“Absolutely not!” Twilight shouted. Her voice almost echoed in the quiet morning. Spike had left a few minutes ago to gather the rest of the girls while Twilight and Chrysalis were at the table in the kitchen drinking tea. Up until the outburst, the air was peaceful yet laced with a growing tension. A tension that only grew after some doubts expressed by Chrysalis.

Chrysalis threw her hands up in the air. “Why not? It’s not like I’m going to stay here for long anyways! I’ll be in disguise and they won't even know that I’m there.” Her horn sparked with magic, more than ready to cast her disguise.

“These are my friends, Chrysalis! I told you that I have to inform them of what’s going on,” Twilight huffed. “It will benefit us more if they know the situation. Not only that, but I cannot, in good conscience, allow them to be in potential danger that they don’t even know they’re in!”

‘...Just ignore it, Chrysalis. Ignore it and move on,’ Chrysalis leveled a glare at Twilight. “Look, you said back on the train that you weren't sure they would be so accepting of me, and once we got here your little lizard attacked me!” Chrysalis rubbed her face, feeling the phantom pain. Worse still, she had to burn more love than she liked to fix her nose properly. “Maybe one of those pans he threw knocked some sense back into me, but I get the feeling that some of your friends might react the same way.”

Twilight grumbled, “Okay, fair point, but you’re the one who suggested meeting them all at once so you wouldn’t have to repeat yourself. Regardless, I’m sure I can convince them that you’re not here to invade or anything.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Sure you can. Just like last time you tried to convince them of danger.” Payback for that ‘potential danger’ comment. Chrysalis tried not to enjoy Twilight’s flinch too much.

However, it did little to stop her. “This experiment isn’t something that can be done entirely blind. Communication is key if this is going to work. Not to mention that with more ponies in the loop we can cover each other better.”

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes. “Secrets also tend to be better kept by less ponies and now at least a handful of them already know I’m here. All I’m saying is that it might be better to just have my presence hidden rather than to invite trouble.” As she said that, Chrysalis could already feel her skin crawl for want of a disguise and her instincts poked and prodded her to take action. It was one thing to reveal oneself to appear menacing, but to willingly shed her skin for ponies she barely knew? Twilight might as well have asked her to strip down and walk through town all day. Chrysalis could only wonder why she thought it was a good idea in the first place.

Twilight frowned and crossed her arms. “Why? So you can cause trouble without getting caught?”

‘Sweet Love, it’s like I’m talking to a female Shining, except way nerdier,’ Chrysalis thought dryly. She put down her tea and continued, “Tell me, what does friendship and love have in common?”

“They’re bonds made between two ponies who are close to each other?” Twilight answered, her head tilted in confusion.

“Close, but not quite,” Chrysalis recalled her early lessons from her magic tutor years ago, “They are both relationships between ponies, but the bond of love is what generates love energy. Friendship can too if the ponies are close enough, but short of family friends, the amount generated is barely worth gathering. If you recall, I was able to get a lot of energy from Shining by pretending to be Cadance, who he has a relationship with. Understand?”

Twilight nodded impatiently. “Yes, yes, I get it, but I don’t see-” She was silenced by a green magicked spoon shoved in her mouth.

“Don’t interrupt me,” Chrysalis snapped. “I am giving you a free lesson on changeling love gathering so you would do well to show a modicum of respect.”

The word ‘lesson’ was enough to get Twilight to shut up and summon up a notepad and quill. She even sat up straighter as if she was at a school desk rather than her kitchen table. “You were saying?”

“That’s better. Now, romantic bonds tend to evolve slowly from friendship, except under certain circumstances but I’d rather not talk about that,” Chrysalis’ cheeks grew pink for a second, “That said, do you know what relationships are built on?”

Twilight opened her mouth to answer, but paused as she processed the question. Taking a moment to think her answer over before she replied. “Kindness, loyalty, honesty, generosity, laughter, and magic?

Chrysalis chuckled and shook her head. “It’s trust. You trust your friends to help when you need it. You trust a lover to stay faithful. Above all, you trust them to be who they say they are.” She gave a pointed look at Twilight, who missed it as her nose was in her notes. “Your elements might help strengthen friendships, but you have to start with trust.”

“Alright, but what does that have to do with lying to my friends?” Twilight asked as she scribbled down the last note.

“Because trust starts with first impressions. When you first meet a pony, you learn how much and what you can trust them with. For instance, you might trust a business pony to give you a good or bad deal, but would you trust a bad pony to do a good deed for you?” Chrysalis smirked. Perhaps convincing Twilight might be easier than she thought if she turned her arguments into lessons. She’d have to thank Cadance for telling her about Twilight’s weakness. “Cadance trusts me and so I get quite the load of love energy from her. Shining doesn't trust me and I hadn’t gotten a single drop of love energy from him since I revealed myself to him. Similarly, if your friends knew I was here, I would bet on getting the same treatment from them.

“I may not be the ‘Princess of Love’ or anything, but even I know that broken trust in a relationship takes time and effort to repair, and we don’t exactly have much of the former to work with. Especially if we’re going to experiment with gathering love.” Chrysalis smugly brought her cup to her mouth as she watched Twilight’s expression turn sour.

“Even if you say that, we’re still doing this. I don’t expect them to accept you right away, but there’s no reason they can’t still try, right?” Twilight asked. She tapped her quill against her cheek in thought and then smiled like a cat that found a trapped rat. “If first impressions are that important to you, then why does Cadance give you any love energy at all? She knows who you are, and what you did was more than enough reason for her to hate you forever, but she forgave you anyways. So who’s to say the same can’t happen with my friends?”

It was Chrysalis’ turn to frown now. “She only forgave me after a deal we had went sour, so I’d say we’re even.” Seeing Twilight’s unspoken question, Chrysalis quickly moved on. “Look, I appreciate your optimism, but the reality is that they won’t accept me right off the bat and probably never will. So let me just disguise myself and let’s move on.”

Twilight grimaced before responding. “What about all that talk about trust? If my friends have to find out about you by themselves wouldn’t that hurt their trust even more?” The confidence in Twilight’s eyes had returned and it was a growing blaze.

Chrysalis was silent, but her eyes widened at the flaw in her argument. She racked her brain for a counter but nothing suitable came to mind.

Twilight pushed forward through the cracks in the argument. “Also, Cadance never said when she’d be back, so as far as we know, you’ll have plenty of time to repair relationships with my friends. Besides, if anyone was to attack you, I’m willing to bet that it’d only be Rainbow Dash and that’s a fifty percent chance at best.”

Chrysalis began to protest once more, but the sound of the front door opening caught her attention. Without a second thought, she put back on her disguise, making sure not even a hair was out of place despite Twilight’s frustrated glare. Before putting on the expression for her facade, she whispered to Twilight, “You’d better be right about this.”

“Twilight? Where are you, darling?”

“In the kitchen, Rarity!” Twilight yelled back, still glaring at Chrysalis before she too put on a calmer expression.

A vaguely familiar white unicorn mare entered the room, wearing trace amounts of love energy like a perfume. Though Chrysalis remembered her name, she couldn’t quite place her face. But now, she recalled the unicorn being one of the wedding seamstresses that she messed with during the fittings, and the one that the little dragon had a crush on, according to the reports. In her defense, there were a lot of white unicorns in Canterlot and many didn’t exactly distinguish themselves from each other that much. However, upon closer inspection, Chrysalis could see that she was quite different from the generic Canterlot stock.

Rarity held a elegant beauty that wasn’t fully fabricated like some other Canterlot mares. She walked with the sophistication of a noble, yet held herself like a professional business mare. This effect was only enhanced by the frilled white blouse and black pencil skirt and nylons she wore. She was about the same height as Twilight if one didn’t count the large, wavy purple mane on her head. Her sapphire eyes gleamed while scrutinizing every detail they came across, like a true seamstress. The way it all came together so naturally for her made Chrysalis feel a bit inadequate in her own gracefulness and certainly underdressed for the meeting.

“Good morning, Twilight. I arrived as quickly as I could. What seems to be the emergency?” Rarity asked. She then took notice of the disguised changeling. “Oh, I’m sorry, but where are my manners? I’m Rarity, and you are?”

Chrysalis felt a bit of sweat run down her neck. Was now the time to reveal herself or should she wait? Even better, how about not at all? Being so undecided, Chrysalis fell back to her trained responses. “I’m ‘Sweet Heart’, a friend of Cadance.” She put on a wide grin despite the frustration she could feel rolling off of Twilight.

Rarity beamed back. “Lovely to meet you, dear. By your presence, I assume you have something to do with this meeting? Spike wasn’t clear on the details.”

“You could say that.” Chrysalis couldn’t quite keep eye contact as she said it, glancing over to Twilight to search for help.

Rarity nodded. “Well, not to be rude, but I do hope this meeting is important. I’m a little behind on some orders so if we need to go anywhere, I’d have to bring my work with me.”

“Don’t worry,” Twilight assured, “We’re not going anywhere. You’ll have plenty of time to work.”

Rarity sighed in relief. “That’s wonderful to hear.” She turned back to Chrysalis. “While we’re waiting, would you happen to require any dresses by chance? I’m sure I have a lovely outfit or two that would bring out your eyes.”

As Chrysalis was about to decline the offer, the front door opened once more and Spike’s voice rang out. “Twilight, we’re back!” He opened the kitchen door and looked at the ponies sitting at the table. A small surge of love erupted from him when his eyes met Rarity, but it was soon whisked away by confusion, and then a simmering anger upon seeing Chrysalis’ disguise. He fixed the changeling with watchful eye as made his way to the stove to fix another pot of tea. The fact that he pulled out several other pots was not lost on Chrysalis.

Following close behind him were two very familiar mares, Fluttershy and Applejack. Seeing both of them made Chrysalis want to leave all the more, though for different reasons. Fluttershy was a tall mare, but by no means skinny. She had a natural beauty to her that couldn’t be replicated by any artificial means. She wore a long green skirt that reached her ankles and a dark green sweater that stretched across her massive bust. They were the two biggest problems Chrysalis had with this mare. Fluttershy had a gift that most mares would kill for and yet she chose to hide them behind a thin cloth. Chrysalis couldn’t fathom how she could even stand up straight.

‘There’s no way those are real,’ Chrysalis thought, ‘but what I wouldn’t give to have some of that size?’ Changeling disguises can only do so much to help one’s figure.

Now Applejack, on the other hand, was the definition of an amazon. She was just an inch under Fluttershy’s height but instead of curves, her body was packed with muscles, although she did have some nice hips. Just like the reports on her said, Applejack looked like she could do some serious damage if she kicked anything with those strong legs of hers. All of this strength was hidden under a plaid blouse and some worn working jeans. Of course, she also wore her famous stetson hat. If it came down to blows, Chrysalis had a slim chance of coming out unscathed, even with magic. She hoped that Applejack wouldn’t be one of the mares to try and attack her, but didn’t bet on the Element of Honesty taking a liking to changelings.

“Howdy Twi. What’s the big emergency?” Applejack asked as she took a seat next to Chrysalis. “Oh, and Howdy, Miss…?”

“Sweet Heart.” Chrysalis warily shook the mare’s proffered hand, wincing at the tight grip.

“Thanks for coming, Applejack, but I want to wait for everypony to be here first before I begin. Where’s Pinkie and Rainbow?”

Applejack nodded, “We couldn’t find Rainbow, so we told Pinkie to get her. I reckon they’ll be along shortly. Nopony can hide from Pinkie for long.”

Barely a second after she said that, the door burst open once more with Pinkie carrying in a snoring blue pegasus mare in her arms. She wore a frilly blue blouse and a pink and yellow polka dotted skirt that barely concealed her thick thighs. Rainbow’s attire and body was a stark contrast as she had a loose tank top and a pair of baggy sweatpants to cover her skinny, athletic frame.

Pinkie put a finger to her half-smiling lips to tell the others to stay quiet before laying Rainbow down gently on the table. Digging into her mane, Pinkie pulled out an air horn and promptly blasted it into Rainbow’s ear.

“AAAAAAAHHH!!” Rainbow yelled as she shot up towards the ceiling. “What’s going on!? Where am I!? What the-” She then caught sight of her friends below her trying not to laugh (except Pinkie who was already on the floor clutching her gut). “Celestia dammit, Pinkie! What’s the big idea waking me up like that?”

“Well, hehehe, AJ said that if I found you napping in her trees I could wake you up with a prank, so I did.”

“Remind me to save some extra cider for you next season,” Applejack said, ignoring Rainbow’s stink eye. “Now, mind telling us what you wanted us here for, Twi?”

“This oughta be good,” Spike muttered as he kept an eye on Chrysalis.

Twilight took a deep breath. “The reason I called you here is because I’ve received a special mission from Princess Cadance.”

“What would Princess Cadance need from us?” Rarity asked. “Has Sombra made a return?”

“Oh my,” Fluttershy gasped, “I certainly hope not. If it weren’t for Spike, I don’t think we could have beaten him.”

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow at this. Who was Sombra and what exactly did the dragon do to save the day? Questions for another time as the next comment grabbed her attention.

“I bet it’s changelings. They’re probably making a comeback after we kicked their butts at the wedding. Heh, I bet I could beat more of them this time!” Rainbow boasted, throwing punches and kicks in the air as if in combat.

Chrysalis’ smile twitched, but she kept an innocent expression. “Is that so? Because I heard you got captured after becoming surrounded by them. You couldn’t have beaten that many.”

Rainbow stopped fighting and frowned at her with crossed arms. “Oh yeah? Says who? They probably weren’t even there to see me in action. I’ll show them! I can beat them with one arm tied behind my back!”

‘More like I could beat you with just one arm,’ Chrysalis thought, but Twilight intervened before more could be said.

“Enough! Rainbow is partially right though. This mission does involve the changelings.”

“I knew it!”

“However,” Twilight glared sternly at Rainbow, “We’re not going to be fighting them. Instead, we’re to try to figure out alternative ways for them to gather love.” This brought out a few gasps and one disgruntled groan about lack of any action.

Rarity was the first to speak up. “Pardon me for asking, but how does she,” Rarity pointed to Chrysalis, “factor into this?”

Twilight’s expression grew strained, and Chrysalis could feel her anxiety permeate the air. ‘All that talk and the first chance she has, she gets cold wings. I guess that’s to be expected after the wedding,’ Chrysalis thought, concealing her annoyance from the others.

“Well, she is, uh, an acquaintance of Cadance who has an in depth knowledge about changelings.” Even without being able to read emotions, Chrysalis could see that Twilight had a poor poker face. It took considerable effort not to facepalm.

‘Oh, so when I suggest not telling them, it’s a security issue, but if you do it, then it’s because you chickened out?’ Chrysalis tried not to let her emotions leak onto her face. Instead, she gave Twilight an irritated, knowing glance and said, “That’s one way of putting it.”

“How do you know so much about them?” Applejack asked Chrysalis. “I thought there wasn’t much info known except in legends?”

Chrysalis smiled as sweetly as she could. “It helps to be a part of the species, for starters.” Her instincts were screaming at her for giving herself away so easily, but Lovedammit, if Twilight wasn’t going to do it, she might as well do it herself.

There was a heavy silence following her words as almost everypony was frozen in shock. It was barely a second before the yellow one fainted over, caught by the fashionista. Surprisingly, the only one who didn’t seem shocked, or at least scared, was Pinkie.

“A-Ah’m sorry, did you just say you were a changeling?” Applejack cleaned an ear out with her finger. “Because I don’t think I heard you right.”

Chrysalis chuckled at the thought of the Element of Honesty herself being skeptical of the truth presented before her. With a mischievous grin, she activated her magic and changed her disguise to look like the farm mare. “You heard me right.”

There was an immediate flurry of commotion. Applejack, spooked by her doppelganger, leaped out of her chair and put the table between her and Chrysalis, her hands grasped at air around her hips. Spike helped her out by handing her two heavy pots while he held a rolling pin and a skillet like a sword and shield. Rainbow Dash landed down onto the table with her fists raised and teeth bared. Rarity simply pulled herself and Fluttershy out of the way while fanning the unconscious mare. Pinkie was… writing in a notebook? All the while, Twilight just rubbed the bridge of her nose, sighing as the events unfolded.

“What in tarnation is going on, Twilight?” Applejack asked, her eyes fixed on Chrysalis.

“Yeah, what’s a changeling doing here? We should kick her out before she drains us!” Rainbow’s hands were itching for a fight.

Pinkie muttered to herself. “No, orange juice would taste terrible with mint. Or was it mint toothpaste?”

Chrysalis gave Twilight a smug look and made a quick change into Twilight’s form with a perky smile upon her face. “It’s really important that I tell my friends about the changeling among us for our safety. Nothing could go wrong except the slight chance they’ll attack her on sight. Oh, and for good measure, I’ll chicken out at the last moment and make it harder to explain everything. Great thinking, me!”

“I had it under control,” Twilight growled.

“Really?” Chrysalis asked, resting her head on her hand. “Then why’d you let me introduce myself as ‘Sweet Heart’?”

“I… Because it would have been weird to start off with your actual name without any context! I was trying to build up to it eventually.”

“And what a fantastic job you did,” Chrysalis deadpanned. “I already regret doing this, but it's too late to change things.”

Pinkie snickered. “Haha, ‘change’. Cause she’s a changeling. Good one!”

Chrysalis furrowed her brow. “That wasn’t a joke.”

Applejack spoke up once more, “Would somepony kindly explain what in Tartarus is going on here?”

Twilight sighed. “Please bear with me, but Cadance gave me a mission to try to research new ways of finding love for changelings. The best way to do that is to have a changeling with us to help note what works and what doesn’t. The biggest issue right now is the changeling herself.”

“Why? Is she that ugly looking queen of theirs?” Rainbow asked jokingly.

“Excuse you, Miss ‘I look like a feminine teenage boy’!” Chrysalis snapped back as she stood up and dropped her disguise.

Rainbow jumped back in shock, but it was short lived after she registered the changeling’s words. “At least I don’t look like some swamp bug monster reject!”

Chrysalis smirked and crossed her arms. “Ooh, scathing. This coming from the one who shows off which way she swings, that is unless you’re actually a colt.”

Fuming, Rainbow lunged for Chrysalis with an angry cry, but was stopped short by a bubble of magenta magic. A similar bubble appeared around Chrysalis as well. “Enough!” Twilight cried out. “Chrysalis, stop antagonizing everypony. Just because I said there was a small chance that Rainbow might attack you doesn’t mean you can go provoking her. Rainbow, you should know better than to keep insulting others.”

“But Twilight-!” They said in unison.

“No! Go sit in the corner and think about what you’ve done.” Twilight magicked the both of them to opposite sides of the room. Though that didn’t stop them from making faces at each other. Twilight looked up to see the bewildered expressions on her friend’s faces. “Oh, ponyfeathers. This really isn’t how I had hoped it would go.”

“Really? Because this is better than what I expected,” Spike said, lowering his ‘weapons’.

“That’s ok?” Applejack pointed her pot at the changeling. “But could you explain why you brought Queen Chrysalis here? You know, the one who brainwashed your brother and everything?”

“Actually,” Rarity piped up, “I believe a better question would be how can we be sure you’re not under her control?” Her horn was lit up and her arms embraced Fluttershy protectively.

Applejack’s eyes widened at the thought and she pointed her other pot at Twilight. “Yeah, that too.”

Twilight seemed to calm down as she explained, “Well, I’ve studied mind control magic after the wedding and from my research, the magic requires certain conditions to function properly, starting with the target’s unawareness to the caster.”

“Ha! Tell that to your brother!” Chrysalis shouted. She ignored Twilight’s glare as she continued to listen in on the conversation.

“That sounds like Twilight alright,” Applejack said, lowering her pot slightly, “But again, why is she here?”

“Let’s wake up Fluttershy first and then I’ll explain everything.”

After rousing the shy pegasus, Twilight sat everypony down (except the bubbled ones who just listened in) and explained the events of the previous day. With some interjection from Chrysalis, and the occasional question from the others, the situation was laid out clear as day. During that time, Spike brewed up and served a fresh pot of tea, giving extra special care for Rarity’s cup.

“Can you please help me with this?” Twilight begged, “I won’t be mad if you don’t but the more help I can get, the more data I can acquire during our experiments.” She put on a pleading smile, but it met with more than a few hesitant looks and one other smile.

“Yepperooni!”

“I dunno, Twi. Harvest season’s only in a few weeks. Got a lot of chores to do.”

“I am rather busy with orders, darling. I may not have the time for it.”

“Meep!”

“No way!”

All eyes turned to Rainbow Dash, who was still fuming in her bubble. “Chrysalis tricked us before, how do we know that this isn’t some fancy changeling trick?”

“Because I wouldn’t come up with something this ridiculous, you simpleton,” Chrysalis retorted. She was currently lounging in her bubble and glaring at Rainbow like an unamused cat. She felt that could have broken free if she tried, but didn’t want to risk upsetting the others by the bubbling fear she sensed in the room. “Only a pony would come up with a plan to make friends with an enemy.”

“See! She said ‘enemy’!” Rainbow jabbed a finger in Chrysalis’ direction. “She can’t be trusted!”

“Rainbow, dear, while I understand your concerns, I believe you might be exaggerating things a bit,” Rarity said.

Applejack nodded. “Yeah, Dash, I don’t like it any more than you but so far everything seems honest and square about the whole deal, all things considered.”

“If you want to try to help her, then fine, but I’m gonna keep an eye on her!”

Chrysalis smirked as she recalled a few tidbits from the reports she compiled on the mares. “What’s the matter? Afraid I might do your little stunts better than you?”

Rainbow narrowed her eyes at her. “As if! You couldn’t hope to keep up with my awesomeness!”

Shrugging nonchalantly, Chrysalis said, “That’s fine. From what I’ve heard ponies loved Rarity’s flying more than yours at that one competition you joined.” She knew that was a low blow to the mare’s ego, but the stunned silence and shocked expressions were so worth it.

Like an angry bird, Rainbow squawked as she clawed at her cage, “Let us out, Twilight! I’m gonna beat her ugly face in so much she’ll have to disguise it just to look normal!” She kept flinging threats and insults, but they were just hot air for all the damage it did to Chrysalis’ smug grin.

With her face in her hands, Twilight flared her horn and Rainbow disappeared, bubble and all. Not even looking up, she asked in a whisper, “Why? Why did you have to do that?”

“That wasn’t very nice of you, Chrysalis,” Fluttershy scolded as hard as her adorable face could, “You should apologize to her.” She squeaked and hid behind Applejack when Chrysalis’ eyes locked onto hers.

“Bite me. I get enough of the ‘I’m watching you’ treatment from Twilight and her brother. I don’t need it from some egotistical imbecile.” Chrysalis popped her prison with magic and stood up to stretch her legs. “Besides, she’d probably suggest something that involves stunts and I’m not about to break my neck for love.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “You do realize that she’s gonna try to get you back for that, right? Either by pranking or a straight out fight. Ya really kicked the hornet’s nest now.”

Chrysalis sat down next to Twilight. “Let her try. I’ve been cooped up in my castle for a long time. I could use the practice.” Seeing that Twilight wasn’t about to speak up soon, Chrysalis cleared her throat and spoke in professional tones, “I understand your reservations about working with me, I have my own as well, but I am invested in seeing this crazy plan come to fruition. I’d rather not have to rely on Cadance to give me the love I require every time. I need other options to fall back on. Preferably, ones that generate the most love.”

“Forgive me for asking, but how are you relying on Princess Cadance? I would have thought she would have nothing to do with you after the wedding?” Rarity asked.

“I thought so too, but then she asked for my help with her, um, project recently.” Chrysalis gave a cough and fought to keep a blush from showing. “Long story short, she and I have become... friendlier to each other? I’m not sure what to call our relationship, but Shining is still cross with me.” Despite this answer, Chrysalis could tell from the gleam in her eye that Rarity was hungry for details. Luckily, Applejack spoke up next to keep her from pressing for them.

“This little ‘experiment’ of y’alls, it’s not gonna harm any of us or our kin, right?”

Chrysalis mentally sighed. ‘Of course she would ask that,’ she thought, before responding. “Part of the reason we brought you all here was to get ideas for this experiment, so it really depends on you. Now that we’re all on the same page, let’s start planning. What ideas do you have to gather love energy?”

“Ooh! Ooh! I got one!” Pinkie jumped in her seat with her hand in the air, “We can cook some cupcakes, or cookies, or muffins, or cakes, or anything really. Ponies love pastries! That’ll get you a ton of love.”

“Only one problem,” Chrysalis said, “I don’t know how to cook. I’ve hardly set foot in a kitchen myself unless it was to look over the shoulders of actual cooks.”

Applejack frowned, “Then how did you-”

“Royalty, remember?” Chrysalis deadpanned, “Plus, I’ve always had enough bits to eat out somewhere.”

“Oh.”

Pinkie scoffed. “Baking’s not hard. Besides, if you follow my instructions, then you won’t have any baked bads and everypony will love it! Oh! Oh! Even better, we could try making them with love!”

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “Um, figuratively or literally?”

“Yes!”

Chrysalis opened her mouth to argue against it, but then shut it as she thought to herself, ‘What would happen if a pony ate love energy?’ She had never heard of such a thing happening. Probably because no changeling was foolish enough to waste love energy on such an endeavor. Then again, this was supposed to be an experiment, and if it brought in good results, she would trade her crown for a chef’s hat to get the upper hand on her sister.

“Well, it’s not a bad idea, but we’ll save it for later unless nopony else has anything to suggest?” Chrysalis looked around the table for the next pony to speak up.

“May I suggest modeling some clothes?” Rarity said, “Given the right outfit and form, you could model all sorts of fashion designs and I’m positive that ponies will be lining up just to see what you wear.”

Applejack glared flatly at her. “You just want someone who can wear those frilly clothes as anyone you want, don’t you?”

“Hush, darling.” Rarity returned a dismissive wave but kept her eyes on Chrysalis, or at least her body. The calculating gaze she held seemed to pierce through the threads to the skin. With each passing second, Chrysalis felt more and more naked under her scrutiny.

“We’ll have to discuss the finer details of that one,” Chrysalis said with a rising blush on her face. She had brought an arm protectively around her chest to ward off the feeling of nakedness that crept along her skin.

“How about helping me tend to my animals? I’m sure they could give a lot of love if you care enough for them,” Fluttershy offered.

Chrysalis spared her a small glance. “I doubt that. Changelings have already tried getting love from pets but unconditional love is the equivalent of artificial sweeteners.” Pinkie frowned at the mention of the food. “It’s not the same thing as the pure, raw emotion. It might feel the same, but it lacks substance, if that makes sense.”

While the explanation was true, Chrysalis didn’t have a stellar record with animals and caregiving. She had replaced many ponies in her time, but could never quite keep their pets well fed for very long—especially the fish— prompting her to abandon those disguises before she left a trail of dead pets in her wake. It was bad enough leaving with barely any love gathered, but she didn’t want to arouse suspicion towards her disguise’s sudden negligence. Not to mention there was no way in Tartarus that she was going to pick up any animal droppings, even with magic.

Fluttershy looked down at the table, hiding part of her face behind her mane. It was a pitiful sight, really. Like a birthday balloon that was slowly deflating. “Oh, I see. I was sure that with enough animals you could find enough love to gather.”

“I dunno, Fluttershy, artificial sweeteners are pretty bland,” Pinkie commented, “Chryssy said that sugar is love. Ooh! We can make sugar cookies or snickerdoodles!” She began writing down recipes off the top of her head that involved copious amounts of sugar.

Chrysalis stared at Fluttershy for a long moment and then closed her eyes. ‘I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do this. Nothing she could say would make me change my mind.’ She opened her eyes again only to be met with the sight of Fluttershy’s sad eyes staring back at her. Chrysalis was amazed by their power to plead for sympathy as her will began to falter. She finally rolled her eyes and said, “Ugh, fine, I’ll look into it, but I reserve the right to say ‘I told you so’.”

Immediately, Fluttershy’s face brightened and she sat up straighter. “Don’t worry! I’ll get the cuddliest, loveliest, most adorable animals I can find!”

“Oh joy,” Chrysalis muttered to herself, then said, “I guess we have a plan then. I’ll talk with Twilight about-“

“Wait just a cotton-pickin’ second,” Applejack shouted, “Ain’t you gonna hear any suggestions from me?” She had a stubborn inquisitive look on her face that was none too pleased about being passed over.

“No, no, I think we have enough to work with,” Chrysalis said a bit hastily.

“Really? Because Twi would want more opportunities for getting data and such.” Applejack folded her arms, her expression remain unchanged.

‘Crap.’ Chrysalis tried to maintain eye contact as she spoke. “Normally, yes, but I don’t think that it’ll be necessary now.” She silently prayed that the farm mare would drop the conversation.

“Why’s that?”

Chrysalis’ eyes wandered off to the side. “Because I, uh, already have enough experience getting love energy from your family?” She put on a nervous, but wide, toothy smile.

One could hear a pin drop in the ensuing silence as everypony stared at Chrysalis. Applejack slowly stood up and placed her fists on the table. “Care to repeat yourself?” She asked with unnerving calmness.

Realizing she was caught, Chrysalis gave out the truth. “You do know that you have one of the most expansive families across Equestria, right? Then it shouldn’t be so surprising that almost every changeling has gathered love from somepony in your family at least once in their life. It’s almost considered a rite of passage to get love from the Apple family at this point.” Well it was more like a final test for gatherers but more or less the same. Chrysalis could sense Applejack’s emotions turn from a fiery blaze of anger to a storm of conflicting emotions. The mare was angry for her family being used as food, but also a heaping of pride at being part of something so important. There was also some confusion and embarrassment mixed in as well, but to a smaller degree.

“Oh. Well as long as they aren’t being hurt, I guess it’s alright,” she grumbled out, “But how do you have so much ‘experience’, hmm?”

Chrysalis silently cursed as she hoped the mare would forget about that. Sighing, she said, “I may have sampled a few handfuls of the family in passing to my next target, especially that one strangely excited male from Appleloosa.” She noticed the others giving her strange looks. “What?”

Rarity coughed and moved to cover Spike’s ears. “By ‘sampling’ do you mean…?”

“What?! No!” Chrysalis sputtered out as the realization hit her, “Get your mind out of the gutter! It was only some flirting and maybe a small date at most from me. I can’t speak for the other changelings though.” She certainly remembered some of the reports of changelings who gathered love from the Apple family regularly. A few of them were quite detailed and if they weren’t supposed to be official records she would have burned them on the spot.

A gleam of intrigue flashed in Rarity’s eyes. “Not your type then?” she asked, but Chrysalis ignored her.

Applejack seemed to deflate upon hearing this and pondered aloud, “Huh, that would explain why some of the stallions at the reunions would always have contests about how many mares they seduced. Always thought those numbers were a load of horse apples.” A thought struck her. “Wait a sec, why haven’t any of you tried to get love from my family here in Ponyville? We got plenty of love here!”

“I have no idea,” Chrysalis said with her best poker face. Truth be told, she was staring right at the half of the reason for it. Upon researching the Elements, Chrysalis had found a significant pile of complaints lodged against Applejack, particularly from the female changelings. None of them could get close to her brother when she was around and it seemed that he was one of the prize targets among the ones who preyed on the Apples. Chrysalis found some of the rumors about this ‘Big Mac’ to be highly exaggerated, especially in regards to his anatomy. Then, of course, there were the males who couldn’t keep up with her in terms of physique. They were also scared of her brother and of what he could do if they were caught fooling around with the mare. Thankfully, Applejack accepted the explanation though she was still disgruntled over it.

“Thanks for the suggestions, girls,” Twilight spoke up. Her grin was heavily strained, but she managed it well. “We’ll try to come up with more ideas later, but for now we can work with this. I’m sorry to drop this on you so suddenly, but I couldn’t do it alone.”

Rarity dismissed her with a wave. “Nonsense. We’re always happy to help you with anything you need.” Fluttershy nodded in agreement.

“Eeyup,” Applejack added, “but a little warning would’ve been nice. Nearly scared the pants right off me!”

“Speak for yourself. I loved this surprise!” Pinkie exclaimed. “I can’t wait to try cooking with love! Not that I don’t already do that, but actual love this time!”

“Again, thank you. Chrysalis and I will be setting things up for the experiment and data recording. You girls get ready for it too. I haven’t decided on an order yet so I’ll let you know when I do.” Twilight scribbled away as she spoke, planning different designs for the experiments.

The mares soon left, leaving Twilight, Chrysalis, and Spike alone in the kitchen.
Twilight was focused on the paper before her while Spike set about cleaning up the room. Chrysalis glanced between the both of them before breaking the silence.

“I think that went rather well. I don’t know why you were so worried, Twilight.”

The unicorn’s only response was to bang her head against the table, much to Spike’s confusion.

Author's Note

Here's your dang chapter. Took me quite a while to make the logic of the arguments sound. Hope you enjoy it.

For those of you who have read the story before I did revisions, you'll see that this is entirely new content. At first, I thought about going back on the old chapters, but then I wondered why the heck I had to introduce Chrysalis to the others one at a time. Might as well get it over with. I know Chrysalis would want that.

Also, this chapter would have been out a month ago, but studying for tests and doing projects and weekly reports take priority.

Special thanks to Pumpernickel Rye and The Wind King for proofreading, and to you guys for putting up with my slow writing ass.