//------------------------------// // Chrysi attends a slumber party // Story: The Empath and the Sociopath // by Justice3442 //------------------------------// Twilight looked over the well-furnished living room area with an expression oddly soaked in dread for a young adult surveying a group of high schoolers dressed in their PJs and involved in typical slumber party activities such as video games, texting, taking selfies, and hair braiding. Her eyes kept drifting to the newcomer of the group, this so-called ‘Chrysi.’ Who, in Twilight’s expert opinion, Sunset had shown mind-bogglingly poor judgment in befriending. Yes, this no doubt clearly Queen Chrysalis in disguise was planning something nefarious… Maybe she’s gathered us all here so she can take us all out at once. Twilight took another look around the room. She’s just… luring us MORE into a false sense of security before she makes her play. “You know if you’re that interested in her, you could go up and tell her. She seems like the type to try anything once.” “Ghuh!” Twilight jumped slightly and turned to see Sunset’s smirking face. Sunset offered a small, opened foil bag to Twilight. “Blueberry?” Twilight took a moment to glare at the bag then focused her glare on Sunset. “I can’t believe you just said ‘yes’ to this!” Sunset rolled her eyes. “Twilight, she already said ‘yes’ and all our friends were on board! Sure, it’s kinda my place too, but if I said no then ‘I’ look like a bad friend to pretty much all my friends here! I mean, saying ‘no’ to a slumber party in that regard has to be a bad thing in like a third tier bad friend move, maybe second. Help me out here, I’m sure you have a system for this.” Twilight winced and avoided eye contact momentarily. “Third,” she answered. “But this goes a little beyond friendship! She’s evil! We’re all in danger, Sunset.” “While I’ll be the first one to admit that Chrysi is clearly a tad evil, she’s just braiding Fluttershy’s hair at the moment!” “Yes, but it’s an eeeevil braid!” “It’s a French braid Twilight.” Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve looked up the French, Sunset. Did you know they put cheese on top of soup? How could anyone possibly trust anything that comes out of a place where they do THAT?” “Twilight, everyone on this planet gets weird with cheese! Did you know you can get a spray version, here?” Twilight responded with a noise that sounded like indignity was currently drowning in a sea of cheese. She closed her eyes hard and grimaced as she buried the bespoke nightmare Sunset had delivered Sunset shook her head. “Fine! You’re clearly paranoid enough for the both of us!” Sunset put her hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “How about this. You keep an eye on her while letting your paranoid delusions run wild, I punch Rainbow in the face before she forcefully turns off my game-station just because Applejack is whomping her.” “What? No!” Rainbow Dash insisted, here ears having picked up at the sound of her name. “I was just… dusting! In, uh, the middle of my match. Like you all know I do all the—” ‘POW!’ “OW!” Twilight took a deep breath and let it out. Maybe Sunset was right. This exact situation had basically come up before and she had been proven to be wrong… Oh, wait, no. I was one hundred percent right about that one and got thrown into a deep crystal cave where I found Cadance and we fought her mind controlled bridesmares… Twilight stood up. “I’m going to use the BATHROOM!” she announced loudly. Twilight caught a few odd glances from her friends, a “Do ya want a medal or something? Get goin’,” from Applejack, and oddly good-natured golf claps from Chrysi’s who’s ultra-frilly red, pink, and black PJs made it look like she just got back from being the lead at a baby rock concert. Satisfied she had successfully pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes, Twilight made a beeline for the stairs. And Sunset followed. Twilight took a deep breath as she reached her hand out to the doorknob. Of course, if she was wrong this was something of a breach of common courtesy, which, as she had read, was not an easy thing to rectify. Also, the door might be trapped, and she might die, arguably a worse fate. She took a moment to look about the door and gathered her courage. This was for the sake of her friends, especially Sunset. Twilight put her hand on the doorknob. She’ll thank me later, I’m sure of— “Twilight, stop.” Twilight cringed like a fool who had just been caught with her hoof in the cookie jar. She turned to the source of the voice. “Oh, Sunset! I was just—” “I know what you were about to do, and I’m asking you to stop,” Sunset said sternly. “Sunset, hear me out. If we want to look for clues then her room—” Sunset nodded. “Would be the best place to look, yeah… I agree… but no we’re not doing it.” Twilight frowned heavily. “Listen Sunset, I’ve been in this exact situation before, more or less! There was a wedding and my brother was mind-controlled and while I don’t know if she can shapeshift here... Okay, this is less and less like that the more I think about it but if she replaced you I would just be horrified! I just finally got to the point where I can trust you not to be evil again!” “Wait, you’ve still been worried about—” “I have trust issues! You can only be burned by showmares so many times before you start looking at every pony that’s antagonized you in the past sideways just in case they decide to turn again! I’m not even entirely sure Starlight is properly turned, and she sleeps down the hall from me!” “Twilight, I feel like this is about more than my roommate now—” “Not the time! We just need to be sure!” Twilight poitned at Chrysi’s door. “Give me one good reason why we shouldn’t look in here!” “It’s… it’s common courtesy, alright?” Sunset said. Twilight’s frown deepened. “Two. Two good reasons.” “Chrysi doesn’t come into my room unless invited, I don’t go into hers. We already had this talk together and I’m not about to breach that trust because you find her unnerving. I, TOO, find her unnerving, but you don’t see me breaking and entering!” “Technically, just entering.” Twilight’s face hardened. “Also, that’s certainly a good rule of hoof for roommates but remember that Chrysalis might be a shapeshifting queen that wants to cocoon us all!” “Yes, ‘might’,” Sunset said. “She ‘might’ be a lot of things Twilight, and… I’m sure at the very least if we go in there we’ll see all kinds of potentially incriminating and most-probably illegal things, still…” she frowned heavily. “Look, what we’ve got on the girl is a buncha circumstantial hearsay at best.” “Yes… From you!” Sunset nodded. “Right, and as the person who has the most reason to both suspect Chrysi of something and is in the most danger given my proximity, I am telling you to not go in that room.” “Okay, but are you asking me, or are you telling me?!” Sunset scratched the back of her head. “Telling, I guess… Look, if you’re wrong about Chrysi, and despite what signs you might see, there’s a good chance you are, that means she’s… Okay, that still leaves room for her to be all kinds of nefarious things, but that still leaves her as a non-magical human who is also my roommate and my friend. I don’t want to jeopardize that, alright?” Twilight dropped her hand from the doorknob and considered this for a moment. “Alright Sunset, at the Princess of Friendship and your friend, I respect your decision here.” Sunset breathed out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.” “… But not enough to let you put yourself and our friends in danger,” Twilight added as she quickly grabbed ahold of the doorknob with both hands. “What?! TWILIGHT!” Sunset leaped forward and grabbed Twilight’s hands, stopping her from twisting the knob. “Stop! This isn’t right!” “This is for everyone’s own good, Sunset!” Twilight insisted. “I don’t think so!” Sunset exclaimed. “I don’t think any good will come of this at all!” “Well, what if I’m right?!” “Do you really think if Queen Chrysalis was smart enough to keep a low profile long enough to somehow arrange to become roommates with ME and befriend all our friends, she’d somehow be stupid enough to keep evidence of who she was in room inside a duplex where she invited us all to spend the night!” “Well I-OKAY! That’s a really good point!” “Well, if you think so get your hands off the doorknob!” “I would, but you have YOUR hands clamped around mine!” “So I do!” “So, move them already!” “How do I know you won’t throw open the door as soon as I let go?!” “Because I’m fairly certain it’s locked as I’ve been trying to open it this entire time and the knob will barely budge!” “Okay, that’s another really good point!” “So let go!” “Right, we’ll do it on three!” “WHY?!” “I don’t know… Friendship trust exercise! Let’s just hurry up! We’re making a lot of noise and I want us to let go before Chrysi sees us like this.” “Too late.” Sunset and Twilight both jumped as they let out short but none-the-less alarmed gasps as they both let go of the doorknob and pressed themselves against the wall to either side of Chrysi’s door. Chrysi, for her part, just silently glowered at both of them. “Chr-Chrysi, hi!” Sunset greeted. “Twilight got a little lost on the way to the bathroom, and—” “The room at the other end of the hall,” Chrysi replied coldly. “The room that’s not only open so that you can see the sink, but has its light on.” “Uh…” Sunset risked a quick glance to confirm that everything Chrysi had just said was true. She could feel her sins crawling on her back. Twilight spoke up. “No, you see, uh… I just came up the stairs and grabbed this door by mistake, but then my hands were sticky from erm…” Sunset snapped her fingers. “Pinkie’s gooey cupcakes!” Twilight nodded. “Yeah! And I got my hand stuck, so Sunset was busy trying to get my hand unstuck, but because her hands were also sticky, we both got stuck. Hahaha! Can you believe it?” “No,” Chrysi said flatly. “If that was true you’d both still be stuck.” The color drained from Sunset’s face. “Uh, erm…” Twilight swallowed. “Well, er had just sweat enough that—” With a snarl, Chrysi pulled out a key and quickly unlooked her door. In practically one swift movement, she opened the door, stepped inside the pitch-black room, and ‘slammed’ the door behind her. Sunset felt her heart sink in her chest at the sound of the door locking. Aside from the noise wafting up from downstairs, everything was quiet. And then a string of words in a language neither Sunset or Twilight understood erupted from behind the close door. This was shortly followed up by some clearly irritated shuffling as it sounded like things were being haphazardly thrown around the room. Trepidatious, Twilight turned and looked at Sunset. “Sunset? I’m-I’m sorry… You were right. It wasn’t my place to-” “It doesn’t matter,” Sunset said dryly as she stared at the floor “Uh… OF course, it matters!” Twilight exclaimed. “I should have-” “It doesn’t matter because we already screwed up!” Sunset declared. She lifted her head, her turquoise eyes were already beginning to fill with tears. “All I had to do was keep my hands off one simple door without asking for permission first and I couldn’t even do that!” “Sunset, no!” Twilight said. “Just tell Chrysi it was all my fault! I mean… On the account of how all my fault it is! She’ll understand.” “Yeah, sure!” Sunset exclaimed as her tone became increasingly hysterical. “We’ll just tell her we suspected her of being an evil shapeshifter from another dimension! That’ll go over swell!” A sad, pathetic sob escaped Sunset’s lips. “Oh, God… I’m the worst roommate ever…” she said as she buried her face in her hands. “Sunset, please calm down!” A few muffled wails escaped Sunset’s lips showing that Twilight’s request had been denied. Twilight clenched her fest to her chest and looked around, her mind racing for what to do. She walked over to Sunset and placed her hands on Sunset’s arms gently “Look, I’ll just knock on the door and explain uh… Well, explain how it’s not your fa—” The door to Chrysis’s room suddenly flung open and it was all Twilight could do to pull herself and Sunset out of the way as the door nearly slammed into them both. Sadly, as Twilight was rather uncoordinated, and Sunset wasn’t paying any attention, they still toppled to the floor. Dazed and disoriented both girls quickly scrambled onto their butts, feet, and hands as they looked up. There, Chrysi’s door was opened wide with an ashen hand beckoning them both to come inside.