“Safe rooms sealed,” the mare’s voice announced, informing me that it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. There had never been enough time. “Deploying neurotoxin gas.”

Wait, what?

I remembered Knight Strawberry Lemonade calling for me to take out Cottage by gassing the room, but I didn’t realize that was actually possible. But Stables tend to be dangerous, Stern had warned us in Fillydelphia. They often have their own security or their own… unique dangers.

I turned frantically, looking around. I needed to get out of the hall. But where could I go that would be safe? The safe rooms were already sealed. I suddenly felt very tired.

Having no better choice, I started hobbling back down the maintenance wing. I wanted to get to the PipBuck Technician’s stall. There was no logic behind the choice. It just felt like the best place for me to be. I probably wasn’t thinking straight. I felt so tired.
Tired… and heavy.

I wondered what kind of gas was going to be released. Would I hear it? Would I be able to smell it? Would it burn my eyes and lungs? So far, there was nothing, not even a haziness to the air. A flutter of hope moved in my heart. Maybe, after two hundred years, the intruder counter-measures no longer worked. Maybe there was no gas. The idea made me feel better, but also a little dizzy.

Dizzy. And tired. And heavy…

Oh no…

And then I was falling back in the darkness again. I didn’t even feel my body hit the floor.