Dead Space: Valor in Laughter

by Kishin


Limbo Pt.1


"Pinkie Pie, I have gathered enough energy for the trip back," Celestia whispered, a thin ring of magical excess expelling from the deck around them. "We can't stay here much longer."

Pinkie uneasily shuffled her hooves, saying, "But, what about him? He could have made it out of the explosion."

Celestia carefully placed her words, "I'm afraid...we cannot wait for the alien. Us three are the only ones who break the silence of this place."

"We have to! I promised him-"

"Pinkie Pie, do you doubt my decision? Have you thought that his sacrifice would be in vain if we all perished?" Celestia snapped.

Pinkie Pie sadly added, "Princess....you've changed."

"All of this is for you, Pinkie Pie. I do what I have to do for the safety of all my subjects," Celestia quickly responded. The current environment was leeching away what little patience and optimistic perseverance she had.

She regretted every moment of what she had to do, but the lives of her little ponies depended on it.

Doctor Whooves edged between the pair, "Errr...not to break this up, but I don't think we should count our eggs before they have metaphorically hatched."

The Doctor pointed a hoof at the blood fog curtaining the majority of the deck, and a ragged outline. At first Celestia would have thought it to be a member of one of the rotting, mutated alien life forms. The stuff that nightmares were composed of. But as she diverted some of her energy to direct a magical beam at the creature, the outline cleared into one of a whole human being, albeit with some limping and with the fingers of its foreign limb grasping a strange rectangular apparatus, which the being desperately tried to hide something behind the device on his body. Whatever the human was blocking the view of with the device, blood was weakly stemming from behind the human's fisted appendage. Occasionally he turned to fire a ray of energy from his strange weapon, covering his retreat, through the chemical residue/blood-composed mist.

The human was different when she last saw him in the distance. His facial features were new. He looked as his ancestors had, with a brutally short mane and an almost hairless face. Celestia realized that whatever the human once wore around its head, a protective helmet of some sort, was gone. Something that looked distinctively like it, however, hung attached on his belt, circuits and interior exposed with portions of its outer casing absent or melted.

Pinkie Pie suddenly jerked her vision towards the figure, shouting with bewilderment, "Junebug? Is that you?"

The figure joked, "I certainly hope so. And I was just beginning to run out of cliches to say."

"It is you!" She jumped up meter or two and almost threw him off with a quick hug.

Joon winced, "Ah. Careful there. Sorry, I'm late. Hopefully that stunt bought you some time?"

The Princess couldn't look at the human's...eyes. They were almost disturbingly similar to a pony's. They had a Chopanese almond-shaped flair, complete with a somewhat common, but humbling sienna brown iris. With those details, including the numerous bruising, laceration, and burn injuries on his countenance, made her sense a fluctuating candle-flame of guilt ignite deep in her chest.

Celestia thought during her self-insight of shame, This was the thanks he was going to get? Abandonment on this Faust-forsaken construct? No. This creature is as much of a pony than Pinkie or I.

Joon, ignoring the Sun Goddess's inability to look at him straight at the face, asked, "All set?"

Celestia looked up, and ominously added, "I have misjudged you, human. You seem not to have the same corruption as the Old Ones."

He inquired, "Wait, you knew of us befo-"

"Save your questions. I will gladly answer them when he arrive back in Equestria, which I will grant you asylum to. I cannot repay you for what you've done for Pinkie. But I have neither the time nor concentration to quiet your curiosity."

Joon hesitantly mused, "Well....you can get us out of here, right?"

"Yes. The teleportation spell is ready."

"Then consider everything forgiven," he light-heartedly winced. Celestia was about to direct a healing incantation at his wound, but Joon shook his head.

"Don't waste your time. The suit's sealing foam should have gotten into my wounds, so I'll be able to stop my ribs from puncturing a lung until we get to your world."

Joon turned and walked backwards slowly into the magical field surrounding the three ponies, aiming the improvised Plasma Cutter towards the hazy disaster he left behind.

"Well, here goes nothing." He raised the detonation control, clicked off the safeties, and activated the pressure switch.

"Huh? What the..... Something's wrong," Joon worriedly confided.

"The dets should have confirmed a timed detonation signal by now. Did he...." He trailed off, his words choked by a thought.

"Cadigan. The bastard must've lied about the timers."

Pinkie raised her voice, "Joon, what's wrong?"

"I can't believe I trusted that prick. He left out the little detail that the timers are fucked up," Joon cursed, starting to reformat the detonation control, tapping away on a small holographic touch pad, which the control projected with a folded projector tablet within its structure. To this, the Doctor mumbled an amazed "Wow, a fully functional hologram!"

Joon continued, "It says in the coding that there's a malfunction in the timed signal unit, or a TSU, on the explosives. The TSU reciever is damaged, so the only way that the dets will start an engine meltdown is if...."

He stopped and looked down at Pinkie's eyes. She knew what was coming.

Pinkie Pie whispered out, "No...."

Joon slowly leveled himself to her height, and on his knees, he replied, though with some hesitation, "Pinkie, I...I have to stay."

"You can't! You were going to come with us and-"

"I need to do this, Pinkie. If we don't disable Valor's engines, or crash this God-forasken ship into Ishimura, do you know what's going to happen? The Necromorphs will find a way to get out of system. I know it. They'll kill people, Pinkie. And eventually they'll find your planet. Let me tell you this: I can't let that happen."

Rapid footsteps echoed from the other side of the Engine Room's various passageways and machinary. Joon decided to make this quick.

"Here," Joon began and pulled off the blood-stained shemagh off of his neck, and began to adorn it around Pinkie's neck. "This was past down by my family, as sort of as a lucky charm. It's a cultural relic itself, and it kind of reminds us of our roots. I managed not to get myself killed all of this time, so it works...."

Joon noted his wounds, ".....most of the time."

"So here. I'm not going to be needing it where I'm going, so I might as well give it to someone who will need it. And who knows? Maybe a little of its luck will rub off on you," he weakly smiled.

Joon embraced her and kissed Pinkie Pie gently on the top of her forehead.

"You've done something for me that no one could possibly have ever done. You made me smile. You made me laugh. You've been a true friend, and I'm not going to let you get hurt because of me. You have to go, Pinkie."

She blubbered, "You...you Pinkie Promised. Nopony breaks a Pinkie Promise. It's the fastest way to lose a friend."

"I hope you can understand the technicality that I'm not a pony."

Joon chuckled morosely with a guilty grin, "I think I found a loophole. Plus, you'll find I'm pretty bad at keeping promises."

Her face of betrayal was too much to bear. She was standing half a meter away, but she was still able to tear out his heart-strings. He couldn't leave her like this.

"Don't worry. I'll be right behind you. Like always. I'm sure your Princess would come back for a second trip."

He rose up and stepped out of the magical field. The blood fog was finally starting to lift, revealing mishapen figures beyond it. Twitching about.

Pinkie Pie, confused at this contradiction of Joon's words and actions, squeaked, "B-b-but, what are you-"

Joon gestured to Celestia, "You told me that you would never be able to repay me. Well, you can with two things. One, keep Pinkie Pie safe. Leave as soon as possible."

"It's my duty to," responded the Sun Goddess.

"Second," Joon began. He started to walk off. "Never come back. Ever."

Pinke Pie roared, "Wait! You lied to me! You don't ever-"

Joon walked out of the magical radius of effect, the magical field behind him now humming and blocking out Pinkie Pie's cries with a sonic hum. The field began to solidify, apparant by Pinkie's restrained attempts to follow Joon.

The first step was the hardest, seeing imaginary scenes of a melancholy Pinkie Pie affected by his selfish actions. He began to wonder if this course of action was unnecessary, and whether it was going to make a difference for all the ones he cared for. The second was slightly less intimidating. All doubt was banished.

Ever step was easier and easier to handle, as he couldn't feel anything any longer. His conscience was certain, though not clear. And, at least in his mind, Joon was at last alone.

Alone to face his fears.



He turned, clutching the det control with a death grip in his left hand, numbed by his body's attempt to maintain its application of natural pain killers, and raising the Plasma Cutter with the other. The veil of blood mist began to lift and clear away amongst the debris and vast mechanical viscera of the compartment, revealing his opponents.

What, do these things come in assorted colors, too?

Figures burst through the veil, wisps of clinging to them. They had the usual set of characteristics of a Slasher, except...they were quite off. They're moving as if their bodies, encased in military RIG, was in a complete, violent seizure. Twitching almost. Their bodies giving off a faint fluid-like glow of marine blue, which usually meant a puncture leak in the Stasis unit of a RIG.

And there were many of them heading towards Joon at a surprisingly rapid velocity.

Joon reached into one of his pouches for an extra Plasma Energy cartridge, barely held in place with his fingers while wielding a det control in the same hand, and strained to place his hands similar in the Harries technique, but instead with the non-firearm wielding hand on top of the Plasma Cutter. Struggling to move forward, both from the stinging, raw pain of his wound and the emotional tugging of leaving Pinkie, he blasted directed plasma energy consecutively down range. With every shot and footstep, severed limbs fell in the distance, the wet sound of gore splattering on the cold, metallic deck slowly replacing the Necromorphs' screeching.

The Plasma Cutter hissed empty, prompting Joon to eject the spent cartridge, and rapidly placing in a fresh one with his maintained hand position. The continuous volley of fire interrupted themselves with brief periods of reloading, which left Joon feeling less and less weight in his munitions pouches. And to add insult to literal injury, some of the twitching Necros were getting awfully close. Their trajectory was becoming too close for Joon's comfort, and their unpredictable spurts of movement wasn't easing Joon's worry.

Mid-way through a plasma cartridge, the focusing mechanism on the Plasma Cutter froze, forcing plasma about to be directed violently into directed bolts to ooze from the weapon's chamber. The vents exerted a vapor that bent the light and images in front of Joon with their condensation, followed by the scent of ionized ozone that invaded Joon's sense of smell.

Tossing the overheating mining tool with much reluctance, Joon switched to his Pulse Rifle, with only a single magazine of Pulse rounds loaded into it's breech, and fired for effect. With the "Twitchers" now close enough for Joon to see their empty eyes, for the first time in a while, Joon began to panic. The overwhelming number of Necromorphs tugged at a primordial instinct, to see so many scurrying towards him with almost no end. His discomfort grew as the Pulse Rifle clacked empty, and the wave of undead bodies continuing their path towards him, and eventually their equine prey.

Joon, now relieved of the weight of most of his munitions, Pinkie Pie, and two of his weapons, he drew his Seeker Rifle, musing at Fate's decision to make him wield the weapon that he would have least wanted in the hands of his corpse after his death. Joon, the thoughts of Pinkie Pie in his mind tempting him to return back, turned to look whether she was still safe.

The momentary withdrawal of fire, however, left Joon vulnerable. Watching a golden oppurtunity unfold before them, the Twitchers rushed forward with an inhuman speed, and compensated for their losses. Joon couldn't react fast enough, and Pinkie Pie could only watch in horror at what was to occur.

A random limb sliced into Joon's leg, and impaled him onto the deck. Another had quickly punctured his RIG, and passed through his lower abdomen. It occured to quickly that Joon was in shock for a few moments until the pain started to creep its way up. Joon felt his heartbeat drum in his ears as he slowly tried to breath through the trickle of agony, but his frayed nerves overpowered his senses, causing him to decry out in pain. The searing sensation of razor-edged restructured bone stabbing and sawing into his flesh nearly overwhelmed him past his threshold of agony, as the view of his surroundings began to darken and light began to streak across his vision. But one thing kept him going, it fueled him with an excess of perserverance and strength that kept him from entering unconsciousness.

Her. Celestia's teleportation field was flickering, along with their image of existance. Joon decided that Celestia was ready to go, along with Pinkie Pie.

Joon raised his fist, the one clutching raggedly the det control and flicked off the safety function. He quickly proceeded to order the detonation of the charges when a single deceptively frail hand gripped his wrist and tugged at his fingers with an impossible strength.

"Leaving so soon? I thought that you liked it here, since you get to see me every once in a while."

Joon half-strained/half-screamed, "Get away from me! You're not her!"

He tried to tug his hand away, but her grip was firm, and they started to singulate their pressure on the fingers given the task for activating the pressure switch on the detonation device. Joon could feel the phalanges of his middle and index finger start to bend outward from the palm.

"Don't even think about pressing on that switch. You'll only get yourself hurt," the hallucination of Anne sweetly dissuaded, her voice dripping with malicious intention. She twisted the fingers of Joon's left hand, and relishing his cries, she snapped them back, tearing the skin connecting the two fingers to the palm and disconnecting them from their socket.

"You've done your part. Cadigan's did his, though I have to admit....his behavioral tangent was quite comedic to watch. And as for you...." she continued, lifting his head up.

"You've led us to this moment, and now...."

Joon weakly stared behind her, to the globe of magical energy that the surrounding Necromorphs could not pierce. He tried to banish away all thought of his guilt. What he left Pinkie Pie was not her salvation, but if Celestia hadn't protected her with a shielding spell, he would have killed her. But it didn't matter. He hinted the outline of Pinkie's eyes, an audience to his execution, before the field simply disappeared, including its inhabitants.

"...time to make you a part of us" Anne simply put. Her red eyes glowed with an intensity as she started to walk away. All of a sudden a bat-like creature latched onto Joon's head. He struggled, but the the serrated blades impaed through his body pushed themselves further in, and Joon stopped himself before the momentum of his movement could have caused anymore internal damage.

A bony, narrow stinger popped up in Joon's vision. Taut with pent up energy, the creature clawing into his neck was prepared to introduce Joon to the rest of its bretheren.

Well at least...Pinkie didn't have to see this.

The stinger rammed down into Joon's skull, and by sheer coincidence, missed. The stinger instead plunged into his eye socket, and released its infant spore parasite into his brain.

Joon no longer felt his tremendous torment and his injuries. In fact he no longer showed any life signs at all, except for a few twitches.

But he wasn't exactly dead either.