Discord Space

A hard kick turned the infant into a pulpy mess of gore. The third barb had gone right into her flank through the cutie mark screen. But the necromorphs were dealt with. Her RIG displayed a low health count. She didn't feel that bad. Not enough to warrant an incessant beeping that indicated she needed to consult medical support soon. At least she was on the medical deck of all places.

More bellowing came. Originally, she had intended to take out whatever had planted into the deck in order to free her shuttle. Now it was about shutting up the constant moaning that made her teeth rattle. She could do with a gel pack or two first to heal the three wounds across her body. Each barb felt incredibly hot like before, but bleeding out wasn't the way to go down at all.

Shall I spare everypony the boredom of watching you spent fifteen minutes searching for some healing gel and just snap some in now? No strings attached, I promise. Two containers were just barely poking out of the flesh. It took a very carefully aimed shot to free them from the floor. The seals were intact at least; it would be awful if she plugged them in only to have necromorph flesh rush out all over her body.

Three squelches followed as each of the barbs fell from her body. The speed at which her RIG repaired itself made the whole process less painful to wait through. "It's about time." She wanted to deal with the beast and grab something to eat. Was that too much to ask? "Alrighty, time to see what's in store for this Apple." Trudging to the end of the corridor was agonisingly slow. Worse, the doors had jammed on all the growth.

"Oh for pony's sake!" An ideal time to have another rocket ready. Instead, she had to resort to pushing the doors open manually through the sick mess. The systems at least hadn't just given up on opening the doors altogether, each centimetre gained made it a bit easier to push. Flesh had begun to build up inside the grooves by the time Applejack squeezed through. It had been easy until the blockage started to fight back; even now, the doors were slowly closing again.

Heat began to build up in her helmet when yet another bellow came. "Okay, that's it! I've had just about en-" A giant tentacle smashed through the corridors before her. The doors had closed completely by then. She was trapped. There was no time to react as several smaller appendages wrapped around her legs and jerked back. Her head hit the floor hard as the tentacle dragged her down in the direction she had been headed.

It wasn't the way she wanted to get to the core of the growth. Each drag gave her a moment's peace, during which she could see the horrors that had gone on during the quarantine. Ponies were impaled into the walls everywhere, most of the time in separate pieces. Scrawls on the walls depicted vivid stories of experiments on infected ponies, and how those experiments broke free. There were far more ponies on the deck than she had even suspected. Unwilling victims of a dark side of Station Luna she was seeing in the full light.

"They burn your flesh. They always watch you. They remove your head, and take your body. It never dies..." The floor vanished beneath her during the latest tug. Torn metal scraped up the back of her helmet from the direction the tentacle pulled her in. There was no gravity in this section to pull her downwards. "What the hay." Without gravity to keep her disorientated, she managed to free herself with some shaky shots to the tentacle.

It had brought her into what used to be the CEC ward of the medical deck. Virtually every level had been ripped out and compressed onto the outer hull to leave room for the monster in front of her. At least a hundred metres across, the tentacle that had dragged her in was only one of at least a dozen. They themselves circled a vast mouth, filled with bones that acted as crunching teeth. Deep at the back, she could just barely see a large glowing sac.

Well this explains why there was a severe lack of necromorphs for you to play with before. Looks like they all came here for one big party. Applejack propelled herself towards one of the walls. A cutter and pistol wouldn't do much against something that big. "Come on Applejack. This is exactly what you trained for, dangerous materials in zero gravity." One of the tentacles smashed down right beside her at that moment, accompanied by another bellow.

A few canisters of stasis were floating around near her. They wouldn't do much good apart from giving her a bit more time to escape the sweeping tentacles. She dodged another attack, this time the movement drew her attention down to the base of the tentacle. Each bore a bright yellow swelling where it connected to the main beast. "Just like the exploders." If they were volatile, a few well-aimed shots could set off a chain reaction.

But she would have to get closer to the maw to avoid hitting the tentacles. Explosions weren't unfamiliar to her, and she seemed to have a knack for escaping them. You really think that you can defeat this growth so easily? Dear Applejack, this is meant to be a game. You're meant to incorporate a level of strategy into these battles. The only strategy she incorporated was a swift recollection of her rodeo days while dodging the flesh attacks. It wasn't too different, save for the fact that there was no gravity, and the 'barrels' constantly moved around.

Her helmet came off again as she passed out into the clear air near the body of the monster. "Let's see how you handle an upset stomach. Yeehaw!" She fired several shots off at the closest swelling. Its matching tentacle reacted by violently smashing around the expansive room. "Come on!" Another round of plasma shots burned deep into the glowing bulge. Fluid began to squirt out in a small stream of droplets that caught fire in a bright flare.

"Oh hayseed..." The chain reaction began as she began flying well away from the tentacles. Her helmet just barely sealed back up before a terrible screech came from the beast. Then, it finally happened. The resulting explosion pinned her down onto the floor under a disgusting layer of blood and liquefied flesh. A sharp length of bone had gone right through her hind leg. But she had survived, and all that remained of the beast was a large gaping hole.

Well, that was rather abrupt. Perhaps there were too many tentacles after all, huh. Applejack had a bit of difficulty pulling the bone free, since it now had her stuck to the wall. "Told ya that I've got my own strategy." She screamed momentarily as the bone tore free. Blood now blobbed out of her suit into the air, but she had enough healing gel left to prevent further bleeding.

She took her time to drift through the fleshy hole. Along the way, valuable supply crates turned up, having survived the organic explosion. Enough to construct some new rockets at least. And more healing gel would be incredibly handy to have, given how often she was getting hurt now. Gravity returned as she passed through the other end of the monster. There the hole had shrunk down to the size of her head, forcing her to squeeze her whole body through a tight flesh opening. An experience she didn't even want to think about ever again.

"Time to get that shuttle free." The nearby bench allowed her to produce enough gel to heal her leg back up, and create nine rockets in total. What remained could go towards repairing the hull damage on the shuttle. At last, things are starting to fall into place. You've defeated the monster of the medical deck, and you are about to obtain a safe method of travel around the station. What could possibly go wrong...?

"What the flipping hay!? Applejack!" Applejack turned away from the bench to see Plasma Blast on her video link again. "We were preparing for re-entry, when I suddenly found myself in the Manehattan Towers! What's going on?" Not for the first time, Applejack's heart stopped. This was one of Discord's tricks. Something to try and make his sick game harder. How long could Plasma hold out?

"Hold on, I'll come with the shuttle and get you. Just find a room without vents, and wait until I get there." She closed the link down to hide her sigh of annoyance. "Discord, you're really starting to try my patience. You said nothing about Plasma having to stay." Come now Applejack, you took down that nice boss that I put time into preparing without much of a fight at all. I need to keep things even.

Her hoof slid off the bench to hit the floor with a firm clap. Even, having to protect Plasma against more necromorphs was his way of making things even? She didn't really know her that long, when she really thought about it. "Don't think about that Applejack, not now. Just fix the shuttle, get over there, and get back to the Central Spire with her." Each step towards the transfer tube though was sluggish, less determined. She had lost her appetite after becoming covered in liquid necromorph, an appetite she wouldn't soon recover.

The silence as she floated out towards the shuttle was very disturbing. Flesh had grown up very close to entangling her vessel from the beast she had defeated. In the midst of it all, she recalled the last time she had been there. Everypony had been alive, and she had just successfully removed the damaged fuel cell. A decent paycheck had been on her mind. How far had she come in such a short amount of time?

"I just wish Heat Plate was here. I'm no expert on repairing spaceships; this is going to be a patch job at best."