How about I just flat out say it.
I was not prepared for Twilight’s reaction when I brought her into Dr. Reynold’s lab.
But I will say this: I very much needed it.
When the door to the lab opened and I guided Twilight into the largely constructed room, Twilight’s pupils dilated to the point that the sclera were nothing but thin halos around the edges. The highlights coming from the lights above reflected off of the large black orbs, while her mouth hung agape.
In all my life, I never knew such a face could be made. It was like something torn straight from a cartoon, even the silly faces my sister and I would make could not compare to something as bizarre as what Twilight was doing. The mare didn’t even say a word, her eyes were glued to the computers, diagrams, the white boards which were still covered in formulas and theorems. I couldn’t help but suddenly start laughing when I saw her reflection through a black monitor on a nearby computer.
“Wh-what the hell?” I pointed at the mare’s reflection.
Twilight finally snapped out of her state of awe and looked at me. “What?” She asked, a noticeable blush appearing through her lavender coat.
I felt my knees buckle as my laughter was kicked up a notch. I pointed a finger at her. “Y-your fa-face!”
“Wh-what about it?!” Twilight held the tips of her wings to her face, inspecting to see if there was anything on it.
“It’s priceless!” I blurted out as I bent over my knees to take a few deep breaths. After I had calmed down, I straightened myself out a bit and for some odd reason I felt a little better, like my self esteemed had been raised a bit. “So.” I gestured with an open hand out to the lab. “What do you think?”
Twilight turned her head and gazed out at the white boards, tables, machines, and computers. “It’s... different,” She said, “It’s nothing like my lab back home.” The princess started to make her way into the lab, stopping in front of a computer she examined it. “I have no idea what these trinkets are.”
“Oh that!” I smiled and walked over to Twilight. “This is a computer.”
“A what?”
“A computer, to be specific, it’s James' computer.” I bent down and pushed the start button on it, and within seconds the computer lit up and the monitor came to life displaying a beautiful background of the cosmos. “It’s what we used to do work and use as entertainment.”
Twilight purses her lips. “It’s like a data compiler?”
I shrugged. “Something like that...” I leaned in and typed in Reynold’s pin number, which was also his password for his computer. Loading into the desktop we were both introduced to a picture of a young version of Reynolds standing beside a beautiful women and a young child in Central Park. Like a flip of a switch the self esteem I just gained was gone in an instant.
Twilight raised an eyebrow and leaned in curiously. “Who are they?” she asked.
I gulped. “His family,” I whispered.
Twilight’s ears flattened as she got the message. “Oh my...”
I nodded my head and saw a nearby folder on the desktop labeled “Video Logs”. Opening it, I clicked on the first video and regretted it immediately.
The camera flickered to life and revealed me in a room sitting on some kind of table completely naked; my crotch, breasts and every other ounce of flesh was exposed to the camera. Twilight’s eyes widened and her mouth took on an “O” shape, I could feel my blood rushing to my cheeks as they began to burn at the sight of myself naked before the camera. Instinctively I reached down to close out the video but was stopped by Twilight’s magic taking a hold of my hand.
“Wait,” she said quietly, “I want to see this.”
"Alright, this is Dr. James Reynolds.” Reynolds said from behind the camera, we could faintly hear him moving about. “I’m just setting up the patient for her twelfth experiment this month. Uh... the year as of now is... hold on... January twenty-fifth, 2038.” James’ hand could be briefly seen on the left side of the image, a faint click is heard. “Are you ready in there, Chloe?”
I could see myself shift around nervously on the table and reach up to itch my left breast. “I still don't understand why I’m naked,” I said in the video, my voice was muffled by the speakers. “Are you like trying to trick me into doing a porno or something?” I had joked.
James chuckled and pushed the talk button on the PA. “Funny, Miss Cooper.”
Behind the glass I shrugged. “No, really, I’d do it if you were able to convince Osai to join us. It’s been like a year since I got laid.”
“You do know I’m recording right now, Chloe?” James said and my past self jolted in her spot, her cheeks flushed and her eyes widened.
“Oh, shit! You’re gonna cut that out, right?”
I took a deep breath and glanced at Twilight, the mare’s face was burning and I closed my eyes. “Goddammit, Reynolds,” I grumbled.
“Of course I will,” Reynolds lied, “no way in hell am I gonna show this to congress.”
I shook my head and turned away from the video. “I can’t believe he kept this...”
I looked back at the pony princess and noticed that she hadn’t torn her eyes away from the video at all. Looking back on screen, I saw that Reynolds had entered the room I was in, dressed in a hazmat suit. In one of his hands was a needle, and the look on my past self told me that I was deeply terrified. Recalling back to the experiment, Reynolds was going to inject me with a “different” strain of the SOL Virus.
“Alright, Chloe, I just need you to hold your arm out.”
“What is that?”
“It’s the SV-12, I just need to study the effects on your body.”
“Do you have to stab me with that thing? Uh... i-is there some form of way I could just eat it?”
“Ugh... just close your eyes, Chloe, it shouldn’t hurt.”
Reynolds had grabbed my arm and held it up, my past self closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. She squeaked at the small prick in her arm as the needle entered and injected the pure virus into her bloodstream. “Alright.” Reynolds straightened himself out. “I just need you to lie back on the table and I’ll slide you into the machine for a CT scan.”
Having known what happened next, I reached up and stopped the video before it could continue. “Okay we’re done here,” I said while trying to ignore the disappointed pony beside me.
“Wh-what happened?!” Twilight tore her eyes off of the computer and looked at me. “Where did the movie go?”
“I turned it off,” I said, blushing with embarrassment.
“Why?”
I blinked as I tried to think of a response, my mind being ripped back to the day I was injected with St-whatever strain and how it caused me to convulse and writhe within the CT scan. Luckily it didn’t actually hurt me nor was I infected, but holy shit the muscle spasms were insane. My blush burned brighter and I shook my head. “I don’t think you want to see a naked version of me repeatedly throwing herself against the wall of that machine.” I turned away from the computer. “How about...” I tapped my chin and forced myself to look away from the flustered mare. “Uh... want to go check out the library?” I asked her when my eyes fell on a nearby double door.
“You have a library?” Twilight’s mood flipped back over to what it was when we arrived. The mare’s eyes grew wide and she quickly trotted behind me when I started to make my way towards the door. “How many books do you have?”
I bit my lower lip. “Care to answer that Glenn?”
“Certainly, Madam. McKinley's library holds a total of ten thousand books, along with a single computer containing over eight exabytes of human information.” The V.I. explained.
I jiggled the handle on the library door. It was locked. “Glenn, could you open the door?”
“Certainly, Ma’am.”
The door clicked and I easily pushed it open, a very faint smell of old books and paper wafted its way into my nostrils as I stepped in. Twilight walked past me and stopped a few feet in front of me. Taking a deep breath, she embraced the old smell and gazed out over the second largest room in the vault. McKinley’s Library.
The room’s architecture was based heavily off of the Library of Congress. Except instead of being made of stone and wood it was made of steel and gold. Most books were held deep within filing cabinets to help protect them from any outside contaminates that may get in. Not only that, inside each of these cabinets the books were sealed in airtight bags.
“Sweet Celestia,” Twilight gawked. “This place is even bigger than the Canterlot Library!”
I smirked, for some reason showing the vault off to this pony was oddly satisfying. “It’s the second largest room in the vault.”
Twilight looked at me with wide, dilated eyes. “What’s the biggest?”
I bit my lip, the feeling of satisfaction drained out of my system. “The Embryo Chamber...”
Twilight’s eyes returned to the their original state and her ears flattened, her thoughts probably going back to when I told her the reason for showing up at her castle. “Oh...” She gulped. “I never really... expressed how so—”
I shook my head and made an X shape with my arms. “Stop right there,” I said, “you don’t need to show me any pity.”
Twilight’s head fell. “I’m sorry... but you must feel terrible...”
My heart fell at the sight of the sad pony. I nervously scratched the back of my neck. “Well...” I bit my lip. “You’re right... I don’t feel good about it,” I practically whispered, I gently pushed my way past Twilight and began to make my way down a set of steps. “But I don’t want to dwell on it, c’mon, let’s go check out the data bank.”
:[-]:
“This thing here.” I placed my hand on a small computer tower. “Holds practically everything mankind has ever done, or created.” I smiled at Twilight, which didn’t do much to improve her mood. I swallowed a lump in my throat and looked back at the computer. “For instance: It has everything from the Mongolian Invasion to the Mars landings.” I tried to smile at the mare again but all got was a flick of her ear.
Twilight cleared her throat. “Glenn?”
“Yes, Madam?”
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“What happened to the human species?”
My heart nearly stopped. “Whoa-whoa, Twilight.” I held up both my hands towards the mare. “Why are you asking him, I told you what happened.”
The mare tilted her head. “All you told me was that a disease wiped out your race. I’m interested in the details.”
“You’ll need to be more specific, Miss,” Glenn said.
I bit my lip, my hands were starting to shake. “Ya don't need to know the details, Twilight,” I said in an almost pleading voice.
The princess took a deep breath and closed her eyes before opening them back up to look at me. “Glenn, tell me about Chloe.” My mouth fell open.
“Certainly, Madam.
Name: Chloe Michelle Cooper
Sex: Female
Age: 27
Date of Birth: July 14th, 2010
“Bio: Cooper was born in a small town of Dansville just on the outskirts of New York City. Living with both parental guardians and her younger sister, Stacey Marie Cooper, she attended the local elementary school before moving to the Big Apple during High School years. Cooper averaged a 3.8 GPA throughout her freshman and junior year but dropped shortly after she garnered a boyfriend.”
My cheeks flushed and I fell back into the nearby swivel chair, I rested my face in the palm of my hands and groaned. Looking through the cracks of my fingers Twilight gazed upwards at the ceiling her eyes wide with interest.
“However, two years later after graduating high school, Cooper left the man after he had knocked her unconscious due to an unknown dispute. From there on Cooper had began to lean more towards members of her own sex; opting to become a lesbian.”
“Oh, be blunt, won’tcha!” I tossed my hands into the air.
“With Cooper’s successful grades in school, it’s unknown why she hadn’t thought of going to a college or university. Instead, she moved back to her hometown and worked as a waitress for three more years before falling into a sexual relationship with her manager, Rose Caroline.”
Once again my cheeks were burning like a lit furnace and I looked over to see Twilight was furiously taking notes. I nearly suffered a heart attack. “Alright, we’re done!” I got up.
“Soon after the starting of their “Friends with Benefits”, Caroline and Cooper moved back into the city—”
“Glenn, I said stop!” I shouted.
“Yes, Madam.”
The V.I. fell silent, leaving Twilight and I to sit alone, gazing at each other awkwardly. I hadn’t noticed at first, but my entire body was trembling, the tips of my nails dug into the flesh of my palm, threatening to tear into the flesh.
“Glenn...” My voice wavered.
“Yes, Madam?”
“Never mention Rose Caroline ever again!” I snarled, a faint warm feeling trickled down both my palms.
“Yes, M’lady.”
Twilight blinked a bit and looked at me. “A-a I-I’m sorry.” Twilight apologized. “I-I di-didn’t mean to upset you...” Her ears fell flat again. “I-I... I just wanted to see if I could learn more about you,” She whispered.
I looked at the pony and furrowed my brow. Walking towards her, I held out my right hand. The palm slick with small droplets of blood, I reached to her, Twilight flinched and took a step back. I clamped my hand on the back of her head and pulled her towards me, the pony yelped when her snout came into contact with my gut. Wrapping both hands around her, I hugged the mare. “Ne-next time...” I blinked away a few tears. “Just ask me.”
Twilight nodded her head. “O-okay...”
I released her and took a step back. The cuts on my palms were starting to sting. “D-dammit.” I winced when I closed my fingers, small droplets of blood oozed out and began to make their way down my hand.
“Oh—hold your hands out.” Twilight stepped back and smiled, I held them out. Twilight’s horn began to glow with a purple light which soon engulfed my hands. A warm, tingling feeling encompassed them and within seconds the pain, and cuts, were gone.
“How the—”
“Intermediate magic.” Twilight interrupted me. “Learned during my fourth year of magic school.” Twilight sat back on her haunches and smiled at me.
My eyes were glued to my blood stained hands as I sat back down in my chair. “I-I don’t know what to say.” And here I thought Quartz subduing my pain and lifting a boulder was amazing, but repairing skin and flesh..."
‘This has to be some sort of dream...’ I thought as I closed both my hands.
Twilight shook her head. “You don’t need to say anything,” Twilight said and looked me in the eyes. “Your face says it all.” Her ears flattened again. “Again, I’m sorry for pushing into your personal life. That wasn’t a smart thing for me to do.”
“You’re fine, really.” I smiled at her. “I’m not angry at you.”
Twilight tilted her head. “Then why did you scream like that?”
I frowned. “That wasn’t a scream, I was just shouting at Glenn to stop talking.”
“Excuse me, Madam?”
“I wasn’t talking to you, Glenn.”
“Yes, M’lady.”
“But you were trembling, you made yourself bleed!” Twilight gestured with a hoof towards my hand.
I lowered my head and chuckled lightly. “That maybe true.” I took a deep breath and looked the mare in the eyes. “The point is, I wasn’t mad at you. None of that was directed at you.”
Twilight nodded her head in understanding. “O-okay then.” Her quill and notepad suddenly appeared beside her head along with a pair of cute, red glasses that rested on her nose. “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”
I gestured upwards with an open hand. “Go right ahead, ask me anything.”
“Who is Rose Caroline?”
My heart turned to ice. “Uh...” I looked away from Twilight, my cheeks started to burn .”Eh... well...” I gulped.
Twilight’s eyes widened and she lowered her notepad. “I-I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomf—”
I stuck a hand out towards her. ‘No-no, it’s fine...” I took a deep breath. “I can’t keep it locked up for long anyways.” I bit my lower lip. “Rose Caroline was a ‘special’ friend of mine.” I even added quotations with my fingers.
“Like your special somepony?” Twilight raised an eyebrow and scribbled a few notes on her pad.
“Sort of, we got together at least every other night.”
Twilight’s ear flicked back and forth and she tilted her head. “So you were coltfriend and marefriend?”
I gave Twilight a deadpanned look. “We were fucking each other for fun.”
Twilight nearly stumbled over her words and fell into a spiraling pit. Her lavender cheeks grew bright pink. “O-oh... oh... oh... huh... way to put it bluntly.”
“What, did you want to call us mating friends?”
Twilight gulped. “It would’ve been easier to take in... so yes, I would’ve.”
I rolled my eyes. “But yes, we were having sex with each other...” I bit my lower lip once more and nearly drew blood. “I should also mention that... that she was my boss.”
Twilight looked at me then quickly nodded her head and wrote that down. “Wait so... she was your boss, and you mated with her? Her? She’s a mare!”
I shrugged. “What’s wrong with that, all you need is some toys and these.” I performed jazz hands in front of the mare’s face. “Speaking of which she was like some kind of kung fu master with her fingers.”
Twilight shook her head and forehooves. “N-no details please!”
I smirked as a light blush made itself visible, I shifted and squeezed my thighs as my thoughts drifted back to those past nights. Shaking my head I scooted back in my seat and leaned forward. “But yeah, she was my boss, and I won’t lie... I started having sex with her as a way to get promoted faster.”
“So you used her?”
My heart lurched at those words and I glared at Twilight. “N-no I didn’t—I mean—yeah... at first... but...” I lowered my forehead into the palm of my right hand.
Twilight lowered her quill and pad. “I can assume it’s safe to say you started having feelings for her?”
I took a deep breath and nodded my head. “Y-yeah you’re okay to say that... but all those feelings were lost when she started going out with some asshole of a man.”
“What did she do?” Twilight asked me.
I shrugged a bit. “I dunno... stopped talking to me for the most part. When we did chat though, she was a bitch about it. Then there was this one time out of nowhere she invited me to her house for no reason. When I showed up, she and the boyfriend were fucking on the couch. Before I left, they offered to let me join!” My voice was gradually starting to rise over time.
“Did you accept the offer?” Twilight asked blushing lightly.
I raised to a finger to say no, but stopped halfway. “Well...” I also began to blush, and that was all the answer Twilight needed.
“So, despite being furious with her, you couldn’t help but join?” The pony nodded her head. “It seems even for your species, love can be equally as weird.” She seemed to write that down in her notes, an action that made me feel all the more embarrassed. Twilight cleared her throat and looked back at me. “How about we change the subject? How many siblings do you have?”
Again my heart ached a little. “I had one sister,” I said quietly. “Her name was Stacy, she was my younger sister and my best friend.” My vision began to grow foggy as the tears started to swell around the bottom half my eyes.
Twilight seemed to have taken notice and coughed into her hoof. She chuckled lightly. “That’s nice,” she said nervously, “any particular hobbies you girls shared?”
I shook my head. “We were polar opposites of each other. Where I did good in school, she didn’t, I liked to hang out with boys. She hung out with girls. I was into sports in high school and she wasn’t, that sort of thing.” I wiped my hand along the bottom of my eyes.
Twilight’s ears flattened. “Did you girls ever play together?”
I sniffed and nodded my head. “We really liked playing video games together.” Part of me said Twilight had no idea what I was talking about, seeing the way she tilted her head slightly and nodded confirmed that. “Though,” I continued, “during those times she mainly watched.” A few stray tears escaped out from the corner of my eye and raced down my cheek, I quickly tried to wipe them off. I took a few deep breaths and tried to keep myself from breaking down.
“What happened to her?” Twilight whispered.
I snorted at the stupid question, at least that’s what it felt like to me. “What do you think happened?” I asked her sarcastically. “The same thing that happened to her happened to everyone else on this goddamn planet.” I bit down on my tongue in order to hold back tears. “She died.” I croaked. “Slowly... and painfully. On a bed, right in front of me while being surrounded by hundreds of others who were experiencing the exact same pain as she was.” I let out a shaky breath.
Twilight didn’t say a single word, but by the look on her face I could see that she was also trying to hold back a few tears.
“Before she died...” I gulped and reached out towards Twilight, the mare stiffened when I took her by the hoof. “S-she grabbed m-my hand like this.” I looked the mare in the eyes, another tear streaked down my face. “‘It hurts,’” I whispered. “‘It hurts.’” I squeezed Twilight’s hoof. “Th-that w-was the last th-thing she said to me.” The hand holding Twilight’s hoof began to tremble.
‘C’mon, Chloe, keep it together. Stay strong,’ my conscious told me.
I sucked in a quick breath of air and held it. I released the mare’s hoof and sat back in my seat, I was at the point at which I was trembling all over. The pain in my chest was comparable to nothing but bricks weighing down my heart.
“I don’t mind if you cry.”
My body froze and I blinked. “Wh-what?” I looked over at Twilight, the mare was giving me a soft smile. A lone tear of her own was running down her cheek.
“I don’t mind if you cry, Chloe,” she said again.
I don’t know why, but her saying that was all it took, and the next thing I knew the waterworks came to life. I couldn’t tell what it was, but for some reason knowing that Twilight was okay with me breaking down like a child who lost her favorite toy lifted some unknown weight off my shoulders. My lower lip began to tremble and my eyes were fogged with fresh tears. Reaching out with a shaky hand I grasped onto Twilight’s soft coat and pulled her towards me. Wrapping my arms around the mare in a tight hug, I felt the dam break, tears poured down my cheeks and every time I opened my mouth. My words came out as nothing but pain filled moans and cries.
Twilight’s body stiffened when I pulled her into my chest, but seconds later she loosened up. Using her wings, Twilight draped them around me in some kind of pony hug. “It’s alright.” Twilight whispered, her voice sounded slightly nervous. “You’re alright now.”
“I-I-I miss herrrr...” I was a complete wreck, I could no longer think straight. My vision was backlogged with images of years past, family, friends, even horrific images of the plague appeared. It was like a goddamn slide show or one of those PTSD attacks you see in the movies that soldiers go through. I couldn’t even hear Twilight’s comforting voice anymore... but I could hear them. The voices of everyone I lost. Dozens—no hundreds of voices, I could hear them closing around me.
“It’s all your fault!” I heard a woman shout.
“You could’ve saved us, Chloe!” a man shouted.
My eyes shot towards the upper balcony of the library. “No...” I muttered. “N-n-no, that’s not tr-true!”
Along the edge of the balcony were dozens of decayed human corpses, standing like zombies and glaring down at me. One in particular grabbed ahold of the railing and dropped down onto the lower level just across from me and Twilight. The zombified being straightened itself out again and raised a decayed finger at me. “You know you can’t deny it, Chloe!” the zombie said in a woman’s voice.
Tears ran down my cheeks as I tried to hold back a new found anger. “Chloe?” I barely heard Twilight’s voice over the raging voices above us. “What are you—” I suddenly shot to my feet and nearly threw Twilight off to the side. I jammed a finger at the zombie.
“You have no fucking idea on what you’re talking about!” I screamed.
The creatures above us boo’d. “Don’t play stupid with us, Chloe,” the creature snorted. “You know exactly what... it’s because of you the human race and your friends have perished.” It opened its arms. “Many occasions you were given the chance to save us, yet you failed!” The crowd above cheered and taunted.
“What are you talking about?!” I covered my ears and fell to my knees.
“We’re talking about your selfishness!” Despite covering my ears, I could still hear them.
A sharp pain shot through me when I felt the hands of someone grabbing ahold of my hair. My head was yanked back and my eyes came into contact with a woman who looked exactly like me. Her eyes were a bright blue and dangling in front of her face were strands of black hair, she gave me a purely white smile. “You could’ve woken them up y’know?” She sneered, her voice sounding exactly mine. “The first time Reynolds woke you up, you could’ve gotten the others.”
My lower lip trembled and my cheeks were stained with tears. “I didn’t know...” I whispered and closed my eyes. “I di-didn’t know...”
“And all that shit Reynolds was saying, ‘Oh it was my bad...’ pssh... You know he’s just saying that to make you feel better.” The woman rolled her eyes. “And what about the embryos? You remember that small crack in the corner right? What if that’s why shit in there warmed up?”
“I didn’t know!” I cried a little louder.
“‘I didn’t know.’” My doppelganger mocked me in a childish voice, “You see that’s exactly why we’re fucked!” She released my hair. “Because of your stupidity, we’re fu––!”
“CHLOE!” Twilight shouted and my body was suddenly frozen by her magic.
My eyes snapped open, hands pressed against the desk my forehead was just centimeters away from making contact with the surface. Sweat dripped down my forehead and mingled with the tears on my cheeks before dripping onto the the hard steel surface. I swallowed the lump in my throat and blinked a few more times, causing a couple tears to drift out.
“Having trouble there?” I heard myself ask.
“Wh-what are you talking about?”
“Chloe, please answer me,” Twilight said, her voice sounding hurt. “I didn’t mean to cause you any pain. I was trying to help.”
“Well aren’t you going to answer her?” she chuckled. “Or are you still debating if she’s real or not?”
“Of course she’s real!” I shouted still unable to lift my head from the desk.
I heard Twilight flinch back, her legs making contact with the chair behind her. “Chloe, please, you’re scaring me.”
“‘Stop it, you’re scaring me.’” The doppelganger laughed. “You hearing this shit?”
I bit my tongue. “You... aren’t.... real...”
“Huh? Say what again?”
“I said... ‘You’re not real!’”
“Ooooh ho ho! That’s the wrong answer, darling, try again.”
“Fuck you!”
“How about you shut the hell up and let me explain a few things, missy,” she snarled. “Two days ago you woke up and found all of your friends dead. Not even a minute after seeing them you come across... what? Talking horses?” The clone laughed. “You fucking serious?”
“They’re real... Quartz said they’re real!”
My other self sighed. “Because that’s what you want to hear. Face it, you’re friends are dead and there’s no way to replace them.”
“What are you—”
“For fuck’s sake am I this stupid? Open your goddamn eyes! Don’t you see that they’re your friends in a different form? You said it yourself, Quartz sounds and acts exactly like Eva Osai. Crystal Gem’s personality is very similar to Jonathan Adams except she’s a woman. You want to know why that’s the case?” The clone fell silent for a moment. “Because deep down, even though you deny it, you had a crush on Adams—”
“Fuck you!”
“Oh believe me if I could I would, have you looked at yourself recently?” She snickered. “If you weren’t forcing your head down now I’d say take a look at me. It’s been awhile since we ever got ourself off, y’know what I’m sayin’?” She clicked her tongue and laughed.
“Get out of here!”
“I will, but first you need to admit to yourself that the reasoning behind your friends death is your fault!”
“But Reynolds said—”
“He’s gone now! Like the rest of them he isn’t here to help you.”
“But Princess Lu––”
“That was a goddamn dream! Don’t you get it? None of this is real, Chloe, it’s just not possible!”
“Chloe!” I heard a new voice shout. “Oh sweet Celestia, it’s happening again!”
I felt the sudden grasp of someone taking ahold of my shoulder, my vision whirled around and suddenly my eyes were aligned with Quartz’s. “Chlo, you need to calm down.”
“I-it’s a-all m-my fault... It’s a-all my f-fault...” I grasped onto the sides of Quartz’s face and dropped to my knees.
“No-no-no, nothing’s your fault,” Quartz cooed. Her horn lit up and I felt what seemed to be a blanket she had possibly brought with her back into the vault wrap around my shoulders.
“I-I don’t know wh-what happened...” I heard Twilight stammering off to my left. “We were talking a-about he-her past... I t-told her that I wouldn’t judge if she di-didn’t hold back...”
Quartz looked away from me and glanced towards the Princess. “Now we know,” she said, “from now on we don’t talk to her about the past.”
“Trying to cut me off now I see?”
“Go away...” I sobbed.
“Y’know crying about it isn’t going to help.”
Quartz’s ear twitched and she looked down at me. “What was that, Chlo?”
“I admitted to it...” I whimpered. “Please just leave me alone...”
“Eh... I don’t think so.” I released a pain filled whine. “Well it’s just that I don’t feel right knowing our friends haven’t been buried.”
My breath hitched in my throat.
“You feel it now don’t you? How about we finally do the one thing we’ve been holding off on for the last two days. It’s time to say goodbye.”
I'm glad to state I found only one mistake! Which I missed....
Woman. Not Women
Holy Shit! That must be a scary thing for Quartz and Twilight to witness. I can only imagine how shocked Twilight must have been seeing Chloe snap like that.
Wow... Twilight must have been in a constant state of wtf-ness throughout the chapter.
Ha haa! The insanity has doubled!
All aboard the insanity train.
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE--*EXPLOSION*
6784546 Doc, I think you're glitchen out.
6784559
BUT INSANITY TRAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN
"You're pretty good." But seriously, nice job on the chapter, Mr. Joe.
Damn. Talk about PTSD! I'm worried that the situation is going to get worse before it gets better.
Yeah...no.
"self-esteem"
Insanity train, here we gooooo!
Ugh. Yeah no. At this point I can no longer force myself to find a single thing to like about Chole. Shes a whiny little shite whos an cunt to everyone around her for no reason. 'Oh nuuuu mah peeps are gone, lets be a shitty fuck to evyone thats willing to help. Suuuure lets not tell anyone about myself and then bitch at them when theyre curious boo hoo.'
Screw you and your 'mental breakdown' you dont deserve none of the ponies that have put up with your horeshit so far. Twi', hun, go talk to Luna and find Rey-whatshisface and leave Chole to wallow. She aint worth you.
///rant
6784943 Though I respect your opinion about some of the things you've said.
But keep in my mind I must correct you on one thing.
should be more along the lines of.
I'll let you think about that for a brief moment.
... and there it is. Insanity, self-blame, doubt in reality, especially the sorrow. Very few HiE stories pull that off, but I think this one is the only one that shows it from a survivor's standpoint.
Favorite is earned. Let's see where this goes now.
6784908
"The engineers have informed us that the brakes on this train have been removed.
Have fun!"
I've found that very few HiE stories that have the whole 'last of my kind' thing going rarely if ever goes down this path. They get depressed sure, and maybe have an episode or two, but this fic is one of the few I've seen that truly captures the heart ache and emotional trauma that being in an unknown land, knowing everybody you knew was dead, and knowing you survived can do to a human psyche. Chloe wasn't a soldier or anything, never had this kind of trauma before the apacolypse. She was a normal everyday girl.
In most fics the human takes most of this in stride, maybe a little sad and angry but gets over it quickly and just moves forward with his new pony friends l. It all gets down played too much for my liking.
This though I feel is much more realistic and a more human approach.
Keep it up, can't wait till the next chapter.
Not many people make it to the religiously favorites section, but you sir just made it.
Chloe is a bit of a misandrist, but I think that add's a bit of depth to her character.
6786015 Well in the last chapter she hinted at that she would rather of have been born a man. She just doesn't like going out with them is all.
6786102 Gotcha, I have a tendency to misread things like that.
Well, that was nice... then came the Dark part... yay Physiological Disorders- Survivor's Guilt and prob a nice cotail of others aswell.
This chapter is so full of feels.
Not going into the specific grammar errors, of which there are MANY--you absolutely want to go back over this and proofread it again, maybe get someone else to take a look at it--there are some concerns I have about this chapter.
Given that this is post-Equestria Girls and Twilight has been to the human world, she knows what a computer is. Barely, and she isn't very good at using one, but she knows what they are.
There's no such thing as this. Parents are parents, and legal guardians are legal guardians. There's no such thing as a parental guardian.
Okay, honestly? I don't think Twilight should be that surprised at the notion. I can't believe I'm saying this as part of an argument in criticism of a story when I usually criticize authors for spontaneous, out-of-nowhere lesbian shipping in pony fics, but...
There have been none-too-subtle hints at lesbian relationships in canon. And, statistically speaking, the ratio of same-sex female couples in Equestria has to be incredibly damn high due to the skewed gender ratio. I mean, mares outnumber stallions around 3:2 at least. It's completely implausible to assume homosexuality doesn't exist in Equestria.
Now, Twilight being unaware of it because she's a socially sheltered, awkward nerd, that's another matter entirely. But you need to make it obvious that this is the reason the concept surprises her.
6784943 Please, don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel.
Better yet, why don't you tell us how you'd react if your entire species was dead and here you are, a normal nobody from nowhere who never dreamed you'd be part of the end of civilization, just trying to cope with the fact that you ARE the last of your species.
Go ahead. We're waiting. Wow us.
Man this chapter was disappointing. It was all exposition about the OC's sexuality via the intrusive questions of a completely tactless (ooc) Twilight, mixed with angst and a breakdown.
Damn, poor Chloe, when your self delusion starts making you doubt reality you really need help. Hopefully Luna can be of help.
I just keep thinking of Gollum/smeagol!
6787650
Exactly my thoughts; disappointing really.
6789600 6787650
Well we can't expect every chapter to be amazing.
6784943
i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/033/422/694.png
A man hit me, so I became a lesbian! Seems legit.
6790419
Yes the hitting may have been part of it, but the open ended bit I tagged at the end of the quote doesn't tie it off as that being the only reason.
6786341 Also who knows what type of trauma she might have from the tests with the virus they preformed on her.
After all just the slight bit in there about the seizures causes me to cringe, that type of thing can really mess a persons mind, and body to hell.
Is the other voice in her head, or is this conversation going down like Gollum talking to himself? Either way, it scares the bujesus out of me. Especially the voice saying that Quarts and Crystal are her friends in another form, and then expressing that she wants her to put her friends to rest. This implies to me, that the voice wants Chloe to kill and bury them.
6790419 Funnily enough, most of the adult Lesbians I know had relationships with men that ended very badly. Not demeaning sexual orientation or anything, but maybe it took a dramatic shock to make her realize it.
6794278 Omg I don't know why but your comment is very funny to me. I understand what you're saying but damn, I dunno if I'm going to go that dark. And yes she's doing it the Gollum style.
6794358
No wonder Twilight was freaking out like she was. Hell, I would too if I was in her place.(why don't we have a scared shitless emoticon?)
i wonder if that's what happened to discord.
so...Chloe has PTSD turned up to 11 is what im getting from this chapter, mixed with survivors guilt and possible formation of a split personality.
I thin this is pretty accurate to how a normal human being would react to this situation.
She needs serious help and I don't know if the ponies will be able to help her as I don't believe any of them are trained in human psychology and treatment of mental illness on this level....I don't think anyone is really trained to handle it on this level.
6784943 I think the most disappointing thing about your entire comment is the fact that you think a fictional character in a fanfiction on a My Little Pony site can hear your complaints.
MythrilMoth nailed the rest of your comment.
Nightmare corruption! Can it even affect Chloe?
I'm probably wrong, just taking wild guesses.
Well, that was an intense chapter.
Is Nightmare trying to get into her head?
6786810
Oh shit, I didn't know you were reading my fic. Nice to know one of my liked authors are reading something of mine, I'll make sure to take it slow next time when my editors and I go over it. The parental guardian bit was a mishap when typing I'll go and fix that, now as for the lesbian bit... I'm just going to say this and please don't be offended sounds like you maybe overthinking it a little.
Aside from that I'm glad you're enjoying the story.
6799536 Could've sworn you knew I was reading, I've commented a few times.
Anyway, on the lesbian thing: I've straddled both sides of that particular argument, so I'm not offended in the least. It was just food for thought.
6799596 Huh, I guess I must've missed your comments then. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Happens a lot when new chapters are posted.
Is this story going to continously focus on Chloe's sexuality and PTSD?
6817812 I hope not.
Nightmare, is fucking with her mind/
she's cackling so madly and having a sadistically good time/
Nightmare, she seeking total control and intends to make your sanity go flowing down the hole/
We're fighting to make you go away, Nightmare!
By the throne....
wow
twi was hella insensitive
o-o