Chapter 14: Myself?
I sat there on my knees and stared Reynolds right in his eye. My mouth hung open and my body froze completely solid. The old man broke eye contact with me and gazed at the ground. The ponies around us seemed to have fallen silent, even the princesses weren’t looking at us. “I had a feeling you’d react this way...” Reynolds barely whispered.
“Wh-what do you mean, ‘ou-our Daughter?’” I asked him, my jaw quivering along with my entire body. I had no idea what to think, or feel. So many emotions, along with a wave of disturbing thoughts, crossed me all at once.
“Chloe, remember how you volunteered to donate a batch of your eggs for my experiments?” He asked.
I thought back briefly and nodded my head; back then he was testing my eggs to see if I were to ever have offspring would they also be immune. He also wanted to test if he could somehow use them to create a breed of human beings immune to the disease. “Ye-yeah...” I nodded again.
Reynolds took a deep breath and looked at me. “As years went by, the equipment at McKinley began to degrade and I was unable to use the eggs. However, during my years of research something phenomenal happened.” He gulped and motioned with his hands for the two of us to stand up. “Come, I must take you to my lab,” he said, then continued his previous explanation as we stood back up. “Ten thousand years ago, back when I was only fifty six, the virus suddenly stopped.” He began to turtle his way towards the castle doors.
“Wh-what do you mean, what does this have to do with me having a kid now?” I asked him and slowly began to follow behind. The princesses ahead nodded and also started to make their way to the doors while the ponies behind us trotted to keep up.
“I’m getting to that,” he said quietly. “The virus had just suddenly stopped, as if somepon—I mean someone flipped a switch.” Reynolds corrected himself and I cocked an eyebrow. We reached the front steps and I stepped up beside Reynolds and allowed him to use my shoulder as support while we climbed up. “It just suddenly stopped trying to forcefully evolve us humans and animals. You saw that log right?” He looked at me.
I bit my lip and helped him up the finally step. “Yeah, I sorta recall.”
Reynolds sighed. “The nanites that make up the virus were constructed in order to jump start a species’ evolution. It would start to suddenly mix up a creature’s genetic code or just create something entirely new.”
“That’s similar to conjuration spells,” Twilight piped up.
Reynold’s stopped and glanced over his shoulder. “Yes, and no. Most conjuration spells are only temporary, for instance. If I were to summon a familiar, depending on the amount of energy I use judges how long it is able to last. Whereas these nano-machines acted as deconstructors and fabricators. Amazingly enough, though, they perform a similar spell along the lines of conjuration.”
“Wait a second...” Twilight came up besides Reynolds and looked up at him. “What are you trying to say?”
Reynold’s cleared his throat. “What I’m saying is that this virus that killed off the human species is the same thing you call magic.” He pointed at Twilight’s horn. “That appendage on your head acts as an antenna for these things, it's able to send out telepathic frequencies which enables you to control them.” He then shrugs. “The stronger the frequency the more powerful the machines become.”
Twilight looked at Reynolds with utter disbelief. “W-wait that can’t be!” she blurted as Reynolds and I walked past the open door Celestia and Luna held for us.
“In Starswirl's book on magic theory he states that—”
“Ha!” I recoiled back at Reynolds’ sudden outburst. “You believe most of that garbage?” he said, looking back at Twilight. He shook his head and continued forward. Ahead of us I saw Luna and Celestia share a look of discomfort with one another. “I only added most of that fluff as a way to get them pretty colts up in parliament to agree with me.” He rolled his eyes. “Sometimes I really regret making this place a parliamentary democracy,” he muttered.
I blinked. “What?” Shaking my head and I cleared my throat. “N-never mind, what about my kid?”
“Huh?” Reynold’s looked at me. “Oh right!” He lit up. “The virus just stopped, Chloe, I don’t know why, but it stopped forcefully evolving us humans and these ponies. Like it was finally satisfied with what it was doing or something... I can’t wrap my head around it. So that’s when I grabbed the embryos and I started to form a colony.” Princess Celestia and Luna led us to a set of spiraling stairs that led downwards while Reynolds talked. “And during that time I started doing even more research on these machines due to their now docile nature.” He grew quiet when we started going down the steps at a very slow pace. “And as you can see now—ugh—” he stepped down and ever so slowly began to bring his foot down to the next step. “—I have grown very old. One hundred and ten to be exact.”
I nearly choked on my own saliva. “What?! A hundred and ten?”
“Wait a second.” Crystal’s voice came from behind on us. “I thought you were a couple thousand years old like the princesses?”
Reynolds grins. “Believe me, I’m far older than those two fillies up front.” Both Celestia and Luna looked back at him and rolled their eyes simultaneously. “Matter of fact I’m friends with their parents.”
“Reynolds, please, stop getting sidetracked,” I sighed. “You can tell me all this stuff later,” I said as we continued down the steps.
Reynolds nodded. “Sorry...” He cleared his throat and I began to wonder if these stairs we were on would ever end. “When the virus stopped, I began doing research and suffered the horrible realization, Chloe, that my time on this world is running short.” He swallowed a lump in his throat. “You see, I have lived my life far longer than any human being should. And during that time of revelation, I was struck with the idea of passing on my legacy.”
“So you took one of my eggs from the experiments and fertilized it?”
“With my own seed, yes.” At that moment I heard a door open and noticed we had reached the bottom of the stairwell. Celestia and Luna had opened a door leading into what looked to be a cave filled with glowing crystals, the pristine stairs quickly opted to a disgusting, murky black. The air around us was cool and dry, the ground was slick and the lighting was dreadful. Celestia and Luna both lit their horns and motioned with their heads to follow them.
Twilight and the two other ponies behind us awed at the sight. “Your lab is down here in the crystal caves?” Twilight asked.
Reynolds shook his head. “No, my dear, it’s even deeper than this. My lab is within the heart of this mountain, as of now we’re standing above it.” Celestia and Luna both nodded and continued to lead the way in silence, occasionally though, they’d look over and whisper something to each other.
I continued to look over at Reynolds and then away repeatedly as we walked. My thoughts whirled around in my head and I just couldn’t seem to figure out which question to ask first. So many thoughts zipped around me, and every time I’d reach out to grab one of them it’d just slip through my fingers. Except for one question though, one that lingered on my mind the second Reynolds told me. “What did you name her?” I asked softly.
Reynolds gulped and gave me a small smile. “I named her after the one girl that tried to save us all,” he said, looking at me. “I named her after you.” His voice was raspy and quiet.
My stomach filled with butterflies and my cheeks flushed, I couldn’t help but feel touched. “Th-that’s very nice of you to... to say.” I gazed at the floor.
“We’re getting close,” Luna called from over her shoulder.
The old man nodded his head. “Indeed we are close.” He pointed forward towards a wall with a large pink crystal jutting out. “Right there,” he said, “that is the entrance to my lab.”
“There’s nothing there,” Crystal said. Taking a few steps toward it, she scratched the back of her head with a hoof and looked at Reynolds. The scientist chuckled and shook his head. “What’s so funny?” the pegasus asked.
“It’s called cloaking technology.”
“It’s called cloaking magic.”
Both Twilight and Reynolds said in unison, both of them blinked and looked at each other. “What?” Reynolds cocked an eyebrow.
“What?” Twilight also raised one of her own.
Reynolds shakes his head. “Anyways, that crystal on the wall is nothing but an illusion. In reality there is actually nothing but a door built into that wall.” He said, walking over to the large, pink crystal he reached a hand out to it. Reynolds looked back over his shoulder. “Watch this,” he said, touching the mineral. His hand phased through it. Suddenly, the entire image of the crystal began to shift and wiggle like a hologram. “Amazing isn’t it?”
Twilight frowned and looked at it skeptically. Quartz also seemed a tad unimpressed. Luna and Celestia acted as if they’d seen this thousands of times, probably have, too. Crystal and I, however, were shocked. “Whoa!” Crystal galloped over to Reynolds and stuck her head through the hologram, then pulled it back out. “What kind of witchcraft is this?!”
“It’s called technology... what is your name?” Reynolds chuckled and asked.
“Crystal... sir?” She cocked an eyebrow and pointed a hoof at Reynolds. “Chloe, what is it?”
“I told you guys, Reynolds is male, there for he’s not an ‘it’.” I said with a smile. Walking past Luna and Celestia, I went over to the two of them. “So, how does it work, Doc?” I asked.
Reynolds smiled. “A few hundred years back, I established projectors and lights along the cave walls above us.” He gazed up and pointed a few of them out, they were very small and barely visible. “I have them inside glass boxes to protect them from most of the elements. Though now dusting them is a pain.” He yawned and motioned with his cane to follow him. “So, don’t just stand there, the tour doesn’t start until we’re inside!”
:[-]:
The entrance to the Kenway vault was almost an exact replica of what was now my home, the McKinley vault. The solid steel walls were plated with gold and the interior was a tad bit smaller compared to McKinley’s, but it also wasn’t as dusty either. Matter of fact, the interior looked to be almost brand new; the floors were shiny and the the center computer looked fresh and polished.
“Whoa, Chloe...” Crystal looked around and smiled as we came to a stop in the center of the entrance room. “Your place is a dump compared to this.” She chuckled and yelped when I smacked over the back of the head.
“Cause of you guys. I haven’t gotten around to cleaning it yet!” I growled.
“How is McKinley, anyways?” Reynolds asked as he closed the front door behind us. Again, the machinery reacted to the commands like a freshly oiled machine. Without any screeching metal or gears, the large robotic arm reached out and took hold of the cog door and rolled it into place. Pulling it closed, it screwed itself shut before the arm retracted itself back to the side.
“Filthy and degrading,” I replied as Reynolds inputted the code to open the secondary door that would lead us into the actual vault.
“Does it always take this long?” Quartz asked out of curiosity.
“Yeah,” Reynolds said, hitting enter on the keypad. Like the main door, a metal arm appeared out from the side of the wall and screwed itself into the door. “But I don’t normally leave the vault often so it doesn’t bother me.” He smiled at the pony.
“Why don’t you leave?” Twilight asked.
Reynolds cocked an eyebrow as the large arm pulled the cog door open, he looked over his shoulder and at Princess Celestia and Luna. “My sister and I thought it would be best if Reynolds tried to keep his presence on the outside to a minimum,” Luna said. “The thought of an alien creature living in the castle would bring too much unnecessary attention.”
“I also prefer to work alone on most occasions,” Reynolds added and motioned for us to follow him into the vault. “Now, Chloe, this won’t really be new to you seeing that Kenway is just a smaller replica of McKinley.”
“Greetings Dr. Reynolds.” The voice of a female V.I. greeted us. “I see you have brought along Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, along with some new friends.”
“Yes, I have, Stephenie.” Reynolds replied to the machine. “These are Chloe Cooper and...”
“I’m Quartz Stone.”
“Crystal Gem, but just call me Crystal.” The pegasus smiled and trotted ahead of all of us, she reached a small metal staircase and went down it.
“Where is she going?” Reynolds asked confused as to why she just went on without them.
“She’s an adventurer,” Quartz said, “she likes to go on alone and look for treasure.” She took a deep breath. “I’ll go make sure she doesn’t take anything.” The unicorn pushed on ahead and moved after the pegasus.
Reynolds blinked. “Wh-what about my tour?”
I couldn’t help but snicker as we came up on the small metal staircase leading downwards. “Well, if this is like McKinley, this wouldn’t be new to them, either.”
“They’ve been in McKinley?” Reynolds asked.
“They’re the ones who dug me out,” I said with a nod. I offered Reynolds my hand and I helped guide him down. The three pony princesses followed behind us, Twilight seemed to be chatting with them about about something, but I hadn’t been paying any attention to them. Further ahead, I could see Quartz and Crystal at the end of the hall, singled out by the automatic lights that turned on when we walked beneath them. They seemed to be trying to open doors to other rooms but were having trouble on figuring out how to open them.
“Those two down there dug you out?” Reynolds smiled. “Well, isn’t that nice of them?”
“Well, originally, they were trying to mine the gold off the front door,” I chuckled as we came to a stop in front of the two bickering ponies.
“You can’t just go sticking your head into another ponies room, Crystal!” Quartz scolded the pegasus.
“Why not, only one pony lives here!” She tried to justify herself, but it wasn’t working.
“So what, you don’t know what could be behind that door!” Quartz said. Reynolds walked up next to them and opened up the pin pad.
“I’m just curious, Quartz, it’s not like I’m going to do anything bad,” Crystal said. Looking away from her, she glanced back every now and again to see if Quartz’s expression changed. It didn’t. Suddenly, however, the door beside them slid open and Reynolds closed the control panel.
“Oh, look,” the old man said. “Wow... a storage closet, how interesting.” He pressed a button beside it and the door slid back closed. The two ponies blinked curiously and watched as Reynolds continued walking down the hallway, giving a brisk wave from over his shoulder. “This way now, my lab isn’t too far.”
“Wow...” Quartz huffed. “What a jerk.”
I chuckled and rested a hand on Quartz’s head. Scratching behind her ears I said, “Nah, you’ll get use to it. He’s very sarcastic at times.”
“So what’s in the storage closet?” Crystal asked still seemingly curious.
I shrugged as the three princesses continued on past us. Following Reynolds, Luna cast a glance from over her shoulder to see if we were coming. “I’unno,” I said honestly, “could be anything from food, experiments, scrap, ya’know, necessities.” I turned and followed the princesses. “C’mon, let's keep moving, don’t want to get lost.” The two ponies nodded and trailed behind me.
We went down another set of steps and entered a much larger room. Creepily enough, it reminded me of a prison cell block. The room was long and the ceiling was at least a few dozen feet above us. Walkways above us connected to balconies that outlined the room. Connecting these balconies were cocoons, dozens of them, even on the ground level, the walls were outlined with them. All of them in neat condition, too.
“They were all empty when I arrived,” Reynolds said, standing in the middle of the room the princesses came up behind him, I shortly after. “Stephanie says at one point they were all occupied by a band of U.S. special forces.”
“Indeed they were. All fifty-two cocoons were occupied by the U.S. Remnants Platoon.” The female V.I. said.
“Remnants platoon?” I asked. The ponies, aside from Celestia and Luna, also shared similar looking confusion. “That sounds familiar.” I took a few steps towards Reynolds.
“It should, Chloe.” Reynolds turned and looked at me. “They’re the ones who saved you from Mercy.”
I tilted my head at him and rested a hand on my hip. “Mercy...?” My eyes then widened. “Mercy hospital?”
Reynolds nodded his head, now even the Celestia and Luna looked confused. “Sergeant Rockwell of Remnants killed his commanding officer and took lead shortly after he went nuts. Afterwards, he and his squad took over the rest of the division after the military companies began to crumble.”
As if being hit by a truck, my thoughts shot back to Reynold’s old recordings. “Though there aren't many of us left. Sergeant Rockwell and his men are out on a mission as of now. So it’ll be awhile until you hear from them.” I took a few steps back, my mouth falling open.
“W-wait, wh-what happened to Rockwell?” I stammered. “What happened to the the Remnants Division?” A flood of questions slammed into me and I could feel my breathing escalate. “Where are they?”
Reynolds held up his hand and take a step towards me. “Chloe, please, calm yourself. I’ll explain everything shortly. I’ll take us to the lab, make some tea, and we can al—”
“Dad?” a familiar young voice called out. “Dad, is Celestia back?” The sound of small footsteps made their way into my ears, each step matching the beat of my heart. The sound echoed in my head and I gulped. ‘Why does that voice sound so familiar,’ I thought as my eyes drifted towards the entryway, ‘I can’t quite place my finger on it but... I swore I’ve heard it.’
I shook my head, trying to tear my thoughts away from something so ridiculous. I stepped back once more, my gaze shooting up back towards Reynolds. I took a shaky breath, all of this was too much. I had expected to just meet Reynolds and maybe cry, or shoot the shit with him. Maybe figure things out, save the human race, then just move on with life!
“Yes, Chloe,” Celestia replied to the coming girl. “I’m here, we’re just having a chat right now.”
‘Chloe?’ My eyes shot to the Princess, confused a little, it struck me that Reynold said he had named the girl after me. “Celestia!” The young voice shouted with much joy and the sound of creaking metal caused by little feet made my head turn over towards the opposite entrance of where we came in. “C-could you please finish that story you were telling me ear—... Daddy...?”
My vision was locked onto a familiar young girl that stepped out into the open; no older than eight, she had long black hair that dipped a little bit past her shoulders. Her eyes were large and blue, skin slightly pale, it seemed that she hadn’t hit puberty, yet her voice, for her age, was slightly deeper and butch... almost like mine.
That’s when it hit me, with my eyes widening I slowly tore my eyes off of the girl and looked at Reynolds. He seemed to have also noticed my revelation, his face was stricken with sorrow and he reached a hand out to me. “Chloe, please listen to me.”
I stepped away from him. “What did you do?” My heart was slamming against my chest, I had no idea what to think or say. “What did you do?!”
Celestia and Luna moved over to the now scared little girl. “Yes, Sweetie, I’ll finish the story. Come with Lulu and I, we’ll go get some cocoa.”
“What is going on?” Crystal and Quartz moved towards Reynolds, only to find themselves magically stopped by Twilight who simply shook her head at them.
“Chloe, please listen.” Reynold’s voice was wavering, sounding as if he was going to start sobbing at any second. “You have to understand that I was lonely, afraid, I had no one to talk to...” He held his trembling hands out to me.
“W-why didn’t you just wake me!” I shouted at him.
Tears rolled down Reynolds cheeks, his old ragged foot catching the floor, he dropped to one of his knees. His voice choking, a few tears dripped onto the floor, he didn’t look up at me. “Because I couldn’t bear the thought of seeing you go through the trauma that I had undergone!” He sobbed into the floor. “I didn’t want to suffer the pain again—so, a few thousand years ago, a thought occurred...” He swallowed a lump in his throat. “With the embryos gone and with all that being left is me and you...” he started hiccuping. “I re-realized I couldn’t a-access you p-personally to get an egg o-off you, however...” He fell silent for a few moments, head raising slowly he looked at me with a few full of tears. “I-I had plenty of sa-salvageable eggs and...” he bit his own lip. “I had your DNA samples.”
“Y-you cloned me...” I said, looking at him with wide eyes, I was afraid—but also angry, alienated, really—I didn’t know what I felt. “W-were you trying to replace—”
“No, Chloe, I wasn’t trying to replace you!” Reynolds dropped onto his other knee. “For twelve thousand years, I’ve been alone, no human contact. I was afraid of how you would react, so I refused to let you free, and I see now that that was a mistake!” He literally bowed before me. Hands flat on the ground, he pressed his forehead into the the steel flooring. “It was an experiment,” he went to explain, “I didn’t know what would happen. Back then, I had only recently started to learn how to clone.” He looked back up at me. “And I had an epiphany. If I couldn’t sexually reproduce human beings, why not try asexually?” He looked at the floor and shook his head. “I wasn’t expecting for it to actually work, when I first loaded the reduced embryo with your DNA and completed the fertilization... I wasn’t expecting it to actually start to grow.” He takes a deep breath. “I also couldn’t bring myself to kill her, Chlo...”
“You recreated me.” My voice was monotone, gaze locked on Reynolds. It was as if my mind had drawn a blank.
Reynolds shook his head and slowly crawled to me. “N-no, Chloe, I didn’t create you, I created someone who looks like you.” He swallowed a lump in his throat. “The environment she is growing up in is much different from what you or I have been in. Her personality will be of a completely different person... aside from her looks you’ll start to look past all of that.” His voice had started to rasp as he explained.
“But why didn’t you just wake me...?” I kept asking. “If you wanted company I coul—”
“I know!” Reynolds covers his face. “I know... Like I said, I couldn’t take it anymore. I just wanted someone I could hold close to me, and keep me company. I couldn’t face the fear of watching someone go through what I had to.”
“And here we are now,” I gulped. Leaning forward, I placed a hand on Reynolds shoulder. “I-it’s alright.” I assured him.
“Is it though?” I heard Other Chloe ask. “Reynolds took your DNA and recreated a much younger version of you! If you ask me that sounds very creepy. Hell, he even named her after you.”
“N-no, he was just lonely,” I muttered under my breath. “Th-that was all...”
Reynolds sniffed and wiped his eyes with his wrists. He took a deep breath and looked up at me. “Wo-would you like to meet her?” he asked me. “I can assure you that... she would like to see her mother.”
“You know, I have a strong feeling we’re never going to get used to that.” Other Chloe walked up behind Reynolds, I glanced at her and cocked an eyebrow. She then shrugged. “Actually, I don’t think we’re going to get use to any of this. Fuck, you aren’t even getting use to seeing me, come out of nowhere, butchering the flow of everything,” she chuckled. “Believe me, I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon.”
I took a small breath and looked at Reynolds and nodded my head. “I-I wouldn’t mind that,” I said softly. “B-but before we go... in an old video I saw, you mentioned that Sergeant Rockwell and his men were out on a mission... what happened to the others?” For some reason we were both speaking in hushed voices. It was weird, but I just found myself doing it. As if I didn’t want Twilight or Quartz to hear.
Reynolds took a deep breath and spoke in a hushed tone also. “As of right now, Chloe, I do not have time. However, come to me when we break for dinner, I’ll explain everything there.” He reached up and gave my shoulder a light squeeze. “Th-thank you for understanding.” He gulped.
I sighed and shook my head. “I-I’m still trying to wrap my head around it,” I told him, “j-just give me some time and I’ll come around.”
“Perhaps you would like to go to bed then soon?” He asked.
I snorted and gave a dry laugh. “Oh shit, you don’t even know...” I practically mumbled.
I helped Reynolds back onto his feet and Twilight levitated his cane up to him. Taking it in his hand he thanked the alicorn who simply nodded in reply. Both Quartz and Crystal came up to me, the pegasus gently giving me a reassuring nuzzle when she noticed my distressed face. “We got you, Chloe,” the pegasus chimed, standing by my side. Quartz gave me a gentle smile, but continued to stand just an arm’s length away, her cheeks burning red and her gaze locked to the floor.
“Alright, if we move now, we can catch up to the princesses and little Chlo.” Reynolds’ voice picked up and he began to move towards a small metal corridor with a staircase leading upwards. “They’re most likely in my lab now messing with my equipment.” Twilight moved over to the old man’s side and helped him in going up the steps.
My heart thumped in my chest when we reached the top the stairs, The thought of meeting my own clone. daughter, whatever you wanted to call her, caused my anxiety levels to skyrocket. I didn’t know what I was going to do, or even say, in this case.
“You could always say, ‘I’m you from the future’.” Other Chloe laughed as we made our way down the hall. “That’d probably convince her seeing that you’re technically her.” She smirked.
‘Yeah like I’m going to do that,’ I replied in my head. ‘Reynolds is right; she is technically my daughter since she came from a part of me.’
“And him. Therefore, making him the father.” Other Chloe appeared out from an intersection and walked alongside me, I looked at her. “Yet I find it weird that if that’s the case, why does she resemble us the most?”
‘Because my genes were more dominant? I dunno, he said clone so... maybe he forced it into looking like me? B-besides, we did have the latest gene therapy equipment,' I tried to reason with myself.
“Perhaps. It doesn’t change my thoughts on it being fucking creepy. Like, he could’ve done this to anyone! Why us?” she asked. I looked at her and shrugged.
“See something interesting?” Crystal asked me.
I shook my head and looked down at her as we walked. “S-sorry what?” I gave her a small, fake smile.
“Well you kept looking off to the right, so I thought there was something interesting.” The pony looked at the wall. “Is there something on the wall.”
I blinked and bit my lip. “Y-Yeah, I couldn’t help but notice the walls are a lot cleaner here than back in the McKinley,” I said loud enough for Reynolds to here.
Reynolds up ahead laughed and glanced back. “Oh really?” He chuckled. “I kinda picked up an old cleaning habit a few hundred years back. With little Chlo being born, I didn’t want her growing up in a dusty old bunker.”
We we reached a small set of six steps and went down them. At the end, the corridor opened up into a much large room that extended out a few yards before stopping at a large door that stretched to about ten feet wide. “So, you wanted to instead raise her in a dusted, old bunker?”
“Better than breathing in dirt,” Reynolds said. Walking over to a small pin pad computer, her pressed in the digits for the code and the large door creaked as the locks came loose.
“Speaking of which, Doctor,” Twilight started. “I couldn’t help but overhear your statement about how you started cleaning up a few hundred years ago for her. The little one I mean.” Twilight cleared her throat. “If that was the case, why does she still look so young? Or is it a common occurrence for humans to age at a much slower rate?”
Reynolds chuckle lightly and shook his head. “Oh no... The common human lifespan is about a century, that is if you’re lucky, fit and most likely live in a first world country. I myself have lived this life for longer than any human being should’ve, Chloe here can tell you the same and the same for our daughter.”
“If you humans only live to about a hundred...” Twilight looked a little confused. “Then how are you still alive, if Chloe was right, you two should be over sixteen thousand years old!” She says with a little more emphasis on the number of years.
The larger door was a little more than halfway open now. “Remember that large room were just in, back when Chloe and I had our chat?” Twilight nodded. “Remember those machines lining the walls all around us?” The mare nodded again. “Those were cocoons, cryostasis pods, filled with nitrogen gas. We used them for sleep and to be able to preserve our bodies for extended periods of time,” Reynolds explained as the door opened completely, revealing a much larger lab then the one back in McKinley. Inside everything was pristine white, to the point in which it was nearly blinding, rows of tables and equipment filled the negative space inside. Chalk boards and white boards sat scattered around, equations and formulas I’ve never seen before written on them. Test tubes and other glassware were filled with weird, bubbling liquids I dared never to go near. The room itself, however, was oddly shaped, it was spherical. Most likely for cosmetic purposes, but compared to McKinley and the other vault rooms... it felt very out of place. Yet what made it weirder, though, was that in the center of this sphere room, there was a giant glass room filled with trees in the very center of it.
The room itself was shaped like a cylinder, and when I walked over to it, I saw inside that there was dirt and grass along with three very big oak trees. Between these oak trees was a bench. Across from that, a small table with a chessboard on it. Inside the room, Princess Celestia was standing on a small dirt path in front of the bench. She was looking at Luna and the small girl who looked exactly like me, and seemed to be telling the two of them a story.
Princess Luna looked bored, but for the little girl’s sake, kept on a smile. The child me, though, seemed to be enthralled, her blue eye wide and little mouth open, Celestia suddenly leapt onto her hind legs and kicked out with her forehooves. The little girl’s face lit up like a Christmas tree and she started bouncing in her seat. Her lips flying at a hundred miles per hour, she looked to be trying to tell Luna something. Possibly something silly, of course, because Luna herself started giggling and she wrapped the child up with one of her wings.
I stood there right up to the glass, watching with wide eyes as the three of them looked to be enjoying themselves. Amazed at how such a child who resembled me befriended these two creatures, a child that looked but acted nothing like how I was. ‘Perhaps Reynolds is right...’ I thought. ‘She may look like me, but she’ll never talk or act like me.’ Back when I was this kid’s age, perhaps ten to twelve years old, I was rotten. I wasn’t cheerful and energetic like this girl seemed, I was spoiled and mean. Only person I ever got along with was my sister...
‘Stacey...’ I placed my hand on the glass, open palmed, I wondered if they could see me. Though, after what felt like an eternity of standing there, I began to wonder; my thoughts wandering about. ‘Stacey,’ My sister’s name kept appearing in my conscious. ‘If Reynolds could remake me... is it possible he co—’
“The fuck are you thinking about, girl?” Other Chloe said behind me. “You can’t honestly be thinking about—”
“You know, they can’t see you.” Reynolds walked up beside me. My thoughts shattering, I looked over at him.
“Oh yeah... uh, I assumed that when I first walked up.” I coughed into my fist and gazed back at the child. She was riding on the back of Luna who was prancing around happily, they looked to be chasing Celestia around in circles.
“Yeah, the glass acts as a special screen, it runs off a material I call magitech,” he said and placed his hand on the glass along mine. “I was able to combine the nanites that made up the SOL virus and what is now the pinnacle of equine magic and harness its power to run a majority of machines in here.” He chuckled. “If these little bots didn’t kill us, Chloe... could you imagine what it would be like if we had this kind of power? These bots would’ve ended the world’s energy crisis,” he sighed.
I nodded my head and took a deep breath. “Reynolds... does she...” I closed my eyes and looked at the floor, trying to gather my thoughts I looked at the old man’s eye. “Does she know about me?” I pointed at the girl riding on Luna. “Does she know that I’m technically her...” I gulped. “Mother?”
Reynold’s stared into my eyes for a good long minute, finally he licked his lips and nodded his head. “I’ve told her many times, Chloe, that her mother, you, were somewhere out in the world. I’ve told her many great things about you and our time together in the refugee camps, and our time down in McKinley.” He reached back and scratched the rear of his neck. “Though she does not know you personally, I’ve tried to paint a good enough picture for her.”
I gulped and glanced back inside the bio-cylinder, my eyes wandering over the girl happily laying on top of Luna while celestia sat behind them, her wing draped over both of them. All three of them looked so happy together, as if already they were a family, and the thought of it... they probably were a family by now. “She really seems to like being with them...” I said quietly.
Reynolds nodded his head. “Yes, and they really like being with her. I believe Celestia herself put it as... uh, giving her a chance to escape reality and her responsibilities as a ruler for a short period of time. To just sit back and play, just for a little bit.”
“I take it on the surface she doesn’t get to do that much... if at all.” I glanced at Reynolds and he replied with a simple nod of his head.
“It’s nice seeing them like this.” He looked at me. “Hopefully, once she gets used to you, the two of you could do this together.”
I gulped and nodded my head. “Ye-yeah...” I scratched my head and flinched when I felt Reynolds hand on my back.
“I understand if you’re nervous, all of this must be very tough.”
“Very tough?” I looked at him and scoffed. “Waking up to see all your friends are dead except one, the world is overrun with talking magical horses, and now suddenly a child is forced onto you... Boy, talk about tough!” I shook my head and chuckled. “Jesus, fuck... I don’t know what to think! What am I going to tell her!? Oh hey, it’s me! Your long lost mother?!”
Reynold gently ran his hand down my back as he tried to calm me. “I understand, Chloe...” he took a deep breath. “All I can say is you’re going to have to talk to her. Yes, it’s going to be awkward at first, but believe me, she’s a lovable kid. It may take time, but she’ll warm up to you, believe me. Within no time you’ll be like an actual mother and daughter.”
The door to the bio-cylinder opened and out came the young girl with both princesses. Twilight and the other mare’s ears perked up and turned away from the computer they had been toying with. My eyes followed the girl as the three of them came out, laughing and giggling, the girl sat on Luna’s back, nuzzling into her starry mane.
“Princess, where did you guys go?” Twilight asked Celestia.
Celestia looked at the mare and smiled. “Oh we were just hanging out with our favorite little human,” she said looking back at the small child who giggled and blushed.
Twilight looked at the kid, her eyes widening at the sight of her she walked over with a large smile. “Oh my aren’t you cute,” she said. “Do you mind if I ask you for your name?”
The child blushed even harder and buried herself behind Luna’s twinkling mane. “Go on, little one,” Luna said, “she will not hurt you.” She gave her a soft smile.
The girl poked her head out a little bit. “M...my n-name is Ch-Chloe...” she said and quickly dipped back behind the mane.
Twilight gave her a smile and nodded her head. “Oh that’s adorable,” she said and glanced back at me, we both looked into each other’s eyes and I blushed before scratching the back of my head.
“Y-yeah, we have the same name...”
Luna nodded her head and looked back at little Chloe. “Little one, do you know who this is?” She asked walking over to me, which I quickly went to back away, but stopped when Reynolds placed his hand on my shoulder.
“It’s okay, Chloe,” he whispered to me. “Everything will be fine.”
The littler version of myself looked at me with wide eyes. Smiling sheepishly, I ran a hand through my hair and brushed my bangs out of the way. “H-hey...” I said nervously.
“Go ahead, Chloe, guess.” Reynolds stepped past me, he gestured to me with his right hand. “I’ve told you many great things about her.”
The little girl blinked and glanced at Reynolds, then Luna, and over to Celestia. All of them looked at her with a wide smile and as her eyes turned to meet with mine, I noticed one thing that tore me apart. Her eyes began to glisten, and her eyes brows curled upwards. Lips trembling, her body began to shake. As the edges of her eyes became overwhelmed with tears, they began to streak down her cheeks and drip onto Luna. Raising a hand, she tried to wipe them away, but they just kept on coming and soon her face was drenched. Most of all, though, her eyes never left mine. She started to open her mouth, her lips trying to form words but she just couldn’t seem to find them.
Looking at her I felt my heart begin to race and for some reason I felt this undying urge to go and hug the child. Celestia and Luna both looked to the girl with concern and Reynolds took a few steps towards her. “Ch-chloe it’s okay.” Reynolds reached to grab to take her off Luna. Grabbing her by the underarms, he shakily pulled her off the horse. Celestia held on to the girl with her magic as Reynolds took her off. “It’s okay, Chloe, you don’t need to be scared.”
“Sh-she’s.... she’s a-afraid o-of me?” I stuttered. My hands shaking, I closed my eyes and looked away, I could feel my own tears gathering at the edges.
“Shh, shh, it’s okay, Chloe, she won’t hurt you...” Reynolds said to the sobbing girl.
“Da-daddy?” The girl whimpers into his shoulder, her eyes locked on me still. “I-it’s re-really h-h-her...? Th-that’s M-Mommy r-right?” she asked between shuddering breaths.
“Yes, Chloe...” Reynolds stroked her hair. “That’s Mommy.”
Hey guys! I hope you're enjoying this story, cause I'm having fun writing it. This chapter took a little longer mainly because it was heavily set on plot and I was trying to figure out Reynolds character. A lot of shit was hinted at in this chapter and I hope you guys have fun thinking about it, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
On another note I will be holding an art contest for this story if you artists out there are willing to compete! 
Feel free to create something if you'd like and send it to me so I can throw it into a poll, I will not be taking anything overly NSFW. By that I'm talking hardcore stuff, the soft stuff is okay. Anyhow, if you guys want to compete, any piece that is really cool or wins the poll. I'll share in the next chapter for all to see (and yes your name and link to your deviant art/fim fic account will be accessible for others.)
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I'm getting lots of feels.
Oh yess.. I've been waiting.
Good job on the story, hope you keep up the good work. Though I wonder if Ponyville can handle that many humans in one area.
Maybe I'm a pessimist but, somehow, I have a horrible feeling that nothing good will come of this. Reynolds has played with the rules of creation and a technology of which he probably only has partial understanding. I've a feeling that the two Chloes will be okay but Reynolds ultimate failure to make humans able to live in Equestria suggests that there may be hidden problems ahead.
What did happen to the soldiers? I've got another bad feeling growing about their fate.
I'm interested to know if the Chloe pair have any control over the nanites, and if so, how much. After all, Chloe Sr. wasn't affected at all by them, meaning they recognized her as having already evolved to where they were trying to get humanity. And now there's Chloe Jr., who has no only been in and amongst them all her life, but also been around and befriended two of their most powerful wielders.
It returns!
Oh, this is so awkward.
wat the heck
we're having adorable confusion for dinner
The kid's kinda cute.
Even sleeping for a year then spending a day out means you get 36000 years per centuary, minus starrting age, extras etc. If you want to keep continous watch you need 4 hour shifts and enough teams to keep multiple continous overlaps etc.
If he could create one Cloe, why couldnt he 6th day, and have at least another organ Cloe in the tanks?
7015107 austarwarsswfc.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/chan.jpg
Something tells me that after Doc's explination of magic, that the figure that Chloe talks to is connected to that...
I understand why he did what he did. Still, respect your elders or not. Being essentially 110 or not I still would have hit him. He says he was trying to avoid having to relive that pain. Well, all he has done is multiply the pain she has to go through. Having an even more severe change on top of finding out your friend is a coward and made a clone of you with no intention of waking you so he could run and hide from reality. I would have decked him.
Think something got left out of this sentence. I'm assuming the equipment degraded or something?
7015688 Yeah that may have been an editing mistake. I or one of my editors must have been working on it but never actually finished it xD. It's fixed now though.
This chapter hurts all the feels
create an arMY OF CHLOES
Reynolds IS Starswirl the Bearded. I can't even begin to say I saw that coming. He also played a part in the formation of government... upon how many historical events has he left his mark? (What a jerk.)
I wouldn't mind if Chloe could get a break, though. Poor girl hasn't had any time to process. She needs a hug and some hot cocoa, why isn't anypony giving her a hug, get her away from the slimeball, even just for a few minutes.
Withholding judgement on Chloe Jr.
Open questions: Are we in a geocentric system or is that made up? How does the mirror work? What is the true nature of time travel? Is Twilight going flip the hell out now that her entire worldview has been mangled? Where did ponies come from?
And maybe most importantly, what in the world happened to physics that this even... works? Did the solar system fall out of the universe? Is there just a localised field of crazy once you enter Sol's gravity well?
Something to do with alicorns, maybe... he called her a "goddess". Maybe he was being literal; do they represent something more axiomatic with than the symbolism they've adopted? Like the embodiment of fundamental forces and concepts or something. Alicorns as liminal beings.
If little Chlo is a clone (don't think I don't see what you did there), then she wouldn't have any of Reynolds' DNA. A clone is an exact genetic duplicate. If he DID use his own genetic material as half of little Chlo's then she's just big Chloe's genetic daughter.
7015875 All of these are excellent questions and I hope I'll be able to answer most of them the best I can in future chapters, or even side stories. However, I can answer one already about the ponies is that Reynolds had mentioned, very briefly, that they were also force evolved like the humans. However, the human's body couldn't keep up with the nanites and they just died whereas, in assumption, the ponies might have been a success and evolved rapidly. Same goes for the other species on the planet we've seen in the show.
Other than that you maybe overthinking some aspects, I ain't going for Star Trek logic here, however, I'll try and make it as believable as I can or at least tolerable.
7015945 In cloning you need to fertilize the egg in order for it to start the actual process I believe. So he used a bit of his own seed to jump start it, but as Chloe said. They did have the latest gene therapy equipment, which in the sci-fi verse it's believed that you can manipulate and control genes of certain things. So in which he would have probably helped the cloning process along by using such equipment.
7016074
"Cloning" is actually a catch-all term for a number of different processes. But when people think of cloning, as in "Hey, it's my exact genetic doppelganger", the process is to take a cell from a donor (in this case Chloe) and remove the nucleus. Then an ovum is taken (in this case, also from Chloe) and ITS nucleus is removed. Then the nucleus from the donor cell is transferred into the empty ovum. The egg begins to split normally, developing into an exact copy of the donor organism. No daddy needed.
7016181 Ah ha okay then. I get it. The thing I read was similar but not as detailed. In this case yes that's what happened, in a way though you could still say Reynolds is the father since he is the one who created the girl. The beginning half of the story though he was well... kinda lying to her. Another reason why Chloe kinda flipped out.
7015300 Agreed; Reynolds is a selfish cockbag and needs a good beating. "Oh hay I didn't want to suffer through watching you go through what I did, so I left you to die, unconscious. Oh, and cloned you 'cause I was lonely."
7016181 why don't they just call it artificial asexual reproduction?
7016311 In his defense she was never meant to wake up so its sort of like pulling the plug on someone who was severely injured so they wont suffer and them somehow pulling through anyway. Good intentions partially but extremely misguided.
well... that was... weird? I think weird is indeed the correct word. and awkward too. huh.
Well that's okay I didn't need what was left of my heart
That's okay I didn't need what was left of my heart
7016452 Nah I'm not letting him off that easy. He wasn't saving her from emotional trauma, he was saving himself from her emotional trauma. It's like keeping an otherwise-healthy person in a medically-induced coma until they die because you don't want to deal with their grief of having lost family or something.
I can understand someone making his choice... but it makes them a huge, selfish cockbag.
Suddenly present tense!
Period, comma
How part of Reynolds? That isn't really how clones work. He just put in some effort, not genetic material would be part of clone-Chloe.
Delete
"he"
Why would the back up facility have a larger lab than the main facility designed for saving the human race?
"eyes", that is, unless she is missing an eye.
"Celestia"
So much for the last human! SURPRISE! There are three.
"Okay kid, this is where it gets complicated."
7016741 I Didn't say let him off the hook, he screwed up big but he feared that waking up to reality would break her (and he was right) so in a selfish move he left her there so that he wouldn't have to see her suffer and she wouldn't have to suffer. There's a difference between excusable and understandable.
Phew. I think you got reynolds just right. Smart scientist who's technically centuries old and literally over a hundred, You can bet he'd be snarky and sarcastic.
7016271 i hate you, been waiting forever for a cliffhanger to apear
7016984
Unfortunately I get the feeling it's worse than that. The feeling is telling me that he sabotaged the facility that she was in. He didn't want to face her pain of seeing a remade world? Well, if I'm right he tried to indirectly kill her and all her friends that were still in stasis. So, assuming I'm right of course, he not only induced more pain on her but he would be the one who actually broke her.
This is a good story. Can't wait for the next chapter.
7016271 Well, like I said, "clone" and "cloning" are actually pretty versatile terms that refer to a number of different processes, not just the main one people think of. The process in the story could very well be one of those. Or could involve anything you want, seeing as how it IS a fantasy/sci-fi story, and YOUR story at that. I didn't mean to sound like I was being "GRR! I am right and you are wrong PERIOD!", but I realize I was a bit. I just thought it sounded like it was maybe confusing ideas a bit, saying little Chlo was an exact clone, but also that Reynolds contributed DNA, but it might have been me misinterpretting.
And yeah, in terms of nuture, there's no doubt that Reynolds is her dad. That was never any question.
7016438
I think that might be a term they use for it. I don't know, I'm not a geneticist. I've just watched a lot of sci fi and read some science books.
7017092 I looked back at chapter 5
If he was going to kill them all he likely wouldnt need to cover it up since there would be no one left. Besides by that part he hadn't gone outside according to his logs, so he wouldn't know if it was bad enough to where there was no hope and he may as well kill them. He did leave her for dead but it doesnt seem likely that he killed them and lied about it in his logs
7017307
Huh. You're right, I had forgotten about that. Still, something very unfunny is going on. Also something about the timeline Reynolds gave us is also pinging me as weird...
I dotn understand Reynolds lines. She's clearly not afraid Chloe will hurt her or crying because she's afraid. It's an emotional moment and the child must be aware of the gap in her life.
7017332 Cant argue there. I just dont get why he cloned Chloe instead of sending the ponies to wake up the real one besides checking her immunity and that she'd wake to talking ponies.
7017339
Because he didn't want to deal with the memories of his pain and his sense of empathy during her inevitable mental breakdown. Said mental breakdown that would have been a lot smaller if he had just manned up and woken her himself.
7017346 but, Silver lining, He didnt have to deal with it. The magical talking ponies dealt with it so at least that worked out for him
The feels, THEY'RE ALIVE!
Does this mean that Chloe has magic and or that she was all-ready pre-evolved by natural evolution just right and therefore wasn't touched by the nanites. or just a DNA null and would not recognize her so did not do anything.. So many different ways this can go so can/can't wait or more.
7016535 Weird as in bad or...?
7020614 I'm not sure if it's either... I think it's just a stagnant stand alone weird lol
I don't really get the point of the micro-machines; why not just make it a magic virus ? They make less sense the more i think about them.
Did they come with thousand year long plans for every cutie mark , elements of harmony and giant crystal castles? Is that why pony parents know what to name their child?
It makes Twilight and every other magic researcher look dumb and have Celestia and Luna hold the truth back for no real reason?
Reynolds gets to casually call everything Twilight's studied in Celsestia's private school "Garbage" which I guess it true and Celestia is deliberately getting the most gifted unicorns taught what she knows is wrong?
Twilight also barely reacts; the whole focus is on the clone, guess she is silently sitting in the corner having a breakdown?
Why would it need to act like a virus in the first place if these machines can do everything magic can? Why not just change the world in a snap like discord?
Also why specifically "micro-machines" ? are they not Nano-machines? are they visible under a microscope? I guess those studying magic never bothered to look!