34 - Rotten to the Core
Applejack shrunk before the imposing form of her father. "Ah did everything ah could! The farm's doing well, and Apple Bloom's a fine filly!"
"How would you know?" Her father leaned in closer. "Yer a long way away from home. Ya could have lost the rest of yer family. Unprotected, unsupported, and unloved. Is Granny still breathing, or did ya miss her funeral as a last shameful note on yer record as a family keeper?"
Willow slid towards the prostrate and sobbing Applejack. With a touch and a quick spell, she made the earth pony vanish. The horse snorted angrily. "What did you do to her?! Ah wasn't done disciplinin' her." He stomped a heavy hoof, making the ground quake with his fury. "Bring her back."
Willow shook her head with a smug look. "She's a floor up. I can't summon her back."
The horse shoved Willow aside effortlessly and stormed off into the darkness, leaving the group to recover themselves. Applejack's voice spoke with a soft quiver. "Thank ya... kindly..."
Apple Bloom's expression was that of disappointment and sadness. "Was father really like that?"
The invisible Applejack was quick to grab Apple Bloom, hugging her. "No! He was a wonderful pony! Ain't never been a better father in all of Equestria! Don't give that... thing the satisfaction of replacing our father's good image."
Apple Bloom scuffed at the ground. "Are ya really that worried yer not a good big sister? Yer amazing, Sis. Ya keep the farm going and work so hard! Dad wouldn't be upset with ya if what ya said is true."
Applejack's expression fell, though unseen by the others. "But, Ah'm here... not at the farm. Poor Big Mac has ta pick up all the slack ah left behind."
Apple Bloom pointed at herself. "That was mah fault, not yours! You're being the best big sister you can be."
Sweetie and Scootaloo both nodded quickly in agreement. Willow did not have words to share at first, but some came to her. "You have conducted yourself with honor and dignity as long as I have known you. You have guarded your wards with all the ferocity I thought ponies lacked."
Applejack let out a slow sigh. "Maybe... yer right. Maybe Ah'm overthinking the whole thing... Can ya make me not so see-through anymore? Ah feel mighty strange." With a thought and a wave, Applejack was returned to sight. "That's better, thank ya. Let's see if we can't locate yer kitten."
Recomposed, the group continued breaking into doors to find mostly empty rooms. With the floor seemingly searched through, they took the stairs up to the ground floor and found themselves emerging into the lobby before Cindy. Cindy blinked at the lot of them. "Oh, hello again. Why is Applejack with you?"
Sweetie quickly spoke. "She's cured! The new treatment worked great!"
Cindy clopped her hooves together. "That's fantastic news! I told you we can solve anything. Moon Princess provides."
Sweetie tapped her chin. "Moon Princess? Is that who you, uh, worship?"
Cindy nodded quickly. "I am one of her divine warriors. I stand against madness, as she would favor."
Sweetie nodded a little and glanced at the others. "So... maybe that's why you don't see half the crazy stuff we saw?"
"What stuff?" Cindy frowned. "We cure sick people here. Look at your sister, isn't she better?"
Applejack smiled nervously, but said nothing.
Sweetie coughed a moment. "She isn't my... Oh! Yes, of course." She laughed unevenly before frowning. "Still, there's something funny going on, er, we should try this new treatment on Sunflower! If it worked on Applejack, it could cure him too."
"Excellent idea!" Cindy slid from her chair and moved towards the hallway. "I'll show you the way." She led them with a content smile through the hallways, keeping the shadows pressed back. Applejack's father stormed towards them, revealed down the hallway. When he reached Cindy, he evaporated on contact with her, and she walked on without having noticed he existed, and without him having caused any harm other than sending Applejack into a momentary new panic.
They soon arrived at one door of many that she knocked on softly. The door opened quickly and an irritable voice spoke out of it. "What is it, Miss Meadow? I'm involved in a serious operation here."
"Very sorry, Doctor Hooves. We were hoping to try an experimental new therapy that's proving quite effective." Cindy looked to the doctor only she could see through the crack with a hopeful expression.
Doctor Hooves snorted. "Did the director approve this? Bah, whatever. Go ahead and fail, then I'll get back to what I was doing." The door swung open and Cindy waved for the others to follow her.
Sunflower was strapped to a chair securely, though one of his arms and attached paw was entirely free. The doctor frowned as the party gathered around him. "This is a lot of people for a treatment. What manner of procedure is this, Miss Meadow?"
Cindy shrugged softly. "They know it better than I do, Doctor."
Willow quickly began unstrapping Sunflower. "We are here for you, my child. Speak to me."
Sunflower brightened at her touch. "It was awful! They kept daring me to escape and every time I tried, they hurt me, then they started daring again. I don't know what they wanted!"
"Aversion therapy." The doctor pushed up the glasses on his snout. "Your kleptomaniac tendencies and your anti-social skills will be driven from your diseased mind with patience and hard work." As Willow freed Sunflower, the doctor pushed the door shut with a loud click of an engaging lock. "For safety's sake. We can't have uncured patients wandering around, now can we?"
Sunflower shook his head quickly. "Can we get out of here?"
Sweetie approached with a smile. "Not yet! The treatment begins. Sunflower, you know how upsetting it is to your mother when you steal things? Look at her. She sacrifices so much to keep you happy."
Sunflower looked confused, but turned his head towards Willow. Sweetie continued speaking. "Why don't you consider her feelings more often?"
Sunflower grabbed his mother in a fierce hug. "I love my mom! I don't want her to be unhappy."
Sweetie raised a hoof. "Then you'll give up your life of petty thievery?"
Sunflower bobbed his head. "Of course!" Not that he had been stealing things before, but it seemed an easy promise to make.
Sweetie locked the straps on the chair. "Alright, let's prove it. Sunflower, stand before these locks and don't pick them for a minute, but keep looking at them."
Sunflower moved over and settled before the locks, peering at them with some confusion. "What if I don't want to pick them?"
Sweetie raised both her hooves. "Success!"
Doctor Hooves tilted his head. "Remarkable... Well... I suppose it worked." He drew out a syringe. "But you're going to make me look bad, and we can't have that."
Cindy scowled. "Doctor! That is extremely unprofessional. Put that away this instant." When the doctor advanced, she drew out a mace that was hidden in her clothes and placed herself between the doctor and the foals. "Not one more step! You're seriously going over the line."
Doctor Hooves scowled at Cindy. "Move aside, nurse, or are you against me too? Of course you are! You don't want to see me advance!" He lunged for Cindy and caught a mace upside the head for it. He collapsed to the ground bonelessly at her feet.
She snorted softly and sheathed the weapon away. "Sorry about that. I'll see that he's reported straight away. Imagine... Most unbecoming." She quickly had the door open and led the way out. "That was a most remarkable procedure. I'll be sure to share it with the others. To think, two patients cured in the first day of arrival! It's unprecedented really."
Scootaloo slapped Sweetie Belle on the back. "All thanks to Doctor Belle!"
Cindy tilted her head. "You didn't mention you were a doctor. So small..." She narrowed her eyes a little. "You're playing a joke on me."
Apple Bloom gave a nervous laugh. "Ah yup, done caught us there. We were just, uh..."
Sweetie smiled as she spun the deceit effortlessly. "Following the instructions of one of the other doctors."
Cindy nodded at that. "That makes much more sense. Well, good day to you, and congratulations." She settled back at her desk. "I have to write this all up."
They were all quite eager to leave Cindy to her work and flee the place. Only when outside did Applejack remember. "Ah shoot! We never did figure out about that pony's friend."
Scootaloo shook her head. "Well I'm not going back in there."
Willow put a paw on Sunflower's shoulders. "I will not permit it."
Sweetie shrugged. "We found out what we had to."
Apple Bloom tilted her head. "Did we?"
Sweetie quickly nodded. "Uh huh. His friend will be fine. They're... scary... but the doctors do eventually cure everypony. Not the way I want to be cured of something, but like she said 'We never failed to cure somepony'. Maybe they'll try our idea out, that'd be nice, right?"
Applejack gently patted Sweetie on the back. "Ah reckon that would be a mighty improvement, using friends and family ta get past rough spots instead of whatever they were doing before. Well, ah agree on not wanting to set hoof in that place again, so I make a motion ta go back to tha tavern and ferget all about this. Let's hear the ayes." The vote was quickly unanimous, and they departed Restful Oaks without looking back.
They ran into their client at the tavern. He wasn't pleased that his friend was still trapped, but they managed to convince him that he should emerge in time. Burning with curiosity, Sweetie asked around about the place.
"Restful Oaks?" A graceful-looking unicorn mare tilted her head towards Sweetie Belle. "A fine place. We never have repeat criminals in town. We send them up there and they come out as model citizens. It's amazing. A true godsend." She smiled gently. "I heard one time some adventures made a big fuss up there and tried to burn the whole thing to the ground. A bunch of lunatics. They even took the secretary off on their adventuring, just up and kidnapped her. She came back eventually though. That's her granddaughter up there."
Sweetie asked, "Who?"
"What was it... Cindy? Yes, Cindy Meadows." The unicorn mare nodded softly. "Her family's been serving there for as long as anyone remembers, and they do a fine job of it. That's Earth-bound for you. They decide on a path and they'll pass it right on to their foal, and their foal's foal and so on forever if they have to. Such a solid tribe."
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How did you know we tried to brn it to the ground? We used heolfire.. it didnt work though I did sell my soul to a sucubus for amazing powers.
Yaay, they got out not only intact, but hopefully spread their corrupting influence of freindship and harmony into the darkness and dispair.
Who here thinks Cindy isnt a granddaughter?
Another side quest, local rest and recover, or soon to be setting off through the forest swamp again?
I think you mean satisfaction
conducted, ponies
Called it.
Sunflower, you know how upsetting it is to your mother when you steal things?
What!? You can't be serious! What about the mare with her tongue cut out!? (also, should be "everypony")
5965236 Fixed, thanks for the eyeballing.
5965254
"Restful Oaks?" A graceful-looking unicorn mare tilted her head towards Sweetie Belle.
Seriously though, you can't just skate over the pony apparently being tortured to death. At least tell us if it's supposed to be an illusion.
Edit:
extra capitalization
Some dungeons aren't meant to be cleared, only survived, and preferably never spoken of again. Also, someone really needs to talk to that doctor about excessive and unethical procedures, especially in light of the Belle Method.
And it seems that Cindy's special talent is sanity. Fascinating. She's like the anti-Pinkie. It's her mission in life to make ponies happy by making their lives less interesting.
There's a novel case of dissociative identity here:
Pretty sure the underlined "they" should be an "I".
5965362
5965353 Fixed, and found another error which got caught in the anti-aoe blast. Hizzah!
Great chapter as always, however I have a bit of a gripe with ending. It seemed too rushed. I mean you ended the chapter with some dialogue talking about cindy meadows grandmother and how the earth ponies in everglow pass the family business onto the next generation. But I feel that there was some missing dialouge and at most explanation. First off, I feel that with applejack's confrontation with her fears, I would imagine that she'd still be shaken up about it. Appleblooms query about her father kind of raises some questions too. Wouldn't applebloom already know how her parents were before they died? Surely her family's told her stories about their past, seeing is that they're not around now, right? The little bond AJ and AB had in that moment could of led to a short little piece with AJ telling AB stories of her dad at the tavern, leaving AB with more insight on the subject, and AJ more relaxed and reassured. Secondly, is this all we get to see of Restful Oaks? Aside from cindy meadows being awesome, what exactly is up with the place? Doctor whooves was using a technique used in a way clockwork orange did. What other "procedures" do they conduct there? What was with that hallway that could manifest ones fears? I know with some locations you tend have them in and out without question, but I feel like restful oaks had more of a supernatural feel to it rather than just inhuman medical practice and could be further explained. Also cindy meadows kind of reminded me of that other sleepy mare from the first story, are they related or was it just a coincidence that she was sleepy when they arrived? Will we see her again or is she just another one-shot character because the story demands it? Otherwise i'm glad they got out with only minor mental scarring and are ok. Can't wait to see where they end up next.
5965620 It's not too late for AB and AJ to have a conversation. Their time in Restful Oaks brought up some buried feelings, and this may be a good time to dig into them before they get submerged again. Cindy has little reason to leave Restful Oaks.
Since you're asking, I'll give some spoilers of a sort. The illusions of the place work partially on fear. If you have no fear, they don't work. Cindy is a paladin, and is entirely immune to fear. To her, the place is perfectly normal. The hallways are well lit, no demons come out to scare her, nothing. People who insist this sort of thing happens sound pretty crazy to her, and she helps get them to the doctors like the good person she is. She puts out an anti-fear aura, which reduces the effect of the shadow in her immediate vicinity.
So it's basically a temple of the Nightmare?
Face your Fears... and keep facing them... until you fear nothing.
5965643 well that explains alot, but what exactly is restful oaks that makes it capable of these illusions? Was it just built that way or what? On a side note, in A Dangerous Sparkle, during twilight's first adventures, her group came upon an inn possessed by spirits. A remark was made that they could come back to help free the spirits trapped inside when they became stronger. Were you just gonna leave that alone hoping no one would notice that twilight made no attempt to return there? I mean unless she did go back off-screen, I would like to know please.
5965731 Twilight returned to her duties as a princess in Equestria and is in no hurry to return to face Everglow's menaces. She'd likely want to rescue Applejack, who will hopefully NOT be in that town.
"Ya" could have lost the rest of "yer" family.
Don't capitalize "unloved" there.
Capitalize the first letter in "Applejack."
Put a space between "has" and "ta."
Don't capitalize "therapy."
Given that "kid" means "young goat," shouldn't that be "foal" instead?
5966000 Fixes applied to better allow us to forget that place.
that place reminds me of a movie.
ok the movie was bade but this story is good.
Harts Fire
5966072 Okay, now that I can finally get around to summarizing my thoughts on this chapter, several points stand out to me. (Also, before I forget, I thought the title of this chapter was very witty! Kudos there!)
For one thing, Cindy is quite clearly the worst paladin ever. I say this not only because paladins in D&D were - classically, at least - meant to be crusaders, actively seeking out evil and chaos so that they could smash it. Sitting around and not doing anything flies in the face of that enough that it was the main reason that I initially discounted the idea that Cindy was some sort of holy pony - paladins simply seem too martial (to me) to sit around and act as a receptionist, using weapons only as a last resort if things get out of hand. (That's leaving aside that her presence there is simply a band-aid on the problem anyway.)
But that's a nitpick; you can wave that away by saying that her presence there is part of the Moon Princess's divine plan that there be a force at Restful Oak to counter the nightmarish presence there. Fair enough, but how can Cindy be so clueless about its evil all the same? Yes, she's clearly a dim bulb, and her very presence keeps the evil away, but surely she knows how to use her detect evil ability, right? That place has got to be soaked with evil auras, and even a lingering one will still ping on her moral radar. Heck, the medical staff there are quite clearly deranged, something she found out firsthoof - how she hasn't sensed that this place is a sinkhole of evil is beyond me.
That the pony they failed to rescue will eventually be released is likewise small comfort, since he's going to come out of there more mentally/emotionally damaged than when he went in; more on this below (oh, and what about that mare with her tongue cut out?!). Make no mistake, this entire escapade was not a victory for the party. Not in any sense; did they even refund that pony his money? (Though I suspect Willow would balk at that.)
What I'm far more concerned about, however, is any lingering effects that will be had on the party members who were hit the hardest by that place, however temporary it was. Applejack didn't seem to be tortured while she was confined, but it's hard to know for sure what happened during that time...and it's hard to believe that she was just strapped down and then left alone. That's not even taking into account that phantom of her father dredging up her worst fears about having to maintain her family and their farm. Given just how badly that laid her out, this isn't something that I can see her shaking off so easily.
But I'm far, far more worried about Sunflower. While his torture didn't sound very bad prima facie, the very idea of a child saying "they hurt me" is enough to provoke a visceral sense of revulsion in just about anyone. But any physical damage that he may have suffered seems paltry compared to the possibility of psychological trauma. From what we're told, the entire point of Restful Oaks is that it "cures" patients not by treating the underlying condition, but by using harsh brainwashing techniques to force behavior modification - in other words, torture them until they break, and then build them back up in the way you want them.
Obviously, it never got that far along with Sunflower, but I worry that he may have come away from this with some trauma, which is to say, some damage to his sense of identity. For one thing, he's too young to have built up enough of a sense of self to have much resistance to any kind of sustained cruelty - and being ordered to do something and then punished for doing it is a form of cruelty (not to mention that doctor's love of administering drugs makes me worry that he used some of them on the poor kitten as well to heighten the intensity of the experience) - and between that, plus the feelings of fear, isolation, and helplessness, along with the attendant shame of being captured and strapped down, having his friends see him like that, and needing them to rescue him (not to mention having to "submit" - even in pretend - in order to get out) is likely to be a blow, possibly a fatal one, to his pride and self-confidence. In other words, at its worst, this may possibly scar Sunflower for life. Terrible things that happen to children tend to do that.
If that sounds dark, well...it is, no two ways about it. It's certainly not where I'd like to see the story go, but that does seem to be most true to what's happened thus far. Simply put, I suspect that Sunflower will take this as another big sign that he's never going to become the sort of alpha cat that he wants to be. Hopefully I'm wrong, and he'll shrug this off...but it's hard to see that happening in a believable way. On some level, he's likely realizing that he's just a footnote in the fillies' story, rather than being the main character (such as it were).
Though on a tangent, it's notable that Sunflower ran off from the group because he thought he saw his father. Given that, I'm wondering how much he's hurting for a lack of a father figure in his life. I suspect that if the group had an adult male in it, he'd start looking up to him without realizing it, presuming that it was someone that he could respect.
On a personal note, it's rather sad that Sunflower was made into the victim this time around. I say that that's a personal note because, like I suspect most readers do, I enjoy a story on an additional level when there's a character that I can relate to personally. When you can imagine yourself as being a given character, then you become invested in their personal triumphs, since you're vicariously making them your own. In this case, it would have been nice to see Sunflower become a male character that's strong, confident, and surrounded by amorous females (ideally without sacrificing plot or characterization, of course - cliches aren't inherently bad, and innovation tends to be overrated, but bad writing in any regard ruins enjoyment).
The problem is, we stop "self-inserting" into a character when they undergo an experience that we're viscerally opposed to, in terms of what we'd want to experience, and major identity-trauma tends to top that list. It's why so many people had a problem (or so it seemed) when the male protagonist in your other story underwent a (quasi-non-consensual) sex change. Likewise, it's hard hard to do so here for Sunflower now that he was, to put it rather bluntly, made into Restful Oaks' bitch. Make no mistake, neither his characterization nor the overall plot have necessarily suffered for this; this is simply a personal critique.
5967171 This timeline(We have more than one, a worrying sign) is a darker one. In another, adventurers showed up a long time ago, ran into Cindy's ancestor, encountered the evil of Restful Oaks, and ended up drawing her away to a life of adventure and crusading that ended in peaceful retirement in another town far away. They also rescued the short legs rather than them dying out.
The possibilities! I made callbacks to that other possibility in this chapter. Speaking of, how was the actual writing? We can argue plot all day long, since it's hugely subjective, but is the story a good story or not? Are things happening in any kind of sensible fashion, or does it feel like a dizzying trip down a random number generator? Are characters being presented true to themselves, or at the mercy of plot convenience, or arguably worse, not at all?
5967197 Well, as I see it, your biggest weakness in terms of your writing is your extreme reluctance to have the omniscient third-person narration talk about the characters' mindsets. It's not a total unwillingness, but it happens so often that I feel like you're rarely missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity (to paraphrase someone else's quote). I'm honestly a little surprised by this, simply because - I'm presuming you read plenty of fiction - that particular technique is ubiquitous in fiction, unless the story is told in the first-person.
I feel like I've already expounded as much as I can upon this point, however, so there's really nothing else that I can say. The sole remaining piece of advice I have in this regard - and this isn't meant to be dismissive or condescending - is to look at some contemporary fiction writing that uses omniscient third-person narration and see how it uses exposition. Heck, check out the vast library of D&D novels (two of my favorite are from the Ravenloft line - Knight of the Black Rose and King of the Dead - that use exposition to complement characterization without detracting from the plot).
Beyond that, I do think that the story is progressing well, and my recent spate of critiques hasn't been meant to indicate otherwise. Rather, I find myself in the awkward position of enjoying the story for what it is, while still being unable to keep from complaining that it isn't what I would like it to be (see my previous post regarding wanting a character that I can identify with). That's most visible where the issue of a potential romance between the kitten and the fillies is concerned - an honest assessment would find that entire idea to have limited potential due to the characters not being old enough for it; but at the same time, it's something I can't help but root for, both for how adorable it seems and how much the idea appeals to me personally.
As such, I'm reading this story in two different ways at once, wherein I take it as it is while also looking to consume any hint that it's moving in the direction I want.
In terms of how interconnected the plot progression feels, there's a happy medium between total randomness and making it feel like the entire world revolves around the heroes. I'm happy to say that most of the time the story has handled this quite well, managing to find that space where the characters can play an important role when they find themselves in a particular circumstance, without turning themselves into the be-all end-all of said circumstance. This is largely because they (and the NPCs) act in a refreshingly-intelligent manner in terms of measuring the scope of how much they can (or want to) engage with a particular situation.
That is, the characters all know their limits, and act reasonably within them. They knew better than to try and seek out and defeat the "incarnation of death" in that first dungeon, for example - running was the reasonable course of action, and they took it. The story didn't feel that it had to force them to be Big Damn Heroes. Likewise, whatever that force was didn't feel the need to start laying waste to Murrage just because some pesky ponies started stomping through its lair. It got rid of them (via chasing them off, rather than killing them) and then made sure that particular interruption wouldn't happen again, going back to whatever it'd been doing.
It's this sense of themselves in contrast to the rest of the world - their realizing that they have to meet Everglow on its own terms - that gives the story a large part of its staying power. If the characters were walking through each locale and fixing all of its problems (essentially, doing what they do in Equestria), then the story would be far weaker for it.
Insofar as the characters themselves go, I'm cautiously optimistic regarding their portrayal so far. I say "cautiously optimistic" because when you subject characters to situations outside of how they're usually depicted, some guesswork is involved. The CMC are very young, and have been shown to have all the hallmarks of youth - namely immaturity (e.g. little tolerance for prolonged periods of any sort of mental/emotional discomfort, such as anxiety), impulsiveness, and a lack of appreciation for the consequences of their actions. The question is, how would they function in a crisis situation, where they were forced to adapt to bad circumstances.
There's been no particular answer for this given in MLP, so this fic is breaking new ground with regards to these characters (hence my take on it as a coming of age tale, since that's the very heart of what such stories tend to deal with). In that regard, I worry that the CMCs' eternal optimism may be slightly too thick...but again, it's hard to be sure. Children tend to be blindly optimistic because they simply can't conceive of the number of bad things happening that tend to worry adults, but in Everglow the fillies no longer have that particular option. While they may not understand things like that purrsian who was "interested" in Sweetie Belle, it's still very plain that death and other horrors lurk relatively close by a lot of the time, and there's very little in the way of able rescuers who'll come save them.
That brings up an interesting point, however; under pressure, some people fold, but other focus. The CMC seem to be the sort who does the latter, which is good...but again, children can only go so far. As such, I keep wondering when the trio is going to start losing heart, and the more awful things happen, the more I wonder how much longer they can keep thinking positively. So far only Sweetie Belle seems to be feeling even slightly down, even though Apple Bloom nearly lost her sister on three separate occasions now (the giant scorpion, the bearded devil, and now Restful Oaks). At what point do Everglow's never-ending dangers finally claim their innocence?
That's not an easy question to answer, of course, because that necessitates even more changes to the CMC from how the actual show portrays them. But it seems to be where this fic is headed...and how the fillies react to it remains a very open question, for each of them.
5967436 This emphasizes that AJ and AB really need to have a serious chat, likely in the next chapter. They've both been through a lot, and burying it isn't the right answer for either party, and I don't think Bloom will want to. There are a lot of emotions on the field that need to be faced. Now that they aren't in the middle of insanity, it may be a good time to regroup, as a party, and get their hooves/paws firmly on the ground.
AJ will not likely look forward to any chat about emotions. She cries on the inside, ya know? Too bad, Applejack. You have to learn to adapt too.
Thanks for the insightful commentary!
5965703 No... It's face you're fear, and when you fail they will beat you, abuse you, cut out your tongue, break your legs, and everything else till you no longer fear anything because you're so mentally unstable from all the physical abuse.
Did you also forget the patiant they had cut the tongue out of? And they were even beating a child too.
5968216 Most of the horror in the place was illusionary. I don't think a paladin would be able to ignore patients who actually had no tongues as opposed to just being made to think that.
And I'm not saying that I wasn't confused by their willingness to just give up.
Wow...that place...that's the kind of place I'd put a pin in to come back at a higher level and just flatten the place with a high level spell. I know it could be argued that the Moon Princess might be using Cindy's presence to make use of the place to do good...but no. Given what happened to Applejack and Sunflower, even innocent people could get sucked into it, and Cindy(who also gets my vote for worst paladin ever) would actually help it!
Assuming the pony with her tounge cut out wasn't another illusion(and given the nature of the forms they took, probably not), that means there's torture going on right under her nose! Probably the only reason she's not a FALLEN paladin for letting this go on is that she's just to dumb to see what's going on.
I get AJ, Willow and the Crusaders wanting to just get out of there, since they obviously don't have the strength needed to cleanse that place, but I hope AJ thinks to inform the Seekers about it when they get to Viljatown so maybe they can send a more powerful group after it.
Huh, i wonder of that medical facility takes in BBEG's and what is their success rate on reforming them, i mean there HAS to be a reason why that place is allowed to stand.
So are the shadows the madness and the evil of previous inmates? Like the place forces that out of people, and then traps it within itself?
6465332
I think that that was an illusion, a remenat of a previous patient. Maybe somewhere that talked to much and the place made them think they had their tongue cut out, and when the person left that fear and madness remains as a sort of echo that is then used to help cure more patients.
Now that I think about it, are the doctors illusions too? Imbodiments of the place’s desire to cure people? Would explain why they grabbed AJ instantly and why it took offense when Sweetie Belle helped Sunflower
And now I wonder if the place just creates the doctors to interact with Cindy, and if so I kinda ship Cindy and the place now.