyes and feeling a slight twinge of guilt at Discord's insult to himself, she looked at the room and gasped. It turned out her bed was floating three feet in the air, which explained why she fell that far. Not only was the bed floating, but so was almost everything else. The left bedside table had a small plant with a light switch that served as a lamp for the entire room. On the right side, there was a vase of freshly picked...venus flytraps? They looked like they were fast asleep, but they could also be waiting for an unsuspecting fly. 

To Discord's left was an average bedroom door, which looked like the only normal thing in the room. To his right was a floating stationary bookshelf that had books that changed to a different color every couple of seconds. Each color was different than the last; some of the colors that were displayed were ones that Cadance had never seen before. The circular window gave her a view of the dimension; she looked like she was in a purple vortex, and besides the neatly cut lawn outside the house, she was able to see a variety of objects that had come to life thanks to Discord's dimension.

"Why aren't we at the hospital?" she grunted, getting to her hooves. 

"Surprisingly, they were closed. Plus, I doubt that they have the medicine that we need," he replied, rolling his eyes, "How can a mental asylum be open twenty-four hours, but an actual hospital be closed--"

"WAIT! How's Diamond Tiara? Where is she? Is she okay?!" Cadance cried, coming to remembrance of the situation they were in.

"Fine, the other room, yes," he casually responded, "She's sleeping peacefully, and I was able to use my magic to counter the drug that was given to her. Come on."

Discord then opened the door to his left and looked back at Cadance; she had a worried look on her face, not sure what to expect. He rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers.

"There. Everything we see will look completely...normal." He shuddered at the last word before leaving the room. Reluctantly following him, Cadance made sure that he was telling the truth and was glad to see that he was.

Although the room they were going to was a short walk down the hall, what Cadance could see was common in a regular house. She heard a tea kettle go off, followed by the chime of a grandfather clock. She noticed that a freshly-baked plate of cookies was set in front of a sky-blue couch and armchair set. The wooden front door had a circular window cut into quarters that enabled her to see a small portion of the doorstep. A clock was to its left that had the hour hand approaching three o'clock, or tea time.

On the walls of the hall that they walked through, there were a couple of pictures. One picture was a group photo with Discord and the Elements of Harmony, all wearing huge smiles. Another had a picture of him, Spike, and Big Mac at the conclusion of another one of their infamous "Guys Nights". A third picture had a picture of him stretching Twilight's mouth into a smile while laughing hysterically. For some reason, she could hear the third one.  

"Huh. Not bad decor, Discord! Not bad at all."

"Don't expect this to stay like this. When Fluttershy gets here, all of this normalcy is going out the window. Literally," he muttered with a frown.

"Fluttershy? Why's she coming here?"

Discord opened the door to another bedroom and flicked the light switch on which, to Cadance's surprise, turned on a light. 

"We have tea every Tuesday from three to five in the afternoon," he answered while entering the room, "Come on in; Diamond Tiara is right here."

Cadance walked in and was relieved to see that the only thing in the room was a bed where Diamond Tiara was sleeping peacefully. She sighed and put her hoof to her chest. Discord snapped his finger and the syringe the two found at the asylum was placed in his hand. Cadance sat at her bedside and sighed before looking at Discord.

"Alright, there are a couple of things that we need to discuss," she said, "Is she going to hear any of this?"

"Nope. As far we're concerned, she's drifting in a colorless void to the destination of nowhere."

"I thought she was alive!"

"She is. She's just dreaming of nothing."

"Okay. But wait, is Luna going to--"

"No. If I know Luna, I know that she usually saves people from interesting nightmares."

Cadance wore a confused look on her face after his explanation. He chuckled. "More on that later, because I can tell that you have a question. For now though, I bet you want to know what in the world this is," he said, presenting her with the syringe filled with dark matter.

"Yeah, what is that?!" she almost yelled, "That looks...disgusting!"

"And intriguing," Discord said with an evil smile, "I haven't seen this for ages."

"You mean you've seen this before?"

"I've been around for millennia, Princess. I've seen a thing or three," he muttered nonchalantly, "In all of my attempts to rule Equestria, I've never once used this at all, simply because I've never had access to it."

"But you could teleport anywhere! Why not there?!"

"Well, Celestia has the best security in Equestria. Anytime anypony tries to access something super hush-hush, Celestia is the first to be informed and is the only one who can give permission to get it. I could teleport to where they hold this, but I'd get caught instantly."

"Hold on," she interrupted, holding her hoof to her head, "You still never even told me what 'this' is!"

He held the needle up to his face and squinted at it with a determined look.

"This particular spell is called Tormential Demise. I heard that this was once used to recieve information from prisoners about invading forces."

Cadance gasped. "What?! That doesn't sound like something Equestria would ever use! It's a world of friendship and prosperity, not torture!"

"Ironically enough, this potion was primarily used on forces that they felt could truly wreak havoc if they were set free. Does that sound familiar?"

Her heart jumped to her throat as she remembered who was currently in the asylum.

"No..."

"Yes. This elixir puts the victim in a deep sleep where Luna meets them and gives them one last chance to give up information. If they don't submit...well...they're tormented by their most painful fear until it kills them."

"But...it's all a dream, right? They won't feel anything in the outside world?"

"No. But the pain is still very real in the dream. For instance, although they'll be unscathed to anypony else, they could be bleeding all over in the dream. This was considered to be an effective technique back then because to everypony else, they're just sleeping. They wouldn't know they're in pain because the elixir would render their screams inaudible to anypony in the real world. The victim can scream as loud as they could and their mouth would be shut to everypony else."

Cadance felt sick to her stomach at what the filly had gone through.

"This can't be possible...how could this happen...why--"

"Celestia was responsible for this, you know."

She was silenced at the thought of the Princesses being corrupt. So far, every single thing that she had been told by Spike and Diamond Tiara had been one-hundred percent accurate. 

"I bet you're wondering how I countered it."

"..."

"I'm glad you asked," he said sarcastically before snapping his fingers to reveal another needle. This one was filled with a pink fluid. "This is called Delightful Tsunami. It does exactly what it sounds like; if the user has been injected with the other potion, this nullifies every effect of it and replaces it with an overwhelming feeling of pleasure. Unfortunately, the user will not feel any of this pleasure when they wake up, but they will wake up well-rested."

"There's too much going on right now; and I still have questions about the other one!"

"Then feel free to ask."

"Is that elixir's production discontinued?"

"Yes."

"Then how'd Celestia get it?"

"I don't know, but I have a theory. She'd have to have someone make it for her. And remember that she's the princess of the day and Luna is princess of the night."

"Don't tell me that you're suggesting Luna made this!"

"Gee, Sherlock Hooves, I wonder how you came to that conclusion," he said, "Of course that's what I'm suggesting. Only Luna has the ability to create things like that!"

"I refuse to believe this."

"Well, believe it."

"But if it's discontinued, it has to be for a reason! How did Luna agree to make more of it?!"

"That's something I'm unsure about. I'm going to guess that Celestia did something to persuade her to produce more."

"Well, how'd you get the counterpotion to this?"

"Spring cleaning," he responded, "Shortly after my reform, Fluttershy and her friends came in to confiscate any weapon I had that could potentially be used for harm against Equestria. They took everything. After we finished, they gave me one of those potions as a 'reward' for cooperating. They explained what it did and left. Oh, and that reminds me!"

"What?"

"The happy potion could be used while you're awake, but it only lasts a couple of hours."

"Oh."

Tears welled up in Cadance's eyes as she softly brushed her hoof along Diamond's cheek.

"How could this happen?"

"I don't know. But this is far from over."

She got up and walked out the door and Discord followed. 

"I could only imagine what Spike would think if he ever found out that Luna had to do with this," Cadance said, "I have the feeling that he wants to trust her again, but finds it difficult to with everything going on."

"I agree. But for now..."

The doorbell rang.

"Would you like to join us for tea?" Discord asked as he approached the door to let Fluttershy in. Cadance nodded and went down the stairs to take a seat.