How To Reform Your Changeling

by Forces of Darkness

All Work and No Play...

Chrysalis woke early the next morning to discover that she was not, in fact, in her comfortable room in the hive. She was sleeping in hay, like some common pony-

Her eyes widened slightly as the events of the day before caught up to her. She narrowed her eyes again and hissed in displeasure.

A wet feeling at her side interrupted her thoughts and she turned to glare at a brown and white dog that was sniffing her thoroughly. It gave a low growl as she tried to move away. Fed up, she hissed at it, which spooked it and caused it to run out of the barn whimpering.

All in all, Chrysalis was feeling satisfied when she left the barn. Her wings buzzed, but she didn't try to fly or teleport. If she wanted to escape here, she'd have to do it by walking. She glanced up when a shadow fell over her and realized that the blue pony was circling overhead. With a flying creature constantly on patrol, escape would be a lot harder.

Worse yet, she could not use the zan'ji, the mental link of the hive, to talk to any of her children. This is the world that these ponies must live in all the time, she mused. Never knowing what those around them are thinking. The silence seemed to fill her ears, expanding until it hurt. Tales were told of those lings who lived in this silence. They went mad. And none of those lings were queens... what would her children do without a queen? She had to get back to her hive, as soon as possible...

...which, if the ponies were constantly watching over her, could be quite a long time.

That is, if she escaped traditionally.

But... if she went along with their program of "friendship," perhaps they would release her early. Surely she, Queen Chrysalis, She of Many Faces, could pull off a fake friendship with the orange pony... Applejack. Better to start using their names now. Chrysalis trotted slowly towards the orchard, where she could feel negative emotions.

...

Applejack woke up early in the morning and trotted outside to get some work done. She found Big Mac still bucking trees, several full baskets of apples under the trees surrounding him.

"Sweet Celestia, Big Mac. Were you up all night?"

"Eeyup."

She sighed. "Yer really upset about Chryssie, aren't you?"

"Chryssie? Applejack, this ain't a pet yer talkin' about - this is a monster that nearly took over Canterlot."

"Ah know."

"And you just brought it home."

"Mac, Ah know yer upset about it. But Princess Twilight-"

"Eenope. She's still the same friend she's always been, princess or no - you could have turned her down if you wanted."

"But Ah didn't. You're right, but that doesn't change it. It's- hmm. Ah want to able to sleep at night knowing that there's one less threat out there that could harm me and my friends."

"So kill her. Blast her with yer rainbow power or whatever."

"Mac, NO! That's not how magic works. And that's - Ah can't kill a creature in cold blood, not even her. She's starving, Mac."

Big Mac muttered something that might have been "Let her starve."

"Twilight believes in me," Applejack said, more to herself than to her brother. "Ah can reform her. Ah will reform her."

...

After a little bit of wandering, Chrysalis found Applejack in the orchard. Big Mac stormed off at the sight of her.

"Mornin'. Chryssie," Applejack greeted. "Mind helpin' me out with some of the apples?"

Chrysalis merely stared, confused by both the friendly greeting and the request.

"Here, just stand with yer back to the tree like this and kick out with your back legs, like this." She demonstrated the movement, knocking all the apples perfectly in the baskets set up below.

Hesitantly, Chrysalis imitated the movement. Her hooves hit the wood with a weak 'clunk' and knocked off one apple, which fell pathetically into a basket. Hissing, Chrysalis repeated the motion, hitting harder this time, knocking off a few more. Finally, frustrated, she transformed into Applejack and hit the tree even harder. Most of the apples shook loose and fell into baskets, but a few more still clung to the top of the tree.

Applejack, despite being unnerved at seeing her double, smiled. "Good job! Yer a natural." She lightly tapped the trunk of the tree with a hoof, causing the last few apples to fall into the baskets.

Chrysalis wasn't particularly happy, but nevertheless, she complied with the orange mare's request to buck a few more trees before breakfast. Soon enough, she found a rhythm and even took a small amount of pleasure in the steady work.

Rainbow Dash watched from above with mild relief as the "no-good bug" helped out around the farm and never once seemed to challenge Applejack. Even Big Mac seemed slightly more contented when he saw Chrysalis helping out without complaining. She even ate the pancakes AJ served! It was progress, yes. But was it friendship?

That night, she flew up to AJ's window and banged on it quietly until it was opened.

"Rainbow?" Applejack asked in confusion. "What are you doing here this late?"

"We need to talk. Where's the bug?"

"Sleepin' on the kitchen floor. Decided hay storage was a little too mean, even for her."

"Okay. What makes you think having her do farm chores is going to help reform her?"

"Ah dunno. Fluttershy mostly won Discord over by humoring him, by being kind - but Ah don't think Chryssie needs kindness. Besides, there's nothing like work to clear a pony's mind."

"Alright. As long as you think it's going well."

"She smiles sometimes. And she managed to feed Winona without getting growled at. Ah'd say she's doing well."

Author's Note:

...But is she really? Why is there no smirking Chrysalis emoji? Here, have a Celestia instead:

And I can't write Applejack's accent, so a) why did I pick her to be my main character and b) please don't be too offended about it. I tried my best.

Comments

[Razzy]

Meanwhile, the entire hive is playing go fish or lazying about.

Big Mac is a bit quick to suggest killing there.

[Putainnn]

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