“Are you sure, Twilight? I can pay for myself, if you want…” Fluttershy bit her lip as she scanned the menu at an outdoor diner.
“Think nothing of it, what are friends for?” Chrysalis assured her with an insincere grin from her own position opposite the pegasus. “And later we can go to that…pet…place…shop you wanted.”
“Well, Angel does want a new sleeping basket…”
“Wonderful, it’s yours. Or his, rather.”
Fluttershy fidgeted. “What’s gotten into you? You’re not usually so…nice.” She hesitantly met Chrysalis’ gaze. “It’s almost like you’re trying to…bribe me or something.”
Chrysalis inhaled deeply. So the usually timid mare decided to cut through the song and dance routine and get straight to the point, quite atypical of her. She looked to either side to ensure nobody was listening and leaned in to whisper.
“You haven’t told anypony about me crying at your place, right?”
“What?” Fluttershy looked aghast at the thought. “Of course not! I know you wouldn’t want that, so I’d never!”
“And if it stays that way, you can look forward to more outings like this one.”
“You don’t…ummm…have to…do...” Fluttershy paused even longer than normal as she chewed her lip indecisively. “Well, it would be nice to spend more time with you.”
“And you shall, as long as you can keep a secret.” Chrysalis leaned back in her chair, a satisfied smirk gracing her lips.
“Okay…I can do that.” Fluttershy went back to searching her menu, though kept stealing glances back at Chrysalis.
“What?”
“Aren’t you going to order something too?”
Chrysalis stared at the untouched menu on the table in front of her with a frown.
“I’m…still on a diet.” She replied lamely.
“You’re always on a diet. I don’t even remember the last time I saw you eat.”
“I have a very sensitive stomach,” Chrysalis added, surprising herself with how honest her intended lie turned out to be, “most foods make me ill, so I try to only eat things I’ve prepared myself. I don’t like talking about it.”
“Oh…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to touch on such a painful subject.”
“Just…keep quiet about it. I don’t have the resources to bribe everypony into silence.”
“You really don’t need—”
Fluttershy’s protestations were cut short by a loud crash and a scream, spurring her into diving beneath the table for cover.
“Oops, sorry!” A familiar, squeaky voice came from the same general direction. Chrysalis looked over to see Sweetie Belle tangled up in the legs of a waiter, and a platter of food strewn across the ground. Her two compatriots, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, were attempting to untangle her from the stallion all the while he scolded them. Chrysalis rose from her seat and approached.
“What are you doing here?” Chrysalis asked, half annoyed and half amused. The three froze and stared back at her wide eyed for just a moment.
“She’s spotted us!” Scootaloo shouted.
“Quick, crusaders, run!” Apple Bloom shrieked in turn and the three scattered in different directions.
“Seriously?” Chrysalis asked with a chuckle. She looked back to her table to find Fluttershy peering out from beneath the table cloth. Rolling her eyes, Chrysalis used her telekinesis to pull the waiter back onto his hooves and tossed him a few bits from her saddlebags.
“Use this to cover whatever the mare under that table wants.” She ordered, not bothering to even look at him as she did so.
Given that Apple Bloom worked on a farm, and Scootaloo appeared to be an athletic child, Chrysalis assumed Sweetie Belle would be the least fit of the three and so chose to chase after her. Not that Chrysalis believed it would be hard to keep up with any of them given their short legs, but she didn’t feel like breaking a sweat if she didn’t have to. She trotted after her at a modest pace. While she wanted answers for what they were doing and why they felt they had to run from her, she was in no particular hurry. Even if she somehow lost the foal, she knew where Sweetie Belle lived and was near certain she could rely on her sister’s assistance.
She followed the little filly as she darted for the outskirts of town towards Sweet Apple Acres, or so Chrysalis assumed. A little while after they passed the last building of the town proper, Sweetie Belle tripped and tumbled across the dirt path in a rather painful looking fashion. Concerned, Chrysalis picked up the pace.
“Are you okay?” She asked as she levitated Sweetie Belle into the air and began inspecting her for injuries. Sweetie struggled futilely to break away from her magic, so she at least seemed to be okay.
“Please don’t hurt me!”
Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “I nearly died saving your life in the forest, why would I hurt you now?”
“Because we were spying on you?”
Chrysalis’ eye twinkled with amusement. “Oh, were you now? Here’s a tip from an expert, if you’re going to spy on somepony, don’t forget to pay attention to your surroundings.”
Sweetie Belle blushed as she went limp in her magic. “Noted.”
“So, what did your little mission uncover? Anything juicy?” She asked as she set the filly back down.
“That you’re dating Fluttershy.”
A peal of laughter tore through the mid morning air. “You’re as bad as your sister.”
“What? No I’m not!” She protested.
“She’s not my type. She’s much too timid for my tastes.”
“Then why were you at the restaurant with her?”
“I owed her for saving me from the cockatrice, remember?” Chrysalis raised an eyebrow.
“Ooooh…right. That makes more sense.”
Chrysalis chuckled. Kids.
“Come on, let’s get you home.”
“But I was supposed to meet with the others at Sweet Apple Acres!”
“To Sweet Apple Acres, then.” Chrysalis shrugged. It was closer than Carousel Boutique, at least. Suddenly her ear twitched. “Wait, what’s that noise?”
The noise in question came from further down the road, but she couldn't tell what it was on account of the curved path and trees blocking her view. Whatever it was, it was big, loud and starting to make the ground shake.
“I think we’d better start running again.” Chrysalis told Sweetie.
“Right.” She replied with a small tremble in her voice.
Knowing full well that Sweetie wasn’t nearly fast enough, Chrysalis scooped her up with her magic once more and broke into a full sprint back towards Ponyville.
“Cows!” Sweetie screamed over the rising roar from her aerial vantage point.
Chrysalis groaned when she stole a glance behind them to see a herd of cows stampeding around the corner. After all the things that Chrysalis had been through, a bunch of dim witted, cowardly bovines constituted a threat now?
The fences on either side of the road were keeping them on the path, Chrysalis noted, so at least it would be easy enough to get out of the way. She swerved to the side and dashed for the nearest fence. With what she intended to be a majestic leap, she attempted to clear the barrier. Almost immediately she realized it had been less a leap and more a desperate hop. Her trajectory was completely off and with a heavy thwack she slammed right into the top wooden board and painfully bounced backwards. The shock of the impact made her drop the spell holding Sweetie aloft, and her momentum catapulted her right over as she screamed. Chrysalis grumbled to herself. Had she been in her true form, she would have nailed that jump.
She shook off the impact only to find it was too late to try getting over the fence again before the cows would be upon her. Reflexively, she put up a shield to protect herself and braced for impact. With luck, the stampeding creatures would go around the little green dome she had created rather than over her prone form, but the immediate strain on her horn told her it was a futile hope. Dozens of incredibly heavy cows trampled over her shield in quick succession and she knew that her protections were in serious danger of giving out.
Despite the growing migraine she suffered, Chrysalis forced more power into her shield, expanding it so she could stand. So far so good, she thought as she panted for breath. The cows had stopped climbing over her now that she was a greater obstacle than a small mound of dirt. She gradually moved back to the fence, inching her protective bubble along with her. With a smug grin, she reached for the wooden slats and readied herself to climb.
“Yeehaw!”
“Huh?” Chrysalis’ head jerked towards the familiar sound of Applejack’s shouting but couldn’t find her through the sea of cows. She did however see the bull that was charging straight for her rather than flowing around as the smaller cows were doing. She inhaled sharply. It was unlikely that her shield could take a head on collision like that anymore, so if she wanted to survive she’d have to be quick. As the animal crashed into her barrier, Chrysalis diverted all the magical energy she could muster in half a second into her horn for one desperate blast. Just as she began to unleash her attack, she felt a sharp yank at her throat and her vision filled with blue sky and clouds, then soon after the green of grass as she landed face first and fell into a coughing fit.
“Are you okay, Twilight?” Sweetie Belle screeched in terror.
“What—” Chrysalis paused as she descended into another fit of coughing. She felt her neck and found a loop of rope around it. “What just happened?”
“Applejack lassoed you and yanked you out of the way of that bull!”
“Oh.” Chrysalis answered succinctly as she rolled onto her back and lay there, trying to calm her breathing. She was lucky that AJ hadn’t snapped her neck, but equally lucky to be out of that mess. However lucky she may be, she was in tremendous pain. There was definitely blood in her mouth. She spit it out. Blood and grass.
“We should get you to a doctor.” Sweetie Belle’s urgent whine was like a spike being driven into Chrysalis’ skull. She meant well, though, so she nodded and held her tongue.
Unsteadily, she rose to her hooves and noted the stampede had passed them by. She had no idea where they were now, but that was Applejack’s problem now.
“Come on, let’s go.” Chrysalis addressed Sweetie Belle, and then began hobbling her way towards medical aid.
___________________________
“So, are you going to the ceremony thanking Applejack for stopping the stampede yesterday?” A doctor conversationally asked as he held up a small light. “Follow the light with your eyes, please.”
“There’s a ceremony now?” Chrysalis sighed as she followed his instructions through a series of small tests, the purposes of which she didn’t really know.
“Yup.” He affirmed as he set the light stick back in the pocket of his doctor’s coat. “Got a trophy for her and everything.”
Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “Do they have stampedes so often that they give out trophies for stopping them?”
“Nah,” he chuckled, “I think it’s some old bowling trophy that they repurposed. Not really ‘bout the trophy, really, it’s just to show we appreciate all she does for Ponyville. Anyhow, you’re good to go. You have amazing recuperative abilities, and a good thing too with how often you’re in here.” He gave a cheeky wink. “We’ll keep your bed open for your next visit.”
She scowled at that, eliciting a chuckle from the doctor. “If I’m here any more often, I might bother to remember your name.” She retorted grouchily.
“Oof, that hurts!” He responded with a jovial laugh. “Well, I’ve got other patients that don’t remember my name to see to. Have a splendid day, Miss Sparkle. Oh, and you should really go to that ceremony.”
Chrysalis threw the uncomfortable hospital pillow from next to her at his receding form, ineffectively hitting the door that closed behind him. She sighed and slid off the edge of the bed, her hooves clacking on the tiled floor. The doctor was right, she should go to AJ’s ceremony. She had to thank her for getting her out of the stampede.
_________________________________
Chrysalis approached the crowd of ponies surrounding a stage outside of the town hall. From the looks of it, she estimated that about a third of Ponyville had shown up to celebrate Applejack. She scanned the horde for the guest of honour, but couldn’t find her. She did, however, spot Rainbow Dash who promptly flew to her side. Chrysalis suppressed the urge to groan.
“Hey, Twilight!” Dash greeted her with an excited smile. “You here to celebrate how awesome Applejack is, too?”
“Er...I’m just here to thank her for saving me from that stampede.”
“Yeah, that’s great, too.” Dash nodded along and Chrysalis wondered if she had even listened to a single word. “She’s gonna help me out with some tricks later!”
Chrysalis winced. “Aerial tricks?”
Dash let out a singular laugh. “Are there any other kind?”
“Just promise you won’t crash into me this time when you inevitably wipe out.”
“Pfft! That only happened once!”
“Twice.”
“Huh?”
“Once while you practiced for the Best Young Flier Competition, and once when we first met.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot about when we met.” Dash chuckled. “Your mane looked so ridiculous!”
“Yes.” Chrysalis said coldly. “I remember.”
“Where were you after the competition, anyway? I couldn’t find you anywhere.”
“I ran when the arena was attacked and got lost in Cloudsdale.”
“Really? Fluttershy said you left before—”
Chrysalis narrowed her eyes. “I was in the bathroom. Something I ate gave me diarrhea. Happy now?”
“Oh, uh…not really.” Rainbow Dash grimaced.
The two stood next to each other in awkward silence among the otherwise energetic crowd. Awkward for Rainbow Dash, anyway. Chrysalis was actually quite pleased at how effective her lie had been in shutting down her prying, obnoxious inquiries. Her satisfaction, however, was short lived, quickly fading as time passed and Applejack continued to not be present. The mayor had been on stage with a plastered on smile for several minutes, but her eyes were nervously darting about.
Chrysalis sighed irritably. She was about to leave when she heard a commotion from the crowd. Following their collective gaze, she saw Applejack finally approaching. Something was off about her, though. Her gait was different, she was as much stumbling as she was walking. Chrysalis shrugged. Perhaps she had started her own celebration a little early with some hard apple cider. She figured it wasn’t important as she approached the mare of the day, alongside many others who had the same intention.
As Chrysalis got closer, the orange mare only seemed to look worse and worse. She seemed almost lost as she looked from excited to face to excited face. She had dark, heavy bags beneath her eyes and seemed to be struggling to keep them open. Her face did brighten upon seeing Chrysalis, though.
“Twilight!” She greeted warmly. “It’s great to see ya!”
“Hello Applejack.” Chrysalis nodded politely. “I wanted to thank you for saving me from that stampede the other day.”
“What’s that about stamps? If you need stamps, ya should head to the post office!”
Chrysalis blinked. “Uh…right.” Maybe she hadn’t heard her clearly over the noise of the crowd? She spoke again, louder this time. “I said thank you for helping me with the stampede!”
“Oh, right! Shucks, yer welcome, Twilight. Any time!” An amplified voice called for AJ from the stage. “I think that’s my cue, I gotta go, Twi.”
Chrysalis watched as Applejack struggled through the onlookers towards the stage where the mayor waited expectantly with a trophy. She seemed to be far past being just a little drunk, but it still wasn’t any of her business. With her goal accomplished, Chrysalis turned away from the celebration and headed home.
__________________________
The acrid smell of smoke hung in the air of Chrysalis’ bedroom as she incinerated yet another roll of parchment. Spike had brought a sizable stack to her desk when she had arrive back home and she was getting dangerously close to needing more.
The last few hours had been spent attempting to write a letter to her past self. One letter would say too much, another too little, or lack sufficient urgency, and several more seemed to press too hard. As her frustrations grew, she began noticing a trend of increasing aggression in her letters’ tones. She groaned and rubbed a temple with her hoof, then cursed as she realized she used the one that was stained black from ash and spilled ink.
Chrysalis leaned back in her chair, stared up at the ceiling and took a few deep breaths. Maybe she was going about it all wrong. Instead of trying to impress upon her past self the importance of halting the invasion, she needed to first establish a relationship with her unrelated to her ultimate goal. Perhaps a simple letter of introduction first, using an alias of course, was in order. She’d try to gain her trust over time and convince her to change her plans once she was in a better position. There was still plenty of time before the attack, after all.
She put quill to page yet again and made a quick draft. In it she explained that she was an independent changeling who had heard of her eminence and her hive and was interested in establishing communications. In it she proclaimed great proficiency at intel gathering, mentioning her knowledge of the upcoming Canterlot invasion as evidence of that, and offering her services.
Chrysalis leaned back in her chair once more as doubts filled her mind. Maybe she should leave out any knowledge of the invasion. Sure, it would display her skill, but also implicate her in spying on her past self and risk imprisonment.
She contemplated burning it as she had all its predecessors when a large crash shook her entire room, causing her to lose balance and for her chair to tip over backwards. Her limbs flailed about wildly and a sharp pain filled her left hind leg from kicking the desk. A second crash was heard as the chair and back of her head struck the floor. Moments later, her form was blanketed by dust, debris and several pieces of parchment that drifted down like a gentle snowfall.
An unmistakable groan of pain greeted Chrysalis’ ears and rage bubbled up inside her.
“Dash!” Chrysalis screeched as she scrambled to her hooves, spitting out dust and bits of parchment.
“Ugh…hey, Twi.” Rainbow Dash greeted her with a pained voice. Chrysalis spotted her jutting half way through the ceiling. She latched onto her with some magic and began pulling. “Ow! Watch it, that hurts!”
“When I said don’t crash into me, I didn’t mean crash into my house instead!” She growled through gritted teeth.
“It’s not—ow—my fault!”
An urgent thumping could be heard approaching throughout all of this and her door burst open, admitting Spike, Time Keeper and Davenport into the room.
“What happened here? Are you okay?” Spike asked as all three of them surveyed the mess.
“I’ll be fine as soon as I can get this stupid bit—” Rainbow Dash popped out of the hole she was stuck in and rocketed straight into Chrysalis, both falling to the floor in a tangled heap.
“Twilight!” Spike shouted as he rushed to help. The two stallions approached a little more cautiously.
“Do you need some assistance?” Davenport asked tentatively, kicking aside some of the parchment in search of safe footing.
“I’ll be fine once I get rid of this reckless fool!” Chrysalis grunted as she let Spike help her up.
“It wasn’t my fault this time!” Rainbow protested. “AJ launched me—whoa!”
“I don’t care!” Chrysalis cut her off by swiping her up with magic and dragged her to the open window, throwing her through it. “Now get out!”
The three males in the room stared awkwardly as she launched Rainbow Dash. Chrysalis turned to glare at them.
“I, uh…think I’ll look for a book another day.” Davenport said with a forced smile and hurried his way from the room. Spike followed suit.
Time Keeper braved her glower as he looked up at the hole Dash had left behind. He shook his head.
“You know what? I’m not even gonna scold you for that. You have every right to be pissed. I’ll see if I can find somepony who can fix this, you just try and wind down.”
Chrysalis’ eye twitched as he too trotted off. Her gaze fell to the mess of parchment and broken bits of her ceiling that littered the floor. With a cry of frustration, she ignited all the writing materials, imagining it was Dash as she watched it all burn to ash.
________________________
It was the next day and a repair pony had chased her out of her room so that he could fix the damage Rainbow Dash had caused. Not wanting to spend time hanging around with Time Keeper in the Library, she decided to go for a walk with the eventual goal of finding out what Pinkie Pie was up to that day. She hadn’t spent much time with the obnoxious filly lately, and for some weird reason felt a desire to change that.
After near an hour of mostly aimless wandering, Sugarcube Corner rose up in her sights, along with a large, ominous tent that had been erected in front of it. Moans of pain came from within and a number of familiar faces from the hospital were milling about. Chrysalis paused one moment to soak in the sight before marching right into the impromptu shelter. Though part of her enjoyed the satisfaction of not being the one in need of treatment for once, a greater part of her felt a sense of foreboding over who might be in her place.
Inside she was slammed by a wall of rank odour from the vomit of well over a dozen sick ponies who lay in cots. Chrysalis had to fight back a rising sense of nausea.
“Oh no, not another one!” A worried voice cut through the wailing. “Come this way, we’ve got a nice cot for you to relax on.”
Chrysalis shoved the nurse’s guiding hoof aside. “I’m fine, I just got caught off guard by the smell. What happened?”
“A bunch of ponies got a severe case of food poisoning after eating some baked goods.” She explained.
“Not baked goods—” Pinkie Pie began to shout from somewhere near the back of the tent but was interrupted by her own retching, “—baked bads!”
Pinkie Pie looked terrible. No, worse than terrible. She looked like Chrysalis would after eating a ten course meal of fruits, sugary goods, and vegetables. Her face had literally turned green, her mane was even more frazzled than normal, and bits of vomit were splattered across her body.
Overcoming her immediate revulsion with raw anger, Chrysalis hurried to her friend’s side. Even if she couldn’t eat it without getting sick, she knew that Pinkie and the Cakes’ baking couldn’t be responsible for making normal ponies so ill.
“Who did this to you?” Chrysalis growled.
“Applejack…she was helping me with the baking.”
Chrysalis’ eyes scanned the tent for the offending mare to find that she was conspicuously absent. She hadn’t thought the farmer to be the type to poison ponies, but she had misjudged at least one of the element bearers before. If she even was AJ anymore, her past self may very well have replaced her with a changeling in response to her own meddling by this point. Rainbow Dash had mentioned that AJ was responsible for the damage to the library, too. Maybe she owed the technicolour pegasus an apology.
“Don’t worry, Pinkie, I’ll handle her.”
_____________________
Chrysalis blew past a row of apple trees and zoned in on the loud thunk she had just heard. A scowl lined her face and her horn glowed in anticipation of a violent confrontation. Not that she assumed there would be violence, she had cooled down enough to acknowledge some restraint was warranted, especially if AJ had been replaced by one of her changelings, but she wanted to be ready just in case.
She halted in her tracks when she finally spotted her. Applejack stood there, teetering back and forth, her head drooping and her eyes so near closed that she thought she may have fallen asleep standing. She only knew for certain that she hadn’t when she weakly kicked at the desiccated, gnarled remnant of a tree behind her.
Any remaining anger drained from Chrysalis. She knew that look. That she hadn't realized it yesterday at the ceremony caused a pang of shame in her chest. That look had been reflected back at her a multitude of times when she had run herself ragged in service of her changelings. She didn’t know what had caused this exhaustion, but AJ needed rest, not somebody to yell at her for her mistakes. She stepped closer and placed a gentle hoof on her back.
“Huh?” The farmer flinched at her touch and her eyes opened to properly see her guest. After a few confused seconds passed, a weak smile of recognition came to her lips. “Twilight! It’s mighty—” she paused to yawn, “—mighty good to see ya!”
“Come on, girl, you need rest. Let’s go to the house and set you up for a nap.” Chrysalis urged with a soothing voice and guiding hoof, only to receive a glare from Applejack who jerked away.
“A nap?! Whattaya think I am? A foal? I have apples to harvest.”
The embers of anger, previously quenched, began to stir. Still, Chrysalis tried to keep control of her temper.
“The apples will still be here after you sleep. You need a break.”
“Like hay I do! I was doin’ just fine ‘fore you interrupted me!”
Chrysalis raised an eyebrow in irritation and pointed to the dead tree behind the mare. “Oh, were you? I guess we have different definitions of ‘fine’.”
AJ looked behind her, blinked blearily a couple times and then looked back to Chrysalis. “That don’t mean nothin’!”
“In what reality does that mean nothing?! You’re so tired you didn’t even realize you weren’t doing your job! Just take a break and let your brother handle this for awhile!”
“Big Mac’s hurt, an’ anyway, I was just practicin’ on that tree. Gotta warm up before the real thing.”
How was this mare and her blatant lies supposed to represent the element of honesty? She took a deep breath before continuing in a firm tone. “You need rest.”
With a huff, her words were ignored. Applejack picked up an empty bucket from beside the tree. Chrysalis knocked it out of her mouth.
“Hey!” AJ shouted, fire in her stubborn eyes.
“You hurt Pinkie!” Chrysalis shouted, blocking her path.
“I think I’d remember that.”
“She’s laid up getting medical treatment from your baking right this moment! We can go and prove it right now! Just promise you’ll get some rest after you see the truth!”
“Musta been that funny new recipe she was tryin’, hardly my fault. Honestly, who ever heard about usin’ worms an’ potato chips in bakin’.” She narrowed her eyes. “Now outta my way!”
“No.” Chrysalis narrowed her own eyes in turn.
“I said,” AJ placed her forehead upon Chrysalis’ and shoved, “outta my way!”
Chrysalis shoved right back. “Go! To! Bed!”
“I’m not gonna rest ‘til I’m done! These apples need to be picked ‘fore the season’s over!”
The two stared into each other’s eyes for several tense seconds. Chrysalis contemplated just putting her to sleep with a spell, but recalled the lesson she had learned with Pinkie about not listening to her friends. Finally she let up and stepped back.
“Fine!” Chrysalis conceded, earning a triumphant grin from AJ. That grin faded when Chrysalis picked up a bucket between her teeth and walked off to a nearby tree full of ripe apples.
“What do you think yer doin?”
Chrysalis spit the bucket out and reached for the apples with her magic.
“If you won’t rest until the job is done, and you’re brother can’t help, then I’ll do it myself.” She gave a satisfied smirk as she filled the first bucket of apples, having found a way to solve the problem and make everypony happy. Grin turned scowl once more when the bucket and its contents went tumbling several meters from a well placed kick by Applejack.
“Hey!” She screamed indignantly.
“Ain’t nopony gonna do this but me! It’s my job, I said I can do it on my own an’ I ain’t gonna let nopony prove me wrong!”
Chrysalis’ jaw dropped in equal measure shock and disgust. “I thought I was stubborn.”
“Ain’t nopony as stubborn as me.” AJ beamed with misplaced pride. Chrysalis couldn’t tell if she truly believed that was something to be proud of or if the exhaustion had addled her brain.
“Fine, you win. You can keep on working yourself into an early grave if that’s what you want, but you need to stop trying to help everypony else until you've rested properly. I don't want you hurting anypony else.”
“I ain’t hurt nopony, an’ you ain’t gonna stop me from helpin’ others, neither! Fluttershy’s countin’ on me for tomorrow’s bunny census!”
Chrysalis stared at her coldly and then turned away to leave. There was no point in talking with her anymore, she had to find another way to fix this. Fortunately, Applejack had revealed that she wouldn’t be at risk of ruining any other pony’s lives until the next day, so she had some time. Even better, she already had a good idea of what she would do.
______________________________
Chrysalis leaned against a wooden fence post outside of Sweet Apple Acres. It was just after dark, and she doubted she had much longer to wait. Minutes later, Rainbow Dash landed quietly next to her.
“Is she gone?” Chrysalis asked.
“Yeah. She just fell asleep in the orchards and I helped Granny Smith and Apple Bloom get her to bed.” Dash reported and Chrysalis smirked.
“Good. I’ll meet you there.”
Dash saluted and flew off. Chrysalis trotted down the path onto the farm and straight for the orchards. The plan was a simple one: wait until Applejack fell asleep and then harvest all the apples in the night, or at least enough to let the stupid farmer have some time to rest.
There were far too many apples for Chrysalis to possibly harvest on her own, but that’s where Rainbow Dash came in. She figured that her speed and athleticism would be of great help, and having been wronged by AJ herself she would be eager to fix the problem too. If anything, Chrysalis had underestimated Dash’s enthusiasm, she seemed downright thrilled to be part of the plan.
“Here, I got the buckets. There’s even more in the barn if we need them.” Dash explained as Chrysalis approached.
“Perfect.” Chrysalis purred in satisfaction. “Now let’s get to work. She won’t be hurting anypony else after this.”
“Right!” Dash earnestly replied. “And, uh, thanks for trusting me to help with this. I know you don’t think too much of me.”
Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Don’t get all mushy on me, girl, we have a lot of work to do.”
___________________________
The sun crept up over the horizon as Chrysalis levitated the last bucket of apples into the barn. They were done, finally. It had been an incredibly long and exhausting night, but she and Rainbow Dash had managed to get almost the entirety of the orchard picked clean. While there was a small section they hadn’t gotten to, they didn’t have any more time. Applejack would likely be up soon.
“Come on, Dash, we gotta book it.”She shouted at her partner in crime. She flittered down and landed next to Chrysalis.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been this tired.” Dash said with a yawn. “I don’t know how AJ does this.”
“Poorly, it seems.” Chrysalis yawned in turn and began her trek away from the farm.
“Yeah, I can’t argue with that.” Dash chuckled. “Well, this year. Usually she’s fine.”
“Maybe with her brother’s help.” Chrysalis suggested.
“Well, I’m gonna go find a cloud to nap on before I need to do my weather duties.”
Chrysalis nodded absently, but said nothing. She wanted to go back home and rest herself. She smiled at what she had accomplished. She had won, and Applejack had lost.
“Twilight!”
Chrysalis’ ears flattened against her skull at the piercing scream and groaned. It seemed that she wasn’t destined to escape Applejack’s ire. Why couldn’t she have slept in for just a few more minutes? She plastered on the best innocent smile she could muster.
“Good morning, Applejack! How are you today?”
“Don’t you ‘how are you today’ me, missy!” She snarled. “Ya harvested my apples when I explicitly told ya not to!”
“What?” Chrysalis’ brow furrowed with feigned confusion. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I know it was you, Twilight! Not only do I find you right outside my farm, but ya tried to harvest them yesterday too!”
“Coincidence.” Chrysalis sniffed dismissively. “Maybe you harvested your stupid apples in your sleep.”
“Stupid apples?!” AJ screeched furiously. “My entire family’s livelihood depends on those stupid apples!”
“I know, they’re all you seem to care about! Not me, not your friends, not the ponies of Ponyville, just your apples!”
AJ faltered for a moment. “That hurts, Twi. I care ‘bout every pony in this town as if they were my family.” Her eyes narrowed. “Maybe if you actually paid attention to anypony but yerself, ya might have known that.”
“Oh, you hypocritical hick! Do you have any idea how many ponies you’ve hurt these past few days because you haven’t been awake enough to pay attention to them?”
“At least I try! But you wouldn’t know what that’s like, would ya? You jus’ keep pushin’ everypony away with your rudeness an’ lies!”
“Stooooop!”
A streak of rainbow nearly crashed into the ground between them. After steadying herself, Rainbow Dash turned to face Applejack.
“I can’t stand watching anymore! Twilight’s innocent, I did it! I harvested your apples last night!”
Applejack narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Why would you harvest my apples? Yer practically allergic to hard work.”
“Hey! I work real hard training to be a Wonderbolt!”
“Uh huh.” AJ gave her a flat look.
“Besides, because you’ve been so tired you launched me into Twilight’s library…through the roof! Why wouldn’t I want to stop that from happening again? You can’t help me practice properly like that, so I figured I’d lend a hoof so we can hurry it up and you can rest.”
“And Twilight had nothin’ to do with it?”
Dash puffed up her wing feathers, making herself look just a little bit bigger, and retorted with what Chrysalis hoped was exaggerated swagger, but feared was not.
“Psh! Naw, it was all me! Maybe if you were in better shape you wouldn’t need me to show you how it’s done.”
“I’m in better shape than your cat nappin’ behind!”
The pegasus laughed in AJ’s face. “Yeah? In your dreams!”
“I’ll prove it! I challenge you to an ironpony competition!”
“You’re on! We start tomorrow at dawn,” Rainbow smiled mockingly, “unless you think you’ll still be too tired!”
“You’ll be eatin’ those words, just you wait!”
Chrysalis stood there with her mouth agape as she watched Applejack storm off, having completely forgotten about her.
“What just happened?” She asked. “Why did you interrupt? You could have gotten away with it entirely.”
Rainbow Dash shrugged with a smile. “I couldn’t leave ya hangin’ there to take the blame like that. You did a good thing, you shouldn’t get yelled at for it.”
“But you getting yelled at is fine?”
“What, that?” Dash waved a hoof with a laugh. “AJ and I butt heads all the time, it’s fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“What are friends for?”
“Yeah.” Chrysalis paused. “Yeah, what are friends for?”
“Anyway, I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty tired. I’m gonna go take a nap. You wanna come to the competition tomorrow morning?”
Chrysalis wasn’t entirely sure what an ironpony competition was, but given the context she had some guesses as well as some ideas on how to help pay Dash back for her kindness.
“I think I will.”