Muselpferde

"And then, with your scissors, cut the antennae down to only one-eighth to one-quarter inch … The antennae are hollow, fluid-filled structures with a nerve running down the center."

• BackyardBrains, "RoboRoach Surgery Instructions"

Comrade Applebloom stood behind a podium. Before her assembled the Party, a term initiated into the lexicon by Dearly Departed Comrade Pinkie Pie. Commune Leaders from Las Pegasus to New Manehattan, leading professors from the Universities, party officials, and even, in the back, the shadowy and indistinct figures of the Ministry of Defense and Wellness.

This was it, the education that her sister had bought with revolutionary blood, the University position, years of struggle and strife. This was her moment. The day she'd give proof to the Secretariat that their faith in her was not mistaken.

She would not fail them.

"Good evening, Comrades."

"All hours are ours to decide," rumbled back the gathered Earth Ponies.

Applebloom smiled, "Tonight, you have been gathered to witness a demonstration of the latest advance in Practical Neuroscience. An advance which will finally win the Workers of Equestria independence from the bourgeois, unicorn scum that have oppressed us since the beginning of time."

The Head of Practical Neural Studies paused for the clopping of hooves against the ground. After a moment, she cleared her throat and continued, "Before we begin demonstrating the process, allow me to introduce the result."

Rarity stumbled onto the stage. Blood leaked from the scab that had once been her left eye. A wire jutted from the torn socket and went back to a box mounted on her back. Two additional wires emerged from the ruin of her horn. Once proud and white, the horn had been sawed off at the halfway point, and what remained had been cracked to the base. Semi-transparent glue rested in a raised globule and dribbled down the broken edges to rest on her skin.

A metal box was held onto her back with leather straps that went under her belly. The straps had not been removed in days, and most of the hair had fallen out beneath them leaving blistered and scarred skin.

The unicorn's good eye stared blankly. Her expression was slack and a trickle of drool fell from the corner of her mouth. The blood from her eye and the saliva from her mouth joined to form ropes of pink drool that gradually detached to the ground.

"What you see before you was once one of the most prideful unicorns in Equestria. A creature who denied the purpose of her existence to follow the folly of her individual will. A tool that chose to deny its use for the greater good of Equestria. A VILE LEECH SUCKING UPON THE BLOOD OF THE WORKERS!" Applebloom turned to face Rarity directly as she screamed the last line. The movement concealed her smile as the assembled Earth Ponies below joined her with catcalls and slogans. Sure, her science could stand on its own, but there was no shame in working the audience.

"Now," Applebloom turned once she knew she had absolute control over herself, "she is a productive member of our great society."

Applebloom pulled a white cloth from a large mechanical control panel. Covered with crude drawings, buttons and levers, the panel looked like it had been made in somepony's barn. In her laboratory back at Ponyville, now the Capitol of the Revolutionary Government, there was a more refined apparatus, but the purpose of this meeting was not to show off her finest. It was to demonstrate the technology was available to the common pony.

From the back of the control panel, Applebloom grasped three cables in her mouth. She walked over to where Rarity stood drooling and began connecting the cables to the box on the unicorn's back.

Rarity bucked as the second cable was inserted, and a feeble groan escaped her mouth. Applebloom spoke calmly, "Sometimes you may witness small erratic actions from your subjects. This is to be expected, as you are wired directly into their nervous system. Just wait for the muscle movements to settle and continue on." When the Unicorn calmed, Applebloom connected the third wire.

The Head of Practical Neuroscience returned to the control panel and flipped a switch, sending a current directly into the Unicorn's horn and spinal cord, causing her eye to roll madly in its socket.

From above, a plain white sheet lowered with a clattering whir. A projector broadcast the images perceived by Rarity's good eye onto the screen, showing a grainy black and white image of the crowd. They stared like indistinct, dark-eyed monsters, experiencing no shame as they watched themselves watch the agony of what had once been a hated Counter-Revolutionary.

"This is, of course, the result of using only those materials that are available throughout the Republic," her statement caused some movement among the figures in the back of the lecture hall. It was treason to admit resources or opportunities in the Republic weren't fairly allocated, but Applebloom wasn't about to let her work go under-appreciated, "Back in Ponyville, we have a more advanced set-up connected to Reformed Comrades Twilight Sparkle and Luna, which allows a finer degree of control for guiding the solar bodies."

"However, for the simple tasks required in local Communes, this method is more than sufficient. Witness," Applebloom pressed a few buttons on the panel, causing the white, ruined horn and the wires emerging from it to glow.

Rarity's gaze, as displayed by the projector, turned to the podium, which rose into the air. Applebloom manipulated the controls again, causing the Unicorn's head to twitch left, right, up and down, the podium moving in response to each gesture. Finally Applebloom struck a button on the panel, sending a jolt of electricity that shattered the Unicorn's concentration and caused the podium to drop.

The former fashionista nearly collapsed, but metal rods inserted behind her knee joints and before her hocks kept her legs from bending. Instead, she swayed wearily, the motion tearing the flesh of her legs and opening some of her stitches. Red trickled over fur that had once been snow white.

"Now it's time for the biology. First, you need a Unicorn, not that those are hard to find," Applebloom smiled slyly and the audience tittered. The Republic was still heady from the previous May, when one of the last Unicorn enclaves had been rooted out by the Ministry for Defense and Wellness. The picture of a bearded and frail Prince Blueblood being stabbed to death in his bed while his horrified wives looked on was still being circulated.

Sweetie Belle, her legs hobbled and most of her body bound with leather straps, was dragged onto stage by a member of the Ministry for Defense and Wellness. "She has already been soaked in cold water. This serves as a cheap anesthetic and slows down the movement of blood, allowing you to operate freely."

"The first step of this surgery, is also the hardest step. You need to insert your ground wire along the spine. There really isn't a clean way to perform this operation, so you just take a knife," Applebloom gripped a blade from the table in her teeth, causing her next words to mumble, "an' se' 'o i'."

The knife messily cut through the Unicorn's back, just before her hips. Blood welled up, and the Unicorn tried to whimper. Fortunately, all non-Reformed Unicorns were required, by law, to have their mouths glued shut. The glue had been reinforced with some quick stitching to insure a quiet operation.

Applebloom pulled at the edges of the wound with her hooves, revealing a space of white among the red. She released the knife and looked up, "As you can see … Darn, you can't see, can you?"

The Earth Pony left her former friend and led Rarity over to stand by the rear of her younger sister. Applebloom directed the former fashionista's gaze to down to the wound, which was now welling with slow-dripping blood.

"One of the most important parts of this step is not to do what I just did and walk away in the middle of it. You need a clear view of the spine before inserting the grounding wire, so we'll have to do a bit more cutting."

The screen projecting Rarity's view showed the knife returning to the wound, and the tan hooves widening and sawing until a flash of spine was revealed. When the cold wire was thrust into the opening, the younger Unicorn trembled. The metal pushed along her spine, ripping gristle from bone and scraping the column.

"Once you have the grounding wire alone the spine, it is time for the fun part."

This time Applebloom remembered to reposition Rarity for a view of her sister's head before cutting began. The witnesses were the entire reason for the exercise, no need to deprive them of a good show. Applebloom clutched a saw between her hooves and rested it against the white surface of her friend's horn.

"When cutting, you want to leave at least two inches, otherwise you will negatively impact the utility of your Unicorn. Normally, this operation requires two ponies, but why work when you have magic?"

Applebloom rested her forehooves on the ground and clutched one end of the blade in her mouth. She lifted one of her back hooves and hit a switch on the panel. The handle opposite her glowed with Rarity's magic. A second strike caused the Unicorn's head to bob up and down, drawing a few amused giggles from the male members of the crowd. The magically manipulated end of the saw moved back and forth as Applebloom lowered her end.

The bone cracked and chipped, releasing pools of blood and clear fluid. Sweetie Belle's eyes looked up, desperately seeking her friend or her sister. Pleading eyes. Begging eyes. Her mouth struggled against the stitching as she tried to scream at the agony tearing through her. Her head fought the restraints as she tried to escape.

"You may," Applebloom spoke over her terrified subject, "witness some involuntary reactions while cutting the horn and performing later steps. This is to be expected, as we are operating on the central nervous system. Do not worry, your subject is not in any pain."

This drew a few curious looks. How could they worry? Especially after the destruction and havoc the Unicorns had inflicted upon them in the past years. Everypony remembered the train bombings, the execution of civilians. The Counter-Revolutionary forces had drawn all this upon themselves by refusing the democratic decision to embrace the New Equestrian Republic.

The saw in her mouth kept her from speaking. With nothing to distract her during this part, Applebloom remembered the day before, when she had been told Sweetie Belle would be her subject for the demonstration.

It made sense. Making a Unicorn cut open her own sister would do away with concerns that the Reformed Unicorns were just playing possum. There would be no doubt after today that the will was completely conquered.

But there was another reason Applejack had chosen Sweetie Belle for this demonstration. She was testing her younger sister. Making her prove that she was an Apple and a true student of the revolution, and the imagined bonds of friendship would not replace that.

The horn was halfway severed now. Nerves twisted under the saw, clinging to the teeth and tearing free. A puddle lay at their hooves now, clear and placid as a lake in the Fall.

After Ponyville had elected to secede and join the spreading New Equestrian Republic, one of the first edicts had demanded all Unicorns be placed in the custody of one of their Earth Pony neighbors. Rarity had begged Applebloom to take her sister, assuming that the two friends would look out for each other.

All things considered, Rarity had made a good choice. A less politically connected pony wouldn't have been able to protect Sweetie Belle from being used as a political hostage, and a less loyal friend would have sold Sweetie Belle out for food. Instead, Applebloom had protected the life, if not the sanctity, of the Unicorn in her care.

Applejack had even understood, backing up her younger sister's decision to keep Sweetie Belle out of the conflict. Duty, honor, respect; all things that only Earth Ponies could truly understand. It was a ridiculous oversight typical of the old regime which named a flighty Pegasus as the Element of Loyalty. To be fair to the dead, there was no social virtue not perfectly embodied in the fields and homes of the Earth Ponies.

The horn clattered between Applebloom's hooves, laying in a pool of blood and cerebral fluid. Applebloom dropped her end of the saw, leaving Rarity to continue twitching the saw back and forth on the ground like a freshly severed limb.

"Before inserting your wires, you need to widen the opening. Fortunately, that can be done easily with a hatchet and a retractor," Applebloom said as she returned to the tray of tools, picking up the axe in her mouth. Two quick chops carved into the bone, opening a vertical crack that reached the skin.

Sweetie Belle's head jerked under each blow. She was desperate to scream, but her lips had been glued shut. She was desperate to vomit, but hadn't been fed in days. Her empty stomach heaved. There would be no peaceful death of suffocation for the Unicorn as her friend moved onto the next step.

"Bisecting the horn can cause a number of spasms in the muscles around the neck and body," Applebloom spoke as blood spattered, slow and crystalline from the induced shock, against the stage, "but you do not need to worry. The state of shock induced by the cold water prevents the specimen from experiencing any pain."

Applebloom pushed the teeth of a self-retaining retractor into the horizontal opening and squeezed the handle in her mouth. The crack carved into the horn spread, disgorging blood now with the transparent fluid.

Sweetie Belle was finally still. Given up. Her body had not been her own for years, and even her instincts began to accept the inevitable.

The Head of Practical Neuroscience guided Rarity around to a better view of her sister's destruction. A few adjustments on the panel zoomed the eye in on the opened horn displaying the newly formed orifice to the audience. Two bundles of nerves snaked up from Sweetie Belle's brain to hang, limp and torn inside the opening.

"There are two major nerve groupings in the horn of a unicorn, these can be compared to the positive and negative charges on a household battery."

The shadows of the Ministry for Defense and Wellness shifted again.

Applebloom continued, as if she hadn't noticed, "first you connect the left wire to the nerves traveling along the right side of the horn, then the right wire to the left." The clamps latched onto the nerves. They were not yet connected to a power source, so there was no direct pain. At least, nothing Sweetie Belle could distinguish from the agony of her severed horn. Two years before, she had finally been able to lift a pen and write with magic. Now ...

"Now we need to glue the opening. The glue we enjoy is the Laoctuuf Control Gel." Applebloom applied the gun to the tip of the horn, forcing scalding hot liquid against the bone. It dribbled down Sweetie Belle's horn slowly, like semen, sealing the cracked bone until it came to rest on her forehead. Her flesh reddened and her eyes closed in fear.

Applebloom sweated at this part. It was precision work. Too little glue, and the cracks wouldn't be secured. Too much, and it could go into the subject's eyes. Under normal circumstances, a bit of light corneal mutilation was nothing, but it wouldn't look good now.

Fortunately for both ponies, the glue set exactly as it should. Thirty seconds from heating to setting, perfect Earth Pony science.

"Before the next step, we'll return the specimen to water for a bit to re-induce shock."

The screen displaying Rarity's vision was half covered by her lid. The Unicorn, exhausted and in pain, was gradually fading from consciousness.

The tool was awakened by a fierce, electric jolt, but her legs were so tired. All she wanted to do was lie down, but the metal rods and bars held her upright and forced her awake.

A few more adjustments from Applebloom, and Rarity began lifting her sister into the air. Cloaked in the magic that had once been familiar, Sweetie Belle drifted a few feet into the air. The Unicorn swayed in the air, then dropped back to the ground. Her legs could not bend to receive the impact, and instead her knees grated painfully. Her lower lip stretched and ripped, giving her a bloody goatee. The lip itself now hung, loosened as if she had been struck.

Applebloom glowered and turned a dial on the panel all the way to the right. The batteries stored beneath purred like hunting cats as Applebloom pulled a switch, sending the electrical shock down Rarity's spine.

"There are times when you may have to discipline your Unicorn," Applebloom said, while Rarity's entire body gyrated in place, sparks scorching her once beautiful mane, "Fortunately, the panel is designed for that."

Rarity's bowels and bladder voided onto the floor, her mouth foamed and her good eye rolled desperately. The screen which had showed her vision flickered in and out from interference, then went dark as the eye rolled back in its socket. Muscles tore themselves to pieces against bone as they spasmed uncontrollably. Blood pooled under her already sagging fur, gradually adding a bluish hue to her white body.

Applebloom did not even turn to watch the violence in progress. Instead, she stared at her audience, daring them to doubt her genius. She left the switch in place until her nose caught the first foul odors of cooking flesh.

"Now, let's see if she fails a second time," she spoke calmly. Apparently untouched by the scene that had unfolded behind her back.

Sweetie Belle was lifted into the air, swaying as Rarity's grip on consciousness shifted, but the Unicorn made it safely to the ice cold water. Her muscles tensed as she splashed into the tank. The leather bindings on her neck held her head back, keeping just her mouth out of the freezing water.

"Alright. It will take about 20 minutes before we can continue with the eye removal and lobotomy, so we'll take a short break and then have a quick Q&A session."

As soon as the curtains were closed, Applebloom disconnected Rarity from the control panel scooted her off stage. The Unicorn's legs continued to spasm, uncontrollably. And now Applebloom could see the metal spikes in her subject's joints peeking through the welling blood to twinkle against the stage lights.