"Canterlot's a messed up place. It used to be magnificent, and I suppose it still is a beauty, but it's not the same." Pumpkin sighed as she levitated the now empty teacups out into the kitchen, followed by the chipped old teapot. "I expect it's gotten even worse since I left. But, thank Celestia, I left when I was twenty or so. I'd had enough of that twisted city, and Bittersweet had as well; she's the princess of peace and harmony, after all. Kind of hard to be that in a place that's run on fear."

Bittersweet nodded her head quickly, head flying up and down as if she were trying to reach the ceiling. Settling a second later, she curled up again and hid her head behind her bat-like wing, making odd little chirping noises and scratching behind her shoulder with her rear hoof; all the while Breakneck watched her closely as he tried to overlook her actions, trying to see a regal princess and not any old mutated mare. It was impossible for him to succeed, the hybrid being too animalistic to seem like anything other than somepony's pet.

"Is anywhere in Equestria still safe these days?" Blue piped in, shuffling her wings a little as she spoke. The poor thing looked like a filly who'd dropped her lollipop.

"I suppose it depends on what you call safe, dear. There are some places which are... Moderately so, but everywhere you go will have an element of danger." Pumpkin frowned, laying her head down on her hooves. "Come to think of it, you two are rather far out. Where are you headed?"

Breakneck chuckled slightly and tensed somewhat, his tails hanging limply on the floor and his body slouched, his ears falling back slightly so that they were pressed gently against his head. He lowered his head slowly and turned his face away, a small grimace plastered on his face. "We're gonna go ta tha' town. The one tha' ponies say's safe from this bucking plague." He grimaced a little more and his tails clamped more against his body, his ears flattening more. "Ah... Ah jus' hoped tha' we'd stumble 'cross it. Cause we don' know where it is, course. Ah'm honestly jus' hopin' it's real at this point."

"Oh," Pumpkin said, a little shocked at the seemingly experienced pony's decision to pin his hopes on one particular town which he didnt even know was real, nor where it could be found if it did prove not to be little more than a myth, but then something clicked in her brain; with widened eyes, she stared at him and Blue contemplatively. "Oh. You must mean Saint Poniesburg? The little village rumoured to be the only place out here where the PLAGUE is controlled?"

"Ah... Ah suppose." Breakneck mumbled, his tails relaxing a little, his ears perking up slightly. "Why? Is it... Is it real?"

"Yes, it does exist. And, I suppose, they can control the PLAGUE there, as they claim. But... Well, I went there and I didn't like it. It simply wasn't my cup of tea, so to speak. So I left, that's how I know of it. But everypony else... Well, nopony else has ever left that place."

"Why did you leave then?" Blue asked with a frown, cocking her head slightly like an inquisitive puppy. "If they can control the PLAGUE and everything, isn't that like... Well, Paradise, or something?"

Pumpkin shook her head and rose to her hooves, an action which made Bittersweet look up somewhat unwillingly. She studied her friend quietly for a minute before her eyes trailed to the window, staring unblinkingly at them. Pumpkin barely batted an eyelid, so Blue brushed it off too.

"Saint Poniesburg is... No, I shan't say anything. I wouldn't want to ruin your judgement of the place. Everypony else there seemed perfectly happy, so why should I push my own opinions onto you when it could improve your lives so greatly?" Turning to Breakneck, she gave him a small, soft smile. "They could even heal your mutations there, I do believe. I can tell they cause you distress."

"Really? How'd ya figure tha' one out?"

"I'm a good judge of ponies," Pumpkin said with a shrug and a small laugh. "You've got to be out here." Turning to Blue this time, she spoke some more. "I can even tell that you've got a big secret, dear. You don't know it, of course, but something massive happened to you before you became infected. In time, maybe you'll figure it out."

"Really?"

"Of course," Pumpkin replied, a proud, almost motherly grin on her wrinkled face. "Of course, everypony's important in their own way, but... There's more to you than that. You should keep focused; maybe if you regained your cutie mark, you'd learn something." Pumpkin took a breath before she opened her mouth to speak once again, but she instantly quietened when she heard Bittersweet growling and hissing in an odd, hauntingly wolfish way, though her pony voice mangled the sounds into a hideous mess. Blue shrunk back a little and pressed herself against Breakneck's side; he, in turn, shuffled away from her stiffly with a rapid heart rate and raised his tails readily.

The old mare trotted stiffly over to the window and, opening one old, moth-eaten curtain with her magic very cautiously, she frowned and turned back to her guests. "Strange. There're two stallions outside, Facility stallions it looks like, from their uniforms. Fancy what they'd be doing all the way out here?"

Blue's face fell and her eyes widened, pressing herself even closer up to Breakneck as if she could simply merge into his body and hide. "What... What are they doing here!" she yelped, looking towards the window with wide, shrunken eyes. "Oh, sweet Luna, they've-they've come for me!"

"Come for you, dear?" Pumpkin asked, spinning around quickly with slightly lowered ears, though she raised her hoof slightly as if she were torn between walking and standing. "Why would they-"

"I... I ran away from my facility because they wanted to kill me. They must be coming to finish the job!"

"Oh, goodness!" Pumpkin whispered, just as a short, harsh knock sounded at the door. Both Blue and Breakneck leapt to their feet at the same time, looking in the direction of the hallway with tensed up bodies. "You two, you must go! Now! Bittersweet will show you out, right?" She turned to her long friend and stared with a pleading expression; the hybrid hissed and pawed at the ground, but she nodded stiffly all the same and outstretched her mismatched wings, eyes locking with the two trapped ponies' and capturing them in a magical aura. Taking one stride of gallop, she then launched herself up into the air and beat quickly through the room. Smashing through the window with a deafening smash and dragging her captives after her, not aware that the shards of glass had torn their skin to shreds in more places than one, she fled outside with precision and speed which could only come with practice.

As the mare snaked through the air, she threw back her head and gave a loud, haunting cry, somewhat similar to that of an eagle. Tilting her body upwards, she then began to climb higher and higher into the split sky, her magic disconnecting with the two ponies ten metres up and sending them hurtling down.

Screaming, an action which Blue would later realise was incredibly foolish, she snapped out her torn up, bloodied wings and dived down towards Breakneck, flapping to gain enough momentum to get under his body just before he crashed. Re-angling herself to try and regain the height which the pair had just lost, she instead misjudged the effect of the additional weight of an extra stallion on her back and saw the ground rushing up to greet her.

The pain was overwhelming, making Blue's vision blur and blacken as her muzzle smashed into the ground. Her flank rose into the air as she barrelled through the dirt, her tail flopping over her head as Breakneck was sent flying by the momentum. She cried out as she continued to skid across the unforgiving terrain, landing on her back and shooting a few more metres until finally coming to a stop. Groaning, she closed her eyes and laid still for a second, trying not to be defeated by the pain.

How come she always ended up torn up so badly?

"Blue, c'mon!" A rough voice, Breakneck's, cut through her distressed, sorry-for-herself thoughts. She opened one eye slowly and gave a small sigh, pushing up as her whole body trembled and shook. "Tha's it, c'mon! We've gotta go!"

Blue gave a loud groan, nearing onto a scream, as she pushed herself up even more, her vision clouding. Through the bleakness she could see how torn up the poor stallion before her was too; his grey fur lay in all directions, and his shoulder—the one not wounded by the mad'uns bite before—was stained red.

Blue gasped slightly and closed her eyes, nearly losing her lunch and cup of tea in the meantime. Her world becoming even dizzier, she wobbled to her four hooves and struggled to stand, taking one step, two, then a third and fourth. "Tha's it! Now-"

"There! The light grey one, shoot her now!"

Blue yelped and spun around, her eyes locking with that of one large, bulky stallion. He was clothed in nothing more than a simple shawl, but that was enough to strike fear and awe into anypony's heart for it was a uniform recognised by all. A facility officer; the elite of all fighters in this mad world. Even those inside the facility, protected by these stallions, knew that much.

An arrow was unleashed as the stallion, an earth pony, released the string of a bow and sent his missile whistling her way. It seemed nothing special at first, but as it brushed the tip of her ear when she ducked, she realised immediately that it wasn't just any old weapon.

It was drugged.

Screaming, Blue bucked a few times as the magic seeped into her veins, warm, stick blood trickling down her cheek and making her feel especially faint. Her legs giving way, she unfolded her injured wings and forced herself into the air, doing so rather feebly. Trying desperately to listen for the sound of Breakneck's voice as her brain failed to make any sense of the world around her—the only thing she was able to pick up on was the massive, fuzzy bugbear which she was now sat atop, and the bright rainbow which they were galloping over—she sighed and lay her head down atop the bugbears fluffy (though strangely spiky) neck and fell asleep. Next Chapter: If I Should Die Estimated time remaining: 36 Minutes