Moon breathed heavily, watching intensely as the tall zebra advanced slowly up to the podium. He raised a list, scrawled heavily on thin parchment, lowered it, then began to speak in the ominous, deep, formal tone most adult zebras had, his mouth moving in unreadable, strangely synonymous shapes.
"Here are the foals we will be taking today to extract from for our project," he said. "You must step onto the podium, in a line, in perfect formation, and in the exact order I call you." He placed one gnarled hoof, wearing a tightly clasped bracelet of what looked like emerald, down on the podium and lifted it back up, now holding the list again. His expression stood still like a mask, dull and unreadable as he called out the names of foals from the orphanage. Every filly and colt in the room stayed mute, excepting a few inaudible whispers from pony to pony. Everypony knew this was serious business. Any foal that got called never spoke again for weeks. The experience seemed traumatizing, from the way they never spoke about it except for at the podium for when the lists of names were being called, to the foals that went in as vigorous and healthy as ever, then came out with paralyzed looks plastered on their faces, nauseated and tired, constantly failing to breathe normally, falling to the ground at even the slightest touch.
The zebras said they were merely side effects of the extraction, but they were incredibly serious. Every single filly and colt lived in fear knowing that every week there was a chance for themselves to experience this fearful, horrible thing.
"Snow Lily."
A small unicorn filly with a dark pink coat and a white mane stepped up.
"Leafy Green."
A green earth pony colt with darker green hair took his place in line beside Snow Lily.
"Daisy."
A white filly with tiny yellow and pink pigtails walked towards Leafy Green.
And so on it went, until twenty names had been called. Then the zebra thanked everyone for their patience and quiet, stepping off the stage so zebras dressed in bland white lab coats could lead the twenty foals off through a doorway.
"Our presentation is over. You may return to your cells," boomed the loudspeaker.
Everypony scattered into different directions, crowds slipping into various doorways and pushing their way through corridors. Moon
