Fresh Meat

Gauze Wrap, a white pony with a striking red mane and a bandage for a cutie mark, led four young pegasi down the hallway. With bright artificial lighting and clinical white walls, it appeared to be a hospital. Two more grim-faced adults followed behind the fillies.

The hallway opened up to a space like a waiting room, but without comfortable seating. More staff members were milling about, and hardly glanced at the new arrivals. To the left were three glass-walled rooms. Gauze Wrap led them to the furthest of the three and held the door open as the nervous fillies filed in.

Inside was disarmingly playful. There was a mural of flowers and sunshine, a bean bag chair, and a toy chest. Paper and half-used crayons littered the small table. The little room looked like a perfect daycare, except for the glass wall facing the waiting area, which appeared to be a mirror from this side.

The young ponies were dejected. Shooting Star, a little colt with a fiery orange mane, hung his head and asked, "Are we in trouble? Is it because I failed my flight test?"

"Your grades weren't great," Gauze Wrap admitted, "but it's okay." He smiled sweetly. "During the test, we measured you and found out that you're very special."

"Special?" the colt wondered, now hopeful.

He nodded. "Yes, out of all the fillies you four are super special. You know why?" He was wearing a colorful bracelet, and he began to idly fiddle with it as he spoke. "You have a rainbow inside you."

"Wow." The little pony's eyes lit up.

Cloud Lily, a pale blue filly with a white mane, sheepishly mumbled, "Really? I don't feel very rainbowy."

Gauze Wrap explained, "You can't see it, but it's trapped in there. When you fly, it pushes and pulls, trying to get out. With all that going on inside you, no wonder it's hard to fly straight!"

"Ohhhh…" she nodded, as if it all made sense now.

"Nuh uh, I fly super straight!" Shooting Star announced. "I'm like the bestest flyer! But only, turning is hard…"

"That's good!" Gauze Wrap said, putting his hoof on the little one's shoulder. "Your rainbow is a little calmer. But the great news is, in just a little bit you're going to see the doctor. He's going to help you let the rainbow out, so everyone can see how pretty it is."

Cloud Lily worried, "Doctor? Will there be needles?"

"No needles or anything," he assured. "We'll use magic. It'll be a little loud, but it won't hurt at all."

Shooting Star piped up, "So does that mean we can take the test again? I promise I'll do like a million times better."

Gauze Wrap smiled. "I'm sure you will. But not today. You get the rest of the day off of school."

"Yay!" they all exclaimed.

"I need to go now. You can play with the toys, but try not to make too much ruckus, okay?" he said in an encouraging tone, trying to excuse himself without worrying them. "If you promise to be good, you can all get a cookie."

The fillies nodded and Shooting Star pledged, "I'll be soo good."

"Here you go!" He laid a paper sack of cookies on the table. "Now just wait here and the doctor will see you soon." The moment he stepped out the door, his face sank. He quietly locked the door while they were going for the cookies. They didn't notice.

He stepped past the guards and unlocked a heavy door. As he crossed the threshold, the bright, clinical façade ended abruptly, and he was standing directly opposite the machine itself on the gloomy factory floor. The toothy maw waited not twenty meters from the nursery-prison.

Guaze Wrap looked down and fondled his bracelet. The six beads represented the Elements of Harmony, and were supposed to foster the wearer's devotion. He gingerly touched one, then the next, in the traditional sequence.

Another shape, the same steel gray as the wall, dropped down from a walkway and landed beside him. Gauze Wrap, startled, took a step back and blurted, "What do you want from me, Lobo?"

The gray pegasus stood only an inch taller, but his menacing posture advertised the fact that he was not afraid to get into a fight. A rough tattoo of a knife-pierced heart and crossbones on his flank made it impossible to distinguish his original cutie mark. He gave the other worker an intense look and asked accusingly, "Enjoy your little fantasy? What did you tell them this time?"

The caretaker retorted, "I give them their last moments of kindness and hope. Why is that so hard for you to understand? Not everyone here is some, some kind of monster that enjoys terrorizing children."

"Better if you just break it to 'em," Lobo stated frankly. He looked down as if talking to an imaginary filly. "You're not special. Nobody loves you, nobody cares. You're here because you're not good enough." He looked up to see if he had struck a nerve, and was not disappointed. "The sooner they learn that, the easier it's gonna be to accept what's about to happen to 'em. I just like to see their faces when they figure it out."

"You are just a miserable, hateful soul, you know that?" Gauze Wrap declared, with a mixture of disgust and pity. "No wonder you lost your color. You should come by the chapel some time, and make peace."

"Peace? More like denial. I know I belong here." The thug leaned forward, bringing their faces uncomfortably close. "If you're such an angel, why are you in hell? Put you in that big blender and you'd come out gray as me." He gestured to the huge steel contraption that loomed over the bloodstained floor.

The smaller worker glanced nervously at "IT", but didn't pull back. He mustered a fiercer tone to ask, "Is that some kind of threat?"

Lobo held the tension for a moment, staring. Then he relaxed, unimpressed. "Just the facts."

Gauze Wrap stood up straighter, and proudly stated his own facts. "My color is pure. I follow the code of Harmony, and I do my duty. My father and his father all had this color, and we're all upstanding members of the community, but you wouldn't understand anything about that. You criminals are all the same."

"You might wanna hurry and upstand the community at the front gate," Lobo mocked. "Some bigwig's here to check up on us."

"So?" Gauze Wrap gulped. "You let him in, didn't you?"

"Nah. He looked like an asshole," Lobo answered with a casual shrug. "You should probably get over there before he gets pissed."

"You..." Gauze Wrap's eyes bugged out. "You're unbelievable!" He turned around and scurried away.

"Oh, I know," Lobo muttered with a hollow smile.