Discord Space

Applejack had turned her helmet back off in order to get some air, a decision she thoroughly regretted when the doors opened to the CEC deck. Blood everywhere, along with a spray of limbs and insides. Only a few were the trademark blades she had seen before. Most were frighteningly engineer ponies. As she turned her helmet back on to protect against the overwhelming stench of death, the real horror of the scene occurred to her.

Some of these limbs were cut off. Had some of her friends really severed their own limbs in order to prevent themselves from doing harm when transformed? It was unthinkable, and yet she would probably do the same if it came to that. But it hadn't come to that; she would fight them with every ounce of strength in her body. She had to find Air and Plasma.

"This is Applejack, Zero G division, hazardous materials expert on an open channel. If there are any survivors of the team assigned to free the shuttle in the transfer chute, please respond." Static came back on both her radio and the video link. No good, if the station's intercom was down, then she'd need to find a portable relay for her RIG. All alone, amongst a horde of monsters.

At last, she turned her cutter off to avoid giving away her position, leaving it firmly attached to her shoulder. That way it would be ready if she needed it. The transfer chute seemed to be the best place to check first. If they had managed to free the shuttle, then there was some hope yet. If not, then she needed to free it herself. Getting there however meant stepping through pools of blood that had formed. Still no bodies or heads to identify the dead ponies, only the limbs.

"Air Head, Plasma Blast, do either of you read me? I'm heading back to the transfer chute to free that shuttle if it's still there. Out." She glanced back to be sure that nothing was following her before opening the door. It was all clear, a great relief considering she had expected one of those things to jump out at her. The shuttle was still there, though the effort to free it had caused a tear in the hull. It wouldn't be space worthy, yet.

"Ponyfeathers. They must've been desperate to get it out. At least it's free now, if I can get it down to the ship maintenance bay, I should be able to repair it, right?" Thinking out loud helped distract from the ominous feeling of solitude. At least then it felt like there was somepony else with her, instead of just limbs. But it was too far to consider right now, and her cutter was running low on ammo.

This was something she needed Plasma for. She was the tool expert; she'd know how to improve her improvised weapon in order to stay alive longer. So many things that she needed to survive, and no time to plan them out. "Alright, communications should be the priority. There should be some supplies down near the auxiliary medical deck, that isn't too far."

Applejack updated her locator with the deck's location before moving back the way she came. Much as she wanted to find out who sabotaged the power core, and for that matter why ponies were turning into monsters, she needed to focus on survival. And of course finding her two friends. While she couldn't be sure they were alive, at least she could hope they still were.

Nothing had leapt out from the dark by the time she reached the lift again. Up another floor, then about a hundred metres walking would get her to the storage room, and the auxiliary deck. "No big deal. There should be a shop nearby too that I can use. Somehow I don't think that this here suit is going to protect too well against being stabbed a lot."

She had probably jinxed it. Her cutter reactivated just to be safe; at least those things used the vents, and not the lift shafts. Either way, engineering suits were designed to give a decent amount of protection from explosions and metal, not stabbing blade things. At least there was power, she couldn't complain about that. And she wasn't completely defenceless either.

Something landed on the roof above her with a terrible thud. Applejack froze on the vague hope that whatever it was wouldn't try to force its way in. After several seconds passed, during which she heard nothing, it seemed safe to say that whatever had fallen was really dead. Hopefully one of those monsters, which would mean there were survivors fighting them off.

No survivors were waiting on the deck as she stepped out however. Civilians, lots of them, strewn around the room in a complete mess. They had multiple stab wounds, but none were missing limbs to cutter fire. "I sure hope that they died quickly, and they don't have to come back again as one of those things. This is just not right, not right at all."

She was about to proceed when another sound reached her ears. Something was moving towards her. From the dragging of flesh, it couldn't possibly be another survivor, or one of those other monsters she had encountered before. Was there more than one form that they took? "If anypony can hear me, I suggest you stay back. I ain't trusting nopony until I can speak to you from a distance, understand?"

It wasn't a pony who crawled out from the medical deck, at least not a full one. The face was contorted in a similar way to the other monsters, only a long spike emerged from its mouth instead of a pair of tusks. Two flaps of skin stretched to either side like wings. A pegasus presumably. Only instead of coming towards her, it moved right for the nearest body.

"What in tarnation... Oh Celestia." This new monster had latched onto one of the bodies, pumping some sort of fluid right into the dead skull. Before her eyes, that body was transformed into a monster just like the ones that had attacked her. It turns the dead into those things, and with all these bodies lying around... Her plasma cutter kicked into life, severing the spike that was injecting the fluid.

It still left her with one of those things to deal with, and there was no telling if the spike would regenerate. "Alrighty big fella, chew on this!" Three shots fired directly at its neck. Not the cleanest of cuts, but it fell to the floor all the same. It did nothing to slow down the rest of the body however. The first blade took another three shots to sever, after which the monster finally fell to the ground.

She moved to take out the 'wings' when it climbed into one of the nearby vents, gone for the time being. Probably too badly hurt to do anything for now, at some point she'd regret not killing it completely. But for now, she had the issue of all the bodies around her. It was a struggle between seeing them as poor, dead ponies, and possible monsters that would come back after her in future.

As she approached the nearest, her hoof lifted above the point right below the cutie mark. A pair of horseshoes. "I can't do this." Instinct was telling her to do it, to break those ponies apart before they came back. She wasn't a violent pony. She had to defend herself, but they were motionless bodies. "I'm sorry y'all, I can only hope that whatever it was doesn't come back. At least, you don't have to feel anything anymore."

Each step in the mess was disturbing enough. As she managed to make her way through the slaughter and into a corridor, things seemed to take a different turn. Across both walls, strange writing had been scrawled. None of the letters were familiar to her at all. "What on Equestria is this supposed to be?" There wasn't much use in trying to make sense of them for now. The storage room wasn't too far away now.

"If anypony can hear this, then listen closely." Applejack raced towards the video message playing from the RIG of a security pony. As she had guessed, the suit had provided far better protection than her own from stabbing. But it was the video message from the deceased that had her intrigued. "You can pull the blades off of dead ones, and throw it back at them. Watch." She watched closely as he used kinesis to propel a blade into one of the monsters. "Security suits have a modification that allows kinesis to magnify force, essentially allowing you to fire anything as a projectile. I've gotta go, they're getting close again."

She glanced over her shoulder again. The blades went pretty deep into the wall. If she could get one down, then her limited ammo remaining would be a lot easier to manage. "I hope this trick saved more lives." It took a few moments to copy and download the message to her own RIG. Getting the security suit had become far more important now. A quick check of her cutter showed it had only a couple of shots left.

It was hard to tell which scared her more. The presence of those monsters, or the lack of them. Given the size of the station, it would take hours for it to be fully overwhelmed without resistance. Surely there would be at least a few wandering around in the dead zone. Something didn't feel right at all. She kept herself alert as the storage room finally came into view. There were others around, but this was the one she knew had the right parts.

"Okay, no problem at all." As her hoof raised towards the control panel, a scuttling sound behind the door set her on edge again. Something had been locked in there, and she had barely any ammo left. "You can do it. Two well-placed shots will do it. And there's going to be more shots in there, right?" She lifted her hoof again, cutter aimed at where she guessed the limbs would be. "Here goes nothing."

The moment her hoof pressed down onto the panel, a different monster again tackled her with a sheer amount of force. Pinned on the ground, it was taking all her strength just to keep the tearing mouth away from her. The first shot fired, taking off one of the arms and allowing her to roll free. When she turned to deliver the last remaining shot, a shock of recognition rattled through her body.

Rainbow Dash? The other arm blew off, finally stopping the monster dead. It had a long tail with a nasty barb on the end, not unlike a stingray. But the few strands of its mane left were brown, not colourful. And yet, she had seen Rainbow Dash in that moment. "Must be seeing things." The room was devoid of the usual blood and bodies at least. At least a search turned up a dozen more shots for her cutter, and after some locks broken with her bucking skills, the relay she needed for her radio.

"Let's hope this works. To anypony on the open channels, this is Applejack. I am outside the auxiliary medical deck, and I have access to a shuttle in need of a bit of repairing. If anypony is still out there, please respond." At first she received no reply. As much as she wanted to panic, she needed to give them a little time to respond first. To her great relief, Plasma Blast opened up her video link.

"Applejack! You're alive! Whatever you do, don't go back to the transfer chute. There's something in the main medical deck, and it's huge. We think it's growing up towards the shuttle. Just hurry through the medical ward here." Applejack peered outside again to be sure none of the monsters was sneaking up on her. It seemed clear, and there was no sound either.

"Alright, I think there's a store inside the waiting room. Can you hack in and get me access to a security suit? I could do with the extra protection." Plasma's move to access a computer terminal exposed a nasty slash on her head to the camera. The blade must've missed stabbing right through her skull, cutting the skin on the side instead. Lucky didn't seem strong enough a word.

"Okay, done. Also, I downloaded the schematics for a military engine. If you can find other parts, you should be able to make a decent weapon. Not all of those things have limbs." The video closed after that. It seemed like Plasma was managing herself reasonably well, but the underlying fear was still strong.

"I know how you feel sugarcube. I'm scared as horseapples right now. And if I don't get that shuttle out soon, we're going to be trapped here too."