//------------------------------//
// Chapter 34: The Tunnels Below 
// Story: Once Upon a Time, on an Alien Ring World 
// by Hi World 
//------------------------------//

Inside the pulse generator chamber, the Flood and the Sentinels were battling. The little flying machines whizzed through the air, zapping the mutants with their lasers. The Flood returned fire with a variety of confiscated UPSC and Covenant weapons, scrapping the robots.

One of the monsters was kitted out with a bazooka, and it fired it straight up into the ceiling, the explosion wrapping all but one Sentinel in flames.

As the last Sentinel continued to fry the melted forms below, an ex-jackal leapt up from behind and smacked it into scrap with its tendrils.

Now that all the machines had been taken care of, it was time to move on to the next threat, which entered the room via the only door. The UPSC.

Fluttershy, Fleur de Lis and Lightning Dust fanned out, hurling grenades at the gurgling crowd and shooting them down. Fluttershy and Fleur stayed close, covering each other's backs as the monsters surrounded them.

The tiny parasites were killed upon receiving bullets, whereas the repurposed Ponies and Covies absorbed much more ammo.

Carrier forms; the inflated, plodding monstrosities, were relatively easy to detonate, and when they did, they took a few of the other forms with them. However, they did introduce new infection forms to the world, and they scampered determinedly around the silvery floor, eager to hijack the Ponies' bodies.

Lightning was zealous not to let any of the bugs take her, and she kept herself high off the ground, providing air support for the other two. Her assault rifle blared loud in the Ponies' ears as she converted the Flood to holed mush.

Fleur favoured her pistol over her sniper rifle; the 12.7x40mm rounds actually doing damage against the damn things. With her Unicorn magic, she snatched a needler out of the claws of what was once a Jackal, and used it against him. Against all of them.

The deafening clamour of Fluttershy's shotgun echoed around the infested chamber, decimating all that ran into its path. Green blood and ravaged body parts flew up into the air, raining down over everyone's heads.

The rocket launcher wielding Elite came sprinting up, thrashing his limbs manically, shrieking through his limp mandibles with enough volume to drown out the gunfire.

Discarding the needler, Fleur wrapped her faint pink magic aura around the rocket launcher and pulled, succeeding in tearing the ex-elite's stubborn arm off. Shaking the hand loose, she let the single rocket loose, and with her precise aim, she put a stop to the madness.

"Well done, everypony," applauded Twilight as Fleur threw away her empty launcher, the jarring clang startling Fluttershy. "The chamber is secure."
The trio reloaded their guns and took a few seconds to down a little water, or fizzy pop in Lightning's case. 

After a loud burp, the orange maned Mare motioned her hooves and pushed, "Go ahead; do your thing."
Fluttershy gulped and stood before the blindingly bright pulse generator, knowing her shields would drain upon entering the beam of light, paranoid of more Flood showing up. Staring at the luminosity increased her dreadful headache, so she closed her eyes and just walked straight in.

BOOMF! She backed away and looked up to behold the overflowing column of white light, hissing and quaking the deck. Just like before, her energy shields were completely drained, and the audible alarm wailed on and on in her brain.
"Yes! That's the second pulse generator down!" celebrated Twilight enthusiastically. "Keep this up, girls, you're doing great!"
To her colleagues, Fluttershy breathed, "One more to go," and the three of them set off.
However, something didn't want them to leave.

Like a downed plane, a torrent of Flood came crashing through the ceiling, sending loose scraps of metal everywhere. They howled with such intensity, it almost stopped Fluttershy's heart.
"Oh gosh! Where did they come from?!" Twilight seemed genuinely shocked. "Back away, girls!"
The Flood were literally gushing into the chamber, and the three Ponies stepped back, firing everything at them.

Even as more and more bodies came bucketing through the ceiling, the stinking zombies rose to their feet and charged at the Mares, tendrils flailing and weapons firing in every direction.

Drawing out her energy sword, Fleur sliced and diced the crimes against nature into bloody pieces, their innards spilling out all over the place in swatches of ugly green fluid.

Thankfully, Fluttershy's energy shields recharged in a spiral of gold light.

Grenades blew the Flood into oblivion, but more and more just came pouring in to take their place.

In the end, Twilight just bellowed, "There's too many! Take the chamber's border and get out of here!" and the three Mares went galloping and flying around the chamber and through the tall door, a million furious Flood forms at their backs.

With the speed of a thousand gazelles and the determination of a mouse being chased by a cat, Fluttershy, Fleur and Lightning raced through the glass-metal corridor, the thundering Flood smashing down the doors and stampeding after them. Their roars tore up past them and bounced off the sealed door ahead, providing the terrifying illusion of more Flood in front.

In quick time, Lightning reached the Forerunner door and tapped it open.
She hovered in the snowfall, beckoning for Fluttershy and Fleur to hurry up. "Come on! Come on! Hurry!" Her impatience was understandable, for once.

After Lightning, the Unicorn and the ground bound Pegasus came skidding around the corner, along with the uproar of an entire infestation. Once they were back inside their stolen Banshees, Lightning was gone, soaring down and away from her colleagues and the impending horde.

With all the experience of a Zealot, Fleur took off into the blizzard, her Banshee fading away behind the snow.

Fluttershy was a little less experienced, and her Banshee was still grounded on the platform as Twilight frantically fed her the instructions.

CRASH! The Forerunner door dented outwards, the Flood beating it open from within the corridor.
"Hurry! Hurry!" pressured Twilight.
Sweat poured down Fluttershy's throbbing head as she glanced from control to control, trying to get the aircraft online.

As soon as the Flood broke down the door, Fluttershy was airborne and whirling away, leaving the swarm behind. An infected Pony actually attempted to leap onto her fleeing Banshee, but luckily, she got away, and the equine specimen plummeted to the obscured valley floor, shrieking all the way.

Fluttershy panted heavily, wiping sweat from her feverish brow. "Phew! ... That... that was close."
"Too close. I'd've thought you'd've got the hang of flying by now."
Growing bitter, she almost told Twilight to shut up, but instead, she just muttered, "Sorry, Twilight. I've got a lot on my mind. Not all of us are naturals like Fleur."

As she took a breather behind the controls of her Banshee, she noticed another craft come swooping in, and it scared her. Twilight assured it was just Fleur, so Fluttershy let out a sigh of relief, still catching her breath.

Slowly and calmly, she sent the Banshee down the edge of the Forerunner tower, Fleur flying along side. The snow had actually thinned out, and Twilight took the opportunity to locate the Filly of Autumn.
"Ok, let's see," she mumbled to herself, scanning the digital world she lived in. "... I found it! I found the Filly of Autumn!"
Fluttershy's panting was punctuated with a long, tired yawn. "... Great... Where is it?"
"She touched down twelve hundred kilometres up spin. Energy readings show her fusion reactors are still powered up!"
Exhausted, Fluttershy didn't react. She wasn't even sure what fusion reactors were.

As the blizzard began to intensify once again, Twilight snorted, "Oh, shoot! I've lost signal! I need signal to locate Rarity!"
That woke Fluttershy up. "Rarity? But... I thought-"
"-I know, I know, there's a big chance she's... y'know. But we have to find her, or her neural interface to start the Autumn's self destruct sequence."

Unsure whether the Flood were willing to keep Rarity alive and well, Fluttershy teared up a little and pondered, "C-can't you start the self destruct sequence?"
"I'm afraid not," came the AI's sad response as the ground came up to meet them.
Fluttershy pulled up and levelled the Banshee off, gliding gracefully along side Fleur.
"AI's don't get access to star ships' self destruct sequences, as a precaution against rampancy."
"Oh, I see."

The scenery faded into existence in the snow, then faded out of existence as the Banshees drifted by. When a part of that scenery turned out to be the Warthog with Vinyl Scratch and Octavia riding up front, the aircrafts banked around and circled the vehicle like vultures.

"Octavia, do you hear me?" implored Twilight over the coms. "The second pulse generator is down. It's time to take care of the last one."
It took a while for Octavia to answer, and when she did, she sounded terribly glum. "Oh, ok... Last one..."
Fluttershy had her turn on the coms. "Um, Octavia? Is something wrong?"
"You could say that, yes."
"What is it?"
"... It's Blossomforth..."

Slowing her speed and shedding altitude, Fluttershy gave the Warthog a flyby, focusing intently on her view screen to see if she could make anything out. She noticed that the back of the Warthog was all burnt and smoking, and the turret had melted like a wax candle. There were steaming holes in the snow where sizzling fragments had come to rest, along with the hulking corpses of two Covenant Hunters.

Octavia and Vinyl could be identified in the front of the truck, and Lightning stood next to the vehicle, looking up at the passing aircraft.

A moment of silence went by before Twilight spoke, "We understand... Could you salvage anything?"
Octavia whimpered, "No. Everything's just been melted."
"Ok. Hold on to the rocket reloads; we might be able to take a launcher from the Flood later... For now, it's time to keep moving... Vinyl, you remember the way?"
The Unicorn behind the wheel replied numbly, "Uh, yeah. We uh... we go through the... cave."
"Yep... Lead the way."

Lightning hopped into the back of the burnt out Hog, riding it through the raging blizzard. She winced with the lingering heat that radiated from the twisted metal. It was a marvel how the Warthog was still operable, and Fluttershy gave good reps to the manufacturer. She also gave respects to Blossomforth.

The Spirit drop ship that had been tanked the last time they were here was laying still in the snow. Its disintegrated purple fuselages were half-masked beneath a blanket of the crunchy white stuff, looking like a real piece of art.

Materialising into view, the cave yawned before the trio of vehicles, and into its murky embrace, the team explored.

The cave was rife with Covies and Flood. The alien military stood their ground, fighting off the parasites, slowly loosing.

The Warthog LRV ran down a couple of Grunts, along with a reshaped Pony, and sped down the gloomy cavern, deeper into Halo.

Soaring overhead, the two Banshees took ground fire, but were otherwise unharmed.

On the floor ahead, two infected Elites came staggering around the corner, shrieking loud enough to mask the thrumming of the convoy's engines. They both held out bazookas with single hands, one UPSC branded, the other; Covenant. The Covenant bazooka, or the fuel rod cannon, fired in unison with the M41, up at the stolen aircraft.
The sizzling green projectile was on a collision course with Fluttershy, and Twilight yelled, "Bank left!" prompting the newbie pilot to evade it.

Hitting the ceiling, the blast sent debris tumbling down, as did the resounding second explosion from the M41.

In the Hog, Vinyl spun the wheel right, and successfully splattered both forms against the vehicle's rear fender.
"Aw yeah!" she whooped, smirking as she drove the truck up a sizable speed bump.
Riding in the burnt out back, Lightning commented, "Y'might not wanna celebrate just yet," and pointed behind at the two resurrecting Elites.
Vinyl glanced back, then forwards again, fast. "Aw, you goatta be kiddin' me!"

Before the Ponies could see whether the two diseased Covies would follow or make for the healthy Covies further up the cave, the vehicles turned left down the tunnel, which was now made out of the silver, Forerunner metal.

Journeying along the zigzagging tunnel, Vinyl got on the radio and pondered, "So what's the deal with Fleur? She talking now?"
"Only when she wants to," answered the AI, keeping the silent Unicorn's secret under wraps.
Doing the opposite of keeping the secret, Lightning blabbed, "She's working with PONI."
"Lightning!"
"What? Aw come on, what did I do?"
"That was a secret!"
"I didn't know! No pony told me to keep anything secret!"

Octavia piped up, "That was pretty thoughtless."
"Shut up, Octavia!" snarled Lightning. "You weren't even there!"
"She's right though," Twilight defended.
Taking everypony by surprise, Fluttershy stated, "She's wrong."
Collectively, the herd sounded, "Huh?"

"Lightning's right; no pony told her to keep it a secret. No pony told me either, and I would've let it slip," confessed the weary Mare as she flew her Banshee steadily behind the Warthog. Realising she was siding with Lightning against Octavia, she apologised, "Oh, sorry, Octavia."
"Oh it's fine, Fluttershy," the amputee shrugged. "Like Lightning said; I wasn't there."
"Wow," gawped the loud mouth. "I guess I'm in the right for once."

Continuing, Vinyl drove around another bend, leading the alien fighter crafts deeper into the tunnel. "Yo Fleur, you got any words to say?"
Having spoken enough, Fleur didn't respond, just steered her Banshee left and right, left and right, as if shaking her head, generating an incredible howl from its engines.
"Hehehe, thought so."

Soon, the assault force made it to the huge, four panelled blast door. Well, they weren't really an assault force anymore. There was only five of them left. Trixie, Pinkie, Caramel, Bulk, Derpy, Flitter, Blossomforth; all had bought the farm, unless Derpy was still alive somewhere. Staring at the looming door, Fluttershy gulped, getting the feeling she'd be bidding goodbye to another on the other side.

Like an expert, or more precisely, like a PONI operative, Fleur brought her Banshee to a gentle landing. She stayed inside the craft as Fluttershy smacked her Banshee into the ground just next to her, breaking something. Bringing up the rear, Vinyl, Octavia and Lightning arrived in the Warthog.

It was Fluttershy's job to open the monumental door before them, so she left her Banshee and trotted over to the controls. She came up short upon her curdling stomach growling.

Smirking, Lightning rubbed her hooves together. "Oh boy, remember last time we were here, and we totally kicked the Covenant's butts?"
"Yes," Octavia answered. "You were quite the gunner, Lightning."
"Yeah, I was, wasn't I."
Vinyl and Octavia giggled with each other.

"Too bad we don't have a gun this time," whinged the egotistical Pegasus. "Seriously, what kind of car doesn't have a massive cannon on it? "
"A regular car, maybe?" Octavia raised.
"Pffft! Regular cars are for the feeble," rasped Lightning. "Unless it's super fast. When I get back home, I reckon I'll've earned enough reward for saving the universe, and I'm gonna get me a Ponysegg PPX!"
"What on earth is a Ponysegg PPX?"
"Oh, y'know, only the fastest, slipperiest, awesome-est sports car Ponies have ever made!" she described with great passion. "And it'll all be mine. Mine!"

"Cool dream, yo," Vinyl smiled. "When I get home, I'm just gonna throw a massive party!"
Just like Pinkie would've done. All this talk of home was cheering Fluttershy up. Being reminded of lost ones cheered her down, and she still had a feeling not all of them would make it home. Including herself.

Gently, she tapped the door controls.

BOOM! Something exploded from above, and fiery shrapnel came sprinkling down. Fluttershy squeaked, eyes fixated to the door as it slowly parted. One of the four panels had been sheered loose, and it rested uselessly atop one of the other panels. The scraping noise was unbearable, and everypony blocked their ears until the doors stopped moving, leaving a teeny gap that was just big enough to allow a Flood carrier form to come waddling through.

Fleur made use of her Banshee's plasma cannons to detonate the lumpy parasite, and then mopped up all the little parasites that came slithering out of its deflated sack.

"Oh no! The doors are broken!" moaned Twilight disappointedly. "The vehicles can't fit through."
"Aw man. Well we're gonna have to hoof it," declared Vinyl, turning off the Hog's engine and jumping out.
Rushing around the front of the vehicle, she helped Octavia climb down from her high-riding seat.

Annoyed, Lightning let out a deep sigh and hovered out of the Warthog. "Ugh! This sucks so much!" She was becoming more agreeable by the minute.

The moment Fleur had exited her Banshee and her four hooves clopped on the metal floor, a crackling uproar ripped through the shaft and cascaded fear all over the five survivors. It originated from behind, where the Flood had been fighting the Covenant.
"... Speed is of the essence," Octavia shivered.

Leaving the vehicles behind, the soldiers squeezed through the gap, one by one, and emerged into the colossal cavern. It was still in a state of devastation from last time, when Trixie and her Scorpion had ultimately laid waste to the Covenant, and the Forerunner architecture. She'd completely destroyed the left bridge, leaving only one bridge to cross the infinity metre deep trench that divided the two platforms within the cavern. The perfect choke point.

Surveying the still chamber, all the squad managed to pick out was an infected Elite, sprinting straight at them with arms flailing. It snarled gruesomely as bullets and plasma bolts tore into its decaying body, not doing much to slow its advance.
"Drop you monster!" Vinyl growled through gritted teeth, firing her plasma rifle fully automatic into the ex-elite's chest.

Once the monster was within shotgun range, Fluttershy let'a rip, taking a leg off. Everypony shot it some more while it was down, making sure it wouldn't get up.

After a round of reloads, Twilight pushed, "Hurry, girls! The Covenant we passed on our way down here have all been infected, and now they're coming for us!"
"Ok, we just gotta make it through that door n' slam it shut on em," Vinyl theorised as they set off galloping, nodding her horn to the door on the far side. "It's easy."

Lightning bawled, "Double time!" and rocketed away over the bridge, the others running along beneath her. "Woah!" she yelped, screeching to a mid-air halt and flying higher. "The Flood are here!" She proceeded to spray the bridge with bullets, exterminating many parasites that wiggled out from hiding.

"D'oohh, these Flood are blocking us!" the AI moaned, impatient. "The infected Covenant will be here in no time!"

Grenades did the grand task of cleansing the bridge of pests, and once the way was clear, the group charged on to the other side, where they met a horde of combat forms.
Fluttershy screamed as Twilight pondered aloud, "Ugh, where do these Flood keep coming from?!"
Determined to get out of the tomb and evade the pursuing Flood, the equines charged head first into battle.

Setting up camp, Fluttershy took cover and waited for the plague carriers to come to her, where she'd introduce them to Dr Shotgun. The buckshots were their medicine, and they were blown apart in clouds of icky green blood and wet flesh, leaving stains on the deck.

A transformed Pony came speeding up over her metal cover and instantly threw her high into the air. Screaming, she latched to the side of the bridge, her body dangling over the chasm that faded into blackness. The infected Pony dragged itself over to her, snorting and groaning, its muzzle painted with blue Grunt blood.

Under the force of Vinyl and Octavia's plasma rifle and assault rifle, the thing that was once a Pony was floored, and Lightning came swooping down to shove Fluttershy back onto the bridge.
"Oh, thanks guys," expressed Fluttershy, grateful.
Lightning had blasted off before the yellow one spoke, and was hard at work taking it to the Flood, as were Scratch n' Tavi.

Remaining behind her cover, Fluttershy reloaded her shotgun and continued her strategy, hoping nothing like that would ever happen again.

Back at the broken door, Flood forms began squeezing their way in, scraping off armour and skin. They howled and gibbered, adding to the ruckus that thundered away on the other side of the cavern.
"They're here!" alarmed Twilight. "We can't break through this ambush; we're gonna have to fight them too!"

Glancing back, Fluttershy witnessed the mass of infected Covenant worm through the gap and come stampeding their way. They were well and truly flanked.

Vinyl and Octavia stood back to back, firing into each half of the Flood army.
"S-stay with me, Vinyl," warbled the Earth Pony, voice punctuated by assault rifle fire.
"I aint going nowheres, Octy."

Fleur crouched next to the two buddies, firing her pistol one way, reloading, spinning and firing it the other way. She used her magic to levitate her energy sword around her, stabbing and slicing the infected soldiers.

Zooming around on her formidable wings, Lightning opted to take care of the pursuing Flood at their source, and flew away from the others to hover above the gap in the door. As soon as the follow-ups emerged, she shot them down, then shot them down again as they rose back up.
"You want some more of this?! Huh?! Do ya?!"
Bababababang!

Grenades served her well here, and she used up two of the little things, then found that she'd run out. Continuing to hole the contaminated soldiers with bullets, she soon ended up running out of MA5B ammo too. She was empty.

One of the Flood forms that entered the fray was the infected Elite that had been armed with a fuel rod cannon, and Lightning decided it would be a good idea to follow through with what she knew was a bad idea.

Like a bullet, she shot down to the thing that used to be an Elite, and snatched the fuel rod gun out of its twisted hand. The Elite jumped for her, and managed to get a hold of her orange tail.
"Hey! Get off me!" she snarled aggressively, flaring her nostrils. She kicked the poorly alien a million times over with both back hooves. "Get off me!"
One final buck sent the melted action figure spinning down the chasm with a clump of tail hair, its monstrous roar echoing around the chamber.

With that dealt with, and a new toy to play with, Lightning flew up out of reach, discarding her assault rifle, and attempted to get the hang of the Covenant fuel rod gun. She had no idea how much ammo the thing was storing, so she limited her use of it.

Vinyl fired her plasma rifle until it was dry and unusable. Tossing the weapon away, she used her magic to pry a plasma pistol from the clutches of what was once an Elite, and used the weapon against it. Holes were burned into its fetid skin as it advanced. The combat form didn't register the pain - the Elite within did, and he cried in agony as his stolen body was forced ever closer to the blue maned Unicorn.

Eventually, he dropped, and Vinyl could focus on an ex-pony that hopped in to take his place. When the abominated equine was deceased, she restarted work on the Elite that had risen back up.

"Waaah!" Octavia screeched from behind, stealing the Unicorn's attention.
"Octy?!" she called, refusing to let the shambling split-jaw live.
Once he was dead again, she spun to face an empty space where Octavia had been standing.
Dread consumed her, and she glanced around in overwhelming worry. "Octavia?! Octavia?! Where are you?!"
"I'm over here!" the Earth Pony's voice grated from over the side of the bridge.

Before Vinyl could run to the rescue, an infected Jackal landed in her path, and she didn't hesitate to smash it aside with her bare hooves, staining her white coat with gross green blood. The big stinking bird was still alive, but she decided to let it fall victim to Fleur and Fluttershy as she rushed to Octavia's aid.

"Heeeelp!" Octavia cried, her hooves hanging on for dear life.
Her mouth was set and she scrambled around, eager to haul herself back up.
As Vinyl arrived, she reassured, "I'm here, Octy!" and held onto her hooves.

Somewhere below the dangling Octavia, a long wire of green skin stained in red blood came slithering up the grey Mare's neck, through her mane, and met Vinyl. Looking down, Vinyl could see an infected Jackal latched onto Octavia's single hind leg. It shrieked and bellowed, clawing its way up Octavia like she were a rope.

Octavia was terrified. "Help me, Vinyl!"
Vinyl never let go, and she pointed her plasma pistol down at the snapping beast. "I've got ya, Octavia! Hold on!"

It was at that moment the Jackal decided to chew on Octavia's back, and the grey Mare screamed in immense pain, her flesh being ripped from her bone. Fresh red blood poured from the shrieking Octavia like a waterfall, smothering the ex-jackal's beak, and more of the stuff came spitting out her chops.
"Octaviaaa!" wailed Vinyl, firing her pistol at the hateful creature that nibbled away at her friend.

The combat form took plasma bolts to the head, and reacted by extending its thin tendril and whipping Vinyl's face, giving her a bleeding scar.
"Oh, you-" the rest of Vinyl's sentence was reduced to incoherence as emotion took over.
Eventually, the beast was killed, and it slipped off of Octavia with a final gip and spew, disappearing into the abyss.

Blood continued to spill from Octavia's back, her skin getting pale and her eyes closing.
"Vinyl," she murmured, barely audible.
"Hold on, Octavia."
"I'm done, Vinyl..."
"What? No!" refused Vinyl with determination, putting all her strength into hauling Octy back up.

"This aint over, Octavia!" She took a second to boot an infection form away. "You're getting outa this alive!"
With a drooling of blood, Octavia denied, "N-no, I'm... not..." Loosing energy, she whispered, "... Goodbye."
And that was it. That was the moment Octavia shut herself down, and she slid gracefully out of Vinyl's grasp, drifting silently away into the yawning darkness.

Vinyl watched as her best friend in the whole universe faded out of existence, tears building up under her shimmering cerise eyes. She froze, jaw slightly dropped, ears folded down.
Solemnly, she mouthed the name, "Octavia," and a tear cut a crack through the blood and grime on her face.

Fleur regrouped with Fluttershy, refusing to give up on the gibbering disgraces. The energy sword under her control swept through the gangrenous bodies like butter, slicing them into uneven halves... or thirds.
Over loud speaker, Twilight shouted, "You planning on leaving at any point?!"
Fluttershy squealed and pulverised an ex-pony with her shotgun. "Easier said than done!" she quivered.

Green explosions rattled the bridge, Lightning making use of her fuel rod gun, for about three shots.
"Oh, darn it!" she spat, annoyed, throwing the weapon down hard enough to trigger a carrier form's detonation.

Like a hawk, she swooped low and lifted an infected Jackal off the ground. The ill alien was armed with an MA5B assault rifle, and Lightning instantly yanked it free, letting the Jackal fall to his death. With the UPSC ordinance fitted to her mechanical arm, with who knows how many bullets left in it, she soared over the pungent Flood and took pot shots at them.

"GRRWWRROOOUGH!" roared a beastie, leaping up impossibly high and smacking Lightning in the foreleg.
"Youch!" she yelped, wincing with pain.
She fought her way through it and kept herself airborne, not realising the protruding bone and leaking blood on her right limb.

The culprit had once been a stealth Elite, and as the half-armoured monster proceeded to push through Fleur's and Fluttershy's hail of bullets and shells, he was caught off guard by the Pony that came charging into him from his left.

Vinyl returned, and she shook the impaled flesh from her horn, snarling with untamed fury and punching the ex-elite to death.
"Come on!" she roared, tears and blood streaking her face. Spinning to fire her plasma pistol at another threat, she proceeded, "You want more?!" She floored an ex-jackal. "You want some of this?! Come oo-aho-aho-ahoon!" She was crossed between rage and sorrow as she sobbed and screamed, taking the fight to the Flood.

"Where's Octavia?!" Fluttershy fretted, not seeing her anywhere.
Twilight bared the news. "She's gone, Fluttershy!"
"Oohh, oh nooo!" She wept, being interrupted by the AI:
"If we don't get out of here, she won't be the only one!"

"Vinyl, be careful!" warned Twilight the wise. "Don't get too close to them!"
Vinyl was in a blind frenzy, and she literally pounced into the shrieking mass, tackling them hoof to tentacle, letting her plasma pistol have a say every now and then.

There was a hiss as her overheated pistol vented steam, and she ducked in time to survive the blast of a sick, shotgun wielding Elite. She clenched her teeth around the barrel of the weapon and yanked it off, replacing her plasma pistol, and delivered one mighty buckshot to turn the nightmare into nothing more than a pile of mush with limbs and bones sticking out.

Fighting on, Fluttershy and Fleur stood back to back, fending off the horde. Fleur's sword came gliding back, and the slender Mare shook the scraps of carrion from its prongs.

There was a click as Fluttershy ran out of shells, and she frantically reloaded, feeding shell after shell into the shotgun's chamber. It took an eternity, and she had to stop half way to take care of a nasty carrier form. Once it was fully loaded, she got back to work, fear stricken on her face.

Lightning ran out of MA5B ammo in no time, so she proceeded to do her trick of snatching a gun from the infected.

An Elite came hopping along on one leg, and she noticed a needler wrapped in its fingers. Magazine fed weapons would run out quickly; she didn't have time to scavenge for extra mags. However, she also didn't have time to be picky, so she swooped down and stole the needler in quick succession, wincing with the stubborn pain in her foreleg. With the needler, she fired short, conservative bursts at the horrors. Hopefully she'd find a plasma weapon soon.

In the centre of the horde, Vinyl danced around, bucking the Flood, punching the Flood, shooting the Flood.
"No, you're not gonna take me, hehehe! You're not gonna take me!"
One wrapped its arm around her neck, and she even resorted to biting it. She ripped the limb off with her teeth and spat it out onto the floor. Couldn't have tasted very nice.

A ragged ghoul with an M6D magnum dragged a leg across the bloodied floor. Without really aiming, it pointed the gun in Vinyl's general direction and fired.
"Aarrg!" she whinnied as the bullet found her foreleg.
Lodged in her body, the tip of the bullet protruded through her skin on the other side of her leg.

Fluttershy wailed, "Vinyl!" and galloped over to the Mare's aid.
Vinyl grunted in discomfort, pawing the bullet in her leg. As the Flood kept coming, she decided to copy them, pretending there was no pain, there was no bullet, and she brought herself around to smack the head off of a quadruped combat form.

Fluttershy arrived at Vinyl, and proceeded to fire away at the impending army of freaks. Fleur came reversing up with her, firing back at all sorts of shrieking monstrosities.

"Ugh!" came a loud, agonised grunt from Vinyl.
Fluttershy spun to see a sizzling black hole corrode the Mare's armour and flesh, burning away at the exposed muscle structure of her side. The Unicorn dropped and panted, loosing energy, eyes half closed.
"Vinyl! Get up!" pleaded Fluttershy, desperate not to loose anypony else.

The plasma rifle wielding creature that had been responsible transformed into a pink, sparkly porcupine as Lightning sent a barrage of needles into its hunched shape. It had enough time to let out one last shriek before going up in a powerful, pink explosion.

Its plasma rifle went hurtling through the air, and Lightning caught it with her bad foreleg.
"Ow!" she grunted, dropping it.
She quickly dove to collect it with her good foreleg and swap it with her needler.

Boom! Click-clack. Boom! Fluttershy blasted a distorted Elite into scraggy scraps with two shotgun shells.
Beside the fallen Unicorn, she begged, "Oh, Vinyl, please get up!"
Vinyl winced and strained to her hooves, and immediately continued her rampage against the Flood. 'Twas a miracle. The blue haired Unicorn's shotgun reverberated with Fluttershy's around the cavern, tearing the Flood apart.

Buckshot after buckshot laid siege to the Flood, and after an eternity, and a life time of ammunition, their numbers started to decrease. There was still plenty of the darn things to go around though, and amongst them, an Elite and a Pony staggered side by side, united by the Flood.

Getting a real bird's-eye-view, Lightning saw the rocket launcher the ex-pony was carrying, and a mischievous smirk touched her lips.
"Nice," she whispered to herself, diving to obtain the weapon that her orange eyes were glued to.
Her right foreleg had gone limp and it flapped around in the turbulence, making the Pegasus' eyes water.

Next to that bazooka wielding ex-pony, the needler wielding ex-elite went stomping off towards the other three, absorbing everything that got thrown at it, firing needles in all directions.

Things kept getting worse for Vinyl as one of those stray needles found her chest, and she neighed out loud over the bedlam.
As the soldier fell, Fluttershy lunged for her. "Vinyl!"
Still alive, Vinyl growled with vengeance, wrapping her blue magic aura around the crystal shard. But she was weak, and her magic started to die.

Taking it upon herself, Fluttershy grasped the long, pink crystal in two hooves and yanked it free, throwing it away before the small yet deadly explosion could do any harm.

"Stay with us, Vinyl!" Twilight offered. "Let's do Octavia proud!"
Fluttershy announced, "We're almost out of here!"
Vinyl was too busy heaving to answer.

"Fluttershy, watch out!"
The yellow Mare rotated to see the needler wielding Elite leap high into the air. She pulled the trigger of her shotgun, and the corpse came landing right on top of her, knocking her down.

The Elite wasn't dead though, and he jumped back up to his feet, lashing Fleur de Lis across the face. The hushed PONI operative let out a moan as she gained a horrific scar across her pretty face, blood dribbling out of it. Whip-lash had taken its toll too, but she was in too much peril to stew over her aching neck.

Fleur reared up and pushed the monster away, Fluttershy pulling on it, closing her eyes at the sight and stench. Once the beast was clear, and posted on the yellow one, Fleur levitated her energy sword and pierced it. A swish of the blade, and the Flood infected Elite was history.

Panting, Fluttershy checked herself, and quickly got back to taking on the Flood at the front. The Flood at the back were still a problem too, and since Fleur's attention had been diverted, a pool of parasites had flowed in close.

Disgusted at the snot-bags, Fleur swept her energy sword through them like a broom. She even used her bare hooves, splattering green blood all over the place. There soon became too much to handle though, and a couple of them stuck themselves to her and stabbed her with their spiked tendrils, making her screech. As fast as possible, she pulled the bugs off and flung them out, clenching her bleeding chest.

The Flood had been decreasing, but from behind, they seemed to be increasing.

Not talking was Fleur's thing, but as the ocean of disease began to overwhelm her, she leaned into Fluttershy and uttered, "We need to escape."

Like a titan, Vinyl forced herself up off the ground, drooling blood, some of it hers, some of it the Flood's. How much torture could one Mare take?
"Come on, Vinyl!" hollered the shy, taking the abused Pony's hoof.

Just then, Vinyl bent, clutching her gut, making gipping noises as if she were going to puke. "Hurgh! ... Hurgh! ... Hurgh-aaaaah! Aaaaah!"
"Fluttershy! Let her go!" demanded Twilight.
For the first time ever, Fluttershy found herself outraged at Twilight. "What?! I'm not letting her go!"
Sick, Vinyl vomited all over the deck. In the vomit, big clots of blood stood out like slugs on a pizza.
"Hurgh! ... Hurgh-uuu-WWRRAAAAAAAGH!"

Dumbstruck, Fluttershy stammered, "W-wha...?! H-how can...?"
An infection form must have snuck by in the chaos. A million more of the things were rolling over, and they washed over Vinyl, hiding her gruesome transformation.

Sounding desperate, Twilight grated, "Get out of here, Fluttershy!"
The yellow Mare backed up, and was spun around by Fleur. The two of them galloped away onto the platform, trampling dozens of vile corpses.

The massive blast doors that lead out of the chamber were up ahead, closed. Fluttershy and Fleur rushed to get to the door, cursing the other, broken door for making them ditch their vehicles. The swarm gave chase.

One of the dead Flood forms got up with a roar and galloped at the Ponies, only to be side-swiped out of existence by Lightning Dust.
"Oh no you don't!"

As Lightning continued to beat away at the wailing repulsion with her three intact legs, Fluttershy placed her hooves over the Forerunner door controls, scanning the light display, sweat beading her head.

Thanks to Twilight's guidance, she was able to open the giant door. With the wide open exit beckoning, she and Fleur ran through.

The yellow Pegasus rushed up to the controls in the vast passage on the other side, ready to hit the switch.
"Wait! Lightning's still in the chamber!" Twilight broadcasted, stopping Fluttershy.
Fleur stood in the doorway and resorted to emitting her seldom voice once more. "Lightning! Get over here!"

Lightning was busy pummelling something that used to be a Pony, and she flicked her head around when hearing the PONI operative. Seeing the gaping exit from the underground nightmare, the turquoise Pegasus shot off towards it, an infinite supply of Flood in her wake leading all the way back to the other, broken door. One of those Flood forms leapt up, showing off its neon blue mane and tail.

Before Lightning even made it through the door, Fluttershy hit the activation switch, and the four panels began to close. The gap shrank to a mere few inches wide, and Lightning scraped her wings upon zooming through. She crashed hard into the cold, engraved road. The sound of her impact and yelp was drowned out by the doors slamming shut, and the rampant thrashing of an entire Flood army.
"It's locked," stated the AI with a gloomy tone. "Well done..."

Not a "yay" nor a "woo" came from any of the soldiers' mouths. They were all too tired, too hurt, too demoralised to respond at all.

As the Flood continued to howl and rage behind the sealed door, Twilight suggested emptily, "We should take a break somewhere more peaceful."
"Peaceful?" panted Lightning. "Where, on this ring, is peaceful? What even is peace?!" She squinted with agony. "Ow, my leg."
In answer to the injured Pegasus, Twilight uttered, "There are a few little pockets. There's one at this tunnel's entrance - not far."

Valiantly, Fleur marched away with a stern expression, forcing the other two to follow. Fluttershy was whimpering, and as she glanced at Lightning, she realised she wasn't the only one.