//------------------------------//
// Chapter 27: Last One Out, Hit the Lights 
// Story: Once Upon a Time, on an Alien Ring World 
// by Hi World 
//------------------------------//

"H... hello?" the distant voice sounded off again, somewhere in the shadows.
The entire chamber was pitch-black, and Fluttershy couldn't even see her own hoof in front of her face.
In reply to the voice, Fluttershy squeaked, "Who's there?"
"It's me, Bon Bon... Who are you?"

Bon Bon. Fluttershy had seen enough of Bon Bon in the video to know who she was talking to. She sounded like a clean Pony; hadn't flipped out and attacked her yet.

Fluttershy fumbled with her shotgun in search of its built in flashlight, and when she found it, she unintentionally blinded poor Bon Bon.
"Aarg!"
"Aaah!"
"Aaah! What is it?!"
"Oh, nothing. Y... you startled me."
"Oh."

In the light, Fluttershy could see a big ugly bruise on the centre of Bon Bon's forehead, encrusted with dry blood. The Earth Pony Mare stood shakily in a corner, knees bent, veined eyes darting side to side. Attached to her mechanical arm was a captured plasma pistol.

Remembering the events of the video, Fluttershy quizzed, "Um... are you ok?"
"No!" broke Bon Bon. "My head hurts, my best friend is missing, I'm on my own. I'm terrified! I don't know what to do! Thank goodness you're here though." She then stared at Fluttershy through narrow eyes. "... Why are you here?"
"Oh, well-"
"-You're Fluttershy," she pointed. "Shouldn't you be at the control room, saving us all from Halo?"
"I... I've already been there. Twilight says Halo was built to take on a different threat; not us Ponies."
"Oh. Well that was a waste of time." To herself, she grumbled, "Not as big a waste of time as what we've been through." She began twitching, then shook her head clear.

"I actually didn't mean to come down here," revealed Fluttershy. "I pressed the wrong button. Good thing I did, right?"
"Ha! You made the same mistake we made."
"Well... I doubt it's that big a problem. We can just ride the elevator back up to the surface."
"Uh, Fluttershy? You might wanna point your flashlight over there." Bon Bon aimed a hoof behind Fluttershy, and the Pegasus pointed her torch in the direction.

Illuminated in the eye of light, the remains of a Forerunner control panel stood crooked and sparking.
"Oh no!" gasped Fluttershy in sadness.
"Yep. We've got those things to thank for that."

Turning to face Bon Bon, Fluttershy lifted a hoof and pleaded, "Is there any other way out of here?"
"How am I supposed to know?" grunted Bon Bon. "I haven't moved from this corner."
This made Fluttershy puzzled. "Well why not?"
"I'm waiting..."
An awkward silence lasted a couple of seconds before Fluttershy pried, "Waiting for what?"
"Lyra."
Oohh.

Good gosh. How long had Bon Bon been waiting for a dead Mare? Fluttershy almost cried. Refusing to leave this infested complex without her friend was true, Rainbow Dash degree loyalty.

"How long have you been waiting?" she asked.
"I dunno, I haven't been keeping track of time," shrugged Bon Bon. "About... nine hours or something, maybe."
Nine hours. Wow.

Fluttershy knew there was no need to wait for Lyra now. All that was left to do was find the others and escape. Keeping in mind "the others:"

"Where's everypony else?"
Bluntly, Bon Bon replied, "Gone."
"Gone?!"
"Separated, I mean," she rephrased, calming the yellow Pegasus.
"Oh, right."

"Well, some of them actually are gone. Soarin', Autumn, Rising... But last time I saw Applejack, she was alive. And I just know Lyra's in here somewhere."
Just then, a loud monster snort echoed throughout the complex, making the two Mares flick their heads around the room. Using her flashlight, Fluttershy scanned the shadows, but nothing could be picked out.

Eventually, Fluttershy resumed in a hushed tone, "So, um, how did Lyra go missing?"
Bon Bon had been aiming her plasma pistol about, but she soon lowered it and told, "She ran off into a chamber where we weren't heading. We would've gone after her, but the things were attacking us at the time. I still would've gone after her, but then Applejack said it was too late, and that she was gone. But I knew she was still alive. I tried to go looking for her, but AJ dragged me away. Rotten little so n' so."

Fluttershy was most intrigued. She hadn't expected to hear that AJ had turned her back on one of her troops. As Bon Bon continued, it turned out that Lyra wasn't the only soldier to get left behind.

"She left me behind too. We'd just ridden the elevator down by mistake. I was crying over Lyra, and over the descent, and over the monsters in general. I may have been a little dramatic, I'll admit, but..." she drifted off, looking longingly into the darkness. "... I was just... I was scared, y'know."
"I know, Bon Bon," Fluttershy sympathised. "I was scared too, and I still am. More than ever." With a nervous giggle, she added, "I'm always scared."

After a timid chuckle of her own, Bon Bon continued, "Lyra was a good friend. She meant a lot to me. How could I just give up hope that easily?"
Fluttershy remembered her encounter with Lyra. Both of them, in fact. She wasn't sure whether she should tell Bon Bon what had happened.

"I refused to get off the elevator. I prayed that Lyra would summon it, and together, we could escape. Because I was being a liability, Applejack and the rest left me behind."
Unsure, Fluttershy mentioned, "Well that doesn't sound like Applejack."
"Ah, that's because it wasn't," Bon Bon stated, confusing the shy. "I know Applejack. You know her better. We both know she wouldn't leave anypony behind, even if they cried "I'm not moving, I'm not moving.""
Fluttershy nodded. "That's right."
"It's this place, y'know. These walls, these shadows, these monsters. Tampers with your mind. Same applies to the Covenant... She left us cos she was afraid... I can't blame anypony for being afraid down here."

Another growl belonging to the creatures cracked into the soldiers' ears, frightening them. They searched around again, not moving, Fluttershy aiming the flashlight everywhere.

"... So," she edgily moved on, wide eyes focusing on her spotlight. "You ready to move?"
"Move?" Bon Bon was confused. "Why would I move?"
Fluttershy looked at her.
"Haven't you listened to a word I said? I'm waiting for Lyra." She began creeping over to the elevator platform.
"But..."
On the platform, Bon Bon planted herself, a stern expression on her cute, dirty face.
"... Why weren't you on the elevator when I rode it? You said you'd been waiting for nine hours. I thought you were just leaving."
"... I can't believe it. It's Applejack all over again. Lyra is my friend, ok. I'm not giving up on her. She's still in here!"
"No!"

This was it. By saying "no," Fluttershy had let something slip, and as Bon Bon stared deeply into her, she knew it was time to tell it.

Quieting down, she breathed, "No."
Bon Bon went blank. "What do you mean "no?""
Fluttershy swallowed. "Listen, Bon Bon. Lyra, she..."
"Oh no."
"She-"
"-No!" Sniffling, Bon Bon's breath became raspy, and she paced hastily back and fourth on the glass platform, looking down. "Don't do this to me, Fluttershy. Don't do this to me!"
"I'm sorry, Bon Bon," bleated the yellow one, coming around to Bon Bon's aid. "I'm so sorry."

Bon Bon had got the message. She sat down on the elevator and wailed. Loudly. Tears leaking like dodgy plumbing onto the glass.
"Ssshhh," Fluttershy shushed as she gave her a warm cuddle, both to soothe the Earth Pony, and to try lowering her volume. Noise was their enemy in this labyrinth.

Tearfully, Bon Bon gazed into Fluttershy's eyes. "Wh... what was she like?"
That question made things complicated. Fluttershy's first encounter with Lyra hadn't been pleasant. The encounter with the thing that used to be Lyra - even less. How would Bon Bon react to hearing that it was her who had put her best friend out of her misery?

She thought for a while, wondering if she should lie and just blame those other guys, the Covenant. But in the end, she decided to just tell the truth. She could do no wrong telling the truth, and if somepony didn't like her for being honest, that would be their problem.

"Well, the first time I saw her, she was alive, and-"
"-She was alive? I knew it!"
She sounded awfully surprised to say she knew it.
"Gosh, I hate Applejack so much right now!" she grumbled, putting her hooves together.

"If she was alive, why isn't she here? What happened to her? I want to know what happened to her."
Fluttershy's scared-o-metre began to rise again, and she backed away from the jittery Bon Bon ever so slightly.
"You better not have done an Applejack and left her!"
"Of course not!" she gasped, mildly offended. "I would never leave anypony!" Just audible under her breath, she mumbled, "She's the one who left me."

"She left you?" Bon Bon double checked. "Then she's still in here!"
Shaking her head, Fluttershy placed a hoof meaningfully on Bon Bon's chest. "No, Bon Bon, you don't understand. She left me." Her voice started to croak and her eyes started to shimmer. "She left all of us."
"She made it outside?" No pony had ever been more in denial than Bon Bon.
"Bon Bon, she shot herself!"

Shoving Fluttershy's hoof away, Bon Bon cried, "No! No! Oh gosh, no! Th-that doesn't make any sense! Why would she do that?! You said "the first time you saw her." What other times did you see her?! How could you have seen her again if she'd done that?!"
"How do you think - you've seen these monsters!"
During Fluttershy's answer, Bon Bon broke down and commenced sobbing again. These were all things that she knew deep down. It just took somepony to tell her to make it sink in.

"My... my Lyra," she squeaked. "My poor, dear Lyra."
"I know it's hard to loose a friend, Bon Bon," sympathised Fluttershy, remembering parting with the great and powerful Trixie. "Lyra's not coming back."

A few seconds were spent being mournful on the elevator before another beasty advertised its existence in the Forerunner maze. A frighteningly loud shriek, too close for comfort. It would seem something had been drawn to the sound of crying.

Shakily, Bon Bon stood up, sniffling and looking around. She brought up the plasma pistol and declared, "I'm going to do Lyra proud."
Fluttershy admired her spirit. It was a spirit she herself doubted she had.

Wordlessly, Bon Bon trudged off the lift and approached the room's exit, just visible at the end of Fluttershy's flashlight's range. Catching up with her, Fluttershy broke into a trot, glancing back every now and then.

Once through the passage, Fluttershy and Bon Bon found themselves in pitch blackness; the only illumination besides the torch was a malfunctioning, flickering light bridge.

A horrifying shriek tore up from behind the muted hissing of the bridge. A shriek that contained a jaggedness and the warble of an Elite. A beasty was somewhere in the vicinity, but everywhere Fluttershy looked, she couldn't pick anything out in her spotlight. With her ears however, she could pick up the sound of heavy footfalls growing louder.

Bon Bon's safety was important to Fluttershy, so she checked behind her, turning her back to the bridge. Bad timing, as something suddenly appeared behind her in the on - off illumination, scaring the daylights out of Bon Bon.

As the Earth Pony screamed and fired her plasma pistol, Fluttershy spun around with a yelp and blasted a leg off the reanimated Elite.
"ARUGHU!" it belched, tumbling down like a sky scraper.

This was the first monster encountered to be armed with a weapon, and Fluttershy was surprised to see that the thing knew how to use it. Luckily, it was no expert. The prone form stretched out its right, blue armoured arm and fired a plasma rifle on full automatic. Of all the bolts that zapped out of the alien weapon, only one found Fluttershy, and her shields absorbed it nicely.

Bon Bon continued to hit the ex-elite with her own plasma, burning off its face, until Fluttershy ended it all with a second round of shotgun.

Both Mares panted, speckled with green blood, gawping down at the atrocity. A sudden click elicited a startled glance from Bon Bon, but it just turned out to be Fluttershy, reloading her shotgun. Another sound served to startle both of them; multiple monster shrieks, drifting through the facility. If Bon Bon's crying had alerted one combat form, how many combat forms would a gunfight attract?

Approaching the decaying corpse, Bon Bon lowered to swap her pistol for its rifle. "Y... you still think we can make it out of here?"
Looking unintentionally hard-core, Fluttershy pumped the shotgun and swung her frazzled pink hair. "Um... I don't know." Not exactly the most inspirational answer anypony had ever given.

"How do you suppose we'll cross this?"
Coming up to the shy's side, Bon Bon gazed at the light bridge that flashed in and out of existence. Every time it lit up, parts of the chamber became just a little bit visible, including the gutter beneath. Corpses were spectating from that gutter. Covies and beasties, all drenched in multi-coloured blood. Not a very welcoming safety net.

Bon Bon brought a hoof to her chin and contemplated. "Hmmm." She began looking around. "Where'd I put my plasma pistol?" Once the weapon had been found, she picked it up in her chops and flung it out onto the light bridge.
It bounced off the light, just as it died. The light returned as the pistol came down, and it bounced a second time before coming to a sliding stop. When the light faded again, it dropped, becoming lost in the garbage below.
There was a pause before Bon Bon quizzed, "... How good are you at acrobatics?"
Fluttershy gulped.

Understanding Bon Bon's plan, Fluttershy figured it would be just like hopping across stepping stones.
"Ok, if we're gonna do this, we should do it together," she notioned. "On three?"
"On three."

As one, they counted, "One... Two... Three!"
They leapt, and the bridge just disappeared. The tactic was to jump as high and as far as possible; more air time to give the bridge a chance to respawn. Luckily, it did, and as soon as the Mares' hooves hit the light, they were straight up again, hopping over the bridge. The bridge didn't die again until Fluttershy and Bon Bon sprung off it a second time, and they yelped, afraid they would fall through. However, luck came their way as the light bridge reappeared beneath them, saving them from the awaiting mess.

Quickly, the duo made it to the other end. Well, almost. Fluttershy landed on the solid metal platform just as the bridge vanished, but Bon Bon only succeeded in getting her front hooves to safety, her back hooves on the dangle.
"Gah! Help, Fluttershy!" she barked, straining to pull herself up.
As fast as possible, the yellow Pony grasped the khaki one's foreleg, hoisting her up onto the metal floor. Just in time too; the light bridge returned for a brief second. Fluttershy had no idea what would've happened if Bon Bon was still hanging there, but she didn't want to find out. She pictured it being messy.

One thing she knew to be messy, was the creatures, and as Bon Bon dusted herself off, a handful of them shrieked around the chamber before she even had the chance to say thanks.

There were two doors on the balcony, one to the left and one to the right, and two tentacle zombies squeezed their way through the left one. A third form began shifting amongst the corpses below, rising to its feet and craning its antennae.

Bon Bon screeched, "Look out!" and began firing her plasma rifle at the two on their level.
Those two sprinted straight at them, catching most of the blue plasma, not letting it stop them. One of them had been a Jackal, and it shrieked as the plasma eventually became too much to bare.

The other, Elite form pushed on through the burning hail, not a care for its fallen comrade, and proceeded to return fire with a needler. Yawping, Bon Bon hid behind the terrified Fluttershy, allowing her shields to protect them both. Once the ex-elite was in range, the pink maned Mare pulled the trigger, and it dropped to the deck with a howl.

All that was left now was the creature below, and it launched itself straight up at them. The light bridge continued to flicker, and the thing that used to be a Jackal lost its legs as it didn't time it quite right, just as Fluttershy had pictured. However, while having both legs chopped off by solidified light would've killed anyone else, the ex-jackal hadn't seemed to notice, and it scrambled eagerly towards them.

Together, Fluttershy and Bon Bon trampled the cur, blood splashing up their bodies. Once it fell silent, the couple's jittery breath filled the enclosure, and Bon Bon was made jump once more by the sound of Fluttershy reloading her shotgun.

After experiencing traumatising events every second, the yellow Mare laid on her belly and whimpered.
"Hey," Bon Bon purred in a soothing manner. "Come on, Fluttershy. We've gotten this far."
"I know," she responded with a sniff, glowing gold as her shields recharged. "I'm not giving up... I just... need some time."
Bon Bon pulled away. "Well we don't have time. The more time we spend down here, the less chance we have of surviving. You know that."
The Earth Pony's words were true and cold. "Yes... I know."

Helpfully, Bon Bon lifted her off the floor and angled her head towards the door that the two ghouls had come from. "I think Applejack went that way."
Fluttershy lit up the door with her torch, bringing some bloody horseshoe prints and spent shell casings into illumination.

As the two crept on their way, Fluttershy interrogated, "Who else was with Applejack?"
Applejack was a tough cookie, and Fluttershy wouldn't be surprised if she'd fought all the way out on her own... Oh wait, they were up against more than just Covenant. She would be surprised.
"Well, there was her brother, that's for sure," the Earth Pony began listing, referring to Fluttershy's friend, Big Mac. "And there was Joe, Thunderlane, Aloe, Lotus."

Forced into a one by one formation, Fluttershy took point and lead the way through the door and the tight corridors beyond. 

Fluttershy taking point? Well there's something that didn't happen everyday. The young Pegasus was doing the right thing though; she had the armour, the shotgun, the luck, and she would hate to see anything bad happen to the one living Pony she'd found. Besides, whoever wasn't on point was on rear, and that was just as bad.

"Aloe?" she puzzled, remembering seeing Aloe get dropped by a bug in the video.
"Yeah, Aloe," repeated Bon Bon blandly. "You... sound surprised."
"Oh, do I?" Nervously, she giggled.

Bon Bon wasn't giggling though. Her expression was serious, and she stomped her hoof as she refused to continue. Halting, Fluttershy twisted to face her.
"What are you hiding?" she pried accusingly.
Fluttershy stammered, "I... I'm not hiding anything."
A distant roar made her glance around, but Bon Bon continued to glower at her.
"If you've got nothing to hide, then you won't mind telling me why you're so surprised that Aloe was alive."

Staring into Bon Bon's focused blue eyes for a few seconds, Fluttershy sighed and rummaged through her saddle bag. Curiously, Bon Bon peered over her, and gasped upon seeing what the shy brought out.
"Lyra's camcorder?"

The little pink device balanced on Fluttershy's hoof.
"I saw what she'd filmed. The Pelican crash, the first encounter with the creatures."
Gently, Bon Bon cradled the camera in her hooves, her eyes gazing upon it like suns.

"I saw one of those bugs stick to Aloe, and when Lotus pulled it off, she fell... and I never saw her get back up."
Bon Bon flipped open the little screen, revealing the picture of Lyra in the back of the Pelican, beaming happily at her audience. Eyes shimmering, she stroked the image with the tip of her hoof.

"When I entered that chamber myself, she wasn't there. I thought she'd been turned into one of the monsters."
"... No," Bon Bon eventually whispered. "No, she... she didn't turn... She just got wounded." She had been thinking of something else whilst talking, and as she mouthed the name "Lyra," it became clear where her mind was.

Getting a move on, Fluttershy reached out her hoof. "Um..."
Silently, the khaki Mare folded away the screen and gave Fluttershy the camera back. She had just concealed it in her bag when something biped sprinted by on the other side of the next door.
"... Ready to continue?" she checked, barely keeping together.
Bracing her plasma rifle, Bon Bon replied tearfully, "Mm-hm," and the two soldiers tip-hooved into the next chamber.

*****

Meanwhile, in a separate, well lit chamber, a team of three Covenant Elites, and one surviving Jackal they'd picked up, steadily traversed a balcony. A gutter split the bottom floor in two, and the plague were present down there. Also down there, was a single Grunt. His colleagues had been slaughtered by his redesigned, well, colleagues. He hid behind a support column, listening to the grotesque sounds of gurgling.

The Elites and Jackal on the balcony were only trying to escape, and they figured it would be best to try to do so sneakily. However, the elevator they sought was beyond a door on the opposite balcony, and a light bridge had to be activated to get there. While the Forerunner bridges were dazzling, they had one flaw. Transparency. There was no way to cross the see-through bridge without being spotted by the combat forms beneath.

Whispering to each other, the three Elites and one Jackal devised a plan. The veteran of the pack turned to mumble something private to one of his rookies, then muttered the same thing to the other blue clad Elite, singling out the Jackal. Paranoid, the left handed alien scanned his team, alternating between their mischievous faces.

The rookie to his left rose a hand, and he flinched at him, giving the rookie to his right the chance he needed to grasp him by the throat. With his airway cut off, he couldn't squawk. He wanted to squawk to get payback. He knew what the Elites were doing, and he was appalled at it. One loud squawk should be enough to alert the diseased, and the high and mighty Elites would be joining him.

Half heatedly, the soldier that held him off the ground uttered an apology, and hurled him like a javelin into the stinking crowd. Finally, he could squawk.

As the carnivores enjoyed their poultry, the veteran Elite punched the necessary button on the Forerunner control panel and summoned the holy bridge. Across it, they sprinted, their adversaries too distracted to notice.

"Pssst! Over here!" beaconed the red armoured Grunt, not too loud to alert the horde, loud enough to alert the Elites. Well, one of them.
One of the rookies looked at him as he ran by, then looked forward again, still on the run. Cowardly Elites. The little methane breather was almost as furious as he was frightened.

However, those Elite warriors soon got their comeuppance as they made it to the other side and the veteran tapped open the door. A contaminated Pony came stampeding out with a collection of ex-covenant. Instantly, the veteran drove his fist into his face, only for the shotgun wielding combat form to blast him in the gut. Dying, he fell, and now his rookies were on their own.

The buckshot had also alerted the others, and they came pouncing up to the balcony, leaving what looked like a Jackal's skeleton half buried under a pile of organs.

UPSC shotguns were one of the most deadly weapons the equine vermin had up their sleeves, making the infected Pony the biggest threat in the room. Knowing this, one of the rookies made a grab for it, only for something else to make a grab for him. An infected Elite came up from behind and pulled him away, letting the ex-stallion fire another deadly shell into his alarmed face.

Two down, one to go, and boy did he go. Straight across the bridge in fact. The damn monsters were blocking his escape, so he decided to lure them away.

Dire for him, two uninfected Ponies had appeared at the other end of the bridge since he and his team were last there, and the yellow one was pressured by the khaki one to hit the controls. His stomach sank, and he leapt epically off the hard light, a hand reaching out.

Too bad, he didn't make it, and he plummeted before the Ponies, smashing into the gutter and draining his shields. Whether he felt pain or not, he got up and spun to face his attackers. They came swarming at him, howling and gibbering. His plasma rifle was able to bring a couple of them down, and a sticky grenade certainly took its toll, but it wasn't long before he was engulfed in their rotten flesh, and he wailed as he became torn apart.

Turning back into the lift chamber, the shotgun wielding ex-stallion shambled away from the scene.

Fluttershy and Bon Bon had seen him. The remains of his armour, red coat, orange mane and tail. He even had bandages wrapped around his waist. The Pegasus remembered wrapping bandages around the waist of a friend on the Truth and Reconciliation, and it broke her heart to see him in such a way.

A close explosion struck the Mares with fear, and a group of mutant corpses rolled across the gutter.
"What was that?" trembled Bon Bon.
A high-pitched voice squealed up before Fluttershy could think of an answer. "Down here! Help! No shoot!"
Grunt. Unthreatening. Needy.

Having just wiped out the remaining horrors with a plasma grenade, the veteran Grunt waddled out from hiding and waved up at them. "Yoohoo!"
Growling, Bon Bon rose her plasma rifle, but then Fluttershy lowered it.
"No," she ordered. "Let's save him."
"Save him?" Bon Bon was dumbstruck. "We're looking for survivors, and you want to waste time saving him?!"
"He is a survivor."
"He's an enemy. Why, he's no better than these things!"

"Hey, me remember you!" the Grunt called out in his odd voice, pointing directly at Fluttershy. "You that sad Pony from Truth and Reconciliation!"
"You... remember me?" Fluttershy was shocked that a Covenant soldier would actually remember her.

She tried to think, too much madness going on at one time, and finally came out with, "Babs?!"
"Hey, it's Pubab, unless mean one are here." Pubab twiddled his thumbs, holding on to a needler.
Mean one? ... Oh, Trixie. Poor Trixie.

"Hold on." Holding a hoof out, Bon Bon shook her head. "You two are friends?"
"No."
"Yes!"
"No! He's just that Grunt Trixie captured on the Truth. You remember?"
Having being held captive on the Truth and released by Fluttershy and her besties, Bon Bon could vaguely remember. "... Oohh. Yeah, I remember." Then, to Pubab, she snarled, "You're the one who lead us down here!"
The Grunt had made a mistake. "... Oh... yeah."
"You said there was treasure. You call this treasure?!"

Getting real nervous, the diminutive alien started to sweat, looking back and forth at his needler and the Ponies. "Um... er... Me changed!"
Aiming down her plasma rifle, Bon Bon spoke, "What do you think, Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy thought what Pubab had done was despicable. He was the one who gave Rarity the false information, sending her, Applejack and the others down here into this crypt. Still, Pubab said he'd changed, and Fluttershy, being Fluttershy, tried hard to say;
"Well... he says he's changed, so I think we should give him a secon-"
-POW-POW-POW! A quick burst from Bon Bon's plasma rifle interrupted Fluttershy, and the retched little "Babs" was no more.

Cross, the Earth Pony grated, "You were seriously gonna forgive him!"
"Well... he... He..."
Leaning over, Bon Bon pressed a button on the Forerunner control panel, lighting up the bridge. "I can't believe it," she grumbled through gritted teeth. "Such a lil goody four shoes."

About halfway across the bridge, she stopped and turned to yell, "Covenant - evil! Us - good!" pointing at Pubab's body, then at herself.
She set off walking again, just as Fluttershy argued, "The Covenant are not evil!"
Coming up short, she twisted and growled, "What?"

Fluttershy stood stubborn. "They just oppose us. Good and evil are just made up concepts. If we forgave and rescued Pubab, we could have gained the Covenant's respect, and we could team up to take on these things."
"No bad or good, huh? What are these things then, Fluttershy? Cos they sure as hay aren't good!" She started walking again.
Fluttershy hurried to catch up. "This is a virus. You can't reason with a virus. It's nature."

Once at the other end, Fluttershy deactivated the bridge and stepped over the fallen Elites, nearing the door.
"Oh and Bon Bon?" she piped up just before tapping it open.
"What?"
"You said Applejack was still alive."
"She was. So was Bic Mac, Joe, Thunderlane, Aloe, Lotus."
"Right."
"And me."
"Uh-huh."
"And Lyra."
Fluttershy paused to listen.
"But of course all you care about is your bestie, Applejack."
"It's not like that at all!" she gasped. "I came in search of all of you, and I'm so glad to have found you. Believe me, I did everything I could to save your best friend."
Sighing, Bon Bon drooped, biting her lip.

Truth be truth, Fluttershy wanted to know where Rarity was, but that wouldn't be a good question to ask now, so instead, she craftily articulated, "So who else was with Applejack?"
Gulping, Bon Bon croaked, "... That's it... There was no pony else... Just those four - five."
Unable to hold it in longer, she finally implored, "... Rarity?"
Pushing something else out of her mind, the khaki Mare revealed,  "She was the first to go."

Suddenly, the door slid open, and the infected Pony with a shotgun ambushed. It wasn't just anypony either. As had been observed before, the combat form was a large red Stallion with orange hair and a bandaged waist. Up close, Fluttershy could see his green eyes, barely focused. Big Macintosh.

The ill Stallion braved Bon Bon's plasma attack and launched high into the air, roaring fiercely. With the shotgun, Fluttershy shrieked, ducked, and blasted him in the side.

Also possessing a shotgun, Big Mac shrieked, landed, and blasted Bon Bon in the side. Since Bon Bon hadn't had the misfortune to get infected, she ended up with the misfortune of dying.
"Nooo!" cried Fluttershy in anguish as the one survivor she'd rounded up collapsed to the floor and bled. 
How could you?

With tears streaking down her cheeks, Fluttershy fired shell after shell into Big Mac, dead-set on vengeance. Dead-set on survival. Dead-set on finding her friends.

It took three shells to put the big guy down, and when she did, she looked on at both deceased equines in despair. The loss of Bon Bon was one thing, but to have pointed a shotgun in the face of Big Mac and shoot him was something else. Big Mac had been a friend of hers for a while, and he was Applejack's brother. What if she found Applejack alive and well? How would she deliver the news?
Oh, hi, Applejack. How you doing? Just so you know, I killed your brother.

Reloading, she made her way into the lift chamber, whimpering as she came up to the elevator. Reading the controls, she was careful not to make the same mistake twice, and she took her time to identify the correct button.

She doubted herself, but soon pushed the top-most of three white buttons at the bottom of the display. Thankfully, the elevator didn't drop, and it actually started climb, higher and higher towards Halo's surface, leaving the tomb below.

Fluttershy collapsed on the rising glass platform and broke into tears. Her cries and hyperventilation interrupted each other as she curled up in an armoured ball and scenes of the event flashed through her mind. The video she'd seen, Lyra, Bon Bon, Big Mac. And the news about Rarity. She hadn't had time to stomach it yet.
The first to go?

Remorseful, she wept whilst trying to catch her breath, and the sounds she made echoed around the gloomy, descending shaft. She took a sip of water to quench her thirst, as well as wash that horrible taste out of her mouth. A sudden buzzing caught her attention and caused her to look around in dread. Was she still not out of it?

The buzzing grew louder and louder, until, "... -luttershy! Is that you?!" Rainbow Dash's voice came through her radio.
Rainbow Dash!
"Fluttershy! Come in!"
Oh, thank Celestia Rainbow Dash was ok. Her tomboyish voice was enough to make Fluttershy's heart sore for all the right reasons.

"Rainbow Dash!" she croaked, wiping away her tears. "I'm here! Oh, I'm so glad you're ok! How are things up there?"
"How are things up - Fine! How are things down there?! That's the big question! I'm tracking movement all over the place!"
"Oh, you wouldn't believe me if I told you," Fluttershy replied, her voice grim. "And believe me, you don't want to know."
"But... I really do though."
"Well I... I... I don't know what just happened. I don't know what those things were down there, but whatever they were, they were awful, just awful! They took the Covenant, they took the Ponies, and they just... just... transformed them! Turned them into monsters!"
Rainbow had a hard time wrapping her mind around the concept. "You mean to tell me, there's something else on this ring? Something worse than the Covenant?"
"They..." Sniff. "They tried to eat me, Rainbow Dash!"
"Oh gosh, for real?! We gotta get off this ring!"
"Definitely."

"Did you find Rarity and Applejack?" Rainbow inquired.
"No," came the bad news. "I found a couple of soldiers from their squad though. One of them was Bon Bon. She said... She said Applejack was still alive, and..." She stalled, remembering the rule of telling Rainbow the worst news while she was piloting.
"And?"
"And... I mean... But... that was a long time ago."
Smooth.

"You found Bon Bon down there. If she and Applejack were both still alive, why weren't they together?" Rainbow continued to fish. "It aint like Applejack to abandon her troops."
"She said they were separated."
"And now I'm back!" came a familiar voice from above.
Fluttershy wasn't sure if she'd actually heard it or if she was loosing her marbles.

"Wait, did I just hear Applejack?"
Oh, Rainbow heard it too. Maybe she wasn't loosing her marbles.

Reaching the top of the shaft, the elevator screeched to a halt, and Fluttershy found herself before the orange Earth Pony herself.
"Applejack!" she cheered, overjoyed.
"You found her?!" There was a tonne of joy in the pilot's tone.
"Fluttershy! What in tarnation are you doin' here?!"
The two Mares shared a quick cuddle. Behind Applejack, three other Ponies could be seen against the wall, one of them bandaged up. Also behind the farm Pony, a square of distant jungle and pattering rain.
Outside at last!

"I found her, Rainbow," the yellow Mare delineated. "And some survivors." Hopefully Rainbow would classify Rarity as "some survivors."
Alone in her Pelican, Rainbow pumped a hoof and whooped.

Pulling back from the hug, Applejack smiled and gasped, "Rainbow's here?"
"She sure is," grinned Fluttershy. "We came to rescue you."
AJ put a hoof on her heart. "Aw, my stars, Fluttershy. Thank you so much. We got ourselves in a bit of a pickle down here, heh." Turning to what was left of her squad, she hollered, "Y'hear that, guys! We're gonna be rescued!"
A round of relieved sighs and "thank goshes" came from the exhausted trio.
One of them cheered, "Everything is gonna be good forever!"

Over Fluttershy's speaker, Rainbow resurfaced, "Is Rarity with them?"
Ah, looks like she wasn't classing Rarity with "some survivors."
"Hold on, Rainbow," Fluttershy put the blue Pegasus on hold. Muting her radio, she quizzed Applejack, "What happened to Rarity?"
"I wish I knew, Fluttershy. I wish I knew." AJ removed her hat and held it to her chest; bad news. "She got pulled up into the ceiling by them darn monsters. We heard her screamin'... we heard her stop... we saw blood dripping down."

Repulsed, Fluttershy brought a hoof to her mouth. The only information she'd had until now was; "she was the first to go." Not very detailed, and the Ponies seemed to have a habit of separating this night. But now, she had an accurate, mental image of what had happened to the Captain. She could picture Rarity, screaming, reaching for assistance, being pulled up, up and away into the ceiling by the bloodthirsty freaks. Her screams fading as her red blood came down like rain.

"I think we're just gonna have to live with the fact that our dear Rarity just aint comin' back."
There was a moment of silence for the Unicorn. Unlike Pinkie, Rarity didn't have a habit of disappearing into the howling dark and returning bright as can be. She was Rarity, and if she went missing in a Covenant infested facility, odds are she wouldn't come back. This facility was infested with something even worse than the Covenant, so what chance did she stand?

Getting down to business, Applejack sniffled and said, "Listen, I hear RD. How ya doin', RD?"
"I'm dying to know if Rarity's ok. You gonna tell me?"
Scrunching her face, the freckled Mare attempted, "Uh... she, uh... she's fine... right?"
One of the three soldiers behind Applejack face-hoofed and shook his head. AJ never lied, except when she did, and she was terrible.

"Was that supposed to convince me?" grunted Rainbow. "I know Rarity, Applejack. You can hear that Mare a million miles away!"
In an instant, one of AJs troops stepped up and faked a posh accent. "I'm still here, darling!"
Imposter Rarity here was actually Lotus, sister of Aloe, as seen in the video. Speaking of Aloe; Aloe was there. She was the one in bandages.

Buying it, Rainbow got giddy. "Is that you, Rarity?!"
"Why of course it's me, um... um..." Lotus eyeballed Fluttershy and Applejack, motioning her hoof for help.
"Rainbow Dash," they both whispered.
"-Rainbow Dash. Who else could it be?"
"I dunno."
Lotus winked at the uncertain faces around her. "So, will you be picking us up now?"
"Hay yeah I am!" she cheered enthusiastically. "There's a neat little spot a few hundred metres from you, right by a tower. You'll know it when you see it."
"Lovely! We'll be there in a jiffy."
"See ya there!" And that's when drama class ended.

Fluttershy announced, "I can't believe she fell for that."
"I feel awfully bad for lying to her like that," advertised Applejack, looking a little guilty.
To Lotus, Fluttershy wondered, "How'd you do such a good impression of Rarity?"
"Oh that Mare's been coming into my spa since before the war," revealed the blue Earth Pony with a smirk. "I know how to do a good Rarity."
"Our spa!" Aloe coughed from behind, being comforted by the other survivor, Thunderlane.
"Right."

"How ya doin', Aloe?" checked Applejack, leading Fluttershy and Lotus over to her.
The pink Mare spluttered, "Aha-aha! ... Fine."
"She got stabbed by one o' the little ones," she explained to Fluttershy. "I'm sure you'll'a seen em."
"Yes. Too much of them," she replied, remembering seeing what happened to Aloe in the video.

"We applied disinfectant, filled her up with bio-foam n' bandaged her up. We do good, Dr Fluttershy?"
Ha, Dr Fluttershy. Nice to see AJ still had her sense of humour in these dire situations.
In reply, the good doctor confirmed, "That's what I would've done."
Lotus muttered to her bandaged up twin, "Told you so."
"I never argued."

After a swig of her own water, Applejack pondered, "Oh, and Fluttershy? You didn't happen to run into ma brother, did ya?"
Uh oh; Big Mac. Fluttershy sure did see Big Mac down there; transformed into one of them.

Gulping, she whispered, "Well, kinda."
"... I hope he didn't give you much trouble. I saw what happened to him."
Oh phew. She had been worrying over how to break the news.
"Oh, he... was... maybe a little trouble." Her hesitations implied her actions.
Applejack picked up on this and spoke, "Well... I'm proud o' ya for doin' the right thing." She paused, and her lower lip started trembling. "I... I could really use a hug right now."

Comforting, Fluttershy wrapped her hooves around her friend, patting her back as she fought hard against her tears, to no avail. Fluttershy may have lost a friend, but Applejack had lost a member of her family. Both of them had lost Rarity, and that equalised their sobs.

Eventually, AJ withdrew from the hug and sniffled, wiping her eyes. "Alright then... I guess we're ready to-"
"-Uh, guys? You might wanna be careful," Rainbow's voice interjected through Fluttershy's coms. "There's a lot of heat signatures in the swamp, and they sure don't look like Covenant."
Dread filled Fluttershy's system. They're free.