Blue let out a small moan as she awoke, discomfort the only real feeling to her at first. Every single part of her small body ached—no, scratch that. Every part of her burned. Her muscles, especially her wings, protested even as she remained still, laying on the ground in a bed of some soft plant; her underbelly stung awfully in a way which could only suggest that things weren't right; the base of her neck felt as if it had been raked by vicious claws, throbbing agonisingly and refusing to settle down and her thigh... It was pain the likes of which she'd never felt before. She may as well have stepped on a mine and been blown up, she wasn't sure it could possibly hurt much more.

It took a few minutes for her to find the willpower to open her eyes, even that action painful, and the world came into focus agonisingly slowly; the first thing she recognised was that whatever plant she'd landed in was incredibly tall, looking just like overgrown grass and that alone was reassuring—it was something familiar. Grass, at least, was safe; tasty, even, though not quite as good as carrots or apples. At the minute, though, Blue couldn't quite find the energy to move her head to nibble (nor did she think her torn up neck would keep quiet if she did so).

The outside world was unsettlingly silent, the only sounds that of the wind through the plants and the odd squawking bird call. That wasn't much of a surprise, really; pretty much half of the population had been killed off by the plague and those who hadn't probably ended up being murdered by psychotic ponies anyway, the mad'uns as they were usually called. From what she'd been told, even the other types of ponies often ended up descending into insanity; with all the horrors they probably saw it was perfectly justified.

Trying not to move too quickly and wincing as her neck started throwing a tantrum, Blue looked around herself more. It was surprisingly bright for this late at night yet when she looked up at the sky she could see the moon; frowning, she turned her head stiffly to see where in Equestria the light could be coming from and she cried out in shock as her eyes were blinded by the sunlight which should not have been. She instantly let her head collapse to the floor to protect herself from becoming permanently blinded—that was, come to think of it, one of the many ways ponies reacted to the plague. Just as her friend RipEar was deaf, some ponies lost their sight.

Wait...

Blue let out a choked wail as she suddenly recalled what had happened to RipEar and even the pain in her neck could not stop her from throwing back her head and screaming, the sound a primal and agonised cry of grief. All rational thoughts abandoned her as she watched the scene over and over in her mind, the way the hounds had hurled themselves upon him, how their claws had shredded his skin and their teeth torn chunks of flesh until he was nothing but bones and a pair of eyes.

Emotions poured out of her in a tidal wave as she screamed for her lost companion, the only pony who she could remember as a friend. He had understood her, had always been there when everybody else turned away from her, hating her for simply being lucky enough to retain the colour in her mane.

Lucky? Bah! As if anyone in this messed up world was even remotely lucky—the closest anypony could ever come to being fortunate was if they died a quick death; at least then they'd be spared the horrors of this land. Even the mad'uns were better off than she—they, at least, couldn't think sensibly enough to know that the world had become an awful, awful place.

Blue screamed until there were no more tears to left to cry and then some, her heart joining the list of aching muscles as she finally ceased her grieving, too weak to continue sobbing. The pain in the rest of her body mattered not, though; in some ways it was a welcome punishment for allowing RipEar, who'd risked his life to save hers, to be killed. In such a brutal way as well; if she'd only snatched the guard's gun and turned that upon him, it would have been over with barely a second of pain.

Somewhere not too far away, a mournful-sounding howl echoed in the wind, reaching Blue's ears and making her hairs stand on end. She lifted her head painfully and understood that some creature had heard her, presumably some form of wolf judging by the strength of that cry, and she looked around wearily. She ought to get up and run, or even fly, she really should, yet her own instincts were outweighed by the heavy weight of her guilt which forced her to lay her head back down in resignation and make small, feeble whinnying noises. Whether she was crying for help or just for the hell of it, she couldn't tell, nor did she care. It wasn't as if anyone would help her anyway.

A minute passed and no wolves had yet arrived, but still Blue could hear their howls in the distance, increasingly loud and ever more terrifying. As instinct began to grow stronger she felt the adrenaline flowing around her body, the need to survive getting more urgent. Her brain, disconnected from her wounded heart, began reminding her that she shouldn't let RipEar's sacrifice be in vain; her heart countered that if the wolves got her, she could meet him again and they could walk heaven together.

She didn't want to live in this cold world alone, nopony to talk to or even just to have her back. That would be nothing more than surviving; she would not be truly living, just getting by.

The howls grew increasingly louder and louder. Every half minute or so another would ring out through the air and send chills down Blue's spine, her instincts slowly kicking her into action. Nonetheless, it wasn't until she could hear the pack's combined heavy breathing that she began to react properly, realising then that she would rather just live than cease to be altogether; she rose shakily to her hooves as the wolves got ever closer, no more than fifty metres away, and she outstretched her wings clumsily, moving the stiff muscles desperately.

"Come on, come on!" she groaned as her slow movements gave her very little lift but she could see no way to make her muscles work faster. Screaming in pure agony once more as her battered body protested she touched down to the ground and then used very ounce of her strength to leap up from the floor on three legs, her rear left almost uselessly weak, and she beat her wings as hard as she could at a steady speed. It would not even have been classed as slow by normal standards but right now, it was all she could achieve.

She managed to get about two metres in the air by the time the wolves reached her. It was nothing; though they were not even mutated—something which would have given them an extra bonus and would have made Blue's chances even slimmer—they barely had to jump to scratch at her already clawed stomach and once again small amounts of blood began to flow from her body, falling in droplets atop the creatures' heads. They snarled and growled viciously and Blue let out a shrill scream in response as she somehow managed to flap her wings faster, gaining a little more height so that all the wolves could reach was the very bottom of her hooves. It stung, of course, but she was just high enough to escape serious injury at last.

Then, all of a sudden, the wolves began to back off. Snarling as if pained they lashed out at the air, clawing at their own muzzles and running about in a panic, whining. They slashed at each other, each creature turning on its pack mates before they all stopped suddenly, spinning and fleeing from the scene. Blue, for one, couldn't tell whatever it was that had affected them so; looking around with blurry eyesight as the pain grew overwhelming she saw nothing even remotely dangerous, though her eyes did land on a small black saddlebag not far off. RipEar's.

Angling herself downwards, she stopped flapping her wings and let her body fall in a slow and steady dive, her eyesight constantly going in and out of focus. Knowing she'd never be able to stand on her sore, stinging hooves she began to beat her exhausted wings upwards just as she hooked the saddlebag in her mouth; she flapped and flapped but her battered body had had enough. Unable to get any height she crashed into the ground and skidded a little way across the (thankfully) grassy floor on her stomach, coming to a stop and moaning.

Not even an hour out here and I'm already nearly dead. Blue thought bitterly as she closed her eyes, desperate for sleep and the respite from pain which would come with it. I may as well have just let the facility do what they wanted with me; I'll never survive out here.

Facing East where the sun claimed its share of the sky, Blue soon realised she had no hope of drifting off with the brightness. Using her wings to push her body around so that she was facing the darker side of the land, she sighed and moaned, laid her head back down on her hooves and prayed to any remorseful God left in this twisted place to let her just sleep, and never wake up. Next Chapter: To Trust a Mutant Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 5 Minutes