Dead Space: Lifeline

“Big Mac! Big Maaaa-aaaaaaaaaac!”

Granny’s high pitch grate drew a grunt from the dozing farmer, and rubbing his eyes Big MacIntosh sat up.

The sun was out and it was a beautiful day on Sweet Apple Acres for a sneaky late-afternoon snooze. Nothing out in the orchard but the gentle summer wind and the buzzing insects to keep the big red stallion company.

“Big Mac!” Granny Smith continued to shout from the farmyard. “Big Mac, we’ve got vis’ters!”

Big MacIntosh slicked back his mane wondering who that could be. With a smile the stallion trotted up the path leading back to the house, hoping it was Miss Cherilee. She was a dear friend, and he barely got to see his friends lately.

Somehow thinking of Cherilee, Big MacIntosh sub-consciously brushed some of the dirt from his coat and tried to tidy his mane as best he could. Catching himself in the act as he crested the hill overlooking the farmhouse, Big MacIntosh wondered why he did that thinking of the school teacher.

Looking down, the stallion didn’t see the pruce mare in the yard like he had been hoping to. Instead he walked down to meet Granny Smith and Apple Bloom greeting a pair of stallions from Canterlot. Big MacIntosh could tell they were from Canterlot, it wasn’t hard to spot their white coats, blue tails and polished gold-plated armour.

The Royal Guard always looked very serious, Big MacIntosh knew that much about them. But it was something in the way they greeted him with a curt nod that made the farmer very uncomfortable. It was in their eyes. The way they carried themselves.

And in the way they showed up just a week after Applejack had gone on her mission for Princess Celestia. They hadn’t even said a word, and already Big MacIntosh knew exactly what this visit was all about.

Something had happened to his little sister.

When I woke I found myself not groggy after a nap in the sunny orchard, but laying on my side in a pile of snow, surrounded by the twisted remains of the cable car. The impact had dented the hull and blown out what windows still had glass in them.

My limbs were stiff. Everything was sore. There was pain behind my eyes, in my hooves, behind my knees and in my ears. Parts I never even knew I had and can still not fathom any sort of use for hurt as well.

And above all, my head throbbed like a volcano had gone off in it.

With a groan I managed to flex my limbs and gave myself a pat down. There were no unusual protrusions, nothing felt broken, ‘cept of course my pride. That must have been what broke my fall.

After some time I climbed to my hooves then squeezed through a narrow crack torn into what had once been the roof of the cable car. Outside was barely a breeze, and the cable that had once held the car suspended high above lay coiled all around in the shallow snow. The snow down there was a lighter dusting over the frozen earth unlike the deep molasses I’d been forced to run through earlier.

I thought about the monster that had been chasing me and looked around with a brief spasm of panic. A beast that size would have been easy to spot, and thankfully there was no sight nor sound of it. All that remained of the beast was a horrible memory and an impact crater next to where the cable car and I had landed. It must have been hurt, for the crater was smeared with blood and infectious looking pus.

There was a trickle of coagulated fluids forming a trail down the hill, and following it with my eyes I gasped at the sight of a city laid out before me.

The sprawling urban terrain formed a perfect disc of built up civilisation. Main roads cut betweent he buildings like the spokes on the wheel, with angled roads forming connecting walkways to form a general star shape. Between the roads were a grand total of twenty-four enormous habitation blocks.

The habitation blocks were in turn home to observatories, iced over glass domes, walkways, gantries, balconies and skyways interconnecting the habitations. And every smooth, oblique surface had the sheen of glass, like the whole city was build out of crystal.

And in the centre was a monument to which even the Canterlot Castle coudlnt hold a candle. The fortress tower at the heart fo the Crystal Empire was an immence tower standing on four spread-eagle bases. It drew my gaze upward to the mid-section where the castle disappeared into the cloud-cover swirling all across the rocky valley in which this city was hidden.

I’d actually done it! I had found the Crystal Empire. This had to be that mission Princess Celestia had sent Applejack and her friends on. It had to be. And I was one giant leap closer to finding them.

Theoretically, of course. That was still one heck of a city I had to search. But hopefully somepony out there could lend a hoof. It was simple logical mathematics, the same kind I sometimes liked to befuddle my sister with.

Down there were a lot of buildings and streets. A city this size and in this good sort of repair had to have a population of some sort. Unfortunately the monster that had nearly torn me asunder was also out there, so I shook off my bruises and head down to the city outskirts with a steady trot. I had to find somepony, warn them of the danger and then figure out what exactly was going on.

As I walked the lonely, empty snow dusted street leading into the heart of the city, I suddenly felt very small. The buildings were built on a grand scale even the likes of Canterlot couldn’t live up to. I felt like it could take months, years even just to explore everything. And as time went on I suddenly became horribly aware I might have to actually try and explore everything.

There wasn’t a soul to be seen. I checked some of the windows, dusting away the snow that piled up against the panes, but it was so dark inside I couldn’t see a thing. There weren’t even hoof-prints in the snow apart from my own.

More worryingly, the more of the valley I came to see, the more I could see it wasn’t a valley at all. It was a crater. The sheer cliff wall I would have descended with the cable car stretched all around forming a perfect circle, trapping me within the Crystal Empire. Unless there was another cable car or if I started climbing this side of the week I wasn’t getting out of there in any kind of hurry.

I wondered if anypony had flown out, then checked that swirling storm churning above my head. It looked like there were violent gusts up there that would tear the best fliers in Equestria out of the sky.

A cry set my mane on end like I’d been electrocuted. I jumped hard enough to actually leave the ground for a second as the familiar wail of that spidery beast from earlier carried throught eh alleys and over rooftops.

Only instead of persisting, the beast’s cries was answered. By one roar at first. And then two. And then what sounded like four hundred. All terrifying howls like an enormous pack of Timberwolves howling to the moon.

And then silence.

I forced my heart to slow down, but maybe tried too hard because a second later it stopped entirely.

There came an eerie bellow, then it scuttled out of a pile of snow. The thing stood a little taller than a pony, only because it was reared up on hind legs. The front legs were like the legs of a foal. They protruded from its stomach. From its shoulder-blades sprouted two jointed scythes of bone, like the wings of a featherless pegasus. Its skin had the same crystalline sheen as the architecture, with seeping, disgusting rot churning and squirming just underneath the transparent film holding the whole monster together.

I never would have guessed that the thing had once been a pony if it were not for the head, broken and cocked over to one side. The eyes were wide and empty, and the bottom jaw had been torn down the middle to just leave two tusks lined with teeth and bony razors.

Holy buckin’ ponyfeathers, I cursed in my head, my mouth moving but unable to get the sounds out.

More geysers of snow where the powder had piled up against the sides of buildings over the years popped up. Curtains of white settled to reveal more of the monsters. There were three… then nine… then too many for me to count. They appeared all up and down the street, boxing me in as I backed up towards the nearest doorway.

Lashing out with a leg I gave the door an experimental buck. Not my hardest kick, just a checker. It was a crystal door, but it felt harder than steel. I coiled and unleashed a double kick.

My knees clicked and I slumped to the ground. The door didn’t budge.

Rising in a panic I looked back to the approaching monsters. They were watching almost curiously, like they didn’t know what to make of me the same way I couldn’t figure out what to make of them.

Then the door between me and sweet freedom parted into a six-pointed star shape, seams meeting in the middle followed by each segment sliding out of the way, leaving just a pure white stallion framed in the rectangular doorway.

His glare, his flared wings and his armour gave all his alliances away before I’d even had a chance to properly register his appearance in my mind. But above all, all that mattered to me at the time were his words.

“Come with me if you want to live!”

And he was gone in a flash, running back inside to lead the way. I wasted no time, turning on my back legs and bolting after the stallion. My hooves slipped over the slick threshold, but the moment I caught some traction I was off down the corridor like a bullet.

I dared a look back and saw the doors begin to close, but one of the monsters shot forward, snaking those killing talons between the seams. Several more joined in and together they tore the doors open again to give chase.

I turned forward again, the scuttling of their hooves and claws over the smooth floor was enough to drive me forward.

Drifting around a corner I saw the pegasus stallion had paused halfway down the next corridor and beckoned me through and adjacent doorway.

“Move! Up three floors and take a left!”

He slipped out of view again and I sprinted to catch up. Doors lining the corridor streaked past and I didn’t even pay any mind to figure out what the numbers meant. Was this some sort of apartment complex? Or was it a vile lab that had birthed the monsters now chasing me?

I tried not to think too hard about it, focusing instead on belting it up two flights of stairs. The stairwell led on up and up beyond as far as I could see. I almost gave in to the instinct to keep moving, maybe get to the roof and open air, but the pegasus had said up one floor only.

So I ran out into the corridor again and took a left. And luckily too, because glancing back I saw more of the creatures I could have run headlong into scuttling down the stairs. These things were everywhere!

So where was safe?

“Come on!”

Down the corridor I saw the guard waving me over. He stood in an open doorway waiting for me, so with a cry it sped into a fresh gallop. Somewhere behind the slashing monsters skittered out of the stairwell and crashed into the corridor wall before scrambling over each other to nip at my fetlocks.

My hooves thundered as deafeningly as the rapid-fire beating of my heart. I thought I’d either drown in my own sweat or die of a heart attack before reaching the guard. But with one final leap I threw myself forward and sailed past the pegasus.

Before I’d even landed he slammed his hoof into a glowing crystal beside the doorframe, and just like the external door segments of a deceptively heavy and sturdy door slid into place blocking all sight and sound of the pursuing monsters.

There was the faintest of thuds as the wave of beasts crashed into the door, but there wasn’t the slightest hint of stress on any of the crystal panels.

“Bucking crystal ponies!” my saviour snarled as he ran his hoof over the door to make sure it was going to hold.

Crystal Ponies? I thought with a shudder. Those were crystal ponies? I desperately wanted to ask to make sure I hadn’t misheard, but my mouth was so dry I couldn’t even manage a whimper.

Looking at me like this was the first time he’d done so; probably an astute assumption since he was too busy running away from the crystal monsters earlier, the guardspony looked me over head to hoof. He relaxed his wings and softened his glare a little. Only a little.

We were in some sort of living room. The space was very Spartan, that is to say functional over aestetic. I was used to all the homely decorations and warm colours back home in Ponyville. Here the decoration was as cold as the outside air. Furniture was sparse, colours were plain and neutral and there barely seemed to be any kind of personalisation done to the room.

I wondered if it was just the personal taste of those who used to live there or if it was like that across the Crytstal Empire.

“Who the heck are you, anyway?” the guard demanded in a firm but quiet voice. Clearly he was conscious of not making too much noise and letting the crystal ponies know exactly where we were. “The only ponies we knew about on the expedition were Captain Armor, Princess Cadance, a baby dragon and those six fillies from Ponyville. And you don’t look like any of the ponies on the rescue mission I know. Aw, not like it matters anyway.”

There was so much information to take in. This was the Crystal Empire that had been ruled by a slaver king, and the ponies who had once been slaves were now monsters? And my sister was in the middle of this!?

I wanted to cry. I wanted to break down and sob and curl up until this nightmare would end. I wanted to wake up now. Be woken in the orchard by Applejack and get a good scolding from Granny Smith. I wanted to see Apple Bloom again, just see her and her little friends smile.

Somehow I kept it together. I lifted my head from between my forehooves and watched the guardspony cross the room.

“Keep moving and keep living.” He touched a gem in the post of a door on the opposite side of the living room and it flashed green before the segments parted. “That’s the only thing that matt-… oh, buck!”

The lone crystal pony waiting on the other side of the door leapt forward, roaring as if to cry “surprise!”

The guard screamed and tried to run, but the creature’s scythes were gouging into his back, spreading bloody spots over the stallion’s white back. It pulled him close like a lover and leaned in to bite his neck.

It was terrible to watch, the guardspony flopping like a fish out of water, screaming in a way I had only heard once before, when a rabbit had been picked up by a large bird of prey but lived long enough to realise it was desperately hurt. The creature was making a grotesque mumbling sound, drooling as well as biting and shaking its head so bits of flesh and gore splattered messily about.

My first impulse was to run. The only reason I didn’t was because of a fleeting selfish thought. If I don’t kill it, I thought, I’ll be next.

Call it a spurt of courage or a burst of ignorance, I leapt forward to help. My fore hoof curled through the air and hit the crystal pony in the neck. There was a spray of mucky brown material and the distinct sound of glass shattering.

The head tore mostly free, but the teeth were still firmly lodged in the guard’s neck and the body was still moving.

What does it take to kill these things!? I thought.

With a grunt I turned, curled and unleashed the hardest buck I had ever unfurled in my entire life. My body was like a finely honed cudgel. Years of apple-bucking had built up the muscle mass that could break ponies in two if I wasn’t careful. But didn’t pull my strength like I did when playfully punching my friends or wrestling with my youngest sister. I didn’t have to be worried about hurting somepony, because that was the whole intention.

My hooves hit the crystal pony in the chest and flung it across the room and into a wall. There was the distinct crack of crystal and bone and I was sure I’d killed the thing. But still it came back for more, teetering on hind legs and wildly slashing its scythes at my face.

I ducked low and lashed out, kicking the legs out from under the monster, then fell on it with a plan-B in mind. If it wouldn’t die, then I’d make sure it couldn’t hurt me or anypony else. My hooves fell hard and smashed into joints. Skin shattered like glass. Bone and flesh came apart like balsa wood and tacky glue. I stomped it out, tearing off limbs and maiming the monster as best I could, and didn’t stop stomping until I didn’t think it could do any more damage.

But even then I wasn’t sure it was dead. The incapacitated torso still writhed and twitched as if still trying to carry out its terrible mission.

I stepped back hellshocked from the pool of bits and piece, most of which I didn’t even recognise.

The Royal Guard pony was still alive I saw, and so was that head still firmly attached to his neck. He was in shock, his back and neck a bloody mass. I moved over, wondering what I could do to help, but by the time I reached him his eyes flickered, then clouded over. He was dead.

I must have stood there for the better part of thirty minutes just processing what had happened. Crystal Pony monsters, the kill, the gore…

My mind was racing when I heard a crack and saw the pegasus’ body begin to convulse. I pushed away from the corpse and scrambled back. The body seemed to be going through a fit, shaking and contorting. And then it began to change.

I watched horrified trying to keep my panic under control as the former guard’s jaw split down the middle and tusks burst out his mandibles. Blades sprouted from his wings as the hollow bones began to pop and snap. His forelegs withered as his chest cavity contorted and split down the middle, exposing the soft insides. His skin even became translucent, vitrifying and crystallising before my eyes.

He was becoming one of them.

That was bad for me. And that was an understatement. Not because I could become one of those should I fall. Because now I had a whole new set of problems to contend with. I knew what I had to do… but could I actually do it?

I swallowed bile as the former guard turning crystal pony let out a rotten roar.

Trying my best to convince myself this was for the best I moved over and began my bloody, grim task…

Big MacIntosh was a farmer of many apples, but of very few words. Even more so – though rare as it was – when he was frustrated or angry.

And the Royal Guard visiting the Apple family home were frustrating and angering him to no end with their news. How dare they trot up and bluntly state that his sister, their dear Applejack had gone missing!?

Apparently Applejack and her friends had been on some sort of expedition, the kind you might read about in a Daring Do novel. But this was real life, not some cheesy adventure story! And frankly it wasn’t even the fact his sister, unqualified in every field of digging up lost civilisations was sent on such a task. It was the fact Applejack and her friends had been missing for the better part of a week and the Royal Guard were only telling the Apples now!?

Big MacIntosh smashed his hoof down in a fury and put a crescent shaped dent in the kitchen table.

Guard#1 held up a hoof to calm the farmer. “Sir you must calm down. We don’t know if the situation has turned dangerous yet. The expedition has merely gone dark.”

Well what in tarnation did that mean!? But Big MacIntosh held his tongue as guard#2 opened his mouth to say more.

“We are of course sending a rescue team to the Frozen North to investigate.”

Guard#1 tutted and punched his wingman in the ribs, driving the wind out of him.

Sheepishly, guard#2 rubbed his neck realising he’d blurted out a little more than he was supposed to. “Not that that’s where the expedition was sent! And of course more details are classified.”

“But we’ll keep you appraised should the rescue team find anything,” guard#1 assured plainly.

Rearing up Big MacIntosh slammed both forehooves down on the table this time. The only thing stopping him from jumping over and breaking the two guardsponies across it was Granny Smith’s frail hoof crossing his chest.

“Big Mac, Ah’m sure these gentlecolts are doin’ all they can ta’ find Applejack.” Granny Smith assured, but Big MacIntosh huffed angrily.

“Hrmph! Nope.”

Elements of Harmony or no, since when was it Applejack’s responsibility to go on dangerous missions for the good of Equestria anyway!? Why couldn’t the Royal Guard, well trained ponies specifically taught to handle crises like these clean up this mess for once?

No, of course not. When there was a dragon, or an evil witch or a great evil it always fell to Applejack and her friends, his sister, to clean it all up! Throwing his chair aside, Big MacIntosh stormed off in a huff questioning everything he knew about the world.

While Granny Smith escorted the pegasi out, Apple Bloom ran to her brother. He was sat in the corner of the living room, glaring at the wall. She could usually tell well enough what her big brother was thinking, but for some reason the stallion was suddenly very unreadable.

Trotting over, Apple Bloom softly patted him on the shoulder. “Y’all okay, Big Mac?”

He didn’t even answer, brooding quietly, thinking deeply on what he was about to do…

The clasp holding the armoured plate across my foreleg clicked sharply. And in the dread silence that surrounded me I was suddenly worried about the sound being loud enough to wake the dead. I’d had nightmares before, but feared I had entirely new material for whole new ones now.

Covered in blood and wearing the armour of a dead pony I watched my forehoof shake uncontrollably. The armoured boot rattled a little as I steadied myself on the floor, but I could feel the nervous shake still vibrate in my muscles. I was a different stallion already. I was never going to be the same again. Even if I found Applejack. Even if I found Spike, Miss Rarity and the others…

The cost of living had risen. It was die and become a monster; or live and become an entirely different class of monster.

Shutting my eyes, I tried to convince myself this was all one big hallucination. Just a nightmare. But instead of opening my eyes to have a smiling Princess Luna standing over me to promise me everything was going to be okay, the gory mess that had once been a crystal pony and a Royal Guard pony stared back at me.

I gagged and spat a mouthful of saliva. There wasn’t even anything in my stomach worth throwing up anymore. I’d ejected its contents in the corner halfway through dismembering the pegasus while he was transforming.

Deciding to take things one step at a time I looked to the door the crystal pony that had murdered the guardspony had come from. His final advice – keep moving, keep living – was as sound advice as I could go by at that moment. I had to put as much distance between myself and this room. There were still other crystal ponies just outside in the corridor trying to get in. So I would move out, find a little safe hole and sort out a plan over some rations. What good would I do anypony if I passed out from low blood sugar?

My choices of progress were limited. Move through the open door or face the dozen crystal ponies stalking about the corridor outside?

I instantly regretted my choice as I moved deeper into the apartment through the door the guard had intended to take me. Beyond the threshold was a foal’s bedroom. And it had suffered as gruesomely as the rest of the Crystal Empire.

The wallpaper adorned with prints of teddies and balloons was splashed with blood. The furniture had been thrown about and there were deep clawmarks in the carpet.

I did my best to keep my eyes pointed away from the crimson mess in the crib.

Stumbling to the window, I wondered how the guard had intended to get us out of this apartment. Crystal Ponies blocked the only exit. Unless it was intended we jump out the window, but we were a few hundred metres up!

Looking down I caught sight of something. Quickly undoing the lock, I slid open the window pane and poked my head out into the frigid air. Less than a dozen hooves straight down was a skyway, a covered over walkway stretching across the street and connecting with the habitat on the opposite side. I could jump down and cross to the next building! And with all the local crystal ponies stalking about in the corridor of this building I was sure to be home free.

There was no point sticking around anyway, so gingerly I clambered over the windowsill and lowered myself as far as my forelegs would let me. On a wing and a prayer I unhooked my hooves and dropped.

Five hooves… twelve… SLAM!!!

I sprawled onto my side, the wind knocked right out of me. Bu the ride wasn’t over. Beneath the clear glass roof covering the walkway cracked and a spiderweb of tears raced to circle me. My eyes widened a moment, then I curled up and slammed my eyelids shut just in time for the roof to shatter.

I dropped several more metres and hit the walkway floor with a grunt. Waiting for the jingle of glass raining around me to stop I cracked an eyelid, then climbed to my hooves and checked myself for injuries. I hadn’t been stabbed up by any of the glass and my armour had saved me from most of the bruises. I was still sore from the cable car crash though, but put the pain aside with some practiced ease.

I was heading for the opposite side of the walkway, passing where a canvas had been hurriedly pulled down over a broken window but over the decades had worn away and now flapped loose like a tattered sail, when a thud stopped me. It came from behind and had a wet, fleshy note to it.

Any horror buff knows that when this happens the protagonist is supposed to hesitate, as if not really wanting to turn and face what terror may have landed behind him. I of course ignored this simple etiquette because I knew damn well what had landed behind me and I wasn’t about to expose my back to any of these monsters.

Though whirling about on the spot I was hit with a surprise. This monster wasn’t like the others who were obviously but the tip of the vulgar ice berg. If the other crystal ponies were best described as “slashers,” this critter was probably best described as a “leaper.”

The crystal pony had longer tusks than the slashers did and a powerful set of forelegs. But it ended in a bloody knot of ragged flesh around the waist, with only a whiplash tail of vertebrae ending in a scythe of bone. The leaper balanced on the bladed forehooves, then with a single supernatural heave threw itself into a swift lunge. I tried to dodge but was too slow to dodge and collapsed under the monster’s weight.

My back hit the deck and we slid to a halt with a metallic grind of my new armour. My forelegs desperately held back the leaper as it snapped its bladed mandibles inches from my cheek. At the same time that wicked tail darted upward and curled like that of a venomous scorpion.

I twisted my body and dodged sideways, the scythe of bone on the tail slamming into the ground and nearly piercing my ear.

In principle killing this thing ought to be a similar fare to the crystal pony slashers. And ignoring my immediate jump to the solution ending in my killing another one of these creatures, I curled my body like a shrimp and planted my bucking-hooves on what was left of the leaper’s torso.

I unleashed the same way I’d buck a tree, and the leaper lifted off me, flying straight up into the air and smacking into the walkway ceiling. Managing to roll out from under as it came falling down again, I was on my hooves in an instant and fell upon the dazed crystal pony.

My forehooves held the thrashing tail in place as I planted another hoof squarely on the head. From there it was a case of perseverance and brute strength before the skull squashed like a grape and the tail popped free.

The sudden pop had me sprawled flat out and eying my handiwork. But unfortunately without a head and tail the leaper was still thrashing about. Barbed little tentacles burst out of the neck stump, flickering through the air as if trying to sniff me out.

With some disgust I quickly let loose another buck that would snap a tree like a toothpick and what remained of the leaper flew out over the walkway and through the canvas failing to cover the broken window. I heard a thud in the snow below, and then sweet silence.

Catching my breath I stared for a moment at the bloody smear that had once been a head under my hoof. Forget nightmares, this was going to haunt my every waking moment.

Turning I continued moving. I wasn’t sure where to just yet, but anywhere but that walkway sounded pretty good. The commotion was bound to have drawn some attention, so sucking in my second wind I dashed for the shadows and searched for somewhere to hide.