Chapter 56

12-8-14, 4:02 P.M.

Jeremy huffed an annoyed sigh as he opened his textbook once more, skimming through the pages to find the correct formula. It was finals week, and he wasn’t too thrilled about the prospect, although he was somewhat impressed he’d made it through the entire semester without the mysterious militant group attacking yet. Just a few more days, and he would be able to escape before they could get the chance to kill more innocents. Then, according to a plan laid out by Chrysalis, he’d move back to his house as obviously as possible, and they could evacuate the neighbors and draw the enemies out into the open.

Speaking of Chrysalis, she’d been less than happy to hear that he would be studying and taking tests for the entire first half of the week. Jeremy had had to promise that he would make it up to her upon his return before she let him leave, and even then a reluctant, almost petulant frown was visible on her face as he exited Celestia’s room.

The mood on his floor of the dormitory was best described as ‘subdued’. Instead of laughing, talking, or even just enjoying each other’s company, each student was buried in textbooks, papers, study guides and formulas. The sole whiteboard that occupied a corner of the common area above the microwave had been taken over by mathematical formulas, which had promptly continued on to invade the windows as well. There was no talking, only frustrated muttering as the kids endlessly checked and rechecked their notes.

Jeremy, meanwhile, was absent from all of this, preferring his own dorm room for studying to the common room. Sure, every once in a while he’d come out to ask a question, or try to help another student with a problem he noticed them struggling on, but for the most part he was doing what he always did when it came to socializing on campus: Locking himself in his room and not speaking to anyone. Although, to be fair, he’d loosened up quite a bit since his first few days on campus.

12-8-14, 11:07 P.M.

Rubbing his eyes, Jeremy leaned back in his chair and sighed, setting his study guide down. He wasn’t sure if he’d studied quite enough, but that would have to be enough – he recognized the value of a full night’s sleep. He walked over to the entrance to the room, turning off the light. His roommate wasn’t back yet, presumably either out studying or doing other stuff. Scuffing his feet along the tiled floor as he went, Jeremy hopped up into bed and sank into sleep.

12-9-14, 4:00 P.M.

Kids filed in to the lecture hall, animatedly chatting. Jeremy had already been there for a few hours beforehand – he had spent some time making sure he knew where it was, and it was also a nice, quiet place to finish studying. To the test, he had brought the usual assortment of school supplies – graphing calculator, pencils and sharpener, and an eraser. He had also brought the silver revolver, as he still wasn’t allowed to leave his dorm room without it.

The test started, and Jeremy quickly began working his way through the integrations and substitutions, finding with some satisfaction that he was quite competent on these problems – clearly the studying had paid off. Hell, it might even make up for his lousy grades on the quizzes.

Halfway through, he was only slightly less confident – while he had been unable to answer a few questions, he had given them his best shot and moved on. As long as he scraped a 50% on this final, he’d pass the class – and right now, that was all that mattered.

12-9-14, 6:07 P.M.

Jeremy stared at his exam, which was now closed and slightly rumpled from his constant page-flipping. He really didn’t think he could do any better, as he’d already spent the past fifteen minutes trying to rework the problems he couldn’t find an answer for without any success. Just as he was about to struggle his way through the row of other test-takers into the aisle so he could turn his exam in, it occurred to him that he should probably pack up his bag and take that too – wouldn’t want to inconvenience the others by attempting a round trip. He hurriedly shoved his calculator and writing utensils into his backpack, and stumbled his way around the others. They moved to let him pass, clearly annoyed at the interruption, and Jeremy gave them an apologetic frown before moving on.

He’d made it halfway down the aisle when there was a commotion behind him. Turning around to spot the source of the loud noise, he found that a stranger in a black suit was pointing an AK-47 at him. Students were openmouthed in shock, and inched away from the stranger as he got closer to Jeremy. For a moment, Jeremy’s expression was perfectly akin to that of a deer caught in the headlights, and all he could think of was just how unfair this was – he had been about to hand in his exam! He was nearly done with the year, couldn’t they have waited two more goddamn days?! Ah well. Moving quickly, he reached into his backpack, which was open on one end – Jeremy thanked himself from a few minutes ago for packing up in such an unnecessary hurry, and pulled out the revolver. In the space of a heartbeat, the intruder’s head exploded into a cloud of red, and the nearby students screamed as the corpse slumped to the floor. Sorry you had to see that, Jeremy mentally apologized to them – physically, he didn’t think he could bring himself to speak those words without bursting into tears.

Two more entered the room, guns drawn and already firing – to Jeremy’s relief, they were only aiming for him. Jeremy pointed the revolver their way and fired back. To his satisfaction, he only missed once, and a few seconds later there were two more corpses in the room. He waited a moment, listening to see if any more were coming – satisfied that nobody was, he strode down the aisle to the still-shocked TA’s, who were staring at them as though he were a ghost. As casually as though he hadn’t just been attacked, Jeremy placed his exam in the appropriate box, and shook the hand of his recitation TA, who was still shaking.

“Have a nice break – oh, and I’d advise locking the doors for a moment,” Jeremy remarked loudly.

With that, he strode out of the room, revolver swinging loosely in his hand. As he walked up the aisle, his shoe clunked against something plastic – he stopped to examine it. A sinking feeling began in his chest as he realized it was a walkie-talkie – for what use would a walkie-talkie have if there weren’t more terrorists skulking around somewhere?

Admittedly, that was cool – he felt pretty good about that. Still, the stress of being shot at was no small consideration. Speaking of which, wasn’t there something he was supposed to do now? Hmm… Wait, right, he was supposed to tell his marefriends and Mary. Whipping out his phone, he paused a moment before calling Mary first – he thought it might give her more time to mobilize the troops.

“Yo, Mary, we got problems,” he began as soon as she picked up.

“What kind of problems?” Mary asked.

“Those guys invaded again, and I think this might be the big one,” Jeremy answered.

There was a moment of silence on Mary’s end, before she responded, sounding hurried. “Head back to the dorm and get your friends in on this – we’re going to need all the help we can get.”

Jeremy affirmed this, and promptly hung up, breaking into a quick jog as he dialed up Celestia.

“Jeremy? I’m in a meeting, is this important?” Celestia asked, sounding mildly annoyed.

“Terrorists invaded, I'm coming over there to get the suit. Get ready,” Jeremy answered, hanging up once more.

Now that he didn’t have to worry about traffic, Jeremy started sprinting down the road towards his dorm area, either going around or pushing aside other pedestrians in his mad dash. They complained, quite loudly, but Jeremy had other, more pressing things on his mind – such as whether he was going to just kill everyone again or attempt to negotiate. He felt as though this were a final exam that he had started, only to find he had forgotten to study.

Bursting into his room, Jeremy froze at the sight of his roommate, who stared at him. For a moment, he stared back, silver handgun dangling from his fingertips as he tried to think of an explanation. To his shock, his roommate sighed, stood up and faced him.

“This is about the ponies and terrorists and stuff, isn’t it?” he asked, and Jeremy’s jaw could’ve hit the floor.

“H… h-how…?!” Jeremy stammered, too shocked to form a coherent sentence.

“Saw you going into the closet, peeked inside, saw a pony. Anyway, I’ll just get out of your way…”

With that, Jeremy’s roommate calmly stepped out into the common area, and Jeremy watched him leave for a moment, his slack-jawed stare slowly shifting back into a pleased grin. Clearly his roommate was way cooler than he’d thought.

He ran through the halls of the Canterlot castle, wondering where the hell he’d left his suit. Maybe Celestia knew? He headed for the throne room, opening the door to find Celestia, with Luna close behind. Celestia’s horn lit up yellow, and a second later, he found himself fully dressed in the white plastic suit. He smiled appreciatively at her.

“First time you’ve ever teleported my clothes on,” he quipped, and Celestia smacked him with a wing good-naturedly. With that, they headed back for the portal. “Where’s Chrysalis?” Jeremy asked.

Celestia shrugged. “As soon as she heard, she ran off. I have no idea what she’s up to.” Jeremy cocked an eyebrow, but didn’t press the issue, and they continued onward.

Their progress was finally halted by Ethan, who was standing in front of the portal. Jeremy strode forward with an unamused frown.

“Out of the way, Ethan, we got stuff to do,” he ordered.

To everyone’s surprise, Ethan shook his head. “I’m coming with,” he demanded, and Jeremy glared at him – he appreciated the attempt to help, but now wasn’t the time.

Seeing his look, Ethan continued. “This is a golden opportunity to prove to you guys that I can be cool, and I’m not going to let it go to waste! Let me fight!”

Jeremy looked at Celestia, expecting some sort of answer, but her face was unreadable. Luna too was keeping her expression carefully still, and Jeremy reluctantly returned his gaze back to Ethan.

“You know what, fine,” he tiredly answered. “Just – just keep this in mind. You’re the only one of us who stands a real shot at dying here, got it? Which, if memory serves, we’ve already had to save you from once. Don’t mess up again.”

Ethan looked him dead in the eye, and nodded. “Yes, sir,” he answered, and Jeremy mentally cringed – he’d almost forgotten Ethan was a trained soldier, and his previous sentence was quite a poignant reminder. Jeremy reached into the dimensional void that stored his weapons and, after some deliberation, pulled out the M16 assault rifle. Ethan accepted it, checking over the clip and gun with a practiced eye.

“Ammo?” he asked.

“Infinite,” Jeremy tersely responded, and Ethan grinned.

Jeremy handed Luna the SPAS-12 auto-shotgun, and she levitated it with a grim determination in her eyes. Celestia sighed as she looked at this, and Jeremy glanced at her curiously.

“I suppose it will have to come to murder, won’t it,” she sadly declared, and Jeremy looked away for a moment as this hit him.

“I suppose so,” he answered.

Celestia looked at him curiously. “But what weapons do you possess now? You seem to have given away most of your heavier armaments.” Jeremy took out the revolver in response, and she surveyed it distastefully. “This won’t do,” Celestia declared, and lit up her horn once more. A moment later, all the weapons had been duplicated.

“Nice,” Jeremy commented with some surprise as he received the new M16 and SPAS-12 and stored them.

Celestia had duplicated an M16 of her own, and repeated the same motions Ethan had, peering into the magazine curiously. “Know how to use it?” Jeremy asked, and she nodded.

“Shouldn’t be too hard. Now let’s get going,” Celestia responded, and the team of four headed through the portal.

Mary was waiting just outside, a squad of soldiers standing at the ready.

“Good to see you guys are ready,” she commented, and Luna nodded – both alicorns had once again transformed into their human appearances in preparation.

The military team were looking at Celestia and Luna curiously, and the few students who were in the room were staring at the group awkwardly.

“So, what’s the plan?” Jeremy asked.

“Split up, hunt them down, and dispatch every last one,” Mary answered. “From what communications we managed to intercept, they’re only concerned with you and Ethan – but mostly you, Jeremy. So if we all stay in your general area, but out of sight, we should be able to pick them off.” Jeremy nodded.

“Sounds good, let’s go,” he urged, and set off down the stairs.

Before he could leave, however, Celestia stopped him.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” she asked Mary, and both she and Jeremy looked at her curiously. To make her point, Celestia gestured at the students who had been watching the exchange in open astonishment.

Mary cleared her throat. “Ah… right. Campus lockdown is already in effect, and we have a current advisory to head to the nearest building and lock yourself in until the threat has passed. That good?” Celestia nodded, satisfied, and opened the door for Jeremy. Giving her the faintest of smiles, he started down the stairs.

As he stepped outside into the wintry night, shotgun in hand, Jeremy couldn’t help but reflect on the sense of finality he was still getting. Like everything so far had led up to this moment. Was he going to pass, or fail? Only time and bullets would tell. He noticed Ethan gazing up at the stars, a pallid sweat on his lanky face, and nudged him in the elbow.

“Thanks,” Jeremy said, conveying with his tone and body language what he couldn’t quite put into words.

Ethan turned his stare to him, surprised for a moment, before giving a toothy smile. “Anytime,” he answered.

With that, the two former enemies led their small army off into the night, each sure that this was to be the longest night of their lives.

Next Chapter: Chapter 57 Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 38 Minutes