Applejack was laying in the guest room, she was upset. She had one of her family taken away form her, she reserved the right to be angry did she not. She removed from her musings by a familiar voice “Applejack.”

She sat up to see Chrysalis carrying two saddlebags standing there with a smile, Applejack frowned “Ah thought you were giving me some time to think?”

Chrysalis smiled “Well, the truth is Twilight wanted to keep working but I told her that we would start to burn out if we didn’t have a break. You need to work with a fresh eyes, you get tunnel vision if you stare at something for too long.”

Applejack sighed “So you want to spend some time with me in Canterlot, Ah’m not one for the fancy stuff in Canterlot. Ah am a hard working farm pony at heart.”

Chrysalis giggled “So am I, I was bucking tree were your grandparent’s grandparents weren’t even a twinkle in their parent’s eyes. I was going to Doughnut Joe’s, it is a nice place to relax.”

Applejack smiled “That’s true, I have been rather stressed out lately Ah must admit.”

The two of them left the castle heading down to Doughnut Joes, Chrysalis smiled a she and Applejack entered “A platter of your finest doughnuts for the two of us.”

Doughnut Joe chuckled “They’ll be ready soon.”

Applejack and Chrysalis were sitting in the small shop, Applejack frowned “Chrysalis. I would like to to know more about your reign, some of the stories of your life.”

Chrysalis frowned “Well one of the important invents I was involved in was…”

Centuries Ago

An armoured light blue pegasus with a golden mane was flying above the ground alongside several other armoured pegasi, dragons were belching fire at them. She yelled “Evasive manoeuvres, now!”

One of them shouted “Captain Swift Storm, we can’t keep this up for much longer! There are too many of them!”

Swift Storm growled “We need to hold the Line, countless ponies are depending on us! Princess Celestia is busy with the Royal Guard fighting the Griffon Invasion Force!” She flew past a dragon tearing through it’s scale with a wing blade before firing a razor sharp magical crystal into a another tearing it in half.

Another stallion flew beside her “Hey Swift, I was just going ask if maybe we could…”

Swift rolled her eyes as she broke a dragon neck’s neck with a punch “Now is not really the time for that question Windsoul! I’ll give you an answer when we get back!” A dragon flew over them belching fire, the both spun out the way before chasing the dragon tearing into it with their wingblades. The battlefield was truly a mess, pegasi and dragons were strewn across the scorched field. Swift didn’t even flinch as she saw a fellow flier fall out of the sky, her furious bladed wings tearing through the skies while Windsoul flew around assisting the struggling soldiers feeling a pang of guilt for each comrade that he failed to save.

He watched as his Swift tore through the air tearing apart as many dragons as she could, despite Windsoul’s best efforts they were soon the only two Pegasi in the skies. Out of the three hundred sent out they were the only two left as thousands of massive dragons surrounded them.

Swift flared her wings out ready to fight her last battle, only for several winged creatures to fly past them. Swift’s eyes widened as countless Griffons flew past alongside Countless Royal Guards tearing into the dragons.

Celestia joined Swift and Windsoul “As it turns out the Dragons tried to attack Griffonstone as well, they even faked a pony attack in order to get us to fight one another. What they didn’t count on was that every Griffon is a trained soldier, and as soon as we caught word of the attack we headed here.” The princess then sighed “I only wish we arrived sooner.”

Swift shook her head “You were where you needed to be Princess, all of us knew what we up against. I told everypony that this would be a 90% chance that we would all die. All who died here were prepared to die.” Celestia nodded before flying onto the battlefield.

Present Day

Applejack blinked “Wait you were Swift Storm, Captain of the First Wonderbolt Squadron!”

Chrysalis nodded “It would a rough battle, Ocellus was much younger during that battle but was more than ready to take over the hive. I was a much more active Queen back then, Equestria was full of wars and I was a member of multiple Wonderbolt squads across the centuries. I had one foal during that time before I had to leave, I me many of his descendants.”

Applejack frowned “You had another son?”

Chrysalis frowned “He was a pure pony, he didn’t inherit much from me and well I had to fake my death not long afterwards. Not many would believe getting blasted by an Ursa Major’s Star Breath was survivable. I met many of his descendants during my time in the Wonderbolts, in fact one of them is the Current Captain.”

Applejack rubbed her forehead “How many descendants do you have?”

Chrysalis laughed “Quite a lot, not quite as many as your Alicorns though. Most nobles have a least one of the Alicorns as an ancestor and so do many others, I’m confident that if you were to map our family trees one of my descendants has married into one of theirs at some point.”

Applejack frowned “That make sense Ah suppose.”

Chrysalis shook her head “How about we move past complicated family tree, do you have any interesting stories to tell?”

Applejack smiled “Well, there was one day when …”

One Month Ago

Applejack was humming to herself when she heard an explosion, she galloped towards the Crusader Clubhouse only to hear Apple Bloom shouted “Sweetie Belle, Ah ta ya not to touch my potions set!”

Sweetie Belle slumped “I’m sorry, I just wanted to try out making potions.”

Scootaloo frowned “How did you mess it up badly, it was just a basic potion. I could have figured it out.”

Apple Bloom frowned “There was a reason why Ah let you use it with mah supervision but not her. Potion is basically cooking with magic involved, she is lucky to be alive if Ah’m honest.”

Applejack busted in only to see the broken potions set on the ground in a puddle of liquid while Scootaloo was in the corner warily eyeing the liquid, Applejack sighed “Ah will take you to Zecora’s, she should be able to give you a new one.”

Apple Bloom frowned “Ah may need to get somepony to enchant the potion set so only those with my permission can use it. Ah don’t want another incident.”

Applejack nodded the two ventured through the Everfree Forest towards Zecora’s home only to see Zecora fighting three Hydras and a pack of Timberwolves with a staff. They both decided to go home and come back another time.

Present Day

Chrysalis was deep in thought “A zebra in the Everfree Forest, that interesting. The fact she is alone even more so, they have a tendency to be quite Tribal not mention that it is a quite a suitable environment for changelings. Near a small pony town and dangerous enough to keep most ponies out.”

Applejack frowned “You think she could be a Changeling?”

Chrysalis grimaced “She could be…” the former Queen then shook her head “Let’s leave that behind. We need to relax.” The two continued sharing stories even as the doughnuts arrived, still Chrysalis couldn’t get the possibility of Zecora being a Changeling out of her mind.

Author's Note

I will write a few more peaceful chapters before anything big happens.