When a wave of "Smooze" poured through the hall, messing with magic and fashion both, Twilight Sparkle was panicking at first, but apparently the goop didn't tear away changelings disguises. She watched as events unfolded, as her doppelganger tried to handle things in a very—at least to Twilight—competent manner.
It was a surprise when Tree Hugger, Fluttershy's friend, saved the day. Twilight got so distracted focusing on the strange mare that she had missed some words that Sharp and Celestia were sharing. The mare was new to Ponyville, which meant that she was actually a pony. Twilight was about to cast a spell to inspect the "chakra" that Tree kept talking about, when she remembered she was invisible and maybe it would be better done another time.
"All your friends are pretty wild, like, their auras are really troubled." Tree looked around the big gala hall, her relaxed gaze taking in all of Fluttershy's "friends"—that all happened to be changelings. "Your Princess-friend is way on edge and needs to relax more." Tree looked up at Sharp.
Not a dishonest bone—muscle, or any other part—in her body, Fluttershy blushed a little as she looked around at the changelings. "Twilight" was acting quite manically, but that was normal. She focused on each of the other changelings. Applejack seemed almost completely natural, as did Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy couldn't help but give a giggle at considering her most random of friends to be acting normal. Rainbow Dash was still a little troubling, but-
Tree watched Fluttershy, taking in the mare's almost meditative nature. When the pegasus spun on her, Tree smiled wider. "You find what you were looking for? They need to totally relax their chakra and just be themselves."
Fluttershy looked around suddenly. "Did you just hear giggling?" Tree seemed completely oblivious to any sounds at all from possibly invisible alicorns.
"So are ya going to do it tonight?" Braeburn raised an eyebrow at Chrysalis. "Are ya goin' to see if anypony goes crazy if ya turn into yourself?" They were on their way to the third… or maybe it was fourth, date.
Chrysalis tilted her head back and looked up. Daytime was slowly surrendering to night, Princess Luna would soon take over guarding the sky. "Do I really have to? I like this," she gestured with a hoof at the town, finally pointing at Brae, "I like us. If I reveal myself-"
"Hi Chrysalis!" Twilight Sparkle was right before the pair, smiling brightly, holding a clip-board. "Sorry to interrupt, but I have some extra changelings from your hive and I am not sure what to do with them."
For the disguised changeling, nothing could have shocked her more. Her form quickly crackled with fire and braced a shield waiting for the Princess' first attack. Then her memory clicked. "Extra?" Chrysalis blinked at Twilight and dropped her shield. "What do you mean, extra?"
Twilight practically bounced in place. "Oh, I guess you wouldn't know. Okay, so, I noticed you were sending your drones to Ponyville, I assume to spy?" Twilight got a nod from the changeling queen. "Okay, so when they took the place of ponies in town, I got an idea. Princess Celestia helped with the spell and we put a block on them, severing their ability to sense you-"
"And mine to sense them." Chrysalis blinked, a few little blocks settling into place. "And then you tortured them to find out everything they knew about my hive?"
"What? No! We… am I interrupting something?" Twilight blinked between Braeburn and Chrysalis.
"Dinner." Braeburn was a little shocked, but managed to get the word out. Ponies were looking at the gathering, but it was understandable with Princess Twilight Sparkle here. "Uh, you are welcome to join us, I guess?"
At first, Chrysalis hated the idea. At second, her opinion didn't change. But she really wanted to know where her drones were and how they were doing. "I guess we can put our date off until later."
Twilight blushed, but certainly wouldn't turn down the chance to explain her plan to a whole new audience. Besides, she had questions to ask Chrysalis. "If you don't mind, I would love to take you up on that. Now, those first were the earliest step. We had to spirit the real ponies away, make a place for the drones to settle in."
Chrysalis heard something in Twilight's voice that nopony had ever felt for her little ones before. Compassion. "What about Easy Glide? He never got on well with anyling."
"Easy Glide disguised as Rainbow Dash, and while it seemed a poor fit at first, she is taking to the role well now. Why, just a few days ago she and Scootaloo… uh, Black Terror, had this great moment where they were… I am getting distracted."
"You think?" Chrysalis wore a smile, however. There was no love greater than that a mother has for a foal that doesn't make friends easily. "Hold on to the rest until we are having dinner or you are going to fill me up before we are even seated."
Twilight giggled at the idea, having spent some time with changelings now she knew their consumption of love and happiness to be mostly harmless. Unless they were specifically trying to drain a pony, the pony felt nothing from the consumption. Together the three made haste to the restaurant and were soon seated.
Chrysalis couldn't hold it back anymore. "How are my foals doing? Are any hurt? Are they getting enough to eat? Where… you are going to tell me in detail, aren't you?" Twilight nodded enthusiastically. "Okay, go ahead."
First, Twilight slipped a piece of paper over to Chrysalis. "This is the names and the disguises each of your drones is wearing. This one," Twilight poked at Dry Wit, "has completely passed and gained citizenship. She is living with the other ponies at the hidden town."
"Hidden… citizenship… What exactly are you up to with my foals?" Chrysalis reached and tasted, but she found no malice, no anger. It made things more confusing, not less.
"I am helping them teach each other friendship. Every pony in Ponyville got replaced in the end… well, except Lyra, that was an anomaly. The whole town of changelings are ponies… except Kevin."
Chrysalis quickly went through the list and found "Kevin". "Neat Pile…" Chrysalis felt her heart tug at her. "If you hurt one little piece of his chitin… you didn't though, did you." It certainly wasn't a question, something about Twilight Sparkle was rubbing off as being the type of pony that couldn't hurt another. "What is he doing? How is he fitting in?"
"There is a whole town full of changelings, none of them aware of each other, and one lone drone who can't shift." Twilight gave Chrysalis a significant look. "Every single drone in town treats him well, each of them trying to convince the others that he is no harm. To put it bluntly, everyling loves him to bits."
The knot in Chrysalis' stomach let go and she relaxed. "I want to see them." She looked at Twilight. "I want to make sure my little foals are fine."
Part of Twilight wished that the queen had displayed this tender side when she invaded. "That can be arranged, but there will be a requirement. Just a little one."
Chrysalis' eyes narrowed. "What would you require of a mother, to visit her foals?"
"Disguise." Twilight grinned at Chrysalis. "If you wanted to move in, I would be fine with that too, but that brings me to the reason I came. How many more drones do you have to send?"
Braeburn was about to talk, had his mouth open and everything, just before he got a nudge under the table. "Ahem, sorry…" He gave his marefriend a quizzical look.
"I have nearly two-hundred more." Chrysalis saw Twilight's eyes widen. She really wanted to keep the joke going, but the alicorn hadn't actually done anything bad, and she was caring for her foals. "I am joking, Princess. You have all my foals."
Twilight blinked and quickly leafed through her notes. "All of them?" Chrysalis nodded to her. "So the last five are it?" Another nod. "Well, that is a weight off. I was worried you were going to be sending more and more."
"Are you ready to order?" A young mare, barely past the title "filly" looked around the table, showing no fear at all, of the changeling queen, although she paused and stared a little at Twilight.
"A light salad, please." Twilight beamed at the mare. "And if I could get a glass of water, too?"
"Of course, and you, sir?" The earth pony waitress scribbled something on a notepad.
Braeburn poked something on the menu. "Ah think somethin' special tonight, how about a double helpin' of the taters and mash? And how about two long glasses of cider, Regal." The mare beamed at the stallion remembering her name.
"If that is it?" Regal Pose looked around the diners and trotted off when it seemed to be so.
"She didn't ask me?" Chrysalis blinked. "She… she knows full well, doesn't she?"
"A'course she does, she has served us three times before this." Braeburn lifted his hoof over to rub at Chrysalis' hole-filled one. "She didn't even bat an eyelid at you."
Chrysalis had lost the bet, but she figured it was totally cheating. Having a princess in town stole all the attention and, if anypony saw her with Twilight Sparkle, they would just think "the princess has it under control"… It irked Chrysalis a little, but that was the truth. "She was too busy going all googly at the alicorn princess." Chrysalis looked at Twilight.
"Me?" Twilight blinked, not having noticed the attention at all. "But I am just…" Things clicked, Twilight's brain made sense of the situation. "They think I am protecting them from you, or that I am here to keep you under control. Sorry Chrysalis."
The two words hit Chrysalis in the face, hard. The Princess of Friendship had apologized for such a little thing as messing up her big reveal. It hit her hard. "I am sorry too, Twilight." Chrysalis felt the big clock-spring of guilt inside her unwind just a little. "I totally did some mean things to you and your friends…"
"You should go to the Crystal Empire, find my brother and Cadance." Twilight realized how bad an idea that would be the moment she said it. "Err…"
"If you came with me." Chrysalis smiled. "Don't get me wrong, I would still be scared stiff. Princess Cadance was… a bomb. I didn't see her coming, I thought I had won with capturing Princess Celestia…" A leg reached around the big queen, not all the way, but it was there. She turned to see Braeburn had leaned close.
"Ya learned a good lesson, right?" Braeburn gave the mare his best grin. "Right?" Chrysalis nodded and was rewarded with a squeeze. "And what did you learn?"
Twilight was in awe, absolute awe. Chrysalis was getting a friendship lesson. Her magic summoned a quill and it began to scribble notes all over the closest available paper—a napkin.
"Not to go against a pony stronger…" Chrysalis grinned as her coltfriend frowned. "Just joking! Everypony deserves to be treated as… a pony. I really messed that up, but I felt cornered and I couldn't see another way out." Chrysalis turned to Twilight. "I was blind, and apparently stupid to boot."
"But you did it for the right reason, Cadance and Shining will see that." Twilight's quill had gained a friend, they were both almost setting napkins on fire with their speed. "I will make sure of it." Resolve set in for the Princess of Friendship; she had a mission.
Chrysalis felt a strange kinship, and a lot of emotional warmth, coming from the princess at her side. On her other flank, support and love flowed. "I was such an idiot…"
"So now you squish me and Princess Twilight goes back to Ponyville?" Sharp sat in dejected self-torment. "Just send me back to the hive, at least." Sharp hung his head, looking at all the checklists he had made. Picking one up, the main one, he crossed out the last item "gala complete".
Celestia watched the drone, watched them carefully finish off the list. "No, Twilight still has her own tasks to do, which means there is a vacancy at the Castle of Friendship."
Sharp blinked and looked up. "Vacancy?"
"It means that Twilight would like you to go back to the castle and keep trying to fit in." Celestia couldn't help but reach a wing out to the little drone. "She has these crazy experiments sometimes…"
"I'm just an experiment? Did I mess it up when I…" Sharp was named well. "I'm not the experiment, am I? What… who, is the real target?"
"How about we have our own experiment. In one week I will send for you to return and you can tell me." Celestia couldn't stop herself, she booped the changeling on the nose with a hoof.
Lifting his forelegs up to protect his face, after the booping. "What… what will happen to me if I fail?"
Celestia grinned wide. "Then you have to go back and keep trying."