Scream Station

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.