Servant of the Queen

Chrysidea could hear the music blasting already as the car turned down the street where Lemon Zest stayed. It was a creepy piano piece and it was surprisingly shrill and loud, and it sounded pretty intense. There were flashing lights and shouting coming from inside the house and the yard. Multiple cars were parked haphazardly around the street, blocking the driveway. She pitied all the poor neighbors who would have to listen through this music all night. Or perhaps they were here in the party as well. Who knew for sure?

“It looks awfully… common,” Chrysalis said disapprovingly. She had taken a van out of her spacious underground garage to drive her daughter to the party. “Are you certain you want to attend?”

Chrysidea adjusted the makeup around her mouth and nodded happily. “I’d like to experience one, good or bad. Learn more about what humans do and stuff.”

“There are some things that humans do that are completely meaningless. But if it makes you happy…” Chrysalis popped the passenger side door open. “Go on, then. You have four and a half hours before I come pick you up for the blood moon. And isn’t it beautiful?” Chrysalis looked up at the rising red moon. “Can you feel its power, its allure?” Chrysidea’s mother breathed in deeply and grinned. “If someone were to challenge me tonight, I would not lose. Not that I would ever, but especially tonight.”

Chrysidea looked at her hands. “I d-don’t feel a thing.”

Chrysalis gave her daughter a sideways glance. “Well, it’s not at its highest yet. There’s still time. Now do you want to go to that party or not?”

“Alright. I’ll see you later, mother.” The young changeling hopped out of the car and waved as the van proceeded down the road and out of sight.

Chrysidea stood at the driveway to the party and looked at the blaring lights coming from the windows. She had decided to come to the party dressed as a zombie. She had a tattered white shirt stained with tomato sauce, and she had a brown and torn jacket over her shirt, along with matching torn pants. She had painted blood and falling skin across her face and for once, she was actually out of the house as herself. Not as Silver Rose or Moonglade, but as Chrysidea.

“Scary enough.” She had been very proud of the costume she had done up herself.

There were many other people in costume as well. Some of them characters from popular movies, video games, or tv shows, and others in more classical outfits. By the time Chrysidea had made it into Lemon’s house, she had passed at least three serial killers and two ghosts. Once inside, the changeling began to recognize some people from school, partially from their smell. There was Fleur, dressed as a renaissance musketeer. She also spotted Shock Coil dressed as a famous dead singer, Fraidy Hydragyrum, with Crystal Lullaby hanging on his arm dressed as a student from Hogwartles from those Hairy Pyotr films. There was even some stranger dressed as Desert Fox, one of her mother’s characters from Manslayer’s Doctrine.

There was one costume that really scared her and that was of a guy standing in the corner with a kitchen knife in his hand. He had on a mechanics outfit and a grey mask, but what frightened her the most was his stillness. He was just watching people walk by, his head moving from side to side, but he never even moved, not even to shift to a more comfortable position.

Then of course, there were the revealing costumes that girls wore for some reason. Some stranger was a vampire, but with a lot less clothing than the typical ones dressed in suits. She had no idea why anyone would want to show off so much skin in front of other people. Chrysidea knew it was nice to look at, but she at least did it in the privacy of her home. There was even one girl who was dressed up as some kind of fighter wearing some sort of one piece suit and her nipples were poking right through the fabric.

Some people are just crazy.

“Enjoying the party?” A familiar voice said from behind her. Chrysidea turned around to see and smell Upper Crust, who was dressed as some kind of rock star with a bronzed prosthetic leg. “Uh, wait, I know your costume. You’re a trotter from The Trotting Dead, right?”

“Uh, yeah!” Chrysidea said cheerfully. “And you are?”

“I’m Jenny Goldenleg from Steampunk 7702,” Upper Crust said proudly. “Worked for days on this costume. But yours is pretty good too! Skin tone looks real natural. And the eyes! Zombies don’t have reptilian eyes, but nice touch!”

“Well, it took a lot of time to do, but I think it was worth it,” Chrysidea said modestly, which wasn’t a lie. She had spent six hours throwing the costume together. “It just took some time in the… Is that Principal Cinch? She’s looking, eh, shorter.”

It was the glasses that gave Sugarcoat away as she marched down the hallway primly with a cup of something in her left hand, dressed as CPA’s principal, no less.

“Detention,” she said to Cold Forecast with a smile. “And I hate children.”

Everyone around her laughed.

Chrysidea continued to walk through the party, watching what each person was doing, so that she could figure out what people do at parties. Most of the partygoers were just standing around eating and chatting. Some were in the center, where a mini dance floor had been set up shaking and swaying about. Lemon Zest was standing behind a DJ booth, dressed in a black skin tight suit with her face painted gold and she was blasting the creepy piano Halloween tune that people were strangely dancing to. It didn’t strike her as a dancing song, that’s for sure.

“Party time!” Indigo Zap popped up on the dance floor and started dancing. Or at least, Chrysidea thought it was dancing. All she was doing was throwing her arms and legs about. She was dressed as a cyborg ninja again, the same costume she had on at the Eastern Fair. In her hand was a plastic cup that looked half empty. Chrysidea could already guess what was up.

Walking about, the changeling spotted a dirty looking bearded man sitting on one of the couches, chip crumbs across his chest and a cup in his hands. He really looked like he didn’t belong. Along the wall were a couple of girls in elf costumes and Chrysidea had to say, they looked like they were right out of a fantasy land, though she didn’t like that they only had metal panties covering their bottoms. At the very corner of the room was a girl dressed in a very tall baguette and Chrysidea didn’t need to smell her to know who it was.

“Canvas!” She waved and smiled when she got near enough for the girl to see.

“Hiya, Silver!” The girl said without looking up from her sketchbook.

“How did you know it was me so quickly?”

“I know what your voice sounds like.”

Right, I’m sure she does. The young changeling thought. That is, until she decided to switch personas. “How’re you doing?”

Canvas shrugged. “You know I don’t like that question. It’s weird.”

“Uh, right,” Chrysidea said. “Is that real bread you’re wearing?”

“Silver, you’re so silly,” Canvas laughed. “No, it’s not real bread. It’s canvas! Like my name!”

“Oh, uh, well, yeah uh, now that you mention it, I see it.” Chrysidea added her awkward laughter to Canvas’. “Got any good sketches yet?”

“Oh, yes I do!” Canvas held up the sketchbook and flipped the pages. Chrysidea could see quick drawings of werewolf suit, a Roaman soldier with a cup in his hands, and then the two elves from earlier, who were still leaning against the wall closeby, chatting to each other.

“Looks good,” Chrysidea said approvingly. “Is it hard to draw in a costume like that?”

Canvas shrugged. “Not really. I’m going to go get some of the punch. You want to come with me?”

“Are you sure it’s okay to drink?” Chrysidea asked. “I’ve read about parties. I heard they spike it with alcohol.”

But Canvas was already gone, disappearing into the crowd.

Chrysidea took out her phone and looked at it. She had already spent fifteen minutes here. She didn’t have a lot of time to spend here, so the changeling decided to go see if there was anything interesting happening.

She still hadn’t seen Sunny Flare and she wondered if the girl was even here tonight. But then she shook off that idea. Of course Sunny would be here. She’s a Shadowbolt after all, and she’s crazy for praise and adulation as the rest of them are, or really, everyone at Crystal Prep.

It was weird. There didn’t seem to be a whole lot to do at parties and just standing by herself, Chrysidea began to feel bored and she leaned back against the wall and sighed. It was nice to get to see so many cool costumes, though some were a little too creepy for her, but other than that, the only other things she could do was drink or dance. She didn’t want to do either of those.

“Hello there,” a voice said to her left.

In her quiet thoughts, a strange man with tattoos over his arms had appeared beside her, his costume consisting of a black hoodie and a skull mask.

“Um, h-hi.” Chrysidea managed a smile.

The man turned to lean on the wall too. “Nice party, huh?”

“Uh, I-I guess…?”

“So, what’s your name?” the stranger asked.

“Moo- Silver Rose,” Chrysidea replied. There was a slightly sweet flavor coming out of this person. One that she was accustomed with coming from Sunny Flare. “I go to Crystal Prep.”

The man seemed to do a double take. “Oh. So that’d put you at eighteen?”

“Sixteen,” Chrysidea said, which was a complete lie, but her intuition was telling her to do so. Better to let people underestimate her. Immediately she sensed the nice taste disappear, replaced with something like Cinch’s aura.

“Yeeeahh…” the stranger said. He shifted against the wall. “Well, never mind then. I’m going to get some more punch. See you.”

And with that, he was gone.

I can see why mother doesn’t like to go to these things.

“I’m back!” Canvas skipped over with a overspilling cup of punch in her hands. “Not bad stuff. It’s berry, but it’s got something really strong in it. Who was that earlier?”

“No clue,” Chrysidea shrugged. “Have you seen some of the people here? Pretty sure they don’t all go to Crystal Prep.”

“You mean that fatty over there?” Canvas pointed to the bearded man on the couch as she got back to sketching. “Yeah he definitely doesn’t look like a student. He’s been staring at you since you’ve been here, you know?”

Chrysidea blinked a few times. “What, really?”

“He occasionally looks around,” Canvas said without looking up. “But see, he’s back on you at the moment. Either that or he’s looking at the wall behind you. Could be a possibility, I guess.”

She didn’t deny she was a little creeped out at it, but young changeling just pushed herself off the wall and stretched. “Well, I’m going to see if there’s anything else to do here. If not, then I totally wasted my time. I could have gone trick or treating instead.”

“Hey, why don’t we both go treat or treating, then?” Canvas shut her book and got up to down her cup’s contents. “It’s gonna be real fun!”

Canvas whipped out two paper bags from her bag and flicked them open. They had pumpkins painted on their fronts.

“Yeah sounds fun, Canvas. Let’s do it!” Chrysidea nodded. It was a good chance to get out of that lard belly’s sight too. “We’ll just need to be back here later. My mother will be picking me up from the party.”

The pair left the party through the front door, passing a plethora of costumed people on the way out. As soon as Chrysidea left the house, she felt a lot more relaxed. Everything seemed sharper, the smells more vibrant. She felt as though she could run ten miles and not even be tired. Chrysidea looked up at the crimson moon that was handing in the cloudless heavens and smiled.

“And just where do you think you’re going?” Came a disheveled and slurred voice from somewhere behind them.

Both Chrysidea and Canvas turned around, and there came Sunny Flare waltzing up towards them on wobbly legs. She was dressed up as what Chrysidea thought was a vampire. She had a dark cape over a black corset and skirt, and she had painted blood dribbling down the side of her mouth.

“I’m the best there is in Crystal Prep.” She waved a fist and then almost fell on her face. “No one bests Funny Slare and gets away with it…”

“Uh…” Chrysidea looked at Canvas. She had no idea what was going on.

“Are you feeling quite alright?” Canvas asked politely.

“You can it, paintbrush,” Sunny staggered to the side. “It’s the witching night and who knows what Silver Rose can be up to tonight? You going to visit her? Are you a witch’s associate?”

Chrysidea took a sniff of the air. There was an aroma of alcohol and something else she didn’t recognize. “Maybe you should go sit down, Sunny.”

“Who are you to tell me what to do?” She waved her fist again. “A friend of Canvas is not a friend of meen. You should be ashammed of yourself to be a paintbrush’s friend. She sketches well I and think I sketch better! I am the best at all things!”

“Come now, is this any way to talk to your girlfriend?” Chrysidea asked, switching to Silver Rose’s voice.

“Wait a minute, what?” Canvas for once, looked surprised. She pointed between Sunny and Chrysidea.

“Silver Rose dossen’t look like that…” Sunny slurred. “She’s pretty and she’s sexy and she’s a witch and she’s cast her spell over me. I don’t know you and I’ll come when I want to.”

“Yeah…” Canvas said, edging away from Sunny. “You do that, we’ll be back after taking a little walk to get some fresh air. The party’s air is so stale and full of weird smells.”

Sunny took a few more steps towards them, then fell on her face. Sour Sweet, who was dressed in a bear costume, suddenly ran out from nowhere and pulled her up.

“Look what you’ve done, you’ve done f-” Then she eyed Canvas and Chrysidea. “You didn’t say anything weird to her, did you?”

“More like she said weird things to us.” Canvas laughed. “And she calls me weird.”

“I knew that vodka punch was a bad idea…” Sour Sweet muttered. “I mean, I’ll take Sunny back inside and you two can get back to… Whatever it was you were doing.”

“Yeah, alright.” Canvas pulled Chrysidea’s arm and began to walk away. When they were out of earshot, she suddenly exploded, “You and Sunny Flare are together?! Really? All this time?”

“We were,” Chrysidea admitted. “But now it’s complicated. We haven’t really broken up, but I don’t think we’re together either.”

“Wow, it’s like you’re stuck in limbo. But wow, I totally didn’t see it at all. You two must’ve hidden it so well. Oh man, it’s so weeeeirrrrdddd! I don’t know if it helps, now that I know about it. Tonight’s such a weird night.”

Chrysidea giggled. “You can say that again.”

“Tonight’s such a weird night.” Canvas Splash nodded. “What do the two of you even do when you go out?”

The changeling rubbed the back of her head. “Uhh, well… w-we usually um, go to… the mall. Yeah.”

“Ah, shopping trips. I guess that’s what most people would do.”

If only that’s actually what we do more of.

“Still, I can’t believe it! You had a girlfriend! And it was Sunny Flare of all people!”

“Yeah, umm, perhaps not the best of people. But she came onto me first.”

“She what? As in you gave her a piggyback ride?”

“No, no, as in, umm… she uh, started the relationship.”

Chrysidea looked up at the crimson moon that was still rising. She now knew what her mother was talking about. The rush of power that was making her heart race was unlike anything else she had felt before. Before the Friendship Games, she only felt little tingles of power during such a moon, but this time, she really felt as though she could do anything.

“So, what do we do while trick or treating?” Chrysidea asked Canvas.

“Oh yeah, you’ve never been, huh?” Canvas handed her one of the halloween bags. “We’ll go door to door. Then we’ll knock. Then we’ll yell trick or treat! Then they’ll decide whether they want a trick or to treat. Easy.”

“Let’s try it out!” Chrysidea rubbed her hands together. She was really excited to try trick or treating.

They approached the first door down the next street, where there were groups of kids already patrolling around with bags or cauldrons of candy. As Chrysidea watched them go happily along from house to house, she could only get more excited. She was never really one for candy, but who would say no to free candy anyway?

Chrysidea dragged Canvas over to the nearest house which had a bright orange door and rang the doorbell. The two of them waited a few seconds before an elderly woman opened the door, carrying a tray of chocolate bars.

“My, how cute. A loaf of bread and a dancer,” she chuckled as she inspected both their costumes. “You two have been the oldest children to visit me tonight.”

“Umm, y-yeah, that’s right!” Chrysidea figured it would be easier to agree. “I don’t think um, anyone could be too old for Halloween.”

“No I don’t suppose they are,” the woman replied and handed them each two bars of chocolate. “Two for each of you, since you’re old enough to be responsible.”

“Wow, thanks lady!” Canvas grinned widely. “And by the way, I’m not just a loaf of bread. I’m a baguette.”

“Oh. I’m afraid I don’t know what that is, dearie.”

Canvas shrugged. “Just a Prench bread I guess. Ever been to Prance, lady?”

“Thank you miss, thank you very much for the chocolate and the time.” Chrysidea began to drag Canvas to the next house. They had more treats to get.

The next house had a grumpy middle-aged man who seemed to reluctantly pass them handfuls of candy, and then the next one had a man who was dressed up as some murderer with blood splatters across a white shirt. By far, he gave the two of them the most candy, but he kept looking at them weird and when Chrysidea decided to take a sniff, he smelt deranged and lustful, so she quickly steered Canvas away from that house. She didn’t want to find out what that man planned for them.

The next few houses had uneventful people, but Chrysidea found her bag to be getting heavier and heavier and she was rather pleased with the haul they had.

“Hey Silver,” Canvas asked as they patrolled about the streets to find another house. “What’s it like to love? To feel love? I mean, since you got Sunny and all. Half the time I don’t even know what I’m feeling.”

“What’s it like? Umm…” Chrysidea placed a hand to her cheek. “I don’t know. It’s like… a really good meal and sometimes you just can’t wait to eat it.”

That just sounded wrong, but Canvas didn’t pick up on it. “Yeah okay. For me it’s a good plate of carbonara. Sometimes I just can’t get enough of it. Thankfully my stomach is small or I’d already be quite large. Like that man over there.” The artist pointed to a parent watching his kids by the side. “Would that mean I’m in love with carbonara?”

Chrysidea said a noncommittal ‘Uh-huh’ as she took out her phone. They had been out here for almost three hours now, wandering the neighborhood and blending in with the kids who were also trick-or-treating. “We should get back to Lemon’s house soon. There’s something I have to do that I can’t be late for.”

“Oh, okay,” Canvas peered into her candy bag. “This should keep me stocked for a week or so,” she said. “Maybe I can do art with candy!”

“Yeah… maybe,” Chrysidea looked up at the moon. It was a lot higher now, and she could feel its bloody light infusing her with strength. She felt as though she could lift a car with her bare hands.

It wasn’t hard to find the way back to Lemon Zest’s house. All they had to do was follow the loud music and the drunken cheers of the partygoers.

“I hope Lemon knows what she’s done,” Canvas mused. “I would hate to be the one to have to explain to my parents why the house is trashed and there’s puke stains in the carpet. But then again, I would never think to do this to my parents, so this would never happen to me anyway.”

One cue, Indigo Zap ran out of the house to a bush and she began to barf out the night’s contents.

“Yeah, definitely not a good idea. Is this really what all high school parties are like? Drinking and all that?”

“Meh, I guess so.” Canvas shrugged. “I never drink the stuff. What do you people say? Too much wine is no good for deliver.”

“That doesn’t sound right.”

Canvas put a finger to her chin. “I saw that on TV once. Maybe I misheard it.”

“Yeah…” Chrysidea sealed up her bag of candy and took a deep breath. There were so many positive emotions running wild from the party that she couldn’t get enough. She might not have wanted to participate, but it was good food just standing outside absorbing it all.

“Gee, you look happy,” Canvas said, looking at Chrysidea with a bemused expression on her face. “Then again, I don’t know. I’m just associating that with your smile.”

There was also a whole lot of lust coming from the rooms upstairs. It smelt nice and she wasn’t the target of those emotions, so for once, she took a deep breath of it and grinned. She still had to fight to control her fangs, but at least she was getting better at it.

“Bloody.”

“What?” Chrysidea looked to Canvas.

“The moon’s all bloody.” Her friend pointed up to the sky. “But well, it’s only going to get bloodier.”

“Oh, I hope not.” Chrysidea swallowed.

She would have to protect the ritual later and should Sunset and her friends or others try to interfere, she might just have to eliminate them. She hoped it didn’t come to that. That’s what her paralyzing dagger was for. To get them out of the way without killing anyone.

“Do you wanna… go in and find Sunny or something?” Canvas asked. “You know, since you’re sorta complicatedly dating her. I’ll just be off in a corner drawing. You can go look for her.”

Chrysidea was gonna take a pass on it, but seeing as she had forty minutes to go, she figured she might as well. Bidding Canvas farewell for now, the young changeling proceeded back into the party, sniffing around for her friend. She picked up a lot of weird smells and she saw that creepy guy who talked to her was still around, trying to pick up other girls. Perhaps he hadn’t had any luck yet.

She also realized the man with the belly was no longer on the couch. Perhaps he had left, after all, he hadn’t done anything the whole time she had been in the house earlier.

The young changeling shrugged it off. There were so many people coming and going, it was hard to keep track of them all anyway. And so she continued looking for Sunny, wanting to see what she was up to. She couldn’t be any more drunk than she already was.