On, off. On, off.
On, off. On, off.

“Stop staring,” Chrysalis ordered.

“Ain’t staring,” Applejack clarified while watching Chrys’ stomach pulse slowly. “I’m looking.”

The changeling grunted as she set another trio of barrels down around the next tree. “Then stop looking. It’s not helping.”

While that was plain as day, it didn’t mean it was any less troubling. That withered glow from the Everfree still gnawed at the back of her head despite Chrys nearly splitting Rupert down the middle just a couple weeks ago. “You sure you’re doing alright, sugarcube? Not feeling hungry or under the weather or nothing?”

Chrysalis said nothing, or at least nothing that the glaze in her eyes didn’t already say.

“I get it. Stupid question. ‘You’re always hungry’ and all that. Still though, the last time your belly was on the fritz like that, you—woah!”

Applejack’s worry-warting was interrupted by emerald magic ripping her off the ground and plopping her down on Chrys’ sturdy back. She then buzzed her wings to life, lifting herself and AJ up and over the treeline with ease. The duo hovered in place for a moment before Chrys turned her head to continue giving her rider a flat look.

“Coulda just said so,” Applejack grumbled.

“Then you wouldn’t have stopped asking.”

The two sat in silence for a spell, staring each other down. Applejack wasn’t sure why, but it wasn’t like she could just hop off and walk away. There was too much nothing between herself and the ground for that. So, she kept up her end of the staredown, awkwardness and all.

And staring.

And staring more.

And even more staring.

“What?” AJ finally asked.

Another buzz of Chrys’ wings sent the two higher, carrying them all the way up to the clouds.

“Your hooves are digging into my side,” Chrysalis complained.

“Well, can ya blame me? I can’t flash on a pair of wings outta nowhere like you!”

“You’re frightened?” Chrysalis cackled with villainous glee. “Oh, please. You know I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.”

AJ nodded along, mostly to reassure herself. Then, the world jerked a little sideways as they zeroed in on a large cloud. AJ held onto her hat as Chrysalis dove nose-first for the fluff. When they were about to run it right through, what little grip she still had on the changeling disappeared along with the former queen herself. AJ instinctively kicked around trying to find something to snag onto, only to spin herself out of control.

Before a scream passed her lips, Applejack bounced harmlessly off the top of the cloud, skipping across the surface like a stone on water until she barreled into a taller bump in the nimbus. The clouds slowly pushed her out of her indention and she rolled out on her back. AJ shook the dizziness out of her head, bringing her bearings back together just in time to see Chrys lean over with a self-satisfied grin.

“See?” Chrysalis lightly bopped Applejack on the nose. “Perfectly safe.”

“I ain’t keen on getting tossed around rougher than an old sack of potatoes.”

“At least compare yourself to a barrel of apples.” The shapeshifter flashed away, leaving another Applejack in her place. She struck a pose, extending one hind leg to show off the full extent of the pony’s apple-bucking strength. The glow carried over as well with the copycat’s cutie mark pulsing with unknown power. “You’re built far sturdier than a meager sack, Applejack. Besides, barrels are more impressive for me to juggle.”

Applejack rolled her eyes at seeing her other self flex a foreleg. “At least you’re having fun.”

“And you’re not?” Applejack asked with a slight edge of irritation. She dropped the disguise with a click of her tongue. “I thought you’d be more excited. Not many of your species get a free trip to the cloud layer.”

“When a couple of your best friends are a Wonderbolt and an alicorn princess, you’re airborne a little more than the average earth pony. Honestly, the novelty’s worn off a bit, especially when we still got plenty of apples down there to harvest.”

Chrysalis balled up a bit of cloud and threw the puff into AJ’s face.

“Thanks.” Applejack wiped the cloud and condensation away. “Can we head back now?”

“No. We’re taking a break.”

The demanding queen trotted right past the worker and kicked a hole through the cloud, creating a small cave to the other side. Wasn’t much sense in arguing with her ride back down to solid ground when she was dead set on not working, so Applejack followed Chrys through the hollowed-out nimbus to the other side.

The royal pain sat down unceremoniously at the end of the tunnel, AJ sitting a little ways away. It wasn’t like she was scared of heights or anything, it just didn’t feel right on the hooves to be off the grass for long. Yeah. That was it. Wasn’t natural. Just like the familiar sensation of millipedes crawling under her skin.

“Get over here,” Chrysalis ordered.

AJ wasn’t sure why she bothered saying anything. The days of putting up any resistance to her magic were long gone. She helplessly skidded to the edge of the clouds, overlooking the sheer drop to the farm below. A lump was just about to leap out of her throat when she was enveloped by Chrysalis on all sides. Her back pressed against the larger creature’s glowing barrel. Powerful and slender legs wrapped around, pinning her in place. Finally, her hat slipped off, letting Chrys rest her chin on Applejack’s head instead.

Even if every spell keeping her on the clouds suddenly failed, Applejack wasn’t budging an inch. She was completely sealed within a royal chitin cocoon.

The blasted-out opening had formed a little, wispy awning that was just enough to keep the sun out of their eyes, giving them a pristine view of the whole farm. It wasn’t the first time Applejack had seen her home from high up, but it’d always been in passing, a quick glance right before speeding off to somewhere else. There were the times Luna showed her a bird’s eye view in her dreams, but for all the princess’ mind-boggling dream magic, it didn’t hold a candle to the real deal.

Sweet Apple Acres swayed in the gentle wind, a sea of carefully arranged trees running all the way to the horizon. Not counting the Everfree Forest, nothing around came anywhere close to its size. If she squinted her eyes, Applejack could even see the subtle differences between the various tree species growing around her farm. Galas, sweetwaters, zap apples, and everything in between kept her family busy, their harvest seasons coming one after the other. Working it all would be overwhelming if it wasn’t paced out.

Applejack couldn’t remember the last time that the farm seemed so grand. When she was younger, it was more like an endless forest of food her family tended for hungry critters across Equestria. Then, she grew up—maybe just a little too quickly—and lost that spark of wonder. Now, it was just rows and rows traveled a thousand times to gather millions of apples; her everyday, every day.

From up here, though, it all hit so differently. She could blot out the barn with a single hoof, yet Sweet Apple Acres hadn’t felt so big in a long time. Tending the hundreds of trees year after year was a miracle of hard work knowing there were just the three of them—four now with Chrys helping out. It was a lot easier with another set of hooves to pull a wagon. They’d even stopped pulling Bloom out of school to help with the farmwork entirely, though her sister wasn’t too happy about that. Everything was just better with Chrys around.

Chrysalis sighed and shimmied to get a bit more comfortable.

Applejack tilted her head, trying to catch a glimpse of the mare weighing down all around her. “You alright?”

“Don’t worry your pretty little head.” Chrys took a deep breath, her nose buried just as deeply in AJ’s mane. “Just relaxing.”

Looking up out of the corner of her eye, she could just barely see the brim of her hat on the changeling’s head. With her crown reduced to a hunk of rock in her room, Applejack pondered whether Chrys might want a hat of her own for working the fields. It sure helped on bright days like this to keep the sun out of the eyes. That black chitin of hers also heated up rather quickly, so anything to keep the shine off her would help.

It was then that a rainbow contrail streaked below them, zig-zagging through the trees to cover as much ground as possible. They couldn’t hear her from the clouds, but Dash was clearly looking for them with a fire in her flying.

“Guess the break’s over, Chrys.”

The grip around her tightened into a greedy vice. “Ignore her.”

“We can’t do that. Rainbow wouldn’t be zipping around the farm if she didn’t need us.”

“Needs you,” Chrysalis corrected. After a few more moments, she loosened her hold with a bitter sigh. “Fine… stupid distractions.”

The world swung forward as Chrysalis tumbled off the side of the cloud, taking Applejack with her. The changeling let go midair and then dove down and around to let the pony grab her neck again. They plummeted together until her gossamer wings slowed the pair to a stop. Rainbow quickly wheeled back at the buzzing and met them just as they touched down, giving them a curious tilt of her head.

“What do you want?” Chrysalis asked with a bit of bite in her bark.

Rainbow sputtered uselessly for a second before remembering what words were. “The Cutie Map is acting kinda weird. Twi wants all of us at the castle, right now.”

“Weird doesn’t sound good.” Applejack hopped off the changeling’s back, Rainbow’s eyes following her all the way down. “What’s gone wrong with it?”

“I think it’s broken or something. It’s saying that Twilight is supposed to go and solve a friendship problem with somepony, but we have no clue who. For a second it looked like you, but then it didn’t again.”

Chrysalis clicked her tongue. “What does she expect us to do about your temperamental table? As you can clearly see, it doesn’t want AJ this time.”

Applejack looked back at her flank, same as it always was. However, she remembered seeing it glow earlier—just not on herself. “Hey, Chrys? Mind changing back into me again real fast?”

“Can’t get enough of seeing yourself today, sugarcube?” Chrysalis tossed her mane over her shoulder, letting it tie itself into a teal ponytail.

“Just do it, would ya?”

With a roll of her eyes, she shifted back into the farmer, though in desperate need of a table’s worth of humble pie. Applejack brushed past her other self’s superiority complex to take a gander at her flank.

Rainbow’s jaw nearly hit the ground despite hovering several feet in the air. “You can’t be serious.”

Applejack shrugged. “Not exactly the reaction I was going for, but I’ll take it.”

The real AJ shook her head. “We ain’t talking about that, Chrys.”

The changeling curled an eyebrow and followed the ponies’ gaze to her backside. Her eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets seeing the apples pulsing rhythmically just like when AJ was called by the map to solve a friendship problem. “Don’t tell me you’re saying that…”

“The map is calling Chrysalis?” Twilight cried in disbelief. “But that shouldn’t be possible!” She tittered with a slight twitch of her eye and refocused on the map. “What you’re doing is impossible!”

Chrysalis was slumped over the edge of the Cutie Map with pursed lips, staring listless at a wisp of energy hovering next to Twi’s cutie mark. She began shifting into different ponies, the map following suit with each transformation. Two matching sparkle bursts hovered side-by-side, then one was replaced by a trio of balloons, then butterflies, gems, a thundercloud with rainbow lightning, a familiar bunch of apples, and finally a bug juice tripod with a ladybug sitting on top.

“I get it, I get it! Would you just stop that already? We don’t know what effect changeling magic might have on the map!”

“I’m the one that’s glowing out of nowhere, and you’re worried about this bossy little trinket of yours?”

“It’s not—” Twi bit down on her words, trying to wrangle herself back into some semblance of functionality. “I’m just trying to think how the map could even be communicating with you and why. It’s never called anyone outside of the other Elements!”

“Really? Barring that stupid stage magician, I figured your underlings would make great servants for managing your territory’s friendshipping or whatever it is you do.”

“It would be one of the greatest honors of my life to serve Harmony directly,” Fleur stated from her post at the door.

Chrysalis flashed back into herself and sneered, but her heart wasn’t in it. She was too distracted by the map, and for good reason. Not only was it calling to her out of the blue, but it was also saying that she needed to go with Twilight to probably the last place Chrys ever wanted to go: The Crystal Empire.

“Well, guess that’s how we get that glow out of your barrel.” Applejack trotted over towards the north side of the map. “When are we heading out?”

Twilight perked up. “You’re going too?”

“Darn tootin’.” AJ laid a hoof on Chrys’ shoulder and smiled. “Chrys said she’s gotta go where I do before heading out to Manehattan, so I figured it’s only fair to return the sentiment.”

Chrysalis brushed it away and stood up. “Never." She kicked the side of the map before turning towards the door. “The table’s either broken or stupid if it’s asking me for anything. Cadence’s frozen rock can rot for all I care.”

Twilight nearly jumped out of her fur. “Wait, Chrysalis! If they need our help, we can’t just ignore them!”

“Watch me.”

“Now, now, darling, let’s not just dismiss this all out of hoof.” Rarity chased after the changeling, but Chrys didn’t stop her stride. “There have been quite a few times that I questioned the reasoning behind this magical map of ours, but it’s always worked out for the better in the end.”

“I don’t see sending me anywhere near that place being better for anyone, or did you all forget that I kidnapped the Imperial family? Twice?”

“Nuh-uh!” Pinkie Pie countered. “The Empire wasn’t back the first time you kidnapped Cady. And you just brainwashed Shiny and almost ruined their wedding.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Right. Because the distinction makes it so much better.”

“We know you did bad things in the past, Chrysalis, but what’s important right now is that you’re different,” Fluttershy assured with a soft smile. “We forgave you for all of that.”

The shapeshifter’s ear flicked at the last remark and she straightened up, her eyes sharpening into daggers. “Strange. I don’t recall ever apologizing.”

“Wait. Hold up!” Rainbow Dash darted in front of the changeling, getting right in her face and staring her down. “Are you saying you’re still not sorry for trying to take over Equestria?”

Chrysalis met the Wonderbolt with an even fiercer glare, eyes burning with indignation. “Listen closely, Rainbow: I will never apologize for doing whatever it took to feed my hive. I would stop at nothing if they needed me to drain every last one of you!”

The pegasus scoffed. “Guess it’s a good thing they don’t need you to anymore, huh?”

An obsidian forehoof rushed past the flier’s head, missing her face by inches, and slammed into the wall, shattering a few shards of crystal. The shock locked Rainbow’s wings as she fell down, landing with a thud before the raging queen. It’d been a while since they’d all seen Rainbow Dash genuinely terrified of something, though to be fair, AJ was sure most anypony would have been, herself included.

A spear shot between the two as Fleur thrust herself into the middle. Chrysalis reared her head back, moving her glare to the guard who dared interfere.

“Shall I call for Princess Luna?” Fleur threatened more than asked.

Chrysalis said nothing beyond grinding her teeth to stop herself from biting the nearest head off. Instead, she simply threw the door open and disappeared into the hallway.

“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy stomped over to her friend. “That was uncalled for!”

“What? What did I say?”

“You know she’s sensitive about losing her hive!”

“B-but that was good, I thought! Isn’t this whole thing with AJ supposed to be about metamophorizing her or whatever so she doesn’t even want to attack us again?”

Applejack lightly smacked her friend upside the back of her head. “You’re a dang fool at the worst possible times, you know that?”

“Fine! I’m stupid, okay?” Rainbow crossed her legs in a huff. “Just tell me why so I won’t set her off again when she says something ridiculous,” she grumbled back, her temper failing to hide her genuine hurt.

Fluttershy softened and sat down next to her friend. “Oh, Rainbow Dash. You’re not stupid. To be honest, it’s upsetting to hear her say something like that. We’re supposed to be her friends.”

“Exactly! And friends don’t say they’d attack us in a heartbeat, right? Right?”

“You are right, Dash, but it’s not really that simple.” As Fluttershy mulled over her words, she turned to Applejack. “You’d better go find Chrysalis. She looked so upset.”

“Don’t gotta tell me twice.”

Twilight galloped to the door. “I’m coming too.”

Applejack forced a smile. “Twi? Don’t take this the wrong way or anything, but I don’t think you’ll be much help right now. I mean, I know you’ve gotta go with her to the Empire and all, but—”

“I promise, it’s not that, Applejack. Sure, we still have a job to do, but we need to be better friends with each other before we can even think about solving anypony else’s friendship problem. I haven’t exactly done anything to earn her trust like you. I need to do better.”

“Thanks, sugarcube. Let’s go!”

Twilight smiled and fell in behind her friend. Fleur was quick to join them, serving as an escort as they ran for the front doors. However, to their surprise, she hadn’t even made it out of the castle. The changeling had stopped in the foyer to stare down a flower vase with murder in her eyes. It just so happened to be light blue with a colorful array of flowers springing out of the top. Didn’t take a genius to put that puzzle together. Applejack looked to the other two to hold off before joining the changeling.

“Guessing you wanna do a number on it?” she asked.

“I wouldn’t be able to revive the flowers after I reduced them to ashes,” Chrysalis noted with unsettling levelheadedness. “The porcelain would survive as long as I didn’t vaporize it, but then again, I’m not sure I’d be able to stop myself if I started.”

Applejack bit her lip and rubbed the back of her head. “Well, beats taking it out on Rainbow.”

“Of course it is. You’d never forgive me if I killed her.”

“You know, that ain’t exactly a comforting reason, Chrys.”

“It’s the truth.”

Applejack let that violent nugget sit for a spell between the two of them. She shot a glance to Twilight and Fleur, still waiting a little ways off for a good time to approach the changeling. While the guard dutifully waited by her princess’ side with her spear in hoof, said princess shifted uncomfortably back and forth, hoping the tension would break. Luckily for AJ, trees didn’t talk much, so she was used to waiting.

Chrysalis matched Applejack’s gaze out of the corner of her eye. “Is she here to waste her time trying to convince me to go along with the whims of a stupid piece of magical furniture?”

“That’s part of it, sure, but honestly, we’re all just worried about you.”

“Why? Dash may be dumber than that flower pot, but that muscle-brained dolt is at least right about one thing: I’m unnecessary.”

“Now that’s just a load of hooey, Chrys.”

“Is it? All I do, day in and day out, is help you on your little farm, throwing little barrels around no better than a little filly, all because I can’t be trusted to buck a little tree without destroying it.”

“It was an accident. Accidents happen. You tried to make it better.”

“But I didn’t. I don’t make things better for anyone else but me. Even my eternal leadership was ultimately meaningless. The Concordant will prosper as long as I never go b—” Chrysalis snapped her mouth shut before she could continue.

Applejack tried to put a caring hoof on the changeling, but she recoiled from it. “Don’t you dare touch me!”

Applejack blinked. “I’m sorry, Chrys. I’m just trying to show that I care.”

“I know you are. You always are! And it’s always so infuriating!” Chrysalis reared up and slammed her hooves down with thunderous force. “I’m so sick of these scraps you feed me; this pity you shower me with. It’s the only thing you ever have left!”

“What the hay are you on about?”

Chrysalis straightened to her full height, casting her long shadow over Applejack without moving any closer. “Simple. I’m stronger than you now.”

“I know. Kinda hard to miss after that joy ride you took me on earlier.”

“No.” Chrysalis drew closer, her heavy, regal steps clacking against the tile. “You might’ve known before, but you’ve only started to realize what that truly means.”

AJ wasn’t sure if it was a trick of the eye, or if it was just the way she was carrying herself, but Chrysalis loomed; an obsidian monolith of a mare. The indomitable queen somehow stood taller than the titan from her nightmare. Still, Applejack refused to fall for it.

“I ain’t scared of you, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

“Perhaps. But despite your words wishing me a full recovery, you certainly don’t love what you’ve done. However, this doesn’t need to be. If you so desire, we can go back to how things were, whether I want to or not.”

In a flash of green, Chrys withered away. Her eyes sank into her gaunt face with the healthy heft of her barrel and flanks evaporating. She stood upon brittle sticks in the shape of hole-riddled legs. Her dimmed stomach continued to pulse, but it looked more from starvation than the Cutie Map’s calling.

“This is how you like me, right?” the hobbled queen asked, her hollow steps barely clacking on the tile as she trotted around Applejack. “A shambling husk in desperate need of your care? Something so weak that she cannot even hope to protect herself?”

“What?” Applejack couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Of course not, Chrys! Don’t be ridiculous!”

“Nuh-uh-uh!” the changeling teased, the childish, yet poisoned barb dripping with pure spite. She took a breath through her nose with a vicious smile. “Just seeing this disguise, I can already sense your budding sympathy. Your pity. Always born from concern and worry for me. It’s the love you are most comfortable expressing, and it’s so easy to fool.”

Another magical burst, and standing in Chrysalis’ place was her photographer pony persona.

“You can love this,” Shutterbug said.
“Or this,” the adorable little filly Chrys added.
“And we can’t forget your favorite little dog, too,” Classy remarked.

Finally, another shift returned the former queen to her full glory. “But me as I truly am? Your superior? Your predator? Don’t make me laugh.”

Chrysalis raised her hoof to Applejack’s chest. “All there is, all there ever will be, is pity dripping from your pathetic, bleeding heart.”

That wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true. Applejack knew Chrysalis was lying. They’d been through so much already in the time she’d been on the farm.

“It’s true she needs plenty of love to take,
But your concern is born from pity’s sake.”

But, that wasn’t all there was to it.

“You bear admirable and honest notions,
But not enough to maintain strong emotions.
Such shallow feelings cannot be sustained,
The well of such love will quickly be drained.”

Under all of the venom, there was a grain of truth that Applejack couldn’t deny.

“It is true that it has yet to be seen,
If such little love can sustain a queen.”

And it bore through her chest, puncturing with a harsh, bitter honesty.

“But you’re friends,” Twilight objected, intervening after Applejack had gone quiet. “We’re all friends. We love you, Chrysalis.”

“Because you love Applejack, right? You want to support your precious friend with my ‘rehabilitation.’”

Twilight stopped in her tracks, but closed her eyes and took a patient breath to recenter herself. “You’re right. At the beginning, I was motivated by my desire to help Applejack. Even though I wanted to give you a chance that Luna didn’t, it was because of my faith in her.” The princess stomped her hoof and flared her eyes open with regal conviction. “But it’s not true now. I’ve gotten to know you better, Chrysalis, and I know you’re trying your best. You proved that to me in Manehattan. To all of us. I want to be your friend and share all the love and support that I can with you. Love which you deserve to have.”

“A resounding sentiment fitting the Princess of Friendship, but your words are just words. Hollow. Vapid. Weak.”

“If that’s true, then at least give me an opportunity to make them substantial, just like I did for you with Prim Hemline.”

Hearing the name made Chrysalis wince, but she wiped it away with a stern frown. “Very well, Twilight Sparkle. What do you propose?”

“Come with me to the Crystal Empire.” The princess offered her hoof to Chrysalis, who shrank back from the gesture. “Give me the chance, and I’ll show you the strength that true and loving friendship can have.”

Chrysalis stared at the outstretched hoof, a million thoughts racing through her eyes. For a moment, it looked like she was going to swat the offer away, just like she’d done with Starlight before. She slowly reached out, lurching her leg forward until, finally, she rested it on Twilight’s. “Fine. I’ll play your little game.” After a moment, her frown deepened with a heated glare. “I feel nothing.”

The alicorn nodded. “Sorry, but it’s hard to show someone love when they’ve hurt someone else close to you.”

Twilight turned her head and Chrysalis followed suit to face Applejack. The farmer didn’t want the focus on her just yet. She was still reeling, trying to think of something to say, but everywhere her mind ran to, it always hit that same, shameful truth: she loved Chrysalis out of pity. It’s what she’d been doing from the start, what Zecora had warned her about, but she’d rarely moved beyond it.

The warning signs had been there. Heck, Chrysalis had been calling her out from the start. She never wanted any pity, any sympathy. Thinking back, appreciation was draped in a layer of Chrys fighting against the odds. She was completely out of her league. Just doing her best to muddle through figuring out farmwork. An underdog. Now that Chrysalis was doing better than ever, AJ didn’t feel sorry for her. Her barn was too small.

All she had was a frail, bleeding heart.

“Applejack?”

The earth pony jolted back from the sound of her name. Any words she had in her head spilled out as an unintelligible jumbled mess of “huh-zuh-whats-its.” Her eyes stung from the pressure of her heart weighing down on her withers. She was a fool with nopony else to blame but herself. The seeds were sown and now she was realizing the terrible fruits she’d grown.

Twilight laid a supportive hoof on Applejack’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah. I’m good.”

Chrysalis' knitted brow loosened at the terrible lie. At least Twilight would be polite and let it slide. If one of them called her on it, she wasn’t sure what she’d say. Her stomach was twisting fiercer than a rogue cyclone, going over and under with a swirl of emotions she couldn’t even begin to pin down. She wanted to puke. Just hurl every last bit of it out in a miserable slurry and trample the mess out of existence.

“Are you s—”

“We got it all sorted then, right?” Applejack turned away quickly and trotted past Fleur. “Let’s head back. Shouldn’t keep the others waiting now that Chrysalis is onboard.”

She powered through, keeping up her pace trying to outrun the others without breaking into a gallop. The last thing Applejack wanted to do was have to open her mouth again. There was no telling what’d come out of it being this out of sorts. Problem was, she knew her friends well enough that they wouldn’t leave it be. The scampering of hooves from behind told her that. She sighed and turned around to face Twilight, but instead balked at Chrysalis chasing her down.

“Chrys?”

“Applejack. I—I didn’t mean…” The changeling’s face fell into that sullen frown she always had when she was tearing herself up inside. “I just wanted you to know.”

Applejack tilted her hat down to cover her face. “Well, consider the message finally received. Sorry it took me so long to get my thick head around it.”

“Don’t be angry.”

Applejack chuckled weakly. “I ain’t allowed to be, right?”

Chrysalis said nothing.

“You don’t gotta worry about that. Only one I’m angry at is me. Got a lot to think about on the way to the Empire.” She took a bracing breath, though it wasn’t enough to look at anything other than the ground. “Thanks for being honest, sugarcube. I appreciate it.”

Chrysalis said nothing still, at least at first. Not until Applejack had already turned around to head back to the map room. Then, with trudging steps, she muttered back:

“I don’t.”

Author's Note

If you find a simple mistake in the GSP (Grammar, Spelling, or Punctuation), please let me know through a private message rather than leaving it in the comment section. Thank you for reading!