Scream Station

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.”