//------------------------------//
// Making Friends? 
// Story: One Castle, Two Alicorns 
// by James Pwyll 
//------------------------------//

"So...Midnight. Heard any good jokes lately?" Pinkie asked.

"...No," Midnight replied, rather bluntly.

"Have you...told any good jokes lately?"

"...No."

"Have you...had anything even remotely resembling a joke come into your life at any point in the last few days?"

"Well...all of this certainly seems to qualify."

Midnight's irritation was evident for all to see, and Pinkie was by no means the only person struggling with her right now. In the main chamber of the Friendship Palace, sitting around the Cutie Map, all of Twilight's friends had gathered today, and all of them looked to their absent colleague's clone with some measure of unease. Midnight herself sat in Twilight's throne, though the Princess herself was nowhere to be seen right now. The dark alicorn, after staring at each of the other five mares here, finally sighed, turning to Fluttershy.

"Did Twilight say when she was going to get back from Canterlot?"

Fluttershy shook her head.

"I'm sorry, but no. You know how Princess meetings can go."

Rainbow soon chuckled.

"Hey, look on the bright side. At least you've still got us here to keep you company!"

Midnight grimaced.

"Yeah, that's what bothers me."

Applejack frowned right back to her.

"Now hold up, missy! Ah know we ain't exactly the best o' friends, but ah think if ya gave us a chance, we'd be pretty good fer each other!"

Midnight took on a somewhat amused look after having heard that.

"I made it clear to the Princess some time ago that I had no interest in spending time with others while I was here. I know she thinks that I'll 'make friends' if she asked you all to spend time with me, but let's be honest here...nobody here really believes this is going to work."

The looks on all their faces made it pretty obvious that she wasn't wrong in having said that, leading to more than a little smugness on her part. Shortly afterwards though, Rainbow glowered at her.

"Hey! Twilight was good enough to let you stay in her home, remember? The least you could do in return is try and get along with us!"

Midnight, turning to look the cyan mare in the eye, raised an eyebrow.

"I wasn't aware that you felt that debt was a good foundation for a relationship."

Rainbow opened her mouth to counter, only to be struck with a sudden onset of hesitancy.

"Well...um...I don't but..."

She leaned over to Rarity, bringing her voice down to a whisper.

"Help me out here!"

Clearing her throat, Rarity put on a smile for Midnight's benefit, speaking as calmly and openly as she could.

"Midnight, darling, surely you cannot wish to spend all of your time alone here? Why, it must get so dreadfully boring with nobody to speak to, yes?"

The doppelganger paused, considering that.

"I find I enjoy the silence. It gives me...time to think."

Fluttershy looked to her with curiosity.

"Oh? What do you think about?"

Midnight didn't know if she was actually interested in hearing her answer or whether she was simply trying to be polite, but even so, she answered all the same.

"I like to make plans for myself, in case anything goes wrong."

Applejack looked to her with worry.

"Ya mean...Chrysalis?"

Midnight frowned.

"So...Twilight told you?"

Slight guilt crossed the faces of the other mares, with the exception of Pinkie, who merely smiled and giggled as she always did.

"She did! And shame on you for using dark and creepy magic, Midnight! You know that's not the way!"

Midnight narrowed her eyes.

"Pinkie, I swear, if you say I need to just use friendship to..."

"We can use friendship to save the day!" Pinkie interrupted.

"...Uuuuuuuuuuuugh...sure, why not?" Midnight groaned.

Rainbow again looked to the dark copy of her friend and smirked.

"Hey, don't knock it till you've tired it, Midnight! It's worked out pretty well for all of us so far!"

In spite of her clear irritation, Midnight actually managed to look somewhat amused at that statement.

"You ponies...you all act like friendship is just the cure-all for all the world's ills."

Chuckling, Applejack adjusted her hat a little bit, leaning back into her own throne before addressing Midnight.

"Heck, girl! How could it not? Honesty, generosity, loyalty...those things always make the world better!"

Midnight turned to her, and at first, she said nothing. She simply studied Applejack carefully, much to the latter's discomfort. Though the mares had not really spent that much time around her, they could all tell that she was coming up with something in her head, some sort of way of thinking that, they predicted, would not put them at ease in the slightest. After a time, this prediction came true.

"Tell me, Applejack...you believe in the power and value of honesty, yes?"

Even though she knew Midnight was up to something, Applejack still smiled.

"Ah do!"

Midnight's expression was hard to read as she kept speaking.

"You hold it as a way to behave in all circumstances?"

Again, Applejack nodded.

"Eyup!"

Midnight paused, then glanced downwards, to the Cutie Map that divided them all.

"...Has Twilight ever told you about my memories? Or rather, her memories?"

Rarity was the one to answer her.

"I believe she did. Something about you remembering everything she remembers?"

Midnight looked up to the white unicorn, nodding in confirmation.

"Yes. Everything that happened to Twilight prior to my creation, I remember. At least, in small bursts and flashes."

Slowly, she looked back to Applejack.

"And one thing I remember is the day when you and your friends first encountered her not-yet apprentice, Starlight Glimmer."

Hearing that, Applejack frowned slightly.

"Yeah...what about that day?"

Midnight did not seem to be satisfied in this conversation, yet continued with it all the same.

"How did you first discover about her secret? The deception that she was keeping from all the other villagers?"

The other mares weren't sure of where she was going with this, but, as expected, it was Fluttershy who answered.

"Well...um...I pretended to agree with Starlight so she'd let me out of the cell she'd put us in."

Rainbow chortled.

"Yeah! Then Flutters was able to find out Starlight was lying to them all, so we exposed her and saved the day!"

But, contrary to how Rainbow and the others might have expected, Midnight did not seem impressed by that story. In fact, all she did was turn to look at Applejack, speaking in that cold and professional way of hers.

"So what you're telling me...is that in order to help all those ponies...you had to lie?"

Applejack, having heard that, was naturally taken aback.

"Um...pardon?"

Midnight shrugged.

"Well? Didn't you? You had Fluttershy lie about her intentions to be let out. If you hadn't done that, Starlight may well have won."

Applejack seemed outright offended by that, yet when she tried to counter, the proper words just wouldn't come to her.

"Now wait just a....ya see...yer forgettin' when...ah jus'..."

Midnight sighed, then looked over to Rarity.

"Very well then, let's look at a more recent example instead. Your student, Sandbar, lying to Chancellor Neighsay to be freed from the same captivity he'd placed the other students in. The same circumstances, the same technique, the same outcome. A deception helped lead to a greater good."

Here, Applejack finally spoke.

"Ya can't jus' go an' say stuff like that, Midnight!"

Looking back to her, Midnight frowned.

"Why? Am I wrong?"

As before, Applejack was halted. She wanted very much to try and say something that would convince Midnight not to think this way, as indeed did all the others, but when no answer came, Midnight took a deep breath. She never once seemed angry or irritated with all of this. In fact, she just looked outright tired at the whole situation.

"You ponies, Twilight included, all think the best of the world. That good things like honesty and generosity and kindness are all you need to improve the world and the people in it. But the world is complicated, and always has been. Sooner or later, you'll have to face some problem that won't go away because you acted the 'right' way."

She stayed quiet for a time, looking up to each of them.

"I don't hope that bad things happen to you, even though you may feel that I do...but what I see before me are mares who have let their ideals and their belief in friendship blind them to very real and very ugly truths."

Then, before anyone could say anything, they watched as Midnight hopped off Twilight's throne, letting out a very deep sigh.

"This was a mistake. I shouldn't have come down here today."

Then, as she started to walk off, Rainbow, incensed by everything that had been said, leapt out of her own throne and pointed her hoof straight at Midnight.

"Hey! What's your problem?!"

Midnight stopped, looking over her shoulder and glaring angrily at the enraged pegasus.

"My problem...is all of you."

They were stunned, but still allowed her to explain.

"I look at you, and all I can think of are the others of my kind. The five who no longer are. The only beings like me I ever knew...and ever would know. I look at you...and I will never forget what happened to them."

She grimaced, trying to hold back whatever look of discomfort she was experiencing.

"I didn't like them. We weren't friends. But they were like me. And now they're gone."

Afterwards, she finally looked away.

"So please, do forgive me for not wanting to be reminded of them."

She said nothing else, merely walking away while she left five utterly bewildered mares behind her. They watched in complete silence, until Midnight was finally out of the room. Using her magic, the clone closed the great doors of the chamber behind her, its echo resonating throughout. Silence fell, as did great discomfort for the other ponies, and when it was finally done, Rarity was the one to speak.

"Well...I've certainly known friendlier get-togethers."

They all nodded, and Rainbow, of course, was still upset.

"How are we gonna explain this to Twilight? She wanted us all to be friends, and then that happened!"

Fluttershy nervously looked to Applejack.

"What...what do we do now?"

Thinking on that, the farmer sighed.

"We could...try again? Tomorrow maybe?"

"...No."

All eyes turned, and to their surprise, it had been Pinkie who had spoken. For a while, she was quiet, which was already out-of-the-ordinary for her, but then, she looked up to them, giving a smile that was much smaller than usual.

"Do you girls remember when I first met Cranky?"

They nodded in unison, and so she carried on.

"Well...if there's one thing I learned from that...it's that I shouldn't try to make myself into someone's friend if they're fine with me not being their friend."

She looked up to the door Midnight had walked through.

"If she's decided she doesn't want to be our friend...I think it'd be good if we respect that."

Fluttershy looked to her party-adoring friend with sadness.

"But...that's so lonely. Being all by herself?"

Rarity reached over, patting Fluttershy on the shoulder.

"Pinkie's right, Fluttershy. Maybe Midnight will be ready to be our friend one day...but it will be her choice, not ours."

Rainbow grunted.

"Ugh! This sucks! All the people we've made friends with, and it's a clone of one of us that stumps us?!"

Applejack chortled.

"Well...give it time. She might change her tune eventually."

Rainbow rolled her eyes.

"Yeah...I wouldn't hold my breath, AJ."