“Please remain patient. Flights will resume momentarily,” says an automated female voice over the speaker.

The voice echoes in the empty lobby of the Bon Voyage, and Rainbow Dash motions her team to fan out while Fluttershy helps Road Map sit on one of the benches. After he is seated she scans the area, concluding that it can easily hold sixty ponies, and she has been on board plenty of colonizer class ships to know that the lobby is supposed to be brightly lit with pleasant music and the occasional announcement. But the lobby is subdued with dim orange lights and pockets of weak red emergency lights on top of the benches, plus the lights illuminating message boards. There is just enough light for Fluttershy and the crew to see the scattered luggage, clothes and papers covering the floor, but Fluttershy is not looking at the clothes or papers. She is focused on the FORSAKEN painted over the Bon Voyage on the wall sized mural.

Seeing such a gruesome sight leaves a knot in her stomach, and her eyes slowly trail a streak at the “N” that leads to a pool of blood that stretches to a closed off area, like someone took a brush to the blood and dragged it across the floor.

“Please remain patient. Flights will resume momentarily,” repeats the voice.

A series of snaps make Fluttershy squeak and jump, and when she turns to the source she sees a cracked monitor's messages flickering in and out.

Sec. C. Carry Pod 01- Delayed
Sec. C. Carry Pod 02- Delayed
Sec. C. Carry Pod 03- Delayed
Sec. C. Carry Pod 04- Delayed
Sec. C. Carry Pod 05- Delayed
Sec. C. Carry Pod 06- Delayed

“Where is everypony?” asks one of the guards.

“I don't know,” says Rainbow Dash.

She looks down the lobby, and when she sees a door with a red circle she trots towards it and presses her hoof against it.

“Unauthorized” flashes in front of her via a holographic display.

“What?” Rainbow Dash tries again and the same message appears. “How am I unauthorized? I just went through a dock door!”

“Allow me,” says Rarity. She goes to the door, hooks up her computer to it and has a seat on the floor as she types away at it. “Indefinite quarantine issued by Captain Star Tracker. Strange.”

“Can you override it?”

“Of course I can. It will just take me a moment.”

“Make it fast. The captain doesn't have a lot of time left.”

While Rarity types away at her pad, Fluttershy follows the blood, going past an open door that leads to a room with thick windows giving the occupants a view of the lobby. Upon entering it, her body locks, her eyes widen and her ears droop and her hoof covers her nose in a pitiful attempt to stop smelling the stench of old blood.

“Please remain patient. Flights will resume momentarily,” repeats the voice.

All over the floor, walls, computers and chairs is blood. Streaks, puddles, splashes, thin slashes, thick slashes, there is enough blood for at least five ponies... and then there is the severed hoof near a door with yet another red circle. Fluttershy gags and backpedals into the door frame, and with a racing heart and shortness of breath she looks around the room with sharp flicks of her eyes.

Broken chairs. Glowing monitors of the computers. Large vent. Illuminated poster of a family having a picnic on a sunny grassy field with the Bon Voyage above them.

“The Future Is Bright!” is what its caption says, and it would be a nice poster if it didn't have blood all over it and a gash going through it.

“Where is Fluttershy?” asks Rainbow Dash.

“She went over there,” says Applejack.

Fluttershy swallows the bile rising in her throat and shakily approaches one of the computers. She uses her hoof to wipe away the blood on the computer and sees a menu. She does not care about most of the options, but when she sees the “Guest List” option she quickly taps it, which brings up a list of names and a search bar.

“Roid, get Fluttershy back over here! I said no one splits off!” orders Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy glances up just quick enough to see the white monster sized pegasus trotting towards her. She then hastily types in Zephyr's name and it brings up: Sec C, Room 60.

Fluttershy still feels sick from what she has seen, but she is feeling a small amount of relief for getting a lead to Zephyr, but right as she is about to leave the room the door slides shut and a red circle appears. Then the room and the lobby lights shut off, leaving just the emergency lights of the benches and red swirling lights from the ceiling and a screeching alarm to scrape at their ears.

“Oh no! No no no no no!” Fluttershy gallops towards the door and presses her hoof against the red circle.

“Unauthorized.”

Fluttershy bangs her hoof against it, but nothing happens. She tries again and again hoping and praying for the door to open, but it remains locked. Her heart races, tears swell and cloud her vision, and she starts banging on the door itself. Then she hears it.

Screams of pain and shooting, and a high pitch shrieking that she has never heard before.

“Get the door open!” screams Rainbow Dash.

“I'm trying!” cries Rarity.

A heavy thud against the door brings Fluttershy to jump back, screaming, and the window to the room cracks with a splash of blood when one of the guards is thrown into it. Fluttershy screams again and retreats into a corner, sobbing and clutching her head. The shooting and screaming and shrieking continues, and the second door's red lock switches to blue.

“Fluttershy, run!” yells Applejack.

The vent breaks open and a mass of flesh lands in front of Fluttershy, but she is too terrified to move. She can only watch with wide, wet eyes as the thing writhes on the ground before twisting itself in an upright position. What ever it is, it has the body of an equine, but its lower jaw is missing, leaving its sharp tongue to hang freely, its eyes are a pale gray, and the jumpsuit has been bloodied and ripped apart by a pair of bony protrusions from its shoulders that are wrapped in strands of flesh and tipped with bony scythes. Its limbs are covered in throbbing veins, little arms have clawed their way out of its chest.

It looks at Fluttershy, and then it shrieks and lunges at her.

“RUN!” cries Applejack.

Fluttershy scrambles away from the creature, causing it to crash into the wall, and Fluttershy runs through the door, having to duck her head to avoid the creature's scythe from cutting her skull in half. She runs down a thin hallway lined with pipes and flickering lights, not daring to look back as the creature's shrieking and heavy steps gain on her. She almost trips over herself when she rounds a corner, and when she sees an elevator at the end of the hall her hoofs barely touch the floor from how fast she is running.

But a mass of flesh rams her and everything becomes a blur as she rolls head over tail. Each time her body hits the metal floor a flash of pain ripples through her body, and when she stops she is on her back with the creature looking down at her and a fire extinguisher next to her. Bloody slobber falls on her face, and it lifts its scythe while its thick hoofs keep her pinned.

The scythe comes down hard and fast and Fluttershy moves her head to the side, crying out in pain when the weapon slashes her cheek. Its bone shatters against the floor, but this barely fazes it and it goes for another strike. Only this time it goes into Fluttershy's shoulder, easily puncturing her suit and flesh, and when it yanks it out blood splashes all over her shoulder, neck and face, and she screams and writhes on the ground, somehow managing to wiggle her way out from underneath it.

After getting out, she kicks it in the face with her hind leg and grabs the fire extinguisher. The creature shakes its head, its eye hanging loose, and it lunges at Fluttershy again, only to get its face caved in with the metal canister. The creature stumbles back, and Fluttershy hits it again, knocking it on the ground, and despite the burning pain in her shoulder and the loss of blood bringing her to shiver she still keeps beating it, screaming and sobbing as she does so. Blood drips off of her cheek and trails down her injured limb, and each slam brings her long pink mane to flail and cover her face in sweaty, bloody clumps, and by the time she is done its head is a pulp. Skull and brain fragments cover the floor and mix with her blood on the suit, and cover the fire extinguisher with brownish red blood.

Fluttershy drops the fire extinguisher, shoulders buckling and vision blurred as she slowly backs up to the elevator, whimpering and sniffling. She doesn't take her eyes off the creature when she hits the up button on the elevator panel.

The door slides open with a pleasant ding, and Fluttershy walks backwards until she hits the elevator wall. Then she slumps down and stares at the metal doors until they close. After they close she closes her eyes and covers her face with her bloody hoofs, sobbing to near suffocation.

SHLEECK!

Her eyes snap wide and she drops her hoofs, paling when she sees a broken and whole scythe have slipped through the doors. The door is then pried open, metal groaning and gears squeaking, and Fluttershy's jaw drops as the creature takes a step in, blood bubbling from the crushed remains of its head.

Fluttershy backs into the corner, shaking her head and holding her good hoof out. “No... Please...”

The elevator doors slam shut, slicing the creature into pieces, and leaving its parts to twitch on the floor with specks of blood flicking out.

A gentle hum follows and the elevator rises, flashing the bloody wall with yellow lights. Seconds later, Fluttershy's holographic projector activates and Rainbow Dash's face appears. Her cheek and neck is coated in blood and her eyes are shimmering with tears. Behind her is Rarity is sitting on the floor, rocking herself back and forth with her eyes closed and hoofs pressing her head while the charcoal pegasus anxiously scans the area with his weapon.

“Fluttershy, can you hear me?” asks Rainbow Dash.

“Y-Yes,” says Fluttershy, standing up on wobbly legs.

“Okay... I got bad news... It is just you, me, Rarity, Applejack and Thunderlane. Whatever those things were... They killed everypony else.”

“E-Everypony?”

Rainbow Dash nods. “We're at the transit, meet us there and we can head to the bridge.”

“Is that Fluttershy?” asks Applejack. “I need to talk to her.”

Rainbow Dash turns the projection to Applejack. She is wearing her stetson now, and is also covered in scratches and blood.

“Fluttershy, are you okay?” asks Applejack.

“No,” says Fluttershy. She winces and presses her hoof on her bleeding shoulder. “I'm hurt.”

“Damn, those things got you?”

“Yes, but I can fix myself.”

“Good. We got a problem, though. We're going to the bridge, but the transit ain't working right. The problem seems to be on your side.”

Fluttershy pales. “M-My side? But I'm not a mechanic!”

“Relax. When you reach the transit I need you to call Rainbow Dash back, invert the camera and walk through the area so I can see what you see. I'll be able to find the problem and walk you through what to do, got it?”

“But I don't have the tools to fix anything! Can't you come to me and help?”

“Look, I know you're scared, I'm scared, too, but it ain't possible for me to get to you, right now. When the transit is fixed then we'll be together and I can do all the mechanical work. But right now I need your help.”

Fluttershy swallows a lump in her throat, and after a moment of hesitation she nods. “Okay, I'll do it. But I need to find Zephyr fast.”

“I'm sure he's alright,” says Rainbow Dash, now turning the camera to her. “We'll be able to find him a lot easier on the bridge. Every crew and colonist on these things have a tracker put inside them to help rescuers find anypony who gets lost on these things. The bridge will be able to track Zephyr, Rarity will fix the scrambler, Applejack will fix the relay and we'll all go home.”

Fluttershy nods, and the camera turns back to Applejack.

“You'll be fine, Fluttershy. I promise,” says Applejack.

“How do you know?” says Fluttershy meekly.

“Because I ain't a liar. You ain't gonna make a liar out of me, are ya?”

Fluttershy blinks, unsure what to say about that, and Rainbow Dash turns the camera back to her.

“We'll see you in a little bit. Be careful.”

The feed cuts out, and Fluttershy closes her eyes and falls against the wall, rubbing her face. And after a moment of stillness, she pushes her mane out of her eyes and jumps to work on patching herself up with medical foam and the stitch kit, and then she hits the button for the transit and mentally prepares herself for the next level of Hell.

Author's Notes:

That was fast.