Less is More

by EpicGamer10075

Wasted

“I can hardly imagine why she put so much faith in your puny little unicorn self.”

Twilight shivered even harder at the disgust in that tone, the intimidating voice and broken horn on the mare it was coming from only serving to further her terror.

Tempest Shadow looked down at Princess Celestia’s personal student with disappointment, the cage she had trapped the younger mare in forcing at least a short distance the two of them.

“I have known for quite some time that you revered ‘Princess’,” Tempest sneered the term out, “Has been far too optimistic and incredibly lazy for her own good, but...” Sighing and looking away from the pony that barely even qualified as an adult, she shook her head. “I can’t say I expected her to be quite this moronic.”

Absent-mindedly turning her head to look around the massive and empty room they both were in, she was sure that if she wasn’t there to scare her, Twilight would be more likely to wonder about the logistics of the lava kept below the room, its dry heat and orange light flittering up through grates in the floor, rather than actually be trying to save the Princesses she had been unable to save before.

“All those years of schooling and training wasted on such a pitiful creature as yourself...” Tempest spoke, not even bothering to look at the mare she was addressing, “All those times she allowed you to do whatever you wish, and punishing anypony that dare look at you wrong...” Sparing a short glance at Twilight, she saw her tremoring spike again, causing her to scoff in annoyance before looking more fully at her and continuing, “All of those extra chances she gave you, and you never did anything with them.

“Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

Twilight looked on the verge of crying at the accusations, but her expressions also held some confusion as she likely struggled to understand why she was even being spoken to in the first place.

“I can’t claim to understand the machinations of your foolish teacher, but I do still wish to know...” Tempest said, leaning closer to the cage and the unicorn within, “...As to why, after all of your past failing, she still chose to protect you, of all ponies, amidst our invasion.”

Observing the shaking, but silent pony for several seconds, she then tilted her head and stated with force, “Say something, you pathetic fool.”

Flinching at the tone, Twilight closed her eyes and tried to breathe for a moment, but didn’t get very far before coughing on the dry air. “I...” She started weakly, but barely had any idea of what to say or how to say it, eventually muttering in defeat, “I-I don’t know...”

Sighing heavily in disgust and disappointment, Tempest hung her head and shook it slowly for multiple more seconds, commenting offhandedly, “I really thought if Celestia really cared about you that much, she’d keep you close by rather than let you hide away in some little town.” Looking back up with mostly just her eyes, she asked curiously, “What exactly were you doing there, anyway?”

“S-studying friendship...” Twilight muttered weakly in response, embarrassment rolling through her voice.

“...Studying... friendship?” Tempest asked, bewildered.

Nodding hesitantly and gulping in fear, Twilight explained, “She t-told me to make some f-friends, and I, um, s-send her reports of the t-things I learn about friendship, l-like... the specific facets of trust and... f-forgiveness... and, s-stuff...”

Tempest’s expression only grew in disappointment and amusement while she listened, and then she replied with another shake of her head and saying, “I already knew you were naive and foolish, but... you’re hardly even your own mare, are you? Always under the watch of who you so revere, who you knew would protect and teach you for years to come... except,” Sharply raising her head to more fully look into her prisoner’s frightful eyes, she stated, “That clearly didn’t happen.

“And what’s even worse,” She added, unamusedly looking around at the room around her, “Those lessons didn’t even stick. That education under the oldest and supposedly most intelligent creature in all the land, wasted on somepony that didn’t even bother to take advantage of it.” Looking back towards her prisoner, she found Twilight unable to even look up at her, her head hung downward in guilt as she shook in horror. “Your friends too were betrayed by yourself, left as easy pickings for my soldiers to capture.

“And now, here you are; trapped, with nowhere to go and nothing you can do but watch as your foolishly generous leader’s nation is overtaken and rid of her, standing as a testament to her wastefulness and inability to keep her ‘precious’ ponies safe.” Tempest smirked down at the other mare, finding her inability to even speak fitting for how little she did to stop Equestria’s takeover. “We won’t make the same mistake, so perhaps you can consider this a blessing in disguise, ‘Lady’ Twilight Sparkle,” She spoke, mocking her captive with a bow of her head, smirk remaining on her face as she turned around and started to head out of the room, only to pause after taking a few steps.

Looking back to see Twilight openly crying in despair, Tempest added, “I hope you feel like you were worth something; after all, no-one else will.” Looking back in front of her, she then continued to walk and leave the room, her prisoner left with nothing.

Author's Note:

There’s a lot of moments like this in the canon, and I really think they deserve further exploration.

So many times, they’re turned into comedic or pornographic parodies, or otherwise completely copy-pasted or tossed aside as the author cares little for them.

I think they ought to be seen in different perspectives more, with AUs serving as a prime way to show how the differences in worlds can effect certain events, as well as serving to deepen characters with how they react to what is otherwise familiar to us.

I could’ve easily had Twilight be an alicorn here, with Tempest berating her about how she betrayed her friends and is unworthy of her title, but I thought that was stupid.
I could’ve turned the event, as seen in canon, into something slightly different with different words spoken, but that always implies that things were about the same to canon leading up to the event, even if things diverge from there, which I find incredibly unrealistic.

Instead, I took the event and altered a lot of it, as well as the implications of what happened before, to make something actually different, even if there are similar trappings.
This helps flesh out this world and show something unique, rather than an odd and often out-of-character interaction amongst something that’s already so known.

I’d argue this type of more creative approach ought to be taken more often when thinking about modifying canon events to fit an AU, as that will actually keep it properly separate from the canon, rather than just acting as a parallel parasite, but I know that a lot of authors here care little for that.
The comedy and porn stuff shows that much.

At the very least, I do hope some readers actually enjoy thinking about this stuff, even if they don’t do anything with it.