Splitting aMid the Night

Midnight finally managed to wake up from her nightmare. She hadn't been having dreams of that kind for some time. The fact that they had suddenly reappeared made her a bit nervous.

She blinked to focus her vision. For one blissful moment, Midnight thought she was still back at Canterlot. Only a second later, she remembered what had happened before and that she was glad to have left the castle. Unfortunately, she was still only a young mare alone in a new town and had to admit she was missing what remained of her family.

The Sun brightened up a stripe of blue on the walls. Fortunately, it didn't reach Midnight. She felt too hot to begin with.

The light welcomes you. Come closer and bask in its warm glory.

But the closer you approach the light, the bigger your shadow becomes. Do not chase it, for else you will be burned and left with nothing but your true shadow.

You are nothing but the shadow you produce.

There is no place in the light for either of us. It would only turn on me for ignoring its benevolence. Or on you for trying to abuse its powers.

The light is forgiving.

But not forgetting. Your actions were unforgivable and the vessel also has to suffer for its inner demon's sins. There is no place in the light for either of us, but we don't belong into darkness either. We belong into twilight.

Into Twilight we belong indeed. Sparkle, little robot. It is time.

Just why do I even have to rise...

Because we want it. Where was it you read that interesting article? 'Horny - The principle of magical reproduction researched'?

Midnight grasped the wordplay Noon had done. She blushed furiously. Luckily, there was nopony else anywhere near to see her. Even if there was, she had only had her thoughts successfully invaded by one pony, so she was safe.

Liked it when that filly invaded you, didn't you?

Grumbling, Midnight rose to her hooves. The morning air was cooler on her than usual, even though it should technically be warmer now that she was off the mountain and all that. She looked back and found the cause or at least another consequence of the same cause.

Her bed was positively moist with what liquid had come out of her during the night. In some places, it was even fairly wet. In addition, the sheets were a bit sparkly.

It appeared that she had finally managed to wash out most of the illusion magic in her mane with her sweat. Midnight took out a small mirror she'd brought from her home and confirmed her suspicion. The pink was now reduced to just a strip, taking up maybe a tenth of her long, flowing mane.

As she inspected the rest of her while she was at it, Midnight discovered that, fortunately, her tail had undergone the same changes.

Didn't know my flanks were that sweaty...

Should've seen yourself go. I've never witnessed any filly get as wet down there as you.

How unfortunate we did not. Perhaps soon, when... we... are patient.

Speaking of her, wouldn't it be great to have her show us Ponyville today? You don't really have any other friends here, do you? How sad.

Hum. I don't even know where she lives, I just noticed. Maybe Vinyl does.

Thus, Midnight went out of her room to start the day properly.

Oddly, she couldn't find either of her roommates anywhere within the house. After checking all of the rooms on the first floor, she went back up to search the rest in detail. She found neither hair nor hide there, though.

The door leading to Octavia's chamber was open, revealing to Midnight a room with brown walls, a simple bed in addition to the few sitting pillows spread randomly on the ground, a cello in the corner next to a music stand and a bookshelf, containing a few music books and an assortment of other novels. As much as there was in it, the room certainly did not contain a pony.

Moving on, Midnight came to the last door she hadn't checked yet. Due to the enchanted walls, she couldn't hear a single sound coming from inside. She was about to knock when she saw the bar locking the door and combined that there were better places for an innocent filly such as herself to be in that moment.

The kitchen, for example, where she could prepare breakfast for when they were done.

Midnight didn't have to wait long. A mere two minutes after she had found and prepared everything, then sat down with some tea and a bowl of cereal, the house's two other inhabitants arrived.

"Glad you've finally come, Octavinyl."

"Could say the same thing. 'Bout you," Vinyl replied.

"Aye. I was getting tired about doing it myself. I believe our relationship could prosper well. Until you move out, of course."

"'Tavia wants to say 'Thanks for making breakfast'."

"Tsk. Commoner speech," Octavia complained before all three of them burst into laughter.

After everything was eaten and cleaned up, Midnight approached Vinyl Scratch before she could escape from the kitchen. Octavia had already excused herself to tend to personal needs in a room further down the hall.

"Hey, um, you know Twilight, right?"

"Lil' adorkable Twilight Sparkle? Sure thing, babe. Why? Let me guess... you've got a crush on her."

"Uhh..." Was all that Midnight managed to mumble. She was terrible at improvising when confronted with situations she hadn't been able to prepare for.

"Thanks for telling me. They always fall to that trick. Don't worry, I'll leave her to you. I'm already taken, anyway."

"I've noticed." It was Vinyl's turn to feel awkward. Her white coat was partially disrupted by spots of pink. She audbily cleared her throat and motioned for Midnight to continue with whatever she had had in mind.

"We became good friends while she was staying at Canterlot - stop snickering, she doesn't know 'bout it - and I'm afraid I forgot to ask her where she lives."

"Really? Why, just head to the center and go a bit past. Giant tree library. Can't miss it."

This had to be the right adress. At the very least, Midnight couldn't see any other habitable plants nearby. Only Sparkle would take the term 'tree house' that literally, anyway. While she had seen quite some variation in Ponyville's architecture already, in the end, it all came down to the same shape and form. All but this tree.

It kind of reminded her of her old home in the castle, oh so far away now. Judging by the windows, it had three floors. On the second one's height, a small balcony was attached at the side, accessible through a big window.

Other than that, few features were visible from the outside. Afterall, it was just a hollow tree. Midnight decided to stop staring at it and finally knock. A small purple and green creature opened the door.

She had seen its kind before. Twice, to be exact. One time, she had seen a picture in some foals' book about the creatures that walked Equestria. The other had been at school, when she had transformed a certain blood-stained plushie into what that picture had looked like. And now a live one stood before her.

"Mh, hello? What can I do for you?"

It was afraid, Midnight could sense it. Which was interesting, considering the small one lived in a public library, where he should have lost any fear of unknown ponies long ago. Midnight assumed it was a male. She wasn't exactly an expert on dragon anatomy and she had no purpose to confirm or bust her suspicion. She just went for the direct route to her target.

"Hi. I was told that S- Twilight lives here, is that correct?"

"Sure. Let me get her for ya." He left the door open and went deeper inside, calling for the pony inhabitant of the library, who quickly came down the stairs, spotted who was waiting for her and ran past, if not over, him in order to reach Midnight as fast as possible.

The display of slight violence was shocking, but also felt kind of satisfying. Midnight had no time to inquire about that sadistic streak of hers as her crush stood before her, beaming and waiting for her to say what was on her mind. Unfortunately, those cute little ears would never hear the truth about what was going through Midnight's head.

"Uh, hey, Sparkle, I..." Midnight couldn't continue talking because in that moment, the lavender mass before her lunged forward and threw two of its extremities around her neck.

"Oh, I'm so glad you're here. I was worried you wouldn't find me, but going to your house while you were setting up seemed rude and..." Once again, the filly demonstrated her talent for overthinking things.

"Whoa whoa whoa. Do you greet everypony like that?" Midnight tried to calm her down.

"You're not everypony. You're special."

There were ninety-nine things that Midnight could say in that situation and twice as many that she wanted to say, showing Twilight the irony in her words, finally revealing to her the truth, beginning a romantic relationship. But she couldn't. Still, a bit of overreacting, like Sparkle was showing cartloads of, couldn't hurt.

"I love you," Midnight gently whispered in her ear. She was careful to pronounce it in such a way that it would be picked up as an exaggeration between friends, despite its true meaning.

Without any more words, they separated, and it felt to Midnight like she had just torn out a few of her vital organs as Sparkle's presence left her, her warm coat against her own, her essence in the Flow merging with Midnight's, only to separate and repeat the procedure twice per second. It seemed like that filly was just as volatile as the Magic Flow itself. Which made sense when Midnight considered that any living being was just the Flow incarnating into itself.

She tore herself out of her existential philosophy to focus on matters at hoof. Twilight had invited her to come inside and was now waiting for her to follow.

The library's insides looked very comfortable, although a bit too much like a home and too little like a library, if Midnight had to complain about something. The wooden floor and walls created a cozy atmosphere. The range of books was mostly organised in many shelves carved into the walls, but a few had found their way to one of the reading stands, the round table in the middle with a modest statue on top of it, or even just the floor.

"Why exactly did you just storm off yesterday?"

Sparkle giggled. With every single noise that came out of her throat, Midnight's heart lifted higher and higher. "I... I'm sorry, I just kind of panicked. I didn't mean to leave you behind like that. Can you forgive me?" She asked with a wink.

"Sure thing, sugar."

"Oh, stop it, you. So, what are your plans now that you're obviously set up and all that?"

"Well, I don't know, I was hoping you could tell me."

"Oh yeah, you've just moved here, I almost forgot. I suppose I could show you around, I haven't had a chance to meet all of my friends again yet myself... although, if you count that meeting two days ago when you spotted us..."

"That sounds lovely."

"Sheesh, get a room, you two."

Sparkle glared daggers at the baby dragon that had just exclaimed that sentence. He growled and went back to picking up books. Midnight just laughed it off, a laugh that was not entirely her own.

I'm starting to like the little guy.

"... as I was saying. Where did you get such an exotic pet?"

"Silly you, Spike's not a pet, he's my number one assistant! Most of the time, at least. I'll always remember how I've hatched him. Did you see that? Went right through the roof."

"Sparkle, as far as I know, that was at a time when my mother was still alive. Do you really expect me to remember that?"

"Sorry, I just figured..."

"It's okay. Just... who is that?"

Midnight pointed towards one of the windows, where a pink Earth Pony mare with a puffed mane was slowly lowering her head out of sight.

"Yep, now you're gonna get a party. Congratulations."