The Moon Worshiper Part 3: Twisted

On the train ride, Dark was sitting next to Fluttershy and Starnight, two of Dark's closest friends, bonding over various things, mostly their respective Princesses. Starnight made a joke and said that Dark was trying to become more than just friends with Luna, which caused Dark to have a tinge of pink on him. There was laughing, until General told them all that they were arriving. They stepped off the train and then their eyes widened at the sight before them. The heat in this Kingdom was intense, like this Kingdom was where the sun always shined, where the Darkness of the Night never touched the land, giving it a brief cooling down that it so desperately needed. They looked ahead and saw Fang standing there.

"Not quite what you were expecting?" he joked towards them. "Follow me, I will take you to our Kingdom." Fang walked to a very large boulder. Dark was about to say something when Fang gently tapped the rock with his hoof, as the ground started to rumble. They all looked ahead and then saw the thing opening slowly, another changeling motioned his leg and Fang lead them inside walking down the stairs. "Yes, we live under ground," Fang said,answering the question that was on everypony's mind at the moment. "Under here we are safe from our enemies because they do not know where to look for us, and we also get a break from the sun. The only place that has a view of the outside world is Queen Chrysalis's castle, where you four will be staying. Her majesty wants you all to feel very welcomed."

"Well that was very thoughtful of her," Fluttershy responded with a minor smile. "It's nice of her to be taking this seriously."

General rolled his eyes as he said quietly under his breath, "Or maybe giving her the chance to slide the knife." Starnight nodded in agreement but Dark did not hear it.

"This place is kinda cool," Dark commented as he looked around and saw the various changelings all around the rock houses that belong to their respective owner. It was somewhat like a fusion between Ponyville and Canterlot, and honestly not what Dark was expecting. In his mind he thought he'd be entering a dictator's lair, where Chrysalis had to remind her subjects who ruled, but it was nothing like that. It was a refreshing and beautiful place actually, the rocks that the changeling's houses had some bits of gems inside of them so their houses actually glistened a little bit from their shine. "So where do you hang out?" Dark asked Fang.

Fang paused at that and looked away. "I....um...hang out where..." He then looked like he was admitting defeat or something and said to Dark. "I hang out with Queen Chrysalis a lot, she's so cool. She's smart, she's strong and she's so...so..."

Starnight muttered "Evil," under his breath, not really trying to hide his disdain for the Changeling Queen. General smiled as he looked at his former number one student. It was great to see that training did wonders for Starnight.

"I hear you Fang. I know what it's like to have some pony you look up to more than anything," Dark said, blissfully thinking about Princess Luna.

Fluttershy noticed butterflies flying under the ground and she whispered, "I didn't even know butterflies flew this low."

"They don't," Fang responded. "They just try to avoid the heat; we don't really have that much of an animal life down here. Unless you count worms...lots and lots of worms...though, we do sometimes have the rare mole or two that wanders to far and comes to our kingdom. Always a welcomed little visitor."

"Well that seems to be rather lovely!" Fluttershy smiled with no hint of irony or malice in her voice.  "Your Queen must be very proud of her wildlife."

"She's more of a 'changeling for her fellow changelings' type of ruler," Fang said in response to that. "Queen Chrysalis always calls us the mightiest race in all the world...though now that I'm thinking about it, is Fluttershy correct?  I was at the Battle of Canterlot, when you and your friends faced off against our forces...tell the pink one that it look me months to pick out all the confetti in my teeth," Fang said with a slight groan, which caused Starnight to laugh a little.

"Oh I am so sorry about that!"  Fluttershy exclaimed.  Starnight gave her a little wide eyed look and motioned to Dark and the two best friends were in the background while Fluttershy and Fang began talking about various other things.

"What's with Fluttershy? She's being so...so..." Starnight struggled to find the right word.

"Nice?"  Dark asked.

"Yeah, I mean these changelings tried to take over all of Equestria, yet she's treating them like any other pony." Starnight grumbled.  "We need to be careful here."

"I'm actually kinda okay with how she's acting," Dark replied.   Starnight looked at him, horrified. "We're here to help form a truce between our two kingdoms remember? Why not try to make the experience pleasant for both sides, we don't need to be harsh to them because of their actions. Remember, our Princesses all chose us to help make this truce thing official."

"Dark, they chose three guards and the pony who turned Discord into a model citizen!"  Starnight exclaimed. "We aren't diplomats; we're basically here for when they eventually turn on us and we stop them."

"Oh stop being so negative!" Dark replied, rolling his eyes. "We have to see the good in them, other wise we won't accomplish anything."

Starnight groaned.  "Dark, seriously, think about this..."

"Hey Dark, come up here! I wanna ask you something!"  Fang called.

"Okay!" Dark walked forward and Starnight muttered something under his breath.  "So, what is it?" he asked.

"Earlier you said that you pretty much understood what it was like to worship an idol, what do you mean by that?"

"Well, to me Princess Luna is the most amazing pony in the whole world!" he said, gushing instantly. "She's strong, she's sweet, she's beautiful, and she has the coolest special talent ever. To me she's the most amazing pony ever!"

"You know, no offense, but this sounds like a lot more than you just simply looking up to her," Fang joked.

Dark turned a deep red.  "Oh don't tease him Fang, Princess Luna and Dark are just friends!" Fluttershy scolded. "So, tell me more about this star-nosed mole you guys had in your Kingdom the last week."

"Yeah...just...friends,"  Dark muttered, though his face was a deep crimson as he thought about Princess Luna.