A few months go by. I'm about ready for my first day of school. It starts in two weeks.

The sun rises. For some reason, I feel odd. I sit in my bedroom, getting myself ready for today, and then a weird feeling comes up. Blankly, I trot out of my room, and into the living room. Too quiet. But then I hear rumbling coming from the lab. I see mom rushing in from the kitchen to the lab.

She looks panicked. I get nervous.

I follow her into the hall, and we look through the door. We can't see anything but green. Toxic green. We unlock the hatch and open it.

Green goo spills out onto the steel flooring, and floods to the wooden floor. Mom shrieks and sets back as the green stuff bubbles and froths around.

Stepping back, I can barely see Dad. He perches on a table, whipping around, looking for an escape. He then dives into the goo, and emerges right next to me, screaming in pain. I saw his lab coat burning holes and smoking.

Mom bends forward to grab his hoof, but flinched at a sharp "no!" Dad was struggling to stand.

"My experiments! There's been an explosive reaction with one of them! We need to evacuate!" He shouts. Mom nods, and then scoops me onto her back, then runs. Dad canters behind, but often trips in his own gait.

We barely reach the front door before Dad passes out.

"Dad!" I yell in panic. Despite Mom's pleas, I trot over to Dad and grab his hoof.

'Sweet Celestia, that burns!'

The strange goo almost seeps into my own hoof, but I keep going. With all the strength I can use, I drag Dad towards the door. Mom kicks the door open, ignoring the door knob, and we both outside.

I start panting as we make it outside. Dad was heavy back there. I sniff at Dad's lab coat.

"...Dad?" I murmur. To my relief, Dad stirs, but replies with a hazy moan of pain. Patches of fur were eaten off, and some of the goo left burned patches on him. He shakily lifts his head, then whips around, eyes widening in shock. "We need to keep moving! That stuff is volatile!" He rasps. He stands up to walk, but collapses again with a grunt. There was no way he could carry on like this. I look back at the cottage. I see green glowing through the metal case around the lab room. It then glows brighter.

Dad was right. We can't just sit here.

"We have to hurry," I agree.

Too late.

We hear hissing noises from the wood walls of the cottage. Then, more goo explodes, disintegrating the wood planks.

It rains into Mom's mane and back. Mom shrieks again. This time like a banshee.

I feel the searing pain of green eating at my chest. It singes the fur, then burns my flesh. I scream in agony. This felt worse than dental appointments without laughing gas and surgery drugs. But I keep facing towards it. Some more of it splashes onto my cheek. It hurts to scream now.

'So this is what it's like to feel so much pain.'

My head begins to swim.

I feel hazy.

Every heartbeat now collides with the goo, making the red haze obscuring my view green.

Eventually, I faint. Right next to Dad.

My last thought: I hope there's no such thing as death by pain.