"Oh, my..."
"It can't be..."
"A humiliation to your family line..."
Three ponies stood over a light pink mare, looking at the colt lying on her chest. Her husband backed up nervously, and the doctor rushed around, screaming frantically. They all were backing away from one thing. The colt on the belly of the mare.
The colt in question looked perfectly normal to the typical viewer. A dark blue baby boy with a little puff of a red mane on his head. But atop his head, a little unicorn's horn glowed a soft yellow. And this was the anomaly that caused such panic.
As the hospital was thrown into a chaotic frenzy, two colts barely older than the newborn colt poked their heads through a high-up window. They looked at the chaotic scene, and they looked at each other worriedly.
"Woah, is that what I think it is?" a light brown earth pony asked his friend, a light blue pegasus.
"If ya mean it looks like that guy's gonna get 'the changes', then yes, it is." the pegasus reponded, his little wings flapping as hard as they could.
"Code red! We got a code red!" a nurse shouted, as the doctor came in to examine the little unicorn.
"Hmm, yes.... I see... Put him in the containment unit. We'll deal with him when we get the time." the doctor concluded upon looking the young unicorn over. The nurse carefully cradled the little colt and exited the room, and calm slowly settled over the maternity ward once more.
"Gah! You know what that means, doncha?" the pegasus panicked, looking at the earth pony worriedly.
"Uh huh!" the earth pony nodded, and the two jumped in the window and his behind a nearby garbage can. Luckily, the two were small enough to be hidden well.
As they snuck around the lab, the newly born colt sat in his cell room, looking at the wall boredly.
Subject #551 was the name that the doctor had given him. He didn't know why they had put him there, or why they didn't bring him to a lab as the doctors had done with many of the other foals.
As he got up and walked around aimlessly, a shadow passed across the floor of the cell.
"Lookit him in there! They didn't even give him a name!" a voice whispered outside the of the metal cell door.
"How about Lancelot?" the earth pony suggested. "That sounds like a good, unicornly name."
"Ew! Too prissy. Just Lancer." the pegasus shook his head.
"Well... Ready, Teddy?" the earth pony asked, and the pegasus nodded.
"All right then, Ace." the pegasus responded, pulling out a rope from his saddlebags.
As they crashed into the room, Lancer backed up nervously. Teddy knocked him to the floor with a swift push.
"Hold still, Lancer! Do ya wanna risk it, or do ya wanna live another day?" the teal pegasus foal stood over the darker blue unicorn, holding a rope in his tiny hooves.
"I don't want to die! No, no!" the unicorn squeaked, his little body shaking in the cold of the night air blowing through his cold cell window.
"Well, you have to co-operate!" the third colt, a light brown earth pony, added angrily. "Or you'll never see another pony again!"
"I'm pretty sure that they won't wip off my hown..." Lancer tried to reassure them. After all, the hospital must have put him in this room for some reason. But the two other young ponies looked at each other and nodded.
"Well, I guess we're gonna have to do what we gotta do." Teddy shook his head in anger.
Before Lancer could react, a small pill was shoved down his throat, and everything went black.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Lancer! Speak ta me, buddy!" a voice called, one that sounded familiar, but one that Lancer couldn't quite place.
"T-teddy?" Lance looked up to see two faces looking over him with genuine concern.
"What a relief! We thought you'd kicked the bucket from the shock alone, ya big baby!" Teddy smiled, as Lancer slowly stood up.
The area was dark and cold; it felt like an alleyway. And indeed it was. The two other colts, it seemed, had made this alley into a makeshift home. A bed of leaves sat in one corner, and across from it was a similar structure made of newspapers. A small pile of food lay in another part of the alley, and it seemed to be mostly leftover pizzas and some corn.
"Welcome to the Colt's Respite." Ace, the earth pony, said. "I guess you're probably wondering why we brought you here."
"Of couwse!" Lancer said through clenched teeth.
"Well, Teddy's family abandoned him. He met me in an alley, and here we formed the Colt's Repite." Ace explained.
"And what does that have to do with me?" Lancer argued, confused.
"Well..." Teddy paused. Should he explain the awful truth to the unicorn whom they had kidnapped?
"That's not important." Ace cut in. "What is important is that we stay outta sight."
"Yeah. The police are probably looking for you even as we speak." Teddy added. "C'mon! I should probably show you around."
The three colts trotted to the large pile of food, and Lancer picked up an apple cautiously.
"Don't be such a wimp! C'mon, dig in!" Teddy elbowed Lance playfully. "Especially since they tried to..."
"Teddy..." Ace seethed quietly, making Teddy halt.
As the colt ate happily, the two other colts looked out into the streets cautiously, as they hoped, silently, that they would wake up the next morning.
