Chapter 69

4-4-15, 7:41 P.M.

Jeremy sighed as he walked out of his last class for the day, stretching and yawning slightly as he made his way out the building in the vague direction of his dorm house. Weeks had gone by, without anything happening – Celestia still hadn’t gotten pregnant, Chrysalis was still nursing her egg, Luna still was pregnant… It seemed a little boring. Sure, this was not for lack of trying – they were still waiting on the results of the latest attempt for Celestia, but still, Jeremy began to wish for the old days, when they would sit down and spend a week or two just enjoying each other’s company.

He stepped into his dorm room, waved a brief hello to his roommate, and stepped through the portal, smirking at how normal this had become – his roommate barely acknowledged his presence. A royal guard saluted as soon as she saw Jeremy, and Jeremy dropped a nod, brushing past her silently as he made his way to the throne room to check on Celestia.

Princess Celestia was currently conversing with some of the nobles, her expression an artificial smile – Jeremy could tell how bored she was behind her usual public demeanor. She gave a genuine smile as soon as she saw him, however, and politely nodded at Jeremy before resuming her conversation. Jeremy took this as a signal to wait, and leaned against a nearby pillar.

Finally, some minutes later, Celestia trotted over to him. “Good afternoon. How was math class?” she inquired.

Jeremy smirked. “Well, I didn’t fall asleep this time. Just barely made it to class, too – completely forgot I had to cast some molten metal today.”

Celestia led him along the corridor to her private chambers, ushering him inside with a barely restrained smile. As soon as Jeremy stepped in, he was engulfed in a wall of pure hug as Celestia squeezed his ribcage. “It worked! Oh, it worked, I can’t believe it,” she sang and danced around the room, Jeremy in tow.

“Then, you mean…” Jeremy began.

“I’m pregnant,” Celestia confirmed, and Jeremy returned the hug.

“That’s amazing! Do they know the gender?” he asked. Celestia nodded.

“Another colt – our little Miracle’s going to have a brother!”

Jeremy grinned – 'our little Miracle' had become Prince Miracle Matter’s new nickname, and the name had stuck – it was even in the newspapers at this point. Princess Luna, for her part, had quickly been swept up in interviews and public announcements regarding her child, which she had taken to with gusto – she hadn’t been this popular in quite some time, according to Celestia.

“The doctors said I might have been too old to carry – they didn’t know when alicorns hit menopause, if ever. But the last one came through – I have a fertilized egg!” Celestia declared excitedly, and Jeremy grinned down at her as he planted a kiss on her forehead.

“Any idea on the name?” he asked, and Celestia shook her head.

“I’ve been trying to come up with something… but no luck. Luna tells me you literally had a vision?” she asked, and Jeremy nodded, chuckling.

“Yeah, we were just sitting around, being all kinds of unproductive, when suddenly BAM! Future vision. And just like that, I knew it was going to be Miracle Matter.”

Celestia giggled. “So when do you think my vision’s going to come along?” she asked, and Jeremy laughed.

“I’d say… right about now,” a voice replied, and the two of them whipped around to reveal a light metallic blue alicorn leaning against the wall.

“Who are you?” Celestia asked curiously, slightly raising her hackles threateningly – Jeremy suspected she didn’t take well to intruders in her bedroom.

The new alicorn, for his part, simply laughed. “What, you don’t recognize your kid?” he asked. Jeremy stared at the newcomer, who stared back before laughing. “Oh, that look – get used to that look, Dad. I’ll be hopping around this timeline a lot more than this.”

Jeremy put a hand to his forehead. “Let me guess, your cutie mark is power over Time, Miracle Matter’s is Space, and you’re our kid from who knows how many years in the future, come back just to troll us.”

The blue alicorn doubled over in giggles. “Oh, wow, you’re just as snarky as ever! Yeah, you got most of it right – I just came back to this particular point in time to tell you guys my name, so you don’t mess it up. Temporal inevitability and all that, right?” he asked Jeremy, who chuckled and nodded.

Celestia, who had been watching this exchange in confusion, finally turned back to the smaller alicorn. “So… what is your name?” she prompted.

The blue alicorn surveyed her, a smirk coming to his face. “Well, Mooooom,” he drawled. “My name is Prince Clockwork Chronology,” he announced. The smile was wiped off his face, however, and Clockwork opened his mouth like he was about to say something. Apparently thinking better, he closed it, and looked almost apologetic. Jeremy raised an eyebrow, but his future-son remained silent. “…Anyway… you’ll be seeing me again a bit later down the road. ‘Til then, try not to screw up the timeline, kay?” the prince admonished.

With that, he disappeared, his magic temporarily taking the shape of a glowing, electric blue clock in his wake before vanishing. Jeremy looked at Princess Celestia for a moment, before shrugging. “Clockwork Chronology it is, then?” he asked.

Celestia stared at him, apparently still surprised by the whole encounter. “Uhh… yes?” she answered.

Jeremy chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll figure it out in a few years – he didn’t look that old.” Celestia, having apparently given up, gave a shrug and returned to her usual smile.

“Well, at any rate, my future son is certainly… interesting,” she remarked, and Jeremy laughed.

“Ethan’s gonna love this story,” he replied, and Celestia stifled a giggle.

“So, you seen the trailers for season 5?” he asked Celestia, who nodded.

“Can’t say just yet what will be happening… but I do have a few ideas,” Celestia mused. Jeremy, for his part, merely shrugged – he had long since sworn off spoilers.

“I wonder what’s left to do, now that the both of you are pregnant…” Jeremy wondered aloud.

Celestia smirked. “Well, we could always just continue what we were doing,” she remarked seductively, and Jeremy chuckled.

“Actually, I kind of want to take a break from sex for a while – it’s getting exhausting,” he admitted, and Celestia was taken by surprise.

“Huh. I was getting tired as well, but I wasn’t going to say anything,” she replied, and Jeremy quirked a frown at her.

“Aw, c’mon, you know you can tell me,” he reminded her.

Celestia shyly looked away. “Well, yes, it’s just… I hate disappointing you,” she reluctantly answered, and Jeremy pulled her into a hug.

“After all we’ve been through? You know I’m down for anything, good or bad.” Celestia smiled at him, and he gave an indulgent grin back.

A few hours later, they were relaxing on Celestia’s bed, Celestia reading a book while Jeremy simply snuggled into her side. “Say, we’ve got names for the two pony kids… but did we ever come up with a name for the changeling egg?” Jeremy asked.

Celestia shrugged. “I did ask, once. Chrysalis replied that changelings have to earn their names, and as such no name was required as of yet.”

Jeremy raised an eyebrow, processing this. “They have to earn their names… huh.” He felt vaguely stupid for not having learned this earlier – after all, he’d known Chrysalis for over a year and a half now.

With not much else to do, they retired to bed, Jeremy comfortably leaning an arm around Celestia as the latter draped a wing over him. “So, our kid’s mucking about time,” Celestia remarked jokingly.

Jeremy chuckled. “Yeah… let’s hope he doesn’t mess anything up, huh?” Celestia hummed in agreement, and they drifted off to slumber.

Elsewhere, two greenish eyes surveyed the odd place the occupant had found themselves in. Vast, incomprehensible networks of space propagated themselves at impossible angles, each branch spreading outward, sideways, looping back… wait, looping? The stranger decided to put a hand to his eyes, attempting as fruitlessly as ever to rub the green out of them so that they would look normal again. Finding no success, he returned his attention to the infinite timestreams laid out before him – and indeed, there was a loop, glowing neon blue against the normal backdrop of muted colors: Someone from a timeline had returned to a previous point on the same timeline. The stranger consulted his notes on the subject, the stolen papers still bearing the insignia of Star Swirl the Bearded. According to this, the only timeline that could be was… the main one. The stranger grinned, making his way forward through the ethereal currents of fourth-dimensional space towards the ‘left’most point of the loop – the point of re-entry. -Not this time, or any other. -C.C.

Jeremy awoke to find Celestia tossing and turning, groaning in pain as she kicked feebly – it was one of these kicks that had woken him up. “…Celestia?” he whispered, unsure what to do. He gently shook one of her shoulders, and Celestia bolted upright, startling him into falling off the bed.

“J-Jeremy? You’re okay?” she asked, no small tinge of worry lacing her voice.

Jeremy picked himself up, and swept her into a tired hug. “Of course I’m okay, Celestia. What happened?” he asked.

Celestia looked away. “It’s just… I had the most awful dream,” she whispered. Jeremy began rubbing her ears, and Celestia gave a reluctant smile.

“Tell me about it,” he inquired, and Celestia sighed.

“It’s… before I do, I don’t agree with it, okay? Just so you know,” she stated, and Jeremy nodded. “Okay…” Celestia began. “I was dreaming about when you were fighting Queen Chrysalis, way back when. You had just made it to the throne room, and I thought everything would go the same…” she trailed off, a tear coming to her eye.

Jeremy gently wiped it off. “But?” he prompted, and Celestia shuddered.

“Chrysalis, she… she tore off your helmet, and bit you, injected you with – with something. Whatever it was, you were knocked out, and she proclaimed victory.”

Jeremy kissed her on the forehead. “Girl, you know that isn’t what happened, don’t be sad,” he pleaded.

Celestia shook her head stubbornly. “The dream didn’t end there! The scene shifted forward to a few weeks later, and we were all in the Hive – you, me, Luna, Twilight…” she gave another small shudder, stifling a choked sob, and Jeremy’s eyes widened in alarm – how bad had this dream been? “Twilight was d-dead. I was… converted into a changeling, Chrysalis’ right-hoof servant. But you and Luna…” she trailed off once more, seemingly unable to continue. Unsure how else he could comfort her, Jeremy simply waited. Finally, Celestia took a deep breath. “You two were being mind-controlled to believe you were back in Canterlot, and that everything had worked out. You were professing your love to each other, unaware that hundreds of changelings were feeding off of it… Oh, it was horrible!” she sobbed.

Jeremy held her there, whispering the most soothing things he could think of as she cried herself out. “I’m right here, I’m fine,” he repeated. “Everything will be okay.”

Finally, her sobs gave way to gentle whimpers. “I… ordinarily wouldn’t think much of this,” she admitted, and Jeremy looked at her curiously. “But… alicorns occasionally get visions, from the future, present or past. It’s a normal part of our lives, because of our ties to fate… and that’s what makes me think this was something more than a bad dream. What if I’m not real?” she mumbled, and Jeremy looked at her sternly.

“I can poke a hole in that argument so easily,” he sternly replied. Celestia looked at him curiously. “Ethan,” Jeremy answered. “He’s the one thing that Chrysalis would never be able to stand – there’s no way he would ever be in a cordial relationship with her, even a dream one, if she were still evil.”

Celestia considered this for a moment, then gratefully slumped her head against his. “Thank you, I needed that,” she responded, and Jeremy nuzzled the top of her head lovingly.

“Don’t worry, Celestia. You are one hundred percent real, so am I, and so is our love. Now go to sleep, Celly. It’s three in the morning.” Celestia obediently nodded and laid her head back down on her pillow, and Jeremy replaced the sheets and joined her.

4-5-15, 8:07 A.M.

Jeremy awoke to find Celestia still breathing gently next to him, though her eyes were open. “Good morning, my little human,” she purred, and Jeremy smiled.

“How was your sleep?” he asked, and Celestia gave him a small smile.

“…Better,” she admitted, and Jeremy lazily reached an arm over in a makeshift hug.

“Glad to hear it,” he responded while giving her belly a gentle rub, and Celestia cooed at the attention.

They were interrupted by Luna, a smirk on her face as she spotted them. “Well, Discord hath reported back in the negative, so that is good news,” she informed them, and Celestia smiled. Jeremy, meanwhile, gave a confused frown, and Luna sat down beside him, flinching at the sunlight streaming down onto the bed.

“We also saw Tia’s dream last night, and decided to check for ourselves whether this was all a deluded fantasy. To that end, we contacted Discord – not only can he not appear in such dreams, due to his inherently chaotic nature, but he can distance himself from space and time to such an extent that he can discern the reality of any given situation. Which, in turn, is a trick he picked up from me,” Luna concluded.

“And… he reported that this is not some sort of weird fever dream,” Jeremy replied, and Luna nodded.

“Indeed. Not even Chrysalis could construct such a vivid fantasy – that, we know. Her powers, even now, are not that great.” Jeremy nodded, feeling relieved.

“And now, to hopefully never discuss this again, for the sake of my sanity at least,” he grumbled, and Celestia giggled.

“Come on, Jeremy,” she said, pulling him out of the bed to his muffled protests. “Let’s go do something fun.”

Ethan, miles away, woke up in his cocoon. Myocia, who had already been awake for some hours, looked at him suspiciously. “What’s wrong, soldier?” she asked, and Ethan put a hand to his forehead.

“I just had the weirdest feeling… like somebody finally said I was important,” he answered, and Myocia gave him a look she’d given him many times before.

“…Right… Anyway, now that you’re up, time to get going,” she ordered, lifting Ethan out of his cocoon with her fuschia magic. “We’ve got a long way ahead of us to meet up with Icthyos and her drones, and that shipwreck isn’t going to scavenge itself.”

Ethan nodded, and slung his rucksack over his shoulder, watching the Roaming Hive at work – what they lacked in the way of food and shelter, they made up for via ingeniously portable versions of changeling architecture. Even now, a changeling was squeezing its cocoon into a tiny ball, to better be carried on its back. Ethan joined in the march, feeling like a soldier again. Still, that nagging feeling wouldn’t leave him: Somebody had said he was important. Shrugging, Ethan fell into step with his queen.

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