Splitting aMid the Night

The holidays had gone past surprisingly eventless for Midnight. Well, unless one counted Noon's resurfacing and all that. They had formed some sort of arrangement. Noon was here to stay, she knew that. So they had formed some kind of arrangement. It was rather one sided for Midnight, with her promising not to banish Noon any more in exchange for her to refrain from artificially creating nightmares for Midnight. She hadn't gotten Noon to keep quiet, sadly. In addition to commenting when she felt like it, she talked to Midnight every morning and evening, when everypony else had left her.

How did the lil' princess 'Can't feel, must work' sleep?

Stop the names, please. You know how we slept. After all, you steered it, no?

Ah, you got me. Did you like what I did?

Not at all. Didn't we have an agreement about that?

Nope. Take a look.

One by one, words flashed into Midnight's mind, only to disappear a split second later. It was, by the word, what they had agreed on. Noon could be terribly sarcastic when she was right.

See? Doesn't include completely nonsensical dreams.

Hey, what stops me from changing the rules?

The fact that I am still the master of our sleep. Doesn't unicorn blood taste just wonderful?

I hate you.

Us too.

"Good morning class. It pleases me to see that all of you have made it back from the holidays unharmed..." Midnight's favorite teacher began his first lesson after the break.

"Erm, more or less," He added as his eyes went over the white bandage on V's foreleg. About five ponies didn't listen. Not because they didn't want to, no, he was liked by everypony. But because there was something claiming their attention. Or someone. He raised his voice in response to that fact, "Yes, I see, you have already met our newest addition to class. Everypony listen please! This is Miss Sparkle. She has moved to Canterlot recently and will be staying with us in our preparation for the final exams. I'm sure she'll gladly answer any of your questions."

Midnight glanced over her shoulder. In the row behind her, she saw exactly why she wanted to leave Canterlot. There, a unicorn with velvet coat and straight, pink mane and tail smiled back at her. So decadent, she was. Even though it was a warm, sunny day outside, she was wearing a short dress. It was practical, yet pretty, Midnight had to admit that. That piece of cloth wouldn't repulse water, but it protected Sparkle from the sun. Midnight didn't get why the new unicorn would need it, though. It was chilly outside, but that dress was obviously not meant to save the wearer from cold, as it started at her chest and just barely came down from her flanks.

"Now, to recap, who can tell me the ACD of Alteration? Yes, Sparkle?"

Of course she had to be one of those. No, this question wasn't about talent, Midnight realised. It was about knowledge, which was why almost none of those self-proclaimed super talents knew it. In fact, only Sparkle and herself had lifted a hoof.

"Alteration, Conjuration, Deception. Or, more directly speaking, directly changing, summoning the means to change, and creating an illusion."

Midnight knew those words. They were printed down in that order in 'Making and Becoming Likeable - A Guide to Alteration.' Perhaps this new one wasn't that bad.

She was, Midnight knew that. She just hadn't given her a reason to hate her yet.

"Yes, very good. We'll treat all three of those quickly. Take out a resistant sheet, or ask me if you don't have one. Then, conjure some means to paint it. Whether you want to use actual paint, crayons or whatever is up to you."

Manifesting items out of thin air. At least something Midnight couldn't literally do in her sleep.

"Then, change half of what you've conjured to another color. To be clear, I want one base color to start with, then you change that through direct alteration."

And the chain of interesting challenges broke.

"Make a little picture on the paper. Levitation, first grade. Maybe a base color and then striping with the second one. After that, you will add a little touch to it through illusion. Sparkles, maybe. Or stars."

This wasn't going to be hard. Midnight blew a bit of pink hair, which demonstrated her mastery at keeping an illusion active, out of her sight.

"Does everypony know what they're supposed to do? Yes? Good, start working then."

Midnight didn't understand her class. In the sense of ponies, not what they did in class, of course. There were the typical Canterlot ponies. Got into the school by pure talent (Or luck, as she liked to put it), incredibly snobbed, didn't want to work and got through anyway. Then there were the true snobs. Got in through money and standing. Kind of like the first kind, but without the talent. Consequently, they didn't do very well. Then there was Midnight. Just the average unicorn, accepted into school through lots of paperwork and effort. Sometimes, she was happy there were others like her. Ponies that didn't shy away from working. They did exist, but they were rare. Especially in her class.

But there also was the new one. Sparkle. Midnight didn't know what to think of her. She did look like she was somewhere in the first category, but then again, there was something about her that only honestly working ponies had. In the break, she approached Midnight while she was staring out of a window in the hallway.

"Hey there. I don't think we've met yet. I'm Sparkle, what's your name?" At least she was polite. That was one thing on the for list.

Midnight took a second to answer to muster Sparkle from up close. She was a bit younger than the sceptical unicorn. At least, Midnight deduced that from the fact that she was a little smaller than her. "'t's Midnight. I'll be direct, you're an interesting one, Sparkle. I mean, you're not like... Them. At least, if you are, you haven't proven it to me yet. You look like somepony who doesn't mind getting their hooves wet. But then there's things like the dress? What are you wearing that for? It's not exactly cold outside."

Sparkle looked around. Apparently, she didn't see anypony in range to overhear her. "Erm... Well, honestly, it's to cover up my blank flank."

"Really? Wow, talk about late."

"I know. So please, don't tell anyone. I don't want everypony to know. It'll come in time. At least, my parents have been telling me that for years."

Midnight shook her head and refocused on the smaller unicorn in front of her. As she did, she noticed a small stain on Sparkle's dress. She decided to give her a word of advice. Sparkle wasn't a small filly anymore, but that didn't mean she couldn't teach her anything. "They're right. Believe me, listen to your parents, you might lose a lot of wisdom elsehow when they're suddenly gone." Sparkle thought for a few seconds about what Midnight had said. Apparently, she got the deeper meaning and was at a lack of words. "We should get going for combat class. Hey, you're new to town, right? How about I show you around here a bit after class?" Sparkle regained her confident smile, although it looked like there was something more than imbound friendship cheering her up. They were both startled by the sound of a big bell ringing. Midnight spoke. "Now look at us fillies, getting lost in petty chatter. Come on, the room's over this way!"

Boring! Kiss her already!

Would you shut up. Sparkle's nice, but that doesn't mean I outright love her. Coming to think of it, I don't truly love anypony. Don't you dare to feed such thoughts into our mind, Noon.

All I can say is you'll see.

Combat class, like their previous lesson, restarted slowly after the holidays. Relatively. The punishment was still being given for any unattentive ponies. That day, they would treat psychic attacks and how to defend against them. Boring. Shielding oneself against those was easy if one had the willpower. So Midnight could keep up a mental barrier for hours and still be able to think about whatever pleased her. She already felt like some kind of primary friend, maybe protector to the small unicorn, so she paired up with Sparkle to save her embarassment at not having a standard partner.

Maybe there was more to it. Perhaps Midnight wanted to prove her discipline of mind to her new friend. If that newcomer was to be called a friend. No, it wasn't that. Midnight was among the older ponies in her class, but that little filly looked even younger than the rest. She had just moved in. She simply needed some help to get a good start, and Midnight was providing that. Nothing more. Soon, she'd find friends that suited her better. Those that had some fancy talents to boast with. She belonged with those.

No she didn't. Sparkle was a strong caster, although she looked like she didn't show her full potential for some reason. Nevertheless, she was a true pony and belonged with such that valued true friends and did something for their grades. Like Midnight. The older unicorn didn't continue that thought because that second, her lavender colored partner futilely attempted to break her barrier. Only that it wasn't so futilely. In fact, Sparkle had just penetrated all of Midnight's mental defenses and gone right into her mind. And no matter how much resistance she gave, Midnight couldn't push her out of her thoughts.

Great. Now what's she gonna do?

Give you a turn at offense. This voice was not one of Midnight's own. It sounded almost like Sparkle's cute little voice. I'll take that as a compliment. I'm younger than others here, yes, so what?

Midnight blushed as Sparkle left her head. She hadn't done a very good job at keeping an empty mind while somepony was in it. Then again, Telepathy was a tricky kind of magic, above what she was needed to know for the final exam. She simply hadn't expected that filly in front of her to do it.

For the rest of the lesson, Midnight had made sure that her defenses were the best she could muster. Sparkle didn't break through again. She couldn't tell if it was due to disability or lack of desire. She found herself waiting for the newcomer at the door to walk with her to their final lesson.

"Hey Midnight, why are you lingering around? Where were you in the break?" She looked up to see one of her friends standing before her.

In response, Midnight pointed a hoof towards the emptying class room, towards the little unicorn inside. "Sparkle. The new one. I'm showing her around a bit. Don't worry, I'll be back with you guys soon enough. But keep in mind, she's under me. If you want to give her any trouble, you'll have to face me."

Sparkle walked up to them as Midnight's friend responded. "Heh, don't sweat it. I'm no bully, neither are any of us, you know that. Hey there kid. You're okay. At least Midnight says so."

"Thanks... I think?" Sparkle was visibly confused.

Midnight motioned for her to follow and set off through the door. "Don't mind him, that's his way of greeting new ponies... Yeah, he kind of exaggerates age differences. He's a cool guy though. Now, History of Harmony, special focus on communication. You know what to do in that course?"

Sparkle nodded. Midnight continued. "Good. Now forget that. The best thing to do is take a nap with your eyes open. Whatever you need to know, somepony else will note for you and you'll be able to study it when it's time. Okay?"

Sparkle was a bookworm. Midnight could tell from how shocked she looked at the idea of sleeping through a lesson. "Heh, yeah, if you want, you can be my somepony else. It's interesting, but there's just a lot of talk for little stuff. Try to stay awake if you want to. It won't be easy, I tell ya."