A yawn escaped Artemis’s muzzle. Although it was 6:30 in the evening, the azure alicorn still thought it was a bit too early to wake up. Dragging his hooves through the hallway, he had one thing on his mind: coffee. On a day where he hadn’t got much sleep, he was going to need something to wake him up.
After one seemingly endless walk later, he made it to the private dining room, where, as expected, his older brother already resided... Since he was early, and by the look of things with the clean, yet empty plate, Solaris himself looked like he just sat down.
His brother smiled at him. “Artie, you’re here ear-” he was cut off when his brother’s magic enveloped over his mouth, preventing him from talking. All the while, his younger sibling gave him a look that told him ‘Coffee first, talk later.’
As soon as he sat down, a butler presented Artemis with a pot of freshly hot liquid and his signature mug. After nodding to him, he poured the first cup along with some cream, downing it quickly and pouring another before releasing his brother’s mouth of its magic hold. “You were saying?” he muttered.
“Well, I was going to comment on how you’re here earlier than usual,” Solaris said since his jaw was now free and he’d returned back to his smile. “Nevertheless, I’m rather glad you came. I was just about to have dinner myself.”
“Really?” his little brother raised an eyebrow before taking a sip from his cup.
“Quite,” the Sun Prince nodded. “I had a very interesting day that started badly, but turned out to be a rather good one.”
“Care to inform me? I was asleep you know.”
Chuckling, Solaris said as the servants started dishing out his meal. “For starters, Philharmonic was being a bad boy this morning.”
“How so?”
“Well, he took one of my letters that I intended to finish when I woke up, flew down to the library, and went into one of the vaults of the castle.”
“Wait,” Artemis interrupted, “we have a vault in the library?”
His big brother sheepishly nodded. “Why… yes. I was keeping some uh… very private letters in there when he suddenly went in and sent all of them to Dusk Shine.”
“Oh…” the Prince of the Night replied. “Now when you say that these letters were private, how private are we talking about?”
“Very personal,” Solaris explained. “I went over to Ponyville and disposed of these letters before Dusk could read them. He was confused at first, but I told him not to worry about it. After that, I came to court late and I had Philharmonic put in timeout for the scare he caused this morning.
“After that, I had to deal with Bluebelle-”
“Ugh,” Artemis rolled his eyes, “what did she want this time?”
“You remember our old castle in the Everfree Forest?” his brother nodded. “She wanted to renovate it and turn it into a castle of her own. Even though we both have already told her that it’s still too risky for renovations, especially considering recent incidents... Of course, she gave one of her hissy fits, saying that she wanted her castle now like a five-year-old would want a toy.”
The azure alicorn shook his head. “Adopted grandchildren these days.”
“However, the delegation meeting after that went well,” Solaris continued, “as did some of the negotiations for the Yaks to come down to Equestria, which I was told will happen in the near future.”
“Is that all?” the younger brother asked.
Solaris smiled, “Not quite, court was slow today.”
“Then why do you seem to be in a good mood?”
“Oh,” the elder alicorn chuckled, “at the end of the day, something wonderful happened.”
“And that being?”
“Artie,” Solaris announced, “I’ve just got myself a date tomorrow.”
This made the midnight alicorn look up from his mug, “What? With who?”
With a sly smile, his older brother replied, “Who do you think?”
It took a moment for Artemis to piece together this little puzzle, “Let me guess, Prince Dusk Shine?”
Solaris nodded, and his younger brother snorted. “What?” the older inquired.
“Forget it.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Sol, it’s nothing,” Artemis looked down at his cup.
“No, there’s certainly something,” Solaris commented. “Is it the fact that I’m dating a stallion?”
Putting down his cup, the azure alicorn replied, “It’s just that I can’t imagine you doing something like this. Forgive me Solaris, but I still think that all of this… homosexual stuff is still a difficult concept for me to grasp.”
“It’s still pretty much the same way you would be dating mares.”
“No, it isn’t,” Artemis shook his head. “You being romantically attracted to gentlecolts is not the same. It’s just… weird.”
Solaris sighed. “Brother of mine, we’ve already gone through this before. There isn’t anything wrong in me being attracted to somepony like Dusk Shine. I don’t get to choose the gender I happen to like any more than you get to choose to like mares.”
“I know, I’m sorry. It’s just... I can’t get my head wrapped around the very idea of it all. Solaris, look, I am trying to understand, really, but the problem is that I just can’t. I don’t understand what you see in stallions that you find appealing, nor do I get how you can have a relationship with them. Maybe I’m missing something. I have been gone for a thousand years so it wouldn’t surprise me if I did.” After taking another sip of his coffee he added. “However, I will not object if this stallion you’re planning on dating is somepony I also trust. Be it Dusk Shine or one of the others that bear the elements. If it were any other pony, then I would be concerned, but if it were noble, I would go over there and threaten them with my battle ax.”
The Sun Prince blinked. “So… you are alright with this?”
He shrugged. “I’m still torn over it, to be honest. I don’t believe I have the authority on the subject to say if this is right or not. But the one thing that I am concerned about, above all else, is your happiness and well-being. Sol, I know that you care about Dusk Shine deeply, but if he does something to you that is truly unjust, then I will personally get involved with my battle ax.”
Solaris chuckled. “I don’t believe it will turn out for the worst. We both know Dusk is a good stallion at heart. And besides, he was the one who asked me out to begin with.”
“Did he now?” As Artemis said this, his breakfast was placed before him by the nearby servants. “And how did this come about? You didn’t tell him that you love him, did you?”
“Not on purpose,” Solaris admitted. His brother asked what he meant by that. The white alicorn explained to him how Dusk was able to read a few of those private letters thanks to Spines saving some of them. He also explained to him that while Dusk wasn’t sure if he was attracted to him or not, he was still giving him a chance.
“Out of curiosity,” the younger brother said after listening to Solaris, “for this ‘date’, what are you planning to do anyway?”
Solaris picked up a spoon in his golden aura, dipping it into the soup to take a taste. “Oh, I have a few ideas in mind.”