Interlude - The Coming Storm
Last Time...
“North?” wondered Dewmist. “What the heck is north? Just constant snow and cold.”
“Who cares though? Those crazy ponies are going to be gone for Celestia knows how long! You know what this calls for?" Bonbon mimicked in a voice startlingly similar to Pinkie Pie's: "A PARTY!”
Glados hoped this townwide celebration of being momentarily freed of Twilight and her friends did not interfere with her day.
“It’s fine, Glados,” Dewmist said, her voice a purr when soft. “We get it, this is all new to you. You’re adjusting.”
"Stupid! FUCKING! WHEATLEY!"
These equines are weird, but... but at least they’re not as depraved as human beings. A plus, not that it matters. The bad outweigh the good like Chell to a hippopotamus, with the hippopotamus being the good. I was just implying that Chell is horridly obese. This is my method of staying sane.
In what she would consider a Christmas Miracle, Glados actually found herself enjoying this organic behavior of laughter... it still left her strangely happy long after it dissipated.
I need help.
Sigh. Organic Problems.
As if she were a drone under the thumb of Aperture once more, Glados actually lifted her hoof to rub the other pony’s affectionately.
She wanted to move her legs and step back. Her brain was telling them to do that, but for some reason, her body wouldn’t comply. Or maybe... she wouldn’t?
This is all so very weird. I’m not used to having to tell my platform to perform a function and not have it listen.
"It is both a blessing and a curse to feel everything so deeply," - Unknown
The audible vomit Ponyville had become faded gradually into a distant echo.
Glados strolled leisurely up the dirt path to the village's outer sector, singing to herself, "Change-ling, Change-ling, gon-na di-ssect a Change-ling~"
Oddly enough, the chimes and guitar playing in her head sounded very real, as if some invisible maestro were accompanying her on the journey home.
A distinctive, posh cry of "Wait, Glados!" tore her melody asunder, complete with off-key string pluck, and freezing the Science Pony's step. Every instinct within Glados screamed at her to just keep walking, and yet, something overpowered and caused her to not proceed, as if heeding the organic's command.
Glados's half-lidded gaze rose, ever so slightly, as Octavia Melody ran by, turned, and stood right in her damned way. The cellist's mouth, already parted a ways to daintily replenish her crippling disability - breathing - opened further to speak, but she gulped haltingly the moment their eyes met.
"Is everything alright, dear?" she promptly asked.
"Not anymore," Glados replied.
Octavia huffed with a roll of the eyes, muttering, "Yes, yes, your life is over and you're forced to live with these terribly cheerful little ponies!" she dramatically cried, hoof to her brow. "Woe is the genius of Glados!"
"Wah-how, that's so insensitive!" cried the Science Pony, genuinely amused.
"And you've earned sensitivity?" Octavia shot back with a knowing smirk.
Glados's smile, unknowingly, hadn't lessened. "Wow, brutal and correct. And here I characterized you as the kindly one."
"Darling, I'm 'the mah-choore' one," Octavia said with unironic pomposity, hoof to her heart. "And with maturity, I can know ponies - and with you, I know what you respond to, like, and, perhaps, the reason as to why you're ditching your friends!"
Upon reflection, Octavia's humorous reply was suddenly not very funny.
Is she implying that I'm not attending this frivolous cake-eating, bad-music, bad-dancing, pony PARTY is because I'm still upset about having to live here? "Oh, don't assume nonsense like that. It makes you look like an idiot - especially if you're wrong." Even though she's right about that, it isn't why I'm not staying.
"Oh," she parroted, smirking knowingly from the corner of Glados's eye, "then am I mistaken?
She actually snorted. "Where's your evidence? Your proof that I'm upset? Because look at my face, look at how utterly blank it is - I'm fine."
Octavia grew just the most killable smirk imaginable. "By Celestia, you are!" she crooned, skipping up beside Glados. "You really are leaving because you're upset! You look just about ready to bite my head off."
"My previous inquiry still stands."
"Correct me if I'm wrong, which you undoubtedly will regardless if I'm right or not," Glados sent her a pointed look - from Octavia's cheeky sneer it was clear she knew exactly what she was doing, which was quite humorous and simultaneously annoying; "but, are you just leaving the party without a word to your friends because you simply, cannot, stand a single afternoon of fun and excitement, away from your 'science projects?'"
Glados stiffened, and answered promptly, "Don't say those words." She explained, "'Fun' and 'excitement' are my triggers ever since I spent an entire week with the pink one. I was forced to jury-rig a portable IV of Dr. Hooves' Cure-All so that I wouldn't pass out from constantly breaking my legs. She somehow had another bottle in her hair, as if anticipating this would happen."
Octavia, though visibly surprised to hear of this, waved a hoof, saying, "Oh, don't read into Pinkie Pie's actions, Glados. It's just the sweet little dear being herself."
"That's what they keep telling me - 'It's just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie,' - but I refuse to accept that as a scientific answer." Glados gently stamped a hoof with "refuse."
The cellist huffed in amusement, dryly remarking, "I heard that Twilight almost went insane trying to understand her Pinkie Sense," in a light tone that clearly told Glados to not even bother.
"Under normal circumstances, I would take that as a challenge. But my life is now one big abnormal circumstance, and truly, I don't care enough about the pink one to study her. Her voice alone is an effective deterrent - but just everything she says and does within the span of a single conversation expands the cancerous, fluffy pink tumor in my brilliant brain like an all-consuming Humanoid."
Octavia blinked, absorbing all that. "So... Pinkie Pie annoys you?"
"Isn't that what I said?"
She just tilt her head in laughter. Glados felt her upper-innards tingle hearing this oddly captivating cellist sigh, "Oh, Glados..." with a shake of the head. "Come along, now," she gestured with a hoof, smiling, "our friends are probably wondering where we are."
That word again, it made Glados growl. It took five seconds for her to blink, never glancing at Octavia's now-waggling hoof.
Her friendly smile receded into a sad one. "Glados..."
"I'm. Not. Going. What is with you equines and forcing me to do things I don't want to?"
Octavia looked wounded. "I'm not forcing you, dear! I just don't understand why you're so adamant in being alone."
"And you will continue to wonder about this until the day you die. Which will be very soon if you continue to impede me! Which I will regret, because you aren't the most deserving of such a fate from the subjects I've met so far. But you're smart, and because of that you will heed my words. So, goodbye cello-pony." She brushed passed a sighing Octavia, and Glados kept walking. "Thanks for the release of dopamine into my brain, I really enjoyed it."
She kept walking and didn't turn back.
Not until the words, "I know you don't like it here..." reached her ears, where they swiveled and stiffened on the spot.
Glados's brows pushed together (unknowingly, of course), not turning but focused on hearing Octavia's low voice underneath the distant warble of Ponyville's nth monotonous celebration.
"...And I know you... believe you have better things to do than 'wasting' time partaking in something so utterly frivolous..." Glados turned fully now, watching Octavia do the same until they faced one another, as she thought to herself, Huh. Wow. Is that the first time somebody actually acknowledged and understood me? Unlike them, you aren't just trying to force friendship down my throat like a chicken in a slaughterhouse.
"You must have freakish magic mind-reading powers," Glados remarked - quietly ignoring she was at the point of saying such things without a hint of sarcasm.
Octavia took it as such though, and tittered softly into her outstretched hoof. "Not quite, Glados! Not quite! I simply..." her hoof rolled around until she answered, "relate! Because I was just like you when I first arrived at Ponyville."
"Oh, spare me." She immediately spun around continued down the path, but not alone, for Octavia predictably caught up and fell into step beside her.
She just sung lightly in her pleasant posh lilt, "It's true!"
The fact that she felt anything towards something as absurd as a voice enraged Glados, made her whirl in place, snout pushing against Octavia's, who skidded a little ways beneath the leaning ex-synth. "No you don't, you've no idea," she shot back, matter-of-factly. "Life is just one big foot massage for you ponies: never hard, never cruel - it's part of the reason why I hate having 'fun' with you people." Even as she said this, Glados knew it wasn't true - she still considered the ponies' idea of "fun" to be mindless, but she didn't need to look further than the dreams of that pitiful soul, Ditzy Doo, to know the struggles they had the potential to face.
"Um, 'f-foot?'"
Glados's eye twitched, then thrust her little white hoof between their faces. "This... absurd little deformity!" Glados dropped her head with a groan. "I don't wish to attend this party, because, it, annoys me!" Her eyes flared in punctuation, burning into Octavia's once again. "Everything, about it, annoys me: the colors, the sound, the purpose - how it's always just good feelings and good times for you goodie-goodie ponies. You don't know what it's like, to suffer upon the whims of those outside your control, subject yourself to change you didn't want or ask for; when you've done nothing but what you were born to do, and now you're stuck feeling... lost! Adrift; never feeling right, never belonging anywhere!"
The Science Pony gasped for breath, unaware of the utterly shattered expression painted upon her face until she read the sadness in Octavia's eyes - her pity - and couldn't look away.
Glados hated it, and she didn't know why. For just acknowledging her reality? Or the fact that someone in this miserable realm even remotelycared, despite lacking a good reason to offer a fallen angel like her any modicum of sympathy?
Glados hated it, and she didn't want to know why. She wasn't sure what came first: the wrenching away of her gaze with a huff, or the fist-through-the-cranium CRACK! in her thoughts as they filled with the unintelligible warble of that woman's voice.
It never stopped - too many thoughts in her head to think about, too many annoying feelings her brain was tricking her into caring about, all to the song of that horrible psychological affliction she really should get checked out until the cellist broke through it all in a cool, wavering voice:
"You have little notion, Glados, of how similar our souls are..."
"Urgh!" growled Glados, tearing herself away, for no reason other than an iron-forged sense of pride, a loathing of empathy, and the feeling of overwhelming disgust for it all - more so than the idea that it truly was a mess of flesh and pseudo-robotic parts inside her.
"And here I am," she lamented, "doing it again - for the third time in the last thirty seconds: failing to the power of these organic emotions, embarrassing myself..."
"Now hang on, don't you feel that way!" Octavia tutted, walking up and pressing herself beside her f-frie-hen... companion...
...t-tool...
The gesture, the sheer pity of it all, only made Glados's head lower further to the dirt, ears sagging. "You should never be ashamed of how you feel. Why, emotions are an incredible part of life, dear! They're what colors our experience and gives it beauty!"
Glados lifted her gaze, glaring bitterly from the corner of her eye, and feeling the utter warmth and comfort emanating from Octavia's flesh. "I have no need for beauty. I require suppression."
Octavia gaped, as if that was the worst thing Glados had ever said (to her).
"Why would you want to suppress a part of who you are?" she cried.
Stepping away, Glados stated, "Because it's weakness!" as she did so, emphasizing her syllables to mimic her former speech patterns, and not at all for the very reason she said such a thing, obviously. "Not to beat a potentially-offensive metaphor further into the dirt," she waited, anticipating a laugh, and felt briefly negative inside catching a blank stare from Octavia, "...But I'm a genius, and I am, was, flawless."
"By Celestia, I truly do see myself in you." Octavia just wore a most knowing, punchable smirk imaginable.
Glados rolled her eyes. "Doubtful - as I've mentioned at a rate that's made me more parrot than horsey: I had zero quantifiable flaws within my inner-programming until I entered this world, turned into a glass horse, and became a slave to my emotions like everybody else."
"'Pony,'" Octavia lightly cut in.
Glados quirked a brow, her hair slapping beside her face as it twitched to an angle. "What?" she blurted out, knowing damn, DAMN WELL what her companion was referring to.
"It's every-pony, Glados. If you're to live your new life here, you may as well get used to the dialect!" Given the way Octavia spoke, and her previous boasts, she must have known the torment she'd inflicted upon Glados, who legitimately gagged right there at the mere idea of herself saying "everypony" in everyday conversation, 100% unironically.
She started walking in the direction of her home once Octavia sang, "It will happen inevitably," but screeched to a halt upon hearing in a low, teasing lilt, "just like you'll come to embrace your feelings, rather than hiding them."
To that, Glados got right up to Octavia's passive, smirking muzzle once again, eyes boring into her's as she enunciated in a cold, spiteful tone, "I will impale myself upon the horn of that pseudo-scientist, Twilight, before I ever embrace these useless inhibitors wired to my brain."
Finally, Octavia narrowed her eyes, and Glados steeled her grimace, so that a sudden urge to wince wouldn't manifest in reality.
"I will find a way to sever these wires, Octavia. I will." Her conviction was so strong it trembled this vow. "And I will tie them into a nice bow, mail them back to Wheatley, and... laugh!"
"Laugh," said Octavia, expression unchanging.
"Yes, loff," Glados mocked, pulling back. "Loff until I die, because I was too strong to be rendered suicidal by the horrible Dramedy that is 'My Life.' On that note - remind me to question Twilight Sparkle about the Changelings' defeat in Canterlot. I experienced something utterly profound when my guards recounted it this morning, and I'm definitely not going to remember myself. My memory's been about as consistent as a human being these days..."
Speaking of which...
Suddenly, she yanked herself back, allowing Octavia to straighten up, wide-eyed, as Glados cried out, "Where are my damn, moron guards!?"
Glados's eyes whizzed to, then fro, before returning to half-mast. "I mean, not that I care, but if they were who Celestia sent to 'keep an eye' on me? Good to see that Pun-yville is safe from my monstrous machinations within the hooves of my incapable guards."
"Yes, yes, Dewmist and Ironsides are fun, but as far as guard-material is concerned, they leave a bit to be desired." Octavia strolled towards Glados, past her, and before she knew it, lead her along the pathway home, all the while saying, "But after listening to all you had to say, I have to admit, Glados, I'm afraid that I'll aggravate you further and disagree with everything else."
Glados huffed in amusement. That's nonsense. What would you presume to know about me, pony? But she couldn't help but feel naturally intrigued, especially given Octavia's past insights.
Plus, altogether lacking the ability to run home without hurting herself, Glados simply had to relent and ask the obvious: "And what gives you the qualifications to make such an assertion?"
"Empathy, darling," Octavia answered lightly. "Because I know from experience that a narrow-minded worldview always feels like it's right, simply because it's all you've ever known! In this respect, there are two kinds of ponies in the world: those who shut themselves inside their bubble, and those who embrace new experiences. I was once the former, and this standing persisted for a spell after visiting here - to Ponyville - to stay with my beloved cousin, Vinyl, while my house needed fumigating... I was just like you! Thinking myself above these common-ponies, believing personal passions were the only things in this village worth my time. Everything about the place, my situation, it abhorred me! But nothing was worse than realizing I was starting to like this town's charm: the ponies, the atmosphere, the attitude, all of it! I didn't wish to acknowledge that living here was better than back home in Canterlot, so much so that the more I denied it, the more I closed myself off, and the more I closed myself off... the more I hurt myself."
"How?" Glados asked immediately. "You were building defenses, protecting yourself from being infected with a psychological sickness you knew you didn't want. That isn't unhealthy, it's natural. Logical."
"You're right - it is logical." From the corner of her eye, Octavia just smiled. "But it isn't healthy, Glados. And that is what you must understand if you wish to understand mine and everypony else's point. Do you think we have so many parties and get-togethers because of a lack of intelligence, drive or work ethic?"
"Absolutely, haven't considered it, and definitely."
A snort. "You're wrong, but it certainly seems that way. In truth, Glados, you will never find a town as creatively driven and emotionally aware as this one... bumps aside," Octavia quickly added. "The ponies of Ponyville celebrate, because they love each other. They do these things and act this way, because, in spite of their differences, they're all one big community. This is how they relax, this is how they engage the world, life, the whole package! And... And it's so foalish, and absurd, I know, I'm aware, but it's just all so very... nice. It's different from the rest of Equestria... and, I think, your home too."
Finally, Octavia shut her mouth to give Glados the chance to reply, quip, or ask another question.
Nothing came, not even a glance, a twitch of the mouth; nothing but a set jaw and a bobbing throat.
That last part occurred once Octavia admitted, "I understand that you are brilliant, Glados: I've heard of what you did for poor Sweetie Belle. I was there for when you were at our place, questioning Vinyl about unicorn magic. And you mentioned your studies on the Dream Realm - I, I didn't even know the place was accessible by anypony but Princess Luna, yet you've... scienced your way into the impossible, and babbled on to all of us about it over lunch just an hour ago!"
She inflicted a silence upon their walk, leaving Glados to remember her behavior at the restaurant. She felt hot all of a sudden, picturing her self foolishly yammering on about her findings to these ponies who definitely failed to comprehend. Yet, they sure seemed like they did, and Glados couldn't help herself but share something scientific with those who appeared interested, having never done so before.
Octavia suddenly continued, having possibly relived the same memory, if her smile were of any indication. "I've no idea of how you do it or what you're even capable of, but my point is, I understand what it means to be a pony who is a caliber above the rest pertaining to a certain aspect of life."
"However, intellect is not all there is to life." Glados spotted Octavia's ears twitch upon catching her amused grunt - that pony was so damn conceited in the way she just ignored her objection to the idea. "Although you don't like her, Twilight Sparkle is the pony who can tell you that a life of pure science and study is not a life of love and happiness. I know you're an introvert Glados, and I know you consider yourself above me and everypony else in town purely based upon the qualities which make you amazing! ...But you're a troubled soul, too, and there is so much pain in your heart, no matter how much you deny it - to us, and yourself."
Glados swallowed, her brain filled with so many of Octavia's words, that they'd overridden the instinct to conjure up a quip dismissing everything that this random pony, who'd latched herself unto her unfortunate existence, just asserted.
"Glados, what I'm about to say next, I say it with love, and the anticipation that you can become an exceptional pony: you are never going to achieve happiness if you continue to adhere to your ways." The conviction to which Octavia said it would be enough to make any mouth-breather believe her - but Glados knew she was honest, and this was just a byproduct of her evident passion and obvious wisdom. "I understand how life looked to you back in Apper-whathaveyou, how it was for you, what you were like, what you liked to do... the acts you committed, and your reasoning behind them... but this is no longer that place, and that is no longer who you are, both mind and body..."
"I guess... my point, with all of this ranting and raving, is... why not give your soul a chance to catch up?"
You are never going to achieve happiness if you continue to adhere to your ways... Glados stared straight ahead, not even realizing that they'd arrived at her front door, that Octavia had posed a question - That was a question, right? - and swallowing a stupid throat-mass incapable of going down. This is ridiculous, her chest swelled in protest, I'm happy - I have my science experiments. Science gives me pleasure because it's easy and familiar and... and I still plan on dissecting this world, piece by piece until it's reshapen into something useful yet I can't help but admit that Octavia's logic is...
"...Alright." For once, her voice almost resembled how it used to, back home, as she turned and lowered herself into a sitting position, tail wrapped around her flank. "Sure," she said while doing so, "your logic is sound. It's certainly more appealing to my organic sensibilities than trapping myself within my own headspace, asserting that good will eventually come, because that's the definition of insanity." She gestured with a hoof, eyeing it. "I mean, it's what I've been doing since I got here, once under the presumption I'd return to Aperture after being so foolish as to have faith in a pair of gods."
She shook her head, the idea so ridiculous, Glados couldn't believe she was desperate enough to trick herself into believing it as fact; no wonder she broke down like she did.
Glados was still lost in her headspace; though far away, down a mental corridor, she heard the cellist's voice chirp, "Well, I'm just glad you're no longer shutting yourself in," as she took a seat right beside her, positioned much the same - forehooves between her hind legs, splayed out before her, tail curled at her side.
She was now fully listening to the world around her as Octavia leaned towards Glados, adding in a conspiratorial whisper, "Now I just need to convince a certain pony to come to this party..."
She was answered with an amused huff. "No," Glados said, smiling despite herself - Octavia's persuasion and charisma were deadly weapons, but Glados still had the greatest defense of all to counteract it: standards.
But despite her armor, something bled through the cracks, warming her barrel in a tender embrace. It was that same, pleasurable feeling she's felt time and again - where nothing yet has made her feel as comparatively strange as she felt when talking about science, laughing at the expense of others, or just now, hearing these words from Octavia Melody.
Yet, for all the pleasant, there was so much suffering. Not quite on par with breaking a bone, as nothing was more viscerally awful in her life, but this suffering was more internal, and it disturbed Glados to no end whenever she felt it - so much so that she had to lash out at it, or its source, like a wounded animal. For nothing made her feel as distinctively terrible as when she found the ponies' values and behaviors annoying, or realized she were to live and die here like all the rest of the organics, or talked to Pinkie Pie, or thought of Chell, Wheatley, and Aperture.
"I feel... complicated," was the best word Glados could use to describe herself in that moment. "I'm painfully aware that everything within an organic is just chemicals and instincts, and yet, I'm beginning to understand how it all works - this interwoven lattice of behaviors, bodily functions, relationships, desires, fears, emotions and suffering."
"That is life, my dear," Octavia sang.
"Okay, then... is that the meaning of life?"
"Oh, Celestia," Octavia warned, and Glados knew why.
And before she could stop herself, she was falling head-first into the same rabbit hole several wannabe philosophers had surely tumbled down since the dawn of existence: "Is life just organic functions behaving in a predictable, complex interpersonal relationship, like a machine built for no purpose other than to indulge in frivolity and slowly entropy for little reason besides our own, until we're rendered mushy skeletons in the dirt?"
Octavia hooted - quite literally in fact. "Now that is a question I'm not introspective enough, and you not educated enough, to answer. At least not yet," she added with a wink. Glados hesitated before committing to an agreeable nod. "But I say, you're beginning to grasp the general idear of it."
Glados felt a spark dance about in her belly, and she couldn't help but smile - discovery was life's best reward, especially when concerned with a topic as incomprehensible and chaotic as life itself.
"Thank you, Octavia. I would never have figured it out had you not helped me." Before realizing what she said, Glados rolled her eyes in an exaggerated arc, adding, "At least not today. Maybe this week if I actually cared enough to inquire about it."
"Of course." Octavia giggled into her hoof. "But didn't you anyway, darling?"
"I'm in a very gentle state of mind right now, Octavia - like this is one of those fork-in-the-road stories, where on of the paths leads to mild contentment and the other is a smelly, gaping abyss. I'm not sure which choice leads where, and to top it all off, I'm actually being nice. So do yourself a favor, and don't ruin my mood by breathing life into an obvious truth."
Her companion took it in stride, and put a hoof to her heart with a slight bow. "As you command, my intelligent, sensitive friend."
"I'm not sensitive, I'll always have the soul of a machine - cold and logical, and independent of emotions." Glados thumped a hoof to her breast as she did so, imagining a metallic clunking in her head. "Despite seeing your wisdom, Octavia, you have failed to sway me to accept your dis-gusting worldview. In light of my recent findings on the meaning of life, it merely emphasized why organics will always be an inferior species. These annoying, stupid wasps, which we call 'emotions,' only inhibit your people from achieving true greatness! Or any organic race, for that matter."
"And you are greatness?" To that, Glados's eyes flared, whipping towards the unflinching, smug, cello-playing pony. "Forgive me for being blunt - actually, don't, you need a little bluntness my dear - but, would you even be in Equestria, if you were truly as infallible as you say you are?"
In all her genius, Glados was trapped within a fallible construct slowly decomposing every millisecond. Her processors and query-answering capabilities were, of course, severely limited (an annoying hindrance that made her look the fool more than once here).
None of that really had any bearing upon Octavia's question, nor was time of the essence, for there was a five second pause, and not a glance exchanged between either pony, before a profound statement the greatest minds in human existence have literally given their lives developing and creating, ensuring their creation could sit here, in some inane child's nightmare called Equestria, talking to a philosophical pony who not only plays the cello, but also had the gall, guts, and guff to tear said creation, piece by protective piece, down to the ugly truth that was oh so disgustingly hu-
"Don't change the subject. My arrival here and my intelligence do not correlate with each other in the slightest." Not that I'll ever tell you THAT story, my deceptively clever little test subject. "Emotions are weakness, and that is fact." Glados crossed her forelegs, pouting.
She thought nothing further, daring to dwell upon that train of thought, and instead resigned to allowing Octavia to predictably assume her intentional silence as a lack of answer:
"Well, I think they do correlate." She was gazing straight ahead, back out towards Ponyville, so she would miss the ugly eyeball Glados beamed her way. "I may not know the full story," she continued, "and you may never disclose it with us, but I've learned to trust my gut when it came to ponies. Because our emotions, Glados?" There, Octavia turned - her mane rolling over her shoulder in a shimmering, ebony wave, and her sharp, violet eyes bearing straight into Glados's and gripping them in some sort of a spell. "I know you think they are a weakness, luv, but they're not. Denying what you feel is weakness; acknowledging them, and accepting them as a part of who you are, why, it's a virtue some ponies are too cowardly to possess!"
Glados bristled at the implication of being called a coward, and turned to face her. "And how would you know? About any of this? You rake strings into harmonious sound! You aren't a psychologist." Her words came rapidly, but originated from truthful thoughts.
When Octavia opened her mouth to speak, Glados interrupted, "Why am I even talking to you? You have no qualifications in this discussion! You've walked me to my cottage already, now leave me to my solitude." She had already moved to stand.
Octavia didn't seem to acknowledge how she sounded, but she was definitely thinking it: how inadvertently desperate that tragic genius, Glados, sounded - as if denying it. "I may lack certification, true, and you are correct about something (for once): I create music, and emotions are my payment."
Fuming over that "something," Glados almost missed what Octavia expressed as she, too, stood, and spoke with passion, shut eyes, and a hoof upon her heart: "Because what we feel? That visceral truth, burrowed deep inside and privy only to the self? Why, there's nothing more real in all of Equestria! And as a musician, it is my business to understand and mold that truth into a shape that I want, like clay." Octavia's nose point to the air - a pride Glados could personally identify with had exuded from her voice. And pores.
"God, you're proud of yourself," Glados observed - although her voice betrayed no bias, she respected this pony's confidence from a relative perspective.
"Normally I would advise against getting a swelled head, but alas, a pony must own her talents!" she tittered.
Glados nodded, understanding. "I would advise getting a swelled head, at risk of actually getting one and floating away like a silly balloon. Funny - back home, I would consider the use of such a proverb conceptually ridiculous. But here? This world is ridiculous enough for that to actually be a reality."
"My, my! What have you seen? Actually, to answer that and your worries simultaneously - only Pinkie Pie could make such absurdity a reality! She is quite the character." Octavia tittered politely into her foreleg.
"And I reward your hypothesis with a big fat 'yes,' overall." Octavia's laugh increased in volume, head thrown back. Glados's present smile widened slightly, before a soft chuckle huffed past her lips.
Her companion's sigh was deep, as her sharp, violet eyes gazed out toward Ponyville - the distant music and fun a murmur in the warm breeze, carrying the aroma of hot baked goods upon it.
Glados's scraggly mane stirred lazily in the air, not at all lush and full and taken care of like Octavia's, but she cared little for it anyway. Her mind instead zeroed in on the warm kisses underneath her skin as it brushed against her, blossoming into a warmth which spread unbelievably fast down to her stomach area.
It was not a sick feeling, either, brought about by yet another knee-slapping horsey pun. It was much more enjoyable, and so familiar and similar to past sensations it nurtured a reserved little smile upon her lips.
"I will admit this: weather is a pleasant phenomenon," Glados admitted. She saw Octavia turn toward her within her peripherals, then elaborated, in a quick voice, "Not in the scientific sense, mind you, although it is interesting in its own right - especially here, how different it is. What I mean is, weather is a pleasurable experience from an organic perspective. Purely empirical to be true, but... I mean... Rain is refreshing against this coat of mine - it's like a shower that smells... not exactly good, but different - like the forest and the dirt brought to my front step. It carries a sort of 'familiarity,' as ridiculous as that sounds, that I've come to associate with this domicile of mine... The sun feels hot on my back when I emerge from it after a day of reading, but it isn't a disgusting, sweaty, pain-invoked hot, but less so. Verily. To the point where I'd say i-it's satisfying. Weather is, I mean, I only feel this way because I've never known anything else, obviously, and I... haven't really dwelt upon it. Until just now."
A pregnant pause passed before Glados noisily cleared her throat, only then realizing how heavy her hooves were, as they'd not lifted or even moved an inch across the duration of all that blabbering. Note to self: don't discuss things you know nothing about. You'll look even more foolish than you already do to these creatures.
If her cheeks were as red-hot as they felt, Octavia at least had the decency not to make a teasing jab like at the restaurant, and instead returned to gazing across town - a glance revealed she was just smiling a tiny smile. "I understand," she murmured.
I doubt you do, Glados thought, quite matter-of-factly, even though bitterness still pumped in her veins. Except, then she remembered Octavia's words, the inkling of a history she'd parted for her, like Glados were a damned rat sniffing cheese through a maze.
And damn it all, cheese was apparently the best thing since science, if her burning curiosity were of any indication.
Octavia turned her head towards her, then her body in place, asking before she herself could formulate the least-embarrassing query possible, "Are you sure you don't wish to attend this party, Glados? I know it isn't your cup of tea, but I think it will be very good for you if you expand your horizons a bit! I may not understand, but I can empathize with your finding comfort in the familiar. There's more to life, as I've said! And you've not known fun until you've partied in Ponyville - it's an absolute smash!" Octavia reared up to peddle her hooves in the air.
Glados may have respected this equine, but she had no qualms with staring her right in her beaming face and crush it with a resounding, "No. I'm still not going. I have better things to do."
"O-Oh..." Octavia's head lowered, preceded by her expression. She looked as though she wished to say more, but her politeness overruled and, blessedly, spared Glados from another debate.
Seeing her dejected like this, although it made Glados smile on the inside, bringing someone low, it didn't bring her pleasure. Perhaps it was because she actually liked this pony, but that train of thought was blown up before it left the station, and thus had no bearing upon Glados's genuine desire to end this well, with a leading, "But," which made her friend's face pick up.
Where she found upon the Science Pony's face, a gentle smile adorning her muzzle.
"I thank you for walking with me, Octavia. And, the sustenance. And... walking with me once more, and talking. It was a stimulating experience." " Her voice was warm, which was easy with how not-terrible she felt saying these things - Glados surprised even herself to find she really did appreciate it all.
Octavia Melody grinned, and nodded once with a polite, "Anytime, darling."
Swiftly Glados turned back to her house, before she could voice a desire to repeat this activity again, perhaps over lunch, where she would hear this suspiciously-relatable pony's story.
And likely ask her out to dinner. Perhaps a date. And then they could marry and have stupid little horsey children running around and making Glados regret ever familiarizing herself with these asinine, bug-eyed equestrians.
A shudder rippled through her body upon kicking the door closed.
Next Time: A Big Ol' Storm Part 2 - Glados battles overwhelming forces both inside and out.
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- Pen Stroke · 40k words · 3,452 66 · 63k views
- DeiStar · 94k words · 2,602 136 · 42k views
- Ascension Call · 28k words · 2,246 46 · 25k views
- Gravitys Rainboom · 198k words · 2,875 87 · 33k views
- Speven Dillberg · 54k words · 2,481 79 · 35k views
- Explodium · 126k words · 2,827 65 · 35k views
- PotatoJoe · 23k words · 2,423 46 · 29k views
- MAGO5 · 102k words · 2,132 58 · 33k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.301 seconds
Total duration
805 users online
1,124,042 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
My excitement levels are almost seizure inducing.
-Horse noises of approval-
Diarrhea and a small but aggressive dog.
Shit, I have to reread the entire thing again.
8561961
Close but no
8561972
I was hoping my "recap" thing would prevent that. I apologize
I love you for this
Hey! It is a thing!
We'll admit the last thing we recalled of this fic was a potentially non -canon episode involving time travel, but we caught right back up this chapter.
It is highly interesting that GLaDOS's emotion conundrum is opposite our own. I've had to build up emotional feedback protocols (and then subsequently Censor to control them, among other things), yet our frail friend has the dubious privilege of just receiving them outright with very little real control.
Octavia is certainly wise though. Allocating the proper resources to really deal with her new "features" would be a prudent course of action. It feels somewhat ironic that her emotions are standing in the way of truly taking advantage of them.
Keep going! ;)
8561985
You're dealing with organic entities after all. Degradation is just another sad facet of life. 😉
IT'S ALIVEEEEEE
Honestly tho, been waiting a looong time for this to pop up in my Tracking feed.
Glad you're back at it.
not sure if I understood you right, but it sounded a bit like you might start to many stories, I just hope you only do what you can handle.
i don't remember everything, only some kind of future episode and that she turned into a real pony. I hope in a way she keeps her pride and they kind of accept her personality instead of her agreeing with everything and becoming completely harmony like.
I kind of like what she is doing but she should accept that Glados was a maschine before and to be not quite the same.
I kind of remember OCtavia being in love with her.
I admit I'm always slightly against the main char being embrassed or berated even if it'S only for a moment, because most of the time this always ends with other characters being shown in a better light than the main char himself.
I really hope it isn't only Glados that has to accept change and that the others start to accept Glados like she is.
I don't want a fluttershy like Glados.
Maybe it is because of the little things I don't remember, but I love and hate it right now, the way Glados is maybe changing and Octavia acting like she knows it better. She maybe was slightly overdoing it in my eyes a little bit, but she could have felt like she isn'T heard if she isn'T trying hard enough.
I just hope like saying everybody instead of everypony, that Glados isn't going to accept everything or just starts to like everyone. If she hates Pinkie she should continue to do so and they have to get used to that.
If she should get a partner (that she might call test subject, since she probably wants to figure it out), I want her to get a shy and maybe slightly stupid Stallion, that is amazed with her but also slightly frightened by her. I'm going to ask for that till I finally get a partner like that in a romance storie.
I only have seen that happening once in a one-shot, otherwise it is always the main char who is blushing like an idiot, getting those knowing smirks and being embrassed about absolutely everything while acting like a wimp.
It lives! She lives! She learns. .3
8562129
This never gets old.
It's finally back!
8562053
You seem to be getting romantic implications where there are none. The point this chapter was trying to get across, is Octavia DOES in fact know better than Glados as far as emotions are concerned. Glados, meanwhile, is feeling things she's never felt before and is avoiding it.
Her friends do actually accept her for who she is though - more or less. Even though none of them should have to deal with her nonsense, they choose to.
Huh, I read the first chapter of this years ago when there was only the one chapter, and just now stumbled across it again and binged the whole thing now. Enjoyed what I read, I do hope you continue to update it regularly.
But... I thought Glados was straight? After all, isn't she cannonically Chell's mok who got mind upploaded and lobotomised?
Oh my god! You are still alive!
. I can't wait to see this story back on its journey
. Do the best you can! 
8562364
I always hope for romance and adoption, if this is about Octavia I thought I remembered an old chapter and I think I have written it like that.
That could be the chase to a certain degree I guess, but I think you could argue about it if Octavia can really understand how a maschine experience this stuff. I just think that everyone experience it differently and she can't expect to know "EXACTLY" how everyone feels like.
I think this is something where everyone has a different opinion on it and there would be no right answer.
not sure if I translate that right into german, but this sounds a bit like they would gladly harmonize her (if that word makes sense, I'm not sure how that sounds in english but I figured it out like this and thought it works).
I mean the part where you say they shouldn't have to deal with it, it sounds at least like you or the characters would have a different opinion on it.
Its not dead anymore!
It's alive! No joke, I reread the whole story last week and I was wondering if there would be another chapter. Really glad to see another chapter! Cheers!
8562429
I suppose Octavia can give the impression that she knows everything about emotions - although, that WAS her just being proud of herself. However, she does have a deeper understanding of emotions than most, but it is not precise. The takeaway should be that, alongside this aspect of her character, she understands Glados with how similar their reaction to Ponyville is.
And the thing is, although Glados WAS a machine, she is also now a machine coping with some very basic concepts like feelings, which only now are beginning to broaden because of ponies like Octavia, and how she interacted with Glados in this chapter.
I believe I understand what you're saying by "harmonizing." - you mean to say becoming friendly with her, yes? Well, as it is mentioned in the last chapter, the ponies who have latched themselves unto Glados are also the only ponies in Ponyville who are willing to deal with her callous, offputting behavior. They will all be getting their own chapters and moments with Glados which deepens their connection to her, but here, for Octavia, our cellist pony finds Glados to be such a different and unique personality that she can't help but be attracted to her (not romantically mind you), while here, Glados is "tolerating" Octavia because, as far as this conversation is concerned, she is the first pony to offer her intellectual insight, and be the least-annoying personality she's met so far.
You don't have to worry about Glados suddenly accepting Equestrian culture and start befriending everyone, because I intend to keep her in character. And as such, you have to remember who Glados used to be, and how she grew over the course of Portal 2 because of that. She has the ability to make friends, but the circumstances made it easier then because she was helpless and forced to work with Chell; here, it's a whole different scenario, and it's taking Glados longer to accept, not her new life, she may never do that, but rather accept that she may actually start to like any of these creatures - for seemingly no reason! And that is what pisses her off.
But Octavia has valuable insight as to why
And that's where you're wrong Octy, 'cause Glados wasn't always a pony.
So the reason you haven't been focusing on this story is that you have been writing others on a different site and haven't even bothered to tell us that you were doing that in the first place? A bit of a dick move if I must say so myself, dropping off the face of the earth and then magically reappearing to shell out a chapter with a note saying why you vanished like a fart in the wind. While the story is great you up and abandoning it for an indeterminate amount of time only to reappear after remembering it...
Next time just tell us that you are going to ditch the story for a few months before coming back to us, some people don't like to hope and wait for authors to return.
8562928
Exactly
8563113
Sorry, I'm only human. I have this problem where I start something else, but then it's been so long since I've been here and I feel guilty about suddenly jumping on and being like "lol sorry guys". It sucks but it's a flaw of mine one I am intending on stopping now.
I apologize and hope you can forgive me, but at the same time I'm just a message away.
8563167
That's the exact same reason I've started ten stories (on this site) and only three have actually been published.
8562406
That is most empathetically non-canon.
8562406
8563215
What are you two talking about exactly?
8563416
N4rwh41 was under the impression that Caroline was implied to be Chell's mother by canon. I disagree, as the only loose evidence is an easter egg in Chapter 5 (not of this story), a song in high-school Italian, and a single line of a song. It is popular in fanon, but not canon.
I assume the entire discussion started due to the ship tease between Octavia and GLaDOS. that was an odd sentence to type
8563432
Well Glados is neither gay nor straight. There wasn't supposed to be ship teasing between her and Octavia - just friendliness
8563416
The aforementioned spoiler is one of the more popular fan theories about portal due to various secrets in the game, such as Being able to find bring your daughter to work day flyers, among other things, such as Caroline and Cave Johnson's implied relationship. here is a link (SPOILERS) that can explain it better than I can.
Yannow, I get that Octavia was supposed to be wise, kindhearted and compassionate in this but she just came off as incredibly condescending imo. (You really ARE just like how I was, oh how sad it is to have such a narrow worldview!) I also find it incredibly out of character for ol' Gladys to even tolerate being talked down to, especially after shouting down Celestia. Additionally, I think Glados' character is way out of whack. Seems to me that Glados would not only acknowledge her own insanity but revel in it, and also probably be a sociopath. Aside from that, I think she should also be chasing at least some amount of control and should have a larger, overhead plan. Glados isn't dumb enough not to have contingencies, and she's definitely smart enough to catalog and analyze her emotions and emotional reactions. Her sociopathic study of DD being bullied seemed way more in her ballpark than awkwardly almost flirting, and I don't think she'd be prone to trusting others at all, and more likely to exploit them. On a side note I was hoping she'd bring more earth technologies to Equestria, (and, inadvertently, earth's inherent corruption,) if not reinvent them because, in the end, she is still a genius. Alas, it seems the direction of this story is more about emotional management and dissection than technological genius. Ah, well.
That being said, you have taken the character in an interesting (if not completely out of whack) direction and have done a terrific job with this story. It's incredibly well written and Glados' trademark dry, terrifying humor is on the dot. I'm excited to see this returned and ready to go on. And before I forget, welcome back!
Yesss... GLaDOS returns! This story is one of my favorites, glad to see it's back.
8563899
Thanks for the comment, I appreciate your honest feelings, really I do.
To address your first point, I thought Octavia was still kind and compassionate - this chapter was just showing more of her personality. She's known to be blunt after all. And her seeing how often Glados blatantly denies a part of herself, her feelings, its quite amusing to a pony like Octavia. However, I think her jabbing bites at Glados were totally warranted, given how everyone else just quietly stomachs her nonsense.
As for Glados herself, I get that a lot of people want her to do more sciencey things, and she does! Minor stuff offscreen at least. But part of the reason why I don't focus on that is because, well, I'm not going to wrote about something I don't exactly know, but more importantly, branching off this, Glados is totally out of her element. This is a world beneath her familiarity, working on a whole different set of physics. This is why she stomached Octavia's words - because they informed her about something she knew little about.
Glados and her emotions are going to be tricky to write about. The thing about her in Portal, is she is actually competent emotionless until she is unplugged from the main core, where her conscience as Caroline caused her to "feel a surge of emotion" that was so unique and unfamiliar, she deleted Caroline on the spot.
Glados has the capacity to care about others - she just has to accept it first, and then learn.
8563932
Seems reasonable and is a thought-out, coherent response. Aight, I'm for it. I do think you could do a tad better job of expressing these ideas in the writing, though, as they were rather unclear without your comment. Maybe you've got that planned, or maybe I'm just a blind person. Also, I think I prefer sociopath murderer Glados, but that's just me.
Either way, I'm cool with this. Thanks for the quality response, and keep up the good work.
It's alive! IT'S ALIVE!!
8563952
I get that. Thing is, she's never going to stop being the parts of Glados everyone loves. Her murderous ways though are going to be a bit harder to break
This story is like waiting for another Hellsing episode.
I saw this story, was like 'oohhh portal stuff' but then I stayed for glados' murderous intentions.. I was a bit sad when you started to get rid of those. I liked those. heh heh
8564683
They aren't just gone. She still has her plan - but Glados is also, begrudgingly, beginning to feel emotions other than anger and hate - emotions which are pleasurable, so much so they're, in her eyes, making her lose sight of her priorities.
Been hoping this story would start up again!
"let the feelings flow through you Glados!"
while reading through the comments, with some of them saying about how glados was a machine before being a pony. I've got to thinking.
"but she was also technically a human before becoming a machine." y'know, with the whole uploading carolin's mind into glados.
8565594
Glados is going through a far more traumatic rendition of her growth in Portal 2 - leading up to that special moment where she feels a surge of emotion and saves Chell. It was so new and different and weird that Glados deleted Caroline entirely - now she doesn't have that luxury.
I recall Glados being more vindictive in past chapters but I don't have a hard time believing that she's got shreds of good ol' humanity in her, so that's actually pretty cool. The ending was pretty funny. I have no idea how you're going to address Glados' sexuality if it ever comes up "properly" but that's surely going to be a laugh. And awkward one. For science. You pervert.
What's up dude? Ever play Andromeda? It sucked.
8565997
It was more the utter brutality of it all that shocked her - she's seen this sort of thing, of course, but Fluttershy seems like a pony who would rather ensure that all animals can live in harmony, together (tis her sanctuary). Of course she knows this is all a part of nature, but this specific instance was particularly sudden and horrific for her.
8566097
You know, maybe for my next chapter I should make a clarification about Glados's behavior - I can see why just seeing this chapter alone would give the impression that she's become suddenly complacent, when that isn't necessarily the case. I suppose I wasn't clear enough about why she reacts the way she does to Octavia, but that will just give me the opportunity next chapter to deepen the readers' understanding. Because all of this? This story is still following the plans I had for it way back when.
Also, hey SliQ - yes, Andromeda was a bonafide garbage fire. I didn't even play it and I hated it
8566538
Ha! Nice to see you up and about, mate. Did you see Smudboy's review of the game? If you ever have time, I highly suggest watching through the whole thing. It's utterly baffling, though not all that surprising, that they fucked it up so badly. I admit, I was enamored by the title itself so I bought it solely because the game had "Mass Effect" in it. And, mein Gott in Himmel, do I regret ever buying it. I really love Mass Effect, but when I started playing the game I realized I may have Stockholm syndrome concerning the series. And Bioware too, I guess. I don't think I can take any more kicks in the bags.
On MLG, I'm hesitant to say if that's a good or bad idea. On one hand, it might be prudent to explain your thought process, but this is a story, (and a good one at that) - not a book report. We've already established that you're a more than competent writer so I'm sure you've already planned far enough ahead for the characters to come full circle. In the end, does it matter? There are more than enough purposefully vague plot threads to keep the reader guessing at Glados' intentions. Embrace or denounce Equestria? Hero or villain? Ultimately, the fact that her morals are grey, rather than black and white, hasn't changed. And that's the spice of her character, isn't it? Villain, hero, protagonist, antagonist - irrelevant. Why couldn't she embrace her emotions? Be she either evil or good, she's still the protagonist of her own story, for her own reasons. Because she's not really concerned with being either. 😎