A few minutes later, the two are quickly walking down the hallway, with Fluttershy in the lead and Apple Bloom carrying the pistol, its ammo, and some bandages and medical foam. This has given Fluttershy enough room to move the batteries in her saddle, which she has insisted on keeping, as well as most of the medical supplies. But, as they walk, Fluttershy occasionally checks the map, looking for the maintenance room. They are getting closer, but she can already feel the effects of low oxygen kicking in. Nothing severe, yet, but it is getting harder to breath, her heart is working harder, and she is feeling a little dizzy.

“What exactly are ya looking for?” asks Apple Bloom, her helmet is now encasing her face, so she is looking at Fluttershy through a three-band visor with green lights, and her voice is projected through a speaker.

“A maintenance room so I can get a space suit and get to the Residential Wing,” replies Fluttershy.

“The one located in the ICU?”

Fluttershy nods.

“Why didn’t ya ask? I know exactly where that is!” says Apple Bloom.

Fluttershy stops and looks straight ahead. Not because she sees something, but the fact that Apple Bloom is right, and she just wasted time.

“I’ll take point,” says Apple Bloom.

She takes a couple of steps forward but stops when Fluttershy holds out her wing.

“Just tell me where to go and I’ll lead,” says Fluttershy.

“Look, I know yer all sorry about almost killing me and all, but ya don’t have to be all compensaten’ ‘bout it. I can take the lead,” says Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom takes another step forward, but once again, Fluttershy stops her. This time by stepping directly in front of her.

“Which way?” asks Fluttershy with more weight in her voice.

Apple Bloom sighs. “There’s a short cut. Go straight. Third left. Follow all the way down. It’ll be right there.”

Fluttershy scrunches her brow and looks at the map, and then at Apple Bloom.

“Are you sure?” asks Fluttershy.

“Lady, I work here,” says Apple Bloom flatly.

“… Right… Straight. Left. Got it.”

Fluttershy walks ahead with Apple Bloom following close behind. They pass more torn corpses, bloodied walls, and broken equipment, and above them the lights flicker while the oxygen warning plays on loop. They keep a quick but quiet pace as they walk but come to a stop when their communicators flash on at the same time with a shield surrounded by stars and a wreath on their displays. A moment later, a griffin with a red beak and dark gray plumage appears.

“Attention, if you are receiving this message, fall back to the Transit Hub!” says the griffin. “The Hub is secured and has oxygen. You must hurry. We cannot hold this for long and will be evacuating soon. Redstone over and out.”

The message ends, and Apple Bloom gasps for joy and prances in circles.

“Did ya hear that? We can make it! The Hub ain’t far from here,” says Apple Bloom.

“We’re not going there,” says Fluttershy.

Apple Bloom’s prancing stops, and she tilts her head before trotting after her partner, watching as Fluttershy walks with a purpose away from the Hub. Seconds later, Apple Bloom trots after her and brings her speed to match Fluttershy’s when she’s next to her.

“But we need to go there We can avoid all this and get outta this Wing quickly,” says Apple Bloom.

“It’s a bad idea,” says Fluttershy.

“How?”

“It just is. Trust me.”

“Ya know, it would be easier for me to trust you if I knew your name and why you’re… well, like this,” says Apple Bloom.

“My name is Fluttershy and even if Redstone was good, the government will stop him one way or the other. It will be a bloodbath. Also, they killed my dad.”

“But… But they wouldn’t do that! They’re trying to save us!”

“You knew?”

The voice is familiar and faint, and that coupled with Apple Bloom’s claim as well as the disregard for her father being murdered brings out a flare of rage inside Fluttershy. She snaps to the young mare and jabs her hoof at her nose.

“They don’t care about you!” yells Fluttershy.

Apple Bloom has pressed her rump against the wall and shrunk down, and Fluttershy quickly retracts and looks away with shame weighing her down.

“I’m sorry, but… But they don’t,” says Fluttershy. “They never did… Let’s keep going. We can sneak around them and get to your family without them interfering.”

Apple Bloom remains hunkered down, and Fluttershy walks ahead in silence; a moment later, Apple Bloom quietly follows her. However, as they walk, Fluttershy finds it unnerving how little of the Necromorphs she is seeing. Sure, there have been a few, and then there was the big one, but where are the rest? And why is it that she can remember the Necromorphs and Zephyr, but nothing else besides them and bits and pieces of a ship? What was the name of the ship, anyway?

Questions, questions, questions…

A sudden distant whirl and thud catches Fluttershy’s attention, and she stops and turns around, seeing that Apple Bloom is also looking for the source. Heavy steps bounce off the wall, and Fluttershy activates her cutter, which brings Apple Bloom to raise her pistol with her hoof. The steps come closer and they keep their weapons trained down the hallway.

Then the Agent comes around the corner.

Fluttershy’s eyes widen and her colors pale as she takes a couple of steps back.

“Oh, no,” says Fluttershy.

“Who is that?” asks Apple Bloom.

Fluttershy backs up again. “Run.”

Apple Bloom backs up and Fluttershy shoots her surgery cutter at the Agent, who is now cocking their saddle rifle and completely unfazed by the shots.

“RUN!” cries Fluttershy.

Apple Bloom gallops past and continues down the hallway while Fluttershy shoots a few more cutter beams at the Agent, but the beams break harmlessly against their armor. The Agent returns fire, and Fluttershy ducks into the next hallway with an observation window damaged by bullet holes. Fluttershy quickly turns around and walks backwards as she aims her cutter at the hallway entrance with a racing heart. The heavy steps rapidly approach, and when the Agent rounds the corner, Fluttershy unloads a barrage of cutter beams.

Again, the beams do nothing, and the Agent quickly gains on Fluttershy. She tries backing up again, but the Agent quickly catches her and punches her on the side of the head, knocking her against the glass with a stream of blood pouring down her cheek. The punch knocks Fluttershy’s vision out of focus, and the Agent grabs her and slams her against the observation window. It cracks on impact, and Fluttershy releases a yelp of pain. The Agent slams her against the window again and again, each time creating more cracks that multiply as they connect with the bullet holes. Each slam makes the window buckle more, and Fluttershy grabs the Agent’s hoof and she looks at the visors, seeing nothing but her reflection tinted in red. She tries to push back, but the Agent pulls back, causing her to lose her balance, and then Agent whirls around and bucks Fluttershy.

Fluttershy’s back slams against the window, shattering it, and everything spins as she falls to the level below. As quickly as the falling and spinning begins, it ends with an abrupt stop on a table that breaks on impact. Fluttershy rolls off the debris and lays on the floor, twitching, coughing, and spitting blood. She arches her back and grinds her teeth as she tries standing, and she looks in front of her and sees her surgery cutter is not too far from her. She reaches for it and-

A sudden screech snaps Fluttershy’s eyes away from the cutter, and she screams and scrambles away as the Spider drops from the ceiling. It lands not too far from her, and its thin bony feet rapidly tap on the metal floor as it runs towards her. She uses her Artificial Telekinesis Module to levitate and throw a table at it, which knocks it off balance. Using this moment, Fluttershy dives towards her cutter and brings it bear as the Spider rushes her, its body engulfed in blue flame and its eyes bright white.

Fluttershy shoots it a few times, making it stagger, but appearing to do nothing significant against its shell. The Spider shrieks and ejects a ring of fire, blowing Fluttershy back and engulfing her in flame.

The room flashes to a hallway with an elevator at the end, and in front of the elevator is a brown earth pony stallion with a green mane wearing a miner’s outfit underneath a white robe. He is carrying a flame thrower and marching towards her with the walls vibrating and splitting into darkness the closer he gets to her.

“Die with me. Make us whole,” says the stallion.

He shoots a stream of fire towards Fluttershy, and she shrieks, backpedals, and shoots a barrage of cutter lasers at him. The stallion breaks apart, along with what remains of the hallway, and the Spider roars and leaps to the wall with one of its legs on the floor. It races along the wall and Fluttershy shoots at it, cursing under her breath as the shots strike the wall.

The Spider leaps off the wall and tackles Fluttershy. The impact on the floor knocks her vision out of balance, but she still holds its head back as its mandibles snap at her. It lifts one of its sharp legs and right as it brings it down to Fluttershy’s head she puts her other front hoof in the way, screaming in pain as the barbed limb pierces her flesh.

Her blood rapidly oozes out of her wound and she pulls her impaled hoof to the side, jerking the Spider off balance and giving her time to punch it in the head. Fire eats away at Fluttershy’s suit and she punches the Spider in the head again when it tries standing up, knocking it off balance again. Then she pushes it to the side, rolling them into switching positions and she keeps punching it in the head, with each punch sending ripples of pain through her hoof and making her scream as blood splashes on her face and uniform. When she is done, it is twitching with a hole in its face and broken teeth, skull, and brain bits all over the place.

Fluttershy then pulls her limb off the Spider’s leg and staggers back, now smoking with black chunks of her uniform falling off and bits of ashy mane and tail breaking away. She trembles as she sprays the medical foam on her wound, and she breathes heavily as her heart thumps in her ears and rocks her chest. She quickly pops a couple of pills and after swallowing, she looks up, eyes wet and red, and her jaw tightens when she sees Zephyr standing in front of a door, his dark void eyes staring at her, and his easygoing smile stretching across his bloody face.

“It’s coming back, slowly but surely. Soon you’ll remember everything and feel everything,” says Zephyr. “But it doesn’t have to be this way, Fluttershy. Stop hurting yourself. End it now before it is too late. Or…” He points towards the door “You can keep compensating. The choice is yours, Little Sis.”

“Zephyr’s dead. Zephyr’s gone,” recites Fluttershy, glaring at the specter.

Zephyr tuts. “You’ve always been good at denial.”

Zephyr then disappears in a flash, and the door is forced open with screeching metal and sparks, allowing a group of four Slashers to rush in. Fluttershy quickly ejects her battery and slips a new one in as the swarm rushes her, and she cuts down the first one by shooting off its front legs and one of its scythe limbs. Then she whacks the closest one in the head, breaking its jaw and sending it staggering, and she shoots the next one in the head, popping it off with a short geyser of blood. The headless slasher swings wildly and Fluttershy gallops away as the others chase her, with two running and the other crawling after her.

After gaining some distance she turns around and fires off a few cutter beams to the closest Slasher, taking off one of its scythe limbs, a front leg, and the top of its head. Then she ducks and dives away from the next one as it swings at her, and she turns on her back and shoots off its front and back leg. It collapses awkwardly and flails its remaining limbs, and she shoots it some more, severing its spine, head, and scythe. After that, she gets up, hastily slips another battery in and shoots the remaining Slashers until they stop moving, leaving her and the floor and walls covered in patches of rust colored blood.

She is breathing heavily and sweeping the area as she gives her wings hard flaps. She blinks blood out of her eyes while her mechanical eye adjusts with a series of clicks and whirs. She swears she can feel it adjusting, which makes her sick, but that said, she sees and hears nothing, so she brings up her communicator. Thanks to the neural chip, it automatically brings up a menu of contacts, which include her mother, Sparkle Station Climate Services, Seer Asama Zaeem, Sparkle Station Citadel Personnel Resources, Orchard Rise Hotels, Pizza Planet, and two dozen other contacts. The list of contacts changes to a short-range scanner that takes a moment to complete, and when it does, a list of names appear: Abigale Redheart, Apple Bloom, Lucky Clover III, a dozen or so other names, and “Classified Military IDs” (around eight of them).

Fluttershy immediately selects Apple Bloom and hurries out the room while the communicator connects. By the time she reaches the broken door, Apple Bloom’s face appears. It is on night vision, so her features are bathed in green and her visor is bright.

“Apple Bloom, can you hear me?” asks Fluttershy.

“I can. Where are you?” asks Apple Bloom.

“Somewhere on a different level. The Agent-”

Apple Bloom’s feed suddenly becomes distorted and begins fuzzing out.

“Apple Bloom!?” calls Fluttershy

“F-ter-y?”

“APPLE BLOOM! If you can-”

Apple Bloom’s image is replaced a padlock icon and “SIGNAL LOCK” in the center of the projection.

“NO!” Fluttershy tries reconnecting, but the padlock icon remains, and she stomps the floor. “Dang it!”

She brings up her map again and sees that she is in the dental section and her original objective is not too far, but with the oxygen levels dropping and her breathing getting heavier, the distance is too far to be comfortable.

“Attention, all security forces are to enforce quarantine of the Medical Wing until outbreak is contained. All civilians inside infection zone are to remain quarantined until further notice. This is non-negotiable. Station Supervisor Article Hallmark out,” says a stern female voice over the intercom.

Fluttershy shakes her head and continues down the hallway. The lighting is dark, save for the flickering bright blue trails leading to evacuation points, and poster of happy teeth and dental care are illuminated by failing lights. Some are covered in blood and others are shattered. Glass and trash are crushed under Fluttershy’s hooves, and her eyes and ears flick as she goes down the hallway.

A screech echoes down the hall, and Fluttershy raises her cutter and cuts down a pair of Slashers in medical jumpsuits that rush out of a room. After they are dead, she peeks inside and sees a knocked over dental operations chair with a pool of blood behind it and a gutted goat.

Fluttershy keeps going, and her ears perk when she hears gunshots and a shriek not too far from her. She gallops towards the noise, which is directly down the hall from her, and she slides to a stop when a Puker and Slasher exit a room with a broken door. She immediately shoots them, and while the Slasher drops first, the Puker rushes her, hoarsely roaring. When she strikes a yellow bag on its chest, it convulses and collapses with acid melting the metal and its body twitching. Fluttershy shoots it a couple more times to be sure it is dead before going to the room they left.

The room she enters makes her jump, for there is a dead pegasus mare laying on the floor with her throat melted open and her lower jaw missing. She is wearing the Medical Corps jumpsuit, but the white base and red bands are stained in a thick layer of blood and damaged from scratches and scorch marks, and her supply pouches appear empty.

Fluttershy looks over her shoulder, sees nothing, and looks back at the corpse. She swallows nervously and cautiously approaches the deceased pegasus, whose tag reads: Snow.

Fluttershy does a quick visual inspection of Snow, quietly apologizing to her when she turns the body. More blood pours out, but she ignores this. When she finishes her inspection, she finds that the suit is still in decent condition, considering the situation, and that there are a few cans of medical foam left in her pouch, and on her hoof is an audio band, plus a radio.

Seeing this, Fluttershy quickly drags the body away from the doorway, slips the audio disk in her band, and listens to the recording while she gently removes the Medical Corps suit.

The first seconds are of heavy breathing and running and Supervisor Hallmark’s message playing in the background, followed by the door opening and closing.

“This is Private Winter Snow! Can anypony hear me?” cries Winter.

“Private Snow? This is Sergeant Redstone, where are you?” says Redstone on the other end.

“I-I don’t know… Medical Wing. Dental. These things are everywhere! My team is dead! All the civilians are dead! I need evac!”

“We can’t give you evac. We’re losing ground and fast. You need to get to the Medical Wing Transit Hub. That is where we are regrouping for evac. I repeat, regroup at Medical Wing Transit Hub for evac!”

“That’s on the other side of the Wing! I can’t get there!” weeps Winter. “Please! You have to send help!”

“We can’t send anybody! These things are spreading too fast to contain and the brass is getting desperate. You need to get out. Now!”

Metal suddenly bends and snaps, but even though it is in the audio log, Fluttershy still jumps and aims her cutter at the broken door. As she aims her pistol at the doorway, heavy footsteps approach, and Winter’s weeping turns to shaky gasps of air and whimpers.

“Please… Please, no,” begs Winter.

A raspy growl rumbles in Fluttershy’s ears.

“No! Stay back!”

Gunshots ring out, the growl turns into an airy shriek, and then the audio ends. Fluttershy keeps her eyes on the door, shivering with tears trailing down her cheek. Seconds tick by, and Fluttershy reluctantly looks away from the door and resumes her work.

Minutes later, she exits the room, wearing the Medical Corps suit with all her gathered supplies in the pouches, her communicator on her shoulder, and her cutter now on a small platform attached to her saddle. The suit’s bands have tightened on her limbs, the saddle’s trigger is just below her mouth, and she flexes her wings while her hoof holds the helmet. Seeing her wings move without pain brings a sense of satisfaction to her, and she is glad that she has something other than a psycho ward patient jumpsuit for protection, but is loathing that it had to come at the cost of Winter Snow’s life.

But she has a mission to do. Mourning will come later.

Fluttershy takes a deep breath and activates her helmet. The helmet rises to cup the back of her head, and strips quickly move into place to cover her face. The interior lights of the helmet flash on with her vitals appearing at the bottom and small beams of light from her three-band visor shines on the exterior, therefore giving her light in the dim hallway. The suit even warns her of low oxygen and readies the medical foam in the slots.

Fluttershy swallows, checks her map, and the cutter, which is now on the weapon’s arm of the saddle. The gears whir and click as a fresh battery slides in, and once the pleasant ding rings in her ears, she starts moving further into Hell.

Author's Note

🎶Agent B's gon give it to ya!🎶