"Vinyl has a problem with my staff," Octavia quickly admitted as she sat down, "Well, not with all of my workers." She set her messenger bag beside the chair. "I hired Blueblood's old chateau staff."
"Good to see you." Doctor Daisy tore herself away from the window, and set a porcelain doll down. "But I don't have any background to work with on that." She took her place at her desk. "The police reports and your previous psychiatrist's documents only told me so much." She raised an eyebrow. "Seeing as you have an issue that needs more explanation, perhaps it would be best if you start from the beginning?"
"The beginning?" Octavia looked down. "I'm not sure I can do that." She raised her head. "I can't talk about it with anyone."
"Oh," Daisy lifted the lid off of the silver candy dish. "Is it not worth talking about?"
"It is, but-" Octavia stopped herself. "That was rhetorical, wasn't it?"
"Yes, deary." Daisy nodded. "I'll tell you what." She opened one of her desk drawers. "You can talk-" She pulled out a dictaphone, and loaded a smooth wax cylinder onto it's spindle. "-and I'll just listen later." She rose up. "I'll come by your office tomorrow after listening to it."
"That's a little..." Octavia paused. "Unorthodox."
"Sometimes, I find it best to just get out of the way." Daisy explained as she pressed the needle into place. "I'll be waiting in the lobby. Just let me know when you're done." With that said she set the candy dish in front of Octavia, and left the room. "I'll listen to it then."
I suppose I should start with my job. I was a cellist for the Grand Canterlot Symphone, the lead cellist I might add. I was quite proud of that at the time. I played well, and the pay was... alright. Nothing compared to what I make now.
But after one night at the symphony, I went home. Vinyl wanted to go out drinking, but I was too tired. I had been practicing for hours on end already, and those symphonies go late into the night. I decided to make myself a pot of chamomile.
Some pony knocked at the door. No pony was there when I opened it, so I just assumed it was a foal pulling a prank. I went back to the kitchen, and poured myself a cup. That's the last thing I remember about being home that night. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I have my suspicions.
I don't know how long it was before I woke up. I was in a small room, no bigger than this office. It was pretty much empty. I had a cot to sleep on, a single candle on the floor- Oh my... the armor. That's when I first saw it. I thought it was just some sort of display piece at first.
I met Blueblood- I don't know how many hours later. Don't get me wrong, I had seen him before. I played at the same sort of function he frequented, but I only saw him then, just that simple minded uppity elitist snob. That's all any pony thought he was. But I met him then, the real him, not that upper class prude he pretended to be.
He was there in my cell- I know to call it a cell now, it fits the very definition of it. He handed me a cello. Not my old cello, but a cello. He told me to "play." Just that simple word, over and over again. It was all he would say to me. I would cry, and I would beg him to let me out. "Play." That's all he ever said.
He brought in a sandwich with him the next time. I reached for it, but that one damn word was all he would say. I knew what he meant. I tried to play, but I was too hungry to focus. I told him that, and he struck me. Not hard, but the way you might snap a newspaper across a dog's nose. He left with the sandwich.
My candle burned out after that. That's when the armor started moving. I could hear it. Just constantly moving around the room. A 'clank', just that dreadful constant noise. Just- moving on from that.
Doctor Daisy paused the spindle, and jotted down a few notes. She took a minute to think this through. Unable to make any serious analysis from what she had been given, she sighed. She released the spindle.
Blueblood came back. He had a candle, a sandwich, and a bowl of water. A bowl! But I was tired of being in the dark, hungry, and thirsty. I hate to say it, but when he said play I obeyed. I obeyed like a damn dog. After that I couldn't disobey him. He said that one word, and I would oblige. Every single time. I lost myself then. I even thought of myself as a pet. I know now that he wanted that. That was how he did it to every other pony as well. I found that out before the trial- I'm getting ahead of myself.
We had our routine. Once a day, he would come in, I would play, and he would leave the food, water, and a candle. Every day. I think it was every day. I didn't have anything to tell time by. I could do without the food, but I needed that candle. If the candle burned out before Blueblood gave me a new one, the armor would clank around the room. I would play, he would leave the supplies, and he would lock the door when he left.
He forgot to shut the door one time. One time. I was excited when I first saw it, but I wondered if it was just a test. I thought that Blueblood was waiting just outside the door. Waiting to see if I would be a bad dog. I was terrified then. By the time I worked up the courage to leave... something shut it. After that, the armor didn't just move in the dark. It moved when I couldn't see it. It clanked around whenever I wasn't looking at it.
I got no sleep after that. My sleep hadn't been well before that, but after the door incident I had to watch the armor constantly. If I didn't, it moved. So if I started to doze off, I would hear a clank, and I would wake up. I had a waking nightmare a few days after that.
It started off as just seeing Vinyl again. Then the armor got her. It killed her right in front of me. It gored her with its horn. She was torn apart by it. Trampled by it. The waking nightmares continued for so long that I couldn't tell anymore.
I heard shouting one night. I thought it was part of the nightmare. A guard- I never got his name -opened the door, and he tried to get me out. He didn't understand that the armor moved when I wasn't looking. I tried to explain it to him. He lifted its visor, and showed me that there was no pony inside. I found that silly at the time. I knew there was no pony inside. That had never stopped the armor before.
After that Fancy Pants asked me to testify at the trial-
"Red Velvet," Doctor Daisy called for her secretary as she stopped the wax cylinder. "Get me the court cylinders for the Blueblood Trial."
Daisy resumed playing the cylinder.