Chapter 33

1-2-14, 8:43 A.M.

When Jeremy woke up, he was still too sleepy to think much of Chrysalis still being next to him. She rolled over, and sleepily bit him on the forearm. It didn’t penetrate, it was more of a pinch, but Jeremy was still very uncomfortable. She opened her eyes, and noticed what she was doing, quickly unlatching and sitting up in horror, frantically apologizing. “Were you… feeding off of me?” Jeremy hesitantly asked. Chrysalis looked away before nodding. Jeremy tapped her on the shoulder, and offered his forearm. She looked at it in surprise. “Well? It’s yours, after all,” Jeremy commented. Chrysalis seemed unsure of what to do. Jeremy rolled his eyes. “Girl, I’m not going to starve you while we’re here. Hurry up, already!” Chrysalis looked at him, the tiniest hint of gratitude expressing itself in a small smile on her face before she gently bit back into his forearm. A pink vapor seeped out of the bite marks, and she stayed like that for a while before unlatching once more.

“Thanks, I… thanks,” she muttered.

Jeremy smiled. “Anytime.”

It was a casual day as Jeremy caught up with his homework, stopping occasionally as Chrysalis questioningly brought up item after item for him to explain. When she was downstairs digging in the garage, he composed an email to the last Hasbro employee to contact him. “Hey, so I got back,” it started off. “Kinda confused about a few things. First, what’s up with the time synchronization? I don’t want to find out today that it’s been a month for them when I get back, or something. Second, try to stay out of Canterlot if at all possible, or give me a heads-up if the six head over there. Third? You guys aren’t the only authors out here…” Signing off with his name, he sent it just as Chrysalis came up, levitating a coffee grinder that had once contained aluminum foil. Jeremy smiled as he began to explain.

Finally, finding nothing else to do, Jeremy decided to head back through the portal to check up on Equestria. Carrying his phone with him, he was surprised to discover that he still had wi-fi, although it wasn’t usable if he was outside the castle. Chrysalis opted to stay at his house, still curious about Earth. Celestia was pleased to see him, greeting him with a wave – she was as busy as ever with her various royal duties. Luna was asleep, so he went over to his computer at the office. To his pleasure, he found that it had updated to include the more recent games he had acquired. He had lunch with Celestia in the royal dining hall, and afterwards headed back through the portal, once again finding himself bored. Maybe Chrysalis had found something they could do?

To his surprise, Chrysalis was surfing through websites, using her magic to push keys and her hoof on the mouse. As soon as she saw him, she choked and hurriedly clicked away from her tab. Jeremy placed his hands on his hips. “Alright… what did you find?” he asked, reminding himself of his own parents. Chrysalis was blushing too hard to answer, and seemed to be holding back laughter. Jeremy waited patiently, and she finally calmed down.

“I… oh, you’ve just got to see it,” she replied and clicked back. Jeremy himself blushed as it depicted an extremely lewd picture of Chrysalis herself.

“Um. Yeah, that’s… a fan-made picture,” he falteringly explained. Chrysalis laughed louder, nearly slipping out of her chair.

“And here I thought we were just a wriggler’s entertainment!” she taunted, still laughing as hard as she could. Jeremy gave an embarrassed laugh. What was he supposed to say in this? After a while, she calmed down enough to breathe. Chrysalis turned to him, smirking. “So… I found some pretty interesting ones on here. Feel like acting them out?” she seductively asked, and Jeremy’s heart missed a beat as he went right back to blushing.

“Um… no. No, I’m good, thanks!” he stammered. Chrysalis went back to laughing at his reaction.

“Relax, I wouldn’t do that to you,” she chuckled. Jeremy took a moment to still his beating heart. “What’s gotten you so flustered, anyway?” Chrysalis asked. “I didn’t see anything too out of the ordinary.” Jeremy looked at her in disbelief.

“Clearly you weren’t looking hard enough,” he muttered. Chrysalis gave him a suspicious look, but shrugged it off. For a while, Jeremy showed her some of his favorite websites – mostly science sites, with only a single, obscure social media account. Chrysalis perused these briefly, and moved on to her own research projects – among them, Jeremy caught various news sites. He read an article with her on recent Middle East conflicts. “Planning something?” he sarcastically asked. Chrysalis shook her head.

“No, but your news reports are fascinating – to see deaths discussed so casually…” Jeremy shrugged.

“Yeah, it happens.” He left to get lunch.

By the time he came back, Chrysalis had headphones on and was staring at a YouTube video, a rapt expression on her face. Smiling, Jeremy decided not to interrupt her, and instead focused on continuing a book he had begun reading a few days ago. This continued on for a few hours, and Jeremy was relieved at the rest – he felt that his life in Equestria was always far too hectic. Was this how Celestia and Luna felt about their jobs? Still vaguely on this train of thought, Jeremy was extremely surprised when Luna tapped him on the shoulder. “Good evening! We see Chrysalis is enjoying herself,” Luna noted, watching Chrysalis as she clicked through yet more videos – judging from the titles, they were all love songs.

“Yep. I might have to intervene at some point – she’s been on there for hours,” Jeremy replied. Apparently, Chrysalis heard this, as she hastily took off her headphones and paused the video, swinging around the chair to face the pair of them.

“Sorry, I just… alien culture, you know?” she commented. Jeremy smirked.

“Can I check my email?” he asked, and Chrysalis got up and stretched, trotting over to Luna and striking up a conversation about her day as Jeremy logged in. As he waited for the computer to load his messages, he reflected on how friendly Chrysalis and Luna were being – he had half expected some sort of jealousy amongst his three mares. Hearing them giggling in the background, he elected to ignore it and focused on reading the latest emails.

Most were spam, one or two were petitions he didn’t feel like signing, and there was just one from Hasbro. Interested, Jeremy opened this one. “Dear Jeremy,” he mentally read. “The synchronization should be 1:1 – we’re not sure if we can do anything about that, but we’ll see how things work. As for Canterlot, Twilight should only visit in this season’s final, so you don’t have to worry about that. And what do you mean on that last line?” Jeremy composed a quick response, noticing yet more giggling and muttering behind him.

“Sounds good to me – P.L. just checked in on time, so I think it all worked out? Who knows. Any tips on knowing when to avoid the finale? Oh, and whatever you do, don’t mess with a certain mint pony… -Jeremy” He sent it, and turned around to find Luna blushing as Chrysalis whispered into her ear.

“Oh, for god’s – did you have to?” he asked Chrysalis, instantly catching on. Chrysalis giggled.

“Seeing her reaction was almost as good as seeing yours!” Luna looked at him, interested.

“We wish to see some of these!” she proclaimed in the most serious voice possible. Jeremy froze and went straight back to blushing, and Chrysalis was on her back, struggling once again to breathe as peals of laughter echoed through the room. Luna looked at her, confused. “What is so amusing?” she asked. Jeremy was still too embarrassed to answer, and Luna got this after a few seconds. "Ah... er... we are sorry, if we have said something wrong..." she said, perplexed.

"No, it's fine!" Jeremy barely managed to squeak out. Chrysalis laughed even harder.

"Do you have a camera anywhere?" she asked him, cracking up. "I want to take a picture of this beautiful memory!"

Luna was looking back and forth between them, before finally giving up with a shrug. "As the foals say, what ever."

Just then, Jeremy was reminded of a rather important conversation. "Say, Luna... I know Celestia isn't here, but do you want to talk about that thing we discussed while flying?" he asked, and Luna stiffened. She looked at him, frowning.

"Do we... do we have to?" she asked, and Jeremy solemnly nodded. Chrysalis looked over, interested, and Luna cleared her throat. "W-well... thou see, Queen Chrysalis... ever since thou and mine sister hath entered this relationship, we have been feeling..." she trailed off.

"Envious?" Chrysalis suggested, and Luna looked up at her in surprise. Chrysalis frowned at her. "I can sense emotions, remember? I've been picking up on your stress for some time now. Let me guess: You feel like this relationship isn't what you wanted, and now you're scared because you think you'll turn back into Nightmare Moon or something," she lectured, and Luna's mouth fell open in shock. Even Jeremy raised an eyebrow at the deduction. Looking at them, Chrysalis held up her hooves. "Well, am I right or not?" she asked, and Luna hesitantly nodded.

"Yes... thou art correct. But... thou don't hate us for feeling this way?" she asked, and Chrysalis snorted in amusement.

"Hardly. Jealousy's a perfectly natural emotion, no matter what you ponies might say. As for what you worry about, I'll say this much: There is nothing to worry about. He has the rest of his life to spend with you, it's not like there's a rush to compete or anything. You want him to yourself for a day? Take him, we'll understand. Ah, with his consent, of course," Chrysalis hastily added, noticing Jeremy looking at her. He smiled, acknowledging this, and she smiled back before turning back to Luna. "Point is, if you feel you need him more than we do, go for it - just don't leave us out of the loop entirely, okay?" Chrysalis finished, and waited for Luna's response.

To the changeling queen's surprise, Luna engulfed her in a hug. "Thank you... thank you..." she mumbled into Chrysalis' shoulder. Chrysalis nervously patted her on the back, and looked at Jeremy, who could only shrug. Luna moved on to him next, and he gladly returned her embrace, stroking her mane.

"See? I told you everything would be alright," he teased, and Luna blushed and looked away.

"Very well... Thou were right. Now be silent," she admonished as she went back to nuzzling his chest. Jeremy chuckled, and did as she asked.

He spent the rest of the day chatting with friends and surfing the Internet, being careful not to give any details about recent events. After assuring them that he really did feel much better, he signed off and ate a quick dinner. When he came back up, he noticed that Chrysalis was moving around in his room, her horn casting a green glow on the bedroom walls. Walking in curiously, he noticed that the space formerly taken up by a cabinet was now dedicated to a large cocoon, easily twice the size of the one in her own room. “Nice, I guess, as long as it doesn’t spill – I do vacuum occasionally,” Jeremy commented. Chrysalis waved a hoof.

“I’ll clean it up if it does – and you vacuum?” Jeremy nodded.

“I’ve done my own chores ever since I got back,” he informed her. Chrysalis sized him up with a look.

“…Do you also take long walks on the beach?” she asked sarcastically. Jeremy laughed.

“What, a guy can’t do housework? Sexist.” Chrysalis grumbled something, before rolling her eyes.

Getting back on his computer, Jeremy noticed an incoming call on the phone downstairs. Grumbling, he walked back down the stairs and picked it up, Luna looking at the phone as though it were a strange beast that had wandered into the kitchen. As soon as he held the phone to his ear, a voice began speaking, skipping the usual introductions. “Don’t give out any more information. We’re being watched,” the male voice said, and promptly hung up. Jeremy was thoroughly perplexed. Being watched? By who? Shrugging it off as possibly a wrong number, he went back to killing time on the computer, reading through a new comic his friend had sent him, claiming it was yet another fandom he needed to enter. It was pretty long – something like 7,000 pages? However, it was pretty interesting.

A few hours later, it was midnight, and Jeremy needed to go to bed. He reluctantly saved the page he was on, and went into his room, pulling on his pajamas and brushing his teeth. Chrysalis climbed into her cocoon, sighing as she quickly drifted off to sleep. Jeremy crawled into his own bed, and jerked away when he discovered something was already in it. To his surprise, Luna poked her head out from under the covers. “Couldst thou turn off the lights?” she sleepily asked, and after some hesitation Jeremy did so, plunging the room into pitch darkness. Feeling his way back into bed, Jeremy pulled up the blanket and draped an arm over Luna. He gave a content sigh at the boredom of the day – just what he needed, he thought to himself before slipping into dreaming oblivion.

As he dreamt, the still-lucid part of him noted that he wasn’t having any nightmares about fighting or killing. In fact, his dream was relatively peaceful, consisting of wandering down endless steel and stone corridors, picking up random objects that he dazedly thought were important before continuing on. Sometimes, he would turn a corner to see Luna watching him interestedly, but after she didn’t appear for a while, Jeremy promptly forgot about her existence – such was the nature of his dreaming mind.

It seemed like only an hour or so before he started to wake up, the sunlight streaming through his window causing him to turn over and face the wall. Wait, where was Luna? And why did he hear giggling? And why was he so cold? Jeremy opened his eyes to find Luna and Chrysalis both sitting on the bed, the covers pulled back. Jeremy looked down at himself, and immediately regretted it: While they had left his pajamas on, they were very clearly having fun with his sleeping body. Chrysalis walked forward and sat on his chest, face inches from his. “You know, I really wasn’t expecting you to have those kinds of dreams,” she mentioned, and Luna giggled in the background. Jeremy got over his shock and sat up quickly, startling Chrysalis. He looked back at her, an embarrassed smile on his face.

“Likewise, I wasn’t expecting this kind of wake-up call,” he responded. Chrysalis mockingly traced a hoof around his collarbone before walking off of him. He swung out of bed, and went into the bathroom to change, pulling on a skintight pair of jeans and a warm winter jacket to compensate for his being so cold. Walking downstairs, he ate a quick breakfast before going back up to his computer.

“Is this what you do all day? Check the computer, do random experiments in the lab?” Chrysalis asked, sounding bored.

"Hey, it’s still midwinter break for three more days,” Jeremy argued. “Next Monday, I’m going to be doing classes and homework, and all that other stuff that bores me senseless.” Chrysalis frowned.

“Why do you put up with it, then?” Jeremy shrugged.

“I don’t know… a college degree is nice.” Chrysalis gave him a confused look, and it occurred to Jeremy that she might not know what college was.

They spent the day relaxing, as was the usual, and Luna popped in and out due to her royal duties. Celestia even walked through once or twice, commenting interestedly on the various aspects of his house. Finally, Jeremy decided to head to Equestria out of sheer boredom, walking through the royal garden to his office.

To his surprise, Lyra and Bon Bon were once again at his door. As soon as she saw him, Lyra whipped around and greeted him with a huge grin. “Hello, mister Jeremy!” she happily exclaimed. Jeremy gave a small smile in return.

“Hey. How’s it going?” Lyra bounced up and down, the picture of joy.

“Great! I was so sad when I thought you had died, but now that you’re alive I can finally ask you!” Jeremy raised an eyebrow.

“…Ask me what?” he inquired. Lyra beamed at him – all her enthusiasm was starting to infect Jeremy at this point, who jovially smiled.

“I was wondering if I could go to the human world, of course!” And there went Jeremy’s mood.

“…You. As a pony. In the human world,” he clarified, and Lyra nodded. “Absolutely not,” Jeremy answered sternly. Lyra immediately protested, and he silenced her before continuing. “You know what it’s like there – in fact, I seem to recall you literally wrote the book on the subject! It’s not safe for you.” Lyra pouted, and Bon Bon glared at him. “Yeah, I know, I’m a joykiller,” Jeremy admitted, hating himself for doing this. “But you would have a very serious risk of death – I noticed you skated over the government and corporate sectors in your story, and they are not to be ignored. They’ll dissect you, or imprison you just for being a living, functioning unicorn – let alone the author of their universe.” Lyra looked down, by now on the verge of tears.

Jeremy sighed, knowing he was taking a risk but unable to stand the sight of a crying pony. “Okay, how about this. We can find some way to disguise you as a human, and… you can tag along with me, I guess.” Lyra looked up, mood instantly changing back to jubilant, and Jeremy looked at her, somewhat alarmed.

“Yes! That works, thank you, thank you, thank you!” she exclaimed. Jeremy decided to let Lyra's seeming bipolarity slide.

“By the way, a few others will probably be joining you – Queen Chrysalis among them. Still up for it?” he asked. To his surprise, Lyra furiously nodded. “Okay… well, stop by the castle sometime next week. I’ll let Celestia know what you’re up to in advance,” he told her, and Lyra bobbed her head up and down so quickly Jeremy feared it would fall off. Bon Bon gave him a glare that said “If you end up hurting my Lyra, I’ll kill you”, and Jeremy gave her a solemn nod before continuing into his office.

Next Chapter: Chapter 34 Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 42 Minutes