//------------------------------//
// Tangential Marketing 
// Story: Social Engineering 
// by Damaged 
//------------------------------//

"I'll just check my mail…" Braeburn was in a moral quandary. Chrysalis seemed quite nice once she didn't have a swarm of changelings to feed, and quite curious about all the things that existed in Equestria. But she was Queen bucking Chrysalis. THE Queen Chrysalis. She had invaded Canterlot. She had disrupted the royal wedding and… she seemed nice.

Trotting to his front door Braeburn opened it and found a stack of mail waiting for him inside. "Bill, bill, AmNeigh? What is that?" He was halfway through opening it when he found one that looked like it had been there a few days, and it smelled of apples. "Applejack!" He beamed at the thought of his famous cousin, ripping it open to find out it really was from her. "Rodeo? Coming to visit…"

The floor seemed to drop out of Braeburn's world—if Applejack brought her friends to visit they would totally find out that Chrysalis was here. He read on and breathed a sigh of relief when it mentioned nothing about bringing her friends. "Oh, little Bloom is coming, that'll be…" The world was against him, where Apple Bloom went, her friends went. And the letter clearly said he was going to be taking care of them.

Turning around, the stallion felt defeat sneaking up on his fun plans. "You don't taste so nice anymore, why?" Chrysalis, disguised as a very leggy unicorn, blinked at Braeburn. "Do you require more nutrients?"

"My cousins are coming to visit and I don't… what day is it?" Braeburn picked back up his mail and shuffled through the bills, finding the latest post-mark; if there was one thing you could rely on, it was bills being delivered fast. "The rodeo is today!"

"What is a rodeo? And stop that, your mood is itchy." Chrysalis lifted a hoof to rub her cheek. "I can help if you wish? Just a little something to calm you down…" The changeling queen trailed off, her eyes starting to glow green.

"No!" Braeburn looked away; many were the stories of how she had completely brainwashed Shining Armor with her eyes. "You don't understand, they are family, I gotta take care of them and-" Braeburn stopped. The magic glow had gone out of Chrysalis' eyes, she had half slumped in place. "You do know?"

"I have over two hundred children. I invaded Princess bucking Celestia's home city, her very castle, just to try to feed them all." Chrysalis half smiled. "I had to send them all away, for their own good." The big mare stepped forward, plucking the letter from Braeburn's hooves. "So yes, I understand how family are important, more important than queens and princesses."

It made entirely too much sense. "I guess you do." Braeburn was thinking on the invasion, on everything he knew—which wasn't much. "Okay, but I still want to get to know you better." The moment he said it the stallion blushed. The mare at his side was pretty, but he found himself remembering Chrysalis as Chrysalis.

"There, you taste much nicer now. Very well, from what I understand of pony culture this would be called a 'first date' and you, of course, have to pay." Chryssi gave a nod. "But I get to pick and I pick a movie."

"And lunch." Braeburn recovered from his shock at, apparently, being asked out on a date by Chrysalis. "Actually, lunch first, then a movie, then we have dinner."

"Already ate." Chrysalis booped Braeburn on the nose. "So, what is the issue with your family? They need taking care of?"

"Kinda, Applejack has-" Brae didn't get any further.

"Applejack? The bearer of the Element of Honesty?" Chrysalis shot to the door, lifting the letter flap to peek outside. "She is coming here?"

"Well, yeah. She is bringing my other cousin, Apple Bloom, and her friends. They are young fillies and have a tendency… more a duty, to get into as much trouble as possible." Braeburn picked up the letter Chrysalis had dropped when she raced back to the door. 

"They could look after themselves?" Chrysalis gave up her watch post and turned to see Brae nodding. "Then you can keep an eye on them every now and again, make sure they aren't in huge trouble. If you want I will even mark them so if anything happens you can track them down. I lost three clutches of drones before I worked that trick out."

Braeburn couldn't help but snort at that. "I guess that would work, AJ is going to expect me to really watch them."

"Tell her you have a date?" Chrysalis batted her eyelashes, Braeburn had to admit they were at least classically pretty; but he shook his head. "What about if you were injured?" Chrysalis grinned, more than enough to have Braeburn take a step back. "I am joking! I mean, what if you told her you were injured?"

"Applejack?"

"Yeah."

"Miss Honest mare of the Year for her whole life running?" Braeburn had reached the point where he felt he needed to inject drollness into his voice, and did so with liberal abandon.

"Good point. What if I helped?" Chrysalis reached a hoof up and tapped her eyes. "Just a little bit, I promise, nothing more."

It was both frightening and a little exciting. It would get Brae out of his little problem of being double booked. "You sure? Just make me think… I dunno, my leg is lame?"

"Would that be enough?" Chrysalis' eyes traced down the stallion's front legs, he certainly looked solid. "What am I saying, of course it would be. Little ones run and run and if you can't keep up, next thing you know there is slime all over the hive."

"I am sure if Apple Bloom could make slime, Ponyville will have drowned by now." Braeburn took a deep breath. "Okay, let's do it before I chicken out." A hoof pressed under Braeburn's chin, tilting his head up. He blushed hotly, it was almost as if Chrysalis was going to kiss him. Then he saw a whole mess of green and gulped.

"Not much, just a little and…" Chrysalis blinked, drawing her magic back from the stallion. "How do you feel Brae?"

"My leg hurts…" Braeburn looked down at his foreleg, he had pulled it up. "I mean, it really feels like it hurts but then, it doesn't feel like it is broken, or strained, or anything."

"A 'thank you' would suffice." Chrysalis beamed and got a single-legged hug from the stallion. "Now, let's get something appropriate to make it really look sore, then you can find out when your cousins will arrive." Chrysalis looked around for anything obvious. "A sling? Maybe some bandages?"

"I have bandages!" Braeburn hobbled through to the kitchen of his house, pulling out the first-aid kit. "Here, we could- Whoa!" The bandage rolls floated away from the kit in green-glowing magic. One begun to unwind and approach him. "Not too tight."





"Ah can't keep y'all around here with no outlaw on the loose!" Straight Wing was torn, she didn't want her sister to get hurt, or her sister's friends; but at the same time it would ruin the little holiday they had been so looking forward to. 

Chrysalis couldn't blink, she couldn't twitch. She was disguised as a large wardrobe, but even with such a disguise—thanks to changeling magic—she could see and hear what was going on. Like her "date" slowly succumbing to the tiredness of their journey to reach Appleloosa. 

It was astounding, she had never seen three little ones so content to play a long waiting game, she had to admire them. Braeburn finally lost his struggle with sleep and, as the fillies climbed out the window, Chrysalis put her mark on them, magically. 

Green fire coiled and burned away the disguise. "Braeburn?" Chrysalis stepped over to the stallion who had done his best to go through with the date. "Braeburn? The grubs got loose."

"Huh? What?" Braeburn snapped out of his dream to see the changeling queen, in all her dark glory, standing over him. "What? I can't let them get away!"

"I can find them." Chrysalis beamed, showing a little fang. "So let's go and track them down." She hoped to salvage something out of the day. Traipsing around in the woods, alone with a cute stallion. Just then, Braeburn threw the door open and bolted out. Into the rain. "He better be a good kisser." Chrysalis sighed and summoned her disguise again, stepping out into the wet night.

Braeburn had to fess-up to Applejack, it wasn't right to lie to kin and he felt bad about lying about his leg, still. As his hooves pounded in the mud, chasing the orange mare's form, he was joined by a very sad-looking unicorn. "Sorry about this, Chry-" Brae froze, knowing he dared not use Chrysalis' full name in front of Applejack. "Uh, Christine!"

"Clever boy." Chrysalis hated the rain, it dissolved her goo almost as quick as she made it, it got into your mane and chilled you. It was ten times worse when disguised, though. "Tell the sheriff I can track them down, it shouldn't take long."

Chrysalis was shocked when she got the kiss. It was wet, thanks to the rain, but it was accompanied by a swelling of affection she could taste. "Thank you. You were right, kin are important."

"Of course I was right, now let's find those fillies of yours." Chrysalis felt pride and a sense of justification in her actions she hadn't had for a long time. Protecting Braeburn's kin felt almost as if she were protecting her own drones.





Chrysalis clopped her yellow hooves together and leaned in beside Braeburn. She had used a different disguise today, one a little more suited to Appleloosa. Yellow fur and a bright green mane, she was one of the prettiest earth ponies at the rodeo and loved the looks she got. But she had, more and more, forgotten to even gloat in them. "Woo! Go Applejack!" Too carried away, but she didn't care, she cheered on Braeburn's cousin enthusiastically.

"You did it!" Braeburn whooped and yelled when he saw his cousin's team had beaten all the out-of-towners. "Wooo!" From the corner of his eye he saw the dark queen of the changelings, apparently enjoying the events every bit as much as he did. "Sorry about the movie, Christine…"

Surprising even herself, Chrysalis shook her head. "It's okay Brae, family is more important, we both know that." She lifted a hoof to put it around his back and maybe get a little closer when a stray hay bale came flying out of the air and landed on Brae. Chrysalis started giggling, her eyes shifting back to events. A rodeo clown was doing the most amazingly uncoordinated things.

Everypony seemed to stop and start accusing the poor clown. "Well that isn't nice, they were laughing a moment ago, what has gotten into them?" Chrysalis flinched a little when a pitchfork and a torch appeared. Why did it always have to be torches and pitchforks with ponies?

"It's Troubleshoes, he… well… he seems to bring bad luck everywhere he goes." Braeburn pointed at the stallion. He has ruined every rodeo this year."

"Ruined? But, he was hilarious." Chrysalis pointed a hoof to where, far below, the stallion, Applejack, the adorable little fillies, and some of the crowd were talking things out. "Besides, look, it will all be better in a few minutes. Honestly, why you ponies don't resort to discussing problems first I don't know."

Shucking his way out of the bale of hay, Braeburn shrugged. "Well, mostly we do, it is only when some big villain comes our way that we tend to herd up and lash out." He poked Chrysalis in the shoulder. "Like somepony I know."

"Not so much of a big villain anymore, my drones are all miles and miles away." Chrysalis looked down at Applejack and the fillies, the latter getting a good talking to and starting to work at cleaning up the mess Troubleshoes made.

"No they're not." Braeburn reached a hoof over. "They're here." He poked Chrysalis just below her neck, approximately where her heart would be. "Come on, I bet the movie theater is still open. You should totally tell me about your little ones."

Twilight was scribbling as fast as she could. She was hiding, hanging off the back of the stand right behind Braeburn and the changeling Queen; invisible of course. With the target of her studies leaving, the alicorn couldn't help but giggle with nervous energy. "This is going so much better than I planned. Friendship is magic!"