Chapter 51

A few hours later, the post-wedding party was still in full swing. The changeling queens from earlier were excitedly conversing with Chrysalis, and judging from the tone of their voices and the looks directed his way, Jeremy got the feeling it was all gossip. Currently, he was in a conversation with Twilight, who seemed shocked that her mentor was getting married but pleased as well. Cadance, who was also in the conversation along with Shining Armor, could no longer withhold her excitement, and was constantly smiling. When asked why, she gave an even wider smile, and replied “It’s just really great to see this happen.” Jeremy chuckled, and Celestia took advantage of the moment to use her horn to lift up his hand.

“Is this a fire opal, Cadance? I’m surprised – those are incredibly hard to find.”

Cadance flashed Celestia a smile. “Only the best, Auntie Celestia.” Jeremy was by now examining the ring as well.

“What’s the metal, anyway? Whatever it is, it’s heavy,” he noted.

Princess Cadance laughed knowingly. “Iridium,” she explained, and Jeremy’s eyes widened.

“Is that rare here?” he asked.

Luna nodded. “Tis’ only found in meteorites,” she explained, now examining his ring as well.

Jeremy took note of this, and gazed at his ring with a newfound appreciation. “Really, thanks,” he remarked to Cadance. “This must have been crazy expensive, after all.” Princess Cadance winked at him.

A few minutes after the conversation, Jeremy looked around for his three mares, all of whom seemed to be busy. Not that Jeremy minded – he had a surprise in store for them. Sidling up to a very familiar DJ, he introduced himself.

“Hey, nice wedding,” Vinyl greeted as she set up her station.

“Sup. Mind playing a special song for the opening?” Jeremy asked, taking out his MP3 player.

Vinyl levitated it over to examine it. “This one of your human music things?” Vinyl asked, and Jeremy laughed and nodded.

“Specifically, this song,” he said, pointing it out as she scrolled through, and she put in the headphones and listened to it.

“Sure, bro, just need to hook this up to the speakers – I’ll catch your eye when I’m ready,” Vinyl Scratch promised.

Jeremy whispered something else in her ear, and she laughed and nodded, pointing at a few buttons on her console as she whispered back. He dropped her a nod and sauntered away to get ready.

He had had the instrumental of the song specially made just a few days ago, and had managed to keep it a secret from his marefriends. It’d be worth it to see the looks on their faces – how many months had it been since they had shared a song together? He sipped a cup of water in preparation, then coughed like an idiot as he managed to swallow a bubble of air. After clearing his airway, he looked over at Vinyl, who was waving at him irritatedly. Jeremy gave her the thumbs up, and headed out to the stage in the center of the party area.

The music started as soon as he stepped on, and everyone else looked over in consternation. Jeremy calmly waited, flashing a smile towards Luna in the crowd, who had been watching him with a joyous grin.

“I… tried to disappear, but you’re the only reason I’m floating here…” he began, and every single hive queen had now turned to look, Chrysalis sporting a prominent green blush.

“Eyes, painted crystal clear! I can see our future through the atmosphere!” he continued, and Princess Celestia turned away from Twilight to watch, confusion apparent on her face before her expression quickly turned to a delighted smile.

“So don’t, you go, no don’t you go, ‘cause don’t you know, I’m up here alone, yeah, I… am like a satellite, sending you a signal tonight!” Jeremy continued as the song rose to a crescendo, and he noticed Vinyl listening in attentively.

“Oh, oh, oh! Like a streak of light! Oh, oh, oh, watch the world fly by! Oh, oh, oh, rev your engine up! Everybody’s racing at the speed of love!”

With a gesture, he beckoned his three marefriends forward, and each trotted onto the stage as if in a dream. He pointed at each of them in turn for the next few lines, once again amazed at the odd spell that allowed perfect music here in Equestria.

Starting with Celestia, he looked her dead in the eyes. “You… were so hard to find, with oh so many clouds across my summer sky!”

Next, he turned to Luna. “You… my constellation prize, yeah, every single star is sparkling in your eyes!”

Finally, he turned to Chrysalis for the last part. “So don’t, you go, no don’t you go, ‘cause don’t you know, I’m up here alone, so high! Like a satellite, I’m sending you a signal tonight!” Another two repetitions of the chorus, and nearly every pony in the area was swaying their head to the beat.

The music crashed to the background beat, and Jeremy leveled his gaze at all three of them. “One track, one mind, one race to win, one start, one heart, one life to live!” he sang, taking off his ring and flipping it through the air for effect. Doing this again, he went back to the chorus for the final time before he gave another signal to Vinyl. Everyone looked over as she pressed a single button on the console, and as he sang the final chorus, her machine played a recording of him singing the opening lines in tandem, creating the interesting feeling for Jeremy of being in a duet with himself. At that, the music cut to silence, and all was still for a moment.

The silence was interrupted by the purple changeling queen using her massive hooves to pick up Chrysalis. “Queen Chrysalis… keep this one,” she intoned, and Jeremy burst out laughing, breaking the tension and causing everyone else to laugh with relief as conversations resumed.

The purple changeling queen set Chrysalis down, and she dusted herself off before flying over to Jeremy. “What was that? Mr. Socially Awkward shed his cocoon,” she teased.

Jeremy smirked. “What? Reminds me of my theater student days.”

Chrysalis gave him a look. “You? Theater? You have the emotional range of a teaspoon,” she retorted.

Jeremy laughed. “Didn’t always used to be that way – I was quite the hothead back in the day,” he admitted. Chrysalis gave him a surprised stare, and Jeremy rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

Celestia and Luna trotted up to him, faces flushed. “That was… quite something,” Celestia admitted, barely holding back a smile. Luna pulled him into a bone-crushing hug, only stopping when she heard a loud snap – every pony stopped and turned to stare.

“Oh, there’s my spine,” Jeremy said, rolling his eyes as he lifted her off the ground in a returned hug of his own. Luna laughed, and the guests went back to their partying.

Jeremy walked over to the hive queens, noting how well-fed and rested they looked.

“So, I never got your names,” he mentioned. The orange-red shelled changeling stepped forward.

“I am Queen Dionaea, of the Jungle Hive. The purple one is Queen Myocia of the Roaming Hive. The light blue one with the fins instead of wings is Queen Icthyos of the Shore Hive, whereas the darker blue one is Queen Ambysto of the Marsh Hive. Finally, the clear-shelled one is Queen Chroma of the Crystal Hive.”

Jeremy acknowledged the final queen as she gazed at him, her eyes an eerie milky gray – she’s blind, Jeremy realized.

“Nice to finally meet you,” Queen Chroma acknowledged.

“Likewise,” Jeremy politely responded, wondering if Princess Cadance had caught on that there was a changeling hive in or near her country yet.

Queen Myocia stomped up to him, her hooves easily twice the width of any other in the vicinity – Jeremy could feel the ground slightly shake every time she took a step. “So, this is our Savior. Puny, isn’t he?” she hissed mockingly, an intimidating glare appearing in her fuschia eyes.

To everyone’s surprise, Jeremy laughed – taunting was nothing new to a teenager. “You weren’t saying that when you gave Chrysalis back her crown,” he retorted, returning her glare with a cocky grin.

Queen Myocia stared at him for a moment in shock, then laughed uproariously. “Better and better!” she chortled. “Chrysalis, you’ve got yourself a true find – remind me to steal him from you sometime.”

Chrysalis smirked. “Get your own, Myocia.” Jeremy chuckled, leaving them to their banter after a moment of waiting.

Ethan was all alone in his own corner, and Jeremy approached him with an eyebrow already raised.

“Seems like you’d enjoy the time outside,” he remarked as he took a seat beside Ethan.

Ethan stared at him impassively. “I never was one for socializing,” Ethan remarked.

“Likewise,” Jeremy snorted, reclining back in his chair. “So, who made you best man?” he asked.

Ethan looked at him in surprise, his curly hair swinging around and catching Jeremy on the face. Jeremy blinked and spat a stray hair out, and Ethan gave him an apologetic look before continuing. “Cadance did, after hearing about how I messed up and’ve been trying to reform. She felt it would be a good thing to do, to show I’m okay with you marrying them or whatever.”

Jeremy nodded – sounded about right. “I wonder why she didn’t tell me,” he mused aloud.

“She said she didn’t have time, and told me to apologize to you for that.”

Jeremy shrugged. “S’cool.”

The changeling queens from earlier had apparently followed them, appearing out of the shadows all around the table.

“So, this is the one,” Dionaea greeted, staring at Ethan distastefully.

“How do humans look? Look good, that is,” Chroma commented, gazing at Ethan with an impassive expression.

“What, are you asking what we think is attractive in males?” Jeremy asked after a second of parsing this. Chroma nodded. “Well-defined muscles, angular lines on the face and chest, tan complexion, and a generally fit look,” Jeremy answered after some thought.

Myocia laughed. “So, neither of you fit the bill, then.”

Jeremy gave her a small smile. “Guess not. Then again, who cares about looks?”

Chrysalis laughed, and Dionaea looked at her. “Are all humans this altruistic?” she asked seriously, and Jeremy stifled a giggle, pretending to cough instead.

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “I wish – I think I just got lucky,” she muttered. Ethan grimaced.

With that, the queens left, minus Chroma, who had stayed behind for some reason. She looked at Jeremy. “Thanks,” she whispered, and Jeremy didn’t have to ask what she meant – he remembered all too well the deal he had made with her hive. He simply nodded, and Ethan looked at him curiously as he got up and gestured for Chroma to follow.

“What did happen to your hive?” Jeremy asked. He had never bothered to follow up on this before now, and now that Chroma was here he had the perfect opportunity. Queen Chroma, meanwhile, appeared to be distracted before answering, looking around her with a glare as they moved throughout the crowd, her mouth slightly open for some reason. Finally, she looked straight at him.

“I apologize – it’s hard to echolocate with all these moving ponies. To answer your question, we are receiving some attention, and after High Queen Chrysalis was kind enough to send us a love machine of our very own, we’ve been making some political progress. All thanks to you, I might add.” Jeremy shrugged, leading them over to a quieter corner of the party area. He took interest in her ability to echolocate – could other changelings develop that?

“Least I could do,” he answered, averting his sight from hers – those unfalteringly open gray eyes were starting to unnerve him. Chroma looked at him for a while.

“…Does it bother you that I’m blind?” she bluntly asked. Taken by surprise, Jeremy looked over at her to find her still staring straight at his face.

“No, it’s not that, it’s just – you never blink. It’s rather unsettling to have someone stare at you like that… But if you can’t control it, that’s fine, I can live with that,” he hastily amended. Queen Chroma smirked at him.

“I don’t blink because I don’t have to – and that intimidation you mentioned is quite useful in the courts.” Jeremy laughed, imagining Chroma in a staring contest over some political scuffle. Getting up, Chroma opened her transparent wings. “It seems my hive has managed to intoxicate themselves,” she remarked, as though this were a trivial occurrence. “The conversation was nice. Goodbye.” With that, she flew over to the drinks table, where at least four clear-shelled changelings were gorging themselves on the wine.

Jeremy caught up with Princess Cadance a few minutes afterward.

“Hey, you do know Queen Chroma’s from your area, right?” he asked.

To his surprise, Cadance nodded. “We found out just a few months ago. Relations were… rocky at first, but I think we’ve got a good compromise going – modeled after your original one, in fact.”

Jeremy nodded appreciatively. “Okay, good, just making sure.”

Cadance shifted uncomfortably. “Queen Chroma is… rather odd in negotiations, I must admit.”

Jeremy chuckled. “The stare got to you too?”

Princess Cadance laughed nervously. “Yeah, it’s creepy how she can do that. Still, she’s actually quite friendly.”

Jeremy nodded, grabbing a glass of fruit punch as he took a moment to relax.

11-2-14, 11:57 P.M.

Finally, the party was over, and the guests slowly filed out. The changeling hives departed, a dark cloud blotting out the stars as they headed for their own faraway hives. Finally, after the very last guest had left, it was just Jeremy, Princess Cadance, Twilight, Luna, Celestia, Chrysalis, and Ethan.

“Best day of my life,” Jeremy sighed.

“Well, that just means we have to try harder,” Chrysalis responded, and Luna laughed.

Celestia remained silent, only giving a tired smile. Noticing this, Jeremy looked over. “Looks like we should head to bed,” he commented, and everyone agreed. Twilight gave her former mentor one last nuzzle, and teleported off to join her friends.

After safely locking Ethan in the dungeon once more and saying goodbye to Cadance, Jeremy and company adjourned to Celestia’s room.

“No night shift?” Jeremy asked Luna as they climbed the stairs.

“After a wedding? Hardly,” Luna grunted. They found Celestia’s bed, once again magically expanded and looking as though it had been freshly made. The three mares took off their rings and placed them on the bedside drawer, and Jeremy did the same. He found his pajamas from the dorm neatly folded on the bed, and began taking off his suit.

“Where do I put this?” he asked, and Celestia lazily lit her horn to vanish it off of him.

“It’s now hung up in your closet back home,” she informed him, and Jeremy gave her a grateful smile.

“What would I do without you three?” he asked.

“A lot of walking,” Luna answered, and Jeremy laughed as he crawled into bed with them, stretching his tired arms around all three. Next Chapter: Chapter 52 Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 27 Minutes