"Ah!" Blue jumped up as she came to with a start, her muzzle coated in saliva. Looking around herself, she squealed as her eyes landed upon the mutant mare before her and she galloped back quickly, clambering onto the sofa which she soon found blocking her path and lowering her neck, ears back as she snarled, her wings wings out wide as she beat them slowly, not fast enough to gain any lift but enough to give an intimidating presence. The mutant mare stilled in her approach at the display, cocking her head as she made a small nicker and sat down, rubbing her nose on her leg for a second before returning her attention to her companion.

Her eyes, completely yellow in the same way that Breakneck's were blue, with differently shaped pupils of red rather than black, followed every little movement that Blue made, but she wasn't completely of sound mind. She was knowing enough to use magic, though how she did so without a horn Blue couldn't quite fathom—perhaps she was somehow related to the zebras—but she was still animalistic as most mad'uns were. She couldn't quite appreciate the significance of Blue's actions, not properly; instead, her behaviour only seemed to intrigue the pet-like mare.

"Stay back!" Blue hissed, tossing her head in both a threatening display and a nervous reaction, but she quickly realised the mare wouldn't understand her words anyway as she looked on unfazed, her tail wagging slowly as if she were a dog. Hoping that she would instead appreciate the loudness of her voice, the pegasus let out a loud neigh and bucked, losing her footing and screaming as she fell with a thud onto her muzzle, her body vertical so that her tail fell forwards into her eyes. "Ugh..."

Through the hair which obscured most of her vision, Blue was quick to notice the light pink mare slinking towards her, talons coming to rest just in front of her, the paw raised in the air; squirming, the pegasus let her body flop forwards so that her rear hooves struck the mutant’s muzzle, causing her to whine and scamper backwards, rushing to the corner of the room and sitting there, ears back and paw gently inspecting her nose, an action which made her wince. Looking towards Blue with large, shining yellow orbs, she stared unblinkingly with a hurt glimmer in her eyes and lowered her neck quietly, laying it down on the floor.

“Wha’s goin’ on?” A masculine voice came from around the corner and Blue looked up immediately, relief coursing through her body. The voice was evidently Breakneck’s—the stallion adopted a rather distinctive gruffness when he spoke—and he was alright, too. She could only thank Celestia and Luna for letting him be alive, and for getting him here.

“That-that monster’s attacking me again!” Blue screeched, pointing accusingly with her hoof at the mutant and glaring daggers in her direction, feeling more confident now that she had back up. Staring into those peculiar, misinformed eyes though, a single thought occurred to her; why hasn’t she frozen me yet?

“Oh, she aint so bad. Turns out she’s no mutant after all tha’, just a mad’un. But a tame mad’un, don’ panic yourself.”

“How can you call that not a mutant? She’s got talons and a paw, Breakneck! And a bat wing! And a really weird tail! And those eyes… Well, they’re pretty much like yours.” Pausing, Blue shrunk back a little, looking away. “Oh Celestia, that sounds bad. I don’t mean that in a bad way.”

“Ah know ya don’t,” Breakneck said with a small chuckle as he raised his hoof a little, wrapping his tails around his body to keep them out of the way before he stepped closer to her, standing somewhat stiffly at her side.

Another pony—the old unicorn mare from before—came forwards from where he’d been before, walking with creaking joints as she made her way towards the “not-mutated” mutant. In a pale yellow magical aura she levitated a small, rather chipped bowl over to her and then a teapot a second later, pouring a small amount of steaming tea into it, careful to avoid the large cracks in the sides. She then turned to Blue and Breakneck, floating two cups over to them, each already filled mostly to the top, and she placed the pourer down on a small table as she folded her legs under herself and lay on the floor.

Blue frowned as she accepted the cup, holding it in two hooves while she sat down on the floor on her haunches, her back resting against the table. Glancing at Breakneck quickly, not sure whether to trust this mare or not—her judgement of other ponies, it seemed, wasn't entirely reliable, considering how she'd put her faith in the facility to only have it thrown back in her face—she noticed him sniffing the liquid, not quite at ease either. She did the same, though to her relief she couldn't pick up any signs of poison; on that note, though, she didn't even know what poison smelt of.

"It's okay to drink, I promise." the mare said, nodding to the mad'un at her side who was lapping it up as a dog would. "Do you really think that she'd drink it if it were bad? It's the exact same tea I gave you.”

"She's a mad'un," Breakneck pointed out, lowering the cup from his muzzle. "She prob'ly wouldn't know.”

"True."

"But ya know, course," he continued, placing the cup on the table and laying down, his hooves folded. "So ya drink it."

The mare's eyes widened in shock for a moment before she smiled, a genuinely warm expression as she raised the cup with her magic, taking a long, loud slurp before placing it down. Blue scowled at the mare, not sure what to believe.

"Swallow it," she said, and the unicorn laughed, opening her mouth immediately.

"I have, you silly foal," she said, shaking her head in amusement as Blue blushed pink. "Oh, what the world's come to these days. Barely anypony'd trust a frail old mare such as myself. It's sad, really."

"T'aint so odd. Hybrid girl over there tries ta kill us, but she's ya friend. Don't really help us trust ya."

"I suppose not," the mare said, smiling a little more, "but I won't kick her out of my home just for that. She's been my best friend ever been since I was just a foal. Not to mention I owe her so much; she's such a help to me, she helps me get food and supplies and she defends my home. That's all she was doing earlier; protecting me. But, of course, she can't tell who's friend and who's foe. I've tried to teach her, but teaching a mad'un anything is difficult. Even one as rational as Bittersweet here-"

"Woah, woah. Hold up there!" Breakneck said, sitting up straighter as if shocked. He looked momentarily at the mutant—hybrid, Blue remembered he had called her—before looking at the old mare stupendously. "Ya've gotta be kiddin' me!"

"Pardon?"

As the mare questioned Breakneck, Blue found herself staring at the hybrid, her face held in a frown. What was so special about this mare's name? Bittersweet seemed to suit her quite nicely; trying to kill them one minute, licking them like an adoring puppy dog the next.

"Her name's actually Bittersweet? Tha's her full name, from before she was infected?"

"Yes, it is. Why, do you-" The mare broke off and glanced at her friend, realisation dawning upon her. "You know who she is, don't you?"

"'Course ah do! Ah don't remember much, course, but... Oh Celestia, t'was massive news when she left Canterlot! Posters up everywhere, ah've never seen them Canterlot ponies so active out here!"

Blue's frown increased as she listened, her confusion turning into utter unknowingness. Looking around unsurely, not sure what her part in this conversation was, her mind soon took advantage of the chance to breathe at long last and wandered to RipEar. She could still see his grey eyes, so similar to hers, staring up at her from his lifeless pile of bones as the dogs drew back; she could hear his clichéd yet heroic shouts of "Blue, run!" in her mind, filling her heart with pride for his courage; she could recall his agonised screams as he was torn limb-from-limb, his flesh ripped from his still responsive body. And the smell; even that faint but horrid stench of blood, metallic and sharp, could still be detected.

Gasping for air, Blue reached out for her cup of tea and placed both hooves on it a little too roughly, bringing the cup to her lips and gulping down the liquid, dropping it as she noticed just how boiling hot it still was. Screaming, she jumped backwards into the table as if she could escape the scolding water, smashing into that and only succeeding in sending the teapot flying instead, the remnants of the drink missing her by a feather and only catching her neck with a few stray drops, just below the bandage. Yelping, she jumped once more, only to end up stood shaking in the same spot she'd started in, with a large mess around her.

Breakneck and the old mare stared at her in shock, perhaps wondering if she was partially mad as well as being an amnesiac, but she regained control a second later. Looking around herself in surprise at the devastation—not quite, but almost anyway—she folded her ears back and looked down, lowering her head as she lay down as if she'd just been caught stealing from the cookie jar.

Not that there were many cookie jars these days. Sugar... It was a priceless commodity.

"Oh, dear, are you alright?" The old mare stood up quickly, looking towards the other room before levitating a towel over to Blue who accepted it gratefully, tenderly mopping up the boiling water from her fur. She then turned to Bittersweet, trotting over and laying her lower body down at her head, as if bowing. "Would you please give us some water, dear friend?" she asked, but the hybrid only snorted, putting her nose in the air as if disgusted. The old mare sighed as she stood up. "Then would you care to fetch some from outside for us? You know my legs don't work so well these days..."

The hybrid snorted once again but rose to her feet this time, flying past the old mare slowly as she swatted at the pony with her tail before leaving the building. The mare sighed as she sat down, wincing a little as she did so.

"Oh... I'm certainly getting on a bit," the pony said with a sigh, looking up at the old clock on the wall. It was only an old plastic one, simple and dull, and considering how the second hand managed to stay still for at least ten times the amount of time it should it was no longer working. That wasn't much of a surprise, really; as far as Blue knew, batteries weren't high on most ponies' lists, compared with food or water.

"Hey, Pumpkin," Breakneck said as he placed down his cup, having finished the drink and now inspecting the empty cup as if he could find some answers in it, quickly whispering to Blue that the mare's name was Pumpkin Surprise as the said pony turned around. "Where'd ya get milk anyway? Ah've never heard of anypony havin' cows these days. Is there a wild herd 'round 'ere or something'?" Pausing, he smiled as he reached his tongue into the bottom of the cup. "Nice cup of tea, though. Ah've gotta say, tis nice ta have a diff'rent drink. Water's kinda... Bland."

"Oh, Bittersweet gives it to me," Pumpkin Surprise said, smiling. "She's really quite helpful."

"Oh, ah get it." Breakneck said with a small grunt, but Blue choked on the air she was breathing in, her mouth falling open, tears rising in her eyes—though the was possibly because of the pain searing her burnt leg.

"You... You mean that... You milk her? I drank pony milk?"

"What? Oh, of course not!" Pumpkin laughed as she spoke, rolling her eyes a little, looking somewhat younger from her jubilation. "I mean she uses her magic to make it for me. She's the foal of two really powerful beings; even though she's not all there she's still powerful. But the madness affects her, she doesn't understand the gravity of the situation these days and she won't help much. She's stubborn, I think she thinks I should do it myself. Of course, she doesn't realise there's no way for me to do that anymore."

"Ah'm right, hmm?" Breakneck cut in, frowning at Pumpkin Surprise, changing the topic back to the previous one. "She's the-"

His words were cut off as a loud, somewhat distorted whinny sounded as Bittersweet came back, a small tin bucket held in her mouth. Placing it down in front of Blue, some water sloshing over the sides and splashing her skin, she mad'un let her tongue loll out and she beamed at her mare companion, before turning tail and trotting bouncily back to her corner of the room, laying down again and curling her tail around her body. She gave a small sigh and rested her head on her paw, closing her eyes. Blue let out a breath as well, watching the mare with a frownpicking up the bucket and dipping the small towel in, squeezing it out and dabbing the fabric on her pained skin. She could have sworn she saw steam as she applied the cooling water.

"What's this all about?" she asked once her pain subsided, looking towards the dozing hybrid and studying her. How she'd appeared so intimidating earlier when she looked so... well, angelic, now was a mystery. Turning to her companion, she finished, "You know her?"

"Yeah, ah do. She's dead famous; there were a load of posters out 'ere when she left Canterlot. Even beats them tha' they put out when that pegasus dis'ppeared a few years back. Scientist, think she was.  But tha's nothin' compared ta Bittersweet; she's a hybrid, a mix between a pony an' a draconequus. Ya got any clues?"

Blue shook her head slowly, eyes closing as her world suddenly began to spin, her hooves feeling as if they were barely touching the floor below her. She didn't hear Breakneck's next words as her vision blurred; a second later, she felt her world go completely black. She couldn't move, couldn't see, couldn't smell or touch anything. She could only hear a dull ringing, and a second later she could make out a few blurred shapes, coloured in dull hues.

"The princess... She has, indeed, d-disappeared." The voice shook as it spoke, and through the blurred colours Blue could just distinguish some quick movements at the words. "But please, do not worry. We will find her, but until then... Until then, we will just have to sit tight."

A low gasp sounded in Blue's ear, barely louder than a whisper as the colours slowly grew brighter and began to become less blurred, developing some sort of shape. Were they... Were they ponies? Blue tried her best to see, but the resolution increased at a snail's pace, barely getting easier to distinguished as the seconds passed, and-

"Blue, dear, are you okay?"

"Wha-?" Blue felt herself be jerked from the strange scene and opened her eyes, her dizziness passed, and she found herself sat in Pumpkin Surprise's living room again. "What did you say?"

"I asked how you were."

"Oh. Of course. I'm... I'm fine." she said quickly, not sure if she was or not.

"Well, if you're sure. I was just telling your little friend here how Bittersweet helped me escape Canterlot. My grandmother—Pumpkin Cake, her name was—lived there almost all her life, and my mother was born there. But I... I was young, courageous and wasn't blinded by that city's lies. It's a mess, Canterlot; safe, but there's no freedom there. I suppose some ponies would prefer that way of life, but me... I'd had enough. Bittersweet here, though; she caught me trying to sneak out. Tried to stop me at first, too, but then she did something which I will never, ever forget."

"Hmm?"

"She got me out of there. The two of us ran away, safe from the control, but not from the PLAGUE. She was infected on the second day, remained in the coma for a month. That's why I settled up here; I couldn't move her, and this was as safe a place as any. I'm immune, thank Luna, but she became a mad'un, of course. But she was like a puppy, always looking to me as her mother. So to this day she's protected me, and she'll do so 'till she dies."

"But... That doesn't explain how Breakneck knows her. Why should they prioritise a... well, a hybrid like her over a scientist? Surely a scientist's more valuable?"

Breakneck shook his head, tapping her shoulder with his hoof to get her attention. "Ya didn' listen ta what ah said, Blue; she's the most wanted pony out 'ere, even after twenty, maybe thirty years. Bittersweet—she's the daughter of Celestia and Discord... She's a princess." Next Chapter: Fluffy Bugbears Estimated time remaining: 43 Minutes