After Applejack's little...incident that involving a mysterious colt that unknown to anypony is, in fact, a robotic shapeshifter, she told her brother to help her deal with the injured colt. She told the whole story about why there's a bleeding colt in the middle of the orchard, even though her sobbing made it hard to understand it but Big Mac gets the gist of it. He had suggested bringing the colt to the hospital so they can heal with him and locate the colt's parents.

She manages to avoid telling him that she possibly killed an innocent foal

Using a wooden cart that they usually use to transport apples, they carefully place the colt on the cart which is a hard thing to do for only a pair of Earth Pony. The pair manages to reach the Ponyvile hospital without anypony knowing what's going on thanks to the colt's small body and Rainbow Dash actually doing her job so that not much pegasis flying around dealing with the clouds.

The Ponyvile hospital is one of the most visited places in the whole town aside from Sugarcube Corner, mostly visited by ponies with minor injuries such as paper cuts, a scratch wound, or even sore hooves. The most serious case in hospital history is when a unicorn came in with a slightly cracked horn. If not for being founded by the state itself they would be out of business.

But today is a little bit different

a disheveled Applejack came in with her big brother, instantly greeted by one of the nurses who work there. The Apple siblings, or rather Applejack, exchanged words with the nurse known as Nurse Redheart and told her that a badly injured colt needs medical attention. Redheart thought it was one of those case which turns out being nothing more than a twisted ankle. Do horses even have ankles?

Imagine how horrifying Redheart's expression is when she sees the shape of the colt's body. She knew that pegasi have a smaller body shape compared to other race but this one, might as well calling it matchsticks because how small and skinny he is, countless of wood splinters embedded on his back, a pair of twisted wings that couldn't be used again even with the strongest healing magic, dried blood from his mouth and what caught most of her attention is a pair of hoof marks imprinted on the colt's chest.

Nurse Redheart was about to demand an explanation about why in the name of Celestia there are hoof marks stamped there but she restrained her self, there's a more important matter at hoof, an explanation can wait later. She ordered a stretcher to bring the patient to the Emergency Room, she followed closely behind the colt but not before giving the Apple siblings a suspicious look

The tension in the waiting room is so thick that a butter knife can cut it, it been an hour and a half since the colt has taken to the Emergency Room. Applejack's fidgeted every now, worried about the young colt that she bucked while Big Mac trying to calm her down which not that helpful because how she is shaken up by the situation.

suddenly, a wild Pinkie Pie appears

the hyperactive party mare decided to pop up into existence, startling the two ponies, babbling something about a party for a new pony that her sense picked up. After a few minutes or so she finally takes notice of the Apple siblings states, completely devastated. Applejack is crying into her brother's neck, Pinkie was about to ask what's wrong but she was cut off by somepony who entered the room.

Doctor Horse, one of the best doctor in Ponyvile, walk it with sadden expression, Nurse Redheart walk behind him with teary eyes. Applejack asked how's the colt doing, the doctor gave her a small smile before saying.

"He's is alive even if its barely. I can't believe he's still alive with all of those injuries."

The Apple siblings sighed in relief, glad that the colt is alive but Applejack is still worried about him so she asks about his condition. Doctor Horse levitated a clipboard from somewhere and read the full report of the colt's condition to the Apple siblings and the party mare.

Applejack assumes there are only a few broken bones and internal bleeding that she had caused, but not the other.

During the colt's treatment, the first thing they noticed, aside from the obviously broken wings beyond help, there is a trace of malnutrition if the size of his body says anything, there's also countless scars all-over his body, no doubt there's more underneath the clothes. One of the staff is brave enough to remove the odd clothes, stallions usually wear frilly dresses for special occasions, not to mention the pants, it's unheard of ponies wearing those things.

The room fell into silence, every eye of the room occupants stare toward the now naked colt. Shock, disgust, and anger filled the room. He looks like just gone trough Tantarus and back with how many scars covering his small body. The most eye-catching are either the burn mark on his back, a third-degree or even higher, or the one on his chest that looks like caused by an explosion.

Some of the staff fainted right on the spot, the others are making a run for the bathroom to empty their stomach. The only remain ponies in the room that haven't pass out or left are Doctor Horse and Nurse Redheart, both of them are in a very ill state. The undressing part wasn't done yet, there's still a piece of the mask that still covering his eyes, Doctor Horse tries to remove the mask with telekinesis which is a difficult task when his mind try to imagine what the colt has gone through.

His effort is futile, maybe that he's too distracted to use telekinesis. Redheart tries to pry off the mask using her hoof only to drag the colt head with it, something shiny caught her eyes, she never expected to find four screws head on each corner of the mask. Doctor Horse thought it was a decoration meaning the mask is enchanted so only the wearer can remove it, he cast a scanning spell so he can figure out how to dispel it. he wasn't prepared to detect four screws screwed into the colt's head and through his skull just a millimeter away from hitting the brain.

Doctor Horse had to stop reading out loud because of how distressed the listeners are. If Applejack wasn't devastated before she is now, soaking her brother's neck with tears. Big Mac actually shows some expression, horrified, disgust, and worry, not like his blank face he always wore, his face is also greener than usual. the worst of them is Pinkie, being a hyperactive-party-loving-always-go-lucky pony her mood was changed 180 degrees, her mane has lost its puffiness leaving as straight slightly darker mane covering one of her eyes, her coat turns a little darker and tears dripping down from her muzzle.

Dismissing Readheart, Doctor Horse was about to escort the three outside but Applejack wants to see how's the colt doing.

The room is deathly quiet save for the constant low beep from the machine beside the now maskless colt, despite being covered in scars his face is spotless from any of it, said colt is lying motionless on one of the hospital beds, an oxygen mask placed on his muzzle. his chest is warped in a bandage that slowly risen every now and then. But for some reason, there's no IV bag connected to him so Applejack asked that, worried for the colt's health.

"There is something blocking the needle, I've never guessed that he has a second layer of skin made out of metal, we still don't know how much metal did he have in his body." Doctor Horse shuddered "I'm starting to think that he escaped from some sort of twisted lab."

"w-what makes you say that?" asked Pinkie.

"There's a serial number on the back of his head." Doctor answer with a monotone voice, not trying to think about what sort of lab that uses foal for an experiment.

"Will he be alright' doc?" asked the red stallion.

Doctor shook his head "A part of the metal skin around his chest is blocking the lungs from taking oxygen, something made it bend. We tried to fix it but we feared that it will do more harm, I'm sorry but he doesn't have much time left."

"It's all mah fault..."

The other ponies whipped their head toward Applejack who drops her head in shame. "What do you mean AJ?" asked the party mare.

Applejack told her what happened at the orchard, she makes it hard to understand with the constant sobbing and tears she let out a long the stories.

"Xa...wa..up!"

No, go away I wanna eat more mochi with Taokaka.

"Xan..rich..wak..up!"

Would you like a refill on your cup of tea, Felix?

"WAKE UP!"

"GAH!" I yelped from my sleep, my view is greeted by the sight of my sister, Tifanny. She is a year older than me, brown hair that reaches her shoulder, bright green eyes, freckles across her nose bridge, slender body with a flat chest. Despite being my sister she is a different kind of Anomaly, being able to control all 4 elements, water, fire, earth, and wind, making her an Elementalis. She is also in the same squad as I am which is the Special Anomaly Squad or S.A.S

“What is it, sis?” I asked, my mood is soured because she just ruined my dream, having a tea party with your waifus is a rare thing to have you know.

“Don’t ask me ‘what’, we’re in the middle of a god damn battle and you decided to sleep in the middle of it. Are you trying to kill yourself?!?!” Jeez, it's like she is in her period. Wait, battle? What battle? The last thing I remember before blacking out is eating some juicy…red…apples….

“Oh…how did I not notice that?” where we are right now is indeed in the middle of a battle. The field is covered by bodies of humans, demi-humans, and Zalichs. Pools of blood formed here and there, scattered weapons, destroyed war vehicles, and I together with my sister are in the middle of the two colliding forces ‘huh seems like the whole turning pony thing is just a dream.’ “so what's our objective?”

“Seriously, didn’t you listen to a word that I’m saying during the briefing?” She asked only to receive a shook of my head. She let out a frustrated groan “Honestly Alex, you’re the worst brother anyone could have ever asked.”

So to make a ridiculously long plan short Theodor, our squad leader, sent us to disable the AA guns that are shooting down our air supports, the reinforcement won’t be coming if we don’t take out those guns. And do you know where the AA guns are? It's on top of the enemy base, behind a big ass heavy-armed wall on the other side of the field which means we have to power through waves upon waves of enemy. Another day another shit job for the SAS.

“So what's our plan?” I asked,

“Just do what you always do kill as many enemies as you can and draw their fire while I sneak behind them and destroy the wall, after that you can go mass genocide inside their base. Theo said it is clear to use him”

I immediately whip out my iron pan flute that I've been modified, a mechanical tube attached to it with a couple of little straws that designed to fit the holes on my mask so I can play it without removing my mask. I hold it dangerously near my mask like I was going to blow it as hard as I can "Are you sure about that?" I asked.

I think I'm still in a dream, Theo never gave me permission to call him unless its a last resort, considering how much weapons I installed on him. It's safe to say that its an overkill, just imagine a flying tank armed to the teeth, capable to destroy a small town just cruising through the sky above you.

Not a pretty thing to think about right?

“Yup, just don’t go nuts about it, we’re low on materials to fix him so keep the damage at the minimum. Oh and Theo just set a new password to launch the nuke so don’t bother cracking the codes.” She said before stomping down her feet at the ground, making a hole open up in front of her “See you on the other side!” She says, jumping down to the freshly made hole.

“Fucking Theo, always messing up with my inventions, can’t he keep his paw to himself? I swear to god if he isn’t the captain he would be 6 feet under for touching my stuff.” I muttered to myself.

Connecting the straws to my mask, I blew it to play a certain song to call him, the mechanics inside the tube sets the air flows to different directions and play the tune automatically so I don't have to do it myself. For added effect, I let out a thick smoke with an hiss every time I blew it.

Once it finished playing it, a screech from a distance can be heard and soon followed by a gigantic bird-like shadow.

Applejack finished her guilt-filled story, sobbing with her head buried in her hooves beside the injured colt. Pinkie and Big Mac are on her sides trying to confront her by patting her on the back.

"If I may interrupt this, I have to ask everypony to leave the poor colt, please." Doctor hooves asked nicely.

They did so but before they could step outside the room and "AAAAGGGHH" echoed throughout the hospital, possibly alerting every single pony inside.

All attention was drawn toward the source, there on the bed the colt awakens wide eyes and drenched in sweat, breathing heavily.

Author's Note

I made this in the middle of the night and said 'fuck it'