Dead Space: Awakeningby Dragonman461ChaptersChapter _Chapter -Chapter ^Chapter 0Chapter _Chapter _ Searing, terrible, horrifying, unspeakable, blood-boiling pain. That was literally the first thing Isaac felt. It was the only thing he felt for hours. After a while, he could feel a numbing sensation in his neck. He was screaming. After he realized this, he could feel the burning sensation of air leaving his lungs too rapidly, and began to feel his entire chest heave inwards. Almost immediately, a new level of pain came to his senses. His entire torso felt like it was being slowly torn open, likely because his wounds were all coming apart now. Memories of the battle (he used the term very loosely) with his Necro-self played over and over again in his mind, reminding him of how he had died. The stabs, cuts, acidic burns, blunt trauma, broken bones, internal hemorrhaging, ruptured organs, and several other gruesome injury he had gone through that day replayed themselves without pause. Every single second he was conscious, Isaac felt the pain worsen. He could feel the blood seeping from his left stump, where his arm used to be, as well as his organs pool around the gaping hole in his torso. As each second ticked by slowly and deliberately, Isaac felt as though every single atom in his body was screaming in agony, just like he was. Only then, did the voices begin. At first, they were familiar voices, such as the ones from Aegis-VII, when he had first started getting the visions upon finding the Red Marker. Then they continued on through his time aboard Titan Station, his fights with the Nicole visions, and even Stross. Finally, they had gone through all the visions from Tau Volantis, and began with the land of his death: Equestria. He remembered first meeting the ponies in Fluttershy's cottage, after she had saved him from dying in a forest. Then the time he spent in Ponyville, learning the ins and outs of the small town. Terror seized what little fiber of his heart was left when he remembered the bombing of the restaurant, and the Rainbow Factory. A fraction of his consciousness began to remember anger as he was reminded of the harm done to his friends by the Marker's power, until he remembered the moment of his death. As he did, every single wound felt more pronounced as though he were living them a second time. The Necro-Isaac slashing through his arm faster than he could blink, being impaled upon the blade of the horrific abomination. Then... silence. Isaac's entire body felt like it was suddenly set ablaze from every single bit of flesh and blood. If he could still scream, he would likely have deafened himself. Every single bit inside of Isaac felt as though it were shifting. Bones began to crack and move inside of him, ripping away at veins as his organs began to melt and rearrange their remains. The pain never ceased as Isaac could feel his entire body beginning to shift and mutate. His limbs began to twist against his will, his skin bubbling like molten liquids, and his skull... Fear and pain were the only constants that Isaac's psyche knew in that moment of time as a realization dawned on Isaac. This must what it felt like to become a Necromorph. The Engineer struggled to find any kind of grip on reality as he felt his body shift against his will, and against the laws of nature. He began to panic internally as he realized that he would become a monster. He would turn into one of those things. He didn't want any more blood on his hands. However, no matter how much he tried to fight it, the transformation continued. Isaac could feel his fingers and feet sizzle and decay rapidly, falling off in agonizing pain as Isaac couldn't find any way to react. Trapped within a body that was becoming not like his own. Isaac began to mix sorrow into his emotions, as he began to think of how he could have failed to protect his friends in Equestria. He had failed to make his life worth anything. How he failed to make their lives, those that died on the Ishimura, Titan Station, and Tau Volantis, worth anything beyond a waste of time and energy. It was over. All was lost. "Isaac." ... no. He didn't fail. Isaac began to remember seeing the Marker evaporate. He could remember the feeling of its hellish powers leaving his mind. "Clarke." Isaac remembered how he felt when he saw the Marker vanish permanently, finally destroying all connections throughout all of time and space. "Awaken." For the first time in what felt like an eternity, Isaac opened his eyes. Chapter -Isaac looked around to find himself in a vast, white space. Around him, millions upon millions of different creatures stared at him. Beyond his line of sight, billions more were cheering his name. The one thing he felt at that point in time, was pure solace. Then, something spoke. "Thank you, Isaac." The Engineer looked before him to see the familiar form of the crystal tree from the Marker's cave before him. It emitted a powerful aura, almost beaming with the sheer force of life itself. Powers of unknown magnitudes warped around it as all of this space's dimensions seemed to hone in on it alone. "Wha... what's going on?" Isaac managed, feeling almost alien hearing himself speak. "Simple, our dear engineer." Isaac tried to turn his field of vision around to see where the voice had come from, but could move before the serpentine form of Discord appeared before him. "I see you're doing much better now," he said with a genuine smile. The Engineer tried to form some kind of sentence, but only managed to make small sounds. "I know, you're exhausted. Well, I suppose I need to catch you up a bit with what all," Discord waved his appendages around, "that was, what this is, and what will be." A snap echoed through the fabric of reality itself as Isaac felt himself being pulled through several barriers that no mortal should have any thought of crossing. Around him, the scenery changed to that of a dark tomb. The entire space filled with a multitude of lights before a soft red light blinked from within the center coffin. "I... Isaac?" Isaac focused on the yellow form of Fluttershy instantly. "Fl-Flutter... shy?" his own voice echoed from the tomb. The pegasus shot towards the tomb and began to strike at the top layer. Fluttershy's hooves began to grind against the stoney surface of the ground as she tried to move the heavy cover of Isaac's would-be grave. "HELP!" she shouted. "SOMEPONY! ANYPONY!" Fluttershy pulled back her front hooves and slammed them against the side of the tomb's cover once more, this time flapping her wings in an effort to move the slab. Inside, Isaac could be heard coughing harshly. As the images played out, Isaac found himself coughing as well, in sync with the event. Even now, he could feel the iron-flavored liquid splatter against his throat. "Isaac, don't die again! Please!" Fluttershy begged as tears flowed down her face. As Fluttershy continued to push against the stone slab, Isaac could feel his lungs fill up with blood as the numb sensation of his previous wounds began to resurface in his senses. "We already lost you once!" Fluttershy shouted as she simply began to pound on the stone slab with her delicate hooves. "Don't go now! Come back!" An almost alien sensation occurred in Isaac's left side. A spark went down from his head to his arm-stub, and jumped off onto something that felt somewhat distant. The second he felt it, a surge of energy cascaded over the slab for a fraction of a second before it went flying into the ceiling. Fluttershy backpedaled from the burst and stared wide-eyed at the slab as it simply stuck itself into the roof of the tomb. After three whole seconds, Fluttershy broke away from the phenomenon and rushed over to peer into the coffin. Both her and Isaac looked in horror at what they say. Isaac's face was almost pure white, his veins standing out like someone drew on him with blue paint. His breaths were shallow and few, barely noticeable. However, what shocked Isaac, or rather the slightly more conscious one, was the fact that his severed arm was arcing electricity between itself and the stump where it was once attached. The normally timid pegasus wasted no time as she reached in and hefted the Engineer upwards. Surprisingly, she managed to get his upper body out of the coffin before Princess Luna came into the tomb. "Fluttershy, I heard your-" Luna stopped mid-sentence as she saw what was happening. "He's alive, Princess!" Fluttershy managed to shout. "He needs help, fast!" Luna nodded once before she ignited her horn and in a flash of blue light, both ponies and Isaac were gone. "You've been in a coma for a few months, now," Discord explained. "They still don't know or why you came back, but right now, it's completely secret. Quite hush-hush if I ever saw it." Another snap that penetrated all laws of physics echoed through Isaac's barely functional mind as he felt several cold sensations run across his body before his mind threatened to lose what little awareness he had left in him. "But I know. Do you remember the Tree of Harmony, Isaac?" Isaac attempted to answer. Nothing happened. "I'll assume you tried to say, 'yes'. Anyways, when you destroyed the Marker, the leftover energy didn't simply fade into nothingness. The Elements of Harmony, however, attempted to purify the power that it gathered. When it concentrated on the Tree of Harmony... well, how do I put this? When the Elements were being brought to the Marker, Necromorphs may have already started gathering bodies. No less than a Hundred, I guarantee, but regardless, those souls were still pulled from their bodies. When the Marker was destroyed, it left those souls wandering aimlessly with a massive collection of Harmonic and life-based energies. In your most basic terms, it pulled together those lost souls and constructed a consciousness around the power of the Tree. They didn't know what they were doing, and after enduring so much pain and loss, not to mention the insanity the Marker drove them to, the result was... not the most stable of entities." Discord began to fade away as Isaac's senses were assaulted by a blinding light. "Long story short, welcome back to the world of the living, Isaac." After feeling so close to actual calmness, pain erupted through the Engineer's body as Isaac Clarke breathed once more. Chapter ^Fluttershy felt her anxiety well up within her gut as she waited for Discord. He had come out of nowhere, as usual, but instead of apologizing for siding with Tirek (he had done so nearly every single time they met now), he had come with a genuine smile and asked her to come to Canterlot. Now here she was, waiting in one of the many empty rooms within the castle. A set of tea with a plate of cucumber sandwiches occupied the table beside her. The only sound was the ticking of the large clock near the corner of the room, seemingly slowing down every now and then as she waited. The silence was shattered as Discord came in through the doors, his Griffon-arm behind his back. "Come along, Fluttershy," he spoke in a far more serious tone. "He's awake." Fluttershy needed no explanation as she shot out of her sitting position, galloping over to Discord. In that same moment, Discord began to weave through the air, his arm still hidden from view somehow, and guided Fluttershy down the halls to where the person of focus was likely waiting. After a whole two minutes of chasing the Draconequus, Fluttershy's eyes were streaming with tears of an unknown nature to even herself as she saw Discord slowly open one last door. The pegasus slowed to a deliberate trot as she approached the opening in the door. Inside was a standard-looking hospital room, with only one bed. An unknown array of machines were connected to a shape underneath the covers through series of wires and tubes that continuously pumped liquids of all colors. Fluttershy watched with baited breath as the form under the covers finally began to move. \\\////// Isaac blinked several times as he felt living sensations return to his body. Everything felt numb, and he still couldn't feel several parts. Sight returned first, apparently with a vendetta against Isaac. The brightness of wherever he was burned his eyes, forcing him to keep them closed as he tried to adjust his head. As he did, he felt a strange sensation underneath him, like he was in some strange attire. His hearing returned next, and gave Isaac a completely alien sensation. Everything he heard began to shift around, as if he was moving from place to place. The sensation from his ears also felt strange, as they felt like they were constantly being moved. Taste assaulted Isaac as he heaved at the indescribable presence in his maw. Again, as his taste returned to him, his mouth felt strange, as if it was being stretched. Smell came back discreetly, the pleasant scent of sterilized equipment fresh in Isaac's nostrils. The same thing, everything felt wrong. His nose twitched once or twice, and felt too close to his mouth for some reason. "Isaac?" a familiar voice spoke. Struggling against the light, Isaac forced his eyes to open slightly, adjusting to the blinding white as a form of yellow and pink began to gain definition. The Engineer couldn't form words fast enough before Fluttershy practically teleported over to his side. "Isaac, is that you?" she asked. 'What?' Isaac thought. 'What does she mean? I'm-' His thoughts ceased as he suddenly felt very rigid. Slowly, Isaac tried to move his right arm, and managed to raise it closer to his line of sight. Instead of seeing his usual arm, however, his sight was met by a short, fur-coated, grey leg that belonged to a pony. A sudden spike of adrenaline was followed by the sound of a heart-rate monitor increasing in pace as Isaac threw the sheets on him half-way across himself. The view was enough, though, as Isaac looked down to find his body completely different. Grey fur coated his entire body, a few scars scattered between the monotone coat. A short, ragged dark-brown tail stuck up between his morphed hind legs. Isaac looked to his left to see that even the stump where his left arm had been morphed as well, ending in a rounded-out bump of grey fur. That was when he saw the mirror. Gazing back at the Engineer was a grey-coated, dark-brown haired, greenish-blue eyed, scraggly-bearded pony. Chapter 0"Wha... wha! Ah!" Isaac barely managed to sound out as he collapsed into the hospital bed. "Isaac!" Fluttershy said as she went up to his side. Isaac began to turn his hoof over to examine it as he panicked internally. 'No, I-I can't... No! This can't be real anymore!' the Engineer thought to himself. The nearby heart monitor began to beep far more erratically as Isaac's pony form writhed in the bed. Isaac held his hoof to his chest, trying to find where his heart had been relocated to as he hyperventilated. Thankfully, he found it. The cardiac muscle was located in a similar place according to what he felt, and it was somewhat relieving to Isaac to know that he still had a beating heart. However, that did little to distract him from the fact that he's now a completely different species. "Isaac, deep breaths," Fluttershy said, trying to manage damage control. "Just calm down." Isaac couldn't keep calm, however, no matter how much effort Fluttershy put into her caressing of his short mane. He could feel the heartbeat incline further and further, until... Blackness encompassed his vision as Isaac felt himself slip away into the all-too-familiar embrace of unconsciousness. \\\////// Fluttershy's heart froze when she felt Isaac go limp in her grasp. "N-no," she whispered. "He's perfectly fine, Fluttershy," Discord assured her as he floated downward. "Just passed out from shock, but knowing him, it'll only be for a few moments before he's back up." Fluttershy slowly released her hold on the transformed man-to-pony as she examined the scars of his new body. Isaac, for some reason, had come back as an Earth Pony, and she could see the worn muscle underneath his thin sheen of fur. His left foreleg, however, was still cut as his arm was during... There were many signs of lacerations, a burn on the base of his neck, and a few patches of fur falling off of him. Looking over to the side of the room, Fluttershy saw X-rays of Isaac's insides with chicken scratches of doctors' notes. Some of the more notable ones were those that were circling joints and small organs that didn't look natural, as though they were morphed inside of his body. There were some that trailed off of his digestive track that resembled small bats, and one that hung off of his stomach, which seemed to filter something into his stomach directly. "I know, it's disgusting, isn't it?" Discord said. Fluttershy looked to Isaac. "He's alive because of it," she stated. "I... I don't care." "But don't ponies always say, 'it's what's on the inside that counts'?" Discord pointed out. "It's why I've hollowed myself out, you know," he said as he pretended to play his midsection as a xylophone. Fluttershy approached Isaac's sleeping form as the heart monitor slowed down as his chest rose and fell at a slower rate. "I still can't believe it took so long for him to come back," Discord said. "What's it been, almost two years?" "So much has happened since then," she noted. "Tirek, Starlight... the Changelings... I can't believe it. He's back, though." "Indeed he is," Discord said. "And I feel as though this is the dawn of a new era."
Chapter _Chapter _ Searing, terrible, horrifying, unspeakable, blood-boiling pain. That was literally the first thing Isaac felt. It was the only thing he felt for hours. After a while, he could feel a numbing sensation in his neck. He was screaming. After he realized this, he could feel the burning sensation of air leaving his lungs too rapidly, and began to feel his entire chest heave inwards. Almost immediately, a new level of pain came to his senses. His entire torso felt like it was being slowly torn open, likely because his wounds were all coming apart now. Memories of the battle (he used the term very loosely) with his Necro-self played over and over again in his mind, reminding him of how he had died. The stabs, cuts, acidic burns, blunt trauma, broken bones, internal hemorrhaging, ruptured organs, and several other gruesome injury he had gone through that day replayed themselves without pause. Every single second he was conscious, Isaac felt the pain worsen. He could feel the blood seeping from his left stump, where his arm used to be, as well as his organs pool around the gaping hole in his torso. As each second ticked by slowly and deliberately, Isaac felt as though every single atom in his body was screaming in agony, just like he was. Only then, did the voices begin. At first, they were familiar voices, such as the ones from Aegis-VII, when he had first started getting the visions upon finding the Red Marker. Then they continued on through his time aboard Titan Station, his fights with the Nicole visions, and even Stross. Finally, they had gone through all the visions from Tau Volantis, and began with the land of his death: Equestria. He remembered first meeting the ponies in Fluttershy's cottage, after she had saved him from dying in a forest. Then the time he spent in Ponyville, learning the ins and outs of the small town. Terror seized what little fiber of his heart was left when he remembered the bombing of the restaurant, and the Rainbow Factory. A fraction of his consciousness began to remember anger as he was reminded of the harm done to his friends by the Marker's power, until he remembered the moment of his death. As he did, every single wound felt more pronounced as though he were living them a second time. The Necro-Isaac slashing through his arm faster than he could blink, being impaled upon the blade of the horrific abomination. Then... silence. Isaac's entire body felt like it was suddenly set ablaze from every single bit of flesh and blood. If he could still scream, he would likely have deafened himself. Every single bit inside of Isaac felt as though it were shifting. Bones began to crack and move inside of him, ripping away at veins as his organs began to melt and rearrange their remains. The pain never ceased as Isaac could feel his entire body beginning to shift and mutate. His limbs began to twist against his will, his skin bubbling like molten liquids, and his skull... Fear and pain were the only constants that Isaac's psyche knew in that moment of time as a realization dawned on Isaac. This must what it felt like to become a Necromorph. The Engineer struggled to find any kind of grip on reality as he felt his body shift against his will, and against the laws of nature. He began to panic internally as he realized that he would become a monster. He would turn into one of those things. He didn't want any more blood on his hands. However, no matter how much he tried to fight it, the transformation continued. Isaac could feel his fingers and feet sizzle and decay rapidly, falling off in agonizing pain as Isaac couldn't find any way to react. Trapped within a body that was becoming not like his own. Isaac began to mix sorrow into his emotions, as he began to think of how he could have failed to protect his friends in Equestria. He had failed to make his life worth anything. How he failed to make their lives, those that died on the Ishimura, Titan Station, and Tau Volantis, worth anything beyond a waste of time and energy. It was over. All was lost. "Isaac." ... no. He didn't fail. Isaac began to remember seeing the Marker evaporate. He could remember the feeling of its hellish powers leaving his mind. "Clarke." Isaac remembered how he felt when he saw the Marker vanish permanently, finally destroying all connections throughout all of time and space. "Awaken." For the first time in what felt like an eternity, Isaac opened his eyes.
Chapter -Isaac looked around to find himself in a vast, white space. Around him, millions upon millions of different creatures stared at him. Beyond his line of sight, billions more were cheering his name. The one thing he felt at that point in time, was pure solace. Then, something spoke. "Thank you, Isaac." The Engineer looked before him to see the familiar form of the crystal tree from the Marker's cave before him. It emitted a powerful aura, almost beaming with the sheer force of life itself. Powers of unknown magnitudes warped around it as all of this space's dimensions seemed to hone in on it alone. "Wha... what's going on?" Isaac managed, feeling almost alien hearing himself speak. "Simple, our dear engineer." Isaac tried to turn his field of vision around to see where the voice had come from, but could move before the serpentine form of Discord appeared before him. "I see you're doing much better now," he said with a genuine smile. The Engineer tried to form some kind of sentence, but only managed to make small sounds. "I know, you're exhausted. Well, I suppose I need to catch you up a bit with what all," Discord waved his appendages around, "that was, what this is, and what will be." A snap echoed through the fabric of reality itself as Isaac felt himself being pulled through several barriers that no mortal should have any thought of crossing. Around him, the scenery changed to that of a dark tomb. The entire space filled with a multitude of lights before a soft red light blinked from within the center coffin. "I... Isaac?" Isaac focused on the yellow form of Fluttershy instantly. "Fl-Flutter... shy?" his own voice echoed from the tomb. The pegasus shot towards the tomb and began to strike at the top layer. Fluttershy's hooves began to grind against the stoney surface of the ground as she tried to move the heavy cover of Isaac's would-be grave. "HELP!" she shouted. "SOMEPONY! ANYPONY!" Fluttershy pulled back her front hooves and slammed them against the side of the tomb's cover once more, this time flapping her wings in an effort to move the slab. Inside, Isaac could be heard coughing harshly. As the images played out, Isaac found himself coughing as well, in sync with the event. Even now, he could feel the iron-flavored liquid splatter against his throat. "Isaac, don't die again! Please!" Fluttershy begged as tears flowed down her face. As Fluttershy continued to push against the stone slab, Isaac could feel his lungs fill up with blood as the numb sensation of his previous wounds began to resurface in his senses. "We already lost you once!" Fluttershy shouted as she simply began to pound on the stone slab with her delicate hooves. "Don't go now! Come back!" An almost alien sensation occurred in Isaac's left side. A spark went down from his head to his arm-stub, and jumped off onto something that felt somewhat distant. The second he felt it, a surge of energy cascaded over the slab for a fraction of a second before it went flying into the ceiling. Fluttershy backpedaled from the burst and stared wide-eyed at the slab as it simply stuck itself into the roof of the tomb. After three whole seconds, Fluttershy broke away from the phenomenon and rushed over to peer into the coffin. Both her and Isaac looked in horror at what they say. Isaac's face was almost pure white, his veins standing out like someone drew on him with blue paint. His breaths were shallow and few, barely noticeable. However, what shocked Isaac, or rather the slightly more conscious one, was the fact that his severed arm was arcing electricity between itself and the stump where it was once attached. The normally timid pegasus wasted no time as she reached in and hefted the Engineer upwards. Surprisingly, she managed to get his upper body out of the coffin before Princess Luna came into the tomb. "Fluttershy, I heard your-" Luna stopped mid-sentence as she saw what was happening. "He's alive, Princess!" Fluttershy managed to shout. "He needs help, fast!" Luna nodded once before she ignited her horn and in a flash of blue light, both ponies and Isaac were gone. "You've been in a coma for a few months, now," Discord explained. "They still don't know or why you came back, but right now, it's completely secret. Quite hush-hush if I ever saw it." Another snap that penetrated all laws of physics echoed through Isaac's barely functional mind as he felt several cold sensations run across his body before his mind threatened to lose what little awareness he had left in him. "But I know. Do you remember the Tree of Harmony, Isaac?" Isaac attempted to answer. Nothing happened. "I'll assume you tried to say, 'yes'. Anyways, when you destroyed the Marker, the leftover energy didn't simply fade into nothingness. The Elements of Harmony, however, attempted to purify the power that it gathered. When it concentrated on the Tree of Harmony... well, how do I put this? When the Elements were being brought to the Marker, Necromorphs may have already started gathering bodies. No less than a Hundred, I guarantee, but regardless, those souls were still pulled from their bodies. When the Marker was destroyed, it left those souls wandering aimlessly with a massive collection of Harmonic and life-based energies. In your most basic terms, it pulled together those lost souls and constructed a consciousness around the power of the Tree. They didn't know what they were doing, and after enduring so much pain and loss, not to mention the insanity the Marker drove them to, the result was... not the most stable of entities." Discord began to fade away as Isaac's senses were assaulted by a blinding light. "Long story short, welcome back to the world of the living, Isaac." After feeling so close to actual calmness, pain erupted through the Engineer's body as Isaac Clarke breathed once more.
Chapter ^Fluttershy felt her anxiety well up within her gut as she waited for Discord. He had come out of nowhere, as usual, but instead of apologizing for siding with Tirek (he had done so nearly every single time they met now), he had come with a genuine smile and asked her to come to Canterlot. Now here she was, waiting in one of the many empty rooms within the castle. A set of tea with a plate of cucumber sandwiches occupied the table beside her. The only sound was the ticking of the large clock near the corner of the room, seemingly slowing down every now and then as she waited. The silence was shattered as Discord came in through the doors, his Griffon-arm behind his back. "Come along, Fluttershy," he spoke in a far more serious tone. "He's awake." Fluttershy needed no explanation as she shot out of her sitting position, galloping over to Discord. In that same moment, Discord began to weave through the air, his arm still hidden from view somehow, and guided Fluttershy down the halls to where the person of focus was likely waiting. After a whole two minutes of chasing the Draconequus, Fluttershy's eyes were streaming with tears of an unknown nature to even herself as she saw Discord slowly open one last door. The pegasus slowed to a deliberate trot as she approached the opening in the door. Inside was a standard-looking hospital room, with only one bed. An unknown array of machines were connected to a shape underneath the covers through series of wires and tubes that continuously pumped liquids of all colors. Fluttershy watched with baited breath as the form under the covers finally began to move. \\\////// Isaac blinked several times as he felt living sensations return to his body. Everything felt numb, and he still couldn't feel several parts. Sight returned first, apparently with a vendetta against Isaac. The brightness of wherever he was burned his eyes, forcing him to keep them closed as he tried to adjust his head. As he did, he felt a strange sensation underneath him, like he was in some strange attire. His hearing returned next, and gave Isaac a completely alien sensation. Everything he heard began to shift around, as if he was moving from place to place. The sensation from his ears also felt strange, as they felt like they were constantly being moved. Taste assaulted Isaac as he heaved at the indescribable presence in his maw. Again, as his taste returned to him, his mouth felt strange, as if it was being stretched. Smell came back discreetly, the pleasant scent of sterilized equipment fresh in Isaac's nostrils. The same thing, everything felt wrong. His nose twitched once or twice, and felt too close to his mouth for some reason. "Isaac?" a familiar voice spoke. Struggling against the light, Isaac forced his eyes to open slightly, adjusting to the blinding white as a form of yellow and pink began to gain definition. The Engineer couldn't form words fast enough before Fluttershy practically teleported over to his side. "Isaac, is that you?" she asked. 'What?' Isaac thought. 'What does she mean? I'm-' His thoughts ceased as he suddenly felt very rigid. Slowly, Isaac tried to move his right arm, and managed to raise it closer to his line of sight. Instead of seeing his usual arm, however, his sight was met by a short, fur-coated, grey leg that belonged to a pony. A sudden spike of adrenaline was followed by the sound of a heart-rate monitor increasing in pace as Isaac threw the sheets on him half-way across himself. The view was enough, though, as Isaac looked down to find his body completely different. Grey fur coated his entire body, a few scars scattered between the monotone coat. A short, ragged dark-brown tail stuck up between his morphed hind legs. Isaac looked to his left to see that even the stump where his left arm had been morphed as well, ending in a rounded-out bump of grey fur. That was when he saw the mirror. Gazing back at the Engineer was a grey-coated, dark-brown haired, greenish-blue eyed, scraggly-bearded pony.
Chapter 0"Wha... wha! Ah!" Isaac barely managed to sound out as he collapsed into the hospital bed. "Isaac!" Fluttershy said as she went up to his side. Isaac began to turn his hoof over to examine it as he panicked internally. 'No, I-I can't... No! This can't be real anymore!' the Engineer thought to himself. The nearby heart monitor began to beep far more erratically as Isaac's pony form writhed in the bed. Isaac held his hoof to his chest, trying to find where his heart had been relocated to as he hyperventilated. Thankfully, he found it. The cardiac muscle was located in a similar place according to what he felt, and it was somewhat relieving to Isaac to know that he still had a beating heart. However, that did little to distract him from the fact that he's now a completely different species. "Isaac, deep breaths," Fluttershy said, trying to manage damage control. "Just calm down." Isaac couldn't keep calm, however, no matter how much effort Fluttershy put into her caressing of his short mane. He could feel the heartbeat incline further and further, until... Blackness encompassed his vision as Isaac felt himself slip away into the all-too-familiar embrace of unconsciousness. \\\////// Fluttershy's heart froze when she felt Isaac go limp in her grasp. "N-no," she whispered. "He's perfectly fine, Fluttershy," Discord assured her as he floated downward. "Just passed out from shock, but knowing him, it'll only be for a few moments before he's back up." Fluttershy slowly released her hold on the transformed man-to-pony as she examined the scars of his new body. Isaac, for some reason, had come back as an Earth Pony, and she could see the worn muscle underneath his thin sheen of fur. His left foreleg, however, was still cut as his arm was during... There were many signs of lacerations, a burn on the base of his neck, and a few patches of fur falling off of him. Looking over to the side of the room, Fluttershy saw X-rays of Isaac's insides with chicken scratches of doctors' notes. Some of the more notable ones were those that were circling joints and small organs that didn't look natural, as though they were morphed inside of his body. There were some that trailed off of his digestive track that resembled small bats, and one that hung off of his stomach, which seemed to filter something into his stomach directly. "I know, it's disgusting, isn't it?" Discord said. Fluttershy looked to Isaac. "He's alive because of it," she stated. "I... I don't care." "But don't ponies always say, 'it's what's on the inside that counts'?" Discord pointed out. "It's why I've hollowed myself out, you know," he said as he pretended to play his midsection as a xylophone. Fluttershy approached Isaac's sleeping form as the heart monitor slowed down as his chest rose and fell at a slower rate. "I still can't believe it took so long for him to come back," Discord said. "What's it been, almost two years?" "So much has happened since then," she noted. "Tirek, Starlight... the Changelings... I can't believe it. He's back, though." "Indeed he is," Discord said. "And I feel as though this is the dawn of a new era."
