Once Upon a Time, on an Alien Ring World

by Hi World

Chapter 39: Nor Hell a Fury

Gunshots, explosions and screams, all echoing around the Honest Mistake, covered Fleur de Lis' hoofsteps as she crept down the corridor. The light flickered, and large swatches of multi-coloured blood painted the purple metal surfaces.

Glancing around, Fleur was braced, just waiting for something to jump out at her. She carried her sniper rifle on her back, her MA5B being more effective in close quarters.

Coming up short, she heard something. Something close. Something muffled. Something...

Crash! Something huge and howling broke through the wall to her right. It fell on the deck with the shrapnel as she jumped back, assault rifle at the ready.

Flailing and spasming, the monster attempted to get back up, but was pinned to the deck by another monster that stepped through the hole. This monster wasn't contaminated. 'Twas a healthy Covenant Elite with blue armour, and he pointed his plasma pistol at what looked to have been his superior.

The crimson armoured combat form let out one final roar before being burned alive by an orb of sizzling green plasma, and the rookie Elite sighed with the loss. That had once been his teammate. His team leader, in fact.

Looking around, he caught sight of Fleur, aiming her rifle right at his head. His shields were depleted; he knew how it was gonna go down, but he wasn't prepared to go down without a fight.

As soon as he launched himself at the slender Mare, firing his plasma pistol, she gunned him down, three bullet holes supplementing his head.

That had been too loud for Fleur's liking, and too close. One of the plasma bolts had hit her radio, destroying it, and she frowned as she stepped over the carcasses and continued, throwing her ruined radio on the floor.

Confirming her concerns, a deafening shriek blasted from up ahead, and a mighty crash marked the entrance of a new combat form. Dropping through the ceiling, a diseased Pony thudded to the deck. The beauty and the beast stared at each other across an intersection, Fleur slowly backing up.

The Flood infected Pegasus could be identified by its patchy turquoise coat, fiery orange hair, piercing orange eyes and makeshift wooden brace.

Prior to charging, the ex-mare snarled like a savage animal, and as soon as she set off, something pounded by the intersection, bumping into her. The running Elite grunted as he continued sprinting down the halls, hundreds of Flood forms chasing him. Fleur took cover in the hole in the wall, spying as the last nightmare flailed by, and the way was clear. Lightning had vanished; joined the rest of the swarm, and Fleur took the opportunity to gallop onwards, leaving the intersection behind.

Checking behind, she noticed a wave of infection forms come slithering over the two Elite corpses, and as she rounded the next corner, the sickening bellows of those corpses resurrecting rang loud over the ship-wide bedlam.

*****

After much navigating through the blackened corridors of the Honest Mistake, Fluttershy emerged on the balcony of a large cargo bay. She switched off her flashlight to avoid being spotted by any nasties that were likely in the vicinity, making it almost impossible to see. However, there was at least some lighting still functional on the ceiling, flickering away, and odd shapes were transformed from invisibility to rapidly flashing figures.

There was the usual Covenant architecture; support pillars stretching up to the ceiling. And on the main floor below, Fluttershy could just make out the shapes of Covenant crates, a couple of Ghost RAVs, and a single Wraith MBT, all unoccupied.

With an eerie vacantness that left Fluttershy numb, Twilight spoke, "We're not alone."
Flickering in and out of visibility, numerous Flood forms trudged about the main floor, dragging their horrendous mutations through puddles of alien blood.

"Look, in the corners."
Concentrating, Fluttershy narrowed her eyes at the two bottom corners of the cargo bay. She saw shady lumps of things that were hard to recognise in the shadows.
"The Flood are gathering bodies here."
Now that Twilight had said it, she was starting to make out the pieces of Covenant armour, the motionless hands, and the glowing eyes of alien corpses, staring right back at her.

It mortified the young Pony, and her heart rate sped up. How could she possibly succeed? Funnily enough, Twilight had an answer.

"Remember when we were on the Truth and Reconciliation?" She was speaking privately so no one but Fluttershy could hear.
However, the pink maned Pegasus wasn't an AI, and couldn't do that, and wouldn't dare risk sounding her position to the body collectors, so she just nodded shakily.
Twilight sensed her movement. "We're going for a door on the bottom floor. To get there, we're gonna have to get past all of these guys."
Noting "those guys," Fluttershy gulped and wondered what Twilight had in mind.
"There's a Wraith parked directly below us. It's still operable. If you can get into it, we can re-enact what we did on the Truth."
Oh, so that's your game.

Fluttershy was still too afraid to make a sound, not that she could argue. It's not like they had any other option. So with a nod of acknowledgement, she stood as strong as she could on the edge of the balcony, looking down on the Wraith that was hardly visible in the gloom.

"Ok... Now!"
That was her queue. With a feeble grunt, she pounced off the balcony and plummeted to the Wraith.

After a long fall, she slammed into the vehicle's closed carapace with a clang, eliciting a choir of snarls from the surrounding beasts. Panicking, she fumbled for the tank's hatch, listening to the shrieks and footfalls that grew nearer with every heartbeat.

"Hurry," strained Twilight as Fluttershy finally slid the hatch open.
Like a bar of soap, the young Mare slipped her way inside and hectically sealed up the Wraith.

The monsters could be heard outside, roaring, gibbering, attacking the Wraith, aware of her presence.

Just like before, Twilight directed the timid Pony through a nightmare. A nightmare where she had a tank.

Controlling the metal behemoth, Fluttershy ran over the Flood and vaporised them with the mortar cannon, blitzing the Mistake's interior. She screamed when an infected Jackal threw itself against the view screen. Crashing into a wall, she was able to remove the splattered bug, and she rotated to splatter even more, firing the cannon into a distant gathering.
"I don't like this!"

Just when she thought it was over, a giant vehicle access door parted at the far side of the cargo bay, and a whole new platoon of Flood shambled in, shrieking in unison. A single round of plasma mortar silenced all but five of them, and Fluttershy engaged the Wraith's boost-drive to sandwich them against the wall, denting it.

Now, it was over, and Twilight ordered her to park by the destined door and exit the MBT. The tank rampage would've been fun to anypony else, but Fluttershy just saw it as slaughter. Still, she'd rather be in the relatively safe confines of a tank than walk the haunted labyrinth of the ship.

Uneasily, she popped out of the lumpy purple Wraith like a daisy, and jumped to the floor, checking for any more hostiles, nerves on edge. A tank rampage wasn't the quietest way to get past the enemy.
"It's clear," Twilight declared, not easing Fluttershy's nerves at all. "This way."

Back into the narrow corridors of the Cruiser, Fluttershy rounded a left bend and saw light projecting up through a hole in the floor.
"What's down there?" she whispered, not sure if she should be speaking out loud, checking all around her.
Twilight laughed, "Ha! The bridge, apparently."
That obviously wasn't true. "Should we go down? There's light down there."
"We might as well. It's not like I know where we're going."
"Then, why did you tell me to come this way?"
"To be honest, Fluttershy, I chose this corridor because it won eeny meeny miny moe."
"Oh."
"If I had a full schematic, I'd be able to make logical decisions, but right now, all I can do is guess."
This worried Fluttershy, and Twilight detected the droop of her posture.
"Don't worry. This way is taking us closer to Rarity's signal."

Coming to a stop and gazing down the lit up hole in the floor, Fluttershy was made jump by a combat form that leapt up to grasp her head with a claw. She screamed, blinded, terrified. She felt herself drop through the hole, and when she landed, something sharp punctured her abdomen, draining her shields and making her squeal.

Squirming underneath her, the quadruped combat form broke off its ruptured foreleg, leaving it nailed to the yellow Mare, who continued to babble in agony.

"Get up, Fluttershy!" urged Twilight.
Baring the pain of the spiked foreleg that was still lodged in her side, Fluttershy rose up, and was immediately smacked back down by the howling beast. A bloody scar crossed her cheek, and the area around her right eye began to swell and go dark purple.

"Shoot it!"
With her back on the ground and blue flames heating her up, Fluttershy brought up the shotgun and pointed it at the infected Pegasus. Boom! Its head flew apart, allowing two serrated limbs to sprout out of its oesophagus like weeds. Those limbs thrashed about, stabbing the deck around Fluttershy, searching for her.

A second shell killed the thing just as her shields regenerated, but more of them could be heard over the crackling flames. The Covenant could be heard too, and Fluttershy recognised the sounds of Flood on Covenant conflict taking place right around the corner.

Fluttershy groaned, "Ugh! Twilight! I... I'm hurt!"
"I know. I know," came the AI's calm response. "Just back up, ok. The Flood are preoccupied at the moment. Hopefully we can sort you out in time."

She dragged herself across the floor that was heated due to the spitting blue fires. Backing up meant going closer to those fires, and Fluttershy was concerned about that. Still, a fiery fate was more appealing than a Floody one, so she used the flames as curtains to conceal herself and slumped against a piece of twisted metal, grunting with torture.

The Flood form she'd just killed laid in plain view before her. She could see what was left of a turquoise coat, an orange tail, and the remaining foreleg that had a brace made out of branches fastened to it.

Well, that gave Fluttershy a whole new hurting feeling, but that pain was soon masked by the pain it took to yank the mutated foreleg out of her side. She screamed through gritted teeth as it was torn free of her flesh, and her blood spilled to join all the other fluids that stained the deck.

Whilst the Flood and the Covenant settled their differences like true monsters, the wounded Pegasus wheezed as she got out her med-kit and proceeded to cleanse her injury. Luckily, it wasn't too serious, and no bones or organs had been effected, so she just pasted a dressing to the scar under the black, non-metal body suit and put her med-pack away.

Wincing, the distressed Mare shakily rose to her hooves and staggered out of the fiery embrace.
"You feeling better, Fluttershy?"
"Nng... N-no."
"There there, you'll be fine. Just think; some day, we'll be home."
"Not all of our friends will be there though."

Stepping over Lightning's changed body and peering around the next corner, all Fluttershy saw was dead Covenant, left in the Flood's gory wake. The fighting could still be heard however, as the Flood encountered more Covies around yet another corner.

"Well, we've found the Covenant, that's a good sign," Twilight informed. "And I never thought I'd be saying that."

Fluttershy decided to take it as easy as was possible in a ghost ship, and hung back to let the Flood clear a path for her through the Covenant. It reminded her of her time on the Filly of Autumn, when Pinkie Pie shot ahead to clear the way for her. Oh how she missed Pinkie, and cursed herself for comparing her to such abominations.

However, those abominations were getting the job done, and soon, Twilight was ordering her to advance through the gore streaked corridors.

One of the Covenant, a rookie Elite, had been left behind by the Flood. Fluttershy thought he was dead at first, and the Flood probably thought likewise. He was drenched in three different colours of blood; blue, purple and green. His left arm was a sleeping cat on his lap; no longer attached to him, and he used his remaining arm to stroke it, as if it really were a cat.

He looked up at Fluttershy, his neck creaking, giving her the hibby-jibbies. What frightened her more was the noise he made, which didn't sound anything like an Elite. He started to gag, drooling purple blood, eyes rolling back, something shifting under his skin.

The nightmare in the making never came out of production though, as the timid little Fluttershy gave him the necessary dose of shotgun and reloaded. Fighting through the multiple pains she was experiencing, she trudged down the corridor, grunting feebly. Feeling her scar skew about under her armour, she whimpered, desperate for a break.

Eventually, she squeezed through a malfunctioned door, emerging in a massive room she recognised from the Truth. A vast main floor below. The second floor balcony she was standing on now with a central walkway that split the room in two. And a third balcony, high above the scattered crates and rallying Covies.
"Huh. Strange. I thought the shuttle bay was back there, ha," Twilight joked sarcastically.

"The Covenant have almost complete command of this shuttle bay," mentioned the AI, sorta putting Fluttershy's fears at ease. "Almost."
That "almost" brought the fear back, and Fluttershy heard the Flood loud and clear all around her. The Covenant heard them too, and were just as spooked as she was.

Whispering merely for dramatic effect, the AI plotted, "Ok. Let's try and get out of here before anything big goes down. The door we're going for is over there."
Fluttershy's stomach growled. "Nng... Where?"
"Far side."
Ah, she found it. Damn; that was a long way away, and Fluttershy wasn't sure she could make it in time.

A monstrous shriek tore up behind her, along with heavy footfalls, and that was enough to scare her on her way along the second floor balcony. Up ahead, she spied a gathering of Covenant soldiers, all jacked up and ready for battle. That was enough to make her stop. With Flood behind and Covenant ahead, Fluttershy didn't know what else to do. Frantically, she searched around, and dove into hiding amongst a cluster of crates and a decorative groove in the wall.
"Yeah, this is a good enough hiding spot," commented Twilight. "We'll need it."

After a heart stopping crash, the Flood announced their presence in the hangar, and the Covenant army instantaneously opened fire.

Fluttershy was a judge on a talent show as both factions took centre stage on the central walkway and fought it out, right before the Mare's concealed eye. Her veined, blue eyes widened in horror as the gnarly plague carriers limped in from her right and jumped down from above to lay waste to the Covies.

Them Covies kept on coming from somewhere to Fluttershy's left, and kept on dying at the hands of what were once soldiers.

She couldn't bare the violence, didn't want to look anymore, but had to, in case something bad happened that would concern her, and of course, it did. A veteran Elite had just shot dead something that had already been his enemy before it got infected, and took cover right where Fluttershy was hiding. The back of his legs squished the petite Mare against the wall, eliciting a tortured groan from her, and he spun to face the Pony he sat on, a shocked look on his ugly alien face.

Fluttershy's first instinct was to bring up the shotgun, and the Elite's first instinct was to grab it. His big muscles were more powerful than Fluttershy's mechanical arm, and he was able to toss the weapon away.
"Aaaah!" screamed the defenceless Pony as she scuttled under the biped's legs.
The Elite grasped her tail in one claw, but luckily she was able to squirm and buck her way free.

Now that she was free from that one Elite, she had dozens of Covies and Flood to attend to, and they came swarming in from both sides, letting loose their array of weapons. Wailing, she was nudged side to side as she was sandwiched by the bullets, needles and plasma bolts.

"You see that Shade?!" blared Twilight in the madness.
The Shade turret was stationed at the very end of the walkway, and a Grunt manned the controls, firing away in her direction, but not at her.
"Get to it!"

Knowing where to go, Fluttershy screeched her way out of the crossfire and galloped straight at the stationary gun. Like a pretty yellow cockroach, she scurried under the machine and hunkered, hooves on head, shivering with fear. Biting her bottom lip, she spectated the brawl as her shields recharged. A clean Jackal was clotheslined by a contaminated Jackal. A Grunt was sliced by a Flood form with five legs. And an Elite was shot dead, only to come back as one of them.

Above the cowering Mare, the Grunt Shade operator sent purple plasma spewing into the cluster of hell, until all of a sudden, he stopped, and his body tumbled out of the Shade to land right beside Fluttershy. She screamed, seeing a long, pink needle sticking out of his eye. She screamed even louder when that needle went poof, spraying her with blue blood and making a cave in the Grunt's skull.

"The Covenant needed this Shade!" Twilight emphasized. "Without it, the Flood will win, and they'll be straight after us!"
"W-what do you expect me to do?!" wailed Fluttershy, eyes darting from one hellish scene to the next.
"I expect you to do what you've been wanting to do and join forces with the Covenant!"

With a tortured groan, the pink maned Pegasus crawled out from under the Shade turret and climbed into its seat. Green and purple blood stained the controls, telling a story.

Fortunately, each side was too focused on one another to care for the little yellow Pony, and the purple plasma she sent forth cut the Flood down like grass.

"Excellent!" cheered Twilight as monster after monster fell under the power of Fluttershy. "Keep this up and we'll be outa here in no ti-"
"-Iiii... I gave you an orderrrrrr, Fluttershyyyyy!"
Good gracious, that was Rarity's voice, seeping out of Fluttershy's radio. She sounded worse than ever.
"Rarity?!"
"Pull out! I say pull... oouut!"
Fluttershy's vigour was renewed. "Rarity, just hang in there, ok! We're coming to rescue you!"
... There was no response from the Captain.
"Rarity?!"
"She's delirious; in pain - we have to find her!"

"SSCHRRIIEEEAAAGH!" an infected Jackal bellowed as it pounced off the third floor balcony, plasma rifle in hand.
It rocketed down to join Fluttershy on the Shade, and the young Mare shrieked in shock. Lacking her trusty shotgun, Fluttershy did have two pistols at her disposal, and she rushed to bring one out of her saddle bag.

The pistol she'd picked was the diamond encrusted M6D magnum Rarity had gifted her with, so long ago.

Before she could point the thing at the redesigned alien, it whipped her in the side of her head, making her grunt and flaring her shields. Thanks to those shields, no damage was done, but she did receive a whole lot of whip-lash, and her delicate neck stung as she regained her composure.

The poorly Jackal didn't play fair however, and he just smacked her again across the other cheek, taking another bite out of her shields. One more hit and they'd be completely drained.

The Jackal raised its arm once more, tendrils bursting from the wrist, and... it came off... It just... came off. Fluttershy was confuzzled, and she seized the opportunity to fire round after round into the grotesquery's upper torso.

The kill was stolen from her by an energy sword that floated around by itself, stabbing the ex-jackal. At first, she thought it was a stealth Elite, but then the sword took off like a majestic eagle. Seemingly on its own accord, it flew around to take the fight to both factions, but mainly the Flood.

"Huh?" Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. "Twilight?! W-what's going on?!"
"It... it's Fl-"
"-WRRUU-IIIEEEEAGH!"
"I can't hear you!"
"I said it's Fleur de Lis!"
"Fleur de Lis?!" gawped the shy, shocked that the PONI operative was still alive.
She glanced all around the hangar, searching for her, but she couldn't see her anywhere.

Wherever she was, she was kicking flank as she levitated the energy sword all around the hangar and chopped up everything that wasn't equine. Well, except for the diseased Ponies, but they weren't really equine anymore.

Trying to hail Fleur, Twilight called through the radio, "Fleur! Come in!"
... Fleur didn't answer.
"Fleur! Can you hear us?! Pick up!"
Fluttershy wasn't sure if Fleur was up to her old "stay silent" act, or if she literally couldn't respond.

*****

Upon the third floor balcony, Fleur crouched and focused on her energy sword, magicing it around and slicing all hostiles. She still carried the sniper rifle on her back, but because it was useless against the Flood, she chose to conserve her ammo and just use the sword. Trixie's sword, to be precise. The Truth and Reconciliation's ship master's sword to be even more precise than that.

She'd lost her radio, unable to communicate with Fluttershy and Twilight... or Rarity even. Just somepony to talk to. Somepony to let her know she wasn't alone.

But now she knew she wasn't alone, and Fluttershy's very presence made a faint smile appear on her face. Maybe there was hope after all.

Hundreds of hollering Flood came stampeding up behind her.

Maybe there wasn't.

*****

Back on the second floor, Fluttershy pounded away at the aliens, and witnessed Fleur's energy blade drop out of the air, impaling a dead Jackal that laid twisted and mangled on the deck.
"What happened to Fleur?!" she cried over the thrumming Shade turret.
"I... I don't know! Her magic just... stopped!"
"Oh goodness! Fleur!"
Fleur might not be in the mood for radioing, but if she had been magicing her sword about, she must be close enough to hear her.
"Fleur! Where are you?!" Her tummy moaned, and she moaned with it.
"We'll look for her later!" shouted Twilight, hard to hear over the epic battle. "But right now, we've gotta stay alive! Look out!"

A whole new wave of Flood came screeching down from the third floor like a waterfall, right on top of the Covenant. The Covies were pretty much screwed, so Fluttershy decided to ignore them completely and tackle the bigger threat.

The Shade's purple plasma was viciously lethal; cutting down Flood forms and melting the Covenant architecture like purple cheese. And one great thing about the turret; it never overheated. Never required reloading. Never ran out of energy. Well, Fluttershy felt certain she'd end up firing it dry at some point, but judging from a readout on the instruments, it wasn't going to be soon... unless that readout meant something else.

Once the Flood had dominated the Covenant, they attempted to do the same to Fluttershy, but their numbers had dwindled, and Fluttershy mopped up the remainder of them, no problem. One last parasite pounced onto her, jabbing her with its appendages, backfiring and bursting into a cloud of goo and spores. Coughing, Fluttershy hid her muzzle from the stink.

A powerful shriek rattled her skeleton.
"Now's our chance to exit!" ordered Twilight desperately. "Quick, more are coming!"
Like a pink and yellow bullet, Fluttershy tore across the balcony, abandoning her Shade, and galloped to the next door. Her sliced side hurt like hell, but the pain was drowned out by her determination to flee. To find Fleur. To find Rarity. What she ended up finding in the narrow corridor however, was neither of them.

A trio of Grunts came running at her. No, not at her. To her. They retreated from the Flood that were right on their tails.

Fluttershy used the Flood as an excuse to spare the diminutive aliens, and she fired her diamond encrusted pistol into the warped beasts. One of those beasts was a carrier form, and it blew up with enough force to detonate a couple of plasma grenades on the belt of an infected Elite.

The whole corridor shook under the explosion, and Fluttershy and the Grunts went tumbling to the floor. Her hearing faded to ringing, and bloody debris splattered her pink mane.

Peering over her shielding hoof, she noticed a lone combat form that had survived the explosion, dragging itself through the devastation, spasming its horned head in an awful frenzy. The fact that it was a Unicorn made Fluttershy pause for a sec before shooting it, seeing if it could be recognised.

Once the unrecognisable ex-unicorn was floored, she spun to face the Grunts. "Excuse me, little, um, Grunts? I'm looking for my friends. Unicorns, white coats..."
"Pony, from the outside," spoke the red one, pointing.
Together, they swooned, "Oooooh."
"What she call us?" one of the rookies squeaked.
The other one wondered, "What are Unicorns?"
"She means Nobles. Y'know, the ones with the horns."
"Nobles?"

"Fluttershy?! What are you doing?!" grated Twilight. "You can't ask these guys for directions, they'll kill you!"
"Need no worry, Lout with two voices," the veteran spoke again.
All at once, the trio chanted, "You saved our lives; we are eternally grateful."
"But, err, we no seen no Ponies. Sorry."

Peeking into the hangar, one of the rookies discovered the devastation, and witnessed a few gibbering stragglers limping around. "Woah! No wanna go that way!" he said as he recceeded back into the corridor, hitching a thumb over his back.

"Come on, boss, enough with Pony," urged the other rookie, opening up a vent in the wall that Fluttershy didn't even know was there. With narrow eyes, he glowered at her and spat, "She filthy."
"Wait!" The "filthy Pony's" "second voice" called out. "The Flood's central intelligence. Where are the Flood keeping it?"
Cool, the leader of the pack muttered, "Pony, me not even know what that is."
"Y'think it could be that big scary thing we saw in the bridge?" thought the nicer of the two rookies.
"The bridge?"
"I dunno," the veteran shrugged. When a powerful Flood screech tore down the corridor, he ushered his troops into the vent. "Now come on, get inside!" Turning his back and entering last, he bid, "Bye bye, Pony!"

Fluttershy was left standing on her own.
"... I can't believe that workerd," gawped Twilight. "To the bridge!"
Ready to push on, Fluttershy faced the stretching corridor. "Right, the bridge... Um, which way, exactly?"
"I have no idea!"

Author's Note:

15th March 2015 Publishing Day. Yet another chapter to get chopped in half due to length issues, hence the lack of previous notes.

There's some closure for Lightning. I think her exit in Under New Management could've been better. I might even go back n' change it so she abandons them, not starts to abandon them then get shot.

In these Keyes/Rarity chapters, I'm trying to create a real sense of chaos. Is it working. I'm the only one working on this so feedback is a blessing.

USE MEDIUM DARK BACKGROUND

Comments

[psychco789]

That was a good refrence

[Hi World]

5740956 I'm guessing you mean the Toy Story Grunts :D