//------------------------------//
// Video Tape Evidence: (Part 4) 
// Story: Sanctuary: An Interview of a Changeling 
// by CrackedInkWell 
//------------------------------//









	(Security Camera of room 324 of River Side Hospital: 2:25 PM.)



Resto tugged at his restraints. “N-No! That’s not possible! Those police ponies told me he died a long time ago!”

Dr. Lovejoy chuckled. “My dear Resto, whoever said that he was even alive? Or rather, that you even met the police at all?” The changeling asked what he meant. “Oh, you mean you don’t know? You’ve hallucinated it all. Must be your mind trying to scrape out some hope. It’s rather common here at Sanctuary’s for a patient to experience those before their surgery.”

“W-What are you talking about?!” he demanded. “I’m at a different hospital. I know it!”

“Are you sure?” the doctor questioned. “Look around you. Right over there is the boarded window, there’s a broken light bulb dangling above us, the concrete walls are chipping away, and the rusty door over there is barely holding onto its hinges. The paint peeling on that bed looks rather uncomfortable, don’t you think?”

The changeling followed the unicorn’s hoof as he pointed around the room. His eyes slowly widened with horror as the stallion spoke. He looked down at his hind legs. Although nothing seemed to be holding them, he felt paralyzed.

“No… no, no no!” Resto looked around frantically. His whole body, even his wings, tried to flee from his living nightmare. “Nonononono! No, this can’t be happening!”

“Oh, that’s right,” Lovejoy said, lighting up his horn to grab a small ball from his saddlebags. “Doctor Cross did say that you had been rather noisy lately. The other patients have been complaining that you make it hard for them to sleep. Well then,” the unicorn levitated the ball over Resto's muzzle, “let’s change that, shall we?”

“No, please no,” he begged, “don't do it. I wanna go hom--” He was cut off when the ball was stuffed into his mouth, quickly finding that he couldn’t spit it back out.

“There we are,” the doctor grinned. “Looks like you’re ready. Oh, what was that?” He leaned over to the muffled changeling. “You want to go home? Back to that hive of yours? Oh, but Resto,” he patted the changeling’s head, “don’t you see? You are home. You have all of those wonderful children to play with, and a good staff of doctors and nurses to take care of you. Why we are your family. So don’t you worry. Doctor Cross has a specialty in lobotomy. You’ll be done before you know it! Now, you just lay right there and I’ll go get the good doctor.”

The elderly stallion disappeared behind the curtain. For the next several minutes, Resto squirmed and convulsed as he tried to free himself from both his physical and imaginary restraints. Muffled cried could be heard as his head shook back and forth, tears forming as he silently begged to be kept alive.

There were the sounds of the doorknob from the hospital room being jiggled and sharp pounding on the wooden door. "Hey! Open this door! Doctor, what are you doing? Open the door!" But it was left unanswered as the knocking continued, and the calls to be let in were ignored. 

Minutes later, Dr. Lovejoy reemerged from the curtain. This time, his mane and tail were dyed blue and he wore a white medical coat. His cutie mark showed a red cross with two serpents circled around it. “Sorry for the long wait,” he said as he trotted over to the changeling’s bedside. “We had a few intruders-- well, nosy reporters that broke in, but they’ve already been taken care of. We made sure those three wouldn’t spread any… negative publicity about the hospital.”

Resto began hyperventilating. The machine tracks his vitals showed his heart rate skyrocketing. The doctor noticed this and swiftly turned it off. “So,” Lovejoy said, “where were we?”

The changeling fought harder than ever to free himself, pulling at the straps to no avail. Meanwhile, the banging on the door had ceased before a faint gallop of hooves were heard.

“Ah, yes,” the doctor pulled an eyedropper, some peanut shells, and a mallet from out of his pockets. “Now normally I would do this in the basement. You know, out of sight from the rest of the lunatics and children. However, I think I’ll be able to do this one very quickly.”

The unicorn held the changeling’s head, making him look straight up at the ceiling. “You’ll feel a little pressure from the corner of your eye,” Lovejoy explained as he readied himself. He placed the mallet above the bed’s wooden bedpost, the eyedropper directly over Resto’s right eye, and the nutshells between his ears. “I’m going to tap this with the mallet, breaking the thin piece of skull protecting your brain. After a few more taps, it will completely destroy the one element in your brain that’s causing you to misbehave like this. Normally at that point, I would pull it back out and cover up your eye to stop the bleeding. However, why don’t we see what happens when I hammer it all the way in?”

Resto gave a few last muffled cried before the unicorn raised the mallet over the bedpost and gently squeezing the eyedropper. When the solitary drop fell onto the corner of his eye, the unicorn slammed the mallet onto the bedpost. Andrew screamed into the ball in his mouth, his mind causing him to feel the imaginary pain. They repeated this few more times until Lovejoy finally cracked the nutshells, at which point Resto violently convulsed. The doctor repeated this a few more times before finally stopping, the changeling crying out as loud as he could.

Suddenly, Resto stopped moving altogether. His thin wings, legs, and chest fell onto the bed. Doctor Lovejoy moved his forehoof and touched underneath the changeling’s jaw, smiling down at him.

“There we go,” he patted him on the chest. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

Resto didn’t respond.

“Well, this is certainly going into the memory book,” the elderly stallion said. “But before I take your picture and leave, let me get this out…” He cleaned up the shells off the pillow, and put the mallet and eyedropper back into his pocket, all the while removing the gag from his muzzle.

When it was removed, Resto’s jaw hung open, forever in a silent scream.

“That’s a good look,” Lovejoy said as he moved out of the way and snapped a picture of him. “Another lovely work of art,” he mused. “Well Resto, I’m sorry that I have to leave like this, but I really need to leave before the boring staff at this hospital finds out and calls the police. Oh! Which reminds me...” He picked up the tripod camera and swayed it over onto his back, looking straight into the security camera.

“For the record Detective Hoof Print,” he said, “this is really my first public performance. Yes, this was all intentional, and for a good reason. Where I’m planning to go for my retirement, it will be literally the last place on the planet you’ll ever find me. So, no hard feelings if you don’t catch me, I won’t be going near one of those cities or towns, which would be too obvious. Nevertheless, I hope you liked my latest works of art.”

Then came the knocking on the door, "Doctor Lovejoy! What's going on in there? Doctor!"

With a kind grin and a flared horn, he turned the machine back on, declaring that the changeling was indeed dead, before teleporting out of the room. Meanwhile, there was a click coming from the door before it opened to which another doctor and a security guard stormed into the room. It didn't take too long to find what remained of the Changeling, "Oh my Celestia!" the doctor cried, "Call the police, now!"