//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6 
// Story: The Midnight Dance 
// by CartoonNerd12 
//------------------------------//

They finally made it down to the bottom and saw a cave entrance. Twilight went out and there, before her eyes, was a lake and on that lake was a castle, made of silver and gold with a starry sky above it.
“Wow!” Pinkie gaped.
“Oh, it is glorious!” Rarity squealed, “Just glorious!”
“I guess it’s cool… by 20 percent!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash.
“Shinier than a million bits put together!” Applejack proclaimed.
“It is lovely…” Fluttershy admired.
“Still…” Twilight tipped her head as if thinking, “There’s… There’s something… familiar about it…” But then, she shook the thought out of her head, “Anyway…” She looked down below them to see a large jeweled boat with seats in it, enough room for the six of them to fit in. She turned back to them, “Well, shall we- hey, where’s Pinkie?” But her question was soon answered when she heard a whistle, turning back to see her older sister in the boat already.
“What are we waiting? Let’s go!” she jumped up, almost tipping the vessel.
“How… how did she…?” Twilight kept pointing.
Rainbow and the others just shrugged as they went to the boat.
By making it across the water, they reached their destination and the silver doors swung open for them, revealing a large golden ballroom inside.
“Oohh…” they awed in astonishment as they got in to look around.
“Some pony, make sure I don’t  wake up from this dream come true!” Rarity started going around the room in excitement.
“You’re not dreaming.” said Applejack, touching a nearby vase, “It’s really real.”
“In that case, I may never want to leave this place!” the white unicorn grinned widely.
“The flowers are so pretty here.” Fluttershy looked at the plants in gold or silver planters. The flowers and leaves on the plants were also silver or gold, shining bright. 
“You know what this place needs?!” Pinkie twirled, “Music! I wish for music to dance to!”
Suddenly, the flowers opened up, releasing glowing dust and swirled to the dance floor creating instruments that played all on their own!
“Whoa!” Rainbow lingered on what she just saw and the others did too, “That… is… so awesome!” she flew up in exhilaration. 
“My goodness!” Rarity sat in bewilderment.
Twilight decided to study the flowers more closely, “This is incredible! I’ve never heard or read anything about magical flowers!”
“Just as long as we can party, I like them!” Pinkie started dancing to the music and Rainbow and Applejack joined her.
“You know, I believe she is right!” motioned Rarity, “I wish for a stunning dress to wear while I dance!” The flowers obeyed her command and she wore a sparkling yellow dress. She squealed in delight, seeing her wish came true and she started dancing as well.
Twilight shrugged to Fluttershy, “Well, if you can’t reason with them, might as well join them.” She went on the floor to do her own style of dance moves.
Fluttershy moved gracefully along with her sisters as they kept dancing away.
After what seemed like hours, Twilight stopped dancing and started to yawn, which started a chain reaction to her sisters and they yawned, too.
When Applejack finished her yawn, she asked, “How long do you think we’ve been here?” 
“I’m not sure…” Twilight went to the flowers, saying, “I wish to know the time.”
The flower’s magical pollen came out and made a grandfather clock on the other side the room. When Twilight saw where the little hand was pointing, she freaked out, “Three o’clock in the morning?!”
“Oh, my,” Rarity gestured, “we must get back so I can have my beauty sleep.”
Rainbow flapped, “But we’ll come back tomorrow night, right?”
“Of course we will!” jumped Pinkie. Even when sleep deprived, she still had enough energy to be hyper, “This is the most fun I’ve had since before Mother told us we had to have suitors!”
Twilight gasped in realization, “You’re right… being down here has made me forget what we have to face in the above world.”
“It does!” AJ agreed.
“Oh, it really does!” Fluttershy smiled.
“We have to come back! We must!” declared Rarity.
“And we will.” said Twilight, “But right now, we need to get some sleep.”
They nodded their heads before they headed back to the boat and reached the shore to the cave and the stairs.
The next morning, Applejack had made it down to the kitchens to help with breakfast; she gave out a yawn before going in. As tired as she was, that didn’t stop her from doing her morning chores. But when she entered the room, she was surprised to see Spike standing on a foot stool and mixing pancake mix in a bowl.
“Spike?”
He turned his head towards her and smiled, “Oh, hey, Applejack.” He turned back to the bowl and started singing to himself.
“What are you doing up so early?” She knew perfectly well that the dragon would be still sleeping in his own room of the castle.
“Well, what are you doing up so late? I know for a fact that you always wake up at the crack of dawn.”
“Apple Bloom?” she slit her eyes.
“Well, um, yes… So, why were you sleeping in late?”
Slight panic came over her. The girls agreed before they went to sleep for the rest of the night that no one would know of their special place, for fear it might be taken away from them of the happiness they were given. However, she had to be truthful all the same. 
“I was… that is, we were catching up with each other and Pinkie started this crazy pillow fight. We stayed up late afterwards.”
“Huh, well, that’s Pinkie for you.”
She giggled, “Yup.” She ended up staring at him, but then quickly shook her head, “So anyway, why are you here and not with Twilight at this time?”
“I put a note in the library telling her that I was helping you out today.”
“Oh…” Then, her eyes widened as she realized, “Hey… Wait a minute! I don’t need help! I can handle things myself!”
“I never said you couldn’t. I just… rather be with you today.” He looked up to her.
Her cheeks started flushing.
He caught himself of what he just said, “I mean, that I want to see what other work is like in the castle! Yeah, that’s it…” he mumbled.
“Oh! Sure! Right!” She did a steady laugh and turned her head away, scolding to herself for hoping he was hanging out with her just because he wanted to.
That was close! Spike thought, I can’t give myself away if I’m ever to find out if Applejack has feelings for me! Maybe, if she does, I can… shower her with gifts instead, since Rarity hasn’t shown to have feelings for me. Maybe, all this time, I’ve been crushing on the wrong princess… Applejack is just as beautiful as her sister maybe even more. She looks out for every servant that lives here. She did take in Apple Bloom to live and work here since the poor filly was an orphan from the streets. Now, she is friends with Sweetie Belle, one of Rarity’s younger maids, and Scootaloo, Rainbow’s assistant when she does her outdoor activities. Speaking of which, where are those fillies? They always report to me in the morning for their list of duties to do.
Applejack must have read his thoughts because the next thing she asked was, “Say, where is Apple Bloom? She’s usually here when I’m here.”
No sooner had she said that they heard a crash coming from the other room that was used for storage for the food. They rushed in to see three fillies covered in flour.
“What in the hay is going on here?!” Applejack shouted.
Sweetie Belle spoke on their behalf, “Well, we were trying to see if we can do more for the castle and see if we can get our cutie marks into doing something important…”
Scootaloo took over, “And we thought that inventory would be the best way to do it.”
“But I guess it didn’t work. Sorry, Applejack…” Apple Bloom lowered her head.
AJ frowned, but then her face softened, “Well, you can make it up by cleaning up this mess you made.” She threw a mop to them and then told Spike, “Think you can help them out?”
“Sure! I can do that!” He grabbed another mop and started cleaning with them. Pretty soon, the floor started to shine.
She chuckled, seeing how the girls started getting more dirty, “And make sure you get baths, as well.” 
“Bath?! No!” Scootaloo screamed in horror.
“Oh, yes.” Applejack replied and then said with a smile, “And then you three can take the rest of the day off.”
“Really?!” the three fillies’ eyes widened in disbelief.
“Really?” Spike found it hard to believe, either.
“Really. You ponies are still young and when you said you wanted to find out about your cutie marks, I reckon you’re right. You can’t find your special talents in the castle if you’re working. Go have some fun!”
“Yeah!” the trio cheered.
“But wait,” said Sweetie, “What about Rarity?”
“And Rainbow Dash?” Scoots questioned.
“Don’t you worry about them; I’ll take care of it as soon as I finish making breakfast.”
“Yay!” they cheered again and went to go to get cleaned up.
AJ was about to return to the kitchen counter until Spike stopped her by pointing out, “Wait, Applejack, let me tell them. It is, after all, my job to deliver messages between the royal family.” 
“That’s sweet, but I don’t want you to overwork…”
“Overwork? Overwork?!” he practically shouted, “I’m anything but overworked! I haven’t even started on my duties for today because you haven’t given me anything to do yet!”
“Spike, please, it’s not ness-“
“No! I’m going to do it and you will not stop me!” He was about to stomp out.
AJ was flabbergasted until she had a look of anger and shouted, “Oh, yes, I can! I order you to stay put!” Then she gasped and covered her mouth while Spike stopped dead in his tracks. Realizing what she done, she had never used her royal status on any servant before, but to use it on a servant that was more of a dear friend to her and her sisters since they were little was alarming.
He slowly turned back to her and she saw the shock in his eyes as if thinking the same thing she was.
“Spike… I… I… I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean…”
“Just why…?” he nearly whispered with his green eyes growing big.
“I…” she slumped down, daring not to look at him, “I don’t want to see you working so hard when you hardly get anything in return… All those years I’ve seen you do things for Rarity for you not to get anything in return… I don’t want you thinking you have to do stuff for me if I can’t return anything to you…”
“AJ…”
“And that’s why I can’t let you work for me. It’ll be much more work than what you’re used to and I don’t want you to get hurt-“
“AJ.” he lifted her chin, which surprised her to see him so close to her and smiling at her, “You don’t have to return anything… I did that stuff for Rarity because I wanted to. And I want to do stuff for you now for that same reason… and honestly, I don’t care how hard it’ll be. Just as long as we do it together, I’m sure we’ll make it much easier…”
“You’re… you’re sure about that…?”
“Positive.” he smirked.
A smile grew on her face and then, with a determined look, AJ said, “Then move your tail. We got pancakes to make!”
He saluted and exclaimed, “Aye-aye!” That caused both of them to laugh.
Although the pancakes were delicious, thanks to Spike’s way of cooking them with his fire, hardly any pony at the table could enjoy them because of Blueblood’s attitude of wanting a better-quality meal. Rainbow then mentioned to the queen that she would spend time with Blueblood that morning. Once their mother approved and looked away for a second, the rainbow-haired princess gave the pampered prince the stink eye.