Twilight’s eyes flew open. Her chest felt as if she had been stabbed with a rusted sword. She managed to stand up, but her legs nearly buckled under her weight. Twilight looked around, seeing the sleeping figures of the friends she had made in Sleipnir.

‘Family? I have a family?’

None of it felt real. Not the Administrator, not the walls, not even her friends. This wasn’t real, it couldn’t be real. Real was what made sense, and nothing in Sleipnir made sense.

‘I have to get home. My family… ’ Twilight thought.

She took two steps forward and collapsed back onto the pile of sheets. The pain in her chest had dissolved into what felt like a series of needles stabbing her in the heart. Twilight tried to calm herself by taking a deep breath, but she couldn’t get the air past her throat.

‘But what about Spike? Spike? What did I do to Spike? Oh, Luna, what did I do to Pinkie?’

The image of Twilight’s two mutilated friends burned themselves into her mind. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks. Her breathing, which had previously been slow and weak, suddenly sped up to a dangerously brisk pace.

“What did I do?” Twilight cried. “What’s wrong with me? Why did I hurt them like that?”

“Twilight?” Pinkamena said from somewhere across the dark room. “Is something wrong? Why are you up right now?”

“It’s nothing,” Twilight said, trying to keep the image of Pinkie Pie’s disfigured body out of her head. “Bad dream, that’s all.”

“Are you sure? It didn’t sound like a bad dream.”

“Yes, I’m sure!” Twilight snapped. A loud bang rang from where Pinkamena had been.

“Owie,” Pinkamena said, fighting off pain, “You didn’t have to yell at me.”

“Are you alright?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, just slammed my head against the wall,” Pinkamena said through gritted teeth, “I’ll be fine in a minute.”

Twilight winced, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to yell like that. It’s just that, you know how you get sometimes when you’re reminded of, you know, the incident?”

“Hold it,” Pinkamena interrupted, “before we continue, why don’t we make sure that we won’t be bothering our neighbors. I’d do it myself, but, you know…”

“Got you,” Twilight said as she started toward the spot where Fluttershy had fallen asleep a few hours earlier. She found Fluttershy nestled under a pile of bed sheets, sleeping like a foal.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief, “Okay, I think we’re in the clear.”

“Not quite,” said a low, gruff voice. Twilight instinctively backed away from it.

“Dr. Layne?” Twilight said. “What are you doing up so late?”

“Oh, not much,” Dr. Layne answered, yawning, “Just trying to get some sleep while two inconsiderate mares chatter on about dreams and whatnot. It wouldn’t have been so bad if one of you hadn’t screamed all of a sudden. Anyway, now that I’m up, do you two mind cluing me in on what you’re going on about?”

“Nothing,” Twilight said. “I just had a nightmare. We’ll keep it down. Go back to sleep.”

There was a low grumble from Dr. Layne, then the entire room went quiet.

After a few minutes, Pinkamena asked, “Think he’s asleep?”

“Probably,” Twilight answered.

Pinkamena moved so that she was closer to Twilight. “Alright, now why don’t you tell me what’s bothering you?”

Twilight took a deep breath and described her dream to Pinkamena. For the most part she simply sat quietly and listened, though Twilight could’ve sworn that she had squirmed a little when she mentioned what she had done to her Pinkie.

When Twilight had finished, Pinkamena asked, “Do you know why you did those things?”

Twilight sighed, “No. I think that I might’ve gotten the idea to try and do something with biological processes, at least that’s what I tried to do with Spike, but that doesn’t explain why I would go to such drastic measures. I mean, it wouldn’t have been hard to safely test such theories on animals or something. Why would I hurt my friends like that?”

“Well, maybe you’re like me?” Pinkamena suggested. “You get an itch that you can’t scratch unless you’re hurting some pony else, even if that pony is...” Pinkamena trailed off.

“Maybe,” Twilight said, her stomach twisted at the idea, “but we don’t have enough information to be sure. After all, I haven’t had an urge to kill anything…” Twilight’s mind flashed back to every time she had let her curiosity get the better of her, and the way she had reacted to seeing the Celestia look alike burned alive.

Twilight shook her head, and the images went away.

“Okay, maybe you’re right,” she admitted, “maybe it has something to do with that virus?”

“Probably,” Pinkamena said, “we’d have to ask Dread to know for sure though.”

“I guess.” Twilight said.

The two fell silent. Twilight pondered the nature of the virus, sanguinam ungollum, and when she might’ve gotten infected with it. How long had she had the virus? Was it always in her and no pony ever noticed? Or did she come across later in life? Was it contagious, and if so could she have passed it onto her children? Would they become monsters too?

Not wanting to think of that possibility, Twilight instead tried to list the effects the virus had and figure out which ones applied to her. She didn’t think she was that violent, at least not to the extent of the other inmates of Sleipnir, but still there were times when she either lost control of herself or nearly got her and her friends killed, or worse. Twilight knew for a fact that she wasn’t always that reckless. Was it possible that the virus was affecting her curiosity?

“So,” Pinkamena said, interrupting Twilight’s thoughts, “you and Big Macintosh?”

“Is there a problem with that?” Twilight asked, mildly annoyed. She had a vague feeling in the back of her head that told her that her love life had once been the subject of gossip among ponies she had never met.

“No, no,” Pinkamena said, “It’s just that I never pictured you ending up with a guy like him. At least, not the version of you in my world.”

Twilight sighed, “Me neither. I remember going out with him for a while, but after that, nothing. I’m not sure how we ended up getting married, let alone having children. It’s probably not worth thinking about though.”

“Why not?” Pinkamena asked.

Twilight opened her mouth to answer, but found that she didn’t really have one. “I don’t know. I guess, well, I don’t want to get my hopes up.”

Pinkamena placed a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder and said somberly, “I understand.”

Twilight smiled and was about to reply when something heavy slammed against the door.

“What was that?” Twilight asked stupidly.

Pinkamena answered in a panicked voice, “I don’t know. You don’t think-” Whatever Pinkamena was going to say was drowned out by another crash against the door.

“What in blazes?” Dr. Layne screamed as he leapt from underneath the pile of covers.

“I don’t know!” Twilight said, trying to keep control over her breathing. “One of the inmates found us?”

Another crash against the door.

“Can’t be. That door’s four inches of hardened steel,” Dr. Lanye said.

At that, Twilight’s knees buckled underneath her and the world seemed to slow down around her. Images of jagged teeth and tentacles flashed through her mind, chilling her blood.

Whatever was smashing against the door redoubled its efforts, rapidly hitting it at a pace that was only slightly slower than Twilight’s heartbeat. Then all was quiet. The three ponies waited in silence for the attacker to continue its onslaught against the door, but nothing came of it.

“Is it gone?” Twilight asked.

Pinkamena let out a hiss, “No, I don’t think so. It might’ve just gone looking for something to open the door with.”

Twilight gave that suggestion a little time to process, then said, “We need to leave then. If that thing finds a way to get in here, we’re all done for.”

“Better in here than out there.” Dr. Layne said, “There aren’t a lot of things that can break down that door, and most of them can’t be found anywhere near here. Going out there would just mean that we have to introduce ourselves to whoever was out there.”

“Well we can’t just stay here!” Twilight stomped a hoof. “We don’t have enough supplies to last more than a day or two, and that’s assuming that Pinkie doesn’t eat all the food-”

“Hey!” Pinkamena said indignantly.

“Sorry, Pinkie,” said Twilight before continuing. “Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that we’re not set up to stay for very long.”

“She is right you know,” Dread said from the far end of the room. “When we ran for supplies it was assumed that only you would be needing the edibles, Dr. Layne. If we are to accommodate the three mares, then we will need to go out eventually.”

Dr. Layne snorted, “In case you haven’t noticed, there is something out there strong enough to hit a steel door, one that was designed to survive a nuclear explosion, and make a noise.”

“What do you think woke me up, Dr. Layne?” Dread asked, “I know full well that there is danger outside, but I also know that to stay here without acquiring provisions would mean certain death.”

“Wait,” Twilight said, “why would you need a door to survive a nuclear blast? What are the chances of that happening?”

It was Dread who answered, “Dr. Layne was exaggerating. We think this room used to be used to test radioactive material, but we have no evidence that it housed anything strong enough to causes a-”

“Wait, what?” Twilight shouted. Then, is as calm a tone as she could muster, added, “You mean to tell me that we’ve been staying in a radiation laboratory?”

“Possibly, we’re not quite sure,” Dr. Layne answered, “So far it’s the only explanation that we have for this room.

Twilight wasn’t sure if she wanted to pull her mane out, or beat Dr. Layne over the head with something heavy.

“If it is any consolation, Miss Sparkle,” Dread said, “we can only guess at what this room’s purpose is, and our guesses are likely false. We only found the room a couple of days ago after all. Please understand though that we did not have many options for sanctuary.”

Twilight gritted her teeth and glared at the android, but otherwise didn’t respond. If they had been sleeping in an irradiated area, then there wasn’t a whole lot she could do about it. She could get angry, but the damage was already done.

“Uh, guys,” Pinkamena said, “has any pony checked on Fluttershy?”

Grimacing, Twilight answered, “No, I distracted by the radiation thing Dr. Layne mentioned. I’ll check on her” Then, turning to Dread, asked, “Dread, do you mind turning the lights on?”

“Not at all, Miss Sparkle.”

When the lights came on, Twilight had to give herself a moment for her eyes to adjust. After that, she went to where they had set Fluttershy and found her still bundled up beneath the sheets, as though nothing had happened.

“She’s fine.” Twilight announced, “I don’t think the attacker woke her up.”

Dr. Layne let out a sigh, “Alright then, now that that’s out of the way, does any pony have a plan for how we could get more supplies. I don’t know if I mentioned this, but not only do we need to get past something stronger than all of us combined, but we also need to actually locate the supplies in order for them to be useful.”

“There was plenty of food in the room we were staying in.” Pinkamena suggested.

Twilight shook her head, “That’s at least a couple hours walk, plus I think that’s where we’ll run into the most monsters.”

Oh, that reminds me, we still need to discuss the monsters, Miss Sparkle.”

“One thing at a time, Silver Platter,” Dr. Layne snapped, “we still need to think of a place to look for supplies.”

Dread answered, “Well, I am not sure if it is a good idea to go there, but there should be plenty of food in the kitchen.”

Author's Notes:

Note to self: Come up with better chapter titles.