Splitting aMid the Night

Under chase, yet again. Midnight grew tired in body and mind. She had to have been running for hours now without ever leaving the dense forest. It had started with simple underwood snakes but scaled up as she went. She dashed out into a small clearing that seemed safe at first glance. Looking back as she caught a breath, the pythons did not follow her. Moments later, she spun around as she heard trees crashing down behind her, coming face to fang with an asp's head larger than she.

"Oh really. Twenty foot snakes weren't enough, how about two-hundred foot ones. What's next?" she murmured as it slid further into the clearing. While it could devour her with a single bite, it still tongued the air as though it was uncertain where she stood. Once it had found her, it reared backwards. Another head came into sight. "Of course it has two," she breathed. The asp's body was not long enough to encircle the whole clearing, but the bit it had left empty was covered by an impenetrable wall of trees. There was nowhere left to run, nopony to save her. "Bite already!" she shouted. "No idea how you manage to live with two heads, but it's hard to question facts."

She laid down and closed her eyes. Her end could not be far. She deserved it to be this way. However, the final bite refused to come. She looked back up just in time to see the asp cough and shatter into fragments from the heads down.

Seems I broke it.

Darkness, replaced with light bit by bit. Midnight's eyes opened against her will and the rest of her body followed. It screamed at her, saying that six hours of nightmares were not enough rest. It said that she still had time to catch some more. She ignored it, jumped off the bed, and sat in front of the mirror. It had once been a gift for her when she had been but a filly; Still her reflection failed to fill it even while standing. A brush floated by to order and form her pink mane.

She knew it was not supposed to be pink. She had needed an object for a new form of low-powered illusion spell and her own hair had been the most convenient at that time. Once the colour shift had been applied, she had seen no reason to break the spell. Now her mane and tail were almost magenta, far superior as she found. Her eyes ran into the mirror and across the room.

There was the desk accompanied by the semi-filled bookshelf. There was the window carved into the wall, leading to a small balcony outside. Then came her bed. To her right was the door, above which a simple clock hung on the deep blue walls. Seeing the Daring Do sheets draped onto her bed always made Midnight smile from the innocent infancy of at least something in her life. When the rest of her foalhood had been robbed from her, at least her sleep was covered in purity.

Better than to dream of Mother again. Those sheets were some of her last gifts to me. Why did I keep them of all things? I was not careful with the rest either, was I. Dead and buried, Midnight. Dead...

Midnight found the brush sliding back and forth on the same strand of hair. She did not want to weep, not again already. She resorted to what she had always found best to calm herself down; Reciting book passages.

Confronted with a Sandmare, stay calm and inspect the world around you. They will attempt to break your mind with everlasting nightmares, but are unable to create a perfect world. Somewhere, there is always at least one obvious flaw of logic. Chase it down, and their illusions will fall apart. Defense Against the Common Monsters of the World, chapter three, Mind Tricksters. Buried.

She was not used to dreaming, of her mother or of other things. Were her nightmares an indication of stress or something else coming, something bigger? Certainly not, she was overstating things. If necessary, she was stronger than ever before. Nothing could touch her with her weaknesses shed.

Buried. 'Confront your fears, for else they grow into nightmares. Cure your nightmares, for else they grow into phobias.' Keeping a Clear Mind for Dummies.

It did not help. Midnight was nervous about what was going on inside her. She fixated her eyes back in the mirror. Perhaps she should try a shorter mane style as she had always been told to. Then again, with how long it was, she always had a shelter from awkward moments.

Foolish thinking.

Deep inside, Midnight knew she despised mirrors. As much as they showed only the current truth, she saw only meat whenever she looked into one. Worthless meat incapable of bare standards, meat with no further hopes of ascension. She and mirrors lived in a symbiotic relationship. They did not show her the useless mortal being she was unless she accidentally looked at them and Midnight did not smash in every one she saw.

What is beyond, but Mother? Buried, Midnight. I'm not getting anywhere with this, might as well go downstairs.

Her body noticed that she was not going back to bed, so it made sure to let her feel its displeasure. By the time she slumped to the kitchen table, she was at least technically conscious. Her father was already there to welcome her into the day with breakfast as always.

"Good morning!" he greeted her, as always.

The blinds on the window were down. Midnight tried and failed to reach the string from her seat. A few seconds later, she remembered her gift of magic and raised the blinds. She blinked a few times at the sight of the outside world; The mess that it showed did not change. She sighed and rested her head on the table. Her father turned around and joined her, bringing along meaningless food.

"Something particular getting you down again?" he asked.

"Nope." She tried to straighten up and eat, but could not manage a stable form. "Nothing particular."

"Daylight?" He indulged himself in his coffee, but she knew he had seen her flinch at the name. "You could at least admit you still miss her. It would be the first step to take."

"Dead and buried. I have it under control. To what end, anyway? So that I can go back to crying myself to sleep as I did for months after?" She forced herself to eat when her sense of hunger returned.

He took her hoof into his own, making her almost choke on her food. "You still do. That is what worries me. I want to know my little Midnight remains safe as I promised to Daylight." He released her when she made the smallest attempt to escape his grasp. "You are more than any of the others, you know that."

"I will be safe." She turned her gaze back to the window. "If I manage it through the rain. Might be another day for teleporting to school."