Splitting aMid the Night

Prepare the Doctor's meal, fetch medication for that pony I don't even know, look if I have to lock Ruby's door... being Midnight, serious business now.

Don't forget the pear.

Doesn't my mind have a nonsense filter or something?

This isn't nonsense. This is nonsense. Bl-

Ah, silence. So it does. Wonderful.

Bloody walked right into that one. Don't you have something better to do?

The lock clicked into place as Midnight left it behind her.

Never said that I couldn't simultaneously work and have a surprisingly metaphysical argument.

More accurately, you couldn't work without me. By Celestia's plot, two blue ones, half a red one! Do you want to see your patients dead? Well, obviously, but are you trying to get it done yourself?

Silly, you know that nurses use high-dosed potassium for that. I'm fairly certain one of those is a placebo anyway. Yup.

You can do magic and nevertheless give out sugar without telling the patient. Explain that one to me.

It's the magic of curing using the most powerful entity known to ponykind. At least until they realise what's around us, what we are all made of.

You are destined for greatness, filly. One day, they will look up to your work, for it will be what helped our kind ascend. Patience, robot, patience.

With what I have, I'm fine, or so I say.

Excuse me a moment.

She's actually gone? Now what is she up to again? Anyway, business.

"Good afternoon Mister Awesome. Just bringing in the usual," she said while entering her first patient's domain.

"Of course. You can leave it on the table, I'm not feeling particularly hungry right now," he responded lying lazily in bed.

Hm. Lack of appetite, lazy behavior..

After setting the food down, Midnight followed a hint of her intuition and began to test his pupil reaction, just in case. He struggled and squirmed away from the light, "Eek! I'm freakin' blind! Where's my smoke bomb? Stop that!"

She unbound her magic, letting it spread out into the inbetween and nullify, "Sorry, I just figured I should make sure, even though, on second thought, that's not really a fitting test for worsening Animus abuse, is it?"

As she stepped away, he blinked and inspected himself rather than trusting such a task to her, "It's all right, anything else?"

"No, I don't think there is. I'll be off then... sorry," Midnight said before turning around and going directly through the door. Back in the center room, she found herself approaching from the office.

"Can't leave you alone for five bloody seconds, can I? Sigh, anyhow, would you kindly come to the back garden with me? I've got something to show and I'd prefer if ponies wouldn't accidentally find out exactly how nuts you really are. Oh, that, don't worry, the patients are gonna be fine until you come back."

"Just when am I going to get rid of you," Midnight mumbled as they both set to walk outside.

"The day you figure out that it might be worth the effort of a Blink if it means that you can simply teleport through a wall instead of having to walk around the entire clinic."

"Magic isn't a solution for everything, you know."

"Says she." Noon opened the gate, letting both of them in. It somehow warmed Midnight's heart to see such a little glade that persevered even in what a cold and seemingly dead world was outside of the building. "In case you need to know, the line touches down here, but that's only slightly on the point. Though it's interesting how it interacts with plants. Perhaps that is how she manages to grow all of those odd things up to that one, the whatsitcalled Crown. Try not to get touched by anything, though."

"So why am I here?" Midnight asked, looking up from a lotus petal that had drawn her attention for the moment.

"I've gone and explored a few universes, and check this out, they all share one common factor. You, or an equivalent, exist in every single one of them, and have made history everywhere, one way or another. The Flow is everchanging, but there are a few constants. For instance, all of you there are have found that there are more of themselves than just the ones in their universe. Even one generation in your legacy, they already remember your philosophy, the way you explained to them the true face of the world around them, how you showed them utopia, and how you claimed your destiny within it."

"How? What destiny? If I tried to tell them even a shard of what I've seen, they'd finally lock me up for good."

Noon led her forward to a particularly big flower, bigger than her hoof even while it was firmly closed. With a wave of her hoof and a flash of magic, it opened and pulled its complex inside structure apart into plain sight, showing that it was actually three blooms all folded into each other. "Petals within petals within petals, tadpole. The truth is hidden behind various layers of illusion and it is up to those with unerring vision to guide the others on our way into perfection."

"But what if I no longer strive for perfection, a life without your influence, but just simple happiness?"

The flower shattered and its petals fell to the ground without the magic to support them. Keeping her face turned away, Noon spoke with a normal voice, "You are given the world and refuse it. Do I have to force you to taste true power, that of altering reality? That of taking your fate when you seem it fit rather than when destiny commands? You could long since have found a mutual agreement on love, a marriage, your truest desire."

Suddenly, Midnight's body started to swell. Unable to bear the sudden weight, she collapsed to the ground, rolling onto her back to give her stomach room to painfully expand. Strangely, even though she had doubled her girth by now, she didn't feel bad about it at all, rather content in some way.

"Yet all you've got inside of you right now are butterflies."

Midnight's brief scream of pain went unheard as her stomach burst open and released a swarm of all colors and shapes. Others might have panicked at the sight of their own beating heart and tried to escape their fate, but she simply laid there, mind numbed by imaginary suffering, glad to have met her end through the creation of such beauty. After basking in the sensations for a little longer, though it seemed to her like an eternity, she was torn from her haze by a fairly gentle kick into her side. Finding herself mended back together and no more heavier than usual, she rose back to her hooves, trying to dust off the soft soil from her back even though it was somewhat pointless using only the spells she could be bothered to remember from her time in Canterlot.

A butterfly landed on Noon's outstretched hoof, "Petals within petals..." it burst into a small cloud of tiny butterflies, "within petals. Yet the world is unable to handle the truth," she said as every one of the insects turned gray and fell to the ground faster than they were physically able to, shattering into dust upon impact. "Created only as an illusion, a momentary figment of clarity, unable to sustain itself any longer. Birth by sleep. Just thought I'd give you something to think about. Now back to where you belong, at least judging by your time spent there."

A moment later, Midnight found herself slumped over her desk, a position she woke up in much too often for her liking.

Refueled with a sense of duty, she rose to take care of the subjects within her personal empire. Sadly, she was disappointed to find that none of them needed to be saved from an emergency or even cared for. Overall, she achieved little for the remaining afternoon except for telling Ruby Pinch more very well-selected stories from her own foalhood. She stepped out into the cool evening air with neutral feelings. The snowfall had finally stopped so that walking was a viable strategy, which was good since she had no idea where she'd have to teleport to for her day job, but that also took away much of its romantic emotion. Now, it was just icy silence with the thick snow strangling all that laid under it and neither sun nor moon anywhere in sight to melt it away and free Equestria's life power.

Just when did I become a hippie?

About the time of your mark. For your interest, the location is left-straight-right-right-left-right-left-straight-right. Keep that in mind, I'll take a break.

What in the name of... how am I supposed to remember that?

Sigh. Fine, princess, now you do. Now excuse me, I think I see a petty mind not far from here. She'll be fun.

Midnight had a feeling that maybe she should be concerned, but then remembered how little she cared for ponykind and instead enjoyed the few minutes of silence, alone with her very own thoughts plus the directions that kept echoing through her head. Nopony else was anywhere in sight despite it being clear all the way to Canterlot, a few lit windows serving as the only evidence she hadn't shifted into Phyrexia again. Once she reached the small plaza on which the library tree grew, she paused for a moment. The building was dark except for the top layer of windows.

Probably by herself, reading into the night again. Prolly trying to memorise her newest book. I could just burst in there and tell her what I've meant to say for months. No, can't. I'm too... patient. You gotta ask your desired out, or else they realise too early that they see nothing in you. We... are patient

Thus, she went on past and towards her destination, unaware of the lone thought drifting by from the library which carried her name. A few minutes of freezing her ears off due to being unable to hide them in her unusually short mane, Midnight arrived at a conspicously normal house. She knocked and, after a short waiting time, the house's stallion opened the door and bid her inside.

It's no bakery, no barn, no tree... hell, it doesn't even contain two secretly filly fooling musicians. This house is boring.

"So, we'll be back at ten. Dinner's in the fridge, make sure she doesn't stay up too late. Oh, yeah, another thing. If you can't find her, stay calm and watch the exits. She'll turn up eventually. That's about it." He turned his head away from Midnight and towards the stairs, calling, "Mirage! She's here, come down please."

A pale blue unicorn filly slowly came trotting down the stairs. "Hi," she mumbled absent-mindedly, half of her face hidden behind her dull silver mane the same way Midnight loved to wear hers. On her flank there was inscribed a unicorn head with a fading nebula coming from it, which was clearly inferior to Midnight's own mark in terms of readability. All she knew, the filly could be talented at hairstyling ponies with spectral hair. Upon longer inspection, it seemed like her borders were not as clearly defined as they should be, blurring and shimmering out of sight, though that was likely on Midnight's side. She could not be very old, having gotten her cutie mark perhaps a year ago at best.

In short, she would provide Midnight plenty of money without much hassle if she did it right. Thus, she picked up the opportunity and greeted her,

"Hey there squirt," slightly louder than necessary in order to show seeming confidence to Emnas while secretly establishing a friendly, yet dominant, relationship with Mirage.

Young. Pure. Innocent. She'll be fun.

Back already?

Alas, she was boring. I just needed to bring up somepony's mom to make her crack. You're much more entertaining, mother.

Speaking of which, how the heck do I even foalsit? Dad only declared me out of foalsitting age three years ago!

Basically, keep the lillun busy with inspiring activities, make sure she does her homework, bathes, and goes to bed, keep the entire house tidy as you received it, make her a wonderful dinner... you know, or just do it your way and spend the evening faffing about while leaving her in front of the television.

Wonderful. This'll be fun.

Just then, Emnas' wife glid down the stairs with surprising grace. He nodded and said, "Well then. I'm sure you can handle this, we'll be off then."

Just what did I get myself into.

Come on, have some fun, would you kindly?

The first hour of foalsitting had passed surprisingly quickly for Midnight. After briefly exploring it, she had found that this house was a near copy of the one she lived in, down to details like the magical soundproofing of the bedroom walls. With a bit of effort, she could slump back on the couch and pretend she wasn't trying to enjoy a foal's company. At least, until Mirage spoke up again, asking for help with her homework. "Sure. Let's see what you've got here," she said, lying down next to her. "Hmmhmmhmm, let there be a function F of X which passes the point of origin and whose derivative divided by the original function forms a new function G whose difference between values increases linearly. Well, that means that the derivative needs to be greater than the function itself. So it's gotta be what?"

Oi, you cheated on that one. I saw it! Tsk, medics, learning everything by heart.

"E to the power of something X. Then cut the E and derive that, so it'll have to be X squared or greater. So, maybe it's E to the power of X cubed, that'd give three X squared as the leftover, which grows with six times X."

How old is she supposed to be again? I know adult ponies who wouldn't grasp this, like... how big was my class again? Twenty, excluding me and Sparkle? And I thought Canterlot was supposed to build an elite. Well, with education like that, I know I will be paying my taxes to the big city. Hum, I'll actually have to pay this time around. Having a job sucks. I wonder if I might still be able to get Dad to pay for me. Or maybe I'll sneak them into Sparkle's...

"Uh, yeah, exactly. Is that the last one?"

Mirage raffled through the sheets of paper spread out before her, "Yes, that's it."

"Great." Midnight bundled everything together using magic and put them into the filly's saddlebags, "It's getting kinda late, are you hungry?"

"Yeah, kinda," Mirage said with a look on her face that betrayed exactly how she was feeling.

Midnight helped her up and started walking towards the kitchen with the filly in tow, "Well then let's change that."

As it turned out, Mirage's parents hadn't prepared dinner to warm up as much as they had left some grated potatoes together with a note telling her to escallop them with cheese. She wasn't too inexperienced with cooking of course, but time always seemed to run much too fast when she tried to prepare something that could easily burn.

Whose idea was it to entrust me with cooking?

Fwuffy wabbit to the rescue! Just trust me, rodents know how to cook, let me handle it.

Which is exactly what I would like not to do, but as things look, I'll have to.

Ah, let's see. Ingredients, prepared. Equipment, functional. Magic, subnormal. Everything's ready then. Distract the foal, would you kindly?

How the heck am I supposed to do that?

What kept you busy as a weenie?

I myself, mostly. I doubt she'd want to do the same.

Here, I'll guide your lips.

"Did you already take your bath for today?" Midnight asked the filly who had sat down at the table.

You evil. Why did I ever want to get rid of you?

"Um... yes?" came back from behind while she was supposedly fully focused on the frying potatoes.

Huh. That's a new one. It's not plausible that perhaps she's telling the truth, right?

You know my method for seeing stuff behind you. Do you really want that?

On the other side, that information can also wait a bit. Are the foods done yet?

No.

How about now?

No.

And now?

Jeez, you behave like the little filly as which I found you. Would you kindly act like whom you are? As it'd happen - and you most likely intended - it is.

"Done," Midnight said, swinging around to put the pan onto the table. Unfortunately, in her quick, powerful motion, she hadn't heard that Mirage had moved to stand beside her and thus directly in the hot metal's way. Once she spotted the filly, it took only a second split twice for her reactions to kick in and swerve it away, but the sounds that resulted after she awoke from instinctual haze made her fear it hadn't been quick enough. She looked around frantically apologising and ensuring that everything was alright, but Mirage had simply vanished. Panic began to creep into Midnight's mind as she fruitlessly searched every room of the little house once and again.

Dammit, where is that pony?

Calm down, robot. She is not gone, and what exists can be seen if you know how to look. Embrace your gifts.

What? Oh, the Eye. Well, let's see...

Where she stood, Midnight looked through the house and luckily managed to spot a cowering figure up in Mirage's room, covered up by an incredibly powerful concealment spell.

Such power... is this Night's Embrace? I thought only ponies like... the princesses could pull stuff like that. Anyway, gotcha, wee scaredypants. Whatever that's even supposed to mean.

Taking care to look unaware in order not to alert Mirage to her plans, Midnight snuck upwards into her room, steathily approached her position, then tackled her, held her down, and forced her into visibility through a quick counterspell. Now that she could inspect her somewhat clearly, Midnight was heavily relieved at the sight she got. Mirage's face had been slightly singed, but the actual damage to her skin was no more than a few burn marks on her cheeks. Of course, that didn't stop her from crying, screaming, and struggling as if for her life. "Kid, calm down. You do realise that I can literally just heal that? Don't make a big deal out of it."

Ugh, crying foals. Isn't this supposed to be sad or something?

There had to be something about Midnight's voice or appearance that made her unnaturally soothing to youngsters. She couldn't explain what, though. Between her almost immaturely soft voice, supposed devotion to helping others, and looking like a - well groomed - walking candy box, she couldn't find anything that'd make her especially appealing in any way. Nevertheless, Mirage's tears stopped, though she kept sniffling and occasionally trying to escape Midnight's grasp. Between her attempts at melting down the mare's heart, she managed to mutter, "Huh?"

"We really don't know each other, do we. See, I can help with that. Just a bit of magic and it'll be gone, I promise," Midnight reassured her, sounding as much like Nurse Redheart as she could. Mirage just quietly watched as Midnight summoned up her usual orb of energy, then slowly approached the burns with it and healed them out as gently as possible, never taking her eyes off of the floating magic ball, visibly curious and fascinated of it. After some time of doing her best in aetherical medicine, Midnight released the spell and checked her progress. Mirage's face was still missing some fur, but the marks were gone. That was about the best she could hope to achieve. She finally released the little one below her and said, "There. Does it still hurt?"

"N- no. I'm sorry... for hiding. Mommy says that I really need to lose that habit, but sometimes I get so scared and just wanna get away," Mirage whispered, a few new tears clouding her eyes.

Midnight wiped her dry and said, "It's okay. You'll grow out of that soon enough. It's easy to be afraid of things, but when you pull off the shadows of fear, you see that the true horror is but a whim compared to what you made yourself believe it was. Now, let's forget this all and go back down for dinner as if nothing had happened, okay?"

"Okay."

Oh, the delicious irony. I can feel it tearing your mind apart. Do you still feel doubt in your ability? Doubt that you did all you could? Fear that one day somepony will force you to confront your dark secret, after you've spent so long hiding and running?

The demons of the past hold no power over me. Not as long as I remain resolute... and patient.

We... are patient.