Chrysalis practically bounced. She was helping Braeburn herd some cows into a new pasture and, just as she thought "what the heck am I doing?" she caught sight of the stallion and felt warmth flood her. It wasn't just the tingle of love he felt at seeing her, even in her disguise, but the love he felt for life. "Wooo! That way!" She bounced for real now, grabbing the hat Brae had given her in her teeth to get their attention.
"That's it Chryssi!" Braeburn whooped and cantered along behind the cows. "Move it ya varmints! This paddock needs a rest." He wove along behind the cows until he met up with Chrysalis, the pair of them pulling the gate shut. "Phew, that was some good work, Chryssi." He leaned in and stole a kiss from the changeling queen's cheek.
The kiss came with a spark of love that made Chrysalis blush more than the close attention. "Anything else to do today?" She tossed her hat back on her head then looked up, trying to judge how late in the day it was. Almost evening.
"Nope, I expected that to take a lot longer than it did, you are such a big help." Braeburn pointed to the homestead. "Let's get cleaned up, we have the night to ourselves. I heard there was a new movie at the cinema."
Real joy poured through Chrysalis, she set her hooves to a trot and was matched by Brae. "Is that the one with the monster attacking Canterlot?"
"Eeyup!" Brae grinned wide.
"Ah, I really want to see that, I still wonder what will have happened if I had won… I don't think I would have been happy." Chrysalis took a deep breath and let it out. Oddly, she was happy. Her foals were all being taken care of, she knew for a fact once Princess Twilight Sparkle took on a job she would not fail at it. It was freedom to just… be.
"Then Ah think we will!" Brae's voice strayed into a little more drawl than usual as they reached the house. It took the pair no time at all to get all cleaned up after their work and be ready for an evening together. Dinner was at the saloon, in the back area where they had some dining tables. "You enjoy eating?"
"Of course!" Chrysalis surprised even herself with the happiness with which she said it. "I mean, if I had to eat real food alone it would be a lot less fun, I-" She halted as a waitress walked past. Waiting until the mare was gone, she stuck her tongue out at Brae's knowing grin. "You know how it would go if I dropped this," she gestured to herself, "first there would be screaming, then fainting… I like it when ponies are happy…" Totally just for the food reason, yeah...
"Well, why don't you try?" Braeburn gave the mare a grin. "Ah'm willing to bet you that… okay, there might be a little screaming at first, but if you don't make with the hissing and stuffing ponies into pods, it would all be fine."
"Tomorrow, but if I get chased out of town, you have to come with me." Chrysalis picked up her drink and sipped at it. She could have fed on the happiness around her, but she just didn't need to. Without the urge to lay eggs, and without a whole hive to feed, she was just one changeling. One full changeling.
"Ah'll hold you to it." Braeburn gulped down the last of his oat-cake, smothered in hot-sauce. "You'll see, it is all about how you treat folks that matters. A pony is just a pony." The taste of loyalty and love soothed any harshness Brae's words inspired. "What time is that movie?"
"When I am done, I will tell you." Chrysalis chewed delicately at the oat cake in her mouth. She grinned at Brae around it, before swallowing. The little game was a fun one and she loved watching him squirm a bit. "Okay, we have nearly twenty minutes. Relax, Brae."
With the stallion more relaxed she was able to finish her meal, not realizing how good it felt to just do "normal" pony things. At last, they got up and made their way next door to the cinema. " 'It Came from Across the Sea' Well, at least it wasn't from the Badlands." Braeburn was looking up at the title above the entrance. "Come on, I bet it will be scary."
"The queen of the changelings does not get scared." Chrysalis trotted in beside Braeburn. Of course Brae paid for the tickets, Chrysalis might be a queen, but that didn't mean she was made of bits, or had any at all. "Besides, I bet they do it all wrong."
"What do you mean?" Braeburn led the way in, buying up a big tub of popcorn and a soda.
"Well, it isn't easy planning to attack Canterlot. I thought about using the crystal caves under it, but there was only one exit to those and it would be a huge choke-point. Then there is all the unicorns. Have you any clue how surprised I was-"
"Tickets!" At the call of the nearby stallion, Chrysalis snapped her mouth closed.
"Here you are." Braeburn couldn't keep the grin off his face, honestly, hearing her talk about planning and such reassured him rather than scared him. She wasn't stupid, she had planned and had an army, but had been beaten. He made sure to squeeze in next to her as they walked past the ticket booth.
"It was Shining Armor and Cadance in the end. I had even planned for the six ponies of Ponyville… although my intelligence had missed out that Shining was Twilight's brother. Who would have seen that one coming?" Chrysalis turned into the correct room and saw there were a few ponies scattered among the seats. "Okay, at the back."
"The back?" Braeburn's eyes widened, but he didn't argue. Trotting along after the green tail in the dark room, he followed Chrysalis until she was right at the back row, then along to the middle of it. "Wow, I gotta admit, these are perfect seats."
"Shh!" A pony from the front of the room seemed to be enjoying the pre-roll.
"We are going to have to whisper." Chrysalis grinned and leaned across the leg-rests on the seats to be closer. "So, yeah, I really want to see what they did wrong."
"So you can try again?" Braeburn couldn't help but giggle.
"What? Buck no!" Chrysalis actually felt a slight chill at the words. "But it will be fun to poke holes in the-"
"SHH!"
Both Brae and Chrysalis giggled as they settled in to watch the movie.
"Lists, lists are my saviors!" Sharp would have dived into her lists, if there was more than four of them. "Now, I have everypony invited, custom invites sent, with priorities for those in outlying towns." Sharp picked up the "main list" and ticked off invitation. "Now, the catering is organized." Another tick. "And that leaves decorations and music."
A gentle knocking at the door stole the drone's attention from the lists. Quickly double checking she was in disguise, Sharp called for them to come in. The door opened and, sure enough, it was Celestia. "Twilight." The alicorn princess greeted Sharp. It was harder to look at her and see the dread princess of Canterlot. She is nice.
"Princess Celestia." Sharp couldn't help but smile, the princess was leaking affection for her, but only a little. It was more than enough for a 'ling to live off. "I have all the invitations done, and the catering sorted!" She almost squealed when Celestia's horn lit and a huge white wing reached forward.
"That is wonderful news, Twilight." Celestia saw the panic at first, but then the changeling relaxed and actually leaned into the white, feathery embrace. "So what is left?" She knew all about Sharp's discovery of Twilight's "list system", mainly from Twilight herself.
"I need to organize some ponies to help with the decorations, the decorations themselves. As well as getting some music." Sharp looked down the main list. She quickly reached out for the sub-list and held that up in her magic. "We need streamers, balloons, some nice fancy things…" She felt a glow of extra love and looked up at Celestia. A sudden worry hit Sharp that Celestia knew and would reveal it all at the gala.
"There will be a cake?" Celestia's eyes danced and then widened. "Oh, you passed out? Twilight?"
"I don't know, what happened?" Twilight stepped from the cover of her invisibility spell, stepping over and gently poking her doppelganger. A fizzle of green flame later and the changeling was revealed. "This could be-"
"Princess?" Sharp lifted her head and looked up, seeing Celestia first. She smiled. Then she spotted the other princess. "T-T-Twilight…" She peeked, quickly as a drone does, to make sure her disguise was up. "Icanexplainpleasedon'tsquishme!"
"Well, bother." Twilight inhaled deeply. "She isn't ready." She looked up to Celestia, who had taken the time to reach her wing back out to support the changeling; and stop her from making a run for the door.
"I think she is. She was the last in, wasn't she?" Celestia looked directly at Sharp, examining her. "What do you think, Sharp Mind, are you a pony?"
The question took up all of Sharp's thoughts. Was she? She liked doing things like managing stuff, but that was also a changeling trait. Something jumped out from the back of her mind. "I need to meet with the caterers!" It might have been a little of Twilight's own manic nature, but Sharp couldn't rely on that, a pony's mindset should fade the moment a changeling's disguise did. She pulled up her fire and became a perfect copy of Twilight Sparkle again. Then froze.
"Told you." Celestia turned to her student, looking Princess Twilight right in her astonished eyes.
"I need to document this…" Twilight's magic flashed and her notebook devoted to Sharp appeared. Two quills. Princess Celestia started giggling, watching both the mares grabbing up supplies.
"Sharp, please keep taking care of my gala plans, as you can see my normal organizer is busy." Celestia curled her wing, urging the changeling up and out of the room. "Now, who is it you have an appointment with?"
It was crazy, it was mad. Sharp stood beside Princess Celestia, watching over the Grand Galloping Gala. She was an imposter, a changeling hidden as the Princess' peer. But nopony noticed, the only ones who knew didn't care. Even Twilight Sparkle herself seemed more interested in asking her questions than actually fighting her, locking her up… or even just telling her friends about Sharp.
"How did I get caught up in this?" Sharp's words didn't surprise Celestia, but it did make her cock an eye at the disguised changeling. "Why aren't you blasting me?"
"Because you are a good pony. Look at this party you organized. It will make a lot of ponies happy." Celestia gestured with a wing. "You made this happen… it might need a little livening up, but that isn't your fault and it certainly is in progress."
Sharp turned to the princess. "What do you mean?" She was getting a bit confused. "I thought you wanted a stately and sober party?"
"No, Sharp Mind, I wanted a fun party, with Pinkie Pie dancing in the fountain, with Rarity hiking up her amazing dress to dance. But it will come. You see, the Gala is required by the gentry," Celestia gestured with the wing toward a large group of ponies on one side of the room, "they need events they can claim to have been personally invited to-"
"But I invited them, not you!" Sharp had to keep her voice down, lest anypony hear the little argument.
"They don't know that, and even if they did, then it would be 'Oh, the Princess of Friendship herself invited me…'." Celestia grinned at Sharp. "Oh, here comes Discord."
Smooth Horn slumped into the soft couch in his bedroom. "Without Twilight around I can relax." It was about the tenth time he had said it, he was firmly of the opinion at this stage that it had to be the truth because he had said it so much. So why do I miss her?
It wasn't like the Crystal Empire had needed him, he wasn't even sure what happened with that. "I turned up, nopony knew I was coming…" Smooth's thoughts floated back to when the ponies had seen him. He had almost passed out drunk at all the love. "Nice place though."
Looking around, he spotted an odd sight. "What are all these dice and things?" Bouncing up from the couch, Smooth reached up with his little arms. "Cool, and what is this? Ogres and Oubliettes?" He carried the book back to the couch and settled in.