Tempest Shadow was thankful Spike had already left the Castle for the day, as she was sure he didn’t want to deal with her all that much, but his absence did have some side effects; the absolute silence of the building itself, and not having much of a clue where she was going within it.
As such, she was left to wander through the massive crystal halls, only able to hear the loud echos of her own hoof-steps amidst the lack of any ambient noise, which left her somewhat unsettled and constantly on guard. There were many doors strewn about the sides of the halls, and while she could safely rule out the singles and smaller pairs that likely let to random closets, bedrooms, and whatever else, there were still many larger pairs she had to check to find what she was looking for.
Soon enough, she came upon another one of them, this pair looking no different than the twenty-odd she had before, and so she grabbed of the doors’ handles with a resigned sigh, then opened it to see...
“Oh, finally...”
The Library. With a capital ‘L’, as from what Tempest knew of Twilight, she would give that much honour to this room.
Still, Tempest wasn’t particularly sure if the current (sort of-) owner of the Castle cared for such distinction, but... perhaps there was another Pony that would, she realized as she spotted another Unicorn in the room, her mane and tail done in quite a similar way to Twilight Sparkle, but with differing colours. This Pony, still a Unicorn mare, as best as Tempest could tell from the distance between the two of them, had a pale yellow coat, crimson mane with a purple accent, and she wore a frizzy black sweater, though her Mark of a crescent moon remained clearly visible from her position on a ladder leaning against one of the tall bookshelves.
“Hello,” Tempest called out to her carefully, though still ended up getting a startled jump as the other Pony jerked her head back to look at her. After a second of silence passing between them, her own hooves continuing to carry her into the room while the other Unicorn didn’t move at all, she tentatively asked, “...Are you alright?”
The other mare blinked for a second, then nodded. “Um, y-yes,” She stuttered out in response, then turned head back to the shelf before sliding down the ladder to the floor, then stepped away from it before finally turning back around to look at the other mare. “Hi...” She started uncertainly, her eyes unable to look at Tempest for more than a moment before flitting back away, “Y-you’re.. Tempest Shadow, right?”
“That’s correct,” Tempest affirmed with a nod, still crossing the massive room towards the other mare, but she did still ask in response, “And you are?”
Sucking in a breath through her nose, the other Unicorn had an even harder time keeping her gaze on Tempest for a second, but she still uttered back, “U-uh, I’m.. Moondancer...”
Nodding again in understanding, Tempest still had her questions; this mare was clearly somewhat afraid of her, but also showed signs of something more... innate, as if she simply had no clue what she was doing.
...Then again, Tempest didn’t have much room to judge, she suddenly realized, as the awkward silence resumed, only broken by her hoof-steps.
When she finally arrived at a healthy distance from Moondancer, she stopped moving and decided to break the silence by asking, “..May I ask why your mane looks so much like Twilight’s?” However, the blank mix of emotions she got in response didn’t really tell her much immediately... or during the several seconds that passed after she spoke. “Were you a friend of hers?” She replaced her question with something hopefully easier to answer for the other Unicorn.
Thankfully, Moondancer did respond, this time with a tentative nod and muttering, “S-something like that...”
“It’s complicated?” Tempest guessed with raised eyebrow; that did seem to the default response when Ponies weren’t sure how to describe all the aspects of a relationship.
“Yeah...” Moondancer replied with a sigh and another nod, sitting down and running a hoof down the back part of her mane, seemingly embarrassed by it, if that motion and the light blush on her face were any indication. “It’s...” She started, but trailed off as she looked around the massive library, and her expression fell, “I barely even know... w-what to make of... this, everything.”
Luckily, Tempest had a guess; “You’re jealous of her?”
The other Unicorn pulled her forelegs up and hugged herself, seemingly even more embarrassed by that fact as she nodded in response, though her expression fell further instead of regaining her blush. “..Yeah. But, more, um... all of the stuff she got, n-not just the Castle.”
Sitting down before the other mare, Tempest recalled everything she heard the deceased mare had gained, her friends, her power, her new home, and then she spoke tentatively, “I get that, but given everything she’s done, I’m under the impression that it’s relatively deserved.”
Moondancer quietly snorted at that, but the sound was clear in the large, silent, and echo-y room. “I don’t really think that,” She spoke, her eyes more focused as she stared at the floor, but then she winced, closed her eyes, and hesitantly corrected, “W-well, no, m-more like...” She trailed off, but she pursed her lips and she seemed to be thinking intensely for several silent seconds before finishing firmly, “She was a hero, but others could’ve done the same in her position.”
Tempest pulled back a bit in bewilderment, and she tilted her head at the other Pony. “What makes you say that?”
Her brows furrowing for a moment, Moondancer soon opened eyes and glared at the other Unicorn, though her anger didn’t seem directed at her, and she spoke, “I was in a group of friends with Twilight before, or.. sort of,” She faltered slightly, looked away and sighed in annoyance, planted her forehooves back on the floor and relaxed her posture before continuing, “Twilight didn’t really reciprocate all our attempts to be friends with her.”
Letting out a breath of surprise and sudden understanding, Tempest quickly replied, “You believe you and your friends could’ve been the Elements instead?”
Nodding in affirmation, Moondancer looked back at the other Pony and said, “Twilight told me about everything that happened on that fateful day, and... she said she wasn’t even friends with those Ponies before she realized friendship was needed to power the actual Elements.”
“Interesting...” Tempest mused, looking down at the floor for a moment in thought, “I was always under the impression that they were friends before all of that, but I had never asked any of them...”
“...Why not?” The other mare asked curiously.
Looking back at her with a mildly deadpan expression, Tempest just answered, “Well, you should be able to imagine that we’re not on the best of terms.”
“Why—oh,” Moondancer started, though swiftly cut herself off when she realized, then turned her head away and nodded in embarrassed understanding. “S-sorry, I, uh...”
“It’s, alright,” The former Commander waved her off with a hoof, and turned the conversation back to ask, “But, as for the Elements, I also was under the assumption they exemplify their respective virtues better than... well, basically any other creature, so... do you know if they were like that before the Nightmare, too?”
Pursing her lips for a moment, Moondancer shrugged and replied, “Not sure. But, I think they were more normal back then, based on what I’ve heard.”
“And your own friends?” Tempest added, pulling the conversation back even further.
“...They’re pretty varied, too,” The other Pony responded, though with a confident tone despite her vague words.
“..And you believe their pre-existing friendship could work better than the current Elements flame-forged one?”
“...In some ways.” At Tempest’s head-tilt of confusion, Moondancer sighed and took a second to think before elaborating, “Twilight’s friends were good friends with each other, but we always had other friends outside of our group.”
Nodding slowly in comprehension, Tempest recalled, “And that’s why Twilight’s friendships with other creatures are always so complicated, correct?”
Expression furrowing back into annoyance, Moondancer replied curtly, “Yeah. But,” She went on to explain, “We have more friends and relationships. Minuette’s got a lot of friends, Twinkle and Lemon know a bunch of Ponies up in Canterlot, and Lyra’s got a marefriend. The Elements are...” She paused for a moment, but then just rolled her eyes in irritation and spat out, “Dumb and stale. They’ve caused a lot of problems, and don’t care about how much it hurts others. They don’t ever go out of their way to help others, not unless the problem’s shoved in their face. That’s the only reason I even know about all of this.”
Tempest reared back in surprise. “I thought you at least considered her a friend!”
“I don’t,” Moondancer replied firmly, but her expression quickly broke, and her gaze fell to the floor as she shook. Tears started to form in her eyes as she fumed, “I wanted to, and I wanted to be more than that, but..!” Huffing in anger, she continued to spit, “It took her until she became an Alicorn before she found me again, and even then she just randomly bumped into me while in Canterlot. Sure we made amends, s-sort of, but she never even thought to come back after everything. She just... abandoned me.”
Tempest watched her carefully, starting to truly understand why the other mare was so conflicted when it came to Twilight. “And—” She got cut off by Moondancer’s sudden return to her rageful ramblings.
“And then she goes and makes friends with a bunch of Ponies I’ve never heard, and they all get their dreams fulfilled over the years, including a bunch of shit they never even thought they wanted, and they go on adventures and make friends, and get everything given to them, and everypony loves them, and I GET NOTHING!” She slammed her forehooves into the floor in indignant rage, and tears were starting to trail down her face as she kept fuming. “But now.....”
“...Now she’s dead,” Tempest finished hesitantly, wary of the other Pony’s fury.
Nodding silently, Moondancer didn’t move as she continued, “Now she’s solidified as a hero, and I can’t hate her for sacrificing herself, now can I? And it’s not like any other creature in existence could’ve done that in her place. Surely it’s unique to her, and nobody else that could’ve gone through her journey would’ve done the same...”
Tempest paused for a moment, considering it. “..You do have a point,” She conceded carefully, “But I still believe there is more to Twilight than that. She did save my life, and sacrificed her own, and that most definitely not something to undersell.”
“I know...” Moondancer muttered in response, then looked back to the other mare and said, “But that’s not my point. Not quite, I-I just mean... if there’s at least one pony who could, then it’s at least partially just happenstance. Like—” Her eyes flitted off to the side for a moment, and she seemed to stumble over her thoughts before regaining her sense and adding, “Take Sunset Shimmer for example.”
“Sunset Shimmer?” The other Unicorn asked, unfamiliar with the name.
“Uh, yeah; she was Cel—Princess Celestia’s previous student before Twilight,” Moondancer clarified.
Tempest gasped faintly; “Oh, I know of her, then. Celestia mentioned her to me.”
“Oh?” Moondancer responded curiously, titling her head, but then shook it and continued, “W-well, Sunset would’ve likely been in the same position Twilight was in if she stuck around. Now, obviously, you know that she wasn’t... the best Pony to be around—” She got a nod from the other mare at that, “—But, neither was Twilight, really... So, Sunset could’ve gone on all those journeys instead of her, and it’d really just be the same idea as what really happened.”
“I’m not certain about that,” Tempest retorted darkly, getting another quizzical head-tilt from the other Unicorn, “Twilight was generally described as anti-social and simply didn’t understand the point of friendship, but Sunset... She was more active and megalomaniacal, and I don’t doubt she would’ve tried to usurp Celestia if given the chance via those Elements.”
Pausing for a second, Moondancer then tilted her head from side to side, and replied uncertainly, “W-well, if she used the Elements, then she’d have to have friends, right? That’s the whole.. point.”
“Of course, but that doesn’t preclude her from being malicious,” The former Commander answered, then went on, “Friends are important, but they alone won’t make someone better. Trust me, I’m very aware of that.”
Moondancer’s eyes stayed on the other mare for a moment in contemplation, then fell back to the floor, and she started to mutter to herself, “Well, maybe, but... How would that work..? Friends are good, keep you grounded, so...” Her eyes widened for a moment, then she blinked a few times before wiping the lingering tears from them with a hoof, where she next jerked her head to look at the other mare again and said, “Unless her friends were like her, too.”
Tempest eyed her oddly for a moment; “You really think six malicious creatures would figure out any semblance of friendship in the mere moments before their impending doom at the Nightmare?”
“Well, when you say it like that, it sounds stupid...” The other mare grumbled, but shook her head again and explained, “I mean, just... with how Twilight’s friends are, being so... chaotic, and causing tons of problems, they were never really ideal for the whole friendship thing. And yet, here they are.”
“Here they are...” Tempest uttered back in a level of assent, having heard of the ‘adventures’ those Ponies have gone on, and the things that have been spoken of them. A few instances in particular... “I believe if they were tempered and disciplined, even a little, then such chaos wouldn’t have happened. Nobody ever wishes to speak out against the heroes, and Celestia always stays by their side, even during their worst moments. The Gala, the Rainbow Factory, the Want-it-Need-it spell...” She sighed deeply, looking down for just a moment, “I couldn’t have imagined such madness being caused by the timid, yet heroic mare that sacrificed herself so, but now I understand that they were only truly heroic in the face of true danger. And without that danger, they had to create it themselves.”
Moondancer pulled back a bit, surprised and wary. “Y-you’re not suggesting they meant to cause problems, just to solve them, and to fluff up their ego and public perception..?”
“No,” Tempest scoffed lightly, “They’re not that smart.” Looking intently into the other Unicorn’s eyes, she finished, “They are good creatures, but they just needed better teachers.”