//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: New Clothes and Hope // Story: The Last of My Kind // by Immortan Joe //------------------------------// Crystal landed on the ground in front of us, a small medical box lodged between her teeth. She turned around and spat the medkit on the ground and raised an eyebrow at us. “Really?” she asked, gesturing towards Quartz who was resting quietly on my side. “What? It’s comfy.” Quartz gave her a sly smile as she levitated the kit over to us, then placed it down beside me and got up from her spot. The warmth of her body against mine left with her. “Alright, Chlo—you mind if I just call you Chlo?” I shrugged. “Okay then.” Quartz smiled as she stepped in front of me with the box. A sudden sensation began to run along my wounded leg as I felt her powers extend out from where I was. I gulped when my eyes caught a glimpse of the stony shard. It was only a few inches tall and thick. I could see from its surface that its color used to be a greyish white, but was now drenched in the color of my blood. Quartz opened the box and took out a small, stubby stick, she handed it over to me. “Here, I want you to bite on this,” she said with a smiled. “It’s cherry flavored.” I took it and looked at her, confused. “Why? What do you plan on doing?” The unicorn frowned. “I’m going to remove the stone from your leg.” My eyes widened and I looked back at Crystal. The pegasus was purposefully looking away from us, on the side of her face I could see a faint squeamish look. “N-no there’s got—” My vision flashed red, an excruciating pain and the feeling of warm blood gushing down the side of my leg caused me to scream at the top of my lungs. But as quickly as the pain came, it vanished and was replaced with a slight tingling feeling in my leg. “That wasn’t so bad, now was it?” Quartz said in a singsong voice. I glared at the unicorn with tear filled eyes. “You sneaky... bastard,” I snarled between sniffs. Looking down at my leg I saw that the stone was now sitting off to the side, amazingly enough it had only been the tip that had breached my skin. When I focused my attention back on my leg I saw that the blood had stopped flowing, not only that, the pain had ceased. ‘How did she stop it so fast?’ Quartz noticed the utterly confused look on my face and cracked a smile. “You’re wondering why it isn’t hurting, aren’t you?” Quartz asked as she brought a white bottle that looked like disinfectant and some bandages over to us. “H-how could you tell?” The mare smirked and uncapped the bottle of disinfectant. “Girl, you’d be surprised at how easily your face can be read.” She poured the clear liquid on my leg and I winced at the expected sting. But there wasn’t any. I felt nothing. It was like Quartz had injected me with some sort of numbing medicine. “I guess you’ve never experienced magica,” she said calmly while rubbing the liquid over every part of exposed flesh. “I-I’ve been to a magic show, before... d-does that count?” I asked as I watched the scene before me fold out. Quartz capped the bottle and set it aside, then brought the bandages out and unrolled them. She looked at my legs again, rolled her eyes and frowned, she then looked at me. “I’m going to need you to take your pants off.” My eyes widened at the words and I looked at her in utter disbelief. “Wh-what?!” Crystal casted a confused look towards us. “Whoa now, Quartz,” She said taking a step towards us. “Remember what she did to me?” She pointed the tip of her left hoof at the bandages around her head. “I’m sorry, but I just realized that I can’t clean and bandage all of it if she has her clothes on!” She gave me a stern look. “Strip, please.” ‘Oh for the love of God.’ I gritted my teeth and started to undo my belt and jeans. Pulling my pants down I stopped at the tip of my knees, my cheeks feeling as if they were about to catch fire. Quartz smiled and grabbed the disinfectant. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I almost forgot that your clothes weren’t actually part of you.” “Jeez,” I heard Crystal say I looked up at her and saw her gazing down at me. “How many clothes do you wear?” She pointed with the tip of her wing at my panties and I nearly had a heart attack. “Crystal!” Quartz fired a look at her. The pegasus backed away. “Sorry, it’s just weird that she’d wear clothes under clothes.” The unicorn rolled her eyes. “Why don’t you go and make yourself productive for once?” Crystal scowled. “Alright, fine.” She took off into the air and flew back towards camp. “I apologize for my friend. She’s not the fluffiest cloud in the sky.” Quartz pulled a cotton ball out of the box, dampened it with the disinfect, and began to dab away the blood around the puncture. “Mhmm.” My cheeks were still burning at how close she was to me. ‘Y’know, this all could’ve been avoided,’ I thought to myself, ‘If you would’ve explained everything earlier, we wouldn’t be here now.’ “So what were we talking about?” Quartz asked as she continued to clean up my mess. “That’s right, magic. So you been to a magic show?” “Uh... eh...” My mind wasn’t functioning correctly. “N-nothing like this though.” I pointed at the blood stained cotton ball floating above my thigh. Quartz giggled. “I bet it wasn’t, so what was it like?” She placed the drenched ball to the side and examined her work. My leg was nearly spotless, all that was left now was to bandage it. “Crowded.” I diverted my gaze from the awkward situation. “People were all around me, a friend and I were there to watch some old guy named Ben Hanlin.” “Oh, I’ve never heard of him,” Quartz said as she tightened the bandage around my leg. “Is he a talented unicorn?” “He was talented.” I tilted my head towards her. “But he also wasn’t no unicorn, he was human, like I am and everyone else in that building was.” Quartz sliced the bandage off the roll and placed it back in the box, she then turned her full attention to me. “What happened next?” I chuckled and ran a hand across the back of my head. “My memory is a little hazy; but I can recall the lights. During the entire event there was an amazing light show going along with it and the man was practically dancing on stage while he did these awesome tricks.” “What kind of tricks?” “Uh...” My mind drew a blank. “I remember it starting off basic, like he’d change a queen of spades into a queen of diamonds.” I smiled at the memory. “Then he called me up and somehow stole everything in my pockets, he made some woman disappear on stage and come out the back closet on the other end of the theatre.” Quartz looked at me as if she was unimpressed. “That’s like magic kindergarten tricks.” I scoffed. “W-well it’s not like you could do better!” My features faltered and I frowned, knowing that I was about to eat my own words. “Really now?” Quartz got up, suddenly the pain in my leg started to come back in a low draw. “Let me show you what real magic is capable of.” My eyes widened when I noticed a brief flash of green light come off her horn, behind her a similar light appeared around a boulder the size of a small car. The boulder shuddered and groaned as the ground around it began to crack. Seconds later the rock dislodged itself from the floor and levitated about ten feet off the ground, I looked at Quartz and she smiled at me with a sweaty face. The light around the boulder dissipated and it crashed back into the earth with a heavy bang creating a small tremor that made me shake. “That’s... real magic,” she said through strained breaths, sitting back down. My mouth fell open and I sat there for a few seconds, ‘She just lifted a boulder without looking at it... I can’t believe it...’ I thought. ‘I can’t fucking believe it.’ shaking my head I tossed my hands in the air. “Alright you go—gah!” I flinched and grasped onto my leg. Quartz’s eyes widened and she sat down next to me. “Oh sorry, I accidentally cancelled the suppression spell!” The unicorn’s horn flashed again and in an instant the pain in my leg began to subside. I wiped away the sweat that had formed on my brow. I then took a deep breath and looked at her with a shaky smile. “You need to teach me how to do that.” She smirked. “Maybe once you pass the first grade in magic school I can show you.” I snorted. “I already done my twelve years of schooling... K through 12 that is.” Quartz looked at me as if I was rambling in some form of foreign language. She turned her attention back to my leg. “We need to get you to a hospital,” She deadpanned. My head twisted to face her and I looked at her with fear filled eyes. “Wait, what?” “Chloe, you need medical attention.” “I just got some medical attention!” My heart began to race. I never liked hospitals. Quite frankly, I avoided them as much as possible as a kid all the way up until my years as a young adult. “Can’t you use your mind powers or something and fix it?” “N-no!” The pony shook her head. “Magic isn’t some unwieldy tool we can use, it has limits of its own.” Quartz explained. “One of those is recreating tissue; I can only hold back the blood and pain for so long. You need stitches.” My eyes widened even more my voice began to waver, “Sti-stitches?” “Yes! You hit your head on the way down and got stabbed by a rock!” Quartz bopped her forehead with a hoof. “And you expect to walk it off?” My heart rammed against my rib cage. ‘First blood, and now we’re going into needles. Great, this is freaking great! All we need now is fucking clowns and it’ll be a party!' “D-don’t you have stitches in the kit?” I asked, now nervous to high hell, my hands were shaking and the pace of my breathing rose a bit. Quartz dropped the kit in front of her and leaned over it, moving a few things around and shook her head. “None that I can see. Look, Chloe, there’s a town that isn’t too far from here–” “What about the vault?!” I was practically freaking out now, there was no way in hell I was going to some hospital. The white walls, sterilized floors and ceilings, coughing patients, and crying babies... Nope! “Chloe, you can’t walk—” “I don’t feel any pain though—” “That’s because I’m casting a pain suppression spell. The second we start moving you’ll be on the ground crying like a filly!” “But we have a medical room there! I’m positive Reynolds has some kinda stitching stuff we can use...” I smiled sheepishly. Quartz lowered her head and pressed a hoof against it. She sighed with defeat. “You do realize this is going to be a living hell for you right?” “I’ve been in Hell since the second I opened the door to Eva’s room,” I said sternly. Quartz looked at me slightly confused; I knew she had no idea what I was talking about. By the look on her face, I could tell she didn’t want to question me on it either. The pony shook her head. “Alright,” She piped up and rose from her spot, “Let's get onto it then!” :[-]: “GRRAAAAAAH!” I collapsed onto one knee and bit back the tears, a small trickle of blood soaked through the bandage and dripped onto the dirt. Despite having the rock dislodged from my leg, I still felt as if I was being stabbed; like a red hot knife was being driven into my thigh. I grasped onto the edge of the massive crater that led down to the vault entrance, which now had a decent sized hole in it. I smiled lightly at the sight of it. My matted, sweaty hair covering most of my face, I reached up and swiped the hair and sweat out my field of view. Quartz sighed and cast her spell on my wound. With the pain subsiding I pushed myself back and sat on my heels “Y’know,” Crystal said, sounding disappointed, “it’s a shame that gold was fake.” “What?” I looked at her and frowned, fake gold? “What do you mean it’s fake?” I asked. Crystal rolled her eyes and looked at me as if I was stupid. “What gold have you ever found had a big chunk of silverish metal in the middle of it?” I nearly face-palmed. “That’s because it’s gold plating over steel you moron.” I blew out a heavy breath as I tried to gain my strength back. Crystal rolled her eyes. “Well excuse me, princess!” I tilted my head at her. “I prefer the title of ‘Queen’, princess just makes you sound like a six year old.” Crystal blew hot air out her nose and looked away from me, I took a deep breath. “Sorry,” I mumbled, “ just really aggravated right now.” Quartz flashed a look at me. “Well I told you this was a dumb idea.” My back popped as I turned to look back at her. “So why didn’t you let us take the wagon?” I flung my arms out. “It’s too risky,” Crystal said, “thieves like to roam these areas.” I frowned and faced the vault once again. ‘I guess robbers are common here then.’ I slowly pushed myself up onto my feet. I clicked my tongue against the roof of my mouth. “Well... let's go get patched up.” :[-]: Returning to the vault to get myself stitched up wasn’t the actual reason why I came back here. Sure it was part of the plan, however, a small bit of myself felt like I needed to say goodbye to my friends. As heart breaking as it was, having my unconscious body be dragged out of here practically naked didn’t sit well with me. Not only that, the main reason aside from making peace was that I needed to make sure that the whole reason why I went to sleep in the first place wasn’t for nothing. The reason why I went back was to check the embryos. “GAAAAHAHAA!” I pounded my arm against the side of the medical chair right when Quartz impaled me with the needle and thread. Tears streamed down the side of my face and I wailed when she began to feed the thread through my skin. “Sweet Celestia, it can’t be that painful!” Crystal was sitting in the corner of the nursing office, her hooves draped over her ears. “Oh believe me,” Quartz said, “with nothing to numb the pain, it hurts.” She jammed the needle through the skin on the other side of the hole and I slammed my fist into the chair again. “Alright, Chlo, one more time and we should be finished.” “Oh please make it stop—AAAHH—SHIT!” Quartz quickly made a hole in my skin and fed the needle along with the thread through to the other side, without warning she did it again and finished up the stitching. I hung my head back and panted like an old dog, my head matted with sweat, and cheeks streaked with tears. The pain slowly began to subside on its own time. “I can’t believe Reynolds used up all the numbing medicine.” I muttered to myself then chuckled, “That old bastard still gets me.” I sighed. “Glenn?” “Greetings, Ms. Cooper.” The ponies instantly stumbled to the floor, their eyes gazing fearfully up at the ceiling. I laughed out loud at their reaction to the VI. “Calm down it’s just Glenn... he’s a... friend of mine.” “Negative, Ms. Green, I cannot have friends.” I glanced upwards at the camera in the center of the ceiling. I rolled my eyes and looked down at the ponies. “He’s also a bit of a smartass.” “Negative, Ms—” “Silence, Glenn.” “As you wish, M’lady.” “Wh-what is it?” Crystal stuttered. “Better question: where is it?” Quartz asked as she and Crystal huddled up together, looking all over the room to try and find the source of the voice. I smiled at the two scared ponies, as cruel as it sounded. They were actually pretty adorable. “There’s nothing to worry about.” I grimaced as I swung my leg over the bed. “He won’t hurt you.” “Even then, Ms. Green, I physically cannot hurt anything.” I pointed at the camera. “See he said it himself.” “What is it though?” Crystal asked again. I pushed myself off the bed and groaned when I applied weight onto my right leg. Before I answered, I stood there waiting for the pain to drift away, when it did I took a deep breath. “Ask him yourself.” I gestured upwards. “He’s always listening.” Both Crystal and Quartz gulped, they looked to the ceiling. “Wh-what are you?” the blue pegasus mumbled. “I am Glenn,” The VI said in an almost happy sounding voice, “Vault McKinley's personal virtual intelligence.” I smiled at the ponies. “See, he’s harmless.” I began to limp my way to the door. “Ms. Cooper, due to the temperature exceeding less than thirty degrees in the lower levels, I suggest you apply some warmer clothing to yourself.” I gritted my teeth and glanced down at my tattered jeans and an excuse for a bra. I buzzed my lips. “Any idea on where I can get something nice to wear?” “I believe Dr. Osai has some laundry leftover down in the laundromat.” I cringed at the sound of Eva’s name but quickly recovered. “Y-yeah, uh...” I lost my train of thought. ‘What was I asking Glenn again?’ “Wait a second!” Crystal got up and shoved Quartz out of her way, the cream pony fell over with a yelp. The pegasus trotted over to me. “Is this Glenn pony like your butler?” Crystal’s attention was brought back to the responding VI, “Negative. I am not an equine. I am a VI.” “Whatever!” She barked and looked back at me. “So is he?” I smiled at the pony’s wide and curious eyes. I shook my head. “No.” I looked at the camera. “He’s more of an advisor and a good friend.” “I am unable to have friendship.” My smile faltered. “Keep saying that pal, keep saying that.” “Yes, madam: I am unable to have friendship, I am unable to have friendship—” My left eye twitched. “Silence, Glenn!” “Yes, m’lady.” I looked back at the ponies. “Come on.” I gestured towards my clothing. “I can’t keep looking like Tarzan’s wife.” I turned and limped out of the room. Both ponies looked at each other. “What’s a Tarzan?” :[-]: “This is cute,” I said to myself as I examined the new outfit I wore in the mirror. I twirled around in my white tank top and denim jacket. “I can’t believe this was down here the whole time!” I fixed the cuff at the edge of my sleeve, I then sat down and straightened out both legs and swatted the wrinkles out of my new light grey jeans. I think they belonged to Adams? They were a bit big... ‘I’m wearing Adam’s pants...’ The thought came to me again, I leaned back and looked into the mirror. I brushed my bangs out of my eyes and looked closely at myself. I pulled the denim jacket off and examined the tank top I was wearing. The tank top wasn’t mine either, I saw my eyebrows curl upwards, the room fell oddly silent save for the echo of my heart. I slowly pulled my arms through my sleeves and twisted the top around so that I was on the side with the tag, pulling the collar out I glanced down into the shirt and saw the tag. Written on it in black sharpie: Eva Osai. My eyes began to water. A groan of a pony shattered the silence like a hammer through glass, “This is boring—” The pony yelped. “Hey what was that for—” “Quiet!” Quartz snipped and retracted her hoof out of the pegasus’ side. She stepped off the bench the two ponies were sitting on and came over to me. “Hey, is everything alright?” she asked me. I didn’t reply, nor did I acknowledge her existence. I kept my eyes trained on the name, I leaned in and rubbed a piece it of it against my cheek, it was her’s alright. I wiped my eyes before the tears could fall, flipping the top back around to how it was supposed to be, I got up and grabbed my jacket. Finally I looked at the unicorn. “Yeah,” I sniffed, “I’m fine.” Quartz looked back at Crystal, the pegasus shrugged and pushed herself off the bench. She trotted over and gave me an awkward smile. “If you say so,” she said quietly, pushing past the two of us and making her way over to the door. “Where are you going?” Quartz asked. “To look around.” Crystal stepped out of the room. “Wait, what?” I started to limp after her. “Crystal, get back here!” Quartz ran to the door and poked her head around. “Ah, geez she rounded the hall.” “What the hell was that all about?” I stopped behind the mare. Quartz shook her head. “Horse feathers,” she muttered, “Crystal isn’t good around ponies when they start getting all emotional; believe it or not she has a very soft heart. The second somepony starts crying she gets all worked up.” “So we’re going to go after her, right?” I looked down at the pony. “I’ll go after her,” she said, “You go do what you need to do.” I nodded my head sadly, ‘I really don’t want to be left alone.’ I let out a small breath and hung my head, then brought it back up with a smile as a sudden idea sprung into my head. “Alright. Glenn,” I called out to the VI. “Yes, miss?” "Can you lock all the stairwells leading off this floor?” I asked. “Certainly.” A distant echo of locking deadbolts could be heard bouncing off the vault’s metal walls, similar to the sound of lights shutting off one by one in a horror movie. Quartz gave me a puzzled look. “I thought you said you never experienced magic?” I slapped the pony on her rear causing her to flinch and yelp. “That wasn’t magic. Now quickly, go find your friend,” I said. “I have business I need to attend to.” She looked at me with wide eyes and nodded her head before running off. I smiled to myself and looked at the hand I smacked her with. A frown fell upon my face. “Why the hell did I just do that?” I asked myself and glanced around for a bottle of hand sanitizer. :[-]: I stopped at an opening to a large metallic door, above the frame on the wall read a sign: Adam’s Accessories. It was designed, in a way, to look like a small town business advertisement you’d see on the side of the road when driving down the I-81. The sight alone gave me a sense of nostalgia, along with a small smile. I remember the day Adam put the sign up. “What’s that for?” I asked the thin man who was in the middle of balancing himself on a step ladder while reaching over to pick something up. “Oh nothing important,” Adam said as picked up a two foot by three foot metal sign and placed it above the door. “Just something to remind me of home is all.” He fished a small electric screwdriver out of his pocket and began to drill the sign into the wall. “You think it’ll attract any customers?” I remember asking sarcastically. Adam looked over his shoulder and flashed me a sly smile. “It brought you here didn’t it?” ‘And yes it did, Adam.’ I thought to myself while gazing up at the unaged sign. I scratched the back of my neck and breathed out sadly before stepping into his workshop. It’s been awhile since I’ve actually walked into Adam’s place of work, aside from that time I ran in here to grab a few bits to repair the comms piece, and for an engineer what I could see is typical of what an engineer would have. There were four tables, all parallel with one another which faced vertically, each one had an array of bits of scrap, electric tools, along with hand powered ones, and pieces of unfinished projects. One project in particular that caught my interest was kept beneath a large tarp in the far end of the room. I walked over to the tarp, slid my hand beneath one of the flaps, and pulled it off. My eyes widened when I saw a sleek, black metal man beneath. The humanoid machine stood what seemed like six feet, which was just a head taller than me, and the bottom left portion of its abdomen looked to be unfinished. “Jesus,” I muttered and grabbed a hold of the machines left arm. “What the hell were you making, Adam? Ironman?” I smiled at the thought. “Actually, Miss,” Glenn said, I jolted at the sound of his voice and turned away from the machine. “He was engineering me a body.” “He was making you a body?” “Yes.” “Why?” “Because he was bored and said I would be more of a use if I could assist him personally.” I glanced back at the unfinished machine. “Well now, I guess there really is no point.” “If you would like, Miss, I still have his blueprints within my data banks.” I snorted a laugh. “Yeah, like I could finish this.” I gestured with an open palm at the machine. “I barely fixed the comms panel without electrocuting myself.” “With the blueprints in my system I could easily guide you through what needs to be done.” I bit my bottom lip, the thought of having a robot buddy was really tempting me. However, I barely had knack for fixing things. Even putting furniture together after buying it had always been troublesome with their directions being on pictures instead of written out. Though I couldn’t help it, the idea was too great. “Alright.” I shook my head. ‘This better not be a waste of time.’ “Tell me what I need to do.” “Certainly.” :[-]: “Gah! Fuck!” The jolt of electricity surged into the tips of my fingers and throughout the rest of my body. I fell back on the floor, coming inches from cracking my head on the desk behind me. I jammed my index finger in my mouth and sucked on it. “Careful, Miss, you do not want to overcharge the system.” “Fuck the system!” I blinked away the tears around the edges of my eyes, I took hold of the desk and pulled myself up, groaning as the pain in my thigh returned. I popped my finger out of my mouth. “I had enough of this shit!” “I can assure you, Miss, that—” “No! I’m done! I’m tired of electrocuting myself.” “As you wish, M’lady.” Glenn fell silent. I took a moment to calm down, I glared at the machine and frowned, shaking my head, my expression loosened. I looked back at it with a softer appearance, I sighed. “Does it work at all?” I asked. “Barely, I am able to enter the puppet’s systems, however, the left and right legs have not been fully integrated into the system.” “So you can enter it but cannot move?” “Yes.” I leaned back against the table. “So you’re trapped here?” “That is correct.” I blinked. “That’s depressing.” “I am unable to feel depression.” I glared upwards. “I wasn’t referring to you directly.” I pushed myself off the table and glanced around. “Where exactly is Adam’s room?” I asked, looking at the many exits that outlined the workshop. “Room D-24,” Glenn said. I nodded and began to walk the perimeter of the room, searching for the door labeled D-24. Finally when I found it just at the farthest edge of the room away from the exit, I reached up to the panel beside the door and entered Adam’s pin number. I heard the deadbolt on the door come loose and it snapped open by a few inches, refusing to slide the rest of the way. Already I could smell the scent of rust, similar to the smell of dried blood. Despite having a large hunch on what was behind that door, I felt my heart deflate and the tears returning. I knew the answer: Adams was dead, just like Eva, and most likely Reynolds too; but I had to check. I don’t know why I had to, but something told me that if I didn’t I’d regret it forever. With one hand over my mouth and nose, I used the other to pry the door open, it creaked and groaned with every push. By the time I got it open the smell of rust and stale air had finally distributed itself around the workshop and began to settle. I took my hand off my mouth and wiped the stray tears away, I looked into Adam’s room. It was practically a carbon copy of what I’ve seen of Eva’s room. I could see Adam’s decayed skeleton resting in the eroded and cracked cocoon, his sockets gazing upwards at the ceiling, the teeth around his skull looking as if they curved up into that sly smile he always had. I stepped into the room. “A-Adam?” I muttered his name in a questioning tone. “I-I’m so sorry,” I croaked, I walked up beside his cocoon and dropped to my knees. The pain flared in my right thigh but I ignored it, I rested my forehead against the broken machine and sobbed. “I’m sorry, Adam, I didn’t know!” I reached up and held onto the edge of the cocoon to keep myself from falling over. “Please forgive me!” “No.” My eyes widened at the sound of a distant male voice, followed by a pop and a metallic hiss. I looked upwards to see the cocoon opening itself despite being broken. From inside a skeletal hand reached up and grasped the side. Adam’s decayed corpse lifted itself up in a sitting position, his skull quickly turning to look down at me with that sly smile of his. However, instead of the smile carrying the humorous and playful banter like it always did. This time it felt intimidating, almost horrifying. I screamed and fell back on my rear, I pushed myself away with my legs. Slowly the skeleton swung its legs over the side of the cocoon and stepped onto the floor, it’s boney feet clicking every time it made contact with floor. Its mouth hung open and out of it came Adam’s voice. “How can I forgive someone who had a chance to save not only me, but everyone else too?!” His voice shouted in a manner I’ve never heard. “Because of you, Chloe, the human race has no chance of surviving!” My back made contact with one of the four tables, tears spilled down my cheeks like water out of a broken dam. I covered my head with my arms and began to cower. “Forgive me!” I cried. “Never!” Adam’s shout echoed, for a minute I thought it was over. That Adam had finished what he needed to say but then, in a low growl something barely audible I heard, “And to think I fell in love with you.” My heart shattered and I fell onto the ground sobbing uncontrollably. :[-]: “Chloe!” “It’s Chloe, I found her!” “It’s all your fault!” “With these embryos we can jump-start the human race.” “Because of you, Chloe, the human race has no chance of surviving!” “Chlo... sweet Celestia! Chloe, what’s wrong?!” “Eva?” “Has anyone ever told you how beautiful your eyes are?” “Crystal, come here and help me!” “You could’ve saved us!” “Will I dream?” I sat up in my bed with my face drenched in sweat, confused, scared, and terribly hungry. I quickly scanned the room I was in. Metallic walls on all sides, a dresser on the opposite end of the room where a desk and chair sat directly across from it, along with a closet just beside the bed I was in. I was in one of the regular bedrooms. I felt something drip off my face and onto my lap. Raising a hand, I brushed my cheeks and felt they were damp. Of course with my tears. ‘Had I been crying in my sleep this whole time?’ I asked myself when I looked over and noticed the large stain in my pillow, I turned my attention back onto the room. ‘When did come here?’ I pushed the blankets that were bundled up around my knees off to the side. With a small ache in my right leg, I flung each one over the side of the bed and stood up. I waddled a bit as I tried to keep my balance. Glancing down, I was luckily still in my new clothes, however, they were drenched in sweat. So much so that Eva’s tank top was practically see through, I quickly buttoned up my denim jacket. I heard the door to the room slide open. “Whoa!” Crystal’s voice sounded shocked, I faced door, both Crystal and Quartz were standing by the entrance eyeing the automatic door. “It’s like it knew we were coming!” “That’s... that’s because it did.” I flinched at a sudden ache that had formed in the back corner of my skull. “R-really?” Crystal asked. “Yes.” My stomach rumbled. “It’s called sensors.” Before either of them could reply I stepped past them and made my way down the hall towards the stairwell. “Glenn,” I said, my stomach rumbled once more, “unlock all exits please.” “Certainly.” Once again the echo of every deadbolt on the exit doors unlocked simultaneously. “Wh-where are you going?” I heard both Quartz and Crystal ask. My hunger seemed to overpower my urge to reply, so I ignored them and continued on. Not only that, something else was bothering me: “Because of you, Chloe, the human race has no chance of surviving!” As repetitive as it was, Adam’s voice continued to rage on in my head. ‘That can’t be true,’ I thought to myself. I stopped before the door leading to the small staircase and the faces of two ponies rammed into my rear which nearly sent me face first into a door of metal. I caught myself with a hand pressing against the door. “Chloe!” Quartz called my name. I looked at her with a twitching brow. “Not now,” I growled, Quartz’s and Crystal’s ears flattened and they backed away. ‘As of now, the food can wait. Right now, I need to check on the embryos.’ I grabbed onto the door’s wheel and twisted it open. “Glenn,” I said as the door swung open I made my way up the stairs, “what’s the status of the embryo chamber?” I reached the top of the stairs, the ponies following behind me, turning left I limped down the hall. “Negative, I cannot get a reading on the embryo chamber.” A stinging pain formed in my chest at the meaning of his words and I slowed to a stop. “No...” I muttered. :[-]: Myself and the two ponies stood at the edge of a long and tall metal door in the deepest level of the vault. “What the hay do you have in there, some kind of dragon?” “My species’ last hope,” I whispered and reached for the console to my left. I inputted the code. The door let off a boisterous groan as it began to slide open, thus triggering an ear piercing siren that sounded every five seconds. The door reached the end of its cycle and a small cloud of mist gently wafted its way out of the chamber. The room was chilled, but immediately I knew it wasn’t the right temperature; it wasn’t cold enough. I pushed my way into the room the ponies right behind me. It was dark, but that was soon fixed by Glenn illuminating the room. It was bright, unlike the rest of the vault and its grey undertones. The Embryo Chamber walls and floor were white, the perfect color to use when you want to turn the lights on suddenly and blind someone. Down the middle of the room was a large inner wall, on each side of said wall along with the outer ones, were what looked to be large safes labeled A-Z. Each of these safes had a separate pin that you needed to use to open them, luckily Reynolds trusted me with the knowledge of most of these codes (some were just too complicated to remember, not to mention there were so many). “What is this place?” Quartz asked. “The embryo chamber,” I replied and waddled my way to the nearest safe. “What do you have in here?” “Bombs,” I said half mindedly. Instead, I focused more on inputting the pin into the module. When I finished I heard a click coming from the safe and I grabbed ahold of the handle. Instead of pulling it open like most safes you’d have at home, I twisted the handle, pressed it in and then pulled the entire safe out like a kitchen drawer. Inside the safe was a rack with a large cylindrical case, on said case were two lights. One was lit and one wasn’t, the color of the one that was lit was red. Next to the red light was a skull. My heart ached and I hung my head low. The embryos had thawed out and died. I let out a shaky breath and shook my head. ‘There has to be at least one,’ I thought. “What do you mean bombs?” Crystal asked as she followed me towards the next safe I knew the combination to. I inputted the code and opened that one, on it was red light and skull. Which placed an even heavier weight on my shoulders. I gulped, ‘Maybe the next one will yield better results.’ I stepped past Crystal ignoring her question, the pony rolled her eyes and sighed. “You can’t keep pretending we don’t exist!” I stopped at the third, red light plus a skull. I bit my bottom lip and moved to the fourth, red light plus skull. Fifth, skull, sixth, skull. The weight on my shoulders grew too much and I dropped to my knees in the center of the hallway, I pounded a fist into the ground and moaned. “Goddammit!” My eyes grew moist yet no tears fell. “God-fucking-dammit!” “Chloe, what’s going on—” Crystal started but was silenced by Quartz placing a hoof on her side, looking over the unicorn shook her head. Crystal bit her tongue and nodded in understanding. “There has to be one,” I said to myself. “They all can’t be dead... They all can’t be dead...” I repeated to myself over and over as I pushed myself back up onto my feet. “Just one, please just one.” I started my way down the hall towards the safe directly at the edge of the room, my weak limp gradually became a pathetic run. I slammed the side of my body against the wall and caught myself with an arm, I rested my head into my arm and breathed heavily. Sweat dripped down my exhausted face and I reached up the side of the safe and began put in the pin. Once done the safe let off a joyful beep and the deadbolt came undone, grabbing the handle I twisted it, and pulled it open without any trouble. The rack slid out light and easily, to the point in which I knew it wasn’t right, looking at the rack, there was nothing on it. My eyes widened, ‘How the hell?!’ “What?!” I stumbled back, the embryos were gone, as if someone had snatched them up and left. “How the?” I looked over at the two confused ponies, the look on my face placing them in an uneasy mood. They both turned their heads away, Crystal rubbing her foreleg with the other nervously. I looked back at the safe. “They’re all gone,” I said pulling the rack farther out and peering inside, nope empty. “How can this be?” Suddenly an idea came to mind. I stepped back from the vault and gazed up at the ceiling. “Glenn?” “Yes, M’lady?” “When did Dr. Reynolds wake up?” “March 11th, 18001.” My mouth dropped open, ‘That was only thirty-five years ago!’ “Wait what?” Crystal opened her mouth again. “March? 1800–what?” Quartz nudged her in the side. “Do you ever stop asking questions?” “Speaking of Dr. Reynolds, M’lady, there is a vidcom message waiting to be heard in the breakroom.” I blinked. “A vidcom?” “Yes.” “When was it recorded?” “October 12th, 18028.” My heart practically stopped and I fell back, only to be caught by Quartz’s telekinetic powers. “Whoa now, girl!” She said and gently laid me on the ground, she stepped over me. “What’s gotten into you?” My voice wavered, but not out of sadness, instead it was joy. “H-he’s still alive!” I reached up and grabbed the pony by the mane and yanked her into hug. “Jesus, he’s still alive!”