The Horse Asylum: Cracked Glass

There was literally cracked glass everywhere in the room. All of the workers,  including the Smilers, Hatchets, Guards, and even the janitor just ignored the room. Only one doctor took attention to it, but that was imply to step around it, since the glass had broken in part of his office. He simply sat on his chair, spinning intently, and scribbling as he thought. So, common equivalence to what most doctors did.

No one was sure how the glass got there. No window or vase-frame was seen broken, yet the glass was still sharp and nearly clear, with a green tinge that still made it easily visible.

But wasn't a few patients supposed to go to that certain broken-glass-infested-doctor's-office's room today...?

Dawn Spark was following her owl again, she was here since she was a filly and had went through every room. Not once had she noticed this room. That was where her owl led her though. Was a pity that the owl was only in her mind. This mare would've been so happy with a real pet. She went through the wall, only to be hovering over broken glass. She was floating around all day with her magic, it was fun too. She poked at it, laughing, as if this hilarious! She thought it was some sort of glass play thing, it seemed fun and not harmful at all!

(I can make this work!)

Dr. Clear Mind didn't want to be here. Sure, the pay was amazing, but she had never cared about money. All she cared about was the wellbeing, care, and happiness of ponies, and she was instructed to not help ponies become sane. That was a stupid thing to instruct a psychiatrist to do, but she only obeyed on one condition: if she did not work, she would become the patient.

Another odd thing she was told to do was leave the glass on her office floor. When they had moved her into the office, there it had sat, and it bothered her terribly. Messiness, no matter how contradicting that might be to her colorful spirit, had always irked her, and she itched restlessly with the urge to clean it up.

No matter. She was taking notes on a way to slowly cure a pony of her anorexia, and as she scribbled down notes, a mare came floating in through the wall.

Ah. Usually, they killed the flow of magic to one's horn, but this particular patient had almost died without it, so they permitted her to float around the asylum. She wasn't aggressive, as far as Clear knew, but the mare was poking the glass. She didn't want her to get hurt. That would be really bad.

"Miss Dawn?" she asked tentatively. "Could you please come sit over here? The glass is sharp, and it would hurt very much if you were to fall."

Dawn looked at the mare for a second before realizing she worked there. She had known the psychiatrist since she first came here. She hadn't realized what she had said though. "Hi Dr. Clear Mind! Don't you love this new toy? Look at what I can do with it!" Dawn used her magic to has the broken glass dance around and create figures. It was so cool, at least to her anyways. Dawn was always a very talented unicorn, she would die without her magic though.

Clear smiled and gently guided the unicorn to the couch with her magic, seating her upright and pulling the glass out of her hooves. She set them back down in their proper places, and put a set of clear 3D puzzle pieces into Dawn's hooves to distract her.

"Are you hear to see me?" she asked kindly, noting that Dawn's condition had not changed from the last time she had visited. "If not, we should get you back to your room, okay? It's getting late outside, and we wouldn't want the Hatchets to come and take you away, right?"

That threat usually did it with the patients. She was sickened by the thought, and so she never called for them, instead solving problems by herself. She would never actually hoof over a patient to one of the Hatchets, but the threat was enough to get a pony to listen to her.

Sweet Dreams sat outside the Doctors office humming a soft tune, as she turned the pages of her children book. Sweets was having a good day, the children were asleep none of her bigger OCD problems had come out today, and she hadn't been talked to by a single stallion. But she still had this appointment to go to so here she sat flipping through her children book humming a soft tune reading each line of the story three times like she always did and placed the book upside down and turned over when she was done before moving to the next book like always.

Dawn stared at the doctor with a wide and silly smile.
"Nope, don't gotta appointment today! The Hatchets will take me to the special room right? I love that room! It's so cozy. I like the Hatchets, their silly."

Dawn played with the puzzle a bit, still holding on to the shards of glass.
(Sorry, it's short)

Clear sighed with relief and pulled the glass out of Dawn's hooves again, gently pushing her out the door and hoping that she'd stay outside. The glass was dangerous. She really didn't want anypony to have to deal with it.

As she peeked outside, she saw another patient outside.

"Hello, Sweet," she said kindly. "Good of you to come. Please, join me inside, and don't touch the glass, no matter how much it might bother you. Just don't do it."

She figured that Dawn wouldn't leave quite yet, so she plopped the unicorn down on one of the old beanbags and shut the door.

Sweets sat down on the couch with a smile,placing her books upside down and flipped over on the table once again. Her eyes flicked over towards the glass on the floor and frowned. She worried about somepony falling and hurting themselves on it.

She turned her attention back to Clear Mind and with another smile started rocking back and forth as she always does when with a pony she wasn't used to yet. She seemed to do that a lot lately.. "How are you today Doctor?" Sweets says softly, her voice like leaves rustling in wind almost like a whisper.

Dawn sighed and trotted away to another interesting place. She wondered what she would find as she wandered off.
(Out of le RP)

"I'm doing very well, thank you," Clear responded lightly. "It was very kind of you to ask. So, Sweet, tell me how you're feeling today."

It was the first question she asked all of her patients. Either they would launch into a monologue about just how horrid their days were, or what problems they had with other ponies, or that they hated everypony here and wanted to go home, or that, yes, their day was just peachy. She could branch off from there and ask more questions, engaging in conversation and evaluating their conditions to boot.

She knew, though, that the glass was going to bother Sweet, and she wouldn't dare tell her why it had to stay there. It was just too dangerous.

Sweets smiles at the doctor a bit "Oh My day has been lovely!" She says with a smile before it suddenly fades from her face and the question she has been wanting to ask since she came here. "Doctor...when...when can I go home?" She asks as she starts rocking a bit faster.

She hadn't been causing any trouble since coming here not counting the incident with a few of the male Smilers, the children had been more quiet since she started taking the meds they had giving her and she had been starting working slowly with her ODC. But even now as she asked the questions her eyes flick over to the glass multiple times, wanting nothing more then to at lest pick it up and throw it away.

"Its Shiny Mama...Lets play with it! Lets Play! Play with us Mama!" She voices suddenly shouted in her head causing her to place her hooves to her head and look around the room nervously.

Clear knew the glass shards were bothering Sweet greatly, and it pained her to not be able to at least over them up. It irked her had well, with her little problems, but if she wanted everypony to be safe, there it stayed.


Her office had been just awful when they had assigned it to her. The walls were dark, the windows small and streaked with water stains, and everything was either broken glass or cold, hard metal. She had cleaned up everything but the slightly glowing green glass, painting the walls lime green and filling the room with bright, colorful, eccentric furniture, but that little pile of glass remained, half as a reminder of what this world was really like, and half because of something much more sinister.


"No, no, Sweet," Clear said sweetly (pun!). "It's not going to be smart to let... Them, play with it. Let them know that, okay? That glass shouldn't be touched, lest... Bad stuff happen."


By them, she meant the voices Sweet heard. The mare had lost her unborn foals to a vicious attack. Some say she was haunted. Other say she's just hallucinogenic. Whatever the cause, sometimes she spoke for them, and Clear would be the one to try and control her.

After a few minutes for the voices yelling about wanting to play with the glass and Sweets pacing the room they finally quieted to the point that Sweets was able to sit down and start playing with some puzzles. She acted as if nothing had just happened, maybe in her mind nothing had.

"I'm sorry Doctor...what were we talking about?" She asked tilting her head to the side in confusion. She then sets the finished puzzle onto the table before knocking it onto the floor and picking it up and knocking it back to the floor. She did this five more times before stopping.

"Well, you asked when you could go home," Clear answered. "As for that, I don't have an answer for you. I wish I could tell you, but I'm not in charge of those things."

She leaned in closely to Sweet's ear and whispered.

"Even I can't leave the asylum," she said. "Now, Sweet, we need to work on this problem right now. You don't need to knock the puzzle over and redo it five times. Once is enough. We need to work on telling your brain that you only need to do this once, okay?"

She didn't say anything about the foals, knowing that it would just upset Sweet even more.

Swift Reaper walked into the room, wearing his usual green outfit. Because of his boots, he ignored the glass. He kept his cool rather well, staying casual and almost happy over a cloud of tormented anger.

"Ah, thank you. You've always been helpful, Torn Soul. I really appreciate all you do." Swift said as he picked up an invisible coffee mug and sipped it. In fact, the coffee mug was in the ethereal realm, and Torn Soul was a ghost. Torn was a pegasus foal, born at the Asylum, who died one year after his birth from unnatural causes. He was still in his room, rotting away. His spirit's throat was cut.

Swift Reaper then chuckled at a joke that Torn made and strolled into the room. "I'm here for my first appointment!" He said cheerily, hating himself inside.

Clear looked up at the stallion standing in front of her.

"Sir," she said kindly, "I believe I have you booked for right after this appointment. If you'd like, feel free to sit on the couch. Our session is almost over."

She pointed to the couch on the other side of the room and waited for the stallion to move.

"Oh and one more thing," she told him, almost as if it were an afterthought. "Please, please, please don't touch the glass on the floor. Don't step on it, don't move it, don't touch it, okay? That's my one rule in the office."

Swift nodded neutrally and strolled over to the couch, attempting in vain to step around the glass without making himself look like an idiot. He sat down on the overly-fluffy couch and looked back at the room. His jaw dropped.

There were roughly 17 spirits haunting this room, all of them covered in cuts. Glass shards were impaled into their slightly-transparent flesh, giving them a very tortured look. All of their eyes were gauged out. From this, Swift drew two conclusions:

-This was a torture room
-A doctor who worked here was a mass murderer (possibly this one)

Swift Reaper's bared his teeth and whistled for Darkloom, who came almost instantly.

"I do say, what in Discord's name is this place?" Said Darkloom, curiously.

Swift shrugged and pointed to the doctor silently, and said three chilling words.

"Want a snack?"

Darkloom solemnly tilted down and up, indicating a nod. A loud clattering sound could be heard as a large, black scythe fell to the floor, seemingly from nowhere. Swift picked it up with his magic and rushed to the doctor, holding it to her neck. "WHAT HAPPENED HERE?! ANSWER ME!!!" screamed Swift, a terrible rage in his eyes.

Clear's eyes went wide as she magically shoved the stallion off of her, retraining him him the air to keep him form harming anypony.

"I don't know what happened in here!" she exclaimed, breathing hard. "Why would you ask me? I just moved into this office last week! I don't want to call the Hatchets, but if you are a threat to any of my patients or myself, I will call for one! Where in Equestria did you get that?"

She yanked the sythe out of his grip and threw it in the other corner of the room, leaving it there and trying to keep the stallion subdued.

Swift sighed reluctantly as he heard what she said. "Stand down, Loom. You may leave."

"Aww, but it was just getting fun! Can I ju-" whined the scythe, just starting to float up on its own before being cut off by Swift.

"OUT." Said Swift in a commanding tone as he shoved the scythe back into the ethereal plane, causing it to disappear.

"Now, can you just let me down so I can get the gist of what the bloody hell this torture room was used for?"

Sweet Dreams, upon seeing a stallion enter the room had quickly moved to the corner of the room where she had started to rock hard her head thumping lightly against the wall, her hooves pressed tightly over her ears and sobs could be heard from her. She was scared, not only was this stallion in the small room with her and the doctor he had attacked the kind doctor. She looked up at the doctor her eyes darting at even the smallest shadow and slowly lets out a small whine.

(Sorry guys been sick but im back!)

"Oh my Celestia!" Clear exclaimed, rushing over to Sweet but leaving the intruder in the air. "Sweets, are you okay? I'm so sorry that he intruded in on our session. I can call for the Hatchets-" she winced, "-if that's what you want. You're safe with me, okay? You have to trust me."

She glared up at the unicorn she was restraining in the air.

"You threatened one of my patients. I hardly care for my own life if I can save one of my clients, but you have damaged her emotionally. So, no, I will not let you down. I do not allow weapons in my office. Not now, and not ever. Have I made myself clear?"

Sweets continued to rock back and forth picking up speed as she pressed her hooves tightly to her skull her lips moving to form words but no sound left from her besides the sobs and small whines, tears streaming down her face in fear as she stared unblinking at the Stallion before her.

Inside her head the repressed memory of her spark to insanity replayed over and over. Being attacked from behind, the burning pain in her stomach, the ground covered in a red sticky substance two foal like shapes laying in the center of it all and then nothing.

Sweets moved her hooves from her head to her scared stomach as if to protect something precious and then suddenly opened her mouth as if to say something but all that came out was a mournful heart-twisting scream that could of chilled all the souls in that room to the very core.

INTERJECTION

Rusted Hatchet heard the scream from one of the rooms she was patrolling. Now, it wasn't like she didn't hear screams a lot. She heard them all the time. If it was a newbie, she'd send an idiot Smiler in to deal with it. If it was an older 'customer', she would just let them be, allow them to scream until their voice gave out and their heart withering into an exhausted little organ that could easily be wrentched and pulled and tipped to however she pleased it to be.

Screaming was one of the best daily dose of medicine she could get. While patrolling, Rusted felt angry, that she had to look after these stupid fools, these ponies that had to be taken care of like drooling foals just out of the womb. It was disgusting. She would much rather wish they would be put to death, but since she couldn't give that order unless largely provoked, she would just have to try to get their own stupid mewling brains to understand their own pathetic-ness and take their life by their own fumbling hooves. Screams, however, was just nice song to listen to, to let the day pass, and a record to show that she had done her job. All that anger and frustration at them almost went away when hearing the screams, and she almost felt happy. Almost.

But this scream was different. It wasn't coming from a room, but a doctor's office, and she had seen no other Hatchet go in there. Not only that... but that was the room with the glass. Her mind jumped to conclusions, not taking a moment to try and think that that might have not been the case.

Rusted burst through the door, a sight of a stallion floating in the air, a wailing mare, and an overwhelmed doctor greeting her. "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!" She fumed. "YOU TOUCHED THE GLASS, DIDN'T YOU?! YOU DID, DIDN'T YOU?!?!" She slapped the sobbing mare, and with her horn, as Rusted was a unicorn, dove her magic into the patient's mind. "Shut up with your sad mewling!" She yelled at her, trying to get the magic to stop the stupid whines. Usually she liked crying... but this was just intolerable. She then spun to face the doctor.

"We told you not to let any patient or yourself even TOUCH that glass! But CLEARLY that doesn't matter to you! You do not listen to the rules! You are a danger to society! Not to mention you have a patient DANGEORUSLY hovering in the air for absoloutely no reason whatsoever! What do you have to say before I card in a room for you here, hmm?!" She spat.

"She stabbed me in the back!" Swift yelled in pain as he mentally ordered Darkloom to invisibly pierce his spine. "Gah! Oh god it hurts! She stabbed me with the glass for no reason!"

He was clutching his chest as Darkloom sliced silently through a part of his body where there were no vital organs, all the way through him. The whole thing was done in such a way that it looked like the wound was being agitated by the magic that held him up. He could always heal the wound later, the ghost in his dorm was an amateur surgeon, who was sent here for being exceptionally good at what she did, as if that made sense.

Darkloom then put a glass shard in the wound, in such a way as nopony would see it happening. It was incredibly painful, but the ponies who kept him in that wretched prison had to suffer. He caught himself smiling under his green facemask at the thought of going to a hospital and escaping their clutches.