//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: My Dearest Dusk // by CrackedInkWell //------------------------------// “Now where was I?” Prince Dusk Shine muttered as he returned to the history book he was reading. Opening up to where his bookmark was, he found his spot and sat down on his violet pillow in the throne room before reading again. Even as a Prince taking up a new residence at his new crystal palace in the center of Ponyville, Dusk wasn’t ready to call this place home yet. If anything, the castle still felt cold. He felt out of place, like a guest in someone else’s home. However, according to the Prince of Friendship’s philosophy, as long as you have a good book to read, (especially when that said book is borrowed from one of your friends,) you wouldn’t mind where in the world you are. That, and maybe being around with a friend or two tends to help bri- Dusk quickly looked up as there was a sudden bright flash in the room, making him jump up. He wasn’t expecting anyone today. “Dusk?” The purple alicorn blinked, “Prince Solaris?” It was indeed his old mentor and fellow Prince. But the longer that he looked at him, the more he realized something was completely off. For one, the white alicorn looked frazzled; his fire-like mane and beard weren’t groomed, even his wings had crooked feathers. His eyes darted all over as if he was looking for something, breathing heavily as he'd gotten back from running a marathon. And the most noticeable thing of all, he didn’t have on his crown, breastplate, or even his golden boots. If Dusk didn’t know better, he’d say that he came here in a hurry. “Huh?” Solaris snapped his attention to him, “Oh. U-Uh… G-Good morning Dusk Sh-Shine!” The lilac alicorn shook his head in disbelief. Maybe the crystal castle was playing tricks on his hearing, but for a moment there, it sounded like the Prince of the Sun was stuttering. “Good morning to you too, Prince Solaris. Is everything alright?” He found himself being picked up in Solaris’s golden aura as he came face to face with his former mentor. “Dusk, d-did you by any chance receive, uh… any letters recently?” “Well… Spines belched out a huge pile of letters from you from earlier. I wasn’t able to read them since I was running late for Butterscotch’s breakfast, so I figured I would read them later.” “But you didn’t read any of them, did you?” Solaris questioned, Dusk noted that there was a trail of sweat running down from his forehead. “No,” Dusk answered, “I didn’t get the chance to yet.” “So there’s still time,” Solaris whispered. “What?” “Where are the letters now?” the Solar Prince demanded. “They’re in the library,” Dusk said feeling intimidated. “I had Spines organize them since there were so many of them.” The next thing he knew, Solaris dropped him and quickly teleported out of the room. Immediately, the young Prince was wondering what was going on. In all the years he’d known Solaris, he’d never acted like this before. He never saw him nervous, nor heard him stutter. 'What's going on?' he thought. Dusk teleported himself to the castle’s library in time to see Solaris taking up every scroll he could find. Even taking some out of his assistant's arms, and quickly place them under a dome of his golden magic before they suddenly burst to flames. “Solaris! What are you doing?!” The elder Prince ignored his former student’s question as he watched hundreds of scrolls being incinerated in a matter of seconds. Once the letters were nothing but hills of ash, and with a relieved sigh, Solaris made the destroyed letters disappear from the library. Dusk glanced over to his little assistant; he found that she was stunned as was. “Well,” Solaris nodded in satisfaction, “that’s taken care of.” “Solaris, what was all that about?!” Prince Shine asked. “Why did you just burn your own letters?” “I’m afraid that my pet had accidentally sent something that wasn’t meant for you.” “Oh," the lilac alicorn blinked, "well I could have sent them back to you if I found-” “NO!” Dusk jumped when Solaris snapped at him. Taking a moment to breathe, he corrected, “I mean, no thank you. Those letters were not meant for you to see. I apologize for suddenly barging in all unannounced, but I was having some problems with Philharmonic when he sent those letters.” He turned over to the little dragoness, “Spines, I think I owe you an apology for the massive mail that was suddenly dropped on you.” “It’s alright,” Spines waved a claw, “It was just surprised that I was able to do that, despite the stomach pains.” “Once again, I apologize,” the Sun Prince turned his attention back to his former student. “I hope that I didn’t disrupt your morning too much, did I?” “Prince Solaris, why were you acting so nervous back there?” This caused the white alicorn to stiffen, “I mean, that’s got to be the first time I’ve ever seen you like this. Is something wrong?” “Oh, um…” Solaris looked around before saying, “Wellwouldyoulookatthat, Ineedtogobye!” With a brilliant flash in the library, Solaris was gone. “What the living Tartarus was that all about?” Dusk asked aloud, walking over to the spot where all those letters were. “Was he hiding something from me?” “Well… since he’s gone,” Spines said cautiously, “I think he really did have something to hide.” “Huh? How do you know?” “You asked me to organize those letters, remember?” she deadpanned. “So naturally I got a look at what some of them said.” “Really?” the stallion asked, trotting over to his assistant. “What did they say?” Here, Dusk saw his number one dragon blushing, “W-well… It’s kinda hard to explain. So, when I saw what they said, and how all of them were in Solaris’s writing but none of them were signed, I already guessed he sent them by mistake. But at the same time, they were something that I thought you should really see, so I picked some of them at random and put them in your room.” “You mean there’s still some of those letters here?” “Yeah, and I figured that Solaris would come back to get them. Only... not the way I thought he would do it.” This presented an excellent opportunity. “Thanks a lot, Spines. Maybe I can get to the bottom of why Solaris has been acting so out of character.” “So wait, you’re going to read them now?” “Of course, why wouldn’t I?” Spines hesitated for a moment, “Okay then, if you’re going to do that, can I at least head over to Elusive’s to see if he needs anything?” “Have you finished all your chores?” Dusk asked. “As of now, pretty much.” “Go ahead then.” After thanking him, the dragoness ran for the front door. “But remember to come back again; I’ll need you by the afternoon!” “Okay.” And with that, Dusk heard the echo of his new front door. Sighing, the Prince of Friendship made his way upward to his bedroom. Upwinding staircases and through endless hallways, with his hoofsteps echoing like a drumbeat, he arrived at the door that bared his cutie mark. Just as expected, he saw upon his desk a small pile of the scrolls from earlier. Taking a random scroll with his magic, Dusk sat down on his bed. He levitated the scroll before him but paused. Should he really be reading these? After all, maybe there’s a good reason why Solaris didn’t want him to read them. Perhaps they’re private. Something embarrassing that he didn’t want anypony to know. But on the other hoof, even when Eris broke out of her prison or when the changelings invaded during his older sister’s wedding, Solaris never showed any signs of nervousness. And that was the scary part. If those times of crisis never made him act as timid as Butterscotch, what kind of horrors does this one scroll contain? The Prince of Friendship shook his head, “Nonsense,” he muttered to himself. “Whatever these are, I bet it isn’t anything that I couldn’t handle, considering the guys have to worry about Barry on a daily basis.” He looked at the scroll, noticing that there was something else that was off. Even though this was Solaris’s scroll, it lacked the red ribbon and Royal Seal. Perhaps these really are private letters, but Dusk's curiosity in what even one of them might say tempted him to read them. So, not wasting any more time, he unrolled the scroll before him and began to read. My Dearest Dusk… "Dearest?" Right off the bat, the young Prince realized that this was odd. In all the years that he and Solaris had shared letters, never once has his mentor referred to him as “dearest.” "Maybe these are rough drafts,” Dusk rationalized as he continued reading. My Dearest Dusk, Only a few words today. Forgive me for not setting the time to write more than I attended to, but lately with preparations of the Gala, it leaves me very little time to write to you. To be honest, I rather hate this bore of a party that the nobles force me to attend every year. All I do is shake hooves with those who probably will have a little more fun than I ever would. I confess I’m not really looking forward to this night. Knowing my luck, I predict that it’s going to be another bore because I’m just going to stand there on the top of the stairs, saying ‘Hello’ to thousands of guests, shaking their hooves, and repeating until dawn. “Oh, this might be before the whole Grand Galloping Gala fiasco,” Dusk realized as he read on. I would have said that if it wasn’t for the fact that you’re coming tonight with your friends. Perhaps, as I write this, all of you are coming to the Palace in your finest clothes that Elusive had made for all of you. I can see you now, looking at your reflection to make sure that everything about you is just so to see me again. Dusk, even if you came to the Gala in rags, I would be overjoyed in seeing you again. It’s been a little too long, hasn’t it? When was the last time I’ve seen that smile? Do you remember the last time that you were as excited to see me now as I am anticipating seeing you? There’s the call to ready myself. I hope I get to see you soon, my love… Dusk blinked, did he read that right? After rubbing his eyes, he scanned the paragraph again, and sure enough, his eyes didn’t deceive him. “What kind of letter is this?” he asked out loud. There’s the call to ready myself. I hope I get to see you soon, my love. I honestly can’t wait to see you come in to call my name. Although I don’t think tonight would be any different, with you by my side, however, I think you alone would make this night bearable. I hope we get the chance to talk about something. Anything at all just to pass the Gala away, just to listen to what you’ve learned or read recently. I hope you would find something funny about tonight because to hear that laugh of yours is a masterpiece that no genius composer could ever capture. But above all, I hope for you to be my island in a sea of strangers. It looks like I have to go now. I’ll see you soon. Forever yours, Forever mine, Forever us, As Spines said, it was unsigned, Dusk Shine couldn’t help but gawk at what he just read. He scanned it over multiple times to see if there was any sign of sarcasm in it. But he concluded that this letter was genuine. A love letter. Prince Solaris had written a love letter to him!