“You’ve been super moody lately...” Chrysalis didn’t spare Shining Armor a glance as she worked on her newest paint project. Art class felt like a refuge of normalcy for the teen. “It’s kinda annoying...” she huffed waiting for his response.
5, 4, 3, 2-
“How?” Shining Armor groaned leaning back in his seat as he dropped his pencil.
“You’re acting like you lost your girlfriend, and since you and that sophomore are still a thing- I know that to be false.”
“I... How do you know that?”
“I’m an empath,” she deadpanned finally looking up at him. “Everyone knows you’re dating. Seriously, what’s been going on with you? I can feel you sulking from over here.” She didn’t even need her changeling senses to read him. She had started taking her potions as soon as she’d made it back to Bay City.
Shining Armor pouted looking annoyed. “It’s just... I met this girl a while ago and I thought we were close... But it’s like she just dropped off the face of the earth.”
“She ghosted you?” The surprise in her voice was genuine even though she already knew what happened. Of course he’d be affected, she thought feeling guilty.
“I mean it’s not like we were a thing, but I still cared about her. It’s just... I worry about her... The way she talked sometime.”
“I’m sure wherever this mystery girl is, that she’s fine. Maybe she felt like she had too much baggage.” She dropped her brush into a cup of water and swished it around before dipping it into a shade of blue that matched his eyes.
“But I don’t care about that.” It was her new favorite hue.
“Or maybe she didn’t want to feel like a pet project.” That was real. He looked at Nyx- her- like she was so fragile sometimes.
“That’s not...” At the look on her face he conceded to that bit of logic.
“OR maybe she needed to be strong for herself...” She continued, “I’m sure whoever or wherever she is, she wouldn’t want you acting like this over it.”
“You’re right...”
“Naturally...” She delivered nonchalantly. “I’m sure she appreciated whatever you guys had and her moving on wasn’t about hurting you. You’re too good for that- even if you are an annoying ‘knight in white armor trope.”
He playfully pushed her away.
She smiled absently. ”You going to enter that picture in the competition yet? Deadline’s still a ways away...”
He groaned and Chrysalis let her thoughts drift to the incident in question.
“I’m sorry... About the last time. You didn’t deserve that. I’m glad there’s someone in your life that cares about you in that way.”
“I’m over it now... I think I understand... Why you’re so angry all the time. I feel angry too now.”
She looked at him expectantly.
“A few days ago some guy tried to hurt my sister... This girl in my class stopped him. She’s so... I don’t know... misunderstood. But I’m lucky she was there. She’s strong... I wish more people would give her a chance.”
“Is your sister okay? What happened?”
After giving her the abridged version, he sighed before gathering his thoughts. “Twilight’s just shaken up.” She didn’t know that was his sister. “I think it bothers her that she just blanked the way she did and someone else had to step in.”
“She shouldn’t blame herself, she did nothing wrong. I hope the cur got what he deserved.”
“He did. Chrysalis, the girl, she made sure of that. She’s... I don’t know.”
“You smitten with her too?” She teased shakily thinking back to that moment in the hallway.
He laughed, “Maybe... Between you and her... I don’t know which of you are worse.”
“Worse?”
“In a good way, Nyx. The best way... Is that what happened to you? Before?”
“My experience wasn’t so tame. There was no one to save me.”
“I’m so sorry...”
“Me too. Tell me about your girlfriend.”
“She’s not my girlfriend!”
“Yet...”
He laughed and her heart ached at the sound.
“Are you going to enter anything in the competition?” He asked pulling her from her thoughts.
“Maybe...” Chrysalis drawled as she continued to work.
“What about that one?”
She chuckled, “not this one...”
Stealing peaks, Shining Armor thought that smeared portrait of greys, blues and white looked a lot like himself.
*******
While Chrysalis appreciated Maud’s friendship and her effortlessly cool attitude, one thing that made her scratch her head was the other girl’s relationship with Mud Briar.
It was lunchtime and she and Fluffle sat at their usual table watching the two ‘flirt.’
No offense to the tall, lanky, and plainly dressed boy, Maud had a sharp mind and alluring aura even if her taste aired on the side of dreary. Dreary, Chrysalis thought, was not the same as dull.
Fluffle seemed to agree as she scribbled casually on her pad before passing it to her.
‘Odd aren’t they?’
Chrysalis nodded, “you got that right.” Normally, she’d allow her limited signing knowledge and her changeling senses to help her make sense of the other’s intent. Since she started brewing the potions Dr. Clayhoof recommended, she found herself trading notes now or relying more on Maud.
The silence sometimes felt unnerving as she’d slowly been adjusting to the onslaught of emotions that had become her life.
‘Sometimes I wonder what they see in the other.’
Chrysalis nodded in agreement. “Their feelings are definitely real,” she stated. Affection, fondness, admiration, desire- were all feelings that she could taste coming from the couple. While her potions muted her ability to sense others, it hadn’t affected her passive feeding ability. “Love is strange,” she heard herself saying to the shaggy girl.
‘Are you coming to homecoming this weekend?’ Fluffle scribbled in her bubbly and round handwriting.
Chrysalis was thoughtful. She hadn’t even truly considered homecoming or attending. She knew the game was this Friday and that the dance immediately followed.
‘No? I bet your sister is going.’
“Probably...”
‘Her issue, her loss. You should come! It’d be so much fun- the three of us!’
Since her ostracization, the changeling teen realized Maud and Fluffle really were true friends she could share things with. And so a lite version of her tumultuous relationship with Cadence had come out under the bleachers one day.
“I don’t know...”
‘Say you’ll think on it??’
“No promises!”
The rest of the day passed by uneventfully.
For once Cadence didn’t have practice or plans with her friends.
So when their father texted them both saying that he and Adelpha were held up at his office, the two realized that they would have to take a bus home together. To her dismay, she had no choice but to go with Chrysalis since their parents sent the elder the bus voucher and her phone had died.
Walking silently down the busy streets, the two girls kept their eyes ahead as they moved along.
“How was school?” Chrysalis tried casually.
Cadence snorted, “It was okay. Tomorrow me and my friends are going dress shopping for the dance.”
“Oh, that sounds nice.” So far so good, the changeling thought mentally impressed with the level of civility. “I think I might go too.”
“Look,” Cadence stopped and focused on her older sister. “I really don-“ She stopped mid-sentence as her gaze focused on something past the other teen.
“What is... it?” Chrysalis frowned, turning as she followed her gaze to a quarreling couple across the street.
“You’ve been lying...” A short middle aged man was shouting at his obviously upset female companion.
“It wasn’t a lie...” The woman defended tearfully. She looked young with wide doe eyes and full features.
“Then what would you call it?! You’ve been pretending to be someone else the whole fucking time!”
“It’s not like that, I swear...” The two teens watched as the woman reached out only to be shrugged away in disdain. “It was never like that!”
“I can’t believe...” He looked away with a mix of emotion on his face. “You’re a fuckin’ changeling!”
“That doesn’t mean anything!” She insisted desperately.
“It means everything!”
On one hand, the girls realized this had nothing to do with them, but on the other they couldn’t turn away from the drama unfolding.
“Please... don’t do this! Don’t do this...”
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t turn you into the police right now!”
“My family... please! If you call the police, they’ll send me back an-“
“It’s what the fuck you deserve!”
“I needed the money to support my sisters... They were just job personas! I love you!”
“Don’t you eat that shit? How convenient! Cicada Fall... I should’ve known you were too good to be true!” He seized her roughly by her forearms and violently began shaking her. “Show me who you really are!”
“Stop it! You’re hurting me!” The woman cried out fearfully. “You’re hurting me!”
“I wanna see what you really look like.” She cried out again, and the two sisters watched as the woman dropped her disguise. Her skin darkened, her hair lightened and her features changed. Gone was the gamine girl with wide eyes and full lips.
As the man felt her shifting beneath his hands he let her go and stumbled back. “You really are a freak!” He spat as he whipped out his phone and called the police.
“No!” She cried out and lunged forward knocking the phone out of his hand. Growling, he smacked her hard enough to knock her back down.
At the sight of this violence, Chrysalis could feel her temper spike.
She felt Cadence’s hand close around her arm, holding her in place. “Chryssie, don’t get involved!”
At the younger girl’s expression, Chrysalis openly balked. “Look at what he’s doing- he’s hurting her!”
“Exactly! What do you think he’ll do to you?”
“But-“
“Let them handle it.” Cadence stressed.
“We can’t just stand here!”
“If we get involved he could get violent with us. If we call the cops they’ll just assume the worst about her!”
“But he’s already called the cops. At least we can tell them what we saw and stop whatever the fuck that is.” She gestured angrily pulling away from the other’s grasp.
“Leave it... If she hadn’t had lied maybe she wouldn’t be in this situation.”
“How can you say that?!”
“Cause it’s true! Now let’s go!” Cadence took steps forward.
“What happened to you? You’re a Halfling too!”
Cadence rolled her eyes annoyed with the veiled accusation, “Yea but unlike other people I don’t lie and hurt people... I also don’t steal and take advantage of people.”
Chrysalis shook her head in disgust. “I can’t believe you really think that.” With a frown she stormed off into the alleyway behind them and ducked behind the dumpster. If that guy wanted a cop, she’d give him a cop. While she was able to change forms, she didn’t do it often so she knew it would take a few moments for what she had planned.
Focusing on shifting into a policeman, she could feel her body change and grow. She hoped she’d gotten it right as she checked her appearance with her phone’s camera mode.
“What’re you doing?” Cadence hissed with wide eyes after she’d come after her.
“Shut up!” Chrysalis shot back as an older larger policeman. Cadence stumbled back as she took in this person who looked completely foreign to her sibling. She’d never seen her shift into another person before.
“Do you know what you’re doing?!” She screeched worriedly.
“I’m helping! Now move!” Chrysalis pushed past the fuming teen and stepped out into the street. “Hey what’s going on over there?”
The man turned and deflated with relief as he regarded the policeman approaching.
“Good! Arrest this woman!”
Cadence watched with wide eyes as her sister played the role of a seasoned lawman asking appropriate questions, and soberly informing the woman that she would have to be brought in for questioning regarding her violations.
She was actually quite impressed until she noticed a police cruiser at a red light about a quarter mile away.
“You can’t do this!” The woman was sobbing as the policeman cuffed her.
Looking between the scene unfolding and the actual cop that would soon be approaching, Cadence knew she had to do something. The trouble this would cause would be catastrophic for not only her sister but also their family.
Chewing her lip as she stomped her foot petulantly, Cadence cringed at the squeaky sound of a bus’ air lock break system cutting through the air.
Looking down the street once more, she saw that the bus was perpendicular to the street that the cop was on having pulled up to the light waiting to make a left turn. Taffy eyes brightened with mischief as she decided her next course of action. Pulling out her dead phone, Cadence set about making a scene so obnoxious and grating, that everyone would look.
“Are you freaking kidding me!” She yelled into her phone with a terrible Manehatten accent hoping to grab her sister’s attention. “This is awful, ya know. I expected more from you and you’re ripping me off!” The trio across the street looked up and eyed at her oddly. She casually gestured wildly in the direction she was walking, which was towards the unmistakable cruiser. “I can’t go through this again! We’re just not the same and I’m done with you and your excuses!” Raving madly, she briskly moved towards the intersection with her phone pressed against her ear, she continued her charade even as she paused at the crosswalk.
The teen waited until she saw the bus slowly move forward out into the middle of the intersection hoping to capitalize on a turn. Once the large vehicle had effectively blocked traffic and she was relatively sure no one else was trying to make a right turn, Cadence clumsily sprawled into the street making a big show of stumbling off the curb.
‘Please don’t run me over!’ She prayed subtly watching the light change.
She figured if she could stall the intersection long enough, maybe it’d buy Chrysalis some time to disappear.
Cars began to honk and the cruiser flashed its lights in warning as the bus was still in the intersection waiting to turn. The bus driver threw his hands up in annoyance and laid onto the horn.
Ignoring the commotion, she squinted in the direction of her sister noticing that the man was now staring and her sister and the woman had quickly stumbled around the corner disappearing down another alleyway. Sighing in relief, Cadence quickly hopped up just in time to avoid a driver that wasn’t as observant as they should’ve been.
With a thundering heart, she dashed across the street in relief not looking at anyone.
“Please! Don’t separate me from my family!” The woman begged Chrysalis as she pushed her resisting form forward.
“Shut up!” Chrysalis barked. “My sister almost got hit by a car over this!” She slowly shifted back into her own pony person skin. “Now get outta here!” She hissed as the cuffs melted away. “And leave these stupid pony men alone!”
The woman wasted no time looking confused and quickly scurried away.
Falling against the alley wall, the changeling teen couldn’t believe what had just happened. What she’d just risked for a stranger.
Cadence came around the corner moments later, breathless and clearly irritated.
“Don’t ever do that again!” Chrysalis fussed at her. “You could’ve been hit by a car!”
The younger girl rolled her eyes as she sunk down across from her. “Like you can talk! That was a felony you committed! Not only did you assume a false identity, but you impersonated a cop! A cop!”
Chrysalis couldn’t help but stick her tongue out.
They both were full of dumb ideas today.
Cadence groaned and pushed herself up. “Let’s go before that guy comes back around after he realizes that wasn’t a real cop.” The two quickly cleared the alleyway and headed towards the next bus stop.
Both girls were still dazed in their own thoughts as they flopped in a seat on the bus.
“We still make a good team.” Chrysalis said after they’d settled in silence.
“Whatever,” Cadence snorted in response as she turned away. She told herself she didn’t care if Chrysalis got in trouble or not.