"Oh... oh god..." Isaac groaned. He sat up, rubbed his head and opened his eyes. "My head... god dammit..." He groaned clutching it as everything came into focus.

He was in a room with a circular set of strapped chairs, screens above showing Marker symbols and cranial scans.

"Applebloom... Sweetiebelle?" He called out, staggering slightly as he got up. "Scootaloo...?"

"Isaac, take it easy." Applebloom said putting a hoof on his leg. "Scoot's hit ya really hard."

"Wait..." He slowly blinked, his thought's straightening out. "Scootaloo... hit me?"

"Uh... yes." She said nervously.

"Bring her over here." He said sitting back down. "I just want to tell her something. I'm just going to talk."

Scootaloo came out from behind Isaac, looking at him nervously.

"Scootaloo, come here, closer." He waved her closer.

She moved closer, slightly by a few steps.

"More."

She moved onto his lap.

"Now listen, what I'm about to ask you is very important." He leaned down to her ear as she calmed down. "What the fuck is wrong with you!?"

"Ah! Don't do that!" She said rubbing her ear with a hoof while pointing at him with the other.

"Well don't hit me again!" He yelled back.

"Both of you stop it!" Sweetiebelle and Applebloom yelled. "You’re acting like rotten children!"

"Fine..." Isaac grunted. “Just, give me a warning next time. And not in the form of a boulder."

"Deal, but I had to do it. You just started to scream bloody murder." She said back. "Something about memories."

"Memories? About... oh, that." He saw the machinery again.

There was a row of strapped chairs, paneling broken or laying on the ground, blood and corpses, the corpses swept into a pile. Multiple monitors above, showing brain scans and Marker symbols.

"Damn... I know this place." He said tracing a hand on a chair's arm rest. "This is where It, happened."

"It? What's It?" Sweetiebelle asked.

"Where they pretty much harvested mine and the other patients knowledge of the Marker. How to translate the symbols and figure out how it works. I can still remember her screaming..." He clenched a fist at the memory. "I heard from a buddy of mine, he's dead now, that she made it out on a gunship."

"Do you know who she was?" Applebloom asked.

"No, but I knew she had a daughter. And a loving husband."

"W-Who was the daughter?" Applebloom asked.

"Sally." He said.

"Sally?" Applebloom asked. "Tanned skin, orange hair, and wear’s overalls?"

"Yeah, how'd you know that?" He turned to her.

"That's the girl ah saved earlier." She smiled slightly. "And her parent's."

"So, they're both still alive?" He asked, joy starting to fill his voice.

"Last ah saw of them, yes. They made it out a'right."

"Good for them, good for them." He said. "Atleast she still has her parents..."

"Isaac..." Sweetiebelle put a hoof on his leg. "Please, it will just hurt even more if you keep thinking like that."

"Y-Your right..." He sighed. "Come on, let's go before I start remembering good things about Stross." He chuckled lightly. "Good thing there wasn't anything good I can remember about him."

He opened the door and went into a red tinted room.

There were two energy transfer tubes inside, railing all around the edges of the walkway, a door to the right, a Crawler unmoving ahead.

"Is it dead?" Applebloom asked.

"I don't know. Isaac, go poke it." Scootaloo said.

"Hell no! You do it! You can teleport!" He pushed her forwards slightly.

"All of you go!" Sweetiebelle pushed them forward.

"Hey careful!" Isaac said as he stepped forward.

He stepped on a puddle of blood, slipped and went forward. He went over the railing before any of the crusaders could do anything.

They all looked there in shock before Applebloom spoke up.

"I-Isaac...? Are ya okay?" She called out.

"Owww... Someone peel me off the floor." Came a groan from below.

"Come on!" Scootaloo said. "We need to get down there! He could be hurt!"

"How ironic... of you to say." Isaac said from below.

Scootaloo grabbed her friends before diving over the rail.

Isaac was just getting up when he was suddenly being held in the air.

"He looks alright." Scootaloo said. "But just to make sure. Sweetiebelle, if you would?"

She nodded before her horn started to glow a light blue before turning to green.

He felt a rush of energy, all of his bruises and aches were done and he could even think a little clearer.

"Wow, that was a rush." He said as Scootaloo set him down. "What's that noise?" He looked around before looking back up at the level above him. "Shit."

A Brute came down, bending the railing and denting the floor. It was coated in a black armor, its own eyes and small grooves glowing a pale yellow. But its eyes still burned with the same hellfire as any other.

"It could come in hoofy." Scootaloo said. "And I'm hungry again.... so, I'm just going to take this one."

She ran forward and tried to wrap her tentacles around it. It grabbed them and sent them to the floor before leaning down to bite. Her eyes widened before her horn charged.

It was thrown back into the wall where she held it. She grabbed railing off from above and twisted it around the Brute. It struggled in its bond but stopped when she wrapped her tentacles around it.

She leaned forward and began to start sucking its soul out. It leaned forward and tried to snap at her, but only managed to speed up the process. Its final essence was sucked out in seconds, immediately after, Scootaloo took off the railing and let it stand.

"I've almost got the terminal over here..." Isaac said. "And done!"

The door's holo-lock flashed blue, indicating it was indeed unlocked.

"I've still got it!" He said going in.

They all proceed down the ramp, Fluffy the fourteenth following in the back.

The area ahead was floor-less, only a walkway supported by suspensions held it up.

They walked forward and stopped. They all just stood there, looking across to the other, watching the Necromorph's go across to the other side.

"How many do you think there are?" Sweetiebelle asked.

"Too many to fight if they see us. Let's go before we're spotted." Isaac said quickly running to the door ahead. The crusaders quickly followed, and went through.

They went through the hall and stopped in the middle of a small room.

There was a circular control grid, a store and an elevator.

"Do we need anything?" Isaac asked. "I'm good on ammo and health."

"Ah’m good." Applebloom said.

"Me too." Sweeiebelle said.

"I've rarely used any, so, I'm good too." Scootaloo said.

"Good, we've got a meeting with Tiedmann. And he's going to be where the Marker is." He walked up the steps to the elevator. "And I bet the Marker, is up top."

He opened the elevator, Plasma cutter at the ready, and the crusaders too. Scootaloo made Fluffy the fourteenth stay behind.

"I'm sorry..." She said. "You can't fit. Goodbye." She sniffed patting it on the head.

It gave a grunt before falling to the floor, dead.

The doors closed and they started to ascend.

The ride was long, occasionally bumpy but was still quiet.

The doors opened and they all went out, weapons at the ready. Instead all of their helmet's unfolded, all of their faces in a state of awe and shock.

On the other side of a window ahead, was a colossus's of a Marker. It stood nearly three hundred stories high and was atleast a foot-ball field wide.

"Oh my god. I built that?" Isaac asked to no one.

"What-What are they doing?" Sweetiebelle asked staring down at the Necromorph's gathered at the base of the Marker.

"They're all coming to the Marker." Nicole said. "Convergence is at hand..."

Tiedmann's screen came on. He looked furious, nervous and scared.

"Clarke! I knew you were trouble from the start! But they told me you were necessary. That your mind was the purist. I spent years sifting through your demented brain! This is not the way it was supposed to happen!"

"Well, how was it supposed to happen, Tiedmann?" Isaac asked harshly.

"We had it under control! Clarke, this is not our fault! We were so close to understanding it!"

As he finished, the Marker flashed a yellowish-orange, lights appeared on it.
"What? It’s all those bodies. All those bodies you let in here! You all let in here! It's triggering a convergence event! But, we never... expected... this many bodies..."

It gave an almost white and blinding light, cracking the glass and sending out a blaring drone; a powerful wind was sweeping up the Necromorph's. A thick cloud below swirling beneath was coming up.

"Why? What is it doing?" Isaac asked, uncovering his eyes.

"What it was made to do." Nicole said putting her had on his hand. "Isaac, you have to make us whole." She said desperately.

She disappeared, leaving them all to stare at the Marker in awe and fear of the convergence event.

"Isaac?" Sweetiebelle said.

"Yeah...?" He said, still staring at the Marker.

"You really need a mare friend. You have too much time on your hooves." She said.

"Sweetiebelle?" Isaac said.

"Yes, Isaac?"

"Shut up."

“Okay.”