“This is Lyra Heartstrings, code named Muse. I’ve just finished killing everyone on my team and I am currently destroying the research into the Marker. We all must die for what we did. Every one of us. I can already feel myself slipping into the dark and if I didn’t kill them, they would have been taken, too. But, honestly, I enjoyed killing my partners, and the voices praised me for it. Make us whole, they said. Make us whole. Heheheh, so romantic, yet so sinister… I hope I have the strength to kill myself before I am taken. I hope I am forgiven for what I did. This is Lyra Heartstrings, lead researcher of Sparkle Station Xenology Department signing off for the last time.”

Fluttershy has been still the whole time the audio has played, and once it ended, her motor function returned. She pushes the green lit button on the door and steps out when it slides open. She is immediately greeted by a rush of heat and crackling with fiery light shining on her. Fluttershy looks to the source on the left and sees a raging fire has consumed the corridor, leaving red hot metal skeletons and peeling wall panels. To her right is the other part of the corridor, which is shrouded in a blanket of darkness with small pockets of flickering lights.

Fluttershy looks at the darkness, where she cannot see anything and will have terrible creatures wanting to rip out her bones and paint the walls with her blood. She looks at the fires, noticing a clear opening on the other side leading to the open area of the Medical Wing. Also comes with Necromorphs and death and no cover.

But maybe if she can fly…?

Fluttershy tries expanding her wings, but sharp pain shoots through her muscles, and her wings tremble and retract back to her sides. The pain brings her to wince, and when she tries again, her wings barely move. With that result, Fluttershy realizes what must happen, so she takes a deep breath and goes right.

The hallway’s darkness is broken by pockets of flickering lights and sparks, and Fluttershy ducks down as low as she can go to the floor when sporadic gunfire echoes in the distance. An equine shaped shadow appears at the far end of the hallway, just passed a broken door. The equine is running, and the shadow get larger the closer it gets to the doorway, but it suddenly stops as a sharp tendril pierces it, splashing the wall and floor with blood, and the pony is tugged away.

Fluttershy stays put, ears drooped and eyes wide. She swallows and looks up at the vents, and crawls forward, stopping with a gasp when her hoof slides into a pool of blood. The blood doesn’t have a body to go with it, but it does have a pistol laying nearby, and on it is an Artificial Telekinesis Module. Fluttershy reaches for it but stops when a roar echoes down the hall. She remains frozen in place, watching as a group of three Slashers and a Griffin Necromorph run by the doorway. Once they are gone, Fluttershy grabs the pistol and checks the ammo.

Three bullets in the magazine, and one in the chamber.

Fluttershy sighs heavily, wipes the blood off on her sleeve, puts the pistol in her mouth and aims down the hallway. Her tongue brushes against the trigger and gives it a test pull, stopping just short of discharging a round. After that, she removes the Module by carefully undoing the straps and sliding it off. Then she does a quick visual inspection, slips it on her hoof when she sees nothing wrong, and aims her hoof towards a knocked over wheelchair, focusing hard on it.

Nothing happens to the chair, but Fluttershy gets a vague, burning sensation on the back of her skull, and her ears twitch as a faint voice and the noise of a revving saw floats in her ears.

“Troublemaker~ Troublemaker~”

Fluttershy drops her hoof with a gasp, and quickly follows up with feeling the back of her head, remembering how she was nearly killed by… someone. A psycho with a saw. And now she has no chip. No chip means no module use. No module use means death. Death means becoming a Necromorph.

“No, no, no, no,” whispers Fluttershy frantically.

She brings up Lyra’s band and quickly scrolls through the menu, occasionally looking down the hall, over her head, or behind her. Soon enough, Fluttershy finds a map section, selects it, and after selecting the Medical Wing, a holographic map of the section appears. Fluttershy searches through the map until she finds the room she needs: Neural Implant Room. And the path is simple. Go down the hall, take a left, down the hall to the fourth intersection, and it is the fourth room on the left.

Fluttershy turns off the map, and carefully moves forward. When she reaches the doorway, she looks right and sees carnage. Torn up bodies litter the blood-soaked floor, and distant screams are being drowned out by the alarm and the roars of the Necromorphs.

To the left. Nothing. Except for a carpet of broken glass, bloodied walls, and the mangled torso of a pony with no signs of their limbs or head.

Fluttershy swallows and goes left, cringing when glass crunches under her hoof. She keeps going, though, and peeks into an office with a broken window and blinds. She sees nothing important, so she keeps going.

Fluttershy passes the first right and stops when she sees a unicorn stallion in the white and red jumpsuits of the medical staff trotting down the hallway. He is covered in blood and is walking towards Fluttershy, and she looks around before approaching him, too.

“Are you okay?” asks Fluttershy, her words warped from holding the pistol in her mouth.

The unicorn says nothing, and when they are close enough, Fluttershy sees he is green with yellow eyes, and his tag says “Graymane”, which fits him well considering his mane is gray with streaks of blood; but the streaks look a little too smooth to be anything but controlled application. And his hooves are also covered in blood, but the blood is thin and in hieroglyphic patterns.

“Patient 54, what are you doing out?” asks the stallion, his eyes shifting from yellow to green and red. “It is past your bedtime.”

Fluttershy remains quiet and backs up, realizing that she made a horrible mistake approaching him, and Dr. Graymane tilts his head, blinking; his eyes are now back to yellow.

“Where did you get the weapon, Patient 54?” asks Dr. Graymane.

“Stay back,” orders Fluttershy, her voice muffled by the pistol.

“I’m your friend, Patient 54.” Dr. Graymane holds out his hoof. “Come with me. The other patients are waiting.”

Fluttershy backs up and Dr. Graymane walks forward.

“Easy, Patient 54. We don’t want to hurt you,” says Dr. Graymare. His eyes shift colors and his voice chances to a more grizzled tone. “No, we don’t. We’re friends. We’re all friends here.”

The vent above them rattles, and Fluttershy takes another step back.

“Don’t come any closer!” orders Fluttershy.

Dr. Graymare’s horn glows, its aura unstable red and green blobs. “Drop the gun, Patient 54. There are other patients waiting for you.”

Suddenly, the vent cover breaks loose and a Slasher lands behind Dr. Graymare. It roars and stabs him in the back; its scythe claw breaks through his chest, popping out broken ribs. The doctor grunts and pukes blood, and the second scythe stabs through his back with the same result. He is then lifted in the air, twitching, and gurgling as blood pours out of his wounds on the creature, and Fluttershy shoots the Slasher.

One round strikes it in the chest, another in its leg, making it buckle, and another in its face, blowing off a part of its head. The Slasher shrieks, rips Dr. Graymare open, and tosses the pieces aside as it rushes Fluttershy. She puts the remaining rounds in its chest, but it isn’t enough to stop it. The Slasher tackles her, causing her to lose her weapon, and she screams and squirms as it tries stabbing her.

The scythe claws stab through the floor with ease as she rolls from one side to another. Fluttershy kicks the Slasher’s groin, knocking it off balance, and she slams her hoof as hard as she can against the Slasher’s knee. The bone breaks at the joint, causing the Necromorph to stumble, and she follows up with slamming her hoof into what is left of its head. Its jaw breaks off and pieces of bone fall with blood and slobber, and as it tries to stab her, she tilts to the side and punches it in the head again. This time her hoof goes through the hole where its mouth used to be and breaks the joint between head and neck. Its head goes limp and it staggers off her, wildly slashing the air and stabbing whatever it can while it stumbles in circles.

Fluttershy takes the moment of its confusion to roll on her hooves, leap on its back and ram her hoof on the back of its head. The Slasher’s head breaks open, splashing the floor with skull and brain bits and it crumbles to the ground, twitching and clawing the wall and floor. With it no longer able to do anything, Fluttershy grabs the pistol, gallops away and ducks into an open room. There, she collapses against the wall, just out of view of the hallway and a good sight of the room’s vent, and begins taking deep, controlled breaths to calm her heart.

Steadily the rapid beats slow down to a more sustainable pace, and Fluttershy swallows and rubs her heart before poking her head out. The Necromorph is still stumbling in circles, leaving a ring of blood, so Fluttershy slips out of the room and quickly checks her map before going on the path she originally intended.

As Fluttershy runs down the hall, she can hear an announcement being broadcasted, and when she passes the next intersection, she sees a gate sealing off a hallway while a Slasher pulls a screaming doctor into the shadows. There, the screaming stops almost instantly.

“Please remain calm. Evacuation is in effect,” says the computer announcer in a fake, sympathetic voice.

Fluttershy passes the third right, which is on fire and has a hole melted into the floor with broken pipes spraying colorful steam. Then she reaches the fourth intersection, stops, and looks around for trouble.

Nothing. But there is the bright light of the Neural Implant Room shining on the wall through a window.

Fluttershy takes a deep breath, gallops towards it and she tries to open the door, but it is locked with the red circle.

“No! Please, open!” begs Fluttershy. Her chest becomes heavy and tears cloud her vision as she bangs her hoof on the door’s red circle. Then she realizes that she is wearing Lyra’s band, so she quickly presses the band against the door’s terminal, and the red circle flashes to green.

“Welcome, Muse,” says a computerized female voice while displaying a picture of Lyra sporting a toothy, excited smile.

The door’s lock turns, and the door slides open. Fluttershy doesn’t wait for the door to open all the way before she slides into the bare room, and the door is barely opened all the way before she hits the emergency close button, followed by locking it. After that, she pulls the curtain shut, blocking her view of the streaks of blood on the wall outside, and when she turns around, she gasps from the sight of a dead goat laying in a pool of blood, a hole in their head, and a pistol nearby.

Fluttershy carefully approaches the body, takes the ammo, and then goes to a chair in the middle of the room.

The chair is large, white, and thick padded with straps on the sides, and large hanging lights shine down on her. Behind the chair is a robotic stinger on a rail in the ceiling that reminds Fluttershy of a scorpion tail; and attached to it is a computer terminal displaying: Apple, AB- Replacement Chip- Appt- LATE.

Seeing the last name brings Fluttershy to a halt, but the moment doesn’t last. She has work to do, so in a burst of speed she brings up a command screen with a few options: Initiate. Postpone. Cancel.

Fluttershy hits “Initiate” and quickly jumps in the seat. She tries to make herself comfortable as the mechanical arm whirs, and out of the corner of her eye, she sees the robot move towards a cabinet with a fogged glass door. The door slides open, revealing a dozen rows of neural chips, all glowing green against the dim blue lighting. The robot delicately grabs one of the chips and slides over to Fluttershy.

Fluttershy tenses, and the machine takes its sweet time adjusting its position as a pair of green lasers slide along the back of her skull.

“Come on, come on, come on,” mutters Fluttershy.

The machine beeps, and then comes a sudden press. With it, there is a sharp, ice cold pain on the back of Fluttershy’s skull that surges through her brain, down her spinal cord, and spreads throughout her nerves. Fluttershy’s muscles tighten, her teeth grind together and her vision flickers in and out with various hieroglyphs flashing on the walls. Her breathing becomes heavier, and her heart races, choking the air out of her and sucking away everything around her.

Then it ends with a static crackling in her ears and her communicator projecting wavelengths as her vision returns to normal and the tension fades.

“Fluttershy~” calls Zephyr. “Come in, Fluttershy~”

Fluttershy quickly turns her communicator off with a shaky hoof and she slips out of the chair. Her legs buckle, and she collapses on the cold floor, shivering with one hoof rubbing her heart and her mouth hanging open for air.

“Zephyr’s gone. Zephyr’s dead,” whispers Fluttershy, her eyes flicking around the room. “Zephyr’s gone. Zephyr’s dead.”

Fluttershy swallows, and as she feels the back of her skull, her hoof brushes against the chip, and she groggily inspects the Artificial Telekinesis Module. It shows a connection, and Fluttershy aims her module at a rolling cart near the cabinet holding the neural chips.

The module and the cart light up in a blue aura, and the cart is levitated into the air before being launched into the wall. The cart bends and leaves a dent in the wall, and Fluttershy nods approvingly before cautiously exiting the room.

Upon exiting, she notices that the alarm has stopped, at least in her section, but the red lights are still swirling. She also notices a sign directly in front of the door. Said sign has two arrows pointing in two different directions, but she only cares about one, and that is the one pointing left. According to the sign, the Social Center and Medical Wing Transit Hub are in that direction, which is exactly where she needs to go.

Fluttershy starts walking with a quick pace, and with the chip now in her brain, the communicator activates without her using her hoof, bringing up Posey Breeze.

“Mom, I’m on my way to the Medical Wing Transit Hub,” says Fluttershy.

“Okay, that’s good,” says Posey with a relieved smile. “You will need to take the Green Route to the Residential Wing, and once you arrive, follow Yellow Brick Pathway to the Harmony Center. The Unitology Citadel will be at the far end, and the largest structure. We’ll be at the top floor waiting for you.”

Fluttershy nods. “Okay. I’ll see you soon… I love you.”

“I know, dear.”

Then Posey’s end disconnects, and Fluttershy sighs with her ears drooped.

“You didn’t need her directions. You’re familiar with the Citadel. As am I,” says Zephyr, his voice being displayed as audio wavelengths on the communicator projector. “Why would you want to go back there, anyway? You know it will only end badly, just like before.”

Fluttershy shuts off the communicator again and gallops onward, quietly repeating, “Zephyr’s gone. Zephyr’s dead.”

While she gallops, she constantly looks over her shoulder and at the vents. She can hear the chaos in the distance and passes mutilated bodies, and lights flicker through the windows of offices or from ceiling lamps, but she is not seeing any Necromorphs.

Fluttershy starts wondering where the Necromorphs are, but before she can make any theories, a door opening brings her to skid to a halt, and when heavy footsteps echo in the hallway, she ducks around a corner, waits, and listens.

Clip-Clop-Clip-Clop-Clip-Clop.

Fluttershy sucks in air. She knows those steps. The tempo, the weight, all of it is similar to the mare that murdered her father.

Clip-Clop-Clip-Clop-Clip-Clop.

The heavy clip-clops get closer and closer, and Fluttershy trembles as sweat slides down her face. Her lungs are no longer moving. She must stay quiet.

Clip-Clop-Clip-Clop-Clip-Clop.

They are only a few feet away from her now. Fluttershy’s heartbeats thump in her ears and she covers her mouth with her hoof.

Clip-Clop-Clip-Clop-Clip-Clop.

Her teeth sink into her sleeve and her nostrils flare from the lack of air. Her vision becomes cloudy with tears.

Clip-Clop-Clip-Clop-Clip-Clop.

The steps start to fade, and Fluttershy releases her bite on her hoof and takes a slow, shaky inhale of air. Then she crawls towards the corner and pokes her head around the bend.

Marching down the hallway is the Section 0 Agent. They are walking with a purpose, a mission of extermination. The Agent suddenly stops near a door at the end of the hallway, and Fluttershy ducks back to cover, covering her mouth again, and she waits…

Silence…

Trembles shake Fluttershy’s body, and she gradually peeks around the corner just in time to see the door shut with the Agent no longer in sight.

Fluttershy watches the door for a few more seconds before she gets up and gallops down the hallway, stepping on papers and tablets as she goes. She passes more locked doors and windows, some cracked and covered in blood, others with curtains drawn, and some doors have been forced open.

As Fluttershy gallops, glass shatters next to her, and she is slammed into another window, cracking it with her weight. Claws dig into her shoulders, easily tearing past the fabric of the medical patient jumpsuit and staining it with fresh blood.

The Necromorph that has her pinned to the window has large bat ears, bulging eyes with red veins snaking through it, and pulsing yellow bags have grown on its throat while its ribs and skin have peeled off and fused to make larger wings. It is keeping Fluttershy trapped with its front hooves, which have split apart at the base to make claws, and when it roars, Fluttershy headbutts it. It jerks back with broken teeth, and she shoves it away, tearing her skin as the claws come loose.

The sharp, burning pain brings Fluttershy to tears, but she bites her tongue and gallops away. The Infector screeches and gives chase, and Fluttershy keeps running, ignoring the pain. As she runs, more roars and screams echo down the hallway.

Out of the corner of her eye, Fluttershy sees a group of three Slashers running down a hallway, towards her, and she doesn’t need to look behind her to know the Infector is close. She can hear its wings flapping.

Fluttershy leaps over a tipped over gurney, slips on a pool of blood and falls in a heap. Panic consumes her as she tries getting up, and she shrieks when the Infector lands on her back, pushing her into the floor.

Her breathing becomes heavy and shaky, and she twists to be on her back right as the Infector lunges at her. She extends her hoof to its neck, preventing it from completing its bite, and she aims her module at an IV stand. Her hoof and the stand glow in a blue aura, and she launches the IV stand at the Infector. It rips through the Necromorph's side and impales it into the wall with a shattered rib cage and broken bones and fleshy bits splattered on the floor.

With the Infector out of the way, Fluttershy crawls backwards, wheezing and shaking from her heart’s erratic thumping, but she cannot rest. The group of Slashers charge around the corner, roaring and swinging their scythe limbs in the air.

Fluttershy quickly launches the gurney at them, shattering the first one’s ribs and upper legs while the second one has one of its legs broken off by the attack. The third one is still intact and lunges at Fluttershy. By that point she is already standing up, and she ducks underneath the Slasher’s swing and pivots to avoid another slash. Then she gallops down the hallway, not looking back, only listening to the rapid steps and ragged breathing of the Slasher.

Dead ahead, Fluttershy sees a bright light shining past a door that has been broken open, and above it is “Social Center/Medical Wing Transit Hub”. The light is red and yellow warning signs flank it, but Fluttershy runs faster anyway. Warning signs be damned.

She can see the shadows of the claws reaching out to her now.

She must go faster. Must ignore the growing pain.

Fluttershy grits her teeth in response to the pain in her limbs and lungs, and when she passes the doorway, she slides to the left, letting the Slasher run past her. She follows up with using her Artificial Telekinesis to levitate a bench and smash the Slasher into a pillar with a message board. Whatever message was on display disappears in a splatter of gore and sparks, and a flash of fire cooks the Necromorph and the mangled bench it was squished with.

Fluttershy wheezes and looks down the opening where she came from, sees nothing, and backs up on shaky legs that eventually bring her to collapse on her haunches. She presses her hoof against her heart and swallows as she looks around the area.

Food stalls have been left open, with blood coating the broken glass and ingredients, food burning in oil or on grills, and colorful icons flickering or completely destroyed. Around her, evacuation messages are displayed on televisions, tables and chairs are turned over or smashed, and walls displaying public safety messages or photos of missing residents are covered in pockets of blood and bullet holes.

Fluttershy takes a deep breath, pops a pill in her mouth, and forces herself to go forward. Her legs are heavy, her throat feels like it is ready to tear, and the cramp on her side is not helping either.

At the edge of the food court is a line of observation windows riddled with bullet holes, cracks, and blood. At happier times, the windows would have shown a beautiful metropolis in space, but now all there is, is the growing inferno and swarm of Necromorphs consuming the various walkways and towers inside the dome.

Fluttershy looks away from the observation window and continues down the food court, only to stop and duck for cover when she hears some glass shatter. The cover is not great, either. It is only an elevated garden with shrubs inside it, and there are more like the garden around the court in equal increments.

Small gardens aside, Fluttershy lays low to the ground and scans the area, which her low view is obstructed by the furniture, but what she does see is a Necromorph with black scales on its back, chest, and limbs, with a two pronged horn on its head, which has a thick shell covering it. Both the scales and horn are lined with glowing red cracks, and its muzzle has split into four mandibles with jagged teeth. Its eyes glow red, and its hooves have torn into halves, creating eight thin limbs with flesh tightly wrapped around them and thin sharp claws on the bottom.

Fluttershy bites her hoof, watching with sweat trailing down her face, and the Spider tilts its head up and releases a series of fast clicks. Then it screeches and darts toward a pillar, leaps up on it, and climbs its way up to the ceiling. There, it rips out a vent cover and crawls inside.

Fluttershy follows the sound with her eyes as the vent rattles. The noise travels across the room and goes past a door labeled “TRANSIT HUB”. Said door is also marked with a red locked symbol.

Fluttershy gulps, gets up on shaky hooves and cautiously walks across the hallway, trying to keep her breathing steady.

Next to her, the smoke from the growing fires in the kitchens flow out, and where the glass shattered, Fluttershy can see a hole melted into a door with its red lights flickering, and a body inside a blood soaked supply closet with their flesh shredded from their bones and their torn guts spilled on the floor.

Fluttershy looks away, whimpering and shaking. Then she hears a loud thump from outside. Then another… and another.

She looks out the window and despite the rising smoke obscuring some of her vision, she can still see large cracks appearing on the dome, and swirling around it are tiny crafts leaving blue exhaust trails.

The crafts swirl around and fire off another salvo of explosives.

And the dome shatters.

Immediately, the smoke and air are sucked out with a deafening shrieking and howling. Necromorphs and loose debris are sucked straight up into the void. The food court observation window shatters, and Fluttershy is yanked off her hooves. She bounces and rolls across the floor, ears hurting from the splitting pain in her ear caused by the alarms and rushing wind, and her body getting assaulted by tumbling furniture while the swirling red lights discombobulate her.

The flashing lights, the mix of alarm and wind, and the air getting sucked out of her lungs turn Fluttershy’s brain to mush, and her hooves claw uselessly at the tiled floor she is being dragged across. Then she hits a railing and despite the sharp pain in her side she still latches on to it, gritting her teeth and squeezing her eyes shut as she is pulled towards the gaping hole.

Then, one by one… BANG! BANG! BANG!

Strips of metal slide down from the ceiling, each covering the length of a panel. Once the last panel is covered, the suction stops, Fluttershy drops to the ground, wheezing and coughing, and everything is plunged into darkness with only pockets of red lights for visual assistance.

The air is thin, and Fluttershy’s eyes dart around, chest heavy and breathing rocky, and her communicator flickers on, revealing Posey’s face.

“Fluttershy, can you hear me!?” says Posey.

A series of clicks and hums echo in the court, followed by multiple hisses and cold air rushing in. The cold air is welcoming, and Fluttershy gulps as much of it as she can as the atmosphere gradually returns to normal.

“I can hear you, mom,” says Fluttershy hoarsely. She coughs and winces as she pulls herself up with help from the railing. “Something happened…”

“The Station Security Service just destroyed the dome for the Medical Wing! I saw it all.” Posey shakes her head, sniffling. “They… They’re trying to stop the Harvesters and our scanners are saying they will used controlled demolition to disconnect the Medical Wing as a next phase!”

“Has the infection spread to the other wings?” asks Fluttershy.

"They have, and they're evacuating all essential officials and citizens."

Fluttershy knows exactly what they mean by that, and Posey sniffles again, blinking tears out of her eyes.

“The Medical Wing is using an emergency supply of oxygen, but it won’t last long. You need to get out of there and get to the Citadel before it is too late,” says Posey.

Fluttershy nods. “I will. I promise.”

“I can’t lose you, too. Please hurry.”

Fluttershy nods again, and Posey’s image suddenly flickers away, leaving Fluttershy in the dim room and an automated announcement for company. There are also blue lights being projected on the floor from the ceiling that create a thin line leading to the Transit Hub entrance.

“WARNING: Oxygen supply low. Please keep breathing controlled and follow the guide to your evacuation point.”

The message repeats, and Fluttershy stares at the Transit Hub entrance, jaw set and breathing heavy. The message repeats again, and she marches forward.

Author's Note

🎶She fell in to a burning ring of fire
She went down, down, down
And the flames went higher
And it burns, burns, burns
The ring of fire
The ring of fire🎶