Moondancer softly hummed to herself while she worked, slowly going through her mail. She felt decent, for once. She’d been sleeping really good the last few nights, no nightmares except the one she worked for.
Unfortunately, her mind began to wander to the topic of trying to get a hold of Discord. Who would have thought trying to get a hold of a spirit of chaos would make him hide away? Perhaps they should have been looking for him all along. Nightmare Moon seemed to have no idea about the elements, at least. It wasn’t like the ruler could get mad at them, they had tried to tell her.
As if that would matter. She wished she could throttle that annoying spirit. She stopped and felt an all too familiar pain in her heart. No, there was something else there as well. Try as she might, she couldn’t help but have her mind drawn to the fact that, in the end, the elements had responded to TWILIGHT’S touch. Not hers. Twilight’s. Of course it was Twilight’s. It was always Twilight, wasn’t it? The greatest earth pony for a generation or something or other. Probably the greatest earth pony to have ever lived. No, greatest pony. Truly she was the chosen one, the one who could befriend a demon alicorn, a monstrous spirit of chaos, a windigo and probably three griffons and a pack of dragons. Then she’d have tea right before the princesses from all the neighboring countries came out to crown her royal monarch of awesomeness. Then she’d start a school where everypony could learn about just how wonderful, smart and talented she was.
Moondancer shook her head. “Jealousy does not become you, Moondancer. Think on the positive. If she’s so… special. It’s good. It’s good,” she repeated to herself, hoping she could get herself to believe it. If Twilight could get the elements to work, that only meant it was good for everypony. At least she wouldn’t fail. Then everypony could be happy. It’d be better that way.
She gave a depressed sigh and went to the next letter. She paused when she saw who it was from. Nightmare Moon’s Academy for Incredibly Talented Unicorns. She rolled her eyes at that. It had originally been Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. But there was no way the ruler would allow that. It had taken a lot of effort to get Nightmare Moon to okay them staying open. Even more to get the principal to accept the rebranding. Old idiot. He was lucky the place hadn’t been burned down. Still, she couldn’t imagine why they’d be contacting her. She peeled open the letter and braced herself.
She read it once and then let out a soft, unhappy groan and closed her eyes for a few moments. She read it a second and third time just to be sure. Well, buck. Perhaps he’d like the moon while he was at it? She wadded up the letter into a ball and tossed it into the trash, before pulling out a pen and paper with her magic.
“’Dear you over-pampered wind bag...’” she trailed off before tossing that response into the trash. No, she supposed that wasn’t fair. Despite her annoyance at the principal, she knew they had once gotten along rather well. Back when she was Celestia’s prized student. Now that she was Nightmare Moon’s, well, he had made his displeasure quite well known.
“’Dear Principal Higher, I understand your concerns. However, as you are well aware, the Equestria Equal Education act, or EEE, prohibits denying any pony a place in any Equestrian school, so long as they meet the necessary requirements. As a unicorn werepony is still a unicorn, they meet all such requirements,’” She took a deep breath before continuing on. She didn’t know why he was so upset, anyway. She’d made sure to keep tabs on the school ever since this entire ordeal started and they had lost almost half their student body overnight. They were recovering, of course, but even now they were not seen as even a fraction as prestigious as they once had. He should be grateful to have ANY students now. “’Additionally, a vampire unicorn is still a unicorn. As such, you cannot deny the board’s decision to place them in a teaching position. Please refrain from terming them as bloodsucking leaches, the proper term is vampire pony.’” She took a deep breath, struggling to keep her annoyance out of the letter. How had she never noticed the principal was THAT kind of pony? At least he wasn’t as bad as Chancellor Neighsay had been, now there was a pony who would not have handled any of this new business well. “’Finally, your request of boarding some of the more troubling cases at the castle will be considered. Please have a formal request sent through the proper channels, along with all information on said students.’” That left a foul taste in her mouth.
There was no way he would have EVER made such a request to Celestia of all ponies. Or to her when she was Celestia’s student. But now that Nightmare Moon was in charge it seemed he was fine making excessive demands of the throne.
After a quick look over the letter she sent it away before going through the rest of her mail. Nothing of import for the moment. She gave a soft sigh before getting to her hooves. She supposed she should stop stalling and go get ready for whatever tasks her royal highness had planned for her. Hopefully they wouldn’t be too horrifying.
She pulled open the door to her room and lightly trotted out, letting her mind drift. And, as it had so many other times, it found itself drawn to the idea of Celestia’s journals. Did they exist? Had they ever? Whatever was in them must be important. But why hadn’t Celestia ever shown them to her? Was she in them? Had the ruler eventually given up on them entirely, tossing them away? Or had it been another thing that Moondancer couldn’t be trusted with?
The unicorn’s mood continued to turn south, the tears barely suppressed when she walked. If Twilight had been a unicorn, would she have been the divine ruler’s student? Would Twilight have had access to these fabled journals? The elements had reacted to the earth pony, of that there was no doubt. Twilight was the one. Was that really all Moondancer was? A stepping stone on the way? Had the entire purpose of her existence been to ruin everything just so Twilight could come by later and fix it all? Would there one day be stories of the great Twilight Glow and the unicorn mare who messed everything up, what’s her name?
She closed her eyes and counted to ten, trying to stop the tears before they could fully form, her earlier chipper mood now entirely shattered. She supposed it all made sense, though. Twilight WAS the premier student of Equestria. An earth pony who likely knew more about magic than even she knew. A pony who had managed to, while not quite tame, at least properly direct the energy of the new ruler. Given enough time, she was certain that Twilight would be able to save all of them.
Moondancer gave a small nod when she passed a pair of lunar guards in the hallway. The two of them stared at her for a moment before saluting.
She wondered what would happen to her then. She’d had such hopes that, somehow, she might be the one to defeat Nightmare Moon. She might be the one to free Celestia. But now more than ever she found herself assured of her own insignificance. Maybe if, somehow, they managed to get through all of this, she could do some great deed. They could lay down all of the blame for what went wrong at her hooves, let her become a great sacrifice for the ponies of Equestria. Bah, no.
Twilight was Twilight. She’d probably manage to save the day without a single pony being upset, making everything perfect and hugs and sunshine. Why, she bet even the ruler of the dragons would come over and offer the earth pony a title of honorary dragon. All hail Twilight Glow, the world’s greatest--
Moondancer froze in place. Slowly she turned towards a window, staring out over the city below. She slowly trotted forward and watched.
“What’s wrong with me?” she whispered. It hurt, she knew. Knowing that the elements had reacted to Twilight and not her.
But Twilight was her friend. No, more than that. Twilight was her BEST friend. There was nopony else she could trust more. Why shouldn’t she be happy for her? Why couldn’t she be? If Moondancer’s mistakes could finally be undone, then wasn’t that for the best? So why did it hurt so much? Why couldn’t she--
“Student!” a voice called out, making her jump. She glanced down the hall and tried to avoid giving a soft whimper at the sight of the approaching alicorn.
Nightmare Moon was holding a letter in her magic which appeared to be singed. “Err, yes, your highness?” she asked, standing up straight and bracing herself for whatever would be demanded of her.
“We have a matter we need to discuss with you,” the ruler said, holding up the letter. “This just arrived.”
“From the dragon lands?”
“No. We sent a letter to your parents and--”
“WHAT?!” Moondancer asked, her eyes going wide and fresh panic flooding her veins.
The alicorn looked shocked, her mouth falling open. After a moment she narrowed her eyes. “Yes. Or, rather, we thought we had. The address on file--”
“Why in the world would you contact my parents?” Moondancer asked, unable to keep her anger from pouring out. Fire erupted from her horn and flashed out, enveloping the letter and turning it to ash in an instant. “If you NEED something from me, just ASK ME!” she yelled, stomping her hooves down. “Don’t EVER contact them! What’s wrong with you?!”
The alicorn took another step back from the unicorn, her mouth falling open. “Student, we attempted to, but you refused to--”
“You CAN’T talk to them, okay? They’re not, they don’t, they won’t, UGH!” Moondancer screamed at the top of her lungs. She had no choice, if she stayed she knew she’d do something she regret. With another frustrated yell, she turned and ran away from the ruler.
------
Nightmare Moon stared at the retreating form of her student before her eyes were drawn down to the ash on the ground. A small part of her felt a swelling of glee at the sight of her student so obviously distressed. But a slightly larger part of her felt pity for the small pony. Something was going on, she just didn’t understand what, yet.
But she would. A hoof moved to her chin and she set her mind to the task. After a few minutes, a grin formed on her lips. She knew exactly how to learn what she needed. She’d just need to take a personal day. She glanced to the pile of ash and scattered it with a simple spell. Who would have thought a unicorn would be so much trouble? She wondered if Twilight would have been such a troublesome student if she were a unicorn.
Doubtful. Her bard would have likely been the ideal unicorn.
------
Twilight read over the letter before nodding. “Perfect! Spike, you’re the perfect assistant, as always,” she said with a grin.
“It’s all thanks to having opposable thumbs. I don’t know how you ponies live without them,” Spike said proudly, before picking up the fourth, and final, letter and sending it flying with a burst of flame.
“Eh, you get used to it,” Twilight said with a shrug. “Although, according to my studies into ancient arcanology, ponies were once believed to have a ‘magic’ thumb. It was believed to be what let us pick things up with our hooves.”
“Mmm hmm,” Spike mumbled, barely listening to her. “Another minor, right?” he asked before picking up the letters they’d received. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Err, yes. I mean, all four of them are trusted ponies. While it is a bit shocking that--”
“Not that,” Spike said with a shake of his head. He then pointed at one of the larger letters. “Aren’t you a bit busy right now to go back to night school?”
Twilight’s cheeks turned scarlet. “B-but I really should learn shadow weaving. It’s just a few classes a we--”
“Then why does it say you’re going to be attending… how many hours is ten credits?”
“Well, technically a credit is often an hour per credit before homework, but there is plenty of variance and--”
“And one class is ten hours a week?”
“W-well, err, there were a… few… other classes that looked interesting and, uhhh, then… I mean, technically that’s just… I was thinking that, err--”
“How many after classes?”
“Errrrrr...”
“And you want to become a teacher’s aid?”
“You can help make the magic point presentations...” Twilight whispered in a soft, hushed tone.
The dragon just stared at her, a look of unamused annoyance on his face.
“I’ll, err, tell them to delay my registration for now.”
Spike rolled his eyes and glanced back down at the letter. “I swear. Why would an earth pony even need to know how shadow magic works? It’s not like you’ll ever be able to use it.”
“It’s the theory, Spike. It’s just so fascinating! Actually, though… now that I think about it, perhaps you should be registered for some classes. You are still a-- h-hey! Spike! SPIKE! Come back here!”
“You’ll never take me alive, nerd!” he yelled back before fleeing down the hall from the perilous poindexter.
“It’s a basic education, Spike! All subjects of Equestria are entitled to it! Spike! SPIKE!” she yelled before racing after him.