Splitting aMid the Night

Midnight could hardly care less about her new change in mane color. Recasting the illusion in order to cover up all of it again wouldn't be hard, however, she had no desire to do so. Afterall, she was just moving back to what it used to be. Adding a flair of the known to the experiment. She could use that to explain the change to her friends, even though it was a lie, to cover up that she had lost control and allowed her spell to lose strength.

Ironically, she'd have to tell Sparkle, who deserved the truth more than anypony else, an outright lie instead of some slightly enhanced truth. Midnight would tell her something along the lines of having wanted some changes in the sole pink the younger one had always seen Midnight with. Maybe there would be no need for such petty lies.

While the first occasion Midnight could remember seeing that blue strip was from withing her mind the day before, she figured that, in order to see it in a mental mirror, she had to have seen it in the real world, which, in turn, required the anomaly to exist earlier. If those around her had seen it already, they'd probably have figured what she had planned to tell them.

At least her older friends would. Sparkle might be too curious to accept such a simple excuse. If she was to search for that fact in the shrine, Midnight would certainly find a matching picture. Perhaps the filly already knew the truth. Midnight had heard in Magic Theory that very powerful unicorns, like Starswirl the Bearded, were born so close to the Magic Flow that they could see through every spell, especially illusions, if they wanted, as if they were constantly casting some spell detection. It sounded plausible that Filly was one of that kind, judging from what Midnight had seen from her.

That thought reminded her of something. Midnight decided that this day, she'd finally execute her already kind of old plan to spell-check the younger unicorn. During their pseudo-recess, she'd hang around near Sparkle (Midnight realised she always spent the break with the pony she had a crush on anyway), then use the required magic while Sparkle wasn't looking. She'd probably reach the same results by simply asking, but she preferred a more discreet approach.

Things were going relatively well for Midnight's plan. She had drawn Sparkle to a bench that was a bit off from the fray. Being there, it was unlikely that anypony would see her doing what she had in mind. Also, it'd be all the easier to distract her target.

Indeed, no two minutes had to pass until a fitting distraction claimed Sparkle's attention. After just so avoiding having to giggle at her unnecessarily stealthy ways, Midnight's horn flared up with magic, fueled by her unsatiable curiousity. For a second, Midnight wondered where that curiosity, that endless desire to learn, know and understand, had come from. Then, however, her spell her figurative gold in the form of energy, streaming in and out simultaneously, lingering to sustain the effects of spells long since cast.

It didn't surprise Midnight to find the simple illusion spell that was currently keeping most of her own mane pink. Even though it had apparently been applied months ago and modified to blue only recently. By increasing the spell's intensity, she could reveal the true colors, which appeared to be some still blue-ish, but fairly dark, almost purple, base color, accompanied by two small strips, one being the bright pink that had once filled all of Sparkle's mane except for said strips and the other looking almost like the original base color, but a bit brighter.

How cute... Midnight thought. Wonder why she wants to hide that. She'll have to explain some stuff to me once we're ma... in Ponyville.

Her mane goal was achieved, but Midnight decided to keep searching her friend's body for stray traces of magic. What she found was overwhelming. For half a second, her sensory systems were overloaded. She could hardly hear. Midnight's eyes showed her the real world, as it actually was.

It was dark, but Midnight had no problems seeing. Streaks of energy flowed freely through the space around her, momentarily stopping and concentrating to make up an illusion of matter. The entirety of Midnight's blood jumped out of her body before her eyes, then flowed back before she could register it.

A few ponies were made of differently colored clusters of the flow. Sparkle's, for instance, was a simple pink. Midnight had heard of the Magic Flow before, but she hadn't expected something this literal. It kind of reminded her of the world she saw with Pegasus Eye. After only a moment, she regained concentration and forced herself back into the normal world. She couldn't help but wonder about what she had just witnessed, though. At least, until she remembered what she was doing.

Midnight found what had caused her brain to react like that. It was an alteration spell, but in being that, it was fairly extraordinary. First, while it was too complicated to fully understand, Midnight could read out of its signature that it was some kind of size modifying spell. That, in itself, already required a very powerful and concentrated caster to perform on a living being, in order to ensure nothing went out of its relative size.

But also, even for its already demanding kind, this one was extremely strong, thus durable. Both factors combined hinted towards having to be cast by somepony possessing even more talent than Sparkle. Although Midnight suspected that her friend was trying to hide even more of herself than she knew. Usually, she didn't show that much power, hardly more than Midnight herself could use through her worthless body, but sometimes, she'd whip out some very strong spells, apparently without practicing them at all or allowing a single bead of sweat of effort to form. Still, this was too strong, even for her. If Midnight's readings were correct, very few would be capable of such magic. In fact, perhaps only the princesses herself.

But that thought was ridiculous. What business would an average pony like Sparkle have with the princess that would not only justify a meeting, but also being enchanted by her? Maybe it was part of some strange punishment. Midnight had heard rumors about a particularly maleducated nephew of Princess Celestia being turned into a small colt again. Or Midnight had simply messed up her detection spell and gotten false results. Given how she always screwed up everything she attempted, that sounded plausible to her. Midnight decided to abort her spell before she would possibly drop into another heavy depression. In order to avoid that, she executed a thought fed into her mind by Noon, even though it conflicted with her original plans.

"Hey, Sparks."

"Hmm?" She didn't even bother to look away from the quarrel that had drawn her attention for the last minutes.

"Ya know, we've been kinda close for some time now." Why was Midnight at a loss of proper words now, of all times?

"Bit over two months. Really not that long, was it?"

"Yeah, but that's long enough, especially since we've been friends almost from the beginning, right?"

Sparkle turned her head to look at her friend sitting on the bench next to her. "I suppose we have."

"I was just thinking that we should have no secrets between each other... erm, do you?"

"So, you're asking me... if I'm keeping anything from you?"

"Yeah, you could say that. Kinda silly of me to ask that, really. If you don't want to answer that, it's fine."

"You mean, aside from my endless love for you and only you?"

It took Midnight all of her limitless body discipline to avoid any reaction that would make the irony in Sparkle's answer visible while she thought of a fitting answer. Luckily, the filly next to her watched her with an always growing smile, then laughed and progressed the conversation herself.

"Gotcha good, didn't I? In all seriousness, I don't think there really is. You?"

It was a good thing Sparkle was such an honest pony. Otherwise, it'd be a problem that she was such a terrible liar. Knowing her best of all, Midnight could easily spot when she did lie. However, such a response obviously meant there was nothing she was comfortable admitting, so Midnight didn't press on. "Well, you kinda stole my response... heh, what can I say? Unrequited crush, heavy schizophrenia due to witnessing of traumatic event in childhood, attempted suicide... Nah, I've got nothing."

As if somepony was watching them, the bell rang just then, summoning all of the ponies back inside. It was kind of silly, Midnight realised. While the school also offered education for younger ponies, barely able to control their magic, those were in a different building. If any of her age group didn't come back for class in time, they wouldn't come if a bell reminded them either. Those weren't outside to run or play or all the things foals did. Midnight could hardly remember what she had been doing all the time at that age. There was a reason to it, too. Even though it meant repressing half her foalhood, at least she didn't go completely mad that way.

Those kind of ponies, around her age, about to finish school for good and get a job, they didn't go out for that. They went to quietly sit on one of the benches and catch a breath. They went to make stupid jokes and generally a lot of unnecessary noise with their friends. They went to make out with the pony they just happened to lock onto in a rush of hormones on a bench a bit out of sight. A bench just like the one Midnight was still sitting on.

"You coming?"

"Yeah yeah. I just... I kinda got lost thinking about those morons." Midnight waved a hoof at the lingering ponies. They were always the same.

"Don't look at them. If you don't like them, you'll never have to see them again after school. Heh, you can move to Ponyville with me. No, don't ever look at them. Look at me, into my eyes."

Midnight was sure she had seen a few sparkles in the filly's entrancing eyes. Slowly, without losing eye contact, she rose and moved towards the building.

Those she left behind began to jeer in the distance.

"Ignore them. They're not worthy."