As Dark went to work beside Chrysalis with a smile on his face. The Changeling Queen was working on her latest project as Dark walked in, throwing her a casual glance as he did so. Chrysalis stared at him for a few moments, blushing, then shook herself out of her stupor.
“Oh hello, lieutenant Sidewinder.” Dark looked at her with a questioningly; she had addressed him so formally. Chrysalis smiled, buzzing down in an odd, almost charmed way to Dark. “I'm glad you're here”
“I'm glad too…but what’s this about?” Dark asked his host, rather confused and worried.
Chrysalis smiled. “Oh nothing” She said…she sounded unusually joyful. “It's just that I have to thank you for giving such…happiness today”
Dark smiled bemusedly, pleasantly surprised. “Er…You’re welcome!” he replied.
However, Dark slowly started to figure out what was going on as Chrysalis got even closer to him.
“Thank you so much for yesterday,” she purred. “I felt like I was in such a good mood today after you were so kind to me.” She patted his head. “So if there is anything you want to say to me…go ahead” Dark was about to say something when she interrupted his unsaid words.“Wait! How about you tell me at the banquet tonight! It'll be more…romantic”
"Romantic?"
Dark’s eyes widened and he asked the question weighing most strongly on his mind: “Er…what?”
“Nothing, nothing” The sly Queen hinted. She beamed. “Walk with me for a bit.”
Dark did as she asked, albeit reluctantly. “So tell me something,” Chrysalis sighed. “Are you enjoying your stay?”
“Yeah…” Dark responded.
“Any particular reason…why?” She then jerked her head towards one of her changelings, motioning her away. “Drat,” she noted. “We'll have to finish this conversation later.”
She smiled, then swung around and trotted off to work on something else. Dark winced as a sudden bellow reached his ears: “No, the pits of swirling pain go under the cage not beside it! Come on this shouldn’t be that complicated!”
Starnight was there already doing some work to make up for his previous suspicions, despite the Queen telling him that it wasn't necessary. Dark glanced at him as he burst out laughing.
“Wow, you're a royalty magnet,” Starnight remarked. “If we give you a week with Princess Twilight and Cadence, and we might have a scandal on our hands!”
“Starnight, the heck you talking about” Dark said, making a feeble attempt to deny the implications…having Chrysalis blatantly star-struck and flirting with him only five minutes ago wasn’t helping.
“Dark, I know you,” Starnight replied. “You said it yourself; your special talent is figuring out situations really quickly. You know she's crushing on you bad,” he said cackled. “Oh man, you’re a bad liar.”
Dark glared at Starnight, sighed and relented. “And I pray I never get good at it. She's really into me…”
“Well you did kind of put the moves on her back at the accusations,” his best friend observed, smirking.“I was not!” Dark cried indignantly. “I was just trying to be nice to her. You know me, I have only one pony in my heart right now.”
Starnight sighed.“Yeah, yeah…” He peered at Dark. “You better let her down easy because we’re still trying for an alliance here…and this might be a problem”
Dark groaned and walked towards Chrysalis as Starnight wiggled his eyebrows accusingly. She smiled dazzlingly as he reached her. “Lieutenant Sidewinder! It's a pleasure to see you again!”
Dark, unsure of how to handle the situation, took a deep breath. “Um…we need to talk.” He padded towards a deserted corner, motioning for Chrysalis to follow.
She followed him in a school-girl daze, then winced as Dark sighed. “Look…I think you’re a great pony and a great leader...” Chrysalis looked at him with hopeful eyes and he flinched.“But…” The light in her eyes slowly started to fade away. “I…er…I don’t like you like you like me. You're a great friend,” he said quickly. “But I…I’m not in love with you or anything like that.” He paused, not really sure what else to say. “Sorry.”
Chrysalis gazed dejectedly at him.“Oh…” Dark stared at her and felt incredibly bad at her next words: “Well…I guess I got my hopes up for nothing”
Dark responded quickly. “It really isn't you! Like I said, you’re a great pony and I think that you'd be a great date as well, but I don't like you like that. I love my Princess a lot.” He blushed deeply. “You were there yourself at the meeting…”
Chrysalis sighed, made a half-hearted attempt to deny his words, then looked down miserably. “My apologies…it’s just…hard. I don't have a special somepony in my life and I was hoping that…that I would finally have one…”
Dark pawed at the ground nervously and laughed slightly. “I guess it’s partly my fault as well… I think I was a little too nice to you yesterday…I just don't like seeing ponies or changelings beat themselves up over something that's not their fault.” Chrysalis smiled hollowly.
“Thank you for…for being honest with me” she said, looking down. Dark smiled back apologetically.
“Don’t mention it.” Then, before things could get even more awkward, her slipped back into his work.
Deciding to help Fang, who (unknown to both Dark and Chrysalis) was listening in and had begun dancing for joy when Dark rejected Chrysalis,
Dark smiled.“You know, there is someone whose been crushing on you for a long time, maybe you should give him a chance”
“You mean Fang?” Chrysalis asked. Fang blushed ruby-red; he had thought that he had kept his secret feelings…well…secret. “Fang is my best soldier and my best worker as well. There is no changeling I'm more proud of than him.” Fang turned even redder after hearing such compliments from Chrysalis. Dark smiled at her next words: “I'll have to consider that.”
“I'll let you think alone then,” Dark replied, winking. He walked past a shell-shocked Fang on his way out and grinned. “Well? Go in there and tell her you moron!” he teased.
Fang grinned manically, mentally thanking Dark and kicking himself at the same time for ever feeling jealous of the gentle thestral. Dark smiled and padded back to Fluttershy, who had actually found a star-nosed mole. He figured he could hang out with her for a bit.
Elsewhere, Fang smiled and walked towards his Queen “Hello…” he said shyly. Queen Chrysalis glanced at him and smiled. “I wanted to speak with you,” Fang continued. He took a deep breath; there was no going back now. “I have something I need to tell you,” he said, trying to play it cool; even though Chrysalis knew of his crush, she doesn't know that Fang knew she knew. She tilted his head as he inhaled sharply…and released his heart to her. “Queen Chrysalis…I’m just gonna come out and say it. You're my hero and I love you very much. You have such a beautiful mind, and beautiful body. You're so caring and giving and you're such a great leader that I'm honoured to serve under you.” He smiled, terrified and finally, he asked: “I want to take you out on a date tonight…if that’s okay?”
Chrysalis stared at Fang. For a few painful moments, there was nothing…pure silence.
And then, Chrysalis’s mental debate concerning her own feelings with suddenly ended as sen she realised something: “Fang...”
Fang looked at her with hopeful eyes, which then faded into sorrow as Chrysalis delivered her crushing blow: “I don't like you like that.”