My little dead spaceby Cone of WondersChaptersChapter 1: A noble sacrificeFarewell WilmaMiniature contactsPlanning the meetinga moments restMeeting the bookwormChapter 1: A noble sacrifice"MAAAAKE! USSSS! WHOOOOOLLLEEEE"! Nicole was slowly making her way towards Isaac again for the third time, wanting nothing more than to end his life. Isaac took little notice of this as he did his best to fight off several shadowy figures a little over half his size that had been created by his own mind. *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* The plasma cutter Isaac wielded was on its last few shots. He only had seven remaining shots left plus a whole clip of twenty five shots for the same weapon. *BANG* The last shadow figure dissolved into thin air, leaving only Nicole. Or at least a twisted version of the woman Isaac once loved. She was only a few meters away. Time to end this! One way or another! Without hesitation, Isaac raised his plasma cutter and aimed for Nicole, moving back in an attempt to get as much distance between himself and his target. *BANG* He fired his first shot, hitting Nicole in the leg causing her to stumble. *BANG* The next shot barely grazed her arm, although it wasn't enough to stop her advancing. *BANG* The third shot missed her by an inch. Isaac looked behind him seeing that he was at the very edge of the rocky surface that he was standing on. He was now cornered. *BANG* The fourth shot found its mark, hitting the horrifying figure in the middle of the chest. Nicole stumbled once more, yelping in pain as she did. *BANG* The fifth shot was way off target as it flew past Nicole's blood stained head by an entire meter . Isaac was now on his last shot and with Nicole closing in, there wasn't even enough time to reload. This was it. The shot that would determine his fate, Ellie's fate, perhaps the whole of humanities fate. If he died now, the marker would have already won. Everything seemed to have slowed down as Isaac aimed carefully. His arms grew tired trying to hold the plasma cutter up after everything he had been through to get here. His finger touched the trigger, and with his remaining strength, he pulled the trigger. *BANG* The sixth shot exploded from the gun, flying straight through the air towards Nicole for the final time. The shot hit Nicole in her stomach! She was done! Nicole couldn't take the pain anymore! She had failed and she knew it!With her final breath she drew a blood curdling scream as Isaac was blinded by a white light. His mind was pulling him back into reality. Isaac opened his eyes. Several pieces of rock the size of his head smashed into the floor. Isaac was too dazed for the next few seconds to realize what had happened. His helmet no longer covered his face. The air felt refreshing on his head after it being covered in sweat from having it on for hours on end. Isaac took a second to process his thoughts. His mind seemed clear and peaceful as to say that it was no longer plagued by the markers visions. He looked up before the giant marker in front of him, or at least the remains of it as pieces of both the marker and the structure that housed it rained down from the sky. Isaac couldn't help but give a small smile. The marker had been destroyed which meant its signal to create the necromorphs had stopped which meant no more necromorphs which meant that he had given humanity a tomorrow. But his happiness was soon masked by his remaining sadness. He had sacrificed himself to destroy the marker. Isaac sat down, letting his body rest from exhaustion. His back faced the marker as it slowly crumbled away. He put a hand up to his face and exhaled to help calm himself. This was suddenly followed by a recorded voice. "Warning. Reactor unstable. Please evacuate the building immediately". Isaac ignored the voice. What good would it do him? He looked in front of him, noticing the headless body that once belonged to Tiedman only a few feet away. The last being that Isaac had to go though to stop the marker. Nicole didn't count. She was nothing more than an image created by the marker in an attempt to stop him. And almost succeeded. Almost. Isaac tore his gaze away from the dead body and sighed knowing that he would die. He sat in silence, waiting for death, whether the station would blow up consuming him in its hot fire or whether a piece of rock would fall on his head, it didn't matter to him anymore. Isaac thought of what he had done. What choices he had made just to get to the marker. He had unleashed hundreds or necromorphs upon the last few soldiers of Titan station who did what they could to keep him from advancing. He had killed Stross, aka patient 5, a man who had been affected quite severely by the marker, driving him to the point of attacking Isaac and trying to kill him with a screwdriver. And that damn eye poke machine. That was a bitch. Having to get his eye stabbed in order to help stop the marker. Even now Isaac fought the itch to rub his eye. God only knows what would have happened if he had missed. But at least he had saved someone from certain death. Ellie. She was now stuck on a small military ship, probably floating through space looking for a way home. Instead, Isaac received a small shock when a video hologram flickered to life in front of him. "You complete Barstard"! It was Ellie herself, grabbing Isaacs attention entirely. "Was this your great plan, dump me off and die"?! She scolded Isaac much like a mother would with a child. Isaac shook his head slightly. If he was going to die then good thing there was still somebody to criticize him. Although, it did seem nice to have somebody to speak to in his final moments. "I'm full of bad ideas, remember"? Isaac responded, remembering himself the last time he told her. "Yeah well here's another one". Ellie turned away from the holoscreen for a few seconds, clicking a few buttons to control the ship she was still flying. "I'm crashing through the roof to get you, now move your ass". Isaac quickly got to his feet. Was she crazy? There was nothing more that could be done to save him. "Wait, Ellie no. Ellie it's too late"! Isaac was now standing on both his feet, at his full height. He stared back into the holoscreen giving a small glare to get the point across. "Stay clear of the station"! He told her, making it sound more like an order than anything else. "Yeah well, you don't really have a say in it this time"! Ellie argued. The ground started to slightly rumble. "Heads up". Up above, the military ship Ellie was piloting smashed though the ceiling! Isaac cranked his head up, nearly falling over as he did from the after shock. Light blurred his vision as the ships main lights and engines shone in his face, nearly blinding him as it got closer to the ground. However even miracles have it limits. The ship was too big to land safely. But luck stood at Isaacs side. The decompression made by the newly made hole in the ceiling began sucking the air out into space. There was no way to fight it as Isaac quickly found himself being thrown up into the air. His helmet quickly sealed itself automatically around his face as he activated his anti gravity boots, pushing him upwards while controlling his direction. But it wasn't over yet. Huge pieces of the marker and ceiling were hurling towards him, threatening to rip his body to pieces if any of the debris smashed into him, with or without armour. With ease, Isaac avoided each and every obstacle thrown at him. He had plenty of practice in similar situations as he drew closer to the ship. Closer, closer. Ellie was right there, wearing a suit which must have come with the ship. She held out her hand, and Isaac did what he could to grab it. "ISAAC, TAKE MY HAND"! Ellie yelled, reaching for his hand. "I'M TRYING"! Isaac yelled back, doing his best. Putting all power of the suit into the anti gravity boots, Isaac's hand made contact with Ellies. Ellie pulled as hard as she could but the decompression was pulling them apart. Isaacs hand slipped slightly. At this rate, the both of them wouldn't be going anywhere. Isaac knew this. "ELLIE, YOU CAN'T PULL ME UP"! Ellie ignored Isaac, trying to think, wanting to think that he was lying. "ELLIE! YOU NEED TO LET GO! OR ELSE WE'RE BOTH GOING TO DIE"! "ISAAC, JUST SHUT UP AND HOLD ON"! Shame that Ellie had to be so stubborn all the time. Even when she knows when its time to give up. "ELLIE, LISTEN TO ME"! Ellie did nothing but keep pulling, trying to pull Isaac into the ship. But she did in vain. "LOOK ELLIE, I KNOW THAT YOU WANT TO SAVE ME, BUT I WAS DEAD THE MOMENT I LAUNCHED YOU FROM THE STATION"! Ellie looked at Isaac with her one eye, unable to believe what she was hearing! "ISAAC, YOU CAN'T JUST GIVE UP! NOT LIKE THIS"! "Believe me Ellie...". Isaac's voice softened. "...I wanted so much to believe I had a chance to escape, to live another day. But I don't have that choice any longer. And neither will you if you don't let go. Ellie let a single tear fall from her eye. Isaac was willing to sacrifice himself to save her. Her mind told her to let go but her heart and feelings held back on what her mind screamed at her to do. "Isaac... please"! Begged Ellie, her voice breaking as she did. "It will only hurt for a second. I promise". Isaac smiled under his helmet. Ellie closed her eye, and slowly, she let go of Isaacs hand and sobbed. Isaac plummeted towards the ground as the decompression threw his body downwards. He began to lose consciousness, but before he did, he muttered his last few words. "Goodbye Ellie, Godspeed". His eyes closed, letting out a single tear as they did. Titan station was unable to function any longer, it's reactor couldn't take any more and exploded, engulfing everything in flame except for Ellies ship which now wandered aimlessly in space. PONYVILLE 11:45AM EQUESTRIA Morning had finally arrived for everypony in Ponyville, mostly everypony was outside going about their daily business such as going to market, having an early lunch at the best restaurants Ponyville had to offer, or young foals having fun with their own friends under the warm sun. Everypony else who remained inside were either busy with their own activities or were just too lazy to even get up. At Ponyville library, the librarian was up bright and early as she sorted out each book into their rightful categories. However, she had been at this for three hours, perhaps longer as stated by a certain purple dragon named Spike. "Twilight, would you give it a rest? You've been at this for at least three hours straight"! Spike complained. Honestly though, the only reason he was complaining was because the noise of the books being slotted into the shelves was enough to wake him up from a nice dream. Twilight sighed, Spike would often criticize her daily routines in the hopes of getting some longer shut eye. "I can't Spike, you should know how important it is to keep your personal belongings secure and organized". She said without taking her eyes off of the hundreds of books still upon the floor in need of being re-shelfed. Spike rolled his eyes, knowing that when it comes to books, Twilight never leaves the job half done. He then proceeded into the kitchen, seeing how he was awake he might as well have a bite to eat. After a minute or two, Spike walked out of the kitchen with a sandwich half the size of himself. He looked over to Twilight. She was still organizing the same shelf. Deciding not to bother her, Spike sat down and began to eat his giant sandwich. However before he could take even one bite, there was a knock on the door, seems his lunch would have to wait a little longer. Spike looked over to Twilight in the hopes that she would answer it. She wasn't paying attention to anything right now. *Sigh* "The things I put up with". Muttered Spike, making the walk to the door sound like he had been set some sort of challenging task. He sat from his chair and waddled over to the door and opened it, his facial expression stayed the same. Uninterested. Outside of the door stood Pinkie Pie with a big smile, as she would usually do to anypony who was her friend. Anypony who wasn't her friend, she would do almost anything to become their friends although that only happened once with Cranky Doodle the donkey. "Hi Spike. Is Twilight in"? She cheerfully asked Spike, not letting Spikes expression bother her. "Yeah she's-". Pinkie didn't let Spike even finish his sentence as she zoomed past her, leaving a cloudy figure of where she once stood which slowly disappeared. "...- sorting books". Spike finished, basically talking to himself now before closing the door and returning to his sandwich. Pinkie Pie bounced up and down towards Twilight, eager to say what she had to say. "Hey Twilight, I just came over to check if you...". She trailed off as she noticed Twilight was busy sorting out her books to notice her. Not that it surprised her seeing how see was This gave Pinkie Pie an idea as a smile formed onto her face. She then stood on her hind legs and sucked in as much air as she could hold, which expanded her chest more than it naturally should have, and yelled as loud as she could. "HI TWILIGHT"!!!! Her voice was so loud that not only did Pinkies voice scare Twilight nearly to death, but it also blasted Twilight into a different bookshelf causing all the carefully organized books to fall, burying Twilight as they fell. Spike just sat there watching the humorous scene unfold in front of him making him laugh, nearly choking on his sandwich as he did. It took a few seconds for Twilights head to pop out of the mini mountain of books. She then glared at Pinkie Pie who gave an embarrassed smile as to say sorry. "Pinkie! Look at these books now! It'll take me forever to fix these"! Twilight snapped in frustration. "Oh come on Twily, it wouldn't hurt you to take a break"! Spoke Pinkie Pie cheerfully as though nothing had just happened. Twilight was about to speak back. But then again, she could use a break from stacking books. "I suppose". She decided. "Good, cause I just wanted to check if you still wanted to have lunch today. After all, you did Pinkie Promise". As she spoke her last sentence, her fluffy playful attitude was quickly replaced by a serious face. Everypony knew how seriously Pinkie Pie was when it came to Pinkie promises, and woe the poor pony who ever broke one. "Yes Pinkie, I still do". Twilight replied happily, trying to ignore her serious look as she did. "Great"! Squeaked Pinkie Pie, happy once more. Twilight turned her attention to Spike who had eaten a little over half the sandwich at this point. "Spike do you want to come"? Spike looked up, a small piece of tomato stuck to his face, and replied with a full mouth. "Thangffff vut no thanghsss". He responded, barely getting the message across. Twilight rolled her eyes and laughed. She then began to leave the library with Pinkie Pie. "Well lets get going. I'm sure that today is going to be a great day". Farewell WilmaIsaac's now unconscious body fell closer and closer to the ground. Alarms were going off and explosions were going off over the entire station, some small and others enough to destroy several patches of already ruined buildings. Each explosion glowed a bright orange followed by gigantic booms loud enough to blow apart anybody's eardrums, even from a distance. However there was a bright side of all this, no more marker, no more death or chaos. Even the Ishimura, the hellhole in which Isaacs horrifying journey began, surely couldn't have survived the intense flames which ripped it, melted it and tore it away ever so slowly. If that ship had a soul, it would have been screaming for mercy. Soon enough, the last of the air had been sucked out through the holes of the marker storage facility. Isaacs air meter began to count down the seconds, starting at 210 seconds leaving Isaac three and a half minutes before he would suffocate and die. However as though something had detected Isaac, a light purple ball popped into existence right next to his body. This ball was no bigger than Isaacs head, but suddenly the ball slowly expanded. As it grew, it seemed to have some sort of gravitational pull as Isaac began drifting towards it. Isaac was unable to escape from the balls grasp it had on him, even if he was unconscious. It also wouldn't have helped that some sort of menacing laughter filled the empty void of silence. The top of Isaacs head had entered the portal, as soon as his whole head entered, the countdown timer immediately refilled and closed down. But Isaac wasn't the only thing that was being sucked into the portal, an unarmed detonator mine followed Isaac into the portal, then a broken javelin gun with two javelins within the ammo slot and finally a hand with some sort of blade sticking out of the palm entered just as Isaac's feet had been sucked in. The portal then closed, leaving to proof of its existence as the whole of Titan Station exploded and transformed into a gigantic fireball for a short amount of time before the oxygen free environment shortly extinguished it leaving nothing of the station in its wake. PONYVILLE 12:00PM EQUESTRIA Twilight finished off the last of a daffodil sandwich from one of the popular restaurants in Ponyville. She smiled in satisfaction and rested her front hooves on top of the table in front of her and looked over at Pinkie. After being served five minutes ago, Pinkie had already gone through several different deserts, scoffing them down almost immediately, sometimes swallowing the plates as she did. Twilight shook her head, reminding herself to ignore Pinkie from... well being herself, and proceeded to pull out a schedule. She began to look though it as it listed her daily routine. Pinkie saw this and looked up at the book, half her face was covered in chocolate. "Whatca doing"? She asked innocently, leaning over the table to try and get a better look of inside the book. Unfortunately for herself, Twilight closed it just before she saw the page. "Just planning out my week. I've got a busy week ahead of me". Twilight replied joyfully as though she was looking forward to it (Which she was). "Ugh, you and me both". Groaned Pinkie who then pulled another book from her hair, except this one was three times bigger than the one Twilight had and was twice as thick. Twilights jaw dropped a little after witnessing the huge book and on top of that, surprised that Pinkie would have a schedule to begin with. "Wow Pinkie, I didn't know you were one for being organized". Spoke Twilight in awe, keeping her eyes on the titan of a schedule plan that lay before her, all existence of her own schedule became forgotten for the moment. "Oh but I am". Responded Pinkie cheerfully. "It to help me keep track of everyponys birthday, Nightmare Night parties, Hearts Warming Eve parties, welcome to Ponyville parties, B-". Before she could go any further, a few sudden cheers heading their direction caught her attention. And sure enough, three fillies ran up to them. One an earth pony who carried a trowel in her mouth, one a unicorn and the other a pegasus who carried a small watering can with supports placed between both the pegasus and the unicorn. Both adult ponies knew these three right off the bat and greeted them with friendly smiles. "Hi girls. Why are you in a hurry"? Asked Twilight, managing to tear her eyes off pinkies book at last. "We're off to see how well our tree is growing"! said the orange pegasus excitedly. "You're growing a tree"? Asked Twilight as her friendly face turned into one of confusion. "Well... we sort of grew it last week...". Admitted the white unicorn, pawing the ground as she spoke. "But seeing how ma family grows apple trees, I got this idea. What if our special talent had sumthing ta do with growing plants! And we've been workin on it ever since we planted it"! finished the yellow earth pony. Just then, all three fillies stood next to each other before yelling out. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS TREE GROWERS! YAY"! Catching everyponys attention causing them to look at the three fillies. The three small ponies blushed in embarrassment. "That explains the gardening tools". Thought Twilight. "Ooh, sounds fun! Can I come? Pleeeease"? Pleaded Pinkie. Anything or anypony who mentioned fun, she would always ask. After all, Pinkie was never one to say no to anything fun not even as a Filly. Once she had discovered her cutie mark of course. "Ummm ah dunno Pinkie". Muttered the earth pony. "This is official cutie mark business only". "awwwwwww...". Moaned Pinkie, slightly disappointed as she buried her head onto the table. "Its ok Pinkie". Twilight began, patting her soft mane. "I am practicing some new spells later. Perhaps you would like to help me with them"? Upon hearing her sentence, Pinkies head suddenly popped back up with a smile. "Oki Doki Loki Twili"! Twilight just rolled her eyes in response. "Well, see ya around"! squeaked the white unicorn as all three of them bolted off down the road as fast as their legs could take them. leaving Twilight and Pinkie to wave them off. However none of them noticed that Pinkies tail began to twitch as soon as they left. OUTSIDE THE EVERFREE FOREST 12:08PM EQUESTRIA All three fillies ran up to the tree line of the forest. They all then stopped in unison just outside it and glanced down excitedly at a noticeable patch of brown soil. Why they had chosen to grow their tree right next to the Everfree was unknown. "A'right girls. Ya know what to do"! Ordered the yellow earth pony as the other two shook off the weak supports. The can fell softly onto the ground and the two fillies did their best to hold it between themselves. One held the handle in her mouth while the other did her best to grasp the nozzle. The then proceeded and watered said patch of soil with every single drop the watering can held. Once this was done, the yellow earth pony began to pat down the soil with the trowel in her mouth, being careful round the middle as she did, and smoothed it out. Once she had finished her job, she spat the trowel to the ground and stared gleefully at the patch of soil. The other two fillies rushed to each of her side and did the same. Their faces were beyond excited, as though they were expecting the acorn to just suddenly sprout into a tree in one second. A minute passed, then another, and another, the three fillies getting more bored with each passing second. Eventually, the pegasus spoke up. "Hey Applebloom, I've been meaning to ask. How long DOES a tree take to grow"? She asked the earth pony now known as Applebloom. "Uhh... ah ain't sure. Ah think they're supposed ta take a few years at the least". "WHAT"!? each pony at Appleblooms side yelled with both shock and disappointment at this sudden bad news. "Yeah, ah guess ah forgot ta mention that part". Applebloom blushed, earning her a groan from each of her friends. "So now what, should we just give up on it"? asked the pegasus, gesturing to the patch of soil. "No way no how. Ah've seen ma sister take care of her apple trees plenty of times. And I know that with enough love and care, this acorn will become a big an strong tree". Applebloom spoke proudly, patting the patch of soil as she did. Before the other fillies had the chance to respond, a small humming was heard. It sounds soft but got louder. Soon enough, the surrounding area became engulfed in a bright purple light. All three fillies looked up as that was where the humming was coming from and spotted a purple ball right above Applebloom, several meters above her. The purple ball wasn't very big but it was enough to worry them. Each one had a different reaction. Curiosity, fear and protective. Applebloom was mostly curious seeing how the sound emitting ball was right above her, thought she did feel a small sting of fear. Right behind her, the unicorn was mostly afraid and hid behind her pegasus friend who took a fighting stance, ready to attack it if it tried anything, but kept back just in case. Soon enough, after a minute of the ball doing nothing other than drone the same humming noise, each pony loosened up slightly. But as soon as they did, the portal spit out several objects, each one unique in their own way. Applebloom managed to avoid them as the hit the ground with force and suddenly, a giant machine like object shot out of it. It was too big for Applebloom to avoid. Then all of a sudden, something pulled on her tail and she was yanked backwards just in time as the heavy metal object slammed into the ground, crushing the patch of soil. and even a few beautiful flowers next to it. Applebloom looked behind her just in time to see both her friends spit out a section of her tail before smiling at her, thankful that she was unharmed. Applebloom smiled back and turned her attention to the giant machine. The front of it seemed to have two noticeable slits on its head which let out a blue light which kept flickering on and off. Most of it seemed to be black and on its back, a small red light was blinking. "Oh No! Wilma"! Yelped the unicorn breaking the silence as she noticed the thing was now lying right on top of the soil patch and held one hoof up to her muzzle. "Wilma"? Asked Applebloom, turning to face her friend with a confused face. "Yeah I... sort of named the tree". Confessed the white unicorn. "I think we have bigger problems than naming the tree right now"! Interrupted the orange pegasus as all three fillies turned to see the so called machine starting to move. Author's Note Sorry for the delay lately but I've been dealing with college a lot which has kept me extremely busy. Also a member of my family has recently been told cancer so I've been distracted upon hearing the shocking new so sorry. I'll do what I can to get my chapters out more often. Some of you may be asking questions like "What is the portal" "Why is there a portal" "Why is there no explanation of the portal or who sent it" No worries cause I know that very little about the random portal is mentioned, it will be later revealed in an oncoming chapter. I've also been playing a little bit of dead space 2 and it has given me many ideas for the story. Finally, if you have a question about the story or if there is something you want to know about it such as "Will there be shipping" or anything else, check out my news of the week blog which will be posted every week to keep everyone updated about the my channel, stories or my progress because that is where I'll be answering questions. So thanks for reading, and stick around for the next chapter because thats when it gets interesting ;D Miniature contactsIsaac tried to open his eyelids but they felt heavy as did the rest of his body. His muscles ached so much, making it difficult to move. However he found the strength to lift one hand before resting it back onto the ground in front of him. He eventually managed to find the energy to speak. "I'm... alive"?! He barely muttered to himself. The second his brain put two and two together, millions of questions began to explode in his head. "How am I alive? Where am I?! What about titan station? What about... Ellie"? He stopped bombarding himself with questions as soon as the thought of Ellie crossed his mind. "She had escaped right?... Of course she did. She's too tough and stubborn to accept death so easily. She coped well enough with having one of her eyes being ripped out after all". Isaac ignored his feelings for a split second and made an attempt to lift up. He pushed off the ground with both hands, struggling under his own weight. He knew that if he was alive. Of course, the ringing in his ears made it sound as though whoever was talking was miles away when they were in fact, right below him. But even still it mattered little as his ears were still ringing and his vision was hazy. He only hoped that whoever it was would help him out before he collapsed again. Once his vision came back to him within a matter of seconds, he looked round, he couldn't see anybody. He wondered if he was hearing things? It couldn't have been the marker screwing around with him anymore. Destroying it meant no more signal, no more fucked up visions. Right? His hearing slowly increased as the ringing in his ears faded. Eventually, he heard... "Excuse me but... are you okay"? From the CMC's point of view. Applebloom looked at the metal monster before her, taking in every detail she could. It was big, black and had some sort of object attached to its hip. Before long, the creature raised one of its front limbs in the air for a few seconds before collapsing back onto the ground with a soft thump, scaring all three ponies enough to shuffle back an extra foot or so. They tried not to scream lest they invoked it. All three fillies watched in awe as the metal machine rose to its full height, pushing its claws onto the ground in an effort to lift itself up. An amazing six foot at least! Soon all three ponies let their jaws drop to the ground. It began to speak! Not at them however, in fact it didn't seem to have noticed them just yet. Even still the black machine stood there, talking to itself about somepony called Ellie. Rather than stand and watch any longer, all three ponies whispered among st each other, trying hard not to move or even make eye contact with each other, just in case the towering beast saw them. "What do you think it is"? "I dunno". "What should we do"? "Panic"? "That's yer answer ta everything"! "I say we make a run for it. That thing doesn't look like its seen us yet". "Ah dunno, it seems a little sad ta me". "How can you tell that, it doesn't even have a face". "Can't ya hear its voice? It sounds... lonely". "Lonely"? "I think you have a point Applebloom, it does sound a little down". "So what do we do with it"? "Ah guess the only thing we can do". Applebloom walked up to the metal creature and spoke with a small amount of fear hanging onto her words. However, there was always the chance this conversation could end with a cutie mark. If the machine didn't eat them or whatever. "Excuse me but... are you okay"? The machine stopped moving for a few seconds before slowly tilting its head downwards Applebloom and her two friends who were more focused on Applebloom, giving her a look which plainly said "Are you insane"?! Isaacs view. Isaac paused for a second before looking down to see three small horse like creatures looking terrified. He stumbled slightly before asking the same question. "What are you supposed to be"? He managed to splutter, standing at his full height. "Hey, we asked you first"! Squeaked the white one, finding some strength to talk. Isaac tilted his head Judging by their size and high voices, they must have been kids. "Holy f...". He thought to himself. "I'm Isaac, Isaac Clarke. And you three are...". The three fillies stepped closer, not too much as they still felt nervous with Isaac being a little over three times their own size. Applebloom found the courage to speak first out of her friends. "Ma names Applebloom". She spoke cheerfully, forcing a small smile onto her face before pointing one of her front hoofs to one side with the white pony. "This ere's Sweetiebelle". She then pointed to her other side with the orange pony. "An This is Scootaloo". Isaac tried to take in everything that he was experiencing. So far in his opinion, he somehow survived from Titan Station, he fell unconcious, woke up and met three talking horses. What. The. Hell? That's impossible. None of this could have been real, Isaac refused to believe it and just went with the belief that he was still unconscious. "Are you ok Mister"? Isaac shook his thoughts from his head. He looked down at the three miniature horse before turning round and headed towards the forest in an attempt to leave. Unfortunately for him, all three filiies galloped up and tried to block Isaacs path by standing right in front of him. This got Isaac to stop lest he wanted to tread on them. Real or not, it was against every muscle in his body to take another step and take another life. "... What are you doing"? Asked Isaac impatiently, as though he wanted to be left alone. "Y'all can't go in there"! Cried Applebloom. "Why not? Its just a forest". Isaac asked calmly and crossed his arms, getting impatient. "Don't ya know how dangerous the forest is"? She questioned him. Both her friends nodded to show how much they agreed. Sweetiebelle even tried to make her own point as well. "Animals care for themselves and clouds move all on their own"! Even though the three fillies couldn't see Isaac's real face, they were sure they heard something along the lines of laughter coming from him. This just seemed to make them angry once hearing him. "Hey, We're serious"! Scootaloo harshly replied. Isaac stopped laughing, upon hearing her change of tone and bent down in front of him, ignoring the pain he felt in his muscles. "Look, I don't know what's going on here but I'm not going to let a bunch of namby pamby horses tell me what to do. I don't care what is in that forest, you can't stop me, okay"? All three fillies nodded, hardly managing to speak. Not because they were afraid but because they didn't think they were able to convince the machine no matter what they tried. Isaac stood up and stepped around them before heading towards the forest once more. He was only a few feet away from the tree line. "Could you at least apologize"? Isaac stopped for a second and sighed before turning round. He found the white unicorn grasping onto his left leg in an attempt to stop him for a few precious seconds. "Apologize for what"? "Crushing Wilma of course"! Isaacs skin froze over. "What? Oh shit"! Isaac entered panic mode, believing that he had killed a small horse by accidentally stepping on it and looked around, forgetting that he was supposed to be ignoring the ponies. Applebloom just stared at Scootaloo who shrugged, having no idea why the so called machine was so upset about a crushed sapling. "Do you think he's one of those tree hugger ponies"? Asked Scootaloo to Applebloom in hopes for an answer. Applebloom looked at Isaac who now seemed to be questioning Sweetiebelle on who Wilma was and were her body was. She turned back to Scootaloo before Sweetiebelle gave her answer. "Ya mean like Fluttershy? Ah guess so". "...A tree? You got me worked up over a tree"? The two ponies faced Isaac and Sweetiebelle, seeing them calm down as quickly as he had panicked . "umm... yes"? Sweetiebelle put on the most apologetic look she could. Isaac face palmed. "I don't believe this. Why can't I just go home or something". He said to himself. "Excuse me, mister Isaac". Isaac was starting to get why so many people didn't want to have children back on earth. They can easily drive you to the brink of insanity in only a short matter of time. He looked at the pony with the big bow in her hair. "What"? Whatever sweetness Isaac had in his voice, which was very little to begin with, had disappeared and was left with bitterness. "Why don't you just do that weird portal trick like before if y'all want to go home so bad"? "...Excuse me"? "Yeah, you came from that weird purple portal in the air just over there". Isaac looked at where she was pointing, just above the patch of soil that was home to "Wilma". Isaac was at a loss for words, again. A portal? Seriously? Wasn't that the sort of thing you would find on a sci fi movie or a book or something? With this new information he dropped his theory about still being unconscious and decided to tell the little ponies the truth. "I... don't know how". Isaac spoke calmly. Upon hearing his words, all three fillies seemed be simultaneously shocked. "What"? The White pony squeaked. "It's true. A portal isn't something that's supposed to exist back where I'm from". The three ponies lowered their heads feeling sorry for Isaac. That was until the orange pegasus raised her head within a millisecond and looked as though she had an idea. "What about Twilight? She's bound to know, what with her being an egghead and all". "Great idea Scoot". Replied Applebloom, liking the idea. Both fillies looked at their other friend, Sweetiebelle and allowed her to speak. "Mister Isaac, I think we can help you". Author's Note Sorry for the two day delay. I've been suffering a minor cold so it's been a few bad nights for me. I might have made a few mistakes going over this chapter so if there are any, please tell me and I'll fix them when I can Planning the meetingThe power was out. The soldiers begun talking among themselves, wondering if patient 4 was responsible for the sudden blackout. Soon enough, they realized if the power was cut, then the Kinetic restraints to the bulkhead door were knocked out, which meant the bulkhead doors were opening. And if the bulkhead doors were open... Noises could be heard from the outside, growls and groaning flooded the soldiers ears. They readied their weapons. A couple of soldiers threw their weapons to the side and ran through the next door in a vain attempt to escape the coming slaughter. A few seconds of patient waiting, one of the hideous creatures stepped out from the darkness, revealing itself to be unlike any of the other necromorphs. It was taller, stronger and unknown to the soldiers, it could also regenerate its limbs no matter how many times they were shot off. Above them in the security checkpoint, a man wearing the advanced armor suit stood watch. He gave a quick look outside the bullet proof windows then back to the power core which he had ripped from the wall. Was it worth it? Was it worth killing perhaps the last humans on board Titan Station, just to advance further into the facility? He didn't answer his own question. He couldn't. Then, he heard something below him. A few shots sounded out, then hundreds. The necromorphs at the other side of the room advanced on them with great speed, all except for the taller one which simply walked down the hallway, letting the rest of the necro army tear into the small force of soldiers. Isaac listened as the screams from the soldier rung out and watched as the flashlights to their weapons went out one by one. Before Isaac had a moment to reflect upon his actions, a screen flashed in front of him. It was Tiedman. "You compromised the compound, you... Idiot"! It was safe to say he wasn't very happy. If anything he was more fearful than he was angry. "If any of them reach the marker"... Tiedman turned his attention to whatever soldiers were in front of him. "Fall back! Fall back to the marker chamber! We have to seal it off"! The screen flashed for a second before static overwhelmed it and shut down. Isaac looked back outside. The army of necromorphs kept coming with no end in sight. He could still hear gunshots and screaming. Though Isaac could no longer see any remaining flashlights, it must have meant that the soldiers within the next few rooms were still fighting for their lives. Isaac left the security checkpoint and made his way downstairs, trying to drown out the screams echoing around him. After he had reached the ground level, he noticed a wide window to his right. Outside were several necromorphs slowly advancing. Some walking, some crawling. Whatever human bodies were scattered round the room, the infectors did what they did best. Turn them into more foot soldiers for the ever growing army of hellspawn. Isaac gave a moment of pause, waiting for the twisted creatures to leave into the next room, then exited the security lookout and through the door. His approach didn't go unnoticed. The necromorphs still in the room turned round fiercely, seeing the human and charged. The first to attack was a dark slasher along with some of the smaller green insect like necromorphs Isaac fired with his javelin gun. The spear like projectile hit the dark slasher in its chest. The slasher roared in pain and shrugged it off and kept charging. Isaac expected as much and pressed a second button on the weapon. A javelin let off a powerful electric shock, frying the necromorph and all the small insect like necromorphs that surrounded it. A puker from the far side from the room took its chances and spat a disgusting ball of acid puke at Isaac. Isaac dodged it just in time and fired at the monster and another puker which crawled its way towards Isaac. Issac switched to his plasma cutter and shot the first puker and dismembered its arm and then a leg. The creature fell to the ground dead. He turned his attention to the next puker, still crawling towards him. Isaac aimed at the abomination but before he could fire, another bug necromorph behind him latched onto his back, slashing at him. Isaac tried to whack it off but it kept moving around. The puker started to gurgle and vomit up its puke as soon as it had a good enough shot on Isaac and fired. Isaacs reflexes kicked in and he ducked barely in time and the puke flew overhead and some of the puke splashed onto the bug necro causing it to shriek and fall onto the floor. Unfortunately some of the puke had splashed on top of isaacs back causing him to cry in pain. Part of the suits metal dissolved only slightly and the health meter on the back of the suit dropped from blue to green. The puker crawled its way over to Isaac once again, who tried to use a small health pack on himself as he thought he had enough time. Once it was close enough, it lashed out at Isaac, forcing him to drop the health pack onto the floor. The puker tried to attack again. Unfortunately for itself, Isaac was quicker as he crushed its head with his heavy boots, turning the soft flesh of the pukers head into nothing more than a stinking pile of mush. The battle wasn't over yet. A second slasher and an exploder came though the hallway, the gunfire must have drawn their attention. Isaac shook his head and aimed his plasma cutter at the exploders yellow blobby arm and fired. The result was both necromorphs consumed in a huge explosion of foul yellow gunk. After a few seconds of waiting for something else to try its luck, Isaac bent down and picked up the health pack, now covered in the brains of the dead puker, and healed himself. His green bar boosted itself back up to blue. Isaac walked down the hallway and was about to enter the next room until he noticed the body of one of the soldiers to his left. His visor had been smashed, revealing his eyes. He seemed to have been stabbed in his chest and had his stomach slashed across. His intestines painted the cold steel floor in blood. The lifeless eyes stared back at Isaac. They seemed to ask one question. "Why"? A question Isaac couldn't bring himself to answer even in his head. At least not right away. He looked at the body a while longer before finally giving it an answer. "You gave me no choice". And with that, Isaac tore his gaze off the soldiers haunting eyes and walked further into the facility. "I'm not doing it". Isaac seemed to be finding it hard to believe that he was talking to three ponies. But now, the white one, Sweetie belle, had told him that another unicorn called Twilight could send him back home with her magic. It sounded ridiculous. "But why"? Pleaded Applebloom. "Magic does not exist, okay? I'd have thought your parents would have told you that by your age". "But-". "No". The three fillies froaned in unison. They then huddled and spoke in hushed voices in which Isaac couldn't hear. The armored human looked round, careful not to injure his muscles any further and noticed to his left the broken javelin, the detonator mine and... "God damn it". He spoke to himself, hoping the young ponies didn't hear his foul language. He looked back at the fillies, they were still talking among themselves, not one of them facing him. Quickly he seized the slasher arm with his kinesis module and shot it deep into the Everfree forest behind him. As the arm was forcefully launched, it made a small *whoosh* noise, catching the orange pegasus's attention. "What was that"? "What was what"? Isaac lied, deciding that telling them chucking a severed arm into a forest was not a good move on his part. The three little ponies turned back to Isaac, getting back to their original plan of getting him to come with them. Applebloom spoke. "If y'all don't at least try, how do you know it won't work". "I don't". "So why not ask her for help"? "... I work better alone". This time Isaac spoke the truth. Almost everyone who tried to help Isaac, or if Isaac tried to help them would have been killed one way or another like Hammond, Stross and DR Kyne. And even when they were alive, they always had entrusted Isaac to carry out the most dangerous tasks. "But what about putting trust into other ponies"? Sweetie belle asked. "I tried that with a girl called Ellie". "And"? "She tried to shoot me in the face, first time we met". The three girls eyes widened. Isaac quickly interjected before they panicked. "But we ended up being great partners and helped each other though tough times"! That seemed to work as their eyes returned to normal size. "Then ya got nothing ta lose if ya just try. Like with this Ellie fella. Plus, Ah know Twilight well. She would never try ta shoot ya". "... Maybe, but...". "Please Mr robot"? The three filles eyes grew wide once again, but no in shock. This time they were pulling the most adorable faces they could make. Isaac just stared back before giving in and sighing. "Alight. I'll give it a go. And my name is Isaac, not Mr robot". "But if you're not a robot, why are you covered in that rad metal"? Asked Scootaloo, impressed with the advanced suits design ever since Isaac had first fallen out of the sky. "It's a suit to protect me. My real body is hidden under the armor". Responded Isaac. The fillies nodded. "Ready to go, Mr Isaac"? "One second". Isaac walked over to his left and picked up the broken javelin gun and the detonator mine. He put the javelin gun away on his back and the mine in one of his pockets. "Okay, ready". All four of them walked towards the town of Ponyville. A few minutes of walking in silence later, they had reached Ponyville. They were just about to walk into the town when Isaac realized something. "Whoa hold on, hold on. How am I meant to get across the town without causing a panic"? The three fillies looked at Isaac, then at each other and then back to Isaac again. "What do you mean"? "Well, I'm a human, something that your species has probably never seen before, and if any of them see a dangerous looking monster waltzing through town, its bound to cause panic and chaos". "...Oh". The three fillies begun thinking as hard as they could, trying to think of a solution to how Isaac could meet Twilight without him even stepping one foot into town. Then... "Ah got it"! Applebloom smiled in joy with her new idea. "Why don't we just hide Mr Isaac in the clubhouse an get Twilight ta meet him there"? The other two fillies thought about it, trying to find any flaws in Appleblooms plan. There didn't seem to be any. "Sounds good to me". "Me too. What about you Mr Isaac"? Isaac sighed. "Whatever works best". The three fillies beamed at his answer and lead the human towards Sweet Apple Acres. Author's Note Feels good to get another chapter out at long last, I've got plenty of ideas for this story which will be spread around as many chapters as I can. Hope you enjoy it :) a moments restIsaac hesitantly put his left foot on top of the ladder and grasped it with both his hands. He then shifted part of his weight onto the ladder and gently pulled down. The ladder held its own against the humans weight, there wasn't even a creak to be heard. He began to climb the ladder, slowly. It only took a few seconds until Isaac reached the top and onto the clubhouse balcony. Isaac took one look to the ground. The tree house must have been built at least 10 feet off the ground. He then turned round towards the entrance, a rectangular hole 4 foot tall, meaning Isaac had to duck to enter. He slowly knelt down and stuck his head in. He checked left and right as though he expected something inside to try and grab him. Nothing. Well at least it seemed peaceful. "What are you doing"? Came a voice from behind Isaac making him flinch before realizing it was Scootaloo's voice. "Let's just say I've had unpleasant experiences from not checking corners". Isaac replied with a hint of seriousness in his voice. He entered the tree house, noticing that it was bigger than he expected. At least big enough for him to stand upright again. The three fillies followed him in and trotted in front of him, standing side to side of one another. "Mr Clarke, welcome to"... "THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS CLUBHOUSE"! Isaac looked round. There seemed to be a second floor, a red and white target painted on the floor with a light bulb dangling over it, and a map of the town Ponyville and nearby locations nailed to the wall opposite him. Applebloom began to push for his opinion. "Soooo... What do ya think"? "It's... nice". Sweetiebelle gave a small frown but did well to hide it from everypony else. She had hoped that the alien would have found it to be awesome or along those lines. To her, Nice meant that it was ok. "So how long until I can talk to this Twilight person"? Isaac asked quickly. "Well we did see her Pinkie Pie shortly before we found you. She's probably still sitting there talking with Pinkie". Isaac nodded and walked over to the nearest corner of the tree house and sat down carefully. He noticed that all three ponies had left him, most likely to find Twilight, giving him a moment on his own. At his command, the advanced helmet to move on its own, each piece of metal that held the helmet apart removed and sunk into the suit, letting Isaac see the world through his own eyes and not through a visor. He rested his head on the wooden wall behind him and just sat there taking all that had happened in. Back at the restaurant, Twilight had been listening to Pinkie Pie going over her party list for over half an hour now. She tried to keep her head up with both her hooves so she didn't fall asleep but was close to doing so, completely forgetting about those new spells she was supposed to be practicing. "...And then there's Thunderlane who's off to Manehatten to visit family so I'll need to prepare a welcome home Thunderlane party. Should I have it at Sugarcube corner? I mean it'll be hard to throw a party in Cloudsdale if I can't even walk on clouds. But then again"... "TWILIGHT"! rung out the voices of three unmistakable fillies, snapping Twilight out of her barely conscious state. She turned her head and saw Applebloom, Sweetiebelle and Scootaloo running up to her before screeching to a halt in front of the table. Pinkie however was too caught up in her list to even notice the fillies and kept going over her list. "... And he did make a Pinkie promise not to arrive late this time. After all, nopony breaks a pinkie promise"... Pinkie's last sentence was spoken with one of her rarely seen "serious" moments. Twilight rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the fillies. "Hello girls. Is everything okay"? "Yeah. Well, sort of. We ran into a new friend today". "Oh excellent. What's his name"? All three fillies paused for a moment trying to remember the humans name. They already forgot once before, now it was a little ridiculous trying to remember a second time. Eventually Scootaloo remembered or at least she thought she did. "I think he said his name was Rice Sack". she spoke up, not too confident with her answer. The other two fillies looked at each other and shrugged. Rice Sack sounded about right. "Oh... what a...unique name". Twilight spoke politely. Applebloom continued. "Anyway, he's a little lost and we were kinda hoping that you would help him find his way home". Twilight gave a happy smile. "Of course, I'd be happy to help. I don't think Pinkie would mind, would you Pinkie"? "...But then again, chocolate cake is much better than boring old sponge cake, and"... "...I don't think she minds". Responded Twilight. "So where is he"? "Well we left him at the clubhouse so not too far away". Twilight nodded and headed off, leaving Pinkie to deal with her party throwing problems. The walk would have lasted ten minutes at the most so Twilight decided to strike a conversation. "You know girls, I must say that I'm proud of you, helping a friend in need. It was a very mature move for you to do". The three girls smiled at the comment. Then Sweetiebelle had a sudden thought. "Hey, do you think we'll get cutiemarks for helping other ponies"? " Ya know, that would be a mighty fine cutiemark ta get". Isaac put his plasma cutter on the floor, certain he wouldn't need it. But even still, he found it hard just to let go seeing how he had carried it and several other weapons and tools ever since taking it from the surgery room. It then flashed back to him. That man who was strapped down on the cold metal table, begging for help. Isaac had helped him out and managed to recieve the plasma cutter. Or at least tried to until the necromorph attacked. If only Isaac had been faster he could have saved him. That poor mans blood was on his hands. He could still remember the man screaming as the monster hacked his limbs off and slicing off his head before turning on Isaac. At least he had the plamsa cutter in time otherwise he would have been next. Isaac did well to shake the memory quickly from his head as he heard something outside. Without delay, he snatched his weapon from the floor, much quicker than he had set it down, and let his helmet automatically seal itself around his head once more and waited. The tension was the worst part, not knowing what would come. Even though it had happened more than enough times, it wasn't any easier to control. All of a sudden, up popped Appleblooms head. Isaac relaxed and let out a relieved sigh. He got back onto his feet and walked over to the little pony. Applebloom walked over to Isaac and smiled. Isaac took it as a good sign. If he hadn't sealed his helmet back up, Applebloom would have seen him smiling back. "I take it she came"? "Yup. Your problems are nearly over mister Rice Sack". "Good. I- did you just call me rice sack"? "Uhh, yeah. Thats yer name isn't it". Isaac sighed. This would now be the third time he had to tell her his name. "No, it's Isaac. I-S-A-A-C. Got it"? He spoke calmly. "...yeah. Of course. Sorry". Applebloom gave a sheepish smile and exited the clubhouse, gesturing for Isaac to follow. Isaac smiled again. As much as he wanted to return home, he knew he was going to miss those three little angels. He then exited the clubhouse, noticing the other two fillies talking to a much bigger purple pony with its back to Isaac. He climbed down the ladder and walked up to them. As he did, he heard the orange Pegasus speak. "Really? Dang it I was so close"! Isaac guessed that it had to do with trying to remember his name. He then heard the purple taller pony speak. "Well as long as you remember. Just remember that just because he has an unusual name doesn't make him a monster. Everypony deserves to be treated with love and kindness". Isaac then decided to catch her attention. "Umm... Hello. You must be Twilight". Twilight's ears twitched from the sudden voice and turned round with a smile on her face. almost instantly her smiling face transformed into one of pure terror. Isaac expected her to be shocked. However he certainly didn't expect to be suddenly blasted by a bright purple like laser to fire at high speed from the pony's head, sending him through one of the smaller trees surrounding the area. Author's Note Oh, I'm sorry Twilight. What was that you just said about love and kindness? Anyway it's been relieving for me to have another chapter up. To be honest I'll try and focus more on the more popular stories like this one because the updates are way too slow and you guys deserve better. But for now, I hope you enjoy reading. Cheerio. Meeting the bookwormLuckily for Isaac, the force of the shot had done more damage to the tree he had just crashed into. Now he was just there lying with his back on the ground as he tried to comprehend what had just happened. Then, he came up with a conclusion. A little purple female pony had just tried to kick the shit out of him. Isaacs first emotion was anger, and wanted nothing more than to shoot her. Of course the only two things stopping him was the three fillies, of which were now talking some sense into Twilight, and the fact that killing her wasn't going to be getting him anywhere except the jail house. That is considering these ponies have prisons. He viewed the purple pony. The way she was standing in between him and the foals made it seem like she was just trying to protect them. Not exactly hard to tell since everything else he fought against was usually on the offence. It was enough to get him to calm down and slowly stand back up. The suits reading told him that he had received very little damage from the assault. His health meter still stood in the blue. Odd since he had just gone flying through a God damn tree. He shrugged it off and tried to approach again and made a note to himself not to shoot her. But if she dared try shooting at him again, she would most certainly be receiving a punch to the face. He cleared his throat once he decided he was close enough, gaining the attention of all four equines. "Look, maybe we got off on the wrong foot. My name is Isaac Clarke, I don't mean you any harm". As he spoke, he tried stepping ever so slowly forwards. If the purple unicorn was planning on trying to shoot him again, at least he would have had a chance to try and dodge it. The little purple unicorn wasted no time in talking. "Isaac Clarke"? She asked, tilting her head to the side. "That's an... unusual name". "So, I take it you're done with trying to blast me"? Isaac asked as the unicorn rubbed her forehoof, embarrassed with her actions. "Yeah, sorry about that. I thought you were a monster about to attack us. I didn't know that you were the friend Applebloom was talking about". Even though the unicorn couldn't see the small smirk on Isaacs face behind the helmet, she was still able too detect a short laugh. "What's so funny"? She asked. "Nothing. Just where I'm from, I'm usually the one attacked. Kind of amusing to have it the other way round here. Sort of". Isaac spoke with a sense of dry humor. "Anyway, don't worry about it. So, what's your name"? "Twilight Sparkle. Student of Princess Celestia". "...Yeah, I'm the one with the stupid name". Isaac thought to himself before speaking out loud. "Pleasure. Look, I don't mean to rush you Miss Sparkle, but your friends tell me that you can help me out"? "I'm sure I can try. So what's the problem"? "Well, I'm not sure how to put it, so I'll just give you the basics. I'm lost and need help getting back to earth". His first thoughts was to tell them that he wanted help getting back to the Sprawl. But since that place is now probably nothing more than a pile of heated scarp metal, earth was the next best thing. If he was lucky, he could find a way to contact Ellie from there. Still, one step at a time. Only one problem. Twilight looked confused by the request. "Earth? You mean you live underground"? Isaac had to resist the urge to face palm. Of course it wasn't going to be that easy, informing a pony about a planet she's never been to. Of course, now that Isaac thought about it, what planet was HE on? Yet another question for the evergrowing list. "No. No, Earth is a planet which"- "Planet? You mean... Are you trying to tell me that you are an alien"?! That look of shock and horror on Twilights face made Isaac wonder if he would have just been better off walking into the forest after all. "Um... Yes"? Expecting the unicorn to laugh or tell him that such things were impossible, she did no such thing. Instead, she kept repeating the words "Oh my gosh" over and over again as fast as she could while wearing a smile so large, Isaac was certain it would have fallen off. Next thing he knew, she was mobbing him with questions while doing her best to invade his personal space. It was enough for Isaac to step back while he was bombarded with questions such as... "What species are you? How many of your kind are you? Is that your actual skin or is it a form of clothing? What"... Even if Isaac did answer any of the questions, he wouldn't have had enough time to finish answering it as the unicorn just quickly, and impatiently, sped onto the next one. Thankfully she was so busy just asking, she was unable to hear the annoyed sigh coming from the engineer. Since she was not going to be slowing down anytime soon, Isaac calmly walked over to the three little fillies and leaned down next to them. "This? This is the help you were talking about"? He spoke unamused. The three nodded with hopeful smiles on their faces, not catching the annoyance in his voice. "Look, surely there has to be somebody, ANYbody else". Scootaloo thought for a second. "Well, how about Rainbow Da"- "NO"! Both Applebloom and Sweetiebelle spoke in unison, causing the orange pegasus to grumble. "Fine"... Applebloom turned back to Isaac. "Sorry Isaac. She's kind of... a smart pony. But she'll stop talking. Eventually"? "Just like when you said she would never shoot me"? Isaac spoke in good humor. "Yeah... I guess ah may have jumped the fence on that one. But ah mean it this time". She certainly sounded sure of herself. "Okay then, fine. I'll endure it". He grumbled. Getting up and turning around, he found that Twilight was still facing him and was STILL asking questions. "What do you eat? What are the names of your cities? Do you even have cities? What about hives? Or"... The more she droned on and on, the more Isaac actually began considering how much more entertaining it was just trying to survive back on the Ishimura and the Sprawl compared to this lecture. This was getting him nowhere fast. He needed to stop wasting time and get through some sort of progress while he could. "Uh, miss Twilight"? He had to speak loud and stern enough for Twilight to stop for a brief moment, thank God. "As... enlightening as it is to sit around and answer your questions for the rest of the day, I think you're missing the main point. Is there anyway you can help me out"? Twilight quickly snapped back to reality and shook her head. "Oh, well, I don't know much about helping creatures from other worlds, but I think I know some pony else who could help you out". Isaacs eye twitched. "Who"? "Princess Celestia. If anypony can help you, it'll be her". "Then... may I speak to her"? Isaac asked, becoming more and more impatient by the minute. "Sure. I just need to send her a letter and before long, you'll probably be back home before you know it". Isaac didn't like the sound of that probably, but what other choice did he have? "Okay then. Let's go and speak to this... Celestia then". "Uh, 'Princess' Celestia". Twilight kindly corrected him. Whatever... "Sorry, PRINCESS Celestia". "You... don't mind waiting here for a bit, do you"? Isaac chuckled. "Might as well. It's the only thing I've done since I came here". "Good. I'll be back when I can. Then, you can go back to answering those questions I have in store for you". And with that, Twilight zoomed off. As she did, Isaac gave a quick glance at the CMCs who still waited patiently at his side. Perhaps now would be a good chance to break the ice. "So uh... what do you three do for fun around here"? All three fillies looked at each other before sporting a wide, almost evil grin. "Want to help us earn our cutie marks"? Author's Note Hey guys! Guess which silly b*stard decided to return to FIMfiction? Oh wait, it's me! So yeah, I'm at uni now. Got some free time to myself and decided to spend it coming back here! Glad to continue this story again, and maybe in time I'll continue the others as well! See you around the site! Cheerio!
Chapter 1: A noble sacrifice"MAAAAKE! USSSS! WHOOOOOLLLEEEE"! Nicole was slowly making her way towards Isaac again for the third time, wanting nothing more than to end his life. Isaac took little notice of this as he did his best to fight off several shadowy figures a little over half his size that had been created by his own mind. *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* The plasma cutter Isaac wielded was on its last few shots. He only had seven remaining shots left plus a whole clip of twenty five shots for the same weapon. *BANG* The last shadow figure dissolved into thin air, leaving only Nicole. Or at least a twisted version of the woman Isaac once loved. She was only a few meters away. Time to end this! One way or another! Without hesitation, Isaac raised his plasma cutter and aimed for Nicole, moving back in an attempt to get as much distance between himself and his target. *BANG* He fired his first shot, hitting Nicole in the leg causing her to stumble. *BANG* The next shot barely grazed her arm, although it wasn't enough to stop her advancing. *BANG* The third shot missed her by an inch. Isaac looked behind him seeing that he was at the very edge of the rocky surface that he was standing on. He was now cornered. *BANG* The fourth shot found its mark, hitting the horrifying figure in the middle of the chest. Nicole stumbled once more, yelping in pain as she did. *BANG* The fifth shot was way off target as it flew past Nicole's blood stained head by an entire meter . Isaac was now on his last shot and with Nicole closing in, there wasn't even enough time to reload. This was it. The shot that would determine his fate, Ellie's fate, perhaps the whole of humanities fate. If he died now, the marker would have already won. Everything seemed to have slowed down as Isaac aimed carefully. His arms grew tired trying to hold the plasma cutter up after everything he had been through to get here. His finger touched the trigger, and with his remaining strength, he pulled the trigger. *BANG* The sixth shot exploded from the gun, flying straight through the air towards Nicole for the final time. The shot hit Nicole in her stomach! She was done! Nicole couldn't take the pain anymore! She had failed and she knew it!With her final breath she drew a blood curdling scream as Isaac was blinded by a white light. His mind was pulling him back into reality. Isaac opened his eyes. Several pieces of rock the size of his head smashed into the floor. Isaac was too dazed for the next few seconds to realize what had happened. His helmet no longer covered his face. The air felt refreshing on his head after it being covered in sweat from having it on for hours on end. Isaac took a second to process his thoughts. His mind seemed clear and peaceful as to say that it was no longer plagued by the markers visions. He looked up before the giant marker in front of him, or at least the remains of it as pieces of both the marker and the structure that housed it rained down from the sky. Isaac couldn't help but give a small smile. The marker had been destroyed which meant its signal to create the necromorphs had stopped which meant no more necromorphs which meant that he had given humanity a tomorrow. But his happiness was soon masked by his remaining sadness. He had sacrificed himself to destroy the marker. Isaac sat down, letting his body rest from exhaustion. His back faced the marker as it slowly crumbled away. He put a hand up to his face and exhaled to help calm himself. This was suddenly followed by a recorded voice. "Warning. Reactor unstable. Please evacuate the building immediately". Isaac ignored the voice. What good would it do him? He looked in front of him, noticing the headless body that once belonged to Tiedman only a few feet away. The last being that Isaac had to go though to stop the marker. Nicole didn't count. She was nothing more than an image created by the marker in an attempt to stop him. And almost succeeded. Almost. Isaac tore his gaze away from the dead body and sighed knowing that he would die. He sat in silence, waiting for death, whether the station would blow up consuming him in its hot fire or whether a piece of rock would fall on his head, it didn't matter to him anymore. Isaac thought of what he had done. What choices he had made just to get to the marker. He had unleashed hundreds or necromorphs upon the last few soldiers of Titan station who did what they could to keep him from advancing. He had killed Stross, aka patient 5, a man who had been affected quite severely by the marker, driving him to the point of attacking Isaac and trying to kill him with a screwdriver. And that damn eye poke machine. That was a bitch. Having to get his eye stabbed in order to help stop the marker. Even now Isaac fought the itch to rub his eye. God only knows what would have happened if he had missed. But at least he had saved someone from certain death. Ellie. She was now stuck on a small military ship, probably floating through space looking for a way home. Instead, Isaac received a small shock when a video hologram flickered to life in front of him. "You complete Barstard"! It was Ellie herself, grabbing Isaacs attention entirely. "Was this your great plan, dump me off and die"?! She scolded Isaac much like a mother would with a child. Isaac shook his head slightly. If he was going to die then good thing there was still somebody to criticize him. Although, it did seem nice to have somebody to speak to in his final moments. "I'm full of bad ideas, remember"? Isaac responded, remembering himself the last time he told her. "Yeah well here's another one". Ellie turned away from the holoscreen for a few seconds, clicking a few buttons to control the ship she was still flying. "I'm crashing through the roof to get you, now move your ass". Isaac quickly got to his feet. Was she crazy? There was nothing more that could be done to save him. "Wait, Ellie no. Ellie it's too late"! Isaac was now standing on both his feet, at his full height. He stared back into the holoscreen giving a small glare to get the point across. "Stay clear of the station"! He told her, making it sound more like an order than anything else. "Yeah well, you don't really have a say in it this time"! Ellie argued. The ground started to slightly rumble. "Heads up". Up above, the military ship Ellie was piloting smashed though the ceiling! Isaac cranked his head up, nearly falling over as he did from the after shock. Light blurred his vision as the ships main lights and engines shone in his face, nearly blinding him as it got closer to the ground. However even miracles have it limits. The ship was too big to land safely. But luck stood at Isaacs side. The decompression made by the newly made hole in the ceiling began sucking the air out into space. There was no way to fight it as Isaac quickly found himself being thrown up into the air. His helmet quickly sealed itself automatically around his face as he activated his anti gravity boots, pushing him upwards while controlling his direction. But it wasn't over yet. Huge pieces of the marker and ceiling were hurling towards him, threatening to rip his body to pieces if any of the debris smashed into him, with or without armour. With ease, Isaac avoided each and every obstacle thrown at him. He had plenty of practice in similar situations as he drew closer to the ship. Closer, closer. Ellie was right there, wearing a suit which must have come with the ship. She held out her hand, and Isaac did what he could to grab it. "ISAAC, TAKE MY HAND"! Ellie yelled, reaching for his hand. "I'M TRYING"! Isaac yelled back, doing his best. Putting all power of the suit into the anti gravity boots, Isaac's hand made contact with Ellies. Ellie pulled as hard as she could but the decompression was pulling them apart. Isaacs hand slipped slightly. At this rate, the both of them wouldn't be going anywhere. Isaac knew this. "ELLIE, YOU CAN'T PULL ME UP"! Ellie ignored Isaac, trying to think, wanting to think that he was lying. "ELLIE! YOU NEED TO LET GO! OR ELSE WE'RE BOTH GOING TO DIE"! "ISAAC, JUST SHUT UP AND HOLD ON"! Shame that Ellie had to be so stubborn all the time. Even when she knows when its time to give up. "ELLIE, LISTEN TO ME"! Ellie did nothing but keep pulling, trying to pull Isaac into the ship. But she did in vain. "LOOK ELLIE, I KNOW THAT YOU WANT TO SAVE ME, BUT I WAS DEAD THE MOMENT I LAUNCHED YOU FROM THE STATION"! Ellie looked at Isaac with her one eye, unable to believe what she was hearing! "ISAAC, YOU CAN'T JUST GIVE UP! NOT LIKE THIS"! "Believe me Ellie...". Isaac's voice softened. "...I wanted so much to believe I had a chance to escape, to live another day. But I don't have that choice any longer. And neither will you if you don't let go. Ellie let a single tear fall from her eye. Isaac was willing to sacrifice himself to save her. Her mind told her to let go but her heart and feelings held back on what her mind screamed at her to do. "Isaac... please"! Begged Ellie, her voice breaking as she did. "It will only hurt for a second. I promise". Isaac smiled under his helmet. Ellie closed her eye, and slowly, she let go of Isaacs hand and sobbed. Isaac plummeted towards the ground as the decompression threw his body downwards. He began to lose consciousness, but before he did, he muttered his last few words. "Goodbye Ellie, Godspeed". His eyes closed, letting out a single tear as they did. Titan station was unable to function any longer, it's reactor couldn't take any more and exploded, engulfing everything in flame except for Ellies ship which now wandered aimlessly in space. PONYVILLE 11:45AM EQUESTRIA Morning had finally arrived for everypony in Ponyville, mostly everypony was outside going about their daily business such as going to market, having an early lunch at the best restaurants Ponyville had to offer, or young foals having fun with their own friends under the warm sun. Everypony else who remained inside were either busy with their own activities or were just too lazy to even get up. At Ponyville library, the librarian was up bright and early as she sorted out each book into their rightful categories. However, she had been at this for three hours, perhaps longer as stated by a certain purple dragon named Spike. "Twilight, would you give it a rest? You've been at this for at least three hours straight"! Spike complained. Honestly though, the only reason he was complaining was because the noise of the books being slotted into the shelves was enough to wake him up from a nice dream. Twilight sighed, Spike would often criticize her daily routines in the hopes of getting some longer shut eye. "I can't Spike, you should know how important it is to keep your personal belongings secure and organized". She said without taking her eyes off of the hundreds of books still upon the floor in need of being re-shelfed. Spike rolled his eyes, knowing that when it comes to books, Twilight never leaves the job half done. He then proceeded into the kitchen, seeing how he was awake he might as well have a bite to eat. After a minute or two, Spike walked out of the kitchen with a sandwich half the size of himself. He looked over to Twilight. She was still organizing the same shelf. Deciding not to bother her, Spike sat down and began to eat his giant sandwich. However before he could take even one bite, there was a knock on the door, seems his lunch would have to wait a little longer. Spike looked over to Twilight in the hopes that she would answer it. She wasn't paying attention to anything right now. *Sigh* "The things I put up with". Muttered Spike, making the walk to the door sound like he had been set some sort of challenging task. He sat from his chair and waddled over to the door and opened it, his facial expression stayed the same. Uninterested. Outside of the door stood Pinkie Pie with a big smile, as she would usually do to anypony who was her friend. Anypony who wasn't her friend, she would do almost anything to become their friends although that only happened once with Cranky Doodle the donkey. "Hi Spike. Is Twilight in"? She cheerfully asked Spike, not letting Spikes expression bother her. "Yeah she's-". Pinkie didn't let Spike even finish his sentence as she zoomed past her, leaving a cloudy figure of where she once stood which slowly disappeared. "...- sorting books". Spike finished, basically talking to himself now before closing the door and returning to his sandwich. Pinkie Pie bounced up and down towards Twilight, eager to say what she had to say. "Hey Twilight, I just came over to check if you...". She trailed off as she noticed Twilight was busy sorting out her books to notice her. Not that it surprised her seeing how see was This gave Pinkie Pie an idea as a smile formed onto her face. She then stood on her hind legs and sucked in as much air as she could hold, which expanded her chest more than it naturally should have, and yelled as loud as she could. "HI TWILIGHT"!!!! Her voice was so loud that not only did Pinkies voice scare Twilight nearly to death, but it also blasted Twilight into a different bookshelf causing all the carefully organized books to fall, burying Twilight as they fell. Spike just sat there watching the humorous scene unfold in front of him making him laugh, nearly choking on his sandwich as he did. It took a few seconds for Twilights head to pop out of the mini mountain of books. She then glared at Pinkie Pie who gave an embarrassed smile as to say sorry. "Pinkie! Look at these books now! It'll take me forever to fix these"! Twilight snapped in frustration. "Oh come on Twily, it wouldn't hurt you to take a break"! Spoke Pinkie Pie cheerfully as though nothing had just happened. Twilight was about to speak back. But then again, she could use a break from stacking books. "I suppose". She decided. "Good, cause I just wanted to check if you still wanted to have lunch today. After all, you did Pinkie Promise". As she spoke her last sentence, her fluffy playful attitude was quickly replaced by a serious face. Everypony knew how seriously Pinkie Pie was when it came to Pinkie promises, and woe the poor pony who ever broke one. "Yes Pinkie, I still do". Twilight replied happily, trying to ignore her serious look as she did. "Great"! Squeaked Pinkie Pie, happy once more. Twilight turned her attention to Spike who had eaten a little over half the sandwich at this point. "Spike do you want to come"? Spike looked up, a small piece of tomato stuck to his face, and replied with a full mouth. "Thangffff vut no thanghsss". He responded, barely getting the message across. Twilight rolled her eyes and laughed. She then began to leave the library with Pinkie Pie. "Well lets get going. I'm sure that today is going to be a great day".
Farewell WilmaIsaac's now unconscious body fell closer and closer to the ground. Alarms were going off and explosions were going off over the entire station, some small and others enough to destroy several patches of already ruined buildings. Each explosion glowed a bright orange followed by gigantic booms loud enough to blow apart anybody's eardrums, even from a distance. However there was a bright side of all this, no more marker, no more death or chaos. Even the Ishimura, the hellhole in which Isaacs horrifying journey began, surely couldn't have survived the intense flames which ripped it, melted it and tore it away ever so slowly. If that ship had a soul, it would have been screaming for mercy. Soon enough, the last of the air had been sucked out through the holes of the marker storage facility. Isaacs air meter began to count down the seconds, starting at 210 seconds leaving Isaac three and a half minutes before he would suffocate and die. However as though something had detected Isaac, a light purple ball popped into existence right next to his body. This ball was no bigger than Isaacs head, but suddenly the ball slowly expanded. As it grew, it seemed to have some sort of gravitational pull as Isaac began drifting towards it. Isaac was unable to escape from the balls grasp it had on him, even if he was unconscious. It also wouldn't have helped that some sort of menacing laughter filled the empty void of silence. The top of Isaacs head had entered the portal, as soon as his whole head entered, the countdown timer immediately refilled and closed down. But Isaac wasn't the only thing that was being sucked into the portal, an unarmed detonator mine followed Isaac into the portal, then a broken javelin gun with two javelins within the ammo slot and finally a hand with some sort of blade sticking out of the palm entered just as Isaac's feet had been sucked in. The portal then closed, leaving to proof of its existence as the whole of Titan Station exploded and transformed into a gigantic fireball for a short amount of time before the oxygen free environment shortly extinguished it leaving nothing of the station in its wake. PONYVILLE 12:00PM EQUESTRIA Twilight finished off the last of a daffodil sandwich from one of the popular restaurants in Ponyville. She smiled in satisfaction and rested her front hooves on top of the table in front of her and looked over at Pinkie. After being served five minutes ago, Pinkie had already gone through several different deserts, scoffing them down almost immediately, sometimes swallowing the plates as she did. Twilight shook her head, reminding herself to ignore Pinkie from... well being herself, and proceeded to pull out a schedule. She began to look though it as it listed her daily routine. Pinkie saw this and looked up at the book, half her face was covered in chocolate. "Whatca doing"? She asked innocently, leaning over the table to try and get a better look of inside the book. Unfortunately for herself, Twilight closed it just before she saw the page. "Just planning out my week. I've got a busy week ahead of me". Twilight replied joyfully as though she was looking forward to it (Which she was). "Ugh, you and me both". Groaned Pinkie who then pulled another book from her hair, except this one was three times bigger than the one Twilight had and was twice as thick. Twilights jaw dropped a little after witnessing the huge book and on top of that, surprised that Pinkie would have a schedule to begin with. "Wow Pinkie, I didn't know you were one for being organized". Spoke Twilight in awe, keeping her eyes on the titan of a schedule plan that lay before her, all existence of her own schedule became forgotten for the moment. "Oh but I am". Responded Pinkie cheerfully. "It to help me keep track of everyponys birthday, Nightmare Night parties, Hearts Warming Eve parties, welcome to Ponyville parties, B-". Before she could go any further, a few sudden cheers heading their direction caught her attention. And sure enough, three fillies ran up to them. One an earth pony who carried a trowel in her mouth, one a unicorn and the other a pegasus who carried a small watering can with supports placed between both the pegasus and the unicorn. Both adult ponies knew these three right off the bat and greeted them with friendly smiles. "Hi girls. Why are you in a hurry"? Asked Twilight, managing to tear her eyes off pinkies book at last. "We're off to see how well our tree is growing"! said the orange pegasus excitedly. "You're growing a tree"? Asked Twilight as her friendly face turned into one of confusion. "Well... we sort of grew it last week...". Admitted the white unicorn, pawing the ground as she spoke. "But seeing how ma family grows apple trees, I got this idea. What if our special talent had sumthing ta do with growing plants! And we've been workin on it ever since we planted it"! finished the yellow earth pony. Just then, all three fillies stood next to each other before yelling out. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS TREE GROWERS! YAY"! Catching everyponys attention causing them to look at the three fillies. The three small ponies blushed in embarrassment. "That explains the gardening tools". Thought Twilight. "Ooh, sounds fun! Can I come? Pleeeease"? Pleaded Pinkie. Anything or anypony who mentioned fun, she would always ask. After all, Pinkie was never one to say no to anything fun not even as a Filly. Once she had discovered her cutie mark of course. "Ummm ah dunno Pinkie". Muttered the earth pony. "This is official cutie mark business only". "awwwwwww...". Moaned Pinkie, slightly disappointed as she buried her head onto the table. "Its ok Pinkie". Twilight began, patting her soft mane. "I am practicing some new spells later. Perhaps you would like to help me with them"? Upon hearing her sentence, Pinkies head suddenly popped back up with a smile. "Oki Doki Loki Twili"! Twilight just rolled her eyes in response. "Well, see ya around"! squeaked the white unicorn as all three of them bolted off down the road as fast as their legs could take them. leaving Twilight and Pinkie to wave them off. However none of them noticed that Pinkies tail began to twitch as soon as they left. OUTSIDE THE EVERFREE FOREST 12:08PM EQUESTRIA All three fillies ran up to the tree line of the forest. They all then stopped in unison just outside it and glanced down excitedly at a noticeable patch of brown soil. Why they had chosen to grow their tree right next to the Everfree was unknown. "A'right girls. Ya know what to do"! Ordered the yellow earth pony as the other two shook off the weak supports. The can fell softly onto the ground and the two fillies did their best to hold it between themselves. One held the handle in her mouth while the other did her best to grasp the nozzle. The then proceeded and watered said patch of soil with every single drop the watering can held. Once this was done, the yellow earth pony began to pat down the soil with the trowel in her mouth, being careful round the middle as she did, and smoothed it out. Once she had finished her job, she spat the trowel to the ground and stared gleefully at the patch of soil. The other two fillies rushed to each of her side and did the same. Their faces were beyond excited, as though they were expecting the acorn to just suddenly sprout into a tree in one second. A minute passed, then another, and another, the three fillies getting more bored with each passing second. Eventually, the pegasus spoke up. "Hey Applebloom, I've been meaning to ask. How long DOES a tree take to grow"? She asked the earth pony now known as Applebloom. "Uhh... ah ain't sure. Ah think they're supposed ta take a few years at the least". "WHAT"!? each pony at Appleblooms side yelled with both shock and disappointment at this sudden bad news. "Yeah, ah guess ah forgot ta mention that part". Applebloom blushed, earning her a groan from each of her friends. "So now what, should we just give up on it"? asked the pegasus, gesturing to the patch of soil. "No way no how. Ah've seen ma sister take care of her apple trees plenty of times. And I know that with enough love and care, this acorn will become a big an strong tree". Applebloom spoke proudly, patting the patch of soil as she did. Before the other fillies had the chance to respond, a small humming was heard. It sounds soft but got louder. Soon enough, the surrounding area became engulfed in a bright purple light. All three fillies looked up as that was where the humming was coming from and spotted a purple ball right above Applebloom, several meters above her. The purple ball wasn't very big but it was enough to worry them. Each one had a different reaction. Curiosity, fear and protective. Applebloom was mostly curious seeing how the sound emitting ball was right above her, thought she did feel a small sting of fear. Right behind her, the unicorn was mostly afraid and hid behind her pegasus friend who took a fighting stance, ready to attack it if it tried anything, but kept back just in case. Soon enough, after a minute of the ball doing nothing other than drone the same humming noise, each pony loosened up slightly. But as soon as they did, the portal spit out several objects, each one unique in their own way. Applebloom managed to avoid them as the hit the ground with force and suddenly, a giant machine like object shot out of it. It was too big for Applebloom to avoid. Then all of a sudden, something pulled on her tail and she was yanked backwards just in time as the heavy metal object slammed into the ground, crushing the patch of soil. and even a few beautiful flowers next to it. Applebloom looked behind her just in time to see both her friends spit out a section of her tail before smiling at her, thankful that she was unharmed. Applebloom smiled back and turned her attention to the giant machine. The front of it seemed to have two noticeable slits on its head which let out a blue light which kept flickering on and off. Most of it seemed to be black and on its back, a small red light was blinking. "Oh No! Wilma"! Yelped the unicorn breaking the silence as she noticed the thing was now lying right on top of the soil patch and held one hoof up to her muzzle. "Wilma"? Asked Applebloom, turning to face her friend with a confused face. "Yeah I... sort of named the tree". Confessed the white unicorn. "I think we have bigger problems than naming the tree right now"! Interrupted the orange pegasus as all three fillies turned to see the so called machine starting to move. Author's Note Sorry for the delay lately but I've been dealing with college a lot which has kept me extremely busy. Also a member of my family has recently been told cancer so I've been distracted upon hearing the shocking new so sorry. I'll do what I can to get my chapters out more often. Some of you may be asking questions like "What is the portal" "Why is there a portal" "Why is there no explanation of the portal or who sent it" No worries cause I know that very little about the random portal is mentioned, it will be later revealed in an oncoming chapter. I've also been playing a little bit of dead space 2 and it has given me many ideas for the story. Finally, if you have a question about the story or if there is something you want to know about it such as "Will there be shipping" or anything else, check out my news of the week blog which will be posted every week to keep everyone updated about the my channel, stories or my progress because that is where I'll be answering questions. So thanks for reading, and stick around for the next chapter because thats when it gets interesting ;D
Miniature contactsIsaac tried to open his eyelids but they felt heavy as did the rest of his body. His muscles ached so much, making it difficult to move. However he found the strength to lift one hand before resting it back onto the ground in front of him. He eventually managed to find the energy to speak. "I'm... alive"?! He barely muttered to himself. The second his brain put two and two together, millions of questions began to explode in his head. "How am I alive? Where am I?! What about titan station? What about... Ellie"? He stopped bombarding himself with questions as soon as the thought of Ellie crossed his mind. "She had escaped right?... Of course she did. She's too tough and stubborn to accept death so easily. She coped well enough with having one of her eyes being ripped out after all". Isaac ignored his feelings for a split second and made an attempt to lift up. He pushed off the ground with both hands, struggling under his own weight. He knew that if he was alive. Of course, the ringing in his ears made it sound as though whoever was talking was miles away when they were in fact, right below him. But even still it mattered little as his ears were still ringing and his vision was hazy. He only hoped that whoever it was would help him out before he collapsed again. Once his vision came back to him within a matter of seconds, he looked round, he couldn't see anybody. He wondered if he was hearing things? It couldn't have been the marker screwing around with him anymore. Destroying it meant no more signal, no more fucked up visions. Right? His hearing slowly increased as the ringing in his ears faded. Eventually, he heard... "Excuse me but... are you okay"? From the CMC's point of view. Applebloom looked at the metal monster before her, taking in every detail she could. It was big, black and had some sort of object attached to its hip. Before long, the creature raised one of its front limbs in the air for a few seconds before collapsing back onto the ground with a soft thump, scaring all three ponies enough to shuffle back an extra foot or so. They tried not to scream lest they invoked it. All three fillies watched in awe as the metal machine rose to its full height, pushing its claws onto the ground in an effort to lift itself up. An amazing six foot at least! Soon all three ponies let their jaws drop to the ground. It began to speak! Not at them however, in fact it didn't seem to have noticed them just yet. Even still the black machine stood there, talking to itself about somepony called Ellie. Rather than stand and watch any longer, all three ponies whispered among st each other, trying hard not to move or even make eye contact with each other, just in case the towering beast saw them. "What do you think it is"? "I dunno". "What should we do"? "Panic"? "That's yer answer ta everything"! "I say we make a run for it. That thing doesn't look like its seen us yet". "Ah dunno, it seems a little sad ta me". "How can you tell that, it doesn't even have a face". "Can't ya hear its voice? It sounds... lonely". "Lonely"? "I think you have a point Applebloom, it does sound a little down". "So what do we do with it"? "Ah guess the only thing we can do". Applebloom walked up to the metal creature and spoke with a small amount of fear hanging onto her words. However, there was always the chance this conversation could end with a cutie mark. If the machine didn't eat them or whatever. "Excuse me but... are you okay"? The machine stopped moving for a few seconds before slowly tilting its head downwards Applebloom and her two friends who were more focused on Applebloom, giving her a look which plainly said "Are you insane"?! Isaacs view. Isaac paused for a second before looking down to see three small horse like creatures looking terrified. He stumbled slightly before asking the same question. "What are you supposed to be"? He managed to splutter, standing at his full height. "Hey, we asked you first"! Squeaked the white one, finding some strength to talk. Isaac tilted his head Judging by their size and high voices, they must have been kids. "Holy f...". He thought to himself. "I'm Isaac, Isaac Clarke. And you three are...". The three fillies stepped closer, not too much as they still felt nervous with Isaac being a little over three times their own size. Applebloom found the courage to speak first out of her friends. "Ma names Applebloom". She spoke cheerfully, forcing a small smile onto her face before pointing one of her front hoofs to one side with the white pony. "This ere's Sweetiebelle". She then pointed to her other side with the orange pony. "An This is Scootaloo". Isaac tried to take in everything that he was experiencing. So far in his opinion, he somehow survived from Titan Station, he fell unconcious, woke up and met three talking horses. What. The. Hell? That's impossible. None of this could have been real, Isaac refused to believe it and just went with the belief that he was still unconscious. "Are you ok Mister"? Isaac shook his thoughts from his head. He looked down at the three miniature horse before turning round and headed towards the forest in an attempt to leave. Unfortunately for him, all three filiies galloped up and tried to block Isaacs path by standing right in front of him. This got Isaac to stop lest he wanted to tread on them. Real or not, it was against every muscle in his body to take another step and take another life. "... What are you doing"? Asked Isaac impatiently, as though he wanted to be left alone. "Y'all can't go in there"! Cried Applebloom. "Why not? Its just a forest". Isaac asked calmly and crossed his arms, getting impatient. "Don't ya know how dangerous the forest is"? She questioned him. Both her friends nodded to show how much they agreed. Sweetiebelle even tried to make her own point as well. "Animals care for themselves and clouds move all on their own"! Even though the three fillies couldn't see Isaac's real face, they were sure they heard something along the lines of laughter coming from him. This just seemed to make them angry once hearing him. "Hey, We're serious"! Scootaloo harshly replied. Isaac stopped laughing, upon hearing her change of tone and bent down in front of him, ignoring the pain he felt in his muscles. "Look, I don't know what's going on here but I'm not going to let a bunch of namby pamby horses tell me what to do. I don't care what is in that forest, you can't stop me, okay"? All three fillies nodded, hardly managing to speak. Not because they were afraid but because they didn't think they were able to convince the machine no matter what they tried. Isaac stood up and stepped around them before heading towards the forest once more. He was only a few feet away from the tree line. "Could you at least apologize"? Isaac stopped for a second and sighed before turning round. He found the white unicorn grasping onto his left leg in an attempt to stop him for a few precious seconds. "Apologize for what"? "Crushing Wilma of course"! Isaacs skin froze over. "What? Oh shit"! Isaac entered panic mode, believing that he had killed a small horse by accidentally stepping on it and looked around, forgetting that he was supposed to be ignoring the ponies. Applebloom just stared at Scootaloo who shrugged, having no idea why the so called machine was so upset about a crushed sapling. "Do you think he's one of those tree hugger ponies"? Asked Scootaloo to Applebloom in hopes for an answer. Applebloom looked at Isaac who now seemed to be questioning Sweetiebelle on who Wilma was and were her body was. She turned back to Scootaloo before Sweetiebelle gave her answer. "Ya mean like Fluttershy? Ah guess so". "...A tree? You got me worked up over a tree"? The two ponies faced Isaac and Sweetiebelle, seeing them calm down as quickly as he had panicked . "umm... yes"? Sweetiebelle put on the most apologetic look she could. Isaac face palmed. "I don't believe this. Why can't I just go home or something". He said to himself. "Excuse me, mister Isaac". Isaac was starting to get why so many people didn't want to have children back on earth. They can easily drive you to the brink of insanity in only a short matter of time. He looked at the pony with the big bow in her hair. "What"? Whatever sweetness Isaac had in his voice, which was very little to begin with, had disappeared and was left with bitterness. "Why don't you just do that weird portal trick like before if y'all want to go home so bad"? "...Excuse me"? "Yeah, you came from that weird purple portal in the air just over there". Isaac looked at where she was pointing, just above the patch of soil that was home to "Wilma". Isaac was at a loss for words, again. A portal? Seriously? Wasn't that the sort of thing you would find on a sci fi movie or a book or something? With this new information he dropped his theory about still being unconscious and decided to tell the little ponies the truth. "I... don't know how". Isaac spoke calmly. Upon hearing his words, all three fillies seemed be simultaneously shocked. "What"? The White pony squeaked. "It's true. A portal isn't something that's supposed to exist back where I'm from". The three ponies lowered their heads feeling sorry for Isaac. That was until the orange pegasus raised her head within a millisecond and looked as though she had an idea. "What about Twilight? She's bound to know, what with her being an egghead and all". "Great idea Scoot". Replied Applebloom, liking the idea. Both fillies looked at their other friend, Sweetiebelle and allowed her to speak. "Mister Isaac, I think we can help you". Author's Note Sorry for the two day delay. I've been suffering a minor cold so it's been a few bad nights for me. I might have made a few mistakes going over this chapter so if there are any, please tell me and I'll fix them when I can
Planning the meetingThe power was out. The soldiers begun talking among themselves, wondering if patient 4 was responsible for the sudden blackout. Soon enough, they realized if the power was cut, then the Kinetic restraints to the bulkhead door were knocked out, which meant the bulkhead doors were opening. And if the bulkhead doors were open... Noises could be heard from the outside, growls and groaning flooded the soldiers ears. They readied their weapons. A couple of soldiers threw their weapons to the side and ran through the next door in a vain attempt to escape the coming slaughter. A few seconds of patient waiting, one of the hideous creatures stepped out from the darkness, revealing itself to be unlike any of the other necromorphs. It was taller, stronger and unknown to the soldiers, it could also regenerate its limbs no matter how many times they were shot off. Above them in the security checkpoint, a man wearing the advanced armor suit stood watch. He gave a quick look outside the bullet proof windows then back to the power core which he had ripped from the wall. Was it worth it? Was it worth killing perhaps the last humans on board Titan Station, just to advance further into the facility? He didn't answer his own question. He couldn't. Then, he heard something below him. A few shots sounded out, then hundreds. The necromorphs at the other side of the room advanced on them with great speed, all except for the taller one which simply walked down the hallway, letting the rest of the necro army tear into the small force of soldiers. Isaac listened as the screams from the soldier rung out and watched as the flashlights to their weapons went out one by one. Before Isaac had a moment to reflect upon his actions, a screen flashed in front of him. It was Tiedman. "You compromised the compound, you... Idiot"! It was safe to say he wasn't very happy. If anything he was more fearful than he was angry. "If any of them reach the marker"... Tiedman turned his attention to whatever soldiers were in front of him. "Fall back! Fall back to the marker chamber! We have to seal it off"! The screen flashed for a second before static overwhelmed it and shut down. Isaac looked back outside. The army of necromorphs kept coming with no end in sight. He could still hear gunshots and screaming. Though Isaac could no longer see any remaining flashlights, it must have meant that the soldiers within the next few rooms were still fighting for their lives. Isaac left the security checkpoint and made his way downstairs, trying to drown out the screams echoing around him. After he had reached the ground level, he noticed a wide window to his right. Outside were several necromorphs slowly advancing. Some walking, some crawling. Whatever human bodies were scattered round the room, the infectors did what they did best. Turn them into more foot soldiers for the ever growing army of hellspawn. Isaac gave a moment of pause, waiting for the twisted creatures to leave into the next room, then exited the security lookout and through the door. His approach didn't go unnoticed. The necromorphs still in the room turned round fiercely, seeing the human and charged. The first to attack was a dark slasher along with some of the smaller green insect like necromorphs Isaac fired with his javelin gun. The spear like projectile hit the dark slasher in its chest. The slasher roared in pain and shrugged it off and kept charging. Isaac expected as much and pressed a second button on the weapon. A javelin let off a powerful electric shock, frying the necromorph and all the small insect like necromorphs that surrounded it. A puker from the far side from the room took its chances and spat a disgusting ball of acid puke at Isaac. Isaac dodged it just in time and fired at the monster and another puker which crawled its way towards Isaac. Issac switched to his plasma cutter and shot the first puker and dismembered its arm and then a leg. The creature fell to the ground dead. He turned his attention to the next puker, still crawling towards him. Isaac aimed at the abomination but before he could fire, another bug necromorph behind him latched onto his back, slashing at him. Isaac tried to whack it off but it kept moving around. The puker started to gurgle and vomit up its puke as soon as it had a good enough shot on Isaac and fired. Isaacs reflexes kicked in and he ducked barely in time and the puke flew overhead and some of the puke splashed onto the bug necro causing it to shriek and fall onto the floor. Unfortunately some of the puke had splashed on top of isaacs back causing him to cry in pain. Part of the suits metal dissolved only slightly and the health meter on the back of the suit dropped from blue to green. The puker crawled its way over to Isaac once again, who tried to use a small health pack on himself as he thought he had enough time. Once it was close enough, it lashed out at Isaac, forcing him to drop the health pack onto the floor. The puker tried to attack again. Unfortunately for itself, Isaac was quicker as he crushed its head with his heavy boots, turning the soft flesh of the pukers head into nothing more than a stinking pile of mush. The battle wasn't over yet. A second slasher and an exploder came though the hallway, the gunfire must have drawn their attention. Isaac shook his head and aimed his plasma cutter at the exploders yellow blobby arm and fired. The result was both necromorphs consumed in a huge explosion of foul yellow gunk. After a few seconds of waiting for something else to try its luck, Isaac bent down and picked up the health pack, now covered in the brains of the dead puker, and healed himself. His green bar boosted itself back up to blue. Isaac walked down the hallway and was about to enter the next room until he noticed the body of one of the soldiers to his left. His visor had been smashed, revealing his eyes. He seemed to have been stabbed in his chest and had his stomach slashed across. His intestines painted the cold steel floor in blood. The lifeless eyes stared back at Isaac. They seemed to ask one question. "Why"? A question Isaac couldn't bring himself to answer even in his head. At least not right away. He looked at the body a while longer before finally giving it an answer. "You gave me no choice". And with that, Isaac tore his gaze off the soldiers haunting eyes and walked further into the facility. "I'm not doing it". Isaac seemed to be finding it hard to believe that he was talking to three ponies. But now, the white one, Sweetie belle, had told him that another unicorn called Twilight could send him back home with her magic. It sounded ridiculous. "But why"? Pleaded Applebloom. "Magic does not exist, okay? I'd have thought your parents would have told you that by your age". "But-". "No". The three fillies froaned in unison. They then huddled and spoke in hushed voices in which Isaac couldn't hear. The armored human looked round, careful not to injure his muscles any further and noticed to his left the broken javelin, the detonator mine and... "God damn it". He spoke to himself, hoping the young ponies didn't hear his foul language. He looked back at the fillies, they were still talking among themselves, not one of them facing him. Quickly he seized the slasher arm with his kinesis module and shot it deep into the Everfree forest behind him. As the arm was forcefully launched, it made a small *whoosh* noise, catching the orange pegasus's attention. "What was that"? "What was what"? Isaac lied, deciding that telling them chucking a severed arm into a forest was not a good move on his part. The three little ponies turned back to Isaac, getting back to their original plan of getting him to come with them. Applebloom spoke. "If y'all don't at least try, how do you know it won't work". "I don't". "So why not ask her for help"? "... I work better alone". This time Isaac spoke the truth. Almost everyone who tried to help Isaac, or if Isaac tried to help them would have been killed one way or another like Hammond, Stross and DR Kyne. And even when they were alive, they always had entrusted Isaac to carry out the most dangerous tasks. "But what about putting trust into other ponies"? Sweetie belle asked. "I tried that with a girl called Ellie". "And"? "She tried to shoot me in the face, first time we met". The three girls eyes widened. Isaac quickly interjected before they panicked. "But we ended up being great partners and helped each other though tough times"! That seemed to work as their eyes returned to normal size. "Then ya got nothing ta lose if ya just try. Like with this Ellie fella. Plus, Ah know Twilight well. She would never try ta shoot ya". "... Maybe, but...". "Please Mr robot"? The three filles eyes grew wide once again, but no in shock. This time they were pulling the most adorable faces they could make. Isaac just stared back before giving in and sighing. "Alight. I'll give it a go. And my name is Isaac, not Mr robot". "But if you're not a robot, why are you covered in that rad metal"? Asked Scootaloo, impressed with the advanced suits design ever since Isaac had first fallen out of the sky. "It's a suit to protect me. My real body is hidden under the armor". Responded Isaac. The fillies nodded. "Ready to go, Mr Isaac"? "One second". Isaac walked over to his left and picked up the broken javelin gun and the detonator mine. He put the javelin gun away on his back and the mine in one of his pockets. "Okay, ready". All four of them walked towards the town of Ponyville. A few minutes of walking in silence later, they had reached Ponyville. They were just about to walk into the town when Isaac realized something. "Whoa hold on, hold on. How am I meant to get across the town without causing a panic"? The three fillies looked at Isaac, then at each other and then back to Isaac again. "What do you mean"? "Well, I'm a human, something that your species has probably never seen before, and if any of them see a dangerous looking monster waltzing through town, its bound to cause panic and chaos". "...Oh". The three fillies begun thinking as hard as they could, trying to think of a solution to how Isaac could meet Twilight without him even stepping one foot into town. Then... "Ah got it"! Applebloom smiled in joy with her new idea. "Why don't we just hide Mr Isaac in the clubhouse an get Twilight ta meet him there"? The other two fillies thought about it, trying to find any flaws in Appleblooms plan. There didn't seem to be any. "Sounds good to me". "Me too. What about you Mr Isaac"? Isaac sighed. "Whatever works best". The three fillies beamed at his answer and lead the human towards Sweet Apple Acres. Author's Note Feels good to get another chapter out at long last, I've got plenty of ideas for this story which will be spread around as many chapters as I can. Hope you enjoy it :)
a moments restIsaac hesitantly put his left foot on top of the ladder and grasped it with both his hands. He then shifted part of his weight onto the ladder and gently pulled down. The ladder held its own against the humans weight, there wasn't even a creak to be heard. He began to climb the ladder, slowly. It only took a few seconds until Isaac reached the top and onto the clubhouse balcony. Isaac took one look to the ground. The tree house must have been built at least 10 feet off the ground. He then turned round towards the entrance, a rectangular hole 4 foot tall, meaning Isaac had to duck to enter. He slowly knelt down and stuck his head in. He checked left and right as though he expected something inside to try and grab him. Nothing. Well at least it seemed peaceful. "What are you doing"? Came a voice from behind Isaac making him flinch before realizing it was Scootaloo's voice. "Let's just say I've had unpleasant experiences from not checking corners". Isaac replied with a hint of seriousness in his voice. He entered the tree house, noticing that it was bigger than he expected. At least big enough for him to stand upright again. The three fillies followed him in and trotted in front of him, standing side to side of one another. "Mr Clarke, welcome to"... "THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS CLUBHOUSE"! Isaac looked round. There seemed to be a second floor, a red and white target painted on the floor with a light bulb dangling over it, and a map of the town Ponyville and nearby locations nailed to the wall opposite him. Applebloom began to push for his opinion. "Soooo... What do ya think"? "It's... nice". Sweetiebelle gave a small frown but did well to hide it from everypony else. She had hoped that the alien would have found it to be awesome or along those lines. To her, Nice meant that it was ok. "So how long until I can talk to this Twilight person"? Isaac asked quickly. "Well we did see her Pinkie Pie shortly before we found you. She's probably still sitting there talking with Pinkie". Isaac nodded and walked over to the nearest corner of the tree house and sat down carefully. He noticed that all three ponies had left him, most likely to find Twilight, giving him a moment on his own. At his command, the advanced helmet to move on its own, each piece of metal that held the helmet apart removed and sunk into the suit, letting Isaac see the world through his own eyes and not through a visor. He rested his head on the wooden wall behind him and just sat there taking all that had happened in. Back at the restaurant, Twilight had been listening to Pinkie Pie going over her party list for over half an hour now. She tried to keep her head up with both her hooves so she didn't fall asleep but was close to doing so, completely forgetting about those new spells she was supposed to be practicing. "...And then there's Thunderlane who's off to Manehatten to visit family so I'll need to prepare a welcome home Thunderlane party. Should I have it at Sugarcube corner? I mean it'll be hard to throw a party in Cloudsdale if I can't even walk on clouds. But then again"... "TWILIGHT"! rung out the voices of three unmistakable fillies, snapping Twilight out of her barely conscious state. She turned her head and saw Applebloom, Sweetiebelle and Scootaloo running up to her before screeching to a halt in front of the table. Pinkie however was too caught up in her list to even notice the fillies and kept going over her list. "... And he did make a Pinkie promise not to arrive late this time. After all, nopony breaks a pinkie promise"... Pinkie's last sentence was spoken with one of her rarely seen "serious" moments. Twilight rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the fillies. "Hello girls. Is everything okay"? "Yeah. Well, sort of. We ran into a new friend today". "Oh excellent. What's his name"? All three fillies paused for a moment trying to remember the humans name. They already forgot once before, now it was a little ridiculous trying to remember a second time. Eventually Scootaloo remembered or at least she thought she did. "I think he said his name was Rice Sack". she spoke up, not too confident with her answer. The other two fillies looked at each other and shrugged. Rice Sack sounded about right. "Oh... what a...unique name". Twilight spoke politely. Applebloom continued. "Anyway, he's a little lost and we were kinda hoping that you would help him find his way home". Twilight gave a happy smile. "Of course, I'd be happy to help. I don't think Pinkie would mind, would you Pinkie"? "...But then again, chocolate cake is much better than boring old sponge cake, and"... "...I don't think she minds". Responded Twilight. "So where is he"? "Well we left him at the clubhouse so not too far away". Twilight nodded and headed off, leaving Pinkie to deal with her party throwing problems. The walk would have lasted ten minutes at the most so Twilight decided to strike a conversation. "You know girls, I must say that I'm proud of you, helping a friend in need. It was a very mature move for you to do". The three girls smiled at the comment. Then Sweetiebelle had a sudden thought. "Hey, do you think we'll get cutiemarks for helping other ponies"? " Ya know, that would be a mighty fine cutiemark ta get". Isaac put his plasma cutter on the floor, certain he wouldn't need it. But even still, he found it hard just to let go seeing how he had carried it and several other weapons and tools ever since taking it from the surgery room. It then flashed back to him. That man who was strapped down on the cold metal table, begging for help. Isaac had helped him out and managed to recieve the plasma cutter. Or at least tried to until the necromorph attacked. If only Isaac had been faster he could have saved him. That poor mans blood was on his hands. He could still remember the man screaming as the monster hacked his limbs off and slicing off his head before turning on Isaac. At least he had the plamsa cutter in time otherwise he would have been next. Isaac did well to shake the memory quickly from his head as he heard something outside. Without delay, he snatched his weapon from the floor, much quicker than he had set it down, and let his helmet automatically seal itself around his head once more and waited. The tension was the worst part, not knowing what would come. Even though it had happened more than enough times, it wasn't any easier to control. All of a sudden, up popped Appleblooms head. Isaac relaxed and let out a relieved sigh. He got back onto his feet and walked over to the little pony. Applebloom walked over to Isaac and smiled. Isaac took it as a good sign. If he hadn't sealed his helmet back up, Applebloom would have seen him smiling back. "I take it she came"? "Yup. Your problems are nearly over mister Rice Sack". "Good. I- did you just call me rice sack"? "Uhh, yeah. Thats yer name isn't it". Isaac sighed. This would now be the third time he had to tell her his name. "No, it's Isaac. I-S-A-A-C. Got it"? He spoke calmly. "...yeah. Of course. Sorry". Applebloom gave a sheepish smile and exited the clubhouse, gesturing for Isaac to follow. Isaac smiled again. As much as he wanted to return home, he knew he was going to miss those three little angels. He then exited the clubhouse, noticing the other two fillies talking to a much bigger purple pony with its back to Isaac. He climbed down the ladder and walked up to them. As he did, he heard the orange Pegasus speak. "Really? Dang it I was so close"! Isaac guessed that it had to do with trying to remember his name. He then heard the purple taller pony speak. "Well as long as you remember. Just remember that just because he has an unusual name doesn't make him a monster. Everypony deserves to be treated with love and kindness". Isaac then decided to catch her attention. "Umm... Hello. You must be Twilight". Twilight's ears twitched from the sudden voice and turned round with a smile on her face. almost instantly her smiling face transformed into one of pure terror. Isaac expected her to be shocked. However he certainly didn't expect to be suddenly blasted by a bright purple like laser to fire at high speed from the pony's head, sending him through one of the smaller trees surrounding the area. Author's Note Oh, I'm sorry Twilight. What was that you just said about love and kindness? Anyway it's been relieving for me to have another chapter up. To be honest I'll try and focus more on the more popular stories like this one because the updates are way too slow and you guys deserve better. But for now, I hope you enjoy reading. Cheerio.
Meeting the bookwormLuckily for Isaac, the force of the shot had done more damage to the tree he had just crashed into. Now he was just there lying with his back on the ground as he tried to comprehend what had just happened. Then, he came up with a conclusion. A little purple female pony had just tried to kick the shit out of him. Isaacs first emotion was anger, and wanted nothing more than to shoot her. Of course the only two things stopping him was the three fillies, of which were now talking some sense into Twilight, and the fact that killing her wasn't going to be getting him anywhere except the jail house. That is considering these ponies have prisons. He viewed the purple pony. The way she was standing in between him and the foals made it seem like she was just trying to protect them. Not exactly hard to tell since everything else he fought against was usually on the offence. It was enough to get him to calm down and slowly stand back up. The suits reading told him that he had received very little damage from the assault. His health meter still stood in the blue. Odd since he had just gone flying through a God damn tree. He shrugged it off and tried to approach again and made a note to himself not to shoot her. But if she dared try shooting at him again, she would most certainly be receiving a punch to the face. He cleared his throat once he decided he was close enough, gaining the attention of all four equines. "Look, maybe we got off on the wrong foot. My name is Isaac Clarke, I don't mean you any harm". As he spoke, he tried stepping ever so slowly forwards. If the purple unicorn was planning on trying to shoot him again, at least he would have had a chance to try and dodge it. The little purple unicorn wasted no time in talking. "Isaac Clarke"? She asked, tilting her head to the side. "That's an... unusual name". "So, I take it you're done with trying to blast me"? Isaac asked as the unicorn rubbed her forehoof, embarrassed with her actions. "Yeah, sorry about that. I thought you were a monster about to attack us. I didn't know that you were the friend Applebloom was talking about". Even though the unicorn couldn't see the small smirk on Isaacs face behind the helmet, she was still able too detect a short laugh. "What's so funny"? She asked. "Nothing. Just where I'm from, I'm usually the one attacked. Kind of amusing to have it the other way round here. Sort of". Isaac spoke with a sense of dry humor. "Anyway, don't worry about it. So, what's your name"? "Twilight Sparkle. Student of Princess Celestia". "...Yeah, I'm the one with the stupid name". Isaac thought to himself before speaking out loud. "Pleasure. Look, I don't mean to rush you Miss Sparkle, but your friends tell me that you can help me out"? "I'm sure I can try. So what's the problem"? "Well, I'm not sure how to put it, so I'll just give you the basics. I'm lost and need help getting back to earth". His first thoughts was to tell them that he wanted help getting back to the Sprawl. But since that place is now probably nothing more than a pile of heated scarp metal, earth was the next best thing. If he was lucky, he could find a way to contact Ellie from there. Still, one step at a time. Only one problem. Twilight looked confused by the request. "Earth? You mean you live underground"? Isaac had to resist the urge to face palm. Of course it wasn't going to be that easy, informing a pony about a planet she's never been to. Of course, now that Isaac thought about it, what planet was HE on? Yet another question for the evergrowing list. "No. No, Earth is a planet which"- "Planet? You mean... Are you trying to tell me that you are an alien"?! That look of shock and horror on Twilights face made Isaac wonder if he would have just been better off walking into the forest after all. "Um... Yes"? Expecting the unicorn to laugh or tell him that such things were impossible, she did no such thing. Instead, she kept repeating the words "Oh my gosh" over and over again as fast as she could while wearing a smile so large, Isaac was certain it would have fallen off. Next thing he knew, she was mobbing him with questions while doing her best to invade his personal space. It was enough for Isaac to step back while he was bombarded with questions such as... "What species are you? How many of your kind are you? Is that your actual skin or is it a form of clothing? What"... Even if Isaac did answer any of the questions, he wouldn't have had enough time to finish answering it as the unicorn just quickly, and impatiently, sped onto the next one. Thankfully she was so busy just asking, she was unable to hear the annoyed sigh coming from the engineer. Since she was not going to be slowing down anytime soon, Isaac calmly walked over to the three little fillies and leaned down next to them. "This? This is the help you were talking about"? He spoke unamused. The three nodded with hopeful smiles on their faces, not catching the annoyance in his voice. "Look, surely there has to be somebody, ANYbody else". Scootaloo thought for a second. "Well, how about Rainbow Da"- "NO"! Both Applebloom and Sweetiebelle spoke in unison, causing the orange pegasus to grumble. "Fine"... Applebloom turned back to Isaac. "Sorry Isaac. She's kind of... a smart pony. But she'll stop talking. Eventually"? "Just like when you said she would never shoot me"? Isaac spoke in good humor. "Yeah... I guess ah may have jumped the fence on that one. But ah mean it this time". She certainly sounded sure of herself. "Okay then, fine. I'll endure it". He grumbled. Getting up and turning around, he found that Twilight was still facing him and was STILL asking questions. "What do you eat? What are the names of your cities? Do you even have cities? What about hives? Or"... The more she droned on and on, the more Isaac actually began considering how much more entertaining it was just trying to survive back on the Ishimura and the Sprawl compared to this lecture. This was getting him nowhere fast. He needed to stop wasting time and get through some sort of progress while he could. "Uh, miss Twilight"? He had to speak loud and stern enough for Twilight to stop for a brief moment, thank God. "As... enlightening as it is to sit around and answer your questions for the rest of the day, I think you're missing the main point. Is there anyway you can help me out"? Twilight quickly snapped back to reality and shook her head. "Oh, well, I don't know much about helping creatures from other worlds, but I think I know some pony else who could help you out". Isaacs eye twitched. "Who"? "Princess Celestia. If anypony can help you, it'll be her". "Then... may I speak to her"? Isaac asked, becoming more and more impatient by the minute. "Sure. I just need to send her a letter and before long, you'll probably be back home before you know it". Isaac didn't like the sound of that probably, but what other choice did he have? "Okay then. Let's go and speak to this... Celestia then". "Uh, 'Princess' Celestia". Twilight kindly corrected him. Whatever... "Sorry, PRINCESS Celestia". "You... don't mind waiting here for a bit, do you"? Isaac chuckled. "Might as well. It's the only thing I've done since I came here". "Good. I'll be back when I can. Then, you can go back to answering those questions I have in store for you". And with that, Twilight zoomed off. As she did, Isaac gave a quick glance at the CMCs who still waited patiently at his side. Perhaps now would be a good chance to break the ice. "So uh... what do you three do for fun around here"? All three fillies looked at each other before sporting a wide, almost evil grin. "Want to help us earn our cutie marks"? Author's Note Hey guys! Guess which silly b*stard decided to return to FIMfiction? Oh wait, it's me! So yeah, I'm at uni now. Got some free time to myself and decided to spend it coming back here! Glad to continue this story again, and maybe in time I'll continue the others as well! See you around the site! Cheerio!
