Scream Station

“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.