A/N So...
I originally planned on posting this on Thursday, but then things like the internet got in the way...
And here is chapter five!
"… and so, in conclusion, these are the items that we wish you to work on for this year," Prince Blueblood said to the assembled room.
Twilight looked on in awe of the pure stupidity of the 'royal' unicorn. Apparently, the elite of Canterlot had completely lost their minds this year; among other things, such as an aqueduct made out of water, they now wanted the stars to be put under control, similar to the weather, and for the sun to be slightly smaller. 'Do they not realize that WE DON'T HAVE ANY CONTROL OTHER HALF OF THE THINGS THEY WANT!' Twilight thought.
Twilight glanced around the room, to see how her sentiments were shared. Most of the department heads had similar looks of disgust. To her right, she saw Dusk had a near blank expression, but his sides were trembling slightly. 'Trying not to laugh, I suppose,' the magic department head thought.
Meanwhile, Prince Blueblood looked extremely pleased with himself. Looking around at the assembled ponies, he continued. "Any questions?" he said.
'Is he being serious?' Twilight thought, before groaning and letting her head fall to the table. She heard Dusk chuckle at her response to the incompetent prince.
"Pinkamena Pie! Come back here!"
Rarity was in quite a fret. The dress she had been working on for the past few hours had disappeared while she was watching it. As far as she knew, there where only five ponies in all of Equestria who could do that. She had ruled out the princesses immediately; Twilight was in a meeting and Rarity knew that she herself wouldn't have stolen the dress. That left only her pink friend.
Which she could not find.
'Where is she hiding? Twilight's apartments aren't that big….' Rarity thought as she wandered down the hallway. She stopped, looking at the open front door.
"PINKIE PIE!"
"Prince Blueblood?"
Twilight raised her head. 'Who was that?'
"I would like to request a brief recess, so all of us can consider these…. requests," Dusk said in a firm tone.
The prince looked at Princess Luna's assistant for a moment before nodding. "Very well. We'll meet again in thirty minutes." At this, life seemed to spread back into the quiet room, conversations arising immediately.
Disk rolled his eyes and began walking out of the room. Twilight made to join him, but saw a white unicorn with saddlebags join him. 'That's her,' she thought sourly. 'That's the mare he's with.' At the sight of her, Twilight turned back to the papers detailing Blueblood's plans for Canterlot.
Rarity was quite tired of walking.
She had been walking around Canterlot at a brisk pace, desperate to find Pinkie. The dress wasn't yet done; if anything should happen to it… Rarity shuddered at the thought.
But where could she have disappeared to? Rarity had already checked all of the logical places: the bakeries, the candy shop, even the sole party supply store. Where could that pink mare be?
"Dawn, what are you doing here?" Dusk asked the white unicorn. The two of them stood just outside the meeting room.
"What, have no time for me now?" she retorted as she levitated some files out of her bags. "Seriously, what's up? You seem kind of distant." She floated the documents towards Dusk.
Dusk shook his head as his magic seized the papers. "I wasn't expecting you to show up right now. I mean, this meeting is for the department heads and advisors to the princesses. This is not something I would expect you to come anywhere near! You hate meetings!"
The female unicorn just smirked at him. "And miss a chance to make you uncomfortable? Never."
"Look, I'll talk to you later. The meeting's going to start back up again any second now. Now then, Miss Setting Dawn, go back home."
"Miss Setting Dawn? I'm a miss now?"
Dusk stared at her for several long moments before she finally turned away. "Fine then. See ya' at home then," she said while walking off.
"Finally," Dusk muttered.
'There she is!'
At the end of the street, near the castle, was Pinkie Pie. She seemed to be talking to a white unicorn that was walking away from the castle. Well, Pinkie was talking; the other mare looked rather down-trodden.
"Pinkie Pie! I've been looking all over for you!" Rarity called out to her friend. Pinkie turned to look and wave.
"Hey ya' Rarity! I'm just talking to my new friend, Dawn! Yup, I saw her walking and she looked kind of sad, so I said to myself, 'Pinkie! You know what you have to do!' So then I came over here to make her feel better, because she's my friend!"
Dawn looked up a bit and smiled a bit. Pinkie Pie was beaming.
"I would have thrown you my entire friend song," Pinkie directed at the unicorn at her side. "But I left the oven back in Ponyville, and I had no idea where I could have gotten a rhino at this time of day!"
Rarity, even though she was used to these antics, brought a hoof to her face. "Pinkie Pie, I understand that you are intent on cheering up your friend here-"
"Our friend!"
"Yes, yes. Our friend. I know you want to cheer her up, but could you at least take off your gown? It's not done yet!"
Pinkie Pie looked over her shoulder, examining the dress she wore. "Oops! I guess I forgot about that!"
Rarity turned towards Dawn. "You're most welcome to join us, if you'd like."
The other unicorn smile widened a bit. "I'd like that. Thank you."
Twilight looked up at Dusk as he re-entered the room. He seemed a bit… off. "You okay?" she asked.
"Yeah, just dealing with some… family matters," Dusk said setting down several files. "My sister has been trying to get me to do something, but she doesn't exactly listen to me."
'His sister! That was his sister!' Twilight thought. "That unicorn there was you sister?" she said cautiously.
Dusk glanced up at her. "Yeah, that was my sister, Setting Dawn. Ironic name, no?" he said, raising an eyebrow. Dusk continued while looking over the papers he had gotten from his sister. "My parents had quite a field day with our names. I mean, dusk doesn't exactly rise, and dawn certainly doesn't set!"
Twilight smiled at his small rant, but the sudden coughing of Prince Blueblood drew both of their attentions. 'And now to deal with this imbecile…'
"So, Dawn, what do you do here in Canterlot? If you were at the castle, it must be interesting," Rarity asked the unicorn sitting at the table.
The three of them had headed back to Twilight's rooms, where Spike had already laid out three cups of tea for them. He had even addressed Setting Dawn, by her full name no less, much to the surprise of all three. How he knew it was a mystery to all present.
"I'm an astronomer. I run a shop in town with my brother. Well, I used to, until Princess Luna hired him. Now he's a big shot assistant to the princess," Dawn said, resentment creeping into her voice. "Now he works up at the castle all the time, and doesn't have time for the store anymore. The store's pretty much ruined now, since I'm the only one running it, trying to take on the workload of two ponies! We would be bankrupt if he didn't have the job with Luna, but if he didn't have that job, then our business wouldn't be failing!" The unicorn was yelling at the end of her rant.
"Darling, you must calm down. I'm sure your brother didn't intend for that to happen. You have told him about this, right?" Rarity asked in a soothing voice.
"Yeah," Dawn grumbled. "But he's always going on about how he's helping out more people now than he was with me. I understand that, but what about sticking with your family?"
Rarity and Pinkie shared a look of understanding. "Sometimes, we just have to let our family do their own thing. By Celestia, I know that my sister did that often enough. You might have heard of some of the disasters she and her friends caused in Ponyville," Rarity said.
Pinkie Pie spoke up just as Rarity finished. "My parents let me go when I was a little filly, right after I got my cutie mark. I used to work on their rock farm, but they let me go stay with some of our relatives in Ponyville, so I could be happy. I know that it was harder for them to work without me, but they knew that I was happier in Ponyville."
Dawn looked at the two of them, a glint of understanding in her eyes. "So you think I should just let him do his own thing? Even if it means the store's ruined?"
"Oh no, darling. But maybe you could limit yourself on the store? Only take in what you can handle?" Rarity quickly said. Dawn nodded slowly at the suggestion.
Dawn rose from her seat at the table. "Yeah, I think I can do that. Thanks for having me over, you two."
Rarity and Pinkie walked with her to the door. "Say, Dawn?" Rarity said. "Your brother wouldn't happen to be Rising Dusk, would he?"
The astronomer looked at Rarity, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah, why?"
"Just wondering. Well, I hope your shop does well. Maybe we'll stop by tomorrow, I'm sure my sister would love a new telescope."
A/N And there we go. Chapter Five. Now then... Would you kindly hit that review button? I don't care when you are reading this. Leaving a review makes me feel all warm and cuddly on the inside.
Oh, and I'm still taking bets on the next mane (HAHA, mane... always cracks me up) cast member to show up. Still missing from Canterlot are Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and AppleJack. And you know how you leave your vote? BY REVIEWING! =D
So you know, hit that review button. Please?