“I’m so sorry...” I muttered under my breath. “I’m so, so sorry...” A few tears streaked down my face and dripped onto the floor. I gazed up at Quartz and looked her right in the eyes, the pony seemed very confused. I turned my head towards Twilight, who was standing right beside Crystal. All of them seemed very confused, Twilight herself also looked to be shaken up.
“Chloe...” Quartz said to me in a low whisper. “What... was all that?”
I bit my lower lip and closed my eyes. “Y’know I find it funny,” I heard my doppleganger chuckle over on my right side. “That despite everything I’ve just told you... you still continue to turn to the imaginary friends for help.” She clapped her hands together. “How about you stop this procrastination and just go—”
‘I will, dammit!’ I yelled in my conscious.
The doppelganger stopped. “Oh? Yelling at me through your head now? Well... I guess if they were real, it’d be a way of freaking them out less.”
I clenched my eyes shut and took a deep breath. “That was just... me releasing twelve thousand years... w-worth of stress.”
Crystal gave me a genuine concerned look and walked over to me. She stretched a wing out towards me and wrapped it around my back. “Chloe... why didn’t you tell us?”
“Yeah... why didn’t you tell your imaginary friends?”
‘Would you just shut the fuck up already?’
The clone shrugged. “Hey, I’m just asking because everyone here is wondering the same thing.”
I bit my tongue and held it for a moment. “It’s just...” I started but then stopped. “I don’t really know...”
“Oh great you're getting us all worked up again...”
My body began to tremble once more but I was able to quell it by taking another, quick breath and hold it. “I’m not one to talk about feelings, y’know... I don’t like feeling like some bitch... that’s why whenever you guys asked, I just tried to sidestep the question.”
Quartz gulped and used her magic to re-adjust the blanket that she had wrapped around my shoulders. “Chloe, you know that’s not healthy for anypony.”
Twilight decided to add, “Bottling up your feelings can be explosive and dangerous.”
“You think I haven’t learned that?” I asked quietly.
“Well seeing as to what happened, I’d say you hadn’t learned a thing,” I saw my doppleganger position herself over by the main data bank. She leaned against the console, my mouth fell open when I finally got to see what she was wearing. She was wearing a plain old suit that would usually be meant for men, however, seeing myself in one made it seem like I could rock one rather well. “What?” My doppleganger raised an eyebrow, then smiled. “Oh this?” She gestured to her attire. “Found it in Adams’ locker.” She pulled the sleeve back on her shirt and glanced at a silver watch. “Speaking of John... when are we going to lay him down?”
I quickly turned back to the ponies at that point. “Chloe,” Crystal said, “we’re worried about you, all of us are, and you need to learn that we just want to help you.”
“But why?” I asked the one thing that had been lingering on my mind since the beginning. “Why help me? We hardly know each other...”
“Because it’s in our nature.” Twilight stepped up. “We ponies are statistically one of the nicest species in documented history.”
“Yeah.” Crystal smiled at me. “It’s practically our job to help those who are in trouble, heck, Princess Twilight here is literally the princess of friendship!”
My clone stifled a laugh. “Okay... now we’ve really stumbled into some form of insanity.”
“Princess of Friendship?” Even I couldn’t help but giggle lightly.
Twilight frowned. “Yeah... what’s so funny?”
My heart lurched and I held up both my hands, causing the blanket to slide off down my back. “S-sorry! I didn’t mean to offend you...” My face fell.
Twilight smiled. “Chloe.” She walked up and gently nudged Quartz to the side, she sat down in front of me, “If there’s anything bothering you, please tell us. I can assure you that we won’t judge, question, or even make fun of you.”
Crystal nodded her head. “And if there’s anypony who does do any of that,” she slammed both her forehooves together, “tell us so we can go teach them a lesson!”
“Crystal!” Quartz frowned at the mare.
“What?” The blue pegasus looked at her. “I never said how we’re going to do it.”
I smiled at the pegasus. ‘If only I could have them beat up my conscious.’
“Excuse me now?” My doppleganger crossed her arms. “Y’know I’m right here?”
I glared at her.
Twilight seemed to take notice of my glances towards the computer and also looked back over there. “Chloe?” She said questioningly. “What are you looking at?”
My clone and I gave each other questioning glances. “Well... this is interesting.” She smiled.
“I’m looking at myself...” I gulped, the three ponies looked at me with a variety of expressions. Crystal appeared nervous and Quartz seemed worried. Twilight, however, looked to be intrigued by my answer.
“Yourself?” She straightened herself out, I simply nodded my head. “Huh, what is your other self doing?”
I scratched my neck. “Watching us... b-but she also talks to me.”
Quartz and Crystal shared a frightened look with each other. “How long has she been watching us?” Twilight asked.
I shrugged. “Since the time I woke up I guess.”
“Longer than that, dearie.” My clone corrected.
“Would you be quiet.” I mumbled under my breath.
“Nope.” She smiled.
“Is she the one you were yelling at?” Twilight asked me.
I nodded my head and stood up from my seat. “If you guys don’t mind... I... I have something I need to do.” I started to walk towards the exit, I didn’t even bother to look back or listen to their reactions. The second I reached the steps, I bolted up them and ran out of the room. Tears streaming down my cheeks, I ran my palms against the corner of my eyes as I tried to wipe them away, but it was no use. The tears kept coming and my heart just felt crushed.
‘Why did she have to bring up all of that?’ I dropped onto my knees and laid my forehead against the steel floor of the science lab, I could hardly breathe, I was overcome with hiccups. ‘Dammit, Twilight...’ I sniffed, ‘I can’t stay mad forever though... I was right... I can’t keep putting this off.’ I clambered back onto my feet. Still a whining mess, I wiped the snot out from the bottom of my nose.
“Chloe?!” I heard the three mares call my name. Looking back, I could hear their hooves flying up the library's steps. Part of me wanted to go back to them, to look to them for guidance, but I couldn’t. This was something I had to do on my own, they didn’t know my friends like I did, and they never would.
:[-]:
Rolling onto my back, I tried to catch my breath. Sweat dripping down the side of my face, I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Whoa...” I gasped.
“What?” Eva said on my left, she shifted over in the bed to look at me, propping herself up with one arm she looked down at me and smiled. “Was I little too rough?”
I closed my eyes and shook my head, my heart was racing, the afterglow still hung high over my head. “I-I can’t even describe how amazing that felt,” I said looking over at her topless body. Every nerve within me was saying it was time to strike, to pounce on that gorgeous body of her’s and take it for a free ride. Pushing the blanket off, I climbed onto all fours and started to prowl over to her like a hungry cat.
Eva stuck her arm out and “accidentally” placed it on my chest. “Slow down there, Tiger,” she purred, “give me a few minutes. Okay?”
I frowned a little, then nodded. “Alright.” I sat back on my rear and scooted off the bed. “I’m going to the restroom then, want anything from the rec room on my way back?” Eva threw her blanket over her chest and leaned her back against the wall.
“A cola if you would. Oh, and if you see John, tell him he still owes me that candy bar!” We both laughed.
I started picking my clothes off the floor and putting them back on. “Yeah, like he’s still going to have it.”
“If he doesn’t, tell him I’ll cut his balls off.”
My eyes widened and I pulled my panties up, looking at her I smiled. “Why so violent all of a sudden?”
Eva growled a little then smiled. “How about I edge you on a good ten times and ask you how you feel?”
I slipped my pants on and decided to skip the tank top and bra, snatching my jacket I pulled it on and zipped it up. “I only did it twice!” I said in my defence.
“Bullshit you did!” Eva turned in her seat and snatched her pillow out from behind her before whipping it at me.
I squeaked and tried to duck out of the pillows path. “Okay, okay, three times!” I held up three fingers. “I did it three times.” Eva rolled her eyes and I tossed her pillow back to her. “Besides,” I continued, “you already got me back with that weird teeth... thi—what exactly did you do—”
“Could you just go get my fucking Coke already?!”
I held my hands up and backed slowly towards the door. “Okay, sorry, your majesty.”
“You’re the one that said you wanted to bust one last round out before testing, so go!” Eva shooed me out with her arms.
“Alright, I’m going!” I said for real that time. Turning around, I opened the door and quickly walked out into the hallway.
Following the path lighting literally before me, I arrived at a T junction and broke to the left. I made my way down the hall and towards the rec room. Across from it was the central bathroom, a thought briefly sprung past me as to why I just didn’t use the one in Eva’s room. However, the thought of just grabbing her Coke when I was finished quickly stomped that bit of logic down.
I stepped into the restroom, down here in the vault, all restrooms were unisex. Meaning we all shared the same room, stalls, and urinals... yes I tried a urinal once. Never again. After I had finished cleaning myself up, I stood up from the toilet and pulled my pants back on. Flushing the toilet, I opened the stall door and stepped out.
“Howdy!”
“Waaah!” I yelped and nearly threw myself back into the stall. Looking over, I saw John Adams standing at the urinal doing his business.
“Fancy seeing you here.” He smiled with his pearly whites showing.
I placed a hand over my chest, my heart pounding just as hard as it was back in Eva’s room. “Jesus, Adams...” I gulped, “Don’t scare me like that.”
“What?” He shook in front of the urinal, zipped his fly, and turned to face me. “I’m not that scary looking.” Honestly he wasn’t scary at all. Every straight girl that may have been left out there in the world probably would’ve been falling over themselves for this man’s features. His face was well sharpened, his eyes were green as spring leaves, and his short hair sported a perfect mix of brown and blonde. As for his body Adams was fairly muscular, during the morning he was always down in the gym or running the halls of the vault. He really did know how to keep himself in shape, matter of fact, looking down at myself... I was skinny yeah, but not muscular like he was. Perhaps I should ask him for tips?
“Well, no you’re not,” I replied, scratching the back of my neck.
By the look on Adams’ face I saw he took that as a compliment. “Oh really?” His previous smile widened. “Were you just shocked by my good looks then?” He over dramatically ran a hand back through his hair, I stared at him blankly. “Or were you startled by these guns?” He raised both of his arms and flexed, my eyes did widen a bit when I saw how thick his biceps were; they were nearly larger than my head, or so it seemed.
“Ha!” He laughed. “So you were?”
I couldn’t help but place a hand over my mouth and giggle. “Yeah, let's go with that.”
Adams lowered his arm and grinned stupidly. “Awesome...” He sighed and returned back to his usual state, looking me over he smirked. “Chloe...” He said quietly.
I finished my fit of giggling and took a deep breath. “Yeah?” I asked him, the mood in the room suddenly shifted from light hearted to pretty heavy.
John looked at me, my breath slowed drastically when I saw the look of concern in his eyes. Slowly, his mouth opened, then closed. He broke eye contact with me. “There’s been something on my mind since the time I walked in here... and... it’s been kind of eating away at me.”
A bad feeling started to make itself noticeable in my chest and I leaned against the side of the stall. “What... what’s bothering you?” I asked.
John stared at the floor for what felt like an hour before he finally closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He raised his head and turned to look at me, then suddenly, he smiled. “You smell like sex.”
My cheeks burned of embarrassment, and this feeling of red hot anger billowed out of my stomach. “You—you, asshole!” I roared and charged at him. With the bottom of my fists, I pounded at his chest. However, my small, boney hands had no effect on his stainless steel chest.
John laughed out loud as he made no attempt to push me away. “What were you masturbating before you came out here—oh wait, don’t tell me you and Eva—ooooooh,” He looked down at me, the white on his teeth reflected the bathroom lights into my eyes. He gently pushed me away with little resistance, my cheeks were burning hot and I could hardly look him in the eyes. “You sly, little dog!” He beamed and punched me in the arm lightly. “I knew the doctor swung that way!” John fist pumped the air as if he won some sort of bet, he then quickly turned and looked back at me. “Y’know, Chloe, if you guys ever need a man to spicen things up—”
“What, is Reynolds not enough for you?” I asked, deflating his balloon.
John blinked. “Well...” His arms dropped. “Such a killjoy y’know that?”
I chuckled as I recalled my previous edge game. “That’s exactly what Eva said to me earlier in bed.” I walked past him and went across the hall to the rec room.
Opening the door, I was greeted by the smell of pork and beans and some sort of swinging music. “Wave those palms in the air spin around like Fred Astaire, slip me five and we can jive, that’s Geraldines routine. Let those pup—”
“What the hell are you listening to?” I blurted out when I caught Reynolds in mid hip swing, in one hand he held a can of beans, the other was a fork.
Reynolds froze and immediately turned to face me, a deep blush forming on his cheeks. “Glenn, turn the music off.”
“Yes, Master Reynolds.” Glenn cut the music and Reynolds and I looked at each other in silence.
I couldn’t help but crack a smile. “You truly are an interesting fellow.” I walked over to the fridge and opened it, the cool air chilling my skin.
“What can I say, the music be bumpin’... that’s what you kids say, right?” Reynolds walked over to the counter and leaned against it.
“Yeah,” I snorted and shook my head, “that’s what we say.” I grabbed myself a coke along with Eva’s. “Don’t you have research you need to be tending to?” I straightened out my back and faced Reynolds.
The middle aged scientist smiled. “And aren’t you supposed to be down in my lab in about—” He checked the watch on his wrist “—fifteen minutes?” I shrugged and sat Eva’s can down. Quickly, I popped mine open and took a swig. The carbonated drink burned down my tongue and throat. Smiling at the taste, I raised an eyebrow at Reynolds and offered him my drink. He raised a hand and shook his head. “Sorry, I don’t drink those,” he sighed. “Besides, Chloe, I—a working man—can have some fun every now and again.”
I shrugged and picked Eva’s drink back up. “I’m just teasing you, Doc.” I stepped around the counter and walked past him.
Reynolds sniffed and recoiled back. “Whoa!” He held a hand to his nose.
I looked at him and cocked an eyebrow. “What?” I raised my arm to my nose and took a whiff. “I don’t smell anything.” Before I could say anything else Adam’s words resurfaced in my mind, ‘You smell like sex.’ My cheeks flushed and power walked towards the door. “I’ll make sure to take a quick shower!”
The door to Eva’s room slid open and I stormed in with a slight sense of irritation. “Why didn’t you tell me that I stink?!” I slammed my half empty can of coke on her dresser.
Eva sat in her bed with her blankets laying on her lap, she held an open book in her hand, she closed it and looked over at me. A small frown on her face, her eyebrow was slowly rising. “What?” Is all she asked.
“Ya’ know what I’m talkin’ about!” I pointed an accusing finger at her. “Adams was makin’ fun of me in the bathroom and I disgusted Reynolds!”
Eva tilted her head as she tried to figure out what I was talking about, finally it dawned on her and her face lit up. She was thrown into a fit of giggles, a hand over her chest she shook her head and sighed. “You... you do know we just got done with a few rounds? Of course you’re going to smell a little... lively...” She laughed. “Next time take a shower after we're done.”
I bit my lower lip out of frustration and walked over to her. “Well—maybe next time you could—uh... eh...” I tore my eyes away from her as I tried to think of something.
Eva slipped off her bed and stood up. Turning towards me, she glided her way over her strewn clothes. “Bathe you?” She suggested as she came to a halt in front of me, her soft, thin hands placed themselves on my sides. My entire body stiffened and I looked up to see her eyes gazing down at mine. Eva was a tall woman, she stood to be at least half a head taller than me. She was not quite the tallest I been with, but she was pretty damn close.
I gulped and nodded my head. “Ye-yeah... that sounds nice.” I could feel my cheeks burning, I broke eye contact and gazed at the floor.
Eva raised one of her hands and stroked the side of my cheek. “You’re so adorable when you’re shy.”
My head snapped back and I glared at her. “I-I’m not shy!”
Eva giggled and cupped the left side of my face with her right hand. “Sure you aren’t.” Without another word she leaned forward and locked her lips around mine. My eyes widen briefly and my heart felt as if it was going to trip over itself. Her lips were so soft, and she was so gentle. Never rough like any of my other mates. Closing my eyes, I pushed into her and accepted the kiss.
We sat there for a few moments in a pleasant silence. Unfortunately the time came for Eva to pull back, she took a deep breath. “Sadly, I don’t think we’re going to have enough time to have some more fun,” She said running a hand through her hair. “Seeing we only have about eight minutes before Reynolds starts screaming over the intercom... then again—”
“We can share the shower?” I said with a sly smile, I won’t lie, her kiss had kick-started my system again.
Eva rolled her eyes. “Nope, afraid not. We don’t have enough time—come here, I have some perfume for you.” She grabbed me by the hand and guided me towards a small metal box. “Once you get this on, Reynolds won’t even be able to smell anything.”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to drown me in the stuff?”
Eva chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’ll wash most of it off you when we’re done.”
“Oh, okay—wait what?!” A large smile appeared on my face and looked down to see Eva giving me a wink.
:[-]:
Dragging the skeletal corpse through the slick mud, I placed my foot on a nearby rock and hauled the remains up and out of the crater. I dropped onto my knees, and sat the body beside me and dug both my fists into the dirt. Lightning flashed high above me and the sound of thunder shook my ears. Hanging my head back, I released a pain filled cry into the evening air. From the ponies perspective they wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference between the tears and rain that trickled down my cheeks.
I turned my head to look at the skeleton beside me. From first glance, I couldn’t tell who it was, but seeing that I carried it out of Eva’s room... it was more than obvious. Just looking at the body caused my eyes to swell with tears. ‘I can’t do it,’ I thought as my eyes tore themselves off the corpse and looked over at the two graves the ponies helped me dig. ‘I can’t do it!’
“Of course you can,” I heard my voice say. My ear twitched at the sound of splashing foot steps. The footsteps stopped and I cautiously turned my head to see my doppleganger standing above me in a pink raincoat and black slacks. Even though she wasn’t real, the rain pounded against her jacket, her hair was matted and her bangs covered one eye. Her expression was stern when she crouched down beside me. “You can’t hang onto them forever, Chlo...” Her expression shifted when she reflected. “Eh, physically that is, yeah... it’s time to serve them right. Now finish the job and drag Eva into that pit.” She straightened herself out and walked off in the direction of the forest.
Tears streamed down the sides of my cheeks, mingling with the drops of rain. The sky flashed once more and thunder roared, I looked back at the corpse. My stomach churned at the sight of the skeleton’s almost smiling face, at least that’s how it seemed. I pushed myself back into a standing position, my pants and hands were caked in mud. Bending down, I gripped Eva by her collarbone and dragged her towards the makeshift grave.
Standing beside the grave was Twilight and the others. All three of the ponies faces were stricken with pain. When I finally arrived beside them, I took Eva by the back of her neck and legs. Hoisting her out of the mud, I gently laid her in the grave beside engineer, John Adams. I looked over at Twilight with blearily eyes, the unicorn herself was slightly blurred in my vision. Blinking away the tears I said nothing to the mare but nodded my head.
Twilight took the cue and her horn lit with a purple light, the two mounds of dirt and mud beside the graves shifted and piled over the bodies. With her magic, Twilight used it to flatten each of the piles to the point that it didn’t even look as if there were two bodies buried beneath the dirt. Twilight then levitated two metal signs I had fabricated down in the engineering wing over to me, I smiled lightly at her and muttered my thanks as I took the signs, positioning them over each of the burial sites. Quartz handed me a rock, which I used to hammer in each of the posts. Once I was done I stepped back and examined each of them.
Eva Osai
July 5th 1999 – June 11th 18036
Lost but not forgotten
John Adams
December 14th 2002 – June 11th 18036
Lost but not forgotten
The three ponies came by my side, Crystal and Twilight both extended their wings out to me. My lower lip quivered and I couldn’t tear my eyes off of the two graves. This was it, this is how it ends: Standing there before the graves of two of my fallen friends, the other one was out in God knew where. I was all alone, the embryo chamber was fucked and the only possible piece that may have survived vanished when Reynolds fucked off. I gritted my teeth and clenched my eyes shut, the tears were coming much faster as a pit of anger built up within me.
I was all alone... there was no one for me to turn to at this point.
Because I’m the last of my kind...
The last of my kind...
My knees buckled and I dropped. Acting fast enough, Twilight was able to catch me with her magic. My heart was racing and I felt as if I couldn’t breathe. “Chloe?!” Quartz asked her voice was filled with panic.
“What’s wrong with her?” Crystal knelt down beside me when Twilight gently placed me on the ground.
“She’s in shock, we need to get her inside now!” Was the last thing I heard Twilight shout before slipping out of consciousness.
:[-]:
My eyes fluttered open and I was greeted by the blinding light of a fluorescent light bulb. Gritting my teeth, I pulled my arm out from under the sheets and shielded my eyes. Pushing myself up into a sitting position, the blanket crumpled at my waistline. Blinking the blurriness out from my eyes, I saw that I was inside my bedroom, deep within the vault. I smile lightly due to the familiarity. “Uh... wha?” I jolted a bit at the sound of the quiet voice coming from my left, looking over I saw a mound of something beneath the sheets.
My smile widened, ‘She must’ve crawled in here after I fell asleep.’ I leaned forward and rested my hand on the mound. “Hey there, beautiful—”
“WAAAH!” I lunged back when the blanket flew back up into my face, nearly falling out of the bed I held my hand to my heart. The organ felt as if any second now it was going to burst out my chest. Out from under the sheet popped out Quartz’s head, her eyes were wide and she looked to be on the verge of crying.
Instantly I was wracked with confusion. I had sworn that it was Eva who was in my bed, why was Quartz down here when––then it hit me. Everything that had happened earlier, the burial, my break down; everything came rushing back to me. The pain from earlier hit me hard, however, I was able to suppress my tears despite it hurting. I tore my eyes away from the cream colored pony. “I-I’m s-sorry, I didn’t intend to scare you...”
Quartz’s features softened and she shook her head, she looked back at me with a smile. “Did you call me beautiful?”
“Ye-yea—I mean, I mistook you for someone else. Not that you’re not beautiful! Like, for a horse you are—I mean...” I broke eye contact with the mare. “I’ll shut up for now...” I sat there with my head hung low, the tears were threatening to come back, but I was blinking them away. My stomach growled and signaled to me that I must’ve been out for awhile.
“It’s alright.” Quartz said and suddenly I felt something wrap itself around my neck and I was pulled into the ponies extremely soft coat. “I can’t even begin to believe how hard this must be for you,” she whispered into my ear.
My body was stiff against hers, but slowly I felt myself begin to relax and I gripped a tuft of her fur. Pressing the side of my face against her chest and I shuddered uneasily. “I can’t believe they're gone...” I whispered. “All of them...”
I could feel Quartz take in a deep breath. “You... you’re going to be alright... right?” she asked, her voice filled with unease. I had a sense as to what she was feeling at that moment, she had no clue what to say. However, I wasn’t looking for her to say “Oh you’ll be okay, everything’s alright—” None of that bullshit. I know this because I was in her exact position many years ago when a friend of mine lost his parents, I had no clue what to tell him because I’ve never lost anyone I loved. Back then I hadn’t.
Now... now...
“I-I... I don’t know...” I half moaned. “I don’t know what to do or where to go!” That sudden anger from earlier began to make its return.
“Of course you do, Sweetie,” Quartz gently ran her hoof through my hair. “Remember that movie thing with your friend, or even that dream with Luna, we need to go to Canterlot.”
I clenched my eyes shut and shook my head. “It’s pointless! James is dead and that was nothing but a dream.”
Quartz sighed and lifted my head up so that I was looking directly at her. “Now don’t go saying that, you know he’s still alive. He has to be.”
“How do you know?”
Quartz smiled at me. “Because Princess Luna said so.”
“But that was a drea—”
“To you it may have been, Chloe.” Quartz’s smile grew even wider. “But to me it was as real as the stars, and if you won’t go to Canterlot—I’ll take you there with me. No ifs, ands, or buts; you’re coming with me.”
My lip quivered at her words and my eyes began to water. I reached out and took the pony in my arms and pulled her in close, but immediately regretted it when I felt her tense up. Yet seconds later she began to settle and she wrapped her hoof around my back. “You’re welcome, Chloe.”
A few moments of silence passed between us before it was broken by three quiet knocks coming from my bedroom door. “He-hello?” Crystal’s muffled voice came through. “How do I open this?”
I loosened my arms out from behind Quartz and pulled away from her, I ran a finger under my eyes to wipe away any tears. Quartz smiled at me. “I can go get that if you’d like?”
I shook my head. “No I’ll get it.” I turned to sling my legs over the side of the bed but before I did I looked back at Quartz. “Hey... thanks for sleeping with me.”
Quartz nodded her head. “No problem, girl, I couldn’t stand seeing you being al—” Without a second thought I leaned in kissed the pony right on her nose, nothing major, just a peck right on her snout. Similar to how an owner would kiss their dog on the snout or even their cat. Though judging Quartz’s reaction, she didn’t seem to maintain eye contact with me. “Wh-what wa-was t-tha....” Her words spiraled into an unknown abyss and her body trembled.
I took note of this and stood up from off the bed with my hands raised up. “S-sorry! I didn’t mean to, it just kind of happened!”
“Guy’s what’s going on?” Crystal’s voice came from behind the door.
Quartz’s blush was burning through her coat and her eyes were locked onto my bed, her legs were curled close to her body and her ears laid flat. She then pulled the covers up and she lowered herself under them. I scowled and tore my attention towards the door, bopping myself on the head I cursed myself. “Don’t worry I’m coming!” I called to Crystal and pulled the door open.
The blue pegasus was sitting on her haunches on the other side of the door, looking up at me with both eyes. I noticed the bandage around her head was gone, yet there was a distinct bruise outlining her damaged eye. ‘Good,’ I thought looking at the bruise, ‘she deserved it.’ “Hi, Chloe!” Crystal beamed. “How’s it going? feeling any better?”
I scratched the back my head and cocked an eyebrow at her. “Barely... but...” I sighed. “I dunno... want to come in?” I stepped aside and gestured.
“Oh, well... yeah, sure!” The pony stood up and trotted past me with a smile on her face. “Whoa...” Her eyes lit up as she gazed around my room. “So this is what it looks like!”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, closing the door behind me and walking up to her. I glanced around my room. “There’s nothing but metal walls, a dresser, and a bed.”
“Yeah well...” her ears fell back. “It looks very clean.”
I rolled my eyes and smiled. “You don’t need to try and boost my ego.” I walked up beside her and ruffled her mane, the pony scowled and stepped back. “But thanks.”
Crystal shook her head and flipped her mane to the side. “So where’s Quartz?” I pointed at the lump under the sheets. Crystal raised an eyebrow. “She’s still sleeping?”
“Please don’t talk about me...” The unicorn’s voice quietly drifted out from under the sheets.
I sighed. “C’mon, girl, I’m sorry... I didn’t know what came over me.” I apologized.
Crystal’s mood did a u-turn. “What did you do to her?” Her voice became stern.
I took a step back and shook my head. “Nothing major... I just sort of... kissed her nose...” My cheeks flushed. ‘That sounded a lot better in my head.’
“Huh?” Crystal looked over at Quartz. “That’s it?”
Quartz sprung out from under the sheets. “I wasn’t ready for it!” She blurted out and rolled back over on the bed. “She just kinda came onto me!”
Crystal snorted and fell over laughing. “Really?!” She cackled and rolled back and forth. “How’s that such a bad thing?”
Quartz looked at her with her mouth agape. “I—eh... well...” Her cheeks flushed and she buried her nose back under the sheets.
Crystal sat back up and rolled her eyes. “C’mon Quartz it’s not that bad, think of it as kissing Spot.”
“What?” I looked at the pegasus.
“Her old dog.” I nodded my head and gave a thumbs up.
“But I wasn’t doin’ the kissing!”
I shrugged. “It’s not that bad, back then we humans did it all the time... except it was on our cheeks as a sign of thanks.” This didn’t seem to change the unicorns attitude as she rolled over and turned her back to us.
Crystal looked at me. “So how’d you do it?” She asked me as we walked over to my bed.
I sat down on the edge and she hopped up next to me. “It wasn’t anything fancy.” I looked at her. “Just a quick peck on the nose.”
“So like this?” Crystal suddenly leaned forward and planted her lips right on my nose. My entire body froze and my eyes snapped open as red flares were fired off inside of my head, a moment later and she leaned back with a smile.
I blinked, my body tingling as adrenaline pumped through each and every vein. I took a shaky breath. “Yeah... like that...” ‘Okay now I think I understand...’
“Huh...” Crystal licked her lips, which really made my skin crawl for some reason. “You’re very smooth, and soft. Surprising since you don’t have any fur, I actually thought you’d be kinda rough.”
“Please don’t analyze me while I’m right here.”
A pink light flashed before our eyes, causing me to shriek as I shielded my eyes. “There you are!” Twilight growled and took a few angry steps towards Crystal.
“How’d you—?!”
“I told you to wait for me upstairs!”
Quartz rose up from behind us. “You disobeyed a princess?” she asked Crystal.
The blue pegasus’ eyes widen and her head snapped from Twilight to Quartz. “I got hungry and bored!”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Nevermind...” She looked at me asked softly, “How are you doing, Chloe?”
“I don’t know...” I replied quietly.
Twilight’s ears fell. “Hopefully you’ll know soon.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve contacted the Princesses in Canterlot earlier.”
Quartz’s face lit up. “What did they say?”
I tilted my head slightly and scratched my chin. “Well,” Twilight started looking at Quartz, “I explained everything that has happened over the past day.” She then glanced back at me. “I hope you don’t mind Chloe but I told them everything I could about you.”
I bit my lip and nodded my head. “I’m... okay with that.”
Twilight smiled lightly. “They wish to see you as soon as possible.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Really?” I asked.
Twilight nodded. “Not only that they sent this with their letter.” Twilight levitated out a small white sheet of paper held within a glass canister.
Grabbing it out of her magic, I saw that the paper inside was well preserved. Twisting off the top, the container hissed as it pressurized. I then tossed the cap aside, and titled the paper into my hand. I threw the rest of the container to the side and took the paper in my fingers and began to unfold it. My eyes widened when I saw the familiar chicken scratch that was scrawled on the sheet and my stomach filled with butterflies when I read the words on the sheet out loud: