//------------------------------// // Chrysalis gets to show off her room to two quasi-intruders // Story: The Empath and the Sociopath // by Justice3442 //------------------------------// The first thing the girls, or anyone for that matter, would notice about Chrysalis’s room was the deluge of neon that populated the walls, much from surreal posters featuring skulls, snakes, ghosts, and all manner of incandescent colored counterculture items commingling with band posters, spiritual symbols, and pop culture reference. The room looked to Sunset as something she would dismiss as haphazardly picked by someone who was in a haze maybe a bit too often, but a closer inspection revealed that they were… …artistic as fuck… That was to say many felt one of a kind and also expressed an emotion or feeling no doubt enhanced by whatever mind-altering substance Chrysi was on at the time. But aside from the cushioned landing pad, the rest was all ‘punk metalhead bad girl… if said metalhead had an unlimited budget’. Sunset took note of many water pipes… some the good old fashion ‘let's blast our brains with MJ’ and some more on the Caterpillar from Alice and Wonderland side.  However, if there was some… damning evidence that Chrysi was, in fact, Queen Chrysalis, you know, such as a couple drones waiting patiently in the bed or family pictures of Chrysi with the brood, they were notable hidden. Likewise, there weren’t any podded up peeps just sitting in the corner or anyone moaning “kill me”. Princess Twilight rubbed her eyes and tried to make sense of all the color saturation and the faces she pulled showed that maybe she was a little off-put by skulls, demons, and especially the snakes as wall decorations. She rallied her thoughts and scanned her eyes for any clear evidence that Chrysi wasn’t naturally born to Earth/Terra. However, aside from some peculiar glass art and the woman’s unnatural obsession with unnatural light, Twilight saw no immediate evidence Chrysi was anything other than what she presented herself as. Though the gothilolita look certainly didn’t fit in with the room, Chrysi didn’t seem to be that big a fan of cute things and apparently favored surreal items of deadly things melting into pools of shifting, glowing colors.  Twilight Sparkle suddenly worried her drink was spiked. -~ooo~- Applejack sneezed. She followed this up by trying to glare down at her petite nose and rubbing her nostrils with the back of her hand.  “For goodness sake, dear, wipe your nose properly,” Rarity exclaimed as she produced a white handkerchief from her blindingly white pajama bottoms (which, naturally, went with a matching top that hugged her form perfectly and exposed quite a bit of her cleavage) and proceeded to gently wipe under Applejack’s nose. Applejack’s cheeks turned a shade of red which matched the apples on her burnt-orange pjs.  Rainbow Dash leaned over the sitting cowgirl, her loose fitting tank top hanging off her shoulders and granting a clear view of her chest, abdomen, and the tied died-looking Brush Gloss boxer briefs she was wearing. “AJ, how much booze did you sneak into Twilight’s tea? ‘Cause whatever it was, it should have been more.” Applejack rubbed her eyes hard enough she began to see stars. “Thanks for the bus, Dashie. I definitely wanted that made public.” The other girls present exchanged glances. “Do you want a trophy?” Pinkie asked, clearly having tried on one of Chrysi’s more frilly and gothic dresses. “I mean, it’s going to be paper-mâché since I’m preeeety sure Sunny and Chrysi would be more than a tinsey-bit upset that I took a blow torch to one of their lamps for trophy making purposes. ALSO! Wrong color. Oooo! Oooo! Sunset has spraypaint.” Rarity placed her right hand on Pinkie’s cheek. “No Pinkie, we are not going to start doing metalwork at the slumber party. Sunset’s and Chrysi’s place is heavily flammable with all the wood it is made out of and littered with every type of lighter I can imagine.” Rarity highlighted her point by reaching down and producing a bright pink lighter typically used to light a grill.  “Awwww,” Pinkie uttered. “Now I have to find another reason to use my blow-torch.” “I thought it was a good idea,” Fluttershy chimed in, her eyes transfixed on the baby-blue dress featuring frills and skulls she was wearing. This is the most kick-ass thing anyone has ever gifted to me. Applejack let out another weighty sigh, “Flutters, I don’t want a trophy for sneaking half an ounce of Knack into Twilight’s black tea.” Fluttershy looked up and twirled a strand of blonde hair in her fingers. “She seemed to really like it.” “What was your first clue,” Rainbow asked with a smile as she flung herself on top of a pile of colorful lounging pillows, ‘the smile or the part where she said ‘This is the best tea I’ve ever drank!’?” -~ooo~- Oh, and skull, taiji, and dragons (both western and eastern) imagery. Actually, Sunset felt she’d need a reference guide to understand where a great deal of the pieces came from and what they represented.  Or, you know, I could simply ask Chrysi like a sane person. Sunset thought, as she locked turquoise eyes with amethyst ones and gave Twilight an irate glare. Twilight rested her eyes on Chrysi’s bed, one of the few areas of the room that had softer light. “Look, I have certain… er… responsibilities that… uh… er…” Twilight took a deep breath, suddenly feeling like she was stuck taking a test that no one told her about and she hadn’t studied for.  Fuck, I’m about to give one of my best friends a panic attack. Sunset turned to talk things out with Chrysi only to find that she had silently leaned forward, placing her face mere inches away from her ‘‘guests’’. Chrysi smirk seemed to rise like steam from a whistling kettle. “You two know that I know about the pony stuff, right?” Twilight and Sunset both responded with nickers that were a bit atypical of responses of high school girls. Chrysalis let out a guffaw, “I’ll take that as a ‘no’. “How?!” Twilight howled as she swiveled on her heels. Sunset let out a sigh and smacked a palm against her forehead. “Twilight, everybody knows about the magic Equestria stuff.” “Again, how?” Twilight stressed. “And also, everybody?” Sunset placed her hands on the side of Twilight’s head to the sound of two light ‘smacks’. “Ev-ree-bod-ee!” Twilight leaned her head down. “I’m supposed to be in charge of that thing.” “Oh thank god-mom!” Sunset exclaimed. “Excuse me?” Twilight asked with a slight head-tilt inside the frame that was Sunset Shimmer’s hands. “I thought it was me!” “No, it…” Twilight thought for a moment. “We should really share the responsibility.” “Sounds great, P. Twi,” Sunset replied, her words dripping wet with sarcasm. “I’ll just add that to the massive pile of time sinks that Equestria hand delivers to my doorstep.” Chrysalis turned, her brilliant jade eyes staring off into the stripes of a snarling, blue-tinted orange tiger, which was also the direction of the duplex’s front door. “I’m starting to wish I had a different housemate.” Princess Twilight Sparkle turned to stare Chrysalis down with a look of murderous intent that the hardened young adult did not think the Pony Princess of Friendship was capable of.  Sunset’s turquoise eyes shot open wide, double-barrel fire hoses ready to flood the room with tears. She covered her mouth with a hand as sobs were choaked back, her heart desperately trying to reassemble itself. In that moment, Chrysalis understood what it meant to want to die on the spot. “Sunset, I’m sor—” “Hahahahahaha!” Sunset whipped tears from her eyes as she glanced at Chrysi. “Burned down hard. I owe you a drink for that.” Chrysalis recoiled as her emotions began to rebuild, “Eff you, I owe you a month worth of preparing the hookahs for that.” Sunset snickered. “You’re not wrong,” she replied, immediately bringing a smile to Chrysalis’s face. Twilight let out a sigh of relief. “I’m sorry, Chrysalis. I should have given you the benefit of the doubt and trusted Sunset and basically all my friends.” Chrysalis stared hard at Twilight. “No, you shouldn’t have. I’m not going to say you went about things the right way with all the caught without Sunset’s support you would have been, but you were right to suspect everything.” Twilight’s mouth twitched. “Uh, Sunset? I agree completely with her…” Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Bitch, I’ve been assessing Chrysi’s personality since the millisecond I met her.” “Er… and you didn’t think she was Queen Chrysalis?”  Sunset’s eyebrows began to stretch up towards the ceiling. “It was a bit difficult to reconcile Chrysi and Queen Chrysi as the same given that’d mean that Q.C. had time to stroll over to Terra enough times to have amazing taste in movies, music, and decor.” She said, walking her hand across the open air with her  Chrysalis’s jade eyes shot open wide, a viscous smile oozing across her face. “Sunset, I’m in danger of becoming your hookah bitch.” “Damnit!” Sunset exclaimed with an extra spoonful of drama. “I thought I landed full hookah bitch with that last one!” Chrysi couldn’t help but break into a fit of hysterical laughter that sent her straight to her bed where she proceeded to grab her sides as if she was in danger of them leaving. Sunset watched, a smile rising to her face. Smiling, Twilight let out a joyous snort. “As the Princess of Friendship and Equestria’s official Liaison to Terra, I do need to inquire how apparently we dropped the ‘mirror ball’ so hard that ev-ree-bod-ee knows about Equestria.” Sunset let out a spirited laugh. “There are a lot of sparkling, cosmic rainbows that are fired off from Canterlot High, Princess. At least once a week it basically looks like a Pink Void album cover is attending classes.” “What the heck is a Pink Void, Fellow Princess?” Twilight asked dry enough to make the San Palomino Desert jealous. Chyrsi’s laughter abruptly stopped, and she gave Twilight an upside-down scowl laden with disappointment. She aggressively pointed in the direction of a poster. A poster featuring a ray of light striking the single eye of a pyramid which was floating above a larger pyramid, the eye breaking the pure white light into a rainbow beam that fired off to the left of the poster. Twilight squinted at the prismatic display. “I’m guessing that’s a band poster.” Chrysi’s scowl was replaced by a pleased smile. “Yes, one that is a tad legendary on this side of the mirror.”  Twilight gave Sunset a rather panicked look. “How many ponies-er-people know about the mirror?!” “The mirror. The massive mirror right below the giant horse statue in the center of the courtyard of Canterlot High that’s constantly seeing use and in full view of anyone who is in front of the school.” “Yes!” Twilight said. “That mirror!” “Twilight, it’d be faster to list who doesn’t know.” Twilight sighed. “Why is that thing so exposed!”  “You ask amazing questions,” Sunset quipped. Chrysi shot both pony princesses a glare, “It’s amazingly awkward to just stroll into a school, walk into a mirror, and end up on the other side as a quadruped.” She smiled. “Also, I was really hoping Starlight would be in attendance tonight. She’s really fun to talk to.” Sunset turned to Twilight and made a number of excited babbling noises. Twilight perceived this as a declaration that she needed to reach out to Starlight Glimmer roughly nowish. She gave Sunset a nervous smile. “I take it we’re going on a drive to walk through aforementioned magical portal to invite Starlight to the slumber party.” Twilight was met with a subtle nod from Chrysalis and not so subtle, rapid-fire nod from Sunset Shimmer. Twilight bit her lip and smiled despite the worry in her amethyst eyes. “Sure.” She said as she looked over Sunset then Chrysi, the worry in her eyes increasing somewhat. “I bet she’s going to love to be here.” Chrysalis leaned in close to Sunset and whispered, “Can Starlight use any of her powers on this side of the mirror.”  “Uh, no,” Sunset replied, “she’s just really coordinated for some reason.” “Good and also good,” Chrysi said a hungry smile. Twilight swallowed. “Do girls get drunk at slumber parties on this planet?”