After the Sauna, the Queen and Rarity returned to the Carousel Boutique, where she and the fashionista continued on the design of the dress the unicorn was working on. The only difference this time was that Rarity asked for her opinion.
"I'm working on a dress for royalty, so who better to give an opinion on what it should look like than someone who is royalty?" Rarity asked and Chrysalis obliged as best as she could.
Of all the sapient creatures in the world, the Changelings were most likely the ones who disdained the concept of clothing more than any other. Clothes did not exist in the hive because they were not necessary, at least not to wear, there were so many things more important to their survival than to waste their resources on something as frivolous and superficial as that. Some Changelings had clothes, but these were a kind of hunting trophies, the rest were resold so that the infiltrators could finance their false lives to a certain extent, or burned to bring heat to the hive. 99 out of 100 times if a Changeling needed to wear clothing during an infiltration, they could always just copy it from the stores and make it part of their costume. And for those rare occasions when they need or are forced to wear real clothes, as was her case with the wedding dress, or when the weather becomes too cold to function, they could simply buy them or steal them.
As such, they, the Changelings, including her, never bothered to develop skills related to the textile industry. So Chrysalis kept her contributions vague and related to what she found attractive in pony fashion, so as not to come off as ignorant.
Chrysalis thought Rarity wouldn't find her recommendations fashionable, but if the unicorn did, she didn't show it. She just entered one more of her deep thought states, scrunching up her face and after a few seconds she squeaked, "Idea!" and then she pushed the Queen out of the store, saying that she needed to concentrate on her work alone.
That was how she ended her interaction with that pony for the day, deciding to return to her room in Twilight's castle.
Chrysalis should have been happy when, upon seeing the Princess of Friendship again, she told her that for her next social interaction with one of her friends, for that occasion she would finally go alone. And in the beginning that's how it was. Finally free from being babysitted! No more uncomfortable walks that make me feel like an animal being taken for a walk, the Queen thought, happily. She must have known that there would be a catch to this, and a catch to this there was.
Chrysalis opens her mouth, showing her white fangs slightly tinged with green, her forked tongue extending out of her mouth, letting out a yawn.
It turned out that the reason for this was that, even if she herself had misunderstood that she had established a positive (if not good) relationship with the white unicorn, Rarity had declined to interrupt her beauty sleep just to lead the Queen to Applejack's farm, once she found out at what time her farm pony friend was demanding Chrysalis's presence.
"Don't hold it againts Rarity," Twilight told the Queen apologetically once she shared the news. "It's nothing personal, I assure you. That's just how she is. The world could be in trouble and we could be called upon to defend it, and our biggest challenge would be waking up Rarity in the middle of the night," the purple alicorn joked in good nature.
There were still two or three hours before Celestia woke up and the sun rose by the time Chrysalis reached Sweet Apple Acres.
"Howdy!" Applejack welcomes the Queen with her distinctive and cheerful country accent, leaning against the fence, wielding a laso.
"Why did you ask for me to be here so early?" Chrysalis asks, blinking lazily, fighting to shake off the drowsiness she still carried.
"Well, I thought if you were going to continue up this far, I could use your help doing work for the farm for the day."
*Grumble, grumble*
"What was that?" Applejack asked in a lightly reproachful tone.
"Nothing. I mean, where would we start?"
"That's the spirit! Follow me," Applejack said more cheerfully, leading Chrysalis.
"Here at Sweet Apple Acres we grow multiple crops; from corn, beans, pumpkins and carrots," Applejack began to introduce, almost as if she were a tourist guide. "But I suppose you can guess what our quintessential crop is, right?" asked the farm pony, stopping in front of a field full of apple trees as far as the eye could see.
"Apples, goody!" Chrysalis responded with a hint of disgust.
"Oh, yeah! I seem to remember you were not fond of my apples, back at the wedding." Applejack recalled, unloading baskets and buckets from a cart. Chrysalis could feel a sense of hurt and annoyance coming from the pony.
"They are crunchy and sour. If you don't bite them correctly they make an annoying noise and leave you with an uncomfortable sensation, not to mention that there is nothing more annoying that when part of their skin gets stuck between your teeth."
"That's fair," Applejack replied understandingly.
"I prefer peaches or strawberries," Chrysalis added.
"HA!" Applejack let out a laugh at that revelation.
"What's so funny about that?" Chrysalis asked defensibly, slightly angry at the earth pony's laughing outburst.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude," Applejack said, aware that her reaction may have come as mocking. "I am only surprised to discover that the fearsome Changeling Queen, twice almost conqueror of Equestria, has a sweet tooth."
"What exactly do you want me to do?" Chrysalis asked, trying to change the subject, not liking these feelings of vulnerability.
"Well, if it's not obvious, you will help me harvest all these apples."
"That's all?" Chrysalis asked, slightly annoyed, finding that this task did not require her to be woken up so early.
The Queen stood in front of the nearest apple tree, closed her eyes and her horn began to shine emerald green, feeling all the apples on the tree, holding them in her magical aura. But before she could give the telekinetic command to rip them all off the tree, Applejack swat her in the horn with her hat.
"That's not how we do it around here, Queeny, and especially not on my farm," Applejack says, removing her hat from Chrysalis's horn, returning it to her head, preempting anything Chrysalis might ask.
"And how are these things supposed to be done around here?"
"The way of the Earth Ponies."
"Oh, I hope this isn't some tribalistic thing," Chrysalis accused, rolling her eyes.
"It is not!" Applejack responded quickly, too quickly to convince the Queen otherwise. "I mean, it is, but at it's heart, it's not."
"This should be interesting to hear," Chrysalis said, skeptical, but interested to know.
"Earth Pony tradition aside, there is a reason why it falls on us Earth Ponies, and the way we reap almost all the fruits," Applejack began her explanation, stepping in front of one of the apple trees, placing one of her hoofs on its trunk. "Because when we buck the trees, we not only shake them with the sufficient and necessary force to make them drop the ripe fruits, we are also communicating with the tree, letting them know our desire and need for their fruits. And from this it is the tree that decides which fruits are ready to fall. After all, who can better judge which fruits are ripe than the tree on which they grew?" Applejack concludes, demonstrating how she bucks an apple tree, and watches as only the perfectly ripe apples fall into the buckets and baskets and onto the ground surrounding them.
Chrysalis's senses began to feel something, it wasn't exactly love; It was something that mixed Philautia, Pragma, Philia and Storge. Applejack was exuding pride; pride in herself, pride in her heritage, in her birthright, pride in her work, pride in the tree and even in the apples.
Suddenly, Chrysalis's drowsiness decreased as she fed on it, gaining energy.
"Ah, I'm sorry if I couldn't explain it well, I must have made little to no sense," Applejack says, scratching the back of her neck with one of her forelegs, misunderstanding Chrysalis' loud chewing.
"No, no; I think I understand," Chrysalis said, somewhat annoyed that her plate of pride had so suddenly transformed into shame. "It's Earth Pony magic. The Pegasi couldn't buck the trees hard enough to get enough fruits down to make it worth their effort, especially lacking Earth Pony magic, and flying to get them would take a long time, as they must analyze if the fruits are ripe and pluck them one by one. And collecting them properly with magic would be extremely difficult for the caster who would need to fix the spell so that it can tell if the fruit is ready to be harvested or not, a group of characteristics that are not set since each fruit is unique, and even then, having to cast this spell, even if it could be cast on each tree instead of each fruit, would probably burn through it's magical reserves rather fast."
"You must be a lumberjack, because with that sharpness you just let me stump," Applejack proclaimed once she shook off the surprise of knowing how well Chrysalis understood things.
"Yes, well, you know your food source, I know mine; but that still leaves us with a problem. I'm not an Earth Pony, I'm a Changeling Queen and the most likely thing we'd get if I bucked this tree is that I would break it," Chrysalis assured. She was aware that in her current condition, of buckling the tree without the use of magic, she would only leave the mark of her hoof on its trunk, but if she were engorlled with love, she could actually make the tree fly with one kick; so she believed that she was not lying there.
"Yeah, I can see how that could be a problem," Applejack said, analyzing the situation.
"Well, if that's the case, I'll buck the apples out of the trees and you'll pull the cart once it is full," Applejack concluded, placing a collar around the Queen's neck, tying her to the cart with the leashes.
"This is degrading," said Queen Chrysalis, feeling that being reduced to a beast of burden did not sit well with her dignity.
"I'm pretty sure this is not the most degrading job that her majesty has ever done," Applejack responded as she busied herself loading the buckets and baskets into the cart.
At that response, Chrysalis bent her neck to look at the Earth Pony with a surprised and taken aback expression. Did she mean to imply that I...? The Queen tried to sense Applejack's feelings, wanting to figure out if the pony was really trying to imply what she thought she was trying to imply. The farm pony was busy securing the last buckets of apples into the cart, paying no attention to her. Chrysalis couldn't pick up on anything particular coming from Applejack, she was being inscrutable with her emotions, so she decided to drop the subject, concluding that, no matter what the pony was trying to imply, any of the degrading jobs the Queen had subjected herself throughout her long life, all of them were under a false identity with which to protect her dignity.
"So, where am I taking this, Jack?" Chrysalis asked once the cart was full and the load secured.
Suddenly something hit the Queen's changeling senses, it was so strong and sudden that Chrysalis felt alarmed. It was a feeling of intense longing, yearning, nostalgia mixed with Storgé. All of it coming from Applejack, who was standing still, with a loss stare, looking at the sky.
Before Chrysalis could ask her what was wrong, Applejack took a deep breath and shook her head, snapping herself out of that trance state and said to the Queen, without giving her a face, hiding it behind her hat: "The name is 'Applejack', one word. Or you can call me 'AJ' if you want to pretend we're already friends," and then she added. "You have to take these apples to the barn. There, Big Mac will take care of them. Once that is done, you have to return. Don't be late. There is a lot of work to do."
Then Applejack ducked out of sight into the apple orchard.
The Queen wondered what she could have said to trigger such a strong emotional reaction in the apple farm gal. Unable to come up with an answer, Chrysalis chose to do his job and pull the cart in the direction of the barn.
And for more hours than the Queen could be bothered to count, she was at work, feeling and watching the sun move from the horizon to the top of the celestial vault, going back and forth from the apple orchard to the barn and from the barn back to the orchard, only encountering a big red pony who she assumed was the one called Big Mac, a stallion of very few words, only answering with taciturn "Eeeyup"s or "Nnope"s when the Queen asked him a question. If Applejack was an emotional wall, this Bic Mac was a fort that Chrysalis wasn't in the mood to test.
"Okay, we're done for the morning," Applejack said, wiping the sweat from her forehead and fanning herself with her hat a few times before returning it to her head. The Queen noticed how the pony's mood had returned to normal once she had returned after carrying the first load of apples.
"Finally!" Chrysalis celebrated, removing the harnesses that tied her to the cart, unhappy to find that, somehow, chitin could get chafed.
"Wait an apple-picking minute, Queen! I'm not done with you," the apple-farming pony called, seeing that Chrysalis was eager to leave.
"What do you want now?" said Chrysalis, feeling sore, and thus irritated.
"You have being a mighty big help so far, sadly for you, we are not done yet. But here in Sweet Apple Acres can't let a hard worker go without its do reward. Come home with us, it's almost time for lunch, and we'll finish the day's work after we eat."
"If you insist," Chrysalis said, holding her head high, hiding his tiredness, his hunger, and the good feelings it caused her to have his efforts recognized and, apparently, about to be rewarded.
Chrysalis didn't know what she was expecting. It was a barn, a house that resembled a barn, so much so that at first glance she thought it really was one. I mean, compared to the other ponies' houses, a crystal castle that grew from a tree, a burrow house, a cloud mansion with a rainbow fountain and a house that is also a clothing store, at least this looks like a real house, the Queen muses, shaking her head, with an air of resignation as she entered it.
While Fluttershy's house was cozy, the farm pony's house had a rustic warm, making it more pleasing to the Queen's senses, reminding her of the many lives, even if they were short, she lived in familiar spaces.
"You can rest here, while I go help Granny with making the food. You only show up in the dining room when she calls for it, and don't even think about making her wait, she get cranky if you do that, and you would not like granny when she get cranky," said Applejack giggling at her ingenious pun, leaving what would be the living room, entering the dining room and later into the kitchen, where the noises of pots and pans, knives and spoons and drawers and hinges were heard.
The level of trust this mare must have, to leave me alone, unguarded, Chrysalis ponder, conflicted between respecting her or considering her a fool for that.
But then her senses caught a new presence. Turning quickly in the direction of the origin of that new but also familiar essence, she could see that from the top of the stairs that led to the second floor, a small foal with a yellow coat and red mane was watching her; Apple Blossom or something like that, the Queen thought, trying to remember what Applejack told her her younger sister's name was.
Finding herself caught by the Changeling Queen's gaze, Apple Bloom yelped and hid on the upper floor.
Once she was sure that she was now alone, Chrysalis opted to look at her surroundings, gathering information like a good Changeling spy would, rather than sit back and waste time.
There was nothing very useful, so she concentrated on looking at the multiple photographs hanging on the walls. In them she could see Applejack, the Big Mac stallion, the little filly who was now hiding on the upper floor, an old mare with a green coat and gray hair whom she assumed was the one Applejack called 'Granny'. But what caught her attention were a couple of pictures that showed a couple of ponies that she didn't recognize and that Applejack hadn't mentioned.
The stallion, with a cutie mark of a green apple cut vertically in half, had round features and a coat and mane that appeared to be the same color as Apple Blossom's. The mare was of average size, with a light pale yellow coat, with a styled, apparently curly orange mane and tail. Her cutie mark a butter-brewer.
The last one, or rather the most recent one, in which there was a teenage Applejack and Big Mac, with a baby Apple Bloom on the mare's back, revealed that they were the heads of the family.
"The food is ready! Everyone to the dining room!" Grannys call was heard and subsequently the aroma of the baked goods was smelled. Chrysalis put the photo in her place and as per Applejack instructions, she got to the dining room, stopping past the door.
Seconds after Chrysalis reach the room, Big Mac entered through the door that led to the back of the house.
"Did you finish cutting the wood?" Granny Smith asked her grandson, taking her place at the table.
"Eeeyup," the red stallion responded.
"And the orders? Are the apples properly counted?"
Big Mac responded in kind.
Granny Smith then quickly looked up and down and up again at Queen Chrysalis.
"What are you doing standing there? Come, sit with us at the table."
Chrysalis took the invitation —because it was an invitation, not an order!— and sat next to the matriarch of the Apple family.
"Apple Bloom, you better get down here right now or I'll give your dessert to your big brother."
Chrysalis thought that the older mare had a commanding air about his progeny and nodded at the display. She liked this. The oldest and wisest ruler giving orders, the younglings following them without a second thought.
"I'm coming, Granny!" The young filly said, bouncing happily into the dining room, but her joyful trot turned into a worried walk once she noticed the Changeling Queen's presence, cautiously circling her until she reached the chair next to Big Mac.
Seconds later, Applejack came out of the kitchen, handing out what she had helped prepare for lunch.
"Hot applesauce with gravy for our dear Granny, some apple fritters for us, and a something special for our helper of the day," Applejack concluded, placing a small pie in front of Chrysalis.
"Come on, try it! It won't bite itself," Applejack encouraged Chrysalis, watching as the Queen looked at her food with trepidation.
Chrysalis sighed with resignation and slight annoyance at what she took for granted was an apple pie, so she ended up looking pleasantly surprised when the sweet taste of peach reached her taste buds.
"Apples are our favorite fruit, that doesn't mean it's the only one we know how to cook," Applejack says with a boastful smile after seeing the surprise on Chrysalis's face.
Chrysalis was enjoying her meal, not just the peach pie, the whole room was impregnated, saturated in fact, with Storgé, the family love, one of the best types of love; all the members of this family exuded it for each other. But this same situation made her realize that something was missing in this family image, and driven by her curiosity, she asked the question:
"Where are your parents?"
As quickly as it happened in the garden, the mood and emotions changed pretty quickly. An uncomfortable feeling of longing and yearning filled the dining room; Chrysalis could still feel the presence of Storgé, but now it was mixed with sadness.
The cutlery was placed on the table and gazes moved from one pony to the others, gauging their reactions, and then three of them landed on Applejack. 'She's your guest, so you tell her,' they said.
Getting their meaning, Applejack took a deep breath and paused, holding it for a few seconds before releasing it and responding: "They... they're not with us anymore."
Chrysalis did not need further clarification to understand what those words meant, the abrupt and sudden changes in the emotional atmosphere of the room, all that she had already felt and witnessed on multiple occasions when she herself took the role of infiltrator, they had responded to her question even before Applejack answered her.
Everything indicated that her feeding of love had been cut short, having to settle for the pie, which she would never openly admit, was quite delicious; but before anything else could happen, Applejack continued:
"But it is thanks to Pá and Má that we are the good, kind, honest working ponies that we are, and as long as we continue to practice and use their good teachings, it is as if they never left."
And as suddenly as they were gone, Storge and Pride expelled all emotional negativity from the dining room, just a little yearning and sadness present, but they were of the good kind.
Chrysalis nodded, more in appreciation of the good love than out of understanding, munching on her tart to complement the experience.
"And what about you, Miss Chrysalis? What can you tell us about your Pá and Má?" bravely and full of curiosity asks the little Apple Bloom.
Chrysalis stopped mid-bite of her pie, more because of the oddity of her being addressed as 'Miss' than because of the question itself. In the past she had already been addressed as 'Miss' to her face, but never to her real face. It felt strange and weird and a little uncomfortable.
Chrysalis swallowed and replied dryly, "I don't have them," and then she took another bite of her pie.
A sense of sadness and kinship coming from the young ponies hit her.
"Oh...! I'm sorry to hear that you lost your parents too," lamented a crestfallen Apple Bloom.
"You are mistaken. When I said 'I do not have them', I meant what I said. I don't have parents, I never had them."
"Do you mean that you lost them when you were still little or that they abandoned you?" Applejack intervened, seeking clarification, considering the first option rather sad, the second monstrous.
"That's horrible!" said the eldest and youngest mares of the family in unison, the first in a low sigh, the other in an audible lamentation.
The Queen sighed in exasperation. "I had no parents not because they had died, nor because I was abandoned. I don't have parents because I was never a child. We Changelings are not a long lost evolutionary branch of the ponies, nor are we the result of a curse that distorted our form or burdened us with an unbearable hunger. We just were, and we still are. As you see me now is as I always have been. One day I wasn't, the next I was. My first memory, my oldest memory, the oldest Changeling memory belong to me, freeing me and my kind from the insides of a sick and rotten tree in what was a hostile swamp. And before the cold, before the fear, the first thing we felt was a deep and all consuming hunger. And in that moment, surrounded by small and confused creatures similar to me, before I knew who we were, what to call us, before I even knew my own name, I knew that it was my right to rule over them, to keep them alive and to find them food to quench their hunger, our hunger, at any cost; that is my duty as their Queen."
Applejack's eyes bulged from their sockets at what she was hearing and flinched slightly, trying to imagine popping into existence out of the blue in the conditions that Chrysalis had described, but her mind could not grasp it. If what Chrysalis had just said was true, this broadened the image she had of the Queen and changed some of the perceptions she had of her. She knew that their situations were not the same, how could they be?, but resting her gaze on Apple Bloom, and remembering that frightful and fateful day when she was told that her parents had died, and how she felt when the duty of taking care of her dear little sister fell at her hooves, even with her granny and older brother at her side... she still remembered the crushing sensation of that amount of responsibility on her back, and the fear of not being able to carry it; in that instant Applejack felt that she could empathize with the Queen, even a little.
The rest of the meal was uneventful, Applejack and her family did not press Chrysalis for more information about her past, the Changeling seemed to be mulling on something deeply; whether regarding the information she had shared or what Applejack shared, the farm pony didn't know.
Once the meal was over, it was time to continue with the work. While Big Mac loaded boxes and barrels full of apples onto the cargo cart, the orders they had received, Chrysalis and Applejack tied each other to the front of the cart that, on this occasion, they would carry it together, and would take the load to sell to the town.
Several minutes after their departure from the farm, and after a long, quiet walk, they finally entered Ponyville.
"Where exactly are we going?" Chrysalis asked after they crossed some streets, gardens and other open spaces, when through all her senses she was able to perceive an emotional concentration in the direction where they were going.
"To the market. That's where we should leave all these apple orders," Applejack replied.
As a Changeling that she was, and specially as a Queen, Chrysalis could feel more and more sources of emotions as they approached it. At first there were a few, belonging to other individuals who were also heading to that place, but soon the number reached hundreds. Each pony, or rather creature, emanated a complex and intricate mix of moods and feelings.
Ponies, and non-Changeling creatures, could see colors, smell aromas, hear sounds, taste flavors, and feel sensations, but that ability to sense emotions added an extra layer of complexity to the senses of the Changelings.
Chrysalis, like all Changelings, could see the emotions emanating from their owners, but she could also smell them and, of course, taste them. But saying things like that sadness is 'blue', that greed 'stinks' or that love is 'sweet', was an oversimplification of how they actually perceive them.
The ability to sense emotions was more than just a sense that all Changelings used to perceive the moods of other creatures. It was a set of sensory cells that existed throughout their body and that enhanced the rest of the senses. With this, they could see through their eyes the emotions and their range of colors that the creatures emanate or radiated in the apparent form of a bright mist; smell with their nose the acidic or caustic nature of that same fog when it comes from fear and hatred; savor with the tongue the complex and different sweetnesses of loves; and to a lesser extent, this capability also extends to the sense of touch, allowing them to feel emotions as if they could make physical contact with their body. Even through hearing, a Changeling can hear the emotions carried by the sound waves produced by emotional creatures.
An advantage of this multisensory skill was that, if a Changeling suffered some misfortune that deprived it of one or more senses, the Changeling could still know what the creatures around him were feeling through his other senses and act appropriately. Chrysalis still remembered with admiration a Changeling warrior who, after having lost his eyes in a Maulwurf attack, said that he was able to discern the emotions of those around him, listening to them with every beat of their heart.
But at the same time, this sensory boon had its price. Since in the hive, Changelings by habit secure their emotions from being perceived by other Changelings, only allowing this type of intimacy with those they considered as close as if they were family, they were not instinctively prepared to deal with a high and concentrated amount of emotions. If a Changeling who lacked control over their ability to feel emotions were quickly or suddenly placed in a space where multiple sources of emotions were found, it would suffer from sensory overload, as all of his senses would be assaulted by an emotional discordance, leading to the suffering of anxiety in mild cases, at worst, physical pain in the form of a terrible burning sensation in the eyes and mouth, difficulty hearing and breathing, and a painful tingling all over the body, concluding in the loss of control of their disguise and be exposed, becoming unable to escape or defend itself from the crowd that surrounds them and that ultimately would become 'unfriendly' to his true nature. And it is for this reason that the Changelings were not allowed to participate in infiltration missions into densely populated areas, not until they had gone through their second molt and receiving proper training to control such a vital and important ability.
As they enter the market, Chrysalis could sense each and every new source of emotion; there were those who were happy to have gotten what they were looking for on sale, those who radiated irritability for the simple fact of being in such a crowded space, even those who were upset when they considered themselves scammed by the high prices that some unscrupulous merchants put on their necessary products. Figuratively speaking, for a Changeling this experience would be similar to walking through streets full of a nebulous maelstrom of colors, hindering the visibility, and each of them carrying a different aroma, flavor and sensation. But for the Queen they were something she paid little attention to, as she had learned to dim the impact of so many mixed emotions congestioning her surroundings.
"You wait here," Applejack would say every time they stopped in front of or near a stall, so that the earth pony would then get lost behind a door or curtain and start negotiating with the owners of said stall.
And on each of those occasions Chrysalis grumbled, having nothing to do other than make sure that no one stole the Sweet Apple Acres's merchandise. Her task was rather easy and boring, since no one was brave or stupid enough to approach the imposing Changeling Queen.
Chrysalis yawned after counting for the tenth time that afternoon the number of holes in her legs, thinking that one of these days she will need to molt her exoskeleton, aware of all the cracks and scars that populated it even before the incident in the hive, when suddenly, a projectile hit her in the back of the head, pushing her out of that musing and bring her back to reality.
More surprised than annoyed, but still angry, she sought to locate the object that had offended her, soon landing her eyes on a small blue rubber ball.
A small copper-colored Earth Pony filly with a blue mane had made her way through the wave of ponies, managing to enter the area that had been granted to the Changeling Queen, in search of her ball. Her youth was reflected in the lack of a cutie mark.
The happiness of knowing that she had found her ball was short-lived when she realized that it was floating in mid air, held in the magical aura property of an imposing creature that she did not recognize and therefore did not know how to act.
Chrysalis began to feel a very low level of fear coming from the filly, it was caution, caution mixed with a sense of wonder and curiosity at the presence of a creature she had never seen before.
The little girl exchanged glances with the gigantic black figure that was Chrysalis and with a look that even a puppy would consider adorable, she asked for the return of her toy.
The Changeling Queen showed disgust at such a sugary display, but anyway she advanced in the direction of the filly, and once she was close to her, freed the ball from her magical grip and took it with her hoof with every intention of returning it to her owner.
The filly happily extended her front legs, eager to retrieve her ball, when suddenly a pair of larger front legs surrounded her and pulled her away.
"Get away from her!" shouts a pink mare with a curly green mane, with a pair of glasses and a pearl necklace around her neck, with a cutie mark in the shape of a typewriter, hugging the filly tightly and worriedly, who took a couple of seconds to realize that she was now between her mother's hooves.
"What's your problem, ma'am?" Chrysalis asked, taken by surprise at the mare's abrupt reaction. "I was just trying to get the ball back to the filly."
"You are my problem!" The mare accused Chrysalis with trepidation after making sure that her daughter was not injured and hiding her behind her.
"I don't even know who you are," Chrysalis defended, restlessness growing on her.
"But I do you! You are the Queen of those beasts that attacked us." At that declaration, the mare had gotten the attention of the creatures around her who stopped their chores, taking in the scene that was taking place in the middle of the market; and with that, she now spoke as if she were speaking to the crowd. "I was there, in Canterlot, when it happened! I could see the shield that protected the city and your kind outside, beating on it, watching us with hungry eyes, waiting for the moment when it would fall and then could attack us. I witnessed the destruction that you critters unleashed on us with your rampage. I was among the first ponies to be cocooned. I thought I was going to die, that I was going to die not knowing what was going to be of my family!" shouted the mare with righteous indignation, striking Chrysalis with a full force wave of hatred and resentment.
With every word of the mother pony, Chrysalis could feel the anger and aggression of that mare infecting all the ponies around them and then being directed towards her. Insulting murmurs and ramblings could be heard all around them. The Changeling Queen could now feel herself being pushed and shaken, burned under the gaze of hundreds of emboldened angry ponies. Literally attacked by the entire sudden mix of negative emotions bombarding her from all directions. Feeling cornered, a sense of dread and anxiety was swallowing her whole.
"What in tarnation is going on here!?" Applejack asked, returning when she heard the commotion, pushing her way through the crowd, placing herself in the middle of the Pony and the Changeling who both seemed ready to jump on each other.
"And you!" the mare now pointed at Applejack. "Whose side are you on? Aren't you supposed to be an Equestrian hero, an Element of Harmony? So tell me, why you allow this wild Changeling to walk free among us?"
"Side? Ma'am, the last time I checked, Equestria and the Changelings are in conflict no more! I'll know, I was there when peace was made between us," Applejack pointed out, slightly indignant.
"Maybe with those who accepted reformation," the mare conceded, but giving Chrysalis a dirty look, she continued: "But look at her! She's still black, she still has holes all over her body; she clearly hasn't reformed! She's still a Monster!"
"Wait a second, that's not..." Applejack managed to say, but whatever words were to follow were never heard as it was at that moment that a terrible, powerful, fierce roar that lasted for several seconds escaped from Chrysalis, threatening to tear out her throat due to its intensity, with all her teeth in full view, aimed at the source of her fury.
When the mare's heart was able to beat again and the color returned to her face, she took her daughter and galloped in the opposite direction screaming in horror, leaving behind a trail of unadulterated fear.
The Queen remained in her place, panting heavily, and when she was finally able to control her breathing, she looked around worriedly. Every creature around her was frozen in place, only fear permeating the surrounding atmosphere, fear of her. Chrysalis looked for Applejack, find her in a similar dazed state as the rest of the creatures around, her eyes shrinking to pin pricks due to her outburst, she was also among those emanating fear from the Queen.
With an annoyed growl, Chrysalis spread her wings and flew from the scene.
"Chrysalis, wait!" Applejack shouted once she regained control of herself and realized what had happened, seeing the Queen flying away.
With concern, Applejack looked back at the cart with her apples and then at Chrysalis, once again at her merchandise and then at the Changeling Queen already disappearing into the distance.
"Horseapples!" cursed Applejack, stomping the ground with a hoof, starting to gallop in pursuit of Chrysalis.
It was around the time when the sun was hidden on the horizon by Celestia, with orange tones turning dark covering the sky, giving way for Luna to put the moon and the stars up.
Applejack was still galloping at full speed, frantically searching everywhere to find the Changeling Queen, forgetting the detail that if a Changeling didn't want to be found, it wouldn't be found.
She dreaded having to inform Twilight and the rest of the girls that Chrysalis had left under her watch more than Rainbow Dash finding out about this, even if of the two, the pegasus would be the one who would never let her forget it.
She was beginning to think that it had been a mistake on her part not to immediately report what happened to Twilight and form a search party, but her stubbornness prevented her from considering that option at the moment.
Lucky for her, she finally caught a glimpse of the shape of the Changeling Queen. She was sitting on a small and solitary hill, overlooking the town of Ponyville. She looked hateful, spiteful, but also thoughtful.
Cautiously Applejack approached, slowing her trot so as not to startle the Queen.
"What was all that, back there?" Applejack asked bluntly.
"This whole thing doesn't make sense," Chrysalis said in a conversational tone, once she concluded that Applejack had gotten close enough to hear her.
"What are you talking about? What doesn't make sense?" ask Applejack, sitting aside to the Queen.
"Your friend Twilight Sparkle's experiment."
"What makes you say that?"
"It may not be obvious to you, but it is to me. It has been since the moment I set my hoofs in this town. Even long before that," Chrysalis replied, in a resigned, defeatist tone, almost sad. And before Applejack could ask for further clarification, the Queen gave it to her. "Because I can feel it. Their looks and reactions when they see me existing, when they know who I am, what I have done —what I need to do to live— it feel like weapons are pointed in my direction... I can't blame them, but it hurt. Now imagine how it feels when you can also sense what is really hidden behind their eyes. More than hatred or fear, it is their prejudice.
"For the entire time I've been here I've been on my best behavior. I uphold my end of the deal, and in practice, you do too. But it's one thing to say 'I am glad to have you here' and another to feel it. As a Changeling I can sense your feelings and none of you feel it. You didn't feel it when Twilight explained the deal we had made, and none of you truly feel it now.
"All the other creatures in the town, their fear and their hatred, all of that is born from a single thought. They see me as a monster, and that's how they feel like treating me, no matter what," Chrysalis spoke, anger boiling inside her and spilling out through her words. "So, because no matter what the outcome of Twilight's little experiment is, everyone is still going to think of me as a monster, then why not end it all and just be the monster they are so set to believe I am?" concluded Queen Chrysalis looking and snarling at Applejack, as if daring her to contradict her, to say that her words are not true, that they are lies. That she was not one of the most vocal in her group against the idea of allowing her to remain in the town, the right to roam freely, that she did not want her to be sent in chains to Canterlot to rot in a dungeon.
But Applejack didn't flinch. The emotional wall preventing Chrysalis from picking out what crossed the farm mare's heart.
And that was being the case for several seconds, but then she began to feel the wall crumbling, or rather, opening up to her.
Applejack looks at the ground and digs a hole with one of her hoofs, thinking hard about what she was about to say and how to say it.
"You know," the apple farmer finally speaks, looking at the Changeling Queen straight in the eyes. "Everyone thinks I'm incapable of lying, and I don't know why."
Chrysalis twists her face in confusion at Applejack's unexpected and seemingly non sequitur comment.
"I can lie," Applejack continued. "I don't like to, but I can lie like anyone else. If I think that a good lie would get me, my family or my friends out of trouble, chances are I would use it. I have lied to my friends and family, even quite frequently, and sometimes I still do; and yet, when they talk about me, they always said how honest I am, that I am incapable to keep secrets and that the mere thought of lying twist my guts. Because, for some reason that I cannot grasp, I was chosen to be the personification of the element of honesty.
"Or, on the opposite side, there are creatures that believe that by that same principle, I am incapable of being lie to; that if someone tells me a lie I would instinctively and instantly recognize it as a falsehood, as if I were a magical lie detector. And I do not know from were they get that Idea!" Applejack exclaimed, raising her front hooves, demonstrating her bewilderment at that notion.
"If any of that was remotely true, you and me would not be here right now, you get me? I mean, I am surely would still be here, farming apples, but you and the rest of the Changelings that invade Canterlot would be in the dungeons because I would have to be able to see through your lies when you were pretending to be Cadence."
"What is your point?" The Queen said, somewhat miffed by the fact that it seems nobody would let her forget for as long as she live that one of her most shameful and humiliating moments of her life.
"My point is: we can be whatever we want, and what others think, or let us know what they believe about us, is not and should not be an impediment to that.
"What I'm about to say to you is the honest truth," Applejack said solemnly for emphasis, pausing for a few seconds and then continued. "I bet to Rainbow Dash that, even though Twilight would shows you that she is right and that you can earn enough love to live through honest means and without the need to reform as the rest of your folks, you are going to reject it and run away to plan your revenge and our demise or whatever others evils whatnots you fancied, because you'd rather be in denial than proven wrong, even at the cost of your own happiness."
"Whether Twilight or I are right or wrong, it will depend on your actions, not what other creatures say." Applejack concluded.
"You are free to go now. I have to go back and see if I still have apples to sell... and thanks again for your help in the orchard."
And with that, Applejack leave Chrysalis to her own.