Scream Station

Chapters

01. Star Burst
02. Corn Syrup
03. Hot Lips
04. Bubblegum
05. Gummy Worm
06. Twizzlers
07. Cinnamon Hearts

01. Star Burst

Scream Station

Dewdrops on the Grass

And

Da Otter Guy

Shudders ran through the metal deck plating as the main sublight engine switched on for its deceleration burn. The blue-white flare of fusion pulses lit up the viewport as Twilight Sparkle watched, waiting for the asteroid station to come into view. Her stomach twisted into knots as she drummed her fingers on the butt of her light submachine gun. In her mind, she replayed the distress call they’d received.

Spike stared wide-eyed into the camera. “Help us! She’s killing us! She’s turned into some kind of–aaaaaaugh!” Blood splattered the screen as something stabbed Spike through the neck, cutting off his scream into a liquidy gurgle before the screen went black.

Not for the first time, Twilight fought back the urge to shed tears. She didn’t dare show that weakness right now, not in front of her squad.

A hand fell upon her shoulder. “Hey, are you doing alright?”

Twilight whirled as swiftly as her magnetic boots would allow and fired a fierce glare at Sunburst. “I’m fine,” she hissed, tossing his hand off. “Keep your hands to yourself, Lieutenant.”

Sunburst swallowed and took a step back, holding his hands up in surrender. “Sorry, Major,” he replied, frowning. “Just thought I’d… sorry.”

Twilight sighed and softened her gaze. “I know we’re all worried about our friends. But let’s focus. Right now we’re not at the Academy. We’re officers of the ESF. Let’s try to stay professional.”

Sunburst nodded. “Aye, ma’am.”

“Coming up on docking,” called out Moon Dancer from her seat at the ship’s helm.

Twilight trudged over to sit down next to her in the co-pilot’s seat, ready to assist if necessary. Most docking procedures were automated, but with the station’s computers unresponsive, they’d need to do this one manually. “Cutting main engine in three… two… one… now.”

A single loud thump ran through the ship as the engine cut out, replaced by smaller jerks of the deckplates here and there as the ship’s RCS thrusters puffed with minute course adjustments.
As they worked, Moon Dancer called out the distance to docking. “Ten meters. Five. Three. One.”

“Triggering the umbilical,” called out Maud Pie, one of the combat specialists Twilight had brought along. With the possibility of hostile… somethings… aboard the station, Twilight wasn’t about to mess around with half measures, and Sergeant Pie was one of the toughest, strongest soldiers she knew.

A single final puff of the RCS brought them to a standstill as the ship’s docking ring poked out, forming a small tunnel to hook into the station’s primary docking port. Indicator lights rapidly shifted from red to green. “We’ve got a stable lock,” Maud said.

“Hmph,” snorted Trixie Lulamoon as she fingered the scanner slung in her toolbelt. “Finally. And here Trixie was afraid we’d never get to go aboard.”

“Shut it, Lulamoon,” barked the other combat specialist, Staff Sergeant Tempest Shadow. A vicious woman that was reliable in a fight with the best set of reflexes in the ESF, and someone Twilight had been at odds with throughout the duration of her career. “No one wanted you to come along.”

Trixie seethed, her hand moving to finger her sidearm. “How dare you speak that way to me–”

“Trixie!” barked the final member of their crew, Captain Starlight Glimmer. “Get a grip. I told you not to start crap.”

“Wha–but she started it!”

Tempest sneered as she took a few steps towards Trixie, forcing the younger woman to back away. “Pathetic. This is the best trap specialist the Academy had to offer? This whiny little brat?”

“Hey!” Twilight cried, leaping out of her chair. “Quiet, all of you!”

Silence fell upon the ship, despite the matching looks of irritation on both Trixie and Tempest’s faces. “Listen,” said Twilight, “I know we’re all tense. We don’t know what we’re walking into in there, but we’ve got to stay focused. That especially means you, Cadet.” She fired a glare at Trixie for a moment before turning her ire on Tempest. “And you, Sergeant. I don’t care how many years of experience you have, don’t forget that Lulamoon still outranks you. Treat her with the respect her position deserves, got it?”

To her credit, Tempest straightened up and nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Good. Now, suit up everyone. Get your gear together. We board in ten.”

Precisely ten minutes later, the docking port hatch slid upon with a hydraulic hiss, revealing the station’s hanger bay. Like most asteroid mining stations, this one carried several one and two person work bee pods, suitable for mining maneuvers in space, along with two larger passenger shuttlecraft equipped with a single main fusion engine and twin hydrogen chemical engines plus wings for use in atmospheric flight. While hardly the toughest of spacecraft, they were study, reliable workhorses, and nothing short of military grade railguns, missiles, or point defense lasers could do much to harm them.

At least, that’s what she thought. Twilight barely suppressed a gasp when she saw both shuttles had been torn apart, shorn metal and ceramic torn in twain by some beast's claws like tissue paper. Leaking fuel and other noxious chemicals spilled across the deck plating, making Twilight grateful an NBC breathing mask was built into her combat armor’s helmet. The work bee pods showed similar damage, torn up to the point of uselessness.

Splashes of crimson fluid also stained the deck and walls, sprayed in patterns similar to elegant firework displays.

“Fan out,” Twilight ordered. “Sunburst, you’re on point. Pie, Shadow, watch our six. Keep your scanners up, people. We don’t want any surprises.”

“I’m not seeing anything yet, ma’am,” Sunburst reported as he panned his scanner around, his other hand resting on the butt of his pistol in its holster. “Just a whole lot of spilled fuel and other things.”

“Celestia, is that blood?” Moon Dancer gasped, her voice barely coming through over their suit comms.

“Of course it’s blood, ma’am,” Tempest replied. She’d positioned her rifle so it rested on her left arm, easily aimable even as she held up her scanner in her left hand. “I’m surprised there aren’t any body parts though. There’s enough blood here for at least a few people.”

“M-maybe the bodies were tossed into space?” Trixie suggested, her teeth chattering.

Starlight shook her head. “We didn’t see any on our way in.”

“Then what happened to them?”

Maud cleared her throat. “It’s not important right now,” she said quietly. “We’re here for survivors.”

“And to figure out what happened to this place,” Twilight added.

“Bogey!”

Everyone froze as Twilight turned her submachine gun in the direction of Tempest, who’d stepped away from the group. “Report,” she ordered.

Tempest stopped just past one of the work bee pods, gesturing with her rifle towards the rear of one of the shuttles. “Thought I saw something moving back there.”

Twilight brought her scanner up and pointed it in the direction Tempest indicated. “I don’t see anything. Anyone else?”

A chorus of “No’s” answered her.

“Alright. Let’s get moving then.” Twilight repressed the urge to scowl and looked towards the far end of the hanger to the arterial corridor at the heart of the station. “We’re headed for the command center.”

As they moved, Twilight heard a page from Starlight over a private channel. “Twilight, can we be honest for a second? How likely do you think it is that our friends are still alive?”

Twilight sighed. “...I don’t know, Starlight. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, they’re tough, they could be hiding out somewhere. Maybe with Flash Sentry. Fluttershy and Rarity too, maybe. But… don’t tell Maud, but I’d be shocked if Pinkie were still alive. Not after, after what we saw… hurt… hurt…” Twilight swallowed. “Hurt Spike.”

Starlight let out a quiet groan. “Right… Spike. Celestia, I’m an idiot.”

“No, don’t be,” Twilight replied, though despite her consolary words her tone was icy. “Spike, he… died in the line of duty. I can’t ask for more than that for my… my little brother.”

“...Twilight, are you sure you’re going to be alright commanding this–”

BOOM!

“Aaaaaauagh!”

“Tempest!”

“Oh my Celestia!”

“What the–holy shit…!”

Twilight swapped back to the public channel immediately. “Everyone take cover!” she ordered as she dove behind a nearby piece of fuselage from one of the shuttles. “Report!”

Smoke filled the hanger, obscuring Twilight’s vision. She swapped her heads up display over to thermal vision. Several had taken position next to a fallen fusion engine bell, while two others bustled about a third laying on the ground. Fresh blood pooled around the fallen figure, though using thermal vision made any details impossible.

“Sergeant Shadow’s down!” Moon Dancer replied. “Some kind of booby trap. It bounced up and exploded at torso level.”

Twilight swapped over to her HUD’s readout of their biosigns, barely repressing a gasp. The normally green wireframe figure standing next to readouts of blood pressure, pulse, oxygen levels, and EKG/EEG readings was covered in various shades of yellow and red, with one arm turned completely black below the elbow. “Looks like she’s lost an arm,” she said with a heavy swallow. “Sunburst, med treatment, stat.”

“On it,” Sunburst said as he scurried over, already pulling out one of their first aid kits.

While he saw to that, Twilight turned to Trixie. “Cadet, you’re the trap specialist. What the hell happened?”

Trixie shivered, her response coming through in interrupted stammers. “I, uh… I err, that is, Trixie–”

“Cadet,” Twilight hissed. “Focus. What. Happened?”

Letting out a shuddering sigh, Trixie replied, “It was an IED.” She held up her scanner. “Looks like someone rigged one of the work bee fuel cells to explode, and deliberately coated it in shrapnel. Look.” She pointed to the deck plating nearby, where long furrows smoked with hot pieces of metal at one end. “Shadow caught the brunt of it, but that debris could’ve penetrated anyone’s suit. It’s pretty impressive. Trixie isn’t sure if she could build a better one herself.”

“Right,” Twilight murmured. She moved to join Sunburst and Moon Dancer by Tempest’s side as groans began to fill their speakers. “Sergeant, you still with us?”

Another wordless groan came through the radio channel before Tempest managed to open her eyes. “...yes, ma’am,” she said, every word strained through gritted teeth. “Hurts like a bitch.”

“I’ve managed to stop the bleeding,” Sunburst said as he finished sealing the last of several holes in Tempest’s armor. “But she’ll need a proper medical facility to regrow that arm. It’s been shredded to pieces. She’s got numerous other lacerations from where the shrapnel penetrated her armor, including her right hamstring, which has been completely cut. She’ll be stumbling around.”

“Damn it,” Tempest growled. She started to sit up, only to let out a pained howl and lay back. “Damn it!”

“We’d better get you back to the ship, then,” Twilight said as she nodded to Moon Dancer, who bent down to help in carrying Tempest.

“No!” Tempest snarled as she lashed out with her remaining arm. “...no, please, ma’am. Whoever laid that IED, they mean business. I’m not crippled. Just give me some stims and I’ll be good to go.”

Twilight sighed and looked to Sunburst. “Lieutenant?”

Sunburst reached a hand up as if to scratch at his chin, only to drop it after it bumped the bottom of his helmet. “Err… well… technically I can have her walking around for a few hours. But I wouldn’t recommend it. It’ll only exacerbate her injuries. The longer it takes for us to get her into a med chair the longer she’ll take in a hospital.”

“With all due respect, I don’t give a shit,” Tempest replied, glaring hard enough her eyes were just barely visible even through her helmet’s faceplate. “You can’t afford to be a soldier down already.”

Twilight thought for a moment, nodded, and stood. “She’s right. Give her the stims. We need her up and about.”

Grimacing, Sunburst replied, “Yes, Major,” as he dug into his kit. He withdrew a jet injector, slapped two vials with black labels into its feed slots, and brought it up to the feed port on the neck of Tempest’s armor. “This’ll sting a bit, Sergeant.” His finger twitched, pulling the trigger.

“Not as much as I’m already–guh!” Tempest audibly swallowed, thrashing for a split second before she stilled. “Celestia, I can never get used to that stuff,” she muttered as she slowly climbed to her feet. She picked up her rifle and inspected it, then brought it up at the ready, balancing the end on her stump arm. “I’m ready, ma’am.”

“Good. Anyone else injured? No? Then let’s get moving. Slowly. I don’t want any more surprise IEDs going off.”

“I’ve already got my scanner locked in,” Starlight said. She tapped a button and sent the feed to Twilight’s HUD. “Nothing else. Just a lot of spilled fuel.”

Trixie added, “Same. I don’t see any other mechanisms or anything out of place.”

Twilight shook her head. “That IED was hidden pretty well too. Keep your eyes peeled, everyone.”

As a group they made their way forward, slowly but surely, across the massive hanger until they neared the access corridor. Before they reached it, however, Sunburst held up a fist. “Wait, ma’am, I’m reading something… I think it’s a body.”

Twilight’s blood ran cold. “A body? Where?”

Sunburst briefly spun his scanner through the air until he aimed it in the direction of one of the hanger’s control booths, a sectioned off small room lined with transparent aluminium for viewports. “In here.”

Before Twilight could say anything, Sunburst pressed the open button on the control pad and walked inside the booth. After a brief moment of nothing happening however, Twilight let it stand as Sunburst knelt inside the booth to look at something just out of sight. “Who is it?”

“Not sure,” Sunburst answered. “The body’s been… mangled.” He let out a quiet sigh and Twilight noticed his pulse accelerate rapidly on her health readouts. “It’s… good Celestia, they’ve been eaten. Torn to shreds by teeth and claws and… I can’t tell.”

“Sweet Celestia…” Trixie cursed. “Eaten by what?”

“The same thing we saw in the distress call, probably,” Starlight said. “Sunburst, get a DNA sample and get out of there. I don’t like you being in that little–”

A small alarm rang, interrupting her as a light on the door switched from green to red. “What?” Sunburst muttered as he hopped to his feet and tried the door. “It won’t open!”

“What?!” Twilight rushed over, swiftly followed by Trixie and Starlight. “Get the door open, Captain! Now!”

“Alright, should be able to trigger the manual override easily enough,” Starlight murmured as she popped open the control panel, revealing a lever. She pulled on it, only for it to pop off in her hands. “What the hell?”

Half the lights dimmed in the hanger bay as something made a loud banging in the ceiling above. “Everyone, weapons free!” Twilight ordered as she brought her PDW up. “Get out of the way, Lieutenant, we’ll shoot you out.”

“That’s a good solid half a meter of transparent aluminum, ma’am,” Tempest said even as she took aim and fingered her trigger. “I don’t think we can shoot through it.”

“Do it anyway!” Twilight said. “And someone figure out what’s making that racket!”

“There’s some kind of thermal signature in the ceiling,” Trixie shouted as everyone’s firearms opened up with a hail of bullets at the window. “It’s… it looks vaguely humanoid, but… I–I don’t know what it is!”

After a moment Twilight held her fist up. “Cease fire!” She scowled at the window which showed few to no signs of any cracks or damage apart from bullets trapped within it. “We need a better way. Moon Dancer, do you have some thermal charges?”

“I do.” Moon Dancer dug into her suit’s pouches and pulled out a couple of shining spheres of metal. “I’m not sure we can safely blow the door open without hurting him though. These aren’t shaped charges and I didn’t bring the equipment necessary to shape them.”

“Uh, we might not have a choice,” Trixie stammered. “Whatever that signature is, it’s heading right for Sunburst!”

“Lieutenant,” Twilight called, eying the trapped man. “Get your pistol out and ready. We’re going to try and blow open the door. Be prepared to run the instant it’s open, got it?”

Sunburst nodded his head like a ragdoll, little whimpering noises coming across the comms as he replied, “Y-yes, Major.”

“Everyone else, keep your weapons to bear.” Twilight pointed at the door. “Go for it, Lieutenant Dancer.”

“Aye,” Moon Dancer muttered as she switched on the thermal charge and began to configure its payload.

“Sunburst!” Trixie abruptly shrieked. “Watch out!”

Before anyone else could react, a figure burst through the ceiling inside the control booth and descended, landing behind Sunburst. Long, lithe limbs clad in a purple jumpsuit stretched out from her body, a mass of tangerine and lemon colored hair framing her face. At first glance it looked like one of the other personnel assigned to the mining facility, one whom seemed familiar from the files Twilight browsed… Adagio Dazzle was the name, she realized.

But Adagio never had such razor-sharp teeth, nor did her fingers end in keen metallic looking claws. With a hissing roar that they could hear even through the glass she brought her arms forward as if to grasp Sunburst, only for her arms to stretch like taffy so fast that they could barely blink before they impaled Sunburst through the stomach.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUGH!”

Those claws tore through his armor like it was paper mache, ripping open his guts. Intestines and blood spilled out in gobs as both clawed hands gripped the insides of the hole they’d made and pulled, opening it wider and wider, till most of his lower torso was little more than a bloody wound. Then they reached out and ripped apart his armor in a flurry of fast strikes till he was naked and bleeding from several dozen different cuts.

“HOLY CELESTIA!” Moon Dancer screamed, frozen in place. Trixie and Starlight let out matching wordless screams. Maud and Tempest meanwhile readied their weapons and looked to Twilight for orders.

But Twilight could only watch, her mouth agape.

“H-h-h-help me!” Sunburst shrieked, sobbing openly into the comms as Adagio’s claws withdrew from his body, leaving him falling to his knees. Vomit spilled out from his half broken helmet, mixing with the blood and guts on the floor. “Celestia, help me!”

A sinister, deep-throated laugh, like a high pitched silky smooth voice overlaid with sensual predatory sounds spilled forth from Adagio. “I’ll help you alright,” she beamed.

In the blink of an eye, Adagio was upon him, her teeth bared and biting into his open stomach, ripping a cord of intestines that had yet to spill out and tearing it out of him, unspooling it like a coil of rope. She worked at it like a rabid dog until she tore it apart, spilling more blood. She allowed it to fall from her lips and then launched up, her teeth sinking into Sunburst’s throat, silencing his screams into a blood-filled gurgle.

A momentary solitary beeeeeeep filled Twilight’s ears as she eyed Sunburst’s vital signs. It was enough to stir her out of her torpor and into action. “Everyone, back to the ship! Hurry!”

As Trixie wasted no time pell-mell running away, Tempest stumbled, dragging her injured leg behind her. “I can’t move that quick, ma’am! I’ll cover our retreat.”

“No you–”

Screeeeech!

Everyone froze and stared in mute horror as one side of the control booth door ripped out of its frame, until a single loud punch sent it flying meters away, right past Twilight’s head. Adagio beamed, raising both hands, palms upward, claws extended. “I’m still hungry,” she snarled, flecks of blood flying from her face. “Who’s next?”

Twilight raised her PDW, but before she could open fire, the lights in the hanger flared brilliantly, enough to cause her to squint and instinctively hold up an arm to block it. Adagio cried out like the light was physically painful, falling into a ball and backing up into the control booth.

Then the door to the corridor opened, revealing someone standing there, someone that Twilight instantly recognized. “Twilight!” cried Flash Sentry, waving his arms frantically. “Everyone! This way! Hurry!”

Twilight wrapped an arm around Tempest and helped to hurry her along as everyone else scurried towards the door. Adagio’s howls and yelps, like a mewling cat, grew louder. As Twilight and Tempest passed through the threshold Adagio shrugged off the effects of the light and bounded towards them at inhuman speeds, stopped only by Flash’s swift action in closing the emergency seal.

The twin bulkheads slammed shut, cutting off Adagio from the others. As everyone stood around, panting, Twilight absently noted that a series of six lights lit up on the door right above a card reader.

“Is everyone okay?” Flash asked, turning to face them. “Anyone hurt?”

“Shadow is injured,” Twilight stammered. “And Sunburst, he… he’s…”

“He’s gone, I’m sorry,” Flash said with a sad shake of his head. “He wasn’t the first one she’s… eaten. I keep hoping each victim is the last but…” He shook his head and flashed them a pained smile. “But hey, we’ve got a bunch of properly armed and armored soldiers here now. You can probably take her down.”

Twilight cocked her head, gaping at him. “Flash… not that I’m not glad you’re alive, I am, but did you see what just happened? She ripped Sunburst apart like he was wearing toilet paper! I’m not going up against that until I know more of what the hell happened on this station.”

“Maybe we should take our chances and run for it,” Trixie suggested. “We can wait for her to get bored, then run to the ship.”

“And blow this place to hell after we leave,” Starlight added with a light snarl.

Flash let out a loud sigh, nearly doubling over from the effort. “I wish it was gonna be that easy, guys, but uh… look at this.” He rapped his knuckles on the door, tapping at the lights. “We’re not going anywhere into that hanger now. We’re stuck here.”

Maud took a single step towards him, her rifle raised. “Why?”

“See these?” He rapped his knuckles again. “This bulkhead is almost thicker than the walls around here. Meant as a safety measure. This door won’t open until we find the Senior Officer’s keycards and use them. There’s six in all.”

“W-what?!” Trixie cried, slapping her hands to the sides of her helmet. “B-b-b-but we can’t be stuck here! Did you see what that–that thing did to Sunburst? What if she comes after us?!”

“It’ll be a while before she can break out of the hanger,” Flash reassured her. “Look, I’ll explain everything, but you’ve got to follow me. And hurry. We need to get to a place of safety. I’ve got one set up not too far away.”

Twilight stared at him for a moment, then nodded. “Fine. But I’m in command. You give me the details then I’ll decide our course of action. Got it?”

Flash tossed off a jaunty salute and grinned. “Yes, ma’am, Major ma’am.” He took a few steps in one direction then waved for them to follow. “Come on. Let’s move it.”

Author's Note

Welcome, everyone, to the collab between DaOtterGuy and myself. As you can see, this is horror, which is not a genre I usually touch. In fact this is easily the goriest story I've ever written outside of Danganronpa: In Harmony's Wake.

A few important things to note: I followed U.S. Army/Air Force military ranks for this, and the claim that a cadet outranks an NCO is, in fact, 100% correct according to AR 600-20 Army Command Policy.

We also threw in the idea that celestial terms are used as swears in this story. So for example, when they say Celestia, they're referring to the star in their home system. Luna would be their moon, and so on and so forth.

02. Corn Syrup

The steel door swung open with a clang. Flash walked into the dark room with Twilight and her weary team following shortly behind them. After a few fumbling attempts in the dark, there was a click, the hum of a generator, and the room became lit by overhead lights.

The room was cramped and clearly adapted from an old maintenance locker. A ratty cot and worn down couch took up most of the room, a jury rigged tele monitor attached to some machine was on the opposing wall, a mini fridge took up space across from the couch, and the rest was dominated by steel lockers next to the fridge.

“Everyone in?” Flash asked. A weak chorus of yes echoed from the group. Flash nodded and slammed the door shut with a metallic clang, the latch dropping into place.

“Alright, what’s happening here, 2nd Lieutenant?” Twilight asked. “That… thing… that killed Sunburst. It looked like Adagio, but it wasn't.”

“It was-” Flash furrowed his brow. “It is her. She chose to become that monster.”

“Chose?” Moon Dancer asked as she took a seat on the cot. “How does one choose to become that?”

“She got offered a deal and since she always craved power, she took it.” He took out a can of root beer from the mini fridge across the room. “Anyone want any?”

Tempest sneered as she leaned against the door. “Seriously? There’s a bloodthirsty monster out there and you want to drink sodas?”

Flash gave Tempest an intense look. “I was more thinking that you all went through a traumatic experience and could use some time to mentally prepare for what we’re dealing with here.”

“No one here-”

“I’ll take it,” Trixie interrupted.

Flash tossed the can to Trixie. She tapped the side of her helmet to open the dome, popped open the can with a snap using her shaking fingers and began guzzling down the sugar water.

“I’ll take one as well,” Starlight said from where she huddled on the couch.

Flash threw another can to Starlight then leaned against the lockers with his arms folded in front of him. There was a bout of silence as the crew took a moment to collect their thoughts, interrupted only by sips of soda and the hum of the unseen generator.

Relishing the moment to gather her thoughts, Twilight began mentally breaking down what needed to be done in order of importance. First and foremost, they needed more information.

“Thank you for saving us Flash, but we need information.” She took his nod of approval to continue. “Let’s settle the most important thing first: what exactly is Adagio?”

“I don’t know.” Flash waved his hands to head off the onslaught of questions. “What I mean is that I don’t know specifically what she is, I only know how she became like that.”

“You mentioned that earlier. That she chose to become that?” Moon Dancer said.

“We were employed by the ESF as the station’s security team,” Flash explained. “They were harvesting the asteroids for resources in this sector when they unearthed this… thing.” His brow furrowed. “It looked like this pulsating mass of condensed energy tendrils that discharged lightning.”

“Sounds like some sort of naturally occurring energy source.” Starlight gripped her can tighter causing some of the liquid spill out. “Potentially some core of nuclear energy inside of the asteroid.”

“Or solar,” Moon Dancer proposed. “A mini condensed star? Stranger things have been found before.”

“I don’t know what it is exactly, but it could talk. It called itself Primal,” Flash said.

Starlight stood up from the couch dropping her drink on the floor. “Wait, it was sapient? How is that possible?”

“I don’t know. It just started talking about an exchange and—”

“Did you not write notes? Take pictures? The barest of readings?” Moon Dancer exclaimed. “A potential new form of sapient life and you didn’t take even the bare minimum of—”

“It turned Adagio into that monster.” Flash gestured towards the closed hatch. “We had bigger things to worry about then studying it.”

Moon Dancer scowled in Flash’s direction. “W-well, for now I think it’s best we focus on what’s going on now instead of what happened before,” Starlight interjected. “So, Primal was it? It offered Adagio a deal?”

Flash crossed his arms with a huff. “Yeah, it transformed her in exchange for something. I don’t know what she gave it, but she proceeded to kill everyone on the station except for me.”

“How did you manage to survive?” Tempest asked.

“I knew the station better than her. My late friend Zephyr Breeze had secret hideouts like this all over the station so he could skip out on work.” He rapped his knuckles on the locker closest to him. “Junk food, blankets, and old action movies on VHS.” He jerked a thumb towards the machine attached to the tele monitor. “Hooked up a VCR to stay off the station’s main electrical grid.”

“Why would he want to be off the main station grid?” Twilight asked.

“So, he wouldn’t be caught by the command centre as it tracks energy consumption from the fusion reactor. Each hideout taps the auxiliary solar generators,” Flash explained. “Never would have expected Zephyr’s laziness to be my salvation.”

“Alright, so you’ve just been moving between off the grid hideouts that Adagio can’t track or find.” Trixie had an impressed look on her face. “I applaud your stealth, but why didn’t you just leave on one of the hangar ships?”

“Adagio tore all the ships to shreds. I sent out an emergency broadcast which got picked up and...” Flash’s eyes widened as he whipped his head to Twilight. “Wait, Major Sparkle. Spike was your brother?”

“One of them, yes. We came here after he sent an emergency call. I saw...” Twilight fought back the emotion welling up inside her throat. “Well, I know he’s dead.”

Flash gave her a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry, Twi- Major. They did what they could, but Adagio proved too much to handle.”

“Did she kill the entire crew?”

Everyone turned to Maud who had been quiet through their conversation. “Yeah, she killed everyone. They were no match for her,” Flash answered as Maud clenched her fists.

“So, you’re the only survivor?” Flash nodded at Tempest’s question. “Then we need to leave before she destroys our ship.”

“Shouldn’t we collect the bodies?” Starlight asked.

“Or investigate this ‘Primal’ entity?” Moon Dancer added.

“No,” Twilight stated. She set her expression into a hard line. “We’ve already lost Sunburst, and Adagio has proven to be too dangerous to handle alone. We should leave and regroup. We can return at a later time with more backup.”

There was a mixture of reluctance and dread as the crew gave varied consensus. Twilight turned to Flash. “Alright, we need to get back into the hangar. You mentioned something about keycards?

“The hatch is the only entrance, and everything is in lockdown mode due to Adagio. We’ll need officer authorization to open them.”

“Where are they?” Tempest asked.

“On the bodies of Spike’s crew. They took on the authorization when they arrived so they could more easily navigate the station!” Flash hurriedly added before the others could interject. “Things hadn’t gone badly as quickly as it had for you, so there was time for them to transfer over command. The cards are still on their bodies.”

Tempest snarled. “Then where are their bodies?”

“Applejack in the kitchen, Rarity is somewhere in the sleeping quarters, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are in the medical ward, Pinkie Pie is in the mine shaft.” Maud inhaled sharply. “And Spike is in the command centre. They had been split up due to a surprise attack from Adagio.”

Twilight nodded. “Do you have a map of the station?”

Flash tapped at a console on his arm. A few quick key flicks and a ping went off in the crews’ helmets. A HUD display of the station came up on their screens. Tempest swore. “This is all over the station. None of these are even remotely close together!”

“Not completely true.” Starlight traced two red lines on the HUD leading from their current location to the command centre. “The area is designed like a big loop with central command dead in the middle.”

“T-that’s still a lot of ground to cover with that monster roaming about,” Trixie said nervously.

“Yeah, and I’ve managed to keep out of Adagio’s sights by myself, but a group this size will draw her attention immediately.” Flash sighed. “It would be better if there was a way we could get this done quicker.”

“We could split up,” Moon Dancer suggested. “Two groups, one on each track.. Meet back up at the command centre then make a break for it through whichever is the fastest route.”

“If we split up, that will make it easier for the monster to hunt us down,” Tempest retorted.

“That hasn’t exactly stopped her thus far,” Trixie added. “Sunburst certainly didn’t benefit from us being all together.”

“Sunburst got separated from us,” Starlight said. “There’s a chance we could at least keep her at bay if we stay together.”

Moon Dancer huffed. “Then we simply get stuck in a battle of attrition. The longer we stay, the more tired we’ll become.”

“Then we just move fast together and fight back!” Tempest roared.

The group descended into bickering and shouting as Twilight stood to one side paralyzed with indecision.

Flash walked up next to her. “You’re the leader,” he whispered. “It’s your decision.”

She thought over the variables and came to a decision. “Enough!” The bickering stopped. “We’ll take Moon Dancer’s suggestion and split up. We don’t have the time to lag behind, and moving in a larger group will draw more attention to us. Shadow.” She highlighted the right path on the map. “Take Pie, Moon Dancer, and Glimmer through the crew's quarters and mine shaft.” She highlighted the left path. “Sentry, Lulamoon, and I will take the path through the kitchen and med bay. We’ll meet back up at the command centre. Clear?”

“Wait a minute,” Moon Dancer objected. “Shouldn’t Shadow go with you to the med–”

“I see what you’re thinking, but no, Lieutenant. My decision is final.”

Though reluctant, affirmations of agreement were given from everyone present.

“Good, then we’re decided.” Twilight furrowed her brow. “Now, we just need to survive.”

03. Hot Lips

“The Great and Powerful Trixie succeeds once again.” Trixie took a deep bow before Twilight and Flash, the latter politely clapping. She smirked as she came up from her bow. “And you doubted that one such as myself could handle these meager traps.”

“Not at all,” Twilight said. “I am well aware of your talents and that, alongside a glowing recommendation from Glimmer, was exactly why I brought you with us.”

Her face flushed. “T-that is very kind of you, ma’am.” She rubbed her knuckles on her shoulder with a smug grin on her face. “Your praise is much appreciated to one as Exceptional and Glorious as myself.”

“That attitude, however, could use some adjustment.” Trixie visibly deflated. “Your skills should speak for themselves, not require needless boasting.”

Trixie rubbed her arm sheepishly. “That’s… fair. I will endeavor to not be as… ego ridden in the future.”

“It’s okay, Lulamoon, you’re doing a good job.” Flash eyed the machine parts laid out on the floor. “Especially with how many traps there have been.”

“About that, why are there so many traps?” Trixie asked.

“Spike’s squad set them up to kill Adagio,” Flash explained. “After they die, she made use of her engineering degree and jury-rigged all the traps to work in her favour in the hopes of capturing any stragglers on the station.”

Trixie quirked an eyebrow. “So, you?”

“Yeah, me.” Flash grinned. “This is definitely slow going, though.”

“Yes, I hadn’t expected so many obstacles in our way. Hopefully the others aren’t bogged down by the same,” Twilight said. “Let’s get moving. Lulamoon, if you would take the lead?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Trixie saluted.

Trixie continued her slow trek forward keeping an eye out for more traps using her helmet monitor.

“You okay?” Flash asked on a private comms channel.

Twilight tapped her helmet to enter the private channel. “Why would you think I’m even remotely okay, Flash?” She snapped. “We’re being hunted by a monster and being slowed down by a corridor more rigged than a cheap carnival game.”

“Rushing forward and getting injured won’t get us to our destination sooner, Twilight-”

“Sparkle,” Twilight interjected. “Major Sparkle or ma’am.”

“... Sparkle,” he corrected, “It’s slow going, but safer than running headlong into danger.”

“I know that, I just-” she sighed. “This is not how I thought this would go. We came prepared. I understood the danger, but I never expected to lose someone in a matter of minutes or be running for our lives from some terrifying monster. It’s just- it’s a lot and I don’t have a lot of real combat experience. I have my entire crewdependingonmeandIdon’t-”

Flash lightly touched her shoulder. “Take a breath, Sparkle.” She took a shaky breath. “I get it, you’re under a lot of pressure, but we need you to focus on the present, okay?” He gave a reassuring grin.

Twilight returned an uneasy grin. “You’re right. I need to focus. Thanks, Flash.”

Before Flash could reply, Trixie yelled, “We’ve arrived at the kitchen, ma’am.”

“Good work, Lulamoon,” Twilight said. “Everyone prepare for breach.”

All three of them huddled by the double door with their weapons raised. Both looked at Twilight, Flash confident and Trixie nervous, as they waited for her signal.

With a curt nod, all three pushed their way through. A quick survey of their surroundings revealed a commercial kitchen with walls and floor space dominated by appliances and countertops. On the wall opposite them was a line of hooded stovetops and, to the right of the stoves, an exit leading further into the station.

Lying dead in front of the stove was the corpse of Applejack. Her stomach was split open empty of its innards, pinned to the stoves by several long metal skewers. Hanging from her neck on a cord was the keycard.

“Keep an eye out for more traps, Lulamoon. Flash, you and I will keep an eye out for the monster.” Both nodded. “Let’s take it slow.”

Moving slowly and methodically, they made their way across the room. They arrived at Applejack’s corpse in short order. Wary of a potential trap, Twilight bent down and grasped the keycard with her hand.

She pulled.

“Wait, stop!” Trixie cried out.

As Twilight pulled, the cord snapped and zipped into the depths of the stove that had its oven door removed. There was a click, and the stoves hummed to life, emitting an orange glow.

“We need to run back!” Flash cried out.

Spurned to action by Flash’s shout, all three raced back across the tiled floor. Just as they managed to dive behind a long row of countertops for cover, all the ovens along the wall opened and a barrage of knives went sailing through the air burying themselves in the wall past where they were hiding.

The barrage continued as flames spewed from the appliances. Applejack’s corpse was lit and burnt to a crisp.

“What do we do?!” Trixie screamed out.

“Sparkle, what are your orders?” Flash yelled out over the machine gun-like sounds of the ovens.

Twilight was gripped by panic as she was frozen in place. She clutched the keycard tightly in her hand, shaking from overwhelming fear.

She couldn’t focus. She couldn’t think. Nothing in her body responded to her desperate internal cries to make it move.

They were going to die.

They were going to die and it would be all her fault.

Realizing that Twilight would be no help to them, Flash shouted to Trixie, “Lulamoon, give me a read on the situation.”

Trixie looked at Flash with uncertainty. “B-but I’m only supposed to take orders from—”

“The Major is out of commission and we are in dire straits, give me an update, Lulamoon!” Flash commanded.

“R-right, Flash.” Trixie tapped a button on the side of her helmet and tentatively peeked around the countertops. “The ovens appear to be rigged as makeshift gatling guns. They will run out of ammunition in a few minutes.”

“Can we wait it out?” Flash asked.

Trixie shook her head. “The heat radiating off the stoves is slowly melting some type of adhesive in the door leading to the med bay. If we don’t deactivate the trap, we’ll lose our only way forward and have to backtrack.”

“We don’t have that kind of time. How do we disarm it?”

A quick scan and another tap on her helmet brought up a display of the stove with two spots highlighted in red. “The mechanism is attached to these two pins. If we pull them out, the whole thing will break down.” She looked at Flash with a nervous expression. “We’ll need two people to pull them and we will get burned.”

Flash nodded. “How are you feeling, Trixie?”

“T-terrified, but,” she puffed up her chest, “ready for your orders.”

He grabbed two nearby serving trays, threw one to Trixie, and raised it in front of himself like a shield. He looked over to see Trixie mirroring his action. They nodded to each other then leapt out from behind cover and raced towards the stove.

They scrambled down the tiled floor as knives whizzed past them and embedded themselves in the trays. Shallow cuts appeared across their bodies as knives nicked them on their way past.

As they arrived at their destination, they tossed their makeshift shields aside and threw their hands toward their individual pins.

Both cried out in pain as flames licked at their hands and forearms. Once they had a firm grip, they both pulled. Hard.

The pin Trixie pulled popped out easily causing her to fall back and skid along the floor. Flash’s stuck. He screamed in agony as the flames continued to lick at his arms, burning through the material of his suit. Veins popped out on his arms as the pin slid out bit by bit.

After a minute of intense pain, it finally popped out and Flash joined Trixie on the floor.

With the pins removed, the stoves sputtered, the clouds of knives eased to a stop, and the flames died down to nothing.

Trixie scrambled to her feet ignoring the pain in her arm, as she raced to check the door to ensure their efforts were successful.

“It’s still open.” She dropped to the floor in a heap. “Our way is still open.”

“Good. Would hate to have gone through that to still fail.” Flash groaned in pain.

His cry of pain broke Twilight out of her panic-addled state. “Flash!” She ran toward them.

She knelt by Flash and gingerly examined his arm as he hissed in pain. His hand and forearm were puffy and red with second degree burns from where the suit burned away.

“I know you’re trying to help, but could you—” he cried out as Twilight nudged a particularly tender spot.

“I’m s-sorry! I j-just need to—” she finally noticed Trixie holding her arm. “Lulamoon, your arm!”

Her burns were similar to Flash, but less severe. “Thank you for noticing, ma’am. Really. The lack of attention to your second server is much appreciated.”

“Come here, I have a first aid kit, I’ll treat both of you.” She took off her backpack and took out the first aid kit. She listed out the items as she grabbed them. “Cold compress, ointment, bandages...”

Moving quickly, Twilight cooled their injuries, and wrapped them tightly with the ointment to ease their pain. Both winced when moving their bound arms, but were still able to use them.

“Nice handiwork,” Trixie commented. She scoffed. “You too, I guess, Flash.”

Flash grinned. “Thanks, you did a good job out there too.”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie always does a great job.” She stood back up to her feet. “Now, I’m going to start checking the path ahead so we can avoid this happening again. Feel free to follow after me once you’ve dealt with...” she gestured towards Twilight who stared resolutely at the floor, “... that.”

As Trixie made her exit, Flash scooted closer to Twilight. “Hey, Sparkle, you still in there?”

“I can’t believe I froze like that.” Her body shook. “When you needed me the most, I was completely useless.” She looked up showing the beginnings of tears in her eyes. “This is all my fault.”

“Unless you set up that trap, I doubt that,” Flash replied. “You screwed up, but you did treat Trixie and I in record time.” He grabbed her shoulder companionably. “So what if you screwed up? Do better next time. You can’t be expected to do everything perfectly every time.”

“But I can’t afford to fail!” Twilight said in frustration. “We’re in a life or death situation, you and Lulamoon are depending on me to be a leader. I can’t afford to be this helpless.”

“It’s okay, we’re more than capable of covering your blind spots. Just do the best you can, Sparkle.”

“Twilight.” Flash tilted his head to one side. “You can just call me Twilight.”

He grinned. “Alright, Twilight.” He grabbed Twilight and dragged them both to their feet. “Let’s get those keycards.”

Sticking close to Flash, Twilight followed after him as they moved towards their next destination.

04. Bubblegum

As the bulkhead slammed shut behind them, cutting them off from the shelter, Moon Dancer muttered, “I still think we should’ve sent you with the group to the medical bay, Sergeant.”

“You heard the Major, ma’am,” Tempest grunted as she stumbled forward towards the sleeping quarters. “Besides, it’d take at least an hour to fix the damage to my leg, let alone do anything about my arm. We don’t have that kind of time.”

“No, we don’t,” Starlight said, her voice heavy. “Come on, we need to move and fast. That map Sentry showed us didn’t tell us where Lieutenant Belle died, just that she died somewhere in these quarters.”

As they trudged through the corridor, their weapons raised, they passed through another heavy bulkhead door and found themselves inside a large dormitory area. It was laid out like most such mining facilities, with a central area for recreation set up with gaming tables, VR chairs, exercise equipment, and cubical sleeping quarter bunks fitted two by two laid out on three opposing walls behind closed doors, with the fourth leading to a combination unisex lavatory and shower facility.

Even through her mask, the stench of blood permeated Starlight’s nose. Mannequins in various poses were splayed out on the exercise equipment like garish lawn ornaments, propped up as if they were humans exercising. More mannequins laid in heaps around the game tables, so torn up they were more like the remnants of paper mache after a hurricane.

Starlight grimaced. “This isn’t going to be much fun. Everybody fan out. We need to locate that key card.”

Taking one last sniff and shuddering, Starlight moved to check the first set of quarters on her side of the dormitory. The door refused to open at first, forcing her to slap the button several times before it hissed into the wall.

“Aaaaaaaah!” Starlight screamed.

The clang of boots against steel deck plates preceded Maud rushing over to her, her shotgun up and ready. “Ma’am?” she muttered after a moment.

Starlight’s chest heaved as she pressed a fist to her chest, half curled up in her standing position trying to slow her breathing. She pointed with her other hand to a half broken mannequin smeared with blood. Its blood had dripped all over her armor and part of her face plate. “It’s… just… just another mannequin... it fell on me when I opened the door.”

Maud considered that with the slightest tensing of her mouth. “I see. Do you need help?”

“No, I’m… I’m fine. Get back to… back to it.” Starlight let out one last big breath as she slowly returned to normal, switching on her helmet’s cleaning function to wipe the blood away, allowing her to see again.

It didn’t remove the stench of it though. Good Celestia, it reeks, she thought as she scowled down at the mannequin that fell on her. Giving it a solid kick in what was left of its head, she moved into the quarters themselves.

They were laid out in the usual mining station format, that of two bunk beds atop each other and a pair of lockers to either side, along with a small desk and a terminal suited for single use at a time. Another bloody mannequin was draped across the top bunk, reaching down one hand like it was trying to grab at Starlight’s face.

“Who in Tartarus arranged these mannequins anyway?” Starlight muttered as she swiftly pawed her way under the blankets and sheets of the beds, then rummaged through the lockers. As she ran her hand up and down along the back of one she groped something… squishy. “Ugh, what… oh gross!”

She dropped the unidentifiable slippery object she’d pulled out and left that set of quarters, wishing she could take a long, thorough hot shower to wash all this disgusting mess away. Even through the suit, she swore she could feel the sickly, slimy texture coating her hand.

She checked three more sets of quarters, which thankfully held far fewer blood smeared mannequins, before reuniting with the others. “Any luck?”

“None,” Maud said, her tone dull. “But there are many left to search.”

“Just a bunch of zip,” Moon Dancer grunted. “Nothing useful on the terminals either. They’ve been wiped clean.”

Starlight frowned. “She must be hiding here somewhere. Sentry’s map showed it was around here.” She sighed. “Keep looking. Maybe we–”

CLANG.

Starlight’s shotgun rose up instantly to point up at the ceiling in the direction of the noise. “Did you hear that?”

“Definitely,” Moon Dancer said. She tapped the side of her helmet. “Switching to thermal cam.”

Tempest stepped forward and gently brushed Starlight’s shoulder. “You should step back, ma’am. Let me take the brunt, if it’s her.”

Starlight nodded. It was brutal, cold logic, but if that was the monster wandering around, Tempest was their slowest member.

“I see something!” Moon Dancer shouted. She raised her weapon up and tracked along the ceiling. “There. I can’t determine its shape but it’s hot and it’s moving fast.”

Starlight pointed around the room to the various tables. “Take cover. We’re going to shoot–”

“Too late!”

A flurry of bullets peppered the ceiling as something broke through one of the panels directly above Starlight. She had just long enough to see it was some sort of oblong spheroid, nothing at all like Adagio, before she recognized it and cried out. “No, wait!”

The spheroid exploded. A shower of something sticky and chunky poured down on Starlight like the world’s most disgusting sudden rainstorm, along with fragments of rubber and other artificial materials that formed the skin of a water containment bladder. The sheer stench punched Starlight in the face like a heavyweight champion, sending her reeling backwards until she fell onto one of the nearby benches, thankfully just missing one of the many mannequins piled up there.

Bile rose in her throat, her stomach not so much twisted into knots as wrapped around so tight it was wrung like a sponge. She swiftly reached for one of the built-in injections of anti-nausea medication and managed to activate it despite the detritus covering her faceplate, leaving her sighing in… well, not relief exactly, but at least with a measure of control.

“Ma’am, are you–”

“Nevermind me, is there anything else coming?” Starlight cut Moon Dancer off with a swipe of her hand.

“...no. It’s clear.”

Shaking her head, Starlight reached up with one hand and wiped away as much of the substance as she could until her helmet’s cleaner kicked in to wash away the rest. “This is getting absurd,” she grunted. She glanced around the room. “I don’t think Belle’s body is here anyway. Pie, you’ve served aboard asteroid stations like this. Do the command crew usually bunk with the rest?”

“Some do,” Maud said. “Most don’t.”

“Right, so she’ll be somewhere else further along then.”

Following her lead, they departed the primary dorm and entered the hallway on the far end. They emerged into another, smaller room that was laid out similarly to the previous one, but with a few extra amenities built in and fancier chairs. Unlike the previous room this one was barren of bodies or other such garish decorations, and surrounding the outskirts were a smaller number of larger rooms, each one labeled with a shiny aluminium nameplate.

“There,” Starlight pointed at one in the far corner. To her helmet enhanced vision the words “Rarity Belle” were easily visible.

Starlight stepped over to the doors and tapped the entry pad. It opened swiftly, and what it revealed made her wish she’d never agreed to sign up for this mission.

Rarity Belle’s body was sitting there, laid out on what looked like a chaise lounge of all things, her hand on her hip, gazing at Starlight with what, if she’d been alive, might’ve been a sultry stare. But that was until you noticed the staples holding her eyelids open, the pieces of skin missing from her cheeks and jowls, and the way half her body had been flayed and the skin sewn up with pieces of jumpsuits and other clothing to form one of the most unappealing types of dresses anyone, alive or dead, had ever worn. A carving knife laid next to her feet at the end of the lounge, still stained with blood.

There was also a small flash drive stick, which Starlight after a moment hesitantly reached for and, upon failing to set off a trap, stuck into a slot on her suit’s arm and examined the files. There was just one, an audio file. With a gulp and a last look at Rarity’s body, she pressed play.

Screams instantly filled her ears, making her glad she’d kept this on a private channel rather than broadcasting it. Above the high pitched sound came a cooing, deep-throated voice, one Starlight instantly recognized. “Oh Rarity, please hold still. I can’t get the right amount of skin for your dress if you keep flailing about.”

“Please! Please just kill me already! AAAAAAAAA–”

Starlight cut off the recording, fighting off tears. “Sweet Celestia,” she breathed, staring at Rarity’s body.

BLAM!

Starlight’s heart instantly jumped to beating a mile a minute as she brought up her shotgun once more. “What the hell–Pie!”

Maud, who’d apparently stepped past Rarity’s body without comment to search the rest of the room, came away from one of the lockers clutching her shoulder with one hand. In the other she gripped a keycard dangling from a chain. “Found it.” She tossed it over to Starlight.

Starlight caught it easily and stuffed it into a pocket. “What happened?”

As they stumbled out of the room, Maud answered, “Trap. Rigged shotgun, shot right in the shoulder point blank.”

Moon Dancer pushed past Tempest and looked Maud over. “Hmm… doesn’t seem to have cut through the suit.”

“No.” The slightest tightening of Maud’s mouth was the only visible sign she showed. “Hurts though.”

Bringing out her scanner, Moon Dancer switched it to medical functions. “Hmm… no sign of penetration. Your suit held. Major bruising though… possible microfracture…”

“I’m fine,” Maud grunted, pushing Moon Dancer’s scanner away. “We should move.”

Starlight stared at Maud, taking in the impassive sergeant’s expression. Maud seemed… tense. Her mouth tightened ever so slightly, one corner turned down. Even her movements seemed stiffer, though how much of that was her mood and how much was the pain from her wound, Starlight couldn’t say.

“She’s right,” Starlight said after a moment. “Let’s go. Mineshaft is this way… next on our list is…” She blinked, her mouth forming an ‘oh’ of realization. “...Pinkie Pie.”

As they began walking, Moon Dancer blurted out, “Pinkie Pie? Is she related to you, Sergeant?”

“...yes.” Maud’s words sounded harsher than usual, like they’d been filtered through a cone of gravel. “My sister.”

They passed through the bulkhead doors leading to the mineshaft, which dumped them in a single long corridor that stretched out into the distance.

“Oh my goodness,” Moon Dancer said, her voice shaking. “I-I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to–”

Maud stopped, slowly pivoting around and stared at Moon Dancer with cold, almost dead eyes. “Stop.”

Moon Dancer shrank back. “Okay,” she whispered.

As Maud and Tempest pressed on up in front, Moon Dancer lingered behind. Starlight realized this after a moment, sighing in understanding as she switched to a private channel. “Come on, Dancer, we’ve got to get going.”

“R-right, I’m just… Celestia I’m such an idiot, of course she was related to Sergeant Pie, what was I thinking?”

“Hey, we all make mistakes,” Starlight said consolingly. “But I’m growing worried for you. I need you to use your head more, okay?”

Moon Dancer started to reply, but instead of words only choked sounds and gasps came through, followed by a sickening snap of bone and tearing of flesh.

Starlight froze.”No,” she breathed. “No, no, no, please don’t be dead, please don’t be dead…”

She slowly turned around.

And screamed.

Moon Dancer’s headless body had crumpled onto its knees, blood pooling out from the gaping hole left by her missing neck. Said head dangled from the ends of steel-like claws stretching out of the ceiling on taffy-like arms.

As Tempest and Maud whirled to see what happened, Moon Dancer’s severed head was pulled out of its helmet, revealing her eyes frozen open in fear. The helmet was tossed aside with a clatter. Adagio’s face came down from the ceiling on a long, stretched out neck, grinning toothily.

“Aww, what’s that Moon Dancer?” she cooed as she ran a finger along Moon Dancer’s cheek, scoring a line of oozing red from the flesh. “You weren’t using your head? That’s okay. I’ll use it.”

Adagio turned her head around to face up with Moon Dancer’s, then with a chuckle she pressed her lips against Moon Dancer’s with a kiss like a passionate lover, tongue and all.

“Holy…” Starlight whispered, feeling her stomach writhe at the sight. Then she had to open her helmet in a hurry, barely managing to slide it open in time to avoid vomiting inside it as Adagio switched from kissing to eating Moon Dancer’s lips and head from the mouth up.

Teeth and jaw bones crunched in Adagio’s maw like so many tortilla chips, swallowed greedily by the horrifying monster till she’d torn what was left of Moon Dancer’s head in half through sheer bite strength.

Then she dropped out of the ceiling and her limbs shrank back into her body like slurped spaghetti noodles. “Mmm, that was delicious,” she moaned, wiping a few traces of blood off her mouth. Her eyes gleamed as she stared right at Starlight. “But I’m still hungry, and you look like a good meal.”

Starlight’s breath shook in her chest as she managed to close the gap in her helmet. She spun around and shrieked over the comms, “Run!”

Adagio’s mocking laughter followed Tempest, Maud, and Starlight as the three raced down the corridor as fast as their feet could take them.

05. Gummy Worm

“All clear, ma’am,” Trixie called back. “No traps that I can see.”

From her position kneeling next to Trixie, Twilight nodded. “Alright, let’s move in, but be cautious. We don’t want to get caught in something unexpected again. Flash, you take up our rear guard.” Flash, who was kneeling next to her gave a thumbs up. “I’ll take point, while you stay just behind me Trixie.”

“No disrespect ma’am, but are you sure—”

“Please let me be useful, Lulamoon,” Twilight asked.

Trixie gave Twilight a hard look before conceding with a sigh. “Alright, ma’am, but try to stay in one piece. I wouldn’t want to have to protect Flash by myself.”

Flash snorted while Twilight gave Trixie a small smile. “Yes, protecting Flash would be rather challenging with how annoying he is.”

“Hey!” Flash exclaimed. “I’m not… well, I mean…” Flash waved a hand weakly. “I’m sure I can’t be that bad.”

Both Twilight and Trixie answered his assertion with matching mischievous grins. Flash pouted, which only caused the girls to giggle. “Alright, time to focus, team,” Twilight said, “We go in on my signal.”

Both nodded their confirmation and readied to breach the double doors to the med bay with their firearms at the ready. Twilight took a deep breath then burst through the door.

All three rushed in as they rapidly scanned the room. It appeared to be a receptionist area of sterile white walls and tiled floors. Several benches were bolted into the walls, and a long reception desk was placed opposite the door. There were two doors on either side of the room besides the one they had entered through.

Placed in a chair behind the desk was the corpse of Rainbow Dash with her head lolling back over the head of the chair. Unlike Applejack, this body was mostly intact with only a single slash across her throat to indicate her cause of death. The keycard they needed hung around her neck on a cord.

They waited with baited breath to see if a delayed trigger would set off some trap or if Adagio herself popped into the room. Once it was confirmed that they were relatively safe, the team eased on their battle ready stances.

“Okay, the coast seems clear,” Twilight said. “Let’s do this correctly this time. Trixie can you check the keycard for any traps?”

“On it, ma’am.” Trixie scanned through several different displays on her helmet. “Looks clear, but still, be careful.”

Twilight nodded as she walked up next to the corpse. Cautiously, she grabbed the keycard in her hand and ripped it off the cord. The group tensed, waiting for some unknown trap to spring, but nothing happened.

Flash breathed a sigh of relief. “Glad this went off without any hidden tricks.”

“Yes, Trixie is very relieved that this didn’t literally blow up in our faces. Now, we only have to find Fluttershy, yes?”

“Yes, we do,” Twilight answered, “should be somewhere else around here. Trixie could you—”

“Already on it, ma’am,” Trixie said as she began to scan one of the two exit doors out of the room.

Twilight walked to Flash. “How are you doing?”

He leaned against the back wall with his arms crossed. “Never better, this has been going— Ah!” He flailed his arms wildly as he sunk slightly into the wall.

A cracking sound resounded through the room as cracks appeared along the ceiling above Trixie.

Lacking any time to save her, Twilight called out, “Lulamoon, above you!”

Trixie looked up with wide eyes, and, thinking quickly, she launched herself through the door and into the corridor beyond. Behind her, the ceiling collapsed blocking the door off with piles of broken metal.

“Lulamoon!” Twilight raced forward with Flash following behind her.

“I’m alright!” Trixie said over the comms, her voice staticky, “but I don’t think I can get back to you guys with this rubble in the way.”

“O-okay, we’ll think of something to get you out of there,” Twilight said, her voice cracking. “Flash, what happened?”

He inspected the wall and ceiling from his position for a moment before answering, “it looks like the wall was actually a support beam for that part of the ceiling. It had been close to breaking, and I unfortunately triggered its end early by leaning on it.” He shook his head. “This whole station is old, and I’m not surprised it’s falling apart. Just wish it had better timing.”

“T-that’s—” Twilight took a deep breath, “okay, we’re cut off from Trixie since there is no way we can remove this rubble by ourselves. Is there another way for us to meet up again?”

“There’s a second reception area on the far side of the med bay that connects to both the Command Center and Trixie’s corridor,” Flash said. “We can continue further in and meet there.”

“Seems like our best bet then.” Twilight tapped her comms. “Okay, Trixie, I need you to carefully make your way through the corridor to the far end of med bay.”

“W-what?!” Trixie said nervously. “I-I can’t. It’s too far and—”

“No, Trixie, I believe in you, okay?” Twilight interrupted. “You’ve been a massive help this entire time, and I know you can get through this. We’ll be back together soon.”

Twilight heard a deep shuddering breath over comms. “Okay, ma’am. I trust you. See you soon.”

“See you soon, Trixie.” Twilight turned off her comms and collapsed to the ground. “Dammit!” She punched the tiled floors.

“She’ll be okay.” Flash placed a comforting hand on Twilight’s shoulder.

“What if she’s not?” Twilight asked quietly.

“We won’t know by staying here.” He offered his hand to her. “Let’s go. We have to keep moving.”

She took the offered hand and was pulled back onto her feet. “Stay close?”

He gripped her hand tightly. “Of course.”

Twilight and Flash made their way further into the station following the non-blocked path. Twilight held onto Flash’s hand tightly with her own, staying on high alert. Both scanned their surroundings for more traps, but thankfully nothing appeared.

They avoided open doorways showing storage rooms filled with medical supplies. Cold storage of various medicines and shelves of important tools.

After a short while, they came to a branching path. One corridor heading right and another left. Flash brought up the map on his HUD and pointed to the passage going right. “That connects up with Trixie and eventually the second receptionist area.” He pointed at the other. “That heads directly towards our destination.”

Biting her lip, Twilight mulled over their options. “We should split up.” She gripped Flash’s hand tighter. “It’s the most logical option. Cover more ground, potentially meet back up with Trixie, but…”

Flash turned himself around to face Twilight head on. “It’s okay to say you don’t want to go off on your own.”

“No, it isn’t, Flash.” Twilight said bitterly with tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. “I’m the leader, I have to keep it together and I can’t be afraid to handle things on my own. I can’t be a coward here.”

Flash was quiet for a moment before he gently smiled. “Hey, remember back during our final exams at the academy?”

Twilight groaned. “You mean when I was a complete mess and you spent your time dealing with my meltdowns?” She snorted. “Yeah, I do. I was completing my officer training, and you were finishing off your engineering degree.”

He nodded. “Yeah, and while you were freaking out, do you remember what I told you?”

“That I was going to do great because I was great.” She sighed. “That’s not applicable here, Flash. I’m not some college kid anymore. I’m the leader of an elite team—”

“Yes, exactly,” Flash interrupted. “You’re the leader of an elite team, chosen by the federation based on your stellar performance. You wouldn’t be in the position you’re in, if you couldn’t handle it.”

“But—”

Flash placed a finger against Twilight’s lips. “No buts. It’s okay to be scared. No one would think less of you for it. But the reason you’re amazing is because you’ll do great in spite of the fear.”

Twilight took a deep breath and gave a small smile. “Thanks.” She looked downward. “Why did we stop dating again?”

Flash grinned widely. “You found me too charming?” Twilight snorted. Flash’s grin shrank to a bemused smirk. “Different paths. You were headed to the main fleet, and I was destined for a backwater mining station.”

“It seems funny in retrospect that we broke up for that reason, because here I am, at the same station you ended up in.” She looked into his face searching for something. “I’m wondering if that was a mistake.”

He was silent for a moment in thought. “Do you want to fix it then?”

She stared at him for a moment longer, intent in look and heavy in her breathing. Finally, she leaned towards him. He leaned in towards her. Both met in the middle in a lip locked embrace. It was a slow, passionate moment filled with past memories of late night study sessions and heated moments under star filled skies.

Too short for either of their liking, they separated. “I’ll meet up with Lulamoon, you head to the command center,” Twilight answered, short of breath.

“Aye, aye Captain,” Flash said with a cocky grin.

“That’s Major Captain to you,” Twilight answered in a teasing tone.

Flash released a sharp bark of laughter before taking on a more serious tone. “Don’t wait for her, though. If you meet up with her, perfect, but if you can’t immediately contact her just keep moving forward.”

“She’s part of my team.”

“We also don’t have the luxury of time to play a game of tag.” He cupped her cheek with his hand. “Promise me you’ll prioritize getting the keycard and returning back to me.”

Twilight grasped his hand with her own. “I promise.”

He grinned. “Good. Let’s get moving.”

Trixie cautiously traversed the corridor before her, the sterile white walls feeling closer than they should, the echo of her boots against tile making her feel on edge.

Every so often she’d pass an open door filled with medical equipment and beds, which made sense as this was theoretically a medical ward.

What didn’t was the rotten stench wafting from the room that bypassed her air filter or the human shaped lumps under the bedsheets. She tried her best to ignore it not wanting to truly know the answer to the question.

“Just a little further, Trixie,” she said softly to herself. “You’ll be out of here in no time.”

She had to return to Twilight and Flash. They were counting on her and even more than that, she felt safer with them both around. She would never admit it aloud, but she found herself enjoying their company the longer they stuck together.

They were a good team.

Reinforcing her resolution, she scanned the corridor for more traps. Nothing else had come up since the last one, but she couldn’t be caught off guard with no one else around. There was no one to help her now.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Trixie froze in place. She whipped her head around looking for the source of the sound. It was a steady noise that seemed to echo from everywhere. She quickly realized that the source seemed to be hidden speakers interspersed along the ceiling of the corridor.

The beeping became louder as she stayed in place, growing louder until it became a shrill sound. She activated the sound dampening in her helmet, which relieved her poor ears for a moment, before sound overcame even that.

She clutched her head with her hands and screamed in pain. The sound hammered at her, assailing her mental defenses and causing indescribable pain to her eardrums.

Clenching her eyes shut, she prayed on anything that would listen to just make. It. STOP.

Then it did.

She opened her eyes and felt… wrong. She brought her hands before her eyes and saw them slick with blood. A perfectly round hole was in the middle of both palms. She idly noted that she could see the tiles stained red with the blood flowing from the wound through the holes in her hands.

She looked up and came face to face with a long tendril sharpened to a point. It was slick with blood. Her blood.

Ah, Adagio had found her.

She was going to die.

Several more tendrils split off from the first. Each punctured through her suit coming out the other side cutting through skin, tendon, and bone. She could feel small worms from the tendrils eating their way through her body. Slowly, multiplying and slashing through her insides.

The pain was excruciating, she wanted to scream, but her brain was so overwhelmed by the pain feedback it had made her unable to think, and her senses numb.

The first tendril moved itself to be just in front of her eye. It began spinning in place reminding her of a dentist drill. Tears flowed freely down her face. She was terrified, but was coming to terms with her end. She only wished the monster would hurry up to finally release her from this torture.

A message popped up on her screen.

She read it.

Then she screamed in rage.

The tendril plunged into her eye, and pierced her brain.

Twilight ran briskly into the room. It was similar to the last with the only difference being the presence of a lanky woman with long pink hair covering her face seated in the chair behind the reception desk.

“Fluttershy.” Twilight turned to see Flash exiting a second connecting corridor with a keycard gripped in his hand. “I started to go to the command center, but couldn’t leave you behind.”

She huffed. “The sentiment is appreciated, but you were supposed to go directly there.” She scanned her surroundings quickly searching for their third compatriot. “Did you see Trixie?”

“She wasn’t here when I arrived and she wasn’t in the command center.” Twilight furrowed her brows in worry. Flash quickly moved forward to comfort her. “Hey, hey, she’s probably just taking it slow or got bogged down disarming traps. We’ll meet her in the next room.”

“But what if she needs our help?” Flash looked at her with a sympathetic look. Twilight shrunk into herself. “You’re suggesting we leave her behind.”

“We can look for her using the cameras in central command, but… yes, we can’t take our time here.”

Twilight took a deep breath. “I don’t like it, but fine.” She brought up a finger with an intense look on her face. “But we’re checking the monitors as soon as we arrive.”

Flash nodded with a grin. Before he could suggest moving, Twilight quickly kissed him on the lips. They shared an intimate moment before coming apart.

“Promise you’ll stay with me?” She asked with a neediness in her voice.

“I promise, Twilight.” Flash answered.

With their hands entwined, they continued onwards deeper into the station.

06. Twizzlers

Sweat poured down the sides of Starlight’s face as she raced through the corridor, her boots clomping with every step, her shotgun swinging in her arm. Ahead of her, Maud carted Tempest along with her like a three legged race, somehow staying ahead of Starlight.

Behind them, bouncing from wall to wall and ceiling to floor like some kind of demented spider was Adagio. She cackled as she kept up the chase, always lagging behind, like she was luring them somewhere.

Or toying with them.

“How much further?!” Starlight screamed over comms.

“According to the map it’s another 250 meters to the mine shaft!” Tempest replied between grunts of pain.

“Run all you like,” Adagio trilled, her distorted voice sending shockwaves down Starlight’s spine, threatening to freeze her in place. “It won’t save you!”

That’s it, Starlight seethed. “Keep going!” She ordered Maud and Tempest. “I’ll hold her off.”

“Ma’am?!” Tempest blurted, staring back in shock. “With respect–”

“That’s an order, Shadow! Go!”

Ignoring the other two, Starlight leveled her shotgun squarely at Adagio, who’d slowed to a saunter, as if mocking her. So she took a moment to check the magazine, ensuring a full load of armor piercing rounds as were her preference, then aimed. “Go back to Tartarus where you came from!”

BLAM BLAM BLAM!

Three quick squeezes of the trigger saw three slugs leave the shotgun’s barrel, each one landing perfectly on target. Messy chunks of flesh exploded from Adagio’s torso as great holes tore her open, leaving innards exposed. Inky black and viscous yellow blood and ichor splattered everywhere as the monster screamed in sheer agony, collapsing onto her back.

“Yeah!” Starlight cackled, a triumphant smile twisting her mouth. “That’s for Sunburst you bitch!”

As Adagio shifted up onto one knee, extending a claw outward like a string of taffy, Starlight fired off another trio of shells into Adagio’s face. The monster’s brains splashed the floor in a shower of grey and black.

“Wow,” Starlight murmured as she beheld the end results. “That was easy.” She tapped a button on the ammunition counter of her shotgun, forcing it to load in more shells from the magazine. “Too easy. Pick up the pace, ladies!”

She turned and ran after Tempest and Maud, keeping her shotgun ready, one ear listening out for pursuit. For the first hundred or so meters she heard nothing but silence. Maybe she really had–

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”

Starlight’s left leg flew forward and cracked at the knee due to suddenly taking her full weight unexpectedly. She fell over in a tumble, screaming as her suit’s damage klaxons went wild, warning of suit breeches and severe injury.

As her suit began its automatic emergency sealing procedures, Starlight glanced back to see her right leg left behind, sliced off neatly at the hip with a trail of blood being the only connection left between her body and it.

Adagio grabbed the leg and bit into it, armor and all, chowing down on it like a chicken wing. “Nice try,” Adagio murmured through mouthfuls of flesh and metal, completely uninjured.

“Ma’am!” Tempest shouted. She and Maud had nearly reached the bulkhead door to the mineshaft, and to Starlight’s horror they started turning around to come back.

“No! Keep going!” Starlight ordered through gritted teeth. She reached back with one arm and fired off another couple of shotgun shells point black, blowing messy holes in Adagio’s face. The abomination let out an unholy roar as it fell backwards.

Starlight turned back and wrenched herself up via a handle on the nearby wall. As swiftly as she could between the suit’s auto injected stims,pain relievers and her injuries, she pulled herself along the wall, managing to drag herself forward too slowly for her liking.

She paused long enough to switch her shotgun over to full auto grapeshot mode and blindly fired down the corridor, unleashing dozens of miniature flechettes with every shot. More horrific screams greeted her with every pull of the trigger, allowing Starlight to smile, just a bit.

And then something reached forward with a disturbing schlup sound and sliced clean through her right arm at the shoulder.

“AAAAAaaauauhahaahaaugh!” she bellowed, stumbling against the wall as her shotgun clattered to the floor. The shock plunged through her body, forcing her to pop open the front of her helmet just so she could vomit. Blood dribbled down the sides of her mouth along with bile as she desperately tried to keep carrying herself forward, damn the consequences. Her mind raced with terror but she refused to give in. She was not going to make it that easy for this monster!

“Ma’am, we’ve got to–” Maud started to shout.

“No, just, keep going, please!” Starlight begged in a ragged, half-choked voice. She used her helmet’s HUD to trigger the emergency booster stims, overriding the suit’s automatic checks against it. She wasn’t going to live, that much she knew, but like Tartarus would she just give up.

She refused to look back even as she heard Adagio pointedly exaggerate the noises of eating, knowing that her arm was being torn apart in Adagio’s toothy maw.

“But, ma’am, you have the keycard!”

“Wait, what?” Starlight gasped.

A loud bang of dropped metal drew Starlight’s attention, allowing her to see Adagio rise up from the floor, wiping her mouth. Not a trace of her injuries were visible. “Oh really,” Adagio cooed, a sinister chuckle burbling up inside her chest. “Stop trying to fight back. I’m going to kill you one way or the other. You might as well accept it.”

Adagio scooped the arm back off the floor and clawed the metal off of the hand, sticking Starlight’s finger in her mouth in a way that, in other circumstances, would’ve had Starlight blushing profusely. Then she bit down, the bones crunching between her teeth as she added, “Or don’t. It’s more fun that way.”

Starlight’s whole body trembled hard enough she nearly lost her grip on the railing. Sweat poured down her body in droves, exceeding her suit’s ability to combat it. Her vision swam, fuzzing at the edges, the shock of two lost limbs threatening to sink her into unconsciousness.

“Go,” she murmured into her suit radio, her voice losing steam rapidly as she pulled herself along the railing as fast as she could maneuver with just the one leg.

As she crawled, her hand fumbled for her chest pocket, managing to withdraw the keycard. “Gotta… gotta get it to them,” she said, though whether she was speaking to herself or to them she wasn’t sure anymore. Her mind was dull, dim, the lights shutting down throughout the place like they were spotlights going out one by one over a stage.

Somewhere deep inside her, the little girl that had once been abandoned by her best friend for over a decade cried out in horror, clinging to her pillow as the monsters emerged from under the bed, ready to rend her to pieces.

Falling flat on her face when Adagio sliced off her other leg was inevitable, she realized as she abruptly found herself on the floor, her nose smashed and broken against the inside of her suit helmet. Yet she could hardly feel the pain anymore. It was still there at a distance, somewhere where there was some voice shrieking like a damned soul, but in the depths of the fog Starlight didn’t really notice it. She was too focused on her goal.

“Go,” she whispered as she pushed off the floor enough to lean against the wall. With one great toss she hurled the keycard in her hand in the direction of Tempest and Maud, seeing Maud dart forward just long enough to catch it.

Adagio’s claws stretched forward and took off Starlight’s arm, but Starlight found herself laughing giddily as even more blood flowed from her body. Her mind had all but shut down entirely now, her vision so grey and tunneled it was a wonder she’d remained conscious at all. “Hahaha, I hope you… hope you choke on it…” Starlight tittered.

Adagio’s face twisted in a monstrous way, pure rage causing her to let out a spine-shaking roar that got through even Starlight’s giddiness. Starlight fell over onto her chest, screaming anew in pure fright as Adagio straddled her and grabbed her head in both claws, the ends shoved through the helmet to puncture her skin, just enough to add extra pain.

Starlight continued to scream until it fell apart in liquid, gushing gurgles as Adagio’s teeth tore her throat out.

Maud sealed the bulkhead door. Wordlessly she handed the keycard over to Tempest, then checked the status of her own suit’s weapons, specifically her gauntlets and boots, which could be electrified. The failure of Starlight’s shotgun to do more than temporarily annoy Adagio left Maud deeply concerned.

As for Starlight’s passing, Maud buried any feelings from that deep, deep down. She didn’t have the luxury of worrying about it right now. “We need to find the next card,” she said.

Tempest shot her a look, sighed, and nodded. “Right. Damn it… Glimmer didn’t deserve any of that shit.”

“No.” Maud focused on the corridor before her, the plain metal walls lined with signs warning about the dangers of the mines and the need for safety equipment. “The monster seems committed to making us afraid.”

“Yeah, noticed that too, huh?” Tempest scowled. She glanced back at the bulkhead door even as she shuffled her way towards the mineshaft with Maud. “Think that door’ll hold her for long?”

“...no.” Maud’s mouth tightened a fraction. “We’d better hurry.”

A short, brisk jog later saw them enter the mineshaft proper. Like every such asteroid mining facility, the constructed walls and floors gave way to the natural rock of the interior of the asteroid, shored up wherever necessary to keep the shafts open and sealed from the vacuum of space. Lockers full of equipment lined the walls, with a few bits and bobs scattered about amongst the requisite skeletons. Lights hung on strings nailed to the rock ceiling extending deep into a dark tunnel that led off into numerous catacombs.An asteroid the size of this one, comparable to the size of Minerva in the Equus home system, could have hundreds of kilometers of criss-crossing tunnels.

Thankfully there was no need to go diving off into the depths. Not when their target lay sprawled along the stairs, her cascade of pink locks stained with blood, her face twisted forever in a frozen expression of pain from the axe embedded in her stomach.

Tempest winced as she approached and snagged the keycard off the corpse. “Oof, that must’ve been painful.”

Maud stiffened. Mechanically she forced herself to take one step, then another until she stood before the body. She looked down at the face of Pinkie Pie, and without meaning to, reached out with one hand to stroke her cheek. Her muscles seized up as she moved her hand across Pinkie’s face over and over, each time her mouth twisting further and further into a frown, her eyes turning misty. “...I’m sorry…” she whispered. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here for you.”

Tempest stepped beside her and placed a hand on Maud’s shoulder. “I’m sorry for your loss, Sergeant.”

Maud shrugged off Tempest’s hand. “It’s… fine,” she grunted. “We should hurry.”

As they rushed off, Maud’s fists gripped knuckle white at her sides, they made their way towards the command center, finding themselves in a narrow corridor with another massive bulkhead door at the end.

Crash!

The horrific shriek of tearing metal and the rapid clip-clop sound of claws against steel drew their attention. “Damn it, not again,” Tempest cursed.

Maud took one look at Tempest and pointed to the command center. “Go. I’ll hold her off.”

Tempest sneered, holding up her rifle. “Oh Tartarus no, no way. We just lost Glimmer pulling this crap. We’re not losing you too.”

Maud stared back, impassive as a stone. “You’re too injured to fight. Without a distraction Adagio will kill us both if I try to assist you. This is the only way.” Maud raised both fists and switched on the electricity, causing them to hum. “Now go.”

“...fine.”

Maud turned away from Tempest and took up a martial arts stance, just in time to see Adagio round the corner, her toothy jaw still dripping with Starlight’s blood. “Oooh, what’s–”

Adagio’s flesh sizzled as Maud’s electrified gauntlet popped her in the mouth, sending her reeling. A followup punch with Maud’s left gauntlet to the side of her head sent Adagio sprawling into the deck. Maud raised one boot to stomp onto Adagio’s chest, but the monster rolled out of the way, springing to her feet.

With a hiss, Adagio sprang onto Maud, raking her claws along Maud’s suit, carving out bits of electronics and causing Maud’s HUD to blare with alarms and warning windows. Maud brought her knee up right into Adagio’s groin, then slammed a fist straight into the side of Adagio’s head. The monster crumpled like a sack of wet potatoes.

That’s for Pinkie Pie, Maud thought. She kicked Adagio in the shoulder once, twice, thrice. Each time her electrified boot landed sizzled Adagio’s skin till fat began to boil off and pop. The monster howled and leapt up to her feet once more, her claws reaching for Maud’s shoulder. Maud side stepped, smashed her fist right into Adagio’s upper arm, then grappled, and with one mighty yank tore Adagio’s arm off.

In the process however she lost her footing as Adagio hissed and sprung like a coiled cat, spitting and biting at Maud’s legs before springing up and landing a solid blow directlyinto Maud’s injured shoulder.

Crying out, Maud stumbled, and prepared to strike back.

Schlunk!

Maud stilled as she realized Adagio’s arm had punched through her torso, straight through her lungs. She gasped, struggling for air as fluid filled what was left and her vision began to fade. “I… I won’t…” Vainly, she struck out with her weakened fists, landing blow after blow against Adagio’s face. But all the melted skin in the world wouldn’t stop what was about to happen.

Adagio wrenched her claw back out of Maud, unplugging the hole and leaving blood spilling everywhere, then picked Maud up and hurled her all the way out the corridor and onto the deck plating. Maud bounced several times, her whole body wracked in excruciating agony. Blood seeped out of her gaping wound and unconsciously she brought up a hand to try and stem the tide. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the massive bulkhead door to the command center closing, with Tempest on the other side.

Grinning to herself, she glanced over to her sister’s body, close enough that Maud could reach for her hand. “I’ll see you soon, Pinkie,” she said.

An unholy shriek and a flash of pain were the last thing Maud knew as Adagio buried both sets of claws deep into her brain.

07. Cinnamon Hearts

Twilight and Flash, hands still entwined, walked into the vaulted steel room of the command centre. An array of monitors and attached computer consoles dominated most of the area barring a row of windows along one wall that showed a laboratory accessible by a steel door to the side.

Lying dead in a chair placed perfectly in the center of the room was Spike.

Both stopped just before him. Twilight took in the ravaged corpse, the massive hole in his head, the gouges across his body. She felt herself shake from the emotion trying to claw its way out of her.

A comforting squeeze of her hand caused her to turn to face Flash. With a sympathetic look, he brushed away the beginnings of tears in her eyes.

“Do you need some time?” Flash asked quietly.

Walking up to the corpse, Twilight scanned over the body and found what she was looking for around its neck.

Ripping the keycard off the cord, she turned to Flash with a determined look on her face. “No, we have to survive first.” She looked back one more time at Spike before going to the nearest console. “I can mourn when we escape.”

Flash placed a hand on Twilight’s shoulder as she began searching the cameras for signs of Trixie. “What do you need me to do?”

“Go to one of the other stations and get a read on the other group’s progress. We need to know how close they are.”

“On it, Twilight,” Flash said.

She felt him leave and felt a momentary pang of loss at the removal of his touch. Shaking her head and admonishing herself silently for getting too caught up in the wrong things, she set to work on her task.

After a moment, she came upon the camera that faced into the corridor Trixie had gone down. A few more clicks and she came to the corpse of her.

A hole was punctured through the side of her head, dried blood caked onto rips and tears in her suit. Twilight closed her eyes to fight back another rise of emotion.

Another one of her team was gone.

“Twilight you need to get over here!” Flash called out.

Snapping open her eyes, she dashed to the monitor Flash was at, his face marred by a scowl.

“What’s happening?” Twilight asked.

“Tempest is on her way from the mine shaft and is entering through the lab,” Flash answered. “I also found Moon Dancer, Starlight, and Maud. They…” He frowned. “They’re dead.”

Numb from loss, Twilight could only close her eyes. “We can only hope that Shadow has the other keycards so we can escape together. How close is she?”

“Very.” Flash gripped the edge of the console, his knuckles going white, small tremors racing through his hands.

“And Adagio is right behind her.”

Tempest hobbled through the doors and into a spacious laboratory. Long tables with cabinets filled with precisely labeled chemicals. Several emergency levers were placed intermittently through the space that Tempest knew would initiate a lockout if pulled.

She stumbled forward using the tables as crutches, staying upright through sheer force of will.

Through the wall length window across from her, she saw Twilight and Flash racing to the door she was moving towards. As she arrived, it slid open revealing a frazzled Twilight.

“Shadow!” She jolted forward with her arms open to hug Tempest, but stopped short. She coughed into her hand embarrassed. “Good to see you alive, Staff Sergeant. Do you have the keycards?”

“Yes, here.” Tempest shoved the keycards into Twilight’s hands. “Adagio is right behind me, we need to slow her down.”

“We could shut the lab doors from the console,” Flash suggested, “stall her while we make our way back the way we came.”

“Pointless,” Tempest retorted. “I’ve been watching her tear through everything on my way here. A few doors, no matter how strong or thick they are, aren’t going to stop her from getting to us.”

“Should we just make a run for it back the way we came?” Flash said.

“You two might make it, but…” Tempest looked down at her injured leg. “I don’t think I’ll get there with you.”

“Then we need to think of a new plan,” Twilight said. “Has anything worked on her thus far? I doubt any of you went down without a fight.”

“No, anything we throw at her, she just heals or regenerates from.”

Twilight’s eyes widened as a plan began to form in her mind. “Have you managed to destroy any part of her?”

“No, why? What are you thinking?”

“What if we blow up the lab with her in it?” Twilight said. “Destroy every piece of her in one go. She can’t heal or regenerate from nothing. It’s not biologically possible.”

“That could work.” Flash frowned. “But how do we set this up?”

Tempest closed her eyes as she considered the variables and realized the inevitable conclusion. “We don’t.”

Twilight gave her a confused expression. “What do you—”

Stepping back into the lab, Tempest slammed the emergency lever down next to the door causing an alarm to blare and the doors to slam down on both sides of the lab. Red light flooded the room as the emergency protocols activated.

Ignoring the frantic slamming noises on the door from presumably Twilight, Tempest started searching for what she needed to blow up that monster. A quick perusal of a nearby cabinet got her a portable blowtorch, but nothing explosive.

Racking her brain through explosive chemicals that her roommate Moon Dancer had once recited to her on a particularly stressful examination day, she scanned across the room using her zoom scope.

A slam from the door leading to the mine shaft drew her attention for a moment.

“Come out and play!” Adagio sang through the steel as the sound of ripping metal filled the room.

Quickly running out of time, Tempest renewed her search in earnest and happened upon a white canister labeled “Isopropyl Ether” on one of the tables. Perfect explosive material.

She hobbled towards it, desperate to fulfill her last mission.

As she neared the canister, she felt a powerful force push her to the ground. Cackling with clawed hands, Adagio shredded Tempest in the back causing her to scream as red hot agony radiated from her back.

“Got you, little Shadow.” Adagio cackled again, a mad screeching sound. Electrical burns criss crossed her face from where Maud had punched her giving her a deranged look. “What are you up to?”

Tempest looked to a nearby open shelf under the table. Inside were several carelessly open glass tubes of clear liquid. A stroke of luck as one particular tube was labeled “Bleach”.

She recalled some pertinent information about chemical safety and grabbed the tube with an evil grin spreading across her face.

“Oh, and what’s— AH!” Adagio screamed as Tempest tossed the bleach from the tube directly into her eyes.

Adagio got off of Tempest as she fell back, rubbing at her eyes and causing the bleach to spread.

Not wanting to waste her only opportunity, Tempest gritted through the pain and hauled herself up using the table. Throwing her body across the surface, she grabbed the canister, twisted off the cap roughly and shoved the spout of the portable burner into the open top.

A flick of her finger caused flames to erupt from the spout.

Adagio looked in her direction, rage etched into her face as much as the chemicals burned into her eyeballs.

“You bitch!” She screamed.

“Go to Tartarus,” Tempest calmly replied.

Then the world exploded in a fiery blaze.

Twilight struggled back to her feet, throwing herself at the blackened window, her ungloved hands landing with a smack. “Sergeant!” she cried. “Shadow? Tempest?! Answer me, damn it!”

“Twilight…” Flash said, reaching out to set a hand on her shoulder.

Twilight shrugged it off and snagged her helmet off the floor, swapping between infrared to ultraviolet to every other detection method it had. “Staff Sergeant Tempest Shadow, answer me!”

“Twilight, she’s not--”

Shrieking wordlessly, Twilight slammed a fist against the transparent aluminium alloy between her and her last remaining survivor. “Celestia, damn it, answer me or I will have you court-martialed so hard your great-grandaughters’ll be feeling the aftereffects!”

Nothing.

Flash set another hand on Twilight’s shoulder, one she didn’t shrug off this time. “She’s gone, Twilight. She took Adagio with her, but… she’s gone.”

“...damn it,” Twilight whispered as she reached up and clawed the helmet back off her head, letting it collapse to the ground with a clatter. Her eyes watered up till moisture flowed freely down her cheeks. “Celestia damn it!”

She collapsed onto the floor, forcibly removing more and more of her armor as she sobbed, until she’d scattered it everywhere, leaving her in plain BDUs.

“Hey, hey,” Flash cooed, sitting down next to her. He opened up his arms, and she sank into them without regret. “It’s going to be okay.”

“Is it?” she muttered as she snuggled up against him. While never the most muscular of men, Flash was nevertheless toned, and she could feel every bit of his warm flesh through their thin uniforms. The comfort of simple human touch caused her to curl up more, until she was splayed out all over him. “I got them all killed, Flash… all of them. Sunburst, Moon Dancer, Trixie, Starlight, Maud, Tempest… they were counting on me, and now they’re all gone.”

Flash wrapped his arms tightly around her, pulling her in further. Her ear fell upon his chest, and she could clearly hear his heartbeat.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

“They knew the risks when they signed up, same as the rest of us,” Flash said quietly. He brushed one hand along her spine, down from the base of her neck to the center of her back. She shivered under the touch and clutched him harder. “But hey, like I said… Tempest got Adagio.”

Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

“Are we sure?” Twilight swallowed, her throat heavy and thick from snot. This was why she hated crying, more than anything else, how painful it left her throat afterwards. “Are we sure it’s over?”

Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

“I’m pretty sure.” Flash gave her one last squeeze, then released her and stood up. “I can check the cameras, make sure there’s nothing left.”

“Please!” Twilight said, louder than she intended. She held one hand to her breast. “Please,” she repeated, quieter this time. “I… I want to be sure.”

As she joined him over by the control console, she could hear her own heartbeat hammering in her ears.

Ba-da-dum. Ba-da-dum.

While he checked the cameras, Twilight switched on the thermal sensors and various other detection equipment. “Looks like she completely obliterated herself,” Twilight murmured as she scanned the area. “Tempest, I mean. There’s so much evaporated blood and gore everywhere…”

“About as bad as the rest of them, it seems,” Flash agreed. He made a face as he switched the cameras off. “You uh, you don’t want to see what it looks like.”

“No. I don’t.”

Ba-da-dum. Ba-da-dum.

Twilight continued to run analyses of the air. “Looks like a lot of strange particles there too…stuff I don’t recognize.”

Flash sidled up to her, closer than he needed to be, but she didn’t mind. He glanced down at the panel. “I recognize it. I saw it show up once when someone tried to use a makeshift flamethrower on Adagio. It was the only thing that seemed to do any real damage. I think it’s safe to say Tempest’s firebomb killed her.”

“Then it’s done,” Twilight said, her voice heavy. “At least… everything except that Primal entity you told us about. Do you know where--”

Flash held up a finger to Twilight’s lips, jacking up her heart rate.

Ba-da-da-dum. Ba-da-da-dum.

“I don’t think we need to worry about that right now,” Flash said. He dropped his finger, brushing his thumb along Twilight’s cheek. She took in a sharp breath as he closed the distance, his other hand running down her side. “I don’t know about you, but I’m just happy to be alive right now.”

Ba-da-da-dum. Ba-da-da-dum.

“Uuh, um, yeah,” Twilight breathed. Maybe it was the stress of battle, of survival, the relief of living through what had killed so many of her fellow soldiers, but something in Twilight caught fire and lit up her body, filling her with a sudden need for closeness. And here was Flash.

So she moved up against him, pressing their bodies together, unable to resist a gasp as she felt him poking into her hip. “Me-me too.”

“Twilight,” Flash panted, his hand on her side lowering to cup her rear, his other falling towards her breast. “Is… this is okay, right? I, we--”

She kissed him.

Ba-da-da-da-dum. Ba-da-da-da-dum.

His lips tasted like sweat and desperation, the same as hers no doubt. It was nevertheless a bouquet that stirred her like crazy, their tongues intermingling as her hands wandered up and down his body. She allowed him to walk them over to one of the empty control console chairs, setting her down in it while he hovered over her, breaking the kiss only to trail his lips down her neck.

“Oh… Flash… Flash,” she moaned, her eyes beginning to moisten again with fresh tears, though from ecstasy or overwhelmed emotion she couldn’t say. She pushed him away long enough to strip off her shirt and bra, baring her breasts to him.

Ba-da-da-da-da-dum. Ba-da-da-da-da-dum.

Flash laughed, a low, almost sadistic sounding laugh that made Twilight shiver to her bones from delight. “Oh wow, I missed seeing these,” he said, his hands freely exploring her skin as he resumed kissing her neck. “You’re. So. Beautiful.”

Then he moved one hand to rub on her belly, and she let out a loud moan.

Ba-da-da-da-da-dum. Ba-da-da-da-da-dum.

“Flash,” she whispered, arching her back as she allowed him full access to her. “I’m so glad you’re here. I love you.”

“You love me?” he chuckled, refusing to stop.

“Yes!” she cried out as his teeth nipped at her shoulder. “Yes, f-fuck, yes, I love you, Flash.”

Ba-da-da-da-da-da-dum.

“Are you sure about that?”

Ba-da-da-da-da-da-dum.

She laughed, her eyes squeezed shut as his hand moved to sit directly on her left breast, the other snaking down to the straps of her BDU pants. “Of course.”

Ba-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da….

Dum.

Her eyes shot open, bugging out of her skull as sheer agony replaced the ecstasy flooding her system. Her mouth gaped open, her breath coming in short, sudden gasps, blood trickling from both sides of her mouth as she stared down.

At her heart, clutched in Flash’s claws, ripped right out of her chest.

“What…” she gasped, even as her vision turned grey and fuzzy, her whole body slumping in the chair. “What…you… why…”

Flash beamed at her. “Love can really hurt like a bitch sometimes, don’t you think? Especially when you’re separated for a long time, pining after someone you wished never left. Didn't hurt me a bit, but you? I know you better. You were hurting for a long time, weren't you? Well, why don’t you just eat your heart out then?”

He opened his mouth, revealing a full set of razor sharp teeth identical to Adagio’s as he tore into the heart, unleashing a gush of blood all over Twilight’s body, splattering her face and into her mouth and eyes.

And then, as everything faded away into nothingness, Twilight could only think one thing.

He set us up. He used me.

Used.

Used used used used used…

…used….

Author's Note

And that's the end... well, the end for now. We've got a few details about how this was supposed to end we can go into in a blog entry once Otter and I have some time. For now, I hope you enjoyed this short little horror tale. It took me out of my comfort zone, but it also took Otter out of his (being sci-fi) so it made for a fun interesting little collab.

Thanks for reading. :twilightsmile: