“Fluttershy, can you hear me?”

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…
...

“Fluttershy!”

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…

“Please, answer!”

Fluttershy's eyes slowly crack open. Everything is a blur, from the dimly lit, orangish-brown room she is in, to the corpses of the Necromorphs near her, and the worried face of Rainbow Dash being projected in front of her; only, the projection is flickering in and out with strands of the footage breaking into cubes.

“Oh, thank Celestia!” says Rainbow Dash, her hoof brushing her mane. “Are you all right?”

Fluttershy's eyes sluggishly scan the room while she lays on the floor, barely able to move and her head feeling dizzy with a ringing in her bloody ears. Her whole body is aching and cold and covering her is a mix of sticky blood and hardened foam and surrounding her are ruptured medical foam cans. Her mouth remains sealed with yellow tinted blood pooling in and trickling past her lips, and she weakly blows air throw her nose.

“Rarity, where's that alternate route?” says Rainbow Dash, looking at the unicorn in question, who is plugged into a terminal on the wall, frantically pressing buttons and looking at a holographic display of schematics.

“I'm not seeing anything,” says Rarity tearfully. “There's too much damage to the ship.”

“It was a mistake not to get her in the first place!” says Applejack.

“We couldn't go back, and we still can't go back!” says Thunderlane.

“No, we are going back!” snaps Rainbow Dash. “Nopony else is going to die on my watch!”

“Going back is going to get us all killed and then she will bleed to death, anyway!” says Thunderlane.

Fluttershy's eyes fall on a syringe of adrenaline, and she extends a shaky hoof towards it.

On the failing projection, Applejack paces in circles and Thunderlane slumps to the floor while Rainbow Dash rubs her face.

“Rarity, Celestia is my witness, if you don't find a way to Fluttershy in the next sixty seconds I will beat the shit out of you,” says Rainbow Dash.

“I'm trying but the ship is wrecked! The vents are damaged, the corridors are death traps, the transit is not working, and then there's that thing roaming around, what do you expect me to do?” says Rarity.

Fluttershy pulls the adrenaline syringe towards her, coughs out a glob of yellow tinted blood and bites off the needle’s cap.

“I expect you to find a way! We lost too many already and I will be damned if any more of us die here!” says Rainbow Dash.

An argument breaks out on Rainbow Dash's end and Fluttershy injects herself with the adrenaline. This leads to her clutching her chest, coughing out more of the odd colored blood, and after she wheezes for air, her eyes open wide and her mouth hanging open to swallow air while her heart bangs against her ribs like a rabid animal trying to escape. After she takes a few large gulps of air, she stands up with the help of the terminal, wipes her muzzle, and tries to focus on Rainbow Dash's image.

“Stop arguing... Please,” begs Fluttershy.

Rainbow Dash snaps to her. “Fluttershy, we're coming to get you. I don't know how, yet, but find somewhere safe to hide and we'll get you.”

Fluttershy shakes her head. “No... It's too dangerous.”

“This whole ship is dangerous!”

“Just... Don't come for me... I can get to the transit hub.” Fluttershy blinks tears out of her eyes. “Please don't get yourselves hurt because of me.”

“You almost died!”

“Please don’t come after me. I don’t want you getting hurt. I'll call you when I get to the transit station.”

“Wait-”

Fluttershy disconnects the call, puts it on “Do Not Disturb”, and after she does that she slides to the floor, wincing and squeezing her eyes shut. She takes a long, shaky breath and slowly opens her eyes to look at the mix of blood and medical foam on the floor where she laid. She stares mostly at her blood, though, curious about what the yellow gunk is. She uses her MAD to scan the mess, and when the results appear, she sees her blood type and “unknown” for the taint. Seeing this, she bangs her head against the wall and then inspects herself, noting the numerous bites and scratches all over her body, plus the foam-sealed gashes on her upper body. She tries flapping her wings, but only one works. The other burns from the slightest movement and goes limp.

Fluttershy sighs, and a few moments later she forces herself to stand up, grabs her energy cutter and is about to inspect the last doorway, but stops herself, looks at her tattered uniform, and then decides to hobble towards the maintenance quarters. Thankfully, there is nothing lurking in the stairwell, but the clip-clop of her hoofs on the metal steps quickens her breathing and brings her heart to jackhammer against her chest. When she reaches the top of the stairs the door is locked, but the key band opens it with no problem, revealing a long room with rows of broken beds, torn and bloody sheets and broken foot lockers. At the far end is a tube with an orange glow and a silhouette of a pegasus and the crossing wrench and hammer painted on it.

Fluttershy stiffens and stays in the doorway as she sweeps the area with her weapon. Its light creates shadows that stretch along the walls and floor, fusing with other shadow that give the blood an odd blue hue. She also shines a light on the ceiling and finds bars with platforms that have footlockers next to them.

Fluttershy steps in the room, keeping the light on the ceiling until she nearly trips over a footlocker that is laying in the middle of the aisle, which creates a loud screech of scraping metal. She stumbles and hops to regain her footing, and after avoiding a crash to the floor she swings her weapon around, relieved when she sees nothing lurking in the dark.

With nothing dangerous in sight, she approaches the cylinder at the far end of the room, It has the circular lock like all the others, so she presses her key against the lock and the metal doors slide apart with a hiss as the light flickers on. In front of her is a thick dark blue jumpsuit like Applejack’s and hanging next to it are strips of metal attached together and organized to fit limbs, spines, and ribs. There is also a full faced helmet with a light blue tri-band visor.

Fluttershy makes one last quick look around for danger before she removes her holographic devices, the hoof bands, and her saddle, and then proceeds to gradually peel off what is left of her medical uniform. Each movement feels like her muscles are going to snap, and parts of her suit did not want to come off because of the mix of blood and foam acting like a glue. But she finally gets out of her suit entirely after a couple of minutes and goes to put on the mechanic suit.

Getting in the jumpsuit is almost easy, but her limp wing has difficultly sliding into the glove like attachment for pegasus wings, and her long tail is forced to bunch up inside the tail sleeve. Once the jumpsuit is on, she puts on the metal attachments, which is quite easy, but she needs to adjust their straps so that they fit her frame better. After those are on, she puts on her hoof bands, her holographic projectors, her saddle, and lastly the helmet.

With the helmet on, Fluttershy's breathing echoes and her mane pokes out from underneath and bunches up against her cheeks and forehead. There is also a warning message that says: Mane/Tail too long. Please see barber.

Fluttershy pushes a button on the side of her helmet, causing it to split and retract to the back of her neck and under her chin. With the suit on, she inspects herself, getting a small smile from the thickness of the jumpsuit plus the protection of the outer armor. She also finds a few slots on her front hoofs for batteries, plus a holster for the energy cutter.

She holsters her weapon and paces in circles a few times as well as practices jumping, finding that she also feels a lot safer in the heavier suit.

“Looking good,” says Dr. Rock suddenly.

Fluttershy's body and heart jump and she spins in a circle to look around the room, coming to eye contact with a camera above a poster depicting a group of smiling maintenance workers of all races beneath it.

“I was honestly surprised that you survived after what happened to you in the schedule room,” continues the doctor.

Fluttershy looks at her limp wing, wincing when she tries to flap it, and she puts her eyes back on the camera when the doctor continues.

“It was also very noble of you keep going alone so the rest don't die for you,” says Dr. Rock.

“It wouldn’t be fair for all of them to get hurt because of me,” says Fluttershy after some hesitation.

“Hurt? You can say die, here. Everybody's dead meat on this ship. Well most, anyway. I won't be if you stay alive.”

Fluttershy frowns. “Have you found Zephyr?”

“No.”

Fluttershy sighs heavily but is honestly not surprised. Zephyr has always been good at hiding, which is why Hide and Seek games usually ended with a small search party of her and her parents looking for him when they were kids, and he really put it to good use when he left home. Why would this ship be any different? Still, the doctor has the cameras.

“Have you checked Section C? The barber shops?” Fluttershy goes to the camera and cranes her neck. “What about the cafeterias? Or the medical bays? Bathrooms? Other rooms? Broom closets!?”

“Whoa-whoa-whoa, relax, relax. I am only one griffin looking at a dozen monitors. I can only see so much,” says Dr. Rock.

Fluttershy steps back and slumps to the floor, her throat aching as she blinks tears out of her eyes.

“I'm sorry, I know you're trying to help... But I almost died and Zephyr's alone... I can't abandon him. Not again,” says Fluttershy.

There is a moment of silence. A long moment. So long in fact, that Fluttershy thinks Dr. Rock has disconnected again, so she wipes her eyes and heads towards the door.

“Wait,” says Dr. Rock.

Fluttershy stops and looks at the camera.

“Stay away from the Section C housing. I know Zephyr is not there and it is crawling with Necromorphs. The safest place that I can see is the bridge. I'll still look for Zephyr, but if you get to the bridge you can use the trackers to find him a lot quicker than me. But you better come get me if you find him. The people I work for would not be kind to you if you leave me here.”

Fluttershy nods, thanks him, and then leaves the room.

After leaving the room, she makes her way back to the schedule room and keeps her distance from the corpses and bloody-foam mess. She goes to the last marked doorway, relieved when she sees that its sign points to the stairwell as the entry point for the transit department. She goes up the stairs without anything eventful, hobbles down the hallway, straining her eyes so she can see in the dim light. Her eyes flick to each sign above locked doors, from broom closets, to break rooms, to nap rooms, and even a storage room.

Fluttershy halts and backs up to look at the sign marking the storage room. It is thankfully unlocked, so she quickly opens it... and her ears droop.

Papers, boxes, spare computers, writing utensils, all these things are scattered over the floor, and in the center of the room is vent covering with an open vent above it.
Fluttershy aims her weapon at the vent, seeing nothing hiding in the darkness, but she keeps close to the wall, gently pushing the supplies aside as she does so. She also activates her communicator and is greeted by Rainbow Dash's angry face.

“Don't you ever block me again,” says Rainbow Dash. “Where are you, anyway?”

Fluttershy cringes. “I'm sorry... I'm in the transit department's storage room. I need to know what the replacement circuit board looks like.”

“Hold on.” Rainbow Dash turns to Rarity. “Hey, Rarity! Fluttershy is in a storage room and needs to know what that replacement board thing looks like.”

Rarity wipes tears from her eyes. “It’s going to be in a sealed box with a rail stamp. The chip should be the size of the bottom of your hoof with eight prongs on each side and a gem sheet in the center.”

“Did you get that?”

Fluttershy nods.

“Good. We're still looking-”

A sudden explosive sound mixed with electric discharge and snapping metal shakes the footage, and Rainbow Dash ducks from a piece of a bent door bouncing past her. The footage shakes and Applejack tackles Rarity, using her body as a shield as a black mass with massive claws and red eyes barely misses them with a swipe, getting its claws stuck in the wall.

“Oh, shit, its back!” yells Thunderlane.

Bullets fly past Rainbow Dash and the black mass roars and yanks its clawed hand out of the wall while Applejack and Rarity scramble away. Rainbow Dash swears and brings her weapon up and the footage cuts out.

“R-Rainbow Dash!?” calls Fluttershy shakily. “Rainbow-”

A shriek snaps Fluttershy away from her call and she screams and jumps back as a bony scythe goes right towards her face. Her rump hits the wall, and she feels the scythe's edge brush against her nose, and she dives away from another scythe as another Necromorph swings at her, and she scrambles beneath the swipe of yet another Necromorph. During her scrambling she slips on a pile of papers and lands flat on her stomach, but quickly rolls to her back and shoots a stasis ball at the nearest Necromorph.
It is leaping at her when the ball hits it, and its descent slows to a near standstill from the blue aura enveloping it.

The other two rush towards Fluttershy, carelessly pushing the trapped Necromorph away, and Fluttershy yanks out her energy cutter and fires a barrage of red energy at them. They stumble and snarl as pieces of their body are cut off, with one losing both of its front legs and the other losing one of its scythe limbs before being decapitated.

Blood sprays out from the decapitated one's neck as it falls to the ground, and the Necromorph trapped in the air lands on its back, flailing and screaming. As for the Necromorph missing its front legs, it uses the curved claws to drag itself towards Fluttershy, leaving a thick trail of blood and its mouth open wide like a snake, screaming a raspy scream.

Fluttershy shoots it again, taking off half of its head, and another shot takes off the upper half of its body. By the time Fluttershy does this the last Necromorph has gotten back on its hoofs and rushes towards her, and she shoots it four times, bringing it to fall without a head or front legs.

With the last body dropped, Fluttershy backs into a corner and frantically sweeps her cutter side to side, shaking as she looks at the thick pools of blood and mangled bodies covering the floor. A few seconds later she forces herself to stand up and begins her search in the room, throwing severed body parts, boxes, and garbage aside. Her heart is racing, and she mumbles to herself, unable to think about anything other than the black mass that attacked Rainbow Dash's group.

Are they still alive?

Are they hurt?

What was that thing?

Is that thing hunting Zephyr, too?

What the hell happened to lead to this?

She must get to them! She must find Zephyr, find the team, find Dr. Rock and she can't do that without getting the transit fixed which she can't do because the replacement chip can't be found!

Fluttershy screams and throws a crate against the wall, then goes to another crate and stomps it open only to find more useless shit!

“Where is it!?”

Fluttershy kicks the remains of the crate away and starts yanking open lockers and throwing their contents out in a frenzy. After the fifth locker is opened it is like a prayer has been answered, for a box with the markings Rarity described are right at Fluttershy's eye level. To be safe Fluttershy opens the box and to her relief the chip is there, so she stuffs it in her saddle and runs out the door.

She gallops down the hall, the clanking and humming of the pipes and failing lights mix with the heavy breathing to clog her ears. She can barely see straight, her sides and limbs ache, and above her the metal rattles. She rounds the corner and uses her key band to unlock the only door in her way. This leads her to a large room with two rows of computers with pitch black screens, humming and rapidly flickering lights, and a long window that has a clear view of a transit car hanging from a rail, which is next to a platform lined with benches and lights.

Fluttershy closes and locks the door she came through, and steps further into the room, ear twitching and heart racing from the constant humming and a growing buzzing.

The further she goes in the room, the louder the buzzing becomes, and soon Fluttershy is gritting her teeth and has her ears folded down. A warmth trickles out of her ears and a dizziness puts her hoofs in an unsteady step as she continues her walk, trying to keep herself from falling over with the help of computer desks.

When she is in the center of the room, where an elevated desk and computer are, a loud screeching forces her to the ground, clutching her ears and squeezing her eyes shut. Her screams of pain are drowned by the screeching and the lights shut off while the computer monitors flicker to life, all showing the double helix.

“Make us whole,” whispers a collection of voices.

The lights flash on and the monitors shut off, and Fluttershy lays on the ground, whimpering and keeping her eyes shut with her hoofs clutching her ears. The ringing is still there, though, and when she finds the courage to open her eyes the room is slowly spinning, and bile rises in her throat. She rolls on her hoofs and arches her back, dry heaving and coughing. It alleviates some of the sickness at the cost of a pain in her chest and throat, and after she regains her composure she peeks around the computers, expecting to see a Necromorph.

Thankfully, none are present.

Fluttershy wipes her mouth and shakily goes to the elevated desk, and after giving one more look around the room, she tries to contact Rainbow Dash again.

“Error. No Signal.”

Fluttershy's ears droop. “No...” She slumps in the chair and buries her face in her hoofs, sniffling. “No... This can't be happening...”

She takes a deep breath and exhales slowly and wipes her mane back.

“Okay, I can figure this out.”

She ducks down and pulls off the shell of the computer, and after carefully pulling it off she sees the computer chip in the center. The chip's gem is a little burnt and cracked, and when she pulls the computer out to have a better look she finds that a fan on the back is covered in a thick layer of dust, as well as the other components. Now, Fluttershy is not the best with computers, but even she knows that this does not happen overnight. Or over a week. This is months of neglect.

Fluttershy sighs, tips the computer over, and bites on the tip of the old chip and slowly pulls it out. After that is done, she blows off as much dust as she can before she slips the replacement chip in the slot. After the chip is in, there is a hum and all the monitors flicker to life, and a cheerful jingle flows from the speakers.

“Transit system operational,” says a computerized female voice.

“That's it?” says Fluttershy. “That was easy.”

“Blockage on main line.”

The computer monitor switches to a map of the transit network and a section of it flashes red. Fluttershy taps the highlighted area, and a window opens up to show her a transit car hanging from the rail with its windows broken and covered in blood.

“Remove? Y/N”

Fluttershy hits the “Y” and a few seconds later a mechanical thud and whirl echoes through the ship, and Fluttershy looks out the window, but sees nothing. So, she looks back at the monitor and sees a fat robotic claw grabbing the car. After it grabs it, there are a series of pops and the claw dips from the car dropping from the rail. It is then pulled out of screen, and another window opens, showing the claw retracting into a chamber with the car. When the car is above a platform the claw sets it down before releasing it.

Fluttershy watches the screen for a few more seconds, and when nothing comes out, she activates her communicator again. Still nothing.

Fluttershy whimpers and taps her hoof on the desk, heart racing and thoughts a blur as she tries to figure out her next step. It is as she is tapping her hoof that something catches her eye and nearly pops her heart. It is on the monitor, and it was a flash of shadowy movement in the bloodied car. Then it appears again, crawling out of the transit car, through the broken glass, uncaring of the jagged edges cutting its skin.

Fluttershy's jaw drops.

Whatever it is, its torso and front limbs are massive, with what should have been hoofs mutated into claws, and its vertebrae has popped out of its skin into jagged spines while the back half has fused together as an elongated, sharp pointed tail. And its jaw has been filled with sharp teeth, its nostrils have grown, and its pupils have become milky white. This thing crawls on top of the car, looks around sniffing the air, and then cranes its head back and opens its mouth wide, releasing a shrill screech. There are other screeches just like it and four more of those things crawl out, and one by one they use their massive arms to leap out of sight, into the shadows of the mechanic bay. All but one, anyway. The first one to crawl out leaps towards the ceiling, uses its claws to rip a hole in the vent, and then it slithers inside.

Fluttershy quickly closes the screen and opens another one, eyes racing down the menu until she sees a folder labeled “Maps”. She opens it, finds more sub folders, and after many long seconds of searching and being plagued by nausea she finds the area she wants, pulls it up and traces a path through the corridors with her eyes. Once she has a good path figured out (or she hopes it is a good path, anyway) she gallops out of the only other door in the room and into the hallway. As she runs down the hall, she switches between looking at the vents and looking down the hallway.

She passes more blood, more abandoned luggage, and gashes in the wall. And when she reaches a brightly lit opening, she skids to a halt.

There is an elevator in front of her, and it is humming and clanging with its up arrow glowing and a thin stream of light moving through the cracks. Fluttershy pulls out her cutter and aims it at the door. Her muscles lock and sweat trickles down her head as her heart sounds like it is banging right into her ears. A distant clatter jolts Fluttershy in turning around to look down the hallway, and then at the ceiling vents, and when the elevator stops and dings, she snaps back to it.

A couple of seconds later the elevator opens and Fluttershy gasps, for in the elevator is a bloodied and bruised brown earth pony stallion with a dark green mane. He is wearing dark goggles, a white robe with gold bands that is torn and stained in blood, a miner's outfit underneath the robes and a golden sun hanging around his neck. On him is a saddle with fuel tanks attached to a sturdy pipe network that goes just past his muzzle and has a little flame in front of it, and just past his lips is a mouth trigger.

Fluttershy quickly puts her weapon away and steps forward, smiling with relief. “Oh, thank goodness! I-I need your help. M-My friends, they are... Are...”

Fluttershy's words fade, and the stallion's steps make a heavy thud as he leaves the elevator, and on instinct she backs up, ears drooped and eyes widening as his heavy breathing makes his shoulders and chest rise and fall in waves. When he is out of the elevator, he slowly he lifts his head up, showing his face to be covered in dried blood and his lips cracked.

“Are you real?” asks the pony in raspy voice.

“A-Are you okay?” asks Fluttershy.

“Are you real?” repeats the stallion, now walking toward Fluttershy.

Fluttershy swallows and takes a step back, nodding. “I-I am. I’m real. I’m-” She scans him with her MAD and finds that he has seen better days and his vitals and brain activity are unsteady. “I can help you. I’m-I’m a medic of the EUG Medical Corps. See?”

Fluttershy points to where her supplies are, and at that point remembers that she is no longer in an medic ACS. Her eyes bulge and she looks back at the stallion, who is still walking towards her with heavy steps and unsteady breathing, which in turn brings her to backing up.

“I-I mean, I’m a medic, just not in uniform,” stammers Fluttershy. “I-I, uh, it’s been a bad day, but I can help you. I promise.”

“No,” says the stallion. “There is no help. My flock has been forsaken for my final test.”

Fluttershy blinks. “What?”

“It took my herd. It took their bodies. And it wants more,” says the stallion, his steps increasing in speed and forcing Fluttershy as she backs up while her eyes flick between him and the vents. “It wants our bodies to spread its disease. But it must not have any more! No! No no no. This disease cannot spread. It cannot be whole!”

“Oh-okay, please relax,” pleads Fluttershy, her shaky hoof raised and pupils’ pinpricks. “M-Maybe we can help each other. That sounds nice, right?”

“They will not be whole!” screams the stallion.

The stallion then bites down on his trigger and a stream of fire surges towards Fluttershy.

Author's Note

Space is fun!