My Dearest Dusk

by CrackedInkWell

Chapter 18

Spines stopped her pacing for a moment to look at the clock on the mantle. Again. It was now 1:17 in the morning and Dusk still hadn’t returned to their guest room. She half expected that they would be gone late, but she thought that perhaps the two Royals might come back by around midnight.

‘It’s been over six hours,’ she thought as she paced around the room with turquoise in her claw. ‘I’ve heard about long romantic dates, but this is a bit much. What in Equestria have they been doing?’ She looked at the clock again. ‘I really hope Dusk is alright. Oh come on, he’s with one of the most powerful alicorns in the world for crying out loud! Solaris wouldn’t let him get hurt in any way. Maybe they’re just headed back from… wherever they’ve gone to. That’s it, any moment now, Dusk is gonna walk through those doors, and I can get some sleep…’

1:20.

“Oh for crying out loud,” the dragoness muttered as she went to open the doors to their room, finding the very alicorn in question about to open the door himself. She also noticed the stack of books on his back.

“Dusk! There you are,” she said as she let him through.

“Spines? Have you been up this whole time?” he asked, lighting his horn to place the stack of books down and to unbutton his vest.

“Do you know what time it is?” his assistant questioned. “It’s one past midnight. I thought you guys would have been back an hour ago.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry about that,” the Prince of Friendship apologized as his tie pin and tie became undone. “We got so distracted that I guess we lost of time.”

Spines went over to pick up her comics. “And speaking of you guys, how’d it go?”

“Huh?”

“The date,” she clarified. “How was your guys’ date? Did it go well?”

“Oh. Yeah, actually, it did.” Dusk said with a grin.

“And?”

“And what?”

“Come on Dusk,” she said, putting the comics next to the snacks that she had indulged in. “You guys have been gone for hours. So what did you and Solaris do this whole time?”

“Well,” the alicorn said, unbuttoning his white shirt, “for starters, we went to Manehattan.”

“What?! You guys went all the way to Manehattan for a date?!”

“Hey, it was Solaris’s idea,” Dusk pointed out. “We flew by airship so we could get over there and back. Anyway, we had dinner while we flew over there, and then we went into an art gallery after closing time-”

“Okay, stop right there,” Spines interrupted. “Did Solaris get permission for you guys to be in there?”

“Of course, he told them ahead of time. Anyway, after we viewed some Impressionist Era paintings, we went to an out-of-the-way book store. We were able to find copies of a few books that were destroyed at the Golden Oaks, which is good.”

“Oh, so that explains that then, huh?” she pointed at the pile of books that Dusk came in with.

The lilac Prince nodded. “Afterwards, we grabbed some cheesecake at this twenty-four-hour place and spent the rest of the night on top of the Manehattan Bridge, taking in the view of the city.”

“That sounds like quite the night, Dusk,” the dragoness commented. “So how was Solaris? Was he good to you?”

Dusk couldn’t help but smile, and even laugh a little at the mentioning of his date’s name. “Yeah, he was actually.”

Spines sighed in relief. “Good, that’s exactly what I wanted to hear.”

“Maybe you really should head to bed.”

“So should you,” she pointed out. “It’s already late as it is. Now come on, let’s catch some Z’s.”

“Fair enough,” Dusk sighed as they went to their beds before shutting off the lights. Although the alicorn climbed into bed and under the sheets, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to sleep that night. Not that he would, that is, with the memories of his date that was made.

_*_

Meanwhile, Artemis had just finished his midnight lunch and was headed towards his tower to prepare himself for some nightmare hunting in the Dream Realm. Looking out of a window he was passing by, his mind turned to his older brother. He hadn’t heard from anypony if Solaris had returned yet, and he was starting to worry about him. The sky was still clear and the moon was waxing. However, he couldn’t see anything out there to suggest that his elder brother had-

It was in that moment that he began to hear the sound of somepony humming loudly, along with a rhythm of hooves upon the marble floor. His ears perked up, detecting the sound was coming from another hallway.

Artemis followed the humming and the clip-clop of hooves until he found the very pony he was worrying over, as well as a very rare look at Solaris's dancing alone with a gleeful look on his face. He was wearing a black suit with a white collar shirt, and an untied bow-tie that swayed with him as he danced.

“I take it that your date with Dusk Shine went well?” With that, the Prince of the Night brought the Prince of the Day back into reality.

“Artie!” Solaris’s eyes shot open and immediately tried to regain his regal posture. “Forgive me, I didn’t see you there,” he said with a hint of embarrassment.

“So I’ve noticed,” Artie deadpanned. “Perhaps it’s safe to assume that your date with Dusk Shine went well?”

The Sun Prince chuckled. “Better than I imagined it would have turned out. In short, it was quite wonderful.”

Artemis sighed in relief. “And I can also assume that Dusk didn’t take advantage of you in any way?”

This had gotten his elder brother’s attention. “What do you mean?”

“Did he treat you with some form of disrespect or humiliate you in any way?”

“Oh no, he didn’t do any of the sort. He was a gentlecolt the whole time.”

“Good,” the azure alicorn nodded. “Now then, perhaps it’s about time you retire to bed.”

Solaris smiled, “After tonight, I don’t think I could if tried.”

Artemis raised an eyebrow, “Why?”

“Because our time together was just so good,” he answered, making his younger brother roll his eyes.

“Come on lover colt, you need your rest like anypony else.”

“But I don’t think-” he was cut off when the Prince of the Night lifted him off the ground.

“I will not take a ‘no’ for an answer. You are going to bed,” Artemis said as he carried his elder sibling to his room.

“Oh come on Artie,” Solaris said, trying to get out of his brother’s grip. “I can get to my room myse-”

“Sol, I know you. If you don’t get some sleep, you will not function the next morning. Besides, we both know what some insomnia could do to either of our judgment. Remember the time you let me take care of Day Court?”

“But that was only one time-”

“One day is plenty enough for me to learn how much of a stressful job you had to do, o’ brother of mine.”

The two of them went back and forth until Prince Artemis reached his brother’s room, which he threw him in, closed the door and told him, “Go to sleep Solaris, don’t make me come in there to put a sleeping spell on you.”

“And who’s being the older brother here?” the Sun Prince questioned.

Not wanting to deal with this, the azure Prince turned around.“Go to bed, Sol.”

_*_

Hours later, Prince Solaris woke up, feeling groggy from the lack of sleep he received last night. To his luck, he was able to drift into slumber for a while, until his internal clock told him it was time to raise the Sun.

Slumping off the low bed, Solaris mindlessly marched over to the glass door of his balcony that overlooked eastern Equestria. From force of habit, he mindlessly lit up his horn, causing the dark skies to gain color before exploding in the brilliant light of the Sun.

The Sun Prince closed his eyes as the Sun climbed out of the horizon, trying to get his eyelids to adjust to the light before he could open them. Once he was able to see again, he overlooked at the dawn of his and his brother’s country.

As he stood there, his mind began to start back up again, trying to remember last night. He remembers Dusk, the dinner, Van Gogh, books, cheesecake, and the-

Solaris shook his head. Perhaps Dusk Shine was up already, and maybe he could see him in the private dining room for breakfast. And if he wasn’t, Solaris could wait for him. Deciding on the plan, he started to head his way down to have something to eat.

At the dinner table, he found not only the young prince and his assistant but Artemis as well.

“You’re late,” the azure brother commented, “but Dusk was able to save you some bagels.”

“Thank you,” the Solar Prince said as he took his seat that was the closest to the lilac alicorn.

“Morning Solaris,” Dusk said as he gave him the plate of bagels and a bowl of whipped cream cheese.

The elder Prince smiled and accepted the simple meal. “Dusk,” he said as he spread the white, fluffy cheese on the bagel, “you did say that you were staying here in Canterlot for a few days, correct?”

“Yeah, I was thinking that we could stay here until tomorrow morning.”

“Oh good,” Solaris nodded. “Dusk, I was wondering... since you haven’t gotten to grips with Equestrian politics as of late, would you like to come to assist me with Day Court?” This got both Dusk’s and Artemis’s attention. “Since you are a Prince now, perhaps you could help me with some of the decisions, and be a kind of the second opinion, so to speak. Would you be interested in doing something like this?”

The Prince of Friendship smiled. “Of course, I guess it would be good practice for me to get involved. But maybe we should have some breakfast first before we get into that.”

“Agreed,” the elder Prince said as he took his first bite of the bagel.

_*_

“Here are your newspapers, milady,” a butler said, placing the tray of five, ironed out newspapers onto the expansive dining table before the white unicorn.

The Princess nodded, swallowing the imported tea. Her horn glowed as she picked up the newspaper on the very bottom. For Bluebelle, the first thing she would do after she had breakfast was to read the top five major and trusted newspapers from all over Equestria. And the first one she picked up was the Manehattan Times.

She took a sip of her tea before she flipped the paper right side up, and when she did, her eyes widened while she spat the bitter tea to the side. “WHAT!?” she screamed as she got a closer look at what was on the front page.

Comments

[Lord Solaris]

whats the headline whats the story you cant get me this exited

[wise1296]

6291188 remember the Pegasus that took a picture at the end of last chapter.

[Lord Solaris]

6292760 yea wats that got to do with my questions

[Commissar Dwarf]

6321938 *Cocks 50.Caliber Anti-Material Rifle*
Say how many of you want to start preaching homophobic ideas cause I got plenty of ammo and good aim.
I need some more trophies anyway.

[Zyrian]

Here we go.

[silverblade18]

6291188
Said Headline: " This just in! Solaris Confirmed as having the best booty! "