Dead Space: Purpose

Isaac stared up at the sign with a look that would skewer an Ubermorph. He tried to think of some kind of explanation for the purpose of the sign.

'Rainbow Factory.' Isaac thought to himself. 'You have got to be fucking kidding me.

Isaac turned to the image of Nicole and started questioning her.

"What the hell is this place?"

"Just that. I don't know much more than you do right now."

"What about Scootaloo?"

Nicole breathed in slowly before extending her right hand out in front of her.

"Come here, Isaac."

He slowly approached her with his left hand extended in front of him. Nicole rolled her eyes and reached out to Isaac's hand. When the two touched, a Locator line shot out along the floor and curved towards a hallway to their right.

"Follow this path, Isaac. She needs you right now." She stated, slowly backing away.

"Wait!" Isaac shouted, raising his hand to her. "Where are you, really? What happened to you after the Ishimura?"

"I have to go, Isaac. I'm sorry."

With that, the image of Nicole faded away, along with an orange tint that Isaac didn't even notice until now.

Isaac looked around the facility and sighed deeply before checking his locator once more. The line came back up once more, prompting Isaac to follow the vision's instructions. With a heavy heart, Isaac began to walk along the guided path with his Plasma Cutter raised high.

\\\//////

Scootaloo was breathing in short, ragged bursts as tears flowed freely from her stinging eyes, now red and swollen. She looked up to Rainbow Dash with her face drenched in her own fluids.

"W-why?" She stammered out.

"Why what?" Rainbow Dash responded.

"Why are you doing this to me?"

"Because you need help. More than you know."

"This isn't funny, Dash! Please! Let me go!" The young filly cried out.

"Stop struggling. Don't fight your destiny. I know of others that would kill for what you're about to go through."

"I don't care! Please! Let me go!"

"Even if I did, you're in the air. In a weather station that we... appropriated. You would fall to your death if you tried to leave."

"Is that what this is about!? That I can't fly!?"

"Of course. You need our help, and so we're going to do just that."

"I'm sorry! I'm Sorry I can't fly! Please, I can do better! I-I'll train more! Please! Just don't kill me!!!"

Rainbow Dash threw a hoof out and struck the filly on the left cheek, breaking several teeth and starting a small flow of blood to stream out of the young Pegasus's mouth.

"You will be GRATEFUL!!!" She shouted. "I have worked my entire life for this! And you will ascend this form! I will be blessed by your blood!"

The cyan mare turned away and began to fiddle with a panel covered in levers and buttons, leaving the bleeding Scootaloo there in her bindings, absolutely mortified. Scootaloo felt broken. The only one she truly ever looked up to had struck her because she was begging for her own life. She had been insulted by her mentor. Abandoned by what she considered a sister. And about to be executed by someone she thought she would live for.

Rainbow Dash pulled on the levers and pressed one final button before machines and gears began whirring above the two, before a machine began to lower before the orange filly. There were multiple tubes all running along the sides of the device, going from the front of the object, near Scootaloo, all the way back up to wherever it was hanging from. Multiple gears began to turn within it as a series of lights began to shine down on it. The entire machine was stained in blood, and now sported a number of clear glass cylinders.

The two Pegasi ogled the machine with two completely opposite emotions, unaware of the clanging of metal boots nearby.

\\\//////

Isaac clanged along the metal floors of the factory as he searched high and low for any sign of the young Pegasus. He noticed that the pounding of the facility began to increase in intensity as he came closer to the multiple light sources that seemed to create a rainbow of color across the hallway. He turned a corner and found what he assumed to be some kind of main chamber.

There were massive tubes overhead with different colors that glowed eerily across the massive area as they allowed him to locate the source of the constant thumps. The source being massive mechanisms that moved up slowly and then shot down as if to crush anything that happened to pass beneath them. Isaac looked around the massive expanse of metal and tubes to find that there were several rooms that were sealed off, each with some kind of torture holding ring, judging by the clamps. And the blood.

"Goddamn." He muttered.

"HELP!"

Isaac looked around for the source of the sound as he swiped his Plasma Cutter across his field of vision.

"SOMEPONY!"

He turned around to see a distant room with lights on around it.

"SCOOTALOO!" Isaac screamed as he ran towards the voice.

As the room came closer in his view, he noticed a series of wires and gears that began to turn and spark as a noise came from where he heard the filly's scream. When he reached the boxed-off room, the slammed a fist on the door.

"SCOOTALOO!"

\\\//////

"ISAAC!" The filly shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Silence!" Dash screamed.

She pushed one more button on the panel, causing the room to shift slightly as the machine before the orange Pegasus to change. The glass cylinders folded out as a long, thick needle clicked them together as they hovered in front of Scootaloo's body, which was rising and falling rapidly as she stared into the instrument of her death. Then, just as it looked as though it couldn't get worse, a massive knife slid out from the top of the machine. It was a spotless 6-inch long, 2-inch wide blade that stared right into the space between her eyes, merely a breath away from her.

"Now, be made whole." Dash stated.

\\\//////

Isaac balled his left hand into a fist as he heard that damned phrase once more. He raised it to the wiring along the wall and started pulling at anything that could stop the maniac on the other side. After a few seconds of pulling, Isaac just raised his Plasma Cutter towards the massive tubes that held the wires in place and fired into them, causing several loud groans of mechanical stress to screech from beyond the wall. Seeing the opportunity, Isaac kept on ripping out wires and shot at the tubes along the frame before the door sparked along the frame before collapsing into a slot in the floor.

With a quick step, Isaac looked into the room to watch as a massive machine sparked and fell apart before completely collapsing to the ground as the wiring outside the room exploded in a shower of sparks.

\\\//////

"NOOOOO!!!" Dash screamed as the machine broke apart before her. "My life's work! RUINED!"

Isaac came into the room as Scootaloo began to cry tears of joy, seeing the familiar figure save her from a grizzly death.

"Isaac!" She cheered.

The massive metal-clad form of the Engineer came up to her as Rainbow Dash began to assault the wreckage of the machine as if it were a friend trapped under a rock.

"Hold still." Isaac stated.

He raised the device in his hands up to the bindings around Scootaloo's hind legs and shot at the wiring at their base, causing them to collapse as their locking mechanisms gave out. As he shot the final restraint, Scootaloo landed on the floor with a soft thud before rushing up to cling to Isaac.

Before she could voice her thanks, a familiar voice came up from the machine.

"You..." Rainbow spit out with enough venom to kill a Dragon.

Isaac stood at his full height and aimed the device at her, casting three light-blue lines across the cyan Pegasus's neck.

"Stay the fuck back!!!" He shouted.

"You ruined EVERYTHING I ever worked for. You are truly an Unholy Abomination. I will make sure she ascends, even if I have to do it with my own wings."

"You won't touch her!!!"

"Rainbow Dash, Please!" Scootaloo pleaded.

"NO MORE!" The Pegasus shouted, extending her metal-tipped wings to their maximum length. "I WILL ASCEND THAT UNGRATEFUL FOAL! I WILL MAKE HER WHOLE WITH US! I WILL NOT BE DENIED MY FAITH!!!"

The mare lunged outwards towards them with a war cry.

TSH

In that moment, there was no more shouting. The cyan mare landed on top of the machine with a thud.

... while her head continued to roll towards the hooves of her number one fan.