> Sanctuary: An Interview of a Changeling
>  by CrackedInkWell
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Tape Interview #1.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------







Click.

"This is Detective Hoof Print of the Fillydelphia P.D. The time is seven oh two, the date is October nineteenth. Case file number 12-96281. Location is the River Side Hospital on 14th and Hoofington.

"I'm currently pre-recording this as an introduction to the interview that I'm about to take. This will be the only interview we'll be doing for this case since there’s only one witness to the triple murder of three college students: Carrot Bit, Cloud Buster, and Book Binder. All three victims went missing after they told their friends and family that they would be doing some ghost hunting at Sanctuary's Mental Hospital, a place that was shut down thirty years ago, give-or-take, and has been known by the city as a local haunt spot for stupid teenagers to trespass and explore for any signs of ghosts.

"The police really got involved when we received a call to investigate some disturbing screams that were coming from the asylum. A small team was called in and found the three students dead within its crumbling walls. Cloud Buster was found in a cell that had a straitjacket tied on so tightly that his ribs were crushed and died of suffocation. The mare, Book Binder, was hooked up to an old Electrotherapy machine and was basically fried to death. And Carrot Bit was found drowned in a bathtub with freezing cold water.

"However, they also found the Changeling, who was the one who was doing all the screaming. He was found strapped to a mattress by leather straps, apparently was crying his eyes out and begging not to be harmed. Apart from the straps on all four of his legs, wings, and forehead, the bug was also wearing one of those anti-magic rings on its head.

"The thing looked like it not only had been starved for some time, but it had signed on its body signifying that it had been repeatedly stuck with needles. It also had some small burn marks on its temples and had a long scar on its abdomen. In other words, the changeling had been tortured for some time, but nopony has any idea as to who might have done it.

"Once it was removed from the scene of the crime and put into this current hospital, the changeling had been reported to show absolute fear towards anyone wearing a white coat or any doctor’s paraphernalia. The staff had to resort to drugging it so they could tend to its injuries. However, since the changeling is under arrest, it has had its forehooves strapped to its bed and put under constant surveillance.

"This is where I come in. I'm about to go interview the bug and see what its side of the story is."

(A door is heard opening.)

"Excuse me," a new voice is heard. "He's now ready for the interview."

"Thanks for tell-"

Click.





Click.

"-do you want?" the changeling asked.

"I'm just here to talk with you." Scraps of metal scratched along the floor. "I'm with the local police. I'm here to hear what your side of the story is since, well, you're the only witness in this case."

"L-Look, I'm not entirely sure what happened to those ponies! I was trying to escape when I ran into them, and even told them to get out and-"

"Hey, hey, calm down. You're under arrest for suspicion, so while it’s likely that you’re the suspect, we still want to hear what happened from your side."

"Do you really think that I'm the one you want to talk to?"

"Well, you are the only witness."

"But that's the thing! With all that's happened to me, I can't tell that if it’s been a few hours, days, or even centuries since I've stepped inside that Queen-forsaken place. They've been drugging me up so many times that I eventually stopped counting."

"What? Do you mean here?"

"No, that pit of insanity. That place even Discord and Tirek would want to forget."

"Okay, so before you tell me about that place, do you have a name?"

For a moment, the changeling hesitated before responding. "R... Resto."

"Okay, Resto." The seat in which the detective sat in creaked. "Tell me, what were you doing in an abandoned hospital?"

"I... I'm a scout for my hive on behalf of the Queen. She had sent us all over Equestria to lay low since that disaster in Canterlot. Look, I'm telling you that I'm not a spy! Heck, we're not even allowed to go near ponies, only observe them at a distance. She sent me here to see what this city was like and I needed a place to hide out in."

"The asylum?"

"Yeah. I noticed that you ponies tend to stay away from really old places that are falling apart. Naturally, the place fit the bill since there was a ton of 'Do Not Enter' and 'No Trespassing' signs along the metal fencing, so I thought it was a perfect place to lay low in. Besides, the way it looked kinda reminded me of home in a way, except without all the goo. But looking back, I should have looked for someplace else."

"How come?"

"Did anyone tell you that we changelings feed on positive emotions?"

"Yeah? So?"

"When I went in, everything in there that I could sense was... wrong. Every little square inch of that place was just wrong. In other places in Equestria, you can usually sense where the love is coming from and even where the nearest changeling is. But when I went in there... it was completely devoid of love. In fact, it was like stepping into a void where I sensed..."

"What?"

For a long minute, Resto didn't say anything. Before the detective could press him on, he finally spoke up. "Nothing. There was absolutely nothing when I busted through the front window and into the lobby. Even when I finally settled into the decaying room with its loose tiles and rotting desk, I sensed nothing. Not only was it completely devoid of love, but it lacked any other emotion. It would be like walking into a dark room before the door suddenly shut behind you, trapping you in this dark abyss where you can’t see anything."

"So even if that's true, why didn't you leave?"

"Ha! Don't you think I've tried? When I turned around, I found the very window I busted through was solid, as if it was never smashed, to begin with!"

"Now hold on, why did you go through a window instead of a door?"

"It was padlocked," the changeling deadpanned, "and before you ask, the reason why I had to bust through a window was that they were either barred or nailed shut. So when I turned around, the window was whole. I even touched it to see if it was really solid, which it was. From then on, things only got weirder, and I’m still not sure if they actually happened or if I just dreamed it all up."

"Why's that?"

"When I turned back around, I saw the nurse."

"...what?"

"That was my exact reaction, only there was a little more shock in it." Resto shifted in his bed. "Or was it surprise? Yes, I think it was the kind of surprise that would make one's heart stop. But at this point, I wouldn't blame you for not taking anything I say too seriously since I'm still not sure if what happened afterward."

"Care to explain?"

"For starters, you know how you ponies take one look at us and suddenly we're the boogiemare? That didn't happen with this nurse. As soon as I saw her, she got up from behind the rotting desk and asked me if I was alright."

"She asked you if you were alright?"

"When I asked her why she thought I wasn’t, she just said ‘you have way too many holes in your legs and ears’. After that, she told me to wait there while she got some help. But even then, I could tell that something was off about her. All that time, I couldn’t sense a single emotion from her. Not one! There was no concern, no worries, or anything. It was if she wasn't even there. Yet, I could see and hear her like how I see and hear you right now."

"Hold on, hold on," the detective said, "are you saying that you just met a ghost?"

Resto paused. "I'm not sure if it was."

"Okay, why do you keep saying that?"

"Just hear me out okay, I think you'll know why."

Hoof Print sighed. "Continue."

"Anyway, I tried to tell her that she was being speciest -- all changelings have holes, after all -- and that I was completely fine. But this mare looked concerned and wanted me to follow her to see a doctor, which was really odd since that would mean that the place was still going. Besides, the windows and doors were locked, so what could I do? I followed her.

"We went past the lobby and through a pair of doors. To my surprise, the hallway we entered looked brand new. The lights were still working, the tiles weren't dirty or broken up, and even the paint looked fresh. Looking back now, it seemed a little too clean. Even the light looked a little too sterile for anything to live in. The smell was what stuck out the most, though. Something wasn’t just rotting, but molding away, but I couldn’t put my hoof on what exactly it was.

"As I followed the nurse down the hallway, I walked around some of the other ponies that were there. Every one of them had on white uniforms or a simple pale blue sheet that was tied in the back. Each of the ponies in blue was... strange to say the least. Some of them were in wheelchairs that wouldn't stop twitching, others were trying to talk to me but I couldn't understand a word what they were saying, and a few looked weird like having an oddly-shaped head or something like that.

"This nurse led me to an office where I was introduced to someone named Doctor Red Cross." Here, the changeling shuttered. "It was there that I finally sensed an emotion, despite how small it was at the time."

"And what was that?"

"Dread," Resto said. "When that... monster looked at me, I immediately sensed dread. He looked and even sounded like a very kind pony, but I could tell that he was anything but."

"Okay, before I run out of tape, could you describe to me what this nurse and this Doctor Red Cross looked like before you go any further?"

"How could I forget? The mare had a pale coat like eggshells, with her pink mane tied back underneath her white cap, and the creature looked like it could be someone's grandfather. Orange fur, turquoise blue mane, and I never saw him without his white doctor’s coat. There was a number of times that I got a good look at his cutie mark, a blood red cross with two serpents circled around it. And those eyes..."

"Yes?"

"His eyes were yellow, but they looked... dead."

"Okay, just give me a moment to stop the tape and switch it out for another. Now give me a-"

Click.
> Tape Interview #2.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------







Click. 

"There we go," the detective said, "So anyway, you were introduced to Doctor Red Cross, then what happened?"

"Well... the doctor asked the nurse where she found me. She told him that I somehow wandered in and pointed out the holes I had. Even when I kept telling them that I was fine, much to my annoyance, the doctor kept insisting that I should be examined... and that's when he gave me the pill that he said would make me relax. When I refused to take it, Red Cross told me in a kind of warning tone that our Queen would have taken it if she was having a bad day. When I didn't give in, the nurse suddenly used her horn, grabbed my forelegs, and pulled them behind my back. The doctor used his hooves to force my mouth open to take that pill, even pinched my nose to make me swallow. And then... everything went dark."

"So, you were captured?"

"Uh-huh. I completely blacked out. The next thing I knew, I woke up on a bed in some decaying room. The white paint on the bed had peeled and showed patches of rust. The concrete walls were chipped, and I guess they had mold on them. A single, broken light bulb dangled from the ceiling like a cracked cocoon. And the mattress? Every direction I moved, bugs scurried underneath me. There was only one tiny window, but it was barred.

"I sat up and tried to figure out where I was, but my mind was all fuzzy. I was so disoriented that even standing up proved to be a challenge. I stumbled, and my legs wiggled so much that I had to lean on the walls for support. My goal then was to get out of the room, but the only way to do so was through a door that was completely made out of metal and had slots in it.

"You’d think the door would be locked after they captured me and threw me in here, but it wasn’t. After giving it a push, I found it lead out to a hallway that was in the same condition as my room, if not worse. The paint was peeling off everywhere, the tiles were smashed, anything that was made out of metal was rusting, and there were tables and wheelchairs that were turned over or stood there. I noticed that the ground was littered in millions of pages. I didn't bother to see what they were at the time. Also, everything was dark and quiet, like being on top of a mountain where no wind was blowing. And yet, that hallway was filled with emotion... but none of them were positive ones. There was a sense of sadness, depression, dread, fear, and anger that was so strong that I could practically taste its bitterness."

"Okay, so what did you do then?"

"What would anyling do? I went exploring, even though I did feel a bit sick. While I did so, I wondered what happened to everyone in that hospital, and how long I was out for. After a bit of exploring, I found out how large this place actually was. Hallway after hallway, empty room after empty room, and I couldn’t find any signs of life. All I found were cobwebs and dust that covered the ceiling where insects crawled. It was like walking inside a large tomb. I passed by rooms of beds falling apart, shoes, glasses, cups, and even a room that had toys in it."

"Toys? Like foals’ toys?"

"I guess so. The ones I saw had a smaller bed frame compared to the rest of the place. I called out to see if anyone was there, but no one responded. Then, as I entered into a large room where there were a bunch to tables and benches, I saw..." Resto trailed off, clearing his throat, "I thought I saw a shadow, but it was so quick that I couldn't determine if there was one at all. Yet, I did see it was next to a door that, the closer I got to it, I thought I heard the sound of music playing.

"So, I opened it to find a flight of stairs and a sign that pointed downwards that read 'Basement.' The lower I went, the louder that music became. But at the same time, I started hearing another sound."

"What else did you hear?"

"Look, this is going to sound weird, but as I neared the floor of the basement, I... I thought I heard someone with a high pitch voice screaming, but that scream was muffled like someone was gagged. So at the bottom of the stairs and behind a pair of double doors, I noticed that there was some light coming from the cracks of the doors, so I opened it. There I found another set of maze-like hallways, but this time you could see into the rooms because all of them had a huge window to peer through. And this hallway was illuminated by light bulbs that still gave the place an eerie, yellow glow."

"And what did you see in these rooms?"

"Well, at first, a few of them were empty except for some of the weird machines in there. Like there was this one room where there were these two huge tubs with a bunch of tubes in them like tree roots. Another room had a machine with a table that had switches and meters. But even with the light, there was still some decay that was going on, like some of the windows were broken or the tools in these rooms were disorganized like someone had left them in a hurry.

"Then after another turn, I saw a group of ponies in white that were crowding around a particular window. They were at the place where both the music and the muffled screaming were at their loudest. So, I disguised myself as a nurse and quietly walked over to see what they were looking at."

There was a moment of silence for a minute before the detective asked, "Yes?"

"I never knew that you ponies torture your own."

"What?" Hoof Print asked in complete surprise. "What are you talking about?"

"You want to know what I saw?" Resto questioned. "Through the window, not only did I found out that the music was coming from a phonograph playing, but the muffled cries were coming from a colt that was held down on a table. One of the doctors held his head, two held his legs, another was on his chest, and Doctor Red Cross was holding a pick in one hoof and a hammer in the other. While the little guy was squirming around and screaming his head off, that monster talked about what angle the pick should go in when it enters between his eye and his snout! I even remember what he was telling the poor kid. 'Don't you worry,’ he said, ‘this will only hurt for a second and you'll be done before you know it.’"

"Hold on, are you telling me that you saw this doctor perform a lobotomy on a colt?"

"If that's what you call sticking a thin spike in his eye before hammering in a couple times, then yes. Gah, even now I can still hear the screams that kid made, along with the sickening pops that I heard. I never thought anyone could do anything this barbaric in my life. Sure, even we Changelings have heard the rumors of what Sombra did when he was in charge, but that... was sickening."

"Okay, so what happened next?"

"Well, as soon as that monster started hammering in, I uh... I just jumped, thereby alerting the other doctors and nurses that happened to be there. Suddenly they started to question me about what I was doing there, a-and I was so nervous that I think I blew my cover. Dropping the disguise, I made a run for it. But since I was so dazed and the basement was like a maze that I got lost in where I was going. They were calling out to me, but I couldn't see where they were while I was being chased. Then the next thing I knew, I was suddenly knocked to the ground and felt something sharp piercing my neck before I blacked out."

"Now hold on, how can you not be sure of what you saw?" the detective pointed out. "You clearly stated that you saw this, so what's making you doubt it?"

“Because when I woke up, I found myself back in the same decaying room as before."

"Oh... I see. So you think that you just simply dreamed it up?"

"Again, I don't really know for sure..."

"What makes you say that?"

"Tell me, do I have anything on my neck?"

"Hold on a sec... lean forward a bit... I don't think I see anything. Maybe it was some night terror."

"There's more. When I 'woke up', I found that I was feeling the exact same way, woozy and all, and stumbled towards the door. When I got to it, I found it locked. But before I could hobble over to the bed and figure out how to get out of here, the door opened to one of those wheeled tables before I passed out again."

"I think I'm beginning to see a pattern here."

"When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was the squeaking noise of the wheels from that table. I opened my eyes, blinking a couple of times to see that not only was I strapped down to the table, but it was moving. Only... I couldn't see anyone. There wasn't anyone that was pushing or pulling me around. Not only that, but I also found that I was gagged too.

"A while later, I was wheeled into a room where there was a halo of light, and Doctor Red Cross's shadow too. 'What a pity,' he said, 'As a patient, I thought you knew the rules by now. Never go down to the basement without any of the staff saying so. But since you did, it looks like we going to have to punish you.' Then some nurses circled around and put some brace around my head and rubbed some liquid on my stomach before I was blindfolded. 'Now, since we've never seen a pony like you before, we need to get to know you a bit. We're just going to take a look inside you to know what you're really like, sound good?' But I couldn't respond. He asked for a scalpel and... and..." Resto started crying, "I can't." He croaked.

"Hey now," the detective's chair creaked, "what's wrong? What did that doctor do-"

"It hurt so much!" Resto cried. "He just kept cutting a-and prodding my ins-sides!" The changeling kept crying.

Click.
> Tape Interview #3.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------







Click.

“There, better now?”

Resto sniffed. “I… I think so.”

“Look, I know that this must be painful for you to remember. But three ponies are dead and their families want answers as to what happened in there. It’s the reason why I’m even talking with ya, to get to the truth.”

“But why are you taking anything I say seriously? I couldn’t tell you if all that had happened was a dream, or if I was being haunted by your ghosts, or if I just snapped. Heck, I don’t know if I’m still just hallucinating in Sanctuary’s.”

“Which is also why I’m recording this.” Two taps on the microphone were heard. “It’s so that I could play this back and put every word into consideration to piece together what’s really going on. Maybe you are innocent, or perhaps you’re not, but what’s important is to gather all the clues to see. Do you understand?”

“I think so.”

“So, if you wouldn’t mind me asking, do you remember anything after Doctor Red Cross… operated on you?”

“Well… something weird happened when I felt the scalpel, something that made me doubt myself. You see, I was hurting so much that I passed out, and when I woke up I found something that’s even more horrifying. I awoke on that operating table, yes, but there was no one around… and… I found my hoof was on the scalpel.”

“What?” Hoof Print asked in disbelief.

“I know. Even as I crawled off the table and sacked the room for anything to cover the wound, I started to wonder if I hallucinated it all. The surgery, I mean. But even then, I thought to myself how that wouldn’t make any sense. Why would anyone do that to themselves? Just, plunge a knife in and start cutting?”

“Were you feeling suicidal?”

“No! Not at all! I had no memory of being on the operating table, nor how I got into that room, to begin with. That’s the scary thing really. I can’t tell if all that has happened to me was self-inflicted or what!”

“Calm down, I get the picture. Like I’ve said, I’m trying to get all the pieces of the puzzle here. So, what happened next?”

Resto sniffed. “Well, after dusting off some bandages I found and tried to seal the wound as best as I could, I limped out of the room, trying to get out of the basement. I can’t tell you how long it took to climb those stairs since I was feeling woozy, probably from the loss of blood or something. But after climbing that mountain trek, I was able to get to the ground floor. I guess I started to hallucinate again because not only did the place look new again, but I ran into a filly.”

“Really? What did she look like?”

“Um… I don’t remember her having a horn or a pair of wings so I guess she was an earth pony. She didn’t have a mark, but she had a pine tree green coat with a white mane. And she had very light blue eyes like the skies. W-When I went into the hallway, I found her there on a tricycle, asking me if I wanted to play with her with the other children.”

“That’s… kinda creepy.”

“Ha! Yeah, looking at it now was creepy, but at the time, I wasn’t in my right mind that I didn’t bother thinking about how strange it really was.”

“Did you get what her name was?”

There was a moment of silence before Resto responded, “I think it was Pumpkin. Pumpkin… something. The most I remember about her was that she kept telling me she was five years old. Of course, I asked her what she was doing in a place like this. She said that her mommy didn’t want her, which was why she and the ‘others’ were there.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“No. She tells me that she’s part of a little group. The Lost Foals of Sanctuary. She said that she wanted me to play with them for a while. But when she noticed the bandages, she changed her mind, saying that I should follow her so that I could get help. At the time, it seemed like a good idea.

“So with her on her tricycle, I followed her through the maze of the hospital. For a while, it was just the ponies in blue that I saw, wandering around and muttering gibberish. Even when I wasn’t in disguise, it’s like no one minded that I was there, as if I was a part of the place.

“Anyway, I followed Pumpkin to one of the large rooms where there were nurses around. The foal pulled the skirt of one of them and pointed at me. I didn’t recognize her, but she seemed to understand what happened. She had me get up on a bed, removed my bandages, and gave me clean ones. She seemed nice enough, but before she left, she leaned down and whispered ‘I hope you’ve learned your lesson.’”

“So do you think that this nurse was there for your supposed surgery?”

“I remembered that they all had white masks on, so she could have been. But after that nurse cleaned me up, Pumpkin still wanted me to play with the other foals. I followed her to another room where it was mostly made up of children, about ten or fifteen in all I think. There were toys around, as well as crayons that were all over the floor. Like the older ponies, they were in blue uniforms too, as well as being supervised by the ponies in white.

“Again, even when I clearly saw and heard these kids, I still didn’t sense a thing from them. But they looked and acted quite playfully that even I in my condition couldn’t help but join in. I remembered that we stood in a circle, passing a ball towards the ones that we could name. While we did this, I noticed this one filly in the corner of the room that looked like everything was sucked out of her. There were no emotions or any signs of intelligence. She just looked at us with her mouth hung open, just drooling. Of course, I asked the children what was wrong with her, and they said that one of the nurses took her last night to visit a ‘Mr. Sparky.’”

“Oh Goddesses,” the detective said under his breath.

“Considering that beforehoof I saw a colt get lobotomized, are you really that surprised?”

“Good point. Then what happened?”

“Well, nothing much while we played. A bit later, I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to find a unicorn doctor there with a wheelchair with straps saying that I was needed. I turned to the kids, only to find that they all disappeared. Turning back to him again, I demanded to know what he wanted out of me. ‘I was told you needed a bath,’ he said, ‘so come along, sit in the chair, and I’ll wheel you over.’ I told him that I didn’t want a bath, but he told me that I must, whether I like it or not. So, he used his horn to put me and strap me to the wheelchair and took me down to another part of the asylum.

“He took me to a concrete room with rusty drains and a hose. The kind of hose that you would use to put out your fires with. Oh, and there was also a metal chair with holes and straps, too. I was levitated out of the wheelchair into the other chair that was bolted to the ground and he strapped me to it. He picked up a can with a spray attached and squirted soap -- at least I think was soap -- on every inch of me before turning to the hose towards me. The only warning I got was a quick ‘close your eyes’ before he suddenly turned the thing onto full blast.

“It was like getting punched in slow motion, all the while you could feel the pressure slapping you at full force. I kept telling him ‘stop! It hurts! Turn it down!’ but he wouldn’t listen over the roar of the hose. He wouldn’t stop until I got sprayed on every inch of my body from my face to my tale. Being strapped down, I couldn’t do anything to protect myself from the freezing water that stabbed me like a blizzard.

“Once he was satisfied, the doctor took a towel and just dried me off. He didn’t let me out of the chair until he was done. I was so weak and bruised that I could hardly move, which I guess was why I was wheeled in and out, to begin with. After that, he took me to my decaying room, tossed me in, and locked the door behind him.”

“Celestia.”

“That night, I laid in my pitiful excuse for a bed, trying to go to sleep from all the moans and screams from outside of my door. I hadn’t the foggiest idea what was going on out there, and I was so weak that I honestly didn’t care. Eventually, I managed to doze off.

“But when I woke up, I found myself lying on a metal table again, being pushed by the same nurse that I saw when I entered that nightmare to begin with. Of course, I panicked and demanded to know where she was taking me. She didn’t answer me as she pushed the table down a corridor, passing through many doors along the way until we stopped inside a particular room.

“With the help of some other nurses, I was unstrapped and, to my horror, realized where I was. I was in the basement again, and this time, Doctor Cross was looking on through the window. Looking around, I saw the same machine that I saw earlier, only this time all the lights were on and buzzing.

“Believe me, I tried to fight back while I was being lifted up. I tried using my horn, but no matter what I did, nothing was working! I tried thrashing around, but it was pointless as soon as they put me onto the table and stuffed a hard tube in my mouth. Once I was secured, they proceeded to put some kind of ointment on my temples before I felt something touching both sides of my head.

“And then someone said something before I felt everything tensing up. Not only was my whole body shaking uncontrollably, but all I felt was pain. Nothing except that heated, sharp pain that felt like my insides were being cooked.” Andrew coughed. “Can I get some water?”

“Yeah, sure thing.”

Click.
> Tape Interview #4.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------







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.
> Tape Interview #5.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------







Click.

“Sorry about that, I didn’t think that this interview would take this long.”

“Wait, how many of those do you have?”

“That’s not important right now. I think you were about to give your account on the night of the murder?”

“Oh, that’s right. Where was I?”

“You said that you just ran into them.”

“Thanks. As I was saying, I was able to detect where those three were by sensing their love. When I ran into them, they were, of course, screaming at the sight of me. At that point, I didn’t care if they caught me or let me go, getting out of that place was the only thing that mattered. Heck, I didn’t care if they ended up turning me in. Any Equestrian prison was bound to be better than the asylum.

“However, there was one thing that I’d forgotten about pony behavior.”

“And that being?”

“The old fight or flight response. You see, the moment they saw me and started screaming at me, one of them, a large pegasus, knocked me to the ground. The big guy pinned me down and started yelling ‘what the Tartarus are you doing here bug?’ I could tell that he wasn’t in the mood to listen.  However, the other two, a stallion and a scrawny-looking mare, suggested that they should stop with their exploring and go get you guys.

“And you know what? I told them that I would be overjoyed if they did, much to their confusion. I pleaded them to have me arrested so I could leave this place. Unfortunately, they quickly assumed that I’d, as that mare put it, ‘gone cuckoo.’ But they all agreed that they should get the police so that they would get rid of me.

“They decided to tie me up and have two of them look after me while the third would go get help. The mare used her magic to levitate me onto one of the beds and strapped me down. Meanwhile, the earth pony stallion volunteered to go into town to find you guys. I kept pleading with them to just take me to the police with them, but they insisted that they couldn’t trust a changeling.”

“I assume that this was Carrot Bit that you’re talking about?”

“Well, he did have some carrots as a cutie mark, so I guess so. Once they wheeled me into a room, the earth pony said that he would be back soon before he left. While they waited, the mare took out a camera and started taking pictures of me and the decayed insides of the building.”

“That’s right, we’ve heard about one of them bringing a camera. At least now we know who it belonged to.”

“The other tried to interrogate me, asking me what I was doing there and all. I told him exactly what I told you from the start, that I was sent here to scout for the Queen and needed a hiding place. He stopped listening to me when I mentioned the first nurse I saw in the lobby, saying that I was lying, that there was no such thing as ghosts, and that all of it must have been ‘some changeling trick to get out.’

“The mare, however, started to notice how serious and afraid I sounded. She debated with the pegasus about whether or not they should actually stay and wait. Around that point was when the screaming started.”

“Screaming?”

“I think it was from the earth pony. We could hear his voice calling out for help. The two other ponies panicked, and the unicorn volunteered to go see what was wrong. I begged them that whatever was going on, the ponies in white probably already got him and that there wasn’t anything they could do. But that mare insisted that she’d go and find their friend, that they weren’t going to abandon him. She went off, asking the other to stay with me.”

“And she never came back?”

“I have no idea what became of her. But it wasn’t long before she started screaming too, however, unlike the other guy, her yell didn’t last long.

“The last pony remaining, the Pegasus, was reeking with fear, now unsure of what to do himself. I told him that he should close the heavy door and hope that none of the lunatics, or worse, one of the doctors would find us. He accused me of playing some trick on them as if I was the one that was doing this. I asked him how I could do anything when I was tied down. Looking back, I think we should have been quieter when I realized too late that the sense of dread was growing.

“The door slowly opened, to my horror, to two figures: a nurse and Doctor Red Cross. I screamed for the pegasus to flee, but he looked at the door and told me that he didn’t see anyone there. The nurse went up to him with a needle in her aura and stuck it in his neck. He collapsed quickly afterward to the floor.

“Doctor Red Cross instructed the nurse to bring in a wheelchair, and have the intruder punished like the others. Once this was done, the monster turned to me, ‘You were trying to escape from my hospital, weren’t you?’ he asked. “And I bet that those were your accomplices.’ When I denied this, he slapped me. ‘Don’t lie to me,’ he yelled. ‘You still haven’t received your punishment either.’ He told me to stay put while he went to get his tools to finish the job.

“I screamed for help. The last thing I wanted was for him to come back to hammer those needles in my eyes. I don’t think I’d cried that hard since I was a little hatchling afraid of the dark. I know how you ponies view us changelings, telling your children bedtime stories of us hiding in their closets or beneath their beds. But what no one tells you is that even monsters feel fear. The thought of those needles piercing my skull and killing my brain, murdering my mind with every tap of that hammer… it was absolutely terrifying.

“Thankfully, he never came back and you ponies found me. Even though I was arrested and dragged out through the lobby in chains, I’d never felt freer. It was like stepping out of the dark abyss of the sea into the cool, open air. I could finally sense and feel the warm light of positive emotions again. Even with the relief of survival, though, I found no joy in it.

“Tell me, Detective Hoof Print, how do you go back to a world that you’ve lost the map to? How do you dream at night and not return to the tortures of what they’ve done and could have done? At times I wonder if I’m really out of Sanctuary. Even here, I can’t help but see ghosts in the shadows or in the white uniforms. Tell me, did I really see those doctors and patients, or have I gone insane? Even scarier still, who really hurt me, them or me?”

“Is that everything?”

“I do have one question to ask.”

“That being?”

“Do you think that I killed them without me knowing?”

There was a paused before the detective answered. “I’m not sure unless there’s anything else you wanted to tell me.”

“I’m tired. I don’t want to talk about the asylum anymore, other than I wish that it would be burned to the ground. How long am I going to be here?”

“Well, if you are deemed innocent, the charge of a triple murder will, of course, be removed. However, since you’ve admitted that you somewhat spied on us, you will still be under Equestrian custody until someone from higher up determines if you should go back to your hive or not.”

“…I understand.”

“Now if you’d excuse me, I think that this interview is over.”

Click.





Click.	

"This is Detective Hoof Print of the Fillydelphia P.D. The time is five forty-six; the date is October the twenty-third. Case file number: 12-96281. Location is at the lobby of Sanctuary’s Mental Hospital.

“Well, we’ve been so busy tearing through this hospital for overlooked clues that I never had the time to update this case. Since this place is so huge, it’s taken a ton of everypony’s time to try and figure out what’s going on.

“Let me start by stating that this case is an odd one. The more answers we’ve found, the more questions that have been raised. For starters, I’ve already submitted Resto the changeling’s testimony onto one tape for evidence. The recording has already been studied by criminal psychiatrists and even a group of local historians.

“The psychiatrists are completely bewildered at the recordings. On one hoof, it seems that he was probably only here for a few days tops, meaning that it’s extremely unlikely that he went insane and made the entire experience up. Not only that, but they've pointed out that for a guy that's been tortured, he seemed to hold a mostly coherent conversation. Yet on the other, they noted that he sounded very sincere, and the bits where it talked about his tortures did house a ton of sadness in it. Even when they put his recording through a lie detector, it came out as completely honest.

“One of the psychiatrists noted that Resto mentioned about mold in the asylum. It’s for this reason that each of us is wearing a mask. Apparently, the toxic fungi and mold in this place have been known to poison the lungs, the immune system, and the brain. It’s possible that Resto could have been suffering from hallucinations that seemed too real to him.

“But then the historians that studied the history of the place had a finding of their own. This is where things get a bit eerie. As it turns out, before this place was shut down for good, there was a certain Doctor Red Cross who had died about four years before its closing. Newspapers at the time speculated that he had been abusing his power, and some even speculated that he was tied to some murders as well. However, as far as we know, neither of those have been confirmed since this was a privately run hospital. And even creepier still, apparently this place doubled as an orphanage for unwanted foals.

“Clue-wise, we found the drawings that Resto had described in his interview. With some testing, the lab had concluded that these drawings were very recent, and the hoofwriting doesn’t match the changeling’s.

“So, even with all of this new evidence, there are still some unanswered questions. For example: if Resto’s experience was all a hallucination, how did he come to know about the supposed history? And if the discovered drawings were drawn by anyone but Resto, and thereby were created by somepony else, how did they know so much about the changeling’s life and his hallucinations?

“And there’s one more sobering thing. In the basement, we’ve also found the remains, or rather the skeleton, of a filly in the morgue. From what we could read from her hooftag, her name was Pumpkin Spice. She was about five to seven years old when she’d died. Judging by the marks on the bones, it looked like she was stabbed to death. And it should be noted that her bones were disturbed somewhat, and we’ve also found some hoofprints in the dust.”

Hoof Print sighed. “I honestly don’t know what to make of it. It’s obvious that something’s happened here at Sanctuary’s. The real question, of course, is what?”

Click.
> Video Tape Evidence: (Part 1)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------









	(Security Camera of room 324 of River Side Hospital: 2:14 PM.)



In a warm, cream-colored room lying on a folded bed with both forelegs strapped down was a bored Changeling, looking upward towards the ceiling. In a green paper hospital gown, Resto groaned as he tried to shift his hind legs to sit up straight. Looking at the thin tube in his left foreleg, he followed it towards the almost empty bag of water. He shifted his glance over to the other arm where he was wired up to a device measuring his vitals.

His ears picked up at the sound of a door was opening and closing. Resto’s eyes stared at the curtain until a stallion came into view, a few feet from his bed.

“Good afternoon there,” an aged stallion said. The camera showed him to be an orange unicorn stallion with a brown mane. In his aura was a clipboard, with a pair of saddlebags hung over his flank. “How are you so far?”

“Bored out of my mind,” he said. “Couldn’t you ponies play one of those records or something?”

“Ah, I think I can bring a phonograph from my office. It isn’t too far away, but before I get it, do you have a preference?”

“I don’t care really, anything will do.”	

The stallion said that he would be right back. A few minutes later, the unicorn returned with a record and a phonograph in which he placed it out of the camera’s view. Soon, there was the sound of piano music playing.

“So, what are you here for?” Resto asked.

“An excellent question,” the stallion finally reappeared, walking towards the deflated water bag. “I’m here to ask you two important questions. For starters, do you know me?”

The changeling tilted his head. “I don’t think so… should I?”

The stallion smiled. “And also, are you happy?”

Resto blinked. “Happy… how?”

“Just at this moment, now that you’re away from the scene of the crime and here in safety, are you happy right now?”

He sighed. “As long as I’m not there, oh yes, I am quite happy.”

The stallion grinned. “Wonderful. Now since I’m here, I might as well introduce myself.” He lit up his horn to replace the hanging empty bag with one that was full. Once that was done, his horn remained glowing as a click sound of the door being locked was heard. “Good afternoon, my name is Doctor Lovejoy, and I’m going to take very good care of you today.”







(Helmet camera from Officer Thunderclap, Sanctuary Mental Hospital, 3:14 PM.)



A decaying hallway with millions of old medical papers scattered on the floor, rusted hospital beds and wheelchairs dotted here and there. Sunbeams leaking through the tiny windows were the only source of light, along with the flashlights that beamed in front of the camera.

“Something’s not right,” a muffled voice said. The camera turned to the detective in a gas mask.

“Detective Print?” A stallion’s voice inquired from further away.

“I’m thinking back on the Changeling’s story, and there are several things that don’t add up.” The gray pony stopped. “Hold on, let me catch my breath.”

The camera shook until it settled, looking straight at the Detective. “The bug’s story? What’s wrong with it?”

“I didn’t think of it at the time, but during our interview, everything Resto said felt off. For somepony that’s been tortured, he sounded a little too mentally clean to be telling me about it. Sure, he broke down every so often, but… he didn’t have much difficulty telling me about it all.”

“Are you suspecting that he might have lied?”

“Maybe. Like for instance, he said that he was operated on without an anesthetic, yet he was able to get off the operating table and move around? I mean sure, there was a scar on him and even he wondered if it was self-inflicted but… how could he fool even the vocal lie detector?”

“Who’s to say that machine works on changelings?”

“There’s something else too,” the detective added. “There’s one detail that really sticks out of my mind.”

“What’s that?”

“He said that one of the victims, Book Binder, had taken pictures of him and the place, but the family confirmed that she was interested in cinematography, not photography. In fact, her mother said that she had taken a video camera with her before she disappeared.”

“Wait a minute, has anypony found that camera?”

“No, not yet,” the stallion straightened up. “I don’t think any of the other teams have even found a smashed one at that. If we’re really lucky, that camera might still be somewhere in this place.”

“You think that would answer what’s going on?”

“Camera’s don’t lie, and neither do they hallucinate on toxic mold.”

The camera turned down towards the hallway. “How much further in this place did you want to go?”

There were sounds of paper shifting as the pony stood up and walked into view of the camera. “Let’s go for another fifteen minutes or so and check to see if any of these rooms have anything.”

The officer’s camera moved forward, bobbing as he, along with the lens, peered from room to room.

“I can’t believe this place was a hospital,” he commented. “It looks like an old prison.”

“When you’re dealing with ponies that aren’t right in the head,” the detective replied, “what else could you do – especially when pills for some types of insanity weren’t invented yet?”

“Good point, but still...” The camera looked into another room with another rusty bed frame. “I would really hate being in this place after dark. There’s enough nightmare fuel in this place to last for a lifetime.”

“You can say that again. At least this wing isn’t nearly as creepy as the basement. You know, the place where the mare was found.”

“Hold on,” the camera paused, getting the detective’s attention.

“What?”

“You guys said that this place has been abandoned for years, right?”

Hoof Print raised an eyebrow. “Yeah…? And?”

“All electric power should have been cut a long time ago when it was closed. So how did Book Binder fry in a place where there’s no electricity?”
> Video Tape Evidence: (Part 2)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------









	(Security Camera of room 324 of River Side Hospital: 2:19 PM.)



Resto raised an eyebrow. “That’s a rather strange name for a pony. Lovejoy?”

“What? I didn’t choose it,” the doctor said. “Oh! Before we get started, would it be too much trouble to take your picture?”

The changeling looked at his restraints. “There’s not much I can do anyway.”

“Give me a moment.” The unicorn walked behind the curtain for a moment before returning with a camera and a tripod. “In case you’re curious, I have a hobby in photography, something I’m planning to do full time soon.”

“What does that mean?”

The stallion set the camera beside the lower right hoof corner of the bed, making a few adjustments. “I’m afraid that this will be my last day at the hospital. For you see, I’m going to be retired very soon and wanted to finally get to do what I love.”

“I… I suppose that makes sense,” Resto said. “So do you want me to do anything, change into somepony or-”

“No no, just the way you are is perfect. Now, please look just above the camera. Yes! Like that, now hold still for a moment…” The bulb on the camera flashed. “There we go. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get down to business.”

“Okay, so what do you want from me?”

“First of all,” Dr. Lovejoy took out a pocket watch, “I want to say, thank you so much.”

The changeling tilted his head. “For what? Having my picture taken?”

“Well that, and for assisting me earlier a couple of days ago. Really, you’ve been a huge help.”

“I still don’t understand.”

“You will in a moment.” The elderly stallion moved over to the machine that was measuring his vital signs. “So, are you sure you don’t recognize me in any way?”

Resto shook his head.

“To tell you the truth,” the doctor continued, “it’s quite a coincidence that you were found at Sanctuary’s. It was the same place that I practiced in before I came here.”

Resto’s expression drooped. “Y-You did?”

“Oh, yes. Very noisy place as I remember. So many random screams, so many mad ramblings about nothing, and quite the hotbed for… experimentation in the field of medicine. But it was an enlightening place to be before I earned my degree.” He looked over to the Changeling. “Do you feel a little paranoid right now?”

He nodded.

“Ah, that’s good. That’s very good,” the old stallion softly smiled. “You’re almost ready.”

“R-Ready? F-For what?”

“In good time,” he said, looking at the water bag. “We just need the liquid fungus from Sanctuary’s to kick in. After it’s in your bloodstream, I’ll inform my old mentor that you’re ready.”

“What mentor?” Resto demanded nervously. “What is all this for?”

“Why,” the doctor chuckled, “it’s for the procedure, of course. Surely, you’ve already become acquainted with my teacher, Doctor Red Cross.”







(Helmet camera from Officer Thunderclap, Sanctuary Mental Hospital, 3:24 PM.)



The detective coughed in the mask. “Geez, it’s really hard to breathe in here!”

“It must be from all the dust,” Thunderclap said, pulling up one of the bookshelves in one of the hospital’s libraries. When they entered, there was black mold spread across the ceiling. Dust was powdered over the floor, tables, chairs, and overturned bookshelves. “You okay?

The pony looked into the camera and nodded. “Yeah, I am. I guess I’m a bit tired is all, and really hot underneath this mask.”

“Don’t worry.” The camera looked down at the officer’s hooves which were turning over some books. “Just a few more minutes and we’ll be out of here.”

“Do you think that Resto was lying?”

“Huh?” The camera looked back up to him. “You mean the bug? I don’t know. I guess it’s very probable at this point, considering some of the inconsistencies he told you.”

“Like what?”

“Like how he talked about this place being lit up even though all the power has been cut, which still doesn’t explain how that mare got electrocuted.”

“He could have used magic,” the detective suggested. “After all, some unicorns could charge batteries, so perhaps Resto used his magic to charge the machine before he threw the switch. Anything else?”

“Well, remember how he described Doctor Red Cross, the same guy that the historians found out to be one of the doctors who used to run this place? You have seen the photo of the guy himself, did you?”

“Not yet, why?”

“The cutie mark that he described didn’t match. The real Red Cross had just that, a simple red cross; it didn’t have two snakes circling around it.”

“Mind showing me this photo sometime? I think it would help with the case at hoof.” The detective said as they moved another bookshelf and suddenly jumped. “Whoa!”

“What is it?” The camera moved closer to the pony. “What you find?” The officer looked over to what he was seeing, “Is that a mannequin?” A hoof reached into the frame, pulling out the other half of the life-size doll from underneath. In which they found that this white mannequin was unique, its limbs had joints in which it could move, and it had on an old nurse’s hat, complete with a yellowing uniform. 

“Now, what is this thing doing out here for?” Hoof Print asked. “The uniform is old, but the mannequin itself looks a little… new.”

A thought came to the officer’s head. “Did anypony say why the three victims came here in the first place?”

“I think it was something to do with seeing if there are any ghosts in this place… wait.” The detective looked down. “What if they were trying to film a hoax, and this thing was supposed to be the ghost?”

“Interesting, but why would it be here? We’re practically on the other side of the place where the victims were found.”

While Officer Thunderclap said this, Hoof Print leaned toward the dark space that the mannequin was pulled out from. “Hey, flash your light in, I think I see something.”

The camera tilted before the lights on the helmet dipped into the dark hole, illuminating underneath the overturned table to reveal dusty books and a video camera.

“Jackpot!” The officer reached in, grabbing onto the camera. After getting out from underneath, he opened the tiny screen, he pressed a few buttons, but nothing happened.

“Maybe the batteries are dead.” Hoofprint took it into their own hooves. “Hopefully this will explain what’s going on here.”

There was the crackling sound of a hoof-held radio before the officer’s camera picked up. “Detective Print, Officer Thunderclap, come in please, over.”

The gray Detective reached for the speaker, “Yes, we’re here. We’ve found some interesting evidence and the missing camera, over.”

“Nevermind that for now, we need you over at Riverside Hospital immediately. Something’s happened to the changeling!”
> Video Tape Evidence: (Part 3)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------









(Footage of Book Binder’s Video Camera, October 18th, 10:38 PM.)



At first, there was static until a clear picture came through. Against a dark background and illuminated in green, a curly-maned, unicorn mare with glasses looked down towards the lens.

“There it goes! Guys, it’s on now.”

“About time,” a voice said. The camera weaved around until it focused on two stallions, one a pegasus and the other an earth pony. The pegasus turned towards the camera. “How much longer until we go in, anyway?”

“Hey, I just turned the camera on, so now we can start filming.”

The earth pony looked at the chain-link fence with uncertainty. “Are you sure we should really be doing this? What if somepony sees us?”

“Oh c’mon Carrot,” the pegasus shoved playfully. “Look around. Who’s gonna come by this place? I bet even the police don’t do their rounds here.”

“Besides,” the mare added, “I’ve got a map from Dr. Lovejoy. He used to work here once. Who knows, maybe this could be fun. We might even find a ghost in there.”

“I don’t know…” Carrot looked at the fence again. “There’s something not right about this place. It looks like it could all fall apart at any moment.” 

“Oh, quit being a wimp,” Cloud told him. “We’ve got plenty of batteries and flashlights.”

“Okay, okay,” Binder interrupted, “how about we get straight to the documentary thing?”

“Yeah, right,” the pegasus nodded. “I already know my lines.”

“But first things first, we need to get over the wall,” Carrot pointed out.

“Give me a sec,” Cloud Buster said as he opened his wings and picked Carrot up and over the fence. “Alright, now you.” The camera was lifted off the ground and gently went over the fence. Once that was done, the camera swerved around until it was showing the decaying building. “So, where should we start?”

The mare hummed as the camera looked around, “How about at those bars, at that window over there.”

“Got it,” Cloud moved over to position, sitting on his hunches right next to one of the broken windows.

“You ready?” she asked and he nodded. “Okay, action.”

The pegasus cleared his throat and spoke. “What makes a place scary? Is it the history? Could it be the evil ponies that once tortured hundreds of thousands of souls? Or is it something much darker than that – something unexplainable?

“Before its closing thirty-four years ago, Sanctuary’s Mental Hospital was once considered Fillidelphia’s most respected institutions for the care of the insane and disabled, physical or mental. It also doubled as an orphanage, where foals and madponies lived side by side.

“According to legend, behind these walls was a corrupt staff of doctors and nurses that followed their own rules. Nopony, except for them, were safe. It has been said that during its heyday, Sanctuary’s was a place where doctors and students could run whatever kind of medical and psychological experimentation away from government eyes. Because this place was a privately run hospital with its own set of rules, anypony committed here was likely subjected to electroshock therapy, solitary confinement, lobotomy, and whatever else the doctors deemed necessary to ‘cure’ their patients. Even the foals were subjected to this.

“It is said that there’s one particular ghost that has been seen by witnesses more than any other. Before its closing, this hospital was under investigation for the disappearance of a little filly named Pumpkin Spice, one of the orphans at this hospital. Nopony knows for sure what happened to her. Some say she contracted a disease and passed away. Others wondered if one of the madponies had killed her, or, most likely, she was experimented on and died on the operating table.

“But regardless, it is said that she is the most active ghost at Sanctuary’s. Some ponies will see her shadow. Others hear her tricycle squeaking down the hallways. And some even reported that she would leave behind drawings for the new visitors.

“Here tonight, we are about to venture into this abandoned asylum to see for ourselves, what is said to be one of the scariest places in Equestria.”

“And cut,” Book Binder said. “Not bad, how about we do that a few mor-”

She was cut off by the sound of a window being smashed, all three immediately looking around for the source.

“What was that?!” Carrot exclaimed.

“I think it came from over here,” Binder said as she and the camera galloped over to the source of the sound towards the front of the building. When they rounded the corner, they found that one of the windows was smashed in.

“Guys,” Carrot said, “I really think we should go.”

“Hold on a sec,” Book said. “Let’s see who it is.”

“Are you crazy? What if it’s somepony dangerous?”

“But don’t you want to see who it is?” the pegasus asked. “Maybe somepony else is looking for ghosts too…” Cloud trailed off and grinned wickedly. “Let’s prank them.”

“What?” the mare questioned.

“Why not? Let’s just go in and yell ‘boo’ at them. If we’re going in there, why not have a bit of fun, too?”

“But we’re here to film a-”

“I know Book, we can still do that. Let’s just see who it is first.”

She grunted. “Okay, fine. But let’s watch out for the glass.”

The three of them climbed in with Binder’s camera. Once they were inside, the camera looked around at the decay of the room from the crystal-less chandelier to the large, rotting wooden desk at the center. Black and white tiles below them were cracked, covered in dust and parts of the ceiling. The painted walls were now piling into curls from the years of neglect. Behind the desk was a double staircase that led to the second floor, and below was a hallway that led further into the asylum.

“Now where?” Carrot asked.

The camera looked down once more at the dust on the floor. “Hey guys, I think I see two different set of hoofprints.”

“Huh?” Both stallions looked at the floor. Cloud was the first to suggest following the trail, and so, the camera followed the teenagers into the depths of the asylum. Every so often, Binder would have to step over some of the rubble, broken light bulbs, and around the wheelchairs and tables that laid about.

The trail finally led to an office. The camera peeked up to a sign above the door, reading “Room 124: Dr. Red Cross.”

Among the scattered papers on the floor was a desk that had a candle, an open notebook, and a pencil beside it. Carrot looked into it. “Guys, this thing has today’s date.”

“Whatcha mean?” the pegasus asked.

“It has this year’s date.” He pointed a hoof at the current page, then picked it up and started to flip back to the front. “Dr. Lovejoy? Wait, Binder, isn’t that your doctor?”

“Yeah? What’s his journal doing here?”

The earth pony flipped back to the latest entry. “‘October 18th, 1002. The liquid fungus is doing wonders for the changeling!’ Wait, what changeling? I thought they all left after what happened in Canterlot.”

“Hold on,” Cloud took the book into his hooves, “let me see that. ‘...is doing wonders for the changeling! This is the first time that I’ve ever seen a creature susceptible to a controlled hallucination that I can easily manipulate. When I showed him the lobotomy film in the basement, he acted as if he was witnessing an actual, live procedure in front of him. When I tied him down to the operating table, having denied him his sight with a blindfold, I gave him a slight scare with a scalpel. His mind immediately jumped to thinking I was going to perform surgery on him without an anesthetic. After two minutes and a very shallow cut, he completely passed out. He’s even begun having sympathetic conversations with one of the mannequins, believing it to be a real nurse. I’m now interested in how far I can take this experiment. Tonight, I’ll be ‘inviting’ one of my patients and her friends over for the ultimate experiment.’”. He turned the blank pages over. “...it just ends there.”

“Guys,” Carrot said, “I really don’t like this. Maybe we should leave while we still-”

All three of the teenagers were suddenly paralyzed in a bright aura. “Ah good, everypony’s here,” said a new voice. “Oh, what’s this?” The camera moved, showing a stallion in a white doctor’s coat, with a changeling directly behind him. The doctor looked at the lens in thought. “I think this will make things all the more interesting,” he said before the camera went to static.

A moment later, the static became clear again. This time, instead of being in night vision, now it was in full color. The camera itself looked to be sitting on a table, looking over five figures covered in lantern light.  Three of them were tied down by leather straps. On the left, Carrot Bit was struggling against being tied down to a wheelchair. Book Binder was in the center, laying down on a rusty table, like Cloud Buster. All three of them were gagged, and the mare was crying her eyes out.

Behind them were an elderly stallion with yellow eyes, orange fur hidden beneath a white coat, and a blue turquoise mane. He moved for a moment, the camera capturing his cutie mark, a blood red cross with two serpents circling around it. Next to him stood the changeling Resto, his mouth mindlessly agape and staring at the scene with unblinking, sickly green eyes.

“Smile,” said the doctor as a flash of light from behind the camera briefly illuminated the room. Satisfied, he turned to the changeling before pointing at Carrot Bit. “I need you to do something for me, Resto. Would you please give this one a bath? It’s important to make sure you have his whole head submerged until he’s nice and clean. Can you do that for me?”

The changeling mindlessly nodded as he took hold of the chair. The doctor grabbed the recording camera in his yellow aura, following the changeling as he pushed the squirming earth pony down the hall. It didn’t take long for them to reach the shower rooms, where a bathtub sat at the back.

“Please turn on the water,” he told the changeling, “and be sure to set it on cold.”

The camera continued to follow Resto as he walked over and turned the tap, brown water sloshing out into the tub below. Another camera with a tripod came into view, the doctor briefly making a few adjustments before putting the video camera in his aura onto the ground at a low angle. A few minutes later, the changeling turned off the tap and walked out of view with the doctor. The squeaking of wheels was heard before Carrot’s straps were undone. “Let me know when he stops struggling,” said the doctor as his hoofsteps left the room.

“No, stop! Let go of me!” Suddenly, the earth pony came into view as the changeling took hold of his forelegs, holding them behind his back as he led him towards the tub. “Celestia, don’t! Please don--”

Carrot’s head was pushed towards the tub, some of the water splashing onto the floor as the pony’s body squirmed underneath the changeling’s hooves, one held on his head while the other kept his forelegs held behind him. Carrot kicked his hind legs as much as he could, trying to lift himself out of the tub.

For two minutes, the stallion fought for air, becoming more desperate as time went on. But suddenly, he finally stopped struggling and went limp. The changeling finally let him go, leaving half of his body under the water. “He is… clean,” Resto said in a monotone voice.

Hoofsteps were heard as the doctor entered the frame. “Good, very good. Give me a moment to photograph this before we move on.” A flash from the other camera went off before the doctor’s aura grabbed the video camera, turning back towards the hall as the doctor and changeling returned to the two remaining teenagers.

The doctor pointed to Cloud Buster. “He’s been very naughty in this ward. Could you please wheel him to solitary confinement?”

Resto nodded and pushed the table away down another hallway. The pegasus fought as much as he could, dreadfully fearing what they were going to do with him. They stopped at one of the padded cells. The doctor floated the tripod and camera over to one of the corners, telling the changeling to wheel Cloud in. He left the frame again but quickly returned with a straitjacket.

“Please put this on him as tightly as you can,” he said, hooving the jacket over to Resto who just mindlessly nodded. The doctor left the room again as the changeling unstrapped Cloud, forcing the jacket onto him.

Though Cloud struggled as much as he could, the jacket was eventually placed on him and over his wings. The gag was still in place as Resto went around behind him, pulling the straps and buckles into place. He then placed one of his sleeved forelegs behind his back before tightening the strap as hard as he could.

Cloud’s hindlegs bucked and his neck moved wildly as he felt his forelegs constricting. As Resto tightened it, there was the sound of popping and a muffled scream. Only a few more pops were heard before Cloud finally fell limp.

With everything quieted down and Resto tying the final knots, the doctor made his way back into the room. “There, he should be all nice and quiet now.” He took another picture of the body before the two returned to the final, crying teenager.

“How about we do something fun?” The doctor grinned with glee, turning to the changeling once more. “Let’s take her to the basement. She is in desperate need of some shock therapy. Would you please roll her down there for treatment?”

Resto obeyed, pushing the crying mare down the hallway. Book Binder looked at the doctor and he took off her gag. “W-Why?” She pleaded. “W-W-Why?!”

“Now now,” the doctor’s hoof caressed the mare’s curly mane. “You have lived happily. So don’t consider this cruel, my dear. This is a kindness, after all.” He placed the gag back on her before she had a chance to reply.

Several minutes later, following the light of the lanterns, they reached the basement level, where they wheeled her into the electro-shock therapy room. “Please strap her in and prepare her for treatment. I shall go and get the machines started up. Also, when I give this thing its power back, you may begin carrying out the procedure. Just make sure she’s cooked to a crisp.”

Resto nodded, struggling to get the mare onto the padded table. The doctor lit up his horn to resurrect the old machine. Lights slowly flickered to life before illuminating the table. After setting up the tripod, he loomed over the mare. “Place those electrodes over her head,” the doctor instructed, passing him a copper ring, “and throw that switch. Leave it on until you see smoke.”

This time, the doctor took the video camera with him. “I’ll be right back. I’m just going to clean up for a bit before we start our session.” As he left, a flicker of blue light illuminated the hallway.

He walked back to the first floor, picking up a familiar looking mannequin in an old nurse’s outfit, as well as his notebook, some candles, and a few lanterns. “Well,” he sighed, “this fungus will certainly come in handy. So let’s see… hide the evidence in the furthest corners of the hospital… manipulate the changeling into thinking what really happened, and then call the police to shift the blame onto him. By the time they put together what really happened, I’ll be long gone.” He giggled. “Oh, I can’t wait for retirement!”

The rest of the footage showed him taking the camera into a dusty library. He placed it and the mannequin on the floor before turning the table over them. Several minutes went by before several crashing noises were heard, and then it went silent.

An hour later, there was a faint sound of a tricycle moving around the room before the footage finally ran out.
> Video Tape Evidence: (Part 4)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------









	(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!"
> Now with Sound!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I want to thank Zachmoviefan who had dedicated for the past several months to finally record this entire story on his YouTube channel. 

Even now I'm still blown away at how much time and effort this guy has put into these series of videos to bring another story of mine to life. Even if it is on the darker side. Still, it does make me rather curious as to see if this guy will ever look into the sequel. But I guess that only time would tell to see what other stories that he or anyone else would want to read next. Still, for those who are interested in some of the darker stuff, I would recommend checking out his channel. 



























(And now for some random filler...)

All work and No play makes Inky Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. 

All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. 

All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. 

All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. 

All work and No play makes Inky Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. 

All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. 

All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt.

All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. 

All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt.

All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt.

You know, I could probably go for some cream cheese chocolate chip cookies... Eh, screw it.

All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. 

All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. 

All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. 

All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. 

All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. 

All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt. All work and No play makes Inky a Dull colt.