An Opportunity of Change

by Tower of 0

Change of Perspective

The house remains quiet today. The only one here being Chrysalis, whom of which hasn't left the room since last night. Sure, the doors and window aren't locked, but something doesn't feel right. She was thinking again, but this time her mind was dwelling on his conversation with her from this morning. His words echo again in her head as she stares out the window.

"You know, I was thinking about what you said last night, and I think you might just need to try a change of perspective!"

"Oh ha ha, very funny."

"I'm not trying to be funny. I'm leaving to go open the shop, feel free to join me when you're up for it."

Is he right though? Does she need to look at this a different way? She shook those thoughts away for a moment and scowled. She's the queen of the changelings, she doesn't need friendship! Well, she WAS the queen. Maybe he was right, maybe she does need the different view. Her face shifts from a scowl to looking sad now. She's alone now, and when someone is here for her, she makes herself alone now..

Today was a little slow at the shop. Justin was currently serving a small group of ponies scoops of varying flavors. He smiles at he takes care of their orders and watch them take up one of his booths. He leans against the counter with a small smiles and gazes out the window to Ponyville. He let his mind wander in thought but keeps aware of his surroundings. His thoughts end up on hoping that Chrysalis is okay back at home.

The bell rings, snapping the human from thought. A smile crosses his face as he sees the pony in question. It's the orange farm pony with that ever familiar brown hat. Only she was carrying a crate on her back as she approaches the counter. Justin changes his position to be leaning forward now.

"Well, well, well, if it ain't my favorite apple farmer in all of Equestria, AJ!" Justin exclaims with the widest grin he can pull off.

"Awe shucks, yer too kind, surgarcube." Applejack replies while pulling her hat over her eyes.

"What brings you in to my lovely shop today?"

"Two things really. One is that Twi told me that 'you-know-who' is with ya."

"Chrysalis?" Justin asks. "Yeah, but I didn't drag her out to work today. Left her at home."

Applejack looks a bit concerned at him.

"What's the other thing?"

"Well, it took Granny some convincing but I brought ya some Zap Apples to try in ya ice cream."

"Oh hell yeah!" Justin jumps up in excitement as Applejack slides the case over onto the counter. "How much do I owe you?"

"Two quarts of that new ice cream ya wanna make wouldn't hurt for the trouble."

"You got a deal, and if all goes well, we may have a hot seasonal flavor for us to have at." Justin picks up the crate and sets it behind the counter. "Tell Granny Smith I said thanks"

"Will do, surgarcube! If ya need any help with getting it right, tell me and I'll send Granny right over."

"Might not need to if I follow her instructions to the letter, but I'll be sure to say something if I got questions."

"Now." Applejack leans in close, her voice now a whisper. "Do ya want me to stop by yer place to check on 'you-know-who.'"

"Thanks for the offer, AJ, but I believe she's still there."

Applejack just gives the human a nod and the two say their goodbyes. The farm pony heads on her own way while Justin retreats back to his shop. He get the crate from behind the counter and stores it near his mixers and plucks the piece of paper and read over Granny's instructions.

"Hmm, may have to try this at home on a day off." He mutters to himself.

He isn't wanting to mess anything up with his experiment, and it already took a while to talk it up to Applejack. Who in turn also talked it up to Granny on his behalf. He believes that whatever product he can make out of this, will be an amazing tasting ice cream, even if only the Apples like it. Of course, he had to take the special temperament of the apples into account.

The door to the house swings open and the human and filly enter the house. Happily chatting away downstairs while Chrysalis in laying on the bed. The talking quiets down and she can hear someone coming up the stairs. Then the knock at the door, she knows who it is.

"Chrysalis?" Justin's voice came from the other side.

"It's open."

The knob turns and the door slowly opens to reveal the human and the filly. Chrysalis sits up and looks at him, she wasn't glaring this time, actually she's looking at the floor. The human walks in with the filly following close behind and sits next to her on the bed. The filly, however, stayed on the floor and smiled at the changeling. This is one brave filly to just smile at her.

"Something on your mind there?" Justin opens with after a moment of silence.

"Just what you said."

"What about it?" She could feel his hand on her and she leans away a bit.

"I think you might be right. Things have changed, and I haven't adapted."

Justin listens to her, now keeping his hands to himself.

"Before, I had my hive. I had Canterlot for a few sweet moments of victory. Now, now I have nothing and alone."

She could feel the tears welling in her eyes, but noone else notices.

"Well that ain't trues." Fudge pipes up with a smile. "You have us!"

Chrysalis falls silent and Justin gets up off the bed. "She is speaking some truth, but it's up to you if you'd like to embrace that or not. It can be as simple as just joining us for an activity or coming out for chat."

Chrysalis finally looks up at the human and he can see the hurt in her eyes.

"We're about to have dinner and we'd like to invite you to the table."

The changeling stays quiet and gives him a small nod. Justin gives her a warm smile before leaving her alone in the room to make her choice. Fudge trots on after her father back downstairs. Whatever they're having does smell kind of good to her and may be time.

Fudge and Justin sit at the table, eating some kind of lasagna the human made using a modified equine recipe. The dish has his own added flare that made it exceptional to their taste buds, Justin's especially. The table was set for four, even though Derpy was currently working late. Chrysalis soon comes down the stairs and joins them at the table and is met with warm smiles that she doesn't initially return. The rest of the dinner was spent with what little conversation they could get out of the changeling and talking about their days.

The rest of the night is spent in the living room with Fudge getting her homework done on the floor. Justin sits with the filly to help her in anyway he can with questions. Chrysalis is on the couch, watching the two, and a kind of comfort she hasn't known before. Derpy does end up coming home later, long after Fudge goes to bed and lays with Justin on the floor of the living room. More of on the human rather than next to him as the fire crackles nearby.

The house is silent once more, Chrysalis lays on her bed now. She's kind of snuggling a pillow and burying her face in it. The changeling isn't trying to sleep, just lost with her feelings now, and hunger. The lasagna was good, but it doesn't fill her quite the same. Not like the love she was feeding on before.

Justin stands outside his ice cream parlor with a very sleepy Fudge clinging to his back. A morning pony, she was not. A very early morning pony, even less so. The sun is barely breaking over the horizon as he's unlocking the door. He only has a few precious hours before he has to open for the day.

He finally gets the door unlocked and opens it to step inside and Chrysalis strides by, not hiding her true self, and inside unannounced. Justin, taken aback at the display, follows the changeling inside, laying the filly in one of the booths closest to the front counter. Fudge is probably thankful it's the weekend for this. Justin then goes into the back room of the shop and stops to stare at Chrysalis.

"Damn, those are some beautiful wings."

"Hm?" Chrysalis is confused and looks at her wings. They seem to sparkle in the light above her. "Oh, that's new."

"I'd say. What brings ya out here today?"

"I want to learn how to make the ice cream you do and learn a bit more about my new surroundings." Chrysalis replies, look at the human.

He smiles, the fear that was in her gaze is now gone, replaced with something else.

"Well, we're going to do something else today: making Zap Apple Ice Cream."

Chrysalis tilts her head as she looks at the human. Justin just goes over to the oversized freezer and opens the door. He disappears inside for several minutes before coming out with the crate of Zap Apples and some mix for the ice cream. Justin shows Chrysalis how to operate the mixers to get the frozen dessert started while he goes to get other supplies for the project. The changeling is a little enamored with the mixing machine's contents swirling by the time he comes back.

He follows Granny Smith's instructions for creating their famous jam, but instead cuts some of the legendary apples into cubes. He slides them off a cutting board and into the mixer, watching the contents turn into a rainbow lightninged mass, and lets it mix. Justin takes Chrysalis up to the front and starts to show her how he opens the store and she is more than eager to learn from before.

Justin does his best to teach her what he knows and what she's willing to learn now. They go to check on the mixture and he shuts off the machine. The human removes the massive bowl of ice cream and stores it away in the freezer for the final step. He's being eager and looking forward to trying this new creation, but he suspects it's going to take a bit to find the right conditions for the experiment.

He stares at the mess he that was made for the ice cream and goes to the supply closet to get cleaning stuff. He opens the door and starts to search around for a scrubber and cleaner. The human finds the scrubber no problem and searches more for the cleaner. When he does, he snaps his fingers and points at the bottle. Once he turns around he is surprised to see that the room is already spotless.

"Strange... there were pink polka dots here just a minute ago."

Chrysalis ends up walking to the back and looking around. "You cleaned that up quick."

"Yeeaaah." Justin responds as he puts the cleaning supplies back.

"Something the matter?" The changeling asks him.

"It's just... I don't know."

The day continues on like normal, Justin allowed Fudge to run off and find her friends while he and Chrysalis ran the shop. Business was steady, some of the ponies surprised at the sight of Chrysalis in the shop. The customers whisper amongst themselves with concern. Justin can feel the air in the store to this strained atmosphere. The changeling ends up trotting up to the human.

"Is it always this tense?" She ask at a whisper.

"No, it's usually more cheery than this." Justin whispers back. "They aren't really used to seeing you here either."

"Right.. I'll go to the back then." She plainly states before retreating out of view.

Justin spends the rest of the shift waiting on his customers and checking in on Chrysalis in any downtime. He couldn't help notice at how down she looked for most of the time until it finally dies down. He goes to the back room and sits with her, looking at her with some concern.

"You okay?" He asks, slightly nudging her side.

"These ponies aren't going to get used to me."

"Hey, don't be so sure about that. I wasn't exactly well received when I first showed up here. It took 'em a couple of months, but they got used to me." Justin reassures her.

"Really?" She asks, looking up at him.

"Really, they avoided me like no tomorrow and when I tried talking to any of them, they just ran." Justin remanences a bit with her. "Only one or two ponies really tried to talk to me, one of 'em was Derpy."

"That mare you're always laying with late at night?"

Justin stays silent with a hint of pink in his cheeks and a smile on his face.

Just then, he snaps his fingers again. "I know what'll raise your spirits!"

The changeling watches him as he springs up out of the seat and saunters over to the freezer. He opens the door and goes inside for a couple of minutes before rolling the large vat of ice cream out. Justin gets it over to where Chrysalis is sitting and produces a couple of tasting spoons from his apron pocket and handing one to her.

"How about we try some of this before we close up for the evening?" Justin smiles at her.

Chrysalis takes the spoon in her magic and they both take a spoonful and take bites.

"Bleh!" The two say in unison.

Later that night, the four are enjoying a special kind of dinner: breakfast! They were having pancakes, muffins, and steamed carrot sticks. Chrysalis was watching the other three talk and goof around. At some point she stifled a giggle as she watched the human put two sticks in his mouth as fangs and talked as if he were a vampire pony. Fudge is giggling away as he had his focus on her, then he munches them down and grins at Derpy and the filly.

Justin's attention then turns to the changeling as his laughter dies down. Chrysalis just looks at him for a moment before looking down as a way to hide the small smile she has. It's too late as he already saw, he just gives her a nod and goes back to chatting with the other two. For the rest of the night, Chrysalis just enjoyed the company around her and the warmth they shared.