“They will not be whole!” screams the stallion.

The stallion bites down on his trigger, the weapon roars to life and a stream of fire launches towards Fluttershy. She leaps out of the way, screaming in fright as the fire speeds past her, burning off some of her mane, evaporating the moisture in and around her, and eating the luggage in its path. She slides on the floor and shoots a stasis ball at the crazy stallion as he turns to her. He grits his teeth, fighting the blue aura holding him, and Fluttershy jumps into the elevator, slides into the wall in the process, presses the emergency close button and pushes the floor button she needs.

The clanks and hums of the elevator are music to her ears, and she slumps against the wall, gasping for air as the stench of burnt hair clogs her nose, and after frantically brushing off the ashy end of her mane she checks her weapon. The battery seems good, so she takes a deep breath and aims it at the door, watching the slim lines of light slide through the crack. A moment later the elevator stops, the door opens, and Fluttershy sees the handy work of the Psycho.

The hallway is pitch black, but with the flashes of light coming from the sparks popping out of destroyed wires, terminals and lights, she can see the walls and floors are charred and littering the area are shriveled and crumbling smoking corpses with pockets of glowing red dotting them.

She enters the hallway, keeping her steps brisk as she passes the burnt corpses and charred walls. She yelps and jumps to the side when a sudden hiss followed by a rain of sparks falls almost on top of her.

She resumes her walk and risks looking over her shoulder. The Psycho has not come yet, and so far nothing has come out of the vents. She looks ahead and turns her quick walk to a run, passing locked doors, doors that have been ripped open, and flickering signs. One of which points towards the transit boarding station.

Another place Fluttershy passes has the double helix above it, and across from it is a door with a sun above it. Both doors have been ripped open, but Fluttershy keeps running until-

“I'm sorry,” whimpers a mare.

Fluttershy skids to a halt and perks her ears up. There is sniffling coming from the double helix room. Fluttershy gulps and creeps towards the door. “Hello?”

The sniffling continues and Fluttershy gives one more look down the hallway before she peeks inside using her energy cutter for light. The room is dark, but with the light of her weapon she gasps and sees broken pews and two charred corpses chained to a warped double helix, and around them are ashes and blackened crumbling items with the floor, walls and ceiling scorched.

The chained corpses are equine and their flesh has shriveled and fused to their splitting bones, their jaws open and warped, and pendants have fused to their ribs.

Fluttershy turns her light towards another wall and loses her breath when she finds more bodies, broken and burned, all of different races from what she can tell. Like the two chained, their blackened flesh has shriveled and fused to the cracked bones, and bloody streaks, splatter and pools have cooked to the floor and walls. After taking that gut wrenching scene in she reluctantly shines her light on the other wall, finding broken book cases, and shattered figurines, and when she takes a step forward her hoof brushes against something small. She looks down and finds that it is an audio disk, and after taking a moment to make sure the area is clear, she holsters her cutter, ejects Diamond Dust's audio, slips it into one of the pockets of her suit, and puts in the new audio.

There is chanting and hymns she cannot make out, and a mare sniffling.

As the audio plays Fluttershy returns to the burnt bodies and paws at the nearest corpse, grimacing and fighting back tears when its burnt face turns towards her, jaw twisted and sockets hollow. She studies it for a moment before moving on to the next body to inspect it, specifically looking for a male pegasus

“What have I done?” sniffles the mare in the audio. “Is this the Convergence the church prophesied about? How can this be a good thing?”

Fluttershy gasps for air when she sees a twisted pegasus wing.

“Are you faltering, Alima?” says another mare.

Fluttershy goes to the wing and finds it does belong to a male pegasus with a broken skull and snapped leg.

“We were promised peace, not Hell!” says the first mare.

Fluttershy shakes her head, whimpering and gently turning the body to its back. Pieces fall off of it and in the audio there is a banging and muffled angry shouts in the background, and Alima whimpers as the other mare gently shushes her.

“Its okay, soon we will be at peace. We will be one,” says the mystery mare. “Say it with me, Alima. Say it with us.”

“No,” whimpers Alima.

“One mind,” begins the mare and the other voices follow suit as one. “One mind!”

“No.”

“One soul.” “One soul!”

“Please stop! Stop this!”

“One flesh.” “One flesh!”

“ETERNAL PEACE! ETERNAL UNITY!”

There is a loud crack, pop and electric discharge that hurts Fluttershy's ears, and a flood of angry shouts rushes in, drowning the laughs of the mystery mare and the sobs of Alima.

“There they are!” shouts a stallion.

There is a stampede and angry shouts clash with raised voices of prayer that are quickly silenced with gunshots, buzzes, and bones and items being broken from bludgeons.

“I'm sorry!” cries Alima.

The audio then abruptly cuts out, and Fluttershy stares at the unrecognizable burnt corpse in her hoofs, which is being illuminated by the glow of the device, shaking and nostrils flaring with her heavy breaths. She wants to scream, yet her jaw is clutched too tight. Her limbs refuse to move her from the grave despite a faint voice telling her to run. Tears bubble and slide down her face, and she opens her mouth to let out a sharp gasp of air. Then a distant ding grabs her attention.

Fluttershy looks out the door, and with narrowed eyes and clenched teeth she gently lowers the body and storms out of the room and down the hall, the sound of her heavy steps bouncing off the walls with another set of hoofs. Coming towards her from the elevator at the other end with the tiny glow of the fire as his light is the Psycho. Like her, his steps are quick, and like her he stops when they are a few a doors apart.

“Is that my brother in there!?” screams Fluttershy, her vision red and clouded with tears. “Did you burn Zephyr!?”

“They want to be whole. I will not let them,” says the Psycho, his voice easily carrying through the desolation.

Fluttershy draws her cutter and aims it at him, trembling and sniffling. “Is that my brother in there!?”

The Psycho grabs his mouth trigger. “They cannot be made whole!”

There is a blinding flash of hot light and Fluttershy backpedals, tripping over herself as a stream of roaring fire sweeps side to side. The heat washes over her and her painful shrieks echo down the hall as the flames latch on to her and eats at her face and mane.

Then there is a sudden snap of metal, the fire stops, and the Psycho growls with the familiar screech of a Necromorph. As this happens Fluttershy lays on the ground, screaming and struggling to stand as she clutches her face. Her hoof buckles and she falls to the floor again with bloody tears and burnt mane falling to the floor. She whimpers and drags herself across the floor until she reaches a wall, and then she uses its pipe to help her stand and she turns to look at the Psycho. She can barely see through the wet haze of her one exposed eye, but through the blur she can see the Psycho wrestling a tailed Necromorph. Both rolling around on the floor, with him bashing and stomping on it and it slashing and biting him.

Fluttershy picks up her cutter with her mouth, having to squeeze her jaw painfully tight to hold it, and retreats down the hall, collapsing against the wall and then falling over again when her hoof hits a charred metal case. It is when she hits the ground that the vent overhead breaks open and a tailed Necromorph lands in front of her, but Fluttershy manages to push herself up and runs past it, dodging its slashing tail and forcing herself to run faster when she hears it screech and its claws scraping the metal from it chasing her.

Fluttershy quickly passes through a doorway that leads to a platform of benches and lights with a trolley waiting to be boarded, but the Necromorph leaps on her back and digs its claws into her ribs. The claws scratch the metal and coat it in a sticky layer of mucus, and the sudden weight pushes Fluttershy to the ground which leads to her dropping her cutter.

She manages to buck it off for the briefest of moments before it knocks her on her back and lunges at her face.

Fluttershy puts her hoof between its fangs and her maw, screaming through her gritted teeth as the Necromorph's teeth clamp down on the metal armor and piercing the fabric on the underside of her suit. Its claws scrape against the metal floor as it presses down on her, and Fluttershy reaches for her cutter. The metal bends on her hoof pad and her screams turn to sobs as the teeth sink into her flesh. When she manages to grab her cutter she slams it against the Necromorph's head as hard as she can.

The impact breaks off some of its rotten flesh loosens an eyeball, but it still holds on, hissing and shaking its head, and Fluttershy hits it again and again and awkwardly kicks its underside. It growls louder and brings its claws up right above her head.

The claws come down and Fluttershy fires as fast as her hoof can. The shot takes off its clawed hoof, another shot takes off half of its arm, and then she screams and hits it in the head again, this time breaking its jaw loose and sending teeth flying. The Necromorph staggers off of her, spitting out globs of blood from its mouth while more blood gushes from the remains of its arm, and Fluttershy fires a few more shots into it, taking off a chunk of its shoulder, blowing a wide hole in its chest and finally its head and other arm.

By the time she is done it is a stub on the ground, and the blood pumping out of it coats her and the floor in its brownish-red color.

Fluttershy stagger away from it, hyperventilating and blinking tears and blood out of her eyes. Her bitten hoof buckles and her hind legs almost give out on her when she backs up.

Then the vent above the hallway entrance breaks open and another tailed Necromorph crawls onto the wall.

Fluttershy's shoulders sulk and a tired and very much annoyed groan escapes her before she aims her cutter at it,

The Necromorph leaps at her and she shoots it, cutting it in half with the weapon's beam and sending the two halves spiraling away, splattering blood all over the floor. When it hits the ground it thrashes and screams while its disconnected tail whips the air, and Fluttershy shoots the upper half of it until it stops screaming.

After that, Fluttershy sees a flash of orange coming from the hallway and she growls and quickly limps towards the trolley, leaving a trail of blood in her wake. Once inside, she forces the door to shut and lock, which leaves a coat of blood on the window, and then she rushes to the control panel. The controls are glowing with a predestination selected, but right now she is in too much pain and panic to care where that is, so she hastily disconnects the brakes and pushes the throttle all the way forward.

“Lock disengaged. Autopilot engaged. Please stay seated,” says the computer.

The glow of orange flashes out of the corner of her eye as the trolley pulls forward and she sees the Psycho walking past the burning remains of the Necromorphs she shot, covered in fresh blood and scratches, but also appears to be unfazed by his injuries.

The Psycho aims his flamethrower at the trolley and Fluttershy squeezes her eyes shut and braces herself for the next onslaught. However, the fire never comes.

The trolley rattles and hums, and Fluttershy cracks an eye open.

Nothing is there.

No fire.

No Psycho.

No Necromorphs.

Fluttershy opens her other eye and cautiously moves towards the back of the trolley, leaving a thick pool of blood in front of the control panel. Her whole body is shaking, her bitten hoof can barely hold her, and the cold feeling returns. But she is determined to see what the hold up is.

She reaches the back of the trolley and sees the Psycho is still on the platform, and the bodies are still burning, but he is only watching her go, shrinking ever so quickly as she goes.

A ding comes out from the speakers and Fluttershy slumps into a seat, eyes heavy and head swaying back and forth.

“Next stop. Section D,” says a familiar computerized voice.

Fluttershy lifts her bit hoof to her face, grimacing at the thick, dark red blood covering her. Heavy droplets drip to the floor, and three teeth are still lodged in her flesh.

“Next stop. Section D,” repeats the voice.

Fluttershy brings the hoof to her mouth, bites down on one of the, takes three deep breaths, then pulls. Her breathing gets faster and harder, nostrils flaring and bile surging up as the teeth pull against her muscles.

“Next stop. Section D.”

The tooth comes out, soaked in blood just like Fluttershy's muzzle, and she spits it on the floor. Her hoof is trembling and more blood pumps out of the opening the tooth left.

The trolley turns and Fluttershy bites down on the other tooth and pulls it out. She spits it on the floor, then falls off her seat and pukes. Speckles of red and brown colors cover the two teeth she pulled out, and Fluttershy falls to her side, wheezing and whimpering.

The trolley slows to a stop and while still on the floor, Fluttershy begins pulling out the last tooth. There is another ding, followed by a buzz, and with the other tooth now in her mouth and free from her hoof she looks up and sees the red light above the trolley door.

Fluttershy spits out the tooth, pushes herself up and keeps her bitten hoof pressed against her chest as she limps towards the locked door. She peeks out the bloody window and sees a door broken open on the platform. Above it is a sign that reads Section D. The platform itself is riddled with bullet holes, scorch marks and shrapnel, plus corpses of griffins and Necromorphs. One griffin, dark blue with white tipped feathers, is leaning against the broken door, and Fluttershy's eyes widen when she sees he is looking back at her, weapon aimed at the trolley and chest heaving.

Fluttershy fumbles with the lock on the door and squeezes through as it opens, bringing her to fall on the floor. The flash of pain on her cheek does not faze her, though. She pushes herself up and limps towards the griffin, who is now lowering his weapon. When she is in front of him she sees he is armed with a shotgun and is wearing thick armor like Rainbow Dash's, but tailored to the large size of a male griffin. On his head is a band with a small blue gem orb and on his wrist is a band with the same gem.

Fluttershy is about to ask him if he is okay, but stops herself when she realizes the extent of his injuries. One of his wings missing and there is a large, dark red gash going from his collar down to his pelvis that has covered his armor in blood and left his bone and his intestines exposed, putting him in a pool of crimson. His face is also wet with blood, tears and sweat and blood drips out of his mouth when he speaks.

“Ariana, you came back,” he wheezes weakly. “Why?”

Fluttershy sits down in front of him and puts her hoof on his shoulder, but is unable to find words. She can only swallow a wet ball in her throat and keep the confusion locked away.

The griffin drops his weapon to put his hand on her hoof, barely able to hold her. “Are the kids okay? … Did they make it?”

Fluttershy blinks tears away, nodding. “Y-Yes. They made it off the ship.”

“Good.” The griffin slips off the headband and cuff and puts them on Fluttershy, wincing with every move. “Now you go. Get off this ship, Ariana... Tell them I'm sorry...”

The griffin's eyes close, and with one final weak breath his head slumps down.

Fluttershy looks at him for a few more seconds before checking his pulse. She sighs and her shoulders sulk, and then she reluctantly digs into his supply pouch and pulls out a canister of medical foam and a roll of bandages. She quickly sprays her bitten hoof with the foam, following it up with wrapping the wound in the bandages. She repeats this on the burn covering half of her face, using the last of the foam and bandages, which leaves her with only one eye exposed and sharp tingles scampering all over the destroyed flesh. Once she finishes bandaging herself she pulls the griffin away from the wall, offering a quick apology before doing so, and unbuckles his saddle.

With the saddle off, she searches through it and finds three shotgun magazines puts them in the saddle and grabs his shotgun. She ejects the magazine, finds ammo in it, and after slipping it back in she aims it at one of the Necromorph corpses. It is at this point that Fluttershy realizes two things.

First, the world seems dimmer. The whole environment is already dark with the failing lights and dark colors of the metal, but now it seems that there is an extra layer of blackness. This brings up the second point, which is that everything seems flatter. She didn't notice any of this at first, but now that she is not running for survival and has a chance to think the reality of what happened to her is hitting her like a large block of ice falling on her head.

Fluttershy tightens her jaw and focuses on the corpse, straining her one eye so the vision switches from a blur to clear, and after a moment of this she slips her shotgun in the new saddle and looks at the broken door.

Lights flicker in the hallway, and loud hums shake her bones. Dark to light. Dark to light. Dark to light.

Fluttershy squints her eye.

Her back can really feel the weight of the new gear, and even with the quick patch job on her hoof she still feels the sting and the weakness of her hoof is bringing it lift off the floor on its own.

Dark to light.

There is a message on the wall at the far end.

Dark to light.

Fluttershy creeps closer to door.

Dark to light.

The message is very simple.

DING!

Fluttershy's ears perk and she looks over her shoulder, paling when she sees the trolley pulling forward with the door closed and the words: “Next stop: Section E” scrolling on a screen across its length.

“No!” Fluttershy gallops towards the trolley. “No no no no no no!”

She skids to a halt and grabs a lamp post, yelping as half of her body dips off of the edge, getting a view of the far drop below. Her ribs rattle from her racing heart and her stomach rises to her throat as she looks at the drop. It is like the world is being sucked away from her, and when she gets the strength to pull herself back she falls on her rump, pressing her hoof against her heart and watching the trolley go with tears burning her damaged face.

She then scoots away from the edge, presses her back against the lamppost, covers her face and screams. Her scream carries through the empty cavern, and still goes for some time even when she is done. After finishing her scream Fluttershy throws her hoofs down and stares at the failing light of the lamppost across from her, seething and shaking and eye bloodshot.

Her face is burned.

She lost an eye.

Her body is broken.

She keeps hearing voices without bodies.

People are dying in front of her.

She missed the trolley just she got back online.

And Zephyr may be dead.

With that last thought Fluttershy quickly shakes her head and presses her hoofs against her temples.

Sure she may have held a burnt pegasus, but that doesn't mean that was Zephyr. After all, she did not do a proper autopsy and has no idea if his weight or height changed any. Besides, she doesn't remember him being religious despite the efforts of their parents, but time changes people. And so does traveling far distances and completely cutting off your family through an unstoppable trinity of training, long deployments and unresolved grudges. Grudges that carry on and infest every shared memory and rot away the chances to make amends the longer they go untreated. And like every disease it must be treated, and that means Zephyr has to still be alive for both of their sakes.

After taking a deep breath, Fluttershy stands up and looks down the passage. She can see the trolley's red lights in the distance and is guessing that it has stopped. She expands her wings and gives them a test flap, but a tearing pain going through her bitten wing forces it to retract to her side. This brings Fluttershy to wince and back further away from the edge.

When she is halfway on the platform she turns to look at the broken door. Nothing has changed. The lights are still flickering and the message is still there. But with her unable to fly, her only fast mode of transportation a far distance away and no idea if the Psycho is giving chase or not, she takes a deep breath and slowly walks to the destroyed door. Though right as she is about to go through Rainbow Dash's face suddenly appears in front of her with her colors washed in green and her big eyes pale white, making Fluttershy scream and jump back with a racing heart.

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

Fluttershy nods. “I can.” She peeks past the holographic projection and is grateful to see nothing in the hallway. “I can hear you.”

“Thank Celestia! I... Holy shit, what happened to your face?”

“I got burned... and bitten... I need a doctor.”

Fluttershy holds up her bitten hoof, grimacing when she sees red blotches forming on her bandage.

“Yeah, I hear ya. Listen, I got to make this quick.” Rainbow Dash looks over her shoulder and then scurries into another spot and crouches down, whispering: “First, when that thing attacked us -whatever the fuck it is- I got separated from the others. I had to crawl through a vent to get away from that thing and I have no idea where the others are and they aren't answering my calls. You're the first to answer me.”

“Oh dear...”

A distant clank jerks Fluttershy's heart and with a gasp she leaps out of the doorway and presses herself against the wall with the shotgun now in her hoofs.

“You okay?” asks Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy shakes her head. “I thought I heard something.”

“You and me both. I keep hearing voices and I get the feeling that I am being watched. I don't like it!”

“Watched?” Fluttershy peeks past the twisted metal of the door. A long shadow of three curved fingers stretches across “RUN”. She gulps and presses her back against the wall again. “Th-there's a nice pony n-named Dr. Rock that is using the cameras to watch the ship. H-He's trying to help me...”

Fluttershy looks down the hallway again. The shadow is gone. She goes back to her spot, whimpering and sweating, and slowly cocking the shotgun, cringing when the CLI-CLACK sounds like a beast tapping the floor. She has only ever fired a shotgun during training, and that was five years ago when she was eighteen, and that was in a controlled environment with paper targets.

“I-It's not just him here, though,” says Fluttershy in a hasty whisper. “There's a psycho with a flamethrower on the loose. H-He's burning everything. He tried to kill me a-and I don't know if he hurt Zephyr or not.”

"Fuck...” Rainbow Dash rubs her mane. “Okay, look, I'm in Section E. I'm heading to the Medical-”

Rainbow Dash's ears suddenly perk and she leans around the corner. She snaps back in place a second later, eyes watering and hoof covering her mouth to stifle a whine.

“Oh shit,” sniffles Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow?” says Fluttershy worryingly.

“Shit shit shit shit shit. I-I got to go.”

“Rainbow, what-”

Rainbow Dash jumps up and the footage cuts out.

“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy tries to reconnect, but a “BLOCKED” flashes in front of her. “Oh no...”

Fluttershy scrambles up, puts the shotgun away and rushes through the door, skidding to a stop when she sees at the end of the hallway a tall, frail pony in a dirty white apron, swaying in his spot under the unsteady light. His head is limp to the side and he holds his hoof out to Fluttershy.

“Make us whole again,” whispers the stallion, his voice in her ear.

Fluttershy's legs lock, and the stallion and drops his hoof and sulks out of sight, leaving “RUN” in full view once more. After he is out of sight, Fluttershy watches the wall, waiting for something, anything, to come around the corner. But when nothing happens she takes a deep breath, pushes the button on her helmet and gets some relief when her whole head is completely encased in metal without any error messages as well as tiny lights flashing on to give her better sight.

And then she goes forward.

Author's Notes:

Isn't she cute?