Dead Space: Purpose

by Dragonman461

Chapter 17: [RAINBOW FACTORY] Part 3

Previous ChapterNext Chapter

Fluttershy looked at Ellie with a mixed look.

"'Supposed to die'?" The mare asked with a hint of tears forming in her eyes.

Ellie sighed lightly as she shook her head.

"Yes. You see, he's been fighting something terrible for a while now."

Fluttershy gasped.

"Is he sick?"

"In a way. More mentally than physically, though. Sometimes it can manifest into physical pain, however, and can end up hurting him."

"Wh-what's wrong?"

Ellie looked out of the blackened window in the room before breathing deeply.

"The same thing he almost died fighting. The Marker."

"Isaac told us about that. But..." Fluttershy's voice trailed off as she remembered the horrors from before, causing more tears to well up.

"It's what's causing you to see all of that, yes. It's been doing that to Isaac for years now."

Fluttershy found the will to brush away the tears and respond to Ellie.

"What does he see?"

"He told me about how he would keep seeing his old dead girlfriend, Nicole, and how the Marker basically tortured him for months after he found out she was actually dead. He bloody saw her walking around and talking to him as if nothing was wrong, when she may have very well been one of... those..."

Once more, the Pegasus held up a hoof to her mouth as she took in the seriousness of Isaac's plight.

"That damn Marker embedded itself in his mind, and some bastards from Titan Station used his mind to construct a new one. That's when we met. After a few years, though, we grew apart. Eventually, we found what we thought was the Marker Homeworld: Tau Volantis. That's where he activated that alien machine that was supposed to destroy the Markers. He died so that they wouldn't be able to do what they did to him to anyone else."

Fluttershy looked down as the story of Isaac's strife continued.

"And they did die off."

Fluttershy beamed with hope from the statement.

"Still though, when I finally died, I couldn't help but feel that I saved at least something. That some race in the future that doesn't have to fear what lies in the dark. Then, I found out the Markers weren't all dead."

"So... Isaac came here to help? To stop the Marker?"

"Probably. The alien machine did something, and all I know is that I'm talking to a magical talking Pony about the nightmare of the Marker."

Fluttershy stiffened for a moment, unsure of how to respond to the sudden comment.

"Look," Ellie started, "all I know is that for some reason, the Marker sees you as something to hurt Isaac with, especially since you have some kind of weird bond. I can't explain it, but all I know is that he shouldn't leave your side. Make sure you stay close to him, and keep safe."

"But why me? Why would he have a bond with me?"

"All I know is that the Marker doesn't like you for something, just like the rest of your friends."

With that last unsatisfying comment, Ellie began to fade away from Fluttershy's view before the world collapsed into blackness.

\\\//////

When she opened her eyes, Fluttershy gasped in a massive amount of air, as though she had never known the substance existed. The room around her exploded with light as her senses slowly started to return. As she began to pant, Fluttershy noticed how she was drenched with sweat, as well as how tired she suddenly felt. When she looked down, her body was covered with a soft blanket, which was moist like her fur.

The door opened, causing the mare to look up and notice how out-of-place she seemed in the situation. Twilight, Rarity, and Celestia all came rushing in and went straight to her side.

"Fluttershy!" Twilight cried. "Are you okay!?"

"Darling, we were so scared!" Rarity stated.

Celestia merely watched with a look of sorrow in her pleading eyes, tears slowly forming at their corners.

Fluttershy looked between them and began to recollect her thoughts.

"Wh-what happened? Why am I here?" She asked.

"Fluttershy, dear," Rarity started, "we were going through the Garden, when we came upon a small tree that was growing along the path. I pointed out how it branched off into two stems and circled around itself, and you gave a horrifying scream and fainted right there. I was so scared. I've never heard you scream in fear, nor did I expect you could be that loud."

As she pondered on this, Fluttershy slowly remembered seeing the small sapling. Then how she saw horrifying images flash through her mind. Images like what she had seen in the hallways of the dream. Like the image of her departed mother, turning into a monster. Ellie. Isaac.

"Where's Isaac?" Fluttershy gasped.

Twilight gave a concerned look towards Fluttershy before responding.

"Fluttershy, listen. There's been a... an incident, back in Ponyville. And Isaac..." The alicorn trailed off.

Unbeknownst to them, a certain Solar Princess was looking into a certain aura around the Elements.

And was greeted with an odd mixture of a new fighting spirit from the Element of Kindness.

\\\//////

Isaac walked through the metallic hallways with extreme caution, careful not to cause too much noise as he searched for the route to the main receiver for the facility. With that constantly ticking down Isaac's thoughts, he remembered the guest that now slept soundly in his RIG. She had seen her mentor decapitated after being held at death-point by some kind of torture device that Isaac refused to learn what function it served. Although she would never want to see him again, he could understand why she wouldn't want to, and why he wouldn't hold anything against her afterwords.

Right now, though, he had to get her out of this Hell.

As he continued to walk along, there were more distant screams as machinery began to whir around him. When the screaming either climaxed or halted altogether, the tubes along the walls glowed with more of their nightmare-inducing essence. Isaac shook his head each time he saw this, knowing full-well that he couldn't save anyone else that had made it to this horrible place.

His thoughts were stricken down as he found a massive vault-like door with a lever mechanism next to it. Above were words that he couldn't make out, since they weren't English or even Marker symbols, but reached for the lever anyways. The massive door before him began to click and shift slightly before opening up for a cylindrical hallway that held several suits and pieces of equipment before leading to another door.

Isaac checked his RIG Locator function, and found that this was indeed the direction that he needed to go.

'Well so far, so good.' He thought to himself, beginning to walk towards the opposite door. 'Maybe I can get Scootaloo out before she can wake up. Try to-'

Before he could finish the thought, the vault behind him closed as the lights flooded the room, making the "101" imprint on the door clearly visible as it slammed back into place.

'The Hell!?'

The room began to have a certain pull towards the ceiling as Isaac felt multiple parts of his suit lock up, such as the RIG locking around Scootaloo, and his boots become attached to the metal beneath him as a familiar voice echoed through his suit.

"Entering Zero-Gravity."

Next Chapter