Chapter 2
The Party
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Chrysalis
The Queen moves out of sight and lets down her invisibility. It takes a lot out of you if you stay invisible for almost seven to eight hours. What do I do now? He is about to go to a party and I don't know how I can follow him inside, my appearance will surely frighten them... She then remembers something. I cannot believe I forgot, I am the Changeling Queen. I can change myself into one of the creatures. She facehoofs herself.
Chrysalis' horn illuminates and a green aura goes around her and she morphs into a female creature, she looks down at herself and notices she isn't clothed like the other creatures, she also notices her horn is gone, and her wings. Oh no... What am I going to do for clothing... Wait, maybe I can still use my magic even though my horn isn't here. She closes her eyes, concentrates, and she feels fabric land at her feet. She opens her eyes and sees a dress laying there plus undergarments. She is still able to use her magic, she knows she definitely cannot fly though, no wings equals no fly.
She slips on the clothes and she walks back up to the houses. As she is walks by the windows she looks in one and sees her reflection. She still has her teal hair, but there are no holes in it. She looks herself over and the dress fits perfectly. From what she can tell by these creatures, she looks beautiful. Now she needs to follow Claude to the party, there she can possibly talk to him, so she can learn more of him. She walks up to the house as he walks out, she follows behind him but staying out of sight.
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Claude
Claude looks in the mirror. His first party ever. Hopefully it doesn't go bad, though it probably will. He picks up the comb on the sink and runs it through his dark hair, which doesn't do anything, his hair is too curly. After two or three minutes of trying to work with his hair, he gives up.
He walks back into the living room and looks at the clock on the wall, five-fifteen. I should probably get going... He picks up the invitation laying on the table, heads out the door, and walks down the street toward Tim's house. He quickly glances around to see if anyone is following him, no one...
Twenty minutes of walking go by and he sees the party house. Cars are lined across the road and people are walking up to the relatively large house. It looks the the other houses on the street; nothing special.
Claude walks up to the front of the house and sees a guy stand there with a clipboard, looks to be Tim, checking off things. Guess he takes his parties seriously. Claude looks behind him once more and sees a few random people walking behind him, just some people from school, but one girl stands out among them. She has long teal hair and she wears a dress, she looks rather... cute.
As Claude reaches the line the teal haired girl stands a couple of people behind him. As Claude walks up Tim looks at him and nods without looking at his board, Claude smiles and walks in. A couple of seconds later he hears Tim say, “I don't think I've seen you before.”
“My name is Chrys- Chrissy.” The teal haired girl says shyly.
“Well I'm sorry you aren't on the list.” Tim says. Claude begins to feel bad for Chrissy, a girl that adorable should at least come in. He then gets an idea.
He nonchalantly walks past the door and looks out, he fights his shyness heavily with this, “Hey Chrissy! I didn't know you were here!”
Tim looks at him oddly, “You know her, Claude?” he says.
“Yeah man! I haven't seen her in ages, come on dude you have to let her in!” Claude says.
Chrissy then says, “Claude? Is that you?” and smiles.
“The one and only!” he says.
Tim chuckles and says “Okay, go on ahead.” Chrissy runs inside to Claude and hugs him, to keep the act of them knowing each other going.
During the embrace she whispers "Thanks for that. I heard about this party and I wanted to attend, but I just didn't know how I was going to."
“Anytime.” He says, “You want to hang out with me?”
“Sure.” Chrissy says with a smile.
All of a sudden some techno music starts up, and people start dancing around them. “It’s a bit crowded in here isn’t it?” Claude says.
“What?” Chrissy tries to yell over the music.
“I said we should go somewhere where it’s not as crowded!” Claude yells. Chrissy hears him and nodded. They go into another room where there are still people but the music isn’t as loud as it was in the other room. They find an open couch and sit down.
Claude’s shyness takes over once more and sits there silently, he looks over at Chrissy and smiles. He finally gathers enough courage to say, “I don’t think we have introduced properly yet. I’m Claude” He stretches out his hand.
Chrissy hesitantly shakes his hand “I’m Chrys- Chrissy.” She says. When she touches his hand, Claude feels this sort of happy feeling come over him, not really sure what it is. They finally let go of each other’s hand and smile.
Claude starts to feel more comfortable around her, his shyness dissipating. “I haven’t seen you around school much, are you new?” He asks. Chrissy nods.
“Where are you from?” Claude asks her.
She hesitates, “It’s a long story, and you wouldn’t believe me if I told you, and I kind of don’t want to talk about it.”
Claude realizes it’s a touchy subject and immediately starts on a different subject. “Okay um… What do you want to talk about then?” he says.
“Why not talk about you, you seem interesting, can you tell me more about yourself?” Chrissy asks.
“I am not that interesting…” He says looking down.
"Hey you are interesting to me.” Chrissy says smiling at him.
Claude looks up at her and smiles back, he takes a deep breath, “Well I am probably the most shyest person at school, even though it doesn’t seem that way now. It’s easy for me to talk to you for some reason.” Claude sees Chrissy blush a bit at that. “I am also the most picked on by the jocks and other dweebs from the school. Most people are nice to me, just not them… I am picked on constantly by them, I just ignore them. “
“Why do they pick on you?” Chrissy asks.
Claude shrugs. "No idea. They just do. I just think they do it so they can feel like they are on top of the 'food chain'." He makes quotes with his fingers and chuckles. Chrissy emits a cute giggle, which makes Claude blush a little. He gets that feeling again and realizes what it is: he is starting to have feelings for Chrissy. When he realizes that he says, "Would you like something to drink?"
Chrissy nods and Claude stands up and walks into the other room and goes over to where they have the drinks. I just met her, how could I already have feelings for her. Though she is kind of cute, and she is actually nice to me and wants to talk to me. I will just be myself and everything will be cool. Claude picks up a couple of drinks and walks back to Chrissy, before he walks in the room he is stopped by Tim.
“Hey man, you enjoying yourself?” Tim asks.
“Yeah, great party, I am having fun.” Claude says.
Tim looks in the room and sees Chrissy sitting there, “I see you and Chrissy are catching up on a lot of stuff.” He says and grins.
Claude nods, “Yeah, she is really cool. It has been a while.”
“So, are you going to ask her out?” He asks. Claude hesitates, and Tim laughs, “Just messing with you.” Claude sighs at that.
“Well dude, I will catch you later, Chrissy is waiting for me.” Claude says.
Tim nods, “Go get her man.” He pats Claude on the shoulder, almost making Claude drop the drinks, “Whoa that would have been messy.” He laughs, “See ya dude.” He says and walks off to some other guests of the party and talks to them. Claude sighs and walks back into the room where Chrissy is waiting.
Claude walks up to Chrissy and holds up the drinks, “Hope you don’t mind, it’s Coca-Cola.” He sits down on the couch next to Chrissy, handing her the cup of soda. Chrissy hesitates and takes a sip.
“You’ve never had Coca-Cola before?” Claude asks. Chrissy shakes her head. “I guess you try something new every day.” He says with a chuckle.
They finish their Cokes and sit there a moment, “So what do you want to do now, the party is still going on.” Claude asks.
"Anything you want to do Claude.” Chrissy says with a smile
"Want to go outside and walk around? So we can get away from the craziness of the party?" He asks. Chrissy nods. They stand up and walk outside, throwing their cups in the trash on the way.
As they walk out the door the cool night air welcomes them, a slight breeze goes through them. Claude looks at Chrissy and he sees her hair move a little in the wind. He is sure of it now; Chrissy is the most beautiful girl he has ever seen in his life. The two walk in silence around the yard, away from the party.
Claude sees a bench beside a hedge, “Hey do you want to sit over there? The music isn’t as loud out here.” He says.
“Yeah the music was kind of getting on my nerves. I was wondering if you wanted to lay in the grass, I love looking up at the stars at night.”
Claude smiles a bit, “Same here, stars are quite wonderful aren’t they?”
They lay down on the soft grass, looking up at the stars. “I wonder if there are other worlds out there.” Claude says out in the open, not talking to anyone specific.
Claude feels a shifting next to him and then Chrissy’s hand bump his. He smiles as he looks up at the stars. He is sure of it now; he has feelings for her, even if they practically just met not two hours ago, maybe Chrissy feels the same way.
Just then in the distance they hear a song come on, it’s a slow song. About a few seconds in Chrissy starts to fidget a little, “You okay?” Claude asks.
“Yeah, just… hang on a second.” Chrissy sits up, she clears her throat and sighs. “I think I need to go.” She says standing up.
“What? Why?” Claude asks standing up with her, “What’s wrong?”
“I can’t explain now, until we meet again Claude, and don’t worry we will, I promise.” She says and runs off toward the gates, leaving Claude standing there.
After a few minutes of standing there, Claude finally comes to his senses and walks toward the gate. “Hey Claude!” he hears behind him. Claude turns to see Tim walking up to him, “Ya leaving dude?” he says.
“Yeah…Chrissy had to go home, or something, I don’t know. I had fun dude, I will see you later.” Claude says.
“Alright man, take care of yourself.” Tim says giving him a fist-bump.
Claude walks in the darkness toward his home, he feels that eeriness of being followed again, he turns quickly, though he wish he hadn’t…
Three random guys stand behind him, “So Mr. Quiet boy, Still have nothing to say?” they tease. Claude ignores them and turns around. One of them runs up to him and grabs his shoulder, “Don’t ignore me, I asked you a question.” The guy says. Claude shoves his hand off of him.
“Don’t… Touch…Me, or else…” Claude says through gritted teeth.
“Else what, you silence us to death?” They all laugh.
Claude shakes his head and starts to walk away. “Hey, Whoa, we didn’t say you could leave.” The same guy says, grabbing his shoulder again, only for it to be shoved off again.
“I SAID, DON'T TOUCH ME!” Claude yells, swinging at the guy who put his arm on him, landing a punch right in his cheek.
“You mother- GET HIM!” the guy yells holding his cheek. Claude books it down the road only to be cornered by more people, he is surrounded.
“You shouldn’t have done that quiet boy, now you will get it.” The guy says and lunges at him.
The world seems to slow down as he watches the guy lunge at him, next thing Claude knows, this dark figure jumps from the darkness and tackles the guy. The figure then punches the guy and knocks him out.
“What the hell is that!” one of the others say.
“Well whatever it is, let’s get it!”
Claude finally gets a good look at the figure. It has four legs, each of them with holes. He can't see its hair color because of the darkness. These strange semi-see-through wings and crooked horn it possessed were cringe worthy. The scariest of it all was its jet black chitin.
The figure then turns to him and opens its eyes, glowing green, “Go.” It tells him. It’s voice has an odd sound to it, like it is auto-tuned or something.
One of the guys runs after it, only to be punched in the face by one of the dark figure’s legs. “GO!” It yells. Claude finally snaps out of it and runs.
What was that thing? Whatever it was, it saved my life. I’ll have to find it later, I need to thank it. Claude finally reaches his home, unlocks the door, and runs inside. He slams the door shut behind him, and leans against it, out of breath. Whew, that was a close one…
Claude walks into the kitchen and makes him a sandwich. He hasn’t eaten much all day, except at lunch. He glances at the clock as he walks into the living room eating his sandwich, ten o’clock. Claude sighs. What a long day… Finishing his sandwich, he walks into his bedroom and lies down on the bed. Sleep doesn’t take him right away. He cannot seem to get Chrissy out of his mind, the whole time with her was amazing.
Another thing will not leave his mind… the dark figure that saved him from those goons from school. He remembered her voice, how strange it sounded, and how familiar it sounded also. He shakes his head, Come on Claude, get some sleep, deal with it later… Claude rolls over and closes his eyes, letting sleep overcome him.
−−−−−−
Chrysalis
Chrysalis continues to follow Claude down the street toward this ‘Party’, staying out of sight. Claude turns around every now and then to see if anyone is following him. She stays out of sight by hiding in the shadows.
When they reach the house she notices all of the creatures standing around talking, she still can’t understand how they know Equish. Claude turns his head around again and looks right at her. Claude smiles a bit and turns back around. He then walk up to this other creature, which looks to be the Tim from earlier. Tim nods his head and Claude walks inside.
She finally reaches Tim, “I don’t think I have seen you before.” He says, Chrysalis looks up at him confused.
“My name is Chrys- Chrissy…” She says shyly. I don't want them to know my real name right now...
“Well you aren’t on the list, sorry.” He sighs.
Next thing she knows she hears, “Hey Chrissy! I didn't know you were here!” She looks closer, sees Claude and she smiles a bit, feeling something in her chest.
“You know her Claude?” Tim says, looking at him oddly.
“Yeah man! I haven't seen her in ages, come on dude you have to let her in!” Claude says.
Chrysalis gets the idea of what Claude is doing and goes along with it, “Claude? Is that you?” she says and smiles.
“The one and only!” Claude says.
Tim chuckles and says, “Go on ahead.” Chrysalis walks in, almost running and hugs Claude, she doesn’t know why she does, but it feels right, she shakes that feeling away and continues to hug him.
“Thanks for that. I heard about this party and I wanted to attend, but I just didn't know how I was going to.” She says, letting go of Claude.
“Anytime. You want to hang out with me?”
“Sure.” She replies with a smile, Claude seems like a nice enough creature, though she doesn't know any others.
Just then some weird music comes out of nowhere almost making Chrysalis jump. The other creatures start to dance around them. The music is so loud she doesn’t even notice Claude is saying something to her. She looks over to him to notice his mouth moving.
“What!?” She says loudly, so Claude can hear her.
“I said, maybe we should go somewhere less crowded!” He yells, Chrysalis nods and follows him to another room where a couch and other random creatures are. The music is still loud but not as bad as it was in the other room.
They take a seat on the empty couch, she notices Claude is a bit nervous so she smiles to reassure him. He smiles back and says, “I don’t think I’ve introduced myself properly yet. I’m Claude.” He holds out his hand for her to shake.
“I’m Chrys- Chrissy…” She says, almost saying her real name. She shakes his hand, and she feels this feeling coming from Claude, she immediately knows what it is. Claude is getting feelings for her; she can feel his slight love. Though she is feeling something else than just his love coursing through her, could she be starting to like this creature? No, she couldn’t she doesn’t even know him that well. Maybe it’s that thing called love at first sight.
After about what seems minutes, which was only seconds, they let go of each other’s hand. “I haven’t seen you around school before, are you new here?” He asks. Chrysalis nods her head. “Where are you from?”
She freezes at that question, she doesn’t want to tell him the truth and make him think she is some weirdo. “It’s a long story, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you anyway. I don’t want to talk about it.” She says shyly looking down.
“Okay um… so what do you want to talk about then?” he asks.
She wanted to learn more about what he is and who he is, she is very interested in Claude, though she still doesn’t know why. “Tell me more about you. You are an interesting person.”
“I am not that interesting…” He says looking down.
“Hey you are interesting to me.” Chrysalis says smiling at him.
Claude looks up at her and smiles back, he takes a deep breath, “Well I am probably the most shyest person at school, even though it doesn’t seem that way now. It’s easy for me to talk to you for some reason.” Chrysalis blushes a bit at that. “I am also the most picked on by the jocks and other dweebs from the school. Most people are nice to me, just not them… I am picked on constantly by them, I just ignore them. “
“Why do they pick on you?” Chrysalis asks, concerned for Claude.
Claude shrugs his shoulders, “I have no idea…”
They stay in silence for a moment, and all of a sudden Claude asks, “Hey are you thirsty?” Chrysalis nods and Claude gets up and walks out of the room toward the madness of the party room. I can feel his love start to build for me, it is small but it is love. Chrysalis looks around at the other creatures, she really wishes she knew what these things were, but she didn’t want to ask, if she did she could possibly blow her cover.
The music is still going in the other room, she can hear the creatures whooping and yelling. These creatures have a very strange behavior… She looks up to see Claude walking back with two red cups in his hands. He hands her one of them, inside is dark bubbly liquid. Is this some kind of potion? What is this stuff?
“Hope you don’t mind, its Coca-Cola" Chrysalis hesitantly takes a drink. It fizzes in her mouth as the sweet taste overcomes her mouth. It is actually really nice and refreshing as she feels the fizzy liquid go down her throat.
“You’ve never had Coca-Cola before?” Claude asks. Chrysalis shakes her head. “I guess you try something new every day.” He says with a chuckle.
They finish the drinks and Claude asks, “So what do you want to do now, the party is still going on.” To be honest Chrysalis didn’t care as long as she was with Claude.
“Anything you want to do Claude.” She says, smiling a bit.
“Want to go outside and walk around? So we can get away from the craziness of the party?” He asks. Chrysalis nods and follows Claude, tossing her cup where he threw his. The house is completely packed, and it’s hard to maneuver through the people without getting in their way.
They finally get outside, the music becomes quiets down, but they are still able to hear it quite well. They walk around the yard Chrysalis was thinking about lying down on the grass. She wonders if it feels the same as it does in Equestria.
“Do you want to sit on the bench? The music isn’t as loud out here.” he asks.
“Yeah the music was kind of getting on my nerves. I was wondering if you wanted to lay in the grass, I love looking up at the stars at night.” She says with a smile.
Claude smiles back, “Same here, the stars are pretty awesome.” He says. They both lay down on the grass looking up toward the sky, the only light around them is at the house, but they are far enough away that the light doesn’t stop them from seeing the stars.
Chrysalis can feel the love grow in Claude for her. She smiles and feels that same feeling grow in her. Am I seriously falling in love with Claude? I don’t even know what he is, but it feels so right.
“I really wonder if there are other worlds out there, like ours.” Claude says aloud.
If you only knew Claude, if only…
Chrysalis moves her hand over and touches his, not grasping it, just touching it. It felt like the right thing to do. She feels his love grow even more at that. They stay that way for a moment when all of a sudden, some different music comes in, way slower than the last one that played. A few seconds go into the song and Chrysalis starts to feel a continuous pulse of love coming from the house.
She shifts in her place a bit, uncomfortable by the amount of power she is gaining from the love. There must be a lot of love coming from that house. She could feel the love from the other creatures, but it wasn’t as great as it is now. “You okay?” she hears Claude ask from beside her.
“Yeah, just… hang on a second.” Chrissy sits up, she clears her throat and sighs. “I think I need to go.” She says standing up.
“What? Why?” Claude asks standing up with her, “What’s wrong?”
“I can’t explain now, until we meet again Claude, and don’t worry we will, I promise.” She says and runs off toward the gates, leaving Claude standing there. She feels bad for doing that, but she feels with all this power she could lose control of her form and could scare Claude, she didn’t want that. She runs out of the yard and toward the forest across the street. As she is running she sees other creatures looking at her.
She runs into the forest out of sight of any other creatures, so they can’t see the light from when she changes. She sighs, and changes into her original form, starting to feel better already. Changing into a creature is more work than just turning invisible.
She walks back to the edge of the forest facing the party. She can see Claude walk away from a creature and onto the street heading towards home, his head hanging low. She feels really bad for walking out like that, but she had to change back. Without walking onto the street or sidewalk, she follows him.
Just then three other creatures come up behind Claude, Chrysalis didn’t even notice them, she was too busy paying attention to Claude. He turns around and sees the three creatures. “So Mr. Quiet boy, Still have nothing to say?” They tease. One of them runs up and grabs Claude’s shoulder. “Hey, Don’t ignore me, I asked you a question.” Chrysalis starts to feel a bit of anger rise in her. These must be the jerks Claude mentioned.
“Don’t… Touch…Me, or else…” Claude says shoving his arm off of him. Chrysalis can clearly see that he is very angry also.
The creature starts to laugh, “Or else what? You’ll silence us to death?” he laughs. The others laugh also. Chrysalis wants to help him, but she doesn’t want to be seen.
Claude starts to walk away from them, and the same creature grabs him again and says “Hey, Whoa, we didn’t say you could leave."
“I SAID DON’T TOUCH ME!” Claude yells and punches the guy right dead in the cheek.
The creature fumbles back, holding his cheek, “You mother-… GET HIM!” Claude takes off down the road only to be stopped by more creatures. The others come up behind him, Chrysalis had to do something…
Claude doesn’t know what she looks like normally, so she decides to jump out there and help him. She books it out of the forest and hoofs one of the creatures in the face, knocking him out cold.
“What the hell is that thing!?” One of them yells.
“Well whatever it is, let’s get it!!” another yells going after Chrysalis.
She looks at Claude and says, “Go.” She kicks another creature knocking him down. Claude stands there in awe. “GO!” She yells. Finally Claude snaps out of it and runs home. Thankfully she remembers where he lives.
The other male creatures come at her again. She illuminates her horn and holds them. She pulls one of them in front of her. She looks at him with her bright green eyes and says, “If you even dare touch Claude again, that will be the last thing you touch. You got that!?” The creature looks horrified. “That goes for all of you! I will be watching.”
“P-Please… Let us go… don’t hurt us.” The creature in front of her says. She drops them on the ground and her horn flashes again and she disappears.
She appears back across the street where she can see Claude’s house, he is just walking into his house. Good, he’s okay… She lays down on the grass and closes her eyes. She needs some rest after today’s happenings.
[end of chapter 2]