Chapter: 4 The Star Filly
The rest of the day was nurse Blue Heart showing me the rest of the halls. They were dark and ominous and... Fake.
She showed me the different activities available, there was an art room, an athletics room and a music room, she told me that tomorrow I would begin my schedule.
"But today my dear you will be in the commons room," Nurse Blueheart
calmly said, her voice smooth like lacquer, but still rather frazzled. We continued to walk down the ominous clean hallways. The only noises were the repetitive clicks of our hooves against the shiny floor. After multiple twists and turns, we finally reached our destination.
She opened up the large oak doors as I timidly walked into a colorful room. It was full of fillies and guards alike. There was padding everywhere along with babyish board games and safe toys. There was a colorful carpet with alphabet letters as educational music hummed soothingly in the background. There was another section of the room that was cut off by guards, but from what I could see, it had older mares and colts in it along with more mature looking games... Well as mature as games can get.
The quiet roar of the room filled my ears as the low murmur washed over the sounds of the music (thankfully). I awkwardly stood in the room, beginning to tremble. I did not have the best social skills. Other fillies sat down and laughed, screamed or twitched.
That's when I saw Rainbow Dash.
She sat in the corner, deep bags under her eyes. Shiny tears dripped from her eyes as she clutched something green in between her hooves. I noticed that she had a white padded cord around her wings and around the circumference of her body, immobilizing her flight abilities.
I slowly trotted up to her and sat down right next to her. I stayed silent. The Pegasus paid me no attention as she let out a sob. Now that I was closer to her I noted something was off about her; every so often, she would twitch and shake, I also noticed a reddish purple ring around her cyan neck.
My eyes looked down at her forelegs and inner thighs.
That's when I saw red lines, they were deep cuts, they looked almost infected. They were perfect straight lines of pure desperation.
They were self inflicted.
At that moment, a new emotion swelled within the rage and sadness I had been conditioned to. A emotion then blossomed in me as bright as a flower in the middle of spring. It was empathy.
The new found sympathy has taken control of me, just as the rage did before. So I wrapped my forelegs around the cyan Pegasus. Her eyes were like deep magenta pools of emotion. She twitched with more velocity and quickly broke away. "Uh... Hi?" She said shakily. She sat there awkward and stiff. Just then I snapped out of my deep feelings and realized how strange the situation was.
"Oh.. Uh hi," I quivered. A semi silence enveloped us. I say semi silent because the conversations of other patients hung over our heads. The awkwardness of the situation was so apparent that you could almost feel it.
"I'm Rainbow Dash," she said as she wiped away her tears.
I grinned from ear to ear, relieved that she didn't think I was a weirdo. "Oh- I- I'm Pinkamena Diane pie!" I piped up. My beaming face of excitement dawned on her swollen eyes. The Rainbow haired filly giggled. 'Whats so funny?' I thought as I tilted my head to the side in confusion.
"That sure is a mouthful, what if I just called you..." She placed her hoof on her mouth and tilted her eyes upwards, as if she was deep in thought, "what if I just called you Pinkie Pie!" She beamed ecstatically. I nodded my head in agreement.
"What's that?" I questioned, gesturing to the green stuffed animal glued to her hooves. Rainbow pulled it in closer to her furry bosom.
"His name is Gummy." She said matter-of-factly as she held him up the the air. He was a green little alligator with pink buttons for eyes. Time had obviously taken it's toll on the stuffed toy. The seams were tearing apart letting white stuffing pass through, clumping and bulging out like a caterpillar trying to escape it's chrysalis, anxious to see it's new found shimmering wings. The threading on the eyes had been torn up leaving the left one to be on the edge of falling off. There was dirt stained into the green fabric, but as raggedy and old Gummy was, he was still cute.
"He's adorable!" I giggled as Rainbow's smile grew bigger.
The rest of the time we spent dwindling in the common room was the funnest time I've had since Maude Pie's birthday! Me and Rainbow played games and laughed up until the second we were sent to group therapy.
"Group therapy?" I shook nervously as Rainbow trotted beside me, her rainbow mane sticking out in every direction.
"Oh, it's not that bad..." She chided. I felt so nervous, my pupils dilated, my heart pounded against my chest like it was gonna jump out my throat. Our nurses trotted in front of us, deep in their conversation about hooficures... Or something. I fixed my gaze on the cyan Pegasus. My insides twisted like someone was stirring them with a fork.
"I... I don't know, Rainbow- uh- I don't really- do well around other ponies." I stuttered, my words shook to the floor. Rainbow grew a sympathetic smile
"Well, you did ok around me..." She pointed out, her red cheeks contrasted the rest of her azure coat. Suddenly my cheeks felt hot as I turned away in embarrassment.
We walked the rest of the way together and then sat together in the group therapy room. The nurses left us there in the compartment with none other than the infamous Dr. Helfing. Suddenly the memories of him yelling this morning flooded through. as my body began to shake more, I noticed Rainbow's constant twitching did too. He smiled, but not the fake smile I had seen since I had been here, a sly smile, the kind of 'you-will-be-dead-when-I'm-done-with-you' kind of smile. I gulped.
"Take a seat," he hissed as all the fillies and colts followed his commands like a choir of obedient robots. We all sat down on the plastic chairs in a careful circle. The sound of hoofsteps on the tile floor filled the room, it slowly got more quiet as the ponies got situated.
"Good afternoon," He paused as he smacked his lips. "Today we will start by introducing the newcomer, Pinkamena Diane Pie., He said as he pointed at me. All the eyes in the room were directed at me as I smiled nervously.
"You can just call me Pinkie Pie," I suggested, taken to the nickname the rainbow filly gave me. Dr. Helfing scowled.
"Well then, now that were are all caught up, today the topic will be 'how to cope with wing and horn restraints,'" His scowl faded to a sly smile as he directed his attention to Rainbow Dash. The cyan filly sunk in her chair and looked to the floor, she looked defeated. As I looked around I saw a few other unicorns with horn restraints look down to. But not every Pegasus and unicorn was restrained. I wondered why. "Restraints are given to little fillies who break the rules using magic or flying, they can also be given to earth ponies who use their hooves to hurt others, for example, Star Flect here used her brute strength to beat up another pony, so she was restricted." The doctor said gesturing to a filly with yellow hair and a lavender coat. In between her hooves were chains, making running impossible and walking difficult. I was taken aback in horror. These "doctors" had the power to basically immobilize me and have it be perfectly okay?! THAT was insane. The red marks around the filly's shackles made it evident they had been there for quite a while.
"Rainbow, how about you go first, after all, you just got your restraints. Any suggestions on how to cope?" He said with a sly smile, cocking his head in a arrogant grin. The cyan Pegasus's frown stiffened into a deep scowl filled with rage, it was obvious that seething and searing rage boiled her insides. I stared at Rainbow and watched as the scowl faded into a sly mischievous grin.
"Why yes, I actually do have a idea on how to cope with these restraints," she said with sarcasm,"How about you take them off!!" She said in a yell, the words of pure rage stifled a giggle from the group. The doctor's head whipped around and directed a stern scowl at the giggling party. They Immediately silenced as the agitated doctor turned to Rainbow, his sly smile once again on his face.
"Well, Rainbow, your behavior makes that hard to do, because you misuse the right to fly." He pointed out. I watched. As Rainbow's glare deepened, I didn't think a pony could ever look so angry. She took a deep breath and lightened her scowl, matching the doctors sly grin.
"Well doctor, you're right, I am so very sorry for flying like a normal celesti-damned Pegasus!!!" She scoffed sarcastically, she had lost her composure halfway through the sentence and it ended up being a bit of a yell.
"Rainbow we don't tolerate that kind of language here," Dr. Helfing said, hinting to the vulgar word in the spunky Pegasus's sentence. Rainbow laughed at how absurd he was, and I would have to agree, he was acting like a flankhole.
"You hate me, it dosent matter how sane I am or how sane I come to be, you hate me and will do everything in your power to make my life miserable!" She accused with vehement rage swollen in her voice.
"I will not feed your paranoid delusions, and if you continue this pungent and contentious attitude and forget to remain in control of your emotions, well then you will know what true misery is," He said smoothly. Everyone in the room gasped. 'Was that a threat?!' I thought 'doctors don't threaten patients to get better!!!' Even the vapid Star Flect seemed shocked. And there were no nurses or guards in the room to hear... He was unstoppable. Rainbow's outrage became more evident on her face.
"How DARE you!" She spat furiously. The anger In her voice sickened me. I knew that she was in attack mode. I knew as soon as I watched her hostile figure form fists.
I put my hoof on her shoulder, her fury stricken gaze whipped around to meet my sympathetic one, her rage melted away like a candle as she stared at me.
"He really dose want to see you miserable, and if you attack him, you will be in solitary confinement for a long time. Don't give him the satisfaction. He's not worth it," I mumbled, praying to Celestia that she would just sit down.
The vexed Pegasus took her seat. Her searing gaze of hatred still scowling at him as he continued on with the therapy. I leaned over to her ear, "At least your mane had color!" I whispered her her ear, hinting to the fact that he had a dull gray mane. She giggled and then leaned into my ear, "At least your mane has style! His looks like an old mop!" She whispered in a low raspy voice. I began to laugh harder and harder and Dr. Helfing scolded us, my guess is that he knew what we were saying.
"That's not very nice," he said a little bit offended.
"You're not really offended by what some DELUSIONAL mental patients have to say about you really?!" Rainbow scoffed rolling her eyes for dramatic effect and mocking the fact that he had called her delusional not so long ago. His eyes narrowed in rage and a slight devilish smile grew across his face,
"GUARDS!" He called as they walked in "Send Pinkamena and Rainbow Dash to their rooms for the rest of the night with no dinner." He commanded, putting on a smug smile of victory.
"GOOD I DON'T WANT YOUR AWFUL FOOD ANYWAYS!" Rainbow retorted as the guards dragged us away, but unlike her, I was starving.