Chapter 37

1-15-14, 1:02 P.M.

It was yet another relaxing, boring day at Jeremy’s house. For the first time in a long time, it had snowed, but not nearly as much as was currently lining the streets of Canterlot. Jeremy spent most of his time huddled in a winter jacket at the computer, playing games with his friends. Chrysalis occasionally joined in on the multiplayer, delighted to find that she was quite good at puzzle-solving with him. Despite the bitter cold, Luna seemed significantly more cheerful, often going out to gaze at the alien stars and moon. Occasionally, Jeremy joined her, even attempting to make sense of star charts to find constellations. Eventually, Luna had taken over the star charts, and was clearly far more skilled at reading them, though Jeremy knew their cultural meanings. After such nights, he was surprised to find he wasn’t as exhausted as he would normally be, despite his staying up late. Right now, Jeremy was working on fixing his telescope, a relic of a time long past when his parents had indulged his interest in space and planets. Unfortunately, he wasn’t having much luck.

Celestia showed up more regularly during the daytime, also commenting on the Earth’s daytime - she was fascinated by the way everything moved on its own, often referring to it as "a perfectly synchronized celestial dance". A much-revisited topic of conversation around the house was the many differences between Earth and Equestria – it had even become a sort of game to find the most obscure or subtle deviations between the two. On one such discussion, Luna had brought up the subject of the most common elements in the Equestrian continental crust, claiming chromium and titanium were most common next to the usual silicon and oxygen while holding a human Periodic Table. Surprised by this, Jeremy had asked what elements were most rare, to which she had replied “Magnesium, and aluminium.”

Grinning, Jeremy had got up and pulled out a roll of aluminum foil, and once she understood what it was, Luna’s eyes went wide. Jeremy laughed. “I had the same reaction when I found that all your coinage was nearly pure gold – don’t go crashing your economy, you hear?” Luna had taken the roll of foil back to her own room for study, leaving Jeremy mildly inconvenienced – he had had to drive all the way out to the store and buy a new one.

After trying fruitlessly for over an hour to fix the telescope, Jeremy went downstairs, to find that Chrysalis was once again the sole other occupant of the house, Lyra having long since reported back to Bon Bon, promising that she would visit again. Celestia was asleep, it being nighttime in Equestria, and Luna was overseeing affairs – she claimed the middle of the week was often the busiest day. Chrysalis, however, had no such duties – in fact, her current ‘duty’ as queen was to research what to do next for her developing semi-nation. This mainly involved researching similar situations in both human and pony history, and working out plans for what to export and import. At the moment, she seemed to be heavily involved in sketching out a plan for one such affair, though in a language Jeremy couldn’t quite read.

As he approached, she looked up at him, smiling slightly. “What do you think?” she asked, gesturing at the topmost paper. Sitting down beside her, Jeremy examined it, once again trying to make sense out of it.

“…Can’t read it, sorry,” he admitted. Chrysalis looked at him for a second before it hit her. “Oh, my mistake. That’s changeling language – it basically says that the main export is going to be the minerals in the caves beneath quite a few of the hives. They’re quite nice, the green glow makes us feel right at home.” Jeremy stared in alarm.

“Green glow?” he asked her. “That’s probably radiation – was I poisoned?!”

Chrysalis shook her head. “Those are below the surface – you’ve never even been close.”

Only slightly more relaxed, Jeremy leaned back against the living room couch. “So, radioactive minerals. I’m assuming those are rare enough to warrant a sustainable trade?” Jeremy asked. Chrysalis looked at him thoughtfully.

“Radioactive, you say? I was wondering what that was – I heard it mentioned somewhere and thought it had to do with sound. At any rate, Equestria only has scant sources of any of these ‘radioactive’ minerals, and even then they’re only used for small research purposes. If we changelings distribute our sources at just the right rate, we can reap in the bits while still being cheaper than Equestria’s current sources.”

Jeremy nodded, impressed. “Sounds like a good plan so far. What about imports?” he asked.

Chrysalis smiled. “Everything we can get, especially books. I read in your histories of the transfer of manuscripts from China to Europe – I imagine this will be quite similar.” Jeremy hummed appreciatively.

“Say, I have a question to ask you, if you feel like answering,” he mentioned, remembering what it was he had come down here to do. Chrysalis looked at him, silent. “You told me in our very first real conversation that you had gotten guns from us, not to mention helicopters. How?” he inquired, trying his best to sound merely curious and not accusing.

Chrysalis looked away for a moment. “You sure you want to know? I’m serious, you might hate me after this,” she began.

Jeremy laughed. “I’m not that fickle. Go on, try me – I’m genuinely curious.” Chrysalis shifted nervously, finally setting her pencil down.

“Alright, well… You weren’t the first human I ever met,” she admitted. Jeremy simply looked at her, listening attentively. “There was one other. A male, adult by the looks of things. He showed up one day at our hive, lost and seeking shelter. Thinking to extract his love, I happily obliged, as we were still starving. To my surprise, he proved to be a font of information regarding weapons that he claimed could ‘easily defeat magic’ – as indeed they did. I followed him back to the portal that had taken him here – he claimed it had closed, but I used my magic to re-open it. After that, he spent a few days gathering blueprints under my watch, and showed us some of his own weapons – apparently he was a former member of your American military, and had served in ‘Afghanistan’.”

Jeremy slapped a hand to his forehead. “Doesn’t that just figure,” he groaned.

Chrysalis looked at him askance before continuing. “To my surprise, I found that his reason for doing all of this was to make Princess Celestia his sex slave – and when I pointed out that she would die rather than submit in such a manner, he demanded that I transform into Celestia and pleasure him instead, as compensation for his services.” Jeremy shuddered, and Chrysalis grimly stared down at her paper, making a careful effort to avoid looking at his face.

“What did you… do next?” he cautiously asked.

Chrysalis looked at him. “I refused. To use a few of your phrases, I ‘dumped his ass, stone cold’.”

Jeremy laughed. “Serves him right. Where is he now?” Chrysalis shrugged.

“I forcibly ejected him through the portal, claiming that if he ever dared to appear again I would kill him. So… I suppose he’s somewhere on Earth.”

Jeremy frowned. “Well… you’re right, that wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for. But… no, I don’t hate you. You were starving, probably desperate – a chance to retake Equestria like that was probably too good to pass up, right?” Chrysalis stared at him for a moment, then nodded.

“So… that’s how I got machine guns, helicopters, sniper rifles and such,” she finished. “But what about you?” Chrysalis asked, and Jeremy stared at her in confusion. “Where did you get your arsenal? It couldn’t have been from Luna – she didn’t know anything about gun blueprints the last time I asked, certainly not enough to create that assault rifle you enjoyed so thoroughly.”

Jeremy gave an embarrassed grin. “Well, to give the short version, some military or terrorist dicks attacked my school and tried to murder the students, so I started killing them and stealing their weapons. Over time, I got quite the collection going – as a matter of fact, I still have all of them in the suit,” he mentioned as an afterthought.

Chrysalis shook her head in mock disgust. “Doesn’t that just figure – you say you killed a bunch of people, and then it turns out you were being a hero.”

Jeremy glared at her. “Murder is not heroic,” he stated flatly. “Those idiots might’ve been evil enough to kill children – but I’m willing to bet that they had homes, and families, and probably even children. Children who’ll never quite understand why I had to ruthlessly kill their fathers, and mothers who’ll never quite accept that their lover isn’t coming home again. If I could do it over again, I would have pretty much done the same things, but… that doesn’t make it right,” he quietly finished.

Chrysalis dropped her head. “Sorry, I forgot what that meant to you,” she replied.

Jeremy sighed. “I don’t like to talk about it – you’re not the only one who worries about what you look like to others,” he admitted nervously.

“I know. What a couple we make,” Chrysalis joked, and Jeremy laughed as the tension was broken.

Some hours later, Luna walked in, looking exhausted. “What a night – we might just go to bed early after all,” she tiredly exclaimed, flopping onto the couch in a most unprincessly manner. Jeremy, who was preparing dinner, chuckled.

“What happened?” he asked, and Luna launched into an explanation – her usual mix of calming dreams and attending to royal bureaucracy had been particularly hectic, it seemed. Jeremy listened, half of the stuff going over his head as he frowned and nodded in what he felt were the appropriate moments. Chrysalis also listened, amused. When Luna was done, she sighed deeply before laying back on the couch, seemingly asleep. Jeremy looked at Chrysalis, grinning. “I hope you’re looking forward to days like that,” he remarked. Chrysalis frowned as the implications hit her, and Jeremy laughed as he set out plates.

Luna woke up just a few minutes later, and took a plate of her own – Jeremy didn’t have many vegetarian recipes, but this was easily one of his favorites. Eating quickly, she put her plate away before heading up, claiming she still wanted to sleep. Jeremy watched her go, frowning – he had hoped to talk to her a bit before she rested. Oh well – he wasn’t about to interrupt her sleep. Chrysalis finished her plate, uncertainly attempting to copy Luna’s actions. Jeremy watched her, and nodded approvingly when she had finished. Chrysalis promptly went back to her papers, and Jeremy decided to head to bed as well – no sense staying up late on a school night.

Making his way upstairs, he noticed the still-on computer in the upstairs living room, and after a moment of hesitation sat down to check for updates. Finding nothing, he headed to his bedroom to find Luna situated in his bed, still awake and the lights on.

“Something wrong?” he asked. Luna shook her head.

“We were just thinking… what were the odds of us teleporting here? Both thy universe and our own are primarily composed of empty space, and landing on your planet specifically would have a statistical probability of zero. But it happened…” she went back to being lost in thought.

Jeremy thought about this for a moment. “I bet your parents had something to do with it,” he mentioned. Luna looked up at him.

“We had forgotten thou had met our parents. But how are they involved?” Jeremy pulled on his pajamas as he explained.

“They told me they were ‘Guardians of Fate’ now, whatever that means – I bet it has something to do with destiny and predetermination and stuff. Seems likely to me that they might have adjusted your spell to end up in just the right place to keep destiny on the right track, or something like that.”

Luna pondered this for a moment, then gave a sigh of disgust. “We will probably never fully understand – such is the nature of problems like this.” Jeremy gave a short chuckle.

“I gave up trying to understand a long while ago – now I just roll with things as they happen.” He flipped the light switch and got into bed with her, carefully avoiding her wings so as not to crush them.

Chrysalis trotted in a half hour later, horn lighting up the dark room in green shadows as she levitated some papers onto a nearby cabinet. Jeremy groaned as he turned over, trying to ignore the new and painful source of light. Thankfully, Chrysalis finished quickly, crawling into her cocoon and emitting a gentle, relaxed hiss.

1-16-14, 6:05 A.M.

Jeremy was surprised to find that both Luna and Chrysalis were already up by the time he had gotten dressed. Luna was making breakfast in the kitchen, and Jeremy gladly accepted a pancake as he blearily tried to shake himself from the stubborn throes of sleep. Chrysalis was watching TV, barely acknowledging his presence as he headed out the door.

School was still as boring as ever – though his grades had begun to improve due to Luna’s tutoring. His friends were much more carefree around him now that his mood had improved as well, and he actually joked along with them for once. For once, his life was relatively uncomplicated, and he quickly settled back into the school routine now that break was over. Now that it was a Thursday, he stayed after school for Science Club, pulling a few flasks and reagents out of his backpack for the day’s demonstration. To his delight, the experiment worked perfectly, and he spent the rest of the club session explaining how it worked.

When he drove home, Chrysalis was unconcerned as to his lateness – apparently she had been tipped off by Luna as to his whereabouts and emotions before she had ventured back to Equestria to oversee their night. To his surprise, a few changelings were there as well, squeaking and hissing in surprise when he entered his room. “Oh, hello,” he greeted them with a short wave.

“Greetings,” one hissed back, voice surprisingly deep for its stature as it resumed what it had been doing – examining a printout. Peering over its shoulder, Jeremy read the title – something about developing nations? Going over to the computer, he pulled up a chair and began his homework.

He was quickly interrupted by Chrysalis, who had snuck up on him and was now gently biting his shoulder. “Hey, remember what happened last time?” Jeremy reminded her.

“I fed a short while ago – this is just force of habit,” Chrysalis explained. She let go, and Jeremy cautiously felt his shoulder for puncture marks – he never could be too careful.

“Say, how’d your drones get in here?” he asked.

Chrysalis pursed her lips. “Celestia allowed me to bring guests once she understood what I intended.”

Jeremy nodded, satisfied with this response, and Chrysalis trotted off to continue her work.

Going back to his homework, Jeremy struggled his way through yet another physics problem, finally giving up and circling it in frustration. Maybe Luna would have some advice for this.

Next Chapter: Chapter 38 Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 60 Minutes