My Dearest Dusk

by CrackedInkWell

Chapter 15

“Sire,” said one of the airship’s crew while saluting the Princes, “we’re getting close to our destination.”

“I can see that.” Solaris craned his neck over at the approaching city. “Have the ponies of the Mustang Building been made aware of our arrival?”

“Of course, Your Grace,” he said. “We made sure they knew ahead of time, and we’ve already gotten their permission to do so as well.”

“Very good,” the Sun Prince smiled. “You’re dismissed.”

With a nod, the pony returned to the rest of the crew, who by now had already come out onto the deck.

With Artemis’ moon rise, Dusk Shine leaned over to the side of the flying boat to spy on the city below. Between the seemingly endless rows of streetlamps and towering skyscrapers, the city lights were mirroring the millions of stars in the night sky. He saw ponies going around in carriages and taxis, and even more on the hoof that went about like insects.

Then they came to the tallest structure in the city, topped with the head of a stallion: the great Mustang Building. There were ponies seemingly waiting for them on the observation level. A few of the pegasi flew up to the ship to grab the ropes that the crew left dangling overboard. As soon as the ropes were gripped, some of the pegasi on the ship flew over to help them tie the ship down to the building, securing the knots to make sure the ship didn’t fly off.

“Captain on deck!” somepony cried. Both Princes turned to the back of the ship to find an earth pony mare in blue descending down the steps.

“At ease everypony,” she told the crew. The captain went up to the alicorn and gave a bow. “I hope the trip here was smooth. I trust the dinner was enjoyable as well?”

“It was indeed, Captain North,” Solaris told her before realizing something and turning to Dusk. “Oh! I’m afraid I’ve nearly forgotten to introduce you to the Captain. Dusk, this is Captain True North. She’s the one who helped us get from Canterlot to Manehattan tonight.”

“Good evening to you,” the lilac alicorn offered a hoof to her, which she accepted.

“Same to you, Your Grace.” She let go of his hoof and turned to Solaris. “I’m still rather curious, your Majesty. What’s the reason for us taking you two out to Manehattan, to begin with? Is something important going on?”

“Actually, yes,” the elder Prince said. “The citizens here are about to open up a library in Dusk Shine’s honor. I thought I ought to join him for the occasion.”

“Ah, I see,” the Captain nodded, buying into the lie. “That being the case, are there any further orders on your part?”

“Yes. Make sure this ship stays put until both Prince Dusk Shine and I return – which means we might be gone for some time, so keep that in mind.”

“Aye, your Majesty,” she said, giving them a salute before turning her attention towards her crew.

Dusk saw his mentor walk over to the railing of the ship and hopped onto it. “Well, are you coming with me?”

“Going where?” the young Prince approached. “Are we going to fly somewhere?”

“Of course,” Solaris said, spreading his wings. “Now come on, let’s get going.” Before Dusk could say anything further, the Solar Prince jumped off, taking flight into the noisy night air. Sighing, the lilac alicorn opened his wings as well and began to catch up with his date.

As Dusk got closer to his former mentor, a thought came to him. This was the first time he’d been to Manehattan since the time Elusive had invited him and the guys to join him in that fashion competition. The time when his friend’s designs were stolen so they had to pitch in to come up with some new clothing on time. To the white unicorn’s credit, Elusive did learn about how to be caring, but careful. Even though it happened almost several months ago, Dusk had felt like it had been years.

Down several blocks and a few turns here and there, the younger alicorn wondered where Solaris was taking him. To his date’s credit, he did manage to slow down enough for him to catch up. “Come on, we’re almost there.”

He thought about asking him where they were going, but Dusk decided to let it drop until they got there. Suddenly, Solaris lowered himself down on the sidewalk in front of a building. A sign above its double doors read ‘Manehattan Gallery of International Art’.

“An art gallery?” Dusk turned to the white alicorn.

Solaris nodded. “This is the first stop. Since you prefer something intellectual, I thought that a good start would be a walk through a museum after closing time.”

“It’s closed?” Prince Shine gave him a confused look. “So why are we here?”

“For two reasons,” he said as he approached the door. “The first being that there will be significantly fewer ponies that would be around, which means all the more privacy for us.”

“And the other?”

Here, the Sun Prince knocked on the glass door. “When you’re a Prince, you’d be surprised at how many strings you can pull to get into some of the most restricted areas.”

As Dusk approached the doors to the gallery, a mare in a white shirt and blue hat approached the door with a set of keys in her mouth. She unlocked the doors before opening them for the two Princes. “Good evening, Your Highnesses. Come right in.”

They did so, as soon as they entered, they heard the door close before the mare locked it again. “Since this place is technically closed,” she explained, “I had to lock the door so that nopony out there would get the wrong idea. I’ll be waiting here in the lobby to let you fellas out. Sound good?”

“Um, thanks,” Dusk said.

The mare waved a hoof. “Nah, it’s all good. Just go ahead and take a look at the place. I’ll be right here.” She went up behind the desk and took out a magazine.

Solaris guided his date around the dark museum. While the main lights were off, the lamps over the paintings and sculptures still helped to illuminate their path into the depths of the museum. Every so often, they would pass rooms that were filled with expertly carved furniture. Other times it would be marble and bronze statues in various sizes. Dusk kept a comfortable distance from Solaris as they explored the rooms of various pieces of art.

“A bit for your thoughts?” Solaris asked. “We’re out of earshot from everyone, but you’ve been very quiet. So go ahead, what’s on your mind?”

“Oh, sorry,” the younger alicorn apologized. “It’s just kinda eerie being in a museum with nopony around.”

The elder laughed. “It reminds me of home really. A place where you’re surrounded by the greatest objects and ponies in the world, yet it feels empty. That is, except when you are here with me. So then, what do you want to see?”

Dusk took a moment to think about it. “Do they happen to have anything from the Impressionist Era?”

“They do actually,” Solaris grinned. “I think this gallery houses the largest collection of Van Gogh’s here outside of Prance.”

Prince Shine looked up in surprise, “Van Gogh? As in Vinneigh Van Gogh!?”

“Ah-huh,” Solaris nodded. “If I remember correctly, I think her paintings are on the second floor. Want to see them?”

“I’ve only seen her paintings from books,” Dusk confessed as he followed the white alicorn, “but I never thought I would get the chance to actually see the real paintings up close.”

“Well then, you’re in for a treat.”

After going up the stairs and following the signs that read ‘Prench Impressionism’, the two alicorns walked into a room with ten paintings, each with their own lamp hanging overhead. Dusk recognized some of the oil-painted canvases immediately. “Oh… wow.”

In the dim light, Solaris smiled, “Well, what do you think?”

Dusk slowly approached one of the paintings. He knew about this one already; it was the one where it showed a Wheatfield after harvest time. Where the sky was a clear blue and the sun glared down on the field and the stacks of golden straw. In the shadow of one of these stacks was a pony in a straw hat, trying to rest after a day’s work.

“It’s not as flat as I thought it would be,” the younger Prince commented. “You can still see the oil paint in the light so the tiny shadows are easy to see. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought it was done in a hurry, yet, even with the colors crashing together, it’s still something that you can’t take your eyes off of.”

He heard Solaris’s hooves come up behind him. “It’s funny how the paint strokes tend to wave about like a river, isn’t it? As messy as it is, this is still quite lovely.”

Dusk snorted, “Messy?”

“Yes. When you think about it, it is a messy painting with all the golds, blues, violets, blacks and greens. Yet at the same time, it’s still a clear picture of what it’s supposed to be.” He looked down and added. “Did you know that Van Gogh had only made only one sale in her lifetime? Out of hundreds of pieces of summers, of starry nights and lonely cafes, many critics and ponies at the time thought it was nothing but a mess. Can you tell me why they would have thought of that?”

Looking at the painting again, Dusk thought aloud, “Maybe at the time, ponies were more expecting the artist to be a perfectionist in their work.”

“Quite,” Solaris nodded, moving onto the next painting of a grove of trees with a couple that had their backs towards the viewer. “I don’t think I would have called Van Gogh a perfectionist. She was passionate about her work, but she was no perfectionist.”

A thought came to the lilac Prince’s mind. “Did you ever meet her?”

He nodded. “Only once. She had recently gotten out of a mad house because it was all she could afford for shelter. I was looking around, trying to find something to put inside the castle when I came across her. She was so excited for me to show up, probably thinking that I could be the one to make her name well-known. But when I saw her art for the first time, however… I was just confused. I even pointed out how none of them were exactly life-like, or in other words, perfect.

“She got angry at me. ‘You perfectionists, always the same! Always having unrealistically high standards where you’re never satisfied!’ So in short, she got upset and kicked me out. It wasn’t until later that I learned what kind of effect I had on her. She had become increasingly depressed, and I never knew. A year after our meeting, I had found out that she had committed suicide.”

Dusk was shocked and surprised, to say the least. He glimpsed over to the artist’s self-portrait of her red and orange hair, olive eyes, and peach coat with her folded wings. He imagined for a moment, one of the greatest artists of all time, being dismissed by him.

“After her death,” Solaris continued, “I’d learned a hard, but valuable lesson. In fact, each one of her paintings is a testament to that lesson.”

“What is it?”

“That imperfection – is perfection. That if you focus only on the mistakes, and not the art, you’ll never see the beauty it presents.” He looked back at the younger alicorn. “I guess, in a way, it’s one of the reasons I fell in love with you.”

“Huh?” Dusk was taken aback. “I’m not perfect?”

Solaris chuckled. “No, we are not perfect. I know that I’ve tried to present myself to you as this God of the Sun who never knew corruption nor vice, but the truth is that, as much as we want to be at our best, we can never reach it, can we?”

When he heard this, the lilac Prince folded his ears back. “Well… I guess not. As much as I try to keep things organized, I make sure all the spelling and grammar in my reports and letters are perfect, and trying to keep everypony on their best behavior around you… sometimes things just keep getting in the way. I know that I wasn’t always the best at making friends, or that I have a tendency to over-react… o-or that I too often want things to go according to plan...”

“And I let my pride get in the way of taking care of my brother,” Solaris said. “Dusk, don’t let these flaws make you feel like less of a pony than you are. Having some vices isn’t always a bad thing. It just makes you all the more… equine. And, might I add, relatable. Yes, I have given into pride, and I too tend to be too careful, and a coward when it comes to being myself. But at the same time, it’s because of these faults that you still look up to me, and I love you more for it.”

Here, putting a hoof underneath his chin, he lifted his head up so that he could look in his violet eyes.“You may not consider yourself to be perfect, but with these eyes of mine, I wouldn’t change it because you are, indeed, perfect.”

The younger Prince adverted his eyes, knowing that Solaris could see his cheeks were turning a deep shade of purple.

“Dusk, if you wouldn’t mind too much,” the Sun Prince said as he moved around to hear his side by side with him to open his right wing, “may I?”

The younger alicorn didn’t say a word, he leaned over to Solaris’s side and his wing draped over him like a blanket. “Come on,” he said, “I think there’s some Moneigh’s in the next room.”

Comments

[Gentle Hoof]

And then they!... Oh, wait, not yet >w<
As much as I love the pacing of this story, I almost hoped this chapter ended in a kiss.
But I will wait. I will wait for the right moment. OwO

[CrackedInkWell]

6280183 Be patient grasshopper, it shall come. I know the place and time that they will, but not yet.