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// Better Conversations 
// Story: Date With The Queen 
// by Boopy Doopy 
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Chrysalis thought the waiter was taking an unacceptably long amount of time. She was a queen! She shouldn’t have had to wait on peasants to get what she wanted! How Shining Armor was able to put up with it, she didn’t know.
Or maybe she did know. He had a hoof on his chin as he stared right into her eyes, seemingly captured by her beauty. She stared back at him, a little glare on her face, trying to deter him from looking at her so idiotically. It didn’t seem to work though. In fact, she wondered if he was liking her more like this.
“Have you always been this beautiful, Chryssi?” he asked dumbly. “I don’t remember being this trapped by your beauty before. You could steal any stallion in all of Equestria with how gorgeous you are.”
She had to force herself not to blush as she replied, “They have. My natural beauty is apparent and doesn’t need to be commented on. Everypony around us already knows. I can say you yourself are quite… acceptable.”
That was a lie. She thought he was insanely cute and adorable. Adorable, yes, the right word because he was beneath her, as princes were meant to be beneath queens. It was adorable that he thought he could measure up to a being such as her. There was no way he was an incredibly handsome stallion, extremely rugged, not one tiny bit.
“Oh, of course, acceptable is all I’ll ever be able to hope for in your presence,” he said. “I will certainly try my best to measure up though, just you wait.”
“Hello,” the waiter suddenly said, making their way up to their table after a long minute. “My name is Tappy Hoof, and… you… y-y-you– you’re C-c-chrysalis…” the waiter stuttered out, suddenly changing his look from serious to fearful.
“That’s Queen Chrysalis to you,” the changeling responded, “and what of it?”
“I- I- I… you… P-p-prince Sh-shining Armor…”
“It’s okay, Chryssi is here with me,” he smiled brightly, reaching over to take her hoof in his own. She shivered as he did, but didn’t move away, something she knew she should have done, if only to show that she was only going along with this because she had to. The idea that she was attracted to this prince and his wife was absolutely ridiculous.
“She won’t be any trouble at all, right, Chryssi?” he asked.
“I’m not a foal,” she said, taking her hoof back. “I can speak for myself. And whether I make trouble will be dependent upon how well your services here today are. I am a queen, and will raise a ruckus if I’m not delivered the services of a queen.”
“Of- of course, m-ma’am… wh-what can I g-g-get you to drink to start with?” the stallion asked nervously, sweating already just from being in her presence.
“Well a tall glass of your finest champagne to start off with would be lovely,” she requested. “Assuming this place is prim enough to afford that.”
“N-no trouble m-ma’am,” the stallion said, silently turning to Shining Armor to see what he wanted after.
“Just water with no ice for me please,” he smiled politely. “And don’t mind her, she’s just grumpy because she hasn’t eaten yet. I’m sure when you come out here with a nice, hot plate of lasagna, she’ll change her attitude.”
She didn’t know what that word meant, but replied anyway, “I’d prefer a plate of spaghetti and meatballs, one that I expect to be made to my tastes. I will not settle for mediocre, I do want to make that clear.”
She’d never had spaghetti and meatballs, either, but had seen numerous instances where it had been cooked. In books and stories and some of the ponies in Canterlot, too, when she visited. It seemed like the food was highly regarded, and so she wanted to try it for that reason. Certainly not because it looked like a dish served in romantic circumstances. What would ever give anypony that idea?
She had to admit though, the situation was… a little bit romantic. Music in the air and candles lighting the place– this seemed like the textbook definition of a romantic evening. She thought she remembered Shining Armor saying something about how he liked things like this. Heck, she remembered a few evenings when she was infiltrating Canterlot that she had nights out with the pony like this. 
And the stallion across from her himself. She couldn’t imagine a more dashing stallion to be spending the evening with, a specimen almost as handsome as his wife was beautiful… not that either of them were pretty, of course! They weren’t, not compared to her, but she did have to admit they were both quite the lookers. And nice company she guessed, even if they could both be infuriating at times with their awful friendship. And after yesterday, she could say she had firsthand experience with how good they both were at cuddling. Honestly, if she had to pick two ponies to spend time with, as much as she would dislike it, she figured she would pick these two.
Before she knew it, she was blushing when she realized that she would. She was not falling in love with these two. She was not. There was probably something in the air, perhaps a nearby bush of delirium causing morenta flowers, because there was no way she on her own would be thinking of how nice it would be to continue spending time with these two after her dates were done.
“Watcha thinking about, sweetie?” he asked kindly as he smiled at her, Chrysalis noting that he used the same word as his wife did referring to her. “You’re looking a bit lovestruck. You’re not falling in love with somepony else in here, are you?”
“With these peasants? Certainly not,” she scoffed. “What a ridiculous question. I wouldn’t date outside of royal blood, let alone marry.”
“Ooo, you’re already thinking of marriage?” Shining Armor smiled, trying to tease her. “We’ll have to speak with Caddy to see about getting our marriage laws changed if that’s what you want. They’re a bit outdated, but she should be able to look into it with no problem.”
“I am not looking for that!” she said quickly, forcefully, staring at him angrily at the thought of it. “Get whatever ridiculous idea you have out of your head now! My only goal is to take the Crystal Empire from you and then take back my hive, nothing more!”
The whole room was silent now as they stared at the two of them. Chrysalis was leaning over the table angrily as the stallion she was out with continued to smile at her, as though the whole thing was adorable to him. It only made her more angry. She was not adorable! At least if they thought this was humorous, they’d be giving her some amount of respect. Being considered such a terrible thing meant practically no respect at all! No fear!
“Um, I- I don’t mean to be a bother,” the waiter suddenly interrupted, “but I st-still need your order, p-p-please.”
“Did I not say spaghetti and meatballs?” she asked irritatedly, not turning her gaze from Shining Armor’s. “Your subjects need to learn to listen, I must say. I certainly never had to repeat myself when I had my hive.”
“Q-quite sorry, I- we’ll have that out for you in a jiffy. A-and wh-what about you, Prince Shining Armor?”
“Oh, a plate of lasagna would be nice, please,” he answered politely. “Actually, if you could put extra on there, that would be great, since Chryssi here hasn’t ever had lasagna.”
“Any breadsticks or salad, sir?”
“Both please, with garlic dressing on the salad.”
“Of c-course, it’ll be right out.”
With that, the waiter left, and Shining Armor went back to his position, hoof on chin as he stared into the changeling’s eyes once again.
“You don’t have to do that,” she sighed, setting her chin on the table. “I don’t need you to pretend to think I’m beautiful. I know most of you ponies think of us changelings as ugly monsters. Most changelings think of changelings as ugly monsters. I know you think the same, so you can end this little show you’re doing.”
“I’m not putting on a show,” he said, now frowning and sounding a little sad. “What happened to all that confidence you had just a second ago?”
“It’s just off putting seeing all of you tell me how I’m adorable every few seconds, and then go above and beyond to try and please me as if I need the attention. I am a queen. I already know my royal blood is the highest there is in Equestria. And while I do like to be reminded of it, my enemies being overbearing as they tell me if off putting, and lets me know what you think of me.”
“Chryssi, we say those things because they’re true,” Shining told her, now frowning in seriousness. “Not because we think it’ll make you feel better or something. Cadance and I aren’t like that.”
“Yeah, right. I know this is a trap to try to get me to succumb to friendship.”
Now Shining Armor was looking at her with nothing but complete seriousness. “Chrysalis. I don’t like bringing this up, but after… the things that happened during my and Cadance’s wedding, there’s no way we would ever humor you with something like this.”
Chrysalis’s ears dropped in shame. She hated hearing that brought up, as though she was intentionally trying to cause emotional pain. That wasn’t her style, even though it might have been other creatures. She was sure he thought it was though, and this was the part where he would tell her to leave because of what she did. 
The stallion didn’t, instead finishing, “That means when we spend time with you and give you compliments, we’re being genuine. We wouldn’t entertain trying to reform you or something like you think. We just genuinely want to spend time with you.”
It made her blink in surprise. She tasted their love, and knew their emotions weren’t shallow or forced, but it was still strange to hear.  She honestly, truly thought they didn’t actually care for her, that they were only doing this to try and force her into reforming. But hearing it from Shining Armor so bluntly… he had to be telling the truth, right? She imagined how nice it would be if he was, having two ponies genuinely like her instead of just being subservient to her. Two ponies who were her equals… maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to send back a little bit of love their way. 
“You’re amazing and beautiful, and even though you’re abrasive, Cadance and I love you for who you are anyway,” Shining told her, taking her hoof in his own as she started to faintly glow. “I know if you try, you could see that we really do care about you, whether or not you choose to reform. It wouldn’t change how either of us feels about you.”
That almost got her. Almost. A second before she could change over though, the waiter interrupted them.
“I just wanted to give you both these breadsticks you ordered,” he said, getting a death glare from Chrysalis. Of course, somepony had to come in and ruin the moment. Not that it wasn’t a good thing. She knew it was. She was just a second away from letting those two win against her, and she was just letting it happen. She knew she had to be more careful than this, otherwise she’d be changed by the end of the night.
“I’ll have you know, it’s quite rude to interrupt royalty like that,” she said, stealing a breadstick and chomping on it angrily. “Now fetch our drinks, peasant.”