//------------------------------//
// Confinement 
// Story: The Truth of the Alicorn 
// by ThunderChaserCreate 
//------------------------------//

Janurary 5, 1011

We've been stuck in here a few days now. Once a day, a tray is shoved under the door, with a mushy substance on it that tastes a little like meat and a little like wood.

The filly with the book is reading 'Something Happened' for about the thousandth time. The twins play some kind of hoof game, which provides a steady beat. Thunder Bolt hums little tunes, and a few others will sometimes join in with a song. I just sat in a corner, tapping the wood floor with one hoof over and over. I was alone with my thoughts, gathering as much information about Rain Song as I could. I knew the names of her parents, the school she wished she had been able to attend, the names of close friends, and even her hopes and dreams.
Burnt Oak coughed in the corner opposite from me. His forelock was covering his right eye completely, and his left, which was a dark shade of brown, was staring unblinking at the floor. His mane was pitch black, and his coat was a deep burgundy, giving the illusion that his entire being was, in fact, a charred piece of wood. Of course, the ability to sit stock-still for hours on end only added to this illusion. Of the twenty-one ponies in this room, he was definitely the strangest. Wait-- twenty-one?
I jumped up from my position on the floor, surprising all of the fillies in the room. 
"There's only twenty-one ponies here!" I yelped, "Everypony, quit moving! Get in a line!"
The jarred fillies hastened to form a line across the room. I counted them quickly. Twenty-one. I counted once more.
"Remind me-- The Professor said there were twenty-four ponies when we first arrived, correct?" I received several nods and grunts of confirmation from the group.
"And then Celestia..." I trailed off, "So there should be twenty-three here, right?" The ponies looked a little confused, "Then who's missing?" Frantically, the ponies ran around, looking for family and friends. One unlucky filly came up short. 
"Where's Honey Flower?" she squeaked, "She was my friend! What did they do to her!?" Tears streamed from her eyes, as she sobbed things like, "Why didn't I notice? I should have known!" Another pony put his hoof around her shoulders, leading her away after a small, comforting peck on the forehead.
"Okay, that's one," I murmured, "who else?" Thunder Bolt shrugged, looking me right in the eye. A tiny filly shoved past a few larger ones. I didn't recognize her for a moment, until I realized she was the filly with book. Her novel was abandoned on the floor.
She cleared her tiny throat, leaning in towards my ear and whispered, "Dusty Shaker."
"Dusty Shaker?" I asked the gathering. Nopony seemed to have any reaction to the name, but in the back of the room I saw a double-take from the quietest pony of them all.
Burnt Oak looked up from the floor, meeting my eyes, "Did you say 'Dusty Shaker?'" he asked me.
"Yes," I said simply, a tone of surprise creeping into my voice, "do you know him?"
"Do I know him..." Burnt Oak scoffed shakily under his breath. He galloped toward the door, knocking over two or three other ponies, and pounded his hoof against the iron, "BOILING BLOOD, YOU PROMISED! YOU PROMISED ME!" he screamed, his voice breaking in his agony.
"Who's... Boiling Blood?" Thunder Bolt wondered aloud.
Burnt Oak scoffed again, "You idiots. That's the professor's true name!" He spun to face us, forelock swinging up and revealing a red socket where an eye should have been, "'Chip' as you so call him, is named Full Moon. He's a werewolf, you foals-- part pony, part timber wolf. But you want to know the worst bit about this place!?" He was in a crazed stupor. Just as insane as the Professor, or rather, Boiling Blood.
"I-I'm not sure I do." Somepony murmured from the back of the group.
"I'll tell you why," Burnt Oak's mouth curled into a grin, "Your parents sold you to this place. They needed the money, she needed lab rats. Your parents are living much more comfortably with one less mouth to feed and an extra one thousand bits a month."
"I don't believe you!" I shouted, " My parents love me! They'd never sell me to that... witch!"
"Oh, yeah?" Burnt Oak challenged.
"Yes."
"Well, let me explain this to you, then. Do you even know what her experiment is?" Several ponies shook their heads. "Of course you don't. Well, Boiling Blood is a mastermind. She's been trying to get her name recognized by science for years, but she was ignored because she was an earth pony. She had an idea, a theory, that she could create something of herself that would allow her genius to be properly recognized. The Alicorn."
"What's an Alicorn?" a tiny voice squeaked.
"It's the combination of a pegasus and a unicorn, a pony with the power of flight and magic, a being of enormous power. She was ready to create one, after the successful experiment of Full Moon, but she knew it was too dangerous to start with herself. So, she invited fillies from all over Equestria to participate at her 'Academy'. And she promised me that I would be the first. But she chose my brother instead."
It took me a few minutes to see what was going on. Burnt Oak, he wanted power, but she wasn't going to give it to him. Maybe it was because he was missing an eye. Maybe she liked his brother better. But I think the truth was a lot more obvious.
"Don't you understand?" I asked him, "She only wants your horn! Celestia's going to be the first Alicorn! She was baiting you! You'll lose your powers and maybe even die! And so will your brother! We have to do something!"
As if on cue, I heard the hum of machinery. The experiment had begun.