Steel Hearts

The limp form of a unicorn was dragged along behind two massive metal machines, the chains binding him jingling with every movement. His eyes were closed, and he was sedated to prevent him from using his magic to free himself. The metal machines were similar to the unfortunate maintenance bot that was crushed previously, with the exception of being much larger.

The unicorn stallion's eyes opened, the sedative used on him wearing off. His eyes widened upon noticing the robots dragging him along, and he let out a scream.

"Let me go!" he shouted, "Let me go, you monsters!"

The robotic beings continued to drag the pony along the shiny steel floor, and towards a door. The front of the door was covered in gears and other pieces of machinery, which appeared to be the door's locking mechanism. As they approached, the gear turned and unlocked the door, causing it to silently slide open.

Beyond the door was a sight that frightened the unicorn to his very core. The floor was covered in piles of ash. A few  charred bones could be seen sticking out of some of them, and he could clearly see a pony skull lying on its side, staring at him with empty eye sockets. The robots lifted him up by the tail and flung him inside the room, launching him straight into a pile of ash. He closed his eyes upon landing to prevent the black dust from blinding him.

He could feel the chains that were holding him hostage slide off as he heard the door close. He was no more free than he was a minute ago. The unicorn opened his eyes and attempted to get up, but he stopped mid-movement when he saw what was in front of him.

A small pony skull stared at him, and the horrified unicorn realized that this was the skull of a foal. His breath caught in his throat as he tried to scream. No matter how hard he tried to tear his head away from the horrifyingly sad sight, he couldn't move even an inch. After a few moments, her snapped his head in the other direction and emptied the contents of his stomach. He lay down for a few minutes, waiting for the horrible feeling in his stomach to pass.

The stallion stood up, regaining his composure. The last thing he remembered before waking up being dragged by robots was hearing a noise outside his tent at night. He had been out on a lonesome camping rip to get away from it all. He sighed, hoping this was all just a dream. Maybe he had stepped into some poison joke that he hadn't noticed?

He looked around the room, trying his best to ignore the bones. There was nothing else of interest in the room, except for design on the far wall. He walked up to it, inspecting the markings. It was just a simple design. Two lines. One dividing the wall in half horizontally, and one vertically. A circle in the middle.

He inspected the circle. It was slightly reflective, and he could see his face in it. He lifted his hoof to touch the circle. For some reason he couldn't quite figure out, he felt compelled to touch it. As his hoof slowly came into contact with the glassy circle, a feeling of dread washed over him. The circle flashed red as soon as his hoof touched it. His muscles tightened as he prepared to jump away, but he was unable to move away from the ominous design.

The room was lit up with a bright flame that lasted for a half a second. When the smoke cleared, a new pile of ash could be seen.

The robots stopped watching the view from the hidden cameras installed in the corners of the room. They turned around, intent on returning from where they had come from. They were going to need to get another pony from the holding cells.

There was a lot of work to do.

Thick black wires slowly swung back and forth from the ceiling, nearly invisible in the darkness. Every few moments, an explosion of sparks would shower the ground, illuminating the area surrounding it for a short amount of time. It was too dark for anybody to tell how large the room was, but from the echoing sound the wires made, one would be able to tell that it was very, very large.

A pony ran into the room, a determined look on her face. On her head sat a bright, glowing headlamp, illuminating the area in front of her. She skidded to a stop, just before the exact centre of the room. "I've destroyed your tin-can soldiers, you bitch! Now you'd better let me go or I'll do the same to you!"

A small, circular green light flickered to life in front of her. It moved up and down, as though inspecting the mare in front of it. "Oh my," a mechanical female voice said. "You've been a bad, bad girl, haven't you?"

The pony glared. "Just let me go, and I won't have to use this!" she shouted, reaching a hoof into her tail and pulling out a small, disc shaped object with a green light in the middle. The mare placed her hoof on the green light, preparing to press down at a moment's notice.

"Oh, you don't have to do that, Minty." the mechanical voice piped up. "I'll let you go."

Minty rubbed the back of her head. "Wait..." she said. "Really? You would let me go, just like that?"

"Of course. You've already made it past all my workers and soldiers. There's really nothing I can do to stop you from leaving." The light turned and looked at another portion of the room, where a sliding door opened, bathing a portion of the room with bright white light. "Here, there's the exit. Have a nice life, and leave me alone."

Minty smiled as she placed the disc back into her tail and ran towards the door. She slid into it, but her smiled dropped when she noticed what was inside it. There was no exit in here. It was just a small room with a bright circle on the ceiling. "What! You lied to me!" she shouted as the door slid shut behind her.

In a flash of light, Minty found herself in another room.

Piles of ash and bone were covering the floor.

"No..." she muttered. "No no no... This can't be happening!"

Minty ran around the room, pounding her hooves on the walls. "Let me out!" she shouted. "I've been through too much to let it end like this! Let me out!" The pounding achieved nothing, however.

Minty turned to look towards the back of the room, where a slightly glowing design adorned the wall. "Fine..." she muttered. "Fine... you win. You win! I give up!"

She ran towards the design. "You beat me, you bitch! You beat me! I hope you're happy!" she shouted, a panicked note creeping into her voice. "You want me to touch your damned circle? I'll touch the damned circle!"

And with that, she lifted her hoof and smashed it into the faintly glowing circle in the middle of the design. The room was once again filled with flame.