Muselpferde

"Will you step in line or release the glitch?
Can you fall asleep with a panic switch?"

-Silversun Pickups, "Panic Switch"

Applebloom returned to the stage. The wooden floor winked at her, freshly mopped and gay. There was no evidence of blood or feces on the floor. Offstage, she could see Sweetie Belle submerged in her tank, the icy water sapping life from her muscles.

The tan pony pushed through the curtains to stand before the crowd.

"We have time for a couple questions about the procedure so far."

"Can this process be used on Pegasi?"

"Sadly, no. For reasons that the Practical Neuroscience department are still working to discover, the eye-wire only functions on Unicorns, and we still do not have a very fine control of motor functions."

There was some disappointment from the crowd. The Pegasi had been a particular nuisance for the New Equestrian Republic. The nature of their work required a certain degree of autonomy. While sending agents from the Ministry of Defense and Wellness could keep their most dangerous antics at bay, there were still small rumblings of discontent. In the past year, the Overcast Wednesday Society had taken to shoving bad weather across Equestria every Wednesday. Numerous outdoor tea parties and picnics had been ruined, much to the consternation of the public.

"There have been," Applebloom was quick to continue, "advances in the use of remote operated disciplinary devices. As well, the Pinkie Pie Act has mandated that all Pegasi have blinders permanently attached to the sides of their heads. The Pegasi problem is well on its way to being curbed." Applebloom smiled and continued, "next question."

"Do the Unicorns operated on suffer any side effects?"

"There is a shortened lifespan, due to infection primarily. We are currently working with the Immunizations Branch to compensate. However, even now mares are capable of producing more than enough foals during their life cycle to maintain quotas for all farms and cities in the Republic."

A small buzzer on the podium went off, and Applebloom spoke, "Very good, there will be time for more questions later, but first we must continue with the operation."

The curtains were pulled back, to reveal Rarity already standing on stage. A thoughtful attendant had smeared her coat in white dye to hide the blood and fecal stains, but the creature still looked terrible. Fortunately, the convulsions and drooling had calmed. The glue was still holding, preventing her from leaking on the stage.

Careful not to overexert her subject, Applebloom used Rarity to lift Sweetie Belle out of the tank, lowering the trembling Unicorn to the ground as gently as possible.

Applebloom picked up a long metal rod with a slight curve to it. Sweetie Belle's eyes, heavily lidded, vaguely watched her approach. The scientist inspected the subject. She looked over the glue on the shattered horn, checking the wires for breaks or imperfection.

The metal rod drew no reaction from Sweetie Belle as it grazed her sopping fur. Applebloom lifted her head up to stare at the scab on the subject's back. The metal wire glinted against the stage lights as it emerged from where it ran along the spine. Red and twisted, the scab on her back was well formed.

The tan pony returned to the front of her subject, still in silence. The two friends looked each other in the eyes. Waiting. Applebloom was still stalling, hoping Scootaloo would return with Trixie before long.

The tan head pulled back slowly, waving the metal rod Applebloom gripped in her mouth like an antenna or a sword. She thrust the metal rod into Sweetie Belle's left eye. Blood poured out as the organic bag deflated. Yellow pus bulged and squirmed to freedom as Applebloom pushed the metal spike to the roof of the oracular cavity.

Not bothering with a clean gouge, she stirred the rod around, working the interior of her friend's eye out to leak down the soft, white face.

Sweetie Belle struggled weakly, but her strength had been sapped by the cold water. She reopened the wounds on her mouth and tasted copper as fresh heaves and agony rocked her mind from its stupor.

The Head of Practical Neurosciences released the rod. She turned to her audience and away from the suffering of her subject, "Thanks to recent advances by Comrade Freemare, the lobotomy is fairly simple and be accomplished at the same time the extraneous eye is removed."

With one hoof, Applebloom pushed the rod in a bit further, feeling it scritch-scratch along the skull until it reached the appropriate depth.

"In the past, lobotomies were a difficult, time consuming process that required special training. Now, it is simply a matter of point and hit," she said. A couple hoof pounds forced the edge of the tool upward, into the frontal lobe.

Sweetie Belle wanted to collapse. To die. Anything. Under normal circumstances, this part of the procedure would be performed while the subject was laying down, but Applebloom's sense of showmanship demanded otherwise. Instead, the Unicorn hung in her bindings, nothing but the locked joints of her skeleton supporting her as the point at the tip of the rod carved into her brain.

Applebloom withdrew the hook, pulling with it the remains of the eye. Nerves and veins hung limp and pathetic from the socket.

"Now is the last step, the insertion of the eye-wire. As I said before, we're not yet certain why this wire only works on Unicorns."

The Head of Practical Neuroscience inserted the last wire into the socket, feeding it alongside the optic nerve. "It is important, when inserting this last wire, not to push too far or too hard. You don't want it crimping."

Once the wire stopped proceeding, Applebloom picked up the hot glue gun again. This part made her nervous. Normal operating procedure would demand packing the wound with sterilized gauze and allowing at least a day for recovery. Normal operating procedure would also demand at least a localized anesthetic. All her requests to utilize normal operating procedures had been denied, and so she had to rely on backwoods tools. Butchery in lieu of surgery.

"One last squirt of our favorite glue."

As the hot liquid filled her eye socket and sealed it shut again, Sweetie Belle finally tore the stitching on her mouth and released a faint squeal. Quickly, Applebloom pushed the mouth shut again and squeezed resin over the bleeding orifice. Fur smoked and flesh cracked, but it silenced the offending noise before the audience could take note of it.

The squeal finally did to Rarity's heart what the electric shock could not. The white Unicorn began hacking violently in her throat as tingling numbness spread through her body.

"Before attaching the box and demonstrating her," the tan pony spoke loudly to draw the audience's attention, "we'll leave her to recuperate for a minute." She desperately gestured for the curtains to be dropped.

Applebloom didn't need to worry. The audience seemed to have been enjoying the torture, and she could sense the disappointment as the suffering disappeared beneath heavy cloth.

"Are there anymore-" she began, only to be interrupted by a hissing offstage. She turned to see Scootaloo waving for her attention.

Applebloom smiled at the audience in apology and muttered something about needing a bathroom break, before trotting over to her assistant.

"You'd better have good news."

"You're gonna have to stall them another few minutes."

"That's what I was doing."

"Oh, well, it's there's a bit of a complication." Scootaloo pulled the cloak off the figure beside her. Despite being anesthetized and restrained, Trixie had fought like a demon during her operation. The result was a severe botching of her lobotomy that immobilized her face, among other things. An eye dropper had been rigged to the side of her face to compensate for her inability to blink.

But worse was the sight of her flanks. Applebloom's face set in a mask at the sweat glistening there and ...

Her assistant attempted to explain, "I interrupted them in the middle of-"

"What? What did you interrupt?" The Head of Practical Neuroscience stood completely still.

"It was some sort of party. I ... well we're going to really owe him big time for borrowing her tonight."

Applebloom ground her teeth. This was ... They were ... Yes, she'd said the Unicorn was little more than a sex toy, but it was just a joke. It was supposed to be a joke.

"Are you okay?" Scootaloo waved a hoof in front of her friend's face.

That fucking pervert ... and a party … she had made it possible … The smell of sex assaulted her senses. Overwhelmed her. This was too much.

The sound of the assembly growing restless with this delay dragged Applebloom back into performance mode. "Clean her up and," Applebloom gestured at where Rarity had collapsed to her side, "get that one out of here."

Smiling once more, the tan pony returned to the stage, "so, as I was saying, we have one time for one quick question."

"How are the boxes produced?"

"We have a factory in Ponyville that will produce them for distribution. You'll be issued them ready made for installation. Easy as mom and apple pie." Her last joke brought no laughter from the audience. Even if they hadn't noticed the shadows vanishing from the back of the room, they wouldn't have been at ease enough for that sort of humor.

The curtains opened, revealing a slightly becalmed Sweetie Belle, although with one eye socket surrounded with reddened and twisted flesh, and a hastily groomed Trixie standing in Rarity's place.

"Attaching the box is quite simple once the wires are in place." Applebloom used Trixie to levitate a black box and lower it onto her friend's back. So close, she couldn't help but wonder what fate she was sending Sweetie Belle to. Given the crude workmanship, she'd never be accepted for University work in Rarity's place. Sliding under the Unicorn's white belly to tighten the straps, Applebloom's eyes wandered toward her subject's rear. The thought came back. They had been using one of her experiments for ...

Four wires were inserted into the box, and Sweetie Belled gurgled behind her sealed lips. The abuse the Unicorn had endured left her unable to do much more, even under the duress of an electrical current applied directly to her brain. Useless as the stars that had gone the way of the past.

"And, here we go," Applebloom shouted, flipping a switch on the panel. A few more adjustments, and the projector displayed the world through Sweetie Belle's remaining eye. Grainy, black and grey. The crude wiring in her head destroyed all sense of perspective, creating a world of monsters from her audience.

Applebloom turned Sweetie Belle's head to focus on the podium, and the wires glowed as the wooden structure lifted into the air. It hovered for a few moments before Applebloom sent a current down her friend's spine and dropped the podium.

Time to ice the cake. A few more adjustments, and the projected display split into halves. "With them attached to the same panel, we can issue orders to both of them at the same time."

Sweetie Belle lifted the podium while Trixie lifted the tray of tools. As the podium and tray jerked through the air, several hammers, knives and spare saws were flung toward the front ranks of the audience. None of the items reached them, but there were protests until Applebloom let up the assault by causing both tray and podium to drop back to the stage.

"Do you have any requests?"

"How precise is the control you have over them? For example, could you guide-"

An hour ago, the Head of Practical Neurosciences wouldn't have known where the request was going. Now she understood perfectly. Fine, give them a show.

"Of course. Allow me to demonstrate."

She used Sweetie Belle to pull one of the mops from backstage. The wooden haft lifted into the air, and after a few moments maneuvering she thrust it between Trixie's legs. The lobotomized Unicorn didn't even react as the wooden shaft penetrated. The white head bobbed suggestively as she abused her peer.

Applebloom smiled back, then slammed the stick as far as it would go. Trixie jerked, coughing slightly. Another vicious stab went further in. The Head of Practical Neurosciences kept smiling, daring them to smile back.as she ground the wood to pieces against the interior of the Unicorn. Tearing into the womb, pushing through it. Shredding sensitive tissues to pieces. Pouring blood became lubricant as Applebloom sought deeper into the body at her disposal.

Trixie was little more than a vegetable, but the internal stress caused her to collapse. The sudden weight of her collapse snapped the mop handle off inside her, and Sweetie Belle continued bobbing half the blood-soaked instrument in the air, like a retarded cellist whose instrument has collapsed to a bleeding heap on the floor.

The tan pony turned a dial back to the right, drawing a familiar purr from the batteries. "And I believe this concludes the demonstration. I hope you've enjoyed this evening as much as I have. All these things and more are available in Ponyville, if you ever get a permit to visit the capital." The last comment cemented her self-destruction.

Tomorrow morning, she would be in a brightly lit room; her head would be slammed against the concrete walls and water would be poured directly down her throat. The recriminations for this wouldn't be quick or easy.

Applebloom threw the lever, sending a continuous current through the body of her former friend. It was the last mercy she could deliver.

"Good luck on your surgeries!" Applebloom waved at the audience before departing the stage.