... And waited...
and waited...
and waited...
One full hour had passed, and she was still just waiting, and she was still just cowering there.
Fluttershy could hear the writhing swarm just outside the broken hatch of what she'd decided to call "her cell." She daren't move lest she make too much noise and the awaiting evils would come flooding in.
She'd seen what had happened to Aloe in the video. A single bug had drawn blood from her. A lot of blood. When Lotus had yanked it free, Aloe had gone down. Spasmming, but down. She wasn't here now though. Had she got back up? Carried away? Eaten?
With all sorts of nightmarish thoughts running through her psyche, Fluttershy stifled her cries and refused to take her eyes off the door, her mind off the trigger, and waited in utter silence...
The sound of the swarm was still lingering outside. She couldn't stay here forever. She'd sooner die of old age than get sniffed out by the parasites. At the very least, she had to try to escape.
Swallowing, Fluttershy tip-hooved out of the corner and across the confining room, coming up to the main chamber. She poked out her head, and immediately zipped it back in. Her ears weren't deceiving her; a huge number of the ugly little aliens left no patch of silver floor visible.
How oh how, in the wide wide world of Equestria, was she supposed to live through this? ... The same way she lived through the Covenant, that's how.
Come on, Fluttershy. You can do this, she supported herself. It's nothing I haven't done before.
Shakily, she drew a frag grenade, bit the pin, and tossed it out into the chamber. Before the device detonated, she took out a second grenade, a plasma grenade to be exact, and used her nose to bop the activation button. With the plasma grenade, or "sticky" now glowing blue, she hurled it out after the frag and backed up with her rifle at the ready.
Once the explosions pierced her ears and shook the whole deck, Fluttershy peeked out into the chamber to find that most of the tentacle horrors had been reduced to green goo and soggy skin. Some were still alive though, and they slithered around in confusion, even going up the walls.
With the majority of the creatures taken care of, Fluttershy stepped out into the enclosure and fired her MA5B.
The creatures heard her, and immediately scuttled in her direction, not bothering to take cover or anything. More of the curs made their appearance from the ceiling; dropping down like diseased rain and increasing the mass of sickly green tentacles.
Fluttershy didn't realise there was still so many of the little bugs left, and she ended up with more than she'd bargained for as she fired her magazine empty at the approaching wave of terror. She backed up, buying herself more time to reload her gun, and once a new clip was in place, she resumed firing on full automatic.
The pods dissipated in clouds of green blood and spores as the bullets tore into their tiny, fragile bodies. Eventually, only two remained, and Fluttershy was ready for another reload.
Before she could eject the spent magazine, both of the surviving creatures sprung off the floor and flew up to meet her face.
"Aaaahh!" she screeched, shaking vigorously and jumping around, terrified of the hideousness that latched onto her.
One of them landed directly over her eyes, giving her a real good eyeful of its vile appendages. One of those wiry limbs was tipped with an organic blade, and it whipped against Fluttershy's face in an attempt to slice her. Luckily for her, she had energy shields, and the impact backfired on the monster, bursting it and showering the terrified Pegasus with mottled olive blood.
The other creature had landed on her neck, and it suffered the same fate as its partner, drenching Fluttershy with its disgusting fluids.
Fluttershy reeled her muzzle and gagged, squinting her eyes and waving the clouds of spores away from her. She could taste the stuff, could feel it clogging her nose and throat.
The green liquid dripped off her splattered face, leaving neat little splotches on the engraved floor. Taking out one of her two remaining face cloths, she wiped herself clean and discarded the soaked material on the ground. She then took the opportunity to reload her assault rifle, and the weapon rattled as she shivered with nerves.
A drink of water would be the best thing right now, so she scanned the area for anymore threats, saw that the door she'd used to enter was wide open, and inhaled. Freedom!
It was strange; the door could only be opened from the other side, which meant something must have entered the chamber. The small parasitic aliens couldn't have worked out how to use the hack box, could they? So far, they had proven themselves dumb; not registering pain or danger or the possibility of death. They couldn't have opened the door.
Eager to leave, Fluttershy decided to quench her thirst later and run for the exit. She saw that the door was emitting sparks. Whoever opened it must have broken it open, and now it was refusing to close.
Fluttershy also noted the trail of red and green blood leading out, and the dead Crystal Pony, Autumn Gem, nowhere in sight. What could that mean?
The frightened Mare stopped thinking about it, and focused more on her escape. Just as she came to the open door, a deafening shriek came rolling out with enough volume to vibrate the walls.
Skidding to a halt, Fluttershy uneasily reversed, keeping her MA5B posted on the sparking doorway. Heavy footsteps came thudding deliberately from around the corner, and straight away, Fluttershy knew it wasn't a Pony. Whoever was making their way down was biped, which was to say Covenant, and Fluttershy doubted the Covenant would agree to a truce. Not even in the insanity of this haunted maze.
Frantically, she drew the shotgun, and pushed herself up as far as she could against the wall, just next to the door, waiting in ambush. Waiting in fear.
Those intimidating footsteps grew louder and nearer, and Fluttershy could hear gurgling, like the approaching being was rinsing his mouth out. That gurgling then morphed into gipping, and Fluttershy had a vision of a sick Elite spewing his guts up. With all the blood in this room, and the appearance of the new enemy, Fluttershy could sympathise.
Soon, the alien that was hunting her fell silent, just as it reached the hatch, and Fluttershy could see red tipped antennae edging out from behind the doorway. The quivering Pegasus had no idea what to expect. She thought she'd be up against a Covie, what with the footsteps, but those swaying strings of flesh belonged to the new guys. What was waiting for her around the corner?
Crunch! An Elite's hand made its appearance, grasping the door frame with enough strength to crush the metal, and its usually smooth grey skin had been converted to a rough brown. That wasn't the only change. Extra long tentacles grew from the alien wrist and wrapped around the wall like rope... Rope! When in the swamp, Fluttershy thought she'd seen an Elite carrying rope! What extended from the Elite's arm was no rope however. Far from it.
In an instant, the Elite made his entrance, and sent Fluttershy running away screaming. That was no Elite... That was no damn Elite... What that was, was an abomination. A freak of nature. An ex-elite.
The Elite that wasn't an Elite anymore was equipped with his own set of whip-like tendrils that sprouted from his own gangrenous arm. His flesh had gone mouldy and rotten, and more alarmingly, beige. A disgusting beige that matched the colour of vomit, something Fluttershy felt she'd be emitting soon. An enormous growth modified his chest, and an irregularly shaped hole indented the surreal protuberance, the red tipped antennae flailing creepily out of the cavity.
Thanks to the remaining parts of his damaged gold armour, the reanimated Elite was still recognisable as a Zealot. His Elite head hung limp down his back, his mandibles twitching as if he were trying to speak.
Squealing with fear by the likes of which she'd never felt, Fluttershy galloped all the way to the other end of the chamber, and her heart stopped at the tremendous sound of the Elite roaring a roar that no Elite could make. The ground shook as it gave chase.
Coming up to the blank wall, Fluttershy spun to witness the poorly Elite sprinting at her on broken legs at an insane speed, his arms thrashing wildly. An increasing howl warbled out of the Elite's throat, along with purple blood and bits of flesh.
The petrified Pegasus screamed and fired a buckshot directly at the ravenous nightmare, sending it flying onto its back. Even when it was dead, she screamed on, and had to stop herself to allow time to breathe.
Her lungs heaved and her teeth chattered. What is this thing?! How did it come to be?! What happened to the Elite to make him like this?!
Noting the antennae that hung from the gaping hole in the Zealot's chest, Fluttershy pieced the puzzle in her mind. Those antennae were identical to those of the small critters that came in swarms. Whatever those little things were, one of them had gotten inside this Elite, taking up residence within his chest and transforming him into the grotesquery that lay before her.
The sight was revolting, and Fluttershy's blood ran cold, giving her the shivers. Not only that, but she could feel something making its way up her oesophagus, and her cheeks bulged as she tried her best to keep it down. Unfortunately, she failed this time, and she gipped as the vomit came spewing out of her mouth. It was only a matter of time really. In the same way that she could vaguely recognise the mutated creature as an Elite, Fluttershy could just identify parts of her sandwich in the mess she'd made on the floor.
Wanting to conserve her last face cloth, she wiped her chops with a hoof, rinsed the taste out of her mouth with water, and checked her saddle bag. She only had three grenades left. Reluctantly, she inspected the corpse of the infected Zealot, discovering two plasma grenades to build up her collection.
As soon as those grenades were purged, the corpse groaned and its skin shifted around. Much to Fluttershy's horror, the form lifted itself off the ground and spun to face her with a gruesome snort.
The yellow Mare screeched and sent a second buckshot into the alien's torso, blasting it open with a vile splash of mottled green blood.
It came back?! How could it come back?! She'd floored the beast with a shotgun blast, and it just rose up off the floor! Despairingly, Fluttershy sat and stared vacantly at the devastated Elite. If this could happen to a Zealot, what chance did she stand?
What chance do my friends stand?
She dreaded the thought of coming across anypony infected like this, and prayed that, for whatever reason, equines would be immune. Remembering what Lyra had said, what she'd seen in the video, and the dead Crystal Pony that had mysteriously disappeared, her prayers were likely pointless.
Moving on, the shy gathered herself as best she could, and trotted back to the pried open door. Finally, she exited the room, and crept on up the ramp, shotgun constantly pointing forwards.
Her caution was justified as she picked up multiple, biped footsteps originating from somewhere up ahead. Full of fear, she nervously backed up, and much to her shock, she bumped into something that wasn't there before.
Whatever blocked her retreat snarled like a wild animal and beat her over the head with the glowing blue shield of a rookie Jackal.
Squealing, Fluttershy bucked the sneaky Jackal to the floor and rushed up the ramp, not even bothering to look at it. Upon reaching the top, she came face to what she assumed was a face with another beast. Like the Elite, the beast had whipping tentacles protruding from ragged holes in its decaying skin. This wasn't an Elite however. It was shorter, thinner, and had an elongated beak. Jackal.
With a high-pitched scream, Fluttershy reared up and pushed the freaky bird away, bringing up the shotgun and blasting his anorexic body into oblivion.
As soon as that was dealt with, the other infected Jackal came shrieking up to tackle her to the ground. On top of the pink maned Pegasus, the sick alien widened his jaw until it dislocated like a python's, exposing his waggling tongue and something that definitely didn't belong there. The Jackal's mouth was dominated by the new appendage that came shooting out, wrapping four boneless fingers around the Mare's face.
Fluttershy's screams became muffled, and she strained to push the Jackal off her. However, the infected Jackal seemed to have gained super strength in his transformation, and he pulled his beak down over her head and began chomping away.
She wailed in agony as she was being eaten alive; the beast's sharp, irregular teeth ravaging her yellow coated flesh, and her own blood began to ooze out of the bite marks.
Flailing around frantically under the form, Fluttershy managed to roll over; now she was on top. That didn't matter though; the form still had her head locked in its jaws, and there was nothing Fluttershy could do to pull herself away, and that gave her an idea. If she couldn't pull herself away, she'd push herself in. This was a tactic she'd used before the war when dealing with grumpy pythons, only she felt less inclined to hurt the big, cuddly snakies.
Closing her eyes on the Jackal's howling mouth that was full of all sorts of fluids, Fluttershy put all her strength into head-butting the ill creature, grunting with effort. Since the infection had taken its toll on the Jackal's solidity, she was able to smash his lumpy head into a pile of mush, thus freeing herself from its embrace.
Disturbingly, the infected Jackal didn't need his head, and his decapitated form continued to writhe and gibber. Before it could get back up, Fluttershy got to a safe distance, and she put the mutated Covie out of his misery with a reverberating buckshot.
Glancing around to see if anything else would try to kiss her, she decided the area was relatively safe, and slumped to her haunches. Her own blood masked her pretty yellow face, and tears soon came to join it. She'd thought fighting the Covenant had been a nightmare, but no. She was wrong. This was a nightmare.
Whimpering on, she took out her med-kit and flask so she could clean her filthy face with disinfectant. After the quick wash, she took a sip of water, packed up her things, fed shells into her shotgun, and crept off.
She opened a door, and the sounds of battle came billowing through. Covenant Grunts and Jackals screeched with fear as plague carriers bellowed and sprinted their way, absorbing their plasma bolts and needles.
Hunkering down on the balcony, Fluttershy spied as the healthy Covenant and the sick Covenant fought on and on. The warped, zombified soldiers were extremely vicious. They consisted of three ex-jackals and one ex-elite. They had no weapons other than their own twisted bodies, and they were up against a squad of un-infected Grunts and Jackals who had plasma weapons, needlers, grenades and two Shade turrets at their disposal. Oddly enough, the freak show was winning.
Fluttershy witnessed the infected Elite take needle rounds to the face and chest, and keep fighting like it was nothing. Before he went up in a super-combine explosion, he was able to smack two Grunts dead and rip a Jackal in half.
The Grunts on the stationary guns were the easiest targets, and they drowned in seas of the small infectors.
Soon, the battle was over, and two infected Jackals were all that remained. Gnarled tendrils hung from their limbs and left trails on the blood covered floor. They hooted and gibbered, their former Jackal accents just audible behind the discorded babbling.
If Fluttershy was to escape the facility, she would have to retrace her steps. That meant going through the door on the bottom floor, where the infected ones convened.
Because the plagued aliens were quite a ways off, Fluttershy decided to make use of the pistol Rarity gave her. Providing she made it out of here, she would treasure that pistol forever.
The M6D magnum was a surprisingly powerful weapon, but Fluttershy's aim wasn't up to scratch. The first shot hit one of the beasts in the foot. Feeling everything but the pain, he, it, came bolting over to her with its buddy by its side.
Alarmingly, the beasts were able to leap super high off the ground. So high in fact, they were able to cling to the edge of the balcony with their tendrils.
"Aah!" yelped Fluttershy as she stomped eagerly on the thin tentacles that clung to the deck. "Shoo!" she cried. "Shoo!"
Now that the Jackals were at such close range, she put away her pistol and took out her trusty shotgun.
BANG! Click-clack. BANG! Click-clack. BANG! The M90 shotgun rang out, destroying the Jackals' new limbs. However, as the infected, bird-like aliens landed on the floor below, new new limbs came bursting out of their skin.
One of them jumped up and wrapped a fresh tentacle around Fluttershy's foreleg, pulling her off the balcony and down into the gutter. The young Mare screamed all the way down and grunted upon the harsh landing. Conveniently, she had crushed the combative form with her weight, leaving only one beast to be dealt with.
As soon as the final ghoul came shrieking at her, she pulled the trigger, and slayed it with a hellish round of shotgun diplomacy.
After a moment of silence, that actually turned out to be full of noise courtesy of Fluttershy's hyperventilation, the lone Pony's shields recharged, and she reloaded the shotgun. Picking herself up and dusting herself off, she climbed out of the gutter and onto the level floor.
Before making her way to the door, she surveyed the carnage, and realised that none of the infected Covenant were Grunts. This raised an interesting question. Were Grunts immune? If they were, could it be possible for other species to be immune too? Like Ponies? Fluttershy held on to that thread of hope as she approached the compact Forerunner door.
Thud. Thud! THUD! Something angry came stomping into the chamber from the balcony above. With it, came a voice. A voice so fragmented yet recognisable it stole Fluttershy's breath. It let out a mighty roar that could scare the living daylights out of anyone, no matter how tough they were.
Frightfully, Fluttershy peered up and gawped at the quadruped figure that loomed over her, tentacles growing like weeds from its partially coated, cyan body. One orange eyeball dangled like fish bait from its socket, and clumps of pale mane and tail trailed from its misshapen head and hind quarters.
With a single horn, a gunshot wound in the side of its head, and a bite wound on its leg, Fluttershy could tell who it was, and she couldn't believe what she'd become.
Lyra Heartstrings.
With an alien shriek, Lyra the Unicorn pounced off the balcony, and the bones in her legs crunched upon landing. Her left front hoof had stubby, finger like protrusions jutting out, forming a hand.
She began charging at the retreating Fluttershy, wailing like a sick Pony, but shrieking like a horrible monster at the same time. "WRUUGH-aaah-AAARRGG-WRUAA!"
Fluttershy never thought she'd be pointing a shotgun in the face of a fellow Pony, yet here she was.
"Lyra! Stop!" she squealed, terrified of the fast approaching equine. "Please, stop!"
Lyra didn't stop; something else had control of her now.
"Don't make me do this!" warned the fear-stricken Mare, aiming the shotgun squarely at the combat form's forelegs.
It was no use; Lyra just kept coming.
Out of options, Fluttershy did what she was most reluctant to do, and shot Lyra directly in her legs, ripping them off. Fluttershy couldn't believe what she'd just done. That was a fellow Pony, and she'd just shot her down.
No. That isn't a Pony, she told herself. Not anymore.
Feeding a shell into the shotgun's chamber, Fluttershy was taken aback by Lyra's prone, ravaged form that gurgled and started shifting along the floor. With no front legs, her torso was scraped along while her back legs did all the work. The combat form didn't care one bit about her missing limbs, but Lyra's agonized accent that could still be picked up behind the thing's snarling told otherwise.
Even more alarmingly, a lump began to form around her Unicorn horn, and her whole face was stretched up like elastic as her head was transformed into a huge, segmented limb. Using the horn as a foot, as well as a wild stabbing weapon, the tripod Lyra made her impractical way towards Fluttershy.
With her heart beating so fast it could power a city, Fluttershy screeched and let loose a second shell from the shotgun, tearing Lyra's head-limb away in a bloody mess and putting an end to her movement.
The atrocity lay on the floor with its stolen rump in the air. It continued to leak both green and red blood all over the metal, and the liquids trailed down into the gutter where they were drained away.
It took two shotgun blasts to kill what was once a Pony. A Pony! The same thing Fluttershy and her friends were. The yellow Mare was left in shock. If she'd felt guilty every time she killed a Covie, she felt a great deal more from killing her own kind. And that thread of hope she'd been holding onto, that "Ponies are immune" thing: It had just been snapped.
After topping up the shotgun with another eight gauge shell, Fluttershy took a drink, and the water in her flask sloshed around as her hooves trembled. Once she was done, she set off creeping through the mini Forerunner door to retrace her steps, and hopefully make her way out of this Celestia forsaken heck hole.
*****
Meanwhile, in a different chamber, the Covenant were hard at work battling the Flood. The non-infected took up positions on a balcony, firing down into the torrent of mottled flesh and broken bones. Elites, Jackals and a single Pony were among the infected, raging away in the gutter below and leaping up to meet the Covenant head on.
One of the infected Elite's actually made it up onto the balcony, absorbing everything the terrified Covies could throw at him. His left arm possessed hideous tentacles that whipped this way and that, smacking Grunts hither and yonder.
Pink needles came streaking his way, piercing his gangrenous flesh and making him look like he was having acupuncture. When the needles detonated in a super-combine, the cannibalistic Elite was torn apart, and blood and guts showered the defending aliens.
The battle raged on, and soon, the mutants prevailed. Well, one of them did. A single Elite with a wriggling mega-scythe growing out of his stomach like a carnivorous plant. He limped along the balcony, moaning with discomfort, a huge quivering blob attached to the side of his neck and the red tipped antennae stretching out.
Unbeknownst to the sick alien, Fluttershy was tip-hoofing directly below him on the bottom floor, cheeks bulging at the tens of mashed up bodies strewn all over the deck. She had to get up onto the balcony if she was going to take the elevator back to the swamp.
She remembered how she had been afraid of the swamp, but right now, she was looking forward to exploring the wet, misty wilderness once again. Sure as hay beat roaming around down here with these monsters.
Covenant crates stacked messily provided a way to climb to the balcony, and as soon as her hoof made contact with the purple metal, the contaminated Elite was shrieking her way.
"Aaah!" Fluttershy screamed as the combat form launched itself at her.
She pulled the trigger of the shotgun and successfully blew him in half.
Hastily, she continued her climb up the Covenant storage, and soon scrambled her way up onto the balcony. From there, she activated a light bridge and crossed to the opposite balcony that she had fallen off when first making her way through the facility.
Slinking through the passage into the lift chamber, Fluttershy found that the elevator platform wasn't there. She remembered injuring a Jackal on her way down here, and witnessing him enter this very chamber. Maybe he rode the lift to the surface.
"GRULURGHURRRG!"
Startled, Fluttershy jumped and spun to face the noise, and found a ravaged Pony barrelling in her direction. Knowing that there was no way to reason with the transformed Ponies, or any of the infected for that matter, she pointed the shotgun and converted the monstrosity into lumpy green mush. Lumpy green mush that was still alive and wriggling. One of its tentacles wrapped tightly around the yellow one's leg, causing her to screech. A second deafening buckshot later, and the half Pony - half lump of clay was silenced.
Red veins emerged on the whites of Fluttershy's wide open eyes as she shook the severed tentacle from her leg with a squirm. Her rapid heart beat was almost audible, and her panicked breaths came out shaky. Glancing around, she took out her flask for another sip of water, wiped her mouth clean, and proceeded to the elevator controls.
It was time to escape. Time to survive. She could hardly believe the solo ordeal she'd been through. First she'd fought her way in through teams of Covenant, and now she'd fought her way all the way back out, against the evilest things she'd ever seen. She dreaded the thought of these things breaking free and wondering about the rest of Halo, and just wanted to go home more than ever.
She wept over Applejack and Rarity's absence. There was a chance they were both still alive, but after what she'd seen down here, she wouldn't be surprised if they weren't. Still, she had made it this far, and she was pretty useless. Maybe there was a bigger chance for them than she thought. But if not, she'd rather not see their faces when they had been warped by the parasites; it'd break her heart, if her heart didn't break itself first with how fast it was beating.
Anywho, time to leave and team up with Rainbow Dash. Oh how she couldn't wait to hear the tomboy's voice coming through her speakers again.
Don't get your hopes up, Fluttershy, she told herself, remembering the crashed drop ships that were scattered up there.
Holding her memory like a cat that wanted to flee, she remembered the controls, and touched the Forerunner light panel with the tip of her hoof.
BOOM! An all mighty explosion vibrated the walls of the chamber, and the pink maned Pegasus squizzed around in overwhelming fret.
Scraping down the shaft, multiple pieces of elevator platform came rocketing down, trailing fire. The smoke made Fluttershy cough as the burning fragments faded into the darkness below.
Imitating the elevator itself, Fluttershy's heart sank as deep as it ever had. Her ears flopped and her jaw hung in despair. That was her escape route. Her way to the surface. Her exit from the living nightmare. And it had just crumbled right before her eyes.
It was hopeless, and the isolated Mare just broke down weeping on the cold floor. "Aha-ahaa! No, no, nooo! No-ho-ho-hooo! Waa-aha-aha-aha-ahaa!"
Her cries were interrupted by the dreaded sound of slithering.
Holding in her melancholy, the tearful Fluttershy stood on her trembling hooves and braced the shotgun. The passage from which she came deposited a swarm of the little parasites, and they came rolling her way like a lake that had spawned consciousness.
"No!" she bellowed, firing the shotgun into the mass of flesh and tentacles.
BANG!
"Go away!"
BANG!
"Leave me alone!"
BANG!
She found herself quoting Lyra. "You're not turning me into one of those things!"
Along with the writhing bugs, Fluttershy's sanity began to dwindle.
When all of the living snot bags had been dissipated, Fluttershy reloaded the shotgun and set off galloping, back into the chamber with the light bridge. Since her only choices were to give up or try, the frightened Pony decided to seek a different escape route, assuming there was more than one way out of the facility.
At the opposite side of the chamber, there was an open door. She'd noticed it before, but hadn't gone through it because she had been retracing her steps. However, now that the elevator had crumbled, she had no steps to retrace, and that meant making some new ones.
She was full on sprinting, afraid of being a sitting duck. Journeying the length of the glimmering light bridge, she speedily passed through the door, and immediately lost traction, slipping on the deck and landing on her hind quarters with a thump. That's when she noticed the massive pool of red Pony blood spread like butter on the metal floor, along with a whole bunch of shell casings. She gasped at the sight, multiple visions flashing through her mind.
Hoisting herself up, she twitched and muttered incoherently to herself, making her slippery way across the gore and taking a compact door on the left.
After traversing a stretch of corridor with weird, electricity emitting Forerunner machines, the yellow Pegasus emerged in a promising chamber. If she was ever to find a way out of the complex, she figured it would be much later, but the enclosure she was in now appeared to be a lift chamber, identical to the one she'd just left. Happily, a lift platform was already present, and she didn't hesitate to hop aboard.
Surveying the controls, Fluttershy was made jump by an ear-splitting roar of non-covenant, non-pony origins. The ground shook as what sounded like a hundred of the freaks came stampeding up the corridor, towards the elevator.
Fluttershy panicked, and sweat beaded her brow as she scanned the controls. Before, she had been holding her memory like a cat that wanted to flee, and now, as the infestation came tearing ever closer, the cat leapt away.
Out of options, the frantic Mare tapped repeatedly at a button on the control panel, urging the elevator to ascend... but ascend, it did not.
As she gazed eagerly up at the elevator shaft, she noticed it was shrinking, and the platform was in fact descending, deeper into the tomb. Fluttershy lost her breath, drowning in a sea of misery as the platform dropped lower and lower. The shaft had been painted with blue and purple blood, and the further she plummeted, the denser the commingled fluids became. It wasn't long before there wasn't a single patch of silver metal visible beneath the vivid alien blood.
Gawping and rotating around and around, Fluttershy was mortified by the sight. It consumed her, and she found herself in a swirling vortex of Covie blood. Dizzy and devoid of hope, she curled up and squeezed her eyes shut, whimpering frailly all the way down to the bottom, where everything became pitch black.
The elevator screeched to a halt, and from somewhere in the darkness, a voice croaked, "Lyra? ... Is that you?"