Chapters “Please remain patient. Flights will resume momentarily,” says an automated female voice over the speaker.
The voice echoes in the empty lobby of the Bon Voyage, and Rainbow Dash motions her team to fan out while Fluttershy scans the area. It can easily hold sixty ponies, and she has been on board plenty of colony ships to know that the lobby is supposed to be brightly lit with pleasant music and the occasional announcement. But the lobby is subdued with dim orange lights and pockets of weak red emergency lights on top of the benches, plus the lights illuminating message boards. There is just enough light for Fluttershy to see the scattered luggage, clothes and papers covering the floor, but she is not looking at the clothes or papers. She is focused on the FORSAKEN painted over the Bon Voyage on the wall sized mural.
“Please remain patient. Flights will resume momentarily,” repeats the voice.
A series of snaps make Fluttershy squeak and jump, and when she turns to the source, she sees a cracked monitor's messages flickering in and out.
Sec. C. Carry Pod 01- Delayed Sec. C. Carry Pod 02- Delayed Sec. C. Carry Pod 03- Delayed Sec. C. Carry Pod 04- Delayed Sec. C. Carry Pod 05- Delayed Sec. C. Carry Pod 06- Delayed
“Where is everypony?” asks Comet.
“I don't know,” says Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash looks down the lobby, and when she sees a door with a red circle, she trots towards it and presses her hoof against it.
“Unauthorized” flashes in front of her via a holographic display.
“What?” Rainbow Dash tries again, and the same message appears. “How am I unauthorized? I’m a Chief Security Officer!”
“Allow me,” says Rarity. She goes to the door, hooks her computer to it via USB cord and sits on the floor as she types away. After a moment of work, she perks up. “Oh, I found the problem. Indefinite quarantine issued by Captain Star Tracker with a… Section 0 override code needed?”
“Section 0 on a colony ship? Great~” drones Thunderlane.
“Oh, don’t start with that,” chides Rarity.
“I didn’t say anything!”
“You were.”
“No, I wasn’t!”
“If you two are done flirting, I’d like to know if can be overridden,” says Rainbow Dash, glaring at the two.
“Of course I can,” says Rarity. “It will just take me a moment.”
“Make it fast. We got work to do.”
Rarity begins typing away at her pad, and Fluttershy follows the blood, going past an open door that leads to a room with thick windows giving the occupants a view of the lobby. Upon entering it, her body locks, her eyes widen, and her ears droop and her hoof covers her nose in a pitiful attempt to stop smelling the stench of old blood.
“Please remain patient. Flights will resume momentarily,” repeats the voice.
All over the floor, walls, computers, and chairs is blood. Streaks, puddles, splashes, thin slashes, thick slashes, there is enough blood for at least five ponies; and then there is the severed hoof near a door with yet another red circle. Fluttershy gags and backpedals into the door frame, and with a racing heart and shortness of breath she looks around the room with sharp flicks of her eyes.
Broken chairs. Glowing monitors of the computers. Large vent. Illuminated poster of a family having a picnic on a sunny grassy field with theBon Voyage above them.“The Future Is Bright!” is what its caption says, and it would be nice if it didn't have blood and a gash going through it.
“Where’d the newbie go?” asks Rainbow Dash.
“She went over there,” says Applejack.
Fluttershy swallows the bile rising in her throat and shakily approaches one of the computers. She uses her hoof to wipe away the blood on the computer and sees a menu. She does not care about most of the options, but when she sees the
“Colonist List” option she quickly taps it, which brings up a list of names and a search bar.
“Moon, get Fluttershy back over here!” orders Rainbow Dash.
“Why me?” asks Moon.
“Because you deserve it. Now go!”
Fluttershy glances up just quick enough to see Moon trotting towards her while Rainbow Dash talks to Roid and Comet. The two nod and leave through where they come from, and Fluttershy hastily types in Zephyr's name and it brings up: Sec C, Room 60.
Fluttershy still feels sick from what she has seen, but she is feeling a small amount of relief for getting a lead to Zephyr, but right as she is about to leave the room, she comes face to face with Moon. This makes her yelp and jump back with a racing.
“Hey, come on. I’m far from ugly,” says Moon. He jabs his hoof towards the doorway. “By the way, Chief Dashole wants you.”
Fluttershy nods and follows Moon to Rainbow Dash. She, Thunderlane and Applejack are by Rarity, each taking turns scanning the area while Rarity works, and when Fluttershy arrives, Rainbow Dash gives her a harsh look.
“No wandering,” orders Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy nods, and the computer beeps, thus making Rarity sigh happily.
“A tough cookie for sure, but alas, I have proven better,” says Rarity. “Now, open sesame~”
She pushes a button on her pad and the door’s red light switches to green and it slides open, revealing a dark hallway with only one flickering light at the far end. The group stares at it in silence, with Fluttershy backing up on shaky legs and Rainbow Dash bringing up Captain Trotter on display.
“Captain, we got the door open and we’re about to go down a… very spooky hallway,” says Rainbow Dash.
“Stay safe. Comet and Roid are guarding the ship. No pirates will be getting on the Hook Line,” says Trotter.
“I’ve never seen a pirate attack like this,” Moon. “I mean there’s nopony here! Just blood.”
“Dragon pirates probably,” says Rainbow Dash uneasily. “Dragons are vicious.”
“If it was a dragon attack then there wouldn’t be a Section 0 lockdown,” says Thunderlane.
“Don’t start that nonsense,” says Rarity.
"I wasn't going to!" claims Thunderlane.
Fluttershy has backed far away from the group at this point, and her eyes have drifted back to the room she was in previously. She really wants to run. She needs to run. But her legs can barely move.
“Moon, you’re point,” says Rainbow Dash.
“You serious?” sneers Moon.
“You’ve been a pain in the ass the whole trip over. You’re front!”
Moon shakes his head, looks at the dark hallway, takes a deep breath, and inches forward. The group watches in silence, with Applejack nudging her way next to Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane scanning the lobby.
Moon’s silhouette against the only light in the hallway gradually shrinks, and the light from helmet sweeps the metal walls, revealing blood, scratches, and bullet damage. Then he stops and stares at something at his hooves. Nobody can see what it is, but he takes a step back, looks up and-
BAM!
Something slams down onto Moon, squishing him into the floor, and his limp form is snapped up into the ceiling, his body and light disappearing in the darkness.
“MOON!” cries Rainbow Dash over Rarity’s shrieking.
“FUCK!” yells Thunderlane.
Rainbow Dash lurches forward but is grabbed by Applejack and pulled back. She then breaks the door panel, bringing the door to slam shut, all while Rainbow Dash screams and reaches for the door.
“No! No! NO! Let me go! MOON!” cries Rainbow Dash.
“We need to go!” says Thunderlane.
Fluttershy is frozen in place, staring at the door with wide eyes as Rainbow Dash is pulled away, despite her thrashing and screaming.
“He’s gone. We need to abandon the mission!” says Applejack. “This wasn’t in the report! We ain't prepared for this!”
“You think?” snaps Thunderlane. He points at Fluttershy and Rarity, who is leaning against the wall, hyperventilating with tears soaking her eyes. “You two, haul it!”
“What was that?” mutters Rarity. “What was that? What was that?”
Suddenly, rapid gunfire echoes from beyond the broken door, and Comet’s face appears in Rainbow Dash’s communication projection. His feed is bobbing from his running, and seconds later Trotter’s face appears next to his.
“Dash, get your team to the Bon Voyage bridge for shelter! The Hookline’s been compromised!” says Trotter.
“Dash, there’s something on the ship!” says Comet. “Something-”
Comet’s feed suddenly fuzzes out and Trotter turns around, colors paling as the two pilots scream in terror.
“Open fire!” orders Trotter.
Gunfire rings out, and heavy steps rapidly approach Trotter. When the steps reach him, the footage ends, and Rainbow Dash stiffens with bloodshot eyes while Thunderlane aims his rifle at the door.
“What’s going on?” whimpers Rarity.
“We need to get to the bridge,” says Thunderlane. “Rarity, we need a map, now!”
“No-No. I’m in charge. I’m in charge,” says Rainbow Dash. “We need to get to the bridge. We need to get to the bridge, right now!”
Then the room and the lobby lights shut off, leaving just the emergency lights of the benches and red swirling lights from the ceiling and a screeching alarm to scrape at their ears.
The vent breaks open and a mass of flesh lands in front of Fluttershy, but she is too terrified to move. She can only watch with wide, wet eyes as the thing writhes on the ground before twisting itself in an upright position. Whatever it is, it has the body of an equine, but its lower jaw is missing, leaving its sharp tongue to hang freely, its eyes are a pale gray, and the jumpsuit has been bloodied and ripped apart by a pair of bony protrusions from its shoulders that are wrapped in strands of flesh and tipped with bony scythes. Its limbs are covered in throbbing veins and little arms have clawed their way out of its chest.
It looks at Fluttershy, and it shrieks and lunges at her.
“KILL IT!” screams Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy gallops away, towards the room she was in earlier, screaming as the monster runs after her, seemingly ignoring the bullets tearing into it. Then there are more raspy shrieks, and the remaining team screams in terror and shoots madly at whatever else is in the room.
“Fluttershy, run!” yells Applejack.
“Get the other door open!” screams Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy reaches the room and scrambles to the side, causing the creature to crash into the wall. It doesn’t stay down long, though and keeps chasing her through the room and out the door at the far end. The door has also been broken open, so Fluttershy leaps through it, trips over herself, and is in the middle of trying to get back up when she screams and drops to avoid the creature's scythe from cutting her skull in half. She awkwardly gets back on her hooves and runs down a thin hallway lined with pipes and flickering lights, not daring to look back as the creature's shrieking and heavy steps gain on her. She almost trips over herself when she rounds a corner, and when she sees an elevator at the end of the hall her hoofs barely touch the floor from how fast she is running.
But the creature rams her and everything becomes a blur as she rolls head over tail. Each time her body hits the metal floor a flash of pain ripples through her body, and when she stops, she is on her back with the creature looking down at her and a fire extinguisher next to her. Bloody slobber falls on her face, and it lifts its scythe while its thick hoofs keep her pinned.
After getting out, she kicks it in the face with her hind leg and grabs the fire extinguisher. The creature shakes its head, its eye hanging loose, and it lunges at Fluttershy again, only to get its face caved in with the metal canister. The creature stumbles back with bits of bone poking from its broken face, and Fluttershy drops the fire extinguisher and gallops towards the elevator, hitting the “Up” button. The door slides open with a pleasant ding, and Fluttershy runs inside, turns to hit the emergency close button, but is rammed into the wall by the monster.
Thick clumps of blood and saliva drip from the monster’s broken maw, and its large claws scrape the walls while Fluttershy shrieks and pushes against its chest with her hooves. The elevator dings, and Fluttershy strains herself to push herself from the wall, forcing the hellspawn backwards. It is in the doorway when the elevator slams shut, slicing its back half off and splattering the doors with its blood. It drops to the floor, gurgling and clawing toward Fluttershy with a string of broken organs behind it.
Fluttershy screams again and stomps on its head, and she keeps stomping on it with her mane flailing wildly and clumping up with sweat and blood, and by the time she is done she is panting and shivering with a prickling pain in her throat.
Her heart is racing her chest and throat are tight, and her eyes burn as her mind races to figure out what she just experienced. With the rapid thinking, she has concluded that she has no idea what happened or what that thing was, and she needs to find Zephyr and get off the ship fast.
Then her holographic projector activates, and Rainbow Dash's face appears. Her cheek and neck are coated in blood and her eyes are shimmering with tears. Behind her is Rarity shakily working on a terminal by a locked door. They are not in the lobby anymore, and from what Fluttershy can see, they are in a sealed room.
“Fluttershy, can you hear me?” asks Rainbow Dash.
“Y-Yes,” says Fluttershy, refusing to leave her corner.
“Okay... I got bad news... It is just me, you, Rarity, Applejack and Thunderlane. Whatever those things were... They killed everypony else. I can’t get a hold of Captain Trotter or anypony else. We’re going to have to get to the bridge. It’s the safest part of the ship and we can figure out a way off when we get there.”
“The bridge?”
Rainbow Dash nods. “We're going to regroup at the transit station and head to the bridge. That’ll give us some answers and safety. But we also have a problem. Rarity is saying that the transit isn't working properly. Something about a connection error that can only be fixed at the transit hub, which is on your side.”
Fluttershy pales. “M-My side? But I'm not a mechanic!”
“Relax, it isn’t mechanical. It’s computer stuff.”
The door Rarity is working on opens, and Thunderlane peeks inside with his weapon at the ready.
“It’s clear. Go. Go. Go,” says Thunderlane urgently.
The video feed bobs as the group moves into the dark hallway, and Rarity quickly closes and locks the door while Rainbow Dash looks into the camera again with Thunderlane and Applejack moving ahead.
“I need you to fix whatever is wrong with the connection, okay? Can you do that for us?” asks Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy nods and swallows. “I-I can try, but I don’t know if I can.”
“Hey, cut out the weakling shit, alright? We do not have time for that! Grow some balls and get that thing fixed. You want to save your brother, right?”
Fluttershy nods.
“Then fix the transit connection!” says Rainbow Dash. “We’ll regroup as soon as we can, but right now you’re on your own and I need you to be brave, got it?”
Fluttershy swallows a lump in her throat before nodding yet again, and Rainbow Dash sighs heavily and looks away for a moment before returning her focus to Fluttershy.
“Good. Stay safe, Fluttershy. Over and out,” says Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy nods, and after the feed cuts out, she closes her eyes and falls against the wall, rubbing her face as a shaky whine leaves her. And after a moment of stillness, she pushes her mane out of her eyes and gets to work on patching herself up with medical foam and the stitch kit, and then she hits the button for the transit and mentally prepares herself for the next level of Hell.
Author's Note
That was fast.
A terrible screeching echoes from the other side of the door, and with it are scrapes and bangs that leave Fluttershy's ears in pain. As the noise carries on, Fluttershy draws her energy cutter and aims it at the door, desperate to keep her breathing steady. The noise goes on for another few seconds before it sounds like the creature runs away. Once its steps fade, Fluttershy keeps the energy cutter aimed at the door for a while longer before daring to open it.
The door slides open, and Fluttershy stares down the hallway, seeing nothing. Not even the body that had been in front of the door. She steps out, swallowing the spit collecting in her mouth, and looks at the bloody hoofprints starting where the body was and going down the hall. Right in the direction she must go.
Fluttershy whimpers and slowly walks forward, heart racing and limbs shaking. The walk is long, and the weak clanks and buzzes of electric currents do nothing to ease the crushing feeling in her chest and throat. She swallows more spit and rounds a corner, finding more of the hallway, plus a bathroom and a doorway leading to a chamber of some kind. Sparks shoot out from the doorway, and Fluttershy needs to take a moment to collect herself before going forward.
Her steps echo off the hallway walls, and while her eyes are locked ahead -too afraid to blink- her ears are twitching. She is not sure if her ears are playing tricks with her, but she is hearing whispers. The words are garbled and heavy and seem to be all around her. When she is by the bathroom, her communicator flashes on with the audio wave lengths displayed and she hears words.
“Where are you?”
“Hello? Hello!?” calls Fluttershy, her voice muffled from the cutter in her mouth.
The audio cuts off, and a clank in the bathroom draws Fluttershy’s attention to it. Her cutter's glow illuminates a small circle in the bathroom's darkness as she enters, and the only thing she can see are broken toilets and a hoof washing tub soaked in blood.
“Hello?” calls Fluttershy again.
CLA-CLANK!
Fluttershy whips around, shaking and aiming her energy cutter at the doorway.
A fire extinguisher rolls past the doorway and a shadow stretches across the floor, growing with every heavy step. With the steps comes a wheezing and a growl, and Fluttershy turns off her energy cutter, slides into the closest stall, and presses her back against the wall, straining her eyes to see in the dark.
The steps continue. They are now outside the bathroom.
Fluttershy presses her back harder against the metal wall.
The steps stop.
Fluttershy brushes her tongue against the trigger of her cutter.
The steps continue. They get weaker the further it goes, continuing the path forward.
Once the steps are no longer heard Fluttershy turns on her energy cutter and slowly leaves the stall. She pokes her head out of the bathroom and doesn't see anything on either side of the hallway, so she continues to the chamber.
Sparks fall on Fluttershy's shoulders and head, bringing her to wince from the tiny burns, and after she passes the actual door, which is laying on the floor with a massive dent in it, she stops and sulks in her spot.
There are four stairways, each marked and in the center of the room is a tall, circular device with screens and keypads on it. Above it is a flickering holographic projection of the green wreath surrounding the crossing sun and moon symbolizing the United Equestrian Nations. All along the walls are various posters giving health advice, safety tips, legal announcements, as well as large vent shafts with crossing wrenches and hammers painted above them.
Fluttershy shakes her head and goes to the first stairwell, which has a board with all the points of interests on them, including maintenance quarters and an engine room. But since it is not what she is looking for she moves on to the next stairwell, which leads to food processing. Again, this is not what she needs so she moves on to the next stairwell.
She barely has a chance to look at the board before the vent covering next to her explodes off of its position, and Fluttershy yelps and stumbles back as a Necromorph crawls out of it, drooling blood and scrapping the floor with its scythe limbs and clawed hoofs.
Fluttershy screams and clamps down on the energy cutter, pulling the trigger with her tongue. Its red beam easily slices off one of its scythe limbs and takes off a piece of its head. It screams in agony with its brownish blood spraying all over the wall and floor, and Fluttershy fires another burst of shots that take off its head entirely and the other scythe limb.
The creature collapses, spraying more blood like geyser all over the area, and as this happens, Fluttershy gets a sudden sharp pain in both of her shoulders from claws digging into them. Next she is pulled into the air. Everything shrinks in a blink and her weapon falls out of her mouth, landing next to the headless Necromorph. When she stops, her hindlegs are dangling, blood oozes all over her front legs and chest, and her wings are trapped under a muscular mass. Then she feels hot breath on the back of her neck with hot slobber dripping on her. The slobber that causes her skin to sizzle and fur to burn, and Fluttershy grits her teeth from the pain, and proceeds to slam her head backward.
There is a crunch and a squawk of pain with a bit of blood splattering on the back of her head, but she does not care. She does it again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
After the sixth time, her head is throbbing, her neck is burning, the stench of burnt fur, hair and flesh is torturing her nose, but after the last hit the creature drops Fluttershy. She expands her wings and circles down, but upon landing the Necromorph tackles her, leading both of them to roll on the floor with the creature's talons and claws on its back paws to tear at Fluttershy's suit and flesh, drawing out streams of blood and cries of pain. When it has her subdued, it is on top of her, looking down at her and screaming with its beak reduced to a stub, leaving a sharp and thin barbed tongue exposed. But now that Fluttershy can actually see the creature, she sees that throbbing veins have popped out of its skin, its feathers have fallen off in place of flaps of skin, like a bat, and in its chest is a translucent orb with swirling, bug like abominations rolling inside it.
The Necromorph brings its talons down on Fluttershy, and she slams her hoof against it, grunting in pain as her weakened state struggles to keep the talon up.
The Necromorph lifts the other talon, and Fluttershy's watery eyes bulge. It brings it down against her hard and fast, and she uses her other hoof to keep that one up.
Fluttershy grits her teeth, growling in pain with tears soaking her cheeks as much as the blood and sweat is wetting her body. Her hoofs slowly begin to bend down, bringing the Necromorph's face closer to hers, and as this happens the creature's tongue coils up. Seconds later, the tongue shoots towards her like a dart and she tilts her head to one side. It tries again and she moves her head to the other side. After the second time Fluttershy presses her hindlegs underneath the Necromorph's abdomen and flips it off her. It lands flat on its back on the other side of her, squawking and flailing, and despite her limbs feeling like they are about to snap she manages to roll upright and grab her energy cutter. She dares not use her mouth to use it, though, since it is covered in Necromorph blood, and when she brings the weapon to bear the Necromorph has rolled upright.
It rushes towards her, shrieking and wings flapping, and Fluttershy fires a shot at its center, popping the translucent bag on its chest, leading to a wretched stench and goo spraying out, along with the bugs inside.
The Necromorph reels back, screeching and clutching the deflated sack, and Fluttershy shoots it again, blowing off one of its arms, which drops it to the ground. She is about to fire off another round, but one of the bugs leaps on her and sinks its tiny claws into her uniform and bites at the base of her wing. A burning pain erupts from the bite, and like a wildfire the pain surges through her wing and along her side and lungs.
Fluttershy shrieks and sobs as she flails around, trying to get the bug off, and another one jumps on her flank, tearing apart the fabric of her uniform to sink in its teeth right at her cutie mark. The hot pain brings her legs to buckle, and as she falls to her haunches, sobbing and gasping for air, another bug jumps up and bites her in the neck.
Her throat closes. She wheezes for air as the Necromorph screeches. Blood is covering large portions of her body as the pain breaks her down to near uselessness. The bugs keep chewing on her, drawing more blood, and ripping apart more flesh and more fabric so they can chew on more of her.
The Necromorph hobbles Fluttershy, tongue snapping like a whip, and using what energy she could, she turns around and bucks it in the head, forcing it to stumble back, and then she drops to the ground and starts rolling, crushing the bugs. Each crushed bug releases a quick, sharp squeak as they splatter between her weight and the metal floor.
She is having trouble even wheezing for air, now. Her throat is sealed and burning, and her eyes are clouded. Slowly her vision goes to black.
The creature rushes Fluttershy again, and again she kicks it away, but her kick is weaker and barely pushes it away, but it is just enough for her to get some precious seconds to reach her energy cutter.
Her vision is almost completely dark, now. Her hoof can barely hold the cutter.
The Necromorph grabs her with its remaining talon and flies up to the ceiling again.
The bug is still chewing on her.
She is shivering despite being the hot pain running through her body.
She will not let go of the cutter, though, and she crushes the bug chewing on her collar with her other hoof.
The eyes of the Necromorph peer into her dazed look, and its back legs latch on to the ceiling bars while its talon holds Fluttershy's dangling body.
It coils its tongue, bloody drool now dripping on her face.
Fluttershy shakily raises her cutter and decapitates it with one shot. The Necromorph releases her from its grip, and down she goes, feeling weightless and the dim metal and emergency lights rushing past her as she falls. She hits the top of the circular terminal in the center of the chamber, shattering the holographic projector, which punctures her suit and burns her feathers with large sparks. Then she rolls off, bounces off one of the keypads, which also breaks under her weight, and lands on her side on the floor, blacking out instantly.
Author's Note
Just so y'all know... I love Fluttershy. She's my waifu.
“Fluttershy, can you hear me?”
… … ...
“Fluttershy!”
… … …
“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.
“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.
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!
“They will not be whole!” screams the stallion.
The stallion bites down on his trigger, the weapon roars to life and a stream of fire launches towards Fluttershy. She leaps out of the way, screaming in fright as the fire speeds past her, burning off some of her mane and eating the luggage in its path. She slides on the floor and shoots a stasis ball at the crazy stallion as he turns to her. He grits his teeth, fighting the blue aura holding him, and Fluttershy jumps into the elevator, sliding into the wall in the process, presses the emergency close button and pushes the floor button she needs.
The clanks and hums of the elevator are music to her ears, and she slumps against the wall, gasping for air as the stench of burnt hair clogs her nose, and after frantically brushing off the ashy end of her mane she checks her weapon. The battery seems good, so she takes a deep breath and aims it at the door, watching the slim lines of light slide through the crack. A moment later the elevator stops, the door opens, and Fluttershy sees the handy work of the psychopathic pyromaniac.
The hallway is pitch black, but with the flashes of light coming from the sparks popping out of destroyed wires, terminals and lights, she can see the walls and floors are charred and littering the area are shriveled and crumbling smoking corpses with pockets of glowing red dotting them.
Fluttershy enters the hallway, keeping her steps brisk as she passes the burnt corpses and charred walls. She yelps and jumps to the side when a sudden hiss followed by a rain of sparks falls almost on top of her. She resumes her walk a second later and risks looking over her shoulder. The Pyro has not come yet, and so far nothing has come from the vents. She looks ahead and turns her quick walk to a run, passing locked doors, doors that have been ripped open, and flickering signs. One of which points towards the transit boarding station.
Another place Fluttershy passes has the double helix above it, and across from it is a door with a sun above it. Both doors have been ripped open, but Fluttershy keeps running until-
“Where are you!?” yells a distorted voice over the radio.
Fluttershy skids to a halt and perks her ears up. The voice is familiar, but with the distortion she cannot be one hundred percent sure who it is.
“Hello?” calls Fluttershy frantically in her radio. She turns around, sees nothing, and looks ahead again; also nothing. “Who is this? Can you hear me?”
Static overtakes the radio’s transmission, and a new voice says, “Make us whole.”
There is a loud shriek after that over the radio that makes Fluttershy wince and hold her ear, and the transmission disappears, as though a switch had been flipped. After that is a heavy silence where Fluttershy’s heavy panting is the only noise. She swallows some sticky spit, then immediately cough and falls against the wall. She coughs again and hacks out a glob of yellow tinted spit, then wheezes as she stares at the tainted liquid. Her heart races and her wide eyes lock on the yellow. As she stares at it, she activates her communicator and has it do a scan of the last signals it intercepted.
All she has is Rainbow Dash’s signal.
“No… No… That’s not right,” mutters Fluttershy. “That’s…. What is going on!?”
Suddenly, a whimpering coming from the double helix room. This gives Fluttershy a jump, and she stares at the room’s doorway, shaking and breathing heavily. The whimpering continues, and Fluttershy gulps and creeps towards the door.
“Hello?” calls Fluttershy.
Fluttershy peeks inside the room, using her energy cutter for light. The room is dark, but with the light of her weapon she gasps and sees broken pews and two charred corpses chained to a warped double helix, and around them are ashes and blackened crumbling items with the floor, walls and ceiling scorched.
The chained corpses are equine and their flesh has shriveled and fused to their splitting bones, their jaws open and warped, and pendants have fused to their ribs.
Fluttershy turns her light towards another wall and loses her breath when she finds more bodies, broken and burned, all different races from what she can tell. Like the two chained, their blackened flesh has shriveled and fused to the cracked bones, and bloody streaks, splatter and pools have cooked to the floor and walls. After taking in that gut-wrenching scene she reluctantly shines her light on the other wall, finding broken book cases, and shattered figurines, and when she takes a step forward her hoof brushes against something small. She looks down and finds that it is an audio disk, and after taking a moment to make sure the area is clear, she holsters her cutter, ejects Diamond Dust's audio, slips it into one of the pockets of her suit, and puts in the new audio.
There is chanting and hymns she cannot make out, and a mare sniffling.
As the audio plays Fluttershy returns to the burnt bodies and paws at the nearest corpse, grimacing and fighting back tears when its burnt face turns towards her, jaw twisted and sockets hollow. She studies it for a moment before moving on to the next body to inspect it, specifically looking for a male pegasus
“What have I done?” sniffles the mare in the audio. “Is this the Convergence that Sovia Rockwood prophesied about? How can this be a good thing?”
Fluttershy gasps for air when she sees a twisted pegasus wing.
“Are you faltering, Alima?” says another mare.
Fluttershy goes to the wing and finds it does belong to a male pegasus with a broken skull and snapped leg.
“Sovia promised peace, not Hell!” says the first mare.
Fluttershy shakes her head, whimpering and gently turning the body to its back. Pieces fall off of it and in the audio’s background is a banging and muffled angry shouts, and Alima whimpers as the other mare gently shushes her.“Its okay, soon we will be at peace. We will be one,” says the mystery mare. “Say it with me, Alima. Say it with us.”
“No,” whimpers Alima.
“One mind,” begins the mare and the other voices follow suit as one. “One mind!”
“No.”
“One soul.” “One soul!”
“Please stop! Stop this!”
“One flesh.” “One flesh!”
“ETERNAL PEACE! ETERNAL UNITY!”
There is a loud crack, pop and electric discharge that hurts Fluttershy's ears, and a flood of angry shouts rushes in, drowning the laughs of the mystery mare and the sobs of Alima.
“There they are!” shouts a stallion.
There is a stampede and angry shouts clash with raised voices of prayer that are quickly silenced with gunshots, buzzes, and bones and items being broken from bludgeons.
“I'm sorry!” cries Alima.
The audio then abruptly cuts out, and Fluttershy stares at the unrecognizable burnt corpse in her hoofs, which is being illuminated by the glow of the device, shaking and nostrils flaring with her heavy breaths. She wants to scream, yet her jaw is clutched too tight. Her limbs refuse to move her from the grave despite a faint voice telling her to run. Tears bubble and slide down her face, and she opens her mouth to let out a sharp gasp of air. Then a distant ding grabs her attention.
Fluttershy looks out the door, and with narrowed eyes and clenched teeth she gently lowers the body and storms out of the room and down the hall, the sound of her heavy steps bouncing off the walls with another set of hoofs. Coming towards her from the elevator at the other end with the tiny glow of the fire as his light is the Psycho. Like her, his steps are quick, and like her he stops when they are a few a doors apart.
“Is that my brother in there!?” screams Fluttershy, her vision red and clouded with tears. “Did you burn Zephyr!?”
“They want to be whole. I will not let them,” says the Psycho, his voice easily carrying through the desolation.
Fluttershy draws her cutter and aims it at him, trembling and sniffling. “Is that my brother in there!?”
The Pyro grabs his mouth trigger. “They cannot be made whole!”
There is a blinding flash of hot light and Fluttershy backpedals, tripping over herself as a stream of roaring fire sweeps side to side. The heat washes over her and her painful shrieks echo down the hall as the flames latch on to her and eat at her face and mane.
Then there is a sudden snap of metal, the fire stops, and the Pyro growls with the familiar screech of a Necromorph. As this happens Fluttershy lays on the ground, screaming and struggling to stand as she clutches her face. Her hoof buckles and she falls to the floor again with bloody tears and burnt mane falling to the floor. She whimpers and drags herself across the floor until she reaches a wall, and then she uses its pipe to help her stand and she turns to look at the Pyro. She can barely see through the wet haze of her one exposed eye, but through the blur she can see the Pyro wrestling a tailed Necromorph. Both rolling around on the floor, with him bashing and stomping on it and it slashing and biting him.
Fluttershy picks up her cutter with her mouth, having to squeeze her jaw painfully tight to hold it, and retreats down the hall, collapsing against the wall and then falling over again when her hoof hits a charred metal case. It is when she hits the ground that the vent overhead breaks open and a tailed Necromorph lands in front of her, but Fluttershy manages to push herself up and runs past it, dodging its slashing tail and forcing herself to run faster when she hears it screech and its claws scraping the metal from it chasing her.
Fluttershy quickly passes through a doorway that leads to a platform of benches and lights with a trolley waiting to be boarded, but the Necromorph leaps on her back and digs its claws into her ribs. The claws scratch the metal and coat it in a sticky layer of mucus, and the sudden weight pushes Fluttershy to the ground which leads to her dropping her cutter.
Fluttershy manages to buck it off for the briefest of moments before it knocks her on her back and lunges at her face. She puts her hoof between its fangs and her maw, screaming through her gritted teeth as the Necromorph's teeth clamp down on the metal armor and piercing the fabric on the underside of her suit. Its claws scrape against the metal floor as it presses down on her, and Fluttershy reaches for her cutter. The metal bends on her hoof pad and her screams turn to sobs as the teeth sink into her flesh. When she manages to grab her cutter, she slams it against the Necromorph's head as hard as she can.
The impact breaks off some of its rotten flesh loosens an eyeball, but it still holds on, hissing and shaking its head, and Fluttershy hits it again and again and awkwardly kicks its underside. It growls louder and brings its claws up right above her head.
The claws come down and Fluttershy fires as fast as her hoof can. The shot takes off its clawed hoof, another shot takes off half of its arm, and then she screams and hits it in the head again, this time breaking its jaw loose and sending teeth flying. The Necromorph staggers off of her, spitting out globs of blood from its mouth while more blood pumps from the remains of its arm, and Fluttershy fires a few more shots into it, tearing off a part of its shoulder, blowing a hole in its chest and finally cutting off its head and other arm. By the time she is done it is a stub on the ground, and the blood pumping out of it coats her and the floor in its rust color.
Fluttershy staggers away from it, hyperventilating and blinking tears and blood out of her eyes. Her bitten hoof buckles and her hind legs almost give out on her when she backs up. Then the vent above the hallway entrance breaks open and another tailed Necromorph crawls onto the wall. Fluttershy's shoulders sulk and a tired and very much annoyed groan escapes her before she aims her cutter at it,
The Necromorph leaps at her and she shoots it, cutting it in half with the weapon's beam and sending the two halves spiraling away, splattering blood all over the floor. When it hits the ground, it thrashes and screams while its disconnected tail whips the air, and Fluttershy shoots the upper half of it until it stops screaming.
After that, Fluttershy sees a flash of orange coming from the hallway and she quickly limps towards the trolley, leaving a trail of blood in her wake. Once inside, she forces the door to shut and locks it, which leaves a coat of blood on the window, and then she limps to the control panel. The controls are glowing with a predestination selected, but right now she is in too much pain and panic to care where that is, so she hastily disconnects the brakes and pushes the throttle all the way forward.
“Lock disengaged. Autopilot engaged. Please stay seated,” says the computer.
The glow of orange flashes out of the corner of her eye as the trolley pulls forward and she sees the Pyro walking past the burning remains of the Necromorphs she shot, covered in fresh blood and scratches, but also appears to be unfazed by his injuries.
The trolley rattles and hums, and Fluttershy cracks an eye open.
Nothing is there.
No fire.
No Pyro.
No Necromorphs.
Fluttershy opens her other eye and cautiously moves towards the back of the trolley, leaving a thick pool of yellow tinted blood in front of the control panel. Her whole body is shaking, her bitten hoof can barely hold her, and the cold feeling returns. But she is determined to see what the hold up is.
A ding comes out from the speakers and Fluttershy slumps into a seat, eyes heavy and head swaying back and forth.
“Next stop. Section D,” says a familiar computerized voice.
Fluttershy lifts her bit hoof to her face, grimacing at the thick, dark red and yellow tinted blood covering her. Heavy droplets drip to the floor, and three teeth are still lodged in her flesh.
“Next stop. Section D,” repeats the voice.
Fluttershy brings the hoof to her mouth, bites down on one of the, takes three deep breaths, then pulls. Her breathing gets faster and harder, nostrils flaring and bile surging up as the teeth pull against her muscles.
“Next stop. Section D.”
The tooth comes out, soaked in blood just like Fluttershy's muzzle, and she spits it on the floor. Her hoof is trembling and more blood pumps out of the opening the tooth left.
The trolley turns and Fluttershy bites down on the other tooth and pulls it out. She spits it on the floor, then falls off her seat and pukes. Speckles of red and brown colors cover the two teeth she pulled out, and Fluttershy falls to her side, wheezing and whimpering.
The trolley slows to a stop and while still on the floor, Fluttershy begins pulling out the last tooth. There is another ding, followed by a buzz, and with the other tooth now in her mouth and free from her hoof she looks up and sees the red light above the trolley door.
Fluttershy spits out the tooth, pushes herself up and keeps her bitten hoof pressed against her chest as she limps towards the locked door. She peeks out the bloody window and sees a door broken open on the platform. Above it is a sign that reads Section D. The platform itself is riddled with bullet holes, scorch marks and shrapnel, plus corpses of griffins and Necromorphs. One griffin, dark blue with white tipped feathers, is leaning against the broken door, and Fluttershy's eyes widen when she sees he is looking back at her, weapon aimed at the trolley and chest heaving.
Fluttershy fumbles with the lock on the door and squeezes through as it opens, bringing her to fall on the floor. The flash of pain on her cheek does not faze her, though. She pushes herself up and limps towards the griffin, who is now lowering his weapon. When she is in front of him, she sees he is armed with a shotgun and is wearing thick armor like Rainbow Dash's but tailored to the large size of a male griffin, and he also has a band with an orb on it. Fluttershy is about to ask him if he is okay but stops herself when she realizes the extent of his injuries. One of his wings missing and there is a large, dark red gash going from his collar down to his pelvis that has covered his armor in blood and left his bone and his intestines exposed, putting him in a pool of crimson. His face is also wet with blood, tears and sweat and blood drips out of his mouth when he speaks.
“Ariana, you came back,” he wheezes weakly. “Why?”
Fluttershy sits down in front of him and puts her hoof on his shoulder but is unable to find words. She can only swallow a wet ball in her throat and keep the confusion locked away.
The griffin drops his weapon to put his hand on her hoof, barely able to hold her. “Are the kids okay? … Did they make it?”
Fluttershy blinks tears away, nodding. “Y-Yes. They made it off the ship.”
“Good.” The griffin slips the band on Fluttershy’s hoof and slumps against the wall. “Now you go. Get off this ship, Ariana... Tell them I'm sorry...”
Fluttershy looks at the new band, seeing that it is an “Artificial Telekinesis Module”, and when she looks back at the griffin, she sees that his eyes have closed and he has become limp.
Fluttershy looks at him for a few more seconds before checking his pulse. She sighs and her shoulders sulk, and then she reluctantly digs into his supply pouch and pulls out a canister of medical foam and a roll of bandages. She quickly sprays her bitten hoof with the foam, following it up with wrapping the wound in the bandages. She repeats this on the burn covering half of her face, using the last of the foam and bandages, which leaves her with only one eye exposed and sharp tingles scampering all over the destroyed flesh. Once she finishes bandaging herself, she pulls the griffin away from the wall, offering a quick apology before doing so, and unbuckles his saddle.
With the saddle off, she searches through it and finds three shotgun magazines puts them in the saddle and grabs his shotgun. She ejects the magazine, finds ammo in it, and after slipping it back in she aims it at one of the Necromorph corpses. It is at this point that Fluttershy realizes two things.
First, the world seems dimmer. The whole environment is already dark with the failing lights and dark colors of the metal, but now it seems that there is an extra layer of blackness. This brings up the second point, which is that everything seems flatter. She didn't notice any of this at first, but now that she is not running for survival and has a chance to think the reality of what happened to her is hitting her like a large block of ice falling on her head.
Fluttershy tightens her jaw and focuses on the corpse, straining her one eye so the vision switches from a blur to clear, and after a moment of this she slips her shotgun in the new saddle and looks at the broken door.
Lights flicker in the hallway, and loud hums shake her bones.
Dark to light. Dark to light. Dark to light.
Fluttershy squints her eye. Her back can really feel the weight of the new gear, and even with the quick patch job on her hoof she still feels the sting and the weakness of her hoof is bringing it lift off the floor on its own.
Dark to light.
There is a message on the wall at the far end.
Dark to light.
Fluttershy creeps closer to door.
Dark to light.
The message is very simple.
RUN
DING!
Fluttershy's ears perk and she looks over her shoulder, paling when she sees the trolley pulling forward with the door closed and the words: “Next stop: Section E” scrolling on a screen across its length.
“No!” Fluttershy gallops towards the trolley. “No no no no no no!”
She skids to a halt and grabs a lamp post, yelping as half of her body dips off the edge, getting a view of the far drop below. Her ribs rattle from her racing heart and her stomach rises to her throat as she looks at the drop. It is like the world is being sucked away from her, and when she gets the strength to pull herself back she falls on her rump, pressing her hoof against her heart and watching the trolley go with tears burning her damaged face.
She then scoots away from the edge, presses her back against the lamppost, covers her face and screams. Her scream carries through the empty cavern, and still goes for some time even when she is done. After finishing her scream Fluttershy throws her hoofs down and stares at the failing light of the lamppost across from her, seething and shaking and eye bloodshot.
Her face is burned.
She lost an eye.
Her body is broken.
She keeps hearing voices without bodies.
People are dying in front of her.
She missed the trolley just she got back online.
And Zephyr may be dead.
With that last thought Fluttershy quickly shakes her head and presses her hoofs against her temples. Sure she may have held a burnt pegasus, but that doesn't mean that was Zephyr. After all, she did not do a proper autopsy and has no idea if his weight or height changed any. Besides, she doesn't remember him being religious despite the efforts of their parents, but time changes people. And so does traveling far distances and completely cutting off your family through an unstoppable trinity of training, long deployments and unresolved grudges. Grudges that carry on and infest every shared memory and rot away the chances to make amends the longer they go untreated. And like every disease it must be treated, and that means Zephyr must still be alive for both of their sakes.
After taking a deep breath, Fluttershy stands up and looks down the passage. She can see the trolley's red lights in the distance and is guessing that it has stopped. She expands her wings and gives them a test flap, but a tearing pain going through her bitten wing forces it to retract to her side. This brings Fluttershy to wince and back further away from the edge.
When she is halfway on the platform, she turns to look at the broken door. Nothing has changed. The lights are still flickering, and the message is still there. But with her unable to fly, her only fast mode of transportation a far distance away and no idea if the Pyro is giving chase or not, she takes a deep breath and slowly walks to the destroyed door. Though right as she is about to go through, Rainbow Dash's face suddenly appears in front of her with her colors washed in green and her big eyes pale white, making Fluttershy scream and jump back with a racing heart.
“Fluttershy, can you hear me?” asks Rainbow Dash hastily.
Fluttershy nods. “I can.” She peeks past the holographic projection and is grateful to see nothing in the hallway. “I can hear you.”
“Thank Celestia! I... Holy shit. What happened to your face?”
Fluttershy holds up her bitten hoof, grimacing when she sees red blotches forming on her bandage.
“Yeah, I hear ya. Listen, I got to make this quick.” Rainbow Dash looks over her shoulder and then scurries into another spot and crouches down, whispering: “First, when that thing attacked us -whatever the fuck it was- I got separated from the others. I got it to chase me, but it’s persistent and I had to crawl through a vent to get away from that thing. Now I have no idea where the others are, and they aren't answering my calls. You're the first to answer me.”
“Oh dear...”
A distant clank jerks Fluttershy's heart and with a gasp she leaps out of the doorway and presses herself against the wall with the shotgun now in her hoofs.
“You okay?” asks Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy shakes her head. “I thought I heard something.”
“You and me both. I keep hearing voices and I get the feeling that I am being watched. I don't like it!”
“Watched?” Fluttershy peeks past the twisted metal of the door. A long shadow of three curved fingers stretches across “RUN”. She gulps and presses her back against the wall again. “Th-there's a nice griffin n-named Dr. Rock that is using the cameras to watch the ship. H-He's trying to help me...”
Fluttershy looks down the hallway again. The shadow is gone. She goes back to her spot, whimpering and sweating, and slowly cocking the shotgun, cringing when the CLI- CLACK sounds like a beast tapping the floor. She has only ever fired a shotgun during training, and that was five years ago when she was eighteen, and that was in a controlled environment with paper targets.
“I-It's not just him here, though,” says Fluttershy in a hasty whisper. “There's a psycho with a flamethrower on the loose. H-He's burning everything. He tried to kill me a-and I don't know if he hurt Zephyr or not.”
“Fuck...” Rainbow Dash rubs her mane. “Okay, look, I'm in Section E. I'm heading to the Medical-” Rainbow Dash's ears suddenly perk and she leans around the corner. She snaps back in place a second later, eyes watering and hoof covering her mouth to stifle a whine.
“Oh shit,” sniffles Rainbow Dash.
“Rainbow?” says Fluttershy worryingly.
“Shit shit shit shit shit. I-I got to go.”
“Rainbow, what-”
Rainbow Dash jumps up and the footage cuts out.
“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy tries to reconnect, but a “BLOCKED” flashes in front of her. “Oh no...”
Fluttershy scrambles up, puts the shotgun away and rushes through the door, skidding to a stop when she sees at the end of the hallway a tall, frail pony standing underneath a weak light. His head is limp to the side and he holds his hoof out to Fluttershy.
“Make us whole again,” whispers the stallion, his voice in her ear.
Fluttershy's legs lock, and the stallion and drops his hoof and sulks out of sight, leaving “RUN” in full view once more. After he is out of sight, Fluttershy watches the wall, waiting for something, anything, to come around the corner. But when nothing happens she takes a deep breath, pushes the button on her helmet and gets some relief when her whole head is completely encased in metal without any error messages as well as tiny lights flashing on to give her better sight.
And then she goes forward.
Author's Note
Isn't she cute?
Fluttershy's blood runs cold at the sight of the pony at the end of the hallway, standing underneath the weak light. He is tall and frail, like skin sucked down to the bones, his head is hanging limp on the side and he is swaying in his spot, with his black pits for eyes look right at her as he holds his hoof out to her.
“Make us whole again,” whispers the stallion, his voice in her ear.
Fluttershy's legs lock, and the stallion drops his hoof and sulks out of sight, leaving “RUN” in full view once more in the weak light. After he is out of sight, Fluttershy draws her energy cutter and watches the wall, waiting for something, anything, to come around the corner. But nothing comes.
It is all silence, save for the faint hum and crackles of electricity, and heart beats thumping in her ears.
And then another.
And another.
And another.
Soon she is making her way down the hall at a quick pace. She has no idea when the trolley will be back or when it will leave the new section, and she still must find Zephyr as well as the rest of the group. She cannot sit and wait. She needs to be brave and get the mission done.
As Fluttershy trots down the hall she passes more bullet holes, scratches, and shrapnel, as well as hieroglyphs made of a mix of circles, curves and straight lines either scratched into the wall or painted on with blood or actual paint. But as of now Fluttershy has no interest in trying to decipher the odd symbols. In fact, just being near them leaves her fur rising and her spine tingling.
When Fluttershy reaches the RUN at the end of the hall she rounds the corner and finds a locked door, which she uses her master key band to unlock. The door's red circle changes to blue, the center twists and the door splits open, revealing a poster on the wall of a family of smiling earth ponies sitting on a checkered blanket with food around them. But their smiles and the pleasant sunny day picnic are tainted by a spider web crack on its plexi-glass exterior and a hole in the head of the foal, which has blood splattered all over it and the blood pools to the bottom where it changes to a streak that goes down the hallway.
Fluttershy traces the blood with her light and finds it stops in front of one of the locked doors (marked D-101), so she keeps herself pressed against the wall as she travels down the hallway, carefully stepping over bullet casings, clothes and bits of flesh and bone, as well as passing more of the odd hieroglyphs. The hallway lights cast a dim orange hue on the locked doors and metal walls, and the red lights remind her of eyes of a predator trailing their next meal.
Fluttershy rounds a corner and finds more locked rooms lining a pitch-black hallway. Their red lights reflect off the doors across from them, bathing them and scattered clothing and open luggage cases in a red hue. Fluttershy takes a step back and looks down the other direction and sees the same thing, but the trolley is in the first direction she looked so she holsters her cutter and gallops down the hall, grinding her teeth as thin streams of tears scratch her face and dig into the burns under her bandage. Her bitten hoof and wounded shoulders throb and feel like they are about to rip open, and she skids to a halt when she hears a mare's bloodcurdling scream and a cackling coming from one of the locked rooms.
Her head snaps left to right, the light from her helmet shining on the damaged walls and bloodied floor. The scream and maniac laughter returns, and a series of bangs and thuds travel through the dark, prompting Fluttershy to take a step back while clumsily drawing her energy cutter with her hoof.
“GET BACK!” screams a stallion. “STAY BACK!”
The stallion's voice is suddenly cut off with loud buzz, followed by a wet gurgling sound and the mare's cries are abruptly silenced soon after by the same buzz.
Fluttershy stands in the middle of the hallway, sweeping her weapon side to side and her one eye straining to see what is lurking in the dark.
Then one of the doors flashes blue and slides open, and Fluttershy's eye widens. A stallion stumbles out, pressing his hoof against a gash across his chest that has soaked his blue and yellow banded jumpsuit in blood. His eyes are bulging, blood dribbles in thick globs from his open mouth, and his wheezes are wet and weak. Then he collapses on the floor, twitches, and stops moving.
Fluttershy stares at the stallion, shaking and watching in silence as the blood spreads across the floor.
Fluttershy steps back, yelping and jumping when her back hoof brushes against something on the floor. She shines her light on it and sees that it is a vent grate, and she quickly snaps her weapon directly up and sees a black pit in the ceiling where the vent is.
Fluttershy quickly backs away from the vent until she hits the bed, causing it to scrape against the floor. The sound carries down the dead hallway which brings her to cringe and fold her ears back. She also locks herself in place and forces herself to stop breathing so she can listen to anything.
“Heeheehee~” giggles a mare faintly.
Fluttershy snaps her weapon to the vent but sees nothing. Still, it is enough for her to back away from the vent, taking a moment to look over her shoulder in case anything is coming from behind her. Thankfully it is clear, and it remains clear when she enters the hallways, having to step over the dead stallion while doing so, but she does step in the blood, which leads to a trail of prints when she goes down the hallway again.
The trip down the rest of the hallway is uneventful after that, with the only sound being the humming of lights and a faint scraping and thuds in the ceiling. Fluttershy looks at the ceiling, specifically at a vent, and waits.
Nothing.
She takes a step closer.
Nothing.
She takes a few more slow steps and keeps against the wall while aiming her cutter at the vent.
Fluttershy watches the vent for a few more seconds before she holsters her cutter and gallops down the hall. She rounds a corner and sees a passage without any doors and no lights in the ceiling. The only light is at the far end in an open area and a large sign above the entrance, reading:
ßTransit Station Elevators à Sec D Mess Hall à á Sec D 201-2100 á Sec D Supervisor Office á Sec D Extracurricular Activities Hall
CLA-CLANG!
Fluttershy yelps and jumps into the wall, heart thumping and hoof shaking as she draws her cutter and aims it at the corner where she just came from. A loud screech echoes in the hall and bolting around the corner, flailing its giant claws and its mouth wide open comes a Necormorph.
Fluttershy screams and shoots it, taking off its head, but all it does it make it stumble, so she shoots its legs and one of its arms, bringing it to fall to the ground, twitching and pumping blood everywhere. Then a vent grate that Fluttershy did not notice breaks off and another Necromorph leaps out, followed by two more. They rush her and she unloads her cutter on them, brightening the hall with the flashes of her cutter's discharge and sending limbs twirling in the air. After killing those three rather quickly a flood of overlapping screams, shrieks and screeches come from down the other end of the hall.
Shadows stretch and snap across the light in the open area, and a couple of seconds later a swarm of Necromorphs rush into view, pushing and slashing at each other to get through the door, and like a pipe being freed from a clog when one passes through, they all burst forward. All screaming and flailing their weaponized limbs, and Fluttershy pales and fumbles with putting in a new battery for her cutter.
The cutter's beams slice through the rotten flesh of the Necromorphs, and the weapon's discharge clashes with their hungry and pained growls and screams. Everything becomes a blur of darkness, flashes of light, brown muscle, and blood. She keeps shooting until a force sends her crashing into the floor, and while on her back a Necromorph leaps on top of her. Its skin rips as its jaw stretches wide, covering her visor with spit and speckles of blood, and Fluttershy shoots it in the chest with her Stasis. The force pushes it off in a state of slowness, and Fluttershy kicks it towards the group of Necromorphs.
They push and slice it out of the way and Fluttershy takes advantage of the distraction to scramble to her hoofs and grabs the closest weapon. A disembodied scythe limb. It is during this that a message plays in her ear.
“Artificial Telekinesis Module activated.”
The newest band on her hoof glows and the scythe claw in her grip is covered in a blue aura. Fluttershy does not even think when she throws it at the nearest Necromorph, but with the added power of the ATM it launches like a harpoon and impales it through the chest. It does not kill the creature, but it does make it stumble back and it gives her time to grab her cutter and fire a few more rounds into what is left of the crowd. The Necromorph in the Stasis is already in pieces on the floor, the other Necromorphs drop with pieces of their bodies blown off, and the last Necromorph standing still has the claw in its chest with a huge puddle of blood underneath its feet. It stares at her, wobbling in its spot, she stares back, panting and aiming her cutter at it, and it takes one step before it crumbles and stops moving. To be safe, Fluttershy uses the last shot on her battery to obliterate its head, and then she quickly reloads and hobbles forward, stepping over the carpet of mutilated Necromorphs and grimacing when her hoofs splash in the puddles of their blood.
After reaching the end of the hallway the change of dark to light hurts her eye for a second, but once the quick session of pain ends, she finds herself in a clean part of the ship. The area is free of blood, free of any kind of damage, the lights are good and even a schedule board is displaying everything smoothly. From extracurricular classes, to meal times, hours of operations for the clinics and section administrators, and even a large bulletin at the bottom that reads: Captain Star Tracker's Birthday Party in Sec D Mess Hall. Bring presents!
Next to it is a picture of an earth pony stallion with an odd purplish-blue coat, blue eyes, freckles, and a golden mane. His smile is awkward and his white and gold banded captain's suit seems almost too big for him.
Just by looking at him Fluttershy feels a sense of pity, like witnessing a colt who is taking off more than he can chew just to impress someone. Or prove a point. And chances are he had a miserable end just like everyone else on board this forsaken ship.
With that thought, Fluttershy shakes her head sadly and goes towards the direction towards the transit station, which is down yet another hall.
“Of course,” mutters Fluttershy.
She goes towards the hallway, but when she passes through the doorway static fills her ears, followed by a familiar voice burdened with tiredness and fear and a holographic projection of the audio waves of the message.
“Fluttershy, can you hear me?”
Fluttershy stops and her heart nearly leaps out of her throat from sheer joy and relief as her hoof snaps up to her helmet.
“Fluttershy, please answer me. I know you've never answered my calls before, but please... I need you.”
“Zephyr? Zephyr, I hear you! Where are you!?” asks Fluttershy.
“Why won't you answer?”
“No no! Zephyr, I-I'm here! I'm here! Please tell me where you are!”
“Am I that bad?”
The transmission and projection ends with white noise and a pop that brings in total silence.
“Zephyr?” Fluttershy tries to call back, but an error message appears. “Zephyr! Please answer me!”
More dead silence. She tries to scan the frequencies again, but all she sees is Rainbow Dash’s signal, which is no longer blocked.
Fluttershy whines and paces in circles, then takes a deep breath and quickly calls Rainbow Dash as she hurries towards the transit station. At first there is nothing but static, but that changes a few seconds later when Rainbow Dash's face appears. Her colors are still bathed in a dim green hue and her eyes are still a mix of black and bright green from the night vision.
“Fluttershy, is that you? When did you get that helmet?” says Rainbow Dash.
“Rainbow, I got good news. Zephyr's alive! He sent out a signal, but he can't receive anything,” says Fluttershy. “But he's still alive and I can get him off of this ship if I can find him!”
“Fantastic, but I still haven't been able to get a hold of anypony else,” says Rainbow Dash sourly.
“Where are you?”
“I'm held up in the Medical Facility of Section E. I locked myself in the supervisor's office to separate me from those freaks. They can't get me in here.” Rainbow Dash cranes her neck to look at something off screen. “YOU HEAR ME, YOU FUCKS! YOU ARE NOT GETTING IN HERE!”
Rainbow Dash laughs and bangs her head against the wall, followed by her taking a long high pitched breath, drawing her pistol and tapping it against her temple.
“They're not going to get me,” says Rainbow Dash. “Oh no. They are not going to get me.”
The footage then cuts out and Fluttershy is about to call her back, but she stops herself when a vent grate crashes in front of the doorway to the transit station. The metallic crash sounds like thunder with its noise being carried throughout the area, and a couple of seconds later a pony drops into view. She lands awkwardly on the floor, giggling and kicking her legs in the air, and Fluttershy takes a step back, feeling a painful tingle run up her spine and a twitching in her legs.
The mare cackles and rolls on her hoofs, swaying in her spot in the middle of the doorway, giving Fluttershy a good look at her. The mare has a yellow body, a long, rough gray mane, and black bags underneath her unfocused dark blue eyes. She is wearing a torn blue jumpsuit with gray pads that is splattered in blood, and on the ground next to her is a circular device with black and yellow warning strips on its body, and strings of flesh clinging to its circular saw blade. The mare's mane flaps like old strings as she shakes her head, and then she comes to an abrupt stop and grins as she focuses on Fluttershy.
“Have you seen Starry? My sweet Starry?” asks the mare.
“N… No,” says Fluttershy uneasily.
“Nopony has seen Starry! But Starry likes a song. If we sing it together, he will sing it too, and we can find him. Do you want to hear it?”
Fluttershy gulps and takes a step back, and the mare's horn glows a sickly red and green.
“Twinkle, twinkle little star~ How I wonder what you are~” sings the mare as the weapon levitates 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!
“Twinkle, twinkle little star~ How I wonder what you are!”
Author's Note
She'll be fine.
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.
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.
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.
“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!”
“... 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.”
“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.”
“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?”
“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.
Fluttershy drops at the top of the stairs, clutching her chest and retracting her helmet. Her mouth hangs open as she tries to suck in air. The slashes on her chest burn, her hips and ribs ache, and her limbs feel like they are barely hanging on to her body. Fluttershy flops on her side, wheezing and blinking tears out of her eyes as she looks down the hallway. Above her, a light flickers and the lights that run down the hall barely light up its metal walls and the blood, bullet holes and slashes that desecrate them. But the light is strong enough for her to see directly down the hallway towards a door labeled as Supervisor Office, and seeing that, she grits her teeth and pushes herself up.
Fluttershy hobbles down the hallway, using the wall for help and passing a vent grate on the floor along the way. When she reaches the office, she finds it to be mostly empty. There is a computer terminal bathing the wall in a soft white light, and music flows from its speakers. What they are singing, though, is a mystery to Fluttershy, and to be frank she really does not care right now.
Fluttershy looks around the office and quickly finds a white box with a red cross on the wall. She opens it and takes out a container of medical foam, a container of pain pills and a syringe of adrenaline. Fluttershy wastes no time in applying the medical foam, and she pushes aside enough of the fabric covering her neck to inject herself with adrenaline, and afterwards she pops open the container of pain pills and swallows a mouthful. She didn't even count them, but the pain is quick to go and a light feeling envelopes her. So light, in fact, that she has trouble standing and must sit in the chair in front of the computer.
It is a soft chair that is designed specifically for a pony, which is nice, and the pads... So soft she can just sleep on them. They are like packaged clouds!
But soft chairs and lightheadedness aside, Fluttershy realizes that the computer is unlocked, and that it is on a music program with only one song on loop. It is the only song in the entire computer's library, and the icon tied to it is of a ship sailing into space, and the singer has a delicate and hypnotic melody in her voice.
Fluttershy hates it.
For a good reason, too.
“In the dark blue sky so deep Through my curtains often peep~ For you never close your eyes Til the morning sun does rise~ Twinkle, twinkle, little star How I wonder what you are~ Twinkle, twinkle, little star How I wonder what you are~”
Fluttershy shuts off the music and wipes her mane back, not realizing how sweaty and clumpy it has become until doing so. Or what's left of it, anyway. She can feel the burnt skin against her metal boot when she brushed her mane back, which brings her to wince.For the Survivors.
Fluttershy stares at it for a moment before looking down the hallway, and when nothing appears, she opens the folder and finds it to be holding a long list of folders. The folders are named from: Dates to Birthdays , Marriage to Starry , and finally one at the very bottom: Bon Voyage Travel.
Fluttershy opens the Travel folder and finds a long list of videos, so she decides to click on the first one.
The video starts with a unicorn stallion with a graying brown mane, a white coat, brown eyes, and a steaming cup as a cutie mark trotting down a terminal towards the Bon Voyage with a unicorn colt on his back. The colt is yellow with blue eyes and a white mane and is probably no older than six. Apart from the video is a steady stream of would be colonists moving in even lines in their own terminals, with the Bon Voyage towering above them from outside the large, thick glass wall that has a “NOW BOARDING” projected on it. The massive colony ship is connected to the station through numerous tubes, and it is being illuminated by a series of spotlights, which makes it shine like a diamond in the starry space behind it.
“Are we going on that?” asks the colt, looking at the camera with wide eyes and an excited grin.
A mare giggles behind the camera. “Why yes we are. And guess what?”
“What?”
“Mommy is going to be one of the bosses on the ship.”
The colt gasps and his ears perk. “Really?”
“Really.”
“Do we get discounts?” asks the stallion with a teasing smile.
“They might give you a senior's discount,” remarks the mare playfully.
“Thanks, hon. Appreciate that.”
The camera zooms in on the stallion's face. “You know you love me.”
The stallion smirks. “I know... Why don't I hold the camera? We got to get your pretty face on here.”
The stallion steps forward and the mare steps back.
“You know I'm camera shy,” says the mare.
“Face your fears, darling,” says the stallion, grinning devilishly.
“Noooo-uh!”
“Honey Creme?” says a shaky earth pony stallion.
The camera turns to Captain Star Tracker walking towards the three and next to him is a griffin with gray fur, white plumage and tipped wings, and gray eyes. The griffin is wearing a sealed saddle and when Star Tracker and griffin are near them the Captain flashes her an uneasy smile while the griffin pokes the colt's nose, much to the bemusement of the father. The colt giggles from this, though.
“Captain Star Tracker, what a pleasant surprise!” says the mare. “I thought you were already on board.”
“Oh, no. I had to do some last minute things,” says Captain Tracker. “By the way, this is, um, Dr. Atticus Rock from the University of Griffonstone. He's setting up an office in your location... Actually, can you stop recording, please?”
The griffin waves his hand. “Don't worry about it. I'm just a humble professor who got a last minute ticket. You know how much paperwork slows things down.”
“Professor of what?” asks the father critically.
“Sociology. I'm studying the effects of diversity in long distance space travel.”
“That's been done to death.”
“But I'm going to go deeper than those vanilla studies. Really pick at the bones and do some dissecting if you know what I mean.”
“Okay, I'm just going to turn this off.” The mare giggles awkwardly. “We don't want to get bored watching these videos.”
The video ends and Fluttershy can't help but frown at this. That is twice now she has been forced to question who Dr. Rock really is, and she does not like it. With that thought, she scrolls down, finding a long list of video logs, ranging from thirty seconds to thirty minutes, and she clicks on a random log.
The video screen appears, and the colt is trying to stay on an inflated ball, putting his body over it, just to roll off to the side and land on his back giggling. Sitting in a chair, wearing the blue and gray padded jumpsuit, and reading a hologram projecting from his hoof band is the father.
“What are you two doing?” says Honey Creme lightly.
“Reading the news,” says the stallion. “We should be reaching Onyx in a couple of weeks, and then we can explore the sites.”
The colt looks at the camera. “Dad said we could visit the dig areas!”
“Don't you want to visit the Onyx City Planetarium?” asks Honey Creme.
“I've seen enough of space. I want to see dirt!”
The camera zooms in on the stallion, who is smirking in a failing attempt to hold back a chuckle.
“This is your fault, Coco,” says Honey Creme.
“Yes, it is,” says the stallion proudly.
“Wait... Your name's not Dad?” asks the colt, his eyes wide and ears drooped. His world has been crushed.
The footage ends, and Fluttershy smiles and clicks on another random log.
The camera focuses on Coco and Starry going through a large crowd that populates a grass field with trees and flowers, and when they find a good a spot as they will get they stare out a massive window that is giving them a great view of a familiar dark planet with red light reflecting from its dwarf star. Being projected on the window, just high enough for everyone to see is a message that reads: WELCOME TO ONYX! THE GATEWAY PLANET!
Upbeat music plays and with the crowd are vendors passing out food and drinks, and a griffin security officer passes the camera, taking his role as watchdog very professionally.
“Are you excited?” asks Honey Creme.
“Uh huh!” says Starry with a couple of hops. “When are we going to land?”
“Very soon.”
“Attention Onyx City Port, this is the UEG Bon Voyage requesting permission to dock,” says Captain Star Tracker over the speakers.
The crowd murmurs in anticipation, with some giggling and others hopping up and down; and Starry paws on Coco's leg until he kneels down and lets the colt climb on him, and when the kid has a good grip on his head he stands up.
“Attention Onyx City Port, this is the UEG Bon Voyage requesting permission to dock,” repeats Captain Star Tracker.
The crowd is still smiling and chatting, but confusion is seeping in their voices and faces.
“Something's wrong,” says Honey Creme.
“Attention Onyx City Port, this is the UEG Bon Voyage requesting permission to dock,” says Captain Star Tracker again. “... Sorry passengers, we seem to be having a communications problem with Onyx City. Sit tight and we will get the problem sorted out.”
The intercom shuts off, and after a few minutes of basic chatter and walking around, the camera focuses on a bulky yellow craft with four engines launching towards the planet.
“That's weird,” says Honey Creme.
“What is it?” asks Coco, turning to look at her as he is in the process of swiping his hoof across a vendor's pay pad.
“They launched a cargo ship towards the planet's surface.”
“Yeah, that is weird... Caramel apple?”
The video cuts to black.
And when returns it is laying on the ground with a steel railing barely in view. Below the railing is a large chamber with a dozen parked space-faring vehicles, and it is also where the cargo ship has returned to. It is rolling to a stop with its black call sign CV-BV-10923 in full view. In front of it is a group of a dozen security officers, mostly griffins, but there are a few ponies, a goat and a couple of zebras with them. And standing behind them are mainly ponies in white lab coats and jumpsuits. And in front of them all, sitting on the floor, tapping his paw on the metal surface, and holding a pad with his talons is Dr. Atticus Rock. Captain Star Tracker is also next to him, but unlike Dr. Rock he appears nervous.
The cargo ship comes to a stop and then slowly turns around until its back is facing them and the hatch opens. It hits the floor with a loud thud and a couple of seconds later a thestral covered in blood stumbles out, pressing their hoof against their head and shaking. They speak, but not loud enough for any words to be made out, and the thestral is quickly escorted away by a pair of guards and a goat in a lab coat.
The camera pulls away and turns to an open vent on the floor before it shuts off.
Fluttershy scrunches her brow and hits the next available log.
Coco is pacing around the living room, carefully packing a basket with food, drinks, and a blanket, but as he packs, he keeps glancing at the camera. Each glance his expression becomes more and more agitated, but he does not say anything until he finishes packing.
“Thanks for the help. Are you going to put down the camera?” asks Coco.
“But we're going to the park. I have to record everything,” says Honey Creme.
Coco's face wrinkles from his scowl. “Even the dumb shit?”
“What's got you stressed out? This is supposed to be a fun day.”
“What's got me stressed out is you know what is going on with this ship, and rather than telling me you are keeping it a secret.”
“I told you I can't tell you.”
“Ever since we got to Onyx people have been disappearing left and right, the ship hasn't moved at all for two weeks, there's nothing coming from the planet, and parts have been quarantined. I need to know what's going on!”
“I can't tell you! Just... Can we please enjoy this day?”
Coco huffs and walks away.
“Sure. Just pretend the problem doesn't exist. That's what you're good at,” he says.
Honey Creme follows him and they go down a short hallway, coming to a stop outside a door with paper stars and rocket ships taped to the door.
“Starry, are you ready to go? … Starry?” says Coco.
Coco sighs and opens the door, and when he enters the room his eyes widen and his ears perk. The room is pitch black, save for a single night light giving off a soft orange glow in the corner. But the cot and dresser have been pushed aside, pictures that were once on the wall are now on the floor, and sitting in front of the wall, back to them with his hoofs covered in paint is Starry.
His hoofs are moving in circular motions, drawing hieroglyphs on the wall. The hieroglyphs go from floor to ceiling and in the center of the symbols are three large words.
MAKE
US
WHOLE
“What the hell is this!?” says Coco furiously. “Starry!”
Coco stomps forward and he bites down on Starry's ear and jerks him away, making the kid yelp and fall on his back. And Honey Creme takes a step forward, her hoof barely getting into the screen.
“Coco, don't hurt him!” cries Honey Creme.
“Look what he did!” yells Coco. He kicks an empty hoof paint bottle away and points at the wall and the puddles of hoof paint on the floor. “LOOK AT THIS! You're a supervisor, you know they will fine us a fortune to clean this up! And what the hell is this shit!? WHAT IS ALL THIS!?”
“Coco, stop!” shouts Honey Creme with a stomp. “He's just a child!”
“That's no excuse!”
Starry curls up on the ground and covers himself with his hoofs and tail, and his body shakes as he whimpers. Then Coco turns his focus to the camera and puts his hoof over it.
“TURN THE FUCKING CAMERA OFF!”
The screen goes black, and a faint scrape causes Fluttershy to look out the room. With the office's location she can see directly down the hallway, and thankfully she sees nothing. Or should it be a thankfully?
She isn't sure, so she draws her cutter and after spending a moment staring down the hallway, she places it on the desk and clicks the next available log.
The camera is laying on the floor, recording a board game with little plastic pieces on the board. In the background, dishes clank in the kitchen and Coco is pacing in circles, muttering, and rubbing his head, and Starry is sitting in the corner, moving a crayon in circular motions on a piece of paper.
“Does anypony want apples and peanut butter?” asks Honey Creme.
Nobody answers.
“How about some pears?” asks Honey Creme.
Starry pushes the paper away and grabs another one, and then he levitates gray, black, white, and silver crayons from the crayon box and starts roughly running them over the paper and moving them in circles.
Meanwhile, Coco sits down on the floor and rubs his ears.
“How about dried oranges?” asks Honey Creme.
“SHUT UP!” snaps Coco.
The movement abruptly stops and Starry looks at Coco, but his eyes are distant, and his crayons keep moving.
Coco then sighs and bangs his head against the wall. “Can we just play the game, please?”
Suddenly, a pleasant ding echoes in the room and Coco and Starry look up.
“Attention, colonists and crew of the Bon Voyage, this your captain speaking,” says Captain Star Tracker. “I have a couple of, um, quick announcements. First of all, quarantine is going to be in full effect until further notice starting now. Only... eh, authorized personnel will be allowed to travel. So, if you are out and about please return to your designated area immediately. Secondly... Secondly, the Bon Voyage will be heading back to Equis in due time. Be patient, be nice, and stay tuned for updates!”
The intercom shuts off and after a moment of silence there is a knock on the door. Coco sighs and goes to the door. The camera doesn't see any of this, for it is focused on Starry coloring.
“Hi, I'm Alima, I'm with the Church of Unitology,” says the mare.
“Not interested,” says Coco.
“Please, if I could have a moment of your time.”
“Not. Interested.”
Starry finishes his picture and stands up, holding it in front of his face with a proud smile.
“I know this is a stressful time, but the Church of Unitology is offering open sessions where the community can get together in our designated center of worship, offer comfort and support, and you can ask questions about our faith. We'll even have snacks!” says Alima excitedly.
Starry trots out of view of the camera, briefly revealing the picture to the camera.
“Not with quarantine you won't,” says Coco.
“Oh, but Captain Star Tracker has given us special permission to do this,” says Alima.
“Of course he did. But go away, anyway. We don't want or need any part of your superstition.”
“I think if you'll give us a chance you will find a lot of your questions answered and find the peace you desire.”
“GO AWAY!” screams Coco. “WE DON'T WANT YOU!”
The door slams shut, and Coco's steps fade out, and another door opens and shut. Now all the camera is focusing on are the plastic pieces on the game board.
“Mommy, look!” says Starry.
“Oh... That... That's interesting,” says Honey Creme. “Who is he?”
“He's the one who wants to be whole again.”
The camera then shuts off.
Fluttershy stares at the screen. Hoof stiff, her eye wide and her throat sealed. The scraping returns and she looks down the hallway with the energy cutter raised, but when nothing appears, she reluctantly lowers it and rewinds the video until she gets to the picture. Then she pauses it, and she can barely make it out, but when she realizes what it is she puts her hoof over her mouth. Her ears droop and her eye waters as she shakes her head in disbelief. On the paper, formed by a mix of sharp lines of black, gray, white and silver with the hieroglyphs around him is the Frail Stallion with his head hanging limp to the side.
She quickly clicks the next available log. She knows she should run and not look back, but it feels like a string is guiding her to do this, and she can't look away even if she wanted to. She is stuck in the chair.
The next video is of Honey Creme, Coco and Starry walking down the hall of the ship. Coco's eyes are dark and baggy, and Starry is humming to himself as he uses his magic to toss a ball around. The ball bounces off the walls, floor and ceiling, and when it gets too far away, he uses his magic to pull it back in and the cycle starts all over again.
“I will give you this, you are using the camera less,” says Coco with a tired smile. “But why did you bring it this time?”
“I miss it. Besides, Alima said it was open session and that is very rare! Getting a video of Unitology worship will be amazing!” says Honey Creme. “Who knows? Maybe they might teach us a meditation technique so you can actually get more than an hour's sleep.”
“I get more than an hour,” says Coco defensively.
“Fine. Three hours .”
“Thank you.”
Starry's ball bounces away again, but this time it bounces around the corner and Starry gallops after it, giggling.
“Oh, to be young again,” says Coco.
Honey Creme giggles and playfully scratches under his chin with her hoof. “You're still young to me, old man.”
Coco smiles and rolls his eyes, then looks ahead as Starry nearly trips over himself from running around the corner.
“Starry, be careful!” says Coco.
Starry gallops out of view, and-
THUD!
“Starry!?” calls Honey Creme.
Coco's eyes widen and his steps turn to gallops, and Honey Creme drops the camera, so all it is recording is a crooked footage and the hoofs of Honey Cream and Coco galloping towards the corner. When they round it Honey Cream's wail echoes down the hall.
“MY BOY!” cries Honey Cream. “IT HAS MY BOY! STARRY! STARRY! NO! LET ME GO! PLEASE!”
A griffin flies over view, shouting into his radio and when he rounds the corner, he reappears seconds later dragging Honey Creme away with the help of Coco's magic while she thrashes and shoots unstable energy down the hall.
“We need backup immediately!” barks the griffin into his radio while holding his weapon in one hand, keeping his eyes directly ahead of him. “Quarantine failure in Section C-5! I repeat, quarantine failure in Section C-5!”
A moment later another griffin flies in. This one has blue fur and white plumage, but before he can get to the three the first griffin points at him.
“Shut off that camera!” orders the first griffin. The blue griffin turns towards the camera and as it goes up, it passes his badge, which reads “Slingshot”, and when his terrified green eyes are looking into the lens the video ends.
Fluttershy's mouth hangs open, her face is now wet with tears and she struggles to breathe as her quivering hoof guides the mouse to the last video. She doesn't want to play it. She has had enough and wants to leave. But she is still stuck, and like a puppet she has no control over her movements. She clicks on the last video and nearly jumps out of her seat, for looking at her is a familiar yellow unicorn with a long gray mane and dark blue eyes, but her eyes are also bloodshot and her face is soaked in tears. She is also wearing a blue jumpsuit with gray pads that is not covered in blood or torn up.
“Final log of Honey Creme, supervisor of Section D of the Bon Voyage,” says Mama. She sniffles and wipes tears and snot from her eyes and nose with her hoof. “The ship is gone. The escape pods have been disabled and the quarantine has failed. Whatever these things are... they are spreading and killing us, and we can't stop them. Security was meant to fight off pirates and restore order in case of civil unrest or mutiny... but not this... not this.”
She looks down, covering her face with her hoof, shoulders buckling and sniffling and whimpering.
“They took my Starry,” whimpers Honey Creme with tears pattering on the table. “They took my Coco...” Her hoof drops and she looks right into Fluttershy's eyes. “Now they are going to take me.”
She extends her hoof and the clip ends, leaving only a dark screen.
Fluttershy stares at the screen, ears and wings drooped and tears in her eyes. She covers her face with her hoofs and slumps against the desk. Her body trembles and her whimpers carry into the dark. All she can think of is: Why?
Why?
Why?
WHY?
There is no other thought. No other word. And as she sits there, whimpering and sniffling her ears twitch from the faint scraping that is all around her, and when she looks up Rainbow Dash's screen suddenly appears in front of her. However, there is no Rainbow Dash, only a slight reflection from the thick window, with green tinted furniture of the medical lab on the other side as well as the occasional blinking lights of computers and a bright green orb of an emergency light over a door.
“Do you see them?” asks Rainbow Dash, still out of view.
“No,” says Fluttershy distantly.
She flicks her eyes down the hall and quickly looks back when Rainbow Dash turns the camera to her face, which is wrinkled from her scowl and her eyes are shining in the green tint.
“How can you not see them? They're right there!” says Rainbow Dash. She looks out the window again, jumps and swears, and then punches the window. “What do you want with me!?”
The video feed ends and Fluttershy holsters her energy cutter and gallops towards the door, nearly tripping over herself as she goes out from behind the desk.
“Rainbow Dash, hold on! I'm coming!” says Fluttershy.
“Fluttershy, don't go! Its a trap!” says Zephyr suddenly over the radio.
Fluttershy stops. “Zephyr? Zephyr, where are you!?”
“Fluttershy, can you hear me?”
A screeching overtakes the audio and Zephyr's voice is covered in static as the lights flicker on.
“Make us whole again!” says the collection of voice.
“Zephyr!” Fluttershy runs out of the room. “Zephyr, please answer me!”
The screeching increases as the lights get brighter, and with it a pressure in her brain and a clawing in her ears.
Fluttershy drops to the ground, clutching her ears and crying out in pain, and as she lays on the floor, screaming from her brain vibrating, tears cloud her eyes, and she can see the Frail Stallion walking into view from the stairs. Fluttershy whimpers and pulls her cutter out, and she grits her teeth as she aims it at the Frail Stallion. Then all the bulbs explode one by one, plunging each section of the hallway into darkness as the stallion walks closer to her.
When the last bulb breaks there is total darkness. The only light Fluttershy has is the light from her cutter, and when she activates her helmet its little lights shine down the hallway, but there is no Frail Stallion.
It is just her and the darkness and her heavy panting.
Fluttershy's hoof shakes as she swings her cutter down the hall, and she yelps and jumps back when the light at the end flicks on without any damage. Then another turns on. And another. And another. Very soon all the lights are back on and the humming returns to greet her.
Fluttershy stays still and keeps her weapon aimed dead ahead. She stays like this for a minute or two before she holsters her weapon and walks forward with shaky steps, and as she walks she activates her radio.
“Zephyr, can you hear me?” asks Fluttershy.
“I can hear you,” says Rainbow Dash. “Where are you?”
It is not who she wanted to hear, but Fluttershy is still happy to hear a friendly voice, and she quickens her steps. “Rainbow Dash? I'm coming I promise!”
Fluttershy steps on the vent grate, and immediately a large tentacle with mandibles slams her into the floor with an echoing thud. Her ears ring, her body becomes stiff from shock, and before she can make so much a twitch she is yanked into the dark vent, leaving just her scream to carry down the hallway without a body.
Author's Note
Sorry for the slow update. Life, work, sickness, stuff like that. I also didn't really know how to do this chapter, so that was another thing that slowed me down. But here it is. I blitzed it because I was tired of looking at it. The show must go on, and now that it is up it can go on. Hopefully y'all liked it and...
Snuggles for the Flutters!
Fluttershy is petrified by the sudden return of the lights in the hallway. She knows they exploded. She saw the sparks and the glass break and heard the pops. There should be no lights. There should only be darkness. And yet here she is, huddled in a lit hallway.
There is only buzzing and humming to fill her ears, and all she sees is the empty hallway, still damaged with battle and blood, but the Frail Stallion is nowhere to be seen. But even with the lack of the stalker she keeps her energy cutter aimed at the stairs.
…
Nothing.
Fluttershy sighs, holsters her energy cutter, and walks forward while activating her radio.
“Zephyr, can you hear me?” asks Fluttershy, her voice shaky like her steps.
“I can hear you,” says Rainbow Dash. “Where are you?”
It is not who she wanted to hear, but Fluttershy is still happy to hear a friendly voice, and she quickens her steps. “Rainbow Dash? I'm coming, I promise!”
Fluttershy steps on the vent grate in the middle of the floor, and immediately a large tentacle with mandibles slams her down with an echoing thud. Her ears ring, her body becomes stiff from shock, and before she can twitch, she is yanked into the dark vent. Her shriek is left behind as the hole rapidly shrinks and tiny lights fly past her.
What ever has her is holding her tight with little teeth and hot goo, and Fluttershy grits her teeth and presses her hoofs against the vent walls. Sparks fly and the scraping of metal and popping of lights ring in her ears, but it does nothing to stop the pull.
The tentacle takes a sudden turn, slamming Fluttershy into the shaft ceiling, and she releases another scream as it continues its pull, making sure she bounces off the vent's surface. Next thing she knows she is pulled into a large chamber and finds herself dangling upside down. What's left of her blood rushes to her head and her eye tries to focus on the beast in front of her as she sways, and when she sees what is holding her, her thrashing becomes more desperate.
In front of Fluttershy is a massive blob of a creature with a red hide that has pockets of the pulsing puke yellow bags pocketing it, and black veins snaking around it. The veins throb and drool flows from its circular mouth, which is filled with sharp teeth, and around the mouth is a ring of eyes. The eyes are all looking in different directions, vibrating and shining in the large lights hanging overhead.
The tentacle takes Fluttershy closer to the ring of teeth, and she shoots her Statis blob at the tentacle. The blue aura forces it to crawl and an annoyed growl shakes the room as all the eyes focus on Fluttershy.
As this happens, she draws her energy cutter and shoots at the frozen part of the tentacle. A few shots pass before the appendage is sliced off in a spray of rust colored blood, and the beast shrieks in pain as Fluttershy falls with the mass of flesh. The impact of the floor plus the weight of the tentacle leaves her wheezing for air, but she still finds the strength to pull herself out of the mandibles, leaving herself covered in goo, and scrapes and rips in her armor and suit. Once free, she flops on her back and aims her energy cutter at the puss-bag of a tentacle that is snaking its way towards her.
The weapon's beam easily pops the bag, showering the area with the stink gunk, and the creature's cries of pain shakes Fluttershy down to the bone. A large portion of the tentacle falls off, and the wounded tendril writhes and snaps around, and Fluttershy shoots another tentacle until its bag pops.
The massive beast roars and slams another tentacle down towards Fluttershy. She leaps out of the way, stumbling and tripping over herself while doing so, and the room shakes from its thud. As Fluttershy gets up, she notices an open door not too far from her, so she holsters her energy cutter and gallops towards it, grinding her teeth and her eye filling with tears as her battered muscles burn. The tentacle scrapes across the ground and swings at her, and she takes a flying leap towards the doorway, but the Necromorph's tentacle clips her hind leg and sends her spinning.
Fluttershy hits the door frame, bounces into the hallway and skids on the floor, and when she stops, she wheezes and pants and turns to her side, drawing her cutter as the tentacle slithers towards her. Its mandibles open, thick drool drip from its tiny teeth, and right as it is about to grab Fluttershy she shoots it as well as somebody else who reduces the tendril to a bloody ribbon from a stream of bullets. The Necromorph howls and retracts its mangled limb, splashing Fluttershy and the surrounding area in its blood, and before Fluttershy can look over her shoulder she is wrapped in a light blue aura and yanked across the floor. She stops with her back firmly on the floor and her eye looking at a failing light, and next to her a figure closes and locks the door. Once the circular hologram flashes red, the figure helps Fluttershy up.
“There you go, darling. You're alright now,” says the pony.
Fluttershy blinks and looks over the pony. The mare's light blue eye shadow has faded and leaked down her face like tears, her purple mane and tail is now frazzled with blood staining her mane-line, and her tail is limp. Her light weight white and gray jumpsuit has also been restitched and is covered in blood and burn marks, especially in the hind quarters, and the small computer attached to her hoof is also scarred, and levitating next to her is a bulky rifle with three barrels and a cylindrical body.
“Rarity?” says Fluttershy.
“Why yes, that is me! How did you know?” says Rarity with a smile.
Fluttershy retracts her helmet. “Um... Hi...”
“Oh, my goodness! You are a mess. We will definitely have to get you cleaned up.”
Fluttershy inspects herself, and Rarity sharply turns and trots down the hallway with a slight limp and her tail dragging after her.
“Thunderlane and I have found a good spot to hold up in,” says Rarity. “Or, at least as good as we can get on this forsaken ship.”
Fluttershy stops inspecting herself and trots after Rarity, wincing and twitching from just about every step, and when she is close enough, she activates her MAD. At first the device flickers and crackles, but soon the thin green lines move up and down and side to side on Rarity.
SUBJECT: RARITY BELLE VITALS: UNHEALTHY >>>Heart Rate: 110 b/m >>>Bruised Bones: Scapula, L. Humerus, L. Radius, L. Femur, L. Tibia >>>Damaged Bone: Caudal Vertebrae, Sacral Vertebrae >>>Damaged Muscles: L. Coccygeus Muscle, Tail Depressor, L. Superficial Gluteal Muscle, L. Semitendinosous Muscle, L. Bicepts Femoris Muscle, L. Deltoideus Muscle, L. Triceps Muscle MEDICAL FOAM APPLIED FURTHER MEDICAL CARE NEEDED
Fluttershy shuts off her MAD and continues following Rarity in silence. The whole time Rarity has been talking, but Fluttershy has not heard a word, from the medical scan to watching the vents and the locked doors as well as the shot up and bloodied walls, she didn't even think of listening.
“This actually reminds me I should really pick up something for Sweetie Belle,” says Rarity. “And my parents, too.”
Fluttershy raises a brow.
“Surely there is a gift shop around here somewhere,” says Rarity. “It is the Bon Voyage, after all. The largest of colony ships!”
“I... I don't think now is the time for gifts,” says Fluttershy.
“Nonsense! I always get them something!” Rarity turns to Fluttershy, putting a stop to their walk in front of a poster of a group of ponies, griffins, goats and a changeling, all wearing medical uniforms and all have their faces scratched off. “You always got something for your brother and parents whenever you went out, right?”
“I... No.” Fluttershy looks down shamefully. “We drifted apart. I haven't even seen my parents or Zephyr ever since I joined the Medical Corpse.”
“I see... Well, don't fret. Coming all the way over here without hesitation to help your brother is a fantastic gift.” Rarity puts her hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder, smiling. “That also means you're a good sister and a good pony.”
Fluttershy scrunches her brow, and Rarity's ears suddenly perk and with a happy gasp she pulls away from Fluttershy.
“Idea! Gift shops have got to be near the terrarium!” says Rarity. “That will be an excellent spot to look once I get the time!”
Rarity resumes walking, and Fluttershy watches her go before looking over her shoulder. She sees nothing down the hall, and when she looks at the poster again, she shudders at the sight of a double helix painted in the corner.
“Hurry up, Fluttershy! Thunderlane is waiting!” says Rarity.
Fluttershy gallops after Rarity and slows to match her speed when she is next to her.
“Quick question. Have you seen anypony... or anything strange?” asks Fluttershy.
“No,” says Rarity.
“So, no strange voices?... No talks with cameras?... No freaky frail stallion with a broken neck walking around?”
“You aren't going mad, are you?”
“I hope not.”
“Good. I can't have you going mad. We have to keep our heads on our shoulders if we want to find the others and make it off this ship alive!”
“I've talked to Rainbow Dash a few times. She is trapped in the Section E medical center.”
“So that's where she ran off to,” grumbles Rarity.
“What?”
“Rainbow Dash, our dear fearless leader, bolted when that...that thing broke through the door back there shortly after you escaped! Honestly, it looked as if Applejack put up more of a fight.”
Fluttershy's ears perk up. “What happened to Applejack?”
“I have no idea.”
“How...?”
“Because that thing swiped me right off the ledge! If Thunderlane hadn't rescued me I would have died. But after Thunderlane saved me, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were gone. And while I am truly worried about their wellbeing, I am confident that they will turn up soon enough. Both of them are tough ladies.”
Rarity stops in front of a locked door labeled “BREAK ROOM” , and after plugging in her computer she types in a command and the door opens, despite it still being red. Rarity motions Fluttershy in, and once she enters Rarity follows suit and the door closes behind them.
Fluttershy stands in the middle of the room, dumbstruck at what she is seeing. Aside from the vent being welded shut, the room is the best room she has seen. The furniture is surprisingly intact, there's no damage anywhere, not even a speck of blood. There is even a pair of vending machines in the back near the bathroom that have been pried open, revealing snacks and drinks.
Off to the side with a makeshift workstation is Thunderlane, hunched over with a fan plugged into the wall blowing the sweat off his face. He is carefully working on a bundle of red cylinders and batteries held together by cord and wires, and three more are in the corner next to a roller cart. Nearby are crates of more red cylinders, batteries, and ammo, which Fluttershy approaches and inspects.
“Thunderlane, I found Fluttershy,” says Rarity.
“I saw that,” says Thunderlane without looking up from his work.
“I also did some scouting and unfortunately the only way to the communications rig is through whatever that thing is out there, as suspected,” says Rarity.
“At least I'm not making these for nothing.”
Rarity looks at Fluttershy, and Fluttershy stares back at her, confused at what she is hearing.
“The communications rig is past whatever that monster is out there, and Thunderlane had the idea to feed it a giant bomb. Once the monster is dead, we go to the rig, and I send out an emergency signal for immediate extraction. Then reinforcements will come, and we will be free from this nightmare and I will spend my entire paycheck on a platinum pampering at the Aloe Lotus Spa!”
Rarity grins and nudges Fluttershy’s side.
“You look like you could use a spa trip, yourself,” says Rarity. “Imagine, just you and me together in a steaming hot tub, then a sauna, then deep tissue massages, then hoof-rubs and deep cleaning grooming! Perfect girl bonding with the perfect platinum pampering!”
“I, um, I’d rather go to a doctor,” says Fluttershy with a slight blush, even though a spa trip sounds like heaven. Especially since Rarity is offering to share a tub with her. ‘Banish the weird thought, perv!’
“I’ll pay for it.”
“That would be expensive, though.”
“I have a credit card. Platinum plan.”
“But-”
Rarity grabs Fluttershy’s cheeks and presses their muzzles together.
“You’re getting pampered, damn it!” says Rarity.
Fluttershy’s eyes are wide, and her hoof is pressed against Rarity’s chest while the other is reaching for her cutter. But Rarity is quick to release Fluttershy, takes a deep breath and apologizes as she uses a comb made of aura to work on her mane, which leads to Fluttershy pulling her hoof away from her weapon and relaxing a little bit. However, she does notice Thunderlane looking at her with his hoof on his rifle. But even after she relaxes, he still watches her while talking to Rarity.
“Rariity, have you considered that the relay might be damaged?” says Thunderlane.
“I have some repair knowledge, you know?” says Rarity.
“But what about the bridge? Or Section 0? Or Applejack? Or Zephyr? Or Rainbow Dash being trapped in the Section E medical center?” asks Fluttershy.
“We can get to the bridge after we get the signal out and find the others that way, and I didn't see any Section 0 on the map,” says Rarity.
Fluttershy shakes her head and paces in a circle. “That can't be right. Dr. Rock said that he was in Section 0! And I know he can help me find Zephyr!”
“There is no Section 0 on the map, though,” says Rarity.
“That's because Section 0 doesn't allow their locations on official maps,” says Thunderlane.
The two look at him, and he sighs heavily.
“Do you seriously think they would give away their location on a ship blueprint? That would make it too easy for people to interfere with their projects,” says Thunderlane.
Rarity rolls her eyes. “There you go again with your Section 0 conspiracy theories.”
Thunderlane scowls and waves his hoof around the room. “Well, gee, we're already in Hell, so what's the harm in talking about Section 0?”
“The harm is that it is inaccurate and counterproductive! There is obviously a disease going around and blaming this all on the government is not helping.”
Fluttershy holds up her hoof and opens her mouth, but clamps it shut when Thunderlane speaks with a heavy voice.
“Right. Okay. The colonists and crew of the Bon Voyage just got a skin condition that led to them ripping ourteam apart!” says Thunderlane. “And Section 0 being here is only a coincidence, right?”
“Um-” begins Fluttershy.
“Don't be ridiculous. Of course it was a coincidence!” snaps Rarity. “Section 0 is intelligence, spy stuff, not biological. This is obviously an unknown space virus that we were not prepared to handle. And besides, why would the government purposefully infect their own colony ship with a disease like this? That would tear apart the empire!”
“You're thinking in terms of your morality,” says Thunderlane. “Government has no morality, so they have no problem killing us if it means furthering their goals.”
“And yet you work for them.”
“If I knew how evil the government was before I signed the contract then I wouldn’t be here.”
“Those internet conspiracy boards are messing with your head, Thunderlane.”
“It’s called thinking . You should try it some time.”
Rarity gasps, and Fluttershy steps between the two.
“Can we please calm down? We can’t be arguing like this,” says Fluttershy.
The two stare at Fluttershy for a moment, then nod and look away.
“But, um, I-I think Thunderlane might be on to something,” says Fluttershy.
Thunderlane claps and points at Fluttershy. “Thank you!”
“Traitor,” grumbles Rarity.
“It’s not like that!” says Fluttershy quickly. “I don’t want to take sides, but somepony brought something on the Bon Voyage from Onyx when they couldn't get in contact with Onyx City. Maybe there was a virus on the planet and they accidentally brought it back on the ship.”
Rarity sighs and turns fully to Fluttershy, while Thunderlane perks up and gives her his undivided attention.
“And what exactly did they bring?” asks Rarity critically.
“I... I don't know,” admits Fluttershy as she paws the floor shamefully. “But somepony recorded the Bon Voyage sending a cargo ship to the planet, and after the ship came back all of this happened.”
“Section 0 is always doing weird crap,” says Thunderlane.
“And where did you see the video?” asks Rarity.
“In Supervisor Honey Creme's office... She left the computer running.”
Rarity rubs her brow, sighing heavily. “Fluttershy, darling, no Supervisor will leave their computer running for any pony to just waltz in and peek through. It was obviously a prank in poor taste.”
Fluttershy's eye twitches. “A... Prank...? A... PRANK!?” Fluttershy jabs her hoof at Rarity. “If you saw that video you would know it was not a prank! It was real! Honey Creme is real! Her child, her husband, they were real and they died here just like everypony else, and Zephyr is still alive on this ship and I will be damned if he dies here!”
By the time she is done she is heaving, teeth barred, and her vision is blood red. Only one of her wings is up, and Rarity has backed into Thunderlane, who has pushed himself into the table. The room has also become quiet, and after a long moment of silence Fluttershy's heavy panting dies down and she looks away from the two, blinking tears out of her eye.
“I'm sorry, but Zephyr is all I have left,” says Fluttershy quietly. “I need him to be alive...”
The others remain quiet, and Fluttershy sniffles and goes to a crate of gem batteries. She ejects the spent battery from her energy cutter, slips in a new one, and stuffs as many batteries as she can she into her saddle.
“I'm going to find Rainbow Dash, too. I already let innocent ponies die... I’m not going to let that continue.”
She then walks towards the door and Rarity takes a step forward.
“Fluttershy,” begins Rarity.
Fluttershy exits the room without a second's thought, and when it seals shut behind her she takes a deep breath, activates her helmet, and goes down the hallway.
Author's Note
Originally this chapter was supposed to be a lot longer, but I thought it ended at a better spot that I posted than the original ending. So I just cut the original off and started it as a new chapter. Also, getting this chapter brings a little bit of peace of mind since I gave y'all something rather quickly while I work on other things that make time fly fast. The next chapter might be up in a couple of few weeks, though. There will be more Necromorph slaying in the next chapter, too. But until then... Picture!
Guess who's back Back again Rara's back Tell a friend
'Okay, where am I?' wonders Fluttershy sourly.
She is sitting in the hallway... somewhere... helmet retracted so she can rub her head while she looks at a map of the section with a nice star saying, “You Are Here”. During her walk all of the halls looked the same, and after snaking her way through the halls for an unknown amount of time, passing many dead Necromorphs and killing a few more that have stumbled across her, she has found herself in front of the map. Now she is scanning the map intently, searching for anything to give her directions. Which would be easier to do if the map wasn't flickering on its cracked computer screen, because apparently everything has to be digital. Even a map on a wall.
As Fluttershy studies the map, she finds dorms, the location of the Supervisor's office, a small cafeteria, more halls, and...
Fluttershy's hoof taps the map, right under the “Medical Center”, and she back-traces until she finds her little star.
All she has to do is go straight to the end of the hall then take a left, then a right, then a left, then another left, then right, then right, then right, then up two flights of stairs, take a left and go straight.
The wall has a double helix painted on it in blood, and near it is a goat laying in a pool of semi-dried blood. Her head has been popped open, leaving her skull and gray brain bits all over the floor and wall, and bones poke out of her bent legs and crushed ribs. Next to her is another goat, a male in a white lab coat whose hoofs are also covered in blood, and his eyes are wide open and his throat and chest have been melted open, leaving a mix of dark red and green fluid on the floor and his cracked and shriveled ribs and chest organs exposed.
Fluttershy shivers and after inspecting the office, finding an audio log near the bodies. She puts it in and aims her energy cutter at the door as the file plays.
Alarms are blaring in her ear and screams and the thunder of a stampede plus gunfire sends shivers down her spine.
“Is that enough for you?” says a male. “I made the pictures! I helped you with the bodies! I gathered lots of bodies!”
The male giggles and bangs on the door, then stops and huffs, and as this happens Fluttershy can barely hear weak feminine wheezes over the chaos.
“Of course. Of course you need more,” says the male. “More. More. More. Always more. You'll only be whole with more... And why are you still breathing!? Stop breathing!”
The audio cuts out, and Fluttershy shakily removes the audio log and goes through the hallway door, and the first thing she sees is a message that reads:
TURN BACK!
NOT SAFE!
Fluttershy looks to the right, and sees a line of broken doors and blood, as well as a tipped over wheelchair, and then she looks left and sees a hallway full of windows and doors, all with red lights on them. She takes a deep breath and goes left, walking awkwardly with her three limbs while the other holds her cutter. As she goes she looks through a window that has a goat whose been impaled into the by a trio of bloody spikes, and she sees rows of empty cribs; some have blood, some have been tipped over, and others have been destroyed. It leaves a lump in her throat and she blinks tears out of her eye, but she keeps walking. Then she sees a shadow spread on the wall of the next room and she ducks down, keeping her cutter aimed at the door, which has been forced open.
Footsteps and scrapping furniture echo from the room, and a moment later a bald Necromorph stumbles out, jerking and twitching, and wearing tattered and bloody remains of a hospital gown with IVs hanging from its warped flesh. Its mouth is also hanging open as it gurgles, and its ribs have popped out of its chest and been restructured to be scrawny arms with sharp hands, and green bags pulse in its chest.
It looks at her with dark eyes and silently charges her with its clawed hands outstretched, not even screaming even though its mouth is wide open.
Pat-Pat-Pat-Pat
Fluttershy backs up and shoots it in the head, decapitating it in one shot, and the rust colored blood plus a green substance splashes on the floor and wall, making a sizzling sound and causing smoke to rise as the green liquid eats the metal. The Necromorph's headless body races in circles, bounces off of the wall and thrashes on the floor as its acid melts the metal away, and Fluttershy shoots it a few more times, leaving it as a hunk of flesh on the ground with steam and the stench of melting metal to linger. Once it stops moving Fluttershy carefully approaches the body, and then she uses her ATM to levitate it off the floor and shoot it into the room where it came from. The body crashes into the wall and flops to the floor, next to a broken crib.
She peeks inside the room and sees more blood, more broken and bloody cribs, and a griffin in destroyed armor is laying nearby with his throat and chest melted open and a pool of semi-dried blood around him. Next to him is a bulky rifle with three barrels and a cylindrical body, just like Rarity's, and around him are half a dozen dead Slashers, a mutilated Griffon Necromorph, as well as another dead bald Necromorph.
Fluttershy scans the room for a few more seconds before approaching the griffin, and she lightly taps the body with her hoof. It remains still, so she picks up the rifle, checks it, and sees that is has a “Standard Mode” and a “180 Mode” on its screen, with the previous highlighted, as well as a count showing it at 25/50 rounds. After seeing this she ejects the magazine for inspection, then checks the chamber, and after that she slips the magazine back in and aims the rifle down the room. With the sights appearing okay she clips it to her saddle and carefully searches the body. She finds a couple more magazines, both full, a medical kit with some medical foam, adrenaline, and a stitch kit. She takes all of it and explores the rest of the room, finding three more cans of medical foam, which she takes all of them before taking the first right.
The area she enters is littered with dead Necromorphs, including a Griffin Necromorph shot to pieces, and Fluttershy keeps her eye and ears peeled for any unusual noise as she goes through.
CLA-CLA-CLA-CLA-CLA
Fluttershy jumps and turns to the noise, cutter raised and heart racing.
CLA-CLA-CLA-CLA-CLA
The noise is coming from a board flipping through different images of peaceful hills, to soothing night skies, and a boat on still waters.
Fluttershy sighs and walks on, collecting a spare magazine and raiding one of the cabinets for supplies. She finds adrenaline, more medical foam, and stitching wire as well as a pain killer. She takes it all, and once everything is secured, she resumes walking, taking the first left like the map said.
The hallway Fluttershy now finds herself in is bare, with the occasional splash of blood, but there are no rooms, only lights and solid walls decorated with informative posters about health and safety. Fluttershy is about halfway down the hallway when a rumble shakes everything as well as her, and the lights flicker off, save for the back light above a door where a dark, featureless silhouette of a pony stands.
Fluttershy stares at it, chest tight and lungs frozen, and the featureless silhouette cocks their head and then giggles as it strolls towards her, horn glowing and a saw floating up next to it.
“Twinkle, twinkle, little star~ How I wonder what you are~” sings Honey Creme, her voice flowing into Fluttershy's ears while the saw revs up.
Fluttershy's eye widen and she steps back with her cutter raised, trembling and tears welling up in her eye.
“Up above the world so high~ Like a diamond in the sky~”
The lights flicker, and with each flash from light to dark to light to dark Mama snaps closer and closer, her saw whirring at full speed.
“Twinkle, twinkle, little star~”
Fluttershy stumbles backwards and her cutter shakes, and then Mama gallops towards her, her saw buzzing at full speed with wide eyes wide and a large grin.
“How I wonder what you are!”
Fluttershy shrieks and shoots a barrage of energy beams at Mama, and the lights flash on, showing an empty hallway with glowing lines burnt into a hallway door that is halfway open and has it holographic display flickering in and out and from red to green.
Fluttershy snaps around, seeing nothing from where she came from, and she looks up at a vent, not seeing or hearing anything there either, and she looks back at the door. She swallows dryly and cautiously approaches it. The opening is too small to go through, and Fluttershy cannot see much, but what she can see looks about as safe as the ship can get.
With no signs of Necromorphs, Fluttershy braces herself and pushes against the door with all her strength, grunting as the door scrapes against its railing, filling the hall with a scratchy screech. It doesn't move much, though, and Fluttershy takes a moment to catch her breath before she repeats it. The door scrapes a little further which gives her just enough room to wiggle through, and after getting past the door she stumbles into the middle of the hallway, panting and fumbling with her energy cutter. Once activated she sweeps it side to side and up along the ceiling, finding nothing but a pool of blood by the wall. She then proceeds left.
After a short walk, Fluttershy enters a hallway with a line of windows, and she peeks through the first one, finding an x-ray picture of a mechanical hoof connected to a stubby limb, and two pods, with one that has been torn apart with shredded organs and bones thrown everywhere. The next window has a machine going back and forth between a bed and a tipped over cart with medical tools spilled on the floor. Then the radio crackles to life in her ear.
“Fluttershy, do you remember when we were kids? I was the slacker, and you were the responsible one?” asks Zephyr. “I don't think that has changed.”
“Zephyr?” calls Fluttershy. “Tell me where you are! I'll come get you!”
“I wanted the easiest path, and that path was always running.” Zephyr strains a laugh. “Without the obstacles I got so far, yet I was always... empty. I never felt whole. I want to be whole. Can you make me whole?”
The radio signal fuzzes out and Fluttershy brings up her holographic radio display, finding nothing but errors and Rainbow Dash's signal. When she lowers her holographic display, a Puker is quietly running towards her, the arms from its ribs outstretched and mouth open.
Fluttershy gasps and shoots it in the chest and head, popping its sacks which lead to the wall and windows getting splashed with acid. The windows shatter and shrieks echo in the hallway. Shadows of flailing limbs snap across the wall down the hallway, and Fluttershy backs up with her cutter raised. Around the corner a pair of Slashers and a Puker run out, and she kills them quickly, but as she reloads, a deep roar comes from one of the rooms, and its window explodes from a gurney being thrown through it, then a mechanical limb comes out of the room, looking bulky like a hoof, but has talon-like fingers on its edges, and it is wrapped in strings of red flesh. Next comes a long limb with a scrawny hand made of talons and bent bones that stretches out and grabs the top of the window, not caring that it is grabbing jagged glass, and climbing out of the window a moment later is a Necromorph with four dark eyes, a muzzle made of fused jaw bones, large chest and legs of multiple body parts, and wings that have fused to make skinny slasher weapons on its shoulders while its back has been twisted so it is standing upright. Pulsing yellow sacks are on its shoulders and hips, too, and when it marches towards Fluttershy its mechanical hand flexes and its steps shake the hall.
Fluttershy continues backing up and aims her cutter at it, and when it runs towards her, she fires. The cutter's beams streak across the hallway, burning off pieces of the beast, but it does not stop, and in seconds it reaches her sweeps its mechanical hand underneath her and slams her into the ceiling. Pipes and lights break, showering her with sparks and gas, and the Necromorph keeps its grip on Fluttershy's barrel and slams her into the wall.
Fluttershy’s eye rolls and warm blood trickle down the back of her skull and neck, and when it begins squeezing her she cries out painfully and coils her body. Her armor groans and cracks, and her lungs fight for air while her heart beats against her ribs.
The Necromorph then grabs Fluttershy's head with its other hand and begins squeezing. Fluttershy's vision quickly becomes covered in tears, but despite the pain of her chest and head being squished, she manages to activate her stasis module.
The Necromorph's motions freeze, and using all her hooves, Fluttershy kicks and bangs against its chest and arm until the hand holding her head snaps off and pieces of its ribs pop out of its chest. When the blue aura fades the Necromorph reels back, blood spraying all over Fluttershy with the hand still on her head, and it uses its robotic hand to throw her away. She flies across the hall, through an observation window, and with glass raining around her she hits a bloody gurney with a torn mattress and falls on the floor, wheezing and coughing with the taste of iron and puss on her tongue and her stomach aching. She pushes herself up using the gurney for help and pulling off the hand covering her face right as the Necromorph climbs into the room.
It tries stabbing Fluttershy with its scythe limbs, but she dives out of the way, and the bony blades break the bed, leaving jagged pieces on the floor, and it throws what is left to the side, breaking cabinets that spill medical supplies everywhere.
It swipes at Fluttershy again using its mechanical arm, and she leaps out of the way, but the small space does not give her enough room to dodge. A hot slash tears through her flank and she twirls into the air, crashing to the floor next to a broken piece of the gurney with blood trickling out of her suit.
The Necromorph raises its robotic hand and its scythes, and right as it brings them down Fluttershy activates her ATM and launches one of the broken bed pieces into the sack on its shoulder. The jagged metal rips clean through it, tearing the arm off and becoming impaled into the ceiling. Rust colored blood plus yellow puss gush out, and the Necromorph howls and swipes its scythes at Fluttershy. The bony blades slice through her armor, throwing her down to the floor where she cries in pain as blood pumps through the slashes in her suit.
Fluttershy quickly becomes slick with blood, and the Necromorph lifts both of its scythes above its head, but before it can tear her into pieces she freezes it with her stasis module, then she grabs the largest gurney piece with her ATM and shoots the Necromorph in the chest with it. The jagged bed piece carries the Necromorph into the ceiling, and when it hits the metal ceiling bends and the beast is snapped in half and showers the room with sparks, blood and ripped organs. With the gurney still in the ceiling, the Necromorph falls to the floor with blood, puss and torn organs spilling everywhere, and it twitches a couple more times before it stops moving.
Fluttershy keeps her eye trained on it for a few seconds before she clumsily opens a can of medical foam to spray as much as she can over her wounds. Once the foam is applied, she slumps against the wall and stares at the corpse with her eye dim and mouth hanging open to swallow air.
As Fluttershy lays slumped against the wall, covered in crimson, yellow and pink and her bloodied face partially covered by her damaged mane, her eyelid drifts down, with her vision focusing on the black eyes of the dead Necromorph. Then darkness comes in.
“It wasn't supposed to be like this,” says Zephyr. “I was going to go to Onyx, work a little, save up enough money and go somewhere greener. Somewhere brighter. Somewhere where I can be whole. Do you want to be whole, Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy's eye drifts open, and the holographic radio display floats in front of her face with the same dead creature and the same dim and wrecked room in front of her.
Fluttershy sniffles, wipes her face, and gets up on shaky hoofs. After collecting what she can for medical supplies (and swallowing a good amount of pain pills), she goes into the hallway, retrieves her energy cutter, and proceeds straight until she comes across the first right.
The hallway gives her nowhere else to turn but right, anyway, since to the left is an elevator door that has been ripped open and its cords sliced. So, she keeps going right, passing streaks and pools of blood without bodies, and hieroglyphs written on the wall.
There is also music playing faintly through some speakers. It is calming, like a lullaby, and Fluttershy takes a moment to inject herself with some adrenaline before going forward. The farther down the hall she goes, the louder the music gets, and when she reaches a bright pink and blue door with NURSERY above it in a dim sign, she stops. A lump forms in her throat, and she takes a deep breath and blinks a fresh wave of tears away as dread moves in like a toxic gas. She checks her energy cutter, finds it full. Checks her shotgun, also full. SAD rifle, full. Armor, not getting any better.
With everything as good as it gets, Fluttershy opens the door to the nursery and finds little chairs and tables, toys, pictures, and snack plates scattered. Some of the tables and chairs are broken, blood has soaked the colorful carpet, tiny broken bones and torn organs are on the floor, and in different areas are broken vents. In the back of the room is a projector displaying a cartoon roadrunner zooming over a desert, and the wall is stained with blood.
Fluttershy stops and stares at the scene of the massacre, jaw hanging open and tears pouring down her face. Her legs tremble, and she falls to the floor, covering her mouth with her hoof as her shoulders buckle.
“H-Hello?” calls Fluttershy.
A shadow spreads across the floor, and at first Fluttershy smiles, but when she sees what the shadow is connected to, her smile and her hope dies.
Whatever it is, it is the size of a toddler, but its fur has fallen off, leaving green skin with red veins pulsing, and its jaw has been stretched and its mouth has been filled with sharp teeth, and its tongue has been split into thin tentacles. Its little hoofs have also split apart, making sharp claw, and beneath its stomach are more tentacles that leave a sticky trail. Then there is the back, which has opened to let out three fat tendrils with pointed ends made from its insides. The Necromorph pushes the toy again, giggling and babbling, and then it stops and looks at Fluttershy with its dim eyes.
Fluttershy steps back, and the Necromorph turns its tendrils to her, screams and shoots a barb from the tentacle. Fluttershy jumps out of the way, and the barb breaks against the wall. Another barb is launched, and Fluttershy scrambles away from that one and dives behind a counter, landing next to a bowl of spilled chips and a juice box. She takes a deep breath, pokes her head up and ducks when yet another barb is launched at her, breaking into the cupboard.
The Necormoprh giggles like a toddler, and Fluttershy hears a thump, followed by quick wet smacks. She checks her energy cutter and seeing that the battery is still full, she keeps low and pokes her head around the corner. It does not take her long to see the Necromorph climbing on the wall with the tentacles and claws, and the barbed appendages sprouting from its back swish around eels.
The Necromoprh keeps climbing up the wall, and when it reaches the ceiling it hangs upside down with ease and turns its head all the way around so it has a right side up view of Fluttershy. It shoots more barbs that force Fluttershy to retreat, and she cringes and flinches as the barbs break against the metal floor or impale the counter, but she keeps count. After hearing the third one break, Fluttershy leaps up and shoots the Necromorph. The energy beam slices off its barb tentacle, and it shrieks in pain, shooting the other two barbs in rapid secession while Fluttershy keeps shooting. The barbs break into the counter and graze by her, and the cutter's energy beam cuts off pieces of the Necromorph until it falls off the ceiling, thrashing and screaming on the ground with blood squirting all over the floor.
Upon entering the hallway, shadows dart along the wall, and babbles, giggles, and whines echo in the stale air. That encounter brings Fluttershy to a halt, and she aims her cutter down the hallway, swallowing nervously. A crash and clatter draws a gasp from her, and her muscles tense as a blob of shadows move along the wall, ever closer towards her corner.
Fluttershy steps back, and when a Puker rounds the corner she shoots it in the chest, head, and leg in a quick barrage. Blood and acid splatter, and the Necromorph releases an airy scream as its mangled body is soaked in the gory fluids. The remaining shadows move forward, and Fluttershy walks towards them, keeping her cutter raised, and when a pair of Slashers round the corner she cuts them down very quickly and resumes walking. Rust colored blood stains Fluttershy's boots as she walks past their twitching corpses, and then she presses herself against the wall and peeks around the corner.
She moves down the hallway, keeping her steps brisk and her eye and ears on high alert. She does not get far before the giggling and gibberish babbles return. The voices come from the ceiling, and Fluttershy brings her cutter up, heart racing and throat tight as the odd voices move from above her head to down the hall. Several seconds later, a vent grate breaks off from the ceiling, and a little Necromorph crawls out with its barbed tipped tentacles swinging in the air and a mix of gooey tentacles and claws keeping it on the ceiling. It runs along the ceiling, cackling and Fluttershy backs up, shooting it, but she misses it since it leaps off the ceiling, and it lands on the floor and shoots a barb at her. The sharp projectile impales Fluttershy’s hoof, and she yelps and buckles, and two more of the little Necromorphs crawl out of the vent, and shoot at her, as well.
Fluttershy stumbles back as the barbs sail past her or bounce off her suit's metal plates, keeping her hold tight on her cutter as she shoots back, despite the throbbing pain from the bony barb in her hoof.
The little Necromorphs are scurrying on the wall, the floor, and the ceiling, and one of them shoots at her almost as soon as she peeks, causing the other two to shoot at her as well. She goes back in cover, flinching when the barbs bounce off the wall. Her shot hoof also trembles as droplets of blood dribble to the floor, and she presses her back against the wall chest heaving and eye misting over as she sprays her wound with the medical foam, grimacing from the burning sensation of the foam's sanitation agent. Thankfully, the foam is fast acting, so in a matter of seconds it has hardened, giving her the chance to fight back. So Fluttershy takes a deep breath, unslings her rifle, and selects the “180 Mode”, which leads to a lever popping out.
High pitched wails and babbles make it hard for Fluttershy to remember how the 180 Mode works; she does not even remember using it. She only remembers a basic course on the Semi-Automatic Defense Rifle with paper targets and the bare minimum training, plus a power point presentation on its other features, which includes the 180 Mode among a few others.
“The 180 mode brings the SAD rifle to full auto and should be used only for extreme circumstance. But since you’re medics you shouldn’t be shooting anybody anyway,” is what her instructors told her when she was in training for the Medical Corps.
Oh, how Fluttershy wishes she could go back in time and slap them all over the back of the heads.
Simmering anger aside, with the little steps and wet slaps getting closer Fluttershy knows it is now or never, so she turns the rifle vertical and runs out of cover. More barbs slam into her, breaking against her armor plating or lodging themselves into the unprotected parts of her body, but even with the pain of getting stabbed again by high projectile bones she still manages to keep her grip tight on her SAD Rifle, plant it firmly to the floor and pull the lever.
The three barrels split in different directions and sway side to side as they unleash a screaming spate of bullets that rip apart the little monsters. Bullets ricochet off the walls and floors, and screams are sharply cut off as fleshy bits and blood flies everywhere. When the bullets stop, the barrels are smoking, and the empty magazine falls out while the shredded Necromorphs lay in their bloody pools.
Fluttershy pushes the lever up and the barrels slide back into place, and after Fluttershy puts in a fresh magazine she begins the painful process of removing the barbs in her and finishes with using the next can of medical foam down to the fumes. By the time she is done, she is shaking and sweating, and covered in patches of pink with red cracks, and her legs feel like they are about to snap off. Really, the idea of crawling into a room and hunkering down is becoming an increasingly better idea for her, but Zephyr and Rainbow Dash and others need her, and the Necromorphs will probably kill her and everybody else if she stops moving, so with that unpleasant thought, she injects herself with some adrenaline and forces herself to go forward.
In a short amount of time after killing the creatures, Fluttershy comes across a doorway leading to a flight of stairs, which is dimly lit by red lights on the floor and swirling red emergency lights. She takes the first step and stops.
Listens.
Nothing.
She goes up a few more steps and stops short by a vent grate. She goes on her stomach and crawls underneath it and when she is past it, she gives it one more look before resuming her climb.
The completion of the first set of stairs are marked by a door that has its center bent out with blood and strings of flesh dangling off its jagged edges. Its lights are completely off, not even sparks pop from it, and it is too bent to move anywhere. Lights from the room beyond flicker through the hole, though, flashing sharp shadows on the wall, and against her better judgment, Fluttershy peeks inside.
A double helix is painted on the wall, and a half circle of blood and a lot of scratches on the floor are in front of the painting. Near the gory scene is a line of broken observation windows, and medical equipment is thrown everywhere or broken. The lights flickering in the room briefly plunge the room into darkness for barely a second at a time, but with each flash Fluttershy can see the shadow of a body hanging from the ceiling.
Fluttershy shudders, backs away from the door and goes up the next set of stairs, coming to a stop at a blue light door. She checks her energy cutter, takes a deep breath, and then opens it.
“Attention! All medical personnel secure the patients! This is not a drill!” says an automated voice.
“Attention! All medical personnel secure the patients! This is not a drill!”
Fluttershy goes down the hallway, glass crunching underneath her boots and her breathing echoing in her helmet.
“Attention! All medical personnel secure the patients! This is not a drill!”
She enters a spacious area with chairs and benches overturned and broken, and across from them is a receptionist desk with “SECTION E RECEPTION” marking it, covered in bullet holes and a splash of blood. Behind the desk a screen flickers, displaying an error message as well as a list of names of numbers.
“Attention! All medical personnel secure the patients! This is not a drill!”
Fluttershy shakes her head and resumes her path, but after taking a few steps a squeaking wheel catches her attention, and as soon as she turns around, she gasps and yanks out her cutter. A Puker is rushing towards her, and she gets a couple of shots off, blowing off its legs and a piece of its face. She backs up and shoots it again, popping the acid bags in its chest, and it writhes on the ground as it soaks in blood and acid, yet not screaming like the others. As this happens, an observation window next to Fluttershy shatters and she is tackled into the wall by another Puker.
It opens its mouth wide, displaying its ripped flesh, pulsing throat and sharp tongue while its claws scrape against her armor, and it pukes on Fluttershy's helmet. Green liquid completely covers her visor and the helmet's interior flickers as the stench of burnt metal and wire clog her nose. The visor's slits crack and the light inside her helmet flickers, and with a yell Fluttershy blindly pushes the Necromorph to the floor. But it keeps its hold on her, forcing her to follow it as she pushes against it, and it pukes on her helmet again.
The acid leaks through the helmet, and with nothing to go with Fluttershy punches the Puker as hard as she can. She feels bones break and the creature loosen its grip on her, and she punches it again and again until she feels her hoof going through the skull and hitting the metal floor. Then she pulls away and hits the emergency eject on her helmet. The seals pop loose and she yanks the helmet off, holding it at hoof's length as its metal boils and warps with the visors shattering and the lights flickering off.
The helmet hits it right in the face, and as it stumbles from disorientation its pack mates shove it aside and run towards Fluttershy as she backs away from the dead monster. She shoots the first two in a barrage of cutter fire, slicing off their limbs and pieces of their bodies. The two fall in a heap, and Fluttershy uses her ATM to levitate a broken bench and launch it at the remainder of the group. The bench crushes a couple more and bounces across the floor, knocking the Slasher that got hit with the helmet off its feet, and it comes to a stop when it crashes into the wall. The Slasher that was knocked off its feet is shot dead by Fluttershy before it can even get up, and she finishes off the other Slashers that crawl towards her. After the Slashers stop moving Fluttershy does a quick sweep of the area, panting and sweating with her ruined mane hanging over her eyes.
“Attention! All medical personnel secure the patients! This is not a drill!”
Fluttershy swallows dryly, ejects her battery to put a new one in, brushes her mane to the side and goes down the hallway, carefully stepping over the pool of acid around the dead Puker. Once she clears the wreckage of the bench she goes into a full gallop, and she keeps running until she hears a door slam shut near her position.
Fluttershy skids to a stop and listens.
Nothing.
She carefully moves up, passing locked door and soon comes across an open door with a bright light. She draws her energy cutter and pokes her head inside, seeing that it is an observation room with papers and broken computer pads scattered. A line of blood stains the wall, and the observation window has a crack on it, but even with the crack in it she is able to see the unused cot, which also has straps on it, and four cylindrical lasers hanging from separate arms on a circular device connected to a heavy stand that has a terminal on it. There also does not appear to be a way in except through a door on the other side.
But that is not what is catching her attention. What is has her interest is a blue griffin with green eyes, armed with a variety of weapons, from a shotgun to a rifle and pistol, and is wearing an armored security suit with a flashlight on his shoulder. He is going through the lab, tossing whatever he does not want aside, which is basically anything he cannot use for medicine. His saddle is stuffed with medical supplies, and he is covered in bandages and poorly applied stitches.
As he scavenges, Fluttershy takes a deep breath and carefully approaches the window. When she is close enough, she taps the window, bringing the griffin to jump and aim his shotgun at her, and she jumps back with her hoof up. The two look at each other in silence, and her eyes flick to the side to an intercom box, and slowly goes to it without taking her eyes off of him, and she pushes the button.
“Don't shoot. I'm not going to hurt you,” says Fluttershy.
He keeps his eyes on her as he goes to the intercom box on his side, and Fluttershy notices that his tag says Slingshot. Seeing that name brings her to remember him in Mama's video and being mentioned in Azmuth Horizon's audio log.
“I'm a medic,” says Fluttershy. “I can help you and I can fix those stitches.”
“Are you real?” asks Slingshot, aiming his shotgun at her with one hand while the other is on the intercom box.
“I promise I am real, and I have friends nearby. We are all trying to get off this ship and we can work together. You're a security officer, too. Maybe you can help me find my brother. He's a mane stylist and-”
Slingshot shakes his head and walks backwards on his feline paws towards his door, sparing a second to look over his shoulder.
“You're not real,” says Slingshot, his voice muffled by the window. “He's not real.”
He hits the holographic display on the door, and it slides open to a pitch-black hallway. Slingshot then backs into it and Fluttershy shakes her head, putting her hoof on the observation window.
“No, please don't go! We can help each other!” says Fluttershy.
“You're not real,” repeats Slingshot.
Slingshot disappears into the dark, and then the door closes and the blue lock flashes red, and Fluttershy sighs and heads back towards where she came from, giving the door one last look before activating her radio.
“Rainbow Dash, are you there?” asks Fluttershy.
“I'm here,” says Rainbow Dash.
“I found a survivor. He's a security guard.”
“Neat. Is he going to help you save me?”
“No. He thought I was a hallucination and ran away.”
“That sucks.”
“But I think we should find him as soon as we can.”
“Not our mission.”
“But he's a survivor! And he's not homicidal. Maybe he can give us a first hoof account of what happened here. He might even be able to help me find Zephyr, and we can all get off this ship alive! He has to know his way around here.”
“Shy, you said he thought you were a hallucination. So, as far as I'm concerned, he's useless. But you know who is not useless? Me! And I'm still waiting on you to help me out. These things are literally banging on my window, and if I don't get out of this damn room, I'm going to lose my mind!”
Fluttershy cringes.
“You gotta hurry your flank up! You're the only one I trust right now, so don't leave me!” says Rainbow Dash.
“I won't. I'm coming. Just... please be careful,” says Fluttershy.
“A little late for that.”
Rainbow Dash then disconnects, leaving Fluttershy to stand in the room in total silence. She stays like this for a moment before exiting the room, and she goes as far as she can down the hallway before taking the first left and going straight down the hallway, being sure to keep herself pressed against the wall when going underneath a vent. Much to her surprise and relief, nothing happens during this part, and when she comes across a locked door, she uses her band to unlock it.
The door flashes blue and pulls apart, and before Fluttershy can move she is yanked off of her hoofs and slammed into the wall, followed by being thrown into the floor and something landing on top of her and pressing down on her throat. Her ears ring, her eyes roll, and she gasps for air as her throat is squished into the floor. She tries to push off whatever is choking her, and she grinds her teeth, putting as much strength as she can into her limps as she focuses on what is in front of her. Once the figure above her becomes clear her eyes widen and she screams and kicks frantically at the frail body, and try as she might, she cannot look away from the black pools staring into her eyes.
“Make us whole,” says the Frail Stallion.
Fluttershy's heart beats slower and her vision blackens, but before she is taken, she uses the last of her strength to coil her hind legs and kick the Frail Stallion in the abdomen. Her hoofs shoot straight up into the air, hitting nothing, and her vision is no longer taken up by the sunken eyes and bone tight face. Now all she sees is a burnt ceiling with popped light bulbs and hanging wires with a crackling in her ears. She stays on her back, chest heaving, throat sore and breathing ragged; even swallowing feels like she sucked down broken glass, which is not helped by her hoof rubbing her neck. After a moment of trying to catch her breath, she tilts her head to the side, then immediately gasps and scampers into the other side of the hallway.
Next to her is a line of corpses, all twisted, shriveled, and black like the floor, wall, and ceiling. She gulps and shakily stands up, turns on her light and shines them on the burnt bodies. From what she can tell, the corpses are mainly goats with a few equines in the line, and most are wearing lab coats.DO NOT OPEN!
She is content with obeying that order.
Fluttershy continues her walk, following the path without any distraction after that, and when she reaches a large locked door with a “Medical Center” sign barely on, she stops and stares at the door. It looks undamaged, even though the hallway is littered with spent bullet casings, pools of dried blood and bullet holes. And near the door is a picture of a group of doctors whose faces have been scratched off, all posing in a tight group with medical equipment. “Here to Serve” is what the caption originally said, but it had been covered with sloppy streaks of paint and written above the streaks is: “LIARS!”
A clanking in the vents snaps Fluttershy away from the picture, and she aims her cutter at the ceiling, and then down the hallway, but when nothing happens she reluctantly lowers her weapon and unlocks the door with her Master Key Band. The red lock flashes blue, and after a series of clicks the door slides open.
Fluttershy hesitantly steps inside, expecting to find a massacre or some other disturbing sight. What she sees instead is an intact, large room with pillars displaying flashing “EVACUATION” messages, rows of desks with loose papers and writing utensils, and computers that are flashing blue screens or flickering on and off. Near the door is a Stasis Refill Station, a bit farther down is a set of stairs leading to a second floor, and lastly is a room with a thick pane of glass and door with a red circle on it.
As she walks through the room, the messages on the pillars flicker into the double helix for a moment, and dozens of faint voices talk over each other. The voices sound like they are right in the room with Fluttershy, and she tenses and looks around, pacing in a circle as the double helix appears on the monitors and the voices get louder.
Fluttershy closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and when she opens them, the voices and helixes are gone, and Rainbow Dash is looking at her from the room's window. Seeing her brings a smile to Fluttershy's face, and she gallops to the window, skidding to a stop and placing her hoof on the window.
“I'm glad you're okay! Let's get out of here before more of those things show up!” says Fluttershy.
“Rainbow Dash?” says Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash steps towards the window. “Look at you. You're a little freak, aint'cha? A face for radio.”
“What?”
Rainbow Dash chuckles. “Well, if you want a piece of me, you're gonna have to work for it. I'm not like those other chumps! You're gonna have to work to take me out!”
“Rainbow Dash, please!” Fluttershy puts her hoof on the other window, her eye now becoming wet with tears and panic shaking her voice. “It's me! We have to go before it is too late.”
“Just try to get in here! I dare you!” snarls Rainbow Dash. She slams her hoof against the window. “Come on! I'm right here! Come and get me!”
“Rainbow, please, I-” Her ears perk with the sudden wailing of the alarm and the room is bathed in red swirling lights as the door flash red. “Oh, come on!”
“Warning. Quarantine in effect. Please remain calm,” says a computerized voice.
Roars and howls echo from the vents, and metal breaks and clatters to the floor as shadows stretch and snap against the red tinted walls. Fluttershy growls in aggravation and slips a new battery into her cutter, her eye trailing the shadows.
“I don't have time for this,” says Fluttershy through her gritted teeth.
A Slasher roars and leaps over the railing on the second floor, and Fluttershy shoots its limbs, making it spiral out of control and land funky on the floor. Despite its neck bending and head breaking open, it still uses its scythes and what is left of its snapped hoofs to crawl towards Fluttershy. She runs away from it and shoots at another Slasher that has jumped down, and after slicing off a few of its parts with the energy cutter she whacks it in the face with her weapon. It stumbles away with its jaw hanging loose and she gallops away, using her ATM to throw a desk at a pair of Necromorphs. The two shriek and leave a trail of blood and body parts as the desk slams into them, and Fluttershy runs up the stairs with the Necromorph swarm giving chase.
One of the Slashers reaches the second floor right as she does and tackles her to the floor. It tries biting her, but she puts her metal padded hoof in the way and pushes against it, screaming as its blades slash at her suit. She rams it into the railing, snapping its spine, and bashes its head with her cutter until its head pops off. After that, she throws the body aside and unloads on the group of Slashers running towards her in a clump.
The energy cutter runs out of battery life very quickly, and as she ejects the battery and tries to slip in a new one, a Slasher jumps on her, screaming and wrapping its hoofs around her as its large claws stab at her back. Metal scrapes as the bony claws stab at her, and some pierce the suit, slicing her skin open and the Necromorph snaps at her face, but she pushes against its throat, keeping its sharp teeth from biting her maw off as she growls painfully.
The other Slashers circle around her, trying to get a piece of her, but she turns the clingy monster to them to give them an obstacle as strings of blood flick out of her suit from the claws continuous stabbing. With pockets of sharp pain popping all over her back, Fluttershy roars, pushes the Necromorph back and punches it in the head, only to get tackled by one of the Slashers that circled her. They both tumble over the edge, and Fluttershy lands on a desk, breaking it upon impact and her energy cutter bounces away from her.
She lays there, coughing and gagging with her good wing twitching and bad wing laying flat while the Slasher that went over the rail with her thrashes on the ground, kicking and slashing at the air. Screams fill the room, and the Necromorphs leap over the railing or run down the stairs, all aiming for Fluttershy.
She groans and shoots a stasis blob at the ones jumping over, trapping a few in its aura, but a couple more land close by as she rolls to her hoofs. They, along with the one that fell with Fluttershy, rush her and she unslings her SAD rifle and sprays the area, punching large holes into their rotting bodies, and when the empty magazine fall out, she shoots another stasis blob at the other group, reloads and shoots again.
Bits of flesh and sprays of blood fly just as slow as the Necromorph's movements as the bullets tear into them. Fluttershy turns to another group and guns them down, too, and as she puts in her last magazine, she sees yet another group of Slashers climbing out of the vents and rushing towards her. Fluttershy aims her stasis module at them and fires, but it sputters and spits out a thin blue haze that quickly dissipates and the module flashes red.
The Necromorphs roar and shriek, flailing their bladed limbs, and she bolts towards the Stasis Refill Station, heart racing, breathing tight and sweat shaking off her trembling body. She slips module into the station, and it beeps with the stasis aura surrounding the band. Gradually the Stasis Module changes from red to blue, but it might as well be crawling with how fast the Necromorph swarm is approaching her.
“Come on come on come on come on come on,” mutters Fluttershy as the blue aura seeps into her stasis module.
One of the Necromorphs throws a table aside with its massive scythe and runs faster, jaw hanging loose as it roars and slashes at the air its sharp limbs with the others following close behind. When the module beeps and flashes a bright blue, the Necromorph leaps towards Fluttershy and she jumps back, barely pulling her hoof out of the sleeve in time as the sharp appendage impales the device.
Fluttershy lands on her back and scurries away to avoid getting stabbed by another Necromorph, and the Slasher that stabbed the stasis station shrieks and jerks as sparks of electricity violently shoot out, burning it and the area around it. Burnt flesh and metal taint the air, and the machine whines and vibrates with the blue aura billowing out across the floor and in the air, trapping the swarm in its field. Then a ball of fire rolls out and Fluttershy gallops across the room, leaping over a table and tilting it over for a shield.
The room shakes from a loud pop and a shock wave with an odd mix of hot and cold rushing past Fluttershy while metal snaps and screams are abruptly cut off. A couple of seconds pass and she peeks past her cover, and her eye widens when she sees body parts, office supplies and debris crawling through a cloud of stasis aura that has engulfed much of the room. The Necromorphs are slowly flying away from the slow moving explosion, with the ones closest to the ball of fire being ripped apart by the shrapnel and broken bones, and the door to the hallway is bending away with the sparks barely moving.
A few seconds later the aura disappears and the fire rushes forward, blasting Fluttershy with a heat wave, and the Necromorphs scatter and crash into the floor, pillars, or desks. The junk and body parts bounce across the room and the door screeches and jerks back and forth on its broken rails with sparks flying from every opening as the bodies and furniture break apart. The surviving Necromorphs crawl on the floor or stagger around, groaning and hissing, and Fluttershy takes a deep breath, grabs her cutter, slips in a new battery and marches forward. It takes only a couple of minutes to wipe out the remaining Necromorphs, and after the last of the Necromorphs are killed a happy ding echoes in the room and the lights turn from red to a soft white.
“Quarantine resolved. Thank you for your patience,” says the computerized voice.
“You're welcome,” grumbles Fluttershy as she reloads.
With the new battery in, Fluttershy sweeps the area one last time just to be safe, and when she is satisfied, she gallops to the office and looks through its window. The table has been broken, the chair is against the wall, and the computer lies on the ground, its screen cracked and flickering. She shines her light along the ceiling and sees the vent is fine, and she doesn't see any blood on the wall, either, but she does hear grunting and growling.
“Rainbow Dash?” calls Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash rolls into view, snarling and clutching her combat knife, but she slams herself on the floor and holds the hoof with the knife down, teeth grinding and eyes pinpricks. She bangs her hoof on the floor a couple of times before she rolls on her back and holds the knife above her eye, coming ever closer to gouging herself.
“Rainbow!”
Fluttershy aims unlocks the door with her Master Key Band and she rushes in and shoots Rainbow Dash with her stasis module, bringing Rainbow Dash to a near standstill, thus giving Fluttershy time to get the knife away from the trooper. A few seconds later the blue aura disappears and Rainbow Dash hits herself in the face with her hoof.
“Ow! What the-” Rainbow Dash blinks and looks at Fluttershy, sighing with relief soon after. “Jeeze. About time you showed up.”
“Rainbow, what happened?” asks Fluttershy as she helps Rainbow Dash up.
“One of those things got in the room, so I was trying to kill it. Thanks for the help, by the way. I would've gotten it, but thank you, anyway.”
Fluttershy looks around, not seeing any bodies, only wrecked furniture, and the knife, and she looks at Rainbow Dash, not being shy about her confusion.
“Um, you're welcome?” says Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash goes to the doorway, and when sees the mess she whistles and looks at Fluttershy.
“Did you do that?” asks Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy nods.
“Nice. I didn't think you had it in you,” says Rainbow Dash.
“I've actually gotten pretty good at this,” says Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash nods. “Cool. But now that I'm here I'll take point and we can find the others and complete the missions.”
“I found Rarity and Thunderlane. I mean, Rarity found me and brought me to Thunderlane. They are very close, and I was going to take you to them.”
“Seriously? They're close and couldn't answer my calls? What is wrong with them?”
“Well...” Fluttershy hesitates. “Rarity thinks you abandoned them, so... that... might be it?”
Rainbow Dash stares at Fluttershy, and Fluttershy stares back with a nervous smile, and then Rainbow Dash takes in a deep breath, places her hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder and pokes her in the chest.
“Okay, Shy, I'm going to lay it out for you,” begins Rainbow Dash. “Rarity lied. I would never ever abandon my team. I was trying to distract that monster, which is why I shot it in the face and got it to chase after me. I only escaped because I crawled into a vent. If I didn't do that then it would have ripped me apart like what it did to the Captain and the rest of the team.”
“... Oh...”
“Hey, chin up. Abandoning me is their problem, not yours,” says Rainbow Dash. She smiles and pats Fluttershy on the shoulder. “I'm just glad you helped me out. Heck, I'm so happy right now I could kiss you!”
Fluttershy looks away. “I-I don't think that's a good idea, right now. Maybe some other time.”
And just like that, her mouth clamps with an embarrassed squeak and she looks away with a red face, and Rainbow Dash snickers and slaps her flank with her wing.
“Spoken like a true grunt! … Hey.” Rainbow Dash slides in front of Fluttershy and moves her hoof back and forth between them. “We’re gonna survive this mess. Then I'm gonna request a permanent transfer of you to my team, and then it will be vacation where I'll show you my favorite pub in Sparkle Station and then it's on to Cloudsdale!”
“What about the others?”
“Hey, we're all getting off this tub … But I'm definitely going to be having some words with Rarity and Thunderlane, and Applejack once we find her. And none of them are going on vacation with me. It'll just be you and me.” Rainbow Dash points at the door with her wing. “That said, lead the way. I'll keep you covered.”
Fluttershy nods, checks her energy cutter and after a deep breath she goes forward. It does not take long for them to reach the area of burnt corpses, but when they reach them Fluttershy stops and pales, and when Rainbow Dash stops next to her she cocks a brow.
“What is it?” asks Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy points ahead. The door that had been sealed is now broken open from the other side, and near their hoofs is the “DO NOT OPEN!” sign.
Rainbow Dash looks at the sign, and then at the opening, and her and Fluttershy's ears droop and they step back as a loud growl rumbles from the room and multiple red eyes appear in the dark, and with it, a large mouth made up of twisted jaws full of razor sharp teeth.
“Oh no.”
Author's Note
And then Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash escaped the Bon Voyage and had super hot lesbian pegasus sex to celebrate!
“DO NOT OPEN!”
Such a simple sign with simple instructions now laid bent in front of the two pegasi, and what had once been a barrier is now a gaping hole of twisted metal and jagged edges. Light bulbs flicker in the back, giving just enough light to show a large creature with a mouth made of multiple twisted jaws with the bones jutting up like fangs. Its head has many heads of ponies, griffins, and goats fused together, with some retaining their looks of pain and horror, and others warped almost beyond recognition. Its multitude of eyes glow red and slobber drips from its large, deformed mouth as it steps into the hallway on four legs, made up of twisted limbs, spiny bones and strands of flesh wrapped around each other. On its chest are pulsing bags of yellow puss and green acid, all of which are shielded by thick ribs. Its throat vibrates as it releases a shaky roar, and the two mares step back, eyes wide and colors drained from their faces.
“Oh no,” says Fluttershy.
“Run!” yells Rainbow Dash.
The Uber Puker charges them, shaking the hall with every step, and the two mares shriek and bolt down the hallway, not looking back even though the shaking is getting closer. They gallop down the hallway, taking the first sharp turn they can, and the area shakes at the large Necromorph slams into the wall, bringing the lights to flicker and some bulbs to shatter. The roar hurts Fluttershy's ears and the taste of hot iron burns her tongue and throat.
They take another turn and gallop down the hallway, towards a large door that is rapidly snapping open and shut with blood splattered on its edges. Fluttershy shoots a Stasis blob at it, and upon impact the door's rapid speed drops to a crawl, allowing the two ponies to go through. Once they pass through, they find themselves in a dark lobby with dim orange lights, broken benches, and scattered luggage. A gaping hole is in the ceiling, and flickering advertisements blocked by cracks and blood splatter. At the far end is a crooked door that leads to an outside platform with the trolley pulling to a stop with its door opened and a “Next Stop. Section F” scrolling across its message board. There are also Slashers walking around the lobby in a daze, and at first they don't see them, but when the Uber Puker slams into the door and begins tearing it off of its rail, the screeching metal and electric discharge brings the group to look in their direction. Then they scream and charge the two pegasi, and Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash run forward, not looking back as metal snaps and a thud echoes in the room.
The two weave in between the Slashers as the sharp appendages sweep at them, and they leap over the benches and rush towards the trolley with the swarm giving chase and the room shaking from the Uber Puker. They get outside, and the trolley dings and starts sliding forward as its door closes, and Fluttershy narrows her eye and puts every bit of energy she can into her legs while Rainbow Dash zips ahead with a rainbow trail in her wake. Rainbow Dash easily makes it on the trolley and holds the door open, bringing the trolley to stop, and she extends her free hoof to Fluttershy.
“Come on! Hurry!” orders Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy takes a running leap into the trolley, and Rainbow Dash hits the emergency close switch next to the door, bringing it to slam shut as a Slasher runs into it face first. The Slasher screams and stabs at the door while the trolley pulls forward, making a pleasant ding as it goes.
“Next stop. Section F,” says the trolley's computerized voice.
The windows shatter and Necromorphs scream as they bully each other to get in. The interior lights of the trolley snap to red and a screeching alarm sounds as white lights flash inside and the trolley snaps to a standstill. Then the trolley shakes as the Uber Puker leaps on its roof with more Necromorphs climbing on it, causing it to shake and more glass to shatter as their deformed limbs break through.
“WARNING: Conditions unsafe. Brakes engaged,” says the computer voice.
Fluttershy launches a Stasis ball at the nearest Slasher in the swarm, which have crowded into the broken windows, and she follows with a salvo of cutter beams as Rainbow Dash runs to the control panel of the trolley. There, she quickly and sloppily starts pushing every button, turning every dial and pulling every lever she can, bringing the lights to change from red and white, to rotating tropical flower themes, to black with swirling stars, to disco, with each light having a matching theme of music to go with it while the alarm continues on.
Back in the passenger area, the Slashers have gotten inside, but a few dead Necromorphs lay in front of Fluttershy while large claws tear into the roof. Now Fluttershy is wrestling with a Slasher that lost one of its scythe limbs, keeping its other one from piercing her face. Not too far from her, her energy cutter is laying on the floor, getting kicked around by the abominations that are trying to get to her, but she is forcing her current target to block them by sweeping it side to side.
“What are you doing!?” yells Fluttershy as a mix of screeching alarms and disco music plays over the speakers with a collection of red, blue, orange, and green dots rolling around the interior.
“I'm trying to get this thing to move!” shouts Rainbow Dash.
With a sharp twist, Fluttershy snaps off the Slasher's scythe, and then stabs it in the face with the sharp bone. While it recoils she unslings her shotgun and shoots it in the chest, followed by blowing the leg off of another Slasher that is charging her, and after that she turns and whacks another Slasher away with her weapon before shooting another one.
“Hurry up!” snaps Fluttershy.
“Hey, don't tell me what to do! I’m the one in charger here!” counters Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash pushes another set of buttons and the trolley lurches forward, causing Rainbow Dash to lose her balance, and right as it pulls away from the station a Leaper jumps on the window. Rainbow Dash curses, and the window cracks from the Leapers claws; then it roars, coils it sharp tail, and stabs the windshield. The tail breaks through, and Rainbow Dash draws her pistol and puts two in its chest and one in its head, but all it does it make it mad and lead to the cracks on the window spreading. The Leaper stabs the window again, and as the trolley passes another platform two more Leapers jump on the trolley.
“WARNING: Emergency Brake disabled. WARNING: Brakes disabled. WARNING: High Speed mode activated. WARNING: Trolley damaged. WARNING: Connector damaged. WARNING: Trolley over capacity. WARNING: Passengers in imminent danger. Please see Transportation Supervisor for termination and prosecution.”
“Yeah, I'll get right on that!” says Rainbow Dash.
The Leaper stabs the window again, and it shatters, bringing in a rush of wind and glass to scatter on the floor. The Leapers crawl inside, their clawed hoofs tearing into the control panel or digging into the ceiling, and Rainbow Dash expands her wings and scrapes her hoof on the floor, snarling.
“Come and get some!” snarls Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy screams in pain as the sharp curved bones of a Slasher cuts through what is left of her armor, and she retaliates by freezing it with a Stasis blob and rolls away from it while two more Slashers give chase to her. She stops by her energy cutter and uses her shotgun against the remaining Slashers as fast as the weapon can pump while Rainbow Dash wrestles with the Leapers with unpleasant results.
BLAM-shick
The group of Slashers drop with bits of flesh and bone and severed limbs scattered everywhere and the trolley's interior is splashed with their rust colored blood. Fluttershy returns the shotgun to her saddle, picks up her energy cutter and executes the last Slasher as it is on its final stages of thawing out, dropping hard and fast when Fluttershy passes it. She then shoots at the Leapers that are gnawing on Rainbow Dash's armored hind legs or scratching at her vest. The first Leaper is shot in pieces, and the second Leaper looks up, and jumps towards Fluttershy, but before it can bite her, she punches it down and empties the last of her battery into it. With those Leapers dead, Fluttershy reloads and Rainbow Dash bashes the last Leaper in the head with her hoof, and then she forces it on its back and stomps on its head until it is flat. By the time she is done, Rainbow Dash is shaking and dripping with blood, and she laughs shakily as she backs away.
“Ha! I-I lived! I lived again!” laughs Rainbow Dash. “Did you see how awesome I was? I was awesome!”
Then the roof is suddenly torn open, and the Uber Puker's face appears, mouth open and drool dripping down, and it looks right at Fluttershy before it barfs out the acid vomit. Fluttershy dives out of the way while the acid lands on a bench and dissolves its foamy guts and plastic exterior, and when she gets back on her hooves, she shoots the beast with her energy cutter. The Uber Puker roars and retreats, but its hind legs are still in view of the passenger window, which Fluttershy takes the opportunity to shoot them as well, bringing the limbs to jerk up and the trolley to shake from the shift in weight. The disco and emergency lights flicker and flash rapidly, and the music and alarms turn to disjointed buzzes of various volume levels as sparks fall all around the pair of pegasi, then another piece of the roof is peeled back and the Uber Puker's mutated face returns.
“Damn it!” yells Rainbow Dash.
She and Fluttershy shoot at the beast, tearing into the roof and its chitin with a mix of bullets and cutter beams. Sparks and bits of bone and flesh fall, and the Uber Puker shrieks before spraying acid at them, forcing the two to jump away as the green liquid splashes on the floor, corpses, and windows. The metal bubbles and snaps, and the windows shatter while steam rises and the stench of melting metal and boiling flesh fills Fluttershy's nose.
Once Fluttershy is back on her hoofs she aims her cutter at the beast, but before she can shoot it there is a metallic snap and she is forced off balance by a sudden drop. The trolley shakes and tilts to the side, knocking her and Rainbow Dash into the benches, followed by a loud groan and another snap that causes the trolley to take a sharp dip backwards.
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash scream and tumble down with the dead Slashers, but while Rainbow Dash can grab a bench, Fluttershy tumbles down the aisle. Everything is a blur for her as flickering lights, sparks and metal rush past her, and then she lands on the emergency back door, causing its window to break and the door to snap open, leading to the corpses to spill out. She is barely able to hook her front hoofs on the broken frame, and her back legs dangle as the door swings from her weight and the trolley's continued path down the track.
“WARNING: Stand by for emergency system shut down,” says a computerized voice, its voice fuzzy and changing volumes. “ERROR. Emergency shut down offline. Please use manual shut down. ERROR: Manual shut down not detected.”
“Hang on, Fluttershy!” shouts Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy looks to the side and sees two Leapers climbing on the wall of the Bon Voyage. When the trolley is close enough, they jump towards it, and even though Fluttershy is dangling she still tries to shoot them with her cutter, but she misses all, but one shot. However, that one shot is enough to send one of the Leapers spinning off course to splatter below, but the other one still latches on to the trolley and climbs up, quickly going out of sight.
Fluttershy's growls painfully from the burning in her joints, and she seethes and slips her cutter back in place before her other hoof grabs the ledge, and as this happens the screech of ripping metal clashes with the howling wind, and Rainbow Dash swears as the Uber Puker and the Leaper scream. Gunshots ring out, and as soon as Fluttershy looks up she swings herself to the side to avoid being hit by a bleeding Leaper that tumbles past her. She looks down and watches the Necromorph splatter down below with a horde of Necromorphs filling the bottom, and she looks up again and sees Rainbow Dash shooting at the Uber Puker as it crawls along the torn roof. The bullets do little to hurt its chitin armor, and Fluttershy's heart races as she tries to pull herself up, but the hinges snap, and she shrieks from the door's sharp, angular dip.
The door groans again and pieces of the remaining hinge pop off, bringing Fluttershy to grit her teeth and strain herself as she climbs up, battling the rushing wind and the swinging of the door. More screws pop out, and another piece of metal snaps, and Fluttershy screams as she stretches her hoof out as far as she can go. She hooks her hoof on the doorway, then locks her muscles as the door finally breaks off and tumbles below.
Fluttershy's heart races as her body dangles, and everything feels like it is rushing to her throat while her damaged mane slaps against her face, and despite the pain ripping her muscles and joints she manages to pull herself inside the wrecked trolley. Once she is inside, she flops on her back, mouth open to swallow air, and she presses her energy cutter against her chest as it rapidly rises and falls with her heart racing.
Near her, Rainbow Dash climbs down and shoots at the Uber Puker again, and she leaps to the benches across from her when the large creature sprays a stream of acid at her. Her previous perch shrivels and dissolves, and while the chunks tumbling down, Fluttershy shoots at the Necromorph with her energy cutter, forcing it to climb out of sight; but with the shift comes a violent shaking for the trolley.
Fluttershy looks at her partner and sees she is still climbing towards her, and Fluttershy begins climbing up. Every move hurts, every shift of her joints brings a throbbing pain to her, but she keeps climbing one bench at a time. She only stops to shoot at the Uber Puker when it breaks open the side of the trolley and tries to crawl in, but it retreats and scrambles up the side after Fluttershy unloads the last of the battery power into its chest, limbs and face, popping some of its eyes in the process. But while the Uber Puker climbs up there another loud snap, and before Fluttershy can make so much as a thought she is lifted in the air with Rainbow Dash, bounces between a pair of benches and grabs a piece of the broken roof as the metallic walls zoom up .
“Oh shiiiiiiiiiiiit!” yells Rainbow Dash over the rushing wind while she holds on to a bench.
The end is as sudden as the beginning, and Fluttershy is flung into the air when the trolley hits the floor. Everything spins and her terrified is screaming is abruptly cut off when she lands far from the wreckage with a loud crunch. Fluttershy rolls across the floor, body getting stabbed by sharp jabs of pain and her vision flashing in and out as a messy blur of gray, orange, and red spins past her. When she stops, she is laying on her side and her mouth is hanging open, her both of her wings hang limply, and her lungs and throat feel stuffed. She wants to move, but cannot, and she wants to scream, but nothing comes out. Her vision is wet and bloody, and she can only watch the trolley. It is standing upright, back end squished and the remains of the gears mangled; the vehicle groans and sparks, and then it flops with a loud thud that sends glass and sparks towards Fluttershy while its bottom faces the ceiling. Fluttershy extends her shaky and bleeding hoof, vision pulsing and her breath short and sharp while the smoke from the fire spreads all around like a fog from Hell.
“Rainbow...” gasps Fluttershy. “... Rainbow, no... No, please... No...”
“Make us whole again,” whispers a collection of voices.
Fluttershy pushes herself up, grabs her cutter and hobbles towards the wreckage as a group of red blurs with black orbs for eyes gallop towards her in the fog, screaming and flailing their curved limbs. Fluttershy slips a new battery in her cutter and shoots each of them, causing them break apart into dust, and with the blurry creatures gone a crackling fills her ears as a radio display appears in front of her.
“I'm sure he's fine. Colony ships frequently lose contact in the Onyx System. That place is a dead space,” says a mare.
“I-I'm sorry, but this just... just... this feels different. Please, I need to go,” says Fluttershy.
“You never answer, never called. Why did you come now?” says Zephyr.
Fluttershy keeps limping towards the wreckage, which does not seem to be getting closer, only farther, and after a few paces she is knocked flat on her back. A blurry creature with black eyes and its maw hanging loose presses its bulky hoofs on her barrel and screams as it raises its scythe limbs, which barely holds together in its foggy state. Fluttershy shoots its barrel, face, and limbs with sporadic shots, and while it dissolves off of her she pushes herself up and limps forward.
Blood and sweat wet Fluttershy's face as she sweeps her weapon through the fog which is now pocketed with slow pulsing red lights that gradually form silhouettes of three pegasi sitting at a table.
“We only want what is best for you,” says a soft spoken stallion.
“Please don't be mad,” says an equally soft mare.
“But that was my dream,” says Fluttershy.
“You can have a better one with us,” says the stallion.
Fluttershy turns away from the silhouettes, and the voices are replaced with an applause and celebratory whistles, and the area shakes as the pulsing lights return to form a towering double helix with glowing white hieroglyphs.
“Praise the Great Marker! Unity is forever!” shouts a mare charismatically, whose words are met with a roaring cheer that makes the radio display flicker out for a moment.
“Do you remember that? Unity is forever,” says a stern stallion.
Fluttershy's heart races, and she hastily turns away from the Marker and hurries towards the direction of the wreckage, but the wreckage is a speck in the distance that only seen in the thick fog because of the sparks and flames licking the air. But as she limps through the fog, red masses with black eyes run towards her, quickly forming into deformed beasts with sharp limbs protruding from their backs with more voices breaching the crackling of her radio.
“One mind. One soul. One flesh.”
“Do not be afraid.”
“Make us whole again.”
“Stop it!” cries Fluttershy.
One of the red masses rushes her, and she side steps its slash, slams her cutter against its skull and as it staggers away she shoots another mass in its legs before turning her cutter on her first target's head. Both masses dissolve with hieroglyphs spreading out and fading.
“Return to us.”
“Be whole with us.”
Fluttershy guns down another pair of screaming ghostly figures before having to reload. As she reloads, one of the figures jumps on her back, and she buckles and screams as teeth sink into her collar, soaking her shoulder and neck in hot blood. Her hoofs shake as she slips the new battery in, and then she presses her cutter against the ghostly figure's skull and pulls the trigger. The creature falls off her, and she turns around and shoots it limbs off, turning it into a dissolving husk. After that creature disappears, Fluttershy turns back to the wreckage, which is not even fifty feet away now. Her chest and throat are heavy, her heart thumps in her ears, and her bloody mouth hangs open from her panting as sweat and blood drips off her. Every step is a sharp jab of pain that brings a whimper out of her, but right as she is about to reach the wreckage, the smashed trolley pulls away from her.
“But you cleansed your soul,” says the soft stallion. “You are one with the Marker.”
“What did we do wrong?” sniffles the soft mare.
“Please don’t go. I’m sorry!” begs Zephyr.
“Make us whole again,” says a heavy voice.
“Get out of my head!” yells Fluttershy.
More blurs rush towards her, and she shoots a few of them before beating down the last one. After the last one is beaten into dust, Fluttershy drops down to her haunches, panting and pressing her cutter against her ear while her other hoof struggles to hold her up. Her eyes are wet and heavy when she looks at the wreckage, which is now directly in front of her, and the Frail Stallion is also standing in front of her, looking at her with its black pool of eyes. The Frail Stallion walks towards her, and she grits her teeth and pulls the trigger of her energy cutter, but all there is, is a series of empty clicks. The Frail Stallion continues his approach, and Fluttershy ejects her empty battery, quickly slips in a new one and when she brings her weapon up Rainbow Dash pushes it aside just in time to divert the shot away from her.
“Whoa, careful with that thing!” snaps Rainbow Dash, who is bloodied and bruised, but her intact wings are stiff and ready to launch her into the air. “Come on, we need to get out of here!”
Rainbow Dash pulls Fluttershy close to her chest before she can prepare, and then they are launched herself in the air with a loud boom and a circle of dust rolling out from where they used to be. The walls and dim lights become a blur as the two travel through the Bon Voyage, and Fluttershy looks down, gasping when she sees the swarm of Necromorphs circling the smashed trolley.
Fluttershy tightens her grip around Rainbow Dash's neck and hips, and she closes her eyes when the trooper swoops over the sparking trolley rail. When she opens her eyes again, she looks down and watches a group of Necromorphs roaming around on another platform. Thankfully, Rainbow Dash flies over them, and when they come to the Section E Platform the prismatic pegasus dips and they have a hard landing on the platform. The two bounce and roll across the metal floor, and when they stop Fluttershy is on her side and Rainbow Dash is on her back, laughing.
“Holy shit,” laughs Rainbow Dash. “Ho-Lee. Shit! That was nuts!”
Fluttershy pushes herself up, having to use a bench for support to keep her wobbly legs up, and Rainbow Dash rolls on her stomach and grins at Fluttershy.
“I gotta say, I'm impressed,” says Rainbow Dash. “I mean, no offense, but when I first saw you, I thought you were going to be pansy. But after all that has happened today, we might have to clone you.”
Fluttershy wants to say something, anything, but since her tongue is not working, she just settles with a nod, and Rainbow Dash hops to her hoofs and trots towards Fluttershy. While the trooper trots towards her, Fluttershy looks past her shoulder to the darkness of the lobby beyond the broken door, then her eyes flick up to see a camera above the doorway. She scrunches her brows at that, but she snaps to Rainbow Dash when she stops in front of her.
“Hey, just because we may not be able to do this for a while,” starts Rainbow Dash.
“Do what?” asks Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash's hoof cups the back of Fluttershy's head and then she roughly presses her lips against Fluttershy's.
Fluttershy's eye bulges, cheeks and ears heat up, and her lips lock while Rainbow Dash tries to force them open, but her attempts do not last long, for she pull away a few seconds later, licking her lips with a teasing smile.
“Yeah, we'll need to work on that,” says Rainbow Dash.
“Wha-wha.... What the hell?” sputters Fluttershy. She wipes her mouth. “What was that!?”
“Hey, I said I wanted to kiss you when you saved me, and after all the crap that we just survived I figured why not now? Besides, it’s not like anybody is watching us.”
Fluttershy points to the camera above the broken door, and after Rainbow Dash looks at it, she shrugs dismissively and turns back to Fluttershy.
“They probably liked it,” says Rainbow Dash. “Also, I know a couple of guys back at Sparkle Station that are friends with benefits, so when this is all over you and I are going to go on vacation, hit the best bar on my tab and then we're gonna get laid!”
This brings Fluttershy to scrunching her muzzle with a red hot face, and Rainbow Dash turns around and brushes her tail under Fluttershy's nose before trotting forward, which brings the medic to shudder and shake her head.
'Of all the times to do this...' thinks Fluttershy.
“Well, that's enough lolly gagging for us. Gotta get back to the team for a meeting!” says Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy composes herself with a sigh, and then she limps after Rainbow Dash, but stops when the trooper makes an abrupt stop and slaps herself on the forehead.
“Oh, what am I doing,” says Rainbow Dash. “You know where Rarity and Thunderlane are hiding. You gotta lead the way.”
Fluttershy stares at Rainbow Dash for a few seconds before she nods and walks ahead, squinting her eye to see in the dark and hoping for an easy trip on the ship for once.
And for once Fluttershy has an easy trip through the Bon Voyage. The trip back to Rarity and Thunderlane's room had no troubles, aside from killing a couple of straggling Slashers, but with Rainbow Dash's help the Slashers went down hard and fast. When they reach the break room Fluttershy is relieved to see the door is still red and there are no signs of any Necromorphs trying to get in, and she uses her Master Key Band to unlock the door. The door slides open, and once the two pegasi are inside Fluttershy closes and locks the door. In the back, Thunderlane is still working on his giant bomb, but he stops as soon as he sees the two mares.
“Rainbow Dash? Fluttershy? You're actually alive!” says Thunderlane cheerfully.
Fluttershy feels slightly insulted by that, but she keeps her mouth shut while Rainbow Dash forces a smile and walks forward, leaving Fluttershy by the door. A moment later, Rarity comes out of the bathroom, and her posture perks when she sees Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.
“Oh, my goodness, you made it! I was getting worried,” says Rarity. “You both look like you can use a vacation.”
Rainbow Dash's smile grows, but while the vibrant pegasus smiles, a cold weight drops in Fluttershy's gullet, and from the increasingly nervous expression of the other two she can tell they are all feeling the same thing.
“There's my team!” says Rainbow Dash brightly as she continues walking. She stops in the center of the room looks around, nodding approvingly. “Wow, you two were busy collecting stuff. I mean you got food, medicine, batteries... fuel...” She taps an ammo box with her hoof. “Bullets... It's like you were too busy to answer my distress calls.”
The smiles from the other two are now gone, and they exchange quick looks before Rarity speaks.
“Rainbow, we didn't hear any distress calls from you,” says Rarity. “If we did, we would have come right to you.”
“Rarity! Oh, Rarity, my good... loyal friend, Rarity . So loyal in fact that you completely ignored me when I was trapped just down the hallway,” says Rainbow Dash.
“Rainbow, we really didn't hear anything,” says Thunderlane.
“I wasn't talking to you!”
Thunderlane clamps his mouth shut and Fluttershy's eye darts between the two while Rainbow Dash turns her focus to Rarity.
“Rarity, have I ever abandoned you?” asks Rainbow Dash.
Rarity shakes her head, and Rainbow Dash tilts her head to the side with her wing to her ear.
“What's that?” says Rainbow Dash. “I didn't hear you.”
“N-No,” says Rarity quietly.
“No? Never?”
“Never.”
“After all the years we worked together, have I ever been a coward?”
“No.”
“Never?”
Rarity swallows.
“Never!?” shouts Rainbow Dash.
Rarity shakes her head. “N-Never. Never.”
Before anybody can blink, Rarity is on her back and Rainbow Dash is on top of her, pinning Rarity's head down with one hoof while pressing her hips down on her so she cannot move.
“Then why did you call me a coward, huh?” snarls Rainbow Dash.
“Rainbow, wait a second,” says Fluttershy.
Fluttershy hastily steps forward, but stops when Rainbow Dash whips out her pistol and aims it at her, and then she presses it against Rarity's head, bringing Fluttershy to gasp and Thunderlane jump up with his hoof extended.
“Rainbow, stop!” yells Thunderlane while Rarity whimpers and squeezes her eyes shut.
“Rainbow, please stop!” says Fluttershy.
“Calling me a coward when you never answered my calls!” screams Rainbow Dash. Her pupils have shrunken to pinpricks and is putting pressure on Rarity's skull. “I almost died for you and this is the thanks I get!?”
“Rainbow, don't do this,” begs Fluttershy. “She didn't mean it.”
“Say it! Call me a coward again! Say it to my face! I dare you! I fucking dare you!”
Rainbow Dash is then knocked off Rarity from Thunderlane ramming into her, and as her weapon skids across the floor Rarity scrambles up and shrinks behind Fluttershy.
“Please stop this!” begs Fluttershy.
Thunderlane is quickly punched in the jaw and kicked off by Rainbow Dash, and while he recuperates from the metal boot breaking his teeth, she slams him into the ground and presses her hoof down on his throat.
“You left me, too!” screams Rainbow Dash over his gags and weakening attempts to kick her off. “Was I not good enough for you!? Am I not good enough for any of you!?”
“ENOUGH!”
The voice is loud enough to rattle the room, and Rainbow Dash jumps off of Thunderlane with her ears and wings stiff and her wide eyes on Fluttershy, who is shaking and seething with her teary eye focused on Rainbow Dash.
“Just stop! … Please,” says Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash backs away from Thunderlane, and he gets up and rubs his throat, coughing and wheezing for air. As he does this, Rainbow Dash looks at him, then at Rarity, and then at Fluttershy.
“Are you going against me, too, Fluttershy?” asks Rainbow Dash.
“Nopony is against you,” says Fluttershy. “We all want to get out of here, and I need to find Zephyr, and that can't happen if we are fighting.”
“Rainbow, I don't think you're well,” says Thunderlane with his hoof covering his bloody mouth. “I think this ship's gotten to you.”
Rainbow Dash snaps her wing up, blocking him from her sight while she keeps her eyes on Fluttershy, but says nothing.
“Rainbow... Breathe... Just breathe,” says Fluttershy. “We're all friends here.”
Fluttershy glances at Thunderlane, who is wiping the blood from his mouth, and after spitting out a broken tooth he gives Rainbow Dash a cold look.
“Yeah, we're friends,” says Thunderlane.
“Yes, we're all friends,” says Rarity, though she has yet to stop using Fluttershy as a shield.
Several seconds of silence pass, and Rainbow Dash snorts and walks into the bathroom, and when she closes the door the circle flashes red and “Occupied” appears above the door. Fluttershy looks at the bathroom for a few seconds, and when Rarity sulks away from her, she watches the unicorn shakily plug her hoofpad into a terminal and start typing in commands.
“Rarity, are you okay?” asks Fluttershy.
“No time for small talk,” interrupts Rarity. “I have to see what other part of this ship aren't destroyed. It can give us a path to the bridge and clues to Applejack's whereabouts.”
Fluttershy nods, and she goes to Thunderlane; he is back to working on his bomb, face twisted from pain, and he glances at her when she stands next to him. She opens her mouth, closes it, paws the floor awkwardly and looks at the bathroom door before looking at Thunderlane again.
“Nothing happened between us. We're strictly professional,” says Thunderlane.
“Oh... That's good... Are you okay?” asks Fluttershy.
Thunderlane points to an area where a bunch of crates have been pushed together. “Just sit over there, please. I got to finish this bomb.”
Fluttershy stands silent and still for a few seconds, and then she goes to the crates and lays down on them with her hoofs folded under her head and her ears drooped. After that, she exhales and looks at the pair one last time before she closes her eye.
Author's Note
So now both of her wings no longer functioning and the hallucinations are getting worse... She'll be fine.
But in all seriousness, I'm glad this chapter is done. That makes it all but Applejack reunited, and the story can continue.Dead Space: Forsaken!
“Just sit over there, please. I got to finish this bomb,” says Thunderlane.
Normally “please” is a nice word to hear, but in this case Fluttershy hears something less than nice. Malice, perhaps?
Though, Thunderlane did have his tooth broken in a scuffle, so he is definitely grouchy about that, and the whole situation has been so far beyond what any of them were prepared for that the stress is getting to all of them. But still, he didn't have to sound so mean. And neither did Rarity when she told Fluttershy there was no time for small talk.
Like a tick gnawing at her brain, Fluttershy wonders if they are mad at her.
Why would they be?
She got Rainbow Dash back. She almost died saving their leader, and she almost died getting the trolley back up, which was a stupid easy fix, and they didn't even use it! Now here she is, being treated like a leper for reasons she doesn't even know.
There wasn't even a thank you!
What the hell is wrong with these ungrateful ponies?
Fluttershy quickly pushes the bad thoughts back and exhales quietly, knowing full well that the situation has made tensions high. So, with the short and much needed breathing to ease her tension, Fluttershy goes towards the crates Thunderlane pointed at and lays down with her hoofs under her head and her ears drooped. Laying down brings a new sense of peace to her. Her heavy limbs feel like they have disintegrated like sand in the water, her pain goes from throbbing to numb, and her eye shuts immediately, putting her in a cool darkness.
“WAKE UP!” screams a voice.
Fluttershy shrieks and jumps up, hoof smacking against whatever is in front of her. Though that whatever turns into a whoever. And that whoever turns out to be Rainbow Dash, who is now laying on the floor, holding her jaw while Thunderlane sits in the back with a small satisfied smile on his face, and is loaded with ammo. He is also standing next to their bomb, which is now on the roller cart and consisting of five bundles of gem batteries and red cylinders all held together by straps, cords, wires, and chains.
“Aw~” groans Rainbow Dash, back arched and hoof still massaging her face. “Aw, what the hell? I thought we were friends.”
“S-Sorry,” stammers Fluttershy.
“Aw... Damn, you hit hard!”
“I told you it was a bad idea,” says Thunderlane. “You should have gently shaken her shoulder and whispered lovingly into her ear.”
Rainbow Dash points at him with a scowl. “Don't start. I'm not in the mood.”
Thunderlane snickers, but Rarity quietly watches the scene from the back, far from everyone, while she uses her telekinesis to put her hoof-computer back in order; she has also filled her inventory with ammo. Then it is back to Fluttershy. She still feels sore when she gets up, so she digs into her medical pouch to inject herself with a dose of adrenaline, thus giving herself a little boost so her legs don't feel like they will snap.
“Anyway, now that Ms. Slacker is awake, we can finally get to the communications relay,” says Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy glares at Rainbow Dash, but keeps herself quiet, and Rainbow Dash turns and points at Thunderlane.
“You sure that your bomb will kill whatever is blocking the way?” asks Rainbow Dash.
“If this baby doesn't kill it, I'll be very surprised,” says Thunderlane. “We are looking at a dozen liquid fuel cylinders plus five dozen gem batteries. Liquid fuel is very flammable and when a gem battery explodes-”
“Cool. Rarity?”
Thunderlane huffs irritably, and Rarity looks up from her computer pad.
“Are you sure we can get a signal out when you reach the relay?” asks Rainbow Dash.
Rarity nods. “The relay will have a compatible port to send out emergency.”
“Good. Fluttershy, you're point.”
Fluttershy's eye widens, and the group stares at her, completely silent.
“Look, you're basically an expert at killing these things by now,” explains Rainbow. “And I need Rarity safe to do her thing and Thunderlane for the bomb.”
Fluttershy's eye darts between each of the ponies in front of her before she sighs, stands up and checks her gear. She is low on medical supplies (again), and her batteries for the cutter will need to be restocked soon, she is out of shotgun slugs, and she still has some rifle ammo left, but it too will need restocking very soon. So, she gets what she can from their ammo stash, which is enough to refill everything but her battery stash since Thunderlane used all the gem batteries for his bomb. Once that is said and done, she goes to the door, takes a deep breath, then opens it.
The door screeches and bangs as it slides open, and its noise echoes in the hallway, bringing Fluttershy to cringe as she looks down both sides of their area. All she sees are flickering lights and bits of stray trash, but so far, no Necromorphs. There is also a camera with a little red light right outside the room that she just now noticed.
She keeps her eye on the camera for a few seconds before a tap on her flank snaps her out of the trance.
“We clear?” asks Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy nods and moves towards the large chamber while Rainbow Dash steps out to keep the back end of the hallway covered. Thunderlane rolls the cart out a few seconds later, followed closely by Rarity, and once they are a few paces down the hallway Rainbow Dash trails them.
The cart squeaks, hops and swerves a little as Thunderlane pushes it, which adds to Fluttershy's anxiety like bricks in a wheelbarrow. They might as well be banging pots and pans from how loud each of the cart's squeaks and clatters are.
When they are halfway down the hall a faint giggle and light scuffing floats out of the vents, and Fluttershy stops and looks at the vent, lungs shriveled, and cutter aimed up. This brings the group to stop and listen. The shifting in the vents returns, and while everyone tenses Fluttershy trails the noise with her eye until she sees a vent grate on the floor up ahead. She stays locked in place, eye snapping between the open vent and the door up ahead with shaky breaths and a quivering hoof.
“Eyes up. Something's in the vents,” whispers Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy gulps and keeps her energy cutter trained on the vent opening, and she motions the group to stay close to the wall. Once they are pressed as close as they can be, she walks forward, cringing as Thunderlane's cart makes a ruckus. When they are by the open vent Fluttershy peers into the darkness and is greeted by a wide grin, and pair of blue eyes with strands of gray mane hanging in front of it.
“What the hell was that!?” says Thunderlane.
“That was Mama,” says Fluttershy as she shakily reloads. “She tried cutting me up with a power saw a few hours ago and she almost jumped at me again.”
Thunderlane grimaces and Rainbow Dash sweeps the hallway behind them, putting emphasis on the vents.
“Great. Now we got a psychopath following us,” says Rainbow Dash.
“I think we scared her off for now,” says Fluttershy.
“That's good, but we really have to keep moving,” says Rarity.
“Right, of course, we definitely gotta keep moving. So, pick up the pace, Fluttershy,” says Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy fights to keep her annoyed sigh down as she moves forward, glumly thinking about how she has gotten the short end of the stick a lot on this mission. None of the other ponies are remotely close to beat up like she is, and she hasn't even had a chance to look for Zephyr yet! She has just been running, running, losing an eye, running some more, losing flight, almost dying a bunch of times, rescuing their commander, and now this. Just thinking about how much time she is wasting gets her teeth grinding and weighs down her breathing.
She just wants to find Zephyr. Is that too much to ask for!?
Squish~
Fluttershy stops and looks down while lifting her hoof up, grimacing when she sees a piece of torn red colored flesh in its puddle of blood, with some teeth around it as well as more blood splattered on the wall. She looks up from the severed tendril and realizes that she is where Rarity rescued her, and just looking at the door frame brings a sharp and hot pain on her back.
Then there is the Necromorph in the chamber.
The circle of eyes that the blob-like Necromorph has are all moving in different directions, and its groans and hisses vibrate the room as its tentacles snake around the floor or dig into the vents. The puke yellow bags and its black veins throb with every breath, but it does not seem to notice them.
“Thunderlane, if that bomb doesn't kill that thing I'm going to be pissed,” says Rainbow Dash.
“You and me both,” says Thunderlane.
Rainbow Dash goes to Fluttershy's side, and the medic has yet to take her eyes off the monster and is also wishing she had something better than the shredded armor she has now. Maybe Rainbow Dash's armor? It seems to be doing well.
“Flutters, guard Rarity,” orders Rainbow Dash. “Me and Thunderlane are going to blow that thing apart.”
Another groan and hiss shakes their bones, and Fluttershy nods and looks at Rarity, also wishing she had a battle saddle for her energy cutter so she is not hopping around on three hoofs all the time.
“Hey.” Rainbow Dash taps Fluttershy's shoulder to bring her attention back to her. “If it looks like we need help, don't hesitate to help us. I really want to live.”
“We all do,” says Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash grins, pats her shoulder, and then waves at Thunderlane.
“Let's go, Thunderlane. You got a bomb to deliver,” says Rainbow Dash.
Thunderlane pushes the cart forward, and Fluttershy risks looking away from the two to focus down the hallway, but out of the corner of her eye she sees Rarity slumped against the wall. Her eyes are wide, but they are unfocused and her nostrils are flaring with every heavy breath she takes while her hoof twitches.
Fluttershy turns her full attention to Rarity and steps forward, but before she can reach her a rush of air and something slimy hits her back, knocking her to the floor. Metal bends and snaps, and crackling sparks fly as gunfire clashes with the Necromorph's deafening scream.
Fluttershy scrambles upright and grabs her energy cutter, turning just in time to see one of the large tentacles sliding out of the bent doorway. She looks into the chamber and sees Rainbow Dash yelling a war cry before launching herself in the air, shooting at the yellow bags and eyes while Thunderlane shoves the bomb-cart towards one of the tentacles. The bags and a couple of eyes pop, showering the floor with yellow puss and dirty red blood, and Thunderlane vaults over a tentacle swiping at him while Rainbow Dash swoops over and under another one.
Fluttershy cringes and looks over her shoulder to make sure the area is still clear, and Rarity is still standing before looking back the chamber. The two pegasi are swooping around the tentacles, and the large appendages are swinging wildly, denting and breaking the platings on the walls as well as the light fixtures above; but one of the tentacles has grabbed Thunderlane's bomb and is bringing it towards its mouth.
The massive jaw opens up with drool dripping from its large teeth, and Thunderlane and Rainbow Dash both zip inside, with Thunderlane holding a make shift detonator with a red “Easy” button on it.
It flails its tentacles around, smashing the walls and forcing the group to retreat further into the hallway. The rapid and hard thuds shake the chamber and hallway, leading to the lights overhead to flicker and the metal boards to snap or bend, exposing wires, pipes, and the ship's skeleton. The pipes rupture from the tentacles slamming into it, spraying the liquid with water, liquid fuel and other chemicals, and a screeching alarm stabs at the ponies' ears, followed by the damaged door flashing and flickering red. The door tries to shut as the flood of chemicals spread towards them, but it stops a quarter of the way before it sparks and snaps back in place. The sparks falling on the mix of fuel, gas, and water lead to an oily carpet of flames and red tinted smoke that engulfs the whole room and rushes towards them, despite foam being sprayed all over the flame.
“Everypony back!” yells Rainbow Dash.
The group retreats further down the hall, and Rarity summons a pale blue translucent wall made of crystals that blocks the fire, bathing the group in a fix of orange, blue, red, and dark gray. The smoke and fire rolls against the shield cracking it, and Rarity grits her teeth and sends another burst of magic to create another shield layer.
The first layer shatters and flickers away, and the group steps back, stumbling when a PO-BOOM! rattles the hallway. The lights shut off, putting them with pitch black darkness on their backs and the glow of fire and magic to their fronts. Then, much to Fluttershy's surprise and worry, her hooves are lifted off the ground, like a piece of trash floating inside a tub of water. And while the others swear and yell, Fluttershy quietly grunts and paddles her hooves, trying to get back to the floor, but it is to no avail, and she squeaks when her back taps against the ceiling.
The alarm is still screeching, but it is considerably weaker now, and the fire rapidly dwindles as globs of foam from the ruptured pipes and canisters eat it up. Though, after a minute or two passes, Rarity's shield dissolves, leaving her panting and shaking while thick smoke flows into their area.
“The bomb worked too well, Thunderlane,” says Rainbow Dash, flicking her light on while twirling and grunting as she positions herself to look down the back end of the hallway.
“That should not have happened,” says Thunderlane, now upside down. “That thing in there must have busted a lot of pipes in order for this to happen.”
“An artificial gravity node was also destroyed. We'll be floating like this for a while,” says Rarity, her mouth hanging open and hoof pressed against her chest. She swallows hard and swipes her hoof aimlessly into the air, trying to grab anything while her eyes lose focus. “Do you think they have a gift shop nearby?”
Rainbow Dash rolls her eyes and air-swims ahead. “Now is not the time for gift shops.”
“I'm just curious...” says Rarity. “I need to get Sweetie Belle and my parents something... anything...”
Fluttershy scrunches her what's left of her brows, but the other two pegasi do not appear to see what she is seeing since they are air-swimming towards the chamber door with Rainbow Dash in the lead.
“W-w-w-w-AR-nnnnnnn-ING: H-l DAmagE - S-C-TIon-nn E-F-01. Hull at 20-3-222-1-1% eFF-cee. EVAC-tion highly ZIDE,” says a voice fuzzing in and out.
“We'll have to find another way to the bridge,” says Thunderlane. “This area can pop open any minute.”
“Well, as long as we have Rarity we should be able to find another route easily,” says Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy turns the rest of her body to Rarity and scans her with her Medical Assessment Device. The thin green lines move up and down and side to side on her, and when it is finished it displays Rarity's current condition.
SUBJECT: RARITY BELLE VITALS: UNHEALTHY >>>Heart Rate: 160 b/m >>>Bruised Bones: Scapula, L. Humerus, L. Radius, L. Femur, L. Tibia >>>Damaged Bone: Caudal Vertebrae, Sacral Vertebrae >>>Damaged Muscles: L. Coccygeus Muscle, Tail Depressor, L. Superficial Gluteal Muscle, L. Semitendinosous Muscle, L. Bicepts Femoris Muscle, L. Deltoideus Muscle, L. Triceps Muscle MEDICAL FOAM APPLIED FURTHER MEDICAL CARE NEEDED. REST ADVISED. VENTRICULAR FIBRILLATION IMMINENT.
Fluttershy uses the wall to push herself towards Rarity, and she puts her hoof on her shoulder and looks into her eye. However, Rarity's eyes do not meet hers; instead, they move side to side and the unicorn's hoof hooks on to Fluttershy's shoulder.
“Sweetie Belle likes music. She wants to be a musician,” says Rarity breathlessly. “Musicians travel and spread happiness. But she can't travel. Not with-with these things out here! They'll kill her!”
>>>Heart Rate: 165 b/m
“Rarity, relax,” says Fluttershy gently. “Your heart rate is getting high.”
“I want to go home,” whimpers Rarity. “I can't be here!”
>>>Heart Rate: 170 b/m
“It's going to be okay,” says Fluttershy. “You'll make it home, I promise.”
“NO! NONE OF THIS OKAY!” screams Rarity, tears flowing down her cheeks and floating up between her and Fluttershy. “H-HOW COULD WE HAVE MISSED SOMETHING LIKE THIS!?”
>>>Heart Rate: 175 b/m
“THEY HAD TO HAVE KNOWN THESE THINGS WERE ON ONYX! YOU CAN'T HIDE MONSTERS LIKE THESE!”
>>>Heart Rate: 180 b/m
Fluttershy pulls Rarity into her and gently shushes her, rubbing the back of her head and shoulder while she cries into her shoulder. Rarity's sobs float into the void with the blackened foam and rubble, and Fluttershy keeps her hold tight on Rarity as the two float in a circle. As much as Fluttershy wants to close her eye and focus just on calming Rarity down, she is too afraid to do so. She knows the moment she closes her eye out in the open is the moment that a Necromorph, or Mama, or the Pyro will get them, but she cannot leave Rarity either.
>>>Heart Rate: 175 b/m
As the two drift, Fluttershy notices Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane looking at them, both quiet while Rarity has not stopped whimpering and sniffling.
>>>Heart Rate: 170 b/m
Fluttershy's neck is wet from Rarity's tears, and tears of her own are flowing down her face and floating up. Rarity's grip on her becomes tighter, too, bringing her to wince from the pressure on the many cuts, bruises, and sprains on her body, but she is not complaining. Rarity needs her, and so does the rest of the team and Zephyr. She will make sure they all get off this ship and go home, one way or the other. She won’t let anyone else die.
Then comes a radio's crackle on everyone's equipment.
“Hello? Can anypony hear me?” asks a familiar voice on everyone's radio.
Fluttershy's ears perk, as does Rarity's, and Rainbow Dash floats paddles her way to the pair with Thunderlane close by.
“Tell me I'm not the only one who heard that!” says Rainbow Dash.
“Testing. Testing. One-two-three. Testing. Anypony responding will be greatly appreciated,” says Applejack.
Fluttershy and Rarity pull away, and the group crowds around Rainbow Dash as best as they can when she pulls up a holographic display of Applejack. The earth pony has her fair share of scratches and bruises, and her suit is damaged and crudely patched up, but behind her is a row of ships anchored to a dock with SECTION H painted in black behind her.
“AJ, we hear you loud and clear! Can you see us?” asks Rainbow Dash quickly.
“You're a little fuzzy and it looks like you're floating, but, yeah, I see ya,” says Applejack.
“Thunderlane broke an artificial gravity node.”
“Nice.”
“That wasn't my fault!” says Thunderlane defensively.
This brings the group to chuckle, but despite the good mood the group is now in Fluttershy still looks around, paranoid of Necromorphs floating in. Or worse. Honey Creme or the Pyro.
“So, where have you been hiding?” asks Rainbow Dash.
“I ain't been hiding. I've been trying to get a hold of y'all ever since we got separated! Them things are persistent, though. They've been chasing me nonstop and popping out of every nook and cranny,” says Applejack. Then she sees Fluttershy. “Damn, you've had a really bad day, haven't ya, sugar cube?”
Fluttershy shrugs. “It’s getting better.”
“That's good.”
“Listen, AJ, we're in Section E, and we're about to go to Section F to get an emergency extraction signal out,” says Rainbow Dash. “Is there a safe spot you can hold up at until we can get to you?”
“Hon, there ain't a safe spot anywhere on this forsaken ship. Hell, just a few minutes ago one of them monsters came out of a damn washing machine and tried cutting my head off!” says Applejack.
“The safest spot would be the bridge,” interjects Rarity, still rubbing her chest. “It has the thickest doors and automated security with its own talismans, and it will have access to everything we need to plan an escape or hold up until help arrives.”
“Also, it could tell us about that weird signal Captain Trotter told us to investigate,” adds Rainbow Dash.
“Or we can find Section 0 and go there,” suggests Thunderlane.
“Section what now?” asks Applejack.
“Forget about that,” says Rainbow Dash, casting Thunderlane a quick glare. “Just get to the bridge. We'll meet you there.”
“Gotcha.”
“Keep me posted, too. I want to know where you are every ten minutes, got it?” orders Rainbow Dash.
“Loud and clear.”
“Good. We'll see you then. Over and out.”
Applejack salutes, followed by her screen disappearing, leaving the group to float around, and feeling lighter than before despite the lack of gravity.
“Finally, some good news,” says Rarity.
“I can't believe she's alive, honestly,” says Thunderlane.
“Well, let’s not press our luck. We got a mission to finish, and the quicker we get the relay taken care of the quicker we can get the signal out and get to Applejack,” says Rainbow Dash. “So, let's get going. We're almost home!”
Author's Note
Soon the ponies will be going home and everything will be okay. There will be absolutely nothing terrible coming in the next chapter. Nothing at all.
On that note, I kinda rushed through this bit because I want to finally get to the communications relay. I mean, 13 chapters in and all that... Kinda got to get the speed up with the relay, the bridge, finding Zephyr, psychopath problems, Applejack stuff, Dr. Rock stuff, Marker issues, and Fluttershy ~~going insane~~ getting out of this mess unharmed. There is still a lot to do for this story, so I'm going to try to pick up the pace since I don't think you guys want to read a 100 chapter story... Or do you? 🤔
“Keep me posted, too. I want to know where you are every ten minutes, got it?” orders Rainbow Dash.
“Loud and clear,” says Applejack, her video feed flickering in and out for just a moment.
“Good. We'll see you at the bridge. Over and out.”
Applejack salutes and then her screen shrinks out of sight, leaving the group to float around and feeling lighter than before despite the lack of gravity. Well, everyone except for Fluttershy; an uneasy feeling has run up her spine when Applejack disappeared. She remembers seeing the Section H hangar in Mama's video logs, plus it was where Dr. Rock was when the cargo ship returned, and one of the deceased had an audio log about the same hangar.
Fluttershy shakes her head and is about to leave but stops when she hears a faint thud. She turns to the source and peers down the hallway, squinting her eye as the emergency lights flicker and a soft red glow appears from the far end around the corner.
“Fluttershy~” whispers a collection of voices.
An equine shaped shadow spreads on the wall with its hoof motioning her forward.
“Come here, Fluttershy~”
Fluttershy's eye widen and her limbs lock, making her float stiffly in the zero gravity. The red light glows and white hieroglyphs form on the walls, pulsing with her heartbeats.
“Return to us. Make us whole again,” says the voices.
A sudden piercing whistle right into her ear makes Fluttershy jump, and she looks to her side and sees Rainbow Dash next to her while the other two are clinging to the doorway at the end of the hall.
“Snap out of it, Fluttershy,” orders Rainbow Dash. “No craziness allowed.”
“That's funny coming from you,” mutters Fluttershy sourly as she gingerly rubs her ear.
“What?”
“Nothing.” Fluttershy briefly looks over her shoulder, seeing nothing but floating garbage and emergency lights. “Let's get going.”
“Leave the commands to me... Now, let's get going.”
Rainbow Dash swims ahead with Fluttershy in close pursuit, and after meeting up with Thunderlane and Rarity the group enters the chamber when the large blob of a Necromorph was. The chamber is pitch black, so the group must use the lights on their suits to illuminate small areas of the room. Their lights slide up and down and side to side as they float into the darkness, searching for anything that will want to kill them as well as the exit.
Finding the door is easy, though, since it is now a large hole of twisted metal that is surrounded by a ring of charred flesh. The group also finds chunks of cooked muscle and skin, and blobs of blood and foam floating around the chamber. The walls have been destroyed, the panels either smashed, blown clean off the walls or warped from fire. With many panels gone burnt wires, warped beams and broken pipes are exposed to the small circles of lights.
“Keep your eyes open,” orders Rainbow Dash.
The group floats through the debris, sweeping their lights, and Fluttershy turns her light to the ceiling, noting a destroyed vent, and even though nothing is inside she keeps her eye on it as long as possible, and is the last one to go through what is left of the doorway.
The group paddles their way down the hallway, passing thick strands of flesh covered in dark veins. Some of the strands have petrified faces, rib cages, or limbs fused to it, and what parts of the wall aren't covered are destroyed or barely lit from dying lights.
“This thing was growing,” says Rarity, shining her light on a face that had its flesh stretched to the point where its bone is exposed and its eyes have shriveled away. “It looks like it was absorbing bodies.”
“Glad Thunderlane's bomb killed it,” says Rainbow Dash.
“Me, too,” says Thunderlane.
Fluttershy shines her light on a strand of flesh attached to the ceiling and sees a twitching pegasus wing hanging down. She keeps her light on it, trying to make out the color, but it has been grayed and is now flaking. She then turns her light to the side and sees a double helix painted on the wall in blood. Beneath it is: Welcome Home, Fluttershy.
Fluttershy tilts her head and floats towards the message, extending her hoof when she is close enough.
“Hey!” barks Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy's heart jumps and she looks at Rainbow Dash, who is waving at her from down the hall.
“Haul tail!” orders Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy looks back at the wall and sees just the double helix, and with that she shakes her head and goes to the group. After getting back with them, they continue down the hallway in silence with luckily no trouble. It would be a dull walk if they had not been going through Hell, but they are too tense to be bored.
A few minutes of traveling later, and the group reaches a large door with “COMMUNICATIONS ROOM” above it. There is a red holographic circle being projected in front of the door, and Rarity plugs in her hoof computer to a port on the wall. Once plugged in she types a few quick commands and the light changes from red to green; after that the door slides open and Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane slide in giving quick sweeps while Fluttershy keeps her focus on the dark hallway.
“Clear!” says Thunderlane.
“Let's go, Fluttershy,” says Rarity.
Fluttershy nods and enters the large, circular chamber after Rarity goes in and closes the door as soon as she is inside. After the door closes, Rarity locks it and Fluttershy does a quick scan of the area with her cutter while Thunderlane checks a locked door at the far end that is labeled as “AIRLOCK” .
The three red guiding lines of Fluttershy's cutter slide across the chamber's curved walls, passing over blank computer screens, railings, pipes, and steel beams. Blood, scratches, bullet holes and floating garbage desecrate the scenery, and when Fluttershy turns her focus up she sees a vent network following the circular design of the room with all the vent coverings floating in the zero gravity. There is also an audio disc floating with some garbage, which Fluttershy quickly takes and plugs in.
The audio crackles to life, and for once there isn't the sound of chaos and death and gunfire. There is angry chatter and multiple clicks and clacks of weapons being loaded and an indistinct chanting in the background.
“Arcos Hieroglyph and Star Tracker. Remember those names. Arcos Hieroglyph and Star Tracker,” says a stallion. “I don't care who finds this, who hears this, as long as they spread the word of what happened here. I want the worlds to know that Arcos Hieroglyph and Star Tracker are behind this massacre. Whatever happened on Onyx, they brought on the Bon Voyage, knowingly and willingly exposing us to this hostile alien lifeform.”
“Sir, we're ready to go,” says a mare.
“Everypony?”
“Everypony and everybody.”
“Good. Reverend Heart, are you ready?”
“I have no choice but to be,” says a familiar stallion; his voice is shaky and pathetic, but familiar, nonetheless.
“This is Dr. Inkwell Lexicon, and we're going to kill Captain Star Tracker, Arcos Hieroglyph and every Unitologist on this ship. If we're going to die, we're taking the ones responsible with us.”
The audio ends, and Fluttershy rewinds it a few seconds back.
“I have no choice but to be,” says the familiar stallion.
Rewind.
“I have no choice but to be.”
Fluttershy frowns and brushes her bandages over her eye, feeling a slight pinch of pain when her hoof presses against her covered injury, and feeling sick when she feels the dip where her eye was before the Pyro burned it out.
After feeling her injury, Fluttershy turns off the audio and looks at the center of the room to watch Rarity examine a massive pillar surrounded by a ring of blank screen computers, all connected to it by tubes of wires. The pillar appears to be made of blocks surrounding a tube, and all the blocks have small dim lights and screens on them. There is also a holographic projector on a raised platform near the computers, an airlock with a green light at the far end, and a large portion of the ceiling is made of thick glass to give a view of space and a relay tower with a large satellite dish.
Fluttershy looks at Rarity again, and watches as she uses her tools to carefully unscrew panels of the cubes surrounding the cylinder, and she inspect their interior for a near minute before resealing them. This method brings Rainbow Dash to roll her eyes impatiently while Thunderlane shifts his attention to the door they went through, and Fluttershy returns to scanning the area, thankfully seeing nothing different. The group remains quiet, though. No one tries to say anything or tries to look at each other, and frankly Fluttershy is glad no one is talking. It makes it easier for her to listen for trouble, to ponder why Arcos Hieroglyph and Captain Star Tracker brought this carnage to the Bon Voyage, and where Zephyr can be.
“I hate to say this, but I will have to go outside and fix the relay,” says Rarity suddenly.
Fluttershy turns her attention to Rarity and sees Rainbow Dash not too far from her, giving her an odd look.
“Can you even do that?” asks Rainbow Dash.
Rarity glares at Rainbow Dash, and the commander's odd expression shifts to match the glare.
“It won't be as well as Applejack's repairs, but it will still be enough to get a signal out,” says Rarity.
“Maybe I should go out there instead,” says Thunderlane, floating towards the two mares.
Rarity snaps to him. “Why?”
“Well, you're injured-”
“Aren't we all?”
“And you had a breakdown earlier.”
Rarity rolls her eyes and looks at Fluttershy.
“What do you have to say?” asks Rarity.
Fluttershy hesitates. “I don't think you should be out there.”
Rarity huffs and Rainbow Dash waves her hoof rapidly.
“Okay, hold on. Hold on! Why are you asking what others think? It is my job to give out orders!” says Rainbow Dash. “Can you get the relay fixed? Yes or no?”
“Yes,” stresses Rarity. “I said that a minute ago.”
“Good. Then put on a suit and do it. End of discussion.”
Rarity nods and pedals her way to the door but stops when Fluttershy gets in front of her and gently pushes her back while giving Rainbow Dash a condemning look.
“She can't go out there! Her heart is bad!” says Fluttershy.
“Uh, no it isn't. If she had a bad heart she wouldn't be in the services. She'd be doing something else, like dress making or selling makeup.”
“But-”
“What you saw earlier was her having a panic attack. She's fine, now.” Rainbow Dash looks at Rarity. “Right?”
Rarity nods.
“Good.” Rainbow Dash looks at Fluttershy. “See? She's fine now.”
“She almost had a stressed induced heart attack!”
“Is that true?” asks Thunderlane, looking at Rarity with wide eyes.
“She's exaggerating. I just had a panic attack earlier. I'm fine now,” says Rarity.
“You're not going out there,” says Fluttershy.
“Rarity is the only one who can fix the relay!” yells Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy narrows her eye, floats to Rainbow Dash, and pokes her in the chest.
“Do you want her to get hurt?” says Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash slaps her hoof away. “I want us all out of here and the only way to do that is to get a signal out, which she can do!”
“What if I go and Rarity just gives me instructions?” suggests Thunderlane.
Rainbow Dash groans and slams her face in her hoof. “What the hell is wrong with you two?”
“What the hell is wrong with you?” says Thunderlane. “You're being stupid, right now!”
“Fuck you! I'm in charge!”
“Rarity can't go out there!” says Fluttershy.
“Fuck you, too,” snaps Rainbow Dash. “We have a mission to do and she's playing her part.”
“Look, there has to be another way to fix whatever is wrong with the relay without sending her out there,” says Thunderlane. “Besides, we need Rarity to figure out what that weird signal is, too.”
CLI-BANG!
All three pegasi look across the chamber and see the airlock door now has a red circle projected in front of it with a message displayed above it.
WARNING: EXTERIOR MAINTENANCE IN PROGRESS
The three rush to the door, pedaling as fast as they can in the zero gravity, and when they reach the door Fluttershy presses her Master Key Band against the door's lock, but an error message appears.
“What? No! It’s not working!”
Fluttershy tries again and when the same message appears, Thunderlane bangs on the door and activates his radio.
“Rarity, what are you doing? Get out of there!” says Thunderlane.
A small orb hanging near the door flashes on and a video projection of Rarity appears. Her hoof is pulling away from the camera and she is using her magic to levitate a thick, white space suit and helmet designed to fit on a unicorn's head. Her eyes shine in the dim light and her body trembles as she wiggles out of her standard uniform to make way for the space suit.
“I'm sorry, but I have to do this,” says Rarity. “The outer relay is something we cannot leave to chance, especially to a non-magical creature with no training on the technology. No offense, Thunderlane.”
“Get back in here! There has to be something else we can do!” says Thunderlane.
“No, this is the most efficient way to get it done,” says Rarity. “The inner relay is fine, but there is something wrong with the outer one, which is why I need to go outside. There is no other way to inspect it.”
“At least let me put on a suit to be out there with you,” says Fluttershy. “If you have another attack-”
“You can't come out here. There are no pegasus suits.” Rarity slips on the space suit with the help of her magic and offers them an uneasy smile when she brings the helmet next to her head. “Wish me luck.”
Rarity then shuts off her end and the orb turns off, and Thunderlane bangs on the door and tries to open, but to no avail. When it doesn’t open, he screams, punches the door and paces in circles while Rainbow Dash stares at the door with a slight tremble in her posture.
A near minute later and a screeching alarm sounds with red lights swirling above the door while a loud grinding and popping noise comes from behind the door. The three back away, watching the door in total silence, and several seconds later, the alarm stops, but the red lights keep turning, and Fluttershy looks up at the observation window, feeling just a little bit sick watching the relay tower stretch into the darkness of space. A minute later, Rarity appears in her white space suit with a large air pack on her back, the toolbox attached to the suit's saddle, her weapon clipped to her side, and a cord keeping her tethered to the ship.
“There she is,” says Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash sighs with relief and activates her radio.
“Rarity, talk to me. What do you see?” says Rainbow Dash, motioning Thunderlane and Fluttershy to keep an eye on the area.
The two reluctantly comply with the silent command and scan the chamber with their weapons. The steel beams cast large patches of darkness all over the chamber, and floating garbage glides past their eyes, but so far there are no signs of any Necromorphs, which lifts a little bit of weight from Fluttershy.
“The relay has been sabotaged, I'm sure of it,” says Rarity.
“What do you mean?” asks Rainbow Dash. “What wrong with it?”
Fluttershy risks looking out the observation window and sees Rarity holding on to a piece of the relay.
“There's clean cuts in the wires, and some circuit boards and gems have been disconnected, but these are easy fixes. The saboteur did a really bad job at sabotaging this,” says Rarity. “I should have all of this fixed enough to get a signal out in a few minutes.”
“Good. Keep me posted,” says Rainbow Dash. She clicks off her radio and looks at Fluttershy. “You're supposed to be watching the perimeter.”
Fluttershy quickly turns away from Rainbow Dash and scans the area again, still not seeing anything. This goes on for some time, and if the situation had been the exact opposite Fluttershy would have loved the quietness. There is no shooting, no screams, no terrible monsters trying to rip her into pieces; it is just her, the other two, and the gentle hums and blinking lights. The sky is also great to look at, with the tiny lights dotting the blackness, a blackness that is split down the middle by a thick stripe of light brown and dark purple dust that has its own collection of glowing dots.
So calming.
So peaceful.
Yet, Fluttershy wonders if there are more of these Necromorphs hiding in their galaxy. If there are more then, they are fucked. If not, then maybe they can contain them. Provided that the group survives to tell the UEG what happened on the Bon Voyage and Onyx.
Fluttershy sighs quietly and warily looks at one of the vents in the room, wondering if a Necromoprh or Mama or the Pyro is watching them. She is also wondering if Zephyr has been using the vents to travel.
“Thunderlane, dear, you're closest to the pillar. Can you do me a favor?” asks Rarity over the radio.
Fluttershy looks up and sees Rarity guiding plating back in place with her magic, and the relay tower and its satellite is slowly flashing red. Thunderlane, meanwhile looks at Rarity as he floats his way to the interior tower.
“What do you need me to do?” asks Thunderlane.
“I need you to flip the power switch. It is a large lever that is at the base of the relay pillar,” says Rarity.
Thunderlane nods, and after a few seconds of searching he finds a large lever at the bottom of the pillar. He grips it with his hooves and pushes it, but it remains in place. He grunts and puts all of his weight against it, and right before Fluttershy moves to help him, the lever snaps up with a bright spark and a loud clang. What follows is a series of hums and lights flickering to life.
The lights go from red, to yellow, to blue, to green, and all of them flash on with the ring of computer screens snapping to life as well as a holographic display of a blank map of the Peace System with a loading bar underneath. The hologram flickers for a moment, but soon enough the image stabilizes, and the loading bar disappears, followed by names appearing and the celestial bodies getting some color.
In the center is a red star marked as: Peace
Next to it is: Onyx (Peace I)
Beyond it is another planet marked: Peace II
And the last planet in the system is: Peace III
Thunderlane pushes himself back and wipes his mane.
“I got it. Now what?” says Thunderlane.
“Very good,” says Rarity over the radio, short of breath. “Everything is green up here, except for one thing... The rotatory platform is not moving. I'll have to manually turn it... Fluttershy, go to the main computer, it should be marked with a '01', and let me know when you see an antennae icon appear.”
Fluttershy floats down to the designated computer, and after grabbing the railing to its platform she pulls herself in and looks out the observation window. She can still Rarity's white space suit floating in the black expanse with the dark red light of the sun and planet behind her, and she is moving fine with the safety cord holding strong.
It takes a few seconds for Rarity to position herself at the base of the relay, and she uses her magic to guide her tool to unscrewing the covering, which exposes a network of gears and one large crank. Fluttershy can hear Rarity's heavy and shaky breathing through her radio, and that alone brings her heart to rise to her throat, and her ears droop when she sees Rarity using both magic and physical strength to turn the crank, leading to the gears and the satellite to slowly turn.
“Rarity, how is your chest? Is it hurting?” asks Fluttershy.
“Worry about the computer screen, darling,” orders Rarity.
Fluttershy looks at the screen, and her ears perk when she sees two antennae icons appear in the corner.
“Rarity, I got something! Two antennae icons!” says Fluttershy.
“Good... Good... Sweetie Belle likes music... Mom likes baking... Dad likes hoofball... Sweetie Belle likes music. Mom likes baking. Dad likes hoofball. Sweetie Belle likes music. Mom likes baking. Dad likes hoofball. Sweetie Belle likes music. Mom likes baking. Dad likes hoofball,” chants Rarity.
“What’s she doing? Why is talking like that?” asks Thunderlane.
“Rarity, focus,” says Fluttershy. “Tell me what to do next.”
“Sweetie Belle likes music. Mom likes baking. Dad likes hoofball. Sweetie Belle likes music. Mom likes baking. Dad likes hoofball.”
Fluttershy looks out the observation window and sees Rarity leaning against the crank while rubbing her chest. “Rarity, get back inside!”
“Sweetie Belle likes music. Mom likes baking. Dad likes hoofball. Sweetie Belle likes music. Mom likes baking. Dad likes hoofball.”
Rainbow Dash floats next to Fluttershy, scowling and pressing her headset while her free hoof taps on the computer screen, bringing up a keyboard display.
“Hey, Rarity, get back inside. We got signal locks!” says Rainbow Dash as she types in commands.
“Sweetie Belle likes music. Mom likes baking. Dad likes hoofball. Sweetie Belle likes music. Mom likes baking. Dad likes hoofball,” continues Rarity.
Fluttershy pulls away from the computer and floats towards their entrance, kicking in the zero gravity as fast as she can to get her to move faster.
“Fluttershy, get Rarity back inside!” orders Rainbow Dash. “Use whatever suit you can!”
“Sweetie Belle likes music. Mom likes baking. Dad likes hoofball. Sweetie Belle likes music. Mom likes baking. Dad likes hoofball,”
Fluttershy is about to leave, but she freezes and her eye widens as she looks past Rainbow Dash, watching as a Leaper crawls on the side of the relay, towards Rarity.
“Oh no... Rarity, get out of there now!” yells Fluttershy into her radio.
Rainbow Dash looks up and she swears, as does Thunderlane, and she presses her headset.
“Rarity, get out of there right now! That's an order!” barks Rainbow Dash. “MOVE IT, RARITY!”
“Sweetie Belle likes music-” Rarity's chanting is cut off with a bloodcurdling scream, and Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy watch helplessly as the Leaper latches on to Rarity, tearing and biting into her suit, ripping off pieces of her body and fabric at a time. Jets of air and blood spray from her tanks and body, and her safety cord snaps, sending her twirling into space with the Leaper on her, still biting and stabbing and slashing at her as her screams and sobs pierce the group's ears.
And then her radio cuts off, leaving the three quiet and still in the chamber as they watch her disappear into the void, with the only trace of her existence being her tools and bits of bloody flesh floating around.
“No,” whispers Rainbow Dash. “No, no no no no no no no! This can't be happening!”
Fluttershy clutches her head, whimpering and gritting her teeth, unable to open her eye as she floats around, and Thunderlane bangs his head against the wall.
“DAMN IT! I HATE THIS SHIP!” screams Rainbow Dash. She punches the pillar. And then she punches it again. And again, and again and again and again, screaming and wailing as the punches leave little dents in the shell. She screams one last time before giving it a final punch that creates a thundering echo, and her armored hoof slides away as she looks at the collection of dents with tears soaking her face and her dim eyes. “Are you happy, now? Is this what you wanted?”
Fluttershy looks up, but can't find the strength to speak, and she watches Rainbow Dash as her wings twitch and her head tilt to the side, not looking at anyone in particular.
“I'm going to kill you,” says Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy reaches for her cutter, and Thunderlane looks at Rainbow Dash, his wet golden eyes narrowed and nostrils flaring with his weapon trailing his commander while she shakes her head and guides herself to the computer.
“I'm going to find a way to kill you and I'll make your death as painful as possible,” mutters Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy keeps her hoof on her cutter and carefully watches her partners. Thunderlane is still glaring at Rainbow Dash, and she is finishing typing in the commands on the computer. Once the command is finished a menu opens and Rainbow Dash clicks on a button that brings up a microphone icon.
Rainbow Dash wipes her eyes and taps the icon, making it beep and flash green. “Mayday, mayday, mayday. Any available UEG military craft. This is UEG Bon Voyage needing immediate emergency evac. Location: System Peace, Planet: Onyx, Coordinates: +45 North, -20 West. Bring lots of guns and aid. Over and out.”
Rainbow Dash taps the icon, and after it flashes red, she types in another command and the computer beeps.
“Message sent.” Rainbow Dash's message replays, and when it ends there is another beep. “Message repeats.”
Rainbow Dash sniffles again and lowers her head as her message loops. Soon Rainbow Dash starts trembling and her hoofs grip the computer with tears floating around her as Fluttershy watches her in silence.
“I'm sorry,” says Rainbow Dash, keeping her back to the other two. “That should not have happened. None of this should have happened. I failed everypony.”
“Yeah… You did,” says Thunderlane.
Rainbow Dash sniffles and looks at Thunderlane, and her eyes drift to his gun before she looks him in the eyes.
“Are you going to shoot me?” asks Rainbow Dash.
“I want to,” says Thunderlane, his eyes bloodshot, cheeks wet with tears, and his wings twitching.
“I don’t blame you.”
Fluttershy steps between the two. “Please, we can’t do this. The message was sent. We can still get off this ship.”
“We’re not getting out of here,” says Thunderlane. “We’re all going to die here.”
“No, we can still make it,” says Rainbow Dash. “I sent the distress signal. We just have to hold on a little bit longer. We can hold out on the bridge, and when we get off this forsaken ship, we can get to the bottom of this! Rarity Belle, Roid Rage Snowflake, Moonlight Aura, Comet Tail, Hothoof Trotter, Red Joystick, Gage Meter… There’ll be justice for them. I promise.”
Thunderlane exhales and turns away Rainbow Dash, the commander looks at Fluttershy with a shake in her body.
“You’re still with me, right?” asks Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy nods, but she also has a sharp tingle running up her spine, which brings her to nervously look around the chamber. The more her eyes dart to the shadows the tighter her throat becomes and the more her hoof twitches, wanting oh so much to squeeze her cutter's trigger. She can hear Rainbow Dash saying something else, but her voice is faint background noise for Fluttershy as she watches a shadowy figure creep along the ceiling, using the support beams like a spider on a web, and it stops when it is almost directly above the group.
Fluttershy hears Thunderlane, now, but he and Dash's voices are a jumble of incoherent words while her heartbeats and breaths are loud in her ears. She aims her cutter at the figure, and a light glow emits from it, illuminating a pair of blue eyes, a bloody blue jumpsuit, and a clumpy gray mane. As well as a bloody circular saw. Fluttershy's eye widens and the saw revs to life, bringing the other two to snap to Mama.
“Oh fuck!” yells Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash aims her weapon at Mama, as does Thunderlane, and as soon as Fluttershy shoots at her the others do the same. The cutter beams and bullets shatter and bounce harmlessly off of rippling energy field of red and green, and the ricocheting projectiles bounce off of the walls and crack the observation window, leading to red lights flashing and a warning alarm sounding. While they shoot at her, Mama's shrieks echo in the chamber and she fires a swirling red and green beam at the group, forcing them to jump away. The beam hits the computer console, blowing out its screen and flinging sparks and burnt computer pieces twirling in the zero gravity chamber. The group spins around, grunting and swearing as they try to straighten themselves out from their bouncing, all while Mama effortlessly launches herself from the ceiling, cackling, and revving her saw again.
“I'll make you whole again, Starry!” yells Mama.
Fluttershy growls and hooks her hoof on a metal beam, and after pulling herself into position she keeps her body pressed against the beam and shoots another volley of cutter energy at Mama. The red cutter beams streak past the unicorn, leaving glowing lines of hot metal where they impacted, and more bullets ricochet around the chamber, sending out dozens of sparks at a time while cracks grow in the window.
“WARNING: Observation window damaged. Please evacuate in an orderly fashion,” says the computer.
“You want me? Here I am!” yells Rainbow Dash as she hops after Mama, still shooting madly.
“Rainbow, we need to retreat!” shouts Thunderlane.
Mama leaps towards another metal beam, turns herself upside down, and grins at Rainbow Dash as her hoofs latch on to the metal ridges. Her grin widens and her pupils shrink as she revs her saw, and Fluttershy's eye snaps between the two mares as she tenses her body as well.
“COME ON! HERE I AM!” yells Rainbow Dash. “COME GET ME!”
Mama curls her body, and then launches herself at Rainbow Dash. As this happens, Fluttershy rockets herself off her perch and rams Mama, sending them spinning in the weightless room. They bounce off the metal walls, and Mama kicks Fluttershy away, sending her flipping backwards into a doorway and hitting her head on the frame. A sharp pain explodes along her skull and a ringing blocks out all noise as her vision blurs. Fluttershy holds her head, wincing as she twirls with circles of blood floating with her clumpy mane, and her eye struggles to focus on Thunderlane and Rainbow Dash as they continue shooting at Mama. Despite their best efforts, their bullets still bounce harmlessly off of the shield surrounding the psycho, leading to ripples of red and green energy, and after the ripples clear, Mama launches a saw blade at Rainbow Dash, forcing her to jump out of the way. The sharp blade zips past Rainbow Dash, and she retaliates by shooting at Mama again, but after a few bursts her weapon clicks, and her magazine falls out.
“Son of a-” grumbles Rainbow Dash.
She reaches into her saddle to grab a fresh magazine, and Mama giggles as she slips another saw blade into her weapon. The two slip in their fresh ammo at the same time, and Mama revs her saw and bounces towards Rainbow Dash, grinning madly and body trembling from her chuckles. Rainbow Dash braces herself, wings at full mast and weapon aimed right at her, but before she can shoot, Thunderlane pushes her out of the way, leading Mama to bringing her saw against him. Her cackles turn to shrilling laughter and Thunderlane's pained screams are crisp and clear in Fluttershy's ears, and with a new burst of rage fueled energy, Fluttershy leaps from the doorway and uses the zero gravity to make large jumps towards Mama, with every bounce dragging her deeper into red vision.
As Fluttershy rushes towards Mama, the demented unicorn keeps Thunderlane pinned, cackling as sparks and blood fly from her saw blade digging into Thunderlane's hoof. She pushes down on him and his hoof buckles with flesh, bone, metal, and cloth popping up and off, and when his hoof snaps off, Fluttershy roars and rams Mama. The unicorn loses her grip on her saw and the two cling to each other, spinning and bouncing off of the metal walls as Thunderlane screams with a cloud of blood surrounding his pale and shaking form.
Rainbow Dash appears by Thunderlane's side leaving a rainbow trail in her wake, and Fluttershy snarls viciously as she delivers punch after punch to Mama's face. Thick clumps of blood flows from the unicorn's maw and around her eye and flashes of pain hit Fluttershy from shoulder to back and head to hips as the two ricochet inside the chamber.
When they are in the center of the room, Mama shoots Fluttershy's chest with an energy blast of swirling red and green magic. The hit pushes the air out of Fluttershy's lungs, and everything is pulled away from her as she flies backwards. She passes through a pale blue barrier and all the lost weight returns, bringing her to a hard and fast crash on the floor. The momentum of her landing causes Fluttershy to bounce and skid across the floor, leaving a trail of feathers and dots of blood, and when she stops she gets up on wobbly legs, only to be blasted in the chest again by another one of Mama's beams. The attack sends her crashing into a display at the edge of the hallway, and she momentarily loses focus as glass and sparks cover her while a hot jolt surges through her body, leading her to collapse as a heap on the cold metal floor.
Fluttershy's heart shakes her ribs as it beats rapidly in her chest, and she wheezes and gulps for air as her hoof scrapes against the floor. The walls pulse with hieroglyphs fading in and out, and at the end of the hall where the barrier is, the Frail Stallion approaches with heavy steps and his eyes focused on her.
“We only want what is best for you,” says a soft spoken stallion.
“Please don't be mad,” says an equally soft mare.
“But that was my dream,” says Fluttershy.
“You can have a better one with us,” says the stallion.
The Frail Stallion stops in front of Fluttershy and she looks at him, trembling with her lone blue eye tainted with streaks of red and yellow, and a black bag underneath it. Her burnt and sweaty mane partially covers her face, and she growls through her gritted teeth as she tries to stand, but her limbs feel like stone and her hide feels like it has hardened and is cracking with hot streaks of pain as she flexes her muscles.
The Frail Stallion then extends his hoof to Fluttershy, and she gasps and kicks her legs as she is levitated off the ground with tendrils made of red and green mist wrapped around her throat. Soon her hind legs are dangling inches off of the ground, and Fluttershy gags and gasps for air as she looks down into the pulsing red and green eyes of Mama, whose bruised face and neck is soaked in blood, just like the front of her jumpsuit.
Mama grins at Fluttershy with the tendril's colors matching the bubbly aura around her horn, and behind her the faint blue barrier flickers with an emergency message and a yellow triangle being projected on it.
“Troublemaker~ Troublemaker~ Troublemaker~” coos Mama. “Troublemaker doesn't want us whole.”
Fluttershy gags and kicks her legs while her other hoofs claw uselessly at the tendril, and her eye rolls back while her lungs burn, and her breathing becomes shallow. As this happens, Mama giggles and levitates a circular saw blade from her saddle. She presses the toothed blade against Fluttershy's throat, and Fluttershy kicks become more frantic; but her hoofs are barely out of reach of Mama.
“But she won't stop us. Starry will be whole again,” says Mama.
And then she slashes Fluttershy's throat.
Author's Note
So, I hate this chapter. I just had the hardest time with this thing. It was a serious pain in the butt writing it from the beginning; nothing just seemed to work, and count in what has been going on all month outside of this and it has been amazingly annoying. Oh well, its done and done, and I think we can all agree that a little blood loss never hurt anybody. So stay tuned for the next chapter of Fluttershy's happy space travels. Hopefully it'll be better than this thing.
“We will be whole again,” says Mama.
And then with one swift flick the saw blade rips through Fluttershy's throat, slicing clean through her esophagus. Blood gushes out and Mama drops Fluttershy, giggling as she watches Fluttershy clutch her neck, coughing blood with more pouring past the hoof she is pressing against her wound. Mama then pats Fluttershy on the head and skips away with the saw bloody blade still in her grip.
“Twinkle, twinkle little star~ how I wonder what you are~” sings Mama.
Fluttershy's vision dims and she whimpers as she watches Mama slip past the blue barrier leading to the communications chamber. There are no words for Fluttershy's thoughts when Mama is out of sight, only a drive to survive. She came this far, and Zephyr still needs her. She will not die.
Fluttershy presses her hoof harder against her wound, coughing a glob of red and yellow blood that soaks her maw as her other hoof shakily grabs her cutter.
'I will not die.'
Fluttershy aims the cutter at the wall.
Her hoof trembles to where she can barely hold it, and a coldness is spreading through her while the darkness pulls her in.
'I will not die!'
Fluttershy shoots the wall. The three little red lasers puncture the wall with ease, leaving a thin red line, but she does not stop there. She shoots the wall again, and again and again and again and again! Soon a section of the wall is glowing red with pieces falling off, and Fluttershy keeps shooting until her energy cutter clicks, leaving a gaping hole in the wall with sparking wires and now destroyed support beams exposed. Heat radiates from the cutter's red hot prongs with the center glowing a particularly bright red, and with the heat comes a red haze. But Fluttershy does not hesitate to press the prongs of the cutter against her wound.
Blood sizzles, skin and flesh cook, and fiery pain rushes from her throat to her head, chest, and shoulders. Her hoof goes numb and Fluttershy turns on her back, clutching her neck with the cutter by her side, her coughs scratchy and her eye squeezed shut as a thick tears flow down her cheek, cleaning the blood from her face. Her hind legs kick against the wall, making loud bangs with every hit and bringing flashes of pain to her hooves as her wheezing cries are barely able to leave her lips. Then she goes still and like a puppet without a string her hoofs flop and her wet and bloodshot eye stares at the weak light in the ceiling. Her heart barely pumps, her body is cold, and her chest barely moves with her raspy breaths.
To breathe hurts her throat.
To cough hurts her throat.
Just trying to move hurts her back and legs.
Even the little shivers hurt her whole body.
All there is, is pain.
And she lays there, near motionless, unable to think about anything. She really wants to move, but her body has decided that it would rather lay in her blood in the open of a hostile environment rather than move somewhere safe. Hell, even crawling into a closet would be preferable to laying in the middle of the hallway. And not only that, but she must get back to Rainbow Dash and treat Thunderlane on top of saving Zephyr and getting to the bridge.
She needs to move, but she can't.
Fluttershy's eyes drift shut, closing the darkness in around her, and when she is completely encased in the void her eyes snap open again to a room full of color and life, with her laying on a wooden floor. The walls are wood, the light above is from a chandelier with leafy patterns on its branches. Birds are chirping outside, and the green curtains are pulled aside to show a world outside a clean window. A world of rolling hills, the orange light of a rising sun and dark orange clouds parting ways. Though, they look like someone took a picture and put it behind a fake window with a light behind the picture to give it a glow.
Fluttershy rolls to her hoofs and takes a step towards the window, feeling no pain at all. Even both of her wings flap and Fluttershy brushes her hoof along her face, feeling no scabs or bandages. Her hoof drops and she looks around the room, spotting the perfectly made bed, the bookcase full of books with a few double helix figurines, and on the wall next to a wooden door is a golden framed picture of a unicorn mare. She has a white mane, brown coat and is wearing a dark purple robe with gold bands that have an intricate pattern of circles and lines, also dark purple. The mare's stature is regal, and below the picture is: Our Prophet. Our Martyr. Sovia Be Praised!
Fluttershy stares at the picture, her heart stopping and her chest freezing at the picture. Then the door clicks and opens, revealing that the wood is just an outer layer, for past the wood is a thick slab of metal with three rods that have slid inside. Outside the room is a black mass of a figure, a griffin judging by their structure, and behind them is a message on a metal wall that is lit up by a single bright light in a dark hallway.
The Marker Will Set You Free!
“It is time to clean your soul,” says the black mass, the voice being male. The mass holds out its talons. “Salvation awaits.”
Fluttershy wants to say no, but her legs move on their own and her tongue refuses to move. Once she is outside, she feels all her weight disappear, and she begins floating up, seeing more of the same messages under the same lights outside of more doors. Then her head taps the ceiling and she finds herself floating in the hallway of the Bon Voyage, the pain is back in full force, garbage is floating around her, and the lights are flickering with the communications pillar in the chamber just barely in her sights.
The pillar's lights blink out of sync with the swirling red lights, and the buzzing alarms hurt Fluttershy's ears. She pedals her hoofs in the zero gravity, wincing as each move feels like a tear in her muscles and a crack in her bones, but when she is almost at the hallway entrance the loud sliding and clanging of metal brings her to stop.
Then a thick jet of fire surges across the room and crashes against the pillar, circling in orange and red hellish fire. The lights and monitors crackle and pop and flicker, and the fire moves up the pillar's length eating it away as it climbs towards the ceiling.
Fluttershy's jaw drops and her eye trails the fire, filling with tears as sparks pop out and pieces of the metal peel off. The holographic projector of the Peace System disappears, and the ring of computer monitors snap off at once, and large cracks appear on the observation window as the fire touches it.
“WARNING! INTEGRITY FAILURE! ALL PERSONNEL EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!”
Fluttershy turns around and pedals as fast as she can towards the blue barrier, her teeth grinding against each other and tears fogging her vision. When she passes the barrier, she crashes on the floor and limps towards the next section of the hallway, heart racing as she sees the warning lights swirl above it. A door begins sliding out of cover, and Fluttershy makes a raspy scream and jumps into the next section, rolling across the floor upon landing and looking over her shoulder to watch as the door closes off the chamber, sealing the pillar to be consumed by the inferno. Once the door closes with a loud bang there is a loud pop on the other side with shattering glass and a brief howl of rushing wind...
And then silence.
The door flashes red and a holographic display appears with the oxygen symbol inside a crossed out circle. Seeing that, Fluttershy's lips tremble and she pushes herself against the wall, covering her mouth with her hoof as tears pour down her cheek. Her chest heaves painfully and her shoulders buckle as raspy whimpers leave her throat. Then she collapses to the ground, curls up and buries her face in her bloody hoofs with her tail curled against her, her destroyed mane covering her mauled face, and her limp wings unable to shield her.
Her weak whimpers turn to quiet weeping, and soon her weeping to a scratchy wail and she bangs her hoof on the floor. She bangs her hoof on the floor again and then presses her hooves against her skull, her one eye wide and staring ahead at the broken display she hit and the puddle of her tainted blood below it, and she screams again, tasting iron on her tongue.
Her throat feels like it is tearing open as she cries, and she pushes herself against the wall, rocking herself back and forth. The lights around her flicker and dim, and across the hallway, a shadow spreads on the wall. The shadow's blood stretches, forming curving appendages from its back and a long head, and when the source rounds the corner it turns out to be a Slasher.
Fluttershy's crying drops to sniffles, and the Slasher looks at her, its lower jaw missing and its long tongue hanging down, and its scythe limbs swing madly as it rushes towards Fluttershy.
Fluttershy grabs her cutter and fumbles with her pack to grab a new battery, and right as the Slasher is about to reach her, she extends her hoof to use her Stasis Module, but nothing happens. The band is completely dim, and her bloodshot eye widens.
Then a loud bang echoes down the hall and one of the scythes of the Slasher flies off. This is followed by another bang and the other scythe flies off, spraying the wall and floor with squirting blood, and as the Slasher staggers around another shot blows off a piece of its face, and another pulverizes its leg. The Slasher collapses with bits of bone and shredded flesh around it, and it begins crawling towards the shooter, who quickly finishes it off with two more shots directed to its head and chest, leaving it as a twitching husk of torn rotten meat on the ground, swimming in a puddle of rust covered blood.
Fluttershy stares at the dead Slasher, her hoof barely able to hold her cutter as she puts a new battery in it, and she lifts her eyes to the shooter when they approach her with careful steps. When the shooter is only a few steps away, he stops and the two stare at each other in silence, and the shooter levels his shotgun at her.
“Are you real?” asks Slingshot.
Fluttershy nods. “I am...” She lowers her cutter and extends her shaky hoof to him, sniffling and blinking tears away. “Help me... Please...”
Slingshot keeps his shotgun trained on her for a few seconds before he sighs, puts his shotgun in his saddle and approaches her. Fluttershy watches him warily, and he looks down at her, silently inspecting her before he gently grabs her, puts her on his back and carries her away from the door.
Author's Note
I will not die~ (I will not die~) I will survive! I will not die, I'll wait here for you I feel alive when you're beside me I will not die, I'll wait here for you! In my time of dying!
So, this was a small chapter. Very small. Very short. The shortest actually (by 14 words), and I was originally going to have this longer, but I liked how it ended and decided to put what was going to happen next in the following chapter. So the next chapter will be longer and have a lot of stuff going on, and it will have something fantastic that will in no way be painful to Fluttershy or Slingshot. It'll be a happy chapter that y'all can read with a nice cup of hot cocoa and not get nightmares over.
That said, Chapter 16 will be a while since it will be long, but I'll be working on it first thing tomorrow morning. Until next time!
Fluttershy does not remember much after getting Slingshot's help. She remembers him putting her on his back and carrying her away, and that's it. There's no way she could have slept since she does not remember the darkness or any weird dreams, but from Point A to Point B is all a blur, and the only reason why she knows she is at Point B is because the loud clanging of metal snapped her out of whatever trance she had been in. And now that the trance is gone, she finds herself in room of some kind.
It is a good sized room, and from what she can tell it belonged to one of the religious organizations recognized by the United Equis Governments. There is a lone desk, marked with a black placard labeled as “Rev. H. Fire” , and behind the desk is a sun and moon swirling into each other. The desk is completely bare, and near it is a ring of pillows and blankets to make a nest, and the vents have been sealed shut. When the room's light flashes on, Fluttershy holds her hoof over her eye, squinting from the discomfort, and Slingshot carries her to the nest after locking the door behind them. Once at the nest he carefully rolls her off him, and she flops on the ring of softness with the weight of her weapons and saddle doing their fair share of helping gravity work.
Fluttershy's head swims and she dizzily looks around the room, hoping to see more clues of what the place is. Luckily it is not a death trap since she sees a stash of medicine and medical equipment and lots of ammo boxes, plus some tools, so if Necromorphs try to get in they at least can kill a few before they die.
Or at least Slingshot.
Fluttershy really doesn't want to die.
Hell, what is she thinking? Of course Slingshot will live. He's gotten this far by himself.
“What were you doing in the communications room?” asks Slingshot.
Fluttershy looks at the blue griffin as he squeezes himself in a chair obviously meant for a pony, and when he is as comfortable as he can get, he levels his shotgun at her, keeping his green eyes locked on her.
“Can't talk good,” says Fluttershy, her voice raspy and her hoof pointing at her cauterized throat. “Injury.”
“Well, medical foam won't fix that.” Slingshot looks at the pile of medical equipment in the corner. “But I might be able to rig something for you so that the wound isn't out in the open.”
Fluttershy nods and the griffin looks back at her.
“Did you signal for help? Is that why you were in the communications room?” asks Slingshot.
Fluttershy nods again, then she begins trembling with tears in her eyes as she moves her hoof at an upward angle. “But fire... Des... Tr...” She coughs a speckle of blood on the pillows, swallows the gunky mix of blood and spit in her mouth and points at the placard. “Pyro... Broke it.”
“Pyro?”
Fluttershy emphasizes where she is pointing, and Slingshot leans against the desk to grab the placard, raising a brow when he looks at the name.
“Reverend Heart Fire burned it?”
Fluttershy nods, remembering how well the voice in Lexicon's audio disk matched Pyro's before he burned half her face to Hell.
“I'm surprised he lived,” says Slingshot.
Fluttershy's ears perk and her body stiffens while Slingshot put the placard back and taking an extra second to straighten it out to its exact position before he grabbed it. After that, he notices Fluttershy giving him a quizzical look and he sighs and taps his shotgun.
“I was on the protection detail for Captain Star Tracker when passengers and crew alike mutinied,” explains Slingshot. “They wanted to kill him, the Supervisors, and every Unitologist on this ship, and I did what I had to do to protect the Captain. The Reverend, Pyro as you call him, was in that mob. So, I shot him, I shot that goat leading the mob, and I don't know how many others, but there's a lot of blood on my talons now.”
He falls silent after that, but his eyes never break from Fluttershy, and she mimics him with keeping her one eye locked on him, despite it feeling heavy and crying for a break.
“Now that that is out of the way, why are you here? I've seen everyone on this ship, but you,” says Slingshot. “That makes you either an outsider or a hallucination.” He aims his shotgun at her. “Don't lie to me.”
Fluttershy points at herself. “I'm real... I'm looking for my brother... Zephyr.”
“Zephyr the groomer?”
Fluttershy's eye lights up and she jumps into the sitting position with a smile stretching across her scarred face.
“You know?” asks Fluttershy.
Slingshot nods and lowers his shotgun. “He was good at what he did. Pony, zebra, griffin, goat, it didn't matter. He got it done. I got the best deep space grooming from him. It was like being back in Griffinstone again.”
“Where is he?”
Slingshot shrugs. “I don't know. Probably dead.”
Fluttershy shakes her head and taps her radio. “I heard him... Only outward... Dr. Rock looking.”
“Dr. Rock?”
Fluttershy nods, and Slingshot shakes his head.
“You're hallucinating. Dr. Rock isn't real.”
“Yes, he is.”
“No, he isn't. A lot of people I've known died because of that voice, but I caught on to him. Every now and then he tries talking to me, but I ignore him and because of that I have lived. So, stop listening to him. He's not real, your brother's calls aren't real, the best you can do is hold up and wait for help.”
Fluttershy shakes her head. “Can't... I need Zephyr.”
“You don't need a ghost.”
Fluttershy stomps the pillow. “HE'S NOT A GHOST!”
The scream comes with a tearing pain, and she hunches over, coughing specks of blood with more trickling past the scab on her throat, and her vision fogs and her chest aches from each rough cough. As she coughs, Slingshot goes to the medical pile and grabs a canteen, some bandages, and a neck brace, and when he returns she is wheezing and laying on top of the pillows, shivering and new tears streaking down her cheek.
“I need him alive,” says Fluttershy hoarsely.
Slingshot sits in front of her and offers her the canteen, which she takes and gingerly sips the lukewarm water. After she is done, Slingshot wraps her throat with the bandage, and then clamps the brace around her neck. The discomfort is immediate, and the dread of having next to no movement chills her, but her fire is stronger than the cold dread.
“I can find him... If I go to... bridge,” says Fluttershy. “Can you take me?”
Slingshot shakes his head. “The bridge is sealed. Captain Star Tracker has it locked down. Nobody's getting in.”
“The Captain lived?”
“Unless those things got in the bridge, but it is designed to be a panic room in case of emergency, so I doubt that they did. By the way, that chip on the back of your head is fried, so you'll have to manually use the bands now.”
“Don't care. My team.... They're going to the bridge.”
“They're going to be disappointed.”
Fluttershy shakes her head and begins checking her weapons. “Still going.”
“Do you want to die?”
Fluttershy ignores him and finishes her inspection, and then goes to his medical pile. Her steps are wobbly and when she reaches the pile the first thing she grabs is a syringe of adrenaline and injects herself with it. She gasps and shudders as a burst of life races through every part of her body, and with the new energy she continues stuffing her saddle with medical supplies and ammo for her rifle and shotgun. Sadly, Slingshot didn't stock any cutter batteries, which is disappointing since she likes watching the cutter slice Necromorphs to pieces.
“Well, since you're going to the bridge, take a left when you leave and go straight to the elevator,” says Slingshot. “Hit Section A-5 and it will take you to the very top. After that, go straight down the hall and you'll be at the bridge.”
Fluttershy nods, goes to the door and once it opens, she looks at Slingshot and offers a weak smile as he approaches her.
“Thank you,” says Fluttershy.
“You're welcome,” says Slingshot.
Fluttershy steps out into the hallway and flinches when the door slams shut behind her with a red glow, and she takes a deep, scratchy breath and begins her trek down the hallway. Every step is light, weak and shaky, and a coldness has taken over Fluttershy's body. She can still feel the metal teeth of the saw blade ripping through her throat, too, which gives her the urge to rub it just for comfort's sake. However, with the combination of bandages and brace covering her neck she knows it won't do anything, so she keeps her eyes on the blue lights of the elevator down the dim hall and her ears on her surroundings. Though, with the clip-clop of her hoofs comes the faint whispers, and out of the corner of her eye she sees thin streaks of blood and numerous bullet holes on the wall.
Getting to the elevators is uneventful, and when Fluttershy hits the up button she retreats to the corner of the lobby, so she has a clear view of everything, including the vent in the middle of the room.
“There you are!” blurts Dr. Rock suddenly.
The voice makes Fluttershy jump and lose a heartbeat, and when she looks up, she sees a camera looking right at her.
“You have seen better days, but I am glad I finally found you!” says Dr. Rock.
“Why?” croaks Fluttershy.
“...What happened to your throat?”
Fluttershy slides her hoof across her neck like a knife while giving the camera a bemused look.
“I see... Well, anyway. I'm glad I found you. I saw your dopey brother walking around in the engine room. Around the miniature fusion batteries to be exact,” says Dr. Rock.
Fluttershy's eye bulges and she stands on her hind legs to get a closer look at the camera as her destroyed tail wags.
“Yes, ma'am!” says Dr. Rock. “He's looking a little rough, but he's alive and I told him you were looking for him. I've never seen a stallion cry as much as he did. He's waiting for you. Section G, sub section 4. I say again, G-4. G. 4. got it?”
Fluttershy leaps away from the elevator wall and begins prancing in circles inside the cramped elevator, squealing with tears of joy. She stops to catch a breath and looks at the camera again, still smiling and rapidly tapping her hoofs against the metal floor.
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Fluttershy sits down to cough, and after taking a shaky breath of air she smiles at the camera again. “Thank you.”
“No problem. This is good for both of us. You get your brother, and while you're down there you can bring a miniature wormhole battery back to Hangar H. In said hangar there is a cargo ship labeled CV-BV-10923. It is large enough to get all of us off this ship and the battery will give it enough juice for one jump if we can rig a jumper module to it,” says Dr. Rock. “If not, well, it will at least last us long enough for help to arrive.”
Fluttershy nods quickly. “Applejack can rig a module to it.”
“Good. See to it that she does, and don't forget me.”
The camera's intercom clicks, and Fluttershy hits the emergency stop button on the elevator. After that, she trails the buttons down to Section G. The elevator jerks and hums, and then it begins its decent. While this happens, Fluttershy fumbles with her radio by taking it off her shoulder and using her hoof to speed call Rainbow Dash's frequency. It takes a moment, but when Rainbow Dash's face appears Fluttershy begins speaking.
“Rainbow, I found Zephyr. He's in the engine room!” says Fluttershy, coughing soon after.
“Where are you?” asks Rainbow Dash.
“I'm going to the engine room.”
“Like hell you are! Thunderlane lost a hoof! I barely stopped the bleeding! He needs help!”
“My brother's down there!”
“Damn it, Fluttershy! We need you here!”
“My family comes first.”
“We're family, too. Don't do this, Fluttershy! Don't abandon us! Zephyr can wait, but Thunderlane can't Do you understand? Thunderlane's going to die if you don't help him!!”
Fluttershy's throat aches, and her eye shimmers as she struggles to look at Rainbow Dash.
“Keep pressure on the wound," says Fluttershy. "Make a tourniquet if you haven't already. I will save Thunderlane when I return, but I need to find Zephyr. I can't leave him again.”
“Fluttershy-”
Fluttershy disconnects, puts the radio back on her shoulder and sits down, taking a deep shaky breath. Then the elevator suddenly stops, and after a loud ding the doors slide open and Fluttershy aims her rifle at the opening. In front of her, Slingshot is aiming his shotgun at her with a dark light behind him.
The gears grind, the elevator hums, and Fluttershy, without getting up, keeps staring at him while he focuses on the door.
“I couldn't let you go alone,” says Slingshot.
A small, bright smile cracks on Fluttershy's weary face. “Thanks.”
“I thought you were going to the bridge, though,” adds Slingshot.
Fluttershy points down. “Zephyr's in the engine room. By little warp batteries.”
Slingshot looks at her with a raised brow. “How do you know?”
“Dr. Rock.”
“I told you, Dr. Rock is a hallucination.”
“You thought I was, too.”
“I still kind of do, honestly.”
Fluttershy frowns. “Thanks.”
“No offense, but-”
Fluttershy waves him off. “It's fine.”
“I'm just saying! Things have really turned nuts ever since we got here. It has gotten to the point where I don't even know if I'm real. Or for all I know I'm actually dead and this is Hell. And you know what they say about Hell, right?”
Fluttershy sighs, stands up and pats the griffin on his armor plated shoulder pad.
“We'll make it,” says Fluttershy.
“That's what they always say before they die,” says Slingshot.
Fluttershy huffs and turns away from him, feeling just a bit annoyed by the negativity. She is on her way to getting Zephyr, some good news for once on this forsaken ship, and the last thing she needs is a moody griffin souring her mood. Granted, her mood is already sour from her being mutilated every hour since arriving on the ship, but it would be nice to have a little bit of joy. Just a little bit. A little. Fucking. Bit!
“You okay?” asks Slingshot.
Fluttershy nods. “Mhm.”
“Okay.”
Fluttershy glares at him, but he keeps his eye on the elevator display screen, so he does not see her aggravation. Though, their little moment ends when Fluttershy's radio activates and Applejack's face appears with blood in her mane and her engineer suit covered in more scratches and dents.
“Hey, y'all, just a heads up, I had to take a detour,” says Applejack. “And I admit, I got myself a little turned around, but I'll be at the bridge sooner or later.”
Rainbow Dash's face appears a moment later, and this time Fluttershy can see Thunderlane in the background with his stump of a hoof wrapped tightly in a mix of bandages and sheets. He is also slumped against a wall next to a large door that has three red holographic rings, a speaker box and a hologram display orb, currently off.
“Well, hurry it up. Maybe you can get the damn bridge door open,” says Rainbow Dash. “The guy on the other side is a real prick.”
“Why not have Rarity unlock it?” asks Applejack.
“Because Rarity's dead!”
“What!? She's dead and you're just now telling me!?”
“Yeah, I'm just now telling you, Ms. Don't-Check-In-Every-Ten-Minutes! Rarity's dead, Thunderlane lost a hoof and Fluttershy is going fucking rogue!”
Fluttershy quickly pulls radio of her shoulder and turns it off. The elevator is plunged into silence after that, and Fluttershy slumps to the floor and runs her hoof through her mane, not wanting to look at Slingshot, even though he is looking right at her.
“You left your team?” asks Slingshot several seconds later.
“No choice,” whispers Fluttershy hoarsely. She looks at her warped reflection on the damaged elevator wall. “You would do the same.”
Slingshot hums quietly and resumes watching the numbers and letters slowly change while the yellow lights streak past the pair. They remain quiet, which Fluttershy uses the quiet time to inject herself with more adrenaline; and when the elevator jerks to a stop they aim their weapons at the door as it slides open with a loud ding, revealing a dark hallway with flickering lights illuminating pipes, beams, tubes and doors with anywhere from quick flashes to long increments of light to dark. At the far end of the hall, directly in front of them and being lit up by emergency lights is an emergency exit with the double helix painted on the door and hieroglyphs surrounding it.
Blood, scratches, bullet holes and dents damage the hall, and one of the pipes has broken, leading to the floor being flooded with colorful liquid. And nearby, a door slams open and shut, clicking, and whirring and banging with sparks popping out of the sides and its lights flickering from red to blue.
Slingshot takes a breath, and Fluttershy goes forward without hesitation, sweeping the hallway and taking special notice of the vents. Scratches and faint growls float through the darkness, prompting her to stop, and Slingshot stops next to her and the two follow the noise with their eyes and weapons as the scrapes and growls move over their heads and behind them. Slingshot turns around and continues trailing the noise with his shotgun while Fluttershy moves her eye between the vent and hallway, and once the noise fades entirely they remain still and silent for a few more seconds before Slingshot takes the lead.
“Engine room is this way,” says Slingshot.
The two silently and briskly walk down the hallway, and when they are by the emergency exit Fluttershy notices that the door has been welded shut and has dents popping towards them. That makes her shudder, and she moves a little bit closer to Slingshot as he takes a turn to go down another hallway.
This one is almost like the others, but what sets it apart is the large hole in the ceiling with dangling wires and pieces of metal soaked in blood and fluids from the broken pipes. The walls are also completely covered in blood, torn muscles, and bone. Severed limbs, intestines, parts of lungs and stomachs and ribs lay on the ground, and just ahead is a door that has been twisted, stabbed and snapped into a gaping hole, and the room beyond the door is the brightest lit room, which reveals more carnage on the other side.
The two stare at the destroyed door for a few seconds before cautiously moving forward, and Fluttershy grimaces when she steps into the bloody chemical pool. She also casts Slingshot an envious look when the griffin flies overhead. Though, while watching the griffin she does see a shadow dart by the gaping hole in the ceiling, so she stops and aims her cutter up. She can't see much of anything, but the lights above have shown her that upstairs looks like the rest of the area with its pipes and gray walls. But nothing catches her attention just yet.
“Hey, Fluttershy, look at this!” calls Slingshot.
Fluttershy reluctantly looks away from the hole and approaches Slingshot. He is standing by the broken door, but is pointing at a severed hoof with an audio band strapped to it. The hoof has a clean cut and is surrounded by blood, and from what Fluttershy can tell it belonged to a female pegasus. Little details like that aside, Fluttershy picks up the hoof and ejects the audio disk, being careful so the recording does not fall to the floor, and as she slides it in her audio band Slingshot slips through the door and sweeps the area.
After the disc is in, Fluttershy's ear is immediately filled with terrified screams, blaring alarms, metallic bangs and children sobbing. The closest sounds are a mare sniffling and a baby's muffled crying.
“Hush, little baby, don't say a word~Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird~ And if that mockingbird won't sing, Papa's gonna buy you a diamond ring~” sings the mare, sniffling and quivering.
“Let us in! There's children out here!” screams a stallion over the clamoring and banging.
“And if that diamond ring turns brass~ Mama's gonna buy you a looking glass~And if that looking glass gets broke~ Papa's gonna buy you a little boat~” continues the mother.
“They're breaking through!” cries another mare.
Metal snaps and breaks and screams of terror and children wailing hurt Fluttershy's ears as Necromorph screeches flood into the audio. In seconds, the terrified screams turn to cries of pain, bloody gurgles and flesh and bone breaking.
“Let us in! Please!” begs the stallion, banging furiously on the door.
The baby screams and sobs, and the mare gently shushes the child with a quivering voice.
“It's okay. Mommy's here. Mommy's got you,” she says. “Mommy and daddy love you.”
Then there is a series of fast slashes, pained cries and hungry growls followed by thuds, and the baby, mare and stallion fall silent. The crowd is silent, and the Necromorphs in the audio roar as metal screeches and breaks.
“Oh, shit! They're breaking through!” shouts a stallion, his voice muffled.
“Barricade it! Barricade it!” orders another stallion.
There is more metal snapping and bending, and gunshots ring out, clashing with the roars and screeches of the Necromorphs. Then there is one more snap, a stampede of hoofs, followed by more slashes, agonizing cries... and then silence.
The audio clicks off seconds later.
Fluttershy stands completely still in the next room while Slingshot continues to explore, her eye looking straight ahead at a corpse of a goat whose chest has been sliced clean open, spilling his broken organs and bones over the floor. Her sore throat tightens, and she looks over her shoulder at the broken door and the pool of blood and the slashed organs and bones. She looks down at her audio band, ejects the disk and puts it in her pouch, with her only noise being a shaky breathing. She then goes to the nearest bench, sits down, and looks ahead at the metal wall and its pipes.
A pool of blood and a streak coming from it lay underneath the pipes, and all the gauges on the pipes are off or twitching with minimal power. Somewhere nearby a light flickers, and Fluttershy checks her cutter's battery; her breathing is still heavy, having to breathe through her nose because her jaw is so tight from clenching her teeth.
Arcos Hieroglyph and Star Tracker.
She remembers those names.
Arcos Hieroglyph and Star Tracker,
When she finds them she will kill them.
Movement catches her eye, and she looks to it and sees the Frail Stallion down the hallway, approaching her with quick steps.
She'll kill him, too.
Fluttershy stands up, aims her cutter at the Frail Stallion and pulls the trigger. The red laser shoots his leg off and he screams an airy scream as he collapses, and Fluttershy shoots him again, and again, and again, and she keeps shooting him, blowing off pieces at a time until her weapon clicks, and by that time a Slasher is laying on the ground in pieces, making its last gurgles and twitches. Fluttershy's hoof drops and her cutter clatters to the ground, followed closely by her collapse to stare blankly ahead, wondering what sins these colonists committed to earn such terrible fates.
“Fluttershy!?” calls Slingshot.
Fluttershy ignores him and silently watches the rust colored blood creep towards her.
“Fluttershy, are you okay?” asks Slingshot, now next to her.
“My cutter is empty,” says Fluttershy. “I need batteries.”
Slingshot looks at her, and then at the mutilated Slasher. “Oh... Yeah, that thing is definitely dead. But there's got to be batteries around here somewhere.”
Fluttershy nods, still watching the blood creep towards her.
“By the way, I found some stairs that will take us to where you need to go... We should get going.”
Fluttershy nods again and slowly stands up and follows Slingshot down the hallway. Scratches travel through the vents, but the two keep walking, and when they reach the stairwell with a list of locations plus an arrow pointing down, the two go down. The stairwell is dark, with only a thin beam of light at the bottom, and Fluttershy looks up, scowling when the vent shakes, plus rapid scratches and clangs move down the stairwell.
“Great,” huffs Slingshot. “Do you still want to go?”
Fluttershy hurries past him, and when she reaches the light, she finds that it seeping through a partially open door with bullet holes and deep gashes covering it. A faint blue holographic circle is barely visible, and after Fluttershy touches it the door whines and slides open the rest of the way, revealing a dim room full of slashed up bodies. Ponies, goats, a griffin, zebras, all of them are scattered about and mutilated with parts of their bodies cut off, their blood all over the walls and floor, and bones and torn organs exposed.
The stench makes Fluttershy gag, and when she steps further in her hoof steps on something metallic, and she looks down and finds a bullet casing. She looks around at the rest of the floor and finds more bullet casings and realizes that the mutilated corpses are wearing engineering suits or security suits, and some of them have weapons on their barding.
Fluttershy quickly goes to the dead engineers and finds some of them have batteries for energy cutters, and after taking every battery that she can she spots a door on the far end with “ENGINE ROOM SUPERVISOR” over it. Its sign is dim, and the door is open, revealing darkness and silhouettes of furniture.
Fluttershy walks towards the room and upon entering she sees a splatter of blood on the wall with a unicorn stallion laying on the floor, his eyes closed and a hole from the bottom of his jaw through the top of his skull, and a pistol laying next to him in the bloody puddle. On the wall is a double helix roughly painted with what looks like oil, and surrounding it is hieroglyphs. Then there is the desk. The desk has a smashed computer on it, and on it is a smashed computer with an audio disk on it. With nothing else around, Fluttershy takes the disk and puts it in her audio band while inspecting the body. The chaotic sounds of shouts, alarms and bangs quickly fill her ears, but the sounds are muffled with the only clear noise belonging to a stallion.
“I wrote it all down. All of it. All of these hieroglyphs that are swirling in my mind,” he says. “But it didn't help. They won't stop. Even when I wrote them on the napkins, on the walls, on myself. They keep coming! I can't even escape them in my dreams... They're always there.”
Fluttershy pulls the sleeve up on the stallion and sees the hieroglyphs carved into his hoof, from bottom to elbow, all dark and bumpy scabs now.
“I should have never joined this stupid Church. I should have known that Chocolate Fondue was in something crazy. He never was right in the head,” continues the stallion. “He was even celebrating when I told him about the voices. Make us whole. Make us whole. Make us whole. The symbols! I saw it all, heard it all, day and night, day and night, day and night, and he called me an Oracle and said when I get off the ship I need to go to the Unitologist Temple in Sparkle Station to get my soul cleansed so I can clearly speak to the Marker!”
Fluttershy shivers at that sentence but keeps inspecting the body until she finds a key card in one of his pockets, which she quickly takes.
“What the fuck does that even mean!?” says the stallion. “I didn't even sign up for this shit! I joined the Unitologists because they have connections! Politicians, military, businesses, you name it, I could have gotten out of this dead end position and started my own private colony, but noooo they just had to be totally bat shit insane and kill all of us with whatever the hell these things are! THIS IS SOME BULLSHIT!”
The background noise suddenly gets louder and another pony gallops in as the noise becomes more chaotic and desperate, with the blasts of gunshots now overtaking the other sounds.
“They are breaking through!” says a mare.
The stallion sighs. “Then it is already too late. We're finished.”
“No, we have to run! There may still be escape pods we can get to and the creatures will be too busy with them to go after us!” There are steps and when the mare speaks again, she is considerable closer, and her voice is softer, yet more desperate. “We can still escape. Just you and me. We don't have to die here. We can go to an outer colony for sanctuary and start a family like you wanted! Just us... Jovial? Honey? Please look at me!”
There is a pause between the two, and gunfire, pained screams and Necromorph roars get louder outside. Then there is a deep sigh and a click.
“I love you, Aquaria,” says Jovial.
The sudden gunshot makes Fluttershy jump, and then the audio clicks off with a message appearing soon after via text across her band.
'Recording 1 of 2 complete. Recording No.2 in 3... 2...'
Fluttershy cancels it and shakily moves behind the desk; there she finds a dead pegasus mare in security barding with the helmet retracted and a hole through their forehead. The security suit's normally gray bodysuit has been stained red, and thick metal plating is stitched on the limbs, with more curved on its torso down to the flanks to follow the pegasus's natural form, and thin plates cover the base of the wings. There is also a battle saddle that has a SAD rifle attached to it on one side, a pistol on the other, and both weapons are attached to a trigger network that goes from the sides, to the front and up to the mouth.
Fluttershy kneels and turns the body over, and with a quick inspection she finds plenty of ammo, plus biofoam tubes and adrenaline needles attached to slots on the side of the suit. She turns the corpse, so they are facing the ceiling, and after comparing hoof sizes and making other quick visual comparisons she hastily removes her brace and starts to peel her bloody suit off.
After several painful minutes, Fluttershy walks out of the room wearing the security suit. She has unceremoniously tossed her old suit in the office corner, and now she is shifting in her new suit to get a feel for its weight. She has her energy cutter taking the place of the pistol in the second slot, but the pistol remains in the suit's armory, and the shotgun is put on a clip beneath the rifle while the pouches have been stuffed with all the supplies she took from Slingshot's hideout. Her collection of bands is also secured around her hoofs, and upon exiting Slingshot looks at her, his eyes widening at her new appearance.
“Oh, so that's what you've been doing in there,” says Slingshot.
Fluttershy nods and pushes a button on the side of her helmet, leading it to the helmet to slip up and over her head from the front and back, where they connect at her muzzle. A pair of red lights light up her visor and inside the helmet a trigger slides to her mouth with a message appearing on the screen.'SAD rifle engaged' , plus the ammo count, as well as vital readings. After all that appears, the red glow disappears and is replaced with a green glow and Fluttershy is briefly colored with a shimmer of energy of the same color. When the shimmer fades, she feels considerably lighter, and at the bottom of the visor is a message strongly suggesting she seeks a medic, but once all that is said and done Fluttershy looks at Slingshot.
“I'm ready to go,” says Fluttershy, her voice flowing through the helmet's speakers.
Slingshot nods. “Good. Follow me.”
Slingshot leads Fluttershy to the nearest open door, which takes them to a hallway bathed in dim red light that creates deep, dark shadows on the pipes and wires. Liquid churns in the pipes and faint hums vibrate their ears while gauges barely flick. The hallway is long and there are vent grates at even intervals, starting with directly above them.
Slingshot hesitates, and then goes forward, his steps shaky and his eyes darting in every direction they can while Fluttershy trails him, occasionally walking backwards to see if they are being followed. During their walk, the vent shakes again, and it brings Fluttershy to glare at it and aim her cutter at the opening as the shakes travel over their heads and travels down the hall. She trails the noise with her cutter until the sound fades, and after the sound fades Fluttershy wonders if Mama is back to stalking her. And if she is, she will die, too.
In fact, Mama will die even if she is not stalking her.
Arcos Hieroglyph, Star Tracker, Pyro, Mama.
All need to die for what they did.
All of them.
Arcos Hieroglyph, Star Tracker, Pyro, Mama.
She will make sure they will die.
“The elevator shouldn't be too much farther,” says Slingshot.
“You work down here?” asks Fluttershy.
“No, but colony ships have a basic layout, and knowing the layout is part of the security exam.”
Fluttershy nods and falls silent, and they continue walking until a faint collection of screams, shrieks and roars catch their attention.
The noise is distant, and the two look over their shoulders, watching the hallway intently with their weapons aimed at the curve. Blobs of shadows stretch along the red lit pipes, and within seconds a horde of Necromorphs rush around the corner, slashing the air with their large scythe appendages and screaming with slobber dripping off of their sharp teeth as they stampede towards them.
“RUN!” barks Slingshot.
Fluttershy bolts down the hallway with Slingshot close behind. The screams and rushing steps get closer, and bony barbs shoot past her, shattering against the metal surroundings. The two take a sharp turn towards a door with a blue circle, and after opening it Slingshot hits the emergency close button and smashes the control pad with his shotgun, bringing the door's lights to disappear. The screams reach the door a few seconds later, and with it comes loud bangs and scratches that shake the door.
“Elevator?” asks Fluttershy, her throat feeling like it is being rubbed with sandpaper as she wheezes.
Slingshot's eyes dart left and right, and when a scythe claw pierces the door Fluttershy snaps to the griffin.
“Where's the elevator!?” she yells.
“This way!” says Slingshot.
He bolts down the hallway and Fluttershy trails him, cringing when she hears the metal bending and gears breaking. The roars and screams travel through the shaking vents, and Slingshot takes another turn right as a vent breaks open and a mass of rotting flesh lands on top of Fluttershy. The sudden weight knocks her to the floor, but she quickly recovers and turns on her back while the Slasher raises its claws.
Fluttershy aims her Stasis band at it, but it does nothing; luckily, the armor holds up against the slash, but the creature does not stop at one swipe. It keeps slashing at her, and with a racing heart Fluttershy digs her hindlegs into the Slasher's groin and flips it off. The Slasher rolls on its back, limbs flailing madly, and Fluttershy quickly gets up and stomps on its head and limbs, making it screech with every bone crunching stomp. By the time she is done the Necromorph is a pile of popped bone, shredded muscle, and squished brains, and Fluttershy is once again covered in blood.
Then the swarm rounds the corner.
“Oh, come on!” cries Fluttershy.
Fluttershy sprays the swarm with lead, ripping off chunks at a time as each bullet rips into the swarm, but the Slashers keep going towards her, and when she is rammed by the closest one she delivers a swift punch to its muzzle.
The metal boot of her suit shatters its jaw, and as it staggers, she grabs it and turns it into a meat-shield when a Lurker shoots at her from the wall. The Slasher jerks and squirts blood as bony barbs lodge into it, and she bites down on her trigger, screaming through her teeth as she pushes the monster into the crowd while her battle saddle tears into them.
As she shoots, the bullets pierce the pipes, spraying streams of chemicals on the Necromorphs and making the floor slick with the liquid and blood. The fluid quickly spreads across the floor and Fluttershy pushes her shield away, cursing and stumbling back when a barb hits her armor and a Slasher swipes at her, scratching her armor.
She punches the Slasher away and shoots at it with her rifle, and the bullets tear through it with ease, blowing apart one of its scythe limbs and its head. And as the bullets fly, sparks fly off of the wall and fall into the chemical pool, which ignites into a sea of rainbow flames that engulfs the Necromorphs with a rush of hot air that knocks Fluttershy off of her hoofs.
Thick smoke, the stench of burning blood and flesh, and screams clogs her senses, and Fluttershy coughs as she stumbles back, shooting blindly into the fire as Necromorphs charge her. Their bodies are engulfed in flames with bits of flesh dripping off them, revealing their blackened twisted bones, and with the bullets hitting them, bones shatter and their guts pop.
Fluttershy keeps backing up as the fire eats at the walls, and she keeps shooting while sizzles and pops soon join the screams. As this happens, a fire alarm sounds and foam sprays from the ceiling, burying the fire in thick globs of white foam and turning the smoke from black to gray. Fluttershy keeps coughing, backing up and keeps shooting as the last of the Necromorphs stumble through through the carpet of foam, and when her magazine clicks she pushes a button on her suit's chest that ejects the empty magazine and slips a fresh one in.
As the suit is reloading her SAD-rifle, a burnt Griffin Necromorph flies through the smoke and tackles her with enough force to knock the air out of her when she lands on her back. The Griffin Necromorph's translucent sack pules and the bugs inside it crawl out of sight just for them to pour out of its mouth seconds later, where they fall on Fluttershy and begin gnawing and clawing her suit.
The Griffin Necromorph roars, stabs its talons into Fluttershy's chest and rips into armor while the bugs crawl on to her exposed jumpsuit and begin chewing on the fabric. But before the Neecromorph can finish tearing her open, she shoots in the head with her energy cutter. The red beam slices its head off, and another beam takes off its arm. It collapses on top of her, gurgling rust colored blood, and she flips it around and stomps on its chest until its broken rips are popping out and its limbs are shattered. Then she rolls around the floor to squish the bugs, and once the bugs are dead, she kicks the dead Griffin Necromorph... and for good measure she kicks it again.
When the Necrormorph doesn't move, Fluttershy looks down the hallway, panting and trying to swallow what little spit she has while the visor's vital displays spike with her rapid heart and heavy breathing. The charred bodies lay twisted and cracked on the warped floor, and the foam sizzles with the bodies as the gray smoke rolls away. Several seconds of silence pass before Fluttershy takes a deep breath and goes the direction Slingshot went, fuming about being ditched and making a silent vow to deck him in the schnoz when she sees him again.
Fluttershy walks a couple of minutes down the hallway, stopping and aiming at the ceiling when the vent rattles again. The rattling once again travels over her head and goes down the hallway in the direction she is going, and as soon as the noise fades, she continues forward, but at a slower pace and really loathing that sound. She continues the slow pace until she reaches a locked door with the fire safety symbol on it, so she uses her energy cutter to cut out a rectangle in the center just big enough for her, and as soon as she is finished she bucks the disconnected metal. It takes a few kicks, but once it is free it crashes on the floor with a shaking bang, and Fluttershy reloads her cutter before stepping through the hole to enter the next part, which is a large open room with two rows of pillars leading to an altar with a glowing double helix on its front.
The pillars are swirled in design, and behind the altar is a tall, oval shaped frame displaying a familiar mare with a white mane and brown coat, wearing a dark purple robe with gold bands that are decorated with dark purple circles and lines. The chamber's ceiling is curved with glowing orbs hanging down, and in between the pillars are shadowy figures with one more at the altar, which has the shape of a griffin.
Seeing this, Fluttershy backs up, and then tries to leave, but sees a solid door with glowing red lines making a double helix in the center, surrounded by hieroglyphs.
“I needed that money for college! That was my dream!” yells Fluttershy.
Or the voice sounded like Fluttershy. Fluttershy certainly didn't say anything, but the voice echoing in the chamber sounds like her, and it sets her heart racing and her breathing ragged as she paces in circles, swinging her cutter around to look for her doppelganger.
“But you can have another one. A better one,” says a stallion, his voice also echoing without a body to go with it.
“Honey, I know you're mad, but the world out there isn't safe. You'll be safer with us,” says a mare.
Tears pool in Fluttershy's eye and a sickness runs through her as she continues sweeping the area, slowly making her way down the aisle as the featureless shadows silently watch her.
“The time has come to welcome our newest members of the Church of Unitology,” says the figure at the altar, prompting Fluttershy to aim her cutter at her. “You have made the commitment to Sovia Rockwood's teachings and the Marker, and to join is to serve, everlasting, in life and in rebirth for the salvation of the universe. You have made the best choice in your life. Praise your parents for showing you the way. Praise you for accepting the truth. And praise Sovia! And praise the Great Marker!”
“Praise Sovia! Praise the Great Marker!” chants the other figures.
Fluttershy closes her eye, and when she opens it again, she is met with a wide open mouth of sharp teeth and hoarsely screaming Necromorph in a dimly lit square chamber with steel grate floors. It sinks its teeth into her suit's shoulder as two long, thin, and curved stingers from its back stab at her, piercing her suit on the back. The weight knocks Fluttershy back and she screams in pain as the sharp limbs pierce her flesh. She wiggles and presses her hoof against its throat, and with her other hoof she punches the Necromorph in the head. Its skull cracks open, sprouting sharp toothed worms that writhe and scream, and the bony blades continue rapidly stabbing her along her back, filling her ears with warning alarms as pockets of hot pain erupt on her back.
“Get. OFF!” snarls Fluttershy.
She punches a chunk of its maw flies off, splattering the floor with its rust colored blood and broken bones, and as it stumbles Fluttershy uses her energy cutter to shoot its head and limbs, leaving it as a husk of rotten flesh in a pool of blood. Then she grunts when she feels the sting of the medical foam spreading over the multiple little punctures along her back, and another sting of adrenaline being injected into her. With the injection comes a new burst of energy and Fluttershy hurries towards the exit, heart racing and ears twitching.
About halfway towards the exit a blur zips in front of her, blocking the doorway, forcing her to skid to a halt. The Necromorph's head and limbs twitch quickly, and its eyes have fused shut while its mouth hangs open, exposing its sharp fangs, and on its back are two thin and bony appendages that resemble sharpened wing bones held together by thin layers of flesh. Its fur is gone, leaving gray and vein wrapped skin. Then there is the thin build; thinner than a Slasher and its structure is resembling a pegasus... and it also looks like the Necromorph she just killed seconds ago.
Fluttershy tries shooting it with her cutter, but it dodges it with a blur of motion that puts it closer to her, and when she tries shooting it again it dodges again. Then it screams hoarsely and zips into Fluttershy, tackling her and putting everything in a spin. She lands on her back and presses her hoof against its throat as it tries biting her, with its sharp limbs stabbing at her hoofs. Another scream comes, and Fluttershy looks to her side and sees two more Twitchers running in, and she growls and turns the Twitcher pinning her on its back, followed by punching it in the muzzle. Its muzzle flattens and while it twitches, she shoots at the other two with her rifle, but they dodge it, and the bullets bounce off the metal pillars.
One zigzags around her and leaps on her back, followed by biting her helmet, and with the teeth and slobber taking up half of her vision the other one rushes towards her and stabs at her chest. Fluttershy screams in rage and pain, uncaring of the scratching sensation in her throat, and she backpedals into one of the pillars, leaping on her hindlegs so the Twitcher is squished between her and the pillar. It snarls and Fluttershy reverse headbutts it, turning its snarl into a glugging noise as its blood pours out of its destroyed mouth. It keeps stabbing her shoulders and hoofs, but she ignores it to grab the thin stinger of the second Twitcher when it stabs her armored chest. With the stinger in her hoof she gives it a sharp twist, snapping it right off, and then stabs it in the head.
The Twitcher reels back, and Fluttershy pulls away from the pillar and shoots her pinned target with her rifle, going in a circular motion. After it falls to the ground with its limbs in pieces she whirls around, stands on her hind legs and slams her front hoofs down on the last Twitcher. Its skull pops, pulpy brains and squirming worms fall on the floor, and the body crumbles. For good measure, Fluttershy stomps on the worms until they are nothing but paste on the floor. Once all that is done, she is left panting with a throat that feels like it is being clawed with every breath. The vent rattles again and Fluttershy glares at it, vein throbbing and jaw tightening as she follows the noise. Then her radio activates with a loud static that hurts her ears.
“Fluttershy, where are you?” crackles Zephyr's voice over the radio.
“Zephyr? Zephyr, I'm coming!” says Fluttershy with a new burst of energy to get her to the door. Or maybe it was another adrenaline injection. Hard to tell now. But what ever it is, she is feeling energized and sick at once.
“The Doctor said you were coming, but you never answer me. Can I trust him? Can I trust you? Will I be whole again?”
“Stay where you are! I'm coming!”
“Make us whole again.”
The radio clicks off and Fluttershy gallops towards the exit, ignoring the growing pockets of pain from the stabs. During her run she nearly trips over herself as she runs, but quickly corrects herself and goes down a flight of stairs. Once she gets down the stairs a Twitcher breaks through a vent grate and charges at her with a blur, roaring and stabbing at the air with its stingers. When it is close enough, Fluttershy ducks under the first stab, bats away the second and moves to the side to decapitate it with a shot from her cutter, followed by shooting off its legs. Then she resumes her trek while the Twitcher lays in its pool of blood.
She goes a little further down and switches her cutter for her rifle and guns down a group of Slashers lingering around a broken door. They drop quickly as the bullets shred them, and Fluttershy shines her light into the room and sees it is completely empty and bloody, so she moves on.
The next area is down a hallway with tinted observation windows showing a large room with five generators, all dim, and each surrounded by glowing metal rods. The generators have an hourglass shape with metal and gem studded orbs in their center. The glass chambers that press against the obs are lined with strips of metal, and at the top and bottom of the chambers are coils aimed at the orbs. Then there are the computer consoles, various walkways, a few doors, thick cables, and rows of sealed locker shaped objects that are connected to the generators by thick tubes. The swirling red lights in the engine room clash with the streaks of shadows and tiny lights of the consoles, and while Fluttershy cannot see anybody, a spark of hope brings light to the darkness clouding her.
Zephyr must be close by!
And since Slingshot knew she was heading this way he may be in the engine room, too!
As Fluttershy pushes, she grunts and groans and quietly chides the door for not moving, and when she shifts her position to get a better grip her audio band activates, bringing her to skip a heartbeat before resuming.
“Ladies and gentlemen, ponies to griffins, ibexes to changelings, dragons to hypogriffs, this is the moment you've all been waiting for! Our great Seer! Asama Zaeem!” says a mare.
There is a thunderous applause, cheers and whistles, and the energetic greeting goes on for some time before it abruptly quiets down. It is during this time that Fluttershy digs her hoofs into the floor to push against the door, grunting and hurting her muscles as the door scrapes against its rail. Once all the commotion in the audio is done, a stallion with a deep, raspy voice whose tone carries unmatched weight speaks. Said voice brings a shiver to Fluttershy's spine.
“My brothers and sisters, I am glad to see you here today,” begins the stallion, Seer Asama Zaeem. “Ever since the Church of Unitology was founded 300 years ago by our dear Prophet, Sovia Rockwood, we have faced many challenges, and yet we have only grown. Doubters became believers, politicians and theologians who condemned us joined us, communities have grown and spread from our temples to be a part of every colony in the empire.”
Faint voices flood into Fluttershy's ears and she shakes head in a feeble attempt to get them to stop, all while the audio continues and she continues pushing the door to the side.
“These changes are because the Marker showed us the truth through Sovia Rockwood, and with its power we are making way for the Convergence and the better tomorrow it will bring,” says Zaeem.
There is a snap and a loud and long screech, and Fluttershy stumbles as the door slides the rest of the way open.
“But faith is only as strong as its believers and its messengers, and you are all strong believers and messengers who have proudly spread the teachings of Sovia Rockwood and the Marker,” continues Zaeem.
Fluttershy scowls and slips to the other side, giving the new area a quick sweep, seeing nothing as her light shines on rows of steel beams, gears, pistons, gauges and slow turning turbines hooked to thick wires.
“As your Seer, I am very proud of you. Through you, the Convergence will come. Through you, we will be made whole,” concludes Seer Zaeem.
The applause and cheers return, but Fluttershy turns it off and throws the disc away before the audio can finish and hurries down the hallway, shaking her head. The vent overhead also rattles again, and it goes around the corner she is heading. This slows her pace a little bit, and when she rounds the corner she comes across another door, this one unlocked. However, she stops herself from opening it when she hears a metallic crash on the other side.
Fluttershy scrunches her brows and stares at the door, unwilling to press her ear against it. Several seconds pass, and the silence is broken by snapping bones and screams, which leads to Fluttershy quickly opening the door with her energy cutter at the ready.
The room she enters is large with a roughly cut hole in the ceiling and half a dozen pegasi corpses, each slashed to death and each having an energy cutter by their side. But one of the corpses is convulsing on the ground, back and limbs twisting in ways no creature should as its bones snap and rearrange. Its feathers and fur fall off in chunks as their skin bulges with growing veins, and their eyes are sealed behind their eyelids as their jaw stretches and the teeth sharpen. In a matter of seconds the transformation is complete, and the new Twitcher lays on the ground, screaming and thrashing, and behind it another Twitcher rolls on the ground while a new Necromorph flies over to a dead pegasus and sinks its fangs into its head.
The new Necromorph it bald with gray skin and red veins, has leathery wings, bright yellow eyes and a gray color with its hoofs split and curved like talons, and its mouth hangs wide open like a snake so it can bite down on the corpse. As soon as it bites the corpse the transformation begins, and Fluttershy's muscles start working.
Fluttershy backs up and closes the door, locking it as soon as it closes, and seconds later there are screams and the door shakes from the banging. She backs up some more, heart racing and mouth dry, and she flicks her eye to the side at the observation windows, then up to the vent when she hears it shaking. She switches her cutter for her rifle and shoots at the vent, showering her with sparks, and she follows the vent's path, flinching when the vent is torn open and a bleeding Twitcher falls through.
Fluttershy shoots the Twitcher until it stops moving, reloads, and sprays the area when the other Twitchers leap down, each being shredded as they land. Within seconds all of them are bloody strips of flesh, and Fluttershy carefully approaches the bodies while her suit reloads her weapon. She stops at the pool of blood seeping towards her, and when her inspection does not turn up the remains of the new Necromorph she looks at the broken vent with a deep frown. A few seconds later she goes back to the door, unlocks it and once it is opened, she is immediately stabbed in the chest with two stingers and lifted in the air.
Fluttershy's hoofs dangle and her scream is scratchy, which only makes the pain in her throat worse, and the Twitcher roars and slams her on the ground. Alarms ring in her ears, and her eyes roll as her pierced flesh burns. The Twitcher then jumps on top of her and its stingers are a blur as they stab at her suit, rapidly poking holes all over her. Fluttershy screams again and kicks the Twitcher off, and while it rolls on the ground she scrambles to her hoofs and switches to her energy cutter.
But before she can properly aim the Twitcher is back to attacking her with a blur of movement, and Fluttershy holds her hoof up defensively while its stingers stab her, going along her hoof and stabbing at her shoulder and the crook of her neck. While this happens, Fluttershy fires a barrage of lasers into the Necromorph, slicing chunks off at a time, with one shot taking a stinger and another a head clean off. The blood gushes out like a broken pipe, and with an angry yell Fluttershy punches it in the chest, caving in its ribs and forcing it back. The headless creature stabs aimlessly in the air, and Fluttershy shoots off the last stinger, then its two front legs, and finishes it off by stomping on its spine. After the mutilation is done, the Twitcher finally stops moving and Fluttershy walks backwards, legs shaking and breathing ragged.
“Can I... Have five minutes? Jeez,” wheezes Fluttershy. She shakes her head and goes down the hallway, twitching with each step. “Five minutes... Five... Minutes...”
A minute later she slumps against the wall and slides to the floor, leaving thin trails of blood while her visor displays an error message due to lack of medical foam. But though her body is sore, and her head swimming and her eye is heavy, she is still able to see a soft glow not too far from her. The glow is coming from a vending machine with a red apple surrounded by gold rings as its logo, and behind the logo are swirling galaxies and a goofy looking rocket ship. Beneath the ringed apple is:
FLIM-FLAM ENERGY JUICE
*Non-Toxic
*Not for Minors
Fluttershy looks to her left, to her right, up, behind... Nothing.
She stands up on wobbly legs, goes to the vending machine and breaks its lock off with the help of her suit, and when she pulls it open cold air rolls out and a dozen rows of bottled juices lay in the open for her taking. Each one containing 0 grams of protein, but 120 milligrams of caffeine per bottle.
Fluttershy licks her lips, opens her helmet, and takes a red bottle, bites off the cap and chugs its bubbly contents, but the liquid seems to be completely absorbed by her. She barely tastes anything, except for a hint of blood to go with the cherry flavor and a slight burn of swallowing lots of bubbles, but who cares? Its energy juice.
Fluttershy grabs another bottle and chugs that one, which was apple flavor (the best flavor). Once that one is empty, she tosses it aside and grabs another one to chug, which tastes like blueberry. After that one is empty, she grabs another bottle to drink. This one is kiwi flavored. Zephyr loves kiwi.
Zephyr...
Zephyr is near!
Fluttershy grabs a few more bottles of kiwi energy juice and stuffs them in her saddle, but with all the caffeine she absorbed her whole body is shaking and her heart is racing, and she barely touches the ground as she gallops down the hallway.
“Zephyr's near. Zephyr where are you where are you where are you where are you?” mutters Fluttershy.
She rounds a corner, skids to a stop by an elevator and bangs on the button as fast as she as she looks down the hallway, waiting for more Necromorphs to rush her. The seconds are long, but thankfully nothing happens, and when the door opens, she slips inside, hits the emergency close button, then G-4, and slumps against the wall as the elevator descends. Though, it seems as soon as she sits down the door opens again, revealing a hallway filled with bars bright lights and dark shadows. Weak clangs and hums shake her ears, and occasionally a burst of red will dissolve the shadows, making warped figures briefly appear before the red lights fade. But there is one figure that remains constant from the clashes of light and dark, and that is the Frail Stallion, staring right at her from down the hallway.
The elevator dings and tries to shut, but Fluttershy holds her hoof against the door, forcing it to go back, and she hobbles out of the elevator.
Arcos Hieroglyph, Star Tracker, Reverend Heart Fire, Honey Creme, the Frail Stallion. They all must die.
The Frail Stallion walks forward, the black pools of eyes on his crooked head focused on Fluttershy, and she picks up her pace, readying her cutter.
Arcos Hieroglyph, Star Tracker, Reverend Heart Fire, Honey Creme, the Frail Stallion. They all must die.
The flash of red returns, revealing hieroglyphs on the wall, and the Frail Stallion roars and gallops towards Fluttershy.
Arcos Hieroglyph, Star Tracker, Reverend Heart Fire, Honey Creme, the Frail Stallion. They all must die!
Fluttershy shoots at the Frail Stallion, but when the red beams slice cleanly through him, he only twitches and screams, and then races towards her with stingers coming from his spine. Fluttershy shoots at him again, but the Frail Stallion dodges it, as well as the next shots, and tackles her to the ground with his black eyes now shining bright red and his hoofs holding her down while the stingers pin her front hoofs.
“Make us whole!” says the Frail Stallion.
Fluttershy yells and headbutts the Frail Stallion, breaking his muzzle open and then twists her body to break the stingers off the demon, thus setting her free. The Frail Stallion shrieks and with the stingers still in her hoofs she slams the first hoof against his skull and she uppercuts him with her second hoof, pinning herself to its head. She then yells again and twists her hoofs hard and fast, breaking the skull to pieces and showering her with brain bits and dark blood. The Twitcher stumbles back, swinging its warped hoofs wildly as the floor becomes slick with blood, and Fluttershy's hoof tremble as she stumbles backwards, shooting the Twitcher to pieces with her cutter. After it falls to the ground, Fluttershy retracts her helmet and falls to her rump, shaking and crying as she looks at her hoofs.
Her blood drips off the bony stingers, mixing with the blood of the Necromorph, and her chest heaves as she brings the stinger to her mouth and pulls. She screams as the flesh is tugged by the bone, and after it is out, she spits it to the floor and repeats the ordeal with the second one. With both bones out, her blood ours out until the sting of medical foam surges through, followed by pain killers being directly injected into her. Fluttershy coughs and wheezes, and her throat feels like it is about to tear open from all the crying and heavy breathing.
“Fluttershy, can you hear me?” asks Zephyr over the radio.
Fluttershy looks up and sees hieroglyphs on the wall in front of her, and she looks down the hallway at an arrow that is being lit up by falling sparks.
“Zephyr...” mutters Fluttershy.
“You were never there. Even now on the ship you ignore me.”
Fluttershy stands up, wobbles a bit, and then she closes her helmet and limps forward, passing the mutilated Twitcher and the two pools of blood.
“Zephyr, I'm coming,” says Fluttershy.
“I think the doctor lied. Just like mom. Just like dad. Just like you! It was stupid to think that you would rescue me. You didn’t before. Why would now be different!?” rants Zephyr.
“Zephyr, I promise I'm coming! Just stay where you are. I'll find you!”
“I just want to be whole again .”
The radio clicks off and Fluttershy grits her teeth, forcing herself to run despite the pain.
“Hold on, Zephyr. Just a little longer. I'm coming, I promise. I'll never abandon you again,” says Fluttershy.
Fluttershy quickly turns the corner and comes across a locked door, but its red color only stays so for a few seconds before it turns to a bright gold from her using her Master Key Band. The center of the door turns, and Fluttershy steps back, shielding her eyes from a bright light and gritting her teeth as a strong rush of wind blows over her. When the wind subsides, she blinks and stumbles forward, looking around in a room filled with rows of rectangular cage-like devices with glowing batteries in them, all of which connect to the ceiling through thick tubes. Most of the cage devices have green lights on them, and the humming shakes her very bones as she carefully walks through them, having to squint her eye since the cylindrical batteries in the cages are emitting bright blue lights. As she walks through the area, she notices that one of the cages has red warning lights swirling above it with M. Wormhole Battery Disconnected flashing on a small screen. She approaches it and finds that it has been opened and a battery missing, and when she looks at the lock, she sees that it had been shot off.
Fluttershy walks a little bit further and stops in front of another cage. She looks around for a moment, and then presses her Master Key Band against the lock and its lock flashes from green to red and opens with a click. Fluttershy looks around again, and then hesitantly grabs the battery from its slot. There is a loud beep and red lights swirl above the cage, and after quickly clipping the battery to her suit she looks around with her cutter ready, but thankfully no Necromorphs come out, so she sighs with relief and continues forward. She can definitely feel the weight of the battery, but her suit is doing a great job of holding it in place.
After some traveling, Fluttershy comes across an open area that leads to various stairs, walkways, and doors, all surrounding the hourglass shape generators. She paces in circles, sweeping the area and trying to see if any Necromorphs are lurking in the shadow.
Again, nothing.
Fluttershy doesn't like that.
Not. One. Bit.
A sudden clank of metal brings her to spring up and face the source with the cutter aimed directly at a head of a lanky, light aquamarine pony trying to sneak towards a locked door with his hoof near a knocked over fire extinguisher.
Fluttershy's cyan eye widens and locks with his cerise eyes, which are partially covered by his messy pale gold mane.
“Z-Zephyr?” asks Fluttershy.
“I didn't do it!” blurts Zephyr Breeze, scrambling backwards and grabbing the fire extinguisher. “Get back! I know how to use this thing!”
“N-No, it's me! It's me!” Fluttershy retracts her helmet and holds her hoof out, smiling and retracting her energy cutter to its slot. “See? I'm here... I've come to bring you home.”
Zephyr blinks. “Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy nods and steps forward, painfully swallowing with tears running down her cheeks. “I'm going to take you home. Where you'll be safe from all this.”
“What's wrong with your voice? And your face? And your mane!? And why are you wearing security armor? There's no way you're my sister! You're an impostor! Or a hallucination. Or both! Or one of those monsters!”
“I'm not any of those. I'm Fluttershy, your sister.”
“Ha! Joke's on you. Fluttershy isn't a commando. She's such a scardy-cat that she's afraid of her own shadow! You might as well drop the act. I'm on to you, phony!”
“And you're still a smelly pain in the butt who’s afraid to shave!” snaps Fluttershy.
Zephyr's eyes bulge, and Fluttershy pulls out a bottle of Flim Flam Energy Juice and holds it out to her brother.
“By the way, I brought you kiwi energy juice,” adds Fluttershy.
Zephyr looks at the light green bottle, and then at Fluttershy, and she shakes the bottle with a smug smile.
Zephyr inches forward, takes the bottle, bites the cap off, and then sniffs it critically, casting her a suspicious look.
“It’s not poisoned, is it?” asks Zephyr.
“Oh my God! I didn't almost die a million times just to poison you!” yells Fluttershy, coughing right after.
“You always were a grouch.” Zephyr takes a big gulp of the drink and smiles at the now half empty bottle. “Ah, thank you. I really needed that.”
“I’ll buy you all the kiwi juice you want when we’re out of here,” says Fluttershy. “Now let's go. We have to get to the bridge to meet up with the others.”
Fluttershy is about to go the way she came but stops when Zephyr clears his throat.
“Yes?” asks Fluttershy, looking over her shoulder.
“Others?” asks Zephyr.
“Yes. I didn't come alone. They're on the bridge, waiting for us.”
“Forget about them! We need to leave this awful ship right now! The longer we stay here the better chance we have of dying! I've already been on this ship for too long, anyway. I need to get off! We can go down to the planet and-”
“Zephyr!”
Zephyr stops, and Fluttershy puts her hoof on Zephyr's shoulder, looking him in the eyes.
“We're going to get off this ship alive, but I'm not leaving the others,” says Fluttershy. She then pulls him in and hugs him tight, and gently nuzzles him when he starts shaking. “I promise you that we'll make it out alive, and we'll start over. We'll be a family again. Just like when we were kids.”
“You mean we'll be whole again?” asks Zephyr.
Fluttershy nods. “Yes, we'll be whole again.”
Zephyr smiles and rests his head next to hers while hugging her with his hoof and wing.
“Thank you, Fluttershy... And sorry about the mean messages. The past couple of weeks have been rough,” says Zephyr.
Fluttershy chuckles softly. “I forgive you.”
Six claws suddenly puncture the locked door behind Zephyr, right down the middle, making both pegasi scream, jump and scamper back with racing hearts. The door's red light flickers and dies, and the metal groans and snaps with sparks popping out of it edges as its forced open.
When the door is squished enough a large beast that easily towers over them marches out of the darkness, with its spine and lower legs contorted so it is standing on two legs. Its body is covered in thick chitin with only small pockets of thick rust colored skin exposed, its large glowing, bug eyes are pure red, and on its head is a curved horn and sharp ears, and sharp spines run from the top of its skull all the way down its back. Its limbs are also covered in holes with three sharp, curved claws protruding from its stubby hands, and its muzzle has been split open like a flower, exposing jagged fangs on its mandibles and a sharp tongue.
Fluttershy narrows her eye, activates her shotgun, and once the beast is close enough, she shoots its leg, blowing off a chunk of its calf. She shoots its other leg pops the knee into pieces, leading it to fall on the floor with blood spraying from its destroyed limbs. It shrieks in pain and drags itself to Fluttershy, but it falls silent after she puts another shot into its head, popping it like a bloody balloon.
“Wow... You are not the little sis I remember,” says Zephyr. “You killed that thing fast!”
“Big sis,” says Fluttershy. “And I've had practice.”
Fluttershy puts one more shot into the Necromorph, and when it stops twitching, she begins reloading, but as she reloads, a green and red light engulfs the creature's body. The lights reflect off her wide eye as bones, veins, muscles, and chitin reappear like strands of string being pulled from the Necromorph's body. It flexes its arm, and its claws dig into the floor as it arches its back, and in a matter of seconds its legs and head have fully regenerated. As soon as its legs are done healing it stands up, cracks its neck and growls at Fluttershy.
“Oh no,” says Fluttershy, cocking her shotgun. “Zephyr. Run to the bridge!”
The monster stomps forward and the two pegasi quickly step back.
“Run!” yells Fluttershy, shooting another slug into the Necromorph.
“What about you?” asks Zephyr.
“I'll be fine. Get to the bridge. Now!”
Zephyr hesitates before galloping away, and the Hunter Necromorph roars and rushes towards Fluttershy, and she turns tail and gallops the opposite direction from Zephyr. The floor shakes as the Hunter chases after her, and she makes a sharp turn, nearly tripping over herself, and runs up a flight of stairs. The rapid stomps and its roars get closer with each passing second, and Fluttershy's weak body burns as she forces herself to go faster.
When Fluttershy reaches the top of the stairs, she sees the light of a service elevator up ahead, and tears pool in her eye and her teeth strain as she grits them the hardest she has all night. She does not even look behind her when she slides into the elevator, but as soon as her body slams into the wall a heavy mass of flesh and chitin rams her. The impact of being squished between the Hunter and the metal wall knocks the air out of her lungs and momentarily disorients her, and when she sees its claws coming at her she has just enough function to duck out of the way, leading it to stab the elevator floor. She then pivots around it and shoots it in the spine with her shotgun, covering her helmet with blood and bony bits.
The Hunter staggers, and much to Fluttershy's horror the elevator door closes. What little blood Fluttershy has drains from her face, and her ears droop as she sees the doors slide together. Though, she does not have time to curse fate because the Hunter swings around and tries to stab her again. Fluttershy rolls out of the way, her hind leg narrowly avoiding the massive claws that tear into the elevator floor.
The Hunter yanks its claws up and Fluttershy shoots its elbow, splattering the wall with its fleshy bits, and the Hunter swings at her with its other claws, slashing her shotgun into pieces. The impact knocks her off balance and broken shotgun parts clatter to the floor; after that the Hunter roars and stabs at Fluttershy again while its other arm regrows, but she avoids that attack, shrieking as she dodges it. The large claws puncture the elevator door and Fluttershy activates her SAD rifle and shoots that arm until it pops off, and then she shoots the other arm while it is in the middle of regrowing, sending shredded flesh flying around.
The Hunter roars again and staggers as blood squirts over the floor, and with both of its arms severed Fluttershy scrambles on top of its shoulders and pushes against the ceiling's emergency exit. It pops open on the first push, but before she can escape the Hunter tilts its body and slams her into the elevator door. Pain shoots through her back and limps, and she gasps and clutches the creature tightly, watching with dread as its destroyed arms regrow from bone to flesh.
The Hunter pulls back and then slams her into the door again, denting it and bringing her to scream and clutch it harder. Red lights swirl in the elevator and it jerks to a stop as a warning message appears, and when the Hunter pulls away its arms are back to their full form. Fluttershy scrambles over its shoulders and rolls over its back, bouncing off its sharp spines, which cut the metal plating of her suit, and she lands on her stomach on the floor, next to the severed arm.
The Hunter whirls around, and with her suit slick with rust colored blood Fluttershy grabs the severed arm and plunges it claws into the Necormorph's chest. The claws stab through its chitin and she screams as she pushes into it, forcing it into the wall. She ducks when it swings at her with one arm arm, and she rolls away when it slashes at her with its other arm. Once she rolls upright, Fluttershy unslings her SAD rifle and sprays the Hunter in a circular motion. The creature jerks and screeches as the bullets tear it apart, and blood and sparks fly all over the elevator. Within seconds the arms and legs fall off, what's left of its head rolls off of its neck, and its chest falls open, spilling shredded organs and shattered bones all over the floor, and the rotten hunk of meat splashes into the pool of blood that trickles through the holes in the floor. With the Hunter currently down for the count, Fluttershy slings her rifle and coils her body as she looks at the hanging latch, which has a grip at its edge.
The red and green fire burns bright from the Hunter, and Fluttershy leaps up, barely able to grab the grip in her battered state, and she grinds teeth as she pulls herself up. Her hooves feel like they are going to pop when she reaches for the roof's ledge, and her abdomen burns and tightens as she pulls herself up, using her hind legs for a boost when they find ground on the latch's grip. With a loud scream she pulls the rest of her body up and rolls on her back on the roof, panting with sweat soaking her mane to her face and burning her eye with the salty droplets.
Then come three big claws popping up right next to her hind leg. Fluttershy shrieks, rolls upright, and aims her rifle at the claws as they retract, leaving three gashes with light bleeding through them. Stomps shake the elevator, and the claws return a couple of seconds later, popping up right in front of Fluttershy's face. She backpedals and bumps into the elevator cables, and upon doing that she looks at the cables and sees eight in total with two on each corner. After that she looks up to see that they extend into the darkness, and as soon as the claws pull away, she looks at the four pulleys that the cables are connected to.
Fluttershy hastily wraps her hoofs around one of the cables, and then shoots the pulley with her rifle. Sparks fly, and the stream of gunfire sounds like little explosions as the noise echoes in the shaft, and in seconds the pulley is shredded and its remains snap. The elevator jerks to the side, bringing its lights to flicker and a loud thud to shake it. She aims her rifle at the second pulley and shoots it until it snaps. The elevator tilts further and scrapes against the shaft, and the other two pulleys groan, screech and pop with metal bending and bolts popping loose. Claws rip through the roof of the elevator and pull pieces down, and Fluttershy unloads the last of her magazine's ammo into the third pulley. That pulley snaps loose in a matter of seconds and the elevator breaks off from the fourth pulley, sending the metal box into free fall.
As the elevator falls, sparks fly and metallic screeches and scrapes echo in the shaft, and Fluttershy watches the elevator quickly fade into the blackness below, its flickering lights rapidly getting smaller. In a matter of seconds, the lights are just tiny dots, and they disappear with a loud thud, followed by a silence, save for the creaking cables.
Fluttershy is shaking, sore, and wants to puke, and after returning her rifle to its slot she looks up and turns on her helmet light to see the door to one of the floors not too far from her; and just above that is an elevator shaft. But with her being a crippled pegasus holding on to cables in a forsaken ship infested with demons that door and shaft might as well be a mile away. This, in turn, brings Fluttershy to take a deep, sickly breath and brace herself for a nasty climb.
If times were good for the Bon Voyage, andsomeone were to be standing in the Section G elevator lobby waiting for the lift to show up they would be surprised to hear thuds, groan and mutters coming from beyond the door. Then they would be equally surprised to hear scrapping in the vents, and probably scream and after Fluttershy breaks through the vent grate and lands sideways on the floor, coughing and wheezing and barely able to move. But since nobody is around and the Bon Voyage is having a bad day nobody sees Fluttershy suffering. She is all alone. Fluttershy arches her back and retracts her helmet to expose her face. Her mouth hangs open, sweat drips off her muzzle and clumped mane, and her eye has trouble focusing on the floor as her dry heaving scratches her stomach and throat.
“Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy looks up and smiles weakly as Zephyr gallops towards her and uses his body to help her stand up.
“There, there, big bro's got you,” says Zephyr.
“Thanks,” wheezes Fluttershy. “But I told you to go to the bridge.”
“And leave you? Never!”
He then hugs her tight, and Fluttershy returns the hug. While they are hugging, Fluttershy notices the red light of a camera looking at them from above the doorway, so she gently pries herself away from Zephyr and hobbles towards the red light. Zephyr stays behind and quietly watches her while she sits down to remove the miniature battery from her saddle. With the battery in her hoofs, her face is bathed in its blue light and she holds the battery up to the camera.
“Dr. Rock, I have the battery,” says Fluttershy.
“Excellent!” says Dr. Rock a few seconds later. “We're almost home. Don't forget me now. I'm still waiting in Section 0.”
“I won't.”
“Good.”
The intercom clicks off, and Fluttershy clips the battery back on her saddle and smiles at Zephyr.
“We're almost home,” says Fluttershy.
Zephyr squees and prances in circles around Fluttershy while she walks forward. “Oh, thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you! I thought I was going to die here, and I know you said you forgive me but I still feel bad for sending you those mean messages and-and, oh, I just want to get off this ship and go to a spa!”
Fluttershy looks at her taller, younger brother, silent, but smiling brightly. They may not be off the ship just yet, but they will be soon enough.
Soon she and Zephyr will escape.
Soon they will reconnect as a family.
Soon they will be whole again.
Author's Note
Ho. Lee. Guacamole. God bless the USA, this chapter was rough. With all the crap that has been happening since I started this chapter and all that I wanted to put in it I'm surprised that I got it done before the year's end. I swear my vision blurred trying to get this thing finished tonight, and I am glad its done.
In the derelict halls of the Bon Voyage , Fluttershy's steps barely make a sound. The hallway is dim, with only red emergency lights here or there, as well as bloody streaks or messages painted on the wall. One of the messages in front of the camera reads:
Star Tracker
GO TO HELL!
Fluttershy keeps walking, though. So far nothing has come out to try to kill them, but that doesn't make her feel any better. Another thing that isn't helping her situation is Zephyr Breeze and his inability to shut up.
“But her mane was just awful! ” claims Zephyr dramatically. “No care, whatsoever. I knew she was using the cheap store brand stuff to wash her mane, and I was like: Look, girl, take it from a professional, use the all-natural stuff. And she said, sure, but never did it. Typical customer.”
“Uh huh,” mutters Fluttershy as she looks at a vent they are passing.
“And then there was this guy. Now I'm not gay, but if I was a mare, I would be drooling over him.”
Fluttershy scrunches her muzzle.
“But he was also using the name brand which are just loaded with chemical junk that wrecks the mane and scalp and was wondering why he was getting dandruff,” says Zephyr. “I told him that the chemicals in these fancy brands are messing up his scalp. I told him to bite the bullet and get the good all-natural stuff and you won't have dandruff.”
“Zephyr, I need you to stay quiet for maybe... a few hours,” instructs Fluttershy.
“Why?”
Fluttershy looks at him, frowning, and Zephyr stares back with a blank look.
“Why?” asks Zephyr.
Fluttershy waves her hoof around the forsaken ship, her stare hardening.
“Why?” asks Zephyr again.
“Really!?” snaps Fluttershy.
Zephyr snickers and rubs her mane, not noticing her wince when his hoof scrapes against her burnt scalp.
“I'm just messing you, sis. I have my obligations, after all,” says Zephyr.
“I'm glad to see that you haven't changed,” says Fluttershy dryly. “But please stay quiet. I don't want to attract the Necromorphs.”
“Oh, the space zombies? Yeah, they're mean. They killed my marefriend.”
“Wait, you had a marefriend and you didn't tell me!? And you're acting like this!? You should be moping!”
Zephyr puts his hoof to Fluttershy's lips. “Shush, sis. And this is me moping. Better to flutter on and forget the dead than to dwell on them.” Then his expression falls, and he looks at the floor, slowly rubbing his hoof against the metal walkway. “Not like I could help her, anyway. Or anypony else for that matter. It's like we're all destined to die here.”
Fluttershy puts her hoof under Zephyr's chin and lifts his head so they are looking at each other. “We're not going to die here. I promise I'll get us home.”
“And we'll be whole again?”
Fluttershy smiles and nods, and then she hugs Zephyr. He returns the hug a moment later, and after a few seconds of being still, Fluttershy pulls away.
“What was her name?”
“Daisy.”
“We'll make a memorial for Daisy when we got off the ship and you can mourn properly. Just stay close to me and I won't let anything happen to you.”
Zephyr nods and follows close behind Fluttershy when she continues forward. They walk in silence for a few minutes (much to Fluttershy's relief), and as they walk, Fluttershy kills a few Slashers that have wandered their path, but other than that, the walk has not been too bad. But after a few more minutes of traveling through the death trap of a ship, a familiar voice catches her attention.
“-Very good, Officer Slingshot,” says Dr. Rock.
Fluttershy stops.
“Now that you have that battery why don't you come to me and we can get out of here?” says the Doctor.
“No, you aren't real,” says Slingshot.
Fluttershy's eye twitches and her steps become heavy as she marches towards the corner, teeth clenched and nostrils flaring with her cutter ready.
“I'm as real as you are,” says Dr. Rock.
Fluttershy rounds the corner and when she sees Slingshot looking at a red-light camera, she stomps her hoof, bringing Slingshot to jump and aim his shotgun at her while she has her cutter aimed at him.
Slingshot's colors drain and he shakes his head while Dr. Rock makes a low, long whistle.
“Oh, boy. You really did it now,” says Dr. Rock.
“Stop talking to me!” snaps Slingshot. He jabs his shotgun towards Fluttershy. “And you, get out of my head!”
“I'm not in your head, I'm in front of you,” says Fluttershy.
She takes a step forward and Slingshot steps back.
“No! You are not real!” says Slingshot.
“We are real,” says Fluttershy, motioning to herself and Zephyr, “and you left me behind to get mauled!”
“You died! I saw you get torn to pieces by the Necromorphs!”
“I am real.” Fluttershy steps closer and holds out her hoof. “Do you want to feel me for proof?”
Slingshot stares at Fluttershy, and she wags her hoof at him, but he doesn't move.
“Maybe offer him a kiss?” asks Zephyr.
Fluttershy mule kicks him.
“Awww~ Sheesh. I'll be quiet,” says Zephyr.
“Thank you,” says Fluttershy. She steps forward and keeps her hoof extended to Slingshot. “Well?”
“I saw you die,” says Slingshot.
“I lived. Barely.”
Slingshot remains frozen in place, his shotgun aimed at her while her suit has her cutter aimed at him with her hoof still raised.
“I see her, too. She's real, just like me, just like you,” says Dr. Rock. “And from the looks of it, she has a miniature warp battery, as well. Put down the guns, you two, and work together so all of us can get off this tub.”
Slingshot swallows and inches forward, and when he is close enough to Fluttershy he extends his talons to her and grips her hoof. It is a firm grip, and the two lock eyes with Fluttershy offering a smile.
“See? I'm real,” says Fluttershy.
“I... I guess you are,” says Slingshot.
Then Fluttershy slaps him on the cheek.
“Ow! What was that for?” says Slingshot, rubbing his cheek.
“Don't leave me again!” scolds Fluttershy.
Slingshot glares at her and she returns the look before focusing on the camera.
“You,” says Fluttershy.
“Me?” says Dr. Rock.
“Where is Section 0?”
“You mean you intend to keep your promise?”
Fluttershy nods.
“How noble. And smart. But to answer your question, Section 0 is above the bridge. When you reach the bridge, I'll make sure that Captain Star Tracker opens the door for you, and then we'll be on our way home!”
Fluttershy smiles. “Good. I'll see you in a few minutes.”
“Great rewards are coming your way, Fluttershy. Not so great for you, Slingshot, since you're a pill, but they'll be good, nonetheless.”
Slingshot grunts, the intercom clicks off, and Fluttershy walks ahead with Zephyr and Slingshot trailing her, still holding her smile. Eager to finally get a chance to kill Star Tracker and if Arcos Hieroglyph is who she thinks it is, kill him, too.
After a few paces away from the camera, Fluttershy activates her radio, bringing Rainbow Dash's hoof to appear on a crooked footage with her grunting and banging something on the door. The feed is bathed in green from its night vision mode, and the thick door now has scratches on it, and on the floor are spent bullet shells. Behind her, Thunderlane is slumped against the wall, eyes closed and wings limp and a pool of blood around him.
“Rainbow Dash, I found the security officer, Zephyr and a couple of miniature warp batteries. I can fix Thunderlane and we can get out of here,” says Fluttershy.
“Rarity Belle, Roid Rage Snowflake, Moonlight Aura, Comet Tail, Hothoof Trotter, Red Joystick, Gage Meter,” mutters Rainbow Dash. “Rarity Belle, Roid Rage Snowflake, Moonlight Aura, Comet Tail, Hothoof Trotter, Red Joystick, Gage Meter.”
“Rainbow Dash?” calls Fluttershy.
“Rarity Belle, Roid Rage Snowflake, Moonlight Aura, Comet Tail, Hothoof Trotter, Red Joystick, Gage Meter,” continues Rainbow Dash. She bangs harder, grunting louder. “I know their names. I didn't forget. How could I forget? I didn't forget.”
“Rainbow Dash, can you hear me?”
Rainbow Dash throws something and its clatter is distant. She then goes to Thunderlane and sits in front of him, blocking him from Fluttershy's sight.
“It's okay, Thunderlane. We'll get out of here. We'll make it... Yeah, that's the spirit. You got this.” Rainbow Dash stands up and begins pacing in circles. “Rarity Belle, Roid Rage Snowflake, Moonlight Aura, Comet Tail, Hothoof Trotter, Red Joystick, Gage Meter.”
Rainbow Dash chuckles and sniffles, and then stops and stares ahead, her wet eyes wide and bright and her wings stiff. Then her eyes narrow and she snarls, taking a heavy step forward.
“You want to be whole? I'll make you whole!” Rainbow Dash pulls out her pistol shoots sporadically down the hallway, her voice distorted by the pistol in her mouth. “C'mere! Let me make you whole!”
Her hoof crushes the camera and video feed fuzzes out with an error message appearing soon after. A few seconds later the error message flickers away, and Fluttershy pales and looks at Slingshot.
“We need to get to the bridge, right now!” she says.
Slingshot nods and hurries ahead. “Follow me.”
Fluttershy follows his lead with Zephyr trailing her, and the halls are quiet once again, save for the occasional rattling in the vents. This brings Fluttershy to wondering if the Necromorphs are trailing them, or if she killed so many that their numbers have thinned. It is a colony ship, after all. The Necromorphs have a finite supply. Thought of numbers aside, Fluttershy looks over her shoulder and sees Zephyr is still there. That's a good sight.
Fluttershy looks back and spots Slingshot rounding a corner, so she follows him without missing a beat. They continue running, legs, lungs and wounds burning, going through the maze of destroyed halls and doors. Some doors open, some need some persuading, but they go through them all the same. Fluttershy has not even tried to keep track of where she traveled since she is too focused on getting to the bridge, but one thing stands out after their unknown amount of time running, and that is a large door with green trim, a large window with blood splattered on it, and fake trees flanking it. Above the door is a dim, flickering sign reading: TERRARIUM.
“Just past the Terrarium there is a set of stairs that will take us to the bridge,” says Slingshot. He peeks through the window, but due to the large amount of blood covering it he can't see anything. With that, he checks his shotgun and then looks at Fluttershy. “We'll have to be careful. There was a lot of traffic in this area during the final days of this ship.”
Fluttershy nods and activates her cutter, and Slingshot takes a deep breath and opens the door. The group cringes as the metal squeaks and groans, and when the doors pull apart, they slam inside their slots, creating an echo in the chamber that sounds like a gunshot. Slingshot is the first to go forward, followed by Fluttershy, and she looks over her shoulder again to see Zephyr following close behind.
“Stay close,” whispers Fluttershy.
Zephyr nods, and Fluttershy looks around the Terrarium. Its air is stale, trees, wilted flowers and dead grass cover the area, and in front of the Terrarium is a large observation window that gives an excellent view of Onyx and its red dwarf star.
“EVACUATE” flickers on the observation window, and Fluttershy notices that the trees are roughly cut or damaged with shrapnel and bullet holes, and many flowers have been trampled, too. Off to the side are a couple of damaged carts and a gift shop with its window shattered, its window chains destroyed, and displays knocked over. There is also a pool of blood in what is left of the doorway, and near the gift shop is another entrance to the Terrarium that has been forced open. However, despite the Terrarium being a corpse, nothing seems to be trying to kill them. In fact, the whole area is quiet.
Fluttershy doesn't like that.
Then some slobber drips in front of the group, sizzling when it hits the floor, and the group stops and slowly look up. When they see what is hanging from the Terrarium ceiling Slingshot's beak hangs open and Fluttershy activates her helmet.
It is time for round two.
And this time she will kill that thing.
Author's Note
Been busy. Rushed this. But be honest, you love a mare in uniform.
A patch of the floor sizzles with the stench of melting metal rising as thick slobber falls from the ceiling. Fluttershy and Slingshot slowly look up and see a multitude of red eyes looking down at them with its limbs and claws made up of twisted limbs, spiny bones, and strands of warped flesh. Bags of yellow puss and green acid pulse inside its thick rib cage, and acidic slobber drips from the fangs on its mouth, made from multiple twisted jaws.
Slingshot's beak hangs open and Fluttershy activates her helmet, and when the Uber Puker drops from the ceiling Fluttershy pushes Zephyr to the side while Slingshot flies away. The floor shakes from its landing, and its eyes focus on Fluttershy as it roars, spraying the area with thin streams of spit that burn everything they touch.
Fluttershy rolls to her hooves with her cutter activated and shoots a salvo of beams at the large Necromorph. The red beams cut into it, and it roars and pukes out a stream of acid that Fluttershy dives away from. The acid hits the tree and floor, bringing the floor to warp and peel apart, exposing soil and roots that quickly burn away while pieces of the tree dissolves in seconds.
“Zephyr! Stay back!” orders Fluttershy.
She shoots a few more beams at the creature and jumps out of the way of another stream of acid puke, and Slingshot swoops overhead and fires a slug into the Uber Puker. It shrieks and swipes at him, but he evades it and shoots another slug into it while Fluttershy keeps shooting it with her cutter. The Uber Puker roars and rushes towards Fluttershy, taking a swipe at her that rips out chunks of a tree she had been standing in front of before leaping out of the way. Splinters fly, and the tree falls over, shaking the floor with its impact, and Fluttershy scrambles to her hoofs and gallops away as the Uber Puker chases after her.
Each step from her makes her collection of wounds throb, and her throat feels like it is tearing as her breathing becomes ragged. She looks over her shoulder, and eeps and divers down as the Uber Puker slashes at her again, and while she is on the ground she rolls away as it pukes acid. She turns on her back and shoots a few more rounds from her cutter, aiming at the beast's ribs, and it screeches as the red lasers slice through its bone and pops one of its acid bags. The acid gushes out, and the Terrarium's dead flora burns away as the acid spreads and sinks into the soil.
The Uber Puker roars painfully and stumbles back, and Fluttershy gets on her hoofs, ejects the empty battery and is in the middle of reloading when something lands on her back, knocking her down to the ground. Then comes the fast pricks into her, and she screams in pain and rolls around as the Twitcher latches on to her.
Fluttershy rolls around until the Twitcher breaks loose, and then she punches it in the face and shoots off its leg and head with her cutter. While it wobbles around, stabbing the air without a target she turns her attention to the Uber Puker, but pales behind her helmet when she sees a swarm of Necromorphs rushing in from another broken door, from Slashers to Pukers, and Twitchers to Lurkers. Even Slingshot having an aerial battle with a Griffin Necromorph while a thestral-like Infector scurrying about on the ceiling, watching the scene unfold.
The Uber Puker sprays more acid at Fluttershy, and she registers the acid just in time to jump out of the way, leading to the headless Twitcher getting melted. It thrashes around as its flesh melts off, and Fluttershy gallops to the Uber Puker and slides underneath it, shooting more cutter beams along its underside as she goes. Bones break, bags pop, and the Uber Puker shrieks and thrashes as the mix of puss and acid falls with broken ribs. In hindsight, it was a dumb move since the spilling acid almost gets her, but with the acid bags out of the equation she will no longer have to worry about getting melted. Only stabbed or mauled like a normal victim.
As the Uber Puker thrashes and shotgun blasts ring out, Fluttershy staggers to her hoofs and whacks a Slasher that has run up to her, and as it stumbles away she turns and shoots a couple more Slashers before turning to her first target and shooting off its limbs and scythes.
Fluttershy ejects her battery and slips a new on in as a dead Griffin Necromorph lands near her, and more shotgun blasts echo in the room with the screams, shrieks, and roars of the Necromroph swarm. Then she suddenly goes airborne with a pain running along her thigh, and as she sails through the air she turns her body and braces herself for impact, hitting the upper portion of a tree and bouncing off the branches as she falls, taking broken wood with her. When she lands, she growls through her gritted teeth and tears flow down her face as a medical warning flashes on her cracked visor. Her thigh throbs, her heart is heavy and her throat stings as she crawls on the ground, watching with a hazy vision as the swarm rushes towards her or tries to reach Slingshot, who has taken a perch on one of the trees and is frantically reloading his shotgun.
“Hold on!” yells Slingshot, his voice muffled by the loud thumps in her ears.
Fluttershy pushes herself up, seething and panting, and switches to her rifle, firing bursts into the swarm while the Uber Puker stomps towards her with sluggish steps and leaving a trail of puss and blood in its wake.Some Necromorphs drop from her shooting, and she quickly detaches her rifle and switches it to the 180 mode.
“We only want what is best for you,” says the soft spoken stallion.
“Please don't be mad,” says the soft mare.
Fluttershy plants her rifle firmly in the ground, panting and glaring ahead at the swarm.
“But that was my dream,” says Fluttershy.
“You can have a better one with us,” says the stallion.
Fluttershy pulls the lever and the swarm is pushes back by the swiveling stream of bullets that tear into them.
“Praise the Great Marker! Unity is forever!” shouts the charismatic mare.
Fluttershy tosses her rifle aside and activates her shotgun, firing into the crowd which is now closer.
“Through you, the Convergence will come. Through you, we will be made whole,” says Seer Zaeem.
The Necromorphs jerk and collapse as the bullets tear into them, and right as the Uber Puker raises its massive claws, Slingshot zips by and snatches Fluttershy. The Uber Puker's claws rip into the dead soil, and it roars and furiously slashes at the tree Fluttershy hit, but they are safe in the air.
“That's twice, now,” says Slingshot with a relieved smile.
Fluttershy nods, but then her eye bulges and she points behind Slingshot. “Look out!”
Too late.
Slingshot gets rammed by a Griffin Necromorph and all three spiral to the ground, crashing hard and bouncing across the ground, kicking up dirt as they go. When they stop, Fluttershy activates her cutter, groggily gets on her hoofs and shoots the Necromorph while it tries to get up, and then the same Necromorph has its chest blown open by Slingshot, whose wing is now limp and covered in blood. The Griffin Necromorph struggles to stay up, but it stays down after a few more shots from the pair blow its body to pieces, and then Slingshot seethes and tries flexing his bloody wing.
“Oh no. Not good. Not good,” says Slingshot with tears in his eyes and chest heaving from hyperventilation. “I-I think its broken!”
“You'll be fine. We just have a few more left to go,” says Fluttershy as she shakily reloads her cutter and looks at the swarm and Uber Puker rushing towards them. “How much ammo do you have left?”
“Not enough. You?”
Fluttershy looks at her ammo count in her visor's HUD. “…Enough. Maybe… Hopefully…”
Before the swarm can reach them, a bright flash of light appears from the doorway near the gift shop, and a stream of bullets rip apart the Necromorphs in the back. The swarm and Uber Puker turn to the newcomer, and with a roar they rush towards them. As this happens, Fluttershy uses her body to help Slingshot walk, and they limp towards a tree and she eases him down,
“Zephyr!” calls Fluttershy.
“Yeah?” Zephyr pokes his head out from their tree, with most of his body hidden by the dead leaves.
“Stay by Slingshot. Keep him safe.”
Fluttershy looks at Slingshot and sees he still has the miniature warp battery, and she looks at her suit and sees she still has hers. Then she looks at her little team and offers a weak smile.
“I'll be back,” says Fluttershy.
Before they can say anything, Fluttershy gallops out of cover and runs towards the swarm, passing dead Necromorphs and watching as they chase someone through the Terrarium's dead forest. She slides to a stop, looks at the Uber Puker and unclips her miniature warp battery. She then takes a deep breath, coils her hoof, and chucks it as hard as she can towards the swarm. The glowing blue battery sails through the air, and while it is twirling, she pulls out her cutter and shoots at it.
Miss.
Miss.
Miss.
Miss.
Miss!
MISS!
When the battery lands, it bounces and rolls across the ground, near the swarm, and Fluttershy takes a deep breath and fires another shot.
There is a bright flash of white light, followed by a crackling of electricity that pulls on every cell in her body and starts dragging her forward. Fluttershy strains every part of her body to pull herself behind a tree, and she squeezes her eye shut as the bright light burns through her visor. The tree groans and snaps, plants burn, glass breaks, wind howls and an alarm rings out with emergency lights flashing for only a moment before popping. Then there is a loud POP that leaves Fluttershy's ears ringing... and after that is dead silence.
Fluttershy opens her eye and pokes her head around the corner, gasping when she sees the observation window has been covered with a layer of metal with jagged glass at its edges. The Terrarium itself is dark with only tiny pockets of light being made by sporadic rain of sparks, and there is a giant hole in the center with metal and pipes warped around its edges. The soil is also gone, the flowers and grass are no longer there and most of the trees have disappeared, save for a few that have toppled or somehow only came out crooked. The Necromorphs are also gone, and the gift shop is gutted. The Terrarium is just a hole in the ship now, and Fluttershy could not have asked for a more awesome kill. And now that the Uber Puker is dead...
“Zephyr? Zephyr!” calls Fluttershy with a racing heart and panic in her voice. “Slingshot!? Zephyr!? Anypony!?”
“Right here!” says Zephyr, poking his head up from behind a toppled tree while Slingshot walks out with his injured wing pressed against his side.
Fluttershy laughs with relief, gallops to Zephyr and hugs him, despite every her muscle and bone feeling like they are about to disconnect string by string. But she keeps hugging Zephyr tight, and after a few seconds lunges at Slingshot and gives him a tight bear hug, which surprises (and pains) him, and he awkwardly returns the hug.
“That was cool! You are far from the little sister I grew up with. Dare I say you grew a spine!” says Zephyr.
“Ha. Ha,” says Fluttershy as she releases Slingshot and glances at Zephyr.
“You've also gotten sassy. Sassyshy will be a good nickname for you.”
“I’m impressed. I never would have thought of using a warp battery as a bomb,” says Slingshot. “But how about the wing?”
Fluttershy smiles, and gently sits Slingshot down and he gives her his flashlight so she can inspect his wing. No doubt about it. It is broken.
“I'll have to make a splint and bandages until we find more medical foam,” says Fluttershy.
“The bridge should have medical supplies,”' says Slingshot, his voice strained. “Fuck, this hurts.”
“You’ll be fine. We’re almost at the bridge and then I’ll take care of you.”
“Aww~” coos Zephyr.
He is quickly punched for that.
“Did that just happen?” says the newcomer angrily, her heavy Ozark accent easily carried in the desolate remains of the Terrarium. “Who in the hell thought it was a good idea to detonate a warp battery!? We're trying to live, damn it!”
Fluttershy's ears perk and she retracts her helmet. She knows that voice!
“Applejack!” calls Fluttershy.
Fluttershy gallops towards Applejack with the help of the flashlight, and the engineer turns to Fluttershy, eyes widening and her hat still on her head. Her suit has seen better days, with the scratches, the patches and the blood, but that doesn't stop her from smiling and embracing Fluttershy, both laughing joyously while Slingshot looks at the pair with a smile of his own. When the two are done, Applejack pulls away and holds Fluttershy at hoof length, giving her a quick visual inspection.
“Oh, Fluttershy! You... Wow, look at you. I told you you'd be fine,” says Applejack.
Fluttershy's smile fades. “Yeah... But the others...”
Applejack's smile fades, too, and she lowers her head with her hat pressed against her barrel.
“I know, but none of that is your fault, or Dash's or the Captain's. None of us were prepare for this, but if we keep our heads on straight, we'll make it and we'll have a proper funeral for all of them when this over... Did you at least find your brother in all this mess?”
“I did!” Fluttershy points to Zephyr, smiling brightly. “Say 'Hi', Zephyr.”
Zephyr snorts and looks away. “Sorry, she's not my type.”
Smile gone. Glare engaged. “Zephyr!”
Applejack glances at Slingshot, and he offers a small shrug.
“I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name,” says Applejack.
“Slingshot. Rocky Slingshot,” says the griffin. “I'm a security officer... Are you real?”
“She is,” says Fluttershy.
“I can speak for myself,” chides Applejack. She looks at Slingshot, and offers her hoof, which he cautiously shakes with his arm extended as far as possible. “The name's Applejack. I'm from the UEG Rescue Division. I was supposed to repair a communications relay here and on the planet but that didn't work out too well.”
“What system are you from?”
“I'm from Sparkle Station. It’s in the Celestial Sisters System.”
Slingshot pulls away. “Odd.”
Applejack blinks. “Odd?”
“Odd that they would send someone from the Celestial Sisters System to fix the relay system when there are three more closer to us. And only one person, too. Really odd.”
“Hey, I ain't in charge of the schedule. They point, I fix. End of story.”
Slingshot nods slowly and lightly taps his shotgun's trigger guard, and Applejack's eyes flick between his gun and his eyes.
“Ya plan on using that on me?” asks Applejack.
“Depends... Do you want to be whole again?” asks Slingshot.
“Slingshot, that's enough,” says Fluttershy.
She butts her way between the two, giving both a sharp look.
“We have enough problems, and you two just met, so you shouldn't be fighting. Instead, you should be working together,” says Fluttershy. “Besides, we still need to get to the bridge so we can get to the others and get out of here.”
“Yeah, you're right.” Applejack takes a deep breath. “Well, next stop, the bridge.”
Slingshot nods. “We're close. We should be there in a few minutes if we don't get caught up in another mess.”
Suddenly, there is a loud whir and the sound of armor, flesh and bone breaking, and Slingshot's eyes bulge as he jerks forward with blood dripping out of his mouth. He wheezes, and Fluttershy and Applejack's eyes widen as Zephyr steps back.
“S-Slingshot,” stammers Fluttershy.
Slingshot collapses with a circular saw blade lodged in his back, and Fluttershy rushes to his side and holds his head on her lap.
“Slingshot!” Fluttershy presses her hoof against his neck, and then her ear against his beak, pulling back a moment later with tears flowing down her cheek. “No...”
“Troublemaker~ Troublemaker~ Troublemaker lived,” says Mama, her voice flowing from the broken doorway by the gift shop.
Fluttershy looks up, breathing tight and vision going red as Mama stares at her from the hallway, her eyes and horn glowing in the dark, which illuminate the teeth from her broad grin.
“Come, Troublemaker! Make Starry whole again!” says Mama.
Applejack shoots at Mama, but the bullets bounce harmlessly off her shield, covering her in ripples of green and red, and she shrieks and shoots a beam at the group. The beam streaks forward, and Applejack leaps out of the way, and Fluttershy rolls to the side while Zephyr dives for cover. The beam destroys a tree and sends burnt splinters twirling, and the tree snaps and falls over as Honey Creme steps out of the hallway, giggling and swaying in her steps with her gray mane hanging past her eyes and her tail flicking.
“What the hell was that!?” says Applejack, scrambling up and aiming her weapon at the unicorn.
“Applejack,” says Fluttershy. She stands up and narrows her eye on Mama. “Take Zephyr to the bridge.”
“What're ya gonna do?”
Fluttershy marches forward and activates her helmet and cutter.
“I'm going to kill her,” says Fluttershy.
Author's Note
Another rushed one because of reasons. Also, Fluttershy is scary when she's mad.
“Applejack,” says Fluttershy. She stands up and narrows her eye on Mama. “Take Zephyr to the bridge.”
“What're ya gonna do?” asks Applejack.
Fluttershy marches forward and activates her helmet and cutter.
“I'm going to kill her,” says Fluttershy.
“What! You're crazy!” says Applejack.
“This is the only way to be whole.”
Mama cackles and revs her saw as she approaches Fluttershy, and Fluttershy turns her march into a full gallop, nostrils flaring, breathing scratchy and vision blood red.
Arcos Hieroglyph, Star Tracker, Pyro, Mama, the Frail Stallion.
They all must die.
They will die!
Fluttershy's yell is scratchy and psychotic as she rushes Mama, and when the unicorn shoots a saw at her she dodges it, not missing a beat as the saw blade zooms past her. Mama giggles and slips another saw blade into her weapon, but before she can fire, Fluttershy tackles her and they roll over each other into the dark hallway. There is no light in the hallway, only dark silhouettes of her and the psycho. Fluttershy can feel her fur trying to stand inside her suit when she gets back on her hoofs, and her heart thumps in her chest as excitement floods her veins.
Mama gets up, and Fluttershy rams her into the wall and punches her in the maw, just to be blasted back with an energy discharge. Fluttershy hits the wall behind her, and she growls and charges Mama again. Mama revs her saw, illuminating her maniac smile as her levitation guides her weapon, and Fluttershy pushes it up when she shoots it. The saw blade launches into the ceiling, showering the two with sparks, and Mama pushes against Fluttershy, forcing her down the hallway on her hind legs. Fluttershy soon trips over herself and Mama lands on top of her and slams her weapon against Fluttershy's helmet.
Fluttershy’s visor cracks and her ears ring, and Mama goes for another hit but is kicked off. The unicorn flips over and lands awkwardly on her side and Fluttershy gets up and stomps on her head. There is a crack and Mama twitches, and Fluttershy retracts her helmet, bites on Mama's tail and drags her deeper into the dark hallway.
Her heart is beating fast, now.
Her breathing is heavy, and her thoughts are a blur.
She hears laughter. Is it hers or Honey's?
Is someone calling her?
Who cares! Mama must die!
Arcos Hieroglyph, Star Tracker, Pyro, Mama, the Frail Stallion.
They all must die.
They will die!
She will make sure they die!
Mama suddenly rolls on her side and shoots Fluttershy in the chest with her magic beam. The impact knocks the air out of her lungs and sends her flying into the ceiling. Dead light bulbs shatter from her hitting them, and when she lands on her stomach, Mama uses her magic to pull her up by her mane and slugs her in the face.
Fluttershy’s vision is knocked into a scramble, and she is tugged back up and punched again. Lots of blood flows out of her mouth, dripping to the floor and staining her yellow fur in red, but she doesn't feel the pain. She feels nothing but the desire to kill Mama. She must kill her. Needs to kill her, and that is what she will do.
Mama goes for another punch, and Fluttershy blocks it, head butts her and while the unicorn back pedals, Fluttershy rams her. The force sends Mama and Fluttershy rolling down the stairs. The two bounce off of the walls and steps, and Fluttershy's vision becomes a blur of red lights and dark colors, and when she lands at the bottom, both mares grunt, shift and cough, with Mama releasing a pained giggle soon after.
Fluttershy pushes herself up, but before she can do anything, she is wrapped in an aura tentacle and thrown against the wall. She is lifted and thrown against the other wall, and then the ceiling, and when she lands her ears are ringing and blood is caking her eyebrows and eye bandage. Then she is kicked on her back and Mama jumps on top of her, laughing with a saw blade in her magical grip.
“Sing with me, Troublemaker!” says Mama. “Twinkle, twinkle little star! How I wonder what you are!”
Mama presses herself down on Fluttershy and aims the saw at her face while Fluttershy pushes against her face.
“Up above the world so high! Like a diamond in the sky!”
Fluttershy's throat bobs as the blade touches it.
“Twinkle, twinkle little star!”
Fluttershy quickly retracts her hoof and slams it under Mama’s chin. Her head snaps up and broken teeth fly out as her magic flickers out. The saw blade clatters to the floor, and Mama giggles painfully as thick ropes of blood drip out of her mouth, and Fluttershy rolls Mama beneath her and stomps on her horn. The horn shatters and Mama's giggle turns into a shriek of pain as translucent green fluid soaks her forehead and mane, and Fluttershy steps off of her and grabs the saw blade on the floor as the unicorn thrashes on the ground.
Fluttershy picks up the blade. Its sleek metal reflects the red light in the hallway, and Fluttershy looks at Mama, chest heavy and her cauterized throat burning. Fluttershy narrows her eye and limps towards Mama, and when the unicorn stands up, she slashes Mama's throat. Mama gags and coughs with blood squirting out of her ripped throat. She stumbles backwards, presses her hoof against her wound, her eyes losing color as blood and green horn fluid mix, and with a vicious yell, Fluttershy rams the saw blade into Mama's chest and then punches her in the maw. Mama drops, gurgles, and then falls silent.
“Fluttershy!” calls Applejack.
Fluttershy stares at the body, chest heaving and teeth grinding.
“Fluttershy!”
The lights above flash on, and Fluttershy's hardened expression melts to horror as she looks at Mama's corpse.
Steps bang down the stairs and Fluttershy stumbles back, collapsing and hyperventilating as she looks at Mama's lifeless eyes.
Applejack runs into view with Zephyr behind him, and she skids to a stop and sees Mama's corpse. She stares at the corpse for a second before she gallops to Fluttershy's side and looks her in the eye while Zephyr looks at the corpse.
“Hey, Fluttershy, can ya hear me?” asks Applejack, stroking her mane gently.
“Wow, you wrecked her,” says Zephyr. “Definitely not the sister I knew.”
Fluttershy looks at Zephyr, and then at Applejack.
“I... I did harm.” Fluttershy takes a deep, shaky breath and coughs in her hoof. Her throat feels like it is going to rip again, and she blinks tears away as she looks at her hoofs. “I'm not supposed to do harm and I killed somepony!”
“Hey, look at me. Look at me!” says Applejack.
Fluttershy looks at her, sniffling and shaking.
“You did what you had to do, okay? I wish ya didn't do it alone, but she already killed one of us and couldn't be allowed to live. No telling how many she hurt or who else she would hurt.” Applejack smiles. “You saved us, Fluttershy.”
Fluttershy swallows and Applejack pulls her in for a hug.
“You'll be alright, I promise. We'll get out of here and then everything will be fine. You'll see,” says Applejack.
Fluttershy gulps and reluctantly returns the hug, but even though Applejack is trying to give her comfort, she can only see Mama’s corpse. But the more that she looks at the corpse, the more the shock fades.
Mama is dead.
That leaves Arcos Hieroglyph, Star Tracker, Pyro, and the Frail Stallion.
When they are dead, then everything will be fine, but she is one step closer to fixing everything, one step closer to being whole, and that brings her to smile and hug Applejack tighter.
Author's Note
Fluttershy is fine. Absolutely fine. We should not be worried about her at all.
Arcos Hieroglyph, Star Tracker, Pyro, and the Frail Stallion.
They must die.
They will die.
Fluttershy has already killed Mama, and the horror has faded to relief. Why was she horrified to begin with? Is it because of “Do no harm”? As a medic Fluttershy took the oath to do no harm, and yet she broke it without hesitation. Maybe that is where the horror came from, but do no harm did not save her, the act of harm did, and doing harm is what will get her, Zephyr, and the others off of this ship.
Fluttershy smiles and buries her muzzle into Applejack's shoulder as she hugs her tight. They are so close to getting off the ship. Everything is getting closer to being fixed. The ones responsible for the Bon Voyage tragedy are coming closer to their end, she has Zephyr, and once she gets to Dr. Rock, she if she can confirm he is Arcos Hieroglyph then can kill him and they can all go home and be whole again.
As the two mares stay in the embrace, time seems to lose all meaning, but one thing they both register is a distant thud, followed by metal bending and breaking, and both of their ears perk. Then they look down the hallway as heavy steps echo in the darkness in front of them. The steps are familiar, and Fluttershy pales and pushes Applejack up.
“Run,” says Fluttershy urgently.
Applejack immediately gallops away and Fluttershy runs after her, their steps banging in the dimly lit stairwell. Zephyr stays close, thankfully, and when the heavy steps get faster the group runs faster down the dark hallway towards the destroyed door to the Terrarium. They run out and like a hive mind they turn into the gift shop and take cover behind the counter.
Fluttershy activates her cutter, keeping it aimed down so the beams don't expose them, and she covers Zephyr's mouth while Applejack readies her weapon, cringing as its clicks echo in the destroyed shop. Fluttershy nearly jumps out of suit and skin when her muzzle is covered, but quickly regains herself when she realizes that it was Applejack's hoof, and the engineer was making the motion to be quiet. Fluttershy decides to leave the weirdness be for now, and the group remains still with only their racing hearts making a noise, and after a few seconds of silence, the heavy steps thump by. The steps stop outside the shop, and a low growl rumbles out, followed by bug-like clicks, and it stays there for a few more seconds before the steps move away from the shop and fade out of ear shot. But even with the steps gone, none of the ponies make a sound until a long moment passes. And all of them exhale with Applejack banging her head against the counter and Fluttershy looking around the corner. There is nothing in the dark silhouettes of shelves, destroyed merchandise and the remains of the Terrarium.
“What was that?” asks Applejack.
“A Hunter,” says Fluttershy. “It regenerates. I dropped it down an elevator shaft, but it only slowed it down.”
“Wait? Ya talking about a Regenerator? That was the thing that got our team when we first got here!”
Fluttershy looks at Applejack. “Really?”
Applejack nods. “Eeyup. That damn thing tore our ship apart, killed the Captain, Roid, the others, and it chased me, Rarity, Thunderlane and Dash until we split up.”
“Oh dear...”
“Yeah... But the good news is that its loud, and if we're lucky we can get to the bridge, get Dash and Thunderlane and get out of here before it finds us again.”
Fluttershy nods and takes one more peek around the corner. “I think it's safe. Stay close to me, Zephyr.”
Zephyr nods, and Fluttershy creeps forward, stopping by the doorway and looking side to side in the dark. When she sees nothing, she moves towards the door at the other end of the Terrarium. Or, what's left of it.
Applejack shines her light down the hallway, and when nothing appears Fluttershy goes forward, followed by Zephyr, and then Applejack. They go down the hallway, trotting and sweeping the hall as they go, and one room they pass has its door partially open with its walls exposed. Blood has splattered on the wall with a dried pool next to it that streaks towards the door, and near the dark crimson stain is an audio disc that Fluttershy immediately goes to.
“Hey, what're ya doing?” says Applejack, following her inside, but stopping when Fluttershy holds out her hoof.
“Watch Zephyr,” orders Fluttershy.
Applejack cocks a brow, and Fluttershy carefully picks up the disk and slips it into her audio band. Truthfully, she is surprised that the band still works, and as the audio plays, she looks at Applejack, who is not guarding Zephyr for some reason, even though her brother is out in the open hallway. But she says nothing, choosing to let her disapproving stare do the talking while she walks past Applejack. When she is by Zephyr, she tugs him close to her and resumes walking down the hallway while the audio plays.
“Is this thing on? Testing testing testing,” says a stallion, his voice quivering with fright while an alarm wails in the background. “It looks like this is working. I see numbers and stuff on this thing.”
Fluttershy rolls her eye, and the stallion takes a deep breath.
“Okay, here we go. This is audio recording number one of Dusty Horseshoe, stock accountant of the Bon Voyage. I'm hoping for there to be a lot more because I do not want to die here,” says the stallion. “That said, that goal will be a little bit hard to do since the life pods have been disabled, but if I can get into the bridge I can force Captain Star Tracker to reactivate them and then I can escape. Wife be damned. I only married her because she was a Unitologist and they have money and connections that would move me up in this sorry excuse for a space empire, and with ninety nine percent of the inhabitants dead that means she's probably dead, too! Heh, I just might make it out as the only survivor, and I can publish this audio log and make a fortune. Get something out of this mess.”
Fluttershy frowns, but before she can think a nasty thought a Slasher breaks through the vent and lands next to Zephyr. It roars and raises it scythe limbs, Zephyr shrieks, and Fluttersher pushes Zephyr aside and rams the Slasher into the wall. She then breaks its rotting maw to pieces with an upper cut, and as it staggers she knocks it down and stomps on it, and keeps stomping on it, snapping its limbs and ribs, and growling with every stomp as its body twitches and its blood squirts up. By the time Fluttershy is done, her limbs and face are dripping with blood and a growing pool of blood surrounds the mutilated Slasher.
“Are you okay?” asks Fluttershy after taking a long, raspy, painful breath.
“For now. I'd hate to be at the wrong end of your hoof,” says Applejack uncomfortably from a short distance away with her weapon aimed at Fluttershy.
“I wasn't talking to you. Zephyr?”
Applejack raises a brow again and Zephyr smiles.
“Fine and dandy!” he says.
“Good,” says Fluttershy.
“So, Zephyr's good?” asks Applejack slowly.
“Yes.”
Applejack nods and Fluttershy notices the earth pony's tail flicking slightly, and she looks at Applejack with a small frown while the light above flickers, putting her in a moment of darkness.
“Is something wrong?” asks Fluttershy.
“Zephyr don't talk much, does he?” asks Applejack.
“I told him to be quiet earlier. He just now started listening.”
“Does he want to talk to me? I'm a good listener.”
“Not my type,” says Zephyr.
“He doesn't want to talk to you,” says Fluttershy.
“Fair enough.” Applejack motions Fluttershy ahead. “Well, we best keep walking.”
The lights flicker again and Fluttershy narrows her eye while Applejack stays put. The audio is also still playing on her band, which Fluttershy is now registering the words while wondering why Applejack is has her weapon aimed at her.
“Look at me rambling. Am I going mad? I must be!” says Dusty.
Applejack stares at Fluttershy, unblinking and her hat tilted down just a bit, covering her eyes in a shadow.
“You okay, hon?” says Applejack.
“You're acting weird,” says Fluttershy.
“No, I'm not going mad. This is real. Everyone else is insane!” says Dusty. “I've seen them changing ever since we stopped above this forsaken planet, but I haven't changed. I'm not mad!”
“How am I acting weird?” asks Applejack.
“You're just... off,” says Fluttershy. She looks at Applejack's weapon for a split second. “You also seem tense.”
“She really is off. I can see it in her eyes,” says Zephyr. “We should ditch her before she snaps.”
“I'm fine. Can't say the same 'bout you, though,” says Applejack.
“They are trying to kill me, but I'll live. They don't know who they are messing with!” says Dusty.
“Why don't you go up front?” suggests Fluttershy, stepping to the side while Applejack's weapon trails her.
“I'd rather not.” Applejack's ear twitches. “In fact, its best you stay up front.”
“Why?”
Fluttershy is really fighting the temptation to activate her cutter, but she figures that will lead to Applejack shooting Zephyr, so she puts herself between Zephyr and Applejack, which leads to Applejack taking a step back.
“'Cuz I don't want ya flipping out and beating me to death,” says Applejack.
Fluttershy stares at Applejack and the engineer looks back, unblinking. Fluttershy's heart thumps in her ear, clashing with the heavy steps and breathing in the audio, and soon the steps turn to banging and the stallion screaming.
“Hey, open up! Let me out!” screams Dusty.
A roar in the audio brings the stallion to stop his screaming, and his hoofs bang against the metal as he runs, followed by a door opening and shutting and him breathing heavily.
Fluttershy paws the floor. “You don't trust me?”
“Fluttershy, you've been muttering the whole time and now you just beat up thin air. I ain't letting you stand behind me,” says Applejack.
“She's lying,” says Zephyr. “You saw that Slasher. Big, ugly, mean.” Zephyr shudders. “Nasty things!”
“You're staying in front of me,” says Applejack firmly.
In the audio, the door opens, and the stallion's heavy breathing is loud in Fluttershy's ear, and her eye focuses on Applejack while she clenches her jaw.
“I think they're... Wait... Is that... It is!” says Dusty. “Hey, Reverend Heart! Over here!”
Fluttershy's heart immediately jumps into her throat and she presses her hoof against her ear bud while her blood runs cold. In the audio, another set of steps approach. The similar, heavy, calculating steps of the Pyro.
“Reverend Heart, I'm so glad to see you!” says Dusty, his voice quivering with fright. “We're being overrun! These things just won't stop! Everypony and everyone is dead, and the Captain has sealed the bridge and now the escape pods won't work! You look like you have been able to take care of yourself so far. If we work together, we can get off this ship.”
“Now you come to me?” says the Pyro with the tired and heavy voice Fluttershy knows. “You turned your nose up at me, mocked me, mocked my flock, my faith, and now when Hell is upon you, you cry for help?”
“Look, I know I was a dick, and I'm sorry, but I promise I will convert, get baptized, whatever I have to do to make you happy when we get off this ship. I even got this audio thing recording everything so we can make bank when we escape! We'll be rich!”
“None of us are leaving.”
“What? Come on, man! Let's be optimistic. Its survival of the fittest. You're here so you're not as weak as I thought, and I'm here so I know I'm good, so let's put our brains together and get off this thing.”
“I will not let any of us leave. This disease cannot spread.”
“Wait... What are you doing? … STOP!”
There is a crack, followed by a cry of pain, followed by heavy stomps and wet, painful gags that turn to gurgles and chokes. Seconds later, the choking is cut off with another heavy stomp and a crunch, leaving just the Reverend's heavy breathing.
“This disease cannot spread. They cannot be made whole,” says Reverend Heart.
Then the audio clicks off and Fluttershy's hoof drops as she looks at Zephyr, and then at Applejack. The light above turns back on, and a new resolve comes over Fluttershy. She has her brother, she has Applejack, and Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane are a short distance away. They will make it off the ship alive. Pyro be damned.
However, the thought of something like the Necromorph infestation spreading sends a chill down her spine, and after hearing the Pyro speak of his mission to stop the infestation she wonders if he is insane like Mama or the only sane one left of the colonists. And how many survivors did he kill to stop the disease from spreading? But on another note, even if he did kill survivors and try to kill her to stop the Necromorph disease from spreading he still killed innocent people and tried to kill her. That is unacceptable. He must die.
He will die.
“Fluttershy?” calls Applejack.
Fluttershy blinks. “Yes?”
“You're muttering again. Ya need to come down to the real world.”
Fluttershy frowns. “Stop lying.”
“I ain't lying.”
Fluttershy snorts and walks ahead. “Sure. Stay next to me, Zephyr.”
“Aren't you worried Applejack will shoot us in the back?” asks Zephyr.
Fluttershy looks over her shoulder and sees Applejack has kept her distance, and Fluttershy motions Zephyr to lower himself so his ear is close to her muzzle.
'Curse him and his height,' thinks Fluttershy before saying quietly, “If she shoots me, run. I'll find you after I kill her.”
Zephyr nods. “Sounds good to me.”
Fluttershy looks at Applejack again and flashes a sweet smile. Or, as sweet as a pegasus with burnt hair, half a burnt face, a missing eye, scars and blood soaked damaged armor looted from a corpse can smile.
“The bridge shouldn't be much farther,” says Fluttershy.
“Right,” says Applejack slowly, “and don't worry. I ain't gonna shoot you unless you give me a reason to.”
“Make sure you shoot me in the head if you do. Because I will kill you if you don't.”
“Thanks for the advice... Emo.”
The two mares fall silent after that and walk with caution. Nothing spectacular happens for a minute, but after crossing through a doorway Fluttershy finds herself in a hallway with a long row of clean windows. The hallway is brightly lit, light shines past the windows and an intercom plays an announcement while chatter and steps flow down the hallway. On the other side of the window, a large group of administrative workers going about their business at their computers with a holographic display of a map of discovered space being projected in the center of the room. All the workers are wearing blue jumpsuits with yellow bands, and they are casually talking, and Fluttershy watches them, heart racing and mouth going dry. Then her eye drifts to the corner and she sees a group of shadows sitting and standing, all facing a lone shadow.
“We only want what is best for you,” says the soft spoken stallion.
“Please don't be mad,” says the soft mare.
“But that was my dream,” says Fluttershy.
“You can have a better one with us,” says the stallion.
“Where are you!?” cries another voice.
The last voice jerks Fluttershy out of her trance, and she shakes her head and steps back, looking to the side only to find that Applejack or Zephyr aren't there.
“Zephyr? Applejack?” calls Fluttershy.
Nothing.
Fluttershy paces in a circle, seeing clean walls, bright lights and posters displaying uplifting messages or propaganda of a glorious future. One such being a picture of all the races of Equus looking proudly into space with a colony ship above them, with a text saying: The Future Holds Greatness.
Fluttershy hurries past that, not wanting to think about their idea of greatness.
“Zephyr!? Applejack!?” calls Fluttershy again.
Fluttershy walks forward again, passing a clean window that changes to cracked with a streak of blood with the flickering light above.
“Zephyr! Applejack!” screams Fluttershy. She coughs into her hoof and stumbles forward. Her body trembles with sharp tingles running up her spine, and tears cloud her vision as she goes forward. “ZEPHYR!”
Fluttershy coughs again and collapses against the wall, wheezing and rubbing her throat as the taste of blood soaks her tongue. The people working on the other side of the glass continue their tasks, unknowing or uncaring of Fluttershy's presence. The computer screens and the holographic display flash to the double helix and the clean room and tidy work spaces flash to blood soaked walls and floors, destroyed furniture and flickering lights with some dangling from the ceiling. On the wall, written with thick and long strokes of blood is: THE BROKEN WILL BE MADE WHOLE.
Then the lights in the hallway flash off and are quickly replaced with swirling red lights that stretch darkness over the metal walls and broken glass. A window shatters behind Fluttershy and she turns around, heart racing and eye wide. The Frail Stallion has broken through the window, and is now charging her, roaring with its eyes glowing red. Fluttershy shoots its front legs off with her cutter and while it collapses the window next to her breaks and she is rammed into the wall by another Frail Stallion. Fluttershy punches it in the maw, followed by shooting off its head and its front legs. While she shoots that thing, a slash goes down her flank, and she screams and buckles, and when another slash cuts into her near useless armor she whirls around and punches a Slasher. It staggers back and Fluttershy rams it in the chest, ignoring all the pain in her side and flank as she pushes it back, screaming hoarsely.
The Slasher hits the wall across the way, and the two flip through the broken window with Fluttershy landing on the bottom but quickly flipping them around and stomping on its face. Broken bone and strings of blood pop up, and when another Slasher tries stabbing Fluttershy, she bucks it into the wall. Gunshots ring out, and while the Slasher beneath her twitches, she unloads her cutter on the swarm of Necromorphs in the area. Limbs, bones and broken computer parts fly with the blood and sparks. Her vision goes red and she can barely hear her thumping heart over the Necromorph screams, the discharge of her cutter and breaking of bodies and computers. Slashers that get close are beaten down with punches, stomps and bucks, and every slash they land on Fluttershy is shrugged off or met with vicious whack that breaks their bones. There is so much chaos and bloodshed that Fluttershy loses all sense of time and barely feels the first barb get lodged into her from one of those damn Lurkers, but she definitely feels the other two, and she drops to the ground, growling and forces herself to crawl behind a desk. More barbs puncture the furniture, with one coming close to her head, and when Fluttershy pokes out to shoot the Lurker she sees it squished by a flying desk.
It doesn't even make a squeak when its body pops against the wall, and when the broken desk falls down, Fluttershy looks to the side and sees Applejack. The engineer is reloading her weapon, also surrounded by dead Slashers, and her hoof has a dimming glow of the Artificial Telekinesis Module. Seeing that wonderful blue glow makes Fluttershy green with envy, but envy is put in the back burner when she realizes that Applejack is glaring at her, and her stomps are heavy as she passes over dead Necromorphs.
“What's wrong with you!?” scolds Applejack.
“Me? What's wrong with you? You left me!” says Fluttershy. “And where's Zephyr?”
Zephyr pokes his head out from behind a destroyed desk, his hoof raised with a broad smile.
“Right here!” says Zephyr.
Fluttershy sighs with relief, but is forcefully turned away from Zephyr by Applejack, and the engineer's face is red from more than just the blood as she jabs Fluttershy’s chest.
“I was right next to you, and you flipped out for no reason, screaming like a maniac and got the attention of all them things! You almost got us killed!”
Fluttershy's trained eye scans the massacre, counting at least twenty bodies, not including the ones outside. A good portion are near her with their broken bones popping out of their bodies, brains oozing out or organs spilled from the wounds caused by the cutters or the stomps. Fluttershy can't help but feel proud about that. But there are still the barbs in her, which she needs to pull out, so she retracts her helmet and bites down on the nearest one.
“What are you doing?” asks Applejack.
Fluttershy pulls on the barb, wincing as the jagged bone tugs on her muscles, drawing more blood, and Applejack gags and shakes her head as she looks away while Zephyr snickers.
“Aw, hell no!” complains Applejack.
Fluttershy spits out the bloody barb, bites down on another one, and when Applejack looks at her out of the corner of her eye, she pulls on that one.
“Damn it!” Applejack stomps her hoof and once again looks away. “You're gonna make me sick.”
'Baby,' thinks Fluttershy. She spits out the barb and goes for the last one. She bites down, waits, and when Applejack looks at her again, she smirks and begins pulling.
“No!” Applejack turns away, shaking her head. “That's nasty!”
After Fluttershy spits out the barb she looks at the trails of blood moving down her limbs, and she shivers when the suit beeps and sprays her wounds with medical foam. The familiar sting and numbness is welcomed, but with all the blood she has lost over the course of this hell trip, she is wondering two things: first, if the doctors will have AB+ blood packs to use? And two, if they do have them will they have enough? Faust, God, Celestia, whoever rules the heavens knows she lost a lot of blood, and even if there isn't an all powerful being (which Fluttershy is sure there isn't) she knows she lost a lot of blood, is frankly quite surprised to be walking or avoiding a state of hypovolemic shock, and will be royally pissed off it they don't have her blood type in storage when she comes for her much needed refill.
“Warning. Medical foam depleted. Please refill,” says the suit.
'Well, fuck,' thinks Fluttershy bitterly.
Applejack looks at her, then at the yellow tinted blood that leaked from her, and she steps back, staring at her suspiciously with her focus on the yellow tint in Fluttershy’s eye.
“Ya sick or something?” asks Applejack.
“No,” replies Fluttershy sharply.
“Then why’s your blood weird looking? And your eye? That’s weird, too. Got a yellow thing going on.”
Fluttershy shrugs. “Maybe it’s cervical discharge. If cervical discharge is exposed to air, then it turns yellow. It is more common in pregnancies and can also mean high estrogen. So, maybe I’m pregnant? Yeah, I’m pregnant with a lot of estrogen. Mystery solved!”
Applejack frowns. “I doubt you got cervical fluid in yer hoof and eyeball. Ya might be infected with somethin’ nasty.”
“Cholecystitis can also cause yellowing of the eyes,” adds Fluttershy.
“Or ya might be infected with an alien bug.”
Fluttershy stomps her hoof. “I’M NOT INFECTED!”
Applejack remains steadfast, and Fluttershy takes a deep breath and runs her hoof through her mane, unable to look at Applejack, all while Zephyr’s eyes flick between the two.
“I’m not infected. I’m fine. There’s nothing wrong with me. I’m fine… I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine!” says Fluttershy.
Applejack shakes her head. “Nah, you ain’t fine. We’ll get you taken care of when we get off this ship, but you got something bad.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Yes, I am! And I’m not going back to the military when this over! I’m taking Zephyr and we’re going to have the lives that were stolen from us. No military, no Unitology! Just me and Zephyr!”
“Well, if ya keep screaming and beating random shit like a loon you and 'Zephyr' are gonna die here!”
Fluttershy does an about face with a loud huff and marches towards one of the gaping holes that used to be a window, and climbs out into the hallway where she finds five more dead Slashers near where she was and a few more a bit further back. She huffs again and looks in front of her to see Zephyr standing a good distance away from her, waving her towards a locked door with ADMINISTRATIVE DECK above it. The sign is red and flickering, and the door has a red ring, but it is only a small obstacle that Fluttershy has no problem breaking.
“Zephyr, stay close to me,” orders Fluttershy.
“Sorry, I'm just eager to get this over with,” says Zephyr as he trots towards Fluttershy. When he is next to her, he adds quietly, “We should still ditch the others while we still can. They'll try to stop us, you know?”
Fluttershy shakes her head. “No, they're simply scared and mad at... well, everything. We're all going to make it,” says Fluttershy. She looks over her shoulder and sees Applejack is standing far back, her ear twitching again, and her eyes locked on Fluttershy. “We're almost at the bridge.”
“Good,” says Applejack. “Do you want me to unlock the door or do you want to handle it?”
Fluttershy looks at her cutter battery. It is a quarter full and it is the last one, causing Fluttershy to realize that she will have a problem breaking the obstacle plus killing things.
“By your silence I'll just assume that I have the honors of doing it,” says Applejack.
“Do you know how to hack a lock?” asks Fluttershy.
“No.” Applejack presses a button on her vest and a blowtorch slides out with a needle like, bright blue flame sprouting from it. “But I know how to cut a few things.”
A couple of minutes later, a circle large enough for Applejack to go through has been cut into the door, followed by the circle being bucked out of place, making a loud ruckus of metallic bangs and screeches. There are screams down the hall, and when Fluttershy and Applejack crawl through the hole they quickly gun down a group of Slashers that charge them from up the stairs. In Fluttershy's case, she has to use her rifle since it has plenty of ammo, and with the combined firepower of the two they make quick work of every Necromorph that comes their way. However, there is a fear in the back of Fluttershy's mind that they are too late. Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane could already be dead, and then there's the Hunter and the Pyro still on the loose.
“You're almost there. Go down the hall, take the first left and you'll be at the bridge door,” says Dr. Rock.
Fluttershy glances up and sees a camera looking at the two, and she smiles and goes ahead after Applejack instructs her to go forward. The two reach the top of the stairs and turn their trots into gallops when they hear gunshots, roars and Rainbow Dash screaming.
“Come on! Who wants more!?” yells Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy is the first to round the corner, and she instantly shoots a Slasher in the back as it rushes towards Rainbow Dash, who is standing in front of Thunderlane's. Thunderlane is slumped on the ground, surrounded in a pool of blood. Rainbow Dash has a ring of dead Slashers around her, with the walls covered in blood and bullet holes, the lights flicker, and her war cries turn to maddening cackles as she kills another Slasher with a barrage of pistol shots.
“You can't kill me!” boasts Rainbow Dash. “None of you can kill me!”
Fluttershy gallops forward with Applejack following close behind, and the two of them gun down a pair of Slashers rushing towards Rainbow Dash. Some Necromorphs turn around and rush the pair, and Fluttershy gallops forward, ignoring Applejack's shouts while emptying the last of her battery into the creatures. A pair of them drop, and she tackles the third Necromorph to the ground, stomping on its chest and head with each stomp releasing a crunch and popping broken bone out of its skin. She then side steps a downward stab from the other Slasher and shoots it point blank with her rifle, tearing apart its torso and limbs. It falls, gurgling with torn muscles, organs and bone spilling everywhere, and she executes the Slasher below her. Applejack runs up to Fluttershy a couple of seconds later and guns down two more Slashers while Rainbow Dash reloads her pistol, and when Fluttershy looks up from her kill she sweeps her weapon around the area and realizes that all the Slashers are dead. Now, if Slingshot and Rarity were still with them then they would be an unstoppable force, but at least they found Rainbow Dash and-
A hoof hooks around Fluttershy's neck and she is dragged to Thunderlane while Applejack steps in front of a camera by the blast door, which is covered in scratches, dents, and scorch marks.
“Fix him,” orders Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy looks at Thunderlane, and her colors drain and her ears droop as she looks at his limp form sitting in a pool of blood with a poorly bandaged stub of a hoof. The bandage has unraveled, revealed torn muscle and bone. She swallows and leans down, pressing her ear against his nose.
Nothing.
Fluttershy steps back, her eye filling with tears and her chest and throat becoming heavy, all while Rainbow Dash smiles hopefully with tears in her eyes as she rubs Thunderlane's mane.
“You'll be fine, Thunderlane,” says Rainbow Dash. “The medic is here. You're going to make it.”
“Rainbow... I can't,” says Fluttershy.
“You can't what?” says Rainbow Dash.
“I can't... Fix him. He's dead.”
Rainbow Dash's smile fades. “No... Don't lie to me. He was talking to me just a minute ago!”
“I'm sorry, I was too late.”
Rainbow Dash shakes her head, lips trembling and cheeks becoming wet with tears. “Don't say that.”
Applejack waves at the camera.
Rainbow Dash puts her hoofs on Fluttershy's shoulders and looks into her eye; Fluttershy can see her somber face looking right back at her and feel Rainbow Dash's hooves tremble.
“Don't say that,” repeats Rainbow Dash. “I don't want his name on the list! I can't have any more names on the list! You have to fix him, please! Please fix him!”
Fluttershy grips Rainbow Dash's hoof. “I'm sorry. I can't save him… He’s gone.”
Rainbow Dash's legs buckle, and she shakes her head as Fluttershy helps her sit down. The commander whimpers and buries her head in Fluttershy's shoulder, and her whimpers turn to sobs as Fluttershy holds her.
“You're lying,” says Rainbow Dash. “Stop lying.”
“I'm sorry,” says Fluttershy quietly.
As Rainbow Dash cries, Fluttershy looks at Zephyr, sniffling and blinking tears out of her eye. Her brother is standing next to Applejack, who is staring at the camera, and he points at the blast door, As if planned for theatrics, as soon as he points at the door, it pops, clicks and whirs and begins sliding open, shining bright yellow light on the group. Fluttershy watches the doors open in a state of joy and disbelief. Applejack steps back and does a quick sweep of the area before motioning the others inside, and Fluttershy helps Rainbow Dash up.
“We're almost whole,” says Zephyr.
Fluttershy nods and walks ahead, stopping only to look over her shoulder at Rainbow Dash. She is staring at Thunderlane's corpse.
“Rarity Belle, Roid Rage, Moonlight Aura, Comet Tail, Hothoof Trotter, Red Joystick, Gage Meter, Thunderlane Hurricane,” says Rainbow Dash quietly. She sniffles and walks inside the bridge, with her steps slow and her eyes dead.
Fluttershy enters the bridge next, followed by Applejack, and the medic looks around, taking in the brightly lit circular room. Computers line the wall, all flashing warning messages, a holographic display shows the Peace System, and the bridge window has a view of the black planet and its red sun. There is also a captain's chair on an elevated position that has a view of the whole bridge, and large screen on a bare wall shows profiles in red with flat lines for hundreds, possibly thousands of names, save for two with a stream of vitals. All of which have their profiles enlarged.
One is Heart Fire with steady vitals; the brown earth pony stallion has a bright smile, soft green eyes, and his dark green mane is combed nicely. A complete opposite of what he is now. His vital signatures are steady with the occasional spike. His profile is outlined in green.
Then there is the other. Star Tracker. His vitals are sharp and through the roof with rapid pulses and heavy breathing, and his profile is outlined in yellow.
“What did you do!? Why'd you open the door!?” yells a stallion with a shaky, pathetic voice from an elevated position with a circle of computers and the holographic display of the Peace System in the center.
Fluttershy looks to the voice and sees Star Tracker, Captain of the UEG Bon Voyage. The same scrawny stallion with an odd purplish-blue coat, blue eyes, and freckles, and his white and gold banded captain's suit that is too big for him is now open and ripped in spots with patches of sweat. His mane is also a mess and his eyes are bloodshot.
Seeing him, Rainbow Dash exhales and marches forward while Fluttershy and Applejack stay back.
“Watch the door,” orders Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy didn't need to be told to do that, but Applejack doesn't listen. She stands off to the side, watching her commander.
“You must be the captain of this ship!” says Rainbow Dash, her voice booming in the empty bridge. “Where's your crew? Where are the colonists? Where's the warm welcome!?”
“I-I, uh, I-”
Rainbow Dash zips forward, leaps on a console and balances herself on it as she goes nose to nose with the Captain, her fiery eyes beating down the skinny stallion further.
“We came to fix your ship and we got sucked into Hell! What did you do to your ship!? What did you do to all these people!?”
“It wasn't my fault, I swear! I've been set up!” cries Star Tracker.
Rainbow Dash whacks Star Tracker on the head, and he yelps as he crashes to the floor. Rainbow Dash then leaps off the console, hoists him up and slams his face into one of the computers, shattering the monitor and spraying sparks everywhere. As he screams in pain with glass digging into his face, Rainbow Dash throws him down the stairs and cracks her neck as he shifts on the ground, moaning and whimpering with blood dripping down his broken face.
“Big, hot shot captain had a death trap waiting for me and my team,” says Rainbow Dash. “Do you know their names, hot shot?”
“It's not like that! None of this was supposed to happen, I swear!” cries Star Tracker.
Rainbow Dash draws her pistol. “Answer the questions. Do you know the names of my teammates? They died on your ship, the least you can do is know their names!”
“Oh, God! Somepony stop her!”
Fluttershy hesitantly takes a couple of steps forward but stops when Zephyr gets in front of her.
“Do you really want to stop this? I mean, look at what he did to the ship. To me.” Zephyr points at Fluttershy. “To you. He caused all this.”
Fluttershy stares at her brother, halfway agreeing and halfway disagreeing. She wants to hear what Star Tracker meant with his claim of being set up... But at the same time, his acts almost got her and Zephyr killed, and now her team is a skeleton crew going on their last limb. Their blood is on his hooves, as well as Arcos Hieroglyph. Wherever he is.
“Rainbow, he ain't gonna know our names,” says Applejack. “Put the gun down and let's take a moment to figure out what to do next.”
“Rarity Belle, Roid Rage Snowflake, Moonlight Aura, Comet Tail, Hothoof Trotter, Red Joystick, Gage Meter, Thunderlane Hurricane,” says Rainbow Dash. “Repeat it.”
“Wha-what?” stammers Star Tracker.
“Repeat their names! Now!”
“Rarity Belle, Roid Rage Snowflake, Moonlight Aura, Comet Tail, Hothoof Trotter, Red Joystick, Gage Meter, Thunderlane Hurricane,” says Star Tracker quickly.
“Quick mind, huh?” sneers Rainbow Dash. “Did that quick mind tell you to keep me and Thunderlane locked out when we needed you?”
“Wait. Wait!” Star Tracker crawls on the floor, one hoof held up and tears mixing with blood. “I couldn't open the doors! Protocol dictated that!”
“Protocol dictated that,” mimics Rainbow Dash. “How come you didn't fix the comms yourself, hmm? How come? You had engineers and techies, right? Did protocol dictate that you couldn't fix your own ship? My team died because of you!”
“Rainbow Dash, stop this right now!” says Applejack.
Rainbow Dash snaps her pistol to Applejack. “STOP TRYING TO TAKE CONTROL! I’M IN CONTROL!” She turns her pistol back to Star Tracker. “And this… This little fucker killed my team! He killed everyone and hurt us, and I’m not going to let him hurt us anymore!”
Applejack steps forward, and Fluttershy takes another step forward, but stops when Zephyr slips in front of her again, wagging his hoof disapprovingly.
“No. Just let her do her thing, sis,” says Zephyr.
Despite Zephyr's insistence of not letting her interfere, there is voice in the back of Fluttershy's mind urging at her to get between Rainbow Dash and Star Tracker, but her legs are no longer wanting to move.
“Rarity Belle, Roid Rage Snowflake, Moonlight Aura, Comet Tail, Hothoof Trotter, Red Joystick, Gage Meter, Thunderlane Hurricane,” says Rainbow Dash. “That's eight. Eight! Eight ponies who I have worked with for years, eight good ponies that died on your ship! ”
“You don't understand. None of this is my fault,” whimpers Star Tracker. “I can explain everything if you'll let me!”
Rainbow Dash checks her pistol and gasps loudly as she looks at Applejack and Fluttershy theatrically before focusing on Star Tracker.
“Oh wow. Would you look at that. EIGHT BULLETS!” announces Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash aims her pistol at Star Tracker, and Fluttershy's heart races as the voice is really screaming at her to stop Rainbow Dash. Zephyr, however, is smiling.
“Rainbow, no!” shouts Applejack, her hoof extended.
“No! Please, no! Let me explain!” sobs Star Tracker.
BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM!
The sudden gunshots make Fluttershy jump, and she looks at Zephyr when stomps the floor in applause.
“A fitting end for a lousy captain if I do say so myself,” says Zephyr.
Fluttershy looks at Applejack and sees that her hoof is locked in place as she stares at Rainbow Dash, her face frozen in shock. On the wall, Star Tracker's profile flat lines, flashes red and shrinks with Reverend Heart Fire's growing in size.
“You... Do you have any idea what you've just done?” says Applejack.
“Yes,” says Rainbow Dash as she reloads. “Rarity Belle, Roid Rage Snowflake, Moonlight Aura, Comet Tail, Hothoof Trotter, Red Joystick, Gage Meter, Thunderlane Hurricane, they all died on his ship. Now he's dead. Justice for my team.”
“Our team.”
“Our team!? It was just me this whole time!” says Rainbow Dash. “You and Fluttershy left me and Thunderlane to die.”
Fluttershy's lips hook into a frown and she stomps forward.
“Excuse me? I saved your life,” says Fluttershy.
“But you didn't save Thunderlane's,” says Rainbow Dash. “You could have saved him, but you didn't. And if you, Applejack, had stayed with us then Rarity would have lived and Thunderlane wouldn't have had his hoof cut off!”
“I had to save my brother,” says Fluttershy firmly.
“Fluttershy, don't,” says Applejack.
“Oh, really? And where is he now?” says Rainbow Dash.
“Fluttershy-” starts Applejack.
“Right there!” claims Fluttershy.
Fluttershy points at Zephyr, Zephyr smiles and waves, and Rainbow Dash looks to where Fluttershy is pointing. At first her face is blank, but then her muzzle twists to a snarl, followed by her eye twitching, ears folding against her skull, nostrils flaring and wings twitching as her breathing becomes heavy with a fire in her eyes.
“You fucking with me? Is that it?” sneers Rainbow Dash. “Everypony's making fun of me now because Rainbow Crash is seeing spooky, weird shit! Is that it? You making fun of me!?”
“No, I'm not. How can you not see him? He's right there!” says Fluttershy.
“Lie to me again!” Rainbow Dash punches Fluttershy's vest. “Lie to me again! I dare you! I DARE YOU!”
“Dash, calm down,” says Applejack.
Rainbow Dash jumps back and points at Applejack.
“Don't you dare tell me to calm down!” cries Rainbow Dash. “You ran off! Just like Fluttershy! While everypony dies around me, you two are fine, exploring and doing whatever the fuck you two have been doing!”
“Do I look fine to you!?” says Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash points at Fluttershy. “There's no way you're a medic. No way! You're not even supposed to be here and as soon as you show up, I lose my team while you somehow survive and kill these things without a problem!”
“I've had a lot of problems killing them!”
“Bullshit!”
“Fluttershy, things are getting a little hot,” says Zephyr. “You might have to shoot them.”
“Stop it, Zephyr,” snaps Fluttershy.
“You're with Section 0, aren't you? AREN'T YOU!? ADMIT IT!” says Rainbow Dash.
“I'm not a spy!”
Rainbow Dash quickly reloads her pistol and aims it at Fluttershy's forehead, which leads to Fluttershy aiming her rifle at the commander’s chest.
“Will you two stop this!” yells Applejack.
“You killed my team!” cries Rainbow Dash.
“I saved your life!” screams Fluttershy hoarsely.
“This is all your fault, you Section 0 fuck!”
“Rainbow, stop!” begs Applejack. “You already killed a captain, don't go killing your teammates!”
“She's not on my team, Applejack! She never was! She's with Section 0! Thunderlane was right about these creeps and now I can't apologize because he's dead! They're all dead because of Fluttershy!”
“I'm not Section 0!” says Fluttershy.
“Lie to me again! LIE TO ME AGAIN! I'LL BLOW YOUR DAMN HEAD OFF!”
“Everypony lower your weapons, right now!” orders Applejack.
“My team died because of this damn captain and Section 0, and now I can make things right,” says Rainbow Dash.
“Then you're gonna have to shoot me, 'cuz Fluttershy ain't the spy. I am.”
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy snap to Applejack, and the room becomes quiet, save for their heavy breathing.
“What?” says Rainbow Dash a few seconds later.
“She ain't Section 0. I am,” says Applejack.
“No... No, don't you dare cover for her,” says Rainbow Dash. “Don't cover for her! You're better than that!”
“I ain't covering for her.”
Rainbow Dash takes a step towards Fluttershy, pressing the pistol against her cheek while Fluttershy's rifle digs into Rainbow Dash's chest. Rainbow Dash's wet eyes snap between Fluttershy and Applejack, and Zephyr stands next to Fluttershy.
“The madness is taking them. We either kill them and live, or they kill us,” says Zephyr.
Fluttershy's ear twitches from that, and her heart races as she tries to wrap her head around Applejack's confession plus her chances of survival if she shoots first.
“But she's not even supposed to be here,” says Rainbow Dash. “And you... You suck at poker! You can't bluff worth shit and now you're telling me you're a spy? Bullshit!”
“You're right, Fluttershy ain't supposed to be here. Her being here is a fluke,” says Applejack. “But the truth is that I have been with Section 0 from the beginning. They sent me because they lost contact with the assets on Onyx and the Bon Voyage, and I was sent in to recover research documents about an artifact called the Marker. Had Section 0 known the situation was this bad then they would have sent in heavier teams, rather than just me. All this was an accident.”
Fluttershy's eye widens at the mention of “Marker”, and Rainbow Dash's eyes glaze over.
“So... You knew? All this time, you knew and didn't tell us? Didn't tell me? ” says Rainbow Dash, tears dripping from her cheeks as her hoof trembles.
“I didn't know it was this bad. None of us knew this was going to happen! All the research pointed towards residual energy with minor cellular manipulation and minor cases of psychosis. It was supposed to be easy to handle. But this? … This is all wrong. It wasn't supposed to be this way...”
Rainbow Dash's eyes harden and turns her pistol to Applejack, and Fluttershy's colors drain.
“Give me one reason why I shouldn't blow your brains out,” says Rainbow Dash.
Applejack is silent and Fluttershy takes a step forward but stops when Dash's wing snaps to her.
“Don't,” orders Rainbow Dash. Her eyes narrow on Applejack. “Three seconds.”
Applejack's tail and ear flick.
Fluttershy bites her lip and keeps her weapon trained on Rainbow Dash.
“Two seconds,” says Rainbow Dash.
“I got a password that will allow us to leave the system. If Section 0 doesn't hear that password then you're dead,” says Applejack.
“Password? What password!?” yells Rainbow Dash.
“If you kill me then you'll never know.”
“Does Dr. Rock have a password?” asks Fluttershy.
Applejack nods but doesn't break eye contact with Rainbow Dash.
“Who the hell is Dr. Rock?” says Rainbow Dash.
“An alias for Dr. Hieroglyph,” replies Applejack. “He and I have been in radio contact and broadcasting messages to a Section 0 torpedo boat orbiting Onyx's moon.”
“And we need his password, too?”
“Eeyup. Without our passwords, that boat will shoot us straight to Hell.”
A sudden bang brings all three sets of ears to twitch, and after the thud comes a loud scraping, and the three turn to the source and see the wall of profiles on the bridge has opened. Fluttershy's eye widens and she turns her cutter to the doorway as they are approached by a griffin with gray fur, white plumage and tipped wings, and gray eyes. He is wearing a white labcoat and dark suit, and when he is in front of the group he smiles, calm as can be.
“That'll be quite enough chitchat from you, Agent Apple,” says the griffin, his voice familiar to the multiple intercom chats and the video log. “Honestly, with all the info you just spat out you could get in serious trouble.”
“We're all in trouble,” says Applejack.
Rainbow Dash's eye twitches, and even though she still has her pistol aimed at Applejack she looks at the griffin, completely silent but with smoldering rage burning in her eyes.
“Dr. Rock...?” says Fluttershy.
The griffin looks at Fluttershy and beams.
“Ah, Fluttershy Breeze, in the flesh!” says Dr. Rock, a.k.a. Dr. Arcos Hieroglyph.
“Oh, I like this guy,” says Zephyr. “He's the one who will make us whole.”
Fluttershy shushes Zephyr, then squeaks and flinches when Arcos grabs her hoof and shakes it vigorously.
“I'm a big fan of you. I hate to admit it, but I made a wager that said you would die early on. Never been more happy to lose a bet before!” says Arcos.
“Thanks,” says Fluttershy sourly.
Arcos pulls away from Fluttershy and goes to Rainbow Dash but backs up with his talons raised when she turns her pistol to him.
“I just wanted to say I like you, too. All small and feisty. I also liked how you and Fluttershy interacted,” says Arcos.
Rainbow Dash's face heats up and her muzzle scrunches while Applejack sneers and Zephyr snickers.
“Hehe~ Knew it~” says Zephyr.
Fluttershy's face is also hot and she growls viciously with her hoof raised at Zephyr, making him leap back, giggling madly.
“Can we please get off the bridge?” says Applejack. “We're lucky them things haven't gone after us, yet and I don't want to press that luck.”
“Right. Of course. If you'll follow me, I got the module needed to fit the mini-warp battery,” says Arcos. “Also, I want to show you girls something special before we refit the ship for escape.”
“Yeah, I bet you do,” sneers Rainbow Dash.
Arcos looks at Rainbow Dash. “I really do. After all that you suffered-” he looks at Star Tracker's corpse “-and all that you killed, it is time for you to see what you have been fighting against. Ladies, it is time for you to see the Marker.”
Author's Note
Soon there will be no sanity left to fight for.
“It is time for you to see the Marker.”
Fluttershy can't believe it. Doesn't want to believe it. There is no way they brought a Marker back from Onyx! Markers are only myths spewed by the Unitology elders. There is no way it is real. No way.
“Ladies, if you'll follow me,” says Arcos.
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy remain frozen in place, but Applejack steps to the side and gently waves her weapon at him.
“I suggest y'all follow him. It is the only secured part of the ship,” says Applejack.
Rainbow Dash glares at her, but after a few seconds she walks forward with Fluttershy following close behind. Zephyr walks next to Fluttershy, only his steps are light unlike the others. The group follows Arcos through the doorway, and once they pass through the doctor pushes up his sleeve and pushes a button on a small computer strapped to his forearm. The doors screech and grind, and when they close, they shake Fluttershy's bones. The intensity of the shutting makes Fluttershy turn around, and her eye focuses on giant metal gears and logs sliding into place. Then there is Applejack, who is staying behind everyone and is now aiming her weapon at Fluttershy.
“Keep going. We'll be safe in here,” says Applejack.
Fluttershy resumes walking, taking in the dim scenery of the short hallway, which is nothing spectacular. The gray metal walls are standard, the lights are standard, there are vents, but they are undamaged, but the idea of the vent being there is unnerving.
“The Section 0 hub is sealed off from the rest of the ship,” explains Applejack, noticing Fluttershy looking at the vents. “Separate air talisman, separate vent network, separate everything.”
Fluttershy does not find that assuring.
“Can it split off and fly away as a separate ship?” asks Rainbow Dash, half mocking half curious.
“Unfortunately, no,” replies Arcos, his voice easily being carried down the hallway. “Believe me, if it could, I would have ejected this a long time ago. And my colleagues would have agreed on that.”
Arcos passes through the hall's doorway, leading to a large chamber, and he takes a deep breath, smiling proudly at a tinted container in the middle of the chamber, laying longways. It is surrounded by a ring of computers, each showing graphs and lines of data of some sort with streams of numbers to go with them. Going up and down the container are orbs on long, slender arms, each projecting red scanner lines.
“Ladies, gentlemen! I have guests!” says Arcos.
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy look at Arcos’s company and find various items lined up along the wall, all with faces drawn on printer paper and taped to them as well as having white lab coats tacked to them. They are a broom, a mop, a chair, a bag of flour, a large filing cabinet, and a trash can. Next to all of that is a collection of various computers and monitors, all connected together with a single keyboard and microphone to accompany them, and the monitors are showing different camera angles of the ship, which all of them have Necromorphs roaming in some capacity. Except for one. It is the Pyro Reverend burning a group of Necromorphs with his flamethrower. However, Fluttershy cannot see the Hunter, which concerns her.
“What the fuck?” whispers Rainbow Dash, looking at the collection of dressed items.
Even Applejack looks uneasy by the scene, but she remains silent.
“They have been most helpful in my studies,” says Arcos. He laughs and pats the trash can. “Oh, Cancan, you've always had a great sense of humor. Oh, and Agent Apple!”
“Hm?” replies Applejack.
Arcos points at a desk with a large, empty battery port that has various prongs and wires on it, as well as switches and a knob. However, it looks like it has been assembled by junk and welded together, and the torn equipment and used tools scattered around that table only solidify the observation.
“That is the module for the miniature warp battery,” says Arcos. “There is a ship big enough for our prize, and once you get it installed, we can hook up the battery and get out of here. Fluttershy, if you will place the battery near it so we can keep track of it.”
Fluttershy is hesitant, but complies anyway, and as she places the battery next to the makeshift device, Rainbow Dash looks around the area.
“Now, for the moment we've all been waiting for! Ladies, I present to you... The Marker!” says Arcos.
Upon removing the tint, the Marker pulses, and the electronics flicker, giving everyone but the griffin a start. The unease is only made worse by the computer screens flickering and returning with spikes in the numbers and graphs, which slowly drop, but not by much.
“Don't worry about that,” chuckles Arcos. “It has been doing that for weeks! It is releasing a power surge that these colony ships can't handle, which is surprising, considering how much they can hold.”
Arcos suddenly looks at the chair, then nods.
“Right you are, Cushie McGee,” says Arcos.
“What is going on?” asks Rainbow Dash.
“Oh, my colleague was saying how the Marker was providing power to Onyx City and how we only found Onyx because of the energy signatures it released.”
“You knew this thing was here the whole time!?”
“Pfft, yeah. We've known for years, actually. Its signal was how we found Onyx and it is the reason why Section 0 built Onyx City. Building a colony was the perfect cover to test its effects on a populace, and now we see what it can truly do. Why it chose now to activate, I don't know, but can you imagine what we can do with that kind of power?”
“I've already seen what it can do,” says Rainbow Dash with a sneer.
Applejack looks down, and Fluttershy steps forward, her eye on the Marker.
“Its... Its real...” murmurs Fluttershy. “The Marker is real.”
Fluttershy stops in front of the Marker and puts her hoof on the container, feeling a tether pulling her towards it. With her hoof pressed against the glass another feeling comes over her. The desire to break the glass. Free it. Become one with it. Fluttershy suddenly closes her eye and steps back, shaking her head.
“How is this possible?” asks Fluttershy to no one in particular. “This thing is supposed to be a myth.”
“How it was formed is a good question,” says Arcos. “The surface and interior are too smooth to be natural, and we have found onyx and coroundum with uniform mineral veins. My best guess is aliens built it. But we can learn more when we take it to Sparkle Station.”
“Take it to- Are you nuts!?” yells Rainbow Dash. “You saw what it did! It killed everypony! Made a bunch of monsters, and it made Fluttershy nuts and now you're talking to furniture!”
Fluttershy snaps to Rainbow Dash. “I'm not nuts.”
“Oh, don't start this again. You're nuts, he's nuts, AJ is a liar and I'm the only one who kept my head on straight this entire time,” says Rainbow Dash.
“Bullshit. You gunned down a ranking member of the EUG Colonial Service,” says Applejack.
“Among other things,” says Fluttershy.
“Hey, don't take her side! You're supposed to be on my team!” says Rainbow Dash.
“You pointed a gun at me!”
“Fluttershy, why are you trying to take sides, anyway? They are both trying to kill you,” says Zephyr.
“Not now, Zephyr,” snaps Fluttershy.
“See!? You are crazy!” says Rainbow Dash, pointing at Fluttershy and stepping back. “I'M THE ONLY SANE ONE HERE!”
Arcos laughs, and Fluttershy grinds her teeth.
“Don't start. I'm not crazy,” says Fluttershy. “You're the nut that can't see what's in front of you.”
Zephyr grins and Rainbow Dash tilts her head slightly as she steps forward threateningly, but Applejack gets in between the two before Rainbow Dash can reach Fluttershy.
“Alright, this has gone on long enough,” says Applejack. “Fluttershy, Dash is right. You ain't right in the head, and if we can get you off this ship, we might be able to fix your brain and whatever is making your blood and eye weird.”
“Oh, your infected with Necro-bacteria? Fascinating!”
“I’m not infected!” snaps Fluttershy.
“Says the crazy pone,” remarks Rainbow Dash.
“No, you saw Zephyr, too! And so did Dr. Rock, I mean Arcos! Arcos saw him, told me where he was and now Zephyr is right here!” Fluttershy looks at Zephyr pleadingly with a shortness in her breath. “Please say 'Hi'.”
Zephyr dismissively inspects his hoof.
“Zephyr, please! They need to know you're here!”
“This is very interesting,” says Arcos. “I have to say I am genuinely surprised by the extent of your denial.”
Fluttershy looks at Arcos. “What's that supposed to mean?”
Applejack sighs heavily and activates her camera, displaying a holographic block with a menu of screenshots. Above the menu is: Subject: Fluttershy Breeze- Marker Reactions .
“Fluttershy, I hate to do this to you, you've been through a lot already, but you need to see it to accept it,” says Applejack.
“Accept what?” says Fluttershy, her eye darting all over Applejack's grim face.
“The truth.”
Applejack plays the first video.
There is a brief pause as a loading bar goes across the display, and then it goes to the Terrarium when the two first reunited. Fluttershy can see herself and Slingshot, and Applejack's voice is behind the camera, but there is no Zephyr.
Fluttershy shakes her head, and Applejack plays the next video.
Fluttershy is running ahead of Applejack down the hallway where Honey Creme died, and she is muttering.
“Zephyr's fine. Zephyr's here. Zephyr's fine. Zephyr's here. Zephyr's fine. Zephyr's here.”
Fluttershy takes a sharp turn into the destroyed shop with Applejack following close behind, and after they get behind the counter Fluttershy activates her cutter, keeping it aimed down while she puts her hoof up to nothing.
“Shh~ Shh~ Zephyr. It’s okay. I'm here. I'm here,” says Fluttershy. “He's fine. I'm fine. He's fine. He's fine. Zephyr's fine. Zephyr's here. Zephyr's fine. Zephyr's here.”
Fluttershy only stops when Applejack covers her mouth, but the glare she gives Applejack is barely contained rage.
“No, this... This isn't right,” says Fluttershy. “You edited those! Zephyr's right here!”
Fluttershy points at Zephyr, who is leaning against the Marker's container, but Applejack plays the next video without bothering to look.
Fluttershy is walking ahead of Applejack down one of the derelict hallways, still mumbling to herself.
“Zephyr's fine. Zephyr's here. Zephyr's fine. Zephyr's here,” she says without missing a beat.
When Fluttershy passes by a vent, she suddenly snarls, pushes an invisible body to the side and rams herself into the wall with a loud thud that echoes down the hallway.
Applejack swears and the camera jerks as she jumps back, and Fluttershy then punches the wall and proceeds to stomping on the floor, growling viciously, and when she is done she is panting heavily and looks at Applejack with a manic look in her eye.
“Are you okay?”
The video fast forwards to Fluttershy walking down a hallway with a row of bloodied and cracked windows. Behind the windows, Necromorphs lumber about in a large room full of office equipment. Fluttershy's ears are twitching and her breathing is heavy as she looks around with a panic in her eyes.
“Zephyr's fine. Zephyr's here. Zephyr's fine. Zephyr's here,” recites Fluttershy.
“Fluttershy, be quiet and stay low,” orders Applejack in a firm whisper.
“Zephyr's fine Zephyr's here Zephyr's fine Zephyr's here,” says Fluttershy quickly, trembling and her eye snapping in every direction it can go.
“Fluttershy, please be quiet. You're going to get us killed,” says Applejack in a heavier voice.
“Zephyr's fine Zephyr's here! Zephyr's fine Zephyr's here!”
Some Necromoprhs stop their mindless walking to scan the area, and Fluttershy suddenly stops, shakes her head and steps back, looking side to side frantically.
“Zephyr? Applejack?” calls Fluttershy.
“I'm right here. Now be quiet!” snaps Applejack.
Fluttershy paces in a circle and then gallops ahead.
“Zephyr!? Applejack!?” calls Fluttershy again.
The Necromorphs on the other side look at Fluttershy and gallop after her, and Applejack does the same while her weapon cocks.
“Shit,” growls Applejack.
“Zephyr! Applejack!” yells Fluttershy. She coughs into her hoof and stumbles forward, and with her hoof pressed against the wall, she screams, “ZEPHYR!”
Then the Necromorphs break through the glass and lunge at Fluttershy, and the footage cuts out.
Fluttershy stares at the holographic projection. The blank projection reflects off of her wide, tear filled eye, and every muscle locks as a heavy weight suffocates her. Her hoof lifts just a bit, and she turns to the container, looking at Zephyr. Zephyr, in turn, silently stares back with his hoof extended and Fluttershy lifts her hoof, wanting to reach out to him. To feel him. To prove he is real.
“Zephyr's fine...” says Fluttershy distantly. She extends her hoof to Zephyr. “Zephyr's here...”
The Marker pulses, ejecting faint hieroglyphs, and Fluttershy shakes her head while Arcos types on his wrist computer and Rainbow Dash keeps her distance, intently watching the scene unfold.
“No. You see him. Arcos sees him. I see him,” says Fluttershy.
“He ain't here,” says Applejack firmly.
“Zephyr's fine. Zephyr's here.”
“No, he ain't.”
“Zephyr's fine! Zephyr's here!”
“Then ask him if he is real!”
Fluttershy snaps her head to Applejack, and the agent nods to where Fluttershy was looking.
“Ask him if he is real,” orders Applejack.
Fluttershy keeps her hoof slightly raised and looks at Zephyr, who is still smiling at her with his hoof extended.
“Take my hoof. Make us whole again,” says Zephyr.
Fluttershy remains quiet, and Applejack steps next to her.
“Do it, Fluttershy! I'm tired of your destructive denial! Ask him if he's real!” yells Applejack.
“Are you real?” asks Fluttershy quietly.
“You're looking at me, aren't you?” says Zephyr.
Fluttershy's heart skips a beat.
“That wasn't the question... Are you real?” asks Fluttershy.
“You see me,” replies Zephyr.
“Answer the question... Are you... Are you real?”
“You're talking to me.”
“Zephyr, please answer the question! Are you real?”
“You see me, hear me, I've been next to you this whole time.”
“Are you real!? Yes or no!?”
Zephyr takes a step back, his smile growing. “You already know.”
Fluttershy's ear droops, and Applejack steps between her and Zephyr, completely blocking her view of him.
“He was never there,” says Applejack. “Your mind is messed up, but now that you know the truth you can focus and go the rest of the way. Once we can get out of here, we'll take you to Sparkle Station and get you fixed. Right?”
Applejack looks at Arcos, and he nods in response. Meanwhile Rainbow Dash scoffs and shakes her head as she walks in circles, and Fluttershy turns to Arcos.
“You lied to me,” says Fluttershy, her voice low and heavy.
“I did. But look on the bright side. You got the warp battery for me as well as great footage to study, and you got the ghost of your brother plus we discovered you have a resistance to the Necro-bacteria which will be perfect for study. A win-win-win if I do say so myself,” says Arcos.
Fluttershy takes a deep, shaky breath and focuses on Arcos.
“Where is Zephyr? Is he here? Is he locked up around here somewhere?” asks Fluttershy.
“Do you really want to know?”
“Tell me. Right now.”
Arcos shrugs, and with a jovial hum, he pushes a button on his wrist computer, causing a wall at the far end to open, revealing the profiles of everyone on board, and all red outlined in red. Seeing this, every tension in Fluttershy breaks down and a sickness takes over as she steps back.
“Computer, please enlarge colonist profile: Zephyr Breeze, and play last transmission in full,” says Arcos.
Zephyr's profile appears, his smiling face in a red box with all his vitals flat and his last location displayed. Section C, Room 60.
Beneath the information is another block, showing audio wavelengths that fluctuate as Zephyr's broken voice flows from the speakers around the room.
“Fluttershy... It's me... I know we don't talk much, but I don't know who else to talk to. I don't know how I'm supposed to... It's just all wrong. All of it. It wasn't supposed to be this way and now... Now I don't know what else to do,” says Zephyr. “I... can't even think straight. I just... I'm sorry for everything, Fluttershy. I wish I could talk to mom or dad, but I have a feeling that they will ignore my calls. Ever since they kicked me out of their cloud I haven't been able to reach them, and since I can't apologize to them for being a terrible child, I could at least try to apologize to you for being a terrible brother. You at least answered my calls once every few months, but... I'm scared... I don't know how I'm supposed to do this. I just wished you answered my call just one more time... Then you could have told me the most painless way to kill myself. If I don't kill myself, then those things will kill me in horrible, painful ways. I want my death to be quick. I don't want to suffer anymore. I want... I want this nightmare to be over. I'm sorry, Fluttershy. This will be the last message you'll get from me. Don't come for me, you'll die here, just like me... I love you, sis.”
The audio ends and Fluttershy drops to the ground, eye wide and bloodshot, and mouth hanging open as she struggles to breathe. In front of her, Arcos paces from one side to the other, Rainbow Dash is silent with her nostrils flaring and wings twitching, and Applejack takes a couple of steps back.
“The truth is, is that he has been dead this whole time, but the Marker emits a frequency that manipulates our senses, tricking us in ways it sees fit. It manipulates what we see, what we hear, and when we snap from madness the next function begins. Cellular reconstruction of the corpse,” says Arcos. “How or why that happens is yet to be determined, but I know us survivors can figure it out somehow. Or at least me, anyway.”
Arcos voice drifts off to silence, yet his beak keeps moving. The world goes dim and quiet, and Fluttershy stares at Arcos, chest heaving, heart thumping in her ears and twitches surging through her body. The base of her wings tingle, and the taste of bile rises in her throat. Fluttershy glances to the side, her jaw set and nostrils flaring, and Rainbow Dash and Applejack's mouths are moving with no words. Rainbow Dash's ears are flat, her tail is flicking, and her wings are twitching, and Applejack has a scowl of her own. Both ponies are going in a slow circle, like wolves readying for a fight.
Fluttershy looks back at Arcos, her hoof digging in the floor as she pushes herself up with her ears flat against her skull and tears streaming down her cheek. The griffin is still talking and waving his talons around without a care of what was revealed.
Behind Arcos, the Marker pulses, releasing a red aura of hieroglyphs that feel like they are burning into Fluttershy, and Zephyr returns to step between her and the doctor, smiling.
“Don't worry, Fluttershy. It was quick and painless,” says Zephyr. He extends his hoof to her. “But we're here now, you and me. You can end this right here, right now. Just take my hoof. Make us whole again.”
“With all the data I collected and with you, Dash and Agent Apple as surviving subjects of this grand experiment to provide first hand experience, I can change the world. Or worlds,” says Arcos, snickering. “The Marker is the key to our ascension.”
Rainbow Dash takes a sudden step towards Applejack, and the agent takes a couple of steps backwards, aiming her weapon at her former commander.
“Back up, right now!” orders Applejack.
“Or you'll do what? Shoot me?” sneers Rainbow Dash, stepping closer. “Come on, pull the trigger. You already betrayed us. Go the rest of the way!”
“I'm trying to get us out of here! I want to go home just like you. Bloom and Mac need me!”
“Rumble and Sweetie needed Thunderlane and Rarity, too. But you killed them. YOU!”
The Marker pulses again, and the hieroglyphs are burned into Fluttershy's mind, making her wince and rub her head while Zephyr remains standing in front of it.
“End your pain. Make us whole again,” says Zephyr.
“I know you're mad,” says Arcos, taking a step closer to Fluttershy.
“I SAID BACK UP!” shouts Applejack.
“PULL THE TRIGGER! COME ON! YOU ALREADY KILLED EVERYPONY ELSE!” screams Rainbow Dash.
“But, Fluttershy, you are special,” continues Arcos. “Your profile pointed to a filly afraid of her own shadow, but I saw who you really are, and I see a great future for you, but you have to take the next step. You have to follow me and the Marker to Sparkle Station.”
The Marker pulses again and the lights and screens flicker, plunging the room in chaotic flickers of darkness with red swirling lights flashing on and off, as well as the emergency alarm.
“I know you're upset, but trust me, I only want what is best for you,” says Arcos.
“We only want what is best for you.”
Hearing those words, remembering that phrase told to her all those years back, Fluttershy's pupil shrinks to a dot and the Marker pulses again, plunging the room in near total darkness.
“YOU BASTARD!” screams Fluttershy.
She gallops past Zephyr and all Arcos can do before he is subjugated to wrath is widen his eyes. Fluttershy tackles the griffin head on, and the two roll over each other with Fluttershy landing on top of him. She screams and wails as she punches and stomps on his face and chest, drawing blood with each strike, and with every strike her destroyed mane flaps over her face and her vision becomes redder as his blood splashes on her. Behind her, Rainbow Dash rams Applejack, and the two roll over each other, snarling and dealing blows with Rainbow Dash's wings flapping madly, covering both bodies in a mess of feathers and colorful hair.
Applejack's gun goes off, spraying the container and ceiling with bullets. The large pieces of the glass shatters and sparks fall from the ceiling while bullet casings clatter on the floor. As this happens, Fluttershy keeps beating Arcos, despite his attempts to slash her with his talons.
“I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!” yells Fluttershy, half screaming and half sobbing with tears soaking her broken face.
Arcos gags and twitches and his swipes are useless from his chest being caved in and his face being broken. Bloody bones pop through his suit and his throat is popped as his skull is cracked open, and Fluttershy keeps going, screaming, and sobbing.
Rainbow Dash is rolled on her back and Applejack climbs on top of her, stomping on her chest. After a couple of stomps, Rainbow Dash blocks and retaliates with a jab to Applejack's throat. Applejack gags and rolls off, clutching her throat, and the commander quickly gets up and puts Applejack in a choke hold.
Fluttershy keeps stomping and sobbing. Arcos' head is now flat, his skull, broken beak and brain matter all over the floor, mixing with the blood spreading. His eye is staring at the Marker and his limbs twitch, and calmly pacing around Fluttershy is Zephyr, smirking as she gulps for air with blood and tears dripping off her face.
“Just die already!” snarls Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy looks at Rainbow Dash and sees she still has a hold on Applejack. The earth pony's face is turning blue, but she musters enough strength to push herself up, stand on her hind legs, and fall backwards, squishing Rainbow Dash between her and the floor. Rainbow Dash grunts, but keeps her grip on Applejack, and Applejack rolls around, pushes herself up again and takes a leap. As she is in the air, she twists and lets gravity work, slamming Dash on the floor again. This time her grip loosens, and Applejack breaks free, rolls to her hoofs, and while Rainbow Dash scrambles up, Applejack hooks her hoof around Dash's slender neck and tugs her down. There is a loud thud and crack, and Fluttershy gallops forward, only to be wrapped up in the aura from Applejack's Artificial Telekinesis Module.
“You killed us,” says Applejack, panting and watching Fluttershy struggle in the aura with a glare wrinkling her face. “Arcos had the other password we needed, and you killed him.”
“He killed my brother,” says Fluttershy roughly through her teeth. “He killed all these people! Don't you care about that?”
Rainbow Dash wheezes and then jumps up, taking a swing at Applejack, but she blocks it, hooks their hoofs together and headbutts Dash. The pegasus buckles, and then she is headbutted again and thrown to the ground with a bloody maw and then Applejack stomps her again. After that, Applejack returns her attention to Fluttershy with streaks of Rainbow Dash's blood trickles down her head and her eyes getting darker as she shakes her head.
“I tried to make things right,” says Applejack. “I tried to get us outta here, but y'all made it clear that ya don't want to leave. I guess y'all got nothing left, but I do. Bloom and Mac need me, and I won't let you two stop me from going home!”
There is a burst of energy from Applejack's module and Fluttershy is launched backwards. Her back hits the wall of profiles, and glass and sparks pop around her, and as she hits the floor they bounce off and around her. Fluttershy coughs and arches her back as she tries standing, but before she can, Applejack levitates the network of computers and launches them at Fluttershy. A mix of shock, cuts from broken glass and blunt trauma hit Fluttershy and the impact of the cluster slams her into the profile wall again, covering her in broken computers, sparks, and glass. Fluttershy lays limp on the ground, trembling and bleeding, watching as Applejack grabs the warp battery and its module.
“Feel free to die here,” says Applejack, her voice echoing in the chamber as she walks away.
Fluttershy looks at Rainbow Dash's limp figure, then at Zephyr as he walks towards her, tilting his head slightly as her blood spreads. Then she goes limp and her eye closes.
Author's Note
So, stuff happened in my life and more stuff will happen because that is life. But the good news is that we are on the home stretch for this thing.Bon Voyage ? Or will they die?
“We only want what is best for you.”
“Feel free to die here.”
“Make us whole again.”
Fluttershy's eye snaps open, and she pushes herself up with a strained groan. Bits of broken computer parts and shards of glass fall off her as a fire flows through her veins, burning every part of her. It hurts her chest, it hurts her body and mind, all of it burns. And yet, despite the pain, she can focus on Zephyr, whose eyes are now dark voids.
“Are you ready to makes us whole again?” says Zephyr.
“No,” says Fluttershy.
“So, you’re abandoning me again?”
Fluttershy quietly limps past Zephyr, going down a hallway with arching, ribbed walls that have bright lights reflecting off the polished tile. Directly down the hallway is a double helix with a ring of lights surrounding it, and further down are metallic screeches, followed by electric discharge, and the lights flicker, shifting it from the ribbed hallway to the piped walls of the Bon Voyage. Shadows stretch along the walls with screams echoing down the hallway, and a moment later, a swarm of Slashers race around the corner.
“Stop hurting yourself. Take my hoof. End it. Become whole with us,” says Zephyr, his hoof extended.
“No. I can't... I can't be whole with you. You’re not Zephyr,” says Fluttershy.
“Then who am I?”
“Not Zephyr!”
A Slasher runs ahead of the group, and when it swings at Fluttershy, she dodges and punches it in the maw. As it staggers, she traps it in a pin, breaks off one of its scythe limbs, followed by stomping on its leg, forcing its broken bones to rip past its skin. It shrieks and writhes on the ground with blood squirting over the floor, and Fluttershy picks up the bony scythe and swings it at another Slasher, cutting its chest open, and she cuts the head and scythe limbs off of another. The rest swarm Fluttershy, and she screams hoarsely as she swings the bony weapon around with tears flowing down her face. Blood, ripped organs, severed limbs, bones, all fly with her mad swings, and a few manage to get hits on Fluttershy, tearing into what is left of her armor, but it doesn't stop her. She only swings harder and faster, and by the time the last Slasher is dead, she is in the middle of a circle of mutilated bodies.
“Fluttershy, stop fighting,” orders Zephyr as he walks next to her. “After all you've been through, you need to take a break.”
“You're not real. I don't have to listen to you,” says Fluttershy.
“You say that, yet here I am. In your sight, in your ears. You hear me, see me, feel me!”
Zephyr lunges at Fluttershy, and his hoof connects with her chest, lifts her up, and slams her on the floor with a loud thud that shakes her brain and bones. Her eye rolls and her vision splits as Zephyr leans closer, his hot and rotten breath clogging her nose.
“You will make us whole again!” says Zephyr.
Fluttershy punches Zephyr on the side of the head, making the Griffin Necromorph screech with bits of broken beak and blood falling on her. She punches the Necromorph again, and it pukes the bugs inside its gullet all over her. The bugs scurry over Fluttershy, biting and clawing their way through her tattered armor and gnawing on her flesh, and Fluttershy shrieks in pain as she thrashes, and the Griffin Necromorph raises its talons for a strike, but before it can bring them down a stream of bullets tear into the monster. Its ribs, arm and head are pulverized, and its blood pours all over Fluttershy as it collapses on top of her, squishing some of the bugs. Moments later, the body is pushed off, the remaining bugs are squished, and Rainbow Dash holds her hoof out, but Fluttershy remains on the floor, hyperventilating, wheezing, and trembling at the dozens of bites on her body throb.
“Come on, up and at ‘em,” says Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy grabs Rainbow Dash’s hoof, and winces when she is pulled up. After Fluttershy is up, Rainbow Dash shakes her head and scans the area.
“How many times am I going to have to save you tonight, anyway?” says Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy glares at her for a moment, but her focus quickly switches to where the Marker was located. All that is there now is a blinking console and various computer monitors with warning symbols flashing on them.
“Where's the Marker?” asks Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash frowns and walks towards the computers, and Fluttershy walks right behind her, scanning the area for signs of anybody or anything, or, more importantly, Zephyr, but there is nothing. Only the two of them. As they walk, they pass a stash of tools, which includes more energy cutters and extra batteries. When the pair reaches the monitors, Fluttershy notices the uniformity of flat lines, warning icons and a red flash on every console, as well as disconnected tubes and wires. However, there is one console that is showing different information, and Fluttershy quickly goes to it while Rainbow Dash inspects the limp connectors.
WARNING:
Fluttershy rubs her chin and looks at the floor where the Marker was originally. It does not take her long to see tracks, and the said tracks lead to an area at the far end with more consoles and an elevator control panel. And with how Rainbow Dash is eyeing the floor and slowly moving her eyes to the elevator control panel, Fluttershy knows she and Dash are thinking the same thing. After a moment of silence, Rainbow Dash looks at Fluttershy and nods.
“Load up on what you can,” orders Rainbow Dash. “We're going to kill Applejack.”
Author's Note
So, funny story about this chapter. I rewrote this thing from top to bottom a few times, starting from it being a partial flashback, to full flash back, boss fight, swarm fight, or just plain talking and a mix of all of the above at some capacity. Of all the chapters, this is my least favorite one since nothing was working and I want to get this story done, so basically the outcome of this chapter is an example of "F it"; I posted it, and whatever happens happens. I mean, two pages? Pathetic. But whatever, they're gonna fight Applejack the next chapter, so it'll be longer and better than this installment.every day , and that wears you out fast. Hardly any energy after work and having to use Mountain Dew as a fuel is not good.
“We're going to kill Applejack.”
Fluttershy has no arguments. Applejack just tried to kill Rainbow Dash, and more importantly she tried to kill her. After all they have been through, after all she did to avenge the crew, colonists and her team, Applejack repays her with attempted murder? She must die. No exceptions.
Fluttershy quickly goes around the room, gathering batteries and medical supplies while ignoring Zephyr in her peripheral vision. She will deal with him later, but for now it is Applejack and the Pryo. While gathering her supplies, Fluttershy spots an audio disk on one of the desks. Next to the disk is a pile of other disks and papers, but Fluttershy doesn't make a move to gather all of them; instead she focuses on the first one she saw, followed by quickly checking her audio band and finds that it is still operable, surprisingly. So, she ejects her current disc, slips the new one in and resumes gathering supplies while the crackling audio floods into her ear.
There is beeping, click-clacking, and humming in the background, and after a few seconds there is a deep breath and Arcos' voice comes in.
“Good evening, me! Update on my life. The food is gone, the water is basically gone, my scientists are gone, the Captain is still making a fuss because I hoarded all of the bullets and medicine, and the transmissions to and from the UEG Harpoon is still active,” says Arcos. “So, me, what have you been doing? Well, me, I have been keeping track of the state of the ship and the survivors are dropping quickly. There are a couple that have gone off the deep end and are actively hunting other survivors and Necromorphs. Attempts to communicate with the Pyschos have been unsuccessful, but the rest have taken my directions quite well, and watching them scramble around trying to collect what I tell them to in the hopes of escape is entertaining. It'll be fascinating to review the footage when this is over. Heheheh, I can already taste the raise and bonus I'm going to get for this experiment! School debt, kiss your ass goodbye!”
“Hello, Pinnacle!” says Arcos excitedly.
“Hieroglyph, we have a situation,” says a stallion.
Fluttershy rolls her eye and grabs some magazines for her rifle and pistol.
“Oh? It can't be on my end. My end is perfect!” claims Arcos.
“The problem is from your end. A partial signal from somepony named Zephyr Breeze got out.”
“Was it just that one partial?”
“Yes. The rest were intercepted and deleted by the Harpoon.”
“Weird... Let me check something.” There is some typing and a few seconds later Arcos speaks again. “Zephyr Breeze is a colonist, registered Unitologist, mane stylist and professional slacker according to the surveillance profiles. Nothing special about this guy. He is also dead. Probably joined the infected. Where did the signal go?”
“Somepony named Fluttershy Breeze,” says Pinnacle.
Fluttershy is in the middle of stuffing her saddle with medicine when he says this, and with her freezing, her blood runs cold and she looks ahead, as if expecting to see Pinnacle staring at her. Whoever he is.
“She is in the Medical Corps,” continues Pinnacle. “Our surveillance has shown she is already speaking to the proper people for a temporary transfer. We'll pull the strings to get her on our asset's team for the experiment. I'll send you her files.”
“Oh, I do love more test subjects,” says Arcos. “And I'm already scribbling up a good plan for her. It will tie into one of my theories about-”
“Save it for the debriefing. Just remember, we need the asset and at least one other survivor for the next phase of the experiment.”
“Right, right, I understand, and while we are on the subject of test subjects. That Changeling with cancer you sent us through that 'Make a Wish' thing turned into something quite special after exposure. Would you like to hear it?”
“Again. Save it for the debriefing. In the meantime, keep broadcasting information to the Harpoon. Transmission over.”
Click.
“...Well, alrighty then,” says Arcos. “Guess it is time for me to go click, too.”
Click.
Fluttershy is frozen in place, eye wide and trembles running through her body. She can barely breathe, much less hear. She sees Rainbow Dash walking towards and looks at her, watching her speak with the words muffled. Until-
“FLUTTERSHY!” screams Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy blinks tears away.
“Snap out of it! We gotta kill Applejack, then get hammered and laid,” says Rainbow Dash. She shakes her head and walks away from Fluttershy, tail and wings flicking. “Fuck me, I'm going to need a memory wipe of this place.”
“They knew,” says Fluttershy quietly.
“What?” says Rainbow Dash, stopping to look at her.
Fluttershy lifts her hoof to look at her audio device. “They didn't underestimate anything. They purposefully sent us underprepared.” She lowers her hoof to look at Rainbow Dash. “We're lab rats... Our team... Applejack, it is all a game for Section 0, and if we make it off this ship, they will do something to us, to her, something horrible. Maybe they'll kill us and take our brains, or torture us to death for information!”
Rainbow Dash looks at Fluttershy, then at her audio device, and she takes a deep breath and runs her hoof through her mane.
“Those assholes. All these years of service and they do this to me. To us.” Rainbow Dash quickly approaches Fluttershy and puts her hoof around the back of Fluttershy's head, pulling her down so all Fluttershy can see is her. “Look, Flutters, we're going to make it, alright? We're going to make it to tomorrow, we're going to slip under their radar and we're going to tell everypony what happened here. They will not get away with this.”
Rainbow Dash releases Fluttershy's head and props up her chin with a soft boop from her hoof.
“Chin up, soldier, we got a war to win. You came this far and you're not stopping now,” says Rainbow Dash. “We're getting off of this ship and we're going to burn Section 0 down!”
Fluttershy nods and follows Rainbow Dash to the elevator. While Rainbow Dash works on typing in a command, Fluttershy catches an odd glow out of the corner of her eye. It is an orange-ish glow.
A fiery glow.
Fluttershy's ears perk and she looks to the glow, eye wide and limbs locking.
“Oh no,” says Fluttershy.
There is a whir and Rainbow Dash looks to where Fluttershy is looking while the floor slides open behind her.
“What?” asks Rainbow Dash.
Behind them is a ding followed by a metallic clang as a platform from down below locks in place, and in front of them, a shadow stretches along the wall with the crackles of fire and the clip clops of hoofs echoing down the hall. Hoof steps that Fluttershy recognizes. Then the Pyro walks into view with a ball of fire resting in front of his flame thrower.
“GET ON THE ELEVATOR!” shouts Fluttershy.
The Pyro gallops forward, and Fluttershy pushes Rainbow Dash on the elevator before her commander can react. Fluttershy then slams her hoof on the control panel, hitting the down arrow with enough force to break the button and dives over Rainbow Dash, using herself as a shield as a rush of fire races towards them. The control panel above explodes as the fire engulfs it, and Fluttershy cries out in pain as the fire burns her, reducing much of her tail, feathers, and mane to with a molten hot pain taking over her scalp. Above the pair, sparks fall, and the floor barrier jams, and Fluttershy hyperventilates with tears streaming down down her cheeks, splattering on Rainbow Dash while the elevator speeds down. Fluttershy doesn't put up much of a fight when she is pushed off by her commander, but how she lands gives her a view of the Pyro aiming his flamethrower down the gap and releasing another stream of fire their way. Thanks to the fast descent, the fire rolls out of existence before it can touch them and Rainbow Dash shoots up, screaming madly.
“What the hell was that!?” yells Rainbow Dash. “When I get through with Applejack I'm coming for your head, jackass!” She points to the corner of the elevator, away from Fluttershy. “And you shut the fuck up! I'm going to kill you, too, when I'm done with them. Wait. No no no no.”
Rainbow Dash paces in circles while Fluttershy lays on her back, whimpering and shuddering from the pain eating away at her.
“I'm the sane one, remember?” mutters Rainbow Dash. “Yeah, I'm sane. I'm sane. You aren't real.” She whips out her pistol and aims it at the same corner. “I'M SANE!”
She shakes her head, holsters her pistol and paces in circles.
“Rarity Belle, Roid Rage Snowflake, Moonlight Aura, Comet Tail, Hothoof Trotter, Red Joystick, Gage Meter, Thunderlane Hurricane, Fluttershy Breeze,” says Rainbow Dash. That last name brings her to perk up and for Fluttershy to skip a heartbeat.
“No, not her. Not her not her not her.” Rainbow Dash turns to Fluttershy. “You okay, Fluttershy?”
“I'm still here... And real... And in pain,” says Fluttershy. She winces and rolls on her side, causing parts of her ashy mane, tail, and feathers to crumble, leaving only damaged clumps of her former pegasus beauty left. “I-I need... I need...”
Fluttershy digs into her medical supplies and injects herself with adrenaline, sighing with relief as a rush of energy dulls the pain. There are still bristles of pain running along her back, but at least it does not feel like her skin is melting off now.
“I needed that,” says Fluttershy.
The elevator stops, and the door slides open, revealing “Hangar H” painted on the large blast doors in front of the spacious area. Dim lights shine overhead, reflecting off of the metal hulls of the ships chained to the hangar floor, and at the far end is a rectangular ship with stubby wings that have large circular engines on their tips, and an orb shaped cockpit. On its side is CV-BV-10923 and its ramp is down with the Marker laying inside of the ship, giving off a red glow.
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash draw their weapons and carefully walk across the hangar, sweeping the area as they go, with Fluttershy activating her full-face helmet. Lights flicker, and Fluttershy notices that a section of the upper level has rebars stacked up while building supplies, tools and crates line the walls, near the other cargo ships, which hold the same design as CV-BV-10923 .
There is a rumble, and Fluttershy turns her cutter to the vent network above, but sees nothing, and reluctantly looks ahead while Rainbow Dash turns her scanning into tunnel vision. When the pair are a few dozen feet away from the cargo ship, they stop, and Rainbow Dash makes a loud, shrill whistle.
“Oh, Applejack! Come out and play!” calls Rainbow Dash, her voice booming in the hangar.
There is some ruckus inside CV-BV-10923 and Applejack comes out a few seconds later, covered in sweat and her rifle armed.
“What the hell?” says Applejack.
“Should have shot me in the head,” says Fluttershy.
“Get off that ship. Let's talk. Mare to mare,” says Rainbow Dash.
“There ain't nothing to talk about,” says Applejack.
“Oh, there is plenty to talk about. Betrayal, for starters. Being Section 0 is another. Oh, and you running off with that Marker to take it off this ship,” says Rainbow Dash.
“I tried to get us off this ship!” says Applejack. “But they wanted more information, and with two of the three passwords lost this is my only chance to get back home. Something that y'all can't understand!”
“How long have you been Section 0?” asks Rainbow Dash.
“None your business.”
“It is my business since they killed my team and my Captain!”
“Our team. Our Captain.”
“No, you were a rat from the start. You don't get to call them your teammates or Captain!”
Applejack's jaw tightens, and Fluttershy steps forward.
“Applejack, listen to me, you are making a big mistake.” Fluttershy waves around the area. “The Marker did all of this. We can't let you leave with it or else the same thing will happen somewhere else.”
Applejack narrows her eyes and walks down the ramp, cocking her gun. “That Marker is my ticket home.”
“That Marker killed my team,” says Rainbow Dash.
“Our team. But if I can get it back to Section 0, then their deaths won't be in vain.”
Rainbow Dash narrows her eyes, and Fluttershy steps closer with her hoof raised.
“Applejack, Section 0 going to hurt you if you go to them,” says Fluttershy firmly. “You are expendable to them, and this mission is proof.”
Applejack aims her weapon at the two. “I know how this game works. You're just trying to butter me up so you could take the Marker for yourselves! But it ain't yours, its mine! Both you geniuses screwed this up and I can fix what happened, but now y'all want to take that away from me!? You want to take away my chance at redemption!”
“No, it's not like that!” says Fluttershy. “Applejack, please listen to me. Section 0 is going to double cross you. You can't go to them and you can't take that Marker.”
Applejack shakes her head. “I'm taking this Marker and I'm going to make things right.”
“Don't do this, Applejack,” says Fluttershy.
“And y'all ain't gonna stop me.”
Rainbow Dash suddenly fires off a burst that hits Applejack in the chest. The shots echo in the hangar and Applejack stumbles backwards, falling off the ramp while Fluttershy rushes forward.
“Did you see that? Right on the bullseye!” says Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy hops on the ramp, goes to where Applejack fell off and peeks over the edge.
Nothing.
Fluttershy scrunches her brow, looks up, and gets blinded by a blue light. A blink later, she is ejected from her spot and lands on her back off the ramp. She winces and rolls on her side, only to quickly curl up as a stream of bullets fly over her, forcing Rainbow Dash into cover. Sparks bounce off the floor and metal crates, and Rainbow Dash peeks out from her cover to fire a barrage of her own. While this happens, Fluttershy rolls on her stomach and crawls underneath the ramp with her cutter trained ahead. She briefly sees Applejack gallop past her and tries to shoot her legs, but the cutter beams miss and slice into a toolbox instead, causing it to fall over and spill its contents.
“You're dead, you hear me!? DEAD!” shouts Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy crawls out from under the ramp, does another scan and after she sees Applejack diving behind a pile of crates, she unloads her cutter. Streak after streak zips towards the pile, cutting off chunks of metal at a time, and when Fluttershy ejects her battery to slip a new one in, Applejack pokes out and shoots at Fluttershy. The bullets ricochet off the floor, crates, and the cargo ship, and Fluttershy gallops to cover.
“Hell of a talk we're having!” says Applejack.
“I got more to say!” yells Rainbow Dash, following it up with a burst of gunfire.
Fluttershy pokes out, and quickly retreats into cover when Applejack shoots at her again.
“Y'all could've made this easy by staying put,” says Applejack.
“Applejack, that Marker is twisting your mind,” says Fluttershy.
“That's rich coming from you, Ms. Pyscho. Did a hit to the noggin get some of your sense back?”
“Psh. No,” says Zephyr, sitting next to Fluttershy.
Fluttershy glares at him, and the Marker pulses, filling Fluttershy's vision with hieroglyphs and giving her a headache while the lights on the ship flicker.
“Go for a head shot. You'll get more points,” says Zephyr.
“Shut up,” snaps Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash suddenly takes flight, goes high towards the ceiling and circles down, shooting a stream of bullets at Applejack. The bullets ricochet off the floor towards Applejack, and the Agent uses her Artificial Telekinesis Module to bring a crate in front of her as a shield. The bullets damage the crate, and as Applejack launches it at Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy spots a stack of red fuel canisters next to her former teammate. One red beam is all it takes to detonate them and send Applejack flying off her hoofs with shards of metal going all around. Balls of fire bounce across the floor with pockets of fire scattered around, and Fluttershy gallops towards Applejack, who is trying to stand up, but is shot in the back by Rainbow Dash when she swoops down for another salvo.
The bullets bounce off of Applejack's armor, save for one that breaches and brings the Agent down, and before she can get up, Fluttershy clocks her in the face, sending her to the ground with a couple of her teeth flying out. Applejack growls, stomps the floor, and when Fluttershy goes for another punch, Applejack blocks it, hits just above Fluttershy’s fore-hoof's elbow and follows up with a hard hit on the top of her head that puts Fluttershy on the ground. Then she scrambles on top of Fluttershy and breaks off her cutter from the saddle and shoots Rainbow Dash with a stasis blob, putting the pegasus and her bullets in a field of slow motion.
Rainbow Dash grits her teeth, and Fluttershy bucks Applejack off and makes a dive for her cutter, but Applejack bites down on her tail, tugs her in the air and slams her down on the floor, on her back. The impact sends her eye spinning, and before she can recover Applejack engulfs her in an artificial telekinesis field and shoots her across the floor. Everything becomes a blur as she bounces and rolls across the floor, with each hit on her body bringing a hot flash of pain. She comes to an abrupt stop when she hits a pile of crates. The crates tumble and fall on top of her, assaulting her with more trauma. By the time the crates stop, Fluttershy is on the ground, wheezing and twitching, and watching with a blurred vision as Applejack turns to Rainbow Dash and shoots her wing while the stasis field fades.
Fluttershy's eye widens with horror as the bullets rip off Rainbow Dash's wing, and once the field fades, Rainbow Dash releases a sharp cry of pain as she spirals out of control and scrapes into the floor with a crunch, leaving a trail of blood and feathers. What follows is a loud, long scream of agony and rage, and Fluttershy watches helplessly as Applejack approaches Rainbow Dash, who is holding her bleeding face with her other wing snapped and gushing blood while the one shot off twitches in its own blood. The commander thrashes and fires off sporadic bursts of gunfire, which leads to Applejack shooting Rainbow Dash's gun from her saddle.
“FUCK YOU!” yells Rainbow Dash. “YOU FUCKING RAT! I'LL DRAG YOU TO HELL WITH ME!”
Applejack stops by Rainbow Dash, her eyes dark and her face wrinkled with a deep scowl, and Fluttershy wiggles her way out of the mess of crates, stumbles forward, and tries with painful results to get into a gallop.
“Applejack, don't!” cries Fluttershy.
Applejack kicks Rainbow Dash on her back and swiftly stomps on her throat, bringing the cries and curses to an end. Blood pops out of Rainbow Dash's throat and mouth, covering her face and Applejack's boot with blood. Her body goes limp, and as the crimson pool quickly grows around her, and Fluttershy screams in rage and all pain disappears as she gallops towards Applejack, her helmet retracting so the fire in her can be seen. Applejack shoots a stasis blob at Fluttershy, but she dodges it with a roll, grabs her cutter with her mouth and shoots at Applejack. The red lasers streak towards the Agent, and she leaps to the side while firing off a few rounds at Fluttershy. Her armor deflects some of the bullets, but one pierces what is left of the plating and digs into her hoof.
Fluttershy buckles with a sharp cry of pain, and when she tries shooting Applejack again the Agent dodges and rams her in the chest. The two mares roll over each other, snarling and dealing sharp blows to each other. It ends with Applejack pinning Fluttershy down and pressing her hoof down on her throat. Fluttershy gags and with a combination of kicks and punches to Applejack's hindquarters and face she can get the Agent off. Fluttershy follows up with jumping on Applejack's back and slams her face into the floor multiple times. Each slam brings a squirt of blood on the floor, and after the fourth slam, Applejack wiggles her way from under Fluttershy, bites on her limp wing and tugs her down
The flashes of pain and the scattered vision makes it hard for Fluttershy to focus, much less block the blows dealt to her. Despite Fluttershy's best efforts, Applejack still gets the advantage quickly and slams her into a pillar. She follows up with a punch that Fluttershy is able to block, but Fluttershy could not block the other punch to her side, and she drops, wheezing for air with blood staining her tongue and her throat bleeding with tools nearby.
Fluttershy's vision pulses, and she grits her teeth, pushes herself up again, and when she goes for another charge, Applejack headbutts her, but with a screwdriver in her mouth. Fluttershy freezes, gags and looks down, meeting Applejack's sideways glance as the earthpony has tilted her head to stab Fluttershy's lung with the long tool.
Fluttershy gags again, she can feel the blood pooling into her lungs, and she grips Applejack's shoulder as she is forced to the floor with the Agent on top of her. When Fluttershy is on her back, she is whimpering and breathing heavily through her nose while staring at Applejack with a mix of hatred and horror. As this happens, Applejack gently shushes Fluttershy again and cups her cheek with her hoof, staining her helmet with Rainbow Dash's blood.
“Shh~ Shh~ Stay quiet, Fluttershy,” says Applejack, her tone authoritative and a pained snarl on her face. “Take it easy, now. It’s almost over.”
Applejack stands up and walks to Rainbow Dash's corpse, speaking while she collects the ammo from her dead commander.
“I wish it didn't have to come to this, but you left me no choice,” says Applejack. “Our team, these colonists, the crew, your brother, they won't die in vain. I'm going to make things right.”
Fluttershy grunts and turns on her side, coughing and whimpering as she grips the screwdriver. After Applejack collects the ammo, she walks towards the cargo ship while looking at Fluttershy with pity.
Fluttershy drags herself towards her cutter while Applejack boards the cargo ship. Her breathing and wheezing are heavy, and her hoof grips the screwdriver's hilt. Several seconds later, the ramp closes on the cargo ship and warning alarms sound as a blue sheen appears on the hangar door. Next, the door splits open, revealing the red sun, the dark planet, and the multitude of stars in the expanse of space. The edges of the opening have blue orbs of light, and streaks of dark blue move across the hangar door's length while the engines whir to life. An orange light shines underneath each orb shaped engine, and the chain holding CV-BV-10923 disconnects, allowing the ship to rise.
“No,” grunts Fluttershy. She grabs her cutter and aims it at the back engine. “No... No... No!”
Fluttershy bites down on the trigger, sending out a quick, sporadic stream of red lasers towards one of the ball engines. The lasers cut into the metal, leaving orange streaks in the metal hull. Fluttershy keeps shooting, and soon fire rolls out from the openings, and the engine explodes, showering the hangar with twisted metal. CV-BV-10923 drops slightly and with the flying shards of sharp metal cutting into the hull and next engine there is more fire and another explosion that shatters part of the cockpit window and rips open the cargo ship's hull. The craft whines and spins, sputtering black smoke, and Fluttershy shields her face with her hoof as the large ship scrapes against the hangar floor, coming to a stop when it crashes into one of the support beams for the upper platform. The beam snaps, the nose of the ship crumples, and the rebars on the upper level roll off and fall into the cockpit, breaking more glass or bouncing off the ship. During the chaos of the crash, an alarm sounds, the blue lights snap to red, and the hangar door closes quickly, and after the crash, Fluttershy stares at the wreckage in disbelief that her attack worked.
And now that the Marker isn't going anywhere, Fluttershy grips the screwdriver's hilt with both of her hoofs and pulls it out, gasping and wheezing, and coughing wetly as the medical foam is sprayed into her wound by the suit. For good measure, she manually sprays more on the wound, whimpering as the burning sensation plus the solidifying of foam inside her gives her a desire to puke.
With the pink-ish shells caking her body, Fluttershy pushes herself up and limps to the cargo ship, short of breath and coughing wetly. She ejects the spent battery from her cutter, slips a new one in, and aims it at the back door of the cargo ship. A couple of shots of the high powered laser for each side causes the ramp to fall with a metallic bang that echoes in the chamber, and Fluttershy increases her speed. She still stumbles a bit and takes a moment to inject herself with a few more doses of adrenaline, which brings her heart racing and leads to her twitching, but twitching aside, she is able to walk and that is what is important for her at the moment. Upon entering the ship, she works her way to the cockpit, quickly passing the Marker and the miniature warp battery along the way. Once she reaches Applejack she finds that the Agent is still strapped to her seat, and Applejack looks at Fluttershy, eyes soaked and red, and lips trembling with cuts all over her face and armor. But Fluttershy doesn't care. She aims her cutter at Applejack's head and prepares to pull the trigger.
“Wait,” wheezes Applejack, her hoof up and shaking.
Fluttershy stops, but keeps her weapon trained on Applejack.
“Don't waste your ammo. You'll need it,” says Applejack.
Fluttershy's eye drift's from Applejack's face to her chest, and she lowers her cutter when she sees rebars have been impaled into the earth pony. A large portion of cockpit window is shattered, the control panel is sparking, and blood drips from Applejack's seat, slowly spreading across the floor while emergency symbols flicker on and off on the screens.
“Warning- W-W-Warn-ning: Ddddddamage- dama-g-g-g-g-g-geeeeeeee...”
The computer's voice fizzes out, the screens go dark, and Applejack extends her hoof towards the control panel, whimpering as blood bubbles from her mouth. Fluttershy looks to where her hoof is stretching and sees the stetson on the control panel. It is a little bit torn with specks of blood on it, and Fluttershy graciously gives it to Applejack. The hat is accepted with a weak grab and a choking gasp.
“My pa... My ma... They gave me this hat before they disappeared,” says Applejack. She swallows and sniffles as she presses the hat against her muzzle, eyes closed and tears streaming down her face. “Apple Bloom can't even remember their faces... Only... Only the hat.”
Applejack opens her bloodshot eyes and looks at Fluttershy as she holds the hat to her.
“Take it... Take it back to Apple Bloom... Please,” begs Applejack.
Fluttershy has half a mind to reject her at first, but decides to take the hat, not wanting to punish whoever Apple Bloom is for Applejack's actions. That said, with the hat in hoof, Fluttershy inspects it, seeing the damage of age and the events of this day have brought it.
“My password is Bright Pear... Butter Mac... Perfect Pair,” says Applejack, her voice drifting. “Repeat it.”
Fluttershy looks at Applejack, letting her hard stare do the talking.
“Please,” says Applejack weakly.
“... Bright Pear. Butter Mac. Perfect Pair,” says Fluttershy.
“Good... Good. There might still be usable ship somewhere around here... Use the warp battery to get out of the system,” says Applejack. She looks straight ahead, her eyes getting dimmer and her breathing slower. “Make things right.”
Applejack's eyes then close and she falls limp as her chest stops moving. Fluttershy looks at Applejack's still form for a few seconds before shaking her head and disconnecting Applejack's toolbox from her saddle and carrying it to the module in the back of the ship. The battery is pulsing blue, and Fluttershy sets down her tools and after she flips a switch near the module the battery's lights dim and she starts working on disconnecting it from the module. It doesn't take long for her to do so, and once it is free, she hooks it to her saddle, clips Applejack's hat around her neck and takes a deep breath as she looks out the ship, where Zephyr is waiting, his hoof extended to her and the Marker glowing with red energy that gives her a headache. Fluttershy glares at him, breathing heavy and vision foggy. She takes a few steps forward, activates her cutter, aims it at Zephyr and-
THUMP!
Metal bends, glass breaks, and Fluttershy screams and turns to face the cockpit as the Hunter stares at her from outside. Its claws rip into what remains of the cockpit and tears it open, and Fluttershy swears and gallops out of the cargo ship. As she runs, glass and metal clatter to the floor, followed by fast, heavy steps, and Fluttershy trips over herself at the ramp and rolls off the side. She lands on her back, wincing as a flash of pain surges through her back and skull, but she quickly pushes that aside to scramble upright when the Hunter leaps out of the wreckage.
It snaps to Fluttershy and marches after her, and she curses and gallops away. The ground shakes, and she rolls over a large crate and takes a sharp turn as the Hunter's massive claws slash into it. The crate breaks into pieces, and the Hunter roars and whacks the broken parts to the side before giving chase again.
Fluttershy looks over her shoulder, panting and wheezing as she gallops, and when she sees the Hunter gaining on her she tries to run faster towards the stairs. However, the accumulation of her injuries burn and tear at once, breaking her from the inside out, bringing her vision to blur with tears and for her limbs to buckle.
Fluttershy's heart is close to exploding when she is at the base of the stairs, but the Hunter's steps are right behind her now, and she can see its shadow stretching over her, but there is no pain, no death. Rather there is a sudden dip that forces Fluttershy to grab on to the railing while the Hunter rolls away, despite its efforts to dig into the floor and leads CV-BV-10923to crash into the hangar's door. As this happens, a loud warning alarm blares and red lights start swirling around the hangar, and Fluttershy yells angrily and tightens her grip on the railing with the sharp angle making her dangle and her hind legs kick frantically.
“WARNING: SHIP IN DANGEROUS DESCENT! SEEK SAFETY IMMEDIATELY!” says the computerized voice over the speakers.
“ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?” screams Fluttershy hoarsely.
The Hunter's claws finally get a grip on the floor, leaving a long gash and trail of sparks, and when it stops it begins its climb towards Fluttershy. She hooks her other hoof on the railing, twists her body and shoots at the Hunter with her cutter, missing some of the shots, but the shots that do hit slice off its arms, leading to the Hunter tumbling away with tools, crates and other items bouncing after it. The ships tethered to the hangar floor swing and their chains groan and creak while the alarm and a loud scream stabs at Fluttershy's ears.
“Oh, Fluttershy, my dear, sweet sister. Why are you fighting?” says Zephyr.
Fluttershy's focus snaps to the stairs and sees Zephyr leaning against the railing, his dark eyes focusing on her with his head slightly crooked.
“You're only hurting yourself, you know?” says Zephyr. “Stop resisting. Become whole with us.”
Fluttershy growls and pulls herself up the railing, finally giving her hind legs a place to rest on the bottom steps. However, as soon as she gets her footing, Zephyr punches Fluttershy, and she screams in pain as the hoof feels like a knife piercing her. She releases the railing and rolls down the tilted floor while a Twitcher stabs and bites her. The chaotic scenery zips by, and Fluttershy turns the Twitcher around and lets it take the brunt of the damage when they hit a metal support beam. Broken bones pop out, its stingers break off and it coughs blood all over Fluttershy, which she reacts by punching it in the face, flattening its head with her metal boot. Then the Hunter's claws stab the floor near her, and Fluttershy screams and reels back, bringing her into a roll down the hangar as the Hunter crawls after her with partially completed limbs.
More Necromorphs fall after her, each rolling, bouncing or trying to run down after her, and when Fluttershy comes to a stop at the hangar door she can barely feel the pain, much less breathe or focus with all the metallic crashes, blaring alarms, flickering lights and screams.
One of the ships breaks loose from its chain, and it speeds towards Fluttershy with a large trail of sparks. Fluttershy swears and scrambles along the crooked floor, punching a Slasher along the way, and takes a flying leap to a ladder. Her hooves hook on it and the ship slams into the hangar door, squishing more Necromorphs and crumbling with sparks and jets of flames ejecting from its wreckage. Fluttershy does not stop to marvel at the chaos, she keeps climbing, and when she pulls herself up, she ignores the ripping pain in her body and the tightness in her ribs. She keeps running, occasionally tripping over herself and having to use the railing for support.
A vent breaks open, and an Infector flies out, followed by a Slasher. Fluttershy shoots one of the Infector's wings, making it spiral out of control and fall to the mess down below, and the Slasher rushes her, meeting a cutter beam to its head and one of its legs. With blood spraying and the Slasher stumbling, Fluttershy easily shoves it over the edge and resumes running. Then there is a roar, and she turns around and sees the Hunter breaking the railing to pull itself up. She shoots it in the head and continues galloping as the Hunter's headless form tries to keep its grip on the floor.
Fluttershy quickly reaches the door at the end and uses her Master Key Band to unlock it. There is a loud beep, but it opens anyway, and she runs down the hallway, eye flicking up to every sign she can find, which thankfully give her directions to the bridge. She does not even bother trying to kill the Necromorphs that are pouring out of the rooms and vents.
Run, run, run, run, run. All she can do is run. If she stops, she is dead.
She bobs and weaves through the slashes and charges and uses her Master Key Band to unlock another door, slip to the other side and lock it up. There are screams and bangs on the other side, which does not faze Fluttershy in the slightest. She has complete focus, almost total tunnel vision of her objective. She does not register the surroundings as much as she used to. If she can run on it, if it is stairs or a door, she is using it. If it is a sign pointing to the bridge, she will read it in the split second she allows herself to use. When Fluttershy goes through another locked door, she enters a hallway with scorched walls and charred Necromorphs, and with this bit of scenery she knows she is getting close.
Health be damned, she runs faster. She must run faster. There is no time to stop! She can taste blood on her tongue, feel her heart and lungs tearing and her joints ready to shatter, but that is no excuse to stop.
Inside, the Pyro is sitting on a chair in an elevated position that is in front of the Captain's perch, the holographic display is showing a projected trajectory, the window has been tinted and the planet's surface is rapidly getting closer. The alarm seems louder on the bridge, and the screens are all flashing hieroglyphs and double helixes with overlapping voices flooding Fluttershy's ears. Fluttershy takes a deep breath, activates her full faced helmet, and gallops towards the Pyro.
The Pyro turns just in time for Fluttershy to punch him in the jaw, and while he is stunned, she slams his head into the console and throws him out of the chair. While the Pyro rolls down the short set of stairs, Fluttershy grabs the controls and starts pulling the ship up. The information on the screens shifts from a sharp descent to a leveled path, but before Fluttershy can completely level it out, a hoof wraps around her neck and pulls her off the chair. Her hoofs kick out of reflex, shattering the screen and breaking the buttons, and when she lands on her back, the Pyro stomps on her gut and head, then pulls her up, slams her against a console and punches her in the jaw. With Fluttershy on the floor, the Pyro pushes the controls downward.
“I will not let you win!” says the Pyro. “This disease must not spread! They cannot be whole!”
“It’s the Marker doing this! Not a disease!” says Fluttershy. She gets up, and with a burst of speed she rams the Pyro in the chest, pushing him into the railing and punches him down before going back to the controls. “The Marker has to be destroyed. Not us!”
Fluttershy pulls the controls up and through the cracked screen she can see the ship leveling out again. Or at least she hopes she is leveling it out. It is hard to say with the screen destroyed. Also, the planet surface is really close now, with sharp spires and hills of black ice stretching towards a permanent twilight and a skyline of gray towers.
“We must die with the Marker! For the sake of all that is good we must die!” says the Pyro.
He butts Fluttershy aside, grabs the controls, gives them a sharp turn, and then snaps them off. The ship makes a sharp tilt, and the two ponies grab on to the railing of their platform, both dangling in the air as everything goes sideways. Buildings zip by them, and the ship shakes with broken concrete, glass, and metal flying past them, and when the bridge window shatters the two are sprayed with broken glass. Fluttershy squeezes her eye shut and holds her head down, wincing as the glass nicks her and the screaming of rushing wind assault her ears with bright orange, red and white light breaching her eye lid. Metal panes slide over the gaping hole that was once the window, plunging the room in near total darkness, with only pockets of red lights to provide illumination. Seconds later, there is a loud screech that overtakes every sound on the ship; metal snaps, multiple explosive pops shaking the ship and there are rumbles with heavy thuds against the hull of the ship. Suddenly, there is a stop and both ponies are flung from their spots and roll across the wall of the bridge, coming to a stop at the other end.
After the impact, all Fluttershy feels is pain, and she screams and sobs as every bone in her body feels like it has been snapped and glued back together. Next to her, the Pyro grunts and shifts on the ground, trying to stand as he coughs specks of blood. Sparks fall all around them, and the alarm wobbles, going from low to high pitches, and the red lights flicker with the computer screens going dim. With everything crooked and blurry, Fluttershy can barely make out the data being projected from the projector, which is barely working as is. But when it all comes to focus, her eyes widen at the sight of a blueprint of the engine room being in a shade of red, as well as a set of numbers above it.
30:00 29:59 29:58 29:57 29:56
“W-W-W-W-AR-ARN-ING. WARNI-ING-NG: WARP CORE FAI-AIL-LURE. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY. WA-WARP DESTA-LIZ-TION Immmmmmm.... Pop. ”
“Oh, no,” says Fluttershy.
Next to her, the Pyro rolls upright with a long, drawn out groan. After he stands up, he cracks his back and neck, looks at Fluttershy and aims his flamethrower at her.
“Now we end this,” says the Pyro.
Author's Note
"Oh, you thought you could kill me? That's cute."
THE END BEGINS!
After the impact, all Fluttershy feels is pain, and she screams and sobs as every bone in her body feels like it has been snapped and glued back together. Next to her, the Pyro grunts and shifts on the ground, trying to stand as he coughs specks of blood. Sparks fall all around them, and the alarm wobbles, going from low to high pitches, and the red lights flicker with the computer screens going dim. With everything crooked and blurry, Fluttershy can barely make out the data being projected from the projector, which is barely working as is. But when it all comes to focus, her eyes widen at the sight of a blueprint of the engine room being in a shade of red, as well as a set of numbers above it.
Fluttershy lays on the ground, grunting and forcing her muscles to move, despite the fresh wave of wounds slowing her down. Every shift brings a fiery flash or a scraping pain, and her vision pulses, going in and out of clarity with the display of the engine room and the countdown in her focus. Alarms sound, orange light bleeds through the damaged plating of what was once the observation window of the bridge, and there is a shrill howling outside on top of the alarm in the bridge. Fluttershy watches the numbers drop, and dread freezes her in place.
30:00 29:59 29:58 29:57 29:56
“W-W-W-W-AR-ARN-ING. WARNI-ING-NG: WARP CORE FAI-AIL-LURE. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY. WA-WARP DESTA-LIZ-TION Immmmmmm.... Pop. ”
“Oh, no,” says Fluttershy.
The Pyro's groan draws Fluttershy's focus away from the timer, and she watches, pale and wide eyed as the psycho rolls upright. After the Pyro stands up, he cracks his back and neck, looks at Fluttershy and aims his flamethrower at her.
“Now we end this,” says the Pyro.
In a burst of speed Fluttershy didn't realize she had in her, she rolls away, narrowly avoiding a stream of fire. The fire sweeps towards her, and she leaps over a tilted computer panel, laying low as the fire melts it. With ragged breaths, Fluttershy checks her cutter and sees that it is empty, and while cursing she switches to her SAD rifle, which has plenty of ammo, and after taking a deep breath she gallops towards a new location, being careful to navigate the new environment of tilted stairs, rails and computer consoles.
The Pyro's flames stop, and he gallops after her, taking a sharp turn and dive for cover when Fluttershy turns around, guns blazing. The bullets ricochet off the panels and the floor with a series of sparks, and when the Pyro takes cover behind a terminal, Fluttershy climbs over a railing and takes cover behind a row of navigation computers. She pokes her head up, just to dart down when the fire returns in a long burst.
Fluttershy crouches and runs along the edge of the level, straining her ears in the chaos of the alarm, the roaring fire and whatever the howling outside is. Computers explode, and lights flicker, and when the fire stops, Fluttershy turns around in time to see the Pyro leap down to her level, looking right at her. Before she can fire, he unleashes another stream of fire towards her, engulfing her.
Fluttershy shrieks and fires blindly until the fire stops coming, but with the fire eating away at her suit and pads, she runs blindly, hits a computer and falls to the ground, rolling madly as her suit's fabric burns and goes into her skin. With her rolling, parts of her burnt suit fall off and the fire quickly dies out, and she struggles to get up, shaking intensely as she injects herself with a dose of adrenaline and hastily sprays medical foam on her wounds. As this happens, the Pyro is slumped against the wall, wheezing with a pool of blood growing around him and more streaked on the wall and staining his suit. He grits his teeth, stands up and marches towards Fluttershy again.
“You are tainted by the Marker. You cannot save us,” says the Pyro, his teeth stained red and his face dark around the eyes. “But I can. I can save us.”
Fluttershy reloads and shoots him again, and he stumbles back, gasping and his limbs shaking in their struggle to keep him up.
“Through faith and flame I have purged this ship... Through faith and flame I will save us...” The Pyro lifts his flamethrower again and he uses his other hoof to inject himself with a large syringe of adrenaline. “Salvation through fire!”
The Pyro gallops forward, biting hard on his flamethrower trigger to eject a large stream of fire, and Fluttershy climbs over a railing to get to the upper level, and she shoots at the Pyro's back while he sweeps the flames up to her. The flames blind Fluttershy and force her backwards while a ball of fire rolls up with an agonizing scream. Fluttershy's visor cracks and the lights inside flicker, forcing her deactivate her helmet, exposing her battered face. Immediately, the stench of burnt flesh fills her nose, and she gags and stumbles forward. Before she can get to the edge, the Pyro's hoof grips the railing, his flesh blackened with chunks of burnt flesh falling off to reveal red flesh muscle beneath with portions of his clothes fused to his skin. Fluttershy steps back, and he climbs over, wheezing with his fuel tack popped, embedding metal into him, and his flamethrower is a twisted mess. His skull is cracked and showing past strands of skin with his one eye focused on Fluttershy.
He releases a raspy scream and leaps at Fluttershy while she shoots at him, but despite the bullets tearing into him, he still forces her down with a tackle and bites at her neck. Fluttershy screams in agony and punches him in the jaw, breaking his teeth. He retaliates with a punch to her nose with a loud crunch; blood gushes out from her nose and Fluttershy pushes him off with one hoof holding her face, and as she stumbles up, he tackles her again, covering the both of them in his blood. The tackle brings both rolling towards the holographic display of the timer. The Pyro lands on top of Fluttershy, and when she tries to push him off he headbutts her and presses his hoof down on her throat, his one eye peering into hers as his burnt flesh dangles off of his body and his blood drips on her.
“Die with me,” wheezes the Pyro. “Make us whole!”
Suddenly, a massive body lands on top of the Pyro, and his head is jerked forward as bone breaks and blood pours out of his mouth and nose. Then cracks pop around his skull, what is left of his skin bulges, and bugs pop out from underneath his hide, with more crawling out of his mouth or breaking through his skull. Fluttershy shrieks and pushes him off, scrambling backwards into a broken computer panel as she watches, horrified as the Pyro's body is mutilated from the inside out; his flesh snapping open, bones breaking and bugs ripping off pieces of his body and chunks of his bones organs falling out. He goes limp in the pool of blood and standing near him is a Griffin Necromorph with a saw blade lodged in its back.
“No,” whimpers Fluttershy.
The Slingshot Necromorph looks at Fluttershy, roars and charges her with the bugs crawling towards her, and she screams again and shoots at them in a wild spray of gunfire. The bullets push the Slingshot Necromorph back, tearing apart its body and popping the bugs in the process. When the bullets tear off its limbs, it screeches until its head is pulverized, leaving bits of brain and bone on the ground while its body twitches.
23:35
Fluttershy bangs her against the computer, shaking and sobbing as she looks at Slingshot's destroyed body.
“I'm sorry,” sniffles Fluttershy. “I'm sorry...”
23:27
A slow clap echoes in the room, and Fluttershy looks to the side, still shaking as Zephyr stomps the floor in a dramatic applause.
“Cool. Cool. Very cool, sis,” says Zephyr. He walks forward, grinning. “You have changed a lot. Why couldn't you be like this when we were younger? When I needed you?”
Fluttershy reloads her rifle.
“I mean, remember when we were kids and there were those bullies? Then there was all that weird Unitology stuff,” continues Zephyr. “Sis, oh sis, where are you? I asked for help, and like all these fancy gods and mom and dad, you never helped me.”
23:11
Fluttershy aims her rifle at Zephyr. He is now by the projector, his figure going through the dwindling numbers as he continues towards her.
“How many times did I need you and you never helped, Fluttershy? How many times did you leave me in the dark?” asks Zephyr. “I was forsaken by you, mom and dad. Sure, they never loved me. I was always the problem child, so I would hate me if I were them, but you? My dear, big sister, left me here to suffer and die alone!”
“Don't come any closer!” orders Fluttershy.
“Right, keep me far away,” says Zephyr, stopping a few paces away from her. “Keep far, far away! Even when I needed you most you chose to stay far away. But I'm not mad, no, not mad at all. In fact, I want to go back in time when we were kids. Those were good times. I especially loved playing tag with you.”
22:38
“I think we should play tag again, for old time's sake,” says Zephyr.
22:32
The emergency lights in the bridge flicker off for a moment, but when they flash back on, the Hunter is charging Fluttershy, and she jumps out of the way. The Hunter's claws dig into the computer panel, showering with sparks, and it howls in rage and pain when Fluttershy shoots its arm off in a spray of gunfire. After its shredded arm pops off, she shoots off one of its legs and gallops towards a gaping hole in the bridge's plating. She peeks outside and sees the colony ship has a slope she can slide down, and not too far from the ship is the Marker laying on the ground with Applejack's ship plus more ships scattered, as well as a row of hangars and a destroyed skyline with odd tendrils of flesh wrapped around the monoliths. The atmosphere has become a reddish orange, with a circle of energy swirling from the Marker and going into the sky, and bodies are flying up like metallic flakes to a magnet.
“What the hell?” gasps Fluttershy.
Behind her, the Hunter roars, and Fluttershy turns around and shoots its legs again while it charges her. The bullets do their job, breaking the legs off at their knees, and the beast collapses, but uses its claws to crawl after her. Fluttershy curses, then quickly wiggles her way through the opening in the ship, and when she is outside, one hoof grips the opening while the other feels for the battery and Applejack's hat. They are still there. Burnt, but still there with the battery still blowing. With that, Fluttershy looks down, gulping at the long drop, but after a set of claws stab at the floor near her, she shrieks and releases her hold.
Sporadic sparks trail her as her destroyed armor scrapes against the hull of the Bon Voyage, and her heart races as everything zips by her. She tilts her body left and right and uses her hoof to break or turn sharply to avoid jagged gaps in the ship’s hull, and out of sheer reflex, she grabs a steel beam that has impaled the ship and dangles down, heart racing and throat convulsing from her gags as the next drop is a few dozen feet down and is a ball of broken rebar and concrete.
Fluttershy winces and pulls herself up and takes a deep, shaky breath while she balances herself on the beam. As she stands there, she eyes her next spot, another dip that is a long jump away, and while she makes mental calculations her thought process is interrupted by metal ripping. She looks to the source and sees the Hunter sliding down after her using its claws to adjust its speed and direction while other Necromorphs crawl out of the holes of the Bon Voyage just to be sucked into the sky.
“Shit!”
Fluttershy coils her body and leaps to the next part of the ship, bouncing and rolling for a moment before she straightens herself out and jumps off the last bit. While in the air, she tucks herself into a ball and rolls across the concrete. She unrolls and flops on her side, wheezing and struggling to push herself up.
“Oh, Fluttershy~” calls Zephyr
Fluttershy looks over her shoulder and sees Zephyr walking towards her, the dark light of the Marker giving him a red glow as the dark pools of his eyes change to a bright white.
“Tag is not a game if you're standing still!” says Zephyr.
“GO TO HELL!” yells Fluttershy.
She unloads on Zephyr, causing him to stumble backwards as blood squirts from him, and when her magazine drops, completely empty, she slips a new one in and marches towards him. Shooting him again, tears streaming down her face.
“You are not Zephyr! You are not my brother!” cries Fluttershy.
“You wound me with your words. You still reject your big bro,” says Zephyr.
Fluttershy screams again and shoots off Zephyr's limbs, and he cackles as she shoots his chest open, splashing the ground with his rust colored blood and torn bones and organs. When she stands above him, aiming her rifle at his head, he keeps laughing.
“Run while you can, Fluttershy. The game is still on!” taunts Zephyr.
Fluttershy blinks, and finds the Hunter laying on the ground as a hunk of meat with its limbs gone and chest mush. But the broken parts begin healing with green energy, and Fluttershy backs up, and then gallops away with panic flooding her veins and clouding her thoughts. As she runs, the hangars she passes are either empty or have destroyed ships. Save for one.
The door is wide open, and a group of Necromorphs have crawled out of the ship, only to be pulled into the atmosphere. Fluttershy runs towards the hangar, wheezing and stumbling, and when she reaches the ship -a simple rectangular ship with a sharp nose and two cylindrical engines on stubby wings- she finds blood on the back door.
Fluttershy opens it and steps back, sweeping her rifle between the back door and the hangar entrance, firing off another stream of bullets at the Hunter as it marches into view. It falls again without one of its legs, and at this point the back door is fully open. Fluttershy hops on, gives it another sweep and when she finds nothing, she closes the door and runs forward, scanning the area with a racing heart for a warp battery slot. She quickly finds one by an engine made of cylinders, wires, and pipes, and she slides the battery in without a problem. The battery glows bright with a hum, and Fluttershy runs to the pilot seat.
Once seated, she starts flicking switches, pushing buttons, and turning knobs, bringing the engines to whir to life. She looks out the window and sees the Hunter running towards her.
Fluttershy narrows her eye and pushes the power lever forward, and the ship's engines whine loudly as the vehicle lunges towards the creature. It jumps up and grabs the ship with its claws, bringing the alarm to sound, and she turns another knob that increases the speed of the ship while she makes a sharp ascension, glaring at the Hunter while it clutches on to her ship.
An electric storm erupts behind Fluttershy, and the Hunter releases Fluttershy's ship, taking a brief fall before being sucked into the sky, leaving deep scratches in her ship. The orange and red light tainting the atmosphere is then beaten back by flashes of blue while discharge and rumbling pierces the noise inside, including the screeching warning alarms that are bringing pain to Fluttershy's ears.
Fluttershy pushes another button that leads to the battery behind her to glow brighter than it already is. The energy being released inside the ship tugs at her while outside, clouds are evaporated, and Fluttershy grits her teeth and pushes the speed lever forward as far as it can go. The ship shakes from the rumbling, electronics and lights flicker as electric bolts whip at the ship and crack the sky. A bright blue and white light burns Fluttershy's eye, forcing her to squint, her fur and mane stand and her heart races as tears soak her cheek.
“Please... Please, please please please please,” begs Fluttershy, her eye darting from the window to the flickering monitors and back again.
The ship shakes violently and starts to slow down and go backwards while the battery in the slot hums louder and glows brighter.
“Don't do this me,” says Fluttershy, her voice cracking and her vision going white with deafening rumbles of the earth breaking apart and the stench of atmosphere burning flooding her nose. “I did not come this far just to die!”
And with that, like a voice above heard her, there is a pop inside her ship, a bright flash of light, followed by the sudden appearance of the stars in the black expanse of space. The ship's electronics flicker out, some bursting with sparks breaking out of their buttons and screens, and an alarm beeps loudly as red lights flash above Fluttershy's head. Even the battery has popped, sending shards of burnt crystals twirling in the zero gravity. However, she is not worried about that, what she is worried about is her ship spinning uncontrollably in space. She quickly hits an emergency booster button that causes the ship to eject a number of controlled bursts that slow the spin, with a couple more that put Fluttershy looking directly at Onyx, which has a large blob of flesh hanging in its outer atmosphere.
Fluttershy clutches her heart, now beating heavy and fast with a tightness in her throat and a sharp pain in her lung. Her mouth hangs open, trying to swallow air as she sees a circle of nothingness in the clouds, revealing the habitation strip of Onyx nestled between the black ice and red mountains on either side. Fluttershy presses her hoof against her chest, wheezing and coughing with the taste of iron flooding her mouth as tiny blobs of red and yellow float up around her from her bleeding throat, and her vision starts fading to black. She shakily grabs her last adrenaline syringe and injects herself with it, bringing her vision to snap back, but at the cost of her heart beating faster and with more pain. She grips the control panel, seething in pain with her other hoof holding her chest.
“Unknown craft, identify yourself,” says a stallion over her radio.
Fluttershy looks at the radio, eye heavy and droopy, and breathing reduced to labored gasps.
“Unknown craft, identify yourself or we will be forced to take action,” says the stallion.
Fluttershy shakily takes the radio, licks her cracked lips, and in a raspy voice, she says, “Bright Pear. Butter Mac. Perfect Pair.”
“Password confirmed. Stand by for further instructions, Agent Apple.”
Fluttershy looks towards Onyx's moon, not seeing anything, but she knows the Harpoon is there, and it will only be a matter of time before they see she is Fluttershy and not Applejack. With that thought, she slumps in her seat, whimpers, and clutches her face. Then her whimpers turn to wails and she kicks the dashboard repeatedly as a torrent of tears flow down her cheek, mixing with the blood and grime on her face.
“Agent Apple, an unidentified signal has been discovered near you. Hang tight, we're coming to get you,” says the stallion.
Before Fluttershy could process the words, a bright flash of light appears next to her, and a long rectangular ship with stubby wings and fins glides out of an orb of swirling blue and white energy. Once the ship is fully out, the orb disappears and Fluttershy stares at the ship as it glides towards her.
“This is the 'Explorer' responding to the 'Bon Voyage' distress signal. Any survivors, please respond,” says a female.
Fluttershy activates her radio, her hoof pressed hard against her chest while her eye looks between the Explorer and the moon.
“I read you,” says Fluttershy.
“How many are on your vessel?” asks the mare.
“Just me... I'm the only survivor.”
“Stand by for boarding.”
The Explorer inches closer to Fluttershy's craft, and in the distance, a sleek ship that looks like a sewing needle with a bulbous back approaches at a great speed. After the Explorer takes its place behind Fluttershy's ship, there is a thud that shakes the craft. Fluttershy quickly readies her rifle and bounces through the ship, towards the back, passing floating crystal shard, broken electronics and burnt wires. When at the back of her ship, she takes aim and waits. Several seconds pass before there is a beep and a brief holographic projection that flickers and dies by the door, leaving just the audio.
“Permission to board?” says a mare.
Fluttershy hits a red button near her, bringing the back door to slide open, and she steadies her rifle, keeping her breathing as even as possible, which is impossible at this point. Just to breath or pump blood is painful, now, and every shell of medical foam feels like it is falling apart.
As the door opens, a bright yellow light floods the chamber, and crackles of radio chatter is heard behind Fluttershy, but she ignores it. The door is fully opened, and the group in front of her appears to be shadowy apparitions. But after a few seconds the shadows solidify into a group of Kirins wearing thick, gray jumpsuits, save for one, a male who is wearing a cheap, metal plated suit and armed with a saddle shotgun that probably came from a pawn shop. They would have died had they showed up a few hours sooner. That said, there is something Fluttershy must do before making any moves towards them.
“Are you real?” asks Fluttershy.
The crew stares at her, silent and perplexed by the question, and Fluttershy steps backwards with her rifle sweeping them.
“Are you real!?” yells Fluttershy.
The crew gasps and retreats a couple of steps while the gunner moves forward and aims his shotgun at Fluttershy's head. She turns her rifle to him, chest heaving, and eye and cheek wet with tears. But before anyone shoots, a female Kirin steps forward and gently lowers the stallion's shotgun.
“Wait,” she says. The stallion glares at her, and she tilts her head to Fluttershy. “Let me talk to her.”
“Are you nuts?” says the stallion.
“She is obviously traumatized. Let me talk to her. I can calm her down.”
The stallion looks at the mare, and then at Fluttershy, who has yet to lower her weapon, and her eye is frantically darting between everyone. A moment later, the stallion reluctantly steps aside, but keeps his shotgun ready, and the mare approaches Fluttershy, leading to the lone survivor to snap her rifle to her. This brings the Kirin to stop for a moment, but that quickly passes as she carefully steps forward with a soft smile and her hoof extended slightly.
“It's okay, we're not going to hurt you,” says the mare.
“Are you real?” asks Fluttershy.
“I am,” assures the mare. She gradually extends her hoof the rest of the way and offers a warm smile. “See? I'm real.”
Fluttershy stares at her for a few seconds before hesitantly approaching her. She reaches out and her armored hoof, caked in blood and covered in dents, scratches and gashes, brushes against the boot, then moves up the sleeve of the soft gray jumpsuit. Feeling the soft fabric, Fluttershy's lips quiver and her hoof feels the mare's limb and face, equally soft, and when she looks her in the eyes she collapses into the Kirin and weeps.
Fluttershy hugs the Kirin tight, sobbing into her shoulder as her legs buckle and her body trembles. Her weeping is muffled into her shoulder, but everyone hears it, and the mare gently shushes her as she rubs the back of her head. The stallion calls a pair of other security Kirins to investigate the ship Fluttershy was in while the other crew mates rush into action, getting the medical bay and a room ready.
Soon, Fluttershy is gently pulled away from the mare and is led to the back where she is taken out of what is left of her suit. She doesn't need a mirror to see her condition. She can feel everything, from the wet scars, to the blood and sweat that stains her. The stinging and throbbing from the wounds are only made only worse when she is put through a decontamination shower. After that comes a rigorous session of thoroughly cleaning the wounds, placing new bandages and putting splints on her wings and limbs, braces for her ribs and hips, stitching (especially for her neck), a new eye patch with a cleaning of her eye socket, as well as procedure that pumped out all of the chemicals in her body.
When all that is done, she gets an impressive list of injuries she sustained and the ship doctor finishes with: “So, basically, you've poisoned yourself with how much medical foam and adrenaline you've used, your heart and lungs are shot and will need to be replaced, parts of your tissue and nervous system are destroyed, your bones are barely together, your infected with something unknown, and with all the blood you lost you're lucky to be alive... Do you have any questions? Any requests? Perhaps a drink? Or a meal?”
Fluttershy stares at the doctor blankly, her hoof rubbing Applejack's burnt hat in robotic motions, and he nods, lifts his hoof to pat her shoulder, but after a brief moment of observation he pulls away and asks her to stay seated and relaxed while he puts information in his pad. Fluttershy watches him with her lifeless eye, wondering how he can call her lucky.
She doesn't feel lucky.
She feels dead, and cold. Cold to where she is shivering and needs a thick blanket to cover her pale form while hooked to an IV stand.
And now that she has settled down, she wonders why she got the curse of living while everyone else got the gift of death. They don't have to live with the torment any longer. It is all over for them. They don't have to endure the nightmare anymore, unlike her. She is stuck having to relive what happened. Stuck having to watch Rarity get mauled in space, Slingshot getting his back split open with a saw, finding Thunderlane has bled a slow agonizing death while she chased a ghost, seeing Rainbow Dash's neck popped and Applejack impaled by rebars. Not to mention the rest of the crew that was ripped apart by the monsters. And to top it off, she failed.
She failed her team.
She failed Zephyr.
How can she possibly make anything right when everybody she was supposed to keep alive died?
How can she live every day knowing that her brother and her team died because of her?
How can she endure that?
How can there not be any punishment for her failure?
There must be punishment for what she allowed to happen; for allowing her brother to die.
Fluttershy looks at a locked cabinet marked with a scalpel icon and she rubs Applejack's hat.
Maybe there is justice for this event. Maybe there is a way she can make things right, after all.
A hard jab to the horn, followed by slamming his head against the table for extra blunt force trauma will render him in too much pain and will nullify his magic. The door to the medical room has a lock that she can easily break to buy her time.
Fluttershy looks at the scalpel icon again.
Time to save herself.
Before she can move, the door opens and the Captain walks in. He is a Kirin stallion with bronze scales, orange fur, and a thick mane of red, yellow, and orange, and he has red eyes, and his tag says, “S. Blaze”.
“Fluttershy, there is someone who wants to talk to you. They're from the government,” says Captain Blaze.
Fluttershy nods and slowly trails him with the IV stand in her grip and the blanket clipped around her to create a makeshift robe. She keeps her eye on the scalpel icon until she can no longer see the cabinet, and then goes from a shuffle to a slow walk after Captain Blaze. He leads her down the hallway, which is now populated with soldiers in dark armor, full faced helmets, and battle rigs, and all of them have a “0” on their shoulder pads. She can tell by their build that they are mostly griffins with a few ponies and goats, and while Fluttershy and Blaze walk, she spots a few more soldiers searching computers on the small bridge while the crew is lined up along the wall. She didn't even hear them board the ship, but, then again, the concept of time has entirely disappeared for her and she has been in a state of limbo ever since they brought her on the Explorer.
When Fluttershy reaches her destination, Blaze opens a locked door with his band and motions Fluttershy into a room. She looks at him, then at a pair of Section 0 soldiers down the hallway before entering the room. The room is long, with a table that goes most of its length and is surrounded by enough chairs to seat two dozen people, and in front of the table is a screen with a logo of a sun and moon fused together on display. Once Fluttershy sits down, the Captain dismisses himself, leaves the room and locks the door, and Fluttershy looks at the door for a few seconds before turning her attention to the vent in the middle of the ceiling. Then her eye flicks to the screen when a face appears. A unicorn stallion with a gray azure colored coat, dark blue mane done in a comb-over, and amber eyes. He is wearing a suit that has a pin of a flaring sun on it. He also looks to be in his late fifties or early sixties, and he doesn't say anything for a few seconds, putting the two in a stare down that ends with him speaking.
“Fluttershy Breeze, we heard what happened to your team on the Bon Voyage and you have my condolences,” says the stallion, his voice matching Pinnacle's from Arcos' audio log.
Fluttershy says nothing, but her expression hardens.
“I have instructed Captain Summer Blaze to bring you back to Sparkle Station. When you arrive, you will be required to give a full report about what happened on the Bon Voyage. Everything to the best of your abilities must be explained with nothing held back. I know it will be hard for you, but this is vital for our investigation.”
“Do you understand that we will need a full report about the incident?”
Fluttershy nods.
“Good. The Harpoon will provide security until you arrive at Sparkle Station. Once there you will receive the best treatment available and you will be compensated accordingly when the investigation is complete. Thank you for your service, and I wish you a quick recovery.”
The feed ends after that and Fluttershy stares at the same icon from a minute or two ago before her eyes drift back to the vent. Then the lights flicker, and her body stiffens as her ears perk. A shiver runs up her spine, and her eye widens as she slowly turns around and sees Zephyr standing in front of the door, his fur grayed, his eyes dark voids and his head on a limp neck. As soon as they lock eyes, Zephyr lunges and Fluttershy screams.
Author's Note
Sorry, no giant weird tentacle Hive Mind monster to attack Fluttershy (that'll happen next time). I just could not get a Hive Mind scene to work right in a way that would line up well with that happened. It looked good on the (admittedly old) notes, but then came the execution and it was delete, retype, delete, retype, and everything was coming off as border-lining ridiculous, plus this story had to end. Everything was right there and I didn't see a point in drawing it out any further. So, no giant tentacle monsters to attack Fluttershy, this time. It has been one hell of a ride, but I think we can all agree that Fluttershy has been through enough torment and needs a break from all the monsters and hallucinations ~~before the inevitable happens.~~
As for you guys, thanks for reading!
(Add this to my small list of completed stories.
UEG-SV MISSION APR-04-2508-066 STATUS UPDATE... UEG-SV AURA EN ROUTE TO PEACE SYSTEM... PRIMARY ASSETS ===> CLASSIFIED DIRECTIVE A: CLASSIFIED DIRECTIVE B: CLASSIFIED
A group of three spearhead shaped ships with orb centers have formed a triangular formation in the upper atmosphere of Onyx. From space, there is nothing wrong with the planet, aside from it being tidal locked with one side frozen, the other scorching hot, and middle stuck in a permanent twilight. However, those on board these ships know the real reason why the colony went dark, why the Peace System has been declared off limits, and to keep it that way, more ships have been deployed on the fringes, each scanning and patrolling to make sure it stays locked down.
The three ships in the planet's upper atmosphere dutifully scan the planet's surface, specifically the area that was once Onyx City. Nothing remains except for a massive crater miles in diameter and a deepness that has left a hole in the crust where molten rock has oozed out. Surrounding the remnants of Onyx are dead settlements, and teams of specialists are broadcasting video of their findings from these settlements to the ships in space. The gore, the inanimate mutants, the horror, it is something that has confused and terrified everyone equally, and even the most professional of the workers have shown spikes in vitals and changes in voice patterns, from solid to trembles of what they are finding.
Near the three ships, a warp hole opens, breaking the blackness and its bright blue light colliding with the red light of the star. Out of the warp hole comes an oval shaped ship with six tilted fins, each holding a line of engines that are emitting a blue light, and on its silver metal is the name: “AURA”.
“You have entered a restricted system. Present identification immediately,” transmits one of the ships to the Aura .
On board the bridge of the Aura, there is an upper aged, amber eyed unicorn stallion with a gray azure colored coat, dark blue, comb over mane. Unlike the other crew, who are wearing blue jumpsuits with various colored bands, he is wearing a suit that has a pin of the UEG sigil, and he is sitting in the captain's chair, which is surrounded by a ring of small monitors and keypads that are displaying various forms of information, from graphs to profiles of the deceased on Captain Trotter's ship, as well as Fluttershy's profile.
“Velvet. Starla. Armor. Luminous. Wayward. Pinnacle,” says the stallion.
“Password confirmed. Welcome to Onyx, Director Sparkle. Planetside Base is waiting for you,” says the ship.
The three ships move into the proper escort formation, and the Aura's bridge crew works to guide the ship through. While they make their way to Onyx's surface with the three ships, Director Night Light Sparkle uses his hoof to move most of the information away from his screens, leaving just Fluttershy's profile and a diagram of the Marker. The experiment's outcome had some drawbacks, he lost great assets and useful pawns, but there is always a silver lining, and he got his in the form of the lone survivor, now safely in his custody. With Fluttershy Breeze now ready to be mined for information plus the data gathered by Arcos, Applejack and the agents on Onyx, he knows great things are coming, and that makes him smile.
Author's Note
Okay, now its over.
UEG-RD MISSION MAR-21-2508 Mission No. 52 STATUS UPDATE...
UEG-RV HOOK LINE EN ROUTE TO PEACE SYSTEM... PRIMARY ASSETS ===> RAINBOW M. DASH: CHIEF SECURITY OFFICER ===> RARITY BELLE: COMPUTER SPECIALIST ===> APPLEJACK A. APPLE: ENGINEERING AND SHIP SPECIALIST ===> FLUTTERSHY BREEZE: MEDICAL OFFICER (TEMP. ASSEST)
DIRECTIVE A: LOCATE COLONY VESSEL UEG BON VOYAGE DIRECTIVE B: DIAGNOSE AND REPAIR COMMUNICATIONS BLACKOUT
**********
NOTES: *Bon Voyage is captained by Captain Star Tracker *Largest Colony Vessel in United Equestrian Government Navy *Twenty Third voyage *No questionable records tied to vessel or Captain *Suspected communications relay failure *Ship schematics attached (BonVoyageSchm.pdf) *Planet Onyx also dark. Possible communications relay failure as well
ASSEST NOTES: *Medical Officer Fluttershy Breeze is searching for her brother, Zephyr Breeze *Zephyr Breeze is not a priority *MO F. Breeze will be returned to her unit after repair mission is complete. Non-negotiable *As per protocol, Medical Corps Supervising Officer Abigale Redheart has attached medical, psychological, and performance records ([FBreeze-Profile.zip])
“Fluttershy... It's me... I know we don't talk much, but I don't know who else to talk to. I don't know how I'm supposed to... It's just all wrong. All of it. It wasn't supposed to be this way and now... Now I don't know what else to do.”
The audio log dies out from static, taking the voice of a terrified stallion with it. Watching the audio log from a hologram projected from a small device on her shoulder is a thin, yellow pegasus mare with a long pink mane and tail. Her blue eyes are wet, her throat is tight and hot, and her body is shaking to where the chair bolted to the floor is vibrating. She wishes she could see her brother's face, but all she has is the audio file.
The one and only audio file.
It has been so long since she has seen Zephyr Breeze that there have been days where she’s forgotten what he looks like, and the same goes with her parents. But the voice she has heard does not sound like her brother. Zephyr Breeze has always been mellow, go with the wind, dopey kind of pony, and the only time he really gets excited is when he plays with someone's mane or mixes drinks. Fear is just not in Zephyr's nature.
But this voice is terrified. Every time she replays the audio, she hears the hopelessness, sees the tears, sees him tremble. Someone or something has him scared, and when she got the message she did not hesitate or hold any reservations in convincing her superior to allow her to join the team that has been assigned to investigate the Bon Voyage , a ship that she knew he took as part of the United Equis Government's initiative to colonize other worlds.
“For the love of Pete, will you stop playing that!?” says an aggravated stallion.
Fluttershy looks up, seeing her temporary team at a round table, holding card with either card holders or magic, and the middle of the table is taken up by a pile of fish shaped crackers, bite sized candies and gum.
“Leave her be, Moon. She’s just worried ‘bout her brother,” says an earth pony mare with a heavy Ozark accent. She is orange with a thick blonde mane ad tail, and she is by far the largest mare Fluttershy has ever seen. Not that she is fat, but just the combination of height and muscle mass has put this pony above the average mare. Applejack Apple, is her name… Or maybe not. Fluttershy forgot to ask and is now too scared to ask after being on the ship for two weeks. She also has an empty bank for the poker game she is a part of.
“Really? She’s been playing that thing on loop ever since she got here, and she hasn’t said a word to us!” says the unicorn, Moonlight ‘Moon’ Aura, and adding with a sharp glare directed to Fluttershy, “What’s the matter? You don’t like us or something?”
“She probably doesn’t like you. You are a pain in the ass,” comments another mare; this one has blue fur and a rainbow mane and tail, which seems only possible through a meticulous dye job. She is also the smallest and leanest of the group, and Fluttershy knows her name is Rainbow Dash. Easy to remember, and for some reason the medic finds herself looking at this mare. A lot.
“You would know about pains in the ass,” replies Moon with a smirk.
Rainbow Dash flips him off with her feather, and Applejack points at a corner.
“Go,” orders Applejack.
“Ooh, you got Mama Jack mad,” snickers another unicorn stallion, which brings others to giggle. He has a charcoal coat, a messy gray mane and tail, and blue eyes. Comet Tail might be his name. “By the way, I’m calling your bluff, Mama Jack. Raise!”
Comet pushes a few packs of gum to the center, and Rainbow Dash holds up her hooves and locks her eyes on the table with an irritable frown.
“I can give orders just fine!” says Rainbow Dash. “… Go to the corner, Moon.”
Moon throws his cards into the pot of goodies. “I fold this round, anyway.”
Moon trots towards a dark corner and sits on a chair with sign above it, reading, “DUNCE.”
If Fluttershy has counted correctly, that would be ten times in two weeks this has happened.
“Why don’t you join the game?” asks a unicorn mare with a Canterlot accent. She has a light gray color, sparkly blue eyes, finely curled purple mane and tail, and light blue eye shadow, and even Fluttershy must admit she is a beautiful pony with her elegant build and perfect posture. Fluttershy also remembers her name being Rarity Belle, but just like with Rainbow Dash, she finds her fascinating to look at. Why this pony chose rescue instead of modeling will forever be a mystery. Also, she has the largest bank.
“HEY!” barks Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy jumps in her seat and blinks as she shakes in her seat.
“Rarity asked you a question,” says Rainbow Dash.
“N-No thank you,” stammers Fluttershy.
“That only took ten seconds,” says Rainbow Dash.
“Hey, come on, Dash. Be nice. She’s got a lot on her mind,” says Applejack.
“We all do,” says Rainbow Dash. “Evaluations are coming up, we’re at the bottom, we've got to babysit a newbie, and dinkus over there is being an ass.”
“I can buy you in, if you want,” suggests Rarity while Rainbow Dash rants.
“No thanks,” says Fluttershy quietly.
“She can take Moon’s place,” says Comet, smiling at Rarity.
“NO!” yells Moon.
“Am I the only one that cares about our evaluation!?” yells Rainbow Dash.
This brings the group to laugh at Dash’s expense, and as they laugh, the door opens and two more pegasus stallions walk in. One is absolutely huge with bulging muscles larger than Fluttershy’s torso, towers over Applejack, and has bleached white colored fur, red eyes and very tiny wings. The tiny wings are a good indication of how this pegasus got so beefy. The other is the perfect stallion; not too big, not freakishly muscular, and has bright golden eyes, soft gray mane, and a dark gray coat with an amazing set of wings. They are Roid “Snowflake” Rage (former) and Thunderlane Hurricane (latter).
“Gear is good. Inventory is good. All we’re doing now is waiting,” says Thunderlane.
“That shouldn’t be too much longer,” says Applejack.
Rainbow Dash holds up her hoof with an annoyed snarl, and Applejack leans back, away from her.
“Sorry ‘bout that,” says Applejack.
Rainbow Dash shakes her head. “Okay, so with the gear and inventory good to go, and our destination only an hour away, I need to make some announcements.”
“Can it wait after the game, or…?” Comet’s voice drifts off from the mixed bag of looks he’s getting, so he clears his throat and lays his cards down. “I’ll wait.”
“Good,” says Rainbow Dash. “So, here’s the recap. Fluttershy is only here because she’s looking for her brother. However, Fluttershy, I cannot stress this enough. He’s not a priority. We’ll get on the ship, ask around, but the mission is first. Understood?”
Fluttershy nods.
“After the mission is done, and you do your little reunion, you’re going back to your station, and we’ll be running on Applejack’s time since she’s fixing the thingy that needs fixing,” continues Rainbow Dash.
“I’ll take my time,” says Applejack with a smile.
“I also need to run diagnostics,” says Rarity.
“We’ll get to that when we get to that,” says Rainbow Dash.
Suddenly, a ding echoes in the room, bringing everyone to look at the intercoms located at the corners of the room.
“Attention, this is Captain Trotter speaking,” says a stallion. “We will be reaching the Peace System in ten minutes. Repeat. Arrival in ten minutes. Suit up and meet up on the bridge. Over and out.”
The intercom crackles off and the team immediately jumps into action, leaving their poker game as it is, frozen in time until they return.
Several minutes later, Fluttershy finds herself on the bridge of the Hook Line with Rainbow Dash’s team. The bridge is relatively bare, with just enough seats for the two pilots and captain, and barely enough standing space for the team. Each seat has its own computer terminal and the bridge has a large window that is giving everyone an unobstructed view of streaks of white and blue zipping past them like the lights of a tunnel.
Everyone on the team is now wearing their Advanced Chitin Suit. Why it is called a “Chitin Suit” rather than literally anything else is beyond Fluttershy, but it is what it is. The suits are as follows:
Rarity’s ACS is simple, light weight, white in color with gray pads that blends nearly perfectly with her colors, and has a small computer attached to her hoof.
Applejack’s suit has a thick dark blue under layer with strips of metal covering her limbs, spine, and ribs. She also has a sealed container on her saddle with a wrench and hammer painted over it and an old Stetson hanging off the back of her neck instead of on her head.
Rainbow Dash, Thunderlane, Roid, Moon, and Comet are wearing heavy ACS’s composed of dark padded under layer with plates of metal stitched to them, and on their hooves are two glowing orbs. One pale blue and the other dark blue. And they are also wearing battle saddles that have machine gun attachments with boxes of ammo and medical packs.
Lastly, there is Fluttershy. She is wearing a thin white and red striped ACS and her six medical boxes are secured on her saddle, which include quick stitch kit, medical foam, burn gel, gauze, pain pills, and adrenaline. She also has a Medical Assessment Device, which is a small cylindrical device that shares a spot on her shoulder next to the holographic displayer, and it is connected to her brain via a chip so she can keep her hoofs free. Speaking of which…
SUBJECT: RAINBOW MARIAN DASH VITALS: NORMAL
She moves to Rarity.
SUBJECT: RARITY BELLE VITALS: NORMAL
Last is Applejack.
SUBJECT: APPLEJACK ASHLEIGH APPLE VITALS: NORMAL
She proceeds to check the rest of the team and finds that they are all okay, all with various, but otherwise healthy, vitals.TROTTER .
Upon his arrival he goes straight towards Rainbow Dash while everyone snaps to attention and salutes.
“At ease,” says Captain Trotter immediately.
The group relaxes and the captain stops in front of Rainbow Dash.
“I want this repair mission quick,” says Trotter. “In. Out. Done. Evaluation is coming up and I don’t want to be the laughing stock again.”
Rainbow Dash rolls her eyes. “Well, you should talk to her then.” She points at Applejack. “I'm just the gal with the gun. She's the one with the toolbox.”
“You’re in charge, so we share the blame if this is gunked up. That said,” Trotter looks at Applejack. “Make the repairs quick.”
“I ain't gonna make any promises,” says Applejack. “When I fix something, I fix it right. Besides, we haven't gotten any signal from the ship or the colony, so I reckon we got a mass relay failure that can take days to fix. Assuming they didn’t do something dumb to it.”
“Great,” grumbles Trotter. He then looks at Fluttershy. “As for you? Since you're a medic make sure they don't hurt themselves.”
Fluttershy nods and Trotter looks at the lights zipping by them.
“How much longer?” asks Trotter.
“ETA... Now,” says the first pilot, Gage Meter.
The white and blue lines disappear and a dark planet floating in front of a blood red star appears. Seeing this brings a shiver up Fluttershy's spine, and Applejack whistles impressively.
“Ain't that something,” says Applejack.
“It looks... unfriendly,” says Rarity.
“That will be Onyx for you,” says Trotter. “It comes with being in a locked rotation. But it is a good staging point for other colonization efforts.”
“Yeah, yeah, that's nice, but where is the Bon Voyage?” asks Rainbow Dash.
“We were only able to jump to its last known location,” says the second pilot, Joystick. “It should be close, though.”
“You mean right there?” asks Applejack.
She points towards a long, balloon shaped ship with four fins on the back, each with a cylindrical engine. The red light from the star reflects off the white paint of the ship, and near its nose is a green wreath surrounding a crossing sun and moon as its sigil, and next to the symbol is: UEG BON VOYAGE .
It is also completely dark.
“There it is,” says Trotter.
“Why is it dark?” asks Rarity.
“I don't know. But whatever the reason, that can't be a good sign,” says Applejack.
Fluttershy's ears droop as she puts her hoofs to her mouth, and Trotter places his hoof on Gage Meter’s shoulder.
“Get us close and hail them,” says Trotter.
“UEG Bon Voyage, this is UEG-RV Hook Line responding to your distress call. Respond,” says Gage Meter.
Nothing.
Fluttershy is feeling sick, now.
“Try again,” orders Trotter.
“UEG Bon Voyage, this is UEG-RV Hook Line responding to your distress call. Respond,” says Gage Meter.
Again. Nothing.
Trotter frowns. “Boost the signal and try again.”
Gage Meter adjusts the dial on his control panel. “UEG Bon Voyage, this is UEG-RV Hook Line responding to your distress call. Please respond.”
Nothing.
Tears are flowing down Fluttershy's cheeks and her insides feel like they are being sucked inside a black hole.
“Something isn’t right,” says Rarity. “Are we receiving any kind of signal?”
“We are getting one signal, but I can’t make it out,” says Gage Meter.
Rarity approaches Gage’s station and leans over, eyes flicking left and right as she reads the various lines of data and wavelengths on the screen. Several seconds later, she looks at Trotter.
“Somepony must be on the ship. That is an encrypted live broadcast,” says Rarity.
“Then why aren’t they answering?” says Trotter.
Fluttershy looks at Applejack when the big pony’s lips twitch, and she looks at Rainbow Dash when the team leader makes a loud yawn.
“It’s probably nothing,” says Rainbow Dash. “These ships always have a constant encryption signal going so we can track them.”
Rarity shakes her head. “No, this is different. It’s very… advanced.”
“Whatever it is, find out when you get on the ship,” says Trotter.
“That ain’t the mission, though,” says Applejack.
“And neither is a family reunion,” counters Trotter, glancing at Fluttershy, who shrinks back. “But she’s still here. Joystick, get the bay door open and get us inside”
The second pilot nods and types a command on his terminal, and a large, rectangular slot with black and yellow stripes on the side of the Bon Voyage slowly opens while their ship is covered in a sparkling white aura. As the bay door opens, a blue sheen with streaks of white zipping to-and-fro cover the opening, shielding the interior from the void. With that going on, Trotter sighs and paces in circles, and Rainbow Dash puts her hoof on Applejack’s shoulder, having to tilt her head up so she can look her in the eyes.
“Meet me at the ramp when you are ready to go,” says Rainbow Dash, and to the others, “Security, let’s go!”
Applejack nods, Rainbow Dash pats her shoulder and leaves the bridge with the rest of the security ponies without another word. After that comes a tense silence.
“Steady as she goes,” mutters Joystick as the Hook Line gets closer to the opening.
Fluttershy pushes herself into the wall and cringes as the ship’s nose presses against the shield. The white aura crackles and the Hook Line slips through without trouble. Without the barrier, Fluttershy can see the details of the dock, despite it being dimly lit by weak orange lights and swirling red lights. She sees the grated stairways, walkways, and smaller parked elliptical shaped ships tethered down. As well as tipped over toolboxes, scattered clothes and items around broken luggage and blood splattered on the floor and walls, with a door broken open as if something pushed out from the center. Next to the broken door is a crudely painted symbol. A double helix.
Fluttershy’s blood freezes, and Applejack goes to the window, ears drooped, and brows scrunched. Meanwhile, Rarity puts her hoof to her mouth and Trotter, while looking out the window, activates his communicator, bringing Rainbow Dash’s face to appear on a holographic projection.
“Dash, something went down on this ship. Probably a pirate raid,” says Trotter. “Go in heavy and find Captain Star Tracker.”
“Roger that,” says Rainbow Dash.
“Lowering the legs,” says Gage Meter.
Metallic clangs and whirs echo in the bay, and there is a short but sharp jolt as the ship’s landing legs press on the floor. A few seconds later, there is a loud thud that shakes the ship, making Fluttershy flinch again.
“You are now free to move about the ship,” says Joystick.
Trotter looks at Applejack. “Fix whatever is broken fast. This place is already giving me the creeps.”
“Yes, sir,” says Applejack. She looks at Rarity. “Time to get to work, hun.”
Rarity nods and quietly exits the room, and Applejack follows her, stopping when she sees Fluttershy has yet to leave her spot by the wall. In fact, Fluttershy has yet to move a muscle. She is completely frozen, and her eyes will not leave the symbol painted on the wall next to the door.
“If ya don’t get moving Dash’ll tear ya a new hole,” says Applejack. “And I think we got plenty already, so up and at ‘em.”
“Good, everypony is here,” says Rainbow Dash. “There’s been a change in the mission. Applejack is still going to repair the ship’s communications relay.”
Applejack nods.
“And our guest of honor-” Rainbow Dash points at Fluttershy, bringing all eyes to her, thus making her slink down a bit “-is still going to be looking for her brother.”
The team looks at Fluttershy and she shrinks back even further.
“We can ask around, maybe Captain Star Tracker can page him or whatever when we find him, but your primary job is to give us band aids and kisses on our boo-boos,” says Rainbow Dash.
The group chuckles, with someone making a cat call, and Fluttershy cheeks and ears burn bright red while Applejack pats her on the shoulder sympathetically.
“However, Captain Trotter has said that it looks like pirates attacked the ship and wants us to investigate a weird signal. Signal stuff will be Rarity’s job and we'll make sure there aren't any pirates hanging around,” continues Rainbow Dash, bringing everyone to a heavy silence and their attention back on her. “So, we’re going to be on guard and do what we can to help, and if we find pirates still lurking around, we follow protocol.”
Moon raises his hoof with a knowing smile. “But, Commander, what if the pirates resist arrest?”
“The usual. Shoot to kill and make a good report out of it while I butter up command with sweet talk.”
The group chuckles, and Fluttershy shifts uncomfortably in her spot, and gets a little more anxious when Comet looks at her and puts his hoof to his mouth for a shushing motion.
“And when we’re done, we’ll have drinks on me at Sparkle Station!” says Rainbow Dash. “Thunderlane, push it.”
Thunderlane pushes a red button on the wall. The lights flanking the ramp begin swirling and the security detail readies their battle saddles. Gears roll and the ramp inches down until it comes to a stop, its thud echoing in the chamber. With the ramp down, Comet and Roid exit first, followed by Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, then Thunderlane and Moonlight, and at last, Rainbow Dash. The group spreads out, keeping a protective perimeter around Applejack, Rarity and Flutterhy while they scan the area. The lights from their weapons illuminate the blood on the floor and walls, as well as the bullet casings on the ground and a severed hoof laying in a pool of blood next to a broken vent grate.
“I already don’t like this,” says Thunderlane.
“Move up,” orders Rainbow Dash.
The group heads towards the broken door and stop when Comet shines his light through the opening. The other side is dimly lit, and with the bodies in the way Fluttershy can’t see much, so she looks at the double helix painted by the door.
“UEG Rescue Division! Anypony there!?” hollers Comet.
Silence.
Fluttershy has yet to look away from the double helix.
“UEG Rescue Division! Any friendlies!? Respond!” yells Comet.
Again, nothing. Comet looks at Rainbow Dash, and she nods.
“Be careful,” says Rainbow Dash.
Comet nods and goes through the broken door, his light sweeping across the area, and Roid walks after him. The two lights sweep the area while the rest keep their perimeter, and Fluttershy forces herself to look away from the symbol, flinching when Applejack puts her hoof on her shoulder.
“I’m sure your brother is fine,” says Applejack. “Pirates generally don’t get far into a colony ship.”
Fluttershy nods and looks at the lights in the next room.
“Clear!” says Comet. “But brace yourselves. This room is fucked.”
The rest of the group files into a spacious lobby with benches, more scattered papers, clothes, and other pieces of luggage. And directly in front of them, painted in blood over a mural of the Bon Voyage flying through a starry space, is one word:
FORSAKEN
Author's Note
Another old story that I found and polished and decided to post just because.
The humming and clanking of the elevator drowns Fluttershy's winces as she tenderly unzips her medical suit and peels it away from her bleeding shoulder. Strings of blood stretch and snap on the blood soaked, formerly white suit, and a dark red gash runs right down the middle with lighter red blood oozing out with every beat of her heart. Fluttershy shakily removes a can of medical foam and awkwardly sprays it against the wound, making a sloppy mess of white that quickly turns to pink from mixing with the blood and turns into a semi-solid state. The searing pain weakens her grip, causing her to drop the can, and she bangs her head against the elevator wall, tears flowing past her shut eyes. There she remains, silent and trembling with only the sounds of the elevator and a dead monster to keep her company. A moment later she reaches into her saddle and pulls out her quick stitch kit.
Fluttershy positions the quick stitch kit's pincer against the tip of her wound, rests her chin against it to stabilize it, and takes a moment to collect some courage before using her good hoof to pull the trigger.
SNAP!
The pincer snaps in and out of her skin, leaving a thin wire to tightly hold the edges of her wound together, and Fluttershy yelps and drops the device. She breathes heavily from her nose and rests her head against the wall, eyes closed, and face soaked in tears and sweat.
A few seconds later, she takes a deep breath and repositions the device.
SNAP!
She almost drops it again. Her hoof is almost trembling too much to hold anything and she can barely see from the tears in her eyes.
SNAP!
Fluttershy grinds her teeth, takes another deep breath and-
SNAP!
She leans over, chest heaving and sweat dripping off her muzzle, and she is using all her strength to keep the device against her shoulder.
SNAP! SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!
Fluttershy cries painfully, drops the device, and falls sideways to the floor with her good hoof pressed against her shoulder. She can feel the bumps of her flesh and the tiny metal strings holding them together. Hot air is expelled though her nose and her pink mane covers part of her face as she stares at the blood splattered door and the yellow lights that run up it. Thankfully the pieces of the monster have stopped twitching, but when the elevator jerks to a stop it leaves Fluttershy sick, and the pleasant ding that comes with the doors sliding open sounds horribly misplaced.
She really does not want to leave the elevator, but when she sees a sign reading “Transit” above the door at the far end being illuminated by a failing light she reluctantly stands, zips up her suit and limps out.
The room's walls are covered by pipes, and a small set of stairs leads to a raised level with a guard rail and a work bench that is surprisingly brightly lit. But the door at the end of the room has a red circle in its center, and next to it is an exposed glowing gem and a circuit board.
Fluttershy swallows and winces as she goes up the stairs, stopping cold when she sees an earth pony in a gray maintenance jumpsuit laying in a pool of blood, his hoof clutching a slash on his gut. His eyes are closed and near his body is a rectangular device with a mouth trigger and a thin front with a blue glow. There is also a small circular device with a hoof strap just a bit farther from the rectangular one.
Fluttershy gulps and approaches the body, and when she checks his pulse, she pulls her hoof away and slumps against the railing. She stares at the body for a little while longer, noticing the numerous small claw marks that have slashed his skin and torn his uniform, as well as a quick bandage over a wound on his hoof. She briefly wonders if he knew Zephyr but pushes that thought back as quickly as it came. Maintenance ponies are always dirty, and Zephyr never liked dirty things or people, unlike Fluttershy, who doesn't mind getting dirty if it means helping others or some animals. Like the animals at the sanctuary she used to volunteer for back home before joining the Medical Corp. Now she is longing to be home with her parents that haven’t spoken a word to her since she left for the Corp, as well as be with Zephyr who drifted away from her. Or her from him. Now here she is with a chance to fix things.
She needs to get him off the ship.
They need to start over.
They need to be a family again.
With those thoughts, Fluttershy looks over her shoulder and sees a tarp covering a pile of some kind, so she goes towards it and carefully pulls it off, revealing a stack of small crates with “Batteries” stamped on them. She then carries the tarp to the body and covers him, and then she grabs the circular device and straps it to her hoof. In the device's center is a speaker, and beneath it is a square, a triangle, and two set of double triangles facing opposite directions. Fluttershy takes one last look around before she pushes the small triangle, and instantly a wheezing voice of a stallion flows from the speaker.
“Diamond Dust managed to kill some of those things,” says the voice weakly in the recording. “We have to cut them to pieces... I got a few of them... But one got me good and I don't have any more medical supplies... To whoever finds this... Shoot for the limbs... Bleed them out... It is the only way...”
The audio abruptly ends, and Fluttershy looks at the rectangular device, now realizing that it is a gem powered energy cutter that maintenance use to cut materials, mainly metal. It is a great tool, but also extremely dangerous. She has fixed plenty of injuries from such devices to know that they can easily cut through flesh and bone, so she picks it up and goes to the workbench, finds more gem batteries and puts them in her medical bag. With all that done, she grabs her crude weapon and slowly creeps her way to the door, using every bit of willpower she has to not run back to the elevator.
BANGBANGBANG!
The banging startles Fluttershy, and when the banging returns, she sloppily aims her weapon at the locked door, trembling and whimpering.
“Help! Somepony help!” cries a mare on the other side.
Fluttershy stares at the door, heart racing and body shaking. The banging continues and a shriek echoes from the other side of the door. Fluttershy shakes her head, keeping her cutter trained on the door while the banging intensifies, and the mare’s screams turn to wails.
“Please, somepony help!” sobs the mare.
The monstrous shrieking reaches the mare, and her wails are cut off by a wet slashing. There is a thud on the other side, and Fluttershy flinches and jumps back, her eyes now burning with tears and her aim unsteady.
“I’m sorry,” whimpers Fluttershy, still backing up. “I’m s-sorry.”
Metal breaks on the other side of the door, and the vent overhead rattles, going from the doorway, up overhead, and finally behind Fluttershy. She trails it with her cutter with ragged breathing, and the vent cover nearby breaks down with a creature similar to the one that chased her jumps down.
Fluttershy’s throat closes and her eyes widen, and the creature stands up and raises its scythe claws over its head. Then it roars and charges her while flailing its sharp claws.
Fluttershy screams and shoots wildly at it as she backpedals, but the beams do everything else but hit it. She manages to dodge the swings when it reaches her, but this causes the throbbing in her stitched wound to flare and for her to drop her weapon. She attempts to grab her weapon after dropping it, but the creature takes another swing at her, and she screams and quickly backs up. She ends up falling over a create resulting in the back of her head slamming against the metal floor. Her ears ring, her eyes roll, and she barely sees the creature coming at her in time to grab a small crate and hold it in front of her like a shield.
The scythe is brought down hard and fast, and Fluttershy's hoofs buckle under the impact with a flash of hot pain going through her injured shoulder. The crate shatters, showering her with gem batteries that beat against her face, and with adrenaline flooding through her veins she manages to scramble away from the creature and dive for her weapon. She successfully grabs it with her hooves, turns on her back and fires right as it rushes her.
The red beam slices off one of the scythe limbs, causing the creature to reel back and shriek in pain as blood sprays all over the wall, floor, and itself. And Fluttershy fires another shot, this one takes off the other scythe, and with gritted teeth and fire hot tears in her eyes she unloads everything she has into the creature.
Red beam after red beam rips through its flesh, flinging chunks of meat and streams of blood everywhere, with sparks flying off the walls from where the beams hit. The creature stumbles back with each shot, blood gushing from its wounds, and by the time it collapses it is a heap of mangled flesh with its limbs, face and chest destroyed, and Fluttershy's heart is racing and her lungs and eyes are burning. She keeps pulling the trigger despite the empty clicks coming from it, and when it registers that the beast is dead and her weapon is empty, Fluttershy flops flat on her back and covers her face, shaking and whimpering with pain pulsing through her body.
A few minutes later, Fluttershy forces herself to drop her hoofs and she gingerly rolls upright. She then looks at the dead monster. It hasn’t moved yet, but she can see some exposed organs twitching, so she pushes herself against the wall and walks as far away from it as possible. When she reaches the door, she tries opening it, but an “Unauthorized” message appears. She tries again with the same result. And again, with the same result… And one more time with the same result.
Fluttershy sniffles, looks at the dead monster, and then back at the door. Specifically, the panel, where the circuits and gem are exposed. She stares at the wires for a few seconds before aiming her cutter at it. She is about to pull the trigger. Stops. Backs up a couple of steps. Aims. Takes a deep breath. Aims some more. Then she fires.
A burst of red slices through the circuits and gem, creating a display of red, green and yellow sparks, and the door's lock flashes blue before sliding open to reveal a red lit hallway with a sign that says, “ çTRANSIT” , and below the sign is the corpse of the mare she let die.
The mare’s ribs have been broken through her suit, and a large puncture wound is on her back with her skull broken open. There is a dent on the pipe above the mare, and blood has soaked her body and floor as well as splattered on the wall. The mare’s lifeless eyes stare at Fluttershy, and the medic bites her lip and pushes herself against the wall to avoid stepping in the blood. As she walks, she passes the broken vent cover, and she keeps her eyes on the dead mare.
“I’m sorry,” whispers Fluttershy.
Fluttershy’s communicator turns on with audio wavelengths being displayed in front of her, but rather than hearing voices, all she hears is static.
“H-Hello?” calls Fluttershy.
The static ends and Fluttershy blinks in confusion before looking at the dead mare again. Her lifeless wide eyes are still looking back at Fluttershy. It is sickening to see such a sight, and Fluttershy has seen plenty of corpses from her training to recovering bodies after an accident or a fight, but she has never gotten used to it. And she has never seen anybody die in front of her either until today. However, the more she stares at the mare, seeing how she died alone and terrified, the more she thinks about Zephyr. He is alone. He is terrified. But she will not let him die alone. He is somewhere on this ship and Fluttershy will not rest until she finds him and brings him home.
With this desire, Fluttershy slips a fresh battery, gives the corpse one last look and quiet apology, and then limps down the hallway. As she walks down the hallway, the pipes hiss and shake, and the lights flicker on and off, making the shadows dance against the walls.
Suddenly, Rainbow Dash’s face appears in front of Fluttershy, making her yelp and jump back.
“Fluttershy, report!” says Rainbow Dash.
“I-I-I, um, I… I’m somewhere,” says Fluttershy, blinking tears out of her eyes. “Somepony else also died and I had to kill again!”
“Well toughen up or you’re dead, got it?”
Fluttershy nods, even though she doesn’t want to.
“What’s the status on the mission? Did you get to the hub yet? I need details!” says Rainbow Dash.
“I’m in a hallway heading to the transit hub,” says Fluttershy.
“Rarity is saying that the transit has a connection issue. Something may need to be rebooted or something.”
Fluttershy passes through another door that is thankfully unlocked and after doing a quick sweep of the area she cautiously enters. Once she enters the lights flash on with a hum and soothing music plays over the speakers. The sudden activity halts Futtershy, but after another scan she continues forward.Please Remain Calm.
Fluttershy glances at the message, looks down the length of the room to see another door waiting to be opened, and finally she looks out one of the windows to see Rainbow Dash's group on a platform across a chasm with a rail network. The group is looking at her, too, so she looks left to right, and then up, and once she is confident that she is alone she approaches the window.
“There you are!” says Rainbow Dash.
“Hello,” says Fluttershy with a timid wave.
“Fluttershy, you doing okay?” asks Applejack, peeking from behind Rainbow Dash.
“Not really,” replies Fluttershy.
“You’ll be fine. Nopony else is dying here, got it?” says Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy nods, despite her doubt, and the rest of team makes weak, vocal affirmations.
“Good. Now, we need you to get to the administration room, which, according to Rarity is right above you,” says Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy looks up and Rainbow Dash turns the camera to Rarity.
“Your turn,” says Rainbow Dash.
Rarity sniffles and wipes her face with a shaky hoof before looking into the camera. “Fluttershy, the room you need to go to is above you. I believe there is a faulty circuit board that needs to be replaced, which can be replaced by a spare in the Transit Maintenance Department. Once that circuit is replaced, the transit system will be back online.”
“Where is the Maintenance Department?” asks Fluttershy.
“It should be a couple of floors above you, and it'll be overlooking the trolleys.”
“Okay.”
Rainbow Dash turns the feed back to her. “Call me back when you get there and stay safe.”
Fluttershy nods and the feed cuts out, and she watches the team move around on the next platform. Applejack is talking to Rainbow Dash, Rarity is sitting against the wall, and Thunderlane is pacing in circles. After a few seconds of watching, Fluttershy takes a deep, shaky breath, goes to the door at the end of the room and after putting the cutter in her mouth she opens it. As soon as the door opens Fluttershy is greeted by an empty hallway with emergency lights and a creature laying in the hallway in a pool of blood, its limbs severed and its head nowhere to be seen.
Fluttershy stares at it, her body stiff, and after a slow gulp she presses her body against the wall and slides past the destroyed corpse. She proceeds to slowly go down the ramp of the hallway. Her legs shake, the fur on her neck and spine rises with the tingles, and her wings flex all on their own. After reaching the bottom of the ramp she travels for another minute in silence, coming to an unlocked door that opens to a long spacious area.
Bands of light illuminate small areas of the wall, and the floor is littered with garbage, blood, broken bones and chunks of ripped muscle. Such a sight makes Fluttershy gag and she briefly takes a step back to cover her nose. She forces herself to go forward a moment later, and upon stepping into the large area she immediately looks up and sees darkness hiding the ceiling. She looks down one way and sees a destroyed barricade, further down are more makeshift barricades made of tables, crates, and desks, and off in the distance is a pair of bright lights mark a ramp leading up to what Fluttershy hopes is the exit.
Fluttershy tensely walks down the bloody corridor, passing a limb here, a bone there, plus a few corpses of whatever those creatures are as well as various weapons, both military and makeshift. But there are no bodies of the crew or colonists, and the closer she goes towards the light, the louder a peculiar noise becomes. It is metallic in nature, but Fluttershy has never heard a noise like that before, which slows her steps to near stillness when she is by the light.
It is not just the noise that almost petrifies her, though. There is also a lot of blood, spent bullet casings and unaccompanied weapons as well as crates. With her next to the noise she sees that it is coming from a crimson splattered door at the top of the ramp; a door that keeps opening and shutting in rapid secession. Next to the ramp is a terminal with its keyboard dangling off, exposing its gem and circuits, and on the ramp is a security pony is laying in a sea of red, his hind legs missing and his entrails dangling out the back.
Fluttershy backpedals and turns her head, dry heaving and using a crate for support; this leaves her throat burning from the stomach acid, and she must take a deep breath to ease the pain. A few seconds later, she looks at the door.
The door snaps open and shut, open and shut, open and shut, open and shut, open and shut, and Fluttershy's eyes snap back and forth in an attempt to follow it and see if she can pass it. From what she can see of the door and from the half body lying next to her the door had become an automatic guillotine.
Fluttershy looks around the general area to see if there is anything she can fly to, like an open door or a vent, but all she sees is solid metal and flickering lights. She looks down, growling in a mix of fear and aggravation and tensely raises her hoof... Just so she can timidly tap the floor and pace in circles.
“It's okay, Fluttershy, you can figure this out. You can find a way through the evil door,” says Fluttershy.
She stops pacing, looks at one of the metal crates, then at the door, then at the crate again and an idea pops in her mind. It takes her a moment and a lot of muscles she didn't know she had, but she manages to push the crate up the ramp, and after taking a moment to move the corpse, catch her breath and recollect her strength, she gives the crate one final push into the doorway.
The door obliterates the crate, forcing Fluttershy to shield her face from the flying metal shards and contents, and when she lowers her hoof she glares at the door, which is still snapping ridiculously fast.
“Are. You. Kidding me!?” She stomps over to the broken terminal and tries pushing some buttons, but the dangling keyboard falls off and shatters, scattering the little letters all over the floor. “No! Daaaahhh-rn it! ”
She stomps the floor and releases an aggravated growl. That is when she notices out of the corner of her eye that the corpse is wearing a strap with a light blue orb like the one Rainbow Dash has. This brings another idea to mind.
Fluttershy goes towards the corpse and carefully unstraps the orb and straps it above her audio device. There is a beep and the orb shines a bright blue with some cold mist seeping out. After it is strapped to her hoof, she aims her hoof at the door, thinks about firing the device, and a blue whispy ball flies out of the orb and hits the door, bringing it to a crawl.
“Yes!”
Fluttershy leaps through the opening of the door and looks over her shoulder, watching in fascination as the door crawls through the motions. Though, once the blue fades it resumes its fast speed, and Fluttershy takes a deep breath and looks down both ends of the hallway. She decides to go right, first, but comes across a locked door with a dead pony in a gray maintenance jumpsuit slumped against it. His hoof has left a bloody streak just below the door's lock, and after a quick inspection she finds that on his hoof is a silver band with a gold key marking inside a white circle. She decides to put it on her other hoof and is about to leave for the other side but stops herself.
She looks at the key symbol, and then at the locked door, and one quick mental debate later she presses her hoof against the lock. It flashes green and the door slides open. With the door opening, lights flicker on and Fluttershy is immediately met with confusion.
The room is bare, except for a single camera with a blinking red light aimed at a shrine surrounding a double helix made of dark metal. The shrine has spent candles, photos, and in front of it is a large vase.“You in the room! You are not Drill Bit!” says a stallion over a speaker.“Yes, you. You are not Drill Bit. Who are you?” says the stallion.
“I-I'm Fluttershy... I'm looking for my brother,” says Fluttershy.
“Who’s your brother?”
“Z-Zephyr... Zephyr Breeze.”
“Oh, I know him! He did my plumage quite a bit. Nice guy. Kind of a dope.”
Fluttershy gasps happily. “You know him? Then you must know where he is!”
“Well I don't. I have been looking for survivors for a while, which is hard to do since the cameras are showing more Necromorphs than not. And I'm going to take a wild guess and say Drill Bit is no longer a survivor since you are wearing his master key band.”
Fluttershy looks at the new band on her hoof, ears drooping and feeling wet lump in her throat. Drill Bit had been so close to the sanctuary of this room when he died, and now she took his prized possession without even paying him respects.
“So, those things out there...” Fluttershy slowly looks at the camera. “They are Necromorphs?”
“Yes, I didn't pick the name, though. Lexicon did, but he’s dead, making you and your group the only survivors as far as I can tell.”
“You can see all of us? That means you have control of the cameras. You must be on the bridge! Can you-”
“Stop. I'm not on the bridge. I'm in the Section 0 Laboratory. I just had to do some creative rearranging and hacking to get the camera feeds to me, which was not easy, mind you.”
Fluttershy sulks. “Oh.”
“But you look like you can take care of yourself. If you can, oh, I don't know, help me get off this ship alive then I can pull some strings with some powerful contacts I have on Sparkle Station and give you a generous reward.”
“I'm not leaving this ship without my brother.”
“Fair enough. Do you have any clues of his whereabouts?”
“All I know is that he was staying in Section C, Room 60.”
“Ah, Section C. The pegasus section. Of course... I'll tell you what, I'll do what I can to find your brother in return for you helping me off this ship. I'm locked in the lab, but my eyes will be valuable.”
Fluttershy gasps and clamps her hoofs together as she flies up to the camera, smiling brightly.
“Really?” says Fluttershy. “You'll do that?”
“Of course! Us survivors got to stick together, after all. Now, go. I'm sure your friends stranded on the tracks are getting worried.”
The speaker shuts off, and Fluttershy gallops to the door, but before she opens the door she skids to a halt and trots back to the camera.
“Um, excuse me, Mr. Camera-pony, I didn't get your name,” says Fluttershy.
“You may call me Dr. Rock and I’m a griffin, so that’ll be Mr. Camera-bird, thank you very much,” says the voice. “And by the way, there's a Necromorph outside. Good luck.”
The speaker shuts off, and Fluttershy looks at the door, paling and taking a step back when she hears a shrieking and banging on the other side of the door.
“Oh dear.”
