It was big. It had something of a cylindrical head with no facial features save for its dripping mouth full of silver, shining teeth. It's black skin seemed to be covered in a layer of natural fluid and it had a large, smooth dome on its head from right above the mouth all the way to the back of its skull. The dome itself was slightly translucent, and Rainbow could see the faint, white outline of a skull underneath it.

She pressed against the desk even harder, hoping that it wouldn't see her, and she knew that Fluttershy was probably screaming internally at the moment.

Attached to the end of its long arms were hands with six fingers, sharp claws at the tips. It had a tail that looked too long for it's body size which was tipped with a long, clearly sharp blade. Four short, tube-like appendages sprouted from it's back near the shoulders, and it had large, round protrusions from the shoulders themselves. Rainbow could see several strands of tissue attached to either side of it's jaw as it hissed loudly, and inside it's mouth she thought she saw the silvery glint of a second set of teeth, but the creature closed it's mouth too quickly for her to get a better look.

She watched as it circled the room once. Twice. Until it walked toward the locker in which Fluttershy was hiding. Please, Fluttershy, keep quiet... she silently prayed. And then, the worst possible thing happened.

Clunk!

Fluttershy had knocked something over inside.

The monster let out a deafening shriek and tore the locker open with one arm. Inside, Rainbow Dash could barely make out the cowering form of Fluttershy as the monster completely blocked her view. She also noticed that the door was still open. She considered flying past it before it noticed her, but she knew that she'd probably end up putting herself in more danger than necessary. She also knew that she had to help Fluttershy before anything happened.

She considered a plan of attack, but it was too late. The creature had Fluttershy dangling by her neck in its hand. It levelled her face with it's mouth, and opened it's jaw wide. Rainbow then watched in horror as her guess about it having a second set of teeth was confirmed in the most violent way possible: a long, tongue-like appendage shot out of it's mouth, a small set of silver teeth attached to the end, and went straight through Fluttershy's skull. The impact sent bits of bone and brain matter, along with whatever blood was in her head, splattering against the wall of the locker behind her.

Rainbow Dash had to hold a hoof over her mouth to keep from screaming and/or vomiting all over the floor in front of her. She watched in horror as the creature dropped Fluttershy's lifeless corpse to the ground, and then stalked it's way back into the hallway. Seconds later, she could hear it jumping into the vent above, and rustling away as it crawled off.

***

Applejack and Pinkie Pie headed through more desolate hallways. A few malfunctioning lights made the trek partially dark, but nothing too threatening was found by them. The came across a set of doors which led to, as the sign above the door said, a medical deck.

"Why are we here, Applejack?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"To grab some supplies if one of us needs it," Applejack replied almost monotonically, her eyes slightly downcast.

Pinkie noticed this and asked; "What's wrong, AJ? Are you alright?"

"I just... got a bad feelin' is all. Like somethin' bad might'a happened," Applejack explained.

"I'm sure everything's fine," Pinkie chimed, trying to cheer Applejack up. But the truth was, she wasn't sure at all. Whatever killed the crew of this ship was bound to still be around somewhere.

"Let's just keep goin'," Applejack said, not waiting for Pinkie before heading through the door to the medical deck.

Pinkie waited a few seconds before following her friend through, watching her back as she headed inside.

***

Rainbow Dash slowly crawled out from under the desk, being careful not to make any noise. She scanned the room, and stuck her head into the hallway slowly, looking for any sign of the creature. There was none.

She let out a sigh of relief and walked back to Fluttershy's lifeless body. There was blood dripping down from the hole in her forehead, getting into her still-open eyes and travelling down her neck and body. Rainbow stifled a sob and closed Fluttershy's eyes delicately.

"I'm sorry, Fluttershy... I'm so sorry this happened to you..." she said quietly.

She then heard her earpiece crackling to life, followed by Twilight's voice.

"Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, status report," Twilight said.

"Dash here," Rainbow replied, "I found several logs filed by crew members of the ship, but we met the... thing that killed the crew."

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked.

"It came in here, and it... It killed Fluttershy..." Rainbow managed to get out. "I recommend we pull out before anyone else gets hurt."

There was silence on the line for a few seconds, then Twilight came back with; "Acknowledged, Rainbow. Meet Rarity and I back at the airlock, we still haven't heard from Pinkie or Applejack, so we'll wait until we do before making any decisions."

"What do you mean? Can't you just call them and tell them what happened? We need to get out of here!" Rainbow almost screamed into the microphone, but kept her voice level in fear of attracting the monster.

"I just did. There's too much interference for us to reach them right now, plus Rarity wants to have a word with you," Twilight explained.

"There was nothing I could do to save Fluttershy," Rainbow said dully. "Tell her that."

Twilight was silent before saying; "Okay... Just meet us at the airlock. I'll keep trying to reach Pinkie and Applejack."

"Alright," Rainbow said.

Author's Note

Well... Things are happening... Why was Fluttershy first? Because somebody needs to yell at Rainbow Dash for something. I know that in that situation she probably would've tried something (getting herself killed in the process, mind you) but considering that Jim both isn't from Equis and the fact that he killed pretty much the entire crew of the ship, it's reasonable to assume that even she would be scared out of her wits. Anyway, see y'all in the next chapter.