Fluttershy takes a step back and lifts her hoof up to the mare.

“Ma'am, I-I need you to drop your weapon,” says Fluttershy.

“Twinkle, twinkle little star~ How I wonder what you are~” sings the mare as the saw is levitated to her chest. “Up above the world so high~ Like a diamond in the sky~”

The mare aims the saw at Fluttershy and turns it on. BZZT-BZZT!

“Oh no.”

“Twinkle, twinkle little star~ How I wonder what you are!”

The saw whirs to full speed, and the mare's eyes and mouth open wide with her loud cackling and she gallops forward. Fluttershy backpedals and leaps out of the way, narrowly avoiding a saw blade that impales itself in the wall with a display of sparks. Fluttershy slides to a new position and draws her cutter as the mare slides a new saw blade in the machine, shaking her head sporadically and grinding her teeth.

“It's okay, Starry! Mama will find you!” says the mare. “You will be whole again!”

Fluttershy aims her cutter at the mare's hoof and fires, but the beam explodes a couple of feet away from her and a ripple of red and green briefly covers her. The mare shrieks, reels up on her hind hoofs, and then slams her forehoofs on the floor and shoots Fluttershy in the chest with a beam of swirling red and green eergy.

The impact knocks the air right out of Fluttershy lungs, sends her flying off her hooves and bouncing down the hall. When she rolls to a stop she is gasping for air, and her ribs feel a spike of pain from every breath taken and her whole body is riddled with pockets of throbs, each beating at their own pace.

Fluttershy seethes and uses the wall for support to stand up, and when she looks at the psycho, Mama, she realizes that her cutter is right where she used to be before she got blasted away. And Mama is now galloping towards her, cackling, and revving her saw.

Fluttershy turns tail and bolts down the hallway, too scared to look over her shoulder as the galloping and cackling of the mare and the saw's buzz gets louder. The hallway has a straight shot the mess hall, and the closer the doorway gets the more the tears cloud her vision and the greater the pain becomes. Despite the pain in her legs she makes a push that leaves her hoofs barely touching the ground and as soon as she passes through the mess hall door, she presses her hoof against the door lock. The blue holographic circle turns red and the metal door slam shut. A moment later there is a thud and a scream of pain, followed by the saw outside stopping.

Fluttershy steps back, chest heaving, throat and lungs burning. Her back legs collapse, and she falls on the floor, pressing her hoof against her chest and blinking the tears away as she watches the door. Nothing is happening, but the fur on her neck still stands with the cold tingle in her spine, and she looks over her shoulder, gasping and reeling back when she sees more of the hieroglyphs on the wall and on the floor.

The mess hall has its tables tipped over and pushed together to make barricades, and most of the barricades have been sliced, crushed, or riddled with bullet holes. Bullet casings litter the floor with bits and pieces of the Necromorphs, as well as severed parts of ponies, griffins, and other races that were on board the Bon Voyage. At the far end, a food bar is crushed with blood coating its jagged edges and broken glass.

Fluttershy looks around without moving, half expecting the saw to slice open the door, or for a Necromorph to jump from one of the many vents in the large room. But with once again nothing happening, Fluttershy goes further into the room, stopping at a hoof that has been ripped out from the socket, leaving a white bone tip poking past the torn skin and muscle. She grimaces and continues her walk, passing damaged pillars and scattered dishes. It is during her walk that she finds a circle of trampled presents, broken glass and stale cake splattered on the floor. The table the presents and cake were on is also smashed, and above it is a banner hanging from the ceiling with speckles of blood on it reads: “Happy Birthday Captain Tracker”.

Fluttershy hurries across the mess hall to the other door, and after opening it she sees a large room with stacks of crates, drainage grates on the floor, and carts, as well as towers of plants of all kinds going to the ceiling with small tubes surrounding them. The tubes spray out misty water, covering the apples, pears, oranges and berries and other fruits and create small rainbows in the air, which is a beautiful sight for Fluttershy. It is the most peaceful thing she has seen in the whole ship.

Then drool splatters in front of her, and she looks up and her blood freezes.

Hanging upside down from the ceiling rafters is a Griffin Necromorph, staring right at her, its sack of flesh-eating bugs pulsing with its breathing.

The mutated griffin launches itself towards Fluttershy and she scrambles back, tripping over herself as the creature lands where she stood just seconds before. She gallops out of the room, back into the mess hall, and the vents break open, allowing Slasher Necromorphs to drop in. She skids to a stop and takes a sharp turn as the group of Slasher Necromorphs rush towards her with the Griffin Necromorph joining them.

She shoots the Griffin Necromorph with the Stasis ball, only to be rammed by a Slasher. It pins her against the wall with its non-bladed hoof and lifts her up as it stands on its hind legs, scraping her back against the metal. It raises its scythe for a killing blow, but Fluttershy uses the Artificial Telekinesis Module to throw a table at it.

It hits both of them, but all she gets is pain while the Slasher loses its limbs and crashes into a pillar. While still on the ground Fluttershy unslings her shotgun and shoots at the group of Slashers, not aiming, only screaming and firing off as many rounds as she can.

Each gunshot is deafening, and each shot's recoil is like a punch to her shoulder, but it keeps them back and it blows off pieces of them at a time. And when the Griffin Necromorph goes after her she leaps out of the way, accidentally setting off the shotgun, which blows off the leg of one of the Slashers. Said Slasher drops and screams and uses its curved claws to drag itself across the floor, and Fluttershy hastily shoots it again, this time blowing its head apart. The Slasher joins its dead partners, and Fluttershy fumbles with her ammo to reload her shotgun as the Griffin Necromorph runs towards her.

She is only able to get two shells in before it tackles her, dragging her across the floor and taking a bite at her head. She can see the inside of its drooling, teeth covered beak and the sharp tongue launches towards her, cracking her visor and spiking her heart to almost explode. She punches it on the side of the head and kicks at its groin, but it does not let go. The tongue hits her visor again, bringing another crack, and with a mixed scream of fear and anger Fluttershy puts all her weight into turning the beast on its back. Then she digs her hoofs in its chest and pulls herself back as hard and fast as she can, ripping out its teeth and scratching her helmet and covering it in blood in the process. The monster roars and stabs Fluttershy's chest, piercing just enough of the suit so she can feel the tips of the claws poke her skin. The Necromorph's claws get stuck in the suit, though, and it lifts Fluttershy in the air and swings her against a table. The table breaks under her weight, and all the air is forced out of her lungs with a ringing in her ears and a sharp pain going through her wings and back.

The Griffin Necromorph then leaps on top of her and raises its talons, but right as it brings it down Fluttershy grabs it with her ATM, levitating it just out of reach for its claws, and launches it towards a pillar. There is a crunch, and it slumps to the ground with a bloody circle on the pillar, but it doesn't stay down. It gets back up in seconds, shakes itself off, and growls at Fluttershy as she groggily gets back to her hoofs.

Even with the disorientation and weak legs, Fluttershy finds enough focus for her eye flick between the Necromorph and her shotgun, and her hoof raises as her good wing slowly unfurls. The Griffin Necromorph growls again, and then releases a loud screech that sprays out slobber and blood and it rushes towards her.

Fluttershy waits until the last moment to dive out of the way, causing it to crash into one of the tables, and she gallops towards her shotgun, scoops it up and turns to the creature as it throws the table aside. It screeches and charges her again, and she pulls the trigger.

The recoil causes her to hit a part she that did not want, but it still works since the slug rips off the Necromorph's wing. The creature shrieks in pain and after regaining its stance it runs faster towards her, and she tries to move out of the way as it slashes at her with its talons, but it grazes her chest, leaving large gashes in the suit's armor. However, with its close proximity Fluttershy's instinctive pull of the trigger allows her to blast it in its chest, popping the sack on its chest, splattering the floor with its rotten flesh and leaving a hole big enough for her to see through. The creature wheezes and staggers back, its blood pouring out and bits of bone and shredded organs dangling from its wound, and Fluttershy quickly slips in another slug and puts another shot into it. Bits of flesh and ribs spray across the floor and the Necromorph collapses in a heap, making one last weak gasp and attempt to grab her before it goes limp and quiet.

To be sure that it is dead Fluttershy slips another slug into the chamber and shoots it in the head, and when it remains still she sighs with relief and flops on her back with her hoof pressing against her unsteady heart and her shotgun next to her.

As she lays there, trying to catch her breath, a light appears past a pair of doors with circular windows. Fluttershy stares at it, body stiff and heart thumping loudly in her ears.

Then she hears music.

It is upbeat with saxophones, pianos, trumpets, bass, and drums all playing perfectly together, and everyone is laughing with the clanking of dishes and sizzling of food.

Fluttershy really does not want to get up. In fact, she really wants to go out the way she came in, get on the trolley, and go to the next section. But, like a puppet being pulled by a string, she gets up and slowly walks towards the double doors.

“Order up!” hollers a stallion.

Fluttershy gently pushes the door open and finds darkness. Seeing the dark tightens her throat and she shakily flicks the light on her helmet, illuminating rows of make-lines. Their ingredients have rotten in their now defunct cooling chambers, some food has even stayed partially made on the lines, and grills are pitch black with shriveled black husks of food. Hanging above the make-lines are blue screens with white error messages, and on the floor are squished fruits, vegetables, and bread and splattered sauces.
Fluttershy shakes her head and turns to the door, but when she tries opening it the double doors won't budge.

She grunts and pushes harder, and when that doesn't work, she shoves her shoulder against it and digs her hoofs into the floor, making loud scraping sounds from her metal boots scratching the floor. Tears cloud her eyes and her pushing turns to banging, and bucking, and soon she steps back, loads her shotgun with as much shells as it can hold and aims it at the door, hyperventilating and blinking the tears out of her eye.

She pulls the trigger.

The gunshot rings in her ears but the door remains intact.

Her ears droop, her colors drain from her face and her shoulders sulk. She cannot even think right now, she is too tired and beat up, and now this door won't open even though she just went through it. She aims and fires again, but the result is just the same and she shakes her head, wanting to scream.

“Don't be afraid,” says a stallion in her ear.

Fluttershy shrieks and snaps to her side, pulling the trigger. Sparks fly from the slug hitting the wall, and just a couple of feet off to the side, next to the grill, is the tall, frail stallion with the shriveled skin and limp head. His black eyes stare at Fluttershy and he holds his hoof out to her.

“Make us whole again,” says the stallion.

He walks away and Fluttershy trails him with her shotgun until he is covered by a tall oven, but she does not give chase. She keeps her weapon trained on the ovens, waiting for him to come out on the other side.

Seconds pass, and she reluctantly goes towards where he was supposed to come out, just to find an audio disk on the ground next to a bloody apron, but the frail stallion is nowhere to be seen.
Fluttershy looks around, and slips the audio disk in.

There are screams and shouts in the background, plus the pops of gunshots and items breaking.

“Last log of Head Chef Chocolate Fondue,” says a stallion. “Whoever finds this... Well, you'll probably be dead shortly after. Today was Captain Star Tracker's birthday, I oversaw making a great meal for him, and I made the best meal the ingredients would allow. I wouldn't bother if he wasn't a fellow Unitologist, but since he is, I did. Then some creatures came in and everypony starts losing their minds. You can probably hear them in the background. Truth is, these creatures have been at it for a few days with a sacrifice here and there, which have inappropriately been labeled as murders, even by my dear Captain. Some call them aliens, some call them demons, but I and the rest of the Unitologists know what they are. They are the Harvesters. Some so called Unitologists are scared, but if they are scared then they were never believer in the faith. To become One with the Marker we must first die, and the Harvesters are there to make sure we do. That is the basics, and where there is fear there is doubt. There is no room for doubt.”

Thereis a crash and a scream of pain that is a lot closer.

“Help me! Please!” sobs a mare.

“Shh~ Shh~ Don't be afraid,” says Fondue gently. “This is all necessary.”

“Please! I don't want to die!”

The mare's sobbing and screaming ends with a loud rip and crash, and Fondue chuckles as a growling gets closer.

“Whoever finds this audio. Don't be afraid,” says Fondue.

Then it clicks off and Fluttershy stares at the glow on her audio device, unable to breathe. All she can do is collapse on the floor and clutch her head.

Then a vent grate suddenly crashes to the floor, and Fluttershy squeaks and scrambles to cover behind one of the make-lines, keeping her body low and shutting the lights off her helmet. A couple of seconds later there is a thud and a giggle, and then unsteady steps.

“Where are you, little filly?” says Mama.

Mama's voice floats through the abandoned kitchen, and Fluttershy sucks in her breath and peeks around the corner. Mama's back is turned, and her saw is levitating next to her, and her ear is twitching, and her tail is dragging like a mop being carelessly pulled across a floor.

Mama rounds the corner of some make-lines and her shadow stretches across the wall from her horn's light, and Fluttershy swallows and creeps across the floor, freezing when the steps and voice come closer.

“I won't hurt you,” says Mama as she revs her saw.

The light on the wall gets closer and the shadows larger, and Fluttershy stays low to the ground as she backs up and slides around the table, blinking sweat out of her eyes and fearing Mama will hear her heart.

“Don’t be a troublemaker, little filly?” asks Mama. “Sing with me. Help me find Starry.”

Mama's steps stop just shy of Fluttershy's spot, and Fluttershy's teeth dig into her lips as her body coils and her eye locks on the shadow stretched across the floor.

“Twinkle, twinkle, through the night~ Twinkle, twinkle, little star~ How I wonder what you are~”

The shadow pulls away, the steps and singing get fainter, and a door opens and shuts. What follows is the faint buzzes and weak clanks of machinery, but Fluttershy refuses to move. She keeps her ears perked as much as they can inside the helmet, and she strains her eye to see in the dark for anything or anyone that would want to kill her. She stays put by the make-line until her limbs begin to cramp, and she reluctantly crawls out of her cover and turns the light on her helmet. The light illuminates a double helix painted on the wall and more of the hieroglyphs surrounding it, and after a quick sweep she sees nothing lurking, so she sighs and goes towards the door she went through, which is now damaged with the slugs from her shotgun.

But the closer she gets to the door the louder the buzzing in the room becomes, and with it an unwanted dizziness. Fluttershy tries to run to the door, but right as she is about to reach the door the buzzes turn to an ear ripping screeching and all the monitors in the kitchen flash on with the double helix taking up the screens.

“Make us whole again!” says numerous voices overlapping each other.

Fluttershy grits her teeth and crashes through the shot up double doors and falls face first onto the mess hall's floor. She scrambles to her hoofs and snaps towards the kitchen, panting and aching ears flicking, but the kitchen is completely dark, and when she looks over her shoulder, she sees the Necromorphs are still dead on the floor. It is oddly comforting for her to see them still there instead of being animated, but not wanting to stay in the same area for long she quickly exits the mess hall and goes down the hallway. There she recollects her energy cutter (which has not moved from where she dropped it) and goes to the trolley station.

She is not surprised to see the trolley is gone, and her ears perk when she hears its ding echoing in the dead ship. She looks down the ship's passage and sees the trolley is moving down the line, gracefully taking a curve and displaying “Next stop: Section E” on its long screen. This brings a sour thought to Fluttershy.

Of course she misses the trolley; of course its next stop is where she has to go; of course the only survivors are trying to kill her!

Fluttershy snorts and kicks at the platform before going back to the hallway. Nothing happens during her walk, and when she reaches the elevators, she hits the up button and waits... and waits... and waits some more. After a minute passes, Fluttershy groans and goes towards the mess hall. She does not want to go there considering Mama is nearby plus the possibility of more Necromorphs, but she has to find a way to get to Section E and find Zephyr, and she cannot afford to wait for the trolley to come back around.

When Fluttershy is about to reach the mess hall door a pleasant ding echoes in the hall, and Fluttershy snaps around and watches the door slide open. A moment later a mutilated body is tossed out piece by piece, from broken limbs to ripped open torso and a head, and each piece makes a wet slap and leaves circles and streaks of blood as they bounce and slide on the floor. Fluttershy draws her energy cutter and a Slasher Necromorph walks out with blood dripping off its sharp scythe appendages. It barely has a chance to look at Fluttershy before she shoots off its limbs and head in a wild barrage, and after making sure it is dead by watching it for a few seconds, Fluttershy goes to the elevator. The door has already shut, but it opens right as she pushes the button, and she is greeted with slashes on the wall, a pool of blood in the corner and the roof of the elevator torn open.

Fluttershy shines her light up the hole and sees the cables of the elevator going up into the dark shaft, occasionally lit up by red lights. With that seen, Fluttershy steps out and lets the door close, and then she looks at the torn body, fighting back the bile rising in her throat when she sees the intestines hanging out of the torso. Her eyes focus on the hoof and she sees an audio device on the hoof like what she has, so she carefully ejects the disk, and slips it into her device as she reluctantly heads back to the mess hall. Her breathing and steps are shaky and heavy, but she would rather have a chance of running and finding cover than getting torn apart in an elevator.

“Base to Azmuth Horizon, do you read?” says a mare.

“Read you loud and clear. What do you got?” says a familiar voice that brings Fluttershy to stop and do a double take.

“Some gunships are still active at the Section H hangar, but I have not been able to get a hold of Drill Bit or Officer Slingshot, or the others for that matter,” continues Azmuth.

“Well, that's because Drill Bit is dead and I have no idea where Slingshot went,” says the voice that belongs to Dr. Rock. “Also, these creatures don't like to die, so clearing a path has not exactly been giving the others happy endings.”

“Wait, Drill Bit is dead!? Everybody's dead!?”

“Tragically, yes, but a mare has Drill Bit's master key band. If you run into her please don't hurt her. I quite like her.”

“But the mission-”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Just do your job and let me do mine and we will make it off this ship.”

“But-” There is a sudden thud and metal snapping, and the mare screams. “Oh shit! No! NO!”

There is another thud and the mare's screaming turns to painful shrieks, and then she is reduced to a wet, choking gasp for air that is completely silenced by another slash.

“Azmuth? Azmuth, you there? Well, darn. There goes another one,” says Dr. Rock in the least concerning tone Fluttershy has ever heard.

The audio log ends and Fluttershy finds herself staring at the mess hall, shaking, and seething. Never has she heard such a careless voice in the aftermath of death. She has seen others emotionally shut down before, but they never sounded like the death was just an easily worked around inconvenience. Plus, the log now raises some questions for her.

Who is Dr. Rock really?

What is his mission?

Did she become a part of his mission and not realize it the moment she took Drill Bit's master key band? Assuming that it was his key band to begin with.

These questions leave a sick feeling in her gut and she hurries her way through the mess hall and goes through the doors leading to the garden room. She looks up at the ceiling again and is grateful to see no more Necromorphs are hiding up there, and she is about midway through the room when she hears a BAM-BAM-BAM!

Fluttershy stops and turns to the source and sees a locked door.

BAM-BAM-BAM!

The door shakes, and then a pair of scythes break through and rip the door open, spraying the floor with sparks.

Fluttershy steps back and aims her energy cutter at the door as it splits open, and her jaw drops as a towering Necromorph with four scythe appendages on its back steps out. Its hoofs are made of multiple limbs intertwined like yarns of flesh, its chest is thick, pulsing bags of yellow and green on its shoulders and hips, and a pair of long arms with sharp talons protrude from its chest. Its head has four different faces on it, and all of them have open mouths, thick and pointed tongues and sharp teeth with yellow eyes, and wild hair has covered the top of its head while its tail has become long and skinny like a whip. And to top it off, thick bones are covering chunks of its body like a shell.

Fluttershy's body locks out of sheer fear, and the creature roars with four different pitches of screaming and charges her. The shaking ground knocks the motor function back into Fluttershy and she ducks and weaves as the bladed limbs slice up the vines and water pipes. Metal, water and cut up produce vines fly in all directions, and an alarm blares as water gushes on to the floor. Fluttershy skids to a stop and shoots at the massive creature, but the cutter seems to only leave dark lines on its shell. The creatures roars again and whips its tail at her.

She tries to dodge it, but it clips her hind hoof in mid step which sends her crashing down and splashing in the growing water. The dual trauma of the sharp pain takes up her hind leg and the hard impact on her side leaves her wincing, but not even the pain will keep her down when the ground shakes again, and she limps as quickly as she can away from the monster.

It slashes at Fluttershy again, she ducks, and the scythes destroy another vine. Pieces of the vine and pipe fall, and water rains down around her, drenching her while pears bounce off her suit. Fluttershy does an about face and shoots at it again, this time aiming for the scythe limbs. The shots strike one of the limbs. One. Two. Three. And off it goes.

The Necromorph screeches four different pitches of pain as the limb falls into the water with blood spraying out, and it reels back on its hind legs, stomps the ground, and charges her. Fluttershy fires one more shot before an unpleasant click enters her ears with a “0” flashing on her cutter, but before she can so much as pale a sharp pain goes across her chest and she crashes into the water.

The water around her turns red, and she jumps up, gasping and limping away as the Necromorph gives chases. In seconds, its arms grab her waist and hoist her in the air, and then it begins pulling. Fluttershy tries not to scream, but with the pulling of flesh and bone it quickly becomes too much and she cries out and tries to wiggle her way out of its grasp. But it is no use.

Then she sees one of the broken pipes in the water, and knowing she has one chance she focuses her ATM on it. The jagged piece of metal floats up, she aims it at the Necromorph and launches it like a harpoon. The pipe narrowly misses her and stabs the Necromorph in the leg, and it howls and drops her in the water. She is momentarily disoriented by the fall and pain but has enough function to bat the incoming scythe away with her energy cutter when it swings at her.

After that, Fluttershy limps away with every step bringing a spike of pain in her limbs and spine, and she levitates another broken pipe out of the water. The Necromorph limps after her, not even trying to take the other pipe out of its leg, and she launches the pipe at it. This time it hits one of the sacks in its shoulder, popping it. A yellow goo explodes all over it and in the water, and its four shrieks hurt Fluttershy’s ears as it staggers with a mix of yellow and rust colored blood tainting the water. This time it pulls the pipe out with its clawed hand and throws it aside before it goes after Fluttershy, dragging its now limp front leg with it.

Fluttershy slips in a new battery for her cutter, aims it at the other shoulder sack and fires. The beam pops that one with the same outcome and the creature falls forward, howling in agony and using its mutated arms to pull itself forward while slashing the air with its remaining scythe limbs.

Fluttershy keeps her distance, runs to its side, and shoots one of the sacks on its hips, bringing its hind legs to buckle, and then she quickly shoots off the remaining three scythe limbs. The water is now completely contaminated in a mix of yellow goo, her blood and its blood, and after she reloads her energy cutter she bites back her tears and scampers on the Necromorph's back. It bucks and tries to grab her, but she shoots its hand off, and then presses her cutter against the top of its skull and fires. Burnt bone and flesh pop up around her, and she keeps firing until its faces fall off as a smoking wreck with burnt brain following it. It gives one last weak groan after the last face breaks off, and then it collapses in a heap, and Fluttershy rolls off, panting and clutching her bleeding chest as tears stream down her face.

As she lays there, an alarm sounds and she groans and bangs her head against the corpse, only to get a pleasant surprise when the drains open up a bit wider and let the water slip away into the pipes below.
With that, she sighs with relief and checks her energy cutter. She has half a battery left in it, and only two full batteries remain in her inventory, leaving her with a shotgun that has only a dozen slugs left. That would have been a terrible fight if she had to use her shotgun.

“Bravo! Bravo!” says Dr. Rock suddenly. “That was one heck of a show!”

Fluttershy looks around from her spot on the ground and quickly finds a camera above a prep table, and she sighs heavily and looks down, rubbing her sore limb and wincing in pain.

“Cold shoulder? Come on, don't be like that,” says Dr. Rock.

“I'm mad at you,” says Fluttershy.

“Why?”

“You told me you couldn't find survivors. I ran into two and both tried to kill me!”
As much as she also wants to ask him about his conversation with Azmuth Horizon, she does not think now is a good time to do it. If she meets him face to face with her team then she may ask him.

“... Yeah, I would be a little upset about that, too,” says Dr. Rock, bringing her out of her thoughts.

“A little!?” snaps Fluttershy.

“Look, let's not get at each others throats. You need off this ship, I need off this ship, that should be enough for us to work together and push this little mishap aside.”

“Mishap?” Fluttershy retracts her helmet and points at the bandages covering her eye, her face red and good eye twitching. “I lost an eye!”

“Eww~ Well, we still need to get off this ship so let's argue when we're off this thing.”

“It is not just us. It is my brother and my team need to get out, too.”

“Right. How could I forget the rescueers and the mane stylist?”

Fluttershy growls. “I am not in the mood for this. Zephyr contacted me, but he can't receive any signals. Can you track the signal?”

“No.”
Fluttershy narrows her eye.

“I only have cameras, not signal trackers,” says Dr. Rock. “But if he contacts you again listen for the background noise. I should be able to narrow down his location that way.”
“You can do that?” asks Fluttershy skeptically.

“I know this ship like the talons on my hand. It will be a bit harder since this whole thing is falling apart, but I should be able to track his general area if you listen hard enough for the background noise.”

Fluttershy stares at the camera, and after a few seconds of heavy silence she exhales and nods.

“... Okay, but before I go, I have another question,” says Fluttershy.

“Go on,” says Dr. Rock.

“My team was scattered after something chased them. Can you help me find them?”
Fluttershy waits in silence, only to get silence for an answer, and with the lack of his voice mixed with the stench of rotten flesh, blood and burnt metal as well as the buzzes and hisses of the equipment... It is unsettling to her to say the least.

“Dr. Rock?” asks Fluttershy.

“Hide. Right now,” orders Dr. Rock.

Fluttershy's eye widen at the severity of his tone, and she quickly activates her helmet and after a quick scan of the area she gallops towards a pile of crates, dives behind them and lays low in their shadows. A minute later there is a familiar click and whir of a door opening, followed by a thud that echoes in the room. The clip-clop of hoofsteps immediately come after, bouncing off the walls. They are not fast like the Necromorphs, nor chaotic like Mama. In fact, they are very heavy. And familiar.

Fluttershy bites her lip and holds her cutter close as sweat trickles down her face. The steps stop, and the unmistakable sound of flowing fire fills her ears and tightens her muscles. The orange glow flickers on the wall, and with it comes the jerking shadows of twisted flesh being consumed by flame and the Pyro's dark imprint on the wall spreads and snaps side to side with the sharp dances of the flames.

Fluttershy slowly backs up further in the wall of crates and aims her energy cutter at the opening, heart heavy and racing and throat hurting from keeping her whimper down.

Glass shatters and the stench of burnt flesh and cooked produce seeps into her nose, and as the fire crackles there is another whoosh of flame.

The heat begins to seep through her suit and her hoof can barely hold her cutter, yet she refuses to move lest she wants to confront the Pyro again. She strains her ears listening for another sound through the raging inferno, and she coils her body. Thick smoke begins clouding her vision and her heart thumps violently in her ears and it becomes increasingly more painful to her limbs to not run out of the room.

Then she hears a door opening and shutting, and with the heat and smoke consuming her she holsters her cutter and bolts out of her cover, knocking over the crates and tripping over herself. She lands on her face next to the burning corpse of the Necromorph and a tower of flame that was once an apple vine, but she quickly regains her footing and gallops towards the exit.

The door slides open and Fluttershy runs down the hallway, and she keeps running until she can no longer feel the heat on her back. By that point she staggers to a stop by the corner of the hall, using the wall for support as she opens her helmet to cough and wheeze for air. Fluttershy looks over her shoulder to see the door closing, but even with the door sealed smoke still seeps through, and the door flashes red with a flame sign appearing in its center.

“Fire quarantine in effect. Please remain calm,” says a computerized voice.

A screeching alarm then echoes down the hall and a pair of swirling red lights slide out from above the said door as a vacuum sucks the smoke away. Fluttershy feels like she is deflating from her sigh when she leans her head against the cold wall, and her eye closes for only a moment. That moment, however, is enough for her knees to buckle and she slides to the floor and with a sharp and loud gasp her eye snaps open and she reaches for her energy cutter. With the energy cutter now in her hoof she snaps it side to side, up and down and behind her. She sees nothing, but she hears plenty of the ship's systems running on minimal power. When she looks at the door to the produce, she sees the red circle is still there, but the fire symbol has been replaced with a wrench and hammer.

With that ordeal now done with, Fluttershy holsters her cutter, forces herself to stand up, and she limps down the hallway, following a sign that points towards the stairs and the Supervisor's Office. Hopefully the worst of this area will be behind her.

Author's Note

Fluttershy is going to need a bath when this is over.