The examiner picked up Apple Bloom in his hooves without much nonsense and placed her on the table. She knew what a brain scanner was, but the other machine she couldn’t recall having seen before. What it did certainly wasn’t obvious. There was a humming noise as her head went in the scanner, giving the examiner a critical look as she did so. He hummed and nodded, announcing “Engineering student, A class.” Then he put Apple Bloom on the floor and gave her a nudge saying, “You may return to your seat now.”

“Ah told you ah was smart!” Apple Bloom said as she sat down at her desk, wincing as the safety restraints closed down on her hooves. Scootaloo just rolled her eyes. There weren’t many other foals in the room besides those three, as most of the class hadn’t yet reached gradutation age. 9 seemed a little early to be graduating, but the older students sure seemed a lot smarter so it was clear there was some difference in education going on.

“Me next!” Sweetie Belle announced eagerly, though it was the examiner calling up her number and not her who decided the order. He stood her on the platform and she smiled at him. She didn’t seem to get it so he had to push her head into the scanner. She didn’t stay the full 10 seconds though, poking her head out and looking at the side of it curiously. Some sort of loud commotion outside was distracting her too, wiggling around in the examiner’s guiding hooves. Was hard to keep her still she was so excited about this day.

“She’s real smart too!” called out Apple Bloom from her seat, “Once you get around her ADD that is.”

“Hmm,” the examiner said neutrally looking at the display readout. “D class,” he announced, pulling a lever that started a conveyor. It didn’t seem like Sweetie had noticed the conveyor belt under her was moving until she slipped off the edge to land lightly into the other machine. Apple Bloom was surprised when a manipulator arm hoisted her up roughly and Sweetie didn’t like it one bit, but it wasn’t until her alarmed cries turned into screams of agony that Apple Bloom’s world ended.

She vaguely heard her own voice screaming at the examiner, “It’s killing her!!” but he just yelled, “It’s only making her stronger!” Now that Apple Bloom had an idea of the purpose of the second machine, she could see a manic gleam in his eyes. Scootaloo had gotten free somehow but the little pegasus couldn’t face up to a full grown stallion when the examiner held her down, not that she could do anything to the plexiglass shielding. There was a wrenching, tearing noise as the examiner’s head snapped up, just as the reinforced wall burst in like a bubble, filling the room with explosive smoke. The machine just whirred continuously, horribly.

This was all quiet background noise to the unending screams ripped from Sweetie Belle’s throat. They didn’t sound even close to as painful as what the machine was doing to her. There was so much blood. Why hadn’t she passed out yet? Apple Bloom fought to stand up, fought to do anything but the little filly couldn’t think of anything she could do. She fought to see through the smoke that the ventilation system was quickly clearing, she fought to see what she never wanted to see that ever again.

“NO!” came a voice cutting through the smoke. It was Sweetie’s sister, of course she would come to rescue Sweetie Belle. But what could she do? “Let me‒ go!” Sweetie’s sister shrieked in an unseen struggle.

“It’ll just pull you in too!” Applejack yelled. Applejack? What was she‒ was she saving Apple Bloom? Ponies running around and struggling became visible through the smoke. Why weren’t they saving Sweetie Belle? Couldn’t they hear her screaming?!

“I can fix this!” came the voice of a different mare, one Apple Bloom didn’t remember. “I just need a console override so I can divert the power conduits to‒” and then there was a noise even louder than Sweetie Belle, another explosion so forceful that Apple Bloom covered her ears in pain. She couldn’t hear anything after that. Had she gone deaf? She remembered how explosions could rupture your eardrums and you might never hear again. Did that happen? Why did she care? Why couldn’t she stand up?!

Apple Bloom could see her sister and Sweetie’s sister, apparantly struggling on the floor behind the examination table, two other mares standing in the room next to the destroyed wall. One was a purple unicorn with a kind of scary look to her, like she had a light in her eyes or something, but her face was calmly disapproving. There was an angry looking pink mare that Apple Bloom would have recognized if she wasn’t totally out of her gourd at the moment. And next to the ruined machine stood …one of the weatherbots?

“Rainbow!” the strange mare shouted out in irritation, “I needed that! How am I going to fix this if you keep destroying the machines before I can study them?”

None of the other ponies responded, but the weatherbot gave the machine a vicious kick. Belatedly, Apple Bloom noticed that the machine that had consumed Sweetie was in disarray, because of a giant sizzling hole blown through it, a hole that ended where the weatherbot was standing. She struggled to rise again, shouting,

“Applejack!”

Abruptly breaking from their embrace Applejack rushed over to Apple Bloom, and briefly Apple Bloom could see Sweetie’s sister doing the same for Sweetie Belle. “Oh thank heavens you’re okay!” Applejack shouted, trying to pull Apple Bloom into a hug but finding she like the other foals were still held by the safety restraints. “Twilight, get these clamps off!” she shouted behind her.

“Right, one sec,” the strange mare said in a bored tone, focusing on the control console. She was just an ordinary looking unicorn, though there was a strange light surrounding her horn that Apple Bloom had never seen before. Dazed by the sudden silence, Apple Bloom had a second to look around, where all the foals at their desks just sat there looking shell shocked. Did she look like that? She felt like that. With a clunk, all their restraints came free, and Apple Bloom leapt forward, passing her sister right by and ignoring her completely, running to Sweetie Belle in a desperate panic. Rarity was pulling Sweetie Belle out of the… the wreckage. It was hard to tell what part of it was supposed to be the machine, and what part was just twisted molten slag. The pristine parts looked just as awful as the ruined ones.

Sweetie Belle was a lot worse off than the machine, though still conscious and breathing was probably a good sign. It looked like the machine had been trying to replace her body parts in a piecemeal fashion. Her hoof was sliced off at the wrist, nothing but a dully gleaming synthetic limb beyond that point. It looked like there were plates literally welded to her barrel, open wounds oozing out around their edges, and one of her ears was completely gone, a synthetic one in its place with that part of her skull shining and metallic too. Rarity was just cradling her weeping and Sweetie dully lifted her head and said in a hoarse voice,

“R-rarity?”

Rarity didn’t stop crying but her shoulders shook as she tried to thank something, but couldn’t get past the words “Oh t-thank” without losing her breath again. Apple Bloom looked at Sweetie helplessly, but then that awful pink mare was standing next to her looking at them too. You know the one, foreman at the bread factory, never greets anyone pleasantly, always angry about some little thing or other, treating ponies like they were trash. Well this mare knelt down and just silently wrapped Sweetie Belle and her sister in a hug. Apple Bloom was so scared but she still was struck by the tenderness and care, and might even have joined in if Applejack hadn’t lifted her up by the scruff and tossed her onto her back. So Apple Bloom just clung there desperately, holding on like her life depended on it.

That purple “Twilight” mare hurried over to Rarity and Sweetie Belle who had finally fallen blessedly asleep. “Is she…” Rarity asked dully, holding Sweetie up for Twilight’s inspection. The mare was just eyeballing Sweetie though, but maybe she was a doctor? It was odd how the light around her horn kept sweeping across Sweetie like a violet sheen.

“Her physiology is…mostly unchanged,” Twilight concluded with reluctance, saying “She’ll have to keep clear of electricity until she’s purged herself. There may be a few lingering effects…” her eyes drifted across Sweetie’s exposed plating with trepidation. Rarity just curled down and hugged Sweetie earnestly, ignoring Twilight until she walked away. The pink one had gone off to the other side of the room, to where the sixth mare was standing up from where she was crouching, an unreadable expression on her face. The unassuming butter colored pegasus with pale pink hair half covering her face might not have been entirely alarming, but what she was standing up from was the mangled corpse of the examiner, and her hooves were covered pastern-deep in solid blood. The pink one just talked to her all normal like, though the pegasus didn’t say anything in response just looked aside.

But wait if she‒ where was Scootaloo?!

Looking around frantically, Apple Bloom saw that the foals free of their restraints were all clustering nervously at Applejack’s feet. Scootaloo wasn’t there though. When she finally spotted the pegasus though, Scoots was alive and well. She was also backed up against the remaining intact wall with a look of terror on her face. The weatherbot Apple Bloom noticed had a rather tricked out coat of paint, which you wouldn’t see on regular ones that pretty much just did their job and nothing else, just like any workerbot. Maybe this one was a custom build by some rich pony? It was acting real weird though. Instead of just standing and waiting for orders, it kept moving closer to Scootaloo, stretching out a hoof trying to touch her.

“Let her go!” Apple Bloom shouted angrily standing up on top of Applejack. The weatherbot did respond to that order, stopping and turning her head with an eerie silence. That was enough for Scootaloo to get out from behind the wall though and she made a beeline for Apple Bloom fluttering up to Applejack’s back and just sitting there. The terrified expression hadn’t even left her face, though. It was like she was stuck that way. The weatherbot did leave her alone though, and just turned towards the corner of the room standing stock still as you’d expect.

“Scootaloo, are you‒” Apple Bloom said worriedly.

“We saved her, right?” Scootaloo said with a desperate smile that didn’t look happy at all. “She’s okay, right?”

“She’s uh, f-f‒” Apple Bloom just couldn’t say it. Applejack interrupted Apple Bloom’s attempt to say ‘fine,’ putting in her smooth voice,

“See for yourself, young’n,” pointing at Sweetie’s sister who had the unicorn filly draped gently over her backside. It would have been heartwarming, if not for the bloodstains.

“Are we ready?” shouted the pink mare in an annoyed tone, “We need to get moving before the enforcers get here.”

Enforcers? Why would they… they were supposed to protect ponies! They were… supposed to…

Apple Bloom didn’t even realize she was crying until the hiccups started. She grabbed Scootaloo to her in a hug, and for once the pegasus put up no resistance at all. It would have been heartwarming… if not for the bloodstains all over Scootaloo’s fur.

“Very well,” Rarity said evenly to that pink mare, “I’ve got what’s mine.”

Apple Bloom wobbled as Applejack turned and crouched before the other foals, gently saying to them, “We’re gonna have to go to the forest for a while. It’ll be fun, don’t worry! You don’t have to worry any more, we’ll take care of you.” She straightened up, adding with a note of confidence, “Everything’s gonna be just fine.”

“The forest?” one of the colts said, “But everypony lives in the city!”

“We can’t stay in the city one more minute,” said Applejack, “If you want to live, you’re gonna have to trust me on that.”

“Why can’t we stay in the city?” one of the fillies complained.

“Because all the ponies in this city are crazy!” interrupted the purple mare. “Now get your tail in gear. The sooner we get back, the sooner I can be free of you assholes.”

“Aww, I thought you liked us, Twilight,” the pink one said leaning uncomfortably close. The purple mare just shoved her away and walked out the ruined hole in the side of the wall.