Midnight hummed as she worked, an orchestral symphony of synth waves and violins that flowed from her throat and filled the open air around her. She kept her eyes closed while she swished her hands about, fingers tracing patterns only she could see.

She had never known she had an eye for architecture and interior design before! But the construction of her new castle was coming along nicely. How easy it was to shift a couple of atoms and transmute steel into marble or wood into brass. The raw materials flew up from the noisy city below. So many people needlessly screaming in panic. She hadn’t even done anything to them. Most of her supply came from buildings that had already been abandoned, and the ones that hadn’t, she made sure not to take any critical support structures. But, Midnight reasoned, a chunk of land appearing overhead with a self-constructing castle would probably be a little unnerving to the unenlightened. They would all understand soon.

Midnight twitched her ring finger, and a corded steel cable unraveled itself down to its molecular level and was reforged into a glossy marble tile. She was thinking classical Ottoman-style architecture for the main body of the castle: high domes and semi-domes to make up the central citadel. And she would blend it with French Gothic flying buttresses and ambulatories with tall, cathedral-like towers! All constructed from reflective marble and brass, giving her entire design a nice purple sheen. She did love purple.

Purple. The color of royalty. A symbol of beauty and mystery. A color not present in the visible light spectrum nor the rainbow. Often confused with its close sister, violet. Some would say it was a negligible difference, but Midnight knew better. She knew almost everything now. She saw the thin line between science and magic. She knew the paradoxical nature of the universe. Beneath the illusion of order was chaos. There were no laws, only predictions and probabilities. Answers before the question was even asked.

She interrupted her symphony with a throaty giggle. Magic acted quite the same. Orderly and functional on the surface, but when left alone, it was unpredictable. In the right hands, it could be bent and controlled. But the how and the why could never be measured by normal means. Like the wave functions of electrons that scientists could only guess were real. But Midnight knew. And she could use magic to track the electron as it moved. Both its position and momentum were known to her!

She tilted her head five degrees and grinned. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle wasn’t so uncertain anymore.

Midnight tilted her head ten degrees in the other direction and frowned. What was uncertain was the behavior of her subjects in her new world simulation.

In experimenting with her magic, Midnight found that she could split her consciousness, both from the actions of her body and further into separate halves. She also realized she had thrown a wrench into the Mind-Body problem, but that was a colloquy for later.

In the spare half of her consciousness, she had taken to running simulations of how best to operate her new magical world. While magic would be far more predictable, people still needed to learn how to use it. Governments would need to be completely restructured, and she needed to incentivize social harmony and prevent any seeds of corruption.

Midnight frowned. Scenario 089 had been progressing well. She had even managed to get Sunset on board in this one. Yet, someone’s magic had overcharged for some reason, leading to… explosive results. She swore she had created magic limiters in this universe. And now, people were questioning the safety of magic! Why were people so resistant to change?

“Reset. Commence scenario 090,” Midnight said aloud. She needed the perfect world locked in place before she could unleash her spell.

The active consciousness of her mind fine-tuned the intricate matrices of the ball of magic floating just over her head. It was a delicate process; forcing magic to bend to her will not just in this moment, but for all forthcoming time. She had to fill in the gaps of the quantum universe, change the code of randomness to perfect predictability. She needed to attune human bodies to be more readily receptive to magic. She needed to restore the natural world to a healthier state.

And because her world could not be superimposed atop this old one, she needed to make sure it would be destroyed.

“So much to do, so much to do,” she said in a light, sing-song fashion. At least she could multitask.

“Your Grace!” a chipper voice called up to her.

Midnight opened her eyes and looked down. She floated above her tallest completed tower, a perfect cylinder open to the early morning sky. Adagio smiled obediently up at her, dressed in a floor-length purple and white maid gown.

Adagio bowed. “Please forgive my interruption, Your Magical Grace, but Lord Tirek is returning.” She pointed to one side of the tower.

Instead of a parapet, a short set of stairs led up to a crack in reality. White light poured out of it and was briefly obscured as a figure emerged from the other side and stepped down the stairs.

Midnight descended from the sky and hovered just off the floor. She floated closer to Tirek, still nesting in Apalla Lulamoon’s body, and gave a self-serving smile. “See? I told you.”

Apalla’s gaunt face made an ugly sneer. “They are more cowardly than I thought. And that is the closest you can get me?”

Midnight spread her fingers. “Even I have limits. For now. Whatever is on the other side is actively repelling any sort of external entry. If you want to go fight gods, you’ll have to go through the front door.”

Tirek growled. “And my magic did not lay even a scratch on it. I would theorize that only godly magic could break through.”

“But I couldn’t get in.”

“Because, despite your self-proclaimed title, you’re not a god,” Tirek said with a little more smugness than Midnight cared for.

She held back a sneer and the urge to break apart his atoms, and asked, “Then how are you going to get in?”

Tirek walked to the edge of the tower and looked out over Canterlot below. “With the Rainbow of light, of course. A weapon handed down by the gods themselves. I think it’s time it was returned to them.”

Midnight leaned back in midair and folded her hands under her chin. “You’re missing a key.”

“But those colorful heroines are still around. In this tumultuous situation, they’re bound to obtain it soon. And when they do, they’ll come try to take the chest back. I’ll have their magic and their key.”

He held a hand out and opened a black portal. “In the meantime, Starlight should be finished with the final preparations. It’s finally time I got out of this wretched body and into my own.”

Tirek gave Midnight a bow. “I will see you soon, ‘Goddess of Magic.’ I look forward to seeing your finished castle.” He stepped through the portal and it collapsed behind him.

Midnight leaned further back, dropping her arms to let them dangle and groaning in disgust. “He’s so obnoxious, isn’t he, Adagio?”

“Absolutely, Your Grace,” Adagio said with a smile.

It didn’t matter. He could have the Rainbow of Light for all Midnight cared. Though, he was sorely mistaken if he thought he was going to take the souls of her friends. He was more valuable than a pawn, but he was still nothing more than a piece to be expended.

She tilted her head toward the tear she had made for Tirek. Wherever the highest powers of this universe resided, Midnight could not just teleport there, nor open a rift. The closest she could get was an intermediary plane. She had seen the door, beautiful and haunting. And she had felt something emanating from the other side. Something ancient and powerful.

Be it gods or the collective consciousness of the universe, there was still something out there that eluded her knowledge and her power. And if it outstripped her, what chance did Tirek have? Hopefully a little more with his precious rainbow. Midnight did need him to succeed. She wanted no interference when she created her new world.

Speaking of…

“Adagio, be a dear and put on some tea.” Midnight straightened up and grinned, turning her face to the south. “I have a friend coming home.”

*****

Rainbow touched down on the lawn in front of Equilibrium Labs and immediately doubled over. Her wings and pony features vanished and she took several exhausted gulps of air.

Her runner’s instincts kicked in, and she straightened up and placed her hands atop her head. Looking around, she saw the lawn was normal again, the hole in reality absent.

She made a quick rotation to take in everything but didn’t bother shouting for her friends. She knew there was a slim chance they would still be here.

It had taken Rainbow over twelve hours to fly back from whichever South American country Twilight had sent her to. Two of those hours had been spent trying to figure out where she was and which way was home, and four more had been spent power-napping on an island the size of her living room.

The sun rose from the trees, its orange light mixing oddly with the ethereal purple glow emitting from the sphere hanging in the sky. It was far larger than the last time Rainbow had seen it, casting a shadow over most of downtown Canterlot. When the sun reached its apex, it would be completely eclipsed.

With an exhausted growl, Rainbow ponied up again. She had to find her friends. Ignoring the strain in her wings, she launched herself into the air and headed for the city proper. With the city skyline in her sight, she saw another new addition floating over downtown.

A chunk of land floated between Canterlot Tower and the pulsing sphere of magic. A half-constructed castle sat atop it, its tallest tower already completed. As Rainbow drew near, she saw pieces of stone and steel fly up from the surface and add themselves to the construction.

“Twilight’s going full super-villain on us,” Rainbow muttered dejectedly.

What kind of friend was she if she hadn’t noticed Twilight had been in pain? The same kind that hadn’t realized her best friend had had a crush on her for six years. Rainbow let out a tired sigh. She had never once thought Twilight was useless or not as good as them. She could have said it more though.

As Rainbow transitioned from the city outskirts to the residential areas, she saw families hastily shoving their belongings into their cars and taking off down the road out of town. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t make it very far.

Abandoned cars clogged the main road. Groups of people tried to commandeer them and move them out of the way. So far, only one lane was open and backed up with people desperately waiting to get to the freeway. Many more people were fleeing on foot, still finding the time to turn back and take a picture of the sphere pulsing overhead. Some even took a snapshot of Rainbow. She didn’t care at this point—the world was ending.

Panic held all of Canterlot in its grip. But while the roads out of town were overcrowded, the people there moved with some semblance of order. Chaos reigned over downtown, however. On approach, Rainbow heard the panicked cries of the people in the shadow of Twilight’s magic. Police sirens and megaphones broke over the wild din as officers tried to instill some order amongst the citizens running about.

Rainbow furrowed her brow. “Where’s the army or national guard?”

A warbling roar quickly reached her ears. She stopped in midair and looked above. The roar rose into the scream of speeding engines, and three fighter jets shot past her, the bulk of their sound slamming into Rainbow two seconds later.

As they approached the self-constructing castle, three jets of purple light shot from the high tower. Each one struck a jet and wrapped it in blinding light. When it dimmed, Rainbow thought they had vanished entirely, until she saw three small objects falling to the ground.

“Woah!” Rainbow broke into a speeding dive, ignoring the points and shouts of the people on the ground. She swept down and around the falling objects, snatching all of them before they smashed against the roof of a house.

Squattiing on the ground, Rainbow examined what she had caught: three perfect models of the fighter jets, only, they had been reduced to plastic toys. Rainbow popped open one of the cockpits and gasped at the sight of the plastic human sitting inside, a look of stunned fear permanently sculpted onto her face.

“Not cool, Twilight,” Rainbow whispered solemnly. She took to the sky again, jets still in hand, and flew into the city. She found a suitable rooftop and set the jets down before sitting herself on the ledge and taking another tired breath.

Rainbow rubbed slow circles around her temples before dropping and cradling her head in her hands. With all the races she had run and all the games she had played, she had never experienced this kind of exhaustion. It wasn’t just her eyes or her limbs that were tired, her heart carried a weight she hadn’t felt since the night Sunset disappeared.

She couldn’t have known Tempest was out to kidnap Sunset. All Rainbow had to do was help find her and everything would be alright.

She should have seen Twilight was feeling insecure, right? Hadn’t she learned from Fluttershy? They all could have prevented this. Rainbow pinned the bulk of the blame on Starlight, but she couldn’t call herself innocent. Now, she had to fight her friend, unless this was another Sunset/Scarlet/Lamia situation, and the real Twilight was still stuck inside a portal. Rainbow didn’t know which situation would be worse.

Rainbow climbed back to her feet and popped her spine. She didn’t have time to wallow in self-pity; she needed to find her friends.

That’s if they’re okay. If Twilight is still flying around and being crazy…

An echoing bark snapped her attention to the street below where a familiar ghostly wolf was looking up at her.

“Harbinger?”

“Rainbow!”

Soarin came from around a corner and waved his arms at her. Rainbow’s heart backflipped before slamming itself against her ribcage. She bolted down from the roof and tackled Soarin in a flying hug.

“You’re okay!” she shouted before planting a rare kiss on the cheek.

“You’re okay!” Soarin parrotted. “I saw you girls get taken away on the news and thought I might never see you again!”

Rainbow unwrapped her arms from around him but kept one hand in his. She made a fist with her free hand and grinned. “Please, it’ll take more than a few cops to stop us.”

Her heart sank and her smile sagged. Twilight on the other hand… If they didn’t stop her, she could definitely stop them.

Soarin gave her a gentle shake. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

Rainbow gestured a hand out. “You mean besides all of this?” A police car whizzed by them.

He chuckled weakly. “Yeah. You don’t know what’s going on, do you?”

Rainbow bit down on one side of her tongue, choosing her words carefully. “We were fighting one bad guy, and then she created another bad guy that wants to remake the whole world.”

Soarin looked from her to the magic sphere. “So, we really are just living in a comic book now. I’d say ‘cool’ but…”

“Yeah.” Rainbow’s excitement for the superhero life had diminished when Twilight had been pulled into that vortex. “Anyway, what are you doing out here? And what happened to Adagio?”

Harbinger padded to Soarin’s side, and he gave her a pat on the head. “Don’t know about Adagio. She just disappeared. As for me, I’m trying to find people who need help. The mayor’s given an evacuation order, but has also opened the stadium for anyone who can’t get out of the city.”

Rainbow gave him a light punch in the shoulder. “Thanks for stepping up.”

“What are you doing?”

Rainbow stretched her wings. “I got separated from the girls. I gotta regroup with them, and then, we gotta think of a plan to stop Tw—the bad guys.”

Soarin nodded. “Anything I can do to help?”

“Not unless you know where the Rainbow of Light is. Tirek took it from us.”

“Oh, that’s an easy one,” a hauntingly familiar voice said from every direction. “Tirek keeps it near him at all times. And he’s back at the lab, getting ready to get his body back.”

A creeping cold ran down Rainbow’s spine. The voice broke into a manic giggle, and Rainbow spun around, straining her eyes to find its source.

Soarin raised his fists in a defensive stance. “Is that the bad guy you were talking about?”

“‘Bad guy’?” Midnight materialized on the arm of a light post, wings spread with indignation. “Still so ungrateful. My only goal is to make the perfect world!”

Rainbow held her arms out. “Does this look perfect to you?”

“It’s a work in progress.”

“Twilight, you can’t be serious!”

Soarin jerked his head from Rainbow to the winged creature. “Wait, Twilight?”

Midnight’s eyes flashed red, and she said from behind a dangerous smile. “Actually, it’s Midnight now. Don’t make the same mistake Sunset did. It’s one of the reasons I had to give her a time-out.”

Rainbow clenched her teeth and fists. “What did you do to her? Where are our friends?”

Midnight dropped into a sitting position on the light post and kicked her legs. “I told you: Sunykins is on timeout. She’ll be back when I say she can come back. As for our friends…”

She closed her eyes and hummed to herself. “Aha! They’re hiding in Greece. An obvious spot, but I can’t fault them for trying.” She held a hand to her mouth and giggled. “Sunset was right; magic is like another form of radiation, and yet, everyone has a slightly distinct wavelength. Too bad our friends’ wavelengths are so easy to pick up, even from here.”

Soarin leaned on his back foot. “I know I’m late to the party, but I’m really confused. Wasn’t she on our side?”

Midnight vanished in a flash and reappeared above Soarin’s shoulder. “There are no sides, only objective truths.”

Harbinger jumped and snapped at her, but instead of clamping down on Midnight’s arm, she passed straight through and crashed against the ground.

“Truth number one,” Midnight said with a sharp-toothed smile, “science and magic are two sides of the same coin. Teleportation is just quantum tunneling! Transmutation is just shifting a couple of protons and electrons! Magical blasts are just concentrated energy! Magic is a shortcut to make those things happen! But, just like quantum physics, trying to study and measure it is almost impossible! Magic has contradictions! So, I’m ironing out those contradictions on a cosmic scale. Once I bridge the gap between the known and the unknown, I can bestow magic onto everyone else, and reshape the world into a paradise!”

Midnight flung her arms out and twirled in the air before vanishing and reappearing upside down in front of Rainbow. “But I know that was a lot of big words for you, so I’ll move on.” She teleported again and reappeared upright before Rainbow could snap back.

“Truth number two: to create my perfect world, the old one must be overwritten. The universe can only hold one save file. And this one is gonna have a heck of a load time, so I’m still working on breaking down everything in the current world. But that’s fine because it lets me be more efficient by using its pieces to create my new world instead of starting from scratch!” She thrust a finger to the mass of magic above.

“I’m going to overwrite everything in one fell swoop! It gives me time to make sure everything is perfect!”

“And truth number three: higher powers do exist and don’t take kindly to having their toys messed with. So, I’m giving Tirek the opportunity he so desperately craves. He can go and fight gods if he wants; it means I’ll have less opposition to my superior designs!”

Throughout Midnight’s speech, Rainbow had fluctuated between gaping like a fish, and clenching her jaw until it hurt. Siding with Tirek? Fighting gods? Twilight had jumped into the deep end now.

“The world isn’t perfect, but it’s not up to you to fix it, Twilight! Especially if you’re going to sacrifice people!”

“You’re going to have to find a new argument, Rainbow. That one is getting stale,” Midnight spat. She flared her wings, blue lines running along the top. “I’m going to prevent a Malthusian catastrophe by leaving the wicked and the undeserving to perish! I’ll start a new world with those entitled to inherit it. You should be elated that you’re coming with me!”

Rainbow leaned toward Soarin. “What’s a Malthusian catastrophe?”

“Beats me.”

Midnight sighed and held a hand to her temple. “Sunset would get it. The point is, I’m using my powers for the betterment of humanity! If you think about it, it’d be more evil to stop me.”

Rainbow stopped clenching her jaw and put on a neutral expression. She knew heavy topics like this weren’t her strong suit, but her gut told her Midnight was wrong. Rainbow doubted she could talk Midnight down though; that was a job for Sunset. No, she needed to get the information about the Rainbow of Light to her friends.

Keeping her neutral gaze on Midnight, Rainbow asked, “Soarin, remember that portal in the forest I told you about?”

He nodded, giving her a measured look. “Yeah, why?”

“Find it and tell the others what’s going on.”

Midnight lazily rolled her eyes. “Maybe Sunset got the noble sacrifice idea from you. You know I could stop both of you in an instant, right? The only reason I haven’t is because I like you!”

Rainbow gave Soarin a starting shove. “Go! Now!”

Soarin stumbled and hesitated, locking his eyes onto Rainbow’s. He gave her a look before turning and sprinting off, Harbinger by his side. Rainbow knew she wasn’t the smartest. She could be emotionally aloof or just unobservant. But she knew what that look was.

“Love you, too,” she said under her breath.

A dreamy sigh next to her ear made her jump sideways. Midnight lay flat in the air, hands pressed to her cheeks and kicking her legs back and forth. “Aww, that’s so cute. I’m really happy for you, Rainbow. I could snap him back here, you know. So you can tell him to his face.”

“No.” Rainbow turned her head from Midnight. “I just didn’t want him around for this part. ‘Cause… I think you’re right.”

She heard Midnight’s wings rustle. “You do?” There was a veil of skepticism in her voice.

“Yeah. The world can be better. I don’t know if it needs what you’re going to do to it… but I know I can't stop you. So if it’s what you really want, Twi—um, Midnight, then I’m on board.”

Midnight curled around Rainbow, a delighted smile lighting her face. She pressed a hand to Rainbow’s chest. “Really? Oh, you don’t know how happy I am to hear that! It’s been so hard not having any support from my friends! But if you’ve come around, it’s only a matter of time before the rest of them do, too!”

“Y-Yeah.” Rainbow turned her head again.

Midnight uncoiled herself and drifted down the street, back turned to Rainbow. “Don’t worry, I’ll handle most of the work! Unless you want to go convince our friends that what I’m doing is the right thing! Oh, just wait until you see your room in my castle! It’s not done yet, so feel free to put your input in—”

When she had floated halfway down the block, Rainbow launched herself toward Midnight like a cannonball, grabbing her by the back of the head and smashing it down into the pavement. Rainbow landed on Midnight’s back and grabbed her wrists, pulling them together.

“I’m sorry, Twilight, but you need to—what the?”

Midnight melted in between Rainbow’s fingers like ice cream and pooled against the street. As a collective puddle, it shifted out from beneath Rainbow before bursting up and forming back into a solid and angry Midnight Sparkle.

She let out an errant scream and lunged forward, grabbing Rainbow by the neck and slamming her against the ground.

“So was there a plan, Rainbow? Or was this one of your ill-fated, spur-of-the-moment ideas?” she snarled.

“Was hoping to knock some sense into you,” Rainbow gasped, Midnight’s fingers tightening around her windpipe.

Midnight lifted her up. “All I want,” she seethed, “is to help my friends—help the world! But none of you seem to get that! So let’s see if I can’t knock some sense into you!”

She drew Rainbow back and threw her through the glass of an office building. The impact barely slowed her momentum. Rainbow soared through the office, crashing through one wall, then another, and another, her aura dampening the impacts. She broke through another glass window and landed on the street below, scattering a marauding crowd.

Rainbow rolled onto her back and groaned. She felt a punching bag. With tremendous effort, she rose to a sitting position, ignoring the aches across her bruised body. She smeared the dust and plaster off her face. This wasn’t a fight she was going to win, but she needed to make sure Soarin got away.

“So, did I clear the morning fog, Rainbow?” Midnight said, descending behind her.

Rainbow pushed herself to her feet and turned around. “Sorry, Twi. Still think you’re crazy.”

Midnight bared her teeth and raised a glowing finger. Rainbow raced across the ground, pain dissipating as adrenaline surged through her. She leaped up and slammed a fist into Midnight’s face, sending her spiraling across the street and into an ATM.

I’m sorry. Rainbow dropped to the ground and rested her hands on her knees. The moment she stopped moving, the pain hit her like a truck. It took everything she had not to collapse to the ground.

Midnight pulled herself off the ATM and looked at it with childish glee. “Let’s change your attitude, Rainbow!” She clenched her hand, and arcs of purple electricity danced across the machine before a barrage of change spat out of the dispenser.

Rainbow’s adrenaline surged again, and she blurred out of the coins’ path. Midnight raised her hands and redirected them, maintaining their momentum even as they changed course. Rainbow sped down the street, shifting her wings and head as the coins shot past her like bullets, striking and embedding themselves in the concrete when they missed.

She weaved between abandoned cars, hearing the ping and screech of metal crashing against metal. A quarter whizzed by her ear and took off the side mirror of a taxi. She broke out of the stalled traffic and took a sharp turn around a corner, almost screaming at what she saw.

Several people were migrating down the street; individuals with large backpacks and families with young children shuffling down the road instead of trying to drive down the congested streets.

Rainbow chanced a glance behind her. A swarm of coins still hunted her like an army of angry wasps. She was too close to stop, and there were no side streets to turn onto.

Fine, the hard way! Rainbow put in a burst of speed, blue aura glowing brighter. She grabbed the first person in her path and shoved him onto the sidewalk, then pinballed and grabbed a mother and child, hauling them behind a large truck. She grabbed one man and stuck him on the stoop of a building, and grabbed another and tossed him up a tree. All before the cloud of coins ripped down the street behind her.

Rainbow shifted one last old lady off the road, clearing the path for her and her pursuers. She pushed down the street and came upon a van that had been left dead center. Rainbow dropped into a slide, skidding under the van across her back. As she came out the other side, she heard the torrent of a hundred pieces of change punching the back doors.

Once again, Rainbow’s adrenaline faded, and she felt the impact of Midnight’s throw again plus the new street burn she had picked up down her back. She rolled onto her knees and staggered to her feet, using the fender of the van as a crutch.

“Aw, don’t tell me you’re tired already, Dashie!”

The van burst into cubes of light that spun around and recombined into Midnight. Rainbow teetered back, flapping her wings to keep her balance.

Midnight tutted. “If Sunset couldn’t beat me, what chance do you have?” She held a hand out and a purple blade of crackling power extended from her palm.

Crap, she has a lightsaber!

Midnight jabbed, and Rainbow sidestepped to avoid getting skewered. She ducked under Midnight’s next swing, then broke into the air before the follow-up. She arched up over the buildings and sharply swerved to the left when Midnight popped into existence right in front of her and swung her sword.

“Aaagh!” Rainbow lost altitude, grabbing her calf where Midnight had struck her. Her pants leg had been burned, and a cauterized wound ran across her skin, still smoking. She dropped onto a high-rise rooftop, leaning on her good leg.

“I hope you know,” Midnight said as she landed on the balcony, twirling her energy blade over her wrist, “I’m going easy on you because we’re friends. I don’t want to hurt you.”

The quarter bullets say otherwise. Rainbow decided to keep that one to herself. She didn’t need another lightsaber lashing.

“So, are you ready to surrender?”

“Stop acting like a Sith Lord and maybe I’ll think about it,” Rainbow snapped.

Midnight scrunched her nose, but her saber vanished from her hand. “I am not a Sith Lord,” she said in a voice that almost sounded like normal Twilight.

“You had a lightsaber,” Rainbow deadpanned.

“Jedi use lightsabers, too!” Midnight cleared her throat and folded her arms behind her back. “The world I envision is far more utopian, like Star Trek. It’s your unwillingness to embrace change that’s forcing me to resign to more authoritarian actions.”

“And all the people you’re ready to sacrifice?”

Midnight smiled unnervingly. “‘The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.’”

“I don’t even watch Star Trek and I know you’re twisting that!” Rainbow yelled.

“Am I? Truth number four: the ends justify the means. I’ll use any means necessary to maximize happiness for the greatest number of people! I’ll get rid of one or two billion to save all the rest! You’ll all get to live in a magical paradise!”

Rainbow stomped her foot. “I don’t know what your definition of paradise is, but mine isn’t a place where innocent people die!”

Midnight’s sneer fell into a contemplative frown. “So what is your ideal paradise? What’s your dream, Rainbow? What world do you want to wake up to?”

Rainbow stalled, trying to see Midnight’s angle. She couldn’t see the harm in answering, and the longer they talked, the more time Soarin had. And the less time Rainbow had to fight.

“I want to be one of the greatest athletes to ever live,” she said, feeling the drive stir in her heart. “I want to lead whatever team I’m on to the pinnacle of our sport. Basketball, soccer, track, whichever. I want to push myself to the limit, then find out I can go beyond it. I want to be an inspiration to the next generation of athletes.”

Midnight smiled and held her hand out. “I can give that to you. I can make you the greatest star in the world. The number one athlete at anything! Everything!”

Rainbow crossed her arms. “I don’t want anyone to just give it to me. It defeats the whole purpose! I can’t just wake up one day and be number one; I have to earn it! And I’m definitely not going to do it by sacrificing someone else’s dream!”

“Gaaah!” Midnight’s wild hair snapped and erupted like fire. “What do you want then? What will it take to convince you that my world will be better?”

“What do I want?” Rainbow grit her teeth. Her blue aura deepened, and the pain ebbed away. She tightened her fists, fighting back tears as she shouted, “I want my friend back!”

She blasted forward and tackled Midnight around the waist, taking off higher into the sky. She beat her wings with all the force she could muster, leaving Canterlot far below in her wake.

“Hahaha!” Midnight laughed in Rainbow’s ear. “What is this supposed to be; another impulsive idea?”

“Just watch.”

Rainbow flew up until the air was thin, until she was level with the top of Midnight’s spell. She tightened her grip around Midnight, looped around, and plummeted back toward the earth. Cold air rushed into Rainbow’s eyes and dragged out her tears.

Faster!

Midnight laughed again. “You know I can escape whenever I want, right?” she yelled over the howling wind.

Rainbow ignored her. She clenched her teeth and threw her entire weight into the dive, momentum doubling as she sped toward the ground.

Faster!

She reached a fist out. A Mach cone formed around her body. The cold air grew hot. The wind sparked around her. Her aura blazed like a shooting star. Midnight laughed.

Faster!

Rainbow roared as she smashed through the sound barrier and reached supersonic, speeding even faster than when Sunset had boosted her. A kaleidoscope of colors exploded in her peripheral, and the ground flew at her, threatening to smash her in a second.

She threw Midnight down and kicked off of her, ricocheting back into the sky and ripping a shockwave of rainbow colors behind her. It flowed out across the city, reflecting against the glass towers until all of downtown shone like a prism.

A thunderous slam and the cracking of concrete came from where Midnight impacted the earth. The sonic boom hit four seconds later, rattling and cracking windows and setting off car alarms.

Rainbow lapped the entire city three times, a rainbow contrail in her wake. At the end of her third lap, her momentum finally slowed enough to where she could descend to the crater Midnight had created. She dropped to the ground, wincing at the burn on her leg.

As Rainbow neared the lip of the crater, the exertion of her actions hit her full force. All of her pain and exhaustion struck with a vengeance. She grabbed her chest and dropped to both her knees, gasping for air. Her wings and tail evaporated, her vision blurred, and she swooned back and forth, thoughts muddling together.

“Keep… keep it together,” she slurred, shaking her head. It only made her dizzier. She felt like throwing up, and the feeling doubled when she looked down.

Midnight lay curled on her side, unmoving at the bottom of the hole, at least five feet deep. Her face was bruised, her dress was torn, and a broken pipeline dribbled water onto her cheek. Her hair still flickered, a sign Rainbow took to mean she was still alive.

Still, Rainbow cupped a hand over her mouth. She hadn’t wanted to do it, but she didn’t know what else to do. Midnight had been right: it had been another impulsive idea.

Tears rolled down Rainbow’s cheeks. “I’m sorry, Twilight. I just… you needed to be stopped.”

Onlookers slowly began to draw near the scene, evacuees and people who had hidden in their homes instead of fleeing. Rainbow heard their murmured questions and speculation, she saw them pointing at her, at Midnight, and at the remnants of the rainbow shockwave fading above the city.

Need to get us both out of here. But Rainbow couldn’t move. Her legs had turned to jelly, and her heart still raced a mile a minute.

Midnight snapped her eyes open, pupils the size of pinpricks. She sat up and snapped her head toward Rainbow, who felt a chill dread run down her spine.

“Fascinating,” Midnight said, angling her head to watch the last of the rainbow. In a flash, all of her wounds and scrapes disappeared, and she began to float out of the crater. “You always find ways to impress, Rainbow Dash.”

People screamed as Midnight rose above Rainbow, casting a shadow over her. Rainbow looked up. She still couldn’t move. And despite the compliment, Midnight’s eyes were narrowed.

“Too bad your choices today have been poor.” Midnight looked off to the side, seemingly staring at nothing. “And my most recent simulation failed for similar reasons. It’s starting to leave me concerned for humanity’s decision-making prowess.”

She snapped a hand out and grabbed Rainbow by the collar, lifting her limp body into the air. “I’ll have to take note of that. In the meantime…”

“Twi… please,” Rainbow panted.

Midnight lifted a finger and pressed it to Rainbow’s lips. “Midnight. And no need to worry, Rainbow. I’ll make sure you get plenty of rest.”

Rainbow’s legs stiffened. Something cold crept up her body. It wasn’t exhaustion keeping her motionless now; she had been paralyzed.

“Stop!” Rainbow shouted as the crystal quickly spread up her torso.

“I’ll let you out soon,” Midnight said gently. “I just need to keep you preserved and out of the way.”

As the crystal moved up her neck, Rainbow’s eyelids grew heavy. She wasn’t tired enough to fall asleep, was she? No, this wasn’t her.

“Mid…night…” Rainbow mumbled, the world growing dark.

“Very good. Sleep tight, Rainbow.”

Author's Note

Alternate Chapter Title: Quantum-mania(c)

Chapter music provided: