Rainbow couldn't believe it. Did these creatures really think that they were only animals? She saw several ponies protesting and shouting at the guards, only for the marks on their faces to shock them or get pushed aside by the guards.
Rainbow went back to scanning the crowd, she had gotten separated from Fluttershy and Scootaloo. She still hadn't seen them or Gilda since they were taken away. She had caught sight of her fellow Wonderbolt, Fleetfoot, for a brief moment but had lost her in the crowd as well.
She overheard one of the ponies protesting to the guards, "A'm telling you, we're not animals! Y'all got to understand that!"
"I know that accent." Rainbow thought to herself. Sure enough there was her fellow element, Applejack, as well as Apple Bloom and another filly Rainbow didn't recognize. The guard they were speaking to was a large two legged creature, it's body obscured by bulky, futuristic armor. The guard pushed AJ back into the group with it's hoof- thing, roughly causing her to fall over.
Rainbow quickly placed herself between the armored beast and her friend. "Hey! Why don't you go pick on someone your own size!" The guard made his opinion on that subject known by activating Rainbow's face mark, shocking her again.
Applejack helped her friend back to her hooves, "Rainbow, they got you to?"
"Yeah," Wow did her face hurt, "They got Fluttershy and Scoots to."
"Do you know what's going to happen to us Miss?" the other filly asked in a Manehatten accent.
"No. Don't worry though, you stick next to ponies like me or AJ. We'll keep you safe."
The filly smiled. Rainbow would have stayed with them, but she was pushed aside by another of the creatures guarding them. The ponies were moved along into a large hexagon shaped room where they were corralled into cage like cells.
Applejack and the others were moved to an upper level with empty cells. There she was shoved inside, where the door was shut behind her.
"AJ!" Applejack turned around fast; Apple Bloom was still outside the cell and being pushed along with the other ponies. Applejack called out to her little sister, all-the-while pounding on the bars with her hooves. "Don't worry. I'll come find you!" A familiar deep red mane caught her eye. "Roseluck! Please, look after my sister!"
The cream colored mare nodded and pushed her way through the other ponies so she didn't lose sight of the yellow filly. Every so often, the guards would shove four ponies of the same tribe into a cell. Soon she and Apple Bloom were pushed into an empty cell along with two other mares. It was a trapezoid shaped room, the walls were a grey metal. There weren't any chairs or other furniture, just a pile of hay in one corner and a toilet in the other.
"Apple Bloom?" The red haired filly turned around. To her surprise she recognized the other ponies in the cell. One was a slate grey mare with her grey mane cut short. The other was a green-grey mare with a long, dull green and gray mane and tail.
"Limestone? Marble?" The young Apple embraced the Pie sisters, glad to see a friendly face, but also sad that they were going to endure the same pain that the rest of them would be going through. Tears stared to run down her face, making the yellow mark on her face (a line running down her right eye to end in an "O" shape just above her chin) becoming more visible as her fur darkened.
= = =
At the bottom floor in another cell, another pony was crying, though more dramatically than the southern mare above her. Sweetie Belle had been staying with her sister when both of them were snatched. Now Sweetie was lying on a pile of straw in the corner of the cage, Sugar Belle was consoling a blue colt who hadn't even earned his cutie mark yet, and her sister was, well...
"You monsters! You've ruined my fa-a-ace!"
"Sis, you have three tiny dots under your eye. I'd hardly call that ruined."
"Maybe not, but do they honestly expect us to fight monsters in these get-ups?" She indicated the green and purple leotards that they were all wearing. "I mean really. These colors don't go together at all. And they're so, revealing." her tail moved to cover her exposed flank and legs
"Rarity please, we have bigger things to worry about then our looks right now." Sugar Belle said before going back to trying to comfort the young colt.
Rarity paused, then sighed, "Your right. I'm sorry, I- I guess I'm just scared and trying to deal with this." She punctuated her sentence by making a sweeping gesture over the cell.
A banging sound came from the gate. The mares saw one of the guards. Unlike the others, this one wasn't wearing a helmate, so the mares could see it's face clearly. It looked like some kind of reptile, yellowish scales covering it's body. Two long, thin, black horns curved downwards from the back of it's head. It's eyes were pale green with thin black slits in the center. Oddly, it had four small nostril holes on it's snout.
"Quite in there." It said in a rough, tenor voice. "Now get some sleep. Tomorrow begins the initiation round." The guard grinned at this last remark, several small, sharp teeth could be seen in it's mouth. The creature then left the unicorns, joining the rest of the guards who were leaving the chamber. As they did, the lights in the chamber began to dim.
Sweetie Belle moved over to her sister, "Do you think Mom and Dad know what happened to us?"
Rarity pulled her sister into a hug, "I'm sure they do. And I also know that Twilight, Luna, the other princesses, and our friends are doing everything in their power to find us, and to rescue us."
Sweetie began crying there. Rarity just pulled her closer, a few tears of her own wetting her sister's mane. The two of them stayed like that for a while, before joining Sugar Belle and the colt on the hay pike to sleep.
Throughout the chamber, and other chambers like it, ponies and other creatures were letting sleep claim them, unsure of what the next day and the days to follow would bring.