Chapter 47

10-29-14, 4:09 P.M.

Fall break ended much the same way it began, with not much fanfare and even less enthusiasm – while a two-day break from classes was appreciated, it wasn’t anything to write home about. Jeremy had shown Ethan around most of Canterlot, with the older ex-military being as docile as ever. Either he was planning a doozy of a betrayal plot, or Ethan had genuinely reformed – and Jeremy wasn’t sure which he preferred. To his credit, if it was an act, Ethan was putting on a hell of a show – after all, Celestia, Luna and Chrysalis were all experienced in the art of mind-reading. Still, no amount of evidence to the contrary would stop Jeremy from worrying about such things – he had become too accustomed to sudden revelations of precisely who wanted him dead to expect any less.

Having just gotten home from his classes, he flopped down on his incredibly squeaky dormitory bed and laid there for a second, taking a moment to relax before getting up and logging into his laptop. Not much had happened here either, so he busied himself with various websites for an hour before getting up to go to dinner. As he did so, a question popped into his mind that he was amazed he hadn’t thought of earlier – when exactly was his wedding? He resolved to ask one of the alicorns or Cadance when he got the chance.

Dinner was usually a quick affair for him – get the food, eat, and leave. His social habits certainly hadn’t improved any since he had begun dating royalty, and while Celestia respected his introversion she would occasionally make comments suggesting he should try talking during meals. An apologetic shrug from Jeremy was mostly what she got in response – he was vaguely aware that talking would be good for him, but couldn’t bring himself to bother to do it. Mulling over these thoughts, he almost didn’t notice the shattered glass at the other end of the dining hall until the bullet lodged itself firmly in his cranium.

And bounced off.

Startled out of his reverie, Jeremy looked upward as though expecting to physically see the bullet sticking out of his forehead; finding nothing, he tentatively placed a hand to his forehead. He had been facing an adjacent wall to the massive window that occupied the front of the dining hall, so if the bullet had hit him, it should have cut a furrow through the front of his skull. Pulling his hand away, he wasn’t sure whether to be shocked or relieved that there was no blood whatsoever. Several students were looking at him in shock – Jeremy fervently hoped that the bullet had moved too quickly for them to see it bouncing off – he hadn’t, although he had certainly felt the impact. It occurred to him that they were asking him something, so he quickly tuned back in.

“Are you okay?” one was saying.

“I… yeah, fine. I think it missed,” he added, trying to cover for his sudden invincibility to projectile weapons.

The sniper, of course, was nowhere to be seen, having long since absconded back to safety. Still, an entire front window was broken, and Jeremy suspected that was the least of his problems – the PR on a lone potential gunman on his campus would be spectacularly hard to avoid, and if word got out that there was an entire group… He shook his head to clear it, placing his finished plate on the cleaning conveyer belt and heading out. To his surprise, a large group of students headed out with him, presumably as protection. “Thanks,” he mumbled, surprised that they had bothered.

He managed to make it to his dorm room without incident, and once again thanked the group, saying that he would take it from here. As soon as he shut the door, however, he was slammed against the closet wall by an unseen force. Thinking he had been hit by another bullet or some such, he hurriedly tried to get a glimpse of the perpetrator before the closet door opened and he was pulled inside.

There, he found Luna, who had evidently woken up in a hurry – her hair actually had strands sticking out, which was particularly odd given its ethereal quality.

“Hey. Guessing you know what happened?” Jeremy asked, trying to sound casual.

Looking oddly stern, Luna remained silent, physically dragging him via levitation up the stairs and into the throne room. Celestia was there as well, looking tired but concerned as soon as she saw him. Chrysalis, however, was not nearly as somber as the other two, and tackled him as soon as Luna let him down.

“You’re okay!” she exclaimed, embracing him in a rib-crushing hug.

“Yeah… though I’m not exactly sure how,” Jeremy answered. Chrysalis let go and examined him critically – apparently finding nothing wrong, she sat back on her haunches.

Finally, Luna spoke up. “We placed an enchantment on thee to deflect projectiles over a certain velocity in case something like this happened. Now, tell us everything – didst thou see who attempted this?” she queried, still sounding strangely cross with him.

Jeremy hung his head. “No, sorry… I was a little distracted. Thanks for the spell, though – it would’ve been a headshot otherwise.”

At this, Luna looked even angrier, and Jeremy leaned back, by now back to being thoroughly alarmed. At this, Luna appeared to come to herself, and sat back, giving him an apologetic look.

“Sorry, we just…” she trailed off, unable to finish.

“What Luna intends to say is that she’s been wanting to go after these ‘terrorists’ for a while now, and she got rather upset when she learned you had been attacked,” Celestia explained, sounding both amused and stern towards her sister.

“Can we get a better name for them?” Jeremy wondered aloud.

All three looked at him, confused, and he gave an irritated sigh of his own before explaining.

“It’s just… calling them ‘terrorists’ makes me think of the official variety, and that just makes me think of stuff like the Red Scare and War on Terror. I dunno…” Chrysalis mulled over this, apparently deep in thought – she was the only one who besides Jeremy who had thoroughly researched the issue due to her newly found interest in all things sociopolitical.

“Could we call them… Is there an actual name they go by, anyway?” she asked. Jeremy shrugged. “I’ll ask Mary – they might be tied to some named group or other.”

From there, the conversation didn’t accomplish much – it wasn’t like they had any new information, after all. Jeremy elected to head back to Earth, on account of homework and other such trivialities – kissing each of his marefriends goodbye, he headed back through the portal, noting that he had dropped his cellphone along the way. Picking it up, he stepped out into his closet.

Thankfully, his roommate was once again absent, so he crossed over to his backpack, and took out the shining silver magnum stashed within. Gun safely in hand, he contacted Mary over his phone.

“Jeremy! Was waiting for a call,” Mary answered immediately, her voice sounding tense.

“Yeah, I can almost guess why,” Jeremy responded sarcastically.

Mary gave a short chuckle. “Yeah. Been making calls non-stop – nearly got fired for letting this one slip. Anyway, we’ve deployed the military squad and we’ve been combing the campus – thankfully, we actually got witness descriptions. The guy can’t have gone far, the campus is huge and we’ve stopped traffic.” Jeremy gave a thoughtful grunt in response. “Now, the sniper might come back to finish the job, with more bullets – lay low, in Equestria if you have to.”

Jeremy thought about this. “Maybe, although I'd like to keep even the possibility of Equestria being discovered out of the cards, if possible. Plus, Luna covered for the bullet – I did actually get shot.”

Mary reluctantly accepted this, and hung up after the usual parting pleasantries. Jeremy, meanwhile, thought about what to do. In all fairness, he could probably get away with hunting down the sniper himself – he was bulletproof, after all, and had weapons of his own. Then again, considering Luna’s earlier reaction, she’d probably freak out if he were to try something so reckless – so Jeremy elected to stay put.

10-29-14, 10:38 P.M.

Jeremy realized he had completely forgotten to ask about the wedding – and since everyone in the dormitory was apparently leaving him alone, he cautiously slipped back into the closet and headed through the portal, treading quietly along the castle corridors.

To his surprise, Ethan was milling around the throne room, busying himself once again with examining the stained glass windows depicting the various historical events of Equestria. Celestia was watching the two of them with a careful eye, seemingly ready to intervene at a moment's notice.

“So, are you gonna tell me what this is all about?” Ethan asked as Jeremy approached, and Jeremy briefly explained.

Ethan went pale, and before anyone could stop him, rushed out of the room, heading for the portal. Celestia watched him go in shock, and turned to Jeremy.

“What is he doing?” she asked, and Jeremy could only give a very confused shrug.

“I dunno, maybe he’s… oh, shit,” Jeremy exclaimed, and ran after Ethan, sprinting around a maid in his haste.

Was Ethan seriously this stupid, going to confront the sniper? Or did he have some other motive? Jeremy couldn’t reason one way or the other, and he was extremely dismayed to learn his gun was gone – clearly Ethan had taken it. Shit, did he even have another weapon? Wait. The security office – it was close by, and might contain suitable armaments. Jeremy sprinted out, once again completely failing to care that he was still in his pajamas.

Mary was sitting at her desk when Jeremy burst in, panting from effort.

“Wha – I said to stay low!” she exclaimed, outraged.

“Ethan’s… gone after the guy! Took my gun… we need to stop him!” Jeremy hurriedly explained as he looked around for a weapon.

Finding a small pistol, Jeremy picked it up, only to find that it was empty. Mary, understanding his need, picked up a key and unlocked a cabinet on the wall, tossing a box of ammunition at him before grabbing her own pistol and heading out the door.

“Any ideas on where he might be?” Mary asked as they jogged through the dark campus, her expression invisible in the night. Jeremy shook his head. “He could be anywhere,” he replied.

They didn’t have much luck until they heard shouts from the farthest end of the college, primarily comprised of the engineering, medical and research buildings. Arriving, Jeremy was dismayed to see a crowd had already gathered, and were pointing and muttering excitedly at a particular building that Jeremy recognized – he’d spent many an hour being lectured inside of it. Ethan was visible on the rooftop, magnum occasionally giving out an echoing report. The other occupant of the roof had a long-barreled rifle, but wasn’t using it – they were using a pistol, from what Jeremy could barely make out. Spotting him, the sniper immediately switched targets, flat-out ignoring Ethan to attempt to fire at Jeremy. Seeing this, Ethan lunged forward, catching the sniper by the legs and sending him to the floor of the roof. They were dangerously close to the edge of the building now, and were scuffling and wrestling something fierce – Jeremy realized they were fighting over the revolver, which Ethan had dropped. Ethan held it up in triumph, only to find it snatched away at the last moment by the sniper, who aimed it first at Ethan. The cold white glint of a smile was visible in the moonlight, as the lone gunman pressed the trigger, and the magnum gave a sharp report, Ethan howling in pain and clutching his chest. Finally, Ethan fell to the floor – Jeremy hoped the wound wasn’t fatal. After a second of watching, the sniper turned back to Jeremy, only to find that both he and Mary had their guns drawn.

“Come quietly and we’ll let you live,” Mary shouted up at the assailant. He gave no response, instead aiming the magnum at both of them, hand noticeably shaking as he apparently tried to decide who to attack.

“Seriously, you’ve lost. No sense continuing this,” Jeremy added, trying not to sound inflammatory as he cajoled his attacker.

To their surprise, the man lowered his weapon. “That’s it… now drop it, and-“ Mary began, but didn’t have to finish as the sniper brought it back up to point the revolver at his own head, and pulled the trigger. There was an explosion of bright orange-white light and red, and the body fell right over the edge.

But not before snagging Ethan’s own unconscious body. The two tumbled to the floor, and the corpse of the sniper hit a railing before flopping to the ground, clearly dead. Ethan, however, was not so lucky – his prone body falling right onto an architectural decoration. There was a sharp sound as Ethan was immediately impaled, the wrought-iron rod going straight through his torso. Jeremy looked on in shock as there were screams of horror from the crowd.

“You stupid fuck,” Jeremy said, looking down at Ethan’s unconscious form and holding back tears. “What did you hope to accomplish?” The pole had gone clean through his lower chest – Jeremy quickly checked for a pulse, and found a weak beat after some searching. I need medical assistance RIGHT NOW, he thought.

Celestia almost immediately responded with a simple On my way, and Jeremy tried to stop the bleeding, somewhat surprised that Celestia was still awake at this time of night. He couldn’t remove the pole, as that would just cause Ethan to bleed out faster, so he busied himself with applying pressure to Ethan’s upper torso in an attempt to staunch the bleeding.

Celestia arrived seconds later in her human form, wearing a white shirt and black shorts which startlingly contrasted with her tan skin, and stopped in front of Mary.

“I’m with the paramedics,” she announced to the crowd, and immediately lifted Ethan off of the ironwork, tearing off part of her shirt as a makeshift bandage. Mary, too startled to speak, had to be nudged by Jeremy before buying this.

“Of course,” she muttered, and helped Celestia move Ethan offsite as the police cars began to converge on the blood-spattered scene.

Did I play that right? Celestia asked Jeremy mentally.

I don’t know, and the civilians probably don’t either – you’re probably fine, Jeremy replied.

As he watched, Ethan was healing – Celestia was using her magic as they ran, and finally teleported them once the four were out of sight.

Next Chapter: Chapter 48* Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 12 Minutes