Splitting aMid the Night

The spontaneously organised sleepover with the filly certainly had been fun, to say the least. At last something good had happened to Midnight for a change, starting with her, upon bringing Sparkle to her home, finding out that her father had conveniently vanished, saving her a bit of explaining. Her face even showed a smile as she remembered the antics the two friends had done that night. Cleaning her bedroom afterwards had been a small challenge, but nothing they couldn't work out together.

All the things they had done together, all the things she had said ran through Midnight's head. As the shrine was quite filled, that took a while. She had the time. Her final final exam didn't take place until a few hours later. Looking at the plan pinned to her wall, she noticed that Sparkle's exam was not only simultaneously with hers, but also in the room next to Midnight's. What a strange coincidence. She thought, looking outwards at her balcony. It looked incredibly inviting, but this time, to sit instead of to jump. She decided to follow the silent invitation.

You understand little.

Yet wasn't it our desire to learn, to understand, what brought me this bit?

Noon manifested as an illusion before her eyes. She didn't even care to project herself into the world or perhaps she couldn't. Midnight would appreciate the second option. Using magic she did not possess, Noon flipped an imaginary coin repeatedly for a minute.

A bit that isn't worth its weight in gold. Nor in silver... nor in bronze... nor in wood. We are worthless. We... are patient.

Midnight extended a hoof for no real reason she could think of in that moment and noticed it shaking heavily.

Oh dear. Who would have guessed. I'm nervous hours before the oral exam that could make or break my educational career.

There was no reason for her to be so. This was the moment she had been training for for months. She was prepared and even if not, her written exams had gone well. Of course, telling that to herself had little use, and she couldn't directly tell her body. In a way, she could, but the chances of it listening to that were not very promising. She had to do something about that nervousness, whatever the action performed may be.

Midnight began what lay ahead of her by gently massaging her temples with one hoof, then moving downwards. She had a lot of tension to remove. So far, even though she was losing a bit of time, all was going well. At that rate, the exam couldn't possibly have any troubles for her. Now she just had to take it slow and easy, even though she obviously should try to avoid unnecessarily using up time. She had done this many times before. There was nothing unknown about her current sensations.

A few seeds of doubt manifested in her mind, but she didn't allow those to bloom. She had only herself to be focused on in that moment. There was no room for anything inside her. No room for sadness, doubt, hesitation, love... she let happiness stay. Perhaps a hoof would fit, too. Then the likelihood of her messing up and saying something wrong would be far smaller, at the very least. Anypony in the room with her would have noticed moisture rising, as well as a slightly spicy smell slowly, but steadily, increasing in strength. Fortunately, there was nopony near her. At least she didn't register them right then.

The thought of being watched crossed her mind. Without penetrating fully, said thought tickled at her insides. Not everypony liked an audience, but she had to admit that she wanted them, whoever or wherever they might be in that moment, to look at her. Her mind drifted further away from reality. She could afford to take a little pleasure in what she was doing, after all. Certainly, nopony would catch her doing something wrong. No, she was completely safe. In that moment, she only had to focus on herself. But there was something else she was noticing more and more.

With each of her rhythmic movements, as overdone as they were, as she could do the job with magic standing perfectly still, she came closer to the Flow. The very fabric of the world, of all of the skies, as well as the earth beneath her hooves and herself, bent down to Midnight. She had called and it answered. She could feel its energy flow past and through her, as it always had, when she had been too blind to see, too numb to feel.

It was only a small notion, but she was also beginning to see the blurred colors before her eyes, even though they were hidden behind her closed eyelids. She bathed in the soft blue that usually illuminated Pegasus Eye. She could clearly see her surroundings through the darkness those certain parts of her body made her see. It was beautiful. Now she understood what her teacher had meant when he had described powerful unicorns using magic to see their environment.

Midnight felt connected. Midnight was connected. The same atoms, the same clusters of energy that her body was made of, those also made up everything she could see and more. They made the sun and stars, the vast seas. They made up Canterlot, as well as the mountain it was built on. The same particles of matter as herself also made up the body of Sparkle. She knew they were connected. Biologically. Chemically. Atomically. They were one.

Momentarily, for the hundredth part of a second, Midnight's concentration was disrupted. The Magic Flow drifted away from her. She knew it was still around and inside her, but she wanted it to stay. In a rush, she overdid her spell's strength. A sudden flash of pain forced her to rely on her puny biological eyes again, although it quickly faded and brought Midnight back to where she had been before.

The damage had been done, though. Midnight could feel a trickle of blood running out of her. Surely, Sparkle wouldn't like her doing that to herself, although the filly had a talent to lead Midnight into smaller injuries she would usually have avoided. This was a kind of injury she had managed to get around up until that day. It'd only have been fitting to let Sparkle break it in, so to speak.

Her wound sent positive feedback waves to her brain, allowing her to channel an unknown amount of magic for her pleasure and benefit. Unknown to her, of course. Sparkle was probably using this kind of magic every day. Sparkle. She'd been close to doing a true climax before, but the thought of Filly was what caused it to happen in the end. She lost direct control over her body. Midnight managed to stay where she was, even though her legs twitched from what she was doing. Suddenly, a gigantic wave of liquid spilled forth from her, soaking her hooves and the ground. Midnight felt like a bad filly for thinking of Sparkle in such a moment. It could be dangerous. What if her spell had turned and burned her from the inside out?

Midnight opened her eyes. It felt like a whole new morning to her. She critically inspected a hoof which she lifted out of the puddle beneath her as it added a red cloud to the water. Flooding was bad. She'd been in this kind of room before. In fact, if she recalled correctly, it was the one she had taken her entry exam in. The ramp was made of simple wood and thus weak to moisture. It was the hurt one. Her magic had leashed out and cut through some of her skin beneath the hoof. With a quick mending spell, she closed up the tiny wound there was in it. From above, she could hear some quiet talking. After a few more sentences, one of her examiners spoke down to her.

"Highly impressive. None of us would have expected you to do something like that... no offense."

"Oh, please, it's just some simple mending, that's over super quick if the wound's as tiny as that. Um... oh. Yeah, the puddle thing. I can fix that."

"Not everypony could heal like that. Even if it is your special talent. But to the point... you were tasked to get some fluid into that cup, not flood half the room. Where did you even get all of that water? You're supposed to collect room moisture or something."

"Um, well, I could... I don't know. It just flowed over to me, free of obstacles, even though the wall was supposed to be in the way."

"You mean to say, you collected water from outside and brought it in here? But if it's just moisture, you'd have to... did you just slip into the Magic Flow?"

"I suppose I did?"

"Even more impressive. We'll call the janitor to clean up, then we'll continue, yes?"

"Uh, don't bother, I can do this. Just..."

Midnight deeply exhaled. The water she was still standing in began to shimmer with the deep blue her magic created. Slowly, but steadily, it began to rise from the floor, moving around the room freely, forming waves and turbulences as if it was on top of an ocean. Midnight was deep in concentration again.

After gathering itself, the wave made its way towards the closed window, which it effortlessly flowed through as if it were pure air, and dispersed, dropping off of the mountain.

"At the end of their exam, each student may perform a spell they deem special with which to impress the examiners. You kind of already did that with the Flow, but you shall still have your opportunity. Do you have anything?"

Do I?

Certainly do, missy. Just trust me and let your magic flow through you and out through the horn, I'll shape it.

Midnight decided to act against her instincts and allow Noon to cast that spell for her. It was only about bonus points at that point, anyway. She focused and engaged her magic. After a few seconds, her demon took over and weaved it into a very special spell. A few paces from Midnight, a spectral pony appeared and quickly took form. It was a unicorn mare, but no regular one. She was lying on her side with a tired expression on her face. After one second of that shape, several gashes appeared on every piece of skin that was visible. From them, red fluid without any weight flowed down, forming a dry puddle on the ground.

After another second, the mare was joined by another illusion, a young filly. Tears streamed down from her face like the blood out of her mother. Despite her young age, there were already two pills adorning her flank. Midnight ended the spell. That had been enough already. Looking up at her examiners, she could confirm that it certainly had. With a bit of concentration, she could hear them whisper.

"Projection into life-sized holograms? Did they even study that?"

"Nope. That's Midnight." He raised his voice again. "Alright. Well done. We were informed of those events in your past, yes. If I may ask, why is it you chose to reanimate them?"

"If I can't reanimate Daylight, at least I'll do that to her memory. Heh, no, no. I really don't know. I suppose it kind of just came to me."

"Well. We're actually ahead of time here. One of us three is married - take a guess."

"Hm, let's see... Most ponies would guess you." Midnight pointed a hoof at the left examiner... "Because you look like the best person of the group. Those smart enough to do their magic first would guess you..." The middle one. "Because metal detection show you wearing a ring behind your back. However..." The right one was to be pointed at. "I think you are the most rational choice, judging by the thoughts of happiness and your wife you emanate."

"In fact, that is correct. I see logic is no obstacle for you either. You may leave." In a whisper, he spoke to the other two. "Bonus points for weak telepathy."

From the door, Midnight called back into the room one last time. "And make sure to remind Caren that she is looking great today. At least, that's what you think, right?"