Splitting aMid the Night

"Behold. Within it lies all you could ever want, waiting for you to withdraw it. Yet you hate the darkness. Why is it that you do?" Noon asked as Midnight found herself within her unformed imagination again.

"We do not hate darkness..."

"We fear what lurks within. Yes, I have heard of that before during my travels through the kingdom of hearts. A wise answer, yet empty. Though she is wisest who knows that she knows nothing. But I wonder... what does?" She dramatically thrust a hoof forward, pushing away the black like a storm was blowing it off. Two ponies came into view in a rather romantic position. One of them was another copy of the pony already present twice, the other still too concealed by shadows to make out anything about it. "On the other hoof, we don't have that kind of time."

Midnight wanted to press on, but before she could gallop over to the ponies, the darkness had already creeped back over them. "Well. Remind me, why can't I just dream normally?"

"Meh, electric sheep were getting boring. Since one fine day, you decided to interfere with my better judgement, there is now a hardly surpassable lobby, if you want to call it that way, before I can do anything. Unless you'd give me permission, of course. Or I'm just playing with you and you think you're conscious while every action you do is my own plan. Who knows? Well, what will it be today? Or tonight, rather."

"How should I know what is even on the offer?"

Noon facehoofed, "Filly, the point is that EVERYTHING IS. I will move fast, I will move slow, take me the way... I have to go." She stomped down with both forehooves, causing the imaginary reality around them to shatter and fall to pieces like a spherical mirror. Once everything had been consumed by the void of forgetting, Midnight found herself back in the multiverse hub space.

"Am I the only one thinking I'm spending my whole life on some kind of hub?" she asked nothing in particular as her clone had already vanished.

"Pick your fate," the nothingness replied.

"Meh, let's just go with the random button."

"Wha... you can't! There is no random button!" Noon was clearly surprised by Midnight's choice, no matter where she was hiding.

"There is because I want it!" Midnight insisted, finding a big red button right beside her hoof and pressing it. Everything around her whirled around until she was aligned to a certain star, towards which she then rapidly accelerated. She didn't feel like obeying the laws of physics however, and thus arrived there the second she wished for it.

"An interesting choice. Let me explain why by showing you the surface." Said and done, Noon brought them down until the ponies in Canterlot could be seen in detail. "Due to how reproduction works, which we know well, fortunately..."

"Skip ahead. I'd like not to explain it in detail here. Minors might hear us."

"Well, what if a certain somepony got a XY instead of double X?"

"What do you mean?"

An astral foreleg appeared and pointed down to a corner that a unicorn stallion had just rounded. His dark purple mane was blowing in the wind, complemented by his lavender coat. Several sparks were imbued on his firm, muscular flank. "Dusk Shine. Guess who it is."

"What an original name. But... ohmygosh, get me down there right now!" Midnight attempted to struggle her way down, but couldn't move a hoof's length.

"As original as your pet name for her. I'd have expected better of you."

"A mare has needs."

"Believe me, she can service them better. Speaking of her, what would she think if she knew that her filly fooling friend is fantasising about her as a stallion?"

"Little, because she knows nothing about my sexuality. Gimme gimme gimme!"

"Things appear to work differently here. I've spied ahead on the timeline, he'll become a true casanova charming everypony he meets without any kind of realism in their relationship. In a way, you're just his first."

"Yes, let me be his first. Gimmeeee!" The stallion was almost out of sight again. Midnight wanted to talk to him right then and there.

"Later on, he'll realise he's a colt cuddler and fall in love with Dark Demon King Ravenblood Nightblade. Also, forgot to mention, in this one, you don't exist. Shy murdered you as well to prevent witnesses."

"Little Fluttershy killing an innocent foal?"

"You're not innocent, you know that. Seems just as likely as murdering a loving mother."

"Bring me somewhere I can be together with him then!"

"I think I have something here." Midnight was pulled towards another star, another reality. "Hey, are those really separate realities or are there just tons of Equestrias in the universe? Ever thought about that? Well, here we are. A parallel dimension, but with minor alterations to the timeline, for instance, we're a month or something ahead."

Midnight was placed near the surface in Ponyville. She took a look around. "Dark... rainy... my, this universe is quite tragic."

A cloud took on the task of channeling Noon's voice and facial expressions, "The griffon plague has just transferred to ponykind and lil' Apple Bloom managed to get it. You have three days to finish a cure. You could also just enjoy your time with Sparkle until everything goes down and Equestria is wiped clear."

"Who the heck is Apple Bloom?"

"Nevermind. Looking at it like that, let's move on."

"Wait, you mentioned I'm with Twilight here? Can we stay?"

The stratocumulus rolled its eyes, "Gah. Wasn't I supposed to be the weak one?"

What do we have here... 'Annual wave of griffon plague inbound'. Good thing there's been a vaccine for that for ages, which... oh, Celestia, I'll have to dispense that among dozens of squirming foals. My job sucks. What else is there?

Midnight barely registered the movement that was going on at the table because that morning, she had found a newspaper at the doorstep, despite nopony having a subscription, and that paper turned out to be quite interesting. Also, it never hurt to practice telekinesis, as she was holding the newspaper at two separate points and levitating breakfast up to her mouth at the same time.

'Is she pregnant?! Princess M. A. Cadenza unavailable for comment'. Erm, no. I thought I was dealing with a serious publisher here. Who wants to read such balony?

Read it read it read it! I wanna know! Do it or I'll make you!

Oh yeah. There's that kind of audience. If you really want.

Midnight reluctantly let her eyes slide over the article. From what she accidentally read, it was just the kind of bottomless speculation she'd have expected in tabloids printed and published in the glorious rotten city of Canterlot.

Hey, I stayed three days... and nights... with you in that dream. Time to return the favor.

Bah, commoners babbling. Don't I have some kind of royalty in my line?

You have a queen's flank, that's for sure.

Ran right into that one. I guess that being from Canterlot already makes me more royal than whoever wrote this manure in printed form. What else... 'Study: Half-orphan medical unicorns show high tendency for schizophrenia'. Well, that's... oddly specific. 'New scientific results: Homosexuality definitely not caused by choice but genetics'. They needed to study that? Could've just asked me.

Knowledge brings with it the sting of disillusionment, but the pain will recede. Filly, remember thy appointment, for else you may not be able to fool the filly.

Do you really have to remind me of everything? I planned it, I can remember!

Midnight wrote a mental checklist for what she had to do that day.

First, pick up saddlebags with money in them. Second, repeat Fluttershy's treatment. Third, go to barbershop and get mane cut. Fourth, spend the day somehow. Fifth, have myself taken out for dinner by Shimmer.

Having done the first item on her list, Midnight went to work on the second. She could Blink to the clinic, but she was in no hurry, so there was no need to waste magical energy. She had high portions of it regenerating extremely fast within her, of course, but still, time was abundant, magic was not. Also, she wanted to enjoy the sun sometimes instead of always teleporting from house to house.

Before she realised it, Midnight arrived at her destination. She shook her mane from her face and entered, heading straight for Fluttershy's room, not even bothering to put on her work clothes.

"Hi there. How are you doing today? Kept your lunch?" she announced herself to Fluttershy, who looked distracted with twisting and turning her hooves while humming a quiet tune.

She looked up and gave Midnight a small smile that could only be created through honest kindness in one's heart. "Hello. I'm fine, thanks for asking. Good to see you, I mean, not that I ever doubted you'd show up, of course."

"I know you didn't," Midnight responded with a tone making her true feelings indiscernable to anypony except her. "Bend forward, if you would."

The pegasus obeyed her command without question or delay, allowing her to access the wound that had, through continual appliance of magic, already been reduced to a slightly seared, hairless spot. She then began to work on further healing it.

Fluttershy seemed to enjoy the restoring touch, as she closed her eyes with a soft sigh and melted down into her bed until her chest made contact with it. It became increasingly hard for Midnight to keep up her neutral business expression when confronted with the sight. Thus, she quickly finished the treatment to avoid having her stone heart molten or burst with cuteness. The product wasn't perfect, but it was the best she'd be able to do. She dismissed her signature spell and gave Fluttershy a gentle knock on the back, "There. It should be gone in a few days now. And, while it's ultimately the nurse's judgement, I think you should be good to go as planned. Then you can go back to... whatever it is you do, I guess. Tend to animals. Be incredibly cute. Murder ponies."

Fluttershy sat up straight in her bed and attempted to speak, but was interrupted by a tiny cough, followed by heavy breathing that did not sound voluntary.

"Oh, of course. Why did I even have to point it out," Midnight said as she retrieved the bucket another time. However, when she had it ready to catch whatever would come out of her patient, she had to realise that 'whatever' was just a small belch, less than a newborn foal's and far drier. Fluttershy laid back with an expression showing clear satisfaction at how well things had gone. Midnight was a bit disappointed because in secret, she wanted Fluttershy to suffer as much as she had, but she didn't show that while putting the object away again.

"Um, what I was trying to say is that I'm sorry for what had to happen. How can I make it up?"

"Revive her, remove my past. Failing that, hook me up with Sparkle. Heh, as if that'd ever happen. Actually, I'm going on a date tonight, you shouldn't tell her about that. Though it might - or probably - won't work out, then you might nudge things. I mean, no, don't rush everything, we all have read one of those romance stories before, there are tons of them. Also, don't follow the advice of wannabe royals when dating. Own experience. I mean, I'm not gonna object if you push her in the right direction a little, um..."

Fluttershy was clearly confused, trying to make sense of Midnight's speech. When she decided on one meaning, she apparently had trouble deciding on whether or not she wanted Midnight's date to work.

"It's okay. Just speak your mind," Midnight reassured her.

"Well, I hope you'll be happy and, um, I guess I'm always there if you need my help with... anything. You saved my life when revenge would have been both appropriate and possible. I think you'd just as easily deserve to be the bearer of the Element of Kindness. I won't forget that."

"If utopia is not a place, but a people, then we must choose carefully, for the world is about to change. And in our story, Canterlot was just the beginning."

The world is not ready for us, yet here we are.

You are my conscience, and I need you to guide me. You will always be with me, whispering on my shoulder. Wow, I'm getting really tacky.

Third item. Fluttershy was cared for and had given Midnight a recommendation for somepony who could get her mane into shape. Subsequently, she was on her way to Ponyville's single, but also best, barbershop.

Saddlebags, check. Murderer, check. Mane, in progress. Got that?

I'm getting slightly uncomfortable with the affection that I'm getting.

Strange. You should be sucking it up like a Changeling. Although, since you're the one who makes me have it in the first place...

"Hello there. What can we do for you?" Midnight was slightly startled by the unexpected voice from the right. She looked around, noticing that she had subconsciously entered the establishment already. There was little business going on at the moment. There were two ponies in sight who were obviously employees, one serving the only other pony in the salon and the other behind the counter, giving Midnight a smile of business.

"I'd like to buy a sofa, why else would I be here?" she sarcastically replied.

"Sure!"

Midnight stared at her vis-à-vis. In the corner of her vision, she could see the sign standing outside, saying 'Krabby Patties, sofas, and expensive haircuts'.

"What th... actually, I think it's obvious what I want. Do you also serve non-expensive haircuts?"

"Of course we do. Take a seat, if you would."