Twilight was doing her best to be stoic and regal, the way her subjects expected her to be; but it was failing, which is why she needed a break. She had to talk to someone, a friend perhaps, which was why she was on her way to Sweet Apple Acre's. The trip wasn't too long with some well placed teleportations which she had memorized over the years. She stood on the last point before she would make it there and wondered what she was going to say. The sight of the field of apples was comforting, but it also presented the fact that “she” was there, which was a can of worms she wasn't planning on dealing with.

She spread her wings and watched the apple trees, waiting for one to show signs of work being done. There was only one pony on this side of the farm who did all the work. Sure, she might be seen by the others in the family but they knew better than to come over here, unless they were young, in which case there had been pranks played that weren't very respectful.

She heard a thud and a tree shaking. She was close. She slowed her flight and got closer to the treetops and another tree shook even closer. She dived between the leaves and looked around.

There was Applejack, as young as ever, working.

Twilight didn't understand what kept Applejack around. She had theories. Perhaps the land itself kept Applejack alive and working, or maybe it was the trees, or Applejack was just special, or perhaps Applejack was being piloted by parasites – Twilight wasn't going to dissect her to find out. She knew one thing; this was Applejack's home, and she was always here.

Applejack didn't turn to look as Twilight approached from the front. It was another attempt to make a change in the routine. Almost every attempt failed. Almost. The only thing that worked was insulting apples or making moves to harm a tree in front of her.

“It's good to see you Applejack.” Twilight said to the unflinching earth pony. It felt morbid for sure, talking to her like this, but Applejack was still one of her best friends. She told herself it was no different than when she visited gravestones to talk to her other friends. “I think I'm losing my mind.” Twilight said.

Applejack bucked another tree and the apples fell perfectly into the bucket Applejack set for them. Twilight collected herself, took a deep breath, and said with all the air in her lungs, “You see I recently may have let loose a certain bug queen that if I let her could absolutely grow as powerful as me and she also hates me and I don't know why I did that really I was just so lonely at the castle and for some reason I decided not to just change my schedules and I went straight for unfreezing a villain and I didn't even talk to Screwball about it yet and I'm sure she knows oh I'm sure she knows she's just laughing her way to the bank about all this and that's not all because for some reason I told Queen Chrysalis that I want her to stay around forever which kind of has some implications and given immortality it's bound that at some point we would fall for each other because of how statistics work but I know I shouldn't rely on that I just don't know if I can fall for her at all it was kind of a dumb answer and I just hope she doesn't actually grow strong enough to take over Equestria.”

Twilight breathed. Her larger alicorn lungs certainly helped when she wanted to spout panicked rants. She quickly recovered and noticed Applejack was already at the next tree.

Twilight stretched, some joints popped and her wings fully flexed, she was ready. This, she felt, was cruel. And she never would have done it if there was another way.

Applejack went to buck the next tree, and Twilight cast a spell, preventing the tree from shaking. A small light in Applejack's eyes came back, and an eyebrow raised. She bucked again, still no reaction from the tree. Her eyes narrowed into a glare as she went to the next tree to buck.

This time Twilight floated an apple between the tree and Applejack's hoof. As the apple was crushed, Applejack gasped and looked to her apple covered hoof. The light fully returning to her eyes, along with a fiery rage.

“Now don't go thinking just because you're the princess now you're gonna get away with this Twi!” Applejack roared.

Twilight thought of this as a temporary revival, awake from whatever deep dark place Applejack's mind actually went while her body worked. Twilight was already in the air moving as quickly as she could through the trees without crashing. Applejack chased her at impressive speeds that didn't give Twilight a moment of rest. It would only last for a few minutes, before the grass cleaned off the apple from her hoof.

“So what do you think I should do?” Twilight called back.

“I think you should come back here so I can teach you what happens when you mess with apples!” AJ shouted up. “And I also think that when you propose you should already love the pony!”

Twilight let out a sigh of relief. Applejack could hear her. She was always worried that one of these days that Applejack would be fully gone, that whatever was sustaining her would stop. The state of apple exports in Equestria aside, she would miss her friend.

“It's good to see you too Applejack!” Twilight shouted.

“Come back here!” Applejack shouted. Then she snorted, then burst out laughing to Twilight's surprise. Twilight turned around to find Applejack slowing. “I haven't ran this hard since Dash tried to get to the last Cider in the fridge before me.”

Twilight approached as softly as she could. “I don't remember that race.”

“Oh it wasn't really a race as much as,” Applejack looked around, “where is she anyway? She was supposed to help me today.”

Twilight watched as Applejack looked around, more frantically. No doubt confused how she got to this part of the orchard. “She's uh, at Scootaloo's.” Twilight said.

“And when did you get so tall? And when did, oh my head.” Applejack winced.

Twilight would have loved to try and get Applejack back. But she knew she couldn't, she had been dead for a long time. “It was nice seeing you again.” Twilight said. “And I'm sorry.”

She used her magic to clean off the Apple gore from Applejack's leg, and watched as her eyes went back to being hollow. Applejack's mouth made a few movements before she stood up and mindlessly went back down the Tree's, finding where she left off.

With a sigh, Twilight spread her wings and flew up through the opening of leaves. She saw the treetops replace the ground. She would be back again someday, but she didn't think she'd force applejack out again. It hurt to see her like this.

She reached a hilltop not too far away where she could overlook the entire orchard. She wouldn't feel right unless she said goodbye in a way that actually worked. She looked in the direction of the trees, Doing her best to distance herself between her and the corpse that was working, avoiding thinking about what this place meant to her. She continued to look, and she was finally brought away from the trees. There was a barn, there were mountains in the distance, the sun reflected on a stream on a hill, the large blue sky larger than anything else in her sight. All of it came together – there was more than the orchard, there was the view.

With a deep breath Twilight stood up and started making her way home.

-

Chrysalis had lost track of time, which turned out not to matter too much. She had attempted walking until the end of town, or the city, but she hadn't even reached a train station. It was fancy houses and businesses as far as she could go. The grey guard she was assigned had turned her around without her noticing and they arrived back at the castle on time.

Chrysalis considered whether to be offended that he would divert her from her path, or think him efficient at not letting her miss her plans. Well, Twilight's plans. And she hadn't seen any 'Cuckoo's' while on her walk, so she supposed what she was told was true. They could hide themselves with efficiency, if they were even there.

The thought of the Cuckoo's hadn't entered her mind on her walk, but the events of last night had given her a strange idea. No doubt she would look strange, but if it was just her guard then it would be alright.

While walking on the path to the castle, past the front gates, Chrysalis turned and walked into the grass. Her guard followed without any errors. She walked until she was sure that she would be undisturbed by any 'normal' castle grounds walkers. She couldn't think of any need any of them would have to come to this part of an open grass field. Feeling that she was now in a secure enough place to test her idea, she cleared her throat.

“Oh what a lovely walk that was. I sure hope that I wasn't being watched the whole time by some creature that couldn't mind their own business.” Chrysalis said. She held the silence for a moment, unsure if her bait was working. And double checking that only her guard was around to hear her she continued. “I mean you can come out now, stop hiding, this is an order from a Queen. The punishment for disobedience will be carried out by me personally. I'm sure your Princess Twilight,” Chrysalis spat, “would understand.” If she turned out to be wrong, she would look daft, and she would have to threaten the guard to forget any of this and never speak of it to anyone. Still nothing happened. “I'm going to count down from three now!”

“Ah!” A voice came from behind her. “There's no need! I'm sorry, I really am!” the Cuckoo said. It was the same one from last night that Chrysalis had observed.

“Should I expect to be followed everywhere I go?” Chrysalis asked. “Last night, and today as well. Perhaps you're a spy Twilight left to watch me.” The idea made no sense, since she already had an efficient guard at her side.

“No!” the Cuckoo said. “I'm not a spy. I'm just a student here. And I was following you because, well,” the Cuckoo scratched the back of her neck, “it's hard to explain.”

That was interesting, could the Cuckoo have sensed that she was Queen? That she was the ruler of changelings and by extension whatever inferior race Cuckoo's were? Or perhaps it was just her general appearance, strong, chitinous, an exoskeleton.

Chrysalis said, “I am scheduled to eat lunch with the one you call Princess. Is your explanation good enough to warrant changing my schedule?”

“Oh not at all.” the Cuckoo said. “Lunch with the Princess? I'm so jealous. She doesn't have lunch with anyone I hear.” the Cuckoo said more excitedly, brushing off the apprehension of the earlier moment with ease. “There's a rumor around the schools that she eats other ponies for lunch, but I know that's not true. No, I'm sure she eats the pets that go missing.”

Chrysalis laughed at this new information. There were unkind words being spread about Twilight, and these she could use. She had spread words and ideas throughout the whole of Equestria before, and she could do it again. Although, last time she had help.

That thought didn't feel like something she could brush off. Tirek and Cozy Glow were still imprisoned, and, though she hated to admit it, she felt guilty that she hadn't at least attempted taking a hammer to the statue in the middle of the night to see if that would work.

The Cuckoo kept talking.

“Look.” Chrysalis said with finality. “I'm afraid I must leave, so if you plan to bother me again give me your name.”

“Oh! The name's Alprecha Secundis! Friends call me Alp, or Alpie,” Alprecha said with a smile, the hexagons of her eyes shaking a little.

“Good,” Chrysalis said. “I will take pleasure in telling the Princess that I have been accosted by a Cuckoo named Alprecha then.”

“Huh?” Alp said shocked. “Wait, NO DON'T! PLEASE!” she shouted as she chased after Chrysalis and the guard.

Author's Note

Now to me this chapter sounds mostly like waffling, which it is, think of it as filler I guess if that makes sense. I would have had it posted sooner, but like I said I am now waiting for a friend to get back to me after editing it, for which I am eternally grateful. Trust me, the editing is necessary. As always I hope you enjoyed reading it, and I would appreciate it if there's any comments you have about the story so far, or mistakes I made, that you please tell me. Also just to let people know who don't read the comments, I don't think I will actually make Tirek or Cozy Glow into characters in this. Not out of dislike, but simply for the fact that I want to write specifically about Chrysalis.