Splitting aMid the Night

"Here we are!" Twilight cheerfully piped out and jumped off the wagon. While she was waiting for the way for her to be clear, Midnight couldn't help looking at the flying flank in fron of her, which made her notice she stall had no idea what cutie mark there was on it, something that was usually among the first things found out about somepony.

She focused her gaze and spotted a pink and white spark, surrounded by smaller white ones.

She'd have to ask her what that signified some time later. Right in that moment, all Midnight wanted was to set up the stage for the rest of her life. That meant finding her home and her workplace, then making sure she was comfortable in both. Everything else would have to wait for its time.

We... are patient.

Midnight took her things and followed the filly to the ground once she had made room. She was well aware of the fact that the age difference between them was not exactly in her favor, but she didn't care and continued to use names like Filly for her, though she never spoke those out loud, of course. Her official pet name 'Sparkle' was the only one she used openly.

She looked around as the pegasi took off towards Canterlot again. They were standing on an unfortified dirt road. Aroudn them were various houses lined up neatly. A little bit in the distance, Midnight could see a decotavie fountain with a few ponies lazily standing around and talking instead of doing their work. In their defense, it was Saturday after all, few would have to work.

Ponyville was just what Midnight needed. As long as ponies were more motivated to do their part when they had to, she felt like she could like Ponyville very much.

"What now?" Sparkle asked.

"I don't know what you have in mind, but I'll be setting up my room right now. Afterwards... we'll see."

"Well, where are you staying?"

Had she really just shown interest in Midnight? To the extent of literally going out of her way to make her happy? That was something Midnight could honestly call completely unknown to her.

"Erm, one two three Fake Street."

"I think I've seen that before. Yeah, it's just around the bend. Come on!" Sparkle called out before storming off with an energy mares of her age should have long lost since their foalhood. Midnight shrugged to nopony in particular and trotted after her.

Very soon, they reached a simple looking house that appeared to be somewhat bigger than the ones around it. Twilight quietly whistled at the sight of it.

"Niiice. How did you get such a big house?"

"It'd be big if it was mine. I'll have to share it with two others. 'T's part of some kinda program to help ponies with no close friends or relatives in the are catch a footing. Ponies like me, y'know?"

Through an open window on the second floor, a bit of music escaped the building. Simply hearing its repetitive bass made Midnight's head sting. Fortunately, it quickly ended as she knocked on the door.

A few seconds later, a white mare with light blue hair opened it.

"Hey there. Don't think I've met you before. In case ya didn't know, I'm Vinyl Scratch. Whaddya need?"

Midnight had heard of that one before. Apparently, she also went by the name of DJ PON-3 and was some kind of DJ whose eye color caused great arguments because she never showed her eyes in public. Midnight didn't understand that. Clearly, that unicorn in front of her had magenta ones.

"My name's Midnight and I..." She began, but was soon interrupted. Vinyl Scratch was clever. Somepony she'd never seen before was at the doorstep of her shared home which had a free room, carrying lots of stuff on her back. She just put two and two and two together.

"Wait, say no more. You're the new one, right? Awesome!"

"I suppose you could say that."

"Why didn'tcha just come in? You do have a key, right?"

"Where I come from, it is considered polite to announce your presence to future roommates."

"Whatever. Come in, don't stand there all day. Wait..." Vinyl turned towards Twilight, who was standing behind Midnight with a more than awkward look on her face. "Who are you?"

"Uh, I'm... a friend of hers and I think I have to go now bye!" Sparkle galloped out of this situation, off to somewhere she could be more comfortable.

"'Kay, see ya later, Twi'!" Vinyl Scratch called after her before giggling and turning to face Midnight again, who gave her a sceptical look she decided to ignore. "C'mon, let's get you set up."

Midnight had entered her new room with low expectations, given what she'd seen of Ponyville already. She was mildly surprised to see it looked almost exactly like her room back at her father's house.

There was the clock on the wall right above the simple bed, which was situated between the large window and a standard desk, which was opposed to a bookshelf that currently housed only two small plants, put up to the wall towards which the night stand had been pushed. Other than that, the room lacked any details. The cyan painted walls were blank.

Midnight walked across the room and inspected the window. Other than her original home, this one could also be opened fully, but had a railing right outside instead of the small balcony she was used to. The space between the railing and the frame was too small to easily climb out through, she noticed. Of course, Midnight never had any such intention in the first place.

"'T's not much, but we gotta use what we can get, right? Drop your things and we'll have a look at the rest of the house."

Midnight did as told and followed Vinyl back into the corridor. Before going out all the way, she briefly stopped and scribbled 'Midnight' on the sign on her door in her best hornwriting.

"Alright. Right here's my room. Visitors welcome if you knock beforehoof." Vinyl indicated towards the door across the corridor from Midnight's. Only now did Midnight spot the black note on her white flank. That horrid cacophony really was her special talent, then.

"I've heard that before."

"Ooh, you're that type of pony. I like you, 'Night. My music won't disturb ya, promise. All of the rooms are enchanted to be soundproof. I'll leave it to you to think of a reason." Vinyl gave a suggestive wink. "If you look over here... Octavia's not in right now, but I know you'll like 'er. She's more a the discreet an' quiet kinda pony... like you. Don't know what's wrong with her, really. Hehe, just kidding."

"Octavia as in THE Octavia? I'm from Canterlot, you know? I've heard of her, she has even played at the Grand Galloping Gala. What is she doing in a place like this? I mean, no offense, but this seems a bit under her standards."

Vinyl shrugged. "Don't ask me. Maybe she wants to stick with me. Although I think I've heard her whine once or twice or a thousand times a day about how cruel the life of a musician can be unless you have the luck to be discovered. True, really. But that's what those homes are there for. You just don't make enough money to be able to afford a house of your own right away, but you don't have to. By the way, what're you doing?"

"Uh, I'm good at medical care, I'll be joining Nurse Redheart at the clinic here."

"Great. Really, if ya think about it, with how quickly Ponyville's been growing, she really does need some help. Alright, let me explain downstairs to you."

First, Vinyl had gone into the first door on the right, coming from the stairs. It was identified as the kitchen when Midnight entered. It contained the standard kitchen equipment, such as a table with some chairs around it, cupboards on the ground and hung to the ceiling, a fridge, a stove, basically everything including the kitchen sink.

Vinyl was standing on her hindlegs bent over said sink, supporting herself by resting her forelegs on the surface. Midnight briefly looked out of the window behind the white mare's head before spotting the contraption below.

"Now this baby will wub the dishes microscopically clean. Believe me it will. Brings us to rule number one. Dishes that leave the kitchen are to be returned to the kitchen immediately after use and I mean IMMEDIATELY. Alright?"

The weak part of Midnight was a bit intimidated. She nodded, missing a better response.

"Good. Dishes are in here, pots'n'pans in here... rule number two. Shared supplies are bought in turns and their costs shared. Individual foods, of course, are paid by who wants to eat them and not touched by anypony else. Every second dinner is for all three of us, prepared by who knows it best, but also keeping some way of taking turns. Whoever rises first in the morning makes breakfast for all. The remaining meals are everypony for herself. Got all of that?"

"Yeah, sure." Midnight was slightly taken aback by how much of a control freak Vinyl had turned out to be.

"Perfect. Storage is over there. Now to the laundry room. Try to keep up, newb." She laughed at Midnight's displeased expression, thus explaining her somewhat unpleasantly provocative, but still likeable nature.

Midnight followed her out of the room and into the opposing one. Instead of tiled floor like in the kitchen or carpet like in the rest of the house, Midnight's hoover struck bare cement. The only objects in the room were a laundry basket in the corner, a few clothes lines strapped between the walls overhead and a washing machine to take care of all dirty clothing that may occur.

Vinyl tore Midnight out of her highly concentrated inspection. "Yeah, laundry room."

Midnight answered with a highly exaggerated gasp, holding her cheeks with her forehooves.

"That's not getting to me, just to tell ya. Laundry day is not like the Griffon Inquisition. Expect it and do your part. Next room!"

"I don't think I have to explain the purpose of this room to you. Clean up the mess you make!"

Midnight nodded, adding another line to her mental stone tablet of rules she'd find a way around for fun.

"And the last one. Not much to say 'bout this one either. It's the living room, what did you expect?"

She looked in through the open door, seeing brown walls surrounding a space with matchingly colored carpet and ceiling. There was a sofa for three in front of a standard television and another by a wooden table, on which a vase of flowers was situated, as well as two forelegchairs that also faced the same object.

After her introduction, Midnight retreated to her room to make it a usable home for whatever amount of time she'd be staying there.

Don't worry, I'm sure you'll move in with Filly soon enough. Just remember... we... are patient.

We... are patient. I'm ready to wait for that 'til Nightmare Moon freezes the world. And I will because there will be no approaching her. Live in isolation for a few years, acquire somepony usable, get knocked up two or three times, die without having done anything significant. Look, I've got it all planned out!

We... are patient. Don't forget to tell Redheart we have arrived.

Finding Ponyville's clinic and announcing herself to her future boss had been fun for Midnight, in the same way that banging one's head against the wall to enjoy the painless moments inbetween was fun.

Certainly, Nurse Redheart was a nice mare, but there simply was nothing at her workplace to draw her interest. Almost nopony had been present to be served at the time, which partially explained why the clinic was basically made of three rooms, one big one broken up into smaller units where all the beds were located, the inspection room and office behind that and then storage behind that one.

So Midnight ended her day without the feeling of having accomplished anything. That was a feeling that she had very rarely, though, so perhaps the day hadn't been as bad. She'd begin working on Monday morning, but had no idea how to spend her Sunday.

Been in that situation before...

Midnight looked around. The window was whispering to her to go for another try, but she knew it was too tight.

At long last, Midnight had given in to Noon's constant whispering. She had no idea of how exactly she had managed to get herself into such a situation, but now that she was in it, she was going to enjoy it.

Before her was the filly of her dreams, bound by five chains, one for each hoof and another connected to a collar to keep her head down. She was softly whimpering from Midnight's previous actions, for which the floor under her rump was quite the testimony.

Some ponies might say that Midnight had overdone the riding crop the second she'd drawn blood, but that only made licking her wounds more fun. Indeed it had been that, but now she had something better even in mind. From the stand next to her, she levitated over the biggest knife they'd been able to find.

She knew exactly what had to be done. Midnight positioned herself, found Filly's spine, and pushed down. The resulting volcano of liquid was nectar for her final moments as she threw the knife into the air above her head and let gravity take its course.