Fluttershy does not remember much after getting Slingshot's help. She remembers him putting her on his back, him walking away from the door 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 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 of 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 Pyshco'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 actually 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 does is grab 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 and is on her last battery.

“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.

The elevator dings and slides open, spilling bright yellow light into the dimly lit room, and Fluttershy keeps to the wall, turning her creeping to a mad dash when the elevator door begins to close. She makes a leap and hits the elevator wall, and quickly turns to face the door as it clicks shut. After that, she hits 'A-5' on the button pad and she slumps to the floor, taking a deep and shaky breath.

“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.

“Really?” says Fluttershy, smiling brightly and feeling a surge going through her heart.

“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 5. It is G-5, 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 of 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 and hits G-1. The elevator jerks and hums, and then it begins its decent. While this happens, Fluttershy fumbles with her radio by taking it off of 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 the hell are you?” asks Rainbow Dash.

“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! You have a job to do!”

“And I'm doing it!”

“No you're not! Get your ass to the bridge or so help me Celestia I will kill you! You hear me? I will fucking kill you if Thunderlane bleeds out!”

Fluttershy glares at Rainbow Dash. “Zephyr's first.”

“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 two stare at each other awkwardly, and after a couple of seconds the two lower their weapons in unison and Slingshot slips in the elevator right as the door closes.

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 how ever many hours ago, 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 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 off 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 banged up 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 whring 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, fleshy bits 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, 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 around it are 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 Church 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 click 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 down 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.

Fluttershy 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 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 are 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 Honey Creme is back to stalking her. And if she is, she will die, too.

In fact, Honey Creme will die even if she is not stalking her.

Arcos Hieroglyph, Star Tracker, Reverend Heart Fire, Honey Creme.

All need to die for what they did.

All of them.

Arcos Hieroglyph, Star Tracker, Reverend Heart Fire, Honey Creme.

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 stamped 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!” growls 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 plus the 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 a chunk of its face. And as the bullets fly, sparks fly off of the wall and fall into the bloody 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 of 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 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 latter, where they fall on Fluttershy and begin gnawing and clawing her suit.

Fluttershy screams and thrashes as the bugs crawl over her, and the Grffine Necromorph bites on her neck. Luckily the armor holds and Fluttershy punches it on the side of the head, breaking its skull open and leaving its eye to dangle as blood seeps past its broken skin.

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 beams slice off the top of its head, and another shoots off a chunk of its shoulder, which is then popped by Fluttershy's punch.

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 dcorated 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 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 of 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 has to be close by!

And since Slingshot knew she was heading this way he may be in the engine room, too!

With those two thoughts, she hurries down the hallway and in a matter of seconds comes across a door around the hallway bend. Its light is flashing yellow, and it is partially open, but not enough for Fluttershy to squeeze through. So she rolls her shoulders, marches towards the door and presses her front hoofs against one portion of the door while bracing her hind legs against the floor. Then she puts all of her weight against it with painful results; but injuries be damned!

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 in 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.

She 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.

Fluttershy backs up some more, heart racing and mouth dry, and she flicks her eyes 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 bits of broken bone, 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 a 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 mutliation 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:

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 hoofs barely touch 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 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 of 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 worms 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 as a pile of chopped rotten meat, Fluttershy retracts her helmet and falls to her rump, shaking and crying as she looks at her hoofs.

Her blood drips off of the bony stingers, mixing with the dark colored 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. How can anyone love a failure like me!?” 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 red lights in 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 red gold and opens up 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.

“Are you real?” asks Zephyr, taking a step back and aiming the fire extinguisher at her.

“I am. I promise.” Fluttershy 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, you phony!”

“And you're still a smelly pain in the butt whose 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.

“Its 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, thanks lil' sis. I really needed that.”

“Glad I could help,” says Fluttershy with a roll of her eye. “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. It's been a bad day,” 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 shoot 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 and still 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 reflects off of 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 are recreated and fully intact. 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 she 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 of 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 first 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 its first arm, and she rolls away when it slashes at her with its second 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 growls through her gritted teeth as she pulls herself up. Her hoofs 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 one last 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. Bright yellow sparks fly and the stream of gunfire sounds like little explosions as the noise echoes off of the metal walls, 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. The 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, and someone 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 of 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 weight 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 Notes:

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.
But now we got three problems wrapped up.
The use of the Master Key Band, the acquisition of a battery, and Zephyr found. You know what that means?
It means Fluttershy is going to get snuggles! Yaaaaaaay!