//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: The Midnight Dance 
// by CartoonNerd12 
//------------------------------//

Queen Celestia was sitting on her throne and as usual, she would always glance at the empty throne next to her, remembering a unicorn stallion sitting there by her side. She sighed and turned back to her advisor, Kibitz, who was reading off the long list of the day’s activities she had to do. Suddenly, the door burst open and they saw a guard running in.
He said in a deep voice, “Pardon my interruption, Your Highness… but…”
“Yes?” she softly said.
“There is a prince outside, who has come to answer the proclamation for the princesses…”
“In that case… Send him in.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” With a bow, he ran out again.
“But… But, my queen! You have a full day ahead!” Kibitz pointed out.
“I’m afraid that will have to wait for another day. My girls need me more for this…” She gracefully walked out.
“Ugh! I can’t believe some up-stuck royal actually came after all!” Rainbow flapped above them as the princesses made their way down to meet the prince that came to call.   	
“Well, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise,” said Rarity, “We are after all the fairest princesses in all the land!” She primped her hair for emphasis.
“Only you can see the upside to all this!” Applejack complained.
“Yes, but I still hate the idea of being married off to a stranger!”
“Just remember the plan,” said Twilight, “and we will get past this…”
“Right.” they all said.
They finally made it to the parlor where their mother was and that there was some pony behind her.
“Girls, hello… you remember your fourth cousin Prince Blueblood, don’t you?” she moved away to reveal the white unicorn stallion with a sleek blond mane and dreamy eyes. However, none of the princesses were impressed, since they had a history with him and it wasn’t a good one.
Rainbow groaned and whispered to the rest of them, “Oh, no… not Cousin Blueblood…”
“Indeed…” Rarity muttered with an icy tone, “And here I was, hoping for a colt who was a real gentle-colt…”
“Maybe he’s grown up…” Fluttershy suggested.
“Oh, please…” AJ rolled her eyes, “We last saw him a couple of years ago and he did not change one bit…” she hissed.
“I guess we’re about to find out…” Twilight motioned and moved forward to bow her head to the prince, “It’s nice to see you again, Blueblood.”
Blueblood replied, “How charming of you to say, Princess Twilight. And may I say what an honor it is marry any one of you.”
Rainbow nearly gagged at the thought while Rarity and Applejack were taken aback that he would assume so much that one of them would actually want to marry him. Pinkie and Fluttershy gave each other troubled glances.
Although she was perturbed at Blueblood’s comment, Twilight merely gave off a fake smile and replied, “How very… impetuous of you to say…”
“Why, thank you!” he struck an arrogant pose.
She winked back to her confused sisters, indicating to them that she just, in fact, insulted him and they had to stifle their laughter.
Since Celestia knew what Twilight had done, she couldn’t help but feel proud of her daughter. Prince Blueblood may have been their fourth cousin twice removed, but he was hardly what she wanted for a husband to any of her daughters. She was sure that the girls didn’t want him either. Sure, she would let him stay, but only for her girls to carry out their plans and for her to take notes of when the other suitors would arrive. She went between them and announced, “Since Prince Blueblood will staying for some time, all of you will be spending time with him. I ask who would like to go first?” But of course, she knew what was coming: all of her girls would have an excuse.
And she was right, because she heard Applejack say, “Oh, would you look at the time! I have to go meet with Cheerliee! It is, after all, cleaning day! See ya!” she galloped on out.
Rainbow quickly said, “Uh, yeah! I have to… get in fencing practice! I’ve gotten sloppy in my stance!” she zoomed away.
Even Twilight had a good reason to leave, “I have… studying to do! Lots and lots of studies! Bye!” she teleported out.
“Oh! And I need to feed the animals!” Fluttershy flapped and left.
All that left was Pinkie and Rarity and they all stood silent until Pinkie pulled a fast one saying, “Hey! What’s that?” She pointed her hoof in a direction.
They looked there, only to see Pinkie had gone and Rarity stammered, “Wha…? Pinkie! Don’t leave me here!” Then, she sighed, knowing she had no choice now. She composed herself to be lady-like and faced Blueblood, “I shall be…” she gritted her teeth, “…more than happy to… spend time with you…”
He stuck his nose in the air, looking smug, “I knew you would be…”
She let out a small groan, “Shall we have… tea?”
“That…would be most acceptable.”
Celestia watched on as the two left the room and once more felt guilt. She never wanted this to happen.
Rarity and Blueblood sat out on a balcony with a table in front of them. It had a platter of finger sandwiches and tea cups on it. Fancy Pants magically came out with a tea pot and poured the tea. 
“Not too much, Butler!” Blueblood spouted.
“Of course, Your Majesty.” Fancy kept his head high to not let the comment get to him.
Rarity had scowled at Blueblood for being rude to Fancy and gave him a smile. Her anger at him had finally passed and said, “Thank you, Fancy. You are most efficient…”
He smiled back at her, feeling better at how she was speaking to him again, “It’s my duty and pleasure, Your… Highness…” He bowed his head.
She did a small blush and was about to whisper when the prince next to her spoke up.
“Butler, get us some more sandwiches, would you?” Blueblood waved off.
“At once, Your… Grace…” he clenched his teeth.
Once Fancy had gone, Blueblood made an unexpected move as he wrapped his arm around her, “Now, that we’re alone…”
“Blueblood, what are you doing?!” she demanded, moving away from him.
“Oh, come on, Rarity. We all know you fancied me back when we were little.” he twitched his eyebrow at her.
Her cheeks grew red. It was true; she had a crush on him when they were young kids, but that was before she realized what a horror he was to be around. All interest in him had died from that day on.
“Look, I haven’t noticed it before, but you are the most beautiful princess that I know of, so… what do you say, Rarity? Will you marry me?”
She pushed him away in fury, “Blueblood! This is going a bit fast, isn’t it?! First of all, as much as we know each other, we absolutely don’t have anything in common! And second, you need my mother’s blessing before an engagement is remotely possible! And third… I simply refuse! I could never marry someone as pig-headed, rude, and uncharming as you are!”
“Well, if that’s how you want to play it,” he snorted, “You are unfashionable, unattractive, nasty-“ Suddenly, out of nowhere, a plate of sandwiches landed on him, getting his coat dirty. He wailed out, “But I had myself groomed just this morning!”
“Oh, I am so terribly sorry, Your Lordship!” Fancy Pants walked up to him coolly, pretending to be sincere, “How utterly clumsy of me…” He winked to Rarity, who grinned at him in return for what he did for her.
She saw the whole thing while Blueblood was being so mean to her. She didn’t know whether to yell in fury or cry because those words were so hurtful to her, but then Fancy came back in and dumped the sandwiches all over the obnoxious prince.
“Allow me to help you,” Fancy magically got a napkin and wiped Blueblood’s face hardly.
“Enough!” Blueblood ordered, getting the thing out of his face, “Now if you would excuse us, Butler… We have some important business to take care of…”
“Oh, at once, Your Magnificence. Just let me take the tea pot and I’ll… Whoops!” He made it seem like he tripped and magically turned the pot over to pour out the rest of the tea on Blueblood’s head.
“UGGH! Now look what you’ve done?! I need a bath! Two baths! No, three baths! I’ll see you pay for this!” He ran off.
“Don’t worry,” Rarity wrapped her arm around Fancy, “I won’t let him touch a hair on your head, cousin or no. That was such a wonderful thing you have done… I don’t know how to thank you…”
“You don’t have to thank me. I can take other ponies’ insults about me, but that was downright disgraceful of what he tried to say to you. You are, in fact, quite the opposite of what he said. You are very fashionable and you’re certainly not attractive, but very beautiful…”
She put her hoof to her heart, going in awe.
“And you are anything but nasty… you have a generous soul that does you well…”
“Fancy… I…”
Knowing what she was about to say, he raised his hoof to stop her, “We are what we are…”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
“What I mean is… We can’t be together…”
Tears welled in her eyes, “But… but…”
“It hurts me as well… but we just… can’t… I’m sorry…” he moved on in sadness, not looking back. He couldn’t look back to see the pain in her eyes. The pain he caused.
Rarity mustered every ounce of her being to not cry, but she couldn’t help but tremble. She was so close to tell him how she felt and she was so sure he would return it. Her feelings for him would never change despite the outcome.
That night, the girls had moved their stuff back into the huge bedchamber. As they sat on their beds, Applejack asked Rarity.
“So, how did it go with Blueblood?”
“Grrr, don’t get me started!” her face fumed, “He’s just as bad as he always was! Maybe even worse!”
“Seriously?” questioned Rainbow.
“Seriously! He even proposed to me!”
“WHAT?!” they all shouted.
“Yes! He was so aggressive about it! And then when I refused and told him what I thought of him, he was being so mean to me. Why, if Fancy Pants hadn’t stepped in when he did, I would have-“ She stopped herself, knowing she almost gave away about her feelings about him.
“Fancy Pants?” AJ raised her eyebrow, “What’s he got anything to do with Blueblood?”
“Well, um… he was serving us tea, and when… Blueblood said those awful things to me, he was such a gentle-colt to handle it like it was an accident.” she giggled, “He dumped the sandwiches all over him and poured the tea on him, as well…” Then, she burst out laughing, remembering Blueblood’s reaction, “You should have seen it! It was most amusing!”
Pinkie joined in the laughing as she could picture the scene. Then, the other sisters slowly joined in, laughing away.
“Okay, okay…” Twilight calmed down and cleared her throat, “As fun as it is seeing Blueblood get what he deserves…”
“He sure does!” Rainbow declared, “After the way he treated Rarity, he’s got a black eye coming to him!” she clomped her hooves together.
“Still, we can’t stoop to his level of insensitivity. We must be better than that.”
Rarity agreed, “Twilight, you’re right. We are still ladies and it is not our nature to be cruel like others.”
“One thing’s for sure, we know what to watch out for when the rest of us has be with him for the rest of the week.” said AJ.
“Indeed,” nodded Rarity, “no doubt he’ll pull the same thing to you like he tried to pull on me.”
“Right, and that he wants to more closely related to the crown. His best shot is to married any one of us.” Applejack pointed out.
“Do you think that’s his real reason?” Fluttershy asked.
“I think Applejack is right,” said Twilight, “Blueblood has never cared for us when we were young, so why should he now? And with this marriage law out, he feels like he can use that to his advantage.”
“Well, I’ll be giving him the what-for tomorrow afternoon,” Dash pumped her fists, “But who wants him in the morning?”
“Might as well be me.” Applejack volunteered, “Just to get it over with and to teach him a lesson for messing around with my sister.” she winked at Rarity.
“Oh, how sweet.” she smiled back.
“Don’t worry, Rare,” said Pinkie, “I’ve got a feeling we’re all going to get back at him for what he did to you.”
“Yes.” said Fluttershy.
“Thank you,” She had near tears of joy in her eyes, “that means so much to me, my wonderful, thoughtful sisters…”
“You’re welcome.” they said in unison before giggling. Then, Pinkie threw a pillow at Rainbow.
“Oh, you are so going down, Pinks!” she grabbed her own pillow and threw it back to her.
AJ then threw a pillow at Rarity, which she returned, and Twilight threw one at Fluttershy. Before long, a whole pillow fight was happening in the middle of the room. Just as Twilight was being overwhelmed with pillows, her hoof stepped on Fluttershy’s cutie mark tile. The tile gave out a chime and glowed. Immediately, they stopped with what they were doing and stared at the tile in wonder.
“How… how did it…?” Fluttershy questioned, but the other girls could only shake in their heads, not knowing what to say.
“Maybe the rest of ours does it?” Pinkie shrugged.
“It’s worth looking in to…” Twilight stepped on her own tile, but nothing happened. The others did the same with theirs, but again, nothing happen. Then, Twilight looked back and forth between the tiles, realizing they were in the birth order of when they were each born. Since Fluttershy was the oldest… “Girls, take your hooves off for one second, I got to try it this way.” She stepped on Rarity’s gem tile and sure enough, the tile glowed.
“Well, I’ll be…” AJ gasped.
“Next is you, so…” she stepped on the three apples and they shimmered, “Rainbow…” She moved to the rainbow lightning mark and it shined away, “Pinkie…” She touched the three balloons as they glistened. “And finally, me…” she stepped on the light purple star, but nothing seemed to happen. Then, it sparkled and a white celestial glow surrounded on the entire tile and an opening appeared, showing a circular stairway with their each of their cutie marks on a circle. 
They gasped in amazement as Twilight took a step towards the stairs, “Does… any pony want to come with me?”
They each gave other glances and nodded, but Fluttershy whimpered, “Oh, are you sure it’s safe?”
“Only one way to find out…” Twilight started going down the steps with Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie right behind her. Fluttershy gulped and quickly followed after them as the opening closed behind them.