Twilight could feel her heart trying to pound its way out of her chest. She tried to scream, but fear choked her throat so tight that no sound could escape it. They were dead, she was sure of it. Everything, the lab, Pinkamena’s recovery, Fluttershy, meant nothing.

“So, how long have you been watching us?” Dread asked.

“Since the beginning, Dread.” the Administer replied, “You have done nothing that we do not know about.”

“Then why ignore us?” Dr. Layne asked, “If you knew everything we’ve been up to, surely you would have felt the need to do something about it?”

“We did nothing because there was nothing that needed to be done.” The Administrator answered, “Your poor attempts at secrecy barely made for good comedy, yet alone anything that could pose a potential threat. We control everything in this facility, Mr. Layne, it is impossible to keep secrets from us.”

“So why reveal this to us now?” Dread asked, “And now that you have, what do you plan to do to us?”

“Because we at Sleipnir had elected to allow you to continue your delusions for some time, and have only just now elected to ‘burst your bubble’ as the children say. We’ve debated on the topic before of course, like when you decided to remove one more guest from their room than was actually selected for treatment, or when you thought that it was a good idea to bring a torn up chew toy into the facility and attempt to treat her. But we digress.”

“That answers my first question,” Dread said, “but what about my second?”

“Nothing too much, we simply ask that the patient Twilight Sparkle be returned to her room, and patient Pinkie Pie receive the treatment she was scheduled for three days ago.”

“And if we refuse?”

“That would be a very poor decision.” The Administrator answered.

Dread didn’t respond. Instead, he stood perfectly still.

“He’s not seriously considering this is he?” Pinkamena asked Twilight in a panicked whisper.

“Of course not, he’s… he’s just looking for the best way out of this.” Twilight did her best to sound reassuring, but her voice quivered when she spoke.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Dread finally answered, “we, Dr. Layne and I, have been testing out a new form a therapy, and taking our test subjects away would set us back several months.”

“Would it now?” The Administrator asked; his voice becoming more feminine, “What exactly would this new form of therapy be?”

“It was a theory that we came up with while researching the standard ‘release of tension’ exercise that you do with the guests. We decided to expand the time the guests have outside of their rooms so that they release more of the tension that holds them back; more freedom, less stress.”

“Interesting…” the Administrator said, “We certainly would not have thought of that, but we certainly see the logic behind it… Perhaps there is something to this new exercise?”

Twilight allowed herself to relax a little. ‘Maybe this’ll turn out alright after all.’

The Administrator continued, “Perhaps we should do further studies on this new exercise… Yes, in fact we at Sleipnir have decided test this exercise on ALL of our guests!”

Dread responded quickly, “That isn’t possible. We have no method of keeping the guests under control, we do not have the rations to feed then, and the time it would take to unlock all those cells…”

“There will be no need to control our guests, their behavior is fine as it is, they will be able to feed themselves,” the Administrator said coldly. His voice was now almost entirely feminine “and the locks are electronic.”

As soon as the Administrator finished, an alarm pierced through the entire hospital, bright lights flashing rapidly with its rhythm. The sound was like the screech of a metal being rubbed against metal. It pierced Twilight’s ears like a blade pierces an envelope.

“WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!” Dr. Layne shouted. His voice was barely audible over the siren, “THERE’S A WAY OUT THE BACK, HURRY!”

The four of them raced towards the far end of the hospital. The doors on both sides of the hallway flew past Twilight’s vision. When they had almost reached the exit (a metal door with the word ‘EXIT’ painted on it in large red letters) Twilight stopped.

“FLUTTERSHY!” Twilight screamed. No one seemed to hear her.

Twilight quickly turned around and headed back towards Fluttershy’s room. On her way, Twilight saw that several of the inmates had already found their way into the hospital.

‘Not good! Not good! Not good!’ Twilight’s mind screamed.

When Twilight got to Fluttershy’s room, she instinctively tried to use a telekinesis spell to open it. The spell was pushed back into Twilight’s head, causing a headache that blurred her vision slightly. Twilight ignored the pain and opened the door with her mouth.

Fluttershy was still fast asleep, blissfully unaware of the alarms. Twilight tried to use her nose to roll Fluttershy onto her back, but her horn got caught on one of Fluttershy’s stitches nearly tore it open. Undeterred, Twilight circled around Fluttershy’s bed, looking for a spot where she could safely roll Fluttershy onto her back. She found none.

Twilight stomped a hoof in frustration. She hadn’t thought this through. Any moment now one inmates would find their way into the hospital room and, if they were lucky, kill them on sight.

Tears were beginning to build up in the back of her eyes. It wasn’t fair, they were the good guys. This sort of thing wasn’t supposed to happen. They weren’t supposed to die like this. They were supposed to…

“NEED A HAND?” a voice yelled from the door, breaking Twilight’s train of thought.

Twilight looked up to see Pinkamena panting on the other side of the room.

“HELP ME GET FLUTTERSHY ONTO MY BACK.” Twilight commanded.

Twilight and Pinkamena went to opposite sides of Fluttershy’s bed. Pinkamena climbed up onto the mattress and used her head to push Fluttershy onto Twilight’s back. When she was safely on, Twilight and Pinkamena hurried out of the hospital room.

Some of the inmates had already wondered into main hospital. Most of them were covered in each other’s blood; the ones who weren’t were spastically slamming into walls while they giggled at whatever strange thoughts went through their heads. Twilight allowed herself to relax a little.

“I don’t think that they’re looking for us.” Twilight said to Pinkamena, speaking just loud enough to be heard over the alarm “If we can get to the back without them noticing, we should be fine.”

“SOUNDS EASY ENOUGH.” Pinkamena replied.

The two walked slowly down the hall, taking care not to make any sudden movements. Twilight was extra careful so that Fluttershy didn’t fall off. They had made it about halfway to the back when all of a sudden, the alarms stopped.

“PRRINCESSSSS” One of the inmates shouted from across the hospital.

Twilight turned her head to see a horde of nearly fifty ponies, all of them twisted in appearance. Some of them had scowls that would frighten a gargoyle; others had painful grins that looked like they were tearing the ponies’ lips apart; a few didn’t even have faces, only a big shapeless mouth full of pointed teeth. Most of them looked like normal ponies in structure, but there were a few that looked more like walking trees than anything. Some were thin, some were large, but they all had at least one thing in common; all fifty of them were stampeding across the hospital, right towards Twilight.

Twilight and Pinkamena ran for it.

As Twilight was fleeing, she looked back to see some of the horde catching up. A small, heavily mutated earth pony leapt at Twilight, grabbing on to her leg. The maddened creature bit down. Twilight let out a scream and tried to shake it off. The animal managed to stay on for half a second longer, only letting go when Pinkamena jumped on it.

The pain from the bite didn’t go away, and Twilight didn’t have time to nurse it. She picked out a random door and quickly entered it, leaving it open just long enough for Pinkamena to follow. The room was dark, but there was just enough light for Twilight to make out a metal object. Twilight knocked it over so that it made a barricade against the door (breaking several glass objects in the process). This made the room even darker, as the metal object blocked what little light that came through the door. Twilight didn’t mind this though. If it meant being away from the horde of psychos just beyond the walls, she could deal with a little darkness.

“That… was too close.” Twilight said, gasping for air. The adrenaline from being chased was beginning to wear off, and Twilight was just now realizing how out of breath she was.

“Yeah,” Pinkamena said, panting even more than Twilight, “Is Fluttershy alright?”

“Yeah, she’s fine. She’s still on my back.” Twilight answered, “Though I’d like to set her down if that’s alright, she’s heavier than she looks.”

“Don’t do that yet, there’s glass everywhere. Let me find a light.”

Twilight heard several loud ‘thumps’ from where Pinkamena was searching for the light switch. When she found it, the room was filled with a cherry red light.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Twilight said dryly.

They were in the same room that Twilight had once thought to be a secret lab. Most of it was still in order, though there were a few fallen shelves from when Twilight threw a tantrum. Twilight found a spot near the machine were there was little debris and carefully set Fluttershy down.

“Is this good?” Twilight asked.

Pinkamena looked at where Twilight had placed Fluttershy and shrugged through her straight jacket, “Good a spot as any I guess.”

Pinkamena then opened her mouth as if to say something else, but then closed it.

Seeing this, Twilight asked, “Something wrong?”

Pinkamena looked down and began mumbling “It’s nothing important… It’s just um… It’s just…”

“What is it?”

Pinkamena looked up and asked quickly, “Do you think you could undo my straight jacket for me?”

Twilight looked at Pinkamena questioningly, “Why?”

Pinkamena sighed, “Well for starters, it isn’t fun being tied up like this all the time. Secondly, I’d be more useful if I could use my arms; I could carry Fluttershy and stuff. Lastly, if one of those goons outside breaks in, I want to be able to fight them.”

Twilight’s eyebrows furrowed, “I’m not sure that’s a good idea, I mean,” Twilight gestured towards Fluttershy, “I know that you don’t want to kill us, but what if you lose control of yourself? I’d be putting both me and Fluttershy in danger if I let you out.”

Pinkamena’s sighed, “I know… But I want to help somehow. I want to make up for eating… for what I did long ago. I promise that I’ll do my best to keep from… you know. If for some reason I can’t and I attack either you or Fluttershy, kill me.”

Twilight considered it for a moment, and then deciding that having Pinkamena untied would be easier in the long run began undoing the buckles on her straight jacket. It wasn’t easy; whoever had designed the jacket did so under the assumption that either a unicorn or some creature with claws would be the ones doing the buckling. As it was, Twilight had to bite down onto the buckles and use her tongue to lift the prongs; from there Twilight had to wiggle her teeth underneath the actual belt, lift it over the prong, and undo it. By the time Twilight had undone all but one of the buckles, her lips and tongue were sore from being poked and pinched repeatedly.

“And yet, I can’t do the cherry stem thing.” Twilight said, referring to the popular myth that those able to tie cherry knot make for good kissers. “Give me a second and I’ll untie your arms.”

“Hey, no rush,” Pinkamena said oddly cheerfully, “I think those goons left when we shut the door on them; short attention spans and whatnot.”

Twilight was about to reply when something started knocking on the door. A hoarse voice said from beyond it, “Hey is there any pony in there?”

Twilight and Pinkamena were quiet, both were unsure of what to think of this new voice.

The voice continued, “I saw you two being chased by that mob back there. Real nail biter, those guys looked like they were ready to rip you apart. Glad you got away. Anyway, they left when you shut the door on them, must’ve gotten bored or somethin’… They’re gone though, you can come out now.”

Pinkamena started to move towards the door. Twilight tapped her with a hoof and shook her head.

The voice continued, “Come on guys. You can out, it’s perfectly safe.” Whoever the voice belonged to tried opening the door themselves, only for their effort to be stopped by the shelf Twilight knocked over.

The voice continued, “Come on, we were cell neighbors. I know at least one of you used to stay right next door to me. I would’ve said hi if it weren’t that muzzle they stuck me in, hated that thing. I always envied how you were able to talk to each other.”

The voice’s tone became colder as it went on, “Though, I never liked how you two were always whining, day in and day out. ‘Waah I don’t belong here! Waah I didn’t mean it!’ It was fucking annoying. Your voices were like pieces of glass being shoved of my ear. I want to make you guys shut up. I want to make you guys shut up for a real long time. I’m not gonna do it quickly either. I want to savor this. Might rape one of you while I’m at it. I remember one of you having a real nice plot. Yeah, wouldn’t mind getting me a piece of that… You wanna know what the best part about this is?” The pony speaking began chuckling to himself, “I don’t even have to force you to come out.”

Twilight looked at Pinkamena and quickly whispered, “Please tell me you know what to do.”

Pinkamena seemed genuinely surprised, “Me? Why I know what to do? You’re the smart one.”

“On some things, yes.” Twilight answered, “But I don’t know how to deal with psychopaths. I figure that since you’re… well, you know… you might know how to convince him to leave.”

Pinkamena scowled at Twilight. “Yeah, we killers are all the same,” she said sarcastically, “we all meet every Thursday to talk about our latest kills and then enjoy a nice roasted fetus for brunch. I can totally talk the crazy guy out of killing a raping us. We’re best buddies after all!” Pinkamena finished with a wide, toothy smile.

Twilight, who had never heard Pinkie Pie use sarcasm before had to pause for a moment to collect her thoughts.

“Maybe we can take him?” Pinkamena offered, “It’s two against one after all and...”

Twilight shook her head, “No, that’s too risky. We don’t know how strong he is.”

“Maybe we can out wait him? I mean he’s got to get bored eventually. Maybe he’ll decide that the other inmates are easier targets and leave. Or maybe one the inmates will just kill him and be done with it.”

Twilight considered this option for a moment before replying, “Well it’s better than trying to fight him. The only problem is that we can’t be sure of what he’s doing. He might leave in an hour and we’d never know, or we can go out on a day and find him waiting for us.”

Pinkamena groaned, “Is there any way out of this?”

Twilight shrugged, “Not one that I can see. We’ll try waiting him out for a little while, then we’ll decide if we want to confront him.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Both Twilight and Pinkamena prepared themselves to go through a long period of boredom. Pinkamena grabbed one of the foam heads and began playing with it like it was a ball, bouncing it off the walls a floor. Twilight sat herself in a corner near the machine and tried to go to sleep.

As she sat there, Twilight began thinking about how easy their predicament would be if she only had access to her magic. Twilight placed a hoof to her horn and began tried scratching at the claylike substance that covered it. As she scratched, a dull headache formed just beneath the base of her horn.

After a while, Twilight gave up on scratching her horn and instead began listening to Pinkamena playing with her head. As the foam skull collided with the walls, it created a soft ‘thump’. Twilight liked the sound; it reminded her of a foal’s heartbeat while it was napping. The only difference was that occasionally Pinkamena would hit a spot on the wall that produced a much louder ‘thump’. Either Pinkamena threw the head harder those times or the wall was hollow in one spot. Either way, the sound was relaxing for Twilight.

As she was listening to the beat of Pinkamena’s head playing, the memory of Dr. Lanye’s theory about the lab crept into Twilight’s mind.

‘I think that the whole mutagenic lab thing might’ve a cover up for something. As to what, I have no idea.’

As Pinkamena struck the hollow part of the wall more and more, Twilight was beginning to think that maybe Dr. Layne was onto something.

Twilight got up and asked Pinkamena were she bounced the head so that it made the loud ‘thump’. Pinkamena pointed her to a section of the wall that was in between two of the shelves, opposite the door.

“Why is it so important?” Pinkamena asked.

“Just a hunch.” Twilight replied.

Twilight began examining the area around the spot Pinkamena showed her. She tapped the wall a few times and found that the eighteen inches between the two shelves were hollow, or at least less solid than the rest of the room.

As Twilight examined further, she noticed a small spot on one of the shelves that jutted out slightly. When she looked closer, Twilight saw that it was some sort of switch. Twilight placed a hoof on it and pushed down. The switch gave way; and the section of the wall that Twilight was began making a series of clicking sounds.

“Twilight, what did you do?” Pinkamena asked.

“I… I just… I have no idea.”

The clicking sounds increased in frequency and volume after half a minute. Then, when the clicks sounded more lick pots and pans hitting each other than actual clicks, they stopped.

“What was…” Pinkamena started to ask.

She was interrupted by a soft hiss that emanated from the wall. Lines appeared where the hollow part of the wall met the solid parts. The lined off section slid backwards and then fell into some kind of slot, revealing a narrow staircase that led downward.

“Whoa…” Pinkamena said, “Where do you think it goes?”

“Somewhere…” Was all Twilight could say.

“Do you think we should check it out?”

Twilight was about to answer when the voice spoke to them again, “You coming out soon? I’m getting lonely. Could use some comfort…”

“Better than staying here.” Twilight answered.

Pinkamena grabbed Fluttershy and put her on Twilight’s back. Together they began their decent down the narrow stairs.