Trixie
We all gazed at the large buildings in front of us as Rainbow climbed out of Raritys car groaning. Lyra had convinced us all to go on a ghost hunt with a tour guide. We stood on the catwalk as I swallowed nervously. Ghosts are the one thing I don’t play around with.
“This place is creepy,” Bon Bon muttered as she stepped closer to Lyra.
“Got that right,” I admitted nervously. Lyra and Rainbow rolled their eyes together.
“It’s not that scary!” Rainbow exclaimed eagerly. “You guys are just chicken!”
“We will see if you think that after the night ends,” a stern voice came behind us as we spun around and stared at the jasmine girl with a tiffany blue hair and turquoise eyes. She wore a black shirt with the words Penhurst over her left chest pocket and black jeans along with a hat with three raindrops on it.
“Raindrops?” Lightning asked in surprise. “You work here?” Raindrops folded her arms across her chest and nodded.
“Part time to help get money for a car. I’m your tour guide for the night,” Raindrops revealed and gave Rainbow a stern look. “The ghosts don’t like rude people trust me. Respect them and they respect you.”
“I’m not scared of no ghost!” Rainbow boasted. Raindrops let out a hmph sound and smirked.
“Sure you aren’t,” she commented dryly. “Anyways, first thing we like to tell people is Penhurst wasn’t always an asylum. It was never one. Actually, it started as a state school for the feeble minded and epileptic. Penhurst itself was founded in nineteen oh eight to basically address a growing problem in the United States. If you think about the early nineteenth century, if you weren’t an active member of society, you didn’t give back to society, you were seen as a burden.”
“Awful,” Fluttershy whispered as Applejack patted her shoulder comforting.
“Indeed,” Raindrops nodded slowly. “Eugenics isn’t really taught in schools. Eugenics is basically taking a group of people or a characteristic or ailment and removing them from society, placing them somewhere to keep them out of the population.”
“That sounds familiar,” Rarity mused as I looked over my group. The rainbooms along with myself, Vinyl, Octavia, Sunset, Derpy, Lyra, Bon Bon, the sirens, Lavender, Fuchsia, Lightning, Coco and surprisingly the Shadowbolts stood around listening. Sunny was already looking scared like me except I hid it better.
“So the eugenics movement as some of you have already noticed is familiar is basically what world war two was based off of. There’s actual historical evidence of Hitler being inspired by what was happening in the United States,” Raindrops continued as an uncomfortable silence fell over us. Sunset pulled Derpy closer into a one armed hug as the two held hands.
“That ain’t right,” Applejack said quietly.
“Feeble minded is a pretty broad term,” Raindrops said as she started walking us down the catwalk. “Penhurst started out for feeble minded children.” The uncomfortable silence grew. “It meant anybody with what we would call a physical or mental handicap, things we consider pretty normal today. Autism, down syndrome stuff like that. Any sort of physical ailment were sent here. At the time it was said to be the best option for them.”
“The best option,” Lavender said as she made air quotes. “Gotra stay on that, it’s the best option.”
“The best option,” Raindrops agreed as she did her own air quotes. “At the time period, parents would send their kids here. They would sign them over to the state, they would become wards of the state.”
“Oh wow,” Indigo muttered as we stopped at a open field. “Imagine signing your kids over to the state because they spoke different.”
“Agreed,” Raindrops nodded. “This building to our right is the Limerick building. It’s the only place patients could visit their family. The first floor is carpeted and this building is a architectural mirror of the Mayflower building.”
“Which is the most haunted,” Lyra clarified for us.
“It is yes,” Raindrops admitted. We all looked at the building with slight disgust.
“It’s blazing hot out here,” Vinyl grumbled and tugged at her shirt collar. Thank God I planned ahead and wore shorts.
“During the sixties a photo journalist came to Penhurst because of a tip he received,” Raindrops said as she lead us onto the grass. “He came with a film crew under the guise of talking to doctors and they filmed for five days. They filmed the absolute awful conditions and they made it a five part documentary. You can actually find it on YouTube, it’s called stuff for the little children. It’s not for the faint hearted so I wouldn’t recommend Derpy or Fluttershy watch it. You see patients of all ages naked in their own filth. Kids from five months to five years in cribs in their own feces, skeletal figures. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen.”
Sour placed her hands over her ears and walked around in a circle slowly with a disgusted expression on her face.
“If I don’t hear it, it doesn’t exist,” Sour explained.
“It’s funny you should say that,” Raindrops said as she looked at her. “That’s how a lot of people back then felt. Because they didn’t know what was happening here. The government and Penhurst itself was telling people, send your kids here we’ll take care of them. And they weren’t.”
“Never trust the government,” Aria commented as she tried to shake Sonata off her.
“Exactly " Raindrops agreed. “So originally all our buildings were named after a letter. In the seventies, they were changed to places around Canterlot. Which is why we have the Limerick building and the Devin building. There was a building K where most of the documentary was filmed. It was on the list of buildings to be demolished, way down on the list. And suddenly the state of Canterlot said that’s the building that needs to be tore down first. And that’s where it used to stand.” Raindrops gestured out at the open field stood at as Lyra’s jaw dropped.
“It was here?” Lyra asked in shock as we gazed at the field in stunned silence.
“I’m not saying the government covered it up please don’t sue me,” Raindrops said hastily.
“No that’s definitely a cover up,” Rarity scoffed. “One hundred percent. Getting rid of it was covering it up.” Adagio walked out into the field and stared around her.
“I’m not here for this girl,” Adagio said with a rare hint of worry in her voice. “Ghosts and abuse. I’m literally standing on a cover up.”
“Standing on coverups,” I chuckled nervously as the others joined me.
“Ready to continue?” Raindrops asked as she watched us.
We all nodded after giving each other reassuring looks and followed our classmate.