The Barbie Adventure VIII: Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses

losing passions

Desmond opened the doors to nineteen girls milling about in the bedroom. They saw Rowena and gasped, quickly running to their beds. 

Rowena scoffed at the arrangements. "Desmond, remove this mess."

Desmond silently began by replacing a vase of flowers with a clock.

It wasn't long before the circle was replaced with two straight lines with nine beds each, one on the end, all of them stripped of their colors. All the canopies, all their things they'd left around, it was all gone, their things locked away. 

"I can't believe this," Twilight said. "Who said she had the right to do this?"

"My things were fine right there they were," Edeline grumbled. 

"These bedspreads are awful," Hadley complained. 

"I miss all the colors," Isla lamented. 

"Honestly, it's the ugliest thing I've ever seen," Rarity blanched, covering her eyes. "I can't even look at it!"

However, complaints were quickly silence by the clock Desmond had set earlier going off. 

"It's eight o' clock!" Genevieve realized, quickly shutting the book she'd been reading to the triplets.

"Go, go!" Twilight panicked as they bolted, hearing footsteps letting them know Rowena was on the way to make sure her curfew was enforced. 

But Lacey couldn't quite reach onto the bed. 

Genevieve and Starlight exchanged a look. 

They had maybe twenty seconds at the most, but they both made the same move, running over to Lacey to help her up. 

Starlight made it first, but unfortunately for Genevieve, she was caught in the middle of the room when Rowena opened the door. 

"Genevieve, late again?" Rowena shook her head. "You know bedtime is now eight o' clock."

"Er... sorry, Your Grace," Genevieve quickly apologized. 

"Yes, tardiness is a terribly umprincesslike habit, don't you think?" Rowena chastised. "I'll see everyone tomorrow, bright and early! Happy dreams, girls!"

They waited until she was out of the hallway to exhale. 

"She's so mean," Sunset grumbled. 

"Maybe if he knew what Rowena was really like, he'd change his mind," Twilight suggested. 

"Ooh, I know how to do that!" Pinkie perked up, quickly whispering into Twilight's ear. 

"Now, where did we leave off?" Randolph held his fingers over the chess board. "Bishop to queen 3."

Chess. That was Pinkie's plan for telling Randolph about his cousin. And since they all knew Twilight was the master of puzzles--even the 12 princesses--they figured she could be the one to break the news. 

Besides, she actually did enjoy chess, but stuck to the script Pinkie had given her, trying to act like this was a normal pastime of the two of them. "Hmm, you're making me pay for last time, aren't you?"

"Exactly!" Randolph grinned. 

Twilight's mind was already churning, finding the solution. "Well, you'll have to wait a little longer. Rook takes bishop."

"Oh, how did I miss that?" Randolph exclaimed. "Your mind is certainly beyond your years."

Twilight flushed a little but kept to the script. "Er... Papa... I was wondering..."