//------------------------------// // Tape Interview #4. // Story: Sanctuary: An Interview of a Changeling // by CrackedInkWell //------------------------------// Click. “Thanks for that,” Resto said. “So anyway, let’s keep going,” the detective said as he placed the microphone down. “If I remember right, you were saying something about being electrocuted.” “Uh-huh.” “Would you like to dwell on that, or possibly skip to what happened after?” “If you don’t mind, I want to skip the part about Mr. Sparky.” “Okay, what happened to you after that?” “After? Well, after they fried me, I couldn’t move from the soreness. The nurse wheeled me back to my little room and then proceeded to put one of the blue uniforms on me. After that, she used these leather straps on my legs and chest to keep me on the bed so I wouldn’t, as she put it, ‘roll off’ while I was recovering. As if I could do anything about it. After that, I just fell asleep. “The next day -- or at least I assume it was -- I woke up to find that filly, Pumpkin, at my side with my door wide open. I was still weak so I couldn’t talk back to her, so she spoke to me the way a foal would with their toys. She asked me how I was doing and if any of the nurses hurt me. She figured out what happened when she saw my burn marks and told me she was sorry that I got a visit from Mr. Sparky. She promised that she’d make something for me to try to make things better. “A nurse came in my room and shooed the filly away to give me my medicine. I remembered that she was balancing a tray on her back that had a needle and a small bottle of some clear stuff. ‘This will help you relax that troubled mind of yours,’ she said to me. ‘After taking such a big shock like that, you’ll need this to help you recover faster.’ I couldn’t help but watch her stick the needle into my left foreleg as I slipped into unconsciousness again. “How long I was out, again, I have no idea, but I woke up finding that I was unstrapped and was able to move around and that my door was open. Once again, the hallway was old and falling apart, but I was still wearing that blue uniform, only it was really old and looked like it had been nearly been eaten off by moths as if I was wearing it for years. “Anyway, since I was free to move, I decided that I needed to find a way out of that place. Find the lobby that I entered from or a window that wasn’t barred. As I was wandering around, I noticed from time to time that I heard the other patients from the other rooms, but even when I peered through the slots in the doors, I couldn’t see anyone. I heard muttering and the occasional shriek, but I couldn’t sense anyone. “That didn’t distract me from my mission to escape that forsaken place, though. I walked around, pushing the aged wheelchairs and tables out of my way to find an exit. At one point, I was in the room where the Lost Foals were playing in, only to find it completely decomposed. I found broken toys and moldy drawings everywhere. Crayons were smashed or disintegrated into a powdered mess. Moldy books were thrown around with torn-out pages. Even the ball that I remember playing from that naming game was already deflated. But before I left and moved on, there was one drawing that caught my eye. When I picked it up, I noticed it had a drawing of me… or, at least I thought it was me. It was all of us smiling and playing with the ball while a couple of white doctors were frowning in the background. “What was weird about it is that it wasn’t the only drawing I found.” “It wasn’t?” “No. When I walked out, I found a little trail of those crayon drawings, and they all featured me. Let’s see… one of them had a green circle that had an arrow pointed at it with my name on it. Another was with me, the Queen, and a few of my brothers and sisters that had been flung out of Canterlot after the invasion. There was another one of me and some yellow lines connecting me to Mr. Sparky, with Doctor Red Cross’s hoof on the switch. “I followed the trail of creepy drawings until I found the last one by a door. ...that’s the one I remember the most. I was wearing a straitjacket that wasn’t tied on, holding a knife with some red stuff dripping off of it, and below me was Pumpkin. She had X’s on her eyes and was covered in red. I’m not really sure what the red is supposed to mean, though. Do you?” “Well… if what you’re telling me is right, then that would mean that the red must have been blood, pony blood to be exact. Don’t you know that?” “What do you mean? If a changeling gets cut, our blood would be the color blue, not red.” “Really?” “Yeah, but I think I’m getting off track. Since that last drawing was right at the door, I wondered if this particular door would help me in getting out of there. But before I could touch the handle, I heard someone screaming ‘get away from that door!’ from behind me. Then I felt something grabbing at my neck and slamming me to the ground. I couldn’t see the pony that was trying to choke me, nor who dragged me back through the hallways of the asylum. I tried reaching out for anything to stop from being dragged away. Chairs, corners of the walls, or anything stable for me to have a solid grip on.” “I suppose you didn’t.” “Of course not. I was dragged into another part of the building where I was flung into a room where the walls, ceiling, and floor were made out of pillows. The only light in the room was a light bulb that flickered like a candle. I was about to get up when I found that my forelegs were stuck. I looked down to find that I was somehow wearing a straitjacket. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t startled or confused. Truth be told, I was both, if not outright scared of what was going to happen to me.” “I can only imagine how terrifying it must have been.” “It was. Well, that and the other pony that was in there.” “Oh no.” “Oh yes. Unlike me, the other pony had a collar around his neck with a chain. Unlike most of the ponies I’ve seen, this one didn’t have a mane at all. It tried to lunge at me, but the chain stopped it just enough for me to safely retreat to the corner of the room. Oh, I could see it. Deadly pale blue eyes that never blinked, crooked and yellow teeth… and it kept barking and screaming at me, telling me about the ways it wanted to kill me. “I was mortified beyond my wits. I screamed for help, crying for anyone to save me. Pony, changeling, gryphon, dragon or even demon, it didn’t matter, just anyone to save me from this madpony. But no matter how loud I yelled, no one came. All I wanted was to get away from this vengeful, hate-filled creature of someone’s nightmare. But where was my deliverer? Who would want to save me?” For a moment, sobs were heard until Hoof Print finally spoke. “Are you going to be okay?” “Sorry,” he sniffed, “I… I can’t help it. I never felt so… helpless. Even when I was in danger, I could always rely on my siblings to save me. But… in that room… no one came, w-when I-I nee-eded it m-m-most!” Click. Click. “-tter now,” Resto sighed. “Sorry for getting too emotional there.” “I understand completely,” the detective told him, “but you are doing a very good job, though. Besides, I’ve heard that telling somepon- eh, someling about a traumatic experience can be proven to be beneficial in recov-” “Don’t say that word!” the changeling snapped. “I’m sick beyond death of hearing that word!” “Okay, okay! Sorry, I said it. I didn’t know.” Resto grunted. “No, you’re fine, it’s just… whenever I hear that word, my mind goes back to that place.” “I see. Now, not that I don’t want to cut this short, but when are you going to get to the night of the murders?” “Actually, I was about to get to that. When the door to the cell finally opened and two doctors came in, both of us were pierced with needles and lost consciousness. When I woke up, I was strapped to my bed again. Only this time, something was different. I sensed something approaching, faint at first, but I recognized it with increasing hope. I felt love coming into the building. At the moment, I didn’t care for food; all I wanted was to escape. So, I called out. I screamed as loud as I could in hopes that I would be discovered. Unfortunately, someone did. “When my door opened, it was just Doctor Red Cross. ‘Will you be quiet,’ he scolded me, but I kept yelling for help. The monster got so angry that he went up to my bed and slapped me across the face. I heard him yell ‘that’s enough!’, but I knew I had to keep calling for help. “Eventually, he put a hoof on my bed and started to wheel me out of my room and down to the basement. I kept crying and screaming as loud I could, all the way down there. He pushed my bed into a familiar room, the same one that I remember seeing the colt in. He told me that since I wouldn’t be quiet, he was ‘going to make me be quiet.’ He forced my eyelids open with some tools and I saw him grab the very same nail and hammer. “He was about to pound that nail into my eye when we heard new voices coming from outside of the room. Thankfully, the monster took notice of this and put his tools down to investigate. Once he was out of the room, I had to figure out how to escape.” “Did you get out?” “Amazingly, I did. The doctor forgot to put a strap over my withers, so I had enough room to rock the bed until it finally tipped over. Once I was on my side, gravity helped me slip out of the remaining straps so I could take those things off of my face.” “Okay, then what did you do?” “I ran, or rather, flew right up the stairs to locate where those senses of love were coming from. I searched the hallways and rooms until I bumped into them. Of course, they screamed when they saw me while I tried telling them that they should get out while they still could.” “Oh, uh… hold that thought, I realized that I’m about to run out of tape. Give me a sec…” Click.