Applejack walked along the path through Ponyville toward the town market. Beside her walked Princess Chrysalis, once again in the white coat and green mane of Crystal Heart. Except now instead of being an earth pony, she had a horn which was mostly obscured by her mane.
"Go ahead," Chrysalis said. "Let it out."
"What're ya talkin' about?" Applejack asked, shifting to look at the other mare from the corner of her eye while raising a brow.
Turning her head, Chrysalis looked directly at Applejack.
"My kind are able to sense emotions," she stated. "Even if I wasn't able to feel the anger and suspicion pouring off you at me, you aren't exactly subtle with your little glares."
Applejack considered denying it. Not much reason to though since it was true and she was a pretty bad liar, even if her emotions could not be sensed. She could opt not to discuss it instead. Point out that there were more important matters at hoof. Except since they were walking, and had not run into any of the Pinklettes yet (kind of a silly name, but she could not think of a better one) it was not exactly a massive distraction. Plus the two of them were going to have to be working together, so they should probably clear the air.
"A'right," she sighed out. "I'll admit it. I ain't exactly happy with you. I mean you've been in Ponyville for weeks, and it's all been one big lie."
Looking away, Chrysalis resumed walking.
"First, it was not all a lie. I may have disguised myself, but it is my most common disguise among ponies, and everything I have said or done is how I would have acted regardless. I may have looked different, but I was still myself. Second, you are one of the bearers, are you not? Helped restore Princess Luna and stop Discord's second reign?"
"Yeah?" Applejack said, brow furrowing. "What's that have to do with anything?"
"How much has your life changed because of it?"
Applejack considered a moment before answer, "I guess it hasn't really. I mean, I have a couple of awards and was given some bits as a reward, which was useful, but that's 'bout it. Still work the farm, sell the apples at the market, and still spend time with my friends and family." She gave a shrug. "Pretty much everything's the same for me."
"Now, imagine if you got a similar reaction as Princess Celestia or Princess Luna" said Chrysalis. "No matter where you go, you cannot have a single hour of normality, to say nothing of a day. It is nearly impossible to have another that is simply a friend. Others either treat you with reverence because you are royalty, or put on a facade of kindness and friendliness, while truly thinking of you as a way to advance their own social standing."
She let out a snort.
"And being able to sense emotions doesn't help. One pony is easy, but a crowd gets all mottled together. It's like trying to listen to a single instrument in an entire orchestra."
She then glanced at Applejack.
"The only way to live a normal life, to get to really know a pony, is to disguise the way you look and not let them know who you truly are. Then if things work out, you're stuck wondering when to tell them, how, and how they're going to react."
Applejack pressed her lips together tightly, letting out a small grunt. She was not very happy about the answer, but she kind of understood the thinking. As such, she could not really argue the point, but she had no interest in conceding it either.
Fortunately, more pressing matters presented themselves, allowing Applejack to not answer without resorting to awkward silence. Their path to the market had taken to the flower shop first, where they found several Pinklettes, and an unconscious Roseluck who was surrounded by ropes of flowers.
"What's goin' on here?" Applejack asked, looking around.
"Well, we found all these really pretty flowers, and the flower ponies decided to take a nap," one Pinklette said. "So, we decided to make daisy chains."
"At least, the kind we can make without an M rating," another added.
Chrysalis's lips pressed together as she let out a small snicker.
"Daisy chain?" Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow.
Leaning in close, Chrysalis whispered an explanation into the farm mare's ear. Applejack's eyes grew wide and mouth fell open, her face turning bright, burning red.
"I did not need to know that," she growled out, getting another giggle from Chrysalis.
This, in turn, got a giggle and snort from the Pinklette before it bounced off to rejoin the others. After cannonballing into a display that was too shallow to disappear into (yet somehow she did), the Pinklette then popped up with honeysuckles in her mouth and and sunflowers in her hooves: neither of which were part of said display. Humming happily, she began to weave the sunflower stems together.
"Well," Applejack sighed, adjusting her hat as her face returned to its normal orange, "guess we should start dealin' with 'em." Tilting toward Chrysalis, she looked at the other mare curiously. "Any ideas?"
Raising an eyebrow back, Chrysalis let her gaze shift from Applejack to scan across the flower shop and take in the playing Pinklettes. Her eyes slowly narrowed as she chewed on her lip, considering the possibilities.
"Do we really need one?" she finally asked. "We just need to keep them in one place long enough to discorporate them, and keep the others distracted long enough to do it without them noticing. They don't seem very smart, so they should be easily distractible. At most, you might have to lasso one or two, so get your rope ready."
"And what makes you think I just happen to have a rope handy?"
Chrysalis turned to face Applejack, lips pursed and eyes narrowed.
A second passed. Then another. Five. Soon, fifteen seconds.
With a huff, Applejack looked away. She could hear the smugness in the air as she took off her hat. Reaching inside, she pulled out the rope stored there, already tied into a lasso at the end.
"Alright, I'm ready."
"Oh, Pinkie....sss!" Chrysalis called out as sweetly as possible. "Come quickly! Applejack wants to show you something!"
"YAY!" six voices cheered out at once. Two rows of six chairs were suddenly set up, with four sitting in the front row, one sitting in the back row with a foreleg around a very confused looking mare that was being cuddled, and one was running a popcorn machine that most certainly had not been there before.
"Really?" Applejack growled out. "Now you're expectin' me to distract them all with a ropin' show?"
With a smile, Chrysalis's horn lit up as she took a hold of the hat, putting it back on Applejack's head and adjusting it.
"I'm sure you can come up with enough to distract them for five or ten minutes," Chrysalis purred before turning and walking away.
Hearing a snort of annoyance behind her, the disguised changeling grinned wider. It was, admittedly, not the best course of actions to tease a pony, especially one that had a close (if platonic) relationship to her target, and at least some influence with the ruler. Still, it was rather entertaining. More so since Applejack could not exactly complain, seeing how it let them do what they needed to.
As she passed the popcorn stand, Chrysalis grabbed a bag that claimed it was "jalapeno cheddar" flavored, and tossed a couple pieces into her mouth as she made her way to behind the back row. She may not know where it came from, but it was warm, delicious, and just spicy enough. She stopped behind the Pinklette and captured mare, tossing some more pieces into her mouth.
"Oh, mon petit gâteau," the Pinklette purred out into the other mare's ear. "Vos yeux sont comme deux jelly beans glitterés." She then peppered her cheek with kisses. "Ces lèvres sont plus douces que la crème fouettée." More kisses. "Vous êtes comme une glace à la fraise lors d'un chaud été." Followed by more kisses.
It would have almost been cute if not for the fact that the other mare kept trying to shove the Pinklette away and was putting off more fear than a terrified filly.
Chrysalis horn lit up as she moved to the other side of the couple. While the Pinklette was saying something about "un carré de sucre," she reached out and tapped her on the shoulder, making her turn away from the trapped mare to look at Chrysalis. With a smile, Chrysalis held up the bag.
"Popcorn?"
"Ooh, thanks," the Pinklette said, letting the mare go and turning to grab some.
The mare took advantage of the freedom and bolted.
As the Pinklette tossed the popcorn into the air to catch it in her mouth, Chrysalis unleashed the spell, striking her target in the chest. The Pinklette swelled up like balloon before deflating, letting out a long belch as the magic poured out of its mouth. As the belch came to an end, the Pinklette looked like an empty bag before disappearing.
The other Pinklettes turned to look at Chrysalis curiously.
"Um...excuse me?" Chrysalis said, tapping her chest. "Guess I drank that soda a little too fast." She put on her best sheepish grin, looking away and trying to seem embarrassed.
After about three -- very long and tense -- seconds, the Pinklettes turned back and Chrysalis let out a sigh of relief.
Note to self: next time, do something to muffle the sound. The idea was to get as many of them as possible, and that would be a lot more difficult if they suddenly scattered. Setting the popcorn down for now, Chrysalis added a noise-cancelling shield spell to her magic work. Unfortunately, the would mean she would run low on emotional energy faster.
Quietly, she moved toward the popcorn stand again, watching the four Pinklettes in front and Applejack. When the farm mare moved to the far end of the crowd and did a pair of double jumps through the lasso's loop, Chrysalis shot a blast at the popcorn vendor, then put the shield up around her. As it got struck by the blast, the Pinklette's eyes went wide. Its head started to swell, growing bigger and bigger, before the mane started blowing off like exploding popcorn kernels. Chrysalis could practically hear the popping noises. As the popping continued, the Pinklette deflated before vanishing.
Chrysalis let the shield drop, the magic from the construct shooting through the air.
The other four, took a while to get at first. She had to wait for all four of them to look far into one direction again so she could fire on the one furthest from the action. Once the Pinklette was gone and its magic released, Chrysalis had to wait until they all did so again to repeat the process.
The last two then became the easiest. No need to use the shield. Just two quick shots, and they vanished into magic.
Poof! Poof!
A small sigh of relief escaped Chrysalis as at least that was done. With a smile, she returned her attention to her popcorn, picking up the bag and grabbing some of the kernels.
A rope shot out and wrapped around the bag before it jumped out of her hoof. Before it could even register, Applejack caught the bag and tossed some of the corn into her own mouth, smirking.
Chrysalis let out a huff, crossing her hooves as she scowled at the farm mare.
"Show-off!"