“So, does every pony understand the plan?” Dread asked.

“It isn’t really much of a plan, Dread,” Dr. Layne said, “when you get right down to it, it’s just you and the two psychos making a mad dash to the kitchen while I baby sit Fluttershy. Everything else is just speculation on variables.”

“Well, I think that it’s a good plan,” Twilight said, mostly to get back at Dr. Layne for calling her and Pinkamena psychos.

They had been discussing methods of acquiring food and water for the better part of an hour, and Twilight was beginning to get sick of it. In that hour of planning all they had accomplished was deciding that Fluttershy would have to stay behind, and that some pony would have to watch her. Twilight had wanted to stay behind, but Dr. Layne had insisted on watching Fluttershy himself, saying that he wanted to evaluate her condition.

“Can we go now?” Pinkamena whined, “We’ve been talking about this for a long time, and it’s not fun anymore.”

“We will leave in a minute, Miss Pie,” Dread answered, “just give me a moment to check that we can leave safely. Please be patient.”

Dread unfolded his claws and opened the large, vault-like door part way then slipped through it. When he was through, Pinkamena threw herself at a wall and began vigorously scratching at her ears.

“Is everything okay, Pinkie?” Twilight asked.

“No,” Pinkamena said while clawing at her face, “The itch is back, with a vengeance.”

“Itch?” Twilight asked as the realization dawned on her. “Oh gosh! You don’t mean?”

“I do,” Pinkamena answered solemnly. “I thought I was past this, for the most part, but this is just just…” Pinkamena screamed and pulled several strands of hair from her head.

Twilight took a step back from her friend. “Dr. Layne?” she called.

“I heard,” Dr. Layne answered, “I’m looking for something to restrain her right now.”

“Hurry!” Pinkamena screamed. Beads of sweat were beginning to dot her forehead.

“I’m hurrying!” Dr. Layne shouted as he tossed a basket full of bed sheets.

Twilight’s eyes darted around the room. If Dr. Layne couldn't restrain Pinkamena, then they would have to incapacitate her some other way. Unfortunately though, the only thing in the room that might work as a weapon were the syringes that Dread and Dr. Layne had put in a pile, and unless they were filled with powerful narcotics they wouldn’t be much help.

As Twilight was looking for a weapon, Pinkamena grabbed her head pulled it so that they were looking in each others eyes. Twilight had seen Pinkamena’s eyes look wild before, but this was different. They were the eyes of a wounded wolf. It took Twilight a moment to realize that Pinkamena was crying.

“Twilight, listen to me,” Pinkamena said, her voice trembling, “I know I’ve said this before, but if this urge doesn’t pass and I lose control, kill me. I don’t care how, just do it before I hurt another one of my friends.”

Twilight wanted to say something, but she couldn’t find it in her heart to actually agree to Pinkamena’s request, not verbally anyway. Instead, Twilight asked, “How long have you had this urge?”

Pinkamena let go of Twilight’s head and returned to clawing at her own. When she spoke, it was as if getting the words out caused her great stress. “I don’t know. For as long as I can remember? I thought we’ve been through this?”

“Dr. Layne, find anything yet?” Twilight called.

“No, nothing that she can’t break out of at least.” The stallion answered.

Twilight snorted and turned her attention to back to Pinkamena, “That’s not what I meant. How long has the urge been this strong?”

“Not long,” Pinkamena answered, her voice strained as if she were choking over every word, “just in the last hour or so. Why?”

“No reason.” Twilight answered. In truth, Twilight didn’t particularly care how long Pinkamena had been feeling so murderous. All that mattered to her was distracting her friend long enough that either the urge passed, or Dr. Layne found something to restrain her with.

“Do you have any idea what might’ve triggered this?” Twilight asked, trying to keep the panic out of her voice.

“I don’t know,” Pinkamena answered, her voice slightly calmer now, “but I think its passing.”

“Are you sure?”

Pinkamena nodded.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief. “Good.” She then turned and called out, “Did you hear that Doctor?”

“I heard it,” Dr. Layne answered as he climbed over the pile of bed sheets he had made while looking for something to use as restraints. “I don’t think that we’re quite out of the woods yet though, I’ll need to talk to Dread.”

Pinkamena shot a worried look at Dr. Layne, “What? Why?”

Dr. Layne scowled and grumbled, “Because if this becomes a recurring issue, then he and I will either have to restrain you, or,” Dr. Layne shot Pinkamena a dark look, “make sure that you won’t be a problem to any pony ever again.”

Pinkamena swallowed and inched back, “Gotcha.”

Twilight glanced at the doorway, “Speaking of Dread, what’s taking him so long?”

Dr. Layne shrugged, “Beats me, he was only supposed to be gone for a minute or two.”

“Well, should we go look for him?” Twilight asked.

Dr. Layne sighed and said, “If you want. Personally I wouldn’t worry too much until he was gone for more than an hour, but suit yourself.”

Twilight nodded, “I’ll go check on him.”

“I’ll go too.” Pinkamena said, looking in Fluttershy’s direction. “I need to get out of this room anyway.”

“All right then,” Dr. Layne said, settling down at a spot near Fluttershy, “I’ll be examining Fluttershy, see if I can’t find out why she’s been sleeping so soundly. Come back when you feel like it.”

Pinkamena opened the door slightly, and a putrid smell slammed into them. Twilight had to take a step back, her eyes filled up with tears so much she could not see clearly. The smell was so bad that it felt like someone had thrown sand in her eyes. While she was blinded, Twilight heard the sound of two large metal objects crashing into each other.

“What the fuck?” Pinkamena said, coughing slightly.

Twilight blinked the tears out of her eyes to see that some pony had closed the door.

“Something wrong?” Dr. Layne asked from the other side of the room.

Twilight coughed, the scent still lingering in her nose. “Yes. Something smells really bad.”

Dr. Layne sniffed a bit then said, “I don’t smell anything.”

“Come over here,” Pinkamena said while clutching her nose, “it’s coming from the hallway!”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Dr. Layne said. “I assume this means that you two will be staying?”

“No!” Pinkamena said quickly, “It’s just that, well, it stinks. We’ll be going in a minute.”

Dr. Layne rolled his eyes, “Look, if it smells that bad, just wrap one of the bed sheets around your nose. That’ll at least stop some of the smell.”

Twilight doubted that anything short of a gasmask would stop the odor, but given the lack of options agreed. A moment later, Pinkamena had ripped up one of the bed sheets into two roughly even lengths of cloth. She then folded one of the lengths into a make shift bandana and tied it around her snout.

“Do you think it’ll work?” Twilight asked.

Pinkamena shrugged, “Maybe?”

Twilight sighed, “I guess ‘maybe’ will have to do. Do you mind helping get the mask on?”

When Pinkamena was done tying the bed sheet around Twilight’s nose, the two once again opened the door. The bed sheets did little to stop the odor, but at least now the two ponies could stand it. They looked down the hall and found Dread standing just before the closest force field.

Twilight and Pinkamena wasted no time in getting to Dread. As far as Twilight was concerned, the less she had to breathe in whatever it was that was causing the hallway to smell so awfully. As they got closer however, Twilight realized that the stench was getting stronger. When they had covered less than half the distance between them and Dread, Pinkamena had to press her hooves against her nose to block the smell out. Twilight unfortunately, did not have such benefits. Instead she had to stop and push her mask up into her nostrils, and hope for the best.

“Dread!” Twilight called out when they were less than a few feet away from him.

The android turned and looked at the two mares. “Why are you two wearing masks?”

Twilight answered, “We’re not sure why, but this hallway smells awful.”

Dread made a clicking noise. “I see. I suppose that makes sense, given the circumstances.”

Still clutching her nose, Pinkamena asked, “What circumstances?”

“Perhaps circumstances was not the best word,” Dread said, “but I believe that I know why the hall smells so bad.” The android unfolded one of his claws and pointed at the area where the force field touched the floor. On both sides was a pile of charred, gooey stuff that reminded Twilight of ink that had clotted from being left open. Looking at the thing made Twilight want to vomit.

“What is it?” Pinkamena asked.

“I am not sure, but I believe that it was whatever attacked us an hour ago.” Dread answered. “Or a part of it at least, seeing as how it managed to break through every one of our force fields.”

Twilight looked at the piles and remembered the ferocity that their attacker had shown not long ago.

“It’s one of those monsters.” Twilight’s voice was shaky. “Nothing else could live through that.” As she spoke, Twilight felt her heart begin to beat harder in her chest. “We need to get out of here, now!”

“Calm down, Miss Sparkle.” Dread said, “We are not currently in danger.”

“Not currently in danger?” Twilight said, stepping closer to the android, “What do you mean ‘Not currently in danger’? There’s a monster stalking these halls and we’re sitting here starring at some burned piece of crap!” Twilight would have continued, but a dull pain had formed in her left temple.

“Miss Sparkle, if there were any pony here besides us, we would be able to see them.” Dread said.

This caught Twilight off guard. “Wait. What?”

“Look around you, Miss Sparkle, there is no where that any pony could hide.”

Twilight looked in both directions. The hallway curved slightly, and she couldn’t see either end, but there was still enough visible that nothing could sneak up on them.

Refusing to let the matter drop, Twilight said, “That just means that we can’t see it. It doesn’t mean that it’s not here. Besides, if it did leave, where did it go?”

“I assume back the way it came,” Dread answered, gesturing toward the force field.

“Oh,” was all Twilight could say. She looked down at the charred puddle and wondered at what kind of monster could possibly have something like that done to them, multiple times all the other force fields functioned similarly, only to turn around and go through them again.

“Hey guys,” Pinkamena said, “I’m sorry to interrupt, but can we please get going? The smell is starting to get to me.”

“Right away, Miss Pie.” Dread said, then, turning to Twilight, added, “Try not to work yourself up into a panic, Miss Sparkle. Save your energy for when you actually have reason for fear.”

Twilight nodded and Dread switched off the force field. They continued down the hall, stopping every couple of yards so that Dread could turn off another force field. Every force field they passed had another burnt pile at its base. It was almost reassuring to Twilight, if she was correct in what she thought the piles were, then each pile lowered the potential that their attacker was no longer alive.

After about ten minutes they had arrived at the end of the hall and had entered the hospital. It was almost as dark as it had been when Twilight was last there, only this time some of the light’s were flickering, giving the ponies just enough light to make out their surroundings. The last time she had crossed the hospital, Twilight’s mind was so preoccupied with getting to Dread that she had failed to notice the numerous corpses that now littered the hospital.

Many of these bodies had the same basic pony anatomy that Twilight was used to, as well as the strange, two legged anatomy that Pinkamena and Fluttershy possessed. But there were also bodies who’s shapes reminded Twilight of the twisted limbs that made up the tree monster, long and oddly jointed with squashed up faces that reminded Twilight of the rotten cantaloupes. Several of the bodies seemed to be rotten, as Twilight could clearly make out the bones in many of them.

Twilight tried to rationalize why they had rotten so quickly, they couldn’t have been dead for more than a couple of days, but she couldn’t come up with a satisfactory answer.

“Well, I suppose that explains what became of the inmates.” Dread said. “So much for the Administrator’s ‘relieving pressure’ or whatever he called it.”

They walked on in silence for several minutes, during which time Twilight examined each of the corpses as she passed them. She thought that she recognized some of the bodies, but they were either too rotten or too mutated for her to be sure.

They reached the corpse of a changeling that had somehow gotten its body cut from its neck to its belly. Whatever had killed it had pulled the chitin apart and stuffed several pony heads into it. As they passed, Twilight could’ve sworn that one of the heads had smiled at her.

For what it was worth, Twilight was mostly unbothered by carnage that filled the hospital. Perhaps it was because of the virus, sanguinam ungolum, or maybe she was simply desensitized to horror by now, but nothing in the hospital bothered her too much anymore. Nothing until they reached the head room.

A long, black stain coated the floor in front of the head room. Pieces of broken glass dotted the area, each one coated in a dry, powdery substance. Nearby, where the remains of Teddy had once been, now stood only a few splintered bones that had been licked to a shiny gleam.

Upon seeing this, Twilight’s blood chilled. Part of her wanted to go into the head room and confirm that what she feared had not come true, but the other part told her to stay with her friends.

“Dread,” Twilight started to say, but the word caught in her throat.

“Yes, Miss Sparkle?” Dread asked.

“Do you remember what I told you about the monsters we encountered?”

“Of course.”

Twilight swallowed. “Well, I think one of them might be nearby. I don’t know where it is, but…” Twilight stopped talking. Her entire body trembled as she remembered what she and Pinkamena had encountered just a few hours.

“Miss Sparkle, is everything alright?” Dread asked.

“N-no,” Twilight said. Both her chest and legs felt as though they had pierced by needles. “It, it…”

A second later, Pinkamena came out of the head room and said, “Guys, we may have a problem.”

Twilight hit the floor as the needles’s points became knives, and the world spun around her. As consciousness fled from her, Twilight was vaguely aware of the Goodfellow laughing at her.