All the joy, happiness and relaxation in the air, left when Isaac made the first step.

'Why can I never get a break?' He thought sourly.

"Isaac, Are you alright?" Sweetiebelle asked looking up at him.

"No, It’s just... just... this." He waved at the ship as he forced himself to walk. "It just brings back bad memories. Very bad ones." He shook his head.

"Was this where she..." Sweetiebelle looked down. "Died?"

"Yeah, and I would like to get out of here as fast as possible."

His legs felt like lead, and they only got heavier with each step.

They opened the door to a small hallway; it wasn't even ten steps to get to the other door.

When they opened that, they saw a small rail with the compartment sitting there.

Isaac nearly had to be dragged as they got on.

"Isaac," Scootaloo said getting his attention. "It’s alright. You don't have to do this alone. Were here for you."

He merely nodded in response as they came to a stop.

"Here we are..." He said.

They walked into the sterile tunnel of white fabric. Broom's, ladders, paper towels, crates lights and generators littered the path.

As they walked, a paper towel roll slid out, Isaac shot it to bits before exhaling a heavy breath.

'I need to hold it together.' He thought. 'I need to focus.'

They stopped in front of the lift. It was just a lift to the crusaders, but to Isaac, it was a lift back into his own personal hell.

"C-Come on... let’s go up." Isaac muttered almost sickly.

The crusaders looked at him and, underneath their, helmets frowned before getting on.

Isaac watched as the ship's name rose above in the darkness, its neon lettering mocking him, like some sick greeting inviting him to his death.

‘Home sweet home.’ He thought sarcastically.

The docking bay was just like he remembered it. Dark, menacing, quiet and intimidating.

"Isaac, it’s just a ship. No matter what happened here before, happened." Sweetiebelle said. "We have fought through countless necromorph's, Unitologists and Tiedmann’s traps, so, are you going to stop because of some stupid ship!?" She gave him a firm glare.

He looked back at the lettering and then to the flight control. Clenching his fists until the knuckles turned white. "No..." he said, barely above a whisper.

"I can't here you!" She yelled.

"No." He said louder, his entire frame shaking in rage.

"Louder! I want to hear you yell!" She yelled at him.

"No!" He yelled. "I'm not scared of some worthless, hell fore-saken piece of shit ship! And I'm certainly not scared of some dead bitch!" He yelled firing off a shot at the letters making the 'S' crack and burn out.

"Now!" She narrowed her eyes. "Who are you?"

"I am Isaac Clarke! I am a survivor of the Aegis VII outbreak, CEC Engineer class five and the one who killed the Hive Mind." He finished calmly.

"Feel better?" She asked smugly.

"Yeah, yeah a lot better. Now," He took out his Plasma cutter. "Who's ready to go kick some Necromorph ass?"

They all nodded before trotting briskly to the first set of doors.

Isaac was right behind them before stopping. He looked at the flight control room and glared.

"Isaac, come on!" Applebloom yelled. "We ain't got all day!"

He smirked at her before running up to her. Yet, not noticing the reflection peering at him from the glass.

They opened the door to the entrance, and exit of the docking bay.

'Only eight steps to hell.' Isaac thought.

He opened the door himself and looked in.

The walls were wrapped up in white plastic; the metal exterior of the room was still sticking out. The benches covered, lights had been placed inside, barely illuminating the room. More equipment was spread around the room; ladders on the walls and crates stacked with plastic rolls also against the walls.

Scootaloo stuck out her hoof and the line led to the computer.

They all slowly went to the door, it slid open, and Isaac waited. Waited for a Necromorph to come out and attack; blades ready to tear into him and the crusaders, shrieking the horrible yells as they scoured the station and halls, looking for more victims.

He looked down, three new reasons, overlooked and mentally hidden. To stay alive. 'They've given me so much, so now I've got to keep them alive.' He thought, smiling down at them.

Isaac walked up to the computer and put in the commands, in 2.5 seconds the electronic voice of the Ishimura came on.

"Gravity and Life support on reserve power. Primary systems offline. Main centrifuge offline for repairs."

He looked won to the crusaders, nervousness still in his voice, but it was not as noticeable as before.

"Looks like were going down to Engineering." He said.

"Does that mean we all get to be Engineer's?" Applebloom asked, eyes widening under her helmet.

"...Yes."

They all took a deep breath, he also did it, but for a different reason.

"Cutie Mark Crusader Engineer's!" They all yelled in unison.

"Ow..." Isaac mumbled rubbing his ears.

"Sorry." They all replied.

He nodded before walking up to the door he once used to run from the very first necromorph that attacked him.

The hall was covered in white sheets, had chunks of metal sticking out of them, the vents were broken from when he had to run for his life. They proceeded down the hall, wary of the danger that could present itself at any moment.

As they turned down the ramp and were about to pass an open room Nicole spoke up, startling them all.

"You can pretend not to be bothered, but being here rattles you, doesn't it Isaac? All this plastic and tape covering the scars; trying to hide the blood and bodies so no one will ever know. But you remember what happened, no matter how deeply you try to bury it."

Before they knew it, they had walked to the elevator where Isaac was almost killed.

"Why do ah think this is a bad idea?" Applebloom said as they got on and started to descend. "A really bad idea."

The room before them was nearly stripped of all the machines and lights from before. The blood was cleaned up, metal was lying around, a new bench and there were even more cleaning supplies laying around.

"Hey, this is where I got my Plasma cutter from." Isaac said pointing over the small area that once had the large computer. "Right over there."

Before they could go over he started to walk to the door across, as he opened it, he looked around the corner and saw the pile of scrap at the left had gotten bigger while the right had more of the plastic coverings.

He waved them through; they all walked out, a gun aimed behind, to the side and the front.

Their shadows danced across the walls as the lights shown of their armor, casting the hallway in a crimson glow from the blood on them.

They entered the Tram control room; the room was in an even worse state. Barely any plastic covering, broken glass, distorted images on the consoles and miscellaneous supplies littering the floor.

"I can't sleep, I can’t eat. Ever since we got here, I've been having horrible nightmares. I need it to stop!" Said a man from a consoles recording.

"Isaac, where's that from?" Scootaloo asked looking at the consoles.

"They're recordings from the colony." He said walking to the other door.

"What's the colony?" Applebloom asked kicking a piece of glass aside.

"It was, well, a colony on the planet Aegis VII. That's also where they found the Marker I destroyed."

"How did ya destroy it anyway? Ya never told us." Applebloom said taking her eyes off the path ahead.

"Oh... I dropped a continent on the planet and caused severe tectonic activity, virtually making the planet into a gravitational time bomb; ready to detonate and blast away anything in range."

"You dropped a continent on it!? How? That should be impossible!" Sweetiebelle squeaked.

"The Ishimura is one of the best planet crackers for a reason. It's an older model so it was used to tear larger chunks out of the planet. When I placed the Marker back onto the piece, it sent out an electromagnetic pulse, disrupting the tethers holding the chunk of planet up. I escaped with Alex before it crashed."

"Wow... that's awesome!" Scootaloo said.

"Eh, not really when Nicole jumped out from the floor and tried to choke me to death." He rolled his shoulders. "No big deal."

The hall beyond the door ahead was coated in scarlet lights, small patches of wall were covered with plastic, and the vents were either covered or were repaired with metal tubes running throughout them.

They went to the right, towards the flickering light of the closest ramp.

They went down, Scootaloo didn't see a tub and tripped on the handle making her go rolling down it in a ball of tentacles, light and metal. The others ran down fast enough to catch her. Isaac unfortunately, picked her up while she was still nauseated and his chest was covered in an orange glowing fluid. Each time his heart started to beat it pulsed with a yellow glow, copying his vein system and heart.

"Do I even want to know what this is?" He said dropping her to wipe the fluid off. "Shit! Why's it moving! Get it off!" He started to flail his arms and wipe his hands only for the fluid to crawl towards his helmet.

Sweetiebelle charged her horn and pried the stuff off of him, but only for it to start moving towards her.

"Now it’s on me! Get it-" He words were muffled when it started to slide down her throat, into her ears, her eyes, her nose and into the tip of her horn.

"What the hell's happening!?" Isaac yelled at Scootaloo as Sweetiebelle's horn started to glow a dark red.

"How should I know!?" Scootaloo yelled. "This has never happened before!"

"Well do something!"

Sweetiebelle's horn grew darker until it was black. She fell to her knees and started to cough up leftover chunks of the living fluid.

"What ack! Was that!" Sweetiebelle said in-between coughs before coughing up a large glob.

"Ectoplasm..." Scootaloo said. "It was necromorph ectoplasm. Sweetiebelle come here for a second, I need to see something."

"Why?" She said wiping her mouth.

"Just come here." Scootaloo said making a, 'come here' motion with her hoof.

Sweetiebelle took four steps before she was completely wrapped in tentacles. She squirmed and struggled before realizing it was Slenderloo.

"Scoot's! What are you doing?" Sweetiebelle asked nervously.

She looked at her friend who had reverted to Slenderloo and was immediately hooked onto the swirling greyness they was her eyes.

Her eyes flickered from red to blue before settling on a pale blue and white. Slenderloo gently set her friend down before tilting her head as in thinking, 'the buck is this?'

"Scoot's..." Sweetiebelle groaned tracing circles on her head before shivering. "What did you just do? And why do I feel so cold...?" She breathed out before noticing she could see her breath. "Is that good?"

"Sweetiebelle, the ectoplasm." Slenderloo said. "It... I don't know how to describe what I saw. It was weird, like a lava lamp. The DNA from the necromorph blood in your system took in that ectoplasm and... your magic improved it even more than it already was. I'm stumped by this; I have no idea what happened."

"So, I have more of those things in me?" Sweetiebelle tilted her head.

"I guess. But it’s just that, a guess. See if you can make anything new."

She thought of all the necromorph's they had fought so far and even the ones described. He neck felt weird and as she heard a tearing noise, she looked up and saw three tendrils, all armed with a barbed spike.

Her back felt the same and she heard it again before looking back and seeing two bladed limbs protruding from it.

"Um... I don't know what to think." She said looking back at her friends.

"Hey, Sweetiebelle," Slenderloo said fidgeting slightly. "Could you scratch behind me ear?"

"Sure?" Sweetiebelle said awkwardly before one of her limbs came down slowly and began to scratch Slenderloo behind the ear making her smile. "Weird."

"Sooo... Goood..." Slenderloo said in a state of complete bliss.

And completely unaware of Isaac getting a picture.

"Isaac," Applebloom muttered nudging him in the leg. "Did ya just take a picture?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Think maybe ah could get a copy? This is too perfect to pass up."

"Sure. I'll even send a new one to Tiedmann. Hey Scootaloo, Sweetiwbelle, come here for a second."

Titan Station. Earth Gov.

"I wonder how Clarke is handling himself." Tiedmann said to himself. "Probably getting torn to pieces by the necromorph's." He suppressed a smile before noticing something on his screen.

"Mail? And it’s from... Applebloom?" He raised an eyebrow before turning a soldier next to him. "Officer Lerroy J. Could you look up a CEC engineer named Applebloom?"

"Applebloom sir? Is that a nickname or an actual name?" The tanned man asked.

"It’s real, and no. It's not a human's name. So, have you found it?" Tiedmann asked folding his fingers.

The officer fumbled with his small data-pad before a picture came onto view.

"Sir, it’s a small technicolor pony. And it’s undeniably cute if I may state my opinion."

"It seems she has a Facebook too. Let's see what she sent me." He mumbled. ‘I wonder if she’s the last and is sending me her last words.’

He turned to his monitor and opened the file.

Everyone in the room, even the usually poker faced guards, “Dawwed!” At the adorable image. Tiedmann was left with his mouth hanging open while his hand traveled to its owners face

It was a picture of Isaac back against the wall making a piece sign in his left hand while the right only had his middle finger raised. Appleboom was smiling brightly with her head tilted to the side; Slenderloo had her head tilted to the side, the small tuft of purple hair blocking where her eye would be and Sweetiebelle scratching her behind the ear with a blade coming from her back.

'Confound these ponies...' He thought reaching for a flask at his side. 'Confound these ponies, they drive me to drink.'

Author's Notes:

I'm sorry about having a late chapter. I was working on A Change in Harmony. I've also wanted to ask if I should just color the electronic speaker voices blue or green.

I'll be working on A Change in Harmony after this is posted.