Dead Space: Purpose

Fluttershy watched in horror as the figure that was once her mother morphed into something worse than anything she thought anypony had seen, and recoiled fearfully when it swiped down to execute her. In her last moments of thought, she regretted not being able to do anything to stop this, not being able to save her friends,... and thought of Isaac, one last time.

TSH TSH TSH TSH

The room around her flared in temperature for a brief second as the shadows began to melt away. She remained with her eyes closed for a moment before opening them slowly. Before her was still the figure of the abomination, but now without arms. Its blackened eyes looked up from the terrified mare to look at what had done this to it.

"You stay away, you bloody thing!" A voice yelled.

There was another sound as the head of the creature exploded off as the body was propelled to the ground. When it crashed, the floor began to dissolve around the panicking Fluttershy, engulfing the dead forms of her friends and the princesses. The darkness continued towards her as she jumped back in fear. However, the black substance stopped as she came into contact with something else.

With a quick turn of the head, Fluttershy looked up to see the face of a new bipedal creature. This one looked much like Isaac did, except with some major differences. For starters, there was no hair on the face, only a brown mane that was tied in a bun behind the head. Its face appeared to be smoother and softer than Isaac's, as well. It wore a red shirt that held out two large lumps on the chest, along with a sort of black vest that cupped underneath the lumps. It also had dark brown pants on that held a thing that looked spacious. Fluttershy looked up into its face once more, and stared into the mis-matched colored orbs, one green, one blue. Without even knowing, Fluttershy began to speak to the figure before her.

"Ellie?"

\\\//////

Scootaloo held back her choked sobs as she stared at her idol with mixed emotions.

"R-Rainbow... I'm sc-scared..." she stuttered out.

"Shhh..." Rainbow raised a hoof to the filly's face. "I know. And it's natural."

"What's going on? Where am I?"

"You were brought here by someone who saw an opportunity. And now you are here because of such circumstances."

Scootaloo looked up at her mentor with a frightened expression.

"What... sniff, does that mean?"

"You can't fly." The mare deadpanned.

Scootaloo felt her heart drop twenty stories from the way someone so close to her said that. After failing to hold back several sobs, Rainbow Dash raised Scootaloo's chin with a hoof as she closed the distance between them.

"Silence. Let me talk."

Dash removed her hoof from the chin of the filly and began to pace around the room.

"You were born with a very special condition. To say that you'll never fly is... well, while not entirely true, you still won't for a good deal of time. Time that you don't have, I'm afraid. You see, my colleagues and I are part of a magnificent church that wants nothing more than the best for all of Pony kind. We searched for eons in the darkness, hoping for something to bring us happiness. For something to help those like you, who some would consider an insult."

Scootaloo gasped at these words, but Rainbow Dash turned to her with a smile.

"Don't fret. Yes, indeed, they would have seen you as an insult to all Pegasi. They would beat you, mercilessly mock you, and even go so far as to make an example out of you and whoever was unfortunate enough to bring you into this world for not reporting you in for being so weak. Others would have seen you as something unholy, and needed to be purged from this world."

The young Pegasus began to weep out in her bindings as Rainbow Dash continued, slowly approaching her.

"But, they are oh so wrong. We do not see you as something so far less than us, no. We see you as something more than us. Since you can't fly, it makes others realize how lucky they are to be blessed with working bodies. And even that would be wrong. We do not see you as hope for them, something that they can point to and say, 'I'm glad that I didn't end up like that,' no. You are something special all on your own."

Dash closed the distance between them and looked straight into the filly's eyes, mere inches away.

"You need help."

The colorful mare spun around and slowly trotted away as she continued.

"THAT, is why you are here, THAT is our purpose. So that we may help you ascend."

Rainbow Dash pushed a panel on the metallic wall, causing a series of gears to turn to reveal a double-helix shape on the other side.

"That is why we follow the Marker's teachings."

She spun once more towards the young Pegasus, but remained next to the shrine.

"Since you are such a low quality of our kind, you need the most help to ascend beyond your own limits. We see it that if we help to ascend others, place their needs above our own, then we will truly be accepted by its holy word, and be shown the light of Godhood. But, we never see it as just that. We see this as a chance to show the world what you truly are."

\\\//////

Isaac awoke with a groan as he rose to his feet. He stumbled a bit as a massive thumping continued all around him. When he finally rose to his feet, he remembered exactly what had happened before now.

"The Marker..." He cursed under his breath.

With a quick twist of the head, he saw that his Engineer Suit had taken no damage from any kind of event, and still carried his Ammo and a spare Med-Pack, along with his, hopefully still functioning, Plasma Cutter. He reached for the weapon and checked the clip to make sure it was loaded. After closing the device, Isaac began to walk forward, before being stopped by a familiar voice.

"Hello Isaac."

Isaac turned around and raised his Cutter high when he saw who was greeting him.

"Please, just listen." Nicole pleaded.

"So you can, what? Get me killed? I'm not fucking falling for that again." He spat out, aiming the lasers at her neck.

"Scootaloo is in danger, and I know where you have to go, Isaac. Don't you remember Aegis VII?"

"Yeah, you almost got me killed by Necromorphs every ten seconds."

Nicole put on an annoyed expression as she crossed her arms.

"So did Hammond and Kendra by telling you to go do everything for them."

\\\//////

"You see, Scootaloo, we are here to make sure that all of Equestria can behold what you truly mean. What all of the little colts and fillies of Equestria mean to us. You are the future. You are the means to ascending this horrid world."

Rainbow Dash approached Scootaloo slowly.

"But... where... how..."

"Shhhhh..." Rainbow reassured with a raised hoof. "Let me explain."

"We wanted to find a way to make sure that we could help to ascend those who were in more need of it than us, and in such, we were guided by the Marker. It found our cause just, and then helped us build up our beliefs. After the incident with Nightmare Moon, The Marker noticed that the false Immortal, Celestia, needed our kind to produce Rainbows."

The walls around the two began to drop as massive machinery began to come into view. Multiple tubes led down from the ceiling and along the floor, where they each glowed with their own individual color towards a massive vat where they all mixed. The thumping that was plaguing the young Pegasus was proven to be real as the world around her showed massive crushing mechanisms that were all synchronized in the hypnotizing monotone that seemed to intensify. There were more circular restraints like the one Scootaloo was in littered across the massive room, all being strung up on a metallic catwalk above the turning gears below.

"The Marker gifted our kind, in that moment, with the knowledge to build a device that would allow us to help it ready those in need of ascension, as well as keep our entire land at ease. We start by finding somepony like you, and then we bring them here. We say our prayers, and then allow the young ones to ascend. But, in their time of leaving us, we extract their impurities, just as the Marker had told us, and empty it into that machine there. We spread the mixture of impurities and color across the land so that they may bask in the glory of those who ascended, and hopefully show them how truly beautiful it is to leave this world's infinite horrors, and bask in the might of true Immortality. But, in order to do that, we need to ensure that the one being ascended does not feel the pain of such blinding holiness, so we must first assure that they first leave this world, quickly and painlessly as we can manage."

She turned to Scootaloo and looked her in the eye with a small smile.

"You will die here. And then, you will know true peace."

\\\//////

Isaac was stunned at the sudden change in attitude from this vision, reminding him immediately what she was like before the Ishimura. He slowly lowered the Cutter from its firing position until the lasers met her feet.

"Nicole?" He asked.

She shook her head and sighed.

"Yes, Isaac?"

Isaac slowly approached her form with a flurry of emotions.

"Is... that really you?"

"Yes. It is." She deadpanned. "Isaac, listen, we don't have much time to catch up, alright? You came here with a clear goal in mind, and I'm trying to help you. We can play Twenty-Questions after we save Scootaloo, alright?"

Isaac suddenly backed up and raised the Cutter again.

"How do you know where she is?"

"I saw where they took her, through the Marker signals."

Isaac prepared to squeeze the trigger as Nicole extended her arms out.

"Isaac, please, just listen. I died, yes, and you did see me through that Marker on Aegis VII. But right now, what you're seeing, what you're hearing, is really me. The Marker signal here is weaker than the Red Marker, and is too far away to stop me from doing this."

"How? How are you even... this!?"

"The Marker signal goes through the barrier of death. It's painful, Isaac. Very painful, exhausting, and overall not worth doing most of the time. But I came through because I need to help you with this. You need some kind of clue as to what's going on."

"No, I destroyed the Marker Homeworld!"

"You destroyed the Marker PRODUCTION SITE, Isaac! Yes, you even killed off their delivery system, but you didn't stop all of them."

Isaac thought back to the last dream he had involving Nicole since he arrived in this new world.

"There's... one more?"

"Yes, Isaac. It's weak right now, but if they keep this up-"

"Keep what up? Where am I!?"

Nicole pointed up towards a massive block of metal above the two. Isaac looked up and saw that there were tubes from his dream, all running with glowing colors of every kind as the thumping made its way into his heart.

"No fucking way..."

RAINBOW FACTORY