Chapter 62

1-25-15, 9:39 P.M.

It had been quite a while since Jeremy’s last trip to Equestria, and he was beginning to get very suspicious. He had attempted to press his wives for any details regarding their mysterious cutoff of contact, but his texts inevitably resulted in vague answers that only served to frustrate him more. Finally, after hours of agonizingly circular arguments, he had decided. He was going to head back to Equestria and see what this was all about. Jeremy hastily threw on some clothes and opened the closet, stepping through the portal cautiously.

Jeremy wasn’t sure what he had been expecting – nothing looked different… Was there some surprise planned for him that he wasn’t aware of? No, he thought he could tell from what vague information he had dredged out of those useless text messages – this was something decidedly negative in nature.

He skulked around the castle corridors, avoiding sight as he tried to discern what could possibly be happening. More than once he had to enter a room to avoid the staff; thankfully it was a Sunday and activity was rather low. Finally, he made his way to the throne room undetected, only to stare.

The first thing odd about the sight was that both Celestia and Luna were on the throne together, answering questions. They looked extremely tired, and Jeremy’s former irritability bled away to be replaced with pangs of sympathy. The reason for their plight was made evident by a glance to his right: Several dozen ponies had gathered in some sort of protest. Jeremy took a moment to actually listen to what they were saying, and he could vaguely make out such statements as “gone too far” and “crimes against nature”. Being a human of somewhat sharp intellect, Jeremy deduced that Celestia and Luna had informed the public of their childbearing intent, and it had gone rather badly.

Jeremy considered striding in there and attempting to take care of things himself, but he got the impression he would only manage to make things worse, and thus refrained. He would have sighed, but that might have given away his position. Speaking of which, a night guard had spotted him hidden in the shadows, and he slowly raised a finger to his lips, hoping she would understand. To his relief, she briskly nodded and whispered in the ear of the other nearby guards. Jeremy briefly wondered how they could hear her over the clamoring din of the protesters, but remembered Luna telling him that her bat-pony guards had much better hearing than most others.

He turned back to the protesting group, to find that Celestia had gotten off her throne, evidently intending to end her shift, and was walking towards him. Alarmed, Jeremy quickly moved behind a pillar, still out of sight of the others, and tried not to think too hard – he wasn’t quite sure just how powerful her empathic capabilities were. To his dismay, she stopped, and looked around as though searching for him. After a moment, she shrugged it off and continued upstairs to her chambers, muttering under her breath. Jeremy watched to make sure she was gone, then sighed in relief as ponies cleared out of the throne room. With the night guards watching, he disappeared back to the relative safety of his dorm room.

Once there, he fumed for a moment, caught up in his own irritation – at the protesters, yes, but a significant part was directed at Celestia, Luna and Chrysalis – they had kept this a secret from him! Did they think he was five years old, or something?! Jeremy briefly considered kicking something in frustration, but thought better of it, instead pulling out his phone. He was about to text Celestia and the others to come see him right this moment, but after a bit of hard critical thinking he decided against that as well – Celestia was probably fast asleep by now, Luna was likely incredibly tired, and while Chrysalis might be able to converse with him, he didn’t think much would be accomplished by just the two of them. Instead, he texted: “Group meeting. Tomorrow, after dinner. Place doesn’t matter. This is not up for debate.” With that done, a pang of guilt resounded through him for being so harsh with them, only to ebb as self-righteous indignation once again replaced it. He had every right to be mad at them! Well, no, maybe not. Jeremy continued to cycle his thoughts as he slowly went to sleep.

1-26-15, 5:20 P.M.

Jeremy had been checking his phone all day, with no response. This only served to infuriate him more, and people noticed his dark look as he walked about campus, whispering to themselves as they moved out of his path. Of course, they didn’t know the reason why – to them, he was just the hero who saved campus, and who was now visibly upset at something. As per usual, he ate dinner alone in the dining hall, quickly finishing his meal and placing his plate on the conveyor belt before heading back to his dorm room.

Once there, he checked his messages, and was somewhat pleased to find that they had responded – Celestia had offered the use of a conference room that Jeremy seemed to remember was very close to the portal, and hadn’t been used in decades. Clearly a tactic to keep him as out of sight as possible, then. He grimaced, sent back a message accepting this, and headed through the portal to wait.

The conference room was old, and slightly dusty, the sunlight filtering in through the windows visible by the motes of dust that reflected it. Jeremy hardly had to wait a few minutes before Celestia walked in, instantly startled by his presence but just as quickly hiding it.

“Oh… hello, didn’t think you’d be here so fast,” she remarked.

Jeremy merely raised an eyebrow. “Where are the others?” he asked, trying his best to sound polite.

“Luna is on her way, and Chrysalis should be here any moment now,” Celestia answered, a notable hint of nervousness in her voice.

True to form, Luna walked in just a few minutes later with Chrysalis in tow, chatting amicably until they saw Jeremy. Falling silent, they took seats around the table and waited expectantly.

Jeremy surveyed them with an unamused look. “So. When were you going to tell me?” he asked, and Celestia’s eyes went wide.

She looked over at Luna, who shook her head, before turning back to him. “I- I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Celestia replied, trying to collect herself. Jeremy gave her a glare, and she flinched.

“Do not lie to me,” Jeremy hissed. “I went through here yesterday to see what all the fuss was about. Saw a bunch of protesters talking about ‘crimes against nature’, and you two fending them off,” he explained, pointing a finger at Celestia and Luna, who both flinched. By now, Jeremy was already getting thoroughly worked up. “What, am I just a toy to you? Something to be put away and hidden when it doesn’t suit you?”

Luna attempted to interject with “Nay, that was not what we meant at all-“ but Jeremy was having none of it.

He rounded on her, eyes fairly blazing with anger. “Then what is it!? Why, when this issue primarily concerns us as a family, did nopony think to ask me?!”

At this, Celestia burst into tears, and Jeremy finally snapped out of his tirade. “I… I’m sorry…” he stammered, unnerved by her emotional response.

“No, it’s my fault. I’ve failed you… I’ve failed you again,” Celestia whimpered.

At this, Jeremy was just confused. “Again?” he wondered out loud.

Celestia looked up at him, with tearstained eyes. “I just didn’t want to hurt you like I’ve done before – please, you have to believe me!” she begged.

It finally occurred to Jeremy that she was talking about her original possession, way back when. “Hey… I don’t blame you for the first time, I never did…” Jeremy answered, lifting her head up to look at him.

“But I…” Celestia began, but Jeremy silenced her with a kiss. After a moment, he pulled away, a hand trailing through her mane as he gazed deeply into her magenta eyes.

“It’s okay. I’m not… I’m not really mad,” he admitted with a small laugh. “I just… you guys need to include me in this sort of thing, okay?” he asked. Celestia sniffled, remaining silent.

“We… can do that,” Luna carefully answered, having watched the whole thing with a worried expression.

“For what it’s worth, I advocated that from the beginning,” Chrysalis muttered.

“So, what exactly happened?” Jeremy asked, once the tension had died down a bit – Celestia was still crying a bit as he hugged her, but both had otherwise calmed down. Luna scuffed a hoof.

“We… announced our intent to have children to the public. T’was meant to be a joyous occasion… and most citizens took it as such. However… the nobles, as soon as the announcement was over, they began pestering us, under the impression that we would produce a hybrid pony-human, and one brought up the subject of Lord Tirek and everypony started panicking…”

Jeremy could almost sympathize with that: the prospect of a magic-consuming child was a daunting one. “Did you tell them about the plans to transform me into a pony?” he asked after a moment of silence, and Luna nodded.

“We did, but then they went off about ‘equine purity’ – they seem determined to hate thee.”

Jeremy mentally grimaced – racists. “Huh… well… now what? I don’t think these are the kind of ponies that will be appeased by any form of logic…” he wondered out loud. “How many ponies agree with them?” he asked Luna.

She muttered darkly. “Initially, not many. But, gold changed hooves, and minds with them…”

Jeremy’s frown went deeper. “I’m almost tempted to just spite them and go through with it… but that wouldn’t exactly help your reputation,” he nodded at Celestia, who was too busy snuggling up to him to even notice.

“Ah… sister, we know thou hast been away for a while… but don’t thou think thou art overdoing it?” Luna gently chastised. To Jeremy’s surprise, Celestia stuck her tongue out.

“You’re just jealous you aren’t being cuddled, Lulu,” she answered. Luna appeared equally taken aback by her behavior, and Jeremy looked down at Celestia in concern.

“Are you… okay?” he asked.

“M’not. More cuddling,” Celestia answered, once more burying her muzzle into his chest as her wings wrapped around him – Jeremy was quickly engulfed by a wall of white feathers.

Jeremy turned to the others, giving them the best ‘alright what the hell’ look he could muster. Chrysalis deeply sighed.

“I hate to break it to you, Jeremy, but Celestia hasn’t been allowed to show real, raw emotion for a thousand years now - she's a princess, she's got to be all regal and motherly all the time. So, every time she tries to romance somepony, they turn away due to how clingy she is, and the cycle continues. She didn’t do it this time, because as she stated, she was very afraid of you turning away from her, but she could only hold it back for so long.” Celestia whipped her head up to face Chrysalis, outraged. “Hey, I just tell it like I see it,” Chrysalis countered. Celestia grumbled for a moment, then went back to where she had been, mane obscuring Jeremy’s vision. Jeremy gave a deep sigh of his own, giving Celestia a small back rub.

“Let me just get this out of the way: I will not leave you guys for being emotional, or weird, or just plain silly. We’re married now, remember? Bound to stick it through the good times, and the bad. If I only loved you three on good days, I’d be a terrible person.” At this, Celestia gave an anguished wail and hugged him even tighter, crushing Jeremy’s ribcage as she gave great heaving sobs. “Shhh… just let it out…” Jeremy soothed, vaguely attempting to pry her hooves off his chest before he suffocated.

A few moments later, Celestia let go and stood up, back arching as she took a seat next to him, face red from embarrassment.

“I… may have overreacted…” she admitted, grinning a little.

Jeremy chuckled. “We both did. Let’s just treat it as a learning experience, yeah?” Celestia looked at him, eyebrow raised.

“And what did you learn?” she asked somewhat incredulously.

Jeremy snickered. “To cuddle you significantly more often,” he answered with a straight face, and Luna and Chrysalis giggled along with him as Celestia’s face went tomato-red.

“I – that’s not –“ she spluttered, and Jeremy laughed louder.

“Friendship lesson of the ages right there, does someone have the Journal of the Two Sisters on hoof?” he continued, and Chrysalis collapsed in fits of laughter.

From there, the topic turned back to their having children. “So, we wondered what thou would look like as a pony…” Luna remarked, smirking as a glazed look came into her eye.

Chrysalis licked her lips. “Delicious, I would think,” the hive queen added, looking at Jeremy and waggling her eyebrows for effect.

Jeremy chuckled. “Lies and slander!” he rebutted, and Celestia giggled.

“The wings would have to be nice and big… oh, and the horn...,” Luna muttered out loud, lost in thought.

Jeremy looked over at her. “Wait. Wings and horn?” he asked.

Luna snapped out of her reverie and turned to face him, confused. “Yes, thou wouldst be an alicorn, like us… Is that not what thou wanted?”

Jeremy grimaced. “Well…” he began, and all three turned to him, expressions of shock and hurt written across Celestia and Luna’s faces. Jeremy quickly backpedaled. “No, it’s not like that!” he hurriedly got out. “It’s just – I don’t feel like I’ve… earned it.” At this, the room went silent.

“What do you mean?” Celestia asked.

Jeremy tried to come up with something resembling a reason. “I mean… you two control the sun and moon, which are huge responsibilities. Cadance has power over love, a very important emotion. And Twilight… Twilight defeated four major Equestrian enemies, wrote new magic, and is the Element of Magic itself to boot. So, if I were an alicorn, what responsibility would I have? And would I really have earned something like that?”

Chrysalis stared at him for a moment, before slamming her head into the table – not enough that it would’ve hurt, but certainly enough to get her point across. “Only you,” she spat. “Only you would defeat several changeling armies, your own military, save the lives of two alicorns and a changeling queen, bring about peace between two nations… and think you haven’t earned alicornhood yourself. What more do you think you’d have to do, hmm?” Jeremy thought about this, drawing a blank. “Exactly,” Chrysalis pressed on. “Face it, you’ve earned it. Now sit down and take your reward.”

Jeremy huffed another sigh. “Okay, I guess, but I still don’t feel comfortable about it. And I would like you to respect that.”

Luna, to his surprise, nodded. “If thou dost not want to be an alicorn, then we cannot force it upon thee.”

Chrysalis, after looking at her for a moment, rolled her eyes and gave in. “Fine, whatever, I respect your choice,” she grumbled.

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