Jumper

by lollipopchica

Chapter 29

Her brother had been brooding for the past couple of days and while Twilight had a pretty good idea about why, she still wanted to hear it from him.

“It was stupid for me to be so careless...” Cadence had been in tears. “But now he won’t even talk to me! Will you talk to him for me?” She had begged.

While it hurt to see her friend so distraught, she couldn’t help but think that Cadence had brought this mess upon herself.

Twilight had made no promises, but she was concerned.

So when she entered Shining Armor’s room without knocking, she wasn’t offended by his pointed glare or assumptions that she’d come to speak on Cadence’s behalf.

“Look Twiley I don’t wanna hear it...” He groaned taking a picture he’d been staring at and slipping it under his pillow.

“I didn’t come to defend Cadence,” She placated. “What she did was wrong. I understand if you need time to process everything.”

“I just don’t understand why she lied,” Shining Armor sighed as he moved to an upright position as opposed to staying supine on his bed.

“People do odd things when their feelings are hurt.” She offered. Twilight had understood enough to know that Cadence’s logic was faulty even if her feelings were valid.

“But to treat your own flesh and blood that way?” He remembered Chrysalis bursting into tears, shaking and falling apart in his arms. The memory made his chest clench. “Chrysalis was so upset the other night and Cadence... She was like a different girl.”

“How is Chrysalis?” She asked. While the bookworm hadn’t attended the game she’d heard about the commotion that had happened.

“I don’t know...”He admitted tiredly. “I’ve been avoiding her to be honest.”

After gauging her brother’s current state, she braced herself for his response to her next set of questions.

“Are you upset with her too?”

“Chrysalis?”

“I mean she never said she had a sister either.” Twilight steered the conversation to waters she and half the school were interested in.

“She didn’t do anything wrong,” Was Shining Armor’s assured response. “She’s never said a bad word about Cadence or anyone else really. She fought that guy for trying to hurt you and is constantly taking other people’s shit just because people want her to be this awful Queen B. It’s stupid and I’m sick of it.” No one was going to hurt her anymore. “She deserves better than that...” He finished less heatedly. He just needed time.

If Twilight was shocked by the intensity of his feelings, she didn’t show it. “It’s just you don’t seem nearly as upset with her as you do Cadence.” While Cadence had outright lied, Chrysalis had simply never bothered to address any of it. Something that struck Twilight as selfless and sad. People really had been awful towards the teen for things they really didn’t understand.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Shining Armor snapped in irritation.

Twilight was unfazed by his response. “So why is it that Cadence’s omissions are inexcusable but Chrysalis’ are?” While she lamented his loss of relationship with the other girl, Cadence was still her friend and she felt bad for her.

“I wasn’t dating Chrysalis and she’s never misled me that way. Cadence actively lied about having a sister and went out of her way to downplay who she was. She broke up with me for making sure that Chrysalis was okay after some creep from their old school basically assaulted her.” Twilight winced. “I just don’t know how to respond to that.” Shining Armor flopped back onto his bed as he glared up at the ceiling. “She’s acting like I left her. I didn’t. But I’m not so sure I wanna go back if this is who she really is.”

“So you’re rejecting Cadence because you feel like she’s a dishonest person?”

He thought back to their conversation from earlier. The dancer had been genuinely upset about the estranged state of her family. Shining Armor full-heartedly believed that. So if he did, why couldn’t he just forgive and forget.

Sensing his ambivalent feelings, Twilight made a calculated interjection. “Or maybe...” she inhaled, “you have feelings for someone else... Like... her sister.”

Shining Armor snapped his attention to his sister. He knew she wasn’t wrong, but that didn’t mean he was ready to deal with these feelings.

“I understand why you’re upset with Cadence.” Twilight reached out and placed a comforting hand on his knee. “I’m just suggesting that maybe there’s a bit more to your decision than she had her secrets. And you should probably tell her that. She feels awful that you’re so upset.”

“It’s not me she should be worried about.”

*-*-*-*

Justinian stared out the window at the lone figure that sat on their house steps.

He glanced down at his watch and realized Chrysalis had been sitting out there for the last hour or so.

He tried to interact with her after he’d taken her to her appointment the other day, but his eldest had remained sullen and unreachable.

He wondered what she was thinking about.

“I hope you’re happy.”

“Cadence...” She breathed tiredly.

“He won’t talk to me because of you.”

“That’s not what I wanted,” Chrysalis defended herself.

“Isn’t it?” Cadence wiped at her eyes.

“Cadence, I love you! Why can’t you just believe that?! I’ve done everything for you!”

“Love?!” Her sister had barked in disbelief. “You’ve ruined everything! I can’t stand you and I can’t wait till you leave!” The younger girl stormed back into the school for her practice.

Chrysalis felt numb. No matter what she did she was always the bad guy.

Was this really how it would be for the rest of her life?

Beep! Beep!

She turned at the sound of their family’s car horn.

Justice waved with a patient smile.

With a deep breath, Justinian realized maybe it was time he had a chat with his daughter.

He walked to the front and jiggled the knob so as not to startle the ailing teen.

After he counted to three he opened the door and found she hadn’t moved from her hunched over position.

“Hey.” Chrysalis looked behind to see her father staring at her concernedly. “Chryssie...” He greeted as he took a seat. “Isn’t it time you came back inside?”

She gave him a tight smile. “Not yet.”

He nodded as he sank down beside her and stared out into the street.

“Is everything okay?”

She shrugged, but otherwise said nothing.

The two sat in silence until Chrysalis decided she was ready to speak. “You helped write the laws about changelings here, right?”

“Yes.” The question startled him.

“Why do we have to hide?”

“We?”

“I’m more a changeling than I am a pony person. Isn’t that why you’re sending me to the Badlands?”

“No… You’re going to get a better handle on your abilities. And you don’t have to hide who you are.”

“But I can’t express myself either?”

While changelings were now allowed to live and coexist with pony people, there were still a lot of strict laws regarding their shapeshifting abilities that limited them.

“Look, those laws aren’t perfect. But they are a step in the right direction. Changelings are different from pony people, and before they’re allowed to be shifters they must first prove that they can be trusted.”

“Did you know pony people used to try and burn changelings?”

The results of her survey had been devastating. People associated terms like leech, amoral, succubus, and emotional vampires (to name a few) with the Changeling people. The irony was that Pony people had committed all kind of atrocities against Changelings out of fear and ignorance.

“Chryssie… What’s going on?”

“When did you know you loved Mom?”

Justinian really looked at his daughter. “When she left for the Badlands the first time.”

“And you weren’t freaked out about who she was?”

Justinian’s smile was wry. “I was very freaked out, but your mom convinced me not to care.” Chrysalis looked at him. “Your mother is one of the most loving person’s I’ve ever met. The way she viewed things… Love was like a craft to her. It was everything.” He bumped shoulders with her affectionately. “Changelings are naturally much more in tune with their emotions so they tend to be less expressive, but your mother was different. She didn’t share the same inhibitions Pony people did nor did she have that same sense of detachment Changelings did. She was unique.”

Everyone was so surprised when her parents fell in love and wed. Just like everyone was surprised Shining Armor was her friend. Or at least he used to be. His anger spoke volumes.

“Dad… I think… I think I love someone.” Why else would his silence hurt her so much?

“Oh?” Justinian choked trying to maintain his composure.

“Are you okay?”

“Yea, I’m fine.” Justinian cleared his throat. His daughter was growing up. “You were saying.”

“I don’t know… I saw him talking to Cadence today. I can only imagine what she told him.” She still remembered the look on his face as she watched her sister speak to him.

“Another boy?” Girls... “Your sister…”

“It’s just… what if he believes what everyone else says about me?” She turned away so he wouldn’t see the tears gathering in her eyes. Maybe she was better off going to the Badlands. She could forget all of this and really start over. “You say changelings aren’t bad and yet pony people treat us like we are. Even the laws here insinuate that we are. People don’t even know that about me and yet still I’m just inherently bad no matter how hard I try to be good.”

“Sweetie…” His heart broke. “You are not bad! Chrysalis you are one of the most beautiful persons I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.” That sketchbook broke his heart and yet he hadn’t followed his intuition and followed up. “Do you know how awestruck I was when your mother told me you were coming? How humbled I was when I held you for the first time? If this boy is worthy of you, he’ll know the truth.”

“What? That I’m one of the decent ones?”

He didn’t like the disdain in her tone. “That you’re a good person, period. No disclaimer necessary.”

He watched her grapple with his statement before swallowing down whatever her true thoughts were.

“Right. Goodnight, Dad.”

Justinian frowned.

Comments

[forbloodysummer]

I do hope Shining makes Cadence stick to her word and keeps their breakup permanent. It's not that she made a mistake, it's that she's an idiot, and allowed that idiocy to push her into making mistakes.

[Velvet-Fresh]

Calling it, Regal will still attempt to rape Cadence and get caught red handed or he oast himself due to his own arrogance and Cadence will look like an utter jerk

[Moonriseoversunset]

10554015
How much you want to bet its Luna or Celestia that catches him in the act? My bets on Luna.

[Velvet-Fresh]

I JUST realized something. The title of this story is a huge red flag for foreshadowing. I hope it never went that far though.

[Janyo]

Goddammit Shining! You're really taking your time to figure things up! But I'm glad finally someone gives him a hand, Twilight has to put his big bro in the right direction. And although I understand his posture with Cadance and Chrysalis, he shouldn't be so rough and distant! Cadance deserves an explanation (even if he's angry, he needs to inform the reasons and moving on), and Chrysalis has the wrong impression of Shining's silence, thinking he's misjudging her. And Shining reservations are also affecting Cadance relationship with Chrysalis even more. I'm really feel bad for Chryssie and the part when she thinks no matter what she does, everybody always will think she's the bad one.

But his father's chat was a blessing, even if doesn't know how to speak with her at first, I'm happy he could talk with her and help her. The story of him and the girl's mother was so touching. It was a surprise Chrysalis accepting her feeling for Shining with her father, I really didn't see that coming, but I'm glad he could give her daughter useful advice. Hope all this mess can be solved before the unavoidable ending of this awesome story.