Post by Sky Blue on Mar 20, 2015 17:04:55 GMT -5
In the far corner of a padded cell, late at night in Canterlot Psychiatric Hospital, a disheveled, thin-looking Sky Blue is curled up in a small ball, gently rocking herself to and fro, eyes wide and mumbling to herself. Well, she certainly looks like she belongs there.
Screwball leans in to the padded vent in the next cell and says, "You know, if you're not careful, the spiders will bite you while you sleep. Mwee-ee-hehehe! Can I be the doctor now? I want at those needles!"
Somewhere in the hospital, a certain DJ shuffles around with a dimmed torch. It took a decent amount of shunting a half-opened window to get in, but somehow she did. And she found a spare lab coat and stethoscope on the way in, so in the dark she's gone unnoticed by the night watch as just another doctor. Celestia help her if she gets asked about actual science, though. She looks on a nearby noticeboard to check where Sky Blue's room is, before making her way over. "Sky?" she whispers as she draws close. "Sky? Are you awake?"
The light blue filly tucks her tail under and shifts closer into her corner, away from Screwball. And then... "VAHNUL!" In a split second, Sky Blue is at the grated door to her padded cell, staring with wide-eyes at the DJ and looking desperate. "Y'all've got t'get me out of here!" she exclaims, at something near her normal volume. "They won't let me go and say ah'm dangerous t'everypony and that ah'm in here fer mah own good and ah'm really scared and ah want t'come home!"
Screwball's eye leers at Sky Blue from the next cell.
Vinyl Scratch shhhs Sky with a hiss, before reaching for the filly's hoof through the cell. "Quiet, babe. We gotta do this quietly." She glances at the door. "Can you open this? Where could I get keys?
"Why'd they make a padded cell with a handle in it?" Sky Blue asks, her sense of disbelief briefly overriding her terror, though it is still clear to see in her face. "Ah don't know who has the keys; ah don't see nopony, they just come and unlock it t'give me food."
Vinyl Scratch nodnods, "I know *that*," she says, "But I wanna know where I could get keys. Where do the guards usually stay?" She looks around, her torch flashing.
The corridor is long, dark, and foreboding; merely a long line of cell doors, terminating in a T-junction at the far end. "Ah don't know!" Sky Blue hisses back, looking a mixture of frantic, desperate, and frustrated. "Ah'm locked up in this cell around the clawk! Ah'm only allowed out t'go t'the bathroom!" She presses her hooves noisily up against the grate. "Vinyl, y'all've got t'get me out of here rawt nao!"
Screwball snickers. "I know where it is!"
Vinyl Scratch sighs. She looks around once more. "Maybe I'll go investigate... but I don't want to leave you," she says with a frown. "And Sky... I'm not here to get you out. I'm sorry. I couldn't do that... But there is something I'm going to do, and I need the keys to do it." The DJ's ears perk at a voice from the next cell. "You do? Where?"
Sky Blue's expression falls when she hears Vinyl's explaination. "Wait!" she exclaims, banging on the cell grating when the DJ gets distracted, "Y'all've got t'get me out of here, Vahnul! Ah can't stand another second! Please, y'all've got t'get me out!" The sound of hoofsteps can be heard approaching the T-junction at the end of the corridor, preceeded by a unicorn's light beam.
Vinyl Scratch reaches for Sky's hoof again, her eyes filled with pity. "I can't kidnap you, Sky," she whispers. "But... look. Would this be any better if I was... with you?" She opens her mouth to say more before she hears hoofsteps - and so she steps away and straightens, pulling up her lab coat to avoid recognition.
Sky Blue presses her hooves firmer still against the grating, but remains silent as she hears the sound of hoofsteps. A black unicorn stallion walks out from around the corner at the other end of the corridor and swings his magical beam down towards the doctor. After a few moments, he dims it, then starts approaching. "Working a little late, doctor?" he asks, stepping ever closer. "You all usually push off at nine."
Vinyl Scratch clears her throat, before pushing on an affected Canterlot accent. Should be legit. "Um... yes, I was just... checking on our newest patient," she says. "I need to administer something to her. Do you have the keys?"
The asylum guard raises an eyebrow curious, then comes to a halt a short distance away. "I do, but why don't you have your own set with you? You know it's the regulations."
Ohhhcrap. "Um." Vinyl thinks hard. "I... must have left them with my other things!" She claps a hoof over her head. "Silly me... I didn't bring them along as I only came down to do some, um, minor research... But Sky Blue here was complaining of a... um, headache. Could I possibly borrow yours?"
"Well... all right," the guard replies, before fishing a set of keys attatched to a chain out of his saddlebags, stepping forward to peer into Sky Blue's cell - the filly is once more back in the corner, doing her best attempt at suffering from a headache, which looks more like she's a dying epileptic swan - unlocking the door, and holding it open for Vinyl.
Vinyl Scratch trots in, her throat feeling a little tight. She nods to the guard, before fiddling with her saddlebags... "Oh! My keys! Here they are... you can shut that now, thank you. I'll see myself out later on." Vinyl hates lying. But she has to.
The guard raises an eyebrow even higher than before. "There's no way to open the door from the inside?" he says, sounding as if he's reminding her that gravity is what's keeping her from floating upwards.
Vinyl Scratch blinks, "Well, with a key of course! We can't just have the patients opening the doors by themselves."
The guard raises his eyebrow yet further still and narrows his eyes in a mildly concerned way. "I mean... there's no way to open the door again from the inside once you're in there. If it won't take long, I can stand watch while you administer the medication."
Vinyl Scratch sighs. There's nothing for it. She drops her saddlebags, steps forward, and pulls the door shut, locking herself in with Sky. She then takes off the lab coat, revealing herself as not a doctor but a DJ, a very famous one at that. She sits down next to Sky. "I have no medicine to give her," she says calmly. "Only my company. My name is Vinyl Scratch. I am here to protest." She looks at Sky. "This mare here is my best friend. I will only leave this place when you stop treating her - and her fellow 'patients' - like criminals and start treating them like ponies with valuable lives. Oh, and by the way," she adds, her horn lighting up and attaching her hooves to a nearby railing like hoofcuffs so she can't move, "I'm world famous. The papers will be along soon."
The guard's face goes through several different expression, while Sky Blue envelops her friend in tight hugs. It eventually settles on arrogance. "In which case, I'll return shortly with Canterlot guards, in time for the papers to see the world-famous DJ-PON3 be hauled away on the grounds of tresspass, breaking and entering, and impersonating medical staff." With an amused snort, the guard turns and starts making his way back off down the corridor, his hoofsteps gradually fading, while sky Blue's vice-like grip remains.
Of course, now Screwball takes it as an invitation to have a conversation with the ponies on the other side of the vent. "Can I have your autograph?" says a tittering voice behind the grill.
Vinyl Scratch looks at the guard and chews her lip as he walks away, and she shouts as he gets halfway down the corridor, "You can't break this spell. I'm bound to this cell now, it's inpenetrable. I won't be moved. The cameras will just have to come in and witness young fillies crying themselves to sleep like Sky was when I got here, and take in the full detail of this Celestia-forsaken place masquerading as a medical establishment!"
If the guard says anything in reply, it is masked by Sky Blue exclaiming at the top of her already considerable voice, "AH CAN'T BELIEVE IT VAHNUL AH MEAN WHAT Y'ALL'VE DONE IS JUST Y'ALL'RE THE BEST FRIEND A PONY COULD ASK FER AH'M SO GLAD Y'ALL'RE HERE WE'LL BE THE BEST CELL BUDDIES EVER AH'M GONNA GIVE ALL'A'Y'ALL SO MANY HUGS!" The likelihood of Sky Blue crying herself to sleep and of Vinyl Scratch getting any sleep has severely decreased.
Vinyl Scratch giggles rather shakily. "I had to, Sky," she says, hugging her friend back. "They're keeping you prisoner in here... You looked so bad when I turned up." She ruffles in her saddlebags before bringing out some of Sky's favourite flavour cookies and some basic toiletries. "Here. It'll be like a sleepover!" she says, though she doesn't sound sure.
"Y'all're the bestest friend a filly can ask fer!" Sky Blue exclaims once more, at a slightly quieter though still defeaning volume, before hugging her friend tight once more. The malnourished, scraggily-mane filly eagerily eats a few of her favourite cookies, then some of the toiletries, and then snuggles up tight to Vinyl once more, looking as if Hearthswarming Day has come early.
Vinyl Scratch hugs Sky tight, not taking much notice of her having eaten a portion of the toothpaste. She hugs Sky tight, before gently singing her the softest lullaby - the same she sings to her foals when they can't sleep.
There's some mumbling in the corridor. "-seems to be the problem here?" "-in cell thre--refuses to leave--etters-" "Where's the key?" "-know maybe-didn't bring-possibly-" The conversation gets louder as they seem to appoach Vinyl and Sky. "She says she's famous but I've never heard of her. Some kind of deejay?" "Hm. Are you sure she's not an escaped patient?" "I would know if it was one of the patients. At least, any of the high security ones. Here she is." A guard, white furred and sparkling with gleaming armor trots in, looks over the two of them with a squint, and removes his helmet. He bounces his head, pointing his chin at Sky Blue. "You first, ma'am. What's your name?" He gets out a pad of paper with a floating grayish glow. Looks like there was a horn under that helmet.
"Y'ALL AIN'T TAKIN' MAH VAHNUL AWAY!" Sky Blue promptly screams at the cop, sounding completely like a sane and rational pony who doesn't deserve to be locked up in an insane asylum, before clinging tightly to Vinyl and doing her best to try and shield her from the guard. "Sky Blue," the asylum guard mutters to the Canterlot guard, after checking a small piece of paperwork.
Vinyl Scratch sighs at the chattering. "Sky," she says, hugging her friend and trying to pull her back, "Don't worry. Sit down, it'll be okay." She looks up at the guards with a defiant expression.
The guard takes some notes. Scratch scratch. He seems to be able to write without looking at his page. Instead, dispassionate, yet somehow scrutinizing eyes stare at the two of them. He looks at Vinyl next, "Your name?"
Vinyl Scratch says "Vinyl Scratch-Memory."
The guard scratches the name Scratch. "He says he asked you to leave, but you fettered yourself to a grate?"
Vinyl Scratch says "Yeeeep. He also never actually asked me to leave."
"So that's what happened?" he asks. He turns around to look at the guard. "He also tells me you broke in?" says the Royal Guard.
"She said she's not leaving until we 'stop treating her - and fellow 'patients' - like criminals and start treating them like ponies with valuable lives'," the asylum guard quickly cuts in, whilst also rolling his eyes. "Because we totally would remain accredited if we abused patients."
Vinyl Scratch shrugs. "I visited outside visiting hours. You really should get some better locks on this place." She tuts gently.
"I've yet to investigate where and how exactly she entered the building," the asylum guard informs his Canterlot equivilant, "But that seems like a pretty good admission of breaking and entering to me."
The royal guard scratches silently at his pad silently. It takes him a few seconds to write down whatever he wants to note. "Are you alleging abuse?" he asks Sky Blue.
Sky Blue looks from one side of her cell and then to the other, before looking at the royal guard with a confused expression. "Ah'm just sittin' here," she replies, sounding as simple as she usually does. "Ah ain't abusin' nothin'!"
"No," says the royal guard. "Are you saying your treatment here has been abusive?"
Sky Blue looks more confused than ever. After a few moments of staring at the royal guard, she turns and starts abruptly mouthing Vinyls Scratch's horn for... some reason.
Vinyl Scratch looks up. She hugs Sky close. "This is a grown mare acting like a tiny filly in need of love and care," she says. "Love and care she obviously isn't receiving."
The royal guard seems to buy Vinyl's story, because he come in closer, and lies down on his barrel to get to the same level as the fillies. He looks at Sky Blue. "Have you been a victim of a crime since you came here? Has anypony done anything bad to you?"
Sky Blue instinctively shrinks back from the royal guard, then glances up at the asylum guard, then frowns back the Canterlot guard. "They won't let me leave!" she exclaims, looking hurt. "Ah want t'go home and the folks here ain't lettin' me out!" "All patients at this hospital have been committed," the asylum guard explains to his royal equivilant, waiting by the cell door.
He scribbles down something on his notepad, and underlines it three times, tamping a deep period. Then he turns to Vinyl. "She doesn't seem to think she's being mistreated, except for being locked up."
Vinyl Scratch levitates over her saddlebags before pulling out a photograph of Sky Blue from a few months earlier. The photograph shows a happy, bouncing young mare of a healthy weight, sparkling eyes and with a big smile. The mare next to her seems very different - dishevelled and malnourished. "This was Sky Blue before admittance. Notice her healthy, strong appearance? Look at her now. Her body weight has decreased by at least a third." She then adds for effect, "When I wandered in here to give her some food, she took the toothpaste I provided for hygiene reasons and ate it. Sir, do you really think your patients are well cared for if they are resorting to eating toiletries?"
"When she first came in, she ate the plate her dinner was served on," the asylum guard informs his superior. "I think she just likes eating strange things. Weight loss is common in stressful circumstances, and it's unfortunately stressful for a pony when they are committed. We've tried getting her to shower, but she doesn't want to."
"I'm afraid there's nothing I can do without a specific allegation," says the royal guard. "The proper way to address this situation is through an investigation, and civil court. There's a proper procedure for this, and you're not following it." He points a forehoof rather intently at Vinyl. "I hope you learn that you can't just sneak past the guards and lock yourself a grate. It's tresspassing and it's illegal." He stands back up, giving Vinyl a disapproving stare. "Give me the key."
Vinyl Scratch shrugs. "Look around you, go on." She peers around the dark, padded cell, next to another dark, padded cell, next to another, and another. "Yes, the ponies in here may be of limited mental capacity or learning and cognitive problems, posing a danger to themselves and others, but... Do you know what other kinds of ponies are?" She pulls out another photograph, one of her toddler colt named Rewind. "Foals. And we don't lock our foals up like this, do we? We don't leave them on the cold ground and deny them comfort and friendship. We put them in bright places full of light, colour, sensory stimulation. We help them to learn and grow. We readjust their morals when necessary. We feed them, clean them, look after them. Love them." She looks back at Sky. "I could leave. It'd save me trouble. It'd save me getting my husband to bail me out of jail later. But if I *do* leave - you won't love Sky like I love her."
The guard looks at the picture, and frowns. He seems to think for a moment, then sighs. "I'm giving you an opportunity to leave. You've said what you need to. If you really are famous, then the papers will report on this either way. If you keep that up, you could spend time in jail over this. You can't help your friend from jail." He holds up a hoof to prevent Vinyl from answering. "If you don't comply, then here's what's going to happen. I'm going to call emergency response, a metal cutting unicorn is going to remove your cuffs, and I'm going to arrest you. It'll take twenty minutes." His hoof turns flat side up, held out and expecting a key.
"AH LOVE Y'ALL TOO VAHNUL!" And then a certain DJ is glomped by a certain cyan hayseed. For a filly, Sky Blue has one heck of a tight grip. For possibly the first time since the royal guard appeared, the asylum guard address Vinyl, after letting his superior have his say. "The cold ground is soft padding. The lack of light is because most ponies like to sleep at ELEVEN AT NIGHT. Ponies that have been classified as extreme cases - dangerous to themselves and/or others - generally aren't allowed access to other patients." He then turns his attention to the royal guard. "I must really protest, sir. She has broken several laws and attempted to sway your judgement using emotional appeals. The crux of the matter is that she has STILL broken into a highly restricted medical facility, trespassed, and passed herself off as medical staff."
"I said what I needed to and you didn't even listen!" Vinyl near-shouts. Her voice lowers. "Do either of you have foals? You must have, at least one of you. You must know what it's like to feel separation from your family. Sky is my family, not my friend. She needs me, and my husband, and my kids, if she has any hope of recovering." She sighs. "What's the damn point? You're just here to roll your eyes and scribble on paper and say a lot of words. You're cold, both of you. Don't you have any emotion at all?" She pauses to breathe, then says, "I'll comply with your request, I'll get up and leave, if you let Sky come with me. I will let your doctors come round every day to check on her progress if you like... Like when Rewind was born and he was little, so we had to see the doctor a lot. He got jaundice, see, and they were worried, because he's a little fighter, just like his dad..." Vinyl's eyes mist a little. "Please let her go. I'm begging you. Otherwise... I'll stay. And I'm attached to this cell by my magic, so you'd have to sever my horn to set me free."
The guard stands up and ignores Vinyl's protests. His horn starts to glow and he murmurs, in no direction in particular, "Three-fifteen to dispatch. I need a supervisor and emergency response. We have a protestor who's attached to something at the asylum. It looks like a ventalation grate." His horn flickers an an inaudible voice buzzes through the horn and conducts throught the bones. He turns to the asylum guard and says, "It'll be about fifteen minutes.
"Sounds good to me," the asylum guard replies with a satisfied expression. "Although I'm sure you're more than qualified to take care of them, I'm afraid hospital regulations I can't leave you alone with them, with you inside the room, outside the room, door closed, or door opened. Red tape, I'm afraid," he adds, sympathetically, "But I'm sure you understand." Sky Blue, in the meanwhile, clings all the tighter to her beloved Vinyl Scratch. She's looking a bit nervous, and... then she starts mouthing the DJ's horn once more. Because she's Sky Blue.
Vinyl Scratch gently lets her spell go, releasing herself from the railings. She's tired and teary-eyed. "There," she says, "Do whatever." She hugs Sky tight.
Screwball leans in to the padded vent in the next cell and says, "You know, if you're not careful, the spiders will bite you while you sleep. Mwee-ee-hehehe! Can I be the doctor now? I want at those needles!"
Somewhere in the hospital, a certain DJ shuffles around with a dimmed torch. It took a decent amount of shunting a half-opened window to get in, but somehow she did. And she found a spare lab coat and stethoscope on the way in, so in the dark she's gone unnoticed by the night watch as just another doctor. Celestia help her if she gets asked about actual science, though. She looks on a nearby noticeboard to check where Sky Blue's room is, before making her way over. "Sky?" she whispers as she draws close. "Sky? Are you awake?"
The light blue filly tucks her tail under and shifts closer into her corner, away from Screwball. And then... "VAHNUL!" In a split second, Sky Blue is at the grated door to her padded cell, staring with wide-eyes at the DJ and looking desperate. "Y'all've got t'get me out of here!" she exclaims, at something near her normal volume. "They won't let me go and say ah'm dangerous t'everypony and that ah'm in here fer mah own good and ah'm really scared and ah want t'come home!"
Screwball's eye leers at Sky Blue from the next cell.
Vinyl Scratch shhhs Sky with a hiss, before reaching for the filly's hoof through the cell. "Quiet, babe. We gotta do this quietly." She glances at the door. "Can you open this? Where could I get keys?
"Why'd they make a padded cell with a handle in it?" Sky Blue asks, her sense of disbelief briefly overriding her terror, though it is still clear to see in her face. "Ah don't know who has the keys; ah don't see nopony, they just come and unlock it t'give me food."
Vinyl Scratch nodnods, "I know *that*," she says, "But I wanna know where I could get keys. Where do the guards usually stay?" She looks around, her torch flashing.
The corridor is long, dark, and foreboding; merely a long line of cell doors, terminating in a T-junction at the far end. "Ah don't know!" Sky Blue hisses back, looking a mixture of frantic, desperate, and frustrated. "Ah'm locked up in this cell around the clawk! Ah'm only allowed out t'go t'the bathroom!" She presses her hooves noisily up against the grate. "Vinyl, y'all've got t'get me out of here rawt nao!"
Screwball snickers. "I know where it is!"
Vinyl Scratch sighs. She looks around once more. "Maybe I'll go investigate... but I don't want to leave you," she says with a frown. "And Sky... I'm not here to get you out. I'm sorry. I couldn't do that... But there is something I'm going to do, and I need the keys to do it." The DJ's ears perk at a voice from the next cell. "You do? Where?"
Sky Blue's expression falls when she hears Vinyl's explaination. "Wait!" she exclaims, banging on the cell grating when the DJ gets distracted, "Y'all've got t'get me out of here, Vahnul! Ah can't stand another second! Please, y'all've got t'get me out!" The sound of hoofsteps can be heard approaching the T-junction at the end of the corridor, preceeded by a unicorn's light beam.
Vinyl Scratch reaches for Sky's hoof again, her eyes filled with pity. "I can't kidnap you, Sky," she whispers. "But... look. Would this be any better if I was... with you?" She opens her mouth to say more before she hears hoofsteps - and so she steps away and straightens, pulling up her lab coat to avoid recognition.
Sky Blue presses her hooves firmer still against the grating, but remains silent as she hears the sound of hoofsteps. A black unicorn stallion walks out from around the corner at the other end of the corridor and swings his magical beam down towards the doctor. After a few moments, he dims it, then starts approaching. "Working a little late, doctor?" he asks, stepping ever closer. "You all usually push off at nine."
Vinyl Scratch clears her throat, before pushing on an affected Canterlot accent. Should be legit. "Um... yes, I was just... checking on our newest patient," she says. "I need to administer something to her. Do you have the keys?"
The asylum guard raises an eyebrow curious, then comes to a halt a short distance away. "I do, but why don't you have your own set with you? You know it's the regulations."
Ohhhcrap. "Um." Vinyl thinks hard. "I... must have left them with my other things!" She claps a hoof over her head. "Silly me... I didn't bring them along as I only came down to do some, um, minor research... But Sky Blue here was complaining of a... um, headache. Could I possibly borrow yours?"
"Well... all right," the guard replies, before fishing a set of keys attatched to a chain out of his saddlebags, stepping forward to peer into Sky Blue's cell - the filly is once more back in the corner, doing her best attempt at suffering from a headache, which looks more like she's a dying epileptic swan - unlocking the door, and holding it open for Vinyl.
Vinyl Scratch trots in, her throat feeling a little tight. She nods to the guard, before fiddling with her saddlebags... "Oh! My keys! Here they are... you can shut that now, thank you. I'll see myself out later on." Vinyl hates lying. But she has to.
The guard raises an eyebrow even higher than before. "There's no way to open the door from the inside?" he says, sounding as if he's reminding her that gravity is what's keeping her from floating upwards.
Vinyl Scratch blinks, "Well, with a key of course! We can't just have the patients opening the doors by themselves."
The guard raises his eyebrow yet further still and narrows his eyes in a mildly concerned way. "I mean... there's no way to open the door again from the inside once you're in there. If it won't take long, I can stand watch while you administer the medication."
Vinyl Scratch sighs. There's nothing for it. She drops her saddlebags, steps forward, and pulls the door shut, locking herself in with Sky. She then takes off the lab coat, revealing herself as not a doctor but a DJ, a very famous one at that. She sits down next to Sky. "I have no medicine to give her," she says calmly. "Only my company. My name is Vinyl Scratch. I am here to protest." She looks at Sky. "This mare here is my best friend. I will only leave this place when you stop treating her - and her fellow 'patients' - like criminals and start treating them like ponies with valuable lives. Oh, and by the way," she adds, her horn lighting up and attaching her hooves to a nearby railing like hoofcuffs so she can't move, "I'm world famous. The papers will be along soon."
The guard's face goes through several different expression, while Sky Blue envelops her friend in tight hugs. It eventually settles on arrogance. "In which case, I'll return shortly with Canterlot guards, in time for the papers to see the world-famous DJ-PON3 be hauled away on the grounds of tresspass, breaking and entering, and impersonating medical staff." With an amused snort, the guard turns and starts making his way back off down the corridor, his hoofsteps gradually fading, while sky Blue's vice-like grip remains.
Of course, now Screwball takes it as an invitation to have a conversation with the ponies on the other side of the vent. "Can I have your autograph?" says a tittering voice behind the grill.
Vinyl Scratch looks at the guard and chews her lip as he walks away, and she shouts as he gets halfway down the corridor, "You can't break this spell. I'm bound to this cell now, it's inpenetrable. I won't be moved. The cameras will just have to come in and witness young fillies crying themselves to sleep like Sky was when I got here, and take in the full detail of this Celestia-forsaken place masquerading as a medical establishment!"
If the guard says anything in reply, it is masked by Sky Blue exclaiming at the top of her already considerable voice, "AH CAN'T BELIEVE IT VAHNUL AH MEAN WHAT Y'ALL'VE DONE IS JUST Y'ALL'RE THE BEST FRIEND A PONY COULD ASK FER AH'M SO GLAD Y'ALL'RE HERE WE'LL BE THE BEST CELL BUDDIES EVER AH'M GONNA GIVE ALL'A'Y'ALL SO MANY HUGS!" The likelihood of Sky Blue crying herself to sleep and of Vinyl Scratch getting any sleep has severely decreased.
Vinyl Scratch giggles rather shakily. "I had to, Sky," she says, hugging her friend back. "They're keeping you prisoner in here... You looked so bad when I turned up." She ruffles in her saddlebags before bringing out some of Sky's favourite flavour cookies and some basic toiletries. "Here. It'll be like a sleepover!" she says, though she doesn't sound sure.
"Y'all're the bestest friend a filly can ask fer!" Sky Blue exclaims once more, at a slightly quieter though still defeaning volume, before hugging her friend tight once more. The malnourished, scraggily-mane filly eagerily eats a few of her favourite cookies, then some of the toiletries, and then snuggles up tight to Vinyl once more, looking as if Hearthswarming Day has come early.
Vinyl Scratch hugs Sky tight, not taking much notice of her having eaten a portion of the toothpaste. She hugs Sky tight, before gently singing her the softest lullaby - the same she sings to her foals when they can't sleep.
*****
There's some mumbling in the corridor. "-seems to be the problem here?" "-in cell thre--refuses to leave--etters-" "Where's the key?" "-know maybe-didn't bring-possibly-" The conversation gets louder as they seem to appoach Vinyl and Sky. "She says she's famous but I've never heard of her. Some kind of deejay?" "Hm. Are you sure she's not an escaped patient?" "I would know if it was one of the patients. At least, any of the high security ones. Here she is." A guard, white furred and sparkling with gleaming armor trots in, looks over the two of them with a squint, and removes his helmet. He bounces his head, pointing his chin at Sky Blue. "You first, ma'am. What's your name?" He gets out a pad of paper with a floating grayish glow. Looks like there was a horn under that helmet.
"Y'ALL AIN'T TAKIN' MAH VAHNUL AWAY!" Sky Blue promptly screams at the cop, sounding completely like a sane and rational pony who doesn't deserve to be locked up in an insane asylum, before clinging tightly to Vinyl and doing her best to try and shield her from the guard. "Sky Blue," the asylum guard mutters to the Canterlot guard, after checking a small piece of paperwork.
Vinyl Scratch sighs at the chattering. "Sky," she says, hugging her friend and trying to pull her back, "Don't worry. Sit down, it'll be okay." She looks up at the guards with a defiant expression.
The guard takes some notes. Scratch scratch. He seems to be able to write without looking at his page. Instead, dispassionate, yet somehow scrutinizing eyes stare at the two of them. He looks at Vinyl next, "Your name?"
Vinyl Scratch says "Vinyl Scratch-Memory."
The guard scratches the name Scratch. "He says he asked you to leave, but you fettered yourself to a grate?"
Vinyl Scratch says "Yeeeep. He also never actually asked me to leave."
"So that's what happened?" he asks. He turns around to look at the guard. "He also tells me you broke in?" says the Royal Guard.
"She said she's not leaving until we 'stop treating her - and fellow 'patients' - like criminals and start treating them like ponies with valuable lives'," the asylum guard quickly cuts in, whilst also rolling his eyes. "Because we totally would remain accredited if we abused patients."
Vinyl Scratch shrugs. "I visited outside visiting hours. You really should get some better locks on this place." She tuts gently.
"I've yet to investigate where and how exactly she entered the building," the asylum guard informs his Canterlot equivilant, "But that seems like a pretty good admission of breaking and entering to me."
The royal guard scratches silently at his pad silently. It takes him a few seconds to write down whatever he wants to note. "Are you alleging abuse?" he asks Sky Blue.
Sky Blue looks from one side of her cell and then to the other, before looking at the royal guard with a confused expression. "Ah'm just sittin' here," she replies, sounding as simple as she usually does. "Ah ain't abusin' nothin'!"
"No," says the royal guard. "Are you saying your treatment here has been abusive?"
Sky Blue looks more confused than ever. After a few moments of staring at the royal guard, she turns and starts abruptly mouthing Vinyls Scratch's horn for... some reason.
Vinyl Scratch looks up. She hugs Sky close. "This is a grown mare acting like a tiny filly in need of love and care," she says. "Love and care she obviously isn't receiving."
The royal guard seems to buy Vinyl's story, because he come in closer, and lies down on his barrel to get to the same level as the fillies. He looks at Sky Blue. "Have you been a victim of a crime since you came here? Has anypony done anything bad to you?"
Sky Blue instinctively shrinks back from the royal guard, then glances up at the asylum guard, then frowns back the Canterlot guard. "They won't let me leave!" she exclaims, looking hurt. "Ah want t'go home and the folks here ain't lettin' me out!" "All patients at this hospital have been committed," the asylum guard explains to his royal equivilant, waiting by the cell door.
He scribbles down something on his notepad, and underlines it three times, tamping a deep period. Then he turns to Vinyl. "She doesn't seem to think she's being mistreated, except for being locked up."
Vinyl Scratch levitates over her saddlebags before pulling out a photograph of Sky Blue from a few months earlier. The photograph shows a happy, bouncing young mare of a healthy weight, sparkling eyes and with a big smile. The mare next to her seems very different - dishevelled and malnourished. "This was Sky Blue before admittance. Notice her healthy, strong appearance? Look at her now. Her body weight has decreased by at least a third." She then adds for effect, "When I wandered in here to give her some food, she took the toothpaste I provided for hygiene reasons and ate it. Sir, do you really think your patients are well cared for if they are resorting to eating toiletries?"
"When she first came in, she ate the plate her dinner was served on," the asylum guard informs his superior. "I think she just likes eating strange things. Weight loss is common in stressful circumstances, and it's unfortunately stressful for a pony when they are committed. We've tried getting her to shower, but she doesn't want to."
"I'm afraid there's nothing I can do without a specific allegation," says the royal guard. "The proper way to address this situation is through an investigation, and civil court. There's a proper procedure for this, and you're not following it." He points a forehoof rather intently at Vinyl. "I hope you learn that you can't just sneak past the guards and lock yourself a grate. It's tresspassing and it's illegal." He stands back up, giving Vinyl a disapproving stare. "Give me the key."
Vinyl Scratch shrugs. "Look around you, go on." She peers around the dark, padded cell, next to another dark, padded cell, next to another, and another. "Yes, the ponies in here may be of limited mental capacity or learning and cognitive problems, posing a danger to themselves and others, but... Do you know what other kinds of ponies are?" She pulls out another photograph, one of her toddler colt named Rewind. "Foals. And we don't lock our foals up like this, do we? We don't leave them on the cold ground and deny them comfort and friendship. We put them in bright places full of light, colour, sensory stimulation. We help them to learn and grow. We readjust their morals when necessary. We feed them, clean them, look after them. Love them." She looks back at Sky. "I could leave. It'd save me trouble. It'd save me getting my husband to bail me out of jail later. But if I *do* leave - you won't love Sky like I love her."
The guard looks at the picture, and frowns. He seems to think for a moment, then sighs. "I'm giving you an opportunity to leave. You've said what you need to. If you really are famous, then the papers will report on this either way. If you keep that up, you could spend time in jail over this. You can't help your friend from jail." He holds up a hoof to prevent Vinyl from answering. "If you don't comply, then here's what's going to happen. I'm going to call emergency response, a metal cutting unicorn is going to remove your cuffs, and I'm going to arrest you. It'll take twenty minutes." His hoof turns flat side up, held out and expecting a key.
"AH LOVE Y'ALL TOO VAHNUL!" And then a certain DJ is glomped by a certain cyan hayseed. For a filly, Sky Blue has one heck of a tight grip. For possibly the first time since the royal guard appeared, the asylum guard address Vinyl, after letting his superior have his say. "The cold ground is soft padding. The lack of light is because most ponies like to sleep at ELEVEN AT NIGHT. Ponies that have been classified as extreme cases - dangerous to themselves and/or others - generally aren't allowed access to other patients." He then turns his attention to the royal guard. "I must really protest, sir. She has broken several laws and attempted to sway your judgement using emotional appeals. The crux of the matter is that she has STILL broken into a highly restricted medical facility, trespassed, and passed herself off as medical staff."
"I said what I needed to and you didn't even listen!" Vinyl near-shouts. Her voice lowers. "Do either of you have foals? You must have, at least one of you. You must know what it's like to feel separation from your family. Sky is my family, not my friend. She needs me, and my husband, and my kids, if she has any hope of recovering." She sighs. "What's the damn point? You're just here to roll your eyes and scribble on paper and say a lot of words. You're cold, both of you. Don't you have any emotion at all?" She pauses to breathe, then says, "I'll comply with your request, I'll get up and leave, if you let Sky come with me. I will let your doctors come round every day to check on her progress if you like... Like when Rewind was born and he was little, so we had to see the doctor a lot. He got jaundice, see, and they were worried, because he's a little fighter, just like his dad..." Vinyl's eyes mist a little. "Please let her go. I'm begging you. Otherwise... I'll stay. And I'm attached to this cell by my magic, so you'd have to sever my horn to set me free."
The guard stands up and ignores Vinyl's protests. His horn starts to glow and he murmurs, in no direction in particular, "Three-fifteen to dispatch. I need a supervisor and emergency response. We have a protestor who's attached to something at the asylum. It looks like a ventalation grate." His horn flickers an an inaudible voice buzzes through the horn and conducts throught the bones. He turns to the asylum guard and says, "It'll be about fifteen minutes.
"Sounds good to me," the asylum guard replies with a satisfied expression. "Although I'm sure you're more than qualified to take care of them, I'm afraid hospital regulations I can't leave you alone with them, with you inside the room, outside the room, door closed, or door opened. Red tape, I'm afraid," he adds, sympathetically, "But I'm sure you understand." Sky Blue, in the meanwhile, clings all the tighter to her beloved Vinyl Scratch. She's looking a bit nervous, and... then she starts mouthing the DJ's horn once more. Because she's Sky Blue.
Vinyl Scratch gently lets her spell go, releasing herself from the railings. She's tired and teary-eyed. "There," she says, "Do whatever." She hugs Sky tight.