The Magic Workshop

She couldn't see.

She couldn't hear.

She couldn't smell.

And then, slowly but surely, her senses began to wake up.  At first, her vision was blurry; her smell dull, and the sounds that reached her ears were muffled.

"Where...Where am I?" Rapid Fire asked herself quietly as she tried to rise to her hooves before her entire body jolted in pain and she collapsed back onto her belly.

"Shush; don't talk.  Conserve your strength." a soft, soothing voice came quietly from beside her.

Turning her head and opening her eyes once more, Rapid Fire took in the blurry and dark sight of a sad, terrified looking Unicorn pony huddled next to her.

In fact, scanning the dark room she was in and utilizing her Changeling vision, Rapid Fire could see several Unicorns all huddled together- shivering either from the cold or fear with a few other Changelings in the midst.

"Where are we?" Rapid Fire asked again, quietly.

"I don't know.  I don't think any of us know.  I got pulled into an alley and beaten before I woke up here..." the pony next to her replied quietly.  "Where did they get you?"

Rapid Fire gave a slight groan as she rubbed the side of her head with a hoof.  "I think at King Aurus's tournament...I don't remember, though; head hurts too much.  I just won a match against some necromancer and was walking back to the inn..."

When Rapid Fire trailed off, the Unicorn next to her laid a comforting hoof over her back.  "My name's Regalia.  What's yours?"

"I'm Rapid Fire...How long have I been out?  How long have these ponies been here?"

Regalia shook her head sadly and removed her hoof before replying.  "None of us know.  It's too dark in here and there's no sunlight, and most of the other ponies woke up around the same time, so nopony knows who got here first.  Or, most importantly, why we're even here."

"There has to be a reason!  Ponies don't just kidnap other ponies for no reason-" Rapid Fire began quietly in a rushed, angry tone before halting suddenly. "Are you a Changeling?  Is this a hate movement?"

Although nopony could see it, Regalia's face lit up in slight shock and disgust at the notion of being called a Changeling.  "No, I'm not a Changeling!  Why, are you?!"

Before a full blown fight could break out between the two whispering ponies, another voice from across the room spoke up.

"Shut up, you two!  It doesn't matter if anypony is a Changeling or not- we're all in this together!"

"He's right! Take a look around- everypony here has a horn; that must mean something!" another voice chimed in.

It was, at this point, that Rapid Fire realized her comfortable Earth Pony disguise had been long since gone.  Attempting to bring it up again resulted in only another jolt of pain- this time centralized in her horn.

"Don't bother." Regalia said sadly as she turned away and rested her snout on her hooves.  "We're all ringed, and touching them only makes the pain worse."

Rapid Fire glared slightly as she scanned the room, starting to grasp the situation little by little.

She and a group of Unicorns and Changelings were all kidnapped suddenly and placed here, but when and why?  They all had Magic Deincubators, which blocked off their magic and attacked the wearer if they tried to remove it...

Rapid Fire knew, from her time disguised as a guard in the Canterlot MagiTech division, that Magic Deincubators were not cheap, and definitely not common.

Whoever was doing this either had a lot of money, or...  No.  Impossible.

Rapid Fire cleared her head of such foalish thoughts before scanning the room once more- flicking her Changeling eyes between normal and night vision.

She was near the center of the small square room, and to her left sat the large iron bars of a cage.  They were all in a prison cell.

A slight chittering sound inside her head caused mild discomfort and served only to break her thoughts as she looked behind her- instinctively pinpointing the location of the phantom sound.

It was another Changeling.

"Glad to ssssee you are ssssafe, ssssisssster." the Changeling whispered; his accent thick as Rapid Fire cautiously picked her way through the pool of Unicorns.

"What do you want?" Rapid Fire spit quietly in distaste.

"There issss no need to be rude; I ssssimply wisshed to talk.  You ssssound familiar...Where were you during the Canterlot attack?"

"Fighting off the invaders."

"Ah, I ssssee.  Sssso, you are a defector..."

"I'm a pony."

"And delusional...But we can't afford to fight, now.  We need to find out where we are and how to get out of here.  It'ssss up to the Changelingssss to get the resssst of thesssse poniessss out of here. My name is Kisshin, by the way."

"Rapid Fire."

Before the two ponies could talk further, a light flicked on overhead and everypony held their hooves over their eyes to shield themselves from the blinding light.

"Good morning, everypony!" a cheerful voice sounded that nopony could place just yet.  "My name is Silent Night, and I'll be your tour guide for today!"

"Tour guide?  Where the hell are we?" a pony spoke up in fear.

"Yea- why're we all ringed?!"

"And bruised!"

"Hey, this pony's bleeding!"

"Everypony, please calm down!" Silent Night said calmly as she trotted out into view, her dark bluish-black coat and horn matching well with her pure white mane and deep purple eyes.  "All will be explained when you calm down."

After a few moments, the panicking Unicorns reluctantly quieted down and Rapid Fire took yet another look around the now brightened room.

Regalia, the pony she had met before, was now huddled frightened in the corner with a cut along her cheek- dried blood staining her white coat and tails of her elegantly styled maroon and blue striped hair.

She could see two Changelings besides herself amongst the Unicorns, which she estimated to be about ten; thirteen ponies in all.

"Thank you all for your cooperation.  Everything will run a lot smoother if you'll listen to my instructions from now on." Silent Night continued, still holding her cheerful smile that only made the Unicorns and Changelings uneasy.  "I'd like to welcome you all to The Magic Workshop.  You're the first guests we've had in quite along time- nearly two hundred years, in fact!"

"The Magic Workshop?" one pony quipped.  "What the hay is that?"

"Why, I'm glad you asked!  In a moment, we'll open the cell door and let you exit; one by one and then we'll begin a tour of the Workshop, exploring our history and purpose here in Equestria!  But first, I'm sure you've all noticed the bright light above you.  I'd like to explain that that is not a Unicorn standing above you casting an illumination spell.  It's just one of the many marvels we've created through the use of this Workshop." Silent Night finished cheerfully before turning her head to nod to something or somepony out of sight.  "Remember: one by one, please."

Not more than a moment later, the large steel gate slid open along its track, leaving a space for the ponies inside to exit.

None moved, however.

"Where the hay are we?"

"Yea, and why did you kidnap us?!"

"This pony is still bleeding!"

Even as the crowd began to grow unruly and active, Silent Night continued to stand outside the bars, simply smiling before a brave, gray coated Unicorn with a blue and yellow mane made a mad dash towards her out of the gate.

She tilted her head to the side, curiously, before the charging Unicorn collapsed to the floor in a tumble of hooves- shrieking in pain as the small light on his horn ring lit up and sent raw magic coursing through his body painfully.

When the spasming had subsided and the Unicorn lay still, Silent Night waved her hooves and, in turn, a trio of sun glass-wearing Unicorns trotted from around a corner to drag the unconscious Unicorn's body away.

"Now," Silent Night began, albeit less cheerful than before. "If we're all done trying to 'escape', we have a lot of ground to cover before the end of the day.  One by one, now."

Reluctantly, but quickly, every Unicorn and Changeling hurried out of the cell one at a time until they stood in an orderly line along the bars.

"Thank you all for being so compliant!" Silent Night piped up after a moment or two of surveying the ponies; her cheerful demeanor returning.  "Now, right this way and we'll begin the tour with a history lesson."

As the line began to merge into a stream while they walked, Rapid Fire slowed her pace and fell into step beside Regalia.

"I don't like this place..." the white Unicorn whimpered quietly.

"Something's definitely up.  Don't look now, but there are two more Unicorns in those stupid glasses making sure we stay in line..." Rapid Fire whispered in reply.

"Welcome to the Hall of History, fillies and gentlecolts!" Silent Night said from far ahead of the two rear ponies.  "The Magic Workshop was founded by Starry Night, nearly one thousand and six hundred years ago, during the First Dragon War.  Starry Night had once been a traveler to many distant lands and, when he returned from his travels to Equestria, he found his country burning from the flames of Dragons.  Angered by this and willing to do anything to help the war effort, Starry Night secured the rights to build a factory within Canterlot Mountain that specialized in enchanted weapons."

As the line walked down the hallway, they were greeted with sights of weapons, shields, and other war devices- all either pristine and cleaned, or looking as if they would soon crumble to dust.

All however, were surely from a very long time ago.

"Weapons of all different sorts with all different kinds of enchantments.  For instance, this Workshop can make a double edged sword, magically infused to never loose its edge." Silent Night said, attempting to entice awe from the Unicorns behind her.  "From his travels, Starry Night had learned that all creatures leave varying amounts of magical essence behind wherever they go that lingers long after their own death.  Harnessing this magic, however, was extremely difficult and time consuming.  With a dragon attack imminent on the city of Canterlot, and funding spread thin to safely infuse weapons and armor with stable levels of magic, Starry Night was faced with a brutal choice: Find another, faster, way to make enchanted items, or watch as Canterlot burned around him."

As Silent Night led the group around a corner, they were greeted with four large glass windows; two on one side, and two on the other, of the hall.  Within the room stood four small, hoof sized cylinders and a wide, curved, tube sitting open on the floor in the middle of the circles.

All eyes and ears turned towards one window in particular, in which the brash Unicorn from before was being dragged into the room from a door that led elsewhere.

The three sun glass-wearing Unicorns carefully fitted the poor soul's hooves into the circles and locked them into place as the metal half-tube raised up to support his shivering body.  Two Unicorns stepped back to let the third trot forward and close the cylinder around the trapped Unicorn's torso as he weakly struggled- fear obvious in his eyes as his body slowly began waking from its slumber.

When the Unicorn was being firmly held by his torso and hooves, a metal contraption descended from the ceiling to wrap around his snout and hold his head still as he began struggling more and more.

Finally, a smaller metal contraption descended from the ceiling as the Unicorn inside the room was secured- every eye staring in shock and horror as they could only guess what was to come.

As the metal contraption reached his head and fit itself over his horn, the Unicorn shut his eyes tightly and silently cried.

Nopony could hear his screams through the glass and their own rushing blood as the metal thing suddenly stabbed itself into his skull and forcefully ripped out his horn- the small, glowing ball at the base that was the source of all Unicorn magic dripping with blood before the now hornless Unicorn fell unconscious once more.

"This is an outrage!  Let us go!" shouted a pony as they took up a stance to defend the group at the head of the line.

Silent Night only giggled softly.   "I'm afraid I can't do that.  We have a very strict schedule today, and we're already falling behind as it is.  If you'd all just please follow me, we can get on to showing you what The Magic Factory can make besides weapons and armor."

In an instant, the hallway was a flurry of motion- ringed Unicorns rushing the lone tour guide or the two sun glass-wearing Unicorns in an attempt to save themselves while the two Changelings besides Rapid Fire simply huddled together, flicking their teeth against their fangs in their native, verbal tongue as the chaos surged around them.

And then, everything simply stopped.

Every ringed Unicorn froze in place for an instant before the floor of the hallway was littered with spasming bodies.

Rapid Fire struggled and screamed in pain and terror as raw, uncontrolled magic throbbed and tore through her body; sending her eyes flicking back and forth as her vision switched between normal and night vision.

Her body was going haywire, and the pain seemed to last forever until finally it stopped and she lay panting and crying on her side- too hurt to even breathe properly.

"I truly hope that will be the last time anything like this happens." Silent Night said darkly with a smile as she picked her way through the collapsed and panting ponies towards the trio of Changelings.  "Nopony knows whether or not Changelings have magic stones in their head, too.  Guess we'll find out, won't we?"

"W...Why are you...D-Doing this...?" Rapid Fire whimpered pitifully, causing Silent Night's ears to perk up and her face to brighten.

"I'm so glad you asked, dear.  Most of you were picked at random- useless, unimportant Unicorns that nopony would miss or notice if you went missing.  Still, for some of you, we were paid by very wealthy customers to capture.  You, specifically, 'Rapid Fire', have some very powerful enemies." Silent Night explained with a giggle before stepping away.  "Unfortunately, we only have four machines and a limited amount of time; meaning that we'll have to resort to messier ways to extract those precious little baubles.  Golden Flame, take 'Rapid Fire', Regalia, Kishin, Phi, Lumin, and...Loose Screw?  Who names their child that?  Regardless, take those ponies and make sure they do not get placed in the machines.  We're being paid quite a bit to make them suffer.  As for the rest, strap them in and begin removing their horns."

Orders given, Silent Night trotted slowly away as more Unicorn guards rounded a corner and began dragging the worn out ponies away.

Rapid Fire lost consciousness.