Chapter 24

12-25-13, 9:12 P.M.

“Well, one thing’s obvious enough,” Jeremy remarked.

Celestia looked over at him. “What’s that?” He moved to a more comfortable position.

“I’ve gotta stay away from Twilight Sparkle. Meeting her is pretty much guaranteeing visibility, after all.” Celestia nodded.

“I used to wonder if you simply weren’t interested in her – but that does make more sense.” Jeremy glumly nodded.

Luna walked in, informing them that she had assigned an advisor to official duty for the night while they spent time together. “Isn’t that shirking your job?” Jeremy asked curiously.

“Not really – we are typically allowed to take as much time off as we need for personal duties, and romance certainly counts,” Celestia answered. Jeremy shrugged.

“So, Jeremy… what hast thou been up to?” Luna asked. Jeremy uncomfortably shifted, and explained once more, this time not leaving out the bit about Orion and Solaris. Luna’s eyes widened. “We had presumed them missing…” Celestia too was interested, but made no comment.

“So, then Celestia found me, we hung out for a few days at the beach, and then headed back,” Jeremy finished. Luna had since laid down next to him, and he casually stroked her hair, once again noting its odd properties.

“So, anyway… here’s what I was thinking,” Jeremy continued. “I’d like to leave a portal open to Earth, well-hidden of course, so that I can come and go, and keep track of things both here and there.” Celestia and Luna considered this for a moment.

“We think… that would be possible… but aren’t thou worried about even the possibility of discovery? Surely if thy race is as terrifying as thou say, they would not hesitate to take advantage of a situation,” admonished Luna. Jeremy nodded grimly.

“We’d have to make it so well hidden that only we could access it – whatever that would entail. On our end, a simple spell would probably do it – not even the best technician on our planet could crack magic.”

Celestia nodded thoughtfully. “And with stronger protection on this end, I could certainly see this happening. Perhaps vocal, willing authorization from you would allow others to pass through?” Jeremy agreed.

“This would also allow for Internet on this side, if we could get a cell tower up and running,” he mentioned to Luna, who nodded thoughtfully.

They stayed like that for a few hours, with Jeremy sleepily holding Luna, Celestia serenely watching them. Apart from occasionally moving into more comfortable spots, or adjusting the position of his hands, Luna stayed perfectly still. Jeremy suspected she was having a secret conversation with Celestia, as Celestia would periodically glance at Luna as though she had just said something funny. This was confirmed when Celestia looked at him, asking “So… could I get a belly rub?” Jeremy blushed with the force of a thousand blast furnaces, and Luna burst out laughing. Jeremy looked at her, unamused, and finally groaned and stood up.

“Alright, just this once. And not for an hour this time.” Celestia rolled over, and Jeremy carefully began to rub up and down her belly, eliciting a hum of satisfaction from Celestia.

“Oh, this is as good as you said, Luna…” she gasped as he continued. Jeremy attempted to hold back a giggle at her reaction.

A few minutes later, Celestia was arching her back, holding back a moan as Jeremy continued. Luna watched, grinning with satisfaction. “What even is the attraction of a belly rub, anyway?” Jeremy asked.

Luna laughed. “Tis' like... like a very pleasurable, soft massage,” she answered. Jeremy chuckled as Celestia gave a shuddering breath and kicked a hind leg out, narrowly missing his face. "Oh! Sorry, I..." Celestia trailed off as Jeremy held a finger to her lips.

"Relax, I'm good," he soothed. Reluctantly, Celestia laid back down.

"So, do humans give belly rubs to each other back home?" she asked curiously, and Jeremy winced.

"Not... really... they're typically reserved for significant others, or... pets. Not that I consider either of you on the same level as pets, you're much more than that-" Celestia frowned, sitting up and stopping his hands with her hoof.

"But... I'm not your significant other... or your pet. Aren't you... breaking tradition, then?" she asked worriedly. Jeremy shrugged.

"Celestia, you're a very close friend of mine, and Luna's sister at that. I really don't mind." Celestia looked as though she were about to object, but then sighed and laid her head back down.

"Well... thank you, I suppose," she said, and with that Jeremy went back to rubbing, Celestia quickly letting out a pleased hum.

Ten minutes later, Jeremy took his hands off her, and Celestia reluctantly settled back down into her original position. “That was… something…” she commented, blushing heavily and still smiling.

Jeremy held back laughter at her reaction. “Yep. Glad you enjoyed it,” he replied, uncertain of what else to say for such an odd moment as this.

Finding nothing else to do, Jeremy headed home for the night, hugging both princesses once more as he set off for his old apartment. While he walked, he thought about how violent his last time here was. Sure, there was a whole lot of bloodshed, but he kind of missed opportunities like that to take his anger out on something. Hmm. Did he enjoy hurting others? Jeremy seriously wanted to say no, but a part of him insistently whispered that yes, he did. Ignoring such concerns, he opened his door, and pulled a pair of pajamas and his cellphone out of his backpack. Climbing into bed, he set his cellphone’s alarm, and stayed awake for a few hours before finally dropping off into unconsciousness.

12-26-13, 7:30 A.M.

The soft but insistent buzz of the alarm clock roused him from semi-consciousness. Jeremy estimated he had only had a few hours of sleep – business as usual on a school day. He blearily got dressed, and headed off into the Canterlot morning.

Although the air was cold as ever, and the snow was still out, the sun was out too. Thankfully, he had remembered to pack a jacket, although it was a bit too thin for the cold air, and Jeremy shivered slightly as he treaded through the city streets.

As he approached the office, he heard scuffling inside. Quickening his pace, he wrenched open the door to find a few of Chrysalis’ changelings and one from a different breed, sporting a lilac shell, having a tussle on the lab floor. As soon as they saw him, all three froze. Jeremy looked down at them furiously, before picking the intruder up, an ugly expression on his face. Walking over to the portal, he found Chrysalis dispatching another group of changelings of the same color, and joined in with vigor. After kicking the changeling he had caught into Chrysalis’ path, he picked up a purple changeling skulking around the edges of the fray, and raising it high above his head, bodily slammed it into the floor, repeating this a few times until it seemed to pass out. Yet another interloper was trying to escape the rolling ball of insectoid fury that was Chrysalis, so Jeremy neatly planted a knee in its face and forced it back in. Damn, that felt good, he reflected. What was wrong with him?

The fight was over pretty soon, and Chrysalis panted. “Thanks for the help,” she tiredly commented in his direction, before walking over to the love machine and sitting for a while. Jeremy didn’t dare approach due to the toxic effects of the chemicals it was outputting, and stayed at a respectable distance until Chrysalis finished. As she walked over, there was a new spring in her step and a satisfied grin on her face, although she still looked tired. “If it weren’t for that machine, I’d have been dead long ago. As it stands… thank the Hive the official trials start in just a few days,” she remarked, leading him back into her room.

“So, what’s the plan? You said there was an official trial?” Jeremy asked as they sat down, Chrysalis taking a moment to breathe deeply.

“Yes… How it works is as follows. Each hive takes their strongest contestants, and all of them gather at a previously set location. The contestants are all trapped within the area, and forced to fight to the death for supremacy. Whichever team survives to the end crowns the new changeling ruler.”

Jeremy winced. “That sounds extremely bloody and unnecessary.” Chrysalis frowned.

“It keeps other hives working towards a common cause – overthrowing the current monarch. Plus, it keeps population levels down, as the other hives’ available love is diverted to those who are preparing to fight.” Jeremy nodded.

He didn’t like it, not in the least because it reminded him of the war-economy strategy that had worked so unbearably well back home. Jeremy sighed. “Alright, so I have to actually kill some more changelings. Even though I said I wouldn’t…” he muttered.

Chrysalis looked at him. “What, are you having reservations about killing? It’s a little late for that,” she pointed out.

Jeremy put his head in his hands. “I’m trying to not be a murderer! You know, move past that, become a peaceful member of society?” Chrysalis hissed at him.

“You agreed to this! It’s too late to back out now, you’re fighting for me whether you like it or not!” Jeremy furiously slammed his hand against the ground.

“When I agreed to this idiocy, I was still shell-shocked from being in Equestria! I thought it’d be like before, where they’d just pass out from the pain or something!” For a moment, they glared at each other, before Jeremy looked away. “Fine. Fine. You want me to fight, I’ll fight. I hope you enjoy the bloodbath,” he spat as he stood up and left.

“Hey, wait!” Chrysalis’ voice called out, but he stalked into the labs and closed the portal behind him.

Jeremy sat down at his computer desk, and briefly considered slamming his head into the desk – it would certainly be distracting enough to direct his attention away from his shame. He had just tried to go back on his word – and he’d never live it down. For a while he stayed like that, simply sitting there, head down on the desk, and thinking about how he could have made the conversation go differently. He didn’t cry, although he knew he probably should. Jeremy hadn’t cried in a long time, partially due to the flip-flopping series of events that was his life, and partly because… well. Jeremy supposed he had been undergoing shock ever since the School Incident – he didn’t feel anything but a pounding numbness whenever he tried to think about how many had died at his hands. His recent realization that the blood train wasn’t going to stop there certainly didn’t help, and neither did the fact that he had just alienated one of his few friends on this side. He almost chuckled at the ‘alienated’ joke, but wasn’t feeling up to it.

He slowly became aware of a concerned feeling in his head, and it wasn’t his own. But it wasn’t Luna’s, either – this feeling came from a different source. Who is this? He tried, wondering if he was just being stupid and the feeling really was his own. An image of Celestia’s frowning face flashed in his head, and she replied, sounding as if she were a bit distracted.

Is there something wrong? She queried. Jeremy sent a mental image of him shaking his head, not knowing if it had come through. Just had an argument with Chrysalis, and I don’t want to talk about it, he answered. A feeling of understanding reached him, and ebbed away. Jeremy concentrated for a moment in case anything else was forthcoming, and when nothing happened he sighed once more and logged in to the computer.

It was exactly as he remembered it, games and all. For once, Jeremy avoided the bloodier ones – too many associations with what he didn’t want to deal with. Finding that he didn’t seem to have any games where there wasn’t blood of some sort, he dejectedly signed out of his computer, staring for a while at the black screen.

Getting up, he decided he’d take the day off: Surely Luna and Celestia would understand that he couldn’t cope, right? Part of him was telling him off for even daring to think of skipping work, but he resolutely ignored it and set off for his apartment.

12-26-13, 8:47 A.M.

As he arrived at his apartment, he slipped his shoes off and flopped into his bed, fully dressed. Maybe he would just sleep in for the rest of the day, or something. Jeremy stared up at the ceiling for a few hours, noting every crack and texture, before sinking into oblivion.

He was once again wandering around the halls of his school, but this time he was unarmed. Armed terrorists – or were they changelings? wandered about, and he was desperately trying to avoid them, while wondering where his metal pipe had gotten off to. Without being told, he somehow knew that if one of them saw him, he would be instantly dead. He ducked into a classroom as one of them came around the corner, and instantly fell into open space.

Jeremy landed in a very old-fashioned bedroom, comprised primarily of stone bricks and ornate ironwork. He looked out a window to find Luna outside, looking younger and playing with a stick, using her magic to levitate and swish it around as though she were fencing. He decided to join her, but as he opened the door of the bedroom, it disappeared. He was now trapped in the room, until the wall suddenly vanished, and Luna looked up at him, now back to her current age. Luna teleported up to him.

“What art thou doing here? Is it not daytime?” she asked, concerned. Jeremy was strangely unable to respond until she tapped him on the chest, a breath of air entering his lungs as he seemed to regain consciousness inside the dream.

“I… headed home for the day,” he shamefacedly mumbled. Luna looked at him as though he had sprouted an extra limb.

“And what would cause thou to do that?” she asked, with a hint of indignation – presumably over his leaving his post.

“Chrysalis and I had an argument, and I felt terrible, okay?!” Jeremy burst out suddenly, then sat down heavily in the tall grass. Luna sat by him.

She sighed deeply, wrapping a wing around him. “We understand thou art upset. But thou of all beings should know that thou cannot run away from thy problems.”

Jeremy immediately objected. “I wasn’t running away, I was… I…” It occurred to him that he had done exactly that: run away without solving anything. “Oh my god,” he whispered. “I’m an idiot.”

Luna looked at him sympathetically. “We know it’s hard. What pushed the two of thee into a fight, anyway?”

Jeremy gave a dejected hum. “It was about the whole thing about Chrysalis being challenged,” he clumsily answered. “She told me I’d actually be killing this time, and I kind of flipped out. I don’t want to kill anymore!” he burst out, burying his face in his hands.

Luna seemed unsure what to say. “Do what thou think is best,” she told him, lifting his head up with a hoof and planting a gentle kiss on his forehead. “But first… wake up.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 25 Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 33 Minutes