Dead Space: Purpose

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

Scootaloo's scream pierced the silence of the room's atmosphere in an instant as she tightened her grip on Isaac's neck, unaware of the fact that she was deafening him.

Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Celestia all backed away with mouths agape as the filly continued to wail.

"GET ME OUT OF HERE! ISAAC, DO SOMETHING!" She cried.

Isaac stood up and moved his hands towards Scootaloo in an attempt to calm her.

"Scootaloo, calm down! Just-"

"SHE CAN'T BE HERE! I SAW YOU KILL HER! SHE CAN'T BE HERE!"

The cyan mare in question looked up at Isaac in shock as Celestia made her way closer to the filly.

"Please, calm down!"

"ISAAC, GET HER AWAY!" Scootaloo cried.

Isaac grasped Scootaloo and started to run one hand down her back.

"Just calm down!"

"NO, I  DON'T WANNA GO BACK! I WANNA WAKE UP!" She bawled out before burying her face into Isaac's neck, crying her eyes out in rivers.

"Isaac," Celestia started, "what's wrong with her?"

"Why," Rainbow started, "why did she just say that you-"

"EVERYPONY CALM DOWN!"

Most of the room crouched down in shock at the volume of the voice. After a few seconds of silence, save for Scootaloo's sobs, Isaac looked towards the source of the outburst.

"Fluttershy?"

The yellow pegasus moved closer to Isaac and flapped her wings to bring herself up to the height at which he held Scootaloo. The filly saw her approach and widened her eyes in fear as she gripped Isaac tighter. Fluttershy smiled lightly at Scootaloo before the younger pegasus shifted her gaze between Rainbow Dash and her.

"It's okay," Fluttershy cooed, "you're safe now."

Scootaloo examined her hesitantly before practically tackling Fluttershy out of the air. The mare held Scootaloo close and began to pet her back as tears ran through her coat from where the filly kept her head. Fluttershy turned towards the others and spoke.

"Maybe you three should continue elsewhere. I'll try to calm her down." Fluttershy suggested.

"No way!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "Squirt, I want you to-"

"NO! GO AWAY!" Scootaloo burst from Fluttershy's shoulder.

The cyan pegasus backed away in shock before staring daggers at the Engineer. Celestia stepped between the two and spoke up.

"We will continue this elsewhere. And I expect you both to act calmly and reasonably, alright?" She demanded, shifting her gaze between the two.

Isaac merely nodded as Rainbow Dash reluctantly sighed before nodding as well. Celestia turned around and walked towards the door with the two before stopping and igniting her horn. In a flash, the three were in her private chambers, overlooking the city of Canterlot on a large balcony. The Solar Princess turned to see Isaac and began to speak.

"Isaac, I want you to tell us exactly what happened."

Isaac sighed as he shifted a bit.

"Alright, let's start with the morning. First, I woke up and came down to see the... uh..."

"Cutie Mark Crusaders?" Dash practically spat at him.

"Yeah." He replied with narrowed eyes.

"Isaac," Celestia interrupted, "please."

"Fine. Anyways, I let them into the Library and we just waited hung out for a few hours. Around lunch, this couple, Derpy and the Doctor, I think, came by to check on how the... Crusaders, were, and we went out for lunch. We were at the restaurant when it all started."

Celestia nodded.

"Right, I heard about the accident."

Isaac tilted his head.

"Accident? What accident?"

Celestia blinked a bit in surprise, where as Rainbow merely narrowed her eyes further.

"The explosion? The fire?"

"That wasn't an accident."

Celestia's pupils dilated and her jaw nearly dropped as Isaac stated this.

"W-what?"

Rainbow Dash was now holding her head up, closer to Isaac as she became interested in the story.

"No, some robed ponies came from the back of the restaurant and then stood on the tables, shouting some shit about purity before they blew themselves up."

At this point, Dash and Celestia had their jaws near the ground. Celestia began to shake her head and give an empty chuckle.

"Isaac, that can't be. I-I mean, this, it... it just can't be."

"I was there. I saw it. I watched as the place was burning down from the inside."

"How..." Celestia trailed off, staring out towards the small spec on the edge of the horizon that was Ponyville.

"I tried to get everyone out, but some guy in a robe came up behind Scootaloo and took her towards the back of the building. When I followed, he was already gone."

Celestia turned and marched towards Isaac, keeping a steady lock with his gaze.

"Isaac, how did you get to her if she was gone? How did you even come from above? Why did they try to take her, and more importantly, why does she think one of the Elements of Harmony was dead!?" She demanded.

"When I tried to get Scootaloo, I found a carving on the floor of the restaurant's upper floor." Isaac leaned in as a scowl became apparent. "A Marker carving."

Celestia looked as though she had died right then and there, as memories and visions of that word came crashing down on her. Her flowing mane had stopped its waving and fell limp against the alicorn as lines began to indicate splits in her mane. She tried to open her mouth to speak, but ended up senselessly babbling for a few seconds.

"N-n-no... no, that... that can't... no..."

Rainbow Dash looked between the Princess and the Engineer before growling in frustration and flying up to Isaac.

"Alright, listen here!" She started. "You're going to tell me what happened to her, right now, or I'll crush you into Jerk-Cider!"

Isaac glared at her for a second before responding.

"I don't know how, but I followed the carving up to some place called the Rainbow Factory."

Rainbow Dash blinked in surprise before speaking.

"Wait, the Rainbow Factory? That secluded mass of clouds that's over a volcano? You followed her there?"

"What do you know about it?" Isaac asked coldly.

"Well, for starters, they're all super-religious about something, and that most of their workers are orphans or widowers. Also that they're responsible for just about all of the rainbow production for Cloudsdale. They ship in the main liquids and then the Cloudsdale factories stir them up and bring out the rainbows for Equestria."

"Do you know how they make the fucking rainbows?" He asked through clenched teeth.

Dash narrowed her eyes at Isaac's question.

"No, I don't." She growled back.

"I went in and found Scootaloo, about to be carved by some fucking machine!" Isaac shouted at her. "She was strapped onto a table, with a knife held between her eyes, and a massive needle right next to her chest! I had to cut pumps and wires to break the damn thing, and when I did, I came in and the guy inside the room told me that he was going to make her into a rainbow!"

Rainbow Dash backed up a bit with wide eyes before scowling.

"You liar!" She shouted back. "You don't know what the hay you're talking about!"

"You want proof!?" Isaac retorted.

Celestia snapped out of her trance and rushed over to Isaac.

"You have proof of what?"

Isaac opened his mouth to speak, but then paused when he realized that he did, indeed, have proof of just about everything that had happened that day.

"My RIG." He breathed out.

"Your what?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"My RIG! I've got the whole damn thing recorded!" Isaac proclaimed as he brought up a holographic interface. "Engineers have their RIGs record everything in a procedure to make sure that they performed repairs properly, or in case they can't identify the problem and have to show their superiors what they're talking about." He tapped a few more commands, which in turn brought up a display of the dark interior walls of the Rainbow Factory. "Here, you want proof, here it is."

\\\//////

Fluttershy continued to stroke Scootaloo's back as the filly that was crying into her shoulder merely held herself against Fluttershy, allowing her coat to dry up. The older mare had opted to just let Scootaloo sit with her, and waited until she decided that she wanted to talk about what had transpired.

"F-Fluttershy?" Scootaloo whispered.

"Yes?" She responded as softly as she could.

"Why... why did Rainbow Dash want to kill me?"

Fluttershy felt her heart almost stop as she froze in place. She slowly turned to see the back of Scootaloo's purple mane.

"W-w-what?" She stammered out.

"I... I got taken by those ponies in robes. And when I woke up, Rainbow Dash talked to me. I was scared at first, that it was a prank that went a little far. But then, she said stuff about me needing help, and then, she said stuff about ascension and then... hit me. I... I was so scared. Then Isaac came and... I saw him kill her. And now she's back, and I don't want to go back there!" She cried out before crying dry tears onto Fluttershy's coat.

"Scootaloo," Fluttershy started, "are you sure that it was Rainbow Dash?"

Scootaloo held on closer to Fluttershy as she searched her head for an answer.

"I... I don't know... I know I saw her, but... I just thought that it couldn't be her. I just wanted to believe that it wasn't her. I can't think right, right now. I wanna go home."

Fluttershy hugged Scootaloo closer as she contemplated her previous conversations thus far.

'It has to be the Marker,' She thought to herself, 'it has to be.'

\\\//////

Isaac watched as the video display continued on, allowing the two ponies with him to witness the events that transpired in the Rainbow Factory. The view changed once more as Isaac's recording shifted while he raised the Plasma Cutter to a set of wires and pumps along a metallic wall. Once the sparks began flying, the scenery changed once more to show a room where inside, was Scootaloo, strapped to a surface, with a large piece of machinery breaking apart away from her. A scream pierced the audio, coming from the robed Pegasus in the room.

Between the three, the same pegasus was seen. However, when Scootaloo screamed, the situation became apparent.

"Wait," Rainbow Dash stated, waving a hoof, "why did she think that was me?"

Isaac paused the video, leaving it lingering on the image of a blood-red pegasus mare mid-scream. Across her body were markings of different kinds, looking as though they were burnt into her flesh. Celestia eyed the image with great care, and gasped at a sudden realization.

"I think I know why."

"I bet I know what you're about to say." Isaac stated. "That she's covered in Marker symbols, and that when Scootaloo saw her, the symbols twisted her mind to make her think she saw Rainbow Dash."

Celestia looked up to Isaac.

"How... how did you know?"

"Because the Markers do that. I should know. I was walking around that place talking to one of my dead ex-girlfriends, and then fought alongside another one of my dead friends while fighting a pony that was flowing with Marker energy."

Celestia's eyes widened greatly at this mention. She turned to Rainbow Dash and spoke quickly.

"Rainbow Dash, go back to Scootaloo and talk to her, work this out, say you're sorry, whatever it takes! I need to speak with Isaac alone, and you three need to head back to Ponyville now! Just go to the train station and tell them that I'm paying for your tickets!"

Before the pegasus could object, Celestia's horn lit up once more and sent her off in a flash. She then turned back to Isaac and prepared them to teleport once more.

After the flash, the two found themselves surrounded by shelves packed with books and scrolls of all kinds of colors and sizes. In the center of the room, stood a massive hourglass, with the sands ticking away slowly, almost finished with their descent as the top half emptied out.

"Where are we?" Isaac asked.

Celestia approached the hourglass as she responded.

"This is the Starswirl the Bearded Wing. More specifically, the Hall of Destiny. Isaac Clarke, what you see before you was once nothing more than a prop, thought to be a symbol by the late unicorn himself. Only now do I realize what it truly entails." She stopped before the massive structure and turned back towards the Engineer. "When you arrived, the sands moved once again, and now they count down how much time this world has left."