Discord Space

"Ponyfeathers, it's a good thing that the centrifuge drives run on their own power supply. This is a real mess." Applejack only had the lights in her suit to illuminate the downed power core. One of the enormous electromagnets had broken loose of it's restraint. And in order to put it back into place, she'd need to redirect power from the solar panels first. A real mess indeed.

A quick adjustment to her locator pointed out the way to the nearest control station. A few minutes of some power redirection, and the station would be back in business. Each step on the grated floor echoed through the expansive room like a gunshot. "Come on Applejack, this is silly." The control station was positioned so that her back would be to the walkway. Given the lack of light, even she had a few cautions about approaching.

Somewhere above, a distinct crawling sound set her mane on edge. Much as she wanted to shine a light up there and reassure herself it was a mouse, the redirection process couldn't be interrupted. "Okay, this isn't too bad. Just need to pull a bit more power from the television network, and that should unlock the clamps." The sound of moving machinery in the far distance once she made the changes came as a good sign.

Another crawling sound reached the outer microphones of her helmet, relaying it into her ears. This time it was lower down, to the right, where she had come from. The mouse was probably drawn towards the emergency lights of the lift, nothing more. Now the electromagnet itself would require power, getting that would be harder to pull off. Eventually she decided on the sauna and spa level, though she had to wonder why anypony thought they needed emergency power.

"Alrighty, once it's back in place, we'll be back up and running." The crawling sound came a third time, from the walkway itself not too far from her. A silhouette of a pony appeared in front of the tiny patch of light created by the lift. She couldn't see any sign of a RIG however. "Excuse me, this is a restricted area. You shouldn't even be down here without a RIG, let alone in the middle of a power outage!"

There was no reply. What was a pony doing down there in the power core anyway? Unless... had they sabotaged the electromagnet somehow? "I'm not warning you again, I will call security if you don't leave immediately. And if you're the one who caused this whole mess, I'll make sure they know about that. You hear me?" Silence. She had avoided shining her light at the stranger in case she accidentally blinded one of her fellow engineers, but with nothing to go on…

"Fine, you asked for it. Well, you didn't say anything actually, but neverthe..." In the few seconds it had taken to turn from the control station to the pony, two long appendages had appeared on the silhouette, ending in sick blades. What the light revealed about that pony left Applejack unable to speak more than a few words, let alone move. "It's... not possible. It can't be!"

What remained of the lower jaw had become two long tusks, either side of a gaping hole. Both eyes had been violently ripped out to leave bloody black holes. The appendages she had seen were fleshy growths from the shoulder blades, the blades themselves seemed to be hanging at either end. A sickly tear down the belly, possibly self inflicted, allowed a trail of internal organs to drag behind the horrible creature before her. It was the name tag which struck fear right through Applejack's heart. Loud Mouth.

"Bucking Tartarus!" Legs kicked into motion as she sprinted for her life. Only Loud Mouth, or whatever he had become, was much faster than she was. "This is Applejack! I'm being chased by a bucking monster! Help me!" Her radio was still dead. Of course she hadn't thought to redirect power to the transmitter station. And now, that thing was in the room with her, ready to tear her apart with those horrible blades!

Something caught her hooves, bringing her crashing onto the walkway. Behind her, the twisted mix of galloping hooves, bone grinding against metal, and a sickly slobbering sound chased. "Oh horseapples, Celestia help me!" As she rolled onto her back defensively, she noticed that it was a pony leg, severed at the thigh which had tripped her up. From the burn, it could very well have been caused by a plasma cutter, not unlike her own. Maybe, just maybe…

Her own plasma cutter came to life. The three laser pointers synchronised with her eyes, aiming at the direct position she was looking. "Loud Mouth! Stop! I don't want to do this, please!" It continued to charge, coming within a metre of her back hooves. Much as she wanted to close her eyes at that moment, she needed to keep them open when the plasma cutter fired. Once. Twice. Several more times after that…

One of the bladed appendages fell to the grated floor, as did what remained of his head. For a moment Applejack found herself silently screaming as the body continued forward. It fell just short of her flank, landing on the suit covering her tail instead. The screaming stopped, replaced by uncontrollable whimpering. Had it really just happened? Had she really just cut off the limbs of another pony, who looked like nothing she could imagine?

"I'm going home... I'm going home on the first shuttle I can get to..." The crew! The shuttle they were working to free, it could very well be their only way off the station. But she had to get the power up again first, otherwise there would be no way to warn them of the danger. What if those monsters had reached them though? Air Head, and Plasma Blast. Those two lovebirds, torn to pieces by monsters…

She rolled over again and got back up. That wouldn't happen, she'd make sure of it. "Pull yourself together Applejack. The best thing you can do right now is restore power to the station. That way everypony will have a fighting chance, right?" She made her way back towards the control station very timidly. Each time her eyes moved caused the cutter to as well. She didn't have the courage to turn it off.

"Disengaging safety clamps. Electromagnet free." For a moment she paused to listen for anything else before moving to the side. From there, she could move the electromagnet back down into place. The tension around her was growing as she did so. "Electromagnet reset. Please stand away from the power core before activation." That was it, all she needed to do now was reactivate the core.

"It was just one, right? Just one to deal with. A minor outbreak, nothing that can overrun the whole station right?" She lifted her hoof into the switch socket and turned it fully. Life came back to the power core with a mighty lightning bolt. At last, the station would be back to full power. Lights inside the room came on, fully illuminating the horrible scene behind her. At least three ponies had been torn apart by those things, several more had become monsters. At a guess, the smell would be horrible if she took her helmet off. But why would they deliberately disable power across the station?

"Warning. Non-pony life forms detected in the power core. Evacuate immediately." She didn't need a second warning. More of those creatures were racing towards her, flailing those blades in a deadly attack. A few she could clearly see had engineering RIGs, like her very own. At least now that there was light, avoiding the other pony parts scattered around was far easier.

"Come on Applejack, years of running races can't go to waste now!" Slamming into the side of the lift wall threw her balance off for a moment. The confusion caused her to fumble the lift controls. They were right outside by the time the doors finally closed closed. "Whew, that was too close..." She had spoken too soon. A pair of blades shoved through the crack in the door, prying it open as the torn face of a pony forced it's way inside.

Applejack pressed herself up against the back wall in a last ditch attempt to avoid being sliced open. The slobbering sound from before she came to realize was blood being vomited out of the monster's mouth. "Oh Celestia, what have we done to deserve this?" To her relief the doors slammed shut again at that moment, decapitating the pony completely. She recoiled further as the head haphazardly rolled towards her.

The lift only moved for ten seconds before she stopped it. Much as she wanted to get back up there and protect her crew from whatever was going on, she couldn't go on, just like that. She had just brutally dismembered a fellow pony. Even though it was to save her own life, and he was probably already dead, she couldn't get over just how violent she had just been. "What's happening to us... Am I that different from what the others have become?"

One thing was certain, she couldn't let herself become exactly like them. "Air, Plasma, listen to me. Get on that shuttle, and get off the station, you hear me? I was just attacked by a group of monster ponies, and there's a good chance they're headed your way!" Sounds of shooting and screams came back in reply. Too late, they had already reached the transfer tube.

A video link opened to Plasma Blast's terrified face. "Applejack! They pulled Belt Buckle right apart! They're coming out of the vents from everywhere! Oh Celestia... help!" The link died again, one of those slashing ponies had come up behind her right before the end. Applejack let her head hang low for a long moment. This was no space virus. It was a full on slaughter by mutated ponies. And all she could do was sit there in the lift...