Chapter 7: plan ponyville
Doctor helfing sat on the other side of the cold, steel, silver desk, his hooves were placed on the side of his head as he moved them in a circling motion, just beside his tightly shut gold eyes.
"What am I going to do with you?" He murmured as he continued to massage his temples. Despite the see-through rage in Doctor Helfing's demeanor, Rainbow and and I were happy and excited. My bouncy curly pink mane jumped in the crisp draft of the room. Rainbow stared at her flank and marveled at the mark that had adorned it.
"I don't see what the big deal is, it was just a little flight! Nopony even got hurt!" Rainbow retorted as she turned her gaze away from her flank. The dark red scars on the inside of her thighs were tinged purple, they looked infected and were not healing the way I knew scars to heal. Doctor Helfing shot up from his desk and slammed his hoofs on the silver table, creating a clammer throughout the white marble office.
"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!?" He screamed as he glared at rainbow from across the desk. He then whipped his death gaze at me and I recoiled in fear. "You have not only brought attention to this estate with your little rainbow explosion, but you have made all the patients of this institution think that they can go flying off the handle! You have created chaos!" He argued as we stayed silent.
"What's so bad about the 'attention being brought to this estate,'" the cyan Pegasus commented suspiciously. She cocked her head upwards as she spat out the words that landed right on Dr. Helfing's clean silver desk. He deepened his gaze.
"It's bad because Princess celestia and all of Equestria saw that rainbow explosion, and, because of that, she will question our ethics! Why, she probably thinks that we let our patients here do tricks like that!! She will shut us down!" The doctor lamented as he sank down to his desk.
"So what? What is so bad about that?" I spat, with venom in my words.
Everypony in the room, even Rainbow, gaped at me. I had always been a quiet pony, I had been raised at that rock farm to be quiet and respectful. But I could never respect a place like this, a place that caged ponies and had the nerve to call that 'treatment". Because, that was not treatment, that was being given up on and thrown in this hell-hole. Ponies were sent here because family's couldn't handle them, so then the nurses and doctors locked them up to rot.
"What's so bad about that, Pinkameina Diane Pie, is that if this place is shut down, they will send about 1000 mentally ill ponies out into Equestria to wreak havoc on out this peaceful land. We achieve the peace here in Helping Hoof, and we keep killers, like you, off the streets!" He shouted. His words impaled me. I looked at the ground and warm tears poured from my eyes.
'Am I a killer? Am I a dangerous pony? They have to keep me of the streets?' Thoughts of self doubt filled me as the tears cut through the silence and landed on the ground with a quiet crash. My bouncy mane flattened. Rainbow stared at me with sympathetic eyes. The sympathy melted into rage. She cocked her head towards the infamous doctor.
"SHE IS 10 TIMES THE PONY YOU WILL EVER HOPE TO BE!" The rainbow-maned filly stated firmly. I broke from my self-pitying state and looked at her. A smile crossed my lips. My vapid mane bounced back to life. Rainbow was looking out for me. She cared for me.
Dr. Helfing rolled his eyes. Clearing his throat, he pushed himself from his side of the desk, and trotted behind Rainbow's chair.
"I sentence you to a week in solitary confinement." He spoke flatly as I looked to Rainbow in fear.
A certain nurse with a brown bun, who had stayed taciturn in the corner had stepped forward. "Dr. Helfing, you must understand, solitary confinement is for ponies who are unable to calm down, who pose a danger to themselves. Uh, well- these two are calm, I believe a more suitable punishment would be, Maybe, revoked grounds privileges, or something like that," the nurse nervously contradicted, in a shaky voice. Doctor Helfing's scowl deepened and his evident anger sharpened. He shot from behind Rainbow, and turned around, looking directly at the Nurse. With that, he shot his hoof across her face, quick and hard, a sound of a lighting crack across her cheek. I widened my eyes, it was like how father would slap me when I did something wrong. The timid nurse stared blankly at the ground, and then to the doctor.
"Don't forget, who has the PHD here, nurse," he shouted, "Remember who is in charge, and I say, solitary confinement for one week, GOT IT?!" Silence filled the room after the doctors sharp remark. The nurse gulped and stepped back.
"YOU CANT DO THIS!" The azure winged Pegasus shouted. The doctors sly smile grew, dripping with evil and corrupted power.
"Orderlies," he called as they walked in on command, like robots awaiting instruction. "Take these two to 'time out'" he mocked, "and make sure they are put in separate rooms!" He called just as the door cut off the last bit of his sentence. I looked at Rainbow with tears in my eyes. Tears were already pouring down her face, I noticed as they sparkled in the artificial light of the hallway. She looked down at the sparkling white floor, she slowly complied with the orderlies.
She had given up.
The spunk and fight in her eyes had melted away, all that was left was nothing. It broke my heart to see the most amazing filly ever so broken, broken like I was.
I elbowed the tall orderly in the chest as he coughed and his eyes bulged out. "WHOS READY TO PARTY?!" I giggled as I ran as fast as I could to Rainbow. "DASHIE!" I screamed as the tears in my eyes let lose. She turned to me and noticed half the staff running after me. She let out a laugh, and suddenly, the spunk returned as she shook of her guard and dashed towards me.
"PINKIE YOUR CRAZY!" She teased as she giggled.
"THATS WHY IM HERE SILLY FILLY!" I shouted back as we darted closer together. We finally smacked into each other, but we hadn't planed that far ahead. The guards closed in.
"I just wanted to say bye" I giggled and giggled at the silliness of my actions.
"See ya in a week you crazy party pony!" She laughed in reply as she was dragged off by the orderlies. I smiled sadly, knowing our inevitable fate. They forced my limbs and forelegs into a straight jacket, but I continued to laugh and cry all at the same time.
I really was losing it. My only anchor to reality was the star filly.
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"Time for your morning medication, Ms. Pinkamena" the nurse chimed as she clicked open the locked door. I grunted as I rolled my eyes. It was hard to move with my limbs restricted. The nurse trotted over to the corner of the padded room where I resided. She poured colored pills of madness down my esophagus. Before she left I called out:
"Please let me leave! I'm not hurting anypony!! I- I just wanted to fly!" I choked on my tears. The nurse's fake smile melted away. I noticed a little red mark on her cheek, so faint, but it was there. How hard did Helfing hit her? Her chestnut brown hair remained in a perfect bun.
"I wish I could do that, Hun," she cooed softly with a sad smile. "You don't belong here Pinkie, you did bad things and you know that, but solitary confinement won't help you and everypony knows it. If I could have it my way you wouldn't even be in a straight jacket." She whispered softly, afraid that her words might be herd by and orderly. "Treatment is not just locking somepony up cause' you can't deal with them, so I know Pinkie, I know better than anypony else you don't belong here. But I have no margin for error! Ever since I defended you, Dr. Helfing has been making my life miserable, and he's doing a damn fine job. As you can see, Dr. helfing is a bad, bad pony. He honestly dose not know anything about the true treatment of the mentally ill!" She called out as a determined scowl crawled on her face. "Anypony that challenges his position, scares him, that's why he is threatening me, and locking you up!"
"I challenge the doctors position?" I asked as a small silence entered the room.
"Yes, he is afraid of what he can't contain, and you and Rainbow Dash, can't be contained." She paused as she smacked her lips together. "Pinkie, I don't say this to any of my patients, but..." She closes her eyes, "I'm counting on you to change this. You and dash, you have the power to shut this place down, you can fix this!" She emulated encouragingly.
"B-but how?" I cried with pessimism. The nurse chuckled,
"Well first things first, you need to improve your acting skills!" She giggled as I tilted my heads in confusion. "You have to get out of here, you have to no matter what it takes, you need to act happy all the time, and smile even though it hurts. This system is corrupted and won't help you even if you wanted to be, even if you were honest! You have to pretend to be sane and happy, and comply with the system always, even if you don't want to. Then, when they let you go and they trust you, you are free and you expose this place for all it's worth." She smiled deviously as I nodded. I would do this, I had to. I had to help everyone, and make them smile for real!
"What about Rainbow?" I Inquired.
The amiable nurse gave me an empathetic smile."Tell her to do that too, I know how she likes to get into trouble" she laughed as she trotted out of the room. She paused at the door way and turned back to me. "I believe in you Pinkie, all of us nurses are on your side." She smiled and left me alone with my thoughts. Before letting me go, I looked into her eyes and grinned. She smiled, "you may see me escorting you around the halls" she winked and trotted outside
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The following days blurred together. Day and night melted into one boring blob and all sense of time faded away. Being fully conscious, it made for a rather boring-decent into madness.
Finally the door opened. The sun from the window across from my cell shined through the open door. I squinted my ice blue eyes. The same nurse trotted in. A warm smile across her face.
"It's over Pinkie." She unlocked me from my straight jacket and I stretched anxiously. My tight limbs ached as I pulled on them. "By the way, my name is Nurse Ratchet" she softly smiled, and led me outside. I eyed at her. The natural light of day was a treat for somepony who had been locked in the dusty and artificially lit padded room. I took a deep breath of the chlorine scented hallways. She led me off to the Commons Room, I assessed that it was the afternoon. But when we passed the commons room i panicked slightly.
"W-where are we going?" I stuttered fearfully. She looked down at me with her shimmering emerald eyes.
"Im so sorry Pinkie, I tried everything, I went talking to the doctor trying to talk him out of it, but Dr.helfing is as stubborn as a mule." She rebuffed sadly. My eyes widened In shock as theories of what was going to happen flooded my head and over flowed out my eyes I'm the form of tears. I stayed silent, afraid to know the truth but to anxious to not know. She led me into a lightly lit room. Soon enough, orderlies came in and strapped me in a chair. I felt like I was in a horror movie, and that it was only a matter of time before the pshycopath would come out to rip me into shreds.
"WHATS HAPPENING??!!" I screamed as my words flew right into the orderlies ears, and out the others. I glared at them with fear in my eyes. Dr. Helfing walked in with a confident stride. Holding something on his back. My pupils dilated in terror when I realized what they were.
On his back were blood-stained, rusty shackles.
"No...." I said weakly as I began to thrash. "NOO" I screamed with more velocity. i shook with all my might. I knew nothing would happen, I knew that my defiance wouldn't change anything, but I still continued to thrashed wildly. I didn't care what the nurse has said, I wouldn't comply to this, I couldn't. The orderly held me down with restraints as the white maned doctor slowly approached me. His deep orange pools looked at my ice ones. I stared at him with a pleading look.
"Please...don't do this." My pathetic voice uttered quietly between sobs and screams. He smiled menacingly. His orange eyes held no emotion, his face held nothing but bitterness and vile. He broke the pity filled gaze I gave him and turned towards the orderlies. He nodded a signal.
I gave a bloodcurdling scream as they clicked the cuffs on me.
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I slowly stumbled through the halls behind Nurse Blue Heart. Nurse Ratchet had to go to another patient leaving me alone to cope with the "restrictor" that made my hooves ache. The chains clattered across the ground with every careful step I took. I missed running. I missed the feeling of wind through my mane. I missed being able to walk without tripping. I held my head down in despair. Warm tears let lose down my cheeks.
This was my life now.
I was trapped.
Nurse Blueheart led me into the commons room and let me off into the crowded room. My mane bounced back to life as soon as I saw the rainbow blur from across the room. I thought that maybe if I played a bit with Rainbow, maybe I can manage to smile again. I tried to run as fast as I could to catch her, but soon enough tripped over the shackles and rolled onto the floor with a thud.
"CELESTI-FUCKING DAMMIT!" I screamed through clenched teeth. The nurses rushed over to see if I was okay and by now Rainbow turned around to the chaos. Her vapid look turned to one of torment as she saw the shackles that incased my hooves. She darted over, resisting the urge to flap her bound wings.
"PINKIE!!" She called as she finaly got to me. "What- what did they do to you!" She spat in pure disgust. I gave her a smile.
"Never mind that now." I dismissed. I the proceeded to inform her of what nurse ratchet had told me. She rolled her eyes when i explained the whole "complying with the law" thing. "It's okay, as soon as we are out, we can go to Ponyville!" I exclaimed happily. She tilted her head ajar as she stared at me in amusement.
"Ponyville? Why ponyville?" She inquired.
"Because, it's the town of joy, I hear" I beamed. Dashie giggled in excitement. "Okay then, let's call it, 'Plan Ponyville'," she suggested as the nurses chided the patients out of the commons room.
Plan ponyville.
Our only beacon of hope, in our dark and broken lives.