A terrible screeching echoes from the other side of the door, and with it are scrapes and bangs that leave Fluttershy's ears in pain. As the noise carried on, Fluttershy had drawn her energy cutter and aimed it at the door, desperate to keep her breathing steady. The noise goes on for another few seconds before it sounds like the creature runs away. Once its steps fade, Fluttershy keeps the energy cutter aimed at the door for a while longer before daring to open it.

The door slides open, and Fluttershy stares down the hallway, seeing nothing. Not even the body that had been in front of the door. She steps out, swallowing the spit collecting in her mouth, and looks at the bloody hoofprints starting where the body was and going down the hall. Right in the direction she has to go.

Fluttershy whimpers and slowly walks forward, heart racing and limbs shaking. The walk is long and the weak clanks and buzzes of electric currents do nothing to ease the crushing feeling in her chest and throat. She swallows more spit and rounds a corner, finding more of the hallway, plus a bathroom and a doorway leading to a chamber of some kind. Sparks shoot out from the doorway, and Fluttershy has to take a moment to collect herself before going forward.

Her steps echo off the hallway walls, and while her eyes are locked ahead -too afraid to blink- her ears are twitching. She is not sure if her ears are playing tricks with her, but she is hearing whispers. The words are garbled and heavy and seem to be all around her. It is only when she is by the bathroom that she hears clear words.

“Help me.”

Fluttershy snaps towards the bathroom, her cutter's glow illuminating a small circle in the bathroom's darkness.

“H-Hello?” calls Fluttershy, her voice muffled from the cutter in her mouth.

Nothing.

She takes a deep breath and enters the bathroom with the light of her cutter being the only thing she can go by, and all she can see are broken toilets and a hoof washing tub soaked in blood.

CLA-CLANK!

Fluttershy whips around, shaking and aiming her energy cutter at the doorway.

A fire extinguisher rolls past the doorway and a shadow stretches across the floor, growing with every heavy step. With the steps comes a wheezing and a growl, and Fluttershy turns off her energy cutter, slides into the closest stall, and presses her back against the wall, straining her eyes to see in the dark.

The steps continue. They are now outside the bathroom.

Fluttershy presses her back harder against the metal wall.

The steps stop.

Fluttershy brushes her tongue against the trigger of her cutter.

The steps continue on. They get weaker the further it goes, continuing the path forward.

Once the steps are no longer heard Fluttershy turns on her energy cutter and slowly leaves the stall. She pokes her head out of the bathroom and doesn't see anything on either side of the hallway, so she continues to the chamber.

Sparks fall on Fluttershy's shoulders and head, bringing her to wince from the tiny burns, and after she passes the actual door, which is laying on the floor with a massive dent in it, she stops and sulks in her spot.

There are four stairways, each marked and in the center of the room is a tall, circular device with screens and keypads on it. Above it is a flickering holographic projection of the green wreath surrounding the crossing sun and moon symbolizing the United Equestrian Nations. All along the walls are various posters giving health advice, safety tips, legal announcements, as well as large vent shafts with crossing wrenches and hammers painted above them.

Fluttershy shakes her head and goes to the first stairwell, which has a board with all of the points of interests on them, including maintenance quarters and engine room. But since it is not what she is looking for she moves on to the next stairwell, which leads to food processing. Again this is not what she needs so she moves on to the next stairwell.

She barely has a chance to look at the board before the vent covering next to her explodes off of its position, and Fluttershy yelps and stumbles back as a Necromorph crawls out of it, drooling blood and scrapping the floor with its scythe limbs and clawed hoofs.

Fluttershy screams and clamps down on the energy cutter, pulling the trigger with her tongue. Its white beam easily slices off one of its scythe limbs and takes off a piece of its head. It screams in agony with its brownish blood spraying all over the wall and floor, and Fluttershy fires another shot that takes off its head entirely, plus the other scythe limb.

The creature collapses, spraying more blood like geyser all over the area, and as this happens, Fluttershy gets a sudden sharp pain in both of her shoulders from claws digging into them. Next she is suddenly pulled into the air. Everything shrinks in a blink and her weapon falls out of her mouth, landing next to the headless Necromorph. When she stops, her hindlegs dangle, blood oozes all over her front legs and chest, and her wings are trapped under a muscular mass. Then she feels hot breath on the back of her neck with hot slobber dripping on her. The slobber that causes her skin to sizzle and fur to burn, and Fluttershy grits her teeth from the pain, and proceeds to slam her head backward.

There is a crunch and a squawk of pain with a bit of blood splattering on the back of her head, but she does not care. She does it again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

After the sixth time, her head is throbbing, her neck is burning, the stench of burnt fur, hair and flesh is torturing her nose, but after the last hit the creature drops Fluttershy. She expands her wings and circles down, but upon landing the Necromorph tackles her, leading both of them to roll on the floor with the creature's talons and claws on its back paws to tear at Fluttershy's suit and flesh, drawing out streams of blood. When it has her subdued, it is on top of her, looking down at her and screaming with its beak reduced to a stub, leaving a sharp and thin barbed tongue exposed. But now that Fluttershy can actually see the creature, she sees that throbbing veins have popped out of its skin, its feathers have fallen off in place of flaps of skin, like a dragon, and in its chest is a translucent orb with swirling, bug like abominations rolling around.

The Necromorph brings its talons down on Fluttershy, and she slams her hoof against it, grunting in pain as her weakened state struggles to keep the talon up.

The Necromorph lifts the other talon, and Fluttershy's watery eyes bulge. It brings it down against her hard and fast, and she uses her other hoof to keep that one up.

She grits her teeth, growling in pain with tears soaking her cheeks as much as the blood and sweat is wetting her body. Her hoofs slowly begin to bend down, bringing the Necromorph's face closer to hers, and as this happens the creature's tongue coils up. Seconds later, the tongue shoots towards her like a dart and she tilts her head to one side. It tries again and she moves her head to the other side. After the second time Fluttershy presses her hindlegs underneath the Necromorph's abdomen and flips it off of her. It lands flat on its back on the other side of her, squawking and flailing, and despite her limbs feeling like they are about to snap she manages to rolls upright and grab her energy cutter. She dares not use her mouth to use it, though, since it is covered in Necromorph blood, and when she brings the weapon to bear the Necromorph has rolled upright.

It rushes towards her, shrieking and wings flapping, and Fluttershy fires a shot at its center, popping the translucent bag on its chest, leading to a wretched stench and goo spraying out, along with the bugs inside.

The Necromorph reels back in pain, clutching the deflated sack, and Fluttershy shoots it again, blowing off one of its arms, which drops it to the ground. She is about to fire off another round, but one of the bugs leaps on her and sinks its tiny claws into her uniform and bites at the base of her wing. A burning pain erupts from the bite, and like a wildfire the pain surges through her wing and along her side and lungs.

Fluttershy shrieks and sobs as she flails around, trying to get the bug off, and another one jumps on her flank, tearing apart the fabric of her uniform to sink in its teeth right at her cutie mark. The hot pain brings her legs to buckle, and as she falls to her haunches, sobbing and gasping for air, another bug jumps up and bites her in the neck.

Her throat closes. She wheezes for air as the Necromorph screeches painfully. Blood is covering large portions of her body as the pain breaks her down to near uselessness. The bugs keep chewing on her, drawing more blood and ripping apart more flesh and more fabric so they can chew on more of her.

The Necromorph hobbles Fluttershy, tongue snapping like a whip, and using what energy she could, she turns around and bucks it in the head, forcing it to stumble back, and then she drops to the ground and starts rolling, crushing the bugs. Each one crushed releases a quick, sharp squeak of pain as they splatter between her weight and the metal floor.

She is having trouble even wheezing for air, now. Her throat is sealed and burning, and her eyes are clouded. Slowly her vision goes to black.

The creature rushes Fluttershy again, and again she kicks it away, but her kick is weaker and barely pushes it away, but it is just enough for her to get some precious seconds to reach her energy cutter.

The last bug is now chewing on her collar.

Her vision is almost completely dark, now. Her hoof can barely hold the cutter.

The Necromorph grabs her with its remaining talon and flies up to the ceiling again.

The bug is still chewing on her.

She is shivering despite being the hot pain running through her body.

She will not let go of the cutter, though, and she crushes the bug chewing on her collar with her other hoof.

The eyes of the Necromorph peer into her dazed look, and its back legs latch on to the ceiling bars while its talon holds Fluttershy's dangling body.

It coils its tongue, bloody drool now dripping on her face.

Fluttershy shakily raises her cutter and decapitates it with one shot. The Necromorph's hand goes limp and Fluttershy slides right off the talons, putting her in freefall with the headless beast falling next to her and feeling weightless as the dim metal and emergency lights rushing past. She lands the top of the circular terminal in the center of the chamber, shattering the holographic projector, which punctures her suit and burns her feathers with large sparks. Then she rolls off, bounces off of one of the keypads, which also breaks under her weight, and lands on her side on the floor, blacking out instantly.

Author's Notes:

Just so y'all know... I love Fluttershy. She's my waifu.