After somewhat gathering his composure, Doctor Coal Hammer retreated into the small restroom within his office and from the splashing I'm hearing coming from the sink, I assume he must be soaking his face. Clutzy and I are speechless right now. I'd gone from thinking this guy was just a cold, soulless asshole to instead find out that he's a broken stallion who experienced a trauma that I could never match. I will never complain about my own woes again, this guy has been through far worse.

I honestly don't know what I could do or say to help but I'd really like to try but it would need to be approached delicately. He's made it clear that his foalhood is a sore subject for him to talk about. The only pony who has the proper education and expertise on this subject and the only one I trust here is Doctor Bleeding Heart. I need to find him so I can tell him what's going on. Not to be mean but Coal Hammer should probably be a patient rather than a doctor.

After a few minutes of just sitting there quietly, the door to the restroom slowly and silently swings open revealing a troubled panting and shivering Doctor Coal Hammer, his face soaking wet just like I'd suspected. Not only had he splashed water over his face but I find it safe to say that sweat and tears were also included. His eyes were bloodshot and the already prevalent dark circles had become even more apparent. On top of that, his wings had drooped and were dragging on the ground which is a telltale symptom of severe depression in a pegasus. The only thing he had to help himself relax was a smoldering cigarette in his clenched teeth.

"Um, Creampuff let's, uhh..." Coal Hammer stuttered as he continued to shiver. "...let's just call it a day. I'm not feeling well."

"O-okay." I replied.

Much like every day for the past week or so I've been here, Coal Hammer escorted me back to my room, let me trot in and shut and locked the door behind me. I was left there with nothing but my own thoughts and Clutzy who was just as flabbergasted as I was. We didn't need to say anything, he and I were close enough friends that we could already tell that we both agreed what our new main priority was from here on out. We need to find Doctor Bleeding Heart and make him aware of the situation with Coal Hammer. He needs the help more than I do.

Over the next several days, it was the same shit, different shovel. Coal Hammer would collect me from my room, I'd look around for Bleeding Heart while with the former while Clutzy did the same. He came through the wall one day while I was getting some wacky ct scan on my head and told me that he had found him on the far end of the hospital and that it would be tricky to get to him. The security guards aren't just going to allow a patient to freely roam the halls of the facility and unfortunately, I'm not invisible.

I will say though, there is a silver lining, as the little experiments that Coal Hammer has been making me do are nowhere near as bad or painful as the first one. Speaking of which, I can't help but think I've seen something like that before. I think it was some movie from the eighties. Ah, I digress. After nearly another week of the same shit, I feel like I have to just wing it and tell somepony, anypony. However, I can't seem to get anypony else alone save for Coal Hammer himself. I don't know what the hell I'm going to do and Clutzy and I are running out of ideas to some up with and rule out because it wouldn't work for whatever reason.

At this point, we haven't the slightest clue what we could do and I paced back and forth in my room really jarring my brain while Clutzy floated about, trying to do the same. I didn't pay it any mind at first but something outside the window caught Cluty's attention and he floated over and stuck his head through the door. After a moment, he floated back and gave an excited gasp. What's going on?

"Creampuff! You've gotta see this!" Clutzy called over, snapping me out of my train of thought. Look who it is!"

Curious as to what Clutzy could be going on about, I trotted over and stood on my back legs as to be able to just barely peak out the window to the hallway. Damn my short stature...anyway, I honestly thought I was hallucinating when sure enough I could see none other than Doctor Coal Hammer slowly trotting down the hall and he was accompanied by the last two ponies I'd ever expect to see. Having traveled all the way from Canterlot to Saltzicuse and now trotting past me in the hall were Princesses Celestia and Luna and they didn't appear to be here on the most pleasant of circumstances.

"What the hell are they doing here!?" I gasped.

"I head some ponies talking about Bleeding Heart making a complaint to them." Clutzy replied. "The royal sisters have been cracking down on corruption and illegal misconduct at prisons, police departments and hospitals. That was quick too, they didn't waste any time coming here!"

"Shit, I can't hear them. What are they saying?"

"I'm on it."

The door to my room is heavily padded and completely soundproof so I won't be able to yell and grab their attention. To top that all off, I can't reach the window to pound on the glass with my hooves and anything I could otherwise use to stand on is bolted to the floor. All I can do now is let Clutzy do his thing as he poked his head through the door to eavesdrop on the conversation and relay the messages to me.

"Jeez, Coal Hammer is assuring them that there's nothing funny going on here and that a false report was made by a disgruntled staff member." Clutzy said before poking his head out again. "Celestia isn't convinced and he's grilling him about...hang on...missing patients?"

"Missing patients!?" I gasped. "How could patients at a high security facility go missing!?"

"Hang on, I'll keep listening...Coal Hammer is making some excuse that there was a glitch in the system and that many patients from the sex offender ward were transferred to another hospital...shit, he didn't even hesitate with that answer. He must have seen them coming...Uhh, Celestia's asking to see the files and...Coal Hammer said no? What gives?"

"Something's going on here and I've got a really made feeling about it."

"Same. Whoa, they're really getting heated out there. Hang on...Luna said to Celestia that he's in his legal right to block their request and that they need more proof and a warrant to go any further. There's not much else they can do until then...Celestia warned Coal Hammer they'll be investigating it and they'll be back as soon as they find anything...and that if they do, she'll never have been so disappointed in all her life...what does she mean by that?"

"Maybe they know each other well."

"Maybe. She keeps calling him Coal, like they go back or something."

Clutzy and I watched helplessly as Celestia and Luna trotted down the hall away from a triumphant Coal Hammer before turning down the other hallway. I couldn't grab their attention if I tried. I can't even reach the window well enough to wave my hooves around, though the fact that Bleeding Heart had gone over Coal Hammer's head and reported him means there is still hope. I don't even care if Coal Hammer gets in trouble or not, I just think he should be getting therapy of his own before something really bad happens.

It's true, he can legally deny anypony access to medical files no matter who it is who requests them but that doesn't change the fact that it's suspicious. But what of the missing patients? Coincidentally, they're mostly from the sex offender ward too. Coal Hammer explicitly expressed that he hates them so much that he would shoot them all without so much as batting an eyelash. So much of this stuff makes sense but then none at the same time! What, is he killing them off or something? No. There's no way he could kill several ponies and be able to cover it up...is there?

Now it's more imperative that somepony finds out about this more than ever. Coal Hammer may be a victim as much as he is a perpetrator of...something, but either way, I have a sinking feeling that he's a ticking time bomb and it won't be long before he goes off. Now that we're aware of a possibility that he could be experimenting on other patients and maybe even killing them, I'm all the more worried.

Well, for whatever reason, I was given breakfast, left in my room, given lunch, left in my room, given dinner and...still left in my room. This is the very first day that I wasn't allowed outside my room at some point throughout the day. If something wasn't right before, now I really smell fish. And I'm talking like a big fat rotting carp from Ondamonia Lake. Yeah, that strong. It was when a sudden yet faint click from the lock on my door being undone that the metaphorical stench became unbearable.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, dear, but I had a few things come up." Doctor Coal Hammer said nonchalantly as he stepped in. "We have a fun one today and that'll be all for the tests I want to do. So just come with me and it'll be quick. Promise."

"...No..." I said firmly as I backed up and lowered my head as I pawed at the floor with a forehoof. "I'm not going anywhere with you."

"Making it difficult? Huh, that's not like you. Why the sudden attitude?"

"Because I know what's going on around here!! Patients are going missing and now you come to me and tell me there's one last experiment!? You'll make it quick!? You're planning on killing me!!"

"Can we get security over here? We've got a belligerent patient."

My pupils shrank to pinpricks as two beefy security guards galloped in and one proceeded to place me in a choke hold while the other used his aura to hold my otherwise bucking back legs in place. Try as I might to resist, Coal Hammer and this facility have got me right where they want me. Typical for a disturbed mental patient to resist or attempt to fight against hospital staff and that's exactly what they perceive this to be as far as they are concerned, it's all in my head. From babbling on about missing ponies to accusing a healthcare professional of trying to take my life, to them, I'm just a crazy mare coming up with absurd ideas that aren't true.

"You know, Creampuff, I actually had begun to somewhat tolerate you." Coal Hammer said calmly as he readied a syringe while his goons held me in place. "Until now, you were...mostly cooperative. It's a shame, really."

At that, Coal Hammer plunged the needle into my neck and my body instantly had begun to go limp. Clutzy was livid and was panicking worse than I'd ever seen before but within seconds, I was completely unaware of anything going on around me. Before I knew it, everything went dark. Everything was nothing but a pitch black void.

I don't know how much time had past but some unknown amount of time later, I slowly faded in and out of consciousness. As I gradually came to, the first thing I notice was a familiar voice of a young friend of mine muttering to himself as he floated back and forth before me. As always, my dear pal Clutzy had stayed by my side and followed me to wherever I was brought to. I'd never seen him like this before. I've seen him panic before but he darted around the room in a frenzy and was acting like a schizophrenic. He was talking so fast I couldn't even understand what he was saying.

"Creampuff!!" Clutzy screamed as he noticed me coming to. "Oh my Lauren fucking Faust, what am I gonna do!?"

"Clutzy I ca...whuna fuggis giono-"

"HE'S GONNA LOBOTOMIZE YOU!!!"

No further information whatsoever would be required as that was more than enough to kick my adrenaline into overdrive and nearly instantly expedite the drug wearing off. Within seconds, I was snapped out of my daze and acquainted with my new situation. I was strapped down to a stretcher once again in Coal Hammer's office and according to my close friend who would never bullshit me, I would soon be having part of my brain taken out. I would find out exactly when momentarily as the mad scientist himself trotted in with a befuddled look on his face.

"Huh...odd, the drug should have lasted much longer than that for a pony your size." Coal Hammer said nonchalantly as he began jotting something down on a clipboard in his hoof. "You must have a resistance to it. Not many ponies have that."

"Doctor! Please...let's talk about this!!" I begged as I wriggled around in my confined state. "L-l-look, we can be friends here, right!? We've both been dealt a shitty hoof! Let's talk!"

"No need, dear, I've already gotten all the information out of you that I need and once I have a sample of your brain, you'll be pushing me that much closer to my goal."

My body felt the similar quickened heart rate and rush of adrenaline I experienced when I was just about to jump to my death a couple months ago and this time, my mind was opposed to dying. Clutzy and I both panicked like never before as the psychopathic Doctor Coal Hammer pushed a cart over to the operating table I was strapped to and began preparing various electronic instruments such as drills and circular saws. Today, I'm actually going to fucking die...

"You can't just take a fucking piece of my brain out!!" I screamed, desperate to somehow be able to reason with him at the last moment. "You'll kill me!! I won't survive this!!"

"I'm fully aware of that." Coal Hammer said calmly as if he were having a normal conversation. "And it'll just be a lot more painful and drawn out if you flail around like that. Now hold sti-"

Slam! Slam! Slam!...Crash!

Just before I was to have my skull sawn open, Coal Hammer, Clutzy, and myself were jarred out of our prior focus by sudden commotion at the locked door to the office in which I was about to be murdered. A glimmer of hope and my saving grace in the form of a familiar purple colored hoof smashing through the hazy window and reaching for the door knob could be my ticket to freedom. The one living pony here I can trust, one of my only two friends within this clusterfuck of a facility, Doctor Bleeding Heart nearly busted the door off its hinges as he powered his way in.

Coal Hammer was caught in a brutal act and save for the day I hit Clutzy with my car, I've never seen anypony look so horrified as Bleeding Heart looked right now. He too was in a fight or flight mode as his pupils were just about fully dilated and he looked like he was ready to start swinging at the psycho who was about to split my head open. If Bleeding Heart can overpower Coal Hammer, or if the latter gives himself up then I'm as good as saved.

"Coal Hammer!!" Bleeding Heart screamed in pure unadulterated horror as he witnessed me about to be murdered. "What the fuck are you doing to her!?"

"Heeere we go again." Coal Hammer sighed as he rolled his eyes and switched his death machine off. "You wouldn't understand. You never understood anything I've been trying to accomplish."

"Save it, you sick fuck! I now know what you've been doing behind everypony's backs and the authorities are about to find out too!"

"Oh? How do you figure?"

"Because I've got all the proof Celestia and Luna need to put you away for a very long time! Just take a look at all this!"

Bleeding Heart then whipped a thick folder, a dossier of some sort out of his lab coat and opened it up with his aura as the contents floated around him for all of us to see. All kinds of gruesome photographs, email logs, and a thick wad of all kinds of incriminating paperwork flooded the air within Bleeding Heart's unicorn aura. This is exactly what would be needed to put a stop to whatever sick, twisted operation Coal Hammer is running here and...honestly, I think he needs help more than punishment but that's just my own humble opinion.

"Glad you're here." Coal Hammer said with a bemused frown as he trotted over towards his desk. "I have a bone to pick with you."

"Oh shut up, will you?" Bleeding Heart huffed angrily as he wasted no time undoing the tight straps that held me in place. He then turned his gaze down to me and as such, his expression grew much softer like before. "I'm so sorry. I'll never let him hurt you again."

"Th-thank you so much." I sobbed.

"Now what exactly makes you think I've been doing this behind everypony's back? How do you know the rest of the staff isn't working with me?"

"On second thought, keep on talking, you're just giving digging yourself a deeper hole." Bleeding Heart hissed through his teeth.

"You'd be surprised what ponies are willing to do for the cash we get from selling all these organs to fund our operation."

"You...fucking degenerate!"

Bleeding Heart couldn't seem to focus, he was so angry. For whatever reason, Coal Hammer was singing like a bird and doing nothing but revealing more and more of his and his staff's wrongdoing. Having difficulty fumbling with the straps that confined me, he turned to face his rival to offer his own two bits.

"You monster!!" Bleeding Heart screamed as he lowered his head as if he were about to physically attack Coal Hammer. "These ponies are mentally ill patients who are here because they need our help...and you're experimenting on them like...fucking lab rats!! You've completely spat in the face of the Hippocratic oath!!"

After he had said his piece, Bleeding Heart turned back to me to resume undoing my straps and setting me free. Since Bleeding Heart was standing over me, I couldn't see what Coal Hammer was doing but I could hear him opening a drawer on his desk and a series of metallic clicking and clacking. It sounded like he was filling a stapler or something. What the hell could he be doing that for?

"Uh...Creampuff?" Clutzy said nervously as he floated just behind Bleeding Heart.

"Why'd you have to rat on me, Bleeding Heart?" Coal Hammer asked angrily.

Click! Click! Kaclack!

What the fuck is he doing!? What's that clicking sound!?

"We could have worked together on this, you know." Coal Hammer continued as he slowly trotted over behind Bleeding Heart, the latter paying no mind to the former.

"C-Creee...Creampuff!?" A frightened Clutzy stuttered. "He-he's got a...he-he's g-got a g-g-g..."

"As intelligent as you are, you would have otherwise been an asset to my little...organization." Coal Hammer stood right behind Bleeding Heart as he pressed a strange object that I couldn't see against the back of the good doctor's head. My and Bleeding Heart's pupils shrank to pinpricks as we both suddenly realized what was about to happen. "I'll tell your missus and little ones goodbye for you."

"HIT THE DECK!!! HE'S PACKING!!!" Clutzy shrieked in terror at the top of his lungs.

POW!

Author's Note

Wrote this all on one of the few so called "days off" I get. Day off? What the hell is that? Enjoy for now and expect an interesting plot twist on my next installment. In the meantime, I've got the ingredients for a nice hot reuben sandwich in the fridge and they're calling my name.