Jumper

Chrysalis stared at the car that pulled into the driveway before coming to a jerky stop. She could tell by the emblem between the lights that it was her sister. Immediately she flew off into a tirade about Cadence leaving her high and dry at the gas station with no phone or wallet.

Not to mention it’d taken her about half an hour to walk to their family’s place in the middle of the night with who knows lurking about.

Finally, her sister stepped out of the car.

She wanted to say more but the clearly dented grill stopped her verbal abuse of the dancer. “Did you hit something?”

The dancer stood with an odd look on her face not acknowledging anything.

“Cadence?” Chrysalis growled.

Cadence sniffled as she blinked, her puffy eyes watering as she soaked in the vengeful teen before her.

Her thoughts looped to the scene she’d left behind and the shakes began. She tried to hold herself together, but failed miserably as her form shook more and more.

“Cadence...?” Chrysalis felt unsure as her fury froze over. The turmoil that rolled from her sister made her eyes widen as she came to another conclusion. “You went back to him...”

Cadence nodded as she bit her lip and held tighter to herself.

“What happened?”

“Chryssie...” She croaked out instead.

“Cadence,” the other girl growled as tears filled her own eyes. “Please... tell me...”

She fell forward as her arms surged around the body in front of her.

“Chryssie,” She sobbed as her sister dumbly caught her in her grasp. “Chryssie... I’m so sorry!”

Chrysalis’s arms snaked around her flesh and blood as if she’d disappear. A coldness permeated her thoughts and limbs. She didn’t know if the tightness of her hold was painful to the dancer or not, but found she couldn't care less as her own form began to tremble with a wave of emotion she didn’t know if she was strong enough to withstand.

Another bright pair of headlights drowned the two, but Chrysalis firmly ignored it choosing instead to bury her head in her sister’s hair.

“What the fuck you two?!” Luna demanded as she jumped out of her own parent’s car. All her fury dissipated as her gaze focused on what was before her. “What’s going on?” She stared at the two girls locked in a tight embrace in the front of her driveway.

Her expression softened as her eyes found the horror-filled gaze of her favorite cousin.

She didn’t need to ask as Chrysalis’ face said it all.

Cadence felt sick as she let her grief overtake her.

How could she have been so stupid?

So awful and so damn gullible?

She heard her cousin hesitantly speaking out to her, asking if she were okay. But all she could think of was the warm and strong body in her grasp.

Luna managed to get them inside in case anyone decided to look out a window.

“What did you guys do?” Luna asked as she silently rubbed the diva’s back softly. The two could hear Chryssie in the bathroom raging and angry on the phone. “Your Dad’s going to be pissed when he sees the car in the morning.”

Cadence blinked and clutched her cousin tighter. The grill wasn’t so bad, she’d looked.

Luna studied her tired form as she rested her head in her lap.

“It was an animal…” She insisted.

“What?”

‘It wasn’t a person.’ Cadence’s features relaxed. “Whatever it was... Help me rinse it off?” She’d simply said instead, not willing to elaborate.

“Poor thing,” Luna breathed in response to her cousin’s words.

Despite their best efforts, neither girls were able to get Cadence to open up.

The younger insisted she just wanted to sleep.

“I just want to sleep,” she whined. “Please, Chryssie.” Seeing her sister so pitiful and upset was enough to make her relent.

“Okay… but we’ll talk tomorrow.”

“Okay…”

Cadence passed out almost immediately to her surprise. She sat with her for a few minutes and once she was sure she was sound asleep she quietly left the bedroom and closed the door behind her.

“Is she okay?” Luna asked once Chrysalis joined her in the hallway, copying her cousin’s stance and leaning against the wall.

“She’s asleep… for now.” Chrysalis sighed as she ran her hand through her hair. “She insists he didn’t hurt her.”

“Do you believe her?”

“I didn’t sense any lies, so I guess we’ll have to wait till the morning.”

An uncomfortable silence fell over the two.

“Why... why was he at your party?”

Luna groaned.

“You planned this...”

“I wasn’t going to let her get hurt!”

“Luna!”

“She wasn’t supposed to get hurt!”

“How could you do this?!”

“You didn’t want to tell! And she still thought he was so great! She’d never believe anything you’d say about him!”

“So what?! You were going to show her!”

“Don’t be so naïve!” Her cousin wasted no time defending herself. “She was going to do it anyway! At least this way we could catch him in the act!”

Chrysalis scoffed as she looked at the other as if she were a stranger. How could Luna be so stupid?

“All we did was give him the idea to throw a party! That’s it! Ardent was going to record and signal us once anyone actually made a move to hurt Cadence!”

“You made my sister bait?!”

“Your sister was dying to meet up with him! At least this way someone was actually in position to stop her from being hurt by that creep!” Luna argued, “Cadence made it abundantly clear she could care less about what anyone had to say about him!” Chrysalis tried to argue but Luna once again shut her down. “Spare me the outrage- You make it sound as if I threw her to the wolves, encouraging her to see him! No one forced anyone to do anything tonight! We had an actual plan to stop him!” The Alicorn heiress took a breath to compose herself. “Sonata wanted to talk to the police. We figured Ardent’s tape could only corroborate what she had to say.”

“Still…”

“Still what?! He needed to be stopped… and you- you deserved justice!”

She opened her mouth to spit something back, but the horrid truth smacked her full on in the face.

How could she expect Cadence to understand any of this?

Despite the boldness and risk of Luna’s plan, her cousin had tried to look out for her in the end and wasn’t that something?

Suddenly, both girls became hyper-aware of the stress of the night, sinking to the floor as a heavy silence fell over them.

“Who knows how your sister would have reacted if you had told her.” Luna breathed after a while.

“But-”

“I know you don’t want to hear this, but some people can’t be reasoned with. They have to make their own mistakes.” The words broke something in the other girl as all she could do was hold back sobs.

“You did everything you could for her! This isn’t your fault!” Luna hugged her cousin and held her as tightly as she could. “This wasn’t your fault…”