In a dark cave hidden in the middle of a forest, Queen Chrysalis woke up once again, somewhat sore from sleeping on a couple of leaves on the rocky ground, somewhat insomniac because of what has happened in the last few days, and somewhat hungry because of the difficulty they have had to get food these days.
The last few days spent in the cave, Chrysalis together with a small group of changelings and a couple of eggs have been repetitive for the most part, they have been digging big holes that they ended up covering a couple of hours later and the queen hated to repeat it day after day, not because of the monotony but because of its meaning, when she was digging a new hole a small changeling that could easily be mistaken for a teenager because of its stature approached the queen and stood at her side, then looked her in the eyes fixedly.
"How many were there this time Elitro?" Asked the queen to the little changeling without looking away from her work.
"Four this time my queen, and two eggs." Replied the little changeling.
"I see, and are you sure your plan will work, do you think she'll help us."
"At this point, I don't think we can afford to keep looking for options."
"Alright Elitro, I need you here today for the ceremony and you can leave on mission first thing tomorrow morning, I know she gets up very early." Elitro nodded his head and helped the queen dig as well using his hoof.
The next day and without knowing what The Queen was planning, AppleJack got up very early in the morning to do his chores on the farm, although for other ponies it would be a very early hour, for the Apple family it was the normal time to start their days, it was normal for them to get up before the roosters crowed, it was normal for them to get up before dawn broke, it was even normal for them to get up when it was still dark in the winter days, sometimes at that time of the morning they could see some familiar faces wandering around Ponyville like Vinyl doing his Dj work in the evenings, Berry Punch tending the Ponyville bar in the nights and then working on his farm in the mornings and Pinkie Pie doing the things that a Pinkie pie does, they were the most common ponies at that time of day along with the Apple family.
After breakfast Apple Bloom was getting ready for another day of school and Big Mac was getting some apples ready for a shipment to Canterlot, AppleJack was finishing feeding the animals before going to Ponyville to sell his apples and Grandma Smith would stay behind to look after the farm, all in all, it was just another normal morning on the farm. The three siblings walked together in the direction of town, but the youngest separated from them to head to school, shortly after Big Mac did the same to head to the train station leaving AppleJack alone to head to the market, many of the stalls were still being set up when the farmer arrived and took her time setting up in her characteristic corner near the town hall.
AppleJack knew everyone in Ponyville along with the regular train travelers, the small town was a regular stop for tourists and travelers to and from Canterlot so for her it was not unusual to see a new face get off the train to stroll around, buy a souvenir or something to eat and get back on the train before leaving again, some tourists would just get off to see the homely town where the protectors of Equestria and personal friends of the princesses lived.
"Excuse me are you AppleJack?"
"That's right."
"And you live on a farm?."
"That's right."
"And you sell fruit?"
"That's right again."
"Apple-shaped fruit?"
"Sir, do u need help with something? This conversation is turning into..."
"Oh, excuse me, my name is Ummm... Random Pony, yes Random Pony and I am a... normal pony that lives near Hollow Shades, I was sent by my queen... by my mother, yes, my mother in search of you... I mean your apples, my what... mother likes apples very much and my brothers too, but my... mother would like very much for you to go to our house.... with your apples, we really like apples." he replied to AppleJack, what caught the farmer pony's attention was that this pony was a red-colored pony with a yellow mane and tail with a cutie mark with the letters PT, AppleJack didn't know how but she felt she had seen this pony before.
"I may not be the smartest apple in the barrel, but even I can tell you have something weird, if you need help I can point you in the direction of the hospital for some doct-."
"We are willing to give you a good deal of money for your presence and your apples in the presence of our queen...I mean mother" interrupted Random Pony placing a large bag of money on the counter.
"If you wanted some apples you could have said so earlier, I can gladly place the order this week and Big Mac make the delivery to your house if you so s-."
"Nooo!!!" the pony interrupted again, which the shout drew the attention of some of the other merchants.
"Excuse me?."
"I mean the delivery has to be made by you, my mother would like to thank you personally for your product and... do future business."
"In that case, I can gladly make the delivery in a few days after I finish-"
"Excellent, we will be waiting for you at our house, have the address."
AppleJack takes a small sheet of paper in his hoof and tucked it away in his hat without reading what it said.
"OK mate, anything else to help you?."
"That all Miss AppleJack, have a nice day" Random Pony replied and quickly retreated to disappear among the other stalls that were just finishing setting up to sell.
AppleJack was used to the strange days of Ponyville with monsters, uncontrolled spells, spontaneous parties, Flim and Flam, super-powerful enemy attacks, and Pinkie Pie, things like this could happen on a normal day in Ponyville so she didn't give much thought to the pony's strange way of talking and finished setting up her apple stall to earn some money for the farm.
The morning hours passed without much trouble for the farm pony, a little slow for her taste but she hoped that as the day went by she could raise the money needed to buy a new chicken wire fence and raise some money to buy a couple of new tools she had seen a while ago at the hardware store and give them to Big Mac, half a day had passed and since there was little movement in the market AppleJack decided to rest a little and eat something, she opened her bag to check her food options, apple, apple, apple, green apple, peach, apple, after meditating for a couple of seconds she decided on a couple of apples and count the morning's earnings, the big bag of money the pony gave her in the early hours of the morning would help her a lot in buying the things she had planned but there were still a couple of hours left before she left for the farm.
"Good morning AppleJack, how's business?" asked a pink pony walking to the farm pony's stall.
"Good morning Pinkie, what brings you here?"
"Doing some shopping for some cakes I have to make for a birthday." She Replied to her friend with an at first glance very overloaded bag with the image of three balloons on its side as she approached in front of her small fruit stand.
"Do you need me to help you with anything, after I finish my shift I can stop by Sugarcube Corner and help you make some delicious apple pies, I have a recipe that Goldie Delicious sent us a while back and I want to try it."
"Thanks, AJ, I love trying out new cake recipes" Replied the pink pony jumping up and down with a big smile on her face.
"Glad to help you, and tell me do you need anything else?" asked AppleJack as she bobbed her head up and down following her friend's jumps.
Pinkie stops in midair just inches above the ground and hovers at that height for a couple of seconds, "Right, I almost forgot..." after speaking the pink pony gently descends and lands on the ground without kicking up any dust.
"Do you have any apples to sell me AJ?" she asks with a smile to her friend looking at her face.
"I don't know Pinkie...let me check through all the apples I have for sale on the stand." Replied AppleJack moving his hoof slowly over the obvious fruits as she spoke.
"Ok." Pinkie told her without taking her eyes off her face.
"..."
"..."
"...mmm..." That was the only sound AppleJack made as she rolled her eyes and while Pinkie still stared at her unblinkingly and still with her smile on her face, not understanding the sarcasm.
"How many apples do you want Pinkie?"
"I need twenty apples."
"Anything else?" She asked her friend as she passed her the bag with the apples.
"Noooope" She answered her as she opened her bag were several balloons of different colors flew out and both ponies followed them with their eyes until they disappeared in the sky and got lost in the infinity, "I think I'm going to need more balloons..., AJ by any chance don't you sell balloons?".
"Just apples Pinkie, just apples..." she replied without looking away as the balloons disappeared from sight one by one.
It was common knowledge in town that AppleJack always closed her fruit stand early to go home and help her brothers finish what was left of their work and tidy up the tools, but since an unusual customer in the morning gave her a generous sum of money for delivery of apples she was able to close early so she could help Pinkie at Sugarcube Corner make apple pies and finish her other preparations.
Arriving at the bakery, AppleJack peeked out the kitchen window in search of Pinkie who was baking three pies at the same time with a speed so fast you would think there was more than one Pinkie in the kitchen, the farm pony stood watching for a couple of seconds with an amazed look on her face as her friend worked without making the slightest mistake and with such exacting precision and coordination that she only thought Pinkie was a one pony team.
Applejack shook her head to come to and rested her front hooves on the window frame. "Hi Pinkie, I see you have everything under control, do you still need help?"
"Hi AppleJack, I'm a couple of cakes short, but come on in, it's always more fun to cook with friends." Replied one of the Pinkies who was cooking walking over to the window while the other two continued to work.
AppleJack couldn't help but ask once again how Pinkie was doing what she was doing, but she knew her question wouldn't come to any answers and the only weird thing about her friend is when she acts normal, so she decided to just take her hooves off the window and go into the kitchen.
The ponies had already spent a couple of hours in the kitchen finishing cooking some apple pies and the "One-hundred-super-special-flavored-whit-diverse-flavors-for-super-parties-from-Pinkie Pie" whose name she found a bit long for a recipe Pinkie prepared very often, but no one could argue about what food to prepare for a party with Equestria's number one planner.
"And how did your apple sale go today AppleJack?" asked Pinkie as she ate the remains of a multicolored glaze with a large wooden spoon.
"Not as well as I had hoped Pinkie, but a customer gave me a sack of money for making a big delivery near Hollow Shades." She replied as she carried some plates of cupcakes over to a table.
"Isn't Hollow Shades the place where the bat ponies live?"
"The what?"
"Princess Luna's night guard...the grey colored ponies...cat eyes usually golden in color...they appeared in S02-E04...they like mangoes and pineapples..." Pinkie was talking to her now eating the rest of the meringue leftover from the cupcakes.
"How come you know so much about Princess Luna's guard, Pinkie?"
"They have a wiki on Fandom."
"They have one on what?" She paused and looked at Pinkie trying to figure out what she was talking about.
"I'll leave you the link below in the author's notes Applejack." She answered her finishing eating the last of the meringue.
"Down where Pinkie?" She asked looking at her hooves.
"And did he give you any delivery address?."
"He gave me a note with an address, but I didn't check it at the time, I just kept it in my hat."Replied AppleJack preferring to change the subject and not question the pink pony's logic.
"Let's see what it says, it's probably from some pony who lives in town."
AppleJack nodded and pulled the sheet of paper out of his hat to read it. "It says here... This is a drawing and Hollow Shades is misspelled."
"It's a good drawing?"
AppleJack showed the drawing to Pinkie who took it with her hoof and began to look it over.
It was a drawing of what looked like a little town made with some square houses with triangular roofs surrounded by trees and the word "Holob Shades" pointing with an arrow to the little town, a train on some tracks with some ponies with smiley faces on it and an arrow above the town pointing to the word "north" along with a big yellow sun with a smiley face on it, all done with crayons.
"Hmmm... aha... yes... I understand..." were Pinkie's words as she examined the drawing and scratched her chin with her other hoof.
"What do you think of the drawing Pinkie?".
"I think the drawing style is simple but direct, the lines are strong and with plenty of color contrast, the proportions are ok, but it needs to work more on the background and the misspelled name could be a personal style, I think watching a few chapters of "Hoof Ross" this pony could be a good artist." Pinkie told her handing the drawing back to AppleJack, who returned a look raising an eyebrow at her friend's response.
"Don't you feel there's something weird about this drawing Pinkie?" She asked her as she put the drawing back in her hat.
"Nope."
"Do you think it's a trap?."
"No bad pony would make a map with a sun with a smiley face AppleJack."
"Yeah... I guess you're right."
After finishing helping Pinkie tidy up what was left in the kitchen, AppleJack was heading in the direction of the door to go home, it was getting late and she had to help her brothers sort out the tools.
"Thanks for the help AppleJack, I don't know what time I would have finished without your help and those apple pies look delicious."
"Don't worry Pinkie, you know I'm always willing to help a friend, and if you need any more recipes for apple pies, apple cupcakes, or candied apples, you can always stop by the farm and I can give you a couple of new recipes you can use."
The two ponies hugged for a moment and said goodbye as already the princess was beginning to descend the sun behind the mountains, which was AppleJack's cue to begin her lonely walk back to the farm.
___________________________________________________________________________
At that same hour in another part of Equestria
The trees in the forest surrounding Hollow Shades were taller than the other trees in the forests of Equestria and also much lusher, which meant that only a portion of the sunlight could penetrate the treetops and produce longer nights. This was the reason the Bat ponies chose this place to found Hollow Shades in the first place, along with their greater sensitivity to light and nocturnal lifestyle, and although at first glance it was a drearier forest than Everfree Forest, it is a safer forest to live in and be able to walk through at night.
A train pulled into the Hollow Shades station and a red pony with a yellow mane descended from the train and stood patiently waiting at the station for all the other passengers to leave in the direction of town and board those departing from town, after a couple of minutes that he didn't see and hear anything at the station, he headed down a seldom-used road heading north away from town and into the forest.
Random Pony had made this trip a few times before at her mother's request so she knew the way through the forest quite well, it was a little-traveled road, safe and very quiet, you could only hear the owls and the night ponies flying over the forest collecting exotic fruits mostly.
After almost an hour walking, Random Pony arrived at a very well hidden cave in the middle of some big bushes, it was a hideout that was impossible to see from the air, and the only way to find it was to know the way by land, he stopped for a couple of seconds and sighed before continuing his way to the cave and entering it, inside and leaning on a rock was a changeling which was noticeable that he had had better days.
"Were you able to bring any food Elitro?"
"Just a little."
"And your mission, were you able to complete it successfully?"
"I handed over the address to the pony..." Random Pony sighed before continuing. "Do you believe this plan will work?."
"I think that's not up to us."
"I guess you're right." Elitro dropped his disguise and they were silent for a few seconds. "How many of us are left?" I ask the changeling at the entrance still leaning on the rock.
"Twenty-four."
"And the eggs... have any been able to hat-."
"None."
Both changelings stared at each other for almost a minute with genuine sadness in their eyes, they knew their time was slowly running out and their hopes were in the queen's plan, it kept them busy and kept them from thinking of worse things, but they couldn't hide the fear if this plan failed.
"I'm going to report to the queen, try to get some rest." walked Elitro into the cave.
"This is the only job the queen could give me because of my condition and it consists of counting those who enter and leave the cave, I can't rest."
"After I report to the queen I can come and stand guard at the entrance so you can get some sleep."
"I don't want to sleep, I'm afraid if I sleep I won't come back to..."
Elitro paused for a second upon hearing that answer before continuing on his way in the direction of the chamber where Chrysalis was, he had heard that answer before and knew what it meant.
Inside the hatching chamber were some broken changeling eggs, some with a very soft green glow and some with no glow, on one side of the chamber was the queen lying on a bed of leaves stroking an egg with one of her front hooves while singing a lullaby to it.
"Queen Chrysalis I come to deliver my report." Elitro said giving a military salute to the queen as she kept her eye on the egg between her front legs.
Elitro said giving a military salute to the queen as she kept her eye on the egg between her front paws.
"Elitro were you able to complete your mission?". Asked the queen without taking her eyes off her egg.
"Yes my queen, I found the farmer pony, made the purchase, and gave her the note you asked for."
"Excellent work Elitro, I can also feel that you brought some love."
"Yes my queen, also as ordered, but I couldn't bring much love this time."
"That's ok, in our position I can't ask much of you."
Chrysalis got up from the bed of leaves and walked in Elitro's direction, she stopped a few steps away from him and opened her mouth to absorb the love she could get from the changeling, Elitro just closed his eyes, lifted his head a little and a small cloud of colorful energy emerged from his body and Chrysalis absorbed the little love he could steal in his mission, the whole process didn't last more than ten seconds and when the cloud disappeared Chrysalis closed her mouth and looked at Elitro again.
"Sorry my queen, but that's all I could get." Elitro said looking at the ground with disappointment.
"You did well, the important thing in this mission was that you delivered the message." Chrysalis expected Elitro to bring much more food for her egg and her, but she didn't want to let the changeling realize her disappointment.
"You think this plan will work?."
"Of course, it's going to work, I do not doubt it." I hope this works, I don't know what I'm going to do with you if that mare doesn't come here. she thinks.
"And if the pony named AppleJack doesn't come?."
"If you did your part right she will show up here, and if you are that concerned in the event she doesn't show up, I always have a plan B." By my mother's roots, she has to come, I don't know what else to do.
"I'm afraid." Elitro looked up from the ground and looked directly at Chrysalis.
"I know, I can feel it." Chrysalis replied with a calm tone and look.
"You're not afraid?."
"Not at all." She replied again showing no emotion on her face, she knew she couldn't show weakness to her subjects, much less now that she only had a few and as the days went by that number only went down.
Chrysalis prided herself on her ability to hide her emotions, even to beings like other changelings who were sensitive to all kinds of emotion, it was a natural ability of hers for being the queen of the changeling and polished over centuries of manipulation and espionage, but Chrysalis did not lie, she was not afraid, she was terrified, she had already spent many sleepless nights thinking about what she would do if her plan did not work, She had already gone through her mind hundreds of plans and why they might fail before using this plan, Celestia, Luna, Cadence, Shining Armor, Twilight, The other elements of harmony, She could not approach any of them directly without a high probability of failure, she needed to play her cards right and on her territory, she needed to be honest and her only option was the pony that represented the element of honesty, and for that she needed that pony to see her situation with her own eyes.
"Go back to the other changeling Elitro, I will return to feed my egg."
"At your command my queen." Elitro took his leave with a military salute and retreated from the hatching chamber in the direction of the entrance.
Chrysalis waited for Elitro to leave the incubation room and returned to her bed of leaves to feed the egg she had in her with the little love that Elitro brought, Chrysalis had been days without eating and the little love brought by the changeling that managed to return she gave it all to her egg, she could stand the hunger but she no longer had sufficient magic to teleport, telepathy, and even less to change her form, so she simply settled on her bed, gently took the egg between her front hooves and brought it close to her belly letting the love flow gently from her body to the egg, she closed her eyes and kept singing the lullaby hoping to get some sleep tonight.
Elitro couldn't understand what it was, but something in the queen's way of talking had caught his attention, maybe it was the lack of rest since he had seen her several nights without sleep, or maybe a bit of hunger since she was feeding an egg directly, he had already been walking a few minutes from the hatching room towards the entrance when he reached it and saw again the same changeling leaning on the rock.
"Hey, Scot I already reported to the queen, if you want you can go get some rest and I'll stand guard tonight." Elitro said to Scutelo as he walked in his direction.
"..."
"Were you so sleepy Scot that you fell asleep at your post?."
"..."
"Hey, Scot wake up and go rest with the others." Elitro said in a louder tone already in front of Scutelo gently shaking his shoulder.
"..."
"Scot..."
_____________________________________________________________________
It had been two days since AppleJack was given a sack of money and a strange address for a large delivery of apples, she found the order strange, but Pinkie was right about one thing, no evil pony draws smiley faces, so she finished preparing the wagon with the barrels of apples, boxes of apples to sell and some tools Big Mac wanted to repair and waited for her brother and little sister to leave in the direction of town.
The trip from the farm to Ponyville only took a couple of minutes and the three earth ponies made this trip almost daily mostly talking about apples and the things Apple Bloom had done with the CMCs.
Already at the market, the three brothers began to unload their goods and set up the stand when they heard a huge white pegasus yell "YEEEAAAAAAA!!!" along with a Golden Harvest who could only laugh at the sight and a lavender-colored princess approaching as she trotted along happily.
"Good morning AppleJack, wow that's a lot of fruit to sell today don't you think?" asked the princess as she saw the hundreds of apples they brought to the market.
"Hi Twi, this cart here? haha no... this here is for a delivery I have to make near Hollow Shades, Apple Bloom is going to take care of business today and Big Mac is going back to the farm, it will be a couple of days trip only" replied the mare as she finished unloading a couple of boxes from the cart. "And tell me Twilight what brings you to the market at this hour, are you out of ink and feathers?" she asked the princess with a smile and a little giggle imagining why she was at the market at this hour.
"No AppleJack, I still have a few bottles of ink left for about three days, I have a new appointment at the hospital today."
"Oh, I hope you get lucky today sugar cube, I know you really want this to work out."
"Thanks, AppleJack, I have a good feeling today" replied Twilight as she hugged her friend, "I have to go now, good luck on your journey AppleJack, bye Big Mac, bye Apple Bloom" Twilight said goodbye before continuing her journey to the hospital.
The three siblings watched the princess ride away in the direction of the Ponyville hospital trotting happily with a smile on her face and Apple Bloom with some concern watched her big sister as she walked beside her and know something she had not understood for some time.
"Hey sis, doesn't an adult mare need a special somepony to be a mother?." Asked little Apple Bloom to her big sister.
"That would have to be the norm for everyone sis, but Twilight hasn't found a stallion she can love." She replied looking back at her with a slight smile.
"Then why does Twilight go to the hospital so often?".
"Some mares similar to Twilight have... chosen other ways of mothering without having a stallion with them to form a traditional family, only it has taken Twilight much longer than the others."
"And then why doesn't she think about adopting a foal?".
"You see Apple Bloom, the thing is, in Twi's case... she... she thinks that..." AppleJack didn't know how to answer that question, she knew Twilight was determined, but sometimes stubborn and it was hard to change her mind.
"Twilight believes that the only way a mare can start a family and be a mother is to have a child of her own, with the time she has been in Ponyville you would think that seeing all the diverse and happy families living here she would also think about adopting, for example, our family we are only three siblings and our grandmother, Rarity and Sweetie Belle being sisters, Scootaloo and her aunts, Derpy and her daughter, Lyra and Bon Bon, or even herself and Spike, they are all very diverse but equally happy families and somehow Twilight can't see that, If we tell her directly that she can adopt she is only going to think she can't be a mother and we want her to forget that dream, this is something Twilight has to understand for herself. " Big Mac finally said interrupting his sister when he saw that she was having trouble with how to answer Apple Bloom's question.
Both sisters turned with wide eyes to see Big Mac who was already finishing unloading the apples from the cart and AppleJack thought about her brother's words, for a pony who spoke little he knew how to make every word count for a lot, AppleJack just smiled at his brother with a grateful face for explaining in seconds something that would take her all day.
"Thank you Big Brother." Replied Apple Bloom finally looking up at Big Mac with a smile, which he only responded by stroking her mane and smiling back at her.
After about half an hour of finishing setting up her stall and sorting the boxes AppleJack said goodbye to her brothers and headed for the Ponyville train station, she liked to make deliveries traveling on the dirt roads, but Hollow Shades was far away and the apples could break down on the trip, so she had to ask for a special wagon so she could transport the apples and her cart to the Hollow Shades station.
Upon arriving at Hollow Shades station, AppleJack with the help of a pony working at the station managed to unload the barrels of apples from the train and load them into his wagon, after finishing loading the wagon and thanking the station pony, AppleJack once again checked the address given to him by Random Pony a few days before.
"Let's see... The address the pony gave me says... North." AppleJack looked up from the paper and looked around, he could only see a lightly traveled dirt road heading north of the station.
"It has to be this way, if I see any construction I guess I can ask for directions." AppleJack tucked the paper in her hat and started the rest of her walk heading north on the dirt road.
AppleJack had been walking along the forest trail for about thirty minutes without seeing any construction or another pony along the way, it was soon to be noon so no bat ponies were flying over the forest either, she knew from experience that she could walk for at least another three hours before she had to return to town due to lack of sunlight, so she just kept walking hoping to see a house or farm, a couple of minutes after she kept walking, AppleJack sees a red pony waving at her in the distance.
AppleJack was tired and angry carrying a cart full of apples along with two knocked-out changelings, about ten minutes ago when she saw Random Pony waiting for her on the road and after exchanging greetings AppleJack was surrounded by a group of changelings and Random pony dropped his disguise.
AppleJack was at the entrance of the cave that Chrysalis and the changelings were occupying as a hiding place, she took off the straps that tied her to the cart and was escorted into the cave by a couple of changelings while the rest helped to unload the apples and wake up the two unconscious changelings in the cart, one of them was the changeling that transformed into the pony that tricked AppleJack and was the first to receive a direct blow to the head and fall to the ground unconscious.
The inside of the cave was cold, dark and AppleJack could hear a pony singing very slowly somewhere, one of the changelings shone his horn to light the way as they advanced through the cave, the pony found it curious that at all times she could only see very few changelings in the cave, about twelve in all and several of them were just leaning against the wall staring at her as she passed by them, others were just lying on their bellies trying to stay awake, and on one side of the wall in a room that looked like it was dug a short time ago she could see a soft green light and hear the beautiful voice of a mother who was singing to her foal, AppleJack quickly guessed it was a mother and child together probably with many more ponies who were also fillynapped.
A little before reaching the room both changelings stopped AppleJack and one of them pointed towards the room.
"It's here, the queen is waiting for you inside, please be kind to her."
"She's going to feel my kindness when my hoof meets her face by fillynapped me and the other ponies she has in that room." Replied AppleJack quickly turning to the two changelings beside him and raising his hoof in front of him to strike them once more.
Both changelings shrugged between their shoulders and tried to cover their faces with their hooves as they closed their eyes in fear of taking another blow from the farm pony.
"I would appreciate it if you would stop threatening my subjects, pony." Said a voice coming from the room to the side of where they were standing.
AppleJack lowered his foreleg and turned in the direction where the voice came from, and from the back of the room a faint green light was visible, the small green light coming from the magic of a twisted horn showed a tall, slender, coal dark figure that rose from a bed of leaves and came walking slowly in AppleJack's direction, her hooves were the only sound that could be heard in the entire cave and their echo had consumed all other sounds making her presence only look more imposing, with a face that showed no emotion the dark figure approached and stopped in front of the pony, she lowered her head to look at the pony face to face and opened her mouth to run her tongue across her lips to feel the fear in the air, she then closed her mouth and with her sharp teeth flashed a smirk as she raised her head to its natural position and again showed an emotionless face, even in her state the queen could still cause fear in the hearts of others and she liked that feeling.
AppleJack tried her best not to show fear and only show anger on her face, but inwardly she was scared, she had been captured, she was face to face with Queen Chrysalis and had no way to escape, she knew she would be put inside a cocoon and it would be days if not weeks before she could be found, she also knew there were surely other ponies captured and with her trapped, easily some changeling could imitate her and take her place in Ponyville so she could more easily spy on her friends and wait for the perfect moment to attack.
"Chrysalis." Said an angry farm pony.
"AppleJack." Replied the queen of the changelings curving her lips just slightly into a smile.
The queen made a full circle around the pony examining her completely from above taking advantage of her superior height, the queen liked to confuse and frighten her enemies and this situation was perfect for her to bask in her tastes, but the kingdom needed the pony for something else, she needed her calm and receptive for her plan to work. The queen stopped to the side of the farm pony and pointed her into the room.
"If you would be so kind as to come into the room, AppleJack."
"What for, so you can put me in one of those green cocoons along with who knows how many other ponies you have captured?" replied AppleJack quickly and looked the queen in the face with her four hooves heavily resting on the floor in a clear battle stance.
"I promise you little AppleJack that I just want to talk and that at the end of our conversation you are free to go along with my promise that no changeling will harm you or try to stop you."
Were Chrysalis' words to the pony's question and she said them as she placed one of her hooves on her chest, the queen tried to sound as honest as possible, not that she had a hidden reason behind her words, but with her track record as one of Equestria's greatest villains, she had to remove any shadow of a doubt.
"And why do I have to believe you?." AppleJack asked raising only one eyebrow and with a skeptical look on his face.
Chrysalis lowered her hoof, gave an exhausted sigh, and walked slowly into the room illuminating only her silhouette with the glow of her horn.
"Because even if it seems hard to think AppleJack, I need your help." Chrysalis stopped in the middle of the room and turned to face the farm pony, "and if you come into this room I think you will be able to understand my situation better."
AppleJack thought about the queen's words, even though they sounded completely honest, she knew Chrysalis was a master of deception and espionage and that this was surely a trap, but she couldn't understand why she was trying to trick her by telling her she just wanted to talk if she already had her captured in the cave.
The queen stood completely still waiting for AppleJack's answer, who could only see a completely dark room, without any noise and the only visible thing was the figure of Queen Chrysalis illuminated by the glow of her horn, AppleJack lowered his head a little looking at his front hooves and stood thinking for a few seconds about his possibility to escape, the path to the entrance was almost straight and from where she was she could see the glow of the sun at the entrance, She only had to run at full speed towards the entrance and hit any changeling on her way, and then in the forest she had to run through the trees until she reached the village, She knew the changelings wouldn't dare to capture her near other ponies and then a quick trip to Ponyville to alert her friends and the princesses to come and capture Chrysalis or one of her changelings, it wasn't her best plan, but the only one she had and being an earth pony and one of the best athletes in Equestria, she had a chance that her plan would work.
AppleJack turned her body in the direction of the cave entrance to start her run, but before she started running, she turned to see if Chrysalis had moved, and she could only see the queen in the same position staring at her, she looked Chrysalis in the eyes and them she could observe just for a second something different but she couldn't tell what, she knew that this was all part of her trap, that she was not planning to capture her in a cocoon, but that she is going to let her go, but she could not understand why, in those eyes, there was only deception along with other forms of manipulation, but the promise to let her go unharmed made her hesitate on whether to run or not, she thought about the option of listening to her to learn all she could about her next plan and think on her word that she would let her go.
AppleJack after a few seconds of formulating her plans of action, narrowed them down to two simple options, try to run and surely get caught, or listen to Chrysalis and think on her word that she would let her go, finally, AppleJack looked once more at Chrysalis, closed her eyes and took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, reopened her eyes and walked back into the darkened room.
Chrysalis waited patiently for about a minute for AppleJack to enter the dark room, keeping her mind calm at all times and after the pony entered and stopped in front of her, she closed her eyes and made her horn shine brighter, and from the tip of it, little lights flew erratically like fireflies in all directions until they met with gems of all colors that protruded from the rocks and illuminated the whole room, a moment later Chrysalis somewhat exhausted extinguished the glow of her horn and opened her eyes again to look the pony in the face.
The room was a little smaller than Sugarcube Corner, but oval, with about fifty dark green eggs, most were whole, but some were broken, in one corner was a large pile of dry leaves next to some books that because of their location you couldn't read the names and what appeared to be a trunk and on the other side of the room a makeshift bed of much larger leaves next to a small pile of very messy and somewhat dirty clothes.
AppleJack looked around the room in a bit of amazement, she was sure this was where the captured ponies were floating inside giant green cocoons, but she only found a small bed and lots of eggs.
After lighting the gems in the room with her magic the queen went in the direction of the books to arrange them in a small pile no bigger than twelve books, but because of the way she arranged them, AppleJack could not see the titles, then she opened the trunk and began to move things inside, taking out spheres of many colors and putting them back into the trunk, and at no time did the queen look at the pony who was still in the middle of the room looking around.
"What is this place?" asked the pony as she continued to look around the room now paying no attention to what the queen was doing.
"This is the hatching room" Replied the queen looking at the pony over her back as she finished tidying the trunk, "Also for lack of hooves this is my personal room, recreation room, bedrooms, bathrooms, and common room", the queen closed the trunk and walked towards a group of eggs, while AppleJack followed her with his eyes turning his head without moving much from where he was.
"Ha, did defeat hurt you so much that you have to hide in a dark, dank cave?."
"The Spell The Princess of Love and her lover used to drive us out was far more devastating than the princesses and your friends think young AppleJack."
Chrysalis stopped in front of a group of six eggs and brought her horn close to them, her horn glowed with a soft green color at its tip, she closed her eyes and concentrated on a spell, the green color slowly began to change to a pinkish color and covered the group of eggs with an aura of the new color for a couple of seconds, then she stopped the spell and approached a new group of eggs, it was clear to see that this spell exhausted her.
"Is this the way you feed your young with the love you steal from the ponies?."
The queen stopped a couple of feet from the group of eggs and turned to look at AppleJack, "You are correct in thinking that this is the way we feed the eggs if we had love to feed them," the queen closed her eyes again and repeated the spell with the new group of eggs.
"What do you mean?" AppleJack asked her, raising an eyebrow.
The queen stopped the spell on the eggs, opened her eyes, and turned her head to look at the pony still standing in the middle of the room.
"What do you know about us AppleJack, what do you know about our race, what do you know about me?."
"I know that you are a group of ruthless monsters who fillynapped innocent ponies and locked them in cocoons against their will to feed on their love, and you are the queen of the monsters" The pony quickly replied with clear anger on her face.
"Monster is a relative term, to a canary, a cat is a monster. You ponies were just used to being the cat."
"That doesn't give you the right to fillynap the ponies."
"I am a queen and a mother, AppleJack, and I will do whatever it takes for the welfare of my children."
Chrysalis closed her eyes and moved her horn back towards the cluster of eggs to repeat the spell, then finished the spell on the other missing clusters of eggs.
"What was that spell for?." asked the pony seeing that she performed the same spell on each group of eggs and sat down on the ground.
Chrysalis approached AppleJack before answering his question, "That's a spell I created years ago and used to occupy my soldiers before attacking some village, its function is to make the body think it was fed and remove fatigue from its organism."
"Something like synthetic love, if you could think-"
"Something like fake love, it takes away your tiredness and hunger, but it doesn't feed you" the queen interrupted AppleJack before he could finish his sentence.
"And why don't you feed them with love?"
"We can't."
"Why?"
"Your love princess's spell was much stronger than any of you think, the force of the magical energy not only sent us flying in all directions, but also supercharged our love absorbing glands, absorbing all the love we had in our bodies at the time and destroying them completely, the only ones who were not affected were the egg keepers in the hive and me because I had superior magical resistance and training than the other changelings, but the spell severely damaged my glands considerably limiting my ability to absorb and retain love. "
"I don't understand what you're trying to tell me."
"We are going to die AppleJack, my race and I, and there is nothing I can do to save them, we are going to starve to death."
AppleJack didn't want to think Chrysalis' words, she was the queen of deception and manipulation, there had to see be some deception behind all this, something she couldn't see, some spell she is using to trick her, her words sounded sincere, but they couldn't be true.
"You don't want to believe me do you, you being the element of honesty have a natural ability to know if someone is telling the truth or not, and you believe the words I say, but not the pony that says them to you, I can see that easily AppleJack, my years as a spy have given me the ability to know what a pony is thinking just by looking at her face."
AppleJack lifted her gaze to look Chrysalis in the eyes and for a second in them she saw something she had only seen in ponies that had been attacked or had suffered a great loss, she saw the eyes of someone who had lost everything in war, AppleJack saw in Chrysalis' eyes the same thing she had seen at the beginning, fear.
The queen waited patiently for the pony to finish thinking and make her decision, but she also couldn't wait all day for AppleJack to finally decide to help her, and to finally get her help she knew that her best course of action is the raw, real and direct truth, show her upfront her situation without threats and without over pressuring her, tell her the story from her reality, Chrysalis had a lot to lose if her plan failed and decided to raise her bet so she could get AppleJack to give her a hoof.
"If you find it so hard to think me you can ask her anything you want AppleJack and I will answer you only with the truth, and you being the element of honesty will easily be able to tell if my answers are false or not."
This was excellent for the earth pony, she could ask Queen Chrysalis anything and be able to get some information about her invasion plans and easily know if the queen is lying about any of her questions or if her answers are true, AppleJack although she still felt she was caught by some trap of the queen, she had an advantageous situation.
"Ok, I can work with that, but you know I'm going to easily notice if you're lying to me, and in the event, I detect any kind of lie the deal is off and I'm out of here, is that clear?" AppleJack's words were clear and direct, she wanted to make it clear that she was in control of the conversation.
"Of course, I promise I will only tell you my truth and the truth of my children." Replied the queen raising a hoof and touching her chest with it, "Now tell me AppleJack, what do you wish to know?"
"What do you mean by your truth?" The pony was puzzled by his answer and decided to clear up the doubt quickly.
"You being the element of honesty know by nature that the truth is unique to every being, but I don't think you know that their context or understanding of it is going to vary depending on the pony or creature's point of view, the truth is one, but it is going to have a different meaning for you as it does for me."
"I don't get it, I know the truth is one for everyone, but how can it be different for you as it is for me?" asked AppleJack somewhat puzzled by the queen's response.
"Hmmm..., the closest example I can give you would be that of the squirrel and the tree. Suppose that in some tree in the forest lives a simple squirrel with no major concerns other than looking for food and hiding from predators, until one day a huge beast appears and cuts down the tree she lived in and simply carries it away without even caring about the squirrel that lived in it."
"And what does that have to do with the truth?"
"The truth of this case little AppleJack is that the tree was cut down by a pony and taken from the forest, but the point of view of the truth changes for both the pony and the squirrel, the pony needed a tree to build a house, a bridge, a fence or in your case it would be for a barn, but for the squirrel, he just saw that a huge being came and took his home, from one point of view you just need a tree to build a barn, but from another point of view you are just a home destroying monster."
"I'm not a mons-" AppleJack stopped in the middle of her answer when it came to her mind how many trees she had cut down with her brothers, she knew it was a lot of trees and never of she stopped to think if in any of them any animals occupied it as their home, looking at it from the small animal's point of view she was a monster.
"So, you plan to tell me your truth and me by comparing it with my point of view you expect me to understand you and thus help you?"
"You understood much faster what I intended to do, but that is exactly what I wish."
"And why did you choose me for your plan, why didn't you talk directly to the princesses or one of my friends?"
"Believe me I made a list of with all your friends, the princesses, Discord, I've even with many lesser-known ponies of Ponyville, completely unknown ponies, orphanages, hermits, and even dragons, griffons, and from all of them you are by far my top choice AppleJack."
"Did you really make a list of candidates?"
"Yes."
"And I'm the best of the best?"
"Yes again."
"Better than Twilight and the princesses?"
"Yes for the third time."
"Better than Princess Luna?"
"Yes again."
"Better than Princess Cel-"
"You want me to compare you to your friends and tell you exactly why you're a better choice for me," Interrupted the somewhat irritated queen to AppleJack simply to stop him from giving the same answer.
A small chuckle escaped AppleJack as she saw the clear anger on the queen's face, it wasn't something she cared much for, but it felt good every once in a while to be better than everyone else.
"Ok, so tell me, why am I a better choice of Rainbow Dash?" of all the ponies she knew, this was the one she was most interested in, her competitive instinct never missed an opportunity to prove who was the better pony.
"Your pegasus friend is true that she is a great athlete and one of the strongest ponies I know, but she is very impulsive and can't help but get herself into trouble by not stopping for two seconds and thinking through the consequences of her actions, and that's not very smart, her loyalty is second to none, but she spends a lot of her time getting attention, and my problem needs some finesse that I doubt she has. I also don't find her to be twenty percent cooler than the others."
Chrysalis' response was a rather detailed description of her friend considering the fact of the short time she may have known her, she had known her for much longer but much of what the queen said was true.
"You did study them all didn't you?"
"Do you want me to continue?"
"How about Fluttershy?"
"I must admit that your yellow friend has a lot of tact and experience taking care of little creatures and was one of my top candidates, but I doubt I could have said more than one word to her without her fainting, she can deliver almost unconditional love and will one day be an excellent wife and mother, but she has a lot of trouble expressing her ideas and several times lets others walk all over her, sometimes she has fears of the most insignificant things, but I love her mane."
"Twilight?"
"She is a powerful pony and her power will only increase with time, but she is intelligent and it would not have been easy to be able to trick her into coming to this place, and if she did, I do not have the means or the magic necessary to prevent her escape, she would most likely attack me at the first opportunity and would have knocked me out with no chance to defend myself, and that would probably have doomed what is left of my kind."
"Rarity?"
The queen raised her head high, closed her eyes and took a deep breath, tapped her hoof gently on her chest and cleared her throat, then looked back at AppleJack with big bright eyes and began to speak imitating as best she could the voice of the unicorn in white.
"My dear, what do you want me to tell you, this problem is delicate my dear and needs a pony who thinks about more than just fashion and not messing up her dear mane, my dear" the queen shook her head making her mane fly in a manner worthy of any supermodel and then started checking her hooves as if she came from the Ponyville spa. "Besides dear, having to go into this horrible wet cave would have stained my hooves dear and that would have been the worst possible thing dear."
AppleJack had to cover her mouth to keep from chuckling through her teeth at Rarity's imitation, she had seen her in action fighting by his side on other occasions and in those moments her appearance and manner of speaking ceased to bother her, but she couldn't help the laughter the imitation caused her.
"But the truth is, that unicorn is much more intelligent and cunning than you imagine, her work as a dressmaker has given her a unique eye for detail and her constant contact with merchants and customers has only served to refine her almost natural ability, I doubt very much that from the beginning Elitro could convince her to come without doubting him.
"And Pinkie Pie, why wouldn't she?"
"That pony simply terrifies me" Replied the queen almost mechanically looking into the void and in a tone that showed no emotion.
"And why did you choose me, what makes me so special?" asked AppleJack with uncertainty on his face.
"It was three reasons that put you above all my candidates, the first would be that being an earth pony you would not be able to sense how weakened our current level of magic is and would hesitate to escape, the second is that you being the physical representation of the element of honesty if I can convince you that my words are true, no one will doubt after that my actions are just as sincere and with your backing, any doubts would be easily overshadowed." Chrysalis decided to wait a couple of seconds for AppleJack to consider the couple of reasons she told her, and also the queen needed a little time so she could continue talking, and surely tell a part of her past she didn't like to remember. "And the last but most important reason for me why I chose you AppleJack is simple, you unlike all your friends, the princesses, or almost any pony you know, you know from your own experience what it's like to grow up without parents and how important it is to have a family."
For the queen there was also a fourth reason why she chose AppleJack over all the other ponies, with her facility for analyzing the personality and body language of others on her spying and infiltration missions, it didn't take her long to realize that the whole group of friends and including the princesses had serious psychological problems, ranging from simple narcissism, OCPD, to bipolar and schizophrenia, she thought that this group needed professional help. But out of the whole group, AppleJack was the sanest and focused to be able to help her with her problem.
AppleJack looked the queen straight in the eye to ask if what she heard was correct. "you...you have...a-"
"I'm going to have a daughter AppleJack."
AppleJack looked down and tilted her head looking at the queen's belly, "I don't see you getting any fatter...sure you're pregnant?"
The queen stood on all fours and with one hoof gestured for the pony to look up and back into her face before continuing to speak. "Even though your assumption about whether I am pregnant is correct, biologically in my case it is different, Yes I am having a daughter, I am not pregnant, and I am not fat" Chrysalis turned a little to show her side to AppleJack, highlighting the lines of her figure with her hoof. "I still have my svelte figure from hundreds of years ago."
"How old are you?"
"I'm twenty-five."
"But didn't you just say you're hundreds of a-" Chrysalis blushed a little and quickly covered AppleJack's mouth with her hoof preventing her from finishing her question.
"I'm a lady AppleJack, and ladies are never over 25." The queen removed her hoof from the pony's mouth and waited for the pony to continue asking her questions.
"So how does it work that you're having a daughter, but you're not pregnant?" asked AppleJack cocking his head slightly.
"Very simple AppleJack, I laid an egg" said the queen pointing to the pile of clothes lying on her bed of sheets.
"An... egg" said the pony with some intrigue.
"Yes... an egg."
"But didn't you lay all these eggs?" asked the pony looking and pointing at the other eggs in the room. "What makes that egg so special?"
"You don't think I lay on the floor, my chest inflates like a balloon and I spend all my time laying eggs 24/7, do you?. No one can have this toned figure having hundreds of kids in their early twenties."
AppleJack gave her a look of intrigue back but followed the queen as she slowly walked in the direction of the egg she had covered in clothes on her bed and continued to talk about it, clearly the queen was lying in conversation about her age, but the farm pony decided to overlook that lie.
"We changelings or at least the females can lay on average a group of half a dozen eggs every month, I as a queen every hundred years I can lay a very special egg, a queen egg, this egg here is one of those, thanks to the enormous amount of love I found in the crystal empire I was able to lay this egg after you and your friends showed up, and I managed to get it out safely on the morning of the wedding that caused my defeat and led me to this situation, but because of my current state, I won't be able to raise it."
"So they just need love to be able to lay their eggs?"
"Normally for changeling eggs that's correct, but for my daughter's egg being a queen egg, I needed an incredible amount of love to give it life, a very specific form of love to give it a mind, and for its form, I needed genetic material from..... You know..." The queen's dark face turned a slightly reddish color and she turned her head away from showing it to the pony, who realized what the queen meant by genetic material.
"Did you... you and the... and... and Twilight's brother... did you..." AppleJack stammered with his face red and his gaze jumping between the queen and the egg that was wrapped between the clothes.
The queen felt a tingle go up to her spine to her head remembering her days in the castle and more specifically in the bedchamber, finally the queen shook her head to get the red off her cheeks and back to her thoughts, "Let's just say I'm thankful Cadance thought her bed was broken during the invasion, but that stallion only gave me his genetic material-." Many more times than she needed to, but it wasn't something she didn't enjoy at the time. "-And nothing else, what was important was the love I accumulated, and the specific love signature of a pony, a pony I know you know well."
"This is my daughter AppleJack's egg, and I'm sure by the color you can imagine who gave me that special love." The queen gently moved the clothing that kept her egg still warm to show it to AppleJack, it was a slightly larger egg than the other eggs and not the normal dark color, it was a much lighter pastel color and an incredible resemblance to a special pony.
It only took AppleJack a second to recognize the color of the egg, a very light pastel color that she had seen many times during her life, but she also knew many other ponies with similar colors and within the same castle there were many other ponies of similar shades.
"Are you absolutely sure?"
"The special love I mentioned to you I can only get from a pony with a very strong desire to have offspring of her own."
AppleJack raised his head to look the queen in the eye, but she was staring at her egg fixedly wrapped in thought.
"That special love from a mother to a daughter is the most powerful feeling that exists in this world and probably any other, it's so powerful... so unique... yet so fragile..., I know a mother would do anything for her daughter... and believe me when I tell you there is no way I could be wrong about that."
AppleJack didn't need to be the representation of the element of honesty to know that what the queen was saying was true, she spoke not only with truth, she also spoke with experience, something had happened to the queen before, and AppleJack wanted to know what it was.
"And how are you so sure that the very special love you say is from the pony you say?"
"Look at the cutie mark a little lower...carefully please." replied the queen pointing her hoof at the underside of the egg which was still covered by some clothing.
The pony approached the egg and very carefully began to remove some of the clothing covering the egg, little by little the cutie mark of one of her friends appeared, easy to recognize and impossible to mistake.
"It can't be..."
"If it's AppleJack, there's no doubt about it."
"And why didn't you tell her?"
"I already told you, you're my best bet."
AppleJack gently covered the egg again, then took a few steps back and looked at the queen again.
"And why didn't you look for any relatives, don't you have any sisters?"
"The only relatives I have are my mother, my father, and the changelings in this cave, that we are essentially siblings, and none of them was a better choice than you." Replied the queen without taking her eyes off her egg.
"So bad is the relationship with your family that they would turn their back on you, I don't think anyone could be so cruel towards their family."
"Since we were born my mother never deigned to say a word to us or care about our welfare, and our father just came in one day, nailed my mother, and left."
AppleJack made her ears drop, she was left with her mouth open and speechless, she couldn't think how heartless some parents could be to their children, it was amazing that in that case the queen had a little heart and cared about her future daughter, the pony closed and opened her mouth several times trying to say something but all she could say was a simple. "....eeeeeeh...eeeeh...eeeeh..."
The queen turned her head and saw a pony with her mouth open stuttering her words and her thoughts trying to say something, but it seems that the very direct answer left the little pony speechless, or without a reaction in this case. Chrysalis closed her eyes and sighed, opened her eyes again to look the pony in the eyes.
"My mother was a tree that grew from an evil seed in a putrid swamp, and my father was an old unicorn who sensed the evil power of the tree, nailed a danger sign to it, and left, that's why we never got to talk to my mother and we never knew who my father was either, we never really had a father or mother figure, and the closest thing we changeling have to a mother is me."
AppleJack after a moment could breathe a little calmer again with the queen's explanation and could think a little clearer, but this being such a sensitive subject she couldn't understand why she didn't ask for help from the princesses.
"Ok, but there's something I don't understand about all that." The pony looked Chrysalis once more in the eyes. "being your problem so big, why didn't you appeal directly to the princesses, surely they would have imprisoned you, but they would have done everything they could to help you and prevent your extinction?"
The queen knew that at some point in the conversation AppleJack would ask that, she didn't like to remember the saddest parts of her past, she also knew she had to tell her at some point, but it wasn't something she planned to tell now.
"Fear AppleJack... Out of fear and hate."
"Fear of princesses, I know the princesses can cause a bit of fear when they get mad, but you hate them because we beat you at Cadance's wedding?."
"My story with your sun princess is over a thousand years old, in a time where the world was engulfed in fear, uncertainty, mistrust, hatred, death, suffering, wars, famine, and whatever else you can imagine." The queen turned to face the pony head-on and continued speaking. "The greatest warriors, mighty wizards, the worst monsters and villains we were in a fight for dominance and more power, and your moon and sun princesses were no exception."
"And what happened?"
"In a moment of my greatest vulnerability your sun princess attacked my home without measuring consequence and without mercy, she took from me what I loved most in this world and all I could do at that moment was watch what was left of my home burn." The feelings on the queen's face were evident to anyone who saw her, but the suffering was the most visible. "That is why I have fear and hatred for your beloved sun princess, fear because I know what that dictator is capable of, and hatred for what she did to me. Over the years I was able to get over it, but for what is left of my life, I will never forgive your princess for what she-." The queen stopped speaking instantly and turned her head toward the entrance of the room.
Just at that moment one of the changelings entered the room with a sack on his back interrupting the conversation, he approached the queen and greeted her by raising his head and placing one of his hooves on her forehead, which made the queen answer the greeting in the same way.
"My queen, we sold the apples from the earth pony as you ordered, we got a better price than expected and here I bring the profits." The changeling grabbed the sack from his back with his mouth and dropped it in front of the queen, easily the sack was twice the size AppleJack was offered in Ponyville.
AppleJack looked at the sack in disbelief as the apples he sold thinking he made a good deal, the changeling could easily double the price.
"Geez, how could they make twice as much money as I did so easily?"
"One doesn't go hundreds of years without learning a few tricks of the trade AppleJack" Said the queen taking a deep breath and filling with pride for making an excellent deal.
AppleJack knew she could make the queen blush with a simple question, so she decided to ask it and maybe get a laugh.
"How old are you then that you learned so much about trading?" she asked with intrigue in her eyes.
"I am twenty-five years old AppleJack."
"But my queen, you're not twenty-five...you're over m-" The queen's hoof quickly covered the changeling's mouth interrupting him before he could finish speaking.
"I'm twenty-five and it stays that way." The queen said to the changeling calmly and with anger in her eyes, trying to light her horn with magic to threaten the changeling with it, but because of her low level, only sparks appeared.
All the attempt to threaten to kill the little changeling in front of her was easily overshadowed by the queen's clearly embarrassed face and slightly red cheeks. The changeling decided to play along and just nodded his head.
AppleJack smiled, she had done it, one more victory for Equestria.
After the queen counted the money and put it away by simply placing it next to the trunk she turned to AppleJack to continue her conversation.
"Do you have any more questions, little AppleJack?"
"No... I don't think so, I just need a little time to think." Said the pony looking in the direction of the egg. "But I think I'm going to have some idea how to help you when I get back to Ponyville and talk to my friends."
"Then I can only wish you luck."
"Well, I guess I'll take my leave then, I'll be back in a couple of days to check on you and we can make a plan on how we can move you somewhere more...homey, I don't think a dank cave is the best place to raise a foal." AppleJack said walking towards the door so she could leave with her wagon and return to Ponyville.
"I'm afraid letting you leave is not going to be possible at this time." The queen caught the pony's attention walking beside her to the entrance of the cave.
"But you told me I could leave as soon as we were done talking."
"You can go AppleJack, but not this moment, because of the shape of the trees in this forest the sunlight disappears much earlier than any other part of Equestria, and unless you have night vision and know the dangers that lurk in the dark, it would be wiser for you to wait until dawn, but there is also a storm coming, and this forest under a storm the dangers are doubled, I'm afraid you're going to have to wait a couple of days."
When they both reached the entrance to the cave, AppleJack noticed that the air was warmer than normal and there was also more moisture on the plants and the ground, the light coming through the treetops was almost non-existent and by the somewhat bluish color of the trees one would easily tell it was night and the moon was already high, but the small, last rays of sunlight coming through the leaves looked like stars flickering on and off quickly.
"I guess you're right about me having to wait, do you have a place I can sleep?"
"You can sleep on the pile of leaves we have in the cave, we also have fruit if you want something to eat, we will light a fire for the cold of the night and let you know when it gets sunrise."
After spending a couple of hours talking with a couple of changelings AppleJack helped in gathering the firewood without ever losing sight of the cave and then helped in lighting the campfire, the forest as the moonlight did not enter, the night was much darker than a normal forest, and from the entrance of the cave you could only hear the rain falling on the trees.
After eating something in front of the campfire AppleJack realized that the only ones still awake were her and the queen, caressing her egg lovingly.
"Chrysalis?." AppleJack said as he stared at the wood consuming in the fire.
"Yes?"
"Can I ask you something?"
"You already just asked me a question AppleJack."
"Not that, I want to ask you something else, something more personal."
"What do you want to know." The queen turned her head to look at the pony.
AppleJack looked the queen in the face and saw the fire reflected in her eyes.
"You said that Princess Celestia destroyed your home and took something precious from you, what exactly did she take?".
"She took everything from me AppleJack." Replied the queen turning her gaze back to the fire.
"Can you tell me what happened?"
The queen said nothing, just stared at the fire intently as she continued to stroke her egg between her front hooves.
"If it's something very personal you don't have to tell me, I'm sorry if I'm bothering you with my question." Said the pony looking down at the ground as she rubbed her front hooves in embarrassment.
"It's okay AppleJack, I don't mind, I was able to get over that pain years ago, and it's good that someone else knows what that pony is capable of."
They both continued to stare into the fire in silence for a couple of minutes and AppleJack waited patiently for the queen to begin telling her story.
"A little over a thousand years ago as I told you the world was at war and I..."
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After spending a couple more days talking and living with Chrysalis along with her changelings inside the cave because of the storm, AppleJack slowly stopped seeing them as a bunch of soulless monsters and more as ponies with more bad luck than the rest, they needed love to survive, It was their source of food and because of their great numbers, menacing figure and the legends that were forged around them for centuries, they were forced to live in the shadows, but she realized that they enjoyed life along with the little wonders it offered and even though they knew their fate well, they simply did not show it on their faces.
AppleJack was sleeping peacefully on a pile of leaves until a black figure approached and began to wake her up by gently shaking her.
"Miss AppleJack, Miss AppleJack it's morning and the storm is over."
AppleJack stretched her legs and yawned before getting up, she liked to sleep in her bed, but being a pony who sometimes traveled to make apple deliveries, she was used to sleeping almost anywhere.
"Good morning Elitro, how did you sleep?."
"I slept well, a little cold, but fine, thank you. Chrysalis asked me to wake her up, she's waiting for you outside."
AppleJack nodded her head and walked inside the cave following the light coming from the entrance, all the time she didn't see any changeling except for the one that woke her up, the cave was completely silent and AppleJack's attention was drawn to it. At the entrance she had to cover her eyes from the rays of the sun that had been covered by gray clouds for days and her eyes were already used to working with less light, after a few seconds in which she took to get used to the light, she could see a small group of changelings gathered in a circle, there were no more than ten including the queen.
"Good morning AppleJack, I hope you got a good night's sleep." Greeted the queen as she saw the pony come out of the cave and walk in her direction.
"I grew up on a farm, to me a bed is as good a bed as any." Replied the pony walking nonchalantly in the direction of the group of changeling. "So what are they doing?"
"A funeral."
"A what?" She asked perking her ears up in alertness.
"We are performing a funeral, every morning we take care to wake up each changeling and see that they are in the best possible state and those that don't wake up..." The queen pointed her hoof at the open grave where the body of a changeling and about eight eggs lay.
AppleJack's face lost its color as she lowered her ears and saw that there were also eggs in the grave in front of her. "And... And why are you burying eggs too?."
" Because we can't feed them, we don't have a way to capture ponies in cocoons and the only changeling that can absorb love normally and wasn't in Canterlot is Elitro, who was the changeling I asked to wake you up and escort you out." The queen looked towards the entrance of the cave waiting for Elitro to appear, but the little changeling never showed up.
"AppleJack, what happened to Elitro, I ordered him to escort you here." Asked the queen to AppleJack as she lowered her gaze in the pony's direction.
"He stayed inside the cave, he told me you were waiting for me out here for something."
Chrysalis closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I guess it couldn't be helped." She looked at one of the changelings standing in the circle around the tomb and nodded to him indicating the cave. "Go see Elitro, he's probably hiding crying in a corner of the cave." The changeling nodded and headed towards the cave to look for his companion.
"That changeling is special you know." Said the queen to AppleJack.
"Special?"
"When we lay the eggs and even though to anyone's eye all changelings are the same physically, their... personalities so to speak... vary from a common standard, Most as you noticed are warriors, another group you also surely saw are the infiltrators, who are our spies and who captured the ponies for the cocoons, there are also laborers, the nursery keepers and builders among other minority groups, each with a specific job but equally important to the hive, no changeling is more essential than another."
"And so what makes him so special."
"Elitro when he hatched from his egg, he was a smaller larva than the others and quickly the caretakers saw that he did not have the normal level of aggressiveness of the other larvae, instead he walked among the other eggs and bit the eggs of some larvae trying to open them and take them out from inside, that behavior did not go unnoticed by the changeling of the nursery and when they checked the bitten eggs they noticed that the larvae inside were sick and could not break the egg."
The queen was looking towards the inside of the cave waiting for Elitro and the changeling that went looking for him, AppleJack also turned his head looking towards the entrance of the cave.
"Some changeling like Elitro are born with... different abilities, He's never going to be a spy, let alone a warrior, but he has an extraordinary level of empathy, off any scale, he can almost physically sense the feelings and pain of those around him and any changeling in the hive, even at incredible distances, and that's an ability even I can't compare to."
AppleJack also turned his gaze inward into the cave as the queen spoke.
"It's not just that, His intellect is superior to any other living being I know, only comparable to the other changelings that were born just like him, he can understand any language after a few hours listening to it and is impossible to fool, he can convince anyone just by talking to them for a few minutes, he could easily win a game of chess to each of your princesses, the champion of Equestria, and even Tirek, all at the same time without leaving the nursery and he would simply find it relaxing."
"And then why did he go to wake me up?"
"Because he knew what larvae would die in the night."
"How?"
"When we went out this morning to perform the funeral, I was thinking of sending some changeling to wake you up, but before I could say anything he volunteered and set off in the direction of the cave without even waiting for my answer, he woke you up and then tried to hide."
"I don't understand why he did that."
"It's very simple AppleJack, we had to wake you up, and he hates funerals, he could feel when the larvae died during the night and he couldn't do anything to help them, that's why he didn't go to Canterlot, he can't stand to see others suffer and do nothing."
They both stood silently watching the cave once again waiting for the two changelings that were still inside to appear and after a few minutes both changelings appeared walking, the queen approached Elitro and hugged him gently, she whispered something in his ear and the little changeling just nodded his head, then they all walked side by side towards the other changelings and complete the circle around the tomb, AppleJack was a few meters behind watching silently.
"AppleJack aren't you coming?" asked the queen turning her head to look at the pony.
"You want me to participate?" Replied the orange pony.
"Exactly, that's why I ask."
"I guess I can do that, do I have to say or do anything special, I don't know your traditions." The pony asked as the changeling moved slightly allowing her to enter the circle.
"Your presence is more than enough, you will quickly understand what we do and you can participate if you feel comfortable."
With that answer the pony nodded her head and mimicked the actions of the other changeling including the queen at her side, all the changeling sat on the edge of the grave and raised one of their hooves to introduce themselves one by one before the funeral began.
The changeling funeral was something AppleJack did not expect, it was completely different from what she knew, when someone from the hive died the changeling did not mourn their loss, they celebrated their life, telling stories, anecdotes, adventures, and laughing, AppleJack did not know at what point she found herself laughing and being amazed at the stories they told. And in the case of the eggs, they all lowered their heads and kept silent making an oath to live a good life on behalf of those who couldn't live it.
After the funeral, AppleJack prepared her wagon to leave to Hollow Shades, and then by train to Ponyville, she had to find a way to help Chrysalis and her future daughter.
"Thank you AppleJack." Said the queen as she saw the pony adjusting the cart around her waist.
"You don't have to give them, I think anyone would help a mother-to-be in your situation." Replied AppleJack with a smile and wink at the queen.
"Not only for that but also for being at the funeral, in our history, you are the third pony formally invited to participate in a changeling funeral."
"I must admit it was a nice experience."
"One more thing before you go."
AppleJack turned his head to look at the queen once more.
"You may say I am a parasite, a spy, manipulative, a monster, but above all that I am a mother, and as a mother, I would work alongside my enemy for the sake of giving my daughter a future. Please remember this when you talk to your friends."
The pony nodded her head and started on her way to town.
Chrysalis stood still watching the pony that had given hope to her race and her daughter walk away, now she could only wait and hold on to that hope she was able to forge in AppleJack's heart these days, as a small black figure approached the queen until he stood beside her and also watched as the farm pony was lost inside the forest.
"Elitro." Said the queen without taking her eyes off the path.
"YES?" Replied the little changeling looking at the queen to his right.
"Do you remember what your last mission is?"
"Yes, I do."
"Do you think you'll be able to accomplish it without any problems?"
"It will take me a long time, but I'm sure I'll succeed."
"Do you really think you'll be able to do it without a problem?" Asked the queen again to the little changeling, but this time looking at his face with empathy knowing how difficult it would be.
"No..." The changeling lowered his head to look at the ground sadly. "It will be very difficult, and painful, they are everywhere, maybe we are monsters, but no one deserves to end up like this...." Elitro raised his head and continued to look at AppleJack who was now a tiny dot walking away down the road. "...Cold, hungry, walking alone in the dark."
"Thank you."
The two black figures stood still looking down the path, just listening to the sound of the trees and the singing of some birds, Chrysalis thought the forest was a very quiet place on the morning after a storm, and if she would die soon, this place was not a bad place to do it.
"My queen, do you think she will come back?".
"I believe she will come back to help us."
"And how can you be so sure?"
"Because all I can do now is believe, and I want to believe that she will come back to help us."
"I want to believe she'll come back, too."
Both changelings looked at each other for a few seconds and smiled as they saw that AppleJack was already lost on the road to Hollow Shades, unknowingly carrying the future of an entire race on her back.
Author's Note
A pink pony ask me to leave this link here, and those super special flavored cupcakes are the best. 
Bat Ponies
