Discord Space: Frozen Equestria

The memory of being killed by the first twitcher flashed into her mind. She had mistaken the incredibly fast necromorph for Pinkie at a distance. As a result, it had stabbed her entire body to pieces in less than a second. That was where she met Discord for the first time, the point where her insanity began. She had been given a second chance in exchange for helping him. Even now, she couldn't decide if that was the best decision overall. But it was definitely the real Pinkie Pie there in front of her. Not even drowsiness could prevent her from being sure of that.

There was no sudden rush for hugs however. Pinkie was practically a cyborg now, an ironically scary one at that. And it wasn't just the slowly overcoming sleepiness that prevented Applejack from getting up either. "Hey Pinkie, didn't expect to see you here." It was pretty obvious that both of them were thinking the same thing. Their last meeting had been brief, and for the most part silent. It was rather likely that this time would be the same. Questions didn't seem that important anymore. Pinkie Pie was alive, and there. And she didn't even really care about that.

"I know you're not going to ask, so I'll just speak. Whatever Discord told you is probably true. He got into all of our minds, Twilight's too. She just knew how to fight him off better, than others." Applejack bit down on her lip. It was hard to tell if Pinkie was speaking in conviction or defence of Twilight's more recent actions. "She had nothing to do with the weapons factory that cost me my body. In fact, she got me the replacement parts. But when she left for Station Luna, I could tell that something had changed. I don't think it was Discord's messing around either."

A long-winded yawn came from the bed. It wasn't the sort of story that Applejack wanted to sit there and listen to while she dropped into sleep. "Just get to the point Pinkie. I don't really hate Twilight, that was mostly Discord's claw in my head making me do stuff. But she did try to kill me by turning Cadance into a regenerator. And I bet she was behind that asylum I woke up in." Her hoof began pushing on the skin covering her knee. Sleep wasn't far away, and that bit about her recent history could only stave it off for so long.

Pinkie blinked when she looked at the ground. The iris movement in her right eye was distinctly mechanical. "A bit over two years ago, I escaped the colony in a probe. One day, Twilight said she had to put ponies out of their misery. Rainbow Dash was the first." That caused her to bite her lip in regret. "I just got out of there before she got to me too." She lowered her head again and turned to leave. "You needed to know the whole story. Twilight's probably more far-gone than you ever have been. We're all going to burn for the things we've done, so why not show a bit of forgiveness?"

She was on her way back down the hall after that. Spike had remained silent as usual for the brief duration of their conversation. When glancing back at the bed, he noticed that Applejack had fallen asleep. "What's there to forgive? I've got one thing left in my life, and the only think keeping her barely sane is the need to kill everything." The light in the room faded away when he closed the door again. A dull flash of red came from his RIG as it unlocked. Just about every pony on the base assumed that he slept in it. But that was when he was alone.

*

That following day had been very busy in comparison to months spent alone in a cell. For starters, breakfast had been postponed until she had received the first injection on her course that would hopefully supress the Marker influence on her brain. Plasma had also seized that chance to make much needed modifications to her RIG at the same time. Now she found herself uncomfortably laid back in a chair, Zecora filling a needle with chemicals she couldn't even name, while the other fiddled a stasis module onto the ankle of her RIG.

"Any idea how long this is gonna take?" The needle jabbed into her shoulder at that moment. Considering she had been stabbed by necromorphs, it shouldn't have hurt that much at all. And yet it still felt like a hot red spear had just been plunged into her leg. "Geez Zecora, does it really have to feel like I'm being skewered for a vegetable kebab?" That didn't make sense, but she chose not to delve into it further. The description of how the feeders came to be still gave her chills. Her joke just wasn't appropriate under the circumstances.

Blue light began to glow from the RIG. At least she now had a stasis module to use again. "Okay, that seems to be holding. I'll have the kinesis module fitted on by the time you're done with that." Applejack pondered how wise it would be to grab the RIG, put Zecora in stasis, and run for it. "Don't worry AJ; we're all here for you. And besides, the original Marker was left in the caves beneath Canterlot. It won't take much suppressant to block out its already weak signal." That was really reassuring for her to hear. She winced as the needle was pulled back out painfully slowly.

"This should dispel the nightmare, but always be sure to take care." As if to make it worse, Zecora placed an injector on Applejack's hoof. Less painful than a needle, but still unpleasant. She held it up to her eyes. The green-yellow fluid inside swished easily. I really don't know about this. An injection that hides you from the necromorphs, sure. But one that stops a telepathic hunk of Chaotic rock from gettin' inside your brain? She swallowed nervously as Zecora spoke again. "Take it once a day, between lunch and dinner without delay. That will last you a week, when you need more, feel free to speak."

She shoved it into a compartment behind the stasis module on her RIG. "Yeah, sure. When is the needleless injection projected to enter the prototype stage? I'll be the first volunteer." Plasma shrugged in the middle of adjusting the angle of the kinesis module. "Fine, I'll ask Trixie then." It was more sarcasm than short temper that made her exit from the practise room so dramatic. Rarity would have been proud, before she turned into a greedy hog of course.

A few ponies passed her when she entered the main hall. Earlier in the day, Spitfire had gone over the situation with her. Since there was no solar-lunar cycle, they operated solely on shifts. This was one of the busier hours of the cycle. If fifteen ponies talking about work while eating could even be considered, 'busy'. Spitfire waved her over from one side of the room. Another tray of food was set opposite her. Yet another chilling reminder of Station Luna, Plasma had made a similar gesture on the first day. Back when there was three hundred ponies in my area alone, not thirty.

Most ponies she declined talking with out of insecurity. Spitfire on the other hand had lost one of her team in helping her escape, and made the long walk to Appleloosa to pick her up. "Don't worry; this isn't anything vital or dangerous." It took a few moments for Applejack to get comfortable. The heat regulation of the base was designed with everypony's RIG in mind. Hers was still being upgraded of course. "I noticed that you've been unsettled, ever since Pinkie Pie came to visit. And I realized that you still don't know half of what happened. So, today I'm taking time off to catch you up. At your own pace too."

Applejack shuffled again. Once again, the questions burning in her mind began to rush for her tongue. "What happened three years ago?" In retrospect, that was the key question. Three years since the Markers on Equestria and Station Luna came to life, turning the dead into necromorphs. Her family had met their end during the first few months after the event, and over sixty ponies from the base had been lost following that. "Right before I, died in the explosion, Celestia came to me. She said that Equestria would suffer without me around, and that's happened. But I don't know the whole story. I'm willing to sit here as long as I need to, even if it's just dumping a pile of text logs in front of me and saying 'Read'."

That wasn't quite what the pegasus had in mind, but it certainly caught her attention. "I see. To be honest, I was expecting that you were just going to ask about certain ponies." She detached a memory chip from her RIG. "That'll get you started. Trixie keeps the full set available ever since she stepped up as our head tech expert. There's some details left out, you'll have to ask the ponies in question. Just use your judgement in those cases, I mean it." She returned to eating her meal to give Applejack time to begin.

She turned the chip in her hooves, a dark blue that glowed where it plugged into the RIG. Spitfire had kept it with her for a good reason. "Thanks. I think it's about time I get my suit back; the cold is getting to be a pain in the patootie." The lack of appetite made it easy to leave the tray of food where it was. It was still there when she returned in her RIG. Spitfire wasn't. Despite the fact that it was now cold, she began eating while the first recording played.

"Personal Log, Lieutenant General Spitfire. It's been three hours since communication from Station Luna ceased..."

*

The office was empty, save for the single occupant of the chair. That was normal; they weren't recruiting new pegasi into the Wonderbolts after all. Ever since it had become a military division as well as a performance league, eagerness to join had dropped considerably. Spitfire had her back hooves up on her desk while dictating to her recorder. "Princess Celestia has ordered all military divisions to be on alert. I can tell that a lot of the newbies are... pretty scared. I don't blame them. It's been years since we last saw combat, and yet everypony can feel the tension."

A set of photos adorned the walls, all of Wonderbolt captains. Those on the far left were in monochrome. On the far right, a holographic screen displayed the latest, Rainbow Dash. "We don't believe it's a changeling terrorist attack, but we don't know what else it could be." The Pegasus flag hung proudly from a rail fixed to the back of the door. "Three hours, and already I'm feeling the stress starting to tax my nerves. It's always worse when you don't know what to expect. End log." The microphone rolled onto the desk beside her bare hooves.

Outside the window, she could hear a very faint horn. One of the sky barges was probably straying too close to the academy again. "Geez, don't they ever learn to compensate for wind?" She moved to get up when something pounded at her door. "Hey, you can just knock alright?" The building shook slightly which caused one of her ornaments to fall over. She righted it on her way to answer the increasingly violent banging. "This isn't the emergency room either! Some ponies, I'll never understand why they think they need to break the door in."

She pulled the door open to a horrifically disfigured pegasus. A pair of gruesome blades attached to fleshy growths from the shoulders loomed near her face threateningly. Most of the skin had fallen away to leave the bloody, torn muscle layer exposed. "Colt of a-" All of her strength went into pushing the door closed. Whatever it was outside pushed back with just as much force. Bone blades began to punch through the wood in an attempt to stab her brutally. "Hey Soarin'! I've got... something here that's trying to stab my door to bits!"

The stabbing ceased briefly. For a moment, Spitfire relaxed. In that moment, the door caved in from a fierce charge. She narrowly avoided being skewered by the two blades pointed out from the mutant pony. "Of course, an expert on flying gets trapped in a small room with a crazy flesh face." She made a break for her desk while the intruder smashed its way through. Splinters stuck out from the flesh in all directions. By then, she had fumbled through the drawer for her issue handgun. "Last chance to apologize for trashing my door, sucker!"

A spray of bullets came from the doorway. Several of them tore right through the pony's skull to leave blood splatters and gore on her chair. All that achieved was a momentary distraction. The blades continued to stab towards Spitfire while she grabbed her weapon. What little remained of the skull after the attack dangled from the stringy, shredded neck. "This is going to be a real headache for the insurance." One of the limbs plunged right through her drawer, just barely missing a stab to her hoof. She crawled under the desk to roll out of the line of fire.

Another series of shots took off one of the malformed limbs. The former pony soon slumped into a bloody mess in Spitfire's chair. "Sorry Captain, we spotted her coming in from Cloudsdale. Didn't have a chance to hurt anypony, just bee-lined right for your office." Soarin' pulled her back up to her hooves. "I've opened up the armoury. Should we make a pass on Cloudsdale and Canterlot?" Spitfire took a few moments to consider his proposal. That was the established routine in the event that something really bad happened. There was a good chance that the attack had a lot to do with the loss of communication with Station Luna.

*

"-at which point, I sent Fire Streak and his team to Cloudsdale. Fleetfoot and Misty Wind were assigned to patrol Canterlot. In anticipation that the necromorph that attacked us wasn't alone, I sought out the being most likely to know about the mutation. End log." It had been a few hours since Applejack first sat down to Spitfire's reports on what happened. They were extensive and detailed, yet not boring in the least. Hardly the sort of material that made a good book however.

By that time, she had moved back to her shared quarters. Listening to how well Spitfire handled her first encounter with a necromorph made her feel a bit embarrassed about her own experience. That had ended with crawling away out of fear, and struggling to keep her eyes open when shooting blades off. She glanced at the door when Spike entered. She couldn't imagine herself looking very good while slumped in the chair and deprived of sleep. "Sorry, Spitfire really knows how to keep your attention when she talks."

Spike was silent as ever, no comment came while she readjusted her posture. "Look, Spike. I get the feeling that when Spitfire said there were certain ponies I needed to be tactful with, you were one of them." She pulled the memory chip from her RIG and set it on the table. "Spitfire came to Ponyville because she knew that somepony here had knowledge about the necromorphs. And I doubt that was Zecora." For once, there was a brief flicker in his eyes. The telling flinch that she was looking for. He knew something about the necromorphs. "We may not get another chance to talk like this. What did you find out that made you go from a happy, lively dragon, to a cold, hard exterior soldier?"