Chapter 20

9-26-13, 4:44 A.M.

//continue{Portal 2 OST – An Accent Beyond} {t=80s}

Jeremy reflected on how he was probably about to die. His suit didn’t do anything against heat except a slight insulation due to the sorbothane and ceramic, and really all that did was make him feel hot in the blazing sun. Thankfully, the Everfree Forest was shady. He ran past Fluttershy’s cottage, trying to remember the path to the Hive. Celestia was still after him, flying over the treetops. He crashed through the undergrowth, trying desperately to avoid trees. This was the right path, right? Just then, he felt Luna trying to reach him. Change of plans! she informed him. Head to the old royal castle, the one we saw in the first episode! It’s right along the main path from Fluttershy’s cottage, you can’t miss it! Jeremy nodded uncertainly, and sped back towards the path, narrowly missing a squirrel.

Jeremy rapidly approached the bridge to the old castle, which was evidently still out. Still running, he jumped at the last second, slamming into the edge of the cliff and scrabbling frantically for a hold. He finally picked himself up, and kept running. The old castle was now in sight, and he saw some royal guards of the sun hauling Chrysalis and Luna inside. Not stopping for a moment, he barreled right into them, grabbing the two captives. He then set about with a flurry of punches and kicks, dispatching all the guards before they had a chance to recover, and brought Chrysalis and Luna into the old castle.

//{end}

Jeremy looked around – the place was evidently in worse disrepair than the show had made him think. Banners of the sun and moon were strewn about, some ripped. He hurriedly untied them.

“I can’t believe you escaped!” Chrysalis exclaimed, pleased to see him. Jeremy smiled at her.

“It wasn’t that hard – the ropes were kind of weak,” he explained briefly. Unfortunately, before he could finish, Celestia burst in, blazing with a burning magical aura.

“NO!” she shouted, and Jeremy was thrown back from Luna and Chrysalis. With another burst of magical energy, they were flung against the wall, which grew stone shackles to keep them from moving. Jeremy got up and whipped around, taking out his assault rifle. “I will NOT let you be with them! You’re MINE, human, MINE FOREVER!” Celestia screamed.

Jeremy leveled the rifle at her. “Let's settle this like adults, you worthless mongrel!” To his surprise, Celestia laughed.

“You think you can beat me with your simple guns? I am not Celestia, foal!” Her bright magic swirled around her, coalescing until Jeremy couldn’t look. A dark shape sprang free, and Celestia slumped to the floor, unconscious.

Nightmare Moon surveyed the room, sparkling with both dark and light energy. Her coat was now half black and half white, and her hair was a mix of blue and red flames, but she was still recognizable - her unforgettable, razor-sharp smile and catlike eyes attested to that. “Thou?! Thou art dead, demon!” Luna shouted. Nightmare once again enchanted the stone wall imprisoning her, this time to cover her mouth.

“Me! And this time, I won’t let anyone stop me – I own the night AND the day!” she arrogantly announced. Jeremy fired off a burst of rounds, but they were quickly deflected by Nightmare Moon’s magical energy. Now would be a great time for the Elements of Harmony to burst in here, he thought desperately. Nightmare turned to him, her horn and eyes glowing a deep electric blue. “Jeremy, you will SUBMIT,” she intoned, her voice laced with power. Strangely, nothing happened – Jeremy felt the same.

Chrysalis laughed. "You think you can use mind control?! There is only one master of that here - me!" she asserted. "And I will not let you control my love!"

Nightmare Moon appeared surprised, before returning to her usual furious look. “It didn’t work? Very well then – I’LL BEAT YOU INTO SUBMISSION!” she roared, springing forward.

//{Portal 2 OST – Bombs for Throwing at You}

Jeremy ducked at the first assault of energy blasts, and rolled to a different position. He seemed to remember that the shotgun worked well on magical shields, so he switched to that and fired both barrels, his arm wildly swinging from the kick. It appeared to do nothing, so he switched to the rocket launcher. This caused Nightmare Moon to stagger, her shield temporarily fading, but she put it back up again, determination in her eyes. Jeremy reloaded, and as he did so, she fired a bolt of energy at him, hitting him square in the chest and sending him flying back towards the far wall. He hit it with his back, and landed on the floor again using his boots, somewhat winded. Glaring, he shot another rocket at her, and she dodged. Jeremy grinned, and redirected the laser, and the rocket whipped around to hit her from behind, once again breaking the shield and causing her to stagger forward. Before she could react, Jeremy sprang forward and hit her with his steel pipe, using the T-shaped attachment on the end to grab hold of her horn and swing her around into a decorative stone pole.

Shakingly, Nightmare Moon got up. “How are you beating me?” she asked in dismay. Then she shook her head. “No matter – I’ll have you yet!” Lighting up her horn with an electric blue, she issued a bolt in the middle of both of them, blasting Jeremy backward with an explosion that rang through his ears. The building shook, and a portion of the ceiling opened, revealing that the sky had been split into day and night once again. But didn’t the sun and moon look closer? Jeremy looked again, and his dread was confirmed. Nightmare Moon was using Celestia’s magic to move the two celestial bodies closer together, into a collision trajectory. “Still willing to fight? I’ll kill everyone unless you give in!” Nightmare Moon raged. Jeremy looked at her – by moving the two huge objects, she was evidently tiring herself out even further. She didn’t even have her blue magical shield up.

“I’ll just have to kill you faster, then!” Jeremy retorted, and whipped out the portal gun.

Aiming at the wall some distance away, he fired a blue portal and rapidly aimed at Nightmare Moon, firing an orange portal under her hooves. She fell through, and was momentarily distracted enough for him to whip out the shotgun, scoring a direct hit to her side and causing blue blood to fly everywhere. Nightmare Moon gasped for a while, before regaining her footing unsteadily. “I’ll murder you for that!” she screamed, and forgetting about her magic, launched herself forward, her hoof connecting with his chest. Jeremy skidded backward, clutching his stomach and groaning in pain. He had to keep going.

Jeremy gave Nightmare Moon a vicious uppercut, noting the satisfactory feeling of having his fist slam into someone’s jaw. Nightmare Moon jerked back, and issued another magical bolt of energy – clearly she was faking having run out of magic. Jeremy was blown high, high up into the air, slamming against the ceiling. As he fell, he took out his assault rifle and issued a stream of bullets towards her, most of them connecting. As he landed, he noted that Nightmare Moon’s injuries were eerily in the exact same place as Luna’s – not important. He had to concentrate on winning. He pulled out the shotgun again, and aimed at her face, hoping to end it quickly.

He was disappointed, however, when she simply bowed her head, and her blue armored helmet absorbed the shock, the bullets harmlessly clattering off of it. “Your bullets are as weak as you are!” Nightmare Moon taunted, blasting energy all around him. In the confusion, the stone walls began to turn to dust, and Jeremy was quickly blinded. He couldn’t afford to start shooting everywhere, as he might hit Luna, Celestia or Chrysalis. Speaking of which, where was Celestia? Oh, there she was – chained to the wall, like everyone else. God dammit.

As the dust cleared, Jeremy spotted Nightmare Moon on the opposite side of the room. She looked as exhausted as Jeremy felt, but the sun and moon looked as though they were almost touching – he didn’t have much time to spare. He took another shot with the shotgun, and a few pellets connected, spinning her around. He sprang forward, as she tried to regain her senses, and starting hitting her in the back with the steel pipe, noting with a grim pleasure the screams of pain coming from her lips. Gone was any sense of honor, or decency in battle – either he killed her, or everyone died. To his dismay, she was able to light up her horn, stealing his shotgun away from him and pointing it at him. With a click, she fired, and Jeremy was blasted backwards.

The pain was unimaginable - the ceramic nanoplating could only take so much abuse, and Jeremy looked down at the dark red stain on his body. The bullets had certainly penetrated, but the suit had managed to hold back most of the force. He lay on the ground, blood seeping out in rivulets as he struggled to make his body respond. Get up. Get up! GET UP! he desperately thought, and finally struggled into a sitting position. Nightmare Moon had dropped the shotgun, maybe out of pain or exhaustion, and all three mares chained to the wall were calling his name. Shakingly, he got to his feet, and Nightmare Moon regarded him with amazement. "How are you getting up from that? You're dying!" she screamed in rage.

"Not the first time I've been shot," Jeremy grunted by way of reply. Still, he didn't think he could handle much more of this - his breathing was rapid and irregular, and his vision pulsed red as he forced himself into a standing position. Taking out his assault rifle once more, he issued a spray of bullets, catching Nightmare Moon on the neck only once. The gun jerked out of his hands, and he slumped back to the wall, exhausted and nearly dead.

//{end}

//{Portal 2 OST – Your Precious Moon}

Nightmare Moon swayed for a moment, before collapsing. Jeremy watched her anxiously, as she struggled to get up, before giving up, exhausted. To his dismay, she began to laugh. “Foal! My spell is still in effect – even if I die, you’ll never avert the sun and moon from their course! If I can’t have you, NO ONE CAN!” Jeremy looked up to find that the sun and moon looked as though they were in fact touching – and he became aware of the music that was pumping through his speakers. He looked at Luna, unsure. She sadly nodded, tears streaming down her face. Shakingly, Jeremy aimed a portal at the ground between him and Nightmare Moon, grateful that the surface here allowed a portal. “Wait. What are you doing? What is that music? What did she just tell you?!” Nightmare Moon demanded.

“Jeremy!” Celestia screamed at him, and he stopped what he was doing to look at her. “I’m so, so sorry,” she said, tears streaming down her face.

Jeremy gave her a calm, casual smile. “It’s alright,” he said.

As he aimed at the ceiling, right towards the middle of the colliding spheres, Jeremy took a moment to pray to whatever gods existed in this once-happy world. He prayed that his shot would land in the right place. He prayed his crazy plan would work. But most of all? He prayed that Luna, Chrysalis, and Celestia would forget him, and move on. He was not important. What was important was that they were happy. With this in mind, he pulled the trigger, and the portal’s sound seemed to echo around the room as the blue ball disappeared off into the distance. As soon as it opened, Jeremy felt the pressure drop, and both he and Nightmare Moon were sucked through.

Thankfully, Luna, Celestia and Chrysalis were still chained to the wall, so they were saved. As he flew from the moon, towards the sun, Jeremy could only concentrate on two things. One, it was getting really hot, really fast – he estimated he had seconds before he burned up. Two, he had to do what he got here to do. Gripping the portal gun tightly in both hands, he brought up his knee, and slammed the gun down on it. It didn’t do anything, so he tried again. Break it! He thought to Luna, and she gave him a feeling of utter sadness. He tried again, and it cracked. “You idiot!” Nightmare Moon screamed, the sound traveling through space somehow. “We’ll both die!”

Jeremy looked up at her, somehow managing to speak in the vacuum. “That’s the plan,” he replied, grinning like a madman, and brought the portal gun down again on his knee, one last time. It broke in half, and the black hole hidden within began to glow and emit light. Jeremy stared, entranced, as it rapidly expanded, engulfing him and the screaming, terrified Nightmare Moon. For a moment, he felt utterly at peace. And then Jeremy stopped feeling anything at all.

//{end}

Jeremy slowly became aware that he was still there, somehow, as if his consciousness still held itself together. He opened his eyes – when had he closed them? and found that he was in some part of space, the stars twinkling all around him. Screens lined an invisible hallway stretching off into the distance, and Jeremy noticed they depicted scenes of his recent adventure. Some were of him singing, or laughing. Some were him fighting – Jeremy noted the furious, determined look in his eyes. Was he really that angry? And some were just of him drawing, calmly sketching out his latest ideas onto a sheet of blank paper. The last featured a massive explosion between the sun and moon, the shockwave powerful enough to stop the moon and begin moving it in the other direction. Jeremy gave a sigh of relief, shoulders slumping forward - he seriously hadn't expected that to work so well.

“You did it!” a voice said, causing him to spin around, looking for the source. Finding none, he cautiously looked at the far end of the corridor, in case the source was out of sight.

“…Hello?” he ventured, noting that his voice still worked somehow. A shining figure appeared – like Celestia, but older somehow. “Celestia? Is that you?” he asked.

The figure laughed. “No. I hate to disappoint, but I am in fact Celestia’s mother – my name is Queen Solaris.” A deeper, male voice chuckled, and a midnight blue alicorn walked into view, his mane and beard a rich, royal blue.

“And I am King Orion, Luna’s father.” Jeremy found he could move, and walked forward.

“…Am I dead?” he asked. Solaris laughed.

“All in all, I think not. After all, we would know – wouldn’t we, dear?” she asked Orion, who chuckled again.

“After our daughters took over the sun and the moon, we became guardians of Fate – as alicorns, we could choose between this or death.” Jeremy took a moment to collect his thoughts.

“So… you’re sort of dead, I’m still alive somehow, and what about Nightmare Moon?” he asked. Orion looked at Solaris, and they both looked grim.

“She is most definitely dead.” Orion answered.

“Ah. Okay then. So… can I… go back?” Jeremy asked. To his dismay, Orion shook his head.

“We have knowledge of future events, and I’m sorry to inform you that you will be returning to Earth.” Jeremy looked down forlornly, giving a deep sigh as he tried not to burst into tears.

“Can I at least… say goodbye?” Orion looked at Solaris again, who nodded once.

“We think that would be alright. Say, how about you do it in the form of a song? I did rather enjoy those karaoke nights – first time I’ve seen my daughter that happy since she was a tiny little filly.” Jeremy gave him a small smile – he knew which song to sing. He found the strange dimension around him fading, and readied himself.

Celestia, Luna, and Chrysalis were in the Canterlot throne room, gathered for a funeral. Luna was evidently crying, and so was Celestia. Chrysalis looked as though she were about to cry, and Cadance, surprisingly enough, was comforting her. How many days had it been since he had sacrificed himself? he wondered. There was no eulogy being told – perhaps it had already been given. Well, now was as good a time to start as any. He strode forward, slowly fading into view, and the music started. Luna and Celestia looked up in shock, and Chrysalis toppled over from her chair.

“Switch on the sky, and the stars glow for you,” he sang, and reached over to hug Luna. To his delight, he physically felt her, despite being a spirit. “Go see the world, ‘cause it’s all so brand-new! Don’t close your eyes, ‘cause your future’s ready to shine, it’s just a matter of time – before we learn how to fly! Welcome to the rhythm of the night! There’s something in the air you can’t deny…” he continued, and kissed her on the lips, savoring the kiss like nothing else.

“It’s been fun but now I’ve got to go! Life is way too short to take it slow! But before I go and hit the road; I’ve gotta know! Till then? When can I see you again?” He sang loudly, spinning her around in a classic and very old-fashioned style of dance.

As he sang, Jeremy went to each pony he had known – first Luna, then Celestia, then Chrysalis, and Cadance too, and hugged them, punctuating each heartfelt goodbye with a chorus of “When can I see you again?” It felt like he was going through all the emotions he had never got to express, all the things he had never got around to doing. It felt so good. And it felt so bad. Jeremy started crying about halfway through – he didn’t really know whether they were tears of joy or sorrow, but it certainly didn’t affect the mood.

Finally, he finished, quietly echoing a sentiment of a song he knew to reflect his deepest fears and desires, all in one. “Tell me when~? When can I see you again…” he finished, whispering. To his sorrow, he began to once again fade, and Luna rushed forward, tackling him for one final hug and sobbing. Jeremy returned the hug – if he actually died right now, he would almost be okay with it. "I'm okay," he whispered to her. "I'm fine, I'm alive..."

As he faded from existence, he tried to hold on to the feeling of Luna’s embrace, but was met only with empty air. And… a feeling of falling?

Jeremy woke up in his own bed, instantly springing into a sitting position. He looked around. This was his room, back on Earth. He was wearing pajamas, and soaked with sweat. “Oh, hell no,” Jeremy angrily exclaimed. Like hell it was all a dream! He got up, and strode forward to his computer to write a message to his friend, only stopping when he noticed his backpack. It was filled with morphine and medical supplies – he had forgotten to take it, back when all of this started. “Okay, so the school incident wasn’t a dream,” he muttered darkly.

Continuing to his computer, which was only in the next room over, he found that his chair was occupied by a folded set of clothing, too dark to see. He went over and flipped the light switch, and it was revealed to be his nanoarmored suit, complete with speakers and severe damage. As he watched, the damage to the suit fixed itself, and he picked it up. A small square of paper fell out, and he reached down and picked it up, shaking with nerves. It was a photograph of Luna, holding the portal gun in a heroic pose, with two portals in the background. ‘“Enjoy your gift!” ~Luna’ was written on the back. Evidently, she had meant to give this to him, but it had gotten lost - probably transported through time and space to here, instead. Jeremy clutched the photo to his chest, drinking in the feeling that it had all been real.

Next Chapter: Chapter 21 Estimated time remaining: 9 Hours, 15 Minutes